Hey guys. This is my first story, so I've started out with a relatively simple premise. I'm sorry if it's a bit cliché, but I wanted to use it as a starting point. Hope you enjoy, anyway, and please review and feel free to criticise.

I do not own Rugrats or any of their material.

One

Thump!

Tommy Pickles awoke with a shock. Usually when you have one of those dreams where you are falling and you snap back into consciousness, you find yourself safe in bed, rather than being in a horizontal battle with the floor. Rubbing his head, Tommy crawled back up onto his mattress, checking his clock on the way up.

6:00

'Great,' thought Tommy, 'I've still got another hour until I have to be up.' Twisting and turning, he tried to return to sleep, eventually giving up. Today was the first day of high school, or 'the beginning of the end,' as it had become to be known. Resting his hands behind his head, Tommy savoured the final moments he had left of his summer, pondering what could be in store for the coming year. 'Hopefully I can get some classes with the guys, at least,' he wondered. Not only was he starting high school today, but some of his closest childhood friends were joining him. Chuckie and Kimi Finster, were step siblings, with Chuckie's Dad marrying Kimi's Mom when they were very young, but they were very close regardless. Phil and Lil Deville were a couple others. Although they were twins, they were kind of polar opposites. This didn't stop them from being close either, but then again, all five of them had been pretty close since they were young. Giving up entirely on sleep, Tommy wandered over to his bathroom and began preparing.

...

"Tommy!" Didi, Tommy's Mom, called from the kitchen to her eldest son. Tommy reached the top of the stairs, attempting to slide down the handrail. Going down, he realised that the rail was greasy, falling off onto the bottom step, hitting the ground for second time that morning.

"Dil, did you put wax on the handrail again?" Tommy asked his younger brother as he entered the kitchen.

"Sorry T. Forgot to warn you," Dil grinned sheepishly. Dil had always been the quirky, happy-go-lucky type . Tommy didn't mind, really. He kept things interesting around the house. "On the bright side, I managed to break a new record this morning!"

"Now Tommy, eat your breakfast," Didi insisted, placing a giant plate of pancakes in front of him.

"Mom, really? There are enough pancakes here to feed a small village," said Tommy, eying off his breakfast.

"Now, now, you're a growing boy, going into your first day of high school. Besides, there really aren't that many there," said Didi.

"Yeah T," Dil chipped in. "There's only enough there to soak up and put a humble syrup maker out of business."

Tommy and Dil both chuckled, while their mother frowned. Getting up, Tommy grabbed two pancakes, drizzling some syrup in between them, creating a sandwich.

"Alright, I better get going," he said while walking out the door. "Bye Mom, bye Dad." Not hearing their reply, he wandered down the steps, and set off for school.

...

There wasn't anything particularly special about Eucaipah High School. It was just another set of buildings, filled with more work just waiting for Tommy to do. Checking his watch, he realised he still had another fifteen minutes to kill. Leaning against a tree, he started to look at all of the people who he would soon call schoolmates.

"Tommy Pickles, first one here? Now I've seen everything!"

Turning, Tommy saw Kimi running up to him, with Chuckie right on her heel. Giving Kimi a quick hug, and shaking Chuckie's hand, he grinned.

"Hey, I can be studious once in a while," said Tommy chuckling. "One day a year is good enough for me."

"Lazy boy, I can't believe you managed to get through middle school," Kimi said, shaking her head.

"Would you believe me if I were to say I was just that good?" Tommy joked.

"Would you believe me if I were to say I was helping him do all his assignments last minute and tutoring him for every test?" Chuckie mocked.

"Shh, let's just go with what I said."

"You guys are both idiots," Kimi said, rolling her eyes, but continuing to grin.

"Hey," came a voice from behind them. "You guys want to start all the fun without us?"

Phil casually walked up to his friends, closely followed by Lil.

"So," he started, "we're Freshers."

"Yeah, unfortunately," Tommy said. "It sucks that we're back on the bottom of the food chain."

"Ah, toughen up guys," said Kimi. "We'll just have to work our way to the top again."

As the bell rang, students started to flood into the main doors.

Walking forward, Tommy looked back at his friends and smiled wickedly. "Well you guys, welcome to the beginning of the end."