To say that Lucien Combeferre was nervous was the biggest understatement of the year, it was all perfectly reasonable, after all it was his first day at Victor Hugo High school. It was Paris' largest public school and was known for it's wade array of classes and vigorous lessons. Yes, Lucien Courfeyrac had every right to be nervous as he walked through the halls towards his locker. Once he reached a number he opened the lock and placed his belongings inside and began to pull out whatever he thought he could possibly need for his first class. There was a sneeze that came from behind the locker door, Lucien raised an eyebrow, the sneeze could be heard again so he peered around the edge and saw a boy his age.

He had light brown hair and a smattering of freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose which he was pressing a tissue to as he sneezed once more.

"Ummm... Are you alright?" Luc asked.

The boy looked up at him, "Oh? Sorry about that, allergies are a real killer," he tossed the tissue into the trash can and pulled a pocket sized bottle of hand sanitizer which he immediately squirted into his hands, when he was done he put it away and held out his hand. "I'm Laurie Joly," the boy introduced himself.

Warily Luc took his hand, "Lucien Combeferre."

"Lucien? Kinda a mouthful isn't it?" Laurie replied, "Sort of like my name?"

Lucien just looked at Laurie with pure confusion.

"My name is really Laurent," Laurie replied rolling his eyes as he said it, "I like Laurie much better, don't you have a nickname of some sort?"

Lucien shook his head, no one had ever given him a nickname that meant anything, of course there were the classics like, "Geek", "Nerd", and "Four-eyes" but admittedly Lucien didn't really have many friends.

"Well we should do something about that," Laurie smiled, "what about Luc? It's nice and simple."

"I like it," Lucien nodded.

"Luc Combeferre," Laurie nodded, "has a nice ring to it doesn't it?"

At that moment the bell rang and those who were still in the hallways started scrambling towards their next class. Luc quickly followed Laurie into the classroom because they shared their first class together, when they entered the quickly sat down and were given their first lesson.

Xxxxxxx

Luc had successfully taken on the first half of the day feeling quiet good, already he was friends with Laurie and they had met another boy by the name of Marc and were getting along nicely together. They had most of their classes together except for those at the end to the day, that was when Luc had higher level sciences and math classes, his nerves once again stirred within him as he entered Dr. Pastures room. He was still quiet early and there was only one other person present, a girl who was writing fiercely into a composition notebook, she made no notice as Luc entered the room.

Luc approached her and looked at her, she had long, curly brown hair that was pulled back into a messy bun, and her glasses kept slipping down the bridge of her nose. After awhile she finally looked up at Luc and frowned, "What do you want?" she asked almost bitterly.

"I- I uh..." Luc began to stammer.

"Come on Steph, leave the kid alone, what did he ever do to you?" Another boy entered the room, it was a very popular and well known student by the name of Damien Courfeyrac.

Steph blushed and looked away from the boy.

"So before she bites your head off," Damien came up Luc, "let me introduce myself, I'm Damien," he held out a hand.

Luc took it and returned the handshake, albeit somewhat nervously.

"So what's a freshman like you doing in Dr. Pasture's Bio class?" Damien then proceed to ask.

"I wanted to take higher level classes," Luc explained.

Damien nodded his head, "Ah, an overachiever aren't you?"

"I wouldn't necessarily say-"

"Just like Stephanie here!" Damien spoke with a laugh, "good old Stephanie Grantaire, always trying to one up everyone."

"That's not true!" Steph interjected.

"Whatever you say Steph," Damien replied with a mocking sweetness to his voice.

"Well someone has to hold up the family name," Steph sniffed, "Ben isn't much help!"

"Your brother is in 8th grade, just like mine," Damien sighed, "give him a break, middle school sucks."

Stephanie pushed her glasses back up her nose and continued with her work ignoring Damien and Luc.

"And that my friend is the product of an engineer and lawyer," Damien replied with a sharp nod just as the rest of the students and Dr. Pasture filled into the class room.

By the end of the class all the Sophomores in the class including Damien and Stephanie were watching Luc with awe, he was able to correctly answer every question that Dr. Pasture posed to them and even elaborate on things they weren't discussing.

"Very good Luc," Dr. Pasture smiled at him as the bell rang, "now I want those pages read and worksheets filled out by Wednesday, no excuses!"

The students poured out the class room and Luc found Laurie and Marc, "So how was Bio?" Laurie asked.

"Fascinating, always loved the subject, I read a lot of books over the summer and I-" Luc trailed off as he watched Laurie and Marc's expressions, "is something wrong?"

"Who are you?" Marc cut in with a slight laugh.

"Seriously, a freshman who enjoys highschool?" Laurie added.

Luc still looked at them with confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You're just so... I dunno, what's the word? Passionate?" Laurie said with a shrug.

"I love learning, is that a crime?" Luc cocked his head to the side.

"I guess not, it's just strange," Laurie replied as a blonde girl who was also a freshman bumped into them.

"Oh I'm so sorry," she apologized and blushed as well, "I was looking for my next class, do you know where room 207 is?" she asked.

"I have my next class there," Laurie replied, "I can take you there."

"Thank you," the girl replied with relief, "I'm Musichetta by the way, but all my friends call me 'Chetta."

"Nice to meet you 'Chetta," Laurie responded, "I'm Laurie."

The warning bell rang, "Well I think we had better all go our separate ways," Luc decided, "I'll see you guys after school!" he called.

"What do you have now?" Marc shouted.

"Geometry! I'll see you later!" Luc shouted from down the hall.

"He's crazy," Marc shook his head as he followed Laurie and Musichetta to his next class.

Once Luc reached the end of the day he decided that this was his most successful day in his educational career yet, not only was he enjoying his classes but he had friends as well. So unlike his friends who were not looking forward to what the called the next for years of what they called purgatory Luc's fears and doubts vanished. Of course he did find him struggling at first for being called out as a know it all, and he scared Stephanie Grantaire into thinking that he would take the top spot in honor roll instead of her (he did). It could be said the Lucien Combeferre was on the road to greatness at Victor Hugo High School, but his freshman year? Well lets just say that was only the beginning.