A/N: Just a little idea that wouldn't leave me alone; my brothers helped out a lot with the plot and humor elements. I'm using this first chapter to see if anyone has any interest in it.

Tellius High School

Chapter One: First Impressions

Ike looked up at the impressive, beige school building before him: Tellius High School. The first high school to integrate and accept both beorc and laguz students. Ike was both excited and apprehensive. Excited because this was his first year of high school: something he was really looking forward to (aside from the traditional freshman hazing.) Apprehensive because his father was the Principal, and well…Ike didn't exactly have the most impressive school record. He was not a straight A and B student like his younger sister Mist. In fact, had it not been for an intensive two weeks of cramming prior to last year's exams, Ike would have flunked the eighth grade. Also, Ike had a history of disciplinary issues; what irked Ike was the fact that his teachers completely disregarded the fact that in most of his fights he was sticking up for his best friend, Soren.

Said best friend stood next to him stoically, scowling as usual. The two made an odd pair. Tall and short. Sloppy and neat. Jock and nerd. (Well not really since Ike never fit in with the traditional jock crowd, and Soren fit the goth mold more than the nerd one.) But the two got along well. Ike stood up for Soren (who was a constant target for bullies) while Soren kept Ike passing (a difficult task for those who attempted tutoring said block-head.)

"Aren't you excited about high school?" Ike asked.

"Oh yeah. Another four years of hazing, bullying, and fighting off the insanity which comes with tutoring you. I'm thrilled." That was another thing about Soren. Besides being exceptionally brilliant, he was extremely cynical. His razor-sharp, always sarcastic tongue usually deterred most people. (It was a wonder Ike had lasted so long.)

"You could be happy about something," Ike replied, fidgeting with the tie around his neck. Ashunera, he hated school uniforms. They were so uncomfortable.

"Hey," an amiable voice said from behind Ike and Soren.

Ike turned around to see a cat laguz with light blue hair, a brown, floppy hat, and mismatched eyes (one green, one violet) walking toward them. "Hey," Ike replied.

"So I take it you two are freshman here also?" the cat asked.

Ike nodded. "Yeah. I'm Ike."

"Ranulf." He looked expectantly at Soren. "And you are?"

"Not interested," the raven-haired teen replied.

"Nice to meet you, Not Interested," Ranulf said with a smirk.

"Don't mind Soren," Ike replied. "He has a…charming personality and is always pissed off at the world."

"Well every school has at least one goth," Ranulf said, earning a glare from Soren.

"So where are you from?" Ike asked.

"Gallia. Where else?"

"Oh. I guess I should have known that."

"Yeah," Soren muttered. "Try using your brain for once, Ike. Suddenly the world will seem full of possibilities." It took all of Ike's self-control not to whack Soren upside the head.

A group of people laughing caught Ike's attention. He glanced over his shoulder as a trio of students headed toward the school. One was obviously an upperclassman because of the familiarity with which she walked on the school grounds. She had long, light blue hair with long bangs that covered part of her face. Walking slightly behind her was a boy about Ike's own age, obviously her brother because they shared the same light blue hair.

But it was the third person whom caught Ike's attention. She was about his age with long, flowing emerald hair and golden eyes. It was really her laugh that he had heard, light and pretty. She casually glanced in his direction, their gazes locking. They held eye contact until the blue-haired girl had to jerk her out of the way of a flagpole. The blue-haired girl must have played it off as a joke because they all laughed. However, she shot Ike a very pointed glare.

He looked away quickly. The phrase "if looks could kill" briefly flashed through his mind. The message in her gaze was clear: "I'm watching you, and if you come near this girl you will die." He found both Ranulf and Ike staring at him strangely. "What?" he asked defensively.

"Looks like someone has a little crush," Ranulf replied, smirking.

"What!" Ike exclaimed. "What gives you that idea?"

"You were practically drooling over her," the cat replied.

"I just saw her for the first time."

"Love at first sight."

"That's a load of bullshit."

"Stop denying it."

Ike sighed in frustration. "Soren, help me out here."

