This chapter was originally written in December 2010 and was completed in January 2011. This new edited version was completed on June 9th 2016. Something else I want to say is that the fight in the railyard (the track beside the platform) is not to be attempted as it's far too dangerous.
Sodor High School: Thomas & Friends Tales
Written by: ThomasZoey3000
Based on the Railway Series by: The Rev. W. and Christopher Awdry
Based on the Television series by: Britt AllCroft, David Mitton, Hit Entertainment and Lionsgate
Episode 9: Rail Fight!
It wasn't too long before the train arrived at Knapford station. It was very busy at this time as several engines were being moved around and placed in the sidings for the railway show. Thomas and Emily were surprised by the large number of engines there.
"There's some real interesting steam engines here," commented Emily, "and by the looks of things, there's some first generation diesels too."
"I personally like that one steam tank engine with the blue paint," said Thomas, pointing over to the engine, "do you remember that one?"
"That's the engine that took me to Ffraquhar station and back to the junction when I was younger."
"Yep, that would be the very same engine," Thomas smiled with a nod.
Then the two teens noticed a small diesel shunter being moved beside the blue tank engine. The engine was painted in black with a yellow and black front and back end, and it also had cowcatchers and sideplates.
"That's the diesel that belongs to the Ffraquhar quarry," said another voice.
Thomas and Emily looked to their right and noticed a young woman, around their age, walking up to them. She had long black hair with two yellow ribbons seperating her hair into two pony tails. She also had a black jacket on with a yellow pattern on the selves that matched the diesel shunter's front and back end, a long black skirt and black boots.
"Mavis!" gasped Thomas, "I haven't seen you in ages!"
"That's mostly cause you haven't come by the quarry in ages, why's that?"
"I think you why."
"Oh yes," she chuckled, "that policeman is still patrolling that area and won't let you come visit."
"It is true," Thomas sighed, "that darn policeman just won't leave me alone. Still, I'm happy to see you again."
Emily looked over to Thomas, "do you know this girl?"
"I do indeed," Thomas smiled, "Emily, I would like you to meet Mavis, she's an old friend of mine and she happens to be Toby's girlfriend. She's also the daughter of the Ffraquhar diesel shunter's Driver over there."
"That's correct," Mavis smiled, "I've been living here ever since my father's old company sold the diesel shunter to Sodor." She then turned back to Thomas, "so who's your friend Thomas? I've never seen her in these parts before."
"That's because she is new here. This is Emily, she's recently transferred to our school."
"I'm honored to meet you," Emily said kindly.
"Well I'm happy to meet you as well," Mavis then looked over to Thomas, "so are you planning on coming to the rail fest?"
"Sure I'm coming. I mean come on, I always come to these railway shows every year."
"That's good, cause I hear that there's suppose to be a special guest coming this year, and I'm not talking about the Duke and Duchess of Boxford. It's suppose to be one of the most popular singers."
"That there is another reason for me to come here," Thomas smiled.
"Me too," smiled Emily, "I'll be here too."
After the little chat session with Mavis, Thomas and Emily headed off to do their shopping.
When Monday came around again, the two teens walked along side by side towards the school. Just before they got inside, Thomas felt something bump him on the back of his head.
"Ow! What was that?"
Thomas and Emily looked to see James looking rather cross.
"James, did you throw rocks at Thomas?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not one to say," he said quietly, but still with the cross expression on his face, "I might have thrown those rocks, but then again, maybe I didn't. Can you prove that I did?"
"Uh, no I can't, I didn't see you throw them."
Thomas remembered what Henry had said to him on the train ride to Knapford. He wasn't sure then that James was mad with him, but now he was starting to get the feeling that James was indeed mad.
"We better get going," he said, "or we're going to be late for class." As he walked past, James looked coldly at Thomas, "you better watch your back!"
It was loud enough that both Thomas and Emily heard.
"Do you think what Henry told you on the train is true?" Emily asked.
Thomas didn't answer her, mostly cause he didn't have an answer.
All day long, James looked over to Thomas with an angry stare, whenever he wasn't focusing on his school work that is. This went on throughout the entire day, until it was time for everyone to leave for home.
"What did you do to make James so cross?" Percy asked.
"I don't know to be honest with you Percy, I wish I knew, but I just don't," came the reply.
