Disclaimer: Refer to first chapter.

Non-canon but canon-compliant (could have happened). Thoughts on Newt's accent are not shared by me, rather the stupidity and prejudice of young children when if comes to the idea of someone having an awesomer accent than another. Following this will likely be Thomas and Newt's first meeting. Please don't kill me for this.

Newt wasn't overly fond of spending all of his time around three hundred noisy children of his age or older. Something about it, possibly the loud noises, just bugged him and the more he tried to melt into a pool of butter on the ground, the harder the other children tried to bring him into their games. It wasn't only that Newt was slightly quiet for a boy of his age, but also he had long since become annoyed with the constant teasing he received for his accent- something that Newt simply couldn't change about himself. It seemed that the much taller boy before him would be no different. Said boy, was a tall African-American boy who with close-cropped black hair and dark eyes that seemed to bore into Newt, a small, rusty-haired boy with green eyes, like a drill bore through stone. Needless to say, the boy was an intimidating figure, particularly to a five-year-old child who was in completely new surroundings. Not just new in the last five minutes of walking into the cafeteria space, but a deeper new.

Yes. Newt was new to the WICKED facilities. Completely new, never been there before, the latest guy among an easy three hundred to become part of the Killzone Experiments. How terribly exciting. Not that Newt wasn't grateful that WICKED had taken him away from the cranks who had been planning on killing him, but he would rather not have his memory wiped and brainwaves monitored for reactions to different things. If there was one thing that Newt disliked, it was feeling controlled.

Finally, it was the other boy who spoke first in the loud enclosure of the WICKED cafeteria that was pretty much the only place that the young children were permitted to be loud. So they were, needless to say, extremely loud, all the time. "Hello," he practically shouted over the noise of the cafeteria surrounding them. "I'm Alby. What's your name?"

Newt glanced away quietly, not speaking in his strange accent in this strange place. The few times he had spoken to the other children or talked in their classes, he had been ridiculed for being different. Newt didn't like being ridiculed. Finally, he sighed, giving up on his attempt at silence. Newt actually liked to talk so found it hard to stay quiet since his accent was so weird. "Newt, mate."

Alby almost choked. "You're the newbie everyone's talkin' 'bout! Sonya said you talked funny and tried to imitate it! She sounded like some sorta koala trying to act like a Brit!" Newt frowned, offended at the lack of care for his feelings. Alby continued to chatter away about Newt's accent, eventually trying to imitate it himself. " 'Ello, man! All's swell, ain't it?" He let out a harsh bark of laughter and smiled at Newt sickly. The smaller blond curled his lip in a mixture of irritation and disgust.

"Shut up," Newt snapped icily. "Do yerself a favour and shut yer bloody mouth! I don't give a bloody for a thing you have to say now, do I? Do I?!" He challenged glaring daggers at the older boy. His words cut through the air like a knife. A girl at a nearby table, a girl who looked enough like Alby to be his sister, looked over curiously, a creepy smile coming over her face. She stood up, slowly drifting nearer as her friends, a blond girl with blue eyes and a red-haired girl, followed her forth. As they began to drift closer, other children began to take notice. A tall, black-haired boy looked over curiously, a boy of around seven years old. Next to him another boy looked curious, too. At the table next to them, a few girls had stopped laughing to throw glances over their shoulders at the confrontation.

"You listen here, newbie! You have no right to tell any of us what to do. We outrank you and ain't nothing changing that. One of us tells you to do something, you do it. We tell ya ta leave, you leave, we tell ya ta bark, you bark. We tell you anything and you do it. That's the way it works around here. The older outrank the younger unless the WICKED scientists place someone higher on the scale. WICKED outranks all else. I don't care what your name is or how old you are, you're a newbie and will be 'til they bring in someone new! So get with the game!" Alby glared down at Newt with dark, icy eyes, somehow cold yet burning a flame of war as Newt looked on.

"Good luck," he murmured softly. "With that. I don't respect nobody who insults my accent! Respect the accent and I can respect you. Don't and I can't." The softly lilting accent was something that Newt hated about himself for and yet still tried to protect in some strange mix of feelings. Newt didn't fully understand all of his feelings, nor could he control them. Emotions were a curious thing to a five-year-old child. While he neither liked nor disliked them, he also didn't understand them, making it very hard for him to decide if he were upset, angry, annoyed, confused or something else entirely. Perhaps just sad would fit his emotion the most. Sad that no one understood him for who he was.

Alby's hands curled into fists. He looked furious and confused, as though no one had ever disobeyed him before (the horror of all horrors! Disobedience...). "You listen here!" He snapped as the people that had come to surround them began to chant one word after another:

"Fight."

"That," Newt said, speaking loudly and clearly for the first time, "is stupid 'cause violence is not justice. All violence does is encourage more violence. I won't fight him." With his words, the disappointed children drifted away, muttering about how much of a weakling the newbie known as Newt was. Just then, Newt didn't care what the others thought of him. He had stood up for something he believed and that made him proud! Just then, tiny Newt didn't care what the other children thought of him. He had done what he thought was right. He hoped the others understood that and would not bully him for it at a later date.

For some strange reason, Newt was not so sure that all would work out as well as he would like.