Fear (TordTom)

Chapter Two: Meeting Them

Edd led Tom to the classroom. Tom felt more nervous with each step he took. He could feel the anxiety inflating like a balloon in his chest, and he hoped it wouldn't pop.

"You look scared." Edd frowned slightly. "It's okay, Tom! The teacher is really nice, my friends will surely like you, and everybody else in the class is pretty kind!" Tom smiled slightly. He didn't really feel comforted by Edd's words, but he gave the green-eyed boy a bit of relief.

At last the two reached the classroom. The door was decorated with students' art and projects. A big sign on top of the door read, "Welcome to Mrs. Claudia's Kindergarten Class!" The teacher already seemed fun, from what Tom saw. What would be the deciding factor was whether or not she was actually fun.

Edd knocked on the door. A few moments later a girl opened it with a lot of effort. She had long, brown hair and dark brown eyes, and she smiled when she saw Edd and Tom. "Mrs. Claudia, Edd brought a new friend!" The girl smiled, dimples clearing visible in her cheeks. Edd beamed, and Tom managed a small grin in her direction.

Edd brought Tom into the classroom. It was full of arts and crafts and decor. String lights hung from the ceiling, as well as little paper origami birds that Tom guessed the students had made. The desks were actually six tables, each with four chairs. There were a few students around the class, while the rest were at their tables, reading little books and coloring some work. The teacher's desk sat in the corner, directly in front of one of the windows. It was neatly arranged and hardly had any clutter on it. The teacher, Mrs. Claudia, was sitting at her desk observing the kids. Her hair was up in a neat bun and she had long, beautiful earrings in her ears. When she saw Tom, she gave a huge smile and got up from her chair. Tom heard the click-clack of heels as she walked towards him. She wore a pretty light blue dress and her heels were a whitish color.

"Hello, you must be Tom." Mrs. Claudia said sweetly. She bent down to face him at almost eye-level (Tom was quite short for a kindergartener and his head was just barely above hers when she bent down) and said, "Your eyes are the most unique eyes I've ever seen, honey."

"Thanks." Tom blushed a little.

"His eyes are the coolest, Mrs. C!" Exclaimed Edd proudly.

"Now, since you're new, I'll let Edd show you to your new seat. I'm sure he'd want you to meet his friends." Mrs. Claudia got up and went back to her desk, talking to a few students on her way back. Tom turned back to Edd, who had stars in his eyes.

"C'mon!" Edd ran over to a table. Tom followed more slowly.

The table legs were black, and the top of the table was bordered in black with a dusty blue top. Two of the four cushioned chairs were filled. The first kid was a ginger boy in a purple cap with Pac-Man on it, and his cheek had a small bandaid. He wore a light purple hoodie with the white strings tied together. He was busy trying to color a picture of a duck, which was actually looking really good from Tom's point of view.

The second kid had his arms crossed over his chest as he read a book that was flat on the table. His light brown hair was combed up in little horns and his eyes were a silver color. He wore a red hoodie with a robot on it and had a little white patch on his cheek. Freckles dotted his face.

"Matt, Tord, I'd like you to meet Tom!" Edd exclaimed.

Matt, who Tom guessed was the ginger, looked up from his color abruptly. "Hi, I'm Matt-woah...your eyes!" He stopped whatever he was saying and stared at Tom's eyes in astonishment.

"See, I told you." Edd grinned as he elbowed Tom a little.

Tord, the kid with the hair horns, rolled his silver eyes. "Oh please Matt, they're just-" Tord looked at his eyes in visible confusion. "What the? Are you blind? Hah, he probably is! Poor blind kid. How many fingers am I holding up, blindboy?" Tom was fuming as the freckled boy put up two freckled fingers jokingly.

"Two." Tom snapped. Tord scoffed, and held up all ten of his fingers.

"Ten. I'm not blind, demon hair." Tom growled. He decided right at this moment Tord was his enemy. Sure, Edd and Matt were his friends, but Tom thought this little prick was pushing his buttons just to bully him. Tord smirked and shrugged, continuing to read his book.

"Well, um," Edd looked uncomfortable now. Tom silently cursed the devil haired boy with all the cuss words he had heard his Auntie say.

"You can sit by Matt." Edd didn't have excitement in his voice anymore. Matt frowned for a moment as Edd sat himself down next to Tord, but shrugged and continued coloring his duck. Tom sighed quietly as he slid out his chair and sat in it, pulling himself back into the table. He grabbed his backpack and slung it on his chair, like what the rest of the kids had done.

Tom now sat there awkwardly, until he mustered up enough courage to ask Matt, "Um, what do we do right now?"

Matt looked up from his picture, now nearly complete. "Oh, ummmm, it's 15 minutes of you time. We usually do that before show-and-tell, and then we do some spelling and reading, then lunch, then math...and then that's it. Sometimes we do different things on different days."

Well, Tom wasn't expecting a long ramble of the entire day schedule given to him, but it satisfied him enough. "Thanks, Matt." Matt gave a small grin, looked at Edd, and sighed, the grin disappearing from his face.

"I wish Tord wasn't so mean sometimes." Matt whispered, glancing over at the boy. "He's from Norway, and when he came here on the first day he seemed really nice...but a lot of the time he just makes fun of a lot of people." Tom narrowed his black "eyes". Tord didn't seem very kind, however according to Edd, everybody was as sweet as cake.

"Edd is very...um, what was that word Mrs. Claudia taught us again? It was opi...no, onumistic..."

"Optimistic?" Tom stumbled on the word as he said it. They were in kindergarten, after all.

"Yeah! He thinks that everybody is sunshine and lollipops." Matt nodded. "Where as Tord...tends to be very frank with a lot of things."

Tom scoffed a little as he looked at Tord. Suddenly the Norwegian looked up from his book and made a face at Tom. "What do you want, no-eyes?" Tom glared. It was time to use his tough guy act. Tord looked dangerous, even as a little kindergartener, and the last thing Tom needed was for people to find out that he had a little monster in his brain.

"Says the kid with brown dots all over his body. Did your mom leave you out in the sun too long?" Tom growled back.

"Say that again! I dare you!" Tord screeched, launching himself at Tom. For the first time all day did Tom feel truly afraid. Even though Tord didn't do much damage, he was hitting in places where Tom had cuts and bruises, causing the pain to be excruciating. His head started to hurt, his chest tightened, he could feel memories of the beatings run through his mind, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt.

And then it stopped.

Mrs. Claudia had pulled Tord away from Tom. The woman was now scolding Tord harshly, making even the tough looking Norwegian flinch back in fear. Edd has rushed to Tom's side, and Matt was trying to look Tom over like a miniature doctor.

As Tom watched Tord get led to the door, the boy turned and stared daggers into Tom. He flinched a bit, but stared back with the same ferocity. Tord just narrowed his eyes and whipped around, trying to walk out of the classroom with dignity.

Tom knew at this moment he had made an enemy out of a "friend."