At his own house later that evening, James sulked as he tried to do his homework. However he was far too upset as he was thinking back to the halloween dance. The images of Thomas and Emily dancing together kept playing on his mind, and this got him crosser and crosser.
"He's got Rosie and yet, he's got to take Emily. Why that jerk!"
James was so mad that he slammed his fists on his desk, which nearly knocked his favourite lamp onto the floor.
"Is everything okay James?" called the voice of his mother, "are you having trouble with your homework?"
"No mom, it's not my homework, I was just feeling stressed over a test I have tomorrow." He wasn't completely fibbing as he did have a test to do the very next day.
"Okay honey, but remember, if there's something bothering you, you can always talk to me."
"Okay mom, you got a deal."
His mother smiled as she walked away from James' bedroom. James continued with his homework and once he was done, he sat down on his bed and looked up to the ceiling, feeling more miserable than before.
"If only my dad was here, maybe he could've helped me."
James' father had passed away when he was only five years old, so he's been living alone with his mother ever since.
A few hours later, all the nights were out, but James was not asleep. He was still thinking back to all the times he saw Emily with Thomas.
"I wish you were mine Emily," he sighed unhappily, "I would treat you like a princess, treat you to whatever you like, even take you to where you want to go." His anger slowly started to build up, "yet you chose to be with Thomas. Why? He's only a blue pip-squeak, he's not splendid like me. I am better than he is."
And still feeling cross, he went to sleep, growling in between snores.
As the days wore on, James kept looking at Thomas with angry looks, but never over to Emily. Even Gordon wanted to know what was going on with James.
"Why are giving Thomas angry looks?" he asked.
"It's none of your business Gordon."
"It's because Thomas is always with Emily," said Henry, "I think James likes her."
"Is that true James?" Gordon asked.
James looked down to the ground, then he looked back up to his two best friends, "promise me that you won't say a word about this."
"We promise," said the two teens.
"Very well then. Yes I do like Emily, alot. I think she is the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen, yet she's always with Thomas. I wish she would hang out with me."
"I had a strong feeling about that," Henry whispered to Gordon, "I knew that's probably what James was thinking."
Gordon nodded, then asked James; "Why didn't you say anything about this before?"
"Cause you guys would laugh at me," he said angerily, but before Gordon and Henry could say anything, James spoke up again, "all I know is that if I see Thomas and Emily together at the rail fest tomorrow, then I'm going to take care of business, James style!"
James then walked away, Gordon and Henry could only guess what that could mean. They had no idea of what James was going to do, but they were deeply concerned.
That night, Emily was tossing and turning like crazy, she was having a terrible dream.
"James...why are...don't hurt him! No! Stop James! Please, please don't hurt him..."
Annie and Clarabel walked into her room to see what was going on. Thomas came in after two minutes, Annie shook her shoulder softly, trying to wake her up.
"Emily, are you okay?" Annie asked sweetly.
"NO!" screamed Emily as she woke up. She was breathing heavily for less than a minute, then she noticed that Thomas and his sisters were nearby, "I didn't wake you three up, did I?"
"Just a little bit," said Clarabel kindly. "We are just across the hallway from you. We're just concerned that's all."
"Is everything okay?" Thomas asked, "from what you screaming in your sleep, you were telling James to not do something."
"It's weird," she said, "but in my dream, James was fighting you Thomas. You two were fighting in the railyards and you were losing to him, while he was crying."
This was a surprise to Thomas, cause for as long as he's known James, he's never seen the red head teen cry once.
"I don't know if it's just a nightmare, or is it a message of things to come?"
"I doubt it would happen, cause I know James would never fight me in the railyards. If he had something to say, then he could say it to my face. Besides, it's foolish and dangerous to fight in the yards."
"I sure hope that you are right," Emily said quietly, but she was still worried for her friend.
At last, the day of the railway show had arrived. Thomas, Annie, Clarabel, Percy and Emily rode along on the train from Ffarquhar to the big station. Upon their arrival, they could see lots of people walking around, all of which were looking at the large gathering of steam and diesel engines.
"There sure are alot of engines," gasped Percy. "More than I could've imagined."
"Even the Duke and Duchess' private engine is here," said Annie, "that's an A4 pacific engine, orginally belonging to the LNER railway."