The dark-haired boy looked up at Ike with his red eyes. "Well, I've never seen you stare at a girl for that long before."

Ike scowled. "Not helping, Soren."

"I'm not exactly trying to help."

"I bet I could hook you up with that girl," Ranulf said.

"I was just innocently looking at her," Ike said.

"There was definitely some kind of chemistry going on between you two," Ranulf replied. "I may have just met you, but I can tell you need my help."

"One look." Ike glanced at Soren. "Tell Ranulf…"

"The fact that you're making a big deal out of this isn't helping," the cynical youth muttered.

Ike rolled his eyes. "Look Ranulf, I appreciate the offer, but I am not the kind of person who goes looking for a girlfriend. The only girls I even talk to are my mother and sister."

"Then you are in desperate need of my assistance." Ike rolled his eyes (again). Ranulf was so getting a punch in the face at the opportune moment. "Trust me, Ike. I can get you this girl. Just stick with me, and you'll be just fine."

"Yeah," a voice behind Ranulf said. "Seeing as the girl you've been trying to get since fifth grade has been rejecting you since...fifth grade."

"No one asked you, Janaff," Ranulf said heatedly, turning around to glare at a young hawk laguz with bushy, light brown hair and brown wings.

"Just keeping you humble," Janaff replied, chuckling. He turned to face Ike and Soren. "By the way, I'm Janaff." He turned back to Ranulf. "You picked up some beorc buddies real quick."

Ranulf shrugged. "I wouldn't consider the Goth a friend."

"This Goth is about to hurt you," Soren retorted.

"I'm so scared," Ranulf started to say, but trailed off when his gaze landed on a cat laguz with short, strawberry blond hair and a green ribbon around her neck. "If you'll excuse me," he said, slinking off to talk to the girl.

"Just watch," Janaff whispered, a smug grin on his face.

"Hello Lethe," he said smoothly.

"Hello Ranulf," she said tersely, brushing past him.

"Hey Lethe, can I ask you something?" Ranulf asked.

"If it has anything to do with me going on a date with you or becoming a girlfriend, then the answer is no."

"What if I asked you if you did not want to be my girlfriend?"

"No!"

"Ha! That means you want to be my girlfriend."

Lethe whirled around, violet eyes blazing, and whacked Ranulf in the head with her heavy backpack. She stormed off without saying another word.

Ranulf walked back over to Ike, Soren, and Janaff, rubbing the back of his head. "I call that a bit harsh," he muttered.

"I call it pathetic," Soren retorted, appearing disinterested but trying his hardest not to smirk. Ike was smirking. And Janaff was trying his hardest not to die laughing. And failing miserably.

"Thank you for that amazing morale boost," Ranulf replied as a school bell rung. The cat grabbed Janaff's backpack and began to drag the laughing hawk toward the school building.

Ike slid into an empty seat in his homeroom. His homeroom teacher was Sephiran (who was also his history teacher.) Unfortunately, he did not know anyone else in his homeroom.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" a soft, kind, gentle voice asked.

Ike looked up and felt his mouth go dry. The girl he had noticed earlier was standing before him. Up close, he could truly appreciate her beauty. Ike swallowed. Get a grip, Ike. You just met her. "No, I don't mind," he said, moving his backpack out of the way. "I'm Ike."

The girl smiled as she sat down. "I'm Elincia. What's your first class?"

Ike pulled out a sheet of paper. "English," he finally said.

"That's mine also," the girl said. She glanced at his schedule. "Oh, wow. We have similar schedules. Our math and science classes are switched though."

"That's interesting," Ike said, swallowing again. Why did he suddenly feel awkward around her? Almost all of my classes are with her?

The starting bell rang, interrupting Ike's thoughts. After a few minutes of announcements and a message from the Principal welcoming everyone back to school, Sephiran took control of the class. "Since this is your first class, and your first year of high school, why doesn't everyone introduce him or herself? I'll start. I'm Sephiran, a history teacher for lower classmen." He pointed to a student in the corner to start. The introductions continued to go around the room.

