Chapter Text
Break times at school were always Adam’s favourite; as soon as the bell rang he was itching to get out the class door, always making sure to pack up extra quickly so he’d be the first one at the swings, his best friends Brian and Wensleydale following after him. Brian and Wensleydale liked break time too. Adam always came up with the best games for them to play, reimagining them as explorers braving ancient ruins, or pirates battling to defend their ship, or astronauts discovering aliens! Despite how fun their games were, quarrels often erupted over who should play who amongst the boys, sometimes because Adam would hog the best character, but often because they were always on person short.
Naturally the boys would find another child to play with them for a bit, but no one they picked seemed to stay for long in their little group for one reason or another, leading right back to square one; which is exactly where they are now.
“But Wensley can’t be the dragon,” Brian was explaining loudly. “He’s supposed to be asleep!”
“Well I can’t be the dragon cos I’m the knight,” Adam declared. “And it can’t be you, cos you’re the wizard. We’ll just hafta find someone.”
The boys were silent as they scanned the playground. Nobody seemed to be a worthy contestant; everyone was either already playing with their own groups or simply weren’t exciting enough to join.
“Hang on,” Wensleydale pointed over to the sandbox, where a curly-haired girl was sitting. “How about her?”
Brian tilted his head, intrigued. “She’s new, ain’t she?”
Adam smiled, seeming excited at the idea of befriending the new person first. “Let’s ask her then.”
The girl, who had been busying herself with a sandcastle, blinked when there were suddenly three people staring at her with starry eyes.
“Hello,” Adam grinned at her, easy in his confidence as the leader. “I’m Adam. This is Wensley, and this is Brian.”
“Hi..” The girl smiled back slowly, as if unsure as to why they were talking to her.
“Do you wanna play with us?” Brian asked, nearly trampling her sandcastle with his hand.
“We need an extra player.” Wensleydale chimed in, moving Brian’s hand away in the nick of time.
“Me?” Said the girl’s brown eyes widened slightly. “Ya mean it?”
“‘Course,” Adam smiled, the sun bouncing off his blond curls. He seemed warm and inviting, so when he offered his hand to help her up, the girl took it. “What’s your name?”
The girl brightened, pushing her shoulders back more confidently. “It’s Pippin. Pippin Galadriel Moonchild.”
There was a very long pause. Then Brian snickered and before long all three boys had descended into hysterical giggles, leaving Pippin very bewildered.
“What’s so funny?”
“Your name!” Adam wheezed, clutching at his stomach. “What sort-, sort of name is PIPPIN!?”
Brian’s face had gone very red, blobby tears seeping out of his eyes. “You sound like a fairy!”
Even Wensleydale, usually the most composed of the three, was crouched over in laughter. “What a silly name!”
Pippin looked down at her feet, her face clouded over as her brows furrowed deeply. She clenched her fists at her sides, quiet as the boys’ laughter finally died down. Adam turned to her brightly, his smile faltering at her silence; she wasn’t going to cry, was she? That wasn’t what he wanted at all.
He exchanged slightly guilty looks with the others before stepping towards her. As soon as he opened his mouth a fist made a sudden connection with his face, making him stumble backwards in shock.
“That was mean, that was!” Pippin fumed, marching towards them furiously. “That was mean and rude!”
Brian stepped in front of Adam, who was touching at his face in shock. “Oi, you didn’t have to hit him for it!”
“Brian wait!” Wensleydale added nervously. “You’re not allowed to hit girls.”
This was the last straw for Pippin, who lunged with a roar at them both.
Chaos ensued. There were scrapes, bites and yells from all four, attracting a large group of children watching with some fearful awe, and a couple of teachers who were coming over to see what the kerfuffle was about.
Brian’s jumper now had holes in it, what remained of Wensleydale’s glasses were being clutched protectively in his hands, and Adam’s shoe had a prominent bite mark indented in it.
The teachers were gobsmacked, and of course rather angry. Phone calls were made to each child’s parents and all four got a very stern telling off by the headteacher. All four children now sat in at the same table in the dreaded Time Out Room, the boys making sure to sit across from Pippin. She apologised for hurting them; she did feel rather ashamed as both Brian and Wensleydale had been rather tearful about getting in trouble for their broken belongings. The boys apologised for making fun of her, feeling guilty as she had looked very hurt at their laughter. All four had returned home rather sullenly.
A week later Adam, Brian and Wensleydale once again approached a lone Pippin at the sandbox. (Since the incident other children had been rather nervous about approaching her.)
She seemed surprised that they were here again after so little time, and noted with a pang of guilt that Wensleydale now had new glasses, and there were five stitches in Brian’s jumper.
She was even more surprised when Adam held his hand out to help her up, hesitantly taking it in hers.
Adam kept their hands together, looking very seriously into her eyes.”We want you to be friends with us.”
Pippin balked. “You what? But I-”
“You already said you were sorry,” Said Wensley, swaying a little nervously. “And we shouldn’t have laughed at you.”
Brian nodded, a shy grin on his face. “And….it was kinda cool how you got all of us at the same time.”
“You’d make the perfect dragon.” Adam finished off, beaming at her.
Pippin blushed, looking at them bashfully. “Are, are you sure?”
The boys nodded eagerly, dragging her off to their usual spot in the playground, explaining their latest game to her. Pippin was in fact the perfect dragon, and the perfect addition to their group. From that day on the little quartet were practically joined at the hip, becoming known as a boisterous lot to some grown ups, but to everyone else, they were The Them.
And Pippin soon became known to everyone as the one and only, Pepper.