"They sure know a lot about steam engines," Emily whispered to Thomas. Who nodded in agreement. Even to this day, he was always impressed with his sisters' knowledge of steam and diesel locomotives..
Although there was a large crowd there, the five teens could still hear live music. The music as it turns out was being performed by Mark Joseph and several students from the Sodor High's music department.
"Wow, what an honor to be playing on stage while Mark Joseph sings," said Percy, "those kids are so darn lucky. I wish we could get that honor too."
Thomas rolled his eyes, "first we would need to practise singing Percy, and as you know, we're not that good."
"Oh yeah, I had forgotten, but hey, you can't blame a guy for dreaming."
"No I can not," chuckled Thomas.
At that moment James was walking around the grounds. He had been watching the performances, and now he was looking in the hopes that Emily would be alone.
"If Thomas is with her, then I'll teach him a lesson that he won't forget in a hurry," he thought to himself.
As he walked along, James did spot Emily, it looked like she was alone as she was looking at the quarry diesel. He smiled to himself, then he went off to find Gordon and Henry.
What James didn't know was that Thomas was nearby, he was just inside the cab talking with Mavis and her father.
"It must be easy to operate this diesel," said Thomas.
"Not really Thomas," said Mavis, "diesel engines aren't that easy to drive, maybe a bit more than a steam engine, but they are alot of work. Right dad?"
"Right you are Mavis," said her Father, then he invited Emily into the cab to have a look for herself. He then went on to explain how to operate the diesel shunter, and shared some stories of his own adventures while working in other quarries before coming to Sodor.
About twenty minutes later, James spotted Emily again, and just like before, at least from his vantage point, she was all alone.
"I guess Thomas is somewhere else," James thought to himself, "maybe I won't need to beat him up."
Once James was out of sight, Thomas came back into view with cotton candy for Emily.
"Aren't you going to have any Thomas?" Emily asked kindly.
"Not really, it's all for you Emily."
"Thank you," she smiled and blushed a little bit.
As the event wore on, James would often see Emily all alone, either looking at engines or resting on one of the benches in the station, and his anger started to disappear. Somehow, he never did see Thomas.
"You're not going to beat Thomas up, are you?" Henry asked.
"Nah, there's no reason to beat him up. I mean, it's not like he hangs out with her all the time, am I right?"
"Right you are," said Gordon who was a little puzzled. Then he added as a joke, "who are you and what have you done with our best friend James?"
James chuckled quietly, "I'm still the same James you've always known, I just don't think there's any reason to beat Thomas up. In fact, I bet you right now that he's hanging out with Rosie."
But James was soon to be proven wrong, as he could see Rosie looking over the american tank engine in purple and pink, but she was all alone.
"Hi Rosie," James smiled, "where's Thomas? I thought you two would be hanging out together."
"I haven't seen Thomas, you mean he's here?"
Now James was starting to worry, "if he's not with Rosie, then he must be with Percy. At least I hope he is."
James ran off before Rosie could ask of what was going on.
It was then that the trouble began, James found Thomas and he was talking with Emily. She was sharing her cotton candy with Thomas. James felt his anger grow again, until something finally snapped and he walked down the platform to where Thomas and Emily were.
"Ah there's James," smiled Thomas. "Listen Emily, I need to find Percy and my sisters, would you mind hanging out with him for a while?"
"Sure Thomas, I can do that," she nodded.
"Okay then." He then turned his attention to the red head, but no words came out as a concerned look came to Thomas' face. James didn't say anything, his face was looking down to the ground, his fingers were tucked in tight to make a couple of fists, and he was making nasty growling sounds.
"Are you feeling okay, James?"
James looked up to Thomas, and then...he punched Thomas right in the face. Emily gasped in horror, "oh no, it's my nightmare, it's coming true!"
James charged in again and attacked Thomas again and again. Rosie soon saw what was going on and tried to stop James, she grabbed onto his left fist, while Gordon held James back by his right arm.
"Have you lost your mind James?" Gordon asked in shock, "what's gotten into you? This isn't like you."
"Don't hurt him," cried Rosie, "there's no need..."
Rosie got no further as James broke free, slipping out of Gordon's grasp and punching Rosie in the face. The poor girl fell back into the buffers of a saddletank engine.
Now it was Thomas who was mad.
"Hurt my friend will you? I don't think so!" he shouted with an angry tone.
