A/N: Sorry for the delay, I've been kinda busy with homework and what not… Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and here is chapter 3!
Oh, and I'm sorry if the characters are horrible OoC, due to the number of Doctor Who fanfics I've been reading recently. If I mention a 'TARDIS' please ignore it.
In Which Michael Meets Some New Friends
Michael, who had been sure he was following Howl and Sophie, was now hopelessly lost in the thinning crowd of strange other-world foreigners. He looked around for the familiar sleek black hair of Howl's (he had died it black today), or the waves of Sophie's red gold hair. He couldn't see either.
There was now hardly a crowd now, the parade having past and being farther down the road. Michael's eyes widened as he embraced the fact that he was lost in another world He began to panic, what if he never got back? What if Howl and Sophie left without him? These thoughts were temporarily replaced with something that made him stop walking and stand still for a second. Howl and Sophie were alone. The past couple of weeks he had always walked into a room when it seemed that Howl was about to kiss Sophie, or was already doing so. He had taken to asking Calcifer to enter rooms before him, or just to steer clear of rooms he knew they were in.
So now he was lost, they were alone, and he had no idea how to get back to Ingary, or where his mentor's family lived. His panic returned.
He had been preoccupied with his thoughts so that he wasn't watching where he was going. He was staring at the ground because looking around made him feel more lost, when he bumped into someone. The person began to chatter in the foreign talk Howl had called 'Welsh" he stammered. "Oh, sorry I don't…" Michael began, not sure the man would be able to understand him. The man stopped talking.
Looking at him now, he wasn't so much of a man but seemed to be about Michael's age. He was a couple inches taller than he was, with short, brown untidy hair. "You English?" The boy asked in the language Michael could understand, though he did not comprehend what he meant by his words.
"Uh… No," he answered, not sure of what to say.
The boy eyed his strangely, but before he could say anything else, another boy ran up to the one Michael had bumped into and said, "Hey Russ, let's go!" He looked at Michael, then back at Russ. "James and Tom are waiting," and began to walk past them towards another street. Russ gave a quick nod to Michael and turned and began to jog to catch up with the other boy, who walked pretty fast.
Michael, who did not want to be lost again in Wales, ran behind them. "Hey wait!" he called out to them. "Can you help me? I'm looking for…" but he didn't finish his sentence, because he had lost sight of the two boys. They had turned down a street only a couple people were walking down, and instead of the buildings being shops they looked more like houses. Michael frowned and continued down the street.
"Hey, are you following us?" Michael turned to look where the voice had come from, and he saw the two boys from before and two others, all walking towards him.
"I was just going to ask if you'd seen—" He began, but Russ cut him off.
"Hey, I've seen you around before. Just moved here, huh? Guess you wanted us to help you fit in, right?" Michael was going to answer, but it seemed that this group had a habit of stopping other people from talking.
"Well, we've got nothing to do today. I guess we could help, what do you say, Tom?" Asked the second boy Michael had seen earlier. Michael was about to say something when:
"I'm James and this is Tom, Russ and Jack. And you're?" James asked. Michael had just about given up even trying to speak when suddenly they were expecting it of him.
"I'm Michael, but I wasn't—" he had begun, but once again he had been cut off by Jack this time.
"Michael, welcome to Crick Well. We'll teach you some tricks of the trade to making it around here."
"We have many ways," Tom picked up, "to help someone gain status here." Michael was reminded or twins finishing each other's sentences the way these boys talked.
"But the number one trick we find works this most," continued Russ.
"Is girls." All three of them said it at once, and before Michael could do anything they were pushing him back up the street and onto the path lined with stores, knowing where they were going and pushing along Michael who hadn't a clue. What surprised Michael most was how easily he'd been accepted by this group. He had only said… what, thirteen words to these guys (he had to pause in his thoughts to go back and count), and they had already assumed he had just moved into the town and wanted them to help get his status here. He hoped he wasn't being lured into one big practical joke.
Of course, what was going on in the minds of the boys was, wow, this guy was easy to get in our grip! He won't stand the girl test… They were towing Michael towards where the girls in the town liked to hang out. They were thinking they could get some fun out of seeing the guy who couldn't get a word into a conversation with them squirm in front of a bunch of girls. This could just make their day.
But these boys were wrong. When they had reached the town center where a bunch of girls were running around or sitting and talking on benches, and pushed Michael up to them, he seemed perfectly fine and not uncomfortable. Russ, Jack, Tom and James could not understand why, and Michael didn't understand the point of going to talk to a bunch of girls. He already had Martha, and Sophie was living with them now. He had no need to feel uncomfortable.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place for Michael. "Oh, so the way to get status in this town is to have a girlfriend." He said, putting emphasis on girlfriend.
The guys looked at him blankly. "What do you not like girls?" Tom asked, making the other guys snigger, but Michael did not catch what he had said.
"No, but I already have a girlfriend," Michael told them, and the tables were turned: Michael now watched with a little smile at the look of disbelieve passing over their faces.
"We now all the girls here. What's her name?" Jack asked, retrieving his cool, calm and collected atmosphere.
"She doesn't live here. She lives… where I come from," Michael wasn't sure it was a good idea to mention Ingary, everyone would probably think that he was mad. "Her name's Martha."
The four boys exchanged quick looks, the fact that Michael had a girlfriend changing their opinions of him. "Michael," Russ began. "Sorry about these guys. They can be so immature…"
Thanks for reading! I'll try and get the next chapter up fairly soon…
