A/N: Hello! Iron Rose here. Here's what you need to know for this: High school AU, Absolutely no OC's (everyone is actually a CM character, many are UnSubs). This chapter follows Morgan.
Disclaimer's on my profile.
Don't forget to leave any questions, comments, or snide remarks in a review!
Enjoy!
Date: Monday, 8/17/2015
Derek Morgan did not know what to expect when he walked into his new high school, Quantico high. His family had just moved from Chicago and it was his first day. No friends, no expectations.
The hallways were crowded with sweaty teens, no surprise there. He noticed the different friend groups hovering by different lockers. Jocks, nerds, druggies, socialites; nothing new there. Analyzing people had become a survival instinct over the years, Chicago was not exactly what one would call a safe city. He shuddered at the thought.
Derek looked down at the paper in his hand. It was his schedule and locker assignment. He glanced up at the nearest locker, noticed its number, and headed off in the right direction. He had to force his way through the crowds of bodies. He hoped the crowdedness was due it being the first day and friends were just getting reacquainted.
Derek groaned when he spotted his locker. There, pressed up against it, was a scrawny little freshman. The kid was surrounded by three bigger boys, obviously tormenting the pip squeak. At first, he considered not getting involved, it was his first day after all, he did not want to make any enemies, but his conscience got the better of him.
As he approached the bullies, he could hear the conversation going on between them and the victim.
"Come on, Billy," the kid pleaded. "I don't want-"
The leader of the group, Billy, interrupted him, "Since when have I ever cared about what want?"
Billy's lackeys laughed as if that was the funniest thing in the world. One spoke up, "Hey, let's shove him in his locker."
Now it was Billy's turn to laugh, "Not a bad idea, Dowd." He gestured to the other boy. "Pop it open."
Derek had enough. He tapped Billy on the shoulder. The bully turned to him with a sneer. "What?"
Derek pointed to the locker the kid was about to be shoved into. "That's my locker. I would prefer it if you didn't put a kid in it."
By this point the other boys had quit trying to put the kid in his locker. Billy's sneer deepened. "Really? And who are you to stop my fun?"
"Name's Derek Morgan," he said calmly. "Now, I'd like to get stuff, so…."
Billy took the hint, but his face contorted in anger. "Whatever." He turned to his lackeys. "Drop the kid. Let's go."
The one Billy had called Dowd earlier did not take it was well. "What?!"
"C'mon. It's not worth crap now," said the other bully, following Billy as he stormed off. Dowd followed too, but not before punching the kid hard enough to bruise. The kid crumpled to the floor, gripping his shoulder.
Derek paused for a moment, then held out his hand to help the kid up. The younger boy looked at it and shook his head. "Sorry, I don't shake. It's actually-" the kid began before cutting himself off.
Derek looked at the kid in confusion. "I'm trying to help you off the floor, kid."
Said kid's eyes widened like saucers. "Oh, right. Sorry," he said, picking himself up without assistance. Derek just shrugged it off. Now that the other boy was standing he could get a better look at him. The kid had chin-length, wavy, brown hair. His eyes were a warm brown and his skin was incredibly pale. He was skinny and short. He wore large glasses, khaki pants, a button up, and a sweater vest. All in all, the kid looked like a tiny college professor.
Then he noticed something strange. "What you doing down here anyway? I thought the freshman lockers were up front."
The kid just sighed as if he had been through all this before. "I'm actually a junior."
Derek's eyebrows knit together. "But you're so small."
The kid groaned. "Yes, I'm short. Your point?" the kid snapped.
The bigger boy just laughed. Seeing the kid pout was hilarious. "I'm Derek Morgan." he introduced.
The kid nodded. "I know. You told Billy."
Derek blinked. He had totally forgotten about that. "Right. What was that anyway?"
"Billy Flynn, Philip Dowd, and Chase Whitaker. They have assigned themselves to the job of making my life hell," moaned the kid.
Derek chuckled. The kid's humor was dry as the desert. The first bell rang and the kid jumped. "I gotta get to class," he said in a panic. The kid grabbed his books from his locker and turned to go.
"Wait a sec, kid," Derek called. "I didn't get your name."
The boy blinked. "It's Spencer Reid," he said and ran off.
Derek glanced around his English classroom. On the walls hung the usual posters encouraging students to be sweet and kind and to not be mean. He scoffed at them. It was like reasoning with a newborn-impossible.
The room already contained a few students as well as the teacher, Alex Blake. She was tall with pretty, long, wavy, brown hair. She had a caring smile and it instantly put Derek at ease. She pointed him to his seat.
Derek's seat was next to a dark haired girl who looked to be sleeping. He glanced at her books, trying to discreetly find out her name.
"Don't steal my stuff," ordered a feminine voice
Derek glanced up at the girl. Apparently, she was not asleep.
