-I will be entering this into Maleclovely's latest contest! :D Granted this one will be the permanent one while the other will be deleted once the contest is over. It's a long one! But considering I've been MIA for a while, it seemed fair.-

Magnus sat at his desk, quietly grumbling to himself, not exactly pleased with how things had turned out. At 7 years old he wasn't exactly thrilled to have been put a grade behind and stuck into the first grade with the six-year old's. Granted it wasn't a HUGE difference in age, but considering that the boy named Raj, who was beside him munching on a crayon, Magnus felt centuries older and much more mature. He would have liked to be in his correct grade, with peers his own age, unfortunately for him one parting gift from his horrid father had been keeping him from school enough to warrant being a year behind. In hindsight, if being a year behind meant he no longer had to live in the hell known as his father's home and instead he got to live with the much kinder Santiago family, he probably shouldn't complain.

He continued his far too old for him thinking not paying attention to what the teacher had said. Only coming back to reality when Raphael, his new adopted brother, tapped him on the shoulder and tried to hurriedly explain to them their first task of the new year.

"Just decorate your popsicle stick." Explained the little boy. "And go stick it in the bucket. Entendido?" ((Understood?))

Magnus merely nodded, using context clues and whatever little Spanish he'd learned the past couple of weeks with the Santiago's.

"Decorate stick. Drop in bucket. Got it" he pouted. He could only bet the second graders were probably doing math or rocket science in their class, because he was sure that's what second graders did, but yet here he was coloring a piece of wood while sitting next to the boy who was probably eating his second crayon of the day. He mumbled and looked at the crayons before him, if he would have to play along with these childish antics, he'd at least do things his way he thought as he fumbled inside his backpack and pulled out a bottle of glue he'd packed in case an emergency like this one arose. And with one final sigh he begun to work.

A few moments later and a pretty shiny but still kind of sticky popsicle stick he marched his way to the front. No sooner had he made it to the bucket when he felt someone crash into him and practically tackle him to the ground. Magnus scrambled to his feet quickly trying to determine where this attack had come from but stopped short when he met himself with really bright blue eyes and a messy flop of black hair. He continued to look at the boy, who's face seemed to burn bright red.

"S-S-Sorry" he stuttered. "I tripped. I'm sorry" he mumbled catching his gaze but then almost immediately dropping it to stare at his shoes.

"Alexander. Magnus. Are you two alright?" asked the teacher in concern as both children nodded.

"Alexander?" asked Magnus aloud. What a cool name, almost rolled off the tongue. Meanwhile the Alexander in question practically threw his stick into the bucket and ran back to his desk where he was met with the giggles of a blonde boy.

"Your stick looks lovely Magnus. Great job." Said their teacher when Magnus was lost in thought again.

"Thank you" he muttered. Finally putting his artful creation into the bucket and returning to his desk. Once there he thought back to the bright blue eyes, and for a fleeting moment, he actually wished he'd painted his stick that same brilliant color.

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Magnus found himself grouching again outside. Their teacher's next brilliant idea had been to hand them each a stick and tasked them to find the sticks rightful owner, in what the teacher was convinced would help them make new friends. Raphael had abandoned him almost instantly, not really wanting to be outside for long so choosing to find his match as quickly as possible and go back inside. Meanwhile poor little Magnus wandered about the playground. Of all the luck, he'd somehow been assigned to one of the kids with no imagination and had ended up with a stick that was scribbled almost entirely black. Great.

To add misery to his already gloomy day, not one person had found his stick either. And maybe it was his frustrated little face, but not too many other children had really attempted to talk to him.

"Hi!" came a little girl breaking his mood. "Are you the red stick with stars?"

"No." Magnus replied flatly.

"Oh darn." She muttered. "I figured you would be. The stars suit you" she answered with her six-year-old logic.

"Why is that?" Magnus asked, curious at the new comer.

"I don't know. Just you seem like someone with stars. I'm Clarissa but you can call me Clary!" She said excitedly with a little bounce. Her red hair blowing with the wind. Magnus liked her, she seemed nice. And her hair was pretty.

"Magnus" he answered and surprisingly felt bad for being curt. "My name is Magnus. Nice to meet you"

"So, Magnus. Who do you have?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I got a black stick." He answered showing her the work.

"I haven't found anyone who said theirs was black. Well then who had yours?" she asked again.

"Not sure either. The dummy who got mine either threw it away or I don't know, maybe they are stuck in a tree" he muttered in sarcasm.