Thomas got up and charged at James, then he gave him a giant sized punch, which knocked him off the platform and onto the ground below.
"Nice punch," muttered Henry.
"Shh," hushed Gordon, "that's not helping."
"I'll teach you not to steal!" James snapped. He climbed back up and went charging in again. He fought hard aganist Thomas, forcing the blue haired teenager to defend himself from all the attacks. He dodged all of the punches and kicks that James was throwing to him, and James was doing the same when Thomas fought back.
"Look James, I don't want to fight you," Thomas panted after a while, "so why don't you tell me what's wrong, and we can settle this like proper people."
"It's too late for that," snapped James again, "You know what you did!"
"What? I came here with my friends, is that a crime now?"
"You know what you did!" James repeated himself.
Emily was in pure shock as she watched the entire fight unfold in front of her, it was just as bad as her nightmare. It grew worse as James punched Thomas off the platform and onto the rails below, but even down there, the fight continued. Then she noticed that the A3 pacific engine was backing up towards the line that Thomas and James were fighting on.
Emily ran as fast as she could towards the two teens, told them to grab her hands, then she pulled them out of the way in the nick of time.
"Thanks for the save," James said kindly, "now if you'll excuse me, I have some unfinished business here."
"No!" Emily snapped. "Enough of this stupid fighting! James, why don't you just tell us why..."
"So it's us now, huh? It figures." James glared crossly over to Thomas, "you've been warned Thomas. Remember this, the next time that I see you, I will give you the full lesson."
James walked angerily away, much to the surprise of Rosie, Gordon, Henry and Emily.
Even Thomas was a bit shocked by what had happened, "looks like your nightmare was a message of things to come," he said to Emily. "You must have a sixth sense that lets you know of future events."
"Perhaps, but I was hoping that it wouldn't come to pass," she groaned, "but now it has."
James decided to walk home, leaving his bike at the station. He felt miserable and lonely, plus he felt sore after his fight with Thomas.
"I'm going to be feeling that tomorrow," he groaned, "but at least Thomas will feel worse, he deserved it, that darn little blue bugger. He thinks he's so great, it just gets on my nerves."
It was really late when James got in. His mother was shocked to see him in the mess he was in.
"What happened?" she asked, sounding a little worried.
"Nothing," he answered, "I just had to take care of business."
His mother was worried, but since James wasn't going to say anything, she wasn't going to be getting her answer at that point and time.
When they got home, Emily got out the first aid kit, then she helped clean Thomas' face, since there was a lot of blood.
"I'll say this about James," he said, "he sure knows how to throw a punch. Ouch, that stings." He groaned as Emily helped clean a cut on his forehead.
"I can only imagine. Isn't it a little strange though?" she asked. "How just after Henry told us to watch out for James, and after my nightmare that James snapped at the rail fest and attacked you?"
"I know," Thomas sighed, "and I think I know why, I think James has a crush on you."
"Me?"
"Yeah, he must really like you alot. I mean, why else would he attack me in a rail yard, especially during a rail fest? It's the only reason that comes to mind."
Emily was silent for a minute, then she broke her silence; "I never knew he liked me that much, but I'm not ready to fall in love. Besides that, I've only gotten to know you guys for three months, we don't know each other that well."
"I know that, but I don't think that James knows that."
"I think we need to talk to James, we need to try and..."
Before Emily could say anymore, the phone rang. "Bother that telephone, it always goes off at the worst possible time," groaned Thomas. He got up from his seat and picked up the phone, "Hello? What? Do you mind repeating that for me again? He's gone? Please calm down, we'll go look for him. Okay, bye."
"Who was that?"
"Well Emily," Thomas sighed, "that was James' mother, she was just telling me that James run away."
"What? How does she know he's runaway?"
"She found a note he left behind."
"But why would he do that?"
"I guess he's so heartbroken that it makes perfect sense to him."
Thomas picked up the phone and called Gordon and Henry. They were shocked, but they did agree to help in looking for James. Once that was done, Thomas and Emily hurried outside to get their bikes.
"Thomas!" called Clarabel, "Where are you going?"
"We're going to find James, he's run away! We'll be back as soon as we can. In the meantime, lock the doors okay and don't let anybody in, but us when we get back, okay?"
"Okay," called the twin girls.
Once they had locked the doors, Thomas and Emily got onto their bikes and rode off to find James.