Chapter Text
"Oh c'mon sweetie," the old woman cooed at her Grandson. "Go on in, there's lots of friends for you to play with."
The boy shook his head. His grandmother tittered, "Apologies Mr. Grouper, he's a bit shy."
The goldfish smiled and waved it off with a fin, "Don't worry about it. A lot of kids are like this on their first day."
At that, the boy peeked from behind his grandmother, the lack of expression evident on his face.
"In fact Gil wouldn't even walk in without his Mom holding his hand."
The boy was drifting further away from his grandmother, but still pulled on the strings of her handbag. The old woman smiled at the fish, then looked down at the mandarin headed boy desperately holding on.
"If I hold your hand, will you go?" Mr. Grouper held out his fin.
"MR. GROUPER WHO'S THAT?!"
The boy quickly covered his ears from shock. Who was screaming this loud at 7 AM?
Before the fish could answer, a bundle of dandelion yellow rushed to the door and waved at the new kid. Orange scales. Like his hair. She kind of looked like mac and cheese. Nonny liked mac and cheese. But she was very loud so he didn't like her.
"Whoa I like your glasses." ...maybe she is alright...
"Deema, next time, remember to use your inside voice inside." Mr. Grouper scolded.
The girl pouted, "But you were outside."
That was true, she was outside. Nonny nodded.
"See, he agrees." She turned to him. "You're my friend now. I'm Deema."
His grandmother chuckled, "Aren't you sweet. He—"
"Nonny..." He mumbled, to her surprise.
"That kinda sounds like a name you'd give to a rabbit."
"I'm not a rabbit?"
She squinted her eyes and looked him up and down. Seeming to confirm his statement, she curtly nodded and dragged him inside the classroom.
"Well."
"Interesting."