Introduction:


Aaa High is a high school on the outskirts of a small town that barely has two thousand residents. Moving from a larger city, to a small town can make things easier - or more difficult. Most average nineteen year old gals would be intimidated by moving hundreds of miles away from her friends, family, and old life - But Marceline is no normal gal - plus, Aaa High is kind of rad once you get settled in.


Marshall Lee POV:


"Son of a bitch..." Marshall Lee groans.

"It always has to rain in this shithole, doesn't it?" Marshall takes one last drag of his cigarette and throws what is left in a newly forming puddle. He doesn't really hate this town, but he doesn't really care for it either. He sighs and begins carefully walking under the overhang of the gyms roof, trying desperately not to get wet. He's not really supposed to smoke on campus, but he has learned how to get away with it.

Marshall heard the first bell ring, signalling that he was already late. He laughs to himself, "Well Marshall, you're late on the first day of your senior year." Not that he particularly cares - He sort of enjoys having the schools unofficial record for most tardies.

"Glob, I fucking hate this place," Marshall mumbles under his breath, as he enters the front doors. Which was only half true, he hates the work and oppression, but he loves the pranks, friends, and parties that the school year always brought on.

"You're tardy Marshall," Mrs. Finks snorts, as he walks into the auditorium late. "Yeah, well, sue me" Marshall retorts. Over the years he had established an unspoken mutual agreement with most teachers. If he didn't cause too much trouble for them, they would let him be sarcastic and rude. Honestly, his teachers realized that it was more trouble than he was worth to punish him every time he was out of line.

Marshall takes a seat at the back of the auditorium just in time for Mr. Owl, the principle, to start his run of the mill first day of school speech. After all the new teachers had been introduced, Mr. Owl let the students go explore the campus, and see what rooms were where, and get acquainted with the teachers, and new teachers - Marshall always guessed that was the perks of being in a smaller school, there was a bit more freedom than most schools. His school never did anything the first day. Matter of fact, there were only a couple of bells all day. Pretty righteous, in his book.

The entire school stood, except a few, and made their way down the auditorium aisles to the exits in the back of the enormous room.

Marshall sat back in his chair, one leg propped on the chair in front of him silently judging the crowd, seeing if any new hot girls came, or if any old girls got hot over the summer. That was probably his favorite part of school; the girls. He never had a problem flirting, so he stays pretty entertained - though he hasn't been in a relationship since Ashley. Most of the girls that pass by him smile or wave, a few even call out his name. As is his style, he casually nods his head at most of them, and occasionally winks at the cute ones. He had flirting down to a science.

"Marshall!"

A males voice cut through the incoherent chatter of the student mob. Marshall remains seated, leg propped up. Finn burst through the crowd, and made his way to him. They share a fist bump.

"What's up man, how'd summer treat you?" Finn asks right off.

"Ahh, you know. Same as ever. Still on the football team?" Marshall replies.

"You bet'cha! Thinking about being a hall monitor or principles assistant this year."

"What? Lame kid, real lame." Marshall laughs, still casually gesturing at females.

"Nah man, it's gonna be totally math! Jake might even join me!"

"Whatever man, still pretty lame." Marshall finally stood up, "I'll catch you later man. I'm fixing to go jam in the music room."

"Alright, see you at lunch." Finn replies, ending their conversation with another fist bump.


The crowd had died down enough for Marshall to get out fairly fast. He strolls down the hall, hands in his pockets, smirking and winking at any cute girls he saw. He shook his head, and silently laughs at all Freshmen stocking their lockers with school supplies - Some people are too eager for this whole 'school' thing. In his daze he accidentally bumps into a Sophomore. "Hey, watch were you're go..." he starts, but stops. He'd bumped into a young blonde. She was wearing a white beanie, blue shirt, and a blue skirt.

"Well, hey there cutie" Marshall half smirks, eyeing the girl from head to toe. The blonde's cheeks become rosy. He feeds off of these things.