"I'm Sothe," a green-haired youth said, sitting near the back of the room.

"I'm Micaiah," the silver-haired girl next to Sothe said.

"I'm Marcia," a girl with short pink hair said.

"I'm Elincia," Elincia said.

"I'm Ike."

The introductions continued around the room, ending with a quiet, shy girl with short, dark hair named Laura.

"You will report to homeroom every morning for ten minutes every morning," Sephiran announced. "This is where you will hear any important messages. Homeroom also generally turns into a quick place to finish homework. I will tolerate this, but I also discourage you putting off your homework until the last minute. That strategy is never successful." The dismissal bell rang. "You may also come to me if you are having a problem."

"So how was your summer?" Sothe asked Micaiah as they headed to their English class.

"It was great. Sanaki went away for a summer camp so I got a whole two weeks of no little sister."

"I bet you missed her after three days."

"Yeah…" Micaiah admitted, laughing. She noticed Sothe glaring down the hallway ahead of her. "What?" she asked.

"I don't like the way that guy is staring at you," Sothe replied.

Micaiah followed his gaze. "You're really overprotective, Sothe. That's just Pelleas."

"You know him?" Sothe asked, shocked.

"I met him over the summer," Micaiah answered. She grabbed Sothe's hand. "Come on, I'll introduce you real quick."

"We only have two-and-a-half minutes to make it to English," Sothe replied, but Micaiah was already heading towards the boy with wavy blue hair.

"Hello Pelleas," she said, smiling. Sothe did not like the way Micaiah was smiling at him.

"Hello Micaiah," Pelleas replied, returning her smile. Needless to say, Sothe definitely did not like the way Pelleas was smiling back at Micaiah.

"This is Sothe," Micaiah said, introducing the spiky, green-haired youth.

"So this is the Sothe you're always talking about," Pelleas replied. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Well it's nice to meet you although I'm afraid Micaiah hasn't really mentioned you much," Sothe said.

"Only because I haven't gotten to that part of summer yet," Micaiah replied defensively. "I tell my stories in chronological order." She turned to face Pelleas. "What class do you have next?"

"Science," Pelleas replied.

"Oh," the silver-haired girl said. "I was hoping you had English like Sothe and me." She noticed that Sothe had started walking away. "Where are you going?"

"English. We only have a minute to…"

"Oh my gosh! Sorry Pelleas, but I have to go. I'll talk to you some more later." She grabbed Sothe's hand and started to drag him down the hallway. "Come on, slowpoke."

You're the one who wanted to stop and chitchat with Mr. Summer Boy, Sothe thought. His stomach got all twisted when he remembered the way Micaiah and Pelleas were staring at each other. No matter what, I am not jealous, he thought although he knew he was lying to himself.

If there was anything Tibarn hated more than teaching AP Calculus first thing in the morning, it was teaching On-level Senior Math. AP Calculus was definitely not meant to be an early morning class. None of the students were awake; sometimes the teacher was not even awake. Nothing like an AP Calculus Test to fry a person's brain in the morning. Of course, AP Calculus was a walk in the park (or a flight through a cloudless sky) compared to On-level Senior Math.

Ashunera, Tibarn wanted to kill himself when he found out he would be teaching Senior Math first thing in the morning. First off, all the students were asleep. Secondly, this was the class of students who generally shirked off school assignments and cared little (if anything) about learning. These were the students who expected an easy math class. Well Tibarn was not about to give them an easy math class. If this block was going to be hell for him, it had better be two times hell for them.

"All right, class," Tibarn said. "We'll begin these first few days with a little review."

"Okay, teach," a red-head in the back said.

"We'll begin with a simple equation that serves as my main rule in this class. You (draws a picture of the obnoxious, ponytailed redhead) times your smart-alecky comments (draws a speech bubble) plus me (draws a picture of himself smiling)…Of course, I won't be smiling (changes the expression from happy to angry) times my talons…Of course, you won't be smirking anymore (changes the smirking expression on his redhead drawing to a scared expression) equals this." Tibarn drew a tombstone which read "R.I.P. Shinon." "Any question?" He looked around the room expectantly. "No? Good. Let's begin with the distributive property."

