***IMPORTANT STORY NOTES IN AUTHORS NOTE BELOW, FOR THE STORY TO MAKE SENSE, YOU MUST READ THEM***

I lay awake in bed, eyes wide open, not terrified of sleeping, but of what I saw every time I even blinked. The fire, the smoke, tinted by chemicals. Everyone make it out of the lab that night, except for my mother.

My older sister Stephanie was set with a full scholarship to Stanford, but she turned it down, because she didn't want to leave me alone to fend for myself. I know it's incredibly selfless of her to just give up on her dream like that, but all it makes me feel is guilty. I'm the reason that Stephanie had to let go of her dream and is working 3 jobs to make ends meet, for us to continue living in a small, shitty apartment in a bad part of town that we share with 3 crack addicts.

I lay awake in my bed until I had to get up. I marched into school, 3 hours late. I walked into History and plopped into my seat just to the left of the center of the room. Mrs. Royson just continued talking.

"Now class, as we only have one semester left, while we learn the new material, we are going to do a big review project. All of the projects combined will have the full contents of the exam, plus the new material. This project will me worth 20% of your grade, as much as your final. So work hard because even if you flunk your exam, if you do well here, it should off set it significantly. The project is due on June 14th, that way we will get through all of your presentations before term end, as well as a review class. Your partners will be assigned to you and will be posted on the black board in five minutes along with your project. In the mean time Miss. Stacy will collect last nights homework."

I watched the blackboard, waiting for my name to appear. When the teaching assistant walked by, I just waved her away. The teachers were used to my incomplete homework now. After everything, I've been working so much I haven't had time to do the assignments. I tried at first, but within the first week of January, I fainted in AP Calculus & I haven't bothered since.

I looked at the board and found my name. I was studying the aftermath of WWII, mainly the sorrow of those who suffered casualties of those near them, the recovery of the entire population and the thoughts of people towards the Jewish and Hitler after the war. It didn't matter who I was partnered with, I'd just ask after class to work alone. The bell went and I went to leave when I heard my name.

"Clara, Chase, come here for a moment." Mrs. Royson called.

I walked up and started on my speech on why I should work alone, because just because I couldn't put the effort into my school work, doesn't mean that others should suffer because of it. But Ms. Royson just shushed me.

"Clara, I know that you prefer to work alone, but you haven't handed anything in for months. So no matter what is currently going on in your life, you two will make this partnership work, and do equal amounts of work. And I will be able to tell if Chase does the whole project Clara, so don't even try. I need you to hand this in Clara, if you don't, I'll have to put you into the regular history stream, as opposed to you being in advanced placement history." Ms. Royson spoke.

I glanced at Chase, and he looked absolutely mortified. His face was pale, green eyes wide, his mouth held slightly open and a single bead of sweat forming on his brow. I felt kind of bad for him, being stuck with me for a project like this, would be his greatest nightmare. Mr. Perfect, who ever since arriving at the school, had thrown a wrench in the grade curve, making the regular student look like an underachieving idiot. He had a 4.0 GPA. Never late for anything.

At that moment I considered dropping the course anyway, then I would have a spare last block every six days, giving me the chance to do a little homework and get to work on time without sprinting. But I knew that if I wanted to ever pursue a higher education, I would have to have this course, because even in sciences, history is an important high school course.

So I turned to face Chase, and asked, "So... Do you want organize when and where to meet up nowish? Just anytime during lunch break? I could find you in the cafeteria...?"

"Um... Yeah that would work fine." The brunette replied.

"Okay, I'll probably drop by in ten minutes,"

"See you then"

I turned away and went to my locker. I grabbed my work stuff and quickly changed. I started work at 1:30, so I had to leave within the first twenty minutes of lunch. As I walked over to Chase's table, I took notice of his friends. The tallest one had dark brown hair, deep brown eyes and a jocky build. The other male at the table, (other than Chase), was a short, african-american boy, who constantly seemed like he was excited. The last member of the clique was a girl, two inches taller than me, brunette like Chase, but held the same eyes as the tall one. Maybe they're related? I took a few more strides and was at the table.

"Hey," I said aloud, catching the attention of the table. All eyes immediately flew to me, making me feel a little self-conscious.

"Who are you?!" The African-American boy asked, suspicion held in the undertones of the question, as if to ask 'what are you doing here?'.

"I'm Clara, Chase's history project partner. And Chase, who are your friends?" I stated.

Chase started to speak, but was cut off by the jock. "Oh no, I think you have the wrong idea here, we are his siblings, NOT his friends. If we weren't stuck with him, believe me, our lives would be ten times better."

"Adam!" Chase scolded him. He turned to face me and introduced his siblings, pointing to the corresponding sibling with each name. I nodded in understanding, and sat down between the girl, (who I now knew was called Bree), and Chase.

"So my schedule is a little on the spontaneous side... but for the most part, I'm free anytime really. Well, except for everyday from 3:30-5:30/6:00. What does your life look like?" Chase said, offhandedly.

"I'm working everyday this week until late, except Friday," I stated. Chase stared at me.

"Wow, that's an awfully full schedule. .." He muttered. I laughted, "A bit, yeah..."

