School boy | Prince Caspian

01

"Fight! fight! fight!"

The underground tunnel echoed the shouts of the clustered school kids, raising the sound until the noise was deafening. A cheer went up at the sound of a heavy blow, blood dripping from a split lip. Otto sighed, abandoning his book to glance up towards the scuffle. Ha was leaning against the wall, not to far away. The book was good but the noise was really distracting. He recognised the blonde head of Peter Pevensie struggling against four other lads, all dressed in the same Hendon house uniform. Otto sighed with a small amount of resignation.

He (fortunately or unfortunately) knew the blond boy. They had shared the same classes since Peter had arrived at Hendon house at the beginning of the year. They were sort of friends, well as close as a friend Otto had. Most people just ignored him and left him alone. But Peter had decided to stop by his lunch table one day and ask him about the book he was reading. That had lead to many conversations about the world and many shared complaints about being treated as children.  They shared the same pet peeve at being treated like infants, like they did not know their own minds. The pair of them headstrong and mature for their age. That served to become the basis of their awkward friendship.

He had later met Edmund in a fight similar to this one. Peter had angered someone and he and Otto had gotten caught in a fight in the sports hall during P.E. A boy with dark hair a couple of years younger than them had ran in and joined the fray with sudden ferocity that ended up with several bloody noses. At the end of it all, Peter had introduced Edmund and Otto to each other. They got along well, neither of the two boys as social and commanding as Peter. But they shared the same sense of humour and a preference for sarcastic, snarky comments.

He supposed that this sort of friendship with the Pevensie boys was why he was not going back to reading. He guessed that there was a certain loyalty in these things. Not that he rarely bothered with that, mostly he only joined Peter's fights for the fun of it. "Oi Pevensie!" He called. Peter raised his head as one guy slammed him into the wall. "Need a hand?"

"That would be great thanks Birch!" Peter called back as he shoved the guy holding him. Otto stuffed his book into his sack, which served as a school bag, and pushed his way through the crowd. Once he was in the middle of the fight, he reared back and punched the nearest guy square in the jaw. The guy fell back onto his arse with a howl of pain.

Otto smiled smugly as he turned to the next guy, only to watch as Edmund Pevensie emerged from the crowd and tackled him to the floor. Together, Peter, Edmund and Otto knocked the two others back. The fight now on even terms, three against three. The two groups stood back and stared at each other challengingly. Otto grinned as he wiped away some blood from his nose.

Sharp whistling broke the chanting as a a police officer pushed his way forwards. "Stop the fight. Move along!" He shouted, turning to grab Peter by the back of the shirt just as he made to lunge back into the fray. "Act your age!" He scolded as Peter shrugged him off.

As the crowd dispersed, two girls fought their way forward. One had long dark hair and rosy lips. She appeared to be about fifteen, very pretty and with a rather strong character. She didn't look very happy, more frustrated at her brothers. The other girl looked about twelve, with brown hair tied in pigtails and a face full of freckles. She sighed but smiled cheerily at Otto. The older girl marched straight up to Peter and grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him down the platform as the others followed.

"Why did you hit him?" She asked as the four of them sat down on a bench on the now almost empty platform. Otto looked between the four children with surprise, but chose to remain standing. He hovered awkwardly to the side, exchanging exasperated looks with Edmund at Peter's scolding.

"How many Pevensie children are there?" He raised an eyebrow at the four of them.

"Too many", Edmund muttered quietly, but still loud enough for Otto to hear. Otto snorted but turned the laugh into a cough as Lucy frowned at them. She had obviously heard it too as she stuck out her tongue at Edmund.