About halfway through the lesson, Tibarn wrote a problem on the board. "And by using the distributive property, we can see that x equals…Gatrie, care to answer the question for us?"

A larger beorc teen looked up quickly, trying to appear innocent. "Could you repeat the problem?"

"No. Perhaps if you were paying attention rather than staring at Miss Tanith up here, you would know the answer."

Said brunette turned around in her seat, and shot Gatrie a very dirty look. He winked at her. Tanith subtly flipped him off.

"Please keep all rude gestures to yourself until you leave this classroom," Tibarn said although his back was turned to the class. Tanith scowled. "Haar, will you answer the question?"

"X equals two," Haar replied, yawning as he lifted his brunette head briefly off his desk.

"Good," Tibarn said. "But I would ask that you refrain from sleeping in my classroom, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," Haar mumbled, still yawning.

Tibarn sighed and continued the lesson plan. Ashunera, he really hated Senior Math.

"Well Titania doesn't seem like she'll be a bad teacher," Ranulf said, walking out of the English classroom. "A little on the strict side, but not too much of a martinet." Ranulf smirked. "And your crush was there too."

"I do not have a crush on Elincia."

Ranulf raised an eyebrow at Ike. "You know her name?"

Ike shrugged. "She's in my homeroom, and everybody had to introduce themselves."

"So where's your goth buddy?" Ranulf asked, noting Ike's discomfort.

"Soren and I never have the same schedule."

"Do the teachers like to keep the two of you apart?"

"Soren's practically a genius."

"Oh, I get it. You take all the dumb classes, and he takes the smart classes."

"You are in those 'dumb' classes with me."

"Only some of them, Ike-buddy. I'm in a higher math and science class."

"Ike-buddy?" Ike asked.

"Well, you can't really make a nickname out of Ike, so…"

Ike just shook his head. "Why does math have to be my second class? They shouldn't assign math classes in the morning…or around lunch…or in the afternoon. Actually, they shouldn't assign math classes at all."

Ranulf just shook his head. "You need to take math if you want to graduate."

"That's what they say," Ike muttered.

"You make it sound like school is some government conspiracy."

"It is a government conspiracy."

"Ike, you are one crazy beorc."

"That's what Soren says…minus the beorc part. He thinks I'm crazy."

"You are crazy."

"You haven't even known me for two hours. You have no right to call me crazy."

Ranulf laughed. "Well, see you in history after science, crazy-buddy," the cat said, laughing as he walked away.

"Hey Gatrie," Shinon said, shoving a bite of sandwich into his mouth. The redhead refused to eat the cafeteria "crap" as he dubbed it. "I think I found who our first fish will be."

"Who?" Gatrie asked, glancing over at one of the lunch tables where the freshmen were beginning to seat themselves for the lower class lunch.

"The one in the corner, with the salad. Reading."

"Oh, the goth one?"

"Yeah."

"When do you want to make our move?"

"After the fish lunch and our fifth period, as always."

"Poor fish."

"Since when do you feel sorry for fish?"

"I don't feel sorry for him; I'm laughing at his misfortune."

The lunch bell rang, dismissing the upper classman from lunch. Shinon and Gatrie threw their remaining lunches away, a smile quietly passing between them.

"I get the feeling your Goth friend doesn't like me," Ranulf told Ike after Soren had left for the restroom.

"Soren doesn't like most people," Ike replied with a shrug. He was used to Soren's curt, cold ways. "And he hates being called a Goth."

"Well he shouldn't dress like a Goth."

"Hey Ike," a boy with short, spiky green hair said, sliding into Soren's now-empty seat.

"Hey Boyd," Ike replied. "What's up?"

"Nothing. You going to football tryouts afterschool?"

"Of course."

"Hello," Ranulf said. "Person here."

"Oh!" Boyd exclaimed. "Hey Ike, who's the newbie?"

