Title: Friends Like These
Summary: When Logan Mitchell moves to Minnesota in third grade, James is jealous. He likes to have all the attention to himself, thank you very much.
Author's Note: Apparently, I like making the boys suffer through math class. They're third-graders in this one. James as a little boy diva is entirely way too fun to write. And I had absolutely no idea what to title this.
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When Logan Mitchell moves to Minnesota in third grade, James is jealous. Not because Logan is cool or anything (because he's totally not with his dweeby polo shirt and pencil lounged behind his ear) but because the entire class devotes their attention to the new student. James likes to have all the attention to himself, thank you very much, so he stands up out of his seat and -
"James, thanks for volunteering," his teacher says. "Logan, this is James. He'll show you around the building today." James groans. He'd meant to stand up and do something crazy, like sing or dance or cartwheel, but instead he got stuck sharing the attention with New Kid Logan. Not cool. So not cool.
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Logan takes the seat right next to James even though it's Carlos' and he's just running a bit late. James starts to protest, but the teacher quickly says that Carlos can sit in the front when he arrives. It'll be good for him, help him focus. James bites back a retort and whips his math workbook out, slamming it on the desk. He gets a reproachful look from his teacher and from New Kid Logan, who takes his own brand new workbook out and lays it down delicately.
They start the lesson and five minutes in, James is bored. He looks over at Kendall, who is staring off into space, then to Carlos who's making goofy faces every time the teacher turns away, and then to Logan who's... doing his work. He's already completed an entire page of math and how is that even possible? He must be superhuman, James decides.
And then he decides against it because being superhuman is way more awesome than being a good-looking eight-year old with nice hair and a pretty voice.
New Kid Logan is not way more awesome than James Diamond. No way.
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Snack time comes and James pulls his cheese puffs out of his backpack, making a big show of it. Kendall and Carlos migrate over, with bags of pretzels and barbecue chips respectively. James watches as Logan takes out a bag of raisins and starts munching on them. He takes pride in the fact that his cheese puffs are the way more desirable snack.
Then Carlos feels bad because raisins are kind of yucky so he gives Logan some of his chips. Logan smiles and accepts them gratefully and the two of them hang out the rest of snack time.
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When the class makes their way down to the cafeteria, Carlos walks with Logan. James is furious because New Kid Logan is stealing his friends and he already staked his claim on them years ago.
James crosses his arms, flips his hair, and lets out a little huff. Kendall looks at him funny, but James waves him off. New Kid Logan is evil, he's sure of it. Now all James needs is to formulate a counterattack, execute it properly, and take his friend back.
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James picks at his food during lunch. He's going to strike at recess. New Kid Logan will never see it coming. James feels that an evil laugh is necessary. He's been practicing in case such a situation ever came up.
His friends look at him like he's insane. Which, yeah, maybe he is, but in a good way. Because James Diamond is a lot of things, but psychotic isn't one of them.
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The bell rings for recess and Carlos sprints out of the cafeteria, yelling for Logan to follow him. Logan timidly gets up and follows, but not before James bolts past him, determined to get to Carlos first.
By the time Logan arrives, Carlos is at the top of the tallest piece of playground equipment, preparing to jump off. James is excited, cheering his friend on but Logan looks downright panicked.
"Carlos, get down from there," he says. And Carlos does.
Except he really just jumps off like he'd intended to instead of being, you know, safe about it.
Logan rushes over to where Carlos is on the ground, leg bleeding from the woodchips, and quickly pulls out a tissue from his pants pocket. He gently wipes the blood from Carlos' leg as James stands by in awe.
Kendall runs to get a teacher while Logan takes a band-aid from his pocket and presses it to Carlos' wound. Carlos winces a bit, but Logan's not deterred. He's gone into full-on-protective-doctor mode and there's no turning back. The little band-aid is hardly enough to cover the gash, but James thinks that it's bound to help.
Kendall comes running towards them, teacher in tow, and together they take Carlos to the nurse's office. James turns around to look at Logan, who's kind of standing there like it's no big deal. It is a big deal, though.
"Dude! You saved his life!" James gushes, throwing his arms around little Logan. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
And, yeah, ten minutes earlier, James wanted to enact revenge on Logan, but whatever. James doesn't care.
Maybe Logan Mitchell is superhuman after all.