My Full Confession

Friends Made Inseperable

There were about thirty seats lined in long rows of six, with the smaller children in the front so that the teacher could keep an eye on them, and the older ones in the back. I had to admit that the promise of older children scared me just a little bit, for I had never really met any of the kids around here, save for my brother's friends. I had grown up rather lonely, by my own preference of course, and yet I had heard stories of bullying. My mother warned me when she first agreed to let me go to school a year early, she told me of all the horrible things that kids do to each other when they're jealous. Mycroft said that I wouldn't have an issue, that he never got bullied and he was the nerdiest kid in his whole class. All the same, he was much bigger than me, and would undoubtedly make a more difficult target. I could imagine myself then, hanging from a tree by the back of my underwear...well needless to say I wasn't very excited to meet the other children. Thankfully the first boy to happen into the class didn't seem too daunting. Thankfully the first boy who happened into that class turned out to be something much greater to me than a friend. John first arrived into my life looking very disheveled, in a raggedy coat and a pair of trousers with holes in the knees. His face was red from being out in the sun too long, and his blonde hair was matted against his forehead with sweat. He was obviously out of breath, for as soon as he sank into the chair beside me he kept gasping, looking around the room for something before falling back into his seat and sighing heavily.
"I ran here." he admitted, looking at me very excitedly. I was hesitant; I paused for a moment, wondering if he might actually be talking to me. So many possibilities crossed my mind, was he a bully, was he a friend? Was he smart, or just another dumb farm kid these areas liked to raise?
"Why'd you do that?" I asked finally.
"Didn't want to be late." He said with a grin.
"Well you're not late. You're early." I pointed out. John nodded, rearranging himself in his seat so that he could stick a hand out in greeting.
"I'm John Watson." He introduced cheerfully, giving me a great big smile that was missing a couple of teeth. I reached out and shook his hand, and he wiggled my arm around like a noodle, very inexperienced in the form of formal greeting. He was a ray of sunshine, I knew then that we were polar opposites but were destined to be something more. I knew that he might play a big role in my life, but never could I have guessed to what extent.
"William Sherlock Scott Holmes." I introduced, always having liked to flaunt around my full and official name.
"Why have you got three names?" John asked in his childish curiosity.
"I suppose because they couldn't decide." I admitted with a shrug. "No one ever explained it to me."
"Which one do you go by?" John wondered.
"William." I admitted quietly.
"How come?" he asked again, full of those childish questions which might get on your nerves if you weren't equally as intrigued. I've always been quite the attention hog, and all of this curiosity entirely focused on my name was something of a flattery.
"Because it's the first." I admitted finally. "And my parents call me William."
"Well I think it's boring. William makes you sound ordinary." John decided.
"Am I not ordinary?" I asked hesitatingly.
"No of course not, you're extraordinary. I can just tell." John admitted with a little wiggle. I returned his smile that time, a genuine smile that I couldn't help but let onto my face. Something about John Watson always made me smile, even back then when I didn't know what love was.
"So I shouldn't go by William then?" I clarified.
"Go by Sherlock." John suggested. "I think it sounds mysterious."
"There's nothing mysterious about me." I debated.
"There might be, some day." John assured. "And by then it'll be too late to go by anything more interesting than William. Then no matter how mysterious you are, you'll always be just a little drab."
"Alright then. Sherlock it is." I agreed with a grin. And that was what he called me; from that day forward I never heard my real name escape his lips. Perhaps he liked the idea of naming me, or perhaps he genuinely thought I was unfit for such a boring name as William. Nevertheless, that was his name for me. A pet name, I suppose, something that only he called me. Sherlock...I was his Sherlock. Well that day at school was uneventful, other than of course my new best friend. I didn't even mention to the teacher about my apple delivery, I was so wrapped up in learning more about John that I had forgotten to make sure I was the teacher's favorite. I sat hunched over in my seat, getting closer to John even though his voice was something much closer to a yell. He told me all about his farm, one which proved to be the one on the other side of my father's own property, just through the corn fields by a dirt road. I had never inquired about that little farm house, yet I could always see it from my window. I had never expected anyone important to live there, for their farm was very small and my father was always talking about how he was going to buy it from them someday, so that he could expand into their territories. Of course the state of John's father's farm would explain the state of his clothes; he was undoubtedly ridden with poverty. Yet he still kept a smile on his face, he never let it show. He was too young to understand money anyway, and too inexperienced to know what life might have been with it. It was money that got him into all his troubles, as I will explain later. Nevertheless, he told me that he lived with his sister Harriet on their farm, that his father was a farmer and his mother a good cook, that he had an aunt who never visited and a grandfather who came for Christmas and smoked a large pipe on the porch, no matter the weather. He told me just about everything about his life, and yet I never interrupted. I never cared to interrupt; I liked to hear his voice. It was so new for me, to hear someone who was not my family member. After he told me all about himself I told him all about myself, and from then on we decided to be friends. We decided to be best friends, actually, and we pink swore on it. John told me that was an unbreakable pledge, and so I obeyed. I swore to him that we would be inseparable, and for a long time we were. Up until fifth grade, we never left each other's side.