"My name is Ranulf," the cat said.

"Well nice to meet you, Ranulf…oh, before I forget, Ike: some seniors hoisted Soren up the flagpole."

"What!" Ike exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Not again."

"Again?" Ranulf asked, following Ike. "When did he get pulled up a flagpole in the first place?"

"Back in elementary school," the blue-haired freshman responded.

Ike rushed outside to see a crowd of people gathered around the school flagpole; the unfortunate Soren was dangling from the top. "Move it!" Ike exclaimed, shoving his way through the dense crowd. "Soren!" he exclaimed upon reaching the middle.

Soren glared down at Ike from the top of the flagpole. "You're late," he retorted.

"Late?" the offended Ike asked. "I'm here to help, and that's all you can say? Honestly Soren, where would you be if I wasn't here to help you?"

"Obviously he'd be stuck up a flagpole," Ranulf snickered.

Ike reached for the rope to hoist Soren down.

"Hey!" an obnoxious voice exclaimed. "What do you think you're doing?"

Ike turned to find two seniors glaring at him. One was thin with a long, red ponytail; the other was large and muscular with light brown hair. It had been the redhead who had just spoken. "I am helping my friend."

"Not after all the trouble it took to get him up there," the brunette said. "We'd like to enjoy our handiwork for a moment. So you'll have to wait for a few minutes."

"No."

"Excuse me?" the redhead asked. "But what are you, a fish, going to do about it?"

"This," Ike said, slugging the redhead square in the face.

A unified gasp rose from the on looking crowd. A freshman had just punched a senior. The redhead glared at Ike. "Bad idea." He punched Ike hard in the jaw, moving to land another blow.

The crowd reassembled to give the two more room to fight. The chant of "fight, fight, fight…" was quickly taken up. The fracas was on.

Janaff and his friend Ulki (a dark, somber, and quiet hawk) were walking outside the school campus.

"Can you hear someone chanting fight?" Ulki asked.

"I can see a fight, dumbass," Janaff retorted.

Ulki whacked Janaff upside the head. "We'd better alert a teacher."

"Actually," Janaff said, pointing to a very pissed off English teacher heading toward the fight.

The large crowd of people chanting "Fight, fight, fight…" was a dead giveaway that, well, a fight was occurring. Titania sighed. As an English teacher/Principal's assistant, she was often breaking up fights and other problems. Sadly, she was not surprised this was happening on the first day of school. Fifty bucks it's Shinon, she thought, knowing that the redhead had a penchant for causing trouble.

A student from the crowd spotted her. "Teacher!" he exclaimed. The crowd cleared quickly—real quickly. The only people left were a cat laguz and green-haired beorc lowering an exasperated raven-haired beorc from the flagpole. (How the hell did that happen?) Gatrie was slowly inching away from the fight. Two boys were busy punching the crap out of each other. One was Shinon (no surprise); the other was…Ike? (Big surprise, no wait. Not really).

Titania sighed. "Ike and Shinon, Principal's office. Right now!"

Just line it up, straight to the hole, Greil thought, tapping his golf ball into the paper cup on the ground. The intercom on his desk buzzed. "Principal Greil, I have two fighters here."

Greil sighed. Why couldn't these nimrods just behave for one day? Luckily he had hired a new discipline director who would hopefully inculcate a new respect for the rules in students. "Send them in, Titania." Fifty-five bucks it's Shinon.

When Shinon entered, Greil was in no way surprised. Shinon may have been a smart student, but he had multiple disciplinary issues. Greil was surprised when the second student entered, but only for a moment. "Why?" he asked his son

"Listen Dad," Ike started to say.

"Dad?" Shinon asked with a snicker. "Wait a second—I beat up the Principal's son?" (He looked extremely pleased with himself.)

"What happened?" Greil asked in a no-nonsense tone.

"Ask your son, he started it."

"You hoisted Soren up the flagpole!" Ike exclaimed.

"Seniors haze freshmen. It's a fact of life. Suck it up and deal with it, kid."

Greil sighed. There was a knock on the door. "Enter," he said.

