Made it to lunch.

Thomas watched the crowd at the gathering for the opening ceremony and prepared to be board for the next hour or so. He had grabbed some fantasy novel from the shelf in the common room.

One of the adults grabbed him out of line and dragged him to see the nurse, before the opening started.

He got his first write up for fighting. Even with the declaration that he never even through a punch and that he had witnesses. His plea fell flat. His reputation had made it here after they accepted him.

He realized as the photographer was moving off stage that, they had pulled him out because of the black eye. Can't have that in the school press release. To make matters worse, he was publicly invited by the principal, who already knew his name, down to the front row where there were empty seats. The photographer snapped another picture of the boys, this one would be sent to his parents. Heck, they would probably airbrush the bruise out.

He hated this already, it was unfair, his tormentors were in the juniors section and had their friends laughing at him too. Jocks as as he refereed to them football jerks.

He watched as a group of girls were paying attention to Jack. Heck, if he was a girl, he would have paying attention to him too. He was buff and looked like he could hold his own. Thomas could use a friend like that. Right now, Thomas would have been happy to have the grounds keeper as a friend. He thought, Maybe he could earn some spending money cutting grass or working with on computers.

There were other students that who taunted Thomas through the morning. Herd mentality, being what it was. Being short, wearing glasses, and not being white made it a rough place. Teachers jumped into stop things when they started to ramp up.

At lunch he arrived, late to keep from being in the line. He went and sat with Blossom and the gymnastics clique. The girl was short, cute in a little sister way, and she had glasses too.

"Hi, I am Thomas and I heard you are part of the gymnastic team. I practice to. I could have gone to the junior nationals last year. How far have you gone?" he asked. He did not want to admit that his trip to the junior nationals was canceled for being in Juvie. He wasn't going to win it, but he had been invited. "May I join you," he asked her.