The New kid

The 4 Armies

Matt's P.O.V

"What do you mean he left!" Tom yelled. He woke up in a daze and had forgotten everything about yesterday. Edd and I decided it was best not to tell him about the papers we saw. He had enough on his mind.

"He said it was a family emergency," Edd explained for the tenth time. "He didn't say how long but he'll be back as soon as possible."

Tom yelled and knocked over the light on his desk, "That communist no good fake betraying JERKWARD!!"

"Okay you can take a minute but Matt made breakfast, I'll meet you downstairs," Edd says before following me to the table. He plops into a chair.

"Hey don't worry too much, he'll come around. Your right I'm sure Tord will be back soon enough." Edd gives me a faint smile and then stares at his bacon. Ringo jumps on his lap and Edd laughs, "What were you thinking for this weekend anyways?"

"Well Tord is gone, I'm not really sure where Tom is at and we still don't know what this is." He set the paper on the countertop.

"Tord knows more about this than we do, but, maybe it's time we do our own research first. We're running low on groceries, I think Tom could use some fresh air. What if I head over to the library while you two pick up some stuff then we can all meet up and grab some pizza this afternoon?"

"Thats a great idea Matt, just be careful."

"What's going on?" Tom interrupts.

"Oh, you and I are going to be spending some super fun quality time together at the storeeeee" Edd grinned.

"Ohh are weee? Actually, I think I'll pass--"

"I wasn't really asking, Tom," Edd said more seriously. There was a thin tension swirling through the air.

"Edd needs help and I gotta go do some research for a Lab project. And besides," I sighed, "Some fresh air could do us all good." I handed Tom a plate, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." He muttered.

"Tom," Edd starts, "I know yesterday was, hard for you, but it's okay now."

"Edd I'm not a child, I'm fine!" He bursts. We both stared at him. His body language grew uncomfortable, "I.. I'm sorry g-guys. I didn't mean to .. thank you. You guys didn't have to go to my house and get all that stuff but thank you. I really appreciate it."

We both approached him and wrapped our arms around each other. "Group huggg!" I nagged, we all laughed. Tom jokingly shoved us off, but Edd held on, "Edd?" I quietly asked.

He grabbed my arm, and Tom and I shared worried glances, "Edd?" Tom whispers.

He brought me back in, "I care about you guys so so m-much! You are all so much more then friends you are my family. And I don't ever want to lose you guys. Please promise me, you'll always look out for each other. Always, no matter what."

"I promise."

"I promise Edd,"

"Even Tord," Edd adds.

"Of course" I respond.

Tom fidgets with his hands, "..even Tord." He agrees.

~~4 hours later~~

I've been in this godforsaken library for over two hours and I've come up short. I have dozens of books stacked up and have gone through all but one and I'm about to throw them and curl in a ball and cry. This is even more frustrating than when your teacher says, "The bell doesn't dismiss you, I do!" Or even worse then when your skin if perfectly clear and the one day you have pictures you get a pimple! OR even worse then when you have a great outfit then you put it on and hate it.

That is exactly how I feel right now.

Beyond frustrated.

Edd took Tom to the pet store because he is obsessed with pugs so they are looking around while I was still under the rain cloud of annoyance. Defeated, I grab the last history book and start skipping through. I groan as I realize I have to read the page again because I wasn't actually paying attention and I have no idea what on earth I just read. I start over and go over each word in my mind, my attention is grabbed by an old ink drawing of armies on the side. There's a small faded splash of color, one red that says, "The Red Army?" I look a little more then turn the page, "Not what I'm looking for. What the hell is a Red Army anyways, who names an Army after a color? Stupid." I flip a few more pages ready to shut the book and call it a day, that's when I see a symbol within the pages of writing.

The symbol.

A black circle with a white line through it.

"No way.. Okay Matt, take a breath, focus. Okay okay okay, this is so crazy. Okay, what's it saying? Uhh bla bla bla no I don't need that, oh here! The Black Army, that's what it's called the Black Army! Another ..color? Wow, what is with these people? Uh okay so the Black Army, they've been around for centuries whoa. Okay so a long time ago a war broke out which divided one group of people into 4 Armies, yellow, silver, black, and red. The Red and Black armies are enemies and have been in tension for years ever since the Red Army stole the Black Army's prized possession, the purple god. A creature that was the key to overthrowing the world and taking down anything in its path. Sounds pretty fake. I wonder if it's like Greek Mythology stuff or something. Okay, those armies are really old, it says here the been seen a few years back. They're still a thing.." I uttered.

"Oh, sorry to bother you, I can see you reading that but I actually need it for my English class."

I looked up to see a woman in a business chic outfit, her blonde hair fell down her shoulders. "Oh sorry about that." I closed the book and handed it to her.

"Oh no worries, I just have to get the outline done before the weekend. I'm actually a substitute at Swellview High School. Ever heard of it?"

"Yeah, I'm a senior there actually. I'm surprised I haven't seen you around, especially with the number of subs we've been getting. Do you know what thats about?"

"Honestly not really, I'm just as stumped as everyone else there. I heard the school is doing a lot of major reconstruction in the system though. And with the end of the year thats a lot of meetings and things to figure out. Oh hey, your Matt right? You're in ASB?"

"How'd you know?" I ask.

"How could I not know, I may be a sub but you're the talk of the school. Prom is coming up soon and I think I can guess who'd gonna get king!" She smiled.

"We'll see," I grinned, "Sorry about the wait for the book. You should have said something earlier."

"Thats all right," Her eyes glanced over the stacks of books around me, "I can see your pretty busy on your own." She held out her hand, "Hopefully I see you around."

"Hopefully," I smiled waving bye.

What a sweet woman.

Edd called my name as I waved at him, Tom seemed to be frozen in place. He turned back towards Edd and me and said, "Hey I forgot I do actually need to get a book here for a project. I'll be back in a minute."

"Okay don't take too long though" Edd called. He turned to me, "Did you find anything." "Where do I start," I say.