All 1200 people filed into the old grey building, all feeling uneasy about the wars they were about to face. Few were ignorant and looked forward to the hell. Some even enjoyed the torture. People were terrorized there, it was survival of the smartest, survival of the strongest...survival of the craziest. Blood would be shed, tears would drop, and wars would be battled. Those who survived often left with memories...memories of these horrific events, nobody ever left with a smile, nobody would be that insane to actually enjoy-

"Do you smell that?" A wild looking red-headed kid breathed in a gulp of air with a wide grin. "Smells like high school."

"Yeah, that's the smell of swirlies." A tall, dark haired boy sighed, and then sneezed.

"Oh, Eddie boy!" The red-headed teen sighed with a smile and patted 'Eddie' on the shoulder. "High school isn't bad if you can just laugh a little."

"Jerome," the tall boy began, starting to walk down the hallway. "I like to take education seriously." He adjusted his large framed glasses.

"Education?" Jerome looked almost confused before giggling a little. "Education!?" He caught up to his friend and slammed into the locker in front of Edward. "High school is not about 'education'," He mocked the term. "If high school was about education, we'd all be successful and rich. But high school is about making the smart, smarter." He tapped on his friend's chest a few times. "And make people like me," he pointed to himself. "Crazier." He looked so serious, he almost looked innocent and possibly sane. "Sure you learn a few things here and there...but when will I need to know parts of a cell or parts of a dead frog- which I'll admit, that was fun to dissect, but seriously, they use people like me to make the rich kids look smarter than they are and then they get richer and we get treated like their slaves."

"Okay..." Ed gave a weirded out stare before walking around Jerome, in a hurry to get to class extra early.

"Oh, and I got Mrs. O'dell for science, and she's a tough cookie, so if you don't do my homework, I'm gonna fail." Jerome yelled down the hall watching Edward scurry through the crowded hallway like a mouse. "I'll never understand that kid..." he mumbled quietly with a furrowed brow and a side smile. "-well, hello there." He quickly jumped into the crowd of people flowing through the halls to follow a group of mostly snobby cheerleaders. "I'm Jerome."

"BOO!" A loud voice yelled.

A young student screamed,shriekier than the average male scream should probably be. He nearly threw his book off of his lap, heart stopping before speeding up and adrenalin pumping for a moment. Mrs. Janey; the librarian peaked around the corner to sternly put her finger to her lips and shush the two boys.

"Relax, Spaz! I was just playing!" The taller boy chuckled down at the poor freshman.

"Don't call me that!" The boy shrieked standing up from the library couch, but quickly regretted his decision when the bully narrowed his eyes.

"Listen, Jonathan, " he snarled, poking at the kids chest. "I do what I want when I want, this is my school." Jonathan nodded his head quickly and backed away.

Another student lurked quietly among the books, watching. The figure was dressed rather formally than most of the children, especially for a public school.

"It's no use, I've been here half a day and he's already made my life miserable." Jonathan sighed, beginning to gather his things before the bell.

"What a jerk." The black and white figure growled.

"I'm used to it now." Jonathan explained, not looking at the figure.

"Used to what?" The silhouette asked.

"The teasing. The bullying. It's old." He sighed. "Oswald, right?"

"Uh, yeah, how did you know?" He stepped out of the shadows and accompanied Jonathan on the chair across from him. "It's uh, Oswald Cobblepot, nice to meet you."

"Heard some rumors here and there." The boy scanned through his book. "Oh uh, it's Jonathan Crane by the way."

"Rumors..Sounds like a good start to the year. Say, why don't we take care of that bully of yours. I mean we're friends now, right?" Oswald asked, his smile was pointed at the corners and evil.

"Uh, sure."

-

"I said!" He raised his voice and cleared his throat. "I'm Jerome."

A brunette with light highlights quickly turned around to shoot a glare. She looked up and down and kept the look of disgust. She popped a bubble and rolled her eyes then continued walking. Jerome growled lowly, "Offense taken." He grumbled. After a few minutes of following the girls, they began to notice.

Another girl turned around, this one had her hair dyed a lavender color. "Get out of here, freak."

His lip quivered slightly as he mouthed the word a few times, questioning its meaning. They all giggled, sounding more like a coven of witches, "Go back home to the circus!" Another one joined in.

"Well, its more of a big talent show-" He quickly tried to explain, but was lost for words when interrupted with more insults.

"Oh, yes, I heard about all your moms talents!" The first girl cackled.

"My mom's just a snake ch-charmer-she she just dances and-!" He began feeling overly protective, he didn't know why, he barely liked his mom.

"Oh, I'm sure Jerome." The cheer captain mocked, giggling.

"Guys, quit it." One whispered to the group, hushing them for a few seconds, keeping her head down shyly.

Jerome looked up a little surprised, but didn't get too hopeful, he was used to fake acts of kindness. But the blonde looked back and gave a tight smile before quickly starting up a conversation about the latest news. He turned looking sad and confused but his smirk dug its way through and spread from ear to ear. He wasn't actually too sad, he found that he couldn't quite feel too much of anything really, he learned early in high school that to have little emotion was 'odd' or different. But he was surprised, nobody ever really stood up for him, or even smiled at him for that matter.

He shuffled behind them for a little while longer, not following them in particular. The young blonde, probably not more than a year younger looked back, looking embarrassed when she locked eyes with him. She quickly tucked back a loose strand of hair behind her ear and finally turned a corner with the small group of girls.

"There you are!" A hand landed on his shoulder.

The firey teen nearly snarled. "Do you know many germs are living on the human hand?" He lifted the hand off with his pointer and thumb with pure disgust.

"Ooh, is that a riddle?" Edward began to walk next to Jerome.

"No-"

"332, 000 different bact-" he began to read off from memory.

"No." He almost growled. "A lot." He laughed sharply and then quickly dropped to an almost normal tone. "So don't touch me."

"Not to worry! I sanitize quite frequently." Nygma waited a few seconds to gather his thoughts again. "Right, you were supposed to have lunch at our table and you left me and you left me with that weird kid that always looks like he's about to be attacked."

"Jonathan? He's still trying to eat with us?" Jerome laughed. "We're too popular for our own good." He smirked sarcastically.

"Holy fuck!" An amused voice shouted excitedly, while multiple crashes and screams were muffled by the distance.

"It sounds like someone's hurt." Ed turned to Jerome quickly looking a little frantic and worried.

"Yes," A sly devilish grin crept on his face.

They quickly got swept into the tide of teens that made their way to the commotion, the screams quickly became clearer and the shrieking words became audible.

"You think that *I'm* crazy?" I sarcastic and sharp chuckle echoed just around the corner.

"Well? Who is it?" Ed tapped the redhead on the shoulder curiously.

Jerome quickly brushed his hand off as he peeked over the heads of the crowd. He stood there a few moments...another couple seconds...maybe a little too long. "Jerome!"

"It's that cute blonde chick..." He whispered to himself, ignoring poor Ed. "And she's kinda hot when she's mad."

...TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N Haven't been on here in a while but it feels good to be back! Please leave me a review so I can improve!