A massive, ominous figure with a flowing red man entered. "I trust I am not interrupting anything," the lion laguz said.

"Ah Caineghis," Greil said with a wry smile. "Just the person I need. Seeing as you are our new discipline director, I think you should meet the two students who will be serving detention tomorrow after school." (No one served detentions on the first day due to sports tryouts. All detentions started on the second day.)

Both boys looked up at Caineghis, wide-eyed and gulping. Suddenly the prospect of future detentions lost all appeal.

"Well, I hope I'll only see them once," Caineghis replied before leaving.

"Shinon, you are dismissed back to class," Greil said. "Ike, stay."

As soon as Shinon closed the door behind him, a nerve-wracking silence engulfed the room. Ike shifted uncomfortably as he languished under his father's intense gaze. "Look Dad…" he started to say.

"What am I going to do with you?" Greil asked.

"He hoisted Soren up the flagpole; what do you want me to do?"

"Not get in a fight."

"But…"

"You can't use Soren as an excuse to avoid the repercussions of your actions."

"I'm not trying to avoid detention; I'm merely trying to justify my reason for fighting."

"There are more tactful ways to solve a problem other than punch first, think later. You could have gotten a teacher."

"I'm not a teacher's pet," Ike responded. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to behave." Greil sighed, scribbling Ike a hall pass. "We will talk more on this tonight, but I want you to try and act like a Principal's son for once."

"I'll try," Ike muttered, heading to his next class.

"Come on, Lucia," Elincia said, dragging the blue-haired senior into a large classroom. "It's just drama, and you need this fine arts credit to graduate."

"I didn't sign up for drama; I signed up for art. I hate acting. I do not want to do this."

"You don't have a choice. Art is full, and you can't sing or play a musical instrument. You have to do drama if you want to gradcuate."

"There are fifteen billion reasons not to take drama."

"And most of them start with Bastian. Now let's go!"

Lucia scowled as she allowed Elincia to drag her into the classroom. It wasn't as if she couldn't act (she was actually quite good). It was a certain star thespian—Bastian. (Lucia hated fine arts in general, but that was besides the point.)

"Welcome to drama," a tall, light blue-haired dragon laguz said. "I am Nasir, your teacher. Or as I preferred to be addressed: your Drama Coach. Now I understand that not everyone is comfortable acting onstage, so I will allow some of you to work exclusively as stage managers during productions. However, you will still have to participate in group activities and do the homework the actors do, but I will never force you onstage.

"Now we'll be starting this year running. We have the epic romance, Romeo and Juliet scheduled for the weekend before Homecoming. It will be a lot of work for you, but I am positive each of you will work your hardest to bring this play together.

"We are also lucky to have a Romeo already. Our star thespian, Bastian, will play our main protagonist… Where is Bastian?"

A senior entered the classroom. He could in no way be considered a jock. He had long, curly blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and the beginning of a goatee. (The school really didn't have a strict dress code when it came to hair and accessories.) "Sorry I have arrived after the predetermined hour of the beginning of class; I had many tasks which I needed to complete prior to my arrival here."

"He's so romantic," a group of girls said, staring love-struck at him.

"Isn't it enough to say 'Sorry I'm late; I was busy'?"

Elincia rolled her eyes at both Bastian's bombastic, poetic speech and Lucia's blunt annoyance at him. She was used to how her older guardians acted by now. Her eyes fell on the tall freshman leaning against the wall. When had Ike gotten a black eye? She would have to ask him about that when they had a moment of free time.

"Now would everyone who would like to audition for a part in Romeo and Juliet please form a line alongside that end of the classroom while everyone else take seats in the desks?" Nasir asked. "I will start listening to auditions in five minutes." (The classroom had a raised platform like a stage on one end with the desks facing the stage.

Elincia watched as Lucia strode over to the desks, plopping down in one far away from where Bastian sat next to Nasir. Ike also took a seat somewhere further in the back, laying his head down as if he was sleeping. (Obviously he had to be in a situation similar to Lucia's: no other option for a fine art block. Of course, unlike Lucia, he hadn't put it off until his senior year.)