"You might be right about that." She answered hopefully. "But if you think it's in a tree, I probably would suggest starting with that tree over there. There are legs dangling off of that one"

"What?" Magnus asked, he had been sarcastic, he hadn't actually thought it would be in a tree. Yet he found himself looking and sure enough, there was a boy. In a tree. And not just any boy. A certain one with floppy black hair and bright blue eyes.

"Clary. You are a genius! Thanks!" he waved at her before running off.

Magnus made his way to the tree and once at the base he peered up.

"Alexander?" he asked. "Why are you in a tree?"

The little boy looked down at him the same bright red as before on his embarrassed face. "I'm not."

"You're not? I'm pretty sure you are in a tree. I mean you are SITTING in a tree."

"I'm not stuck in the tree. I know that's what you are thinking. I'm perfectly fine up here in this tree, I'm not stuck. I just don't want to come down right now."

"So, you can read minds? That's pretty cool."

"What?" asked Alexander confused. "I can't read minds."

"Well you said you knew what I was thinking. That's called reading minds"

"Well if you don't want to climb down, can I climb up?" Magnus asked, a little amused.

"I don't think you can. It's a big tree. And I'm not stuck, but you will be, because. Um. This is a tree that is really easy to get stuck in. "he stammered in response.

Magnus however, loved a challenge. He made quick work of the tree reaching the branch where the other little boy was. His mom had always told him he was like a cat, always choosing to climb things, at least she used to tell him before she'd gone away the place people didn't come back from.

"The view is nice." Magnus added happily. "You picked a good tree to not be stuck in Alexander."

"My name isn't Alexander."

"It's not?" asked Magnus in confusion, he was certain the teacher had called him this earlier.

"Well. It kind of is, but I like Alec better. My name is Alec."

"Alec" Magnus repeated, but the name seemed off. He didn't like it as much. "Nope. I like Alexander better. I'm going to call you Alexander."

"You are impossible" sighed Alec.

"Nope. I'm Magnus." He added with a laugh. "So, Alexander, what are you doing NOT stuck in a tree?"

"Jace was helping me. But he left me to go talk to that dumb red head." Said the boy, his bright blue eyes looking towards the ground.

"Your friend left you to talk to Clary?"

"Whatever. I don't know her name, but now I'm here and he's over there."

"Her name is Clary. She is actually kinda nice" stated Magnus.

"I don't care"

"Why not?"

"Because she took Jace away. He's my brother, but he left me stuck in this tree to talk to her" he pouted some more.

"So, you ARE stuck?"

"NO! Yes." Finally admitted Alec.

"Well why are you in the tree in the first place?"

"I'm hiding"

"Why?" Normally Magnus hated twenty questions, he didn't like it with the Service Workers he didn't like it with the school counselors, but here with this strange boy it was kind of fun.

"I have to go talk to some girl. And I don't want to. This game is dumb."

"Why do you have to talk to some girl?" asked Magnus, amused that all this because he was scared of some girl.

"Because I got her stick. And that means I have to go make friends." Alec pulled out the stick in question and showed it to Magnus. It took all his strength not to fall out of the tree laughing. In the boy's hands was a popsicle stick covered in glitter glue.

"Will it make you feel better if I tell you that stick doesn't belong to a girl?"

"Of course, it belongs to a girl. No boy would use glitter."

Magnus laughed again. "Well I'm a boy! And that's mine."

"What??" this time questioned Alec. "This is yours? What kind of boy are you? Glitter doesn't go on popsicle sticks."

"I'm a boy like you Alexander. And I liked glitter. So, I put it on mine."

"You're weird."

"And you're stuck in a tree."

Alec looked at him for a moment, before laughing softly, a sound that quickly made Magnus start giggling too.

"I guess some boys do like glitter. That's neat" he mused to himself. "I didn't think of that. I just painted mine black."

Magnus pulled the stick he had out of his pocket. "Really! I have yours!" he showed him and the pair laughed to themselves. Well that was one mystery solved.

The little duo continued to sit there, talking about the littlest things, by the end they'd even agreed to sit together in class. It was several minutes later when the teacher came to fetch her stuck students and once they were back on solid ground their budding friendship seemed to change Magnus' entire perspective.

"Come on Alexander. Let's go back to class, maybe I'll share my glue with you" he laughed.

"I told you my name is Alec!" corrected the little boy.

"And I told you I like Alexander better." Magnus added with a stuck-out tongue.

"Well. If you call me Alexander. I get to call you...... um...... Mags.... Your new name is Mags!"

Magnus stopped to mull it over. He'd never had a nickname from a friend before. "Fair enough Alexander! Come on!" he said happily springing off towards class.

"Alright Mags! I'm coming" said his new pal Alexander taking off behind him.

Magnus could feel a smile on his face, maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.