Tadaaaa. :D

Read, Write, Live
Prologue: Welcome to Sheva Prep

It's just a school. It's just a school. The words repeated themselves in Joyce's mind as if trying to convince her that they were, indeed, true. She, however, knew they weren't. It might be a school, but it was Aish Sheva's Preparatory for the Aspiring Author. It wasn't some silly school with crap teachers and slacker students—no. This school had the best writing professors around, and the students were under special admission.

So, Joyce thought, why the heck am I here? Her writing was only sub-par and most of it was FanFiction anyways. She had never written a story with her own characters, their own thoughts. No, everything she wrote was based off of someone else writing. So, again: Why was she here?

She swallowed nervously, smoothed her skirt—part of her school uniform that consisted of a blue plaid skirt, a white polo shirt, a blue vest, stockings, and flats-and continued staring at the door that would lead her into orientation. It wasn't a very remarkable door. It was an icky gray color that had dents around the hinges.

She swallowed again and contemplated turning back and running after her father's car. That was before a group of girls came in behind her, clad in jeans and t-shirts, laughing loudly. Joyce quickly stumbled back, trying to get out of the doorway.

"Take a picture. I'm sure it'll last longer, newbie." One of them said. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore a t-shirt bearing the symbol of some band Joyce had never heard of. The girl rolled her eyes and entered the gym before Joyce could come up with a witty reply.

"Don't worry. That's Des Holloway. She's a bitch to everyone," yet another voice said, coming from behind her. This girl had shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a blue t-shirt with 'GRAMMAR NAZI' stamped across it in black, bolded letters. "I'm Andrea. Andrea Alvarez, but you have to call me Andy. Nice to meet you."

"J-Joyce." she stuttered, taking the hand Andy offered her. Wasn't anyone wearing their uniforms?

"Cool." Andy looked at her, taking in the school uniform, brown hair, green eyes, and the nervous expression. "Er...You didn't have to wear your uniform. It is just orientation. I'm guessing you didn't read the school handbook."

"I-I skimmed it." Joyce admitted, blushing.

What? Joyce could feel her face beginning to heat up and her heart seemed to skip a beat and then continue beating at hyper speed. She was going to look like an idiot with her stupid school uniform in the midst of all of the jeans and t-shirts.

"Let's go, huh?" Andy said, slipping her arm through Joyce's and leading her into the school.

In the end, Joyce wondered why she was so panicked about the school. It was a normal orientation—The professors stood up, introduced themselves, and told the students their expectations. Then some of the students (including, Joyce realized, Des Holloway) stood up and talked about how much fun the new kids were going to have there. It was quite standard—and boring. Joyce spent half the time rolling her eyes at her earlier reaction, the dramatics. After she got over the fact that she looked really out of place in her uniform, she began laughing along with Andy as she made jokes about the professors, seniors and various things that they said.

The school was, if you couldn't guess, a writing school. You still had the basic classes such as math, science, social studies, things like that, but you also had writing classes—plot, characterization, spelling, grammar, description, the lot of it.

The school, though it was a big deal, was a little...unimpressive. It looked like a normal school, smelled like a normal school, and, despite a few legendary professors and special classes, felt like a normal high school. Joyce could see the cliques already forming. The flamers, fangirls, loners, and geekier-geeks all swarmed into little groups, even though it was just orientation. Joyce was contemplating this, staring around the gymnasium as people began to move off of their seats, some looking for friends, others exiting the room alone. She blinked a few times, trying to get out of the daze she had gone into and looked at Andy.

"Come on. We're leaving." Andy said, standing up from her own seat and heading towards the door, expecting Joyce to follow, which she did.

"What do we do now?"

"Book lists. And we find out who are roommates are." With excitement laced in her voice, Andy grabbed Joyce by the hand and started off at a jog through the halls.

This girl sure is energetic, Joyce thought as she stumbled across the halls, being towed, rather harshly, by Andy. They passed crowds of people, each seemingly moving out of the two's way obediently. Weirdly enough, they were all going the the other way, with the exception of the random few running for the bathroom.

