Saving Ant and Sarha

A New Friend

"Ant, Dec, wake up." Anne shook them.

"Five more minutes." Ant mumbled.

"Yeah mom, give us five more minutes."

"No more minutes. You two have to get up now. I know you don't want to be late for school today." she said while on her way out the room. When she reached the door she turned around. " I'll be back in five minutes and you two better be up by then." she said and walked out. Ant yawned and pulled himself out of bed then looked at Dec.

"I'm taking a bath first." he stated. Dec's response was a big yawn.

"No arguments here. It gives me more time to sleep. Take your time."

"But mom said we better be up by the time she gets back."

"Relax man, my mom always says that but she never comes back. It's just a scare tactic. Besides I'll be up before you're finished."

"You better be. I don't want to take any chances."

"Just go take your bath."

"Don't tell me what to do." he stuck out his tongue at him and made his way to the restroom. Dec just shook his head and laid back down.

********

"Hurry up boys or we're gonna be late!" she shouts up the stairs. A few seconds later the two boys came bounding down the stairs carrying their backpacks. They were both wearing the same outfit; a light blue long sleeve button up shirt with a dark navy blue vest over it, long khaki pants, and shiny black loafers.

Anne gave each of them their sack lunches and they all headed out to the car. Ten minutes later Anne pulled up in front of Gosforth Central Middle School and Ant and Dec got out of the car.

"I hope you two have a nice day at school."

"We will. Bye mom." Both boys waved goodbye and walked into the building. Since Ant hadn't been there for awhile he had to go to the office and get a new schedule. Dec was waiting outside for him. As soon as he came out he snatched the paper from him.

"Hey!"

"Calm down. I just want to see if we have any classes together." he explained as he read the sheet.

"So do we?"

"Yes, we have English, Math, and Science together. English is our first class."

"Well let's get a move on before we're late." They practically ran to class to avoid being late.

When they arrived they both walked in, Dec went to his seat while Ant walked to the front to greet his teacher. She looked to be middle aged and had brunette- colored hair which was sprinkled with little gray ones. Her eyes were brown with little wrinkles on the side.

"Well hello there!" she said in an overly cheerful voice. "You must be Anthony. My name is Mrs. Wilkes." She extended her hand for a handshake. "You can sit in that empty seat next to Declan while we wait for the rest of the class."

Ant smiled and uttered a "thanks" while he made his way in the direction she was pointing in.

When he got to his seat he put his backpack down and looked around. Some of the seats were still empty. On one side of the room there were a group of boys joking and laughing. On the other side there were a group of girls giggling while looking at the boys.

Ant turned around and saw one boy sitting in the very back by himself. He looked back at Dec and nudged him.

"Who is that?" Dec turned to look where Ant was looking.

"I don't know. He must be new."

"Well let's go say hi. He looks like he could use a friend." They got up and walked over to the quiet boy.

"Hi." The boy looked up from playing with his sleeve. He was actually surprised that these two were talking to him.

"Hi." he said quietly.

"Im Anthony and this is Declan, but you can call us Ant and Dec. What's your name?"

"Stephen. Stephen Mulhern."

"Are you new?"

"Yeah.

"You look too young to be in the seventh grade. How old are you?"

"I'm eleven, I skipped a grade."

"You here that Dec? We have a smart friend." laughed Ant as he nudged Dec with his elbow. Dec laughed along with him. He was glad to see Ant looking happy for once.

"I'm your friend?" asked a surprised Stephen.

"Of course! You do want to be right?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome. You want to sit with us up front?"

"Yeah."

"Come on then." Stephen couldn't get his backpack on fast enough. He was really happy. He didn't just have one friend, he had two. His father had just gotten a job promotion that came with a new house. The downside was they had to move from Stratford to Newcastle. Although it wasn't that far away he still had to move to a new school. Most kids weren't all that nice to new students. Until now.

********

School was now over and Ant and Stephen were walking out of History together. 

"So do you want to come over to our house today?" Before Stephen could answer he was interrupted by shouting coming from behind him. They both turned to see Dec running up to them.

"Hey." he panted. "Did you ask him?"

"I did but before he could answer you showed up." Dec frowned at Ant and looked at Stephen.

"Oh you still want the answer." he realized. "Yes."

"Good. So Dec why were you running?"

"I was trying to catch up with you. Do you know how far Art is from History?" Ant and Stephen just shrugged and continued walking.

********

Surprisingly their dad was home when they arrived. Him and Sarha were in the kitchen. Sarha was eating cereal while he was on the phone. At the sound of the door opening he looked to the entrance and saw Ant and Dec walking in with a boy he had never seen before.

"Hey boys. Brought a new friend home, I see?"

"Yeah this is Stephen. Stephen this is my dad and my little sister Sarha." Sarha walked up to him and shook his hand.

"It's nice to meet you." she said politely. Stephen nodded.

"Likewise."

"Okay dad we'll be upstairs."

"Very well. When your mother gets home we'll start dinner."

Anne arrived a little later looking distraught.

"Honey, what's wrong?" asked a worried Alph.

"Where's Ant and Sarha? I need to talk to them."