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Another city, another school; the new kid all over again. To top it off this was John's first year without he and Harry attending the same school. John turned the corner, looking through the rod-iron fence, onto the field. In the middle of the field he saw a boy with a jar and a notebook chasing after bees John continued on to the front of the school. Pausing to look at the tall building with many windows. He took a deep breath, reciting the words his mum had told him every day before a new school ‘mini but mighty’.John walked into the classroom, finding the teacher at the front, writing on the chalkboard. She wasn’t very tall, had short grey hair and a purple blouse on. She turned, meeting his eyes and gave him a kind smile.
“Oh you must be John Watson! Come round, dear and I’ll show you your seat.”
Mrs. Hudson led John to the back of a row of desks and told him the names of the children around him.
“And if you need anything or have any questions, just raise your hand.”
John looked at all the pencils, books and notebooks on his new desk then thanked his teacher. Other children had started to take their seats as Mrs. Hudson got John ready for class. John had noted one was a medium build boy with dark hair that was jelled and parted to the side. John met eyes with the boy and smiled but the other boy just stared back. He then noticed a girl with curly hair sitting to his left. John arranged his books in his desk and was greeted by a pudgy, pale boy: Mike, on his right.
“’Ello! Never seen you before!”
“Uh, hi. I’m John. Are you Mike?”
“Yeah, are you new?”
“Well of course he’s new!”
John wasn’t sure where the voice came from and looked on the other side of Mike. A thin boy, a bit taller than John plopped down in the seat making his fringe bounce, John recognized him as the boy from the field.
“Never know… could’ve switched teachers.”
“It’s the first day of school no one has switched teachers yet and he wasn’t here last year.”
The mysterious boy huffed and rested his chin in his hands, closing his eyes. John
thought the boy was a bit rude yet unique and intriguing.
“Who’s he?” John whispered to Mike.
“Oh don’t mind him, that’s just Sherlock.” Mike replied pointing over her shoulder with his thumb.
“Alright boys and girls, settle down, I have some exciting news.”‘Oh no…’ John thought, ‘here it comes, the introduction’ John hated having to stand up and answer questions about where he had come from and if he liked school or what his favorite subject was. And he was really dreading the question about what his dad did.
“You may have noticed we have a new student! John if you would, please, stand and say hello, dear.”
“Hello, I’m John Watson” John stammered out to the class ending with a shy smile.
“Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, love?”
“Uh… oh, ok...” John was deciding what to say when-
“Your father is in the military, your mum stays at home, you move a lot, you have an older brother and your favorite color is blue! You’re also left handed.”
All heads in the class turned to Sherlock, who sat in his desk with a proud smile and arms crossed over his chest. John was amazed, he knew everything, well except for the brother thing but Harry came close.
“Oh Sherlock! It was John’s turn to share.” The older lady chided with some fondness and a hand on her own cheek and a sigh.
“Amazing…” John said mostly to himself but was acknowledged with a slight smirk from Sherlock.
Mrs. Hudson proceeded to lead the class through an English lesson followed by a math lesson. John had an easy enough time keeping up and enjoyed working with Mike on the math exercise. The blonde looked over the chubby boys shoulder to see Sherlock had already finished the exercise on his own. A piece of paper rolled to his foot and as he was picking it up another rolled into his line of sight. John looked up again to see a third piece of paper ricochet off of Sherlock’s dark curls. John’s brows came together ‘why would someone be picking on him?’
“James! You stop that this instant!”
“I wasn’t doing anything, Mrs. Hudson.” The boy’s voice made John’s skin crawl, the seemed so conniving and coy.
“You are not fooling me young man. You stop or I will send you to the headmaster’s office.” John was surprised by how stern Mrs. Hudson sounded.
The class was released for recess after reviewing their math activity.
“You can come swing with me if you like, John.” Mike offered.
“Ta, Mike!” John smiled and followed Mike out of the classroom.
John and Mike were competing to see who could swing the highest, eventually concluding John had won. The boys had slowed their swings.
“Can you jump off John?”John took it as a challenge, looking over to Mike with a mischievous grin. John dragged his trainers through the dirt to slow the swing as he went forward then back. John scooted forward in the swing to get ready to jump as the swing began to change directions and pushed himself out of the swing. John landed safely on his feet, crouched and hands in the grass. The large grin on his face faded when he looked up to see James Moriarty looming above him.
