(no subject)

"You can be rivals and friends at the same time." Mum says, as she drops them off at the school gates for the first day back. "Just try and be nice Fry, remember it's scary for George being new. And Brooke, remember everyone in your class is new, so you be nice too."

Fry nods and sets off up the playground with his sisters. Coral, who doesn't need telling to be nice, gives Mum a squeeze before she follows him.

"Why's all my class new?" Brooke asks.

"Because you started early." Fry says. "Because you were expelled from nursery for leading a mass escape."

Brooke processes this, then grins.

"I'm gonna be the biggest now." She marches off to the nearest tiny nursery child and starts bossing them around, as they stare up at her, bewildered. Fry and Coral watch her for a moment, then move on.

"You think she'll play nice?" Fry asks.

"Probably not." Coral says. "She seems to be fairly popular though."

Fry looks up the playground to see George is already surrounded by girls, interested in her as the new kid. He looks around for his other friends, but Teddy is busy playing football, and Kasha is in the big girl group, and he hasn't spotted Noah yet.

"Well, see you later." Coral says, going off to find her own classmates and hug them for the new academic year.

***

Mr Irons raises something of an eyebrow in class when both Fry and George admit they have completed maths book 5 over the summer holidays, with the intent of entering the year six maths challenge.

"Maths is not a race." he says, firmly. "In any case, we're using a different brand of text book this year, so you're all getting a test today to see what level you're at."

There are groans from the back of the classroom, mostly from Tommy. Mr Irons raises a hand for silence.

"Quiet please. This isn't a test you pass or fail, it is just to get you on the right book. There will be some easy questions and some hard questions. And even if you get every question wrong, that's not a bad thing today, because then I can help you more."

As he hands the papers around he adds to Fry and George. "This is not a competition."

Fry glances over at George, who meets his gaze. Game on!

The first page is a breeze, just basic addition and subtraction and odd and even numbers. By the time he gets to the last page, there's fractions, which he just learned, and long division, which he hasn't. He stares at the page, wondering how to approach it.

"The test finishes in five minutes." Mr Irons announces. "After that, you must stop writing."

Fry looks up in alarm. There are still ten questions on the paper, he can't stop in the middle, it would just be wrong! He flaps his hands a couple of times, and recognising the signs, Mr Irons comes over and crouches next to his desk.

"You don't have to finish all the questions." He says quietly. "Just do as many as you can in the time."

"I need to finish it." Fry says. "Or it feels wrong."

"If you like, you can try the last few questions for homework, after I've marked it." Mr Irons says. "Come and get it at the end of the day."

Fry considers this, then nods, and calms down somewhat. At least then it will be properly finished. Mr Irons goes back to the front of the class, crisis averted, and then stops the test a few minutes later.

***

At lunchtime, Fry finds George is surrounded by girls again. Well this is no good. How is he supposed to help her settle in if everyone else is doing it? Eventually, he barges through the group and just goes straight to her.

"It's Tuesday, we usually have chess club on Tuesday." he blurts out. "I brought my magnetic set because it's the first day and there's no chess club. We should play chess."

One or two of the surrounding girls giggle. George blinks at him.

"I'll join the chess club, but I'm busy right now." she says.

"But it's Tuesday." Fry says. "I play chess on Tuesday."

Bethany, who has been observing the by-play between Fry and George all morning, suddenly bursts out laughing.

"Fry fancies George, Fry fancies George!"

"Fancies?" Fry asks.

"Fry and George, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Bethany chants.

George rolls her eyes.

"Don't worry about him, George." Lucy says, tugging her elbow to move the group away. "He's automatic. This group's for girls, Fry, not stinky boys."

Fry glares after them as the group moves on, then goes to sit on a bench and sulk. Automatic, indeed!

"Hey Fry."

He looks up as Noah sits down next to him. He likes Noah, who goes to Beaver Scouts with him, and likes Pokémon, but tends to get avoided by the other kids for frequently talking about God. Not in a pushy way, but enough that some of the kids have taken to offering him food at lunch breaks to see how often they can get him to say Grace.

"What's 'fancies' mean?" he asks, knowing Noah won't laugh at him.

"It means you love someone." Noah says. "And you want to marry them. But usually it's just a joke when someone says it to you."

"Oh." Fry frowns. He doesn't like the sound of this kissing business. He looks around and finds George has come over too.

"You don't really notice what people do, do you?" she says, but not unkindly. She sits down and pulls out a notebook and draws a quick diagram.

"Kids our age go round in girl groups and boy groups mostly." she says. "I'm still working out which one suits me, but far as I can tell, your - our - class works like this. You have your football boys - Tommy and Jamal and Bradley, and Teddy."

"Sometimes Teddy hangs out with me." Fry says.

"Okay, but he's part of that group today." George says. "There's another group - Jack and Zack and Michael and Mohammed. Then girl groups, there's Ruby, Bethany and Lucy, and there's Sophie and Martha, and there's Kasha, Krishna, Amy and the other Lucy."

Fry stares. "How did you work this all out in one day?"

"I'm good at names." George shrugs. "And there were lots of groups at my old school, and some of them were mean, so I learned to pay attention."

"You didn't work it all out, you missed out me and Fry." Noah says.

"You two aren't part of a group, you're misfits." George says, getting up. Seeing their expression she adds quickly. "Sorry."

She wanders off, with her diagram, making a beeline for Kasha's group. Noah glances around at Fry.

"I don't mind being a misfit. My best friend is Jesus." he says.

Fry looks at the floor.

"It's not fair." he says. "It's like all the rules changed. Does that mean I can't be friends with Kasha and George because they're girls?"

"I don't think so." Noah says. "I think it just means they want to hang out with girls too." He smiles kindly. "I wouldn't worry about it, Fry."