He was about to ask her name, when another girl came in and sat directly in front of his new neighbor. The newest girl had long, straight blond hair. She wore a smile that Derek found odd, seeing as it was Monday and the first day of high school.
"Hey Emily," the new girl said.
The long haired girl, Emily, cracked an eye open. "Yes, JJ?"
"I know you're not a morning person, but you shouldn't stay up so late," JJ teased.
That got the sleepy girl's attention. "It's not my fault. Ian won't leave me alone."
"Just dump him already," the blonde girl commented snidely. She snapped her attention to him. "Hi. Name's Jennifer Jareau, but everyone calls me JJ. I'm a sophomore. You are?"
"Derek Morgan. Junior" He held out his hand to shake. "You shake right?"
She shook his hand and grinned at him. "I see you've met Spencer."
The brunette laughed. "Did he tell you the kissing thing?
Derek shook his head. "Not sure what you're talking about, but I saved him from some bullies who were trying to shove him in my locker."
The Emily girl sat up, immediately concerned. "It was Billy Flynn again, wasn't it?"
Derek nodded.
The girl sighed. "We gotta talk to Hotch about this, JJ. It's getting out of hand."
JJ nodded in agreement. "Thanks for the info," she said to him. Turning to the other girl, she hissed, "Introduce yourself."
The brunette sighed again. "Emily Prentiss." Then she closed her eyes and went back to pretending to sleep.
More students piled into the classroom. Among them were two of the bullies from before. Billy Flynn and Philip Dowd, if he remembered correctly. They shot him dirty looks from across the room.
Other than that first development, the hour passed by quickly. Mrs. Blake introduced herself to the class, went over the syllabus, and had the class discuss their summer reading. Not many people talked. Derek doubted most even did the reading. He certainly did not. Soon, the bell rang and he was off to Trig.
Derek had found his new least favorite class. Trig sucked. Math had never been his strong suit but this was torture. Emily was in it too, but she sat on the opposite side of the room. The teacher was named Henry Grace. Derek had to say that that man had the weirdest thing going on in his outfit. The man wore a white suit. A suit. In a public high school. In August. He had to be crazy.
Mr. Grace also seemed to have it out for another student in the class. Unfortunately, said student happened to sit right behind him.
"Hey, new kid," hissed the trouble magnet.
Derek did his best to ignore him but after the boy's fifth try, he whispered back, "What?"
"I'm David Rossi. You can call me Dave. What's your name?"
"Derek."
"Mr. Rossi, Mr. Morgan" Mr. Grace said loudly. Derek's attention immediately whipped back to the front. Dave, on the other hand, leaned back in his chair, head resting on his hands.
"Sup, teach?" he mocked.
"Do you really want to see Mrs. Strauss on your first day back?" Grace asked, raising an eyebrow. A gasp came from the back row. Apparently, this Strauss was not someone to mess with.
With a defeated sigh, Dave slumped into his chair. His smug grin wiped from his face. "No sir."
Grace turned back to the board and continued his lecture.
Derek's next class was Chemistry. Then it was lunch. Hopefully, this one would be quick. It was only third hour and he was already sick of school.
He walked into the chemistry lab. Mr. Nichols, the teacher, said it was free sitting. Derek choose a seat at the middle table on the far right side of the room. The tables only sat three. He watched the door to see who else would come in. A few students trickled in, then, to his surprise, Spencer and Emily walked in.
The moody, dark-haired girl was chatting amiably with the tiny junior. The kid seemed happy to see her too. Then Spencer spotted him. The two approached his table.
"Hey Derek. Can Emily and I sit with you?" he asked.
"Sure," he replied. The two sat. Spencer ended up in between him and Emily. That was fine by Derek. Honestly, the girl was a bit intimidating.
Emily and Spencer began to ask Derek questions about himself. He answered most of them but when they started on his past, he shut them down. Those sorts of things needed to stay in Chicago.
They took his standoffishness in stride though. Spencer started rambling off statistics about any number of things, but suddenly fell silent. Derek and Emily instantly noticed.
"Spencer?" asked the dark-haired girl.
The kid just stared at the far back left table. Derek followed his gaze and saw Flynn, Dowd, and Whitaker sitting there, glaring at them.
"Ignore them, kid," Derek said, diverting Spencer's attention away from the bullies.
"Finally, lunch," Derek sighed in relief.
"Yay! Lunch," Emily cheered sarcastically. "We all get shoved into a giant room filled to the brim with sweaty teenagers and hormones. Gotta love lunch."
"C'mon Emily. It's not that bad," Spencer commented.
They arrived at the lunchroom door and Derek could already hear the buzz of conversation inside. It was going to be really loud inside. He pulled a door open for Emily and Spencer, then came in himself.
He was right. The lunchroom was deafening.
Emily looked over at him and spoke loudly, "Like I said, gotta love lunch."