With a nervous gulp, she realized that it was her turn to audition. Taking a deep breath of air, she walked onto the small, raised stage, delivering the short monologue she had memorized.

"Very good voice intonation and facial expressions," Nasir commented when she finished speaking. "However, you seem extremely nervous."

"Yes," Elincia said with a shy smile.

"So I think a non-speaking role would serve you well in your first play," Nasir replied. "In fact, I believe the role of Rosaline will suit you just well."

"Thank you," Elincia said as she hurried off the stage.

"Hey Lucia, perhaps you would like to show us some of your phenomenal acting prowess," Bastian called.

"Absolutely not," the blue-haired girl said, glaring at her fellow senior.

"Oh, but I have only heard positive about your acting," Nasir replied.

"Bastian exaggerates everything," Lucia shot back.

Elincia used her friend's distraction to walk back up to Ike. He glanced up in shock when she sat in the desk in front of his. "How did you get that black eye?" she asked. "I'm pretty sure you didn't have that this morning."

Ike shrugged. "I got in a fight with a kid who hoisted Soren up the flagpole."

"Soren is your friend?" Elincia asked.

"Best friend since practically forever," Ike responded.

"I think it's nice how you look after your friends," Elincia said.

"Listen," Lucia said. "I would rather shove one of those fake plastic daggers painfully into my heart inch by inch and bleed to death than be in this play."

"Such passion and fire," Nasir mused. "You would be perfect for the role of Juliet."

Lucia's eyes widened dramatically. "Did you not just hear a word I said? I do not want…"

Nasir walked over to Lucia. "I'll make you a deal: you do that all the time to avoid detentions, correct? I've seen your record. You be the lead in this play, since I know none of the other girls here have either the experience or skill to be a lead. Your friend Elincia is promising as well as several other freshmen, but they would be easily overcome by stage fright. If you be Juliet, then I give you a full course of credit after one semester."

Lucia's eyes narrowed. "So I play Juliet, and only have to suffer until Christmas?"

"Pretty much."

"I have to kiss Bastian, don't I?"

"This play is a romance, so yes."

"Kiss Bastian versus the rest of the year with him."

"Do I have an answer?"

"I'll do it."

Nasir smiled. "Wonderful. Now let's continue with the rest of the casting."

Elincia idly watched some of the auditions. The green-haired boy from her homeroom (Sothe) and another boy Edward received parts as the servants who instigated the fight at the beginning of the play. A handsome blond named Leonardo received the part of Tybalt. She turned over to Ike who looked like he was trying to sleep. "Are you trying out for football, I presume?"

"Yeah," Ike responded. "Are you doing any sports?"

"I might try volleyball since Lucia will be on the team, although she'll be on Varsity. I'm not much for running cross country. My friend Geoffrey will be trying out for football as well. He's Lucia's brother."

"Ah," Ike said, remembering the boy with light blue hair who had been walking into school with her earlier. He idly glanced up at Lucia, only to find the girl glaring at him intensely. His entire body tensed.

"Is something wrong?" Elincia asked with a sweet smile.

"I don't think your friend likes me," he said awkwardly.

Elincia turned around to wave at Lucia. "She's just a bit overprotective," the emerald-haired girl said. "She's like my older sister and everything."

Ike absently nodded. "I take it you know that Bastian as well."

"Yeah, he's one of my friends as well. He tends to talk very poetically."

"I noticed," Ike remarked wryly. He started slightly as the bell signaling the end of school rang.

"See you tomorrow, Ike!" Elincia called, running over to Lucia. The blue-haired senior sent him a very pointed, scathing look, twice as intimidating as the one she had sent him in the morning.

Ike swallowed nervously as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. Best to get to his first day of football. He had heard that the coach took the punishment for lateness very seriously.

A/N: Guess who the coach is? Hope you all liked this chapter. Please feel free to click the little "review" button below. Thanks for reading! I will put a list of the faculty at the end of the next chapter.