Passing another group of students, she noticed everyone, and that means everyone now, was moving in the opposite direction of them, towards the great big hall they just came out of. Surely, Joyce thought, they can't all be going the wrong way.

"H-Hey? Andy? A-Are you sure we're going the right way?" Joyce managed to stutter. For a moment, Andy paused to think, giving Joyce time to catch her breath. She smoothed her ruffled skirt once again and looked over at her guide, who was, unexpectedly, chewing on the bottom of her lip contemplatively.

"Nope!" And announced suddenly, dragging her unfortunate classmate through the halls once more. Joyce stumbled around, not knowing where she was walking or where her feet were stepping. Rather faintly, she heard, "This is a shortcut!", through the pounding of her heart. Never mind, Joyce thought to herself. This girl is insane.

Why on Earth do I always find myself hanging out with people weirder than me? Joyce mumbled to herself, not daring to say it out loud in fear of what her guide would say or do. Her foot slammed against a wall as the two made a sharp turn to the right. The loud "Ouch!" Joyce yelped was clearly ignored (or, perhaps she really didn't hear it) by Andy, the only sign of recognition was a low, yet lively, chuckle and a slight smirk.

Joyce heard the creaky sound of a door opening and saw a bright flash of light. Somehow, Joyce found herself outside for some reason. She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. I didn't even know there was an outside... She looked around, noticing a huge crowd of students piling up against a large blue building's door, probably trying to get inside all at once. Joyce also noticed another grrand building, red this time, with SHEVA PREP LIBRARY written with gold letters- big, bold, and noticable.

Joyce took one last look of the beautiful putside view of the school until she was pulled, yet again, to the inside of another building. I hope Andy gives me a tour of those buildings later, Joyce thought, making a mental note for later. That would be the best.

Noticing a severe lack of students, Joyce began to worry whether or not they were going to find their book lists after all. Her feet struggled to keep up with Andy's, and she soon found her feet give in and resorted to just stumble around like a hopeless doll. Cruising the hall, Joyce occasionally had the chance to scramble up to her feet when Andy paused momentarily, only to be pulled again.

Pretty soon, she crashed into Andy, who had stopped dead in her tracks.

"What's going on Andy?" Joyce wondered out loud, smoothing her ruffled skirt. I hope we're not lost. Surely, in a school this big, student get lost all the time.

"Shh. Nothing."

Peeved by the newly found cautions demeanor, Joyce took in her scenery carefully. It was a normal hall- well, as normal as an ordinary, unkempt, filthy high school can get- with a stunning lack of students. Funny, a school this big and there is not one student around, Joyce mused. I wonder where they all went...

Compared to everything else she had seen, this one hallway was, to put it bluntly, rather mediocre. Actually, not even. It was as if this place was an outcast. Nothing here seemed to be new, and it looked as if janitors refused to clean this part of the school. The paint was peeling off in some spots of the wall- others spot completely bare. The lockers needed refurbishing... No, they needed to be replaced. There were stains everywhere, and the one water fountain refused to stop dispensing water. Their water bill must be high, she thought randomly.

What had happened here? Joyce couldn't help but ask herself. This place is rubbish.

"Erm, Andy? Where exactly is this shortcut heading?" Joyce spoke up, breaking the awkward silence.

"Uhmmm... Starbucks. Definitely Starbucks." Andy replied, nodding to herself. Starbucks? What happened to to the book lists?

Suddenly, thoughts raced into Joyce's head, causing her to worry. She was certain she'd seen this in a movie before. Am I gonna be raped or something? This part of the school was familiar to her. Her old school, Arcadia High School had a hall exactly like this. The school's 'rejects' hung out there, doing who knows what. Joyce shuddered at the memories.

"H-Hey there, K-Kay. F-Fancy meeting y-you here," She heard Andy say in the background. Funny, I never heard her stutter before.