"Hey, M-Marshall? Is that your name?" she replies, trying not to make eye contact.

"Do I know you?" he asked smoothly, running a hand through his shaggy dark hair.

"N-no. I just saw - well heard - some other girls talk to you in the auditorium." she answers, nervously.

"Oh," he laughs, "yeah, it's sort of a shame I don't know you. You're pretty cute, maybe I'll bump into you again some time." He finishes off with a wink.

Her eyes instantly shot back to the ground, her cheeks turn dark red, and a small smile starts to form. She quickly scurries past him. Marshall is pleased with his womanizing abilities. Glad to know he hasn't lost them over a long, boring summer. Marshall Lee - Lady killer.

Once he's done basking in his own glory, Marshall leaves the main building and takes the sidewalk to the Arts building. He ran into Jake, Finn's older brother, along the way.

"What's up, Jake?" Marshall initiates the conversation.

"Just coming back from the art room. Totally doing sculpting this year!" Jake replies.

"Got'cha. That bitch still teaching in there?" Marshall raises an eyebrow.

"Hey! She's a nice lady!" Jake snaps back, waving a finger.

Marshall laughs, "Whatever, man. I'll catch you later. I'm about to go jam."

They fist bumped, and went their separate directions. It's funny, really, that they are pretty chill friends now. Just a few years ago Marshall used to scare the shit out of Jake. Jake used to think he was a vampire, or a villain, or something - He is a villain, so he says, but not a vampire. It probably didn't help that when Marshall found out, he purposely lead him on for the laughs. But, as Finn and Marshall started hanging out, Jake came around and got over his irrational fear of the mythical world.


A few minutes later, Marshall opens the door to the art building. He strolls down to the music room, and swings the door open. He spends every first day here, pretty much all day - Aside from smoke breaks and lunch. "Ey, Mrs. Wood. Lookin' good." he gives her a wink and click with his mouth - He gets along with the music teacher better than anyone else hes ever met, even though she has never taught him anything. But she lets him cuss, and do pretty much anything he wants, simply because she respects his musical talent. "I see summer hasn't changed you," she jokes. They make small talk briefly, but then Marshall is off to the closet to find a guitar.

"Ey, yo, Mrs. Wood. Where's my guitar?" Marshall yells over loud clanks of cymbals, and various other instruments he picks up along the way.

"Oh, someone came in a couple of minutes ago, and asked if I had one they could play. You know the guitar isn't actually yours, right? It's first come first serve. Sorry Marsh." Mrs. Wood informs him from the closets entrance. Marshall squints at her and grobbles as he walks out of the closet and out of the room, with a "See ya later Mrs. Wood."

"Who would take my guitar? I'm like the only one around here who knows a damn thing about music." Marshall mumbles to himself, walking down the empty hallway. He takes pride in his music, and it's honestly the most important thing in his life. He wants a smoke. He rationalizes his chain smoking with, 'since I didn't get to finish my last one, it's acceptable to smoke another now.'

He exits the front doors, and takes the sidewalk around the art building. In between the art and science buildings is as small break area under an awning. A couple benches, a water fountain, and some tacky bushes. No one really used it, because it was so out of the way. He typically walked through the small field past the awning to the back of the science building to smoke, because the only thing behind the science and art buildings is a forest. No one could see him, or smell his smoke from there. He applauds himself for finding the place. Most kids are dumb, and try to smoke in the bathroom, but they always get caught. He's been smoking here for over two years now.


However, today was different. The break area wasn't empty. Sitting in the bench in front of Marshall was a pale girl, holding his guitar. She was honestly gorgeous. Long, black, flowing hair. She was pale, but she made it work. She was wearing a red and black stripped long sleeve shirt that fell off of her left shoulder slightly, ripped skinny jeans, and a pair of vans. She continues to strum the guitar with her eyes shut, unaware of his presence. Marshall Lee had never seen this girl before, and that's what grabs his interest most - