Lean on me, Max Mayfield

V. Dustonious Pollywogus

"Phineas was a railroad worker in 
1848 who had a nightmare accident. A
large iron rod was driven completely though his skull. Phineas miraculously survived the accident, and he seemed fine. And physically, yes, he was. . .", Mr. Clarke ranted about Phineas Gage, but Odette couldn't care less about the words he spat out.

She was far more interested about that chipped piece of the table in front of her.

The door swung open, nearly flying off its hinges. Dustin ran into the classroom, out of breath as he says, "I am so sorry Mr. Clarke." He pauses for a second inhaling as much air as he could before continuing, "Really, I'm so sorry, please continue with the class." He said, making his way to his desk.

Mr. Clarke brushed off of what just happened and continued going on about Phineas.

Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will huddled up. "We have to meet in the AV club, all of us", Dustin whispered.

Odette leaned in and whispered, "What are we talkin' about?" Including herself into the conversation. "Meet us in the AV club." Dustin told her, she nodded and went back to pretending to listen to the teacher.

Dustin turned around to mouth to Max, "AV club, Lunch"

"Dustin!!" Mr. Clarke yelled.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Care to join the class?"

"Yes please"

Dustin leaned into his bag and grabbed out a book hidden behind the ghostbuster trap as Mr. Clarke tells him what they were supposed to be learning. "Focus", The teacher said.

"Focusing", Dustin replied.

Once Mr. Clarke was back talking about Phineas Gage Dustin took this as an opportunity to look back at Max and again mouth "Av club" this time she replied with a thumbs up.

•——————•°•✿•°•——————•

It was now lunch, and they all were in the av club where Dustin opened the trap to reveal the creature with slimy skin inside it.

"His name is D'Artagnan", Dustin said, reaching into the box to carefully pick him up, "Cute right?"

"D'Artagnan?" Mike asked.

"Dart for short", Dustin replied.

Max narrowed her eyebrows and looked at Dustin, "And... He was in your trashcan?" She asked him.

"Foraging for food", Dustin replied.

The creature was interesting looking, he wasn't small but definitely not big. Green and a fleshy red clashing together on his skin which looked as if he would feel like slime. A tail like a Lizard or a Tadpole and a small mouth with a couple teeth.

"Want to hold him?" Dustin asked Odette, knocking her out of her thoughts.

"What?! No, no. no", She said, chuckling softly as she stepped back.

"He's friendly!" Dustin said as he brought it closer to her.

"Dustin, I promise, I don't want a disease!! I swear if you get closer, I'll-" She gets cut off by Dustin dropping Dart into her hands. "No! Gross!! He's slimy!!!" Odette groaned and gave him to Max.

Their fingertips touched and Normally Odette would start panicking out over that, but they were too busy, freaking out over the texture of the creature.

"Oh god", Max yelled and gave him to Lucas who gave him to Will. It was just an endless loop of Repulsed comments.  "Ugh he's like a living booger" Lucas muttered.

Will handed him to Mike. Mike stared at Dart in awe, examining the creature. "What is he?" He asked.

"My question exactly", Dustin replied and pulled out a pile of books he got from the library five hours earlier. "At first I thought he was some sort of pollywog", He says.

"Pollywog?" Max asked. "It's another word for Tadpole", Odette answers.

"A Tadpole is a larval stage of a toad--" Dustin started explaining before Max cut him off, "I know what a Tadpole is"

"All right, then you know that most Tadpoles are aquatic, right?" Dustin says as he pulled out a book, tapping a sentence, "Well Dart isn't, he doesn't need water."

"Yeah, but isn't there non-aquatic pollywogs?" Lucas asked him.

Odette stared at the creature, watching it as it made a chittering sound, one Will found familiar. She propped herself up, her hands resting on the table, accidentally moved closer to the girl beside her.

"Terrestrial pollywogs? Yes, two to be exact", The curly-haired boy smiled with pride at his explanations. Dustin pulled out another book and again tapped it. "Indirana Semipalmata." Dustin said.

"And the Adenomere Andreae. One from India the other from South Africa, so how did one end up in my trash?"

"Maybe some scientists brought it here and it escaped?" Max suggested.

"Do you guys see that?" Mike and Odette asked in unison which caught the others attention.

"It looks like somethings moving inside it", Mike notes.

"Is he pregnant?" Odette asked.

"Dart is a man, Odette", Dustin replied.

"He's a creature we know nothing about so who knows", Odette shrugged.

The group leaned over to get a better look at Dart when Dustin moved the light which made him turn around and screech. The group backed away, yelping.

Dart decided to make his escape try and run.

Dustin leaned over and caught him in his palm. "Woah! That was a close one", He chuckled softly. "I got you buddy!" He smiled at Dart.

Lucas narrowed his eyebrows and turned to looked at Odette with a face which read; 'what the fuck' Odette only shrugged.

"Oh yeah! Reptiles, right? Their cold blooded. Ectothermic, right?" Dustin said. Will looked down, spacing off from the others. "They love heat, the sun but Dart? He hates it." Dustin explained.

"So... Hes not a pollywog or a reptile..." Lucas trailed off.

"Then I discovered a new species!" Dustin smiled.

The more Will listened to the sounds Dart made the more he started thinking he's not from this world at all.