"I do go to school here. Or did you forget?" Joyce spun around, unaware that they had company. She located the source of the voice hidden in the shadows. Squinting, she saw a figure coming out of the shadows. Kind of like those cliché evil villains in those stupid movies. Joyce saw the girl, assuming she was the Kay that Andy had talked about, and noticed, out of all her features, the smirk she held.

"W-Well. G-Gonna get Joyce here t-to get our book lists. S-see ya!"

"Hold up. Joyce? I suppose that's you, right, newbie?" Joyce found herself nodding slowly, and getting used to being called 'newbie'. "Whatever. Just... Watch out." Kay said, taking a glance at Andy then back to Joyce, then stepping into a random classroom before Joyce could even fathom her words.

"Andy? What was that about?" Joyce asked, suspiciously. What did she mean 'watch out'?

Joyce noticed that Andy seemed to snap out of a daze because, before Joyce could restate her question, she found herself being pulled again, along with a hasty "Forget about it. It was nothing."

Soon, the two had reached the central building. Shocked and in awe; Joyce looked over at Andy, who was talking to another girl. She didn't expect this many students. I thought invitations here were rare...

Joyce looked around, trying to find a familiar face- any face- that just might remind her that she's not dreaming. Turning her head she saw that girl- Des- talking with Kay, laughing and pointing to several students. Hmmm, I didn't know that they even knew how to laugh, Joyce noted, smiling. To her right, she saw two people, professors, she assumed (they seemed awfully business-like, carrying briefcases in one hand and Starbucks in the other), talking animatedly about who knows what. They seem to be a little young...

"Welcome to Sheva Prep," Andy said to Joyce, smiling. "Here's your book list. Let's go check if we're roomies, eh?" Nodding numbly, Joyce let Andy maneuver her through the crowd of students. She was still too shocked to comprehend anything.

Wow. This is bigger than I expected.

"Hey! Hey, Joyce? Look! I got this girl named Juliet Brennan. I wonder whether or not they'll survive rooming with me. Go look at whoever your roomie is, then I'll tour you through the entire school!"

Joyce nodded and moved over to the lists of roommates. She traced her finger down it, looking for her name.

"Joyce Balatico... Joyce Balatico..." she muttered.

"Aha!" she said triumphantly when she found her name. She was with... Cezanne Lee. She didn't know who that was, but moved away from the list. As she walked down the hall she then realized why this school was so prestigious. Not from the legendary teachers, though that was a bonus, but from the students preparing to be legendary themselves.

I hope I survive.

Author's Note - Joyce: Basically, half of this is Des's and half of this is Andy's, so I practically didn't do anything for this chapter. -.- I'm ashamed. Anyways, basically this is just an intro to the real plot, very prologue-esque, but we just made it Chapter One for the heck of it. :P All of Sheva Prep isn't explained in Chapter One, so a few more things, quite similar to Harry Potter, will be introduced to you guys in the next chapter. Either way, hope you liked it.

Author's Note - Andy: I feel like I did a horrible job. "^^ It could have been longer, but I have an odd issues with description. -.- You can thanks Joyce for this long and twisted idea. I have nothing more to say except: Review. Oh... and sorry for the looooooooooooooong wait.

(DES! WE'RE WAITING FOR YOUR AUTHORS NOTE!)

Author's Note - Des - Hm. *looks up* They're waiting for my A/N... Anyway, I wrote half of this chapter. *is proud* So there it is. I hope you enjoyed it and keep reading. As Andy said, please review. Thanks. XD

We asked for permission from everyone that was included in this story. The people mentioned were: Desdemona/Des Holloway (Willful Destruction), Joyce Balatico (Cascading Rainbows), Andy Alvarez (Audreacity), Kay (Kay Celestine), Cezanne Lee (Cezariaz), Juliet Brennan (HallowedHallsofWriting) and Sheva, the person who the school was named after (Aish Sheva). Other characters will (hopefully) be introduced in the next chapter, to be written by Joyce.