“Think that was good, New Kid?”
“Um, not too bad. I suppose.” John stammered and chuckled nervously.
“Of course a shrimp like you would be impressed, so dull.” The slimy boy was too cheerful and smiley.
John knew he was small for his age and it had always made him an easy target for bullies. John also had a bit of a short tempura which was unfortunate for the bullies.
“Oh, I see and you’re clever, are you?” John taunted.
Mike was now standing behind John.
“What are you doing?!”
John didn’t reply, he just kept his eyes locked with Moriarty’s.
“How cute, the wee one is trying to be brave in front of his new friend.” Moriarty said mockingly and giggled.
John squared his shoulders like he saw his father do when dressed in uniform.
“I’m not scared of you.”
“You should be.” The twinkle in his eye and the sneer across his face gave John goose bumps.
Moriarty and his small posse walked away. John kept his eyes fixed on the back of James, wondering what kind of enemy he just made.
“That was either the most stupid or bravest thing you could have done.”
John’s head jerked to his other side to catch a smirk fading from Sherlock’s face. John stared at the younger boy, mouth open, trying to find a question to ask. ‘What did you hear?’; ‘who is he?’; ‘how did you know so much about me?’ The boy’s mind couldn’t chose.
“Brilliant…” muttered under his breathe and smiled. He realized it must have been louder than he thought because Sherlock replied: “Hardly! Even Mitch here-”
“It’s Mike!” Stamford interrupted.
“Could have told you that Moriarty is not done with you.” Sherlock continued.
“Who are you?!” John blurted.
“The name is Sherlock Holmes, but you already know that, what I am is the only chance you have against Moriarty, John Watson.” Narrowing his eyes and looking over the shorter boy.
Sherlock’s eyes were a sharp, icy blue. John stepped closer to the taller boy, his shoulders set hard. Sherlock was searching John’s face gathering information
The final bell rang and Mrs. Hudson dismissed the class for the day. John walked out of the school with his newest friend.
“Which way do you have to go?” John was hoping they could walk together.
“I ride the bus. My mum says it’s too far to walk.”
“Well I’ll see you tomorrow then!” John smiled at Mike.
“Ok. Bye, John!” Mike had to hold the sides of the bus’ doors to pull himself up the first step.
John turned to start his walk home, He hated to admit it but Moriarty had him on edge.
Before he knew it, there was a head of dark brown hair bobbing next to him. Sherlock Holmes. John was hopeful to learn something about the odd and interesting boy.
“Don’t worry about Moriarty, he’ll be terrorizing your friend Stamford on the bus.”
“I wasn’t worried!” John chirped then cleared his throat.
“How did you know all those things about me?” John narrowed his eyes as he looked over to Sherlock had a mischievous grin on his face.
“Oh, yes, that. How did I do, usually miss something…”
The boys had walked almost two blocks and john could see his sister waiting for him.
“Most of it actually, it was really brilliant! But Sherlock… this is my SISTER Harry.” John couldn’t help but smile at revealing the young genius had been wrong about one thing.
“Hello John, who is your little friend?” Harry smiled at John.
“Sister?! Sister! There’s always something.” Sherlock continued walking on his own.
“Bye Sherlock!” John shouted with a large grin on his face. Sherlock raised his hand with a small wave, not turning around.
John and Harry finished their walk home exchanging stories about their day. When it was John’s turn he chewed on the inside of his cheek, which was his tell, and left out the incident at recess.
Sherlock walked another block when his older brother, Mycroft, fell in step with him.
“Long day brother mine, that worm bothering you already?” Sherlock had learned to read people from Mycroft, but still didn’t enjoy when his brother deduced him. Two could play that game.
“Just as much as that Moran boy seems to enjoy bothering you, brother.” Sherlock took a second to glance at Mycroft. There behind his ear.
“Hmm ink. Mummy won’t be pleased to hear about that. The Maid will be trying to get that stain out for days.”
Mycroft scoffed. “Sherlock…” he cooed
“Mummy and Father have my uniforms dry cleaned. And that Moran, smug git, just another brute much like your little James. Mustn’t let them get to you.”
The boys reached the gates to their large home and headed inside.