Simple, and true. Since mom died, my sister and I have been working to the bone to continue living in Mission Creek. The cost of living here was quite high, mainly because it was mainly inhabited by the rich. So my sister worked three jobs. My sister insisted I finish high school, so I only worked one job. I worked as much as possible though to make up for it.

My boss was crazy cheap. Figured that from four o'clock on that only one employee was needed to run the diner that I worked at and breaks were unnecessary, (despite this breaking labor laws, he hasn't been fined or shut down, even after the matter going to court once).

"If you are a morning person, I could come by in the mornings, we could start at 6 A.M. every morning, that would give us roughly two hours before school, depending on where you live." I suggested. "Sorry about my crazy work schedule, I know it doesn't fit most peoples schedules, which is why I usually work alone."

Chase gulped. "Yeah, we could do it at my house, we just would have to be quiet. It should be fine, I'll just have to double check with Mr. Davenport."

"Mr. Davenport?" I asked, confused.

"My dad, my siblings and I grew up calling him that, and it just stuck." Chase clarified.

"Perfect, Here-" I paused, taking a slip of paper and pen out of my bag, "is my number. Just text me his reply and your address.

"Okay, I'll see you later then," Chase smiled.

I raised my hand in farewell, then left.

I walked out into the chaotic mess that was the kitchen of the diner. It was currently crazy with people ordering tons of to go food. Everyone who had missed lunch, and just wanted something to scarf down quickly seemed to appear in the diner. I walked over to my co-worker Deb, who had a customer currently yelling at her.

I stepped in and decided to try to resolve the problem. Deb hated people yelling at her, it reminded her of the hell that she went through at home with her violent, alcoholic husband, who she couldn't afford to leave.

"Excuse me sir, what happens to be the problem?" I asked.

The man, now red in the face, turned to look at me. "You incompetent, weasels, took my favorite sandwich off of the menu! Now what am I supposed to eat?! That sandwich was the only good thing at this diner! Without it, this diner is sh*t!"

"I'm sorry, what was your sandwich sir?" I asked. Hopefully it would be a simple matter of making a special order.

"The BBQ chicken club!" He exclaimed, spitting in my face.

"Well, I'm sorry sir, the reason your sandwich is gone, is because we stopped carrying grilled chicken, we only have crispy. We could make you your exact sandwich, just with crispy chicken instead, and if you don't like it, you can eat on the house for the rest of the week. Does that sound okay?" I tried reasoning with him. I just hoped that he liked the sandwich, or Matt, my boss would have my head, and take his meals out of my paycheck.

"Fine, make your sh*tty sandwich, just remember, I'm holding you to your word girl!" He spat, throwing $5 in my face.

I threw the money in the till, and added the sandwich to the order list.

"Next!" I called.

Flash forward to shift end

I trudged out of the diner, locking it and making for home. I checked my phone, and saw a message from Chase.

Yeah you can come over. The address is 14 287 Billionaire Butte. See you at six.

Damn, that boy must be really rich, considering that is where the richest of Mission Creek live, overlooking the city. It is about a hour walk from home, it'll be 45 minutes if I jog though. So I'll leave at 5:15, so I need to be up at 4:30. By the time I get home I'll only get 30 minutes of sleep. Joy!

**IMPORTANT TO PLOT PLEASE READ**

Hello!

Just a quick note, in the canon, (original work), it states that the rats are only in school for a year and a half. I'm going to extend that time, I don't know by how much yet... It shouldn't make much difference to the original plot line, but there will be more missions and some long spaces, with vacations etc.

The story starts in February because I think that it would be way to convenient for the rats to have started school in September. I think that Donald and Tasha got married in December, which after the honeymoon would have had Leo and Tasha moving in late January/early February.

This story starts just before Season One, Episode Six which is Smart and Smarter, (The one where Chase runs for student of the semester, and Adam tries to help Chase, but then ends up running himself).

I will do some chapters dedicated to certain episodes, however some I will just steal parts from, some may be a half chapter, others may be mentioned and some episodes may not be mentioned at all... I will try to put enough hints in the story for timeline purposes, but for the most part you should just be fine following the story.

It is stated in the first episode that Leo is fourteen. I figured that Chase would be 14, Bree would be 15 and Adam 16. Also I think that Chase is in the same grade as Leo and Bree, but because he takes all AP classes, the only class they share is gym. The reason being is that Chase skipped a grade. My character, Clara, is 15. Also, we see Leo in the same classes as Bree, so I figure Leo skipped a grade as well.

Lastly the school year system is the one I have at home. School starts the Tuesday after Labor Day (Usually like the 6th of September), First term ends at the end of November, Christmas break lasts two weeks and covers both Christmas and New Years. Second term ends the third week of January. First semester ends at the same time as term 2. Then there is a week of exams. Third term starts in February. Spring break is two weeks and is the last week of March and first week of April. Fourth term starts in the last week of April. Fourth term and the second semester both end at the end of the third week of June. There is a week of exams, then summer vacation lasts from beginning of July to Labor Day in September.

Thanks!

❤XxxMeghanxxX❤