They quickly went through the lunch line. Afterwards, Emily and Spencer threaded their way through the throngs of students, without anyone else to sit with Derek followed. The three came up to a table, where a colorful blonde girl sat.
As soon as the girl saw them, she squealed. "Emily! Spencer!" She ran up and crushed both of them in a hug. Then she noticed Derek. "Hey," she said coyly. "What brings a chocolate god like yourself to the humble table of this sugar queen?"
Derek grinned. Now this was something he was good at. He bowed dramatically. "My frosting goddess. I was lead here by the black licorice lady and the candy corn boy."
The flirtatious blonde laughed uproariously. "Where have you been all my life? Black licorice lady? That's is the best description of Emily I've ever heard."
"Wait," said a male voice. Derek turned to see Dave and another tall dark haired man. "Description of Emily? This I gotta hear."
"You need to sit down first," she said. They all sat. "Hot stuff here called her 'the black licorice lady'."
Dave immediately started laughing. The other guy though only cracked a small smile. The blonde quickly noticed. "Hotch, stop being so serious," she chided.
"Yeah, Aaron. Live a little," added Dave.
Hotch just gave them a dry glare. He turned to the blonde girl, "Where's JJ?"
"I'm right here Hotch," said the blonde from behind him. She took a seat in between Emily and Dave.
Derek looked around at the people sitting at this table. They obviously all knew each other, he felt like an intruder. He started to stand, but the blonde pulled him back down.
"I didn't get your name, chocolate thunder. I may not use it but still want it." She winked.
"Derek Morgan."
Her smile never dropped. "Penelope Garcia."
He turned to the dark haired boy across from him. "And you?"
"Aaron Hotchner. They all insist on calling me Hotch. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Lunch was over too quickly for Derek's liking. The people he had met were interesting to say the least. Hotch was perpetually serious and Penelope was bouncy and cheerful all the time. Dave refused to take most things seriously, he bragged about all the girls he slept with last year and over the summer to him, much to JJ's chagrin. JJ seemed almost out of place among the group; in any other school he would have expected her in the popular group. But she did not seem to care about social standing, he liked that. Emily was still a mystery. Spencer, however, was a boatload of information. Turns out, the kid was a genius. Fourteen and a junior, safe to say Derek had not seen that coming.
This little group was strange, but he liked them. He was just begging to understand the social standing at this school, but he could tell that this little group was not high on popularity. Individually, they could be popular, but as a group, no one would take them. He did not mind though. They were good people.
His next hour was a free period. According to JJ, that meant library or a shop class. Derek wanted to process his day so he picked the library. He found several students inside already working on things. Among them was Spencer and Penelope.
"Hey," he greeted.
Penelope smiled the most flirtatious smile he had ever seen. "Are you stalking me, my precious chocolate lord?"
Spencer groaned. "I'm not going to get anything done with you two around."
Derek grinned. "Sorry, babygirl. But the lovin' is gonna have to wait 'til the children go to bed."
"Quiet, please," asked a young girl from another table. "I'm trying to study."
"Oh, sorry, um…." Spencer said.
"Maeve," she said quietly.
"Right. Sorry, Maeve."
Derek winked conspiratorially at Penelope. "Looks like boy genius has a girlfriend."
Penelope squealed.
Next up was gym. Derek was excited as he changed out of his jeans and t-shirt. He had been going stir crazy for having to sit around for so long.
He entered the gym and saw Dave and Hotch chatting. He walked over and the two seniors easily made room for him.
"What are we doing today?" he asked them.
The coach blew a whistle and everyone's head turned to him. The man held up a small red ball. Hotch groaned. Dave grinned.
"Dodgeball," they said in unison.
After the game, Derek quickly slipped on his normal clothes. He did not feel the need to shower. While the game had not been remotely difficult, it was fun and he enjoyed it.
He looked back down at the schedule in his hand. Behavioral psychology with Jason Gideon. He raised his eyebrows as he read the name. What the heck even was that? He just shook his head.
Derek looked up at the wall clock that hung in the locker room. He needed to go if he was going to get there before the bell. He dashed through the halls searching for the right room. He pulled the door open and stepped inside just a the bell rang. He sighed in relief.
"Derek Morgan?" an older voice asked.
He looked up to see a man in his early fifties. Derek nodded.
"Take a seat," the man commanded.
He looked over the classroom, surprised to find it mostly empty. Obviously, this was not a popular class. But what surprised him more was that only the people from his lunch table were here. Maybe this class would not be as strange as he thought.
A/N: These are the UnSubs I used in this chapter. Please note, these characters are not serial killers in this story line.
Name - Season:Episode
Billy Flynn - 5:23 & 6:1
Philip Dowd - 1:6
Chase Whitaker - 7:6
Henry Grace - 4:8
Lawrence Nichols - 4:24