Under Eighteens Party

Terry turned to see who the other boy was looking at. "Oh, that's Mister Fletcher. 'E's a midshipman in our ship, the Terpsy."

Poor middy looked sort of lonely off there by himself, and that wasn't right. Just because he was a midshipman... and there weren't any officers around to stop him joining in. In fact, there weren't any adults around at all, and Terry impulsively crossed over to him.

"'Ere, sir, you ain't goin' to sit there on your own all evenin', are you?" he asked, feeling more than a little nervous as he asked the question. "There's someone 'ere'd like to meet you, sir."

Which was probably stretching the truth a little, but it was the only thing Terry could think of at such short notice.

"Oy, Tom. Ye fergot our middie!" He nodded towards Fletcher. "He's Mister Fletcher, Um..so you call him sir. " He shook hie head softly only to realise that the boy had just said it anyway. "Uh anyway.. come join us, sir." He took some food of the table himself. "..well, more'n you are. " He tried to look harmless enough.

Midshipman? That must be some sort of officer, since the others were calling the boy 'sir', but he looked no older than Charlie himself. Normally, he gave officers a wide berth. This was different though. It was hard to consider another boy as being an officer.

"What's a midshipman?" He might as well ask.

Surprised at having been suddenly noticed, Fletcher hopped down off his chair and followed Button over to where the new boy was - or at least the boy that had not come from the Terpsichore. He stuck out his hand shyly.

"Hello," he said, not used to this introduction business. "I-I'm Simon. Simon Fletcher."

"Charlie." He gripped the other boy's hand, a little tentatively. If Simon was in fact an officer, was he supposed to salute him or something? Even though Charlie himself wasn't a soldier. What were you supposed to do for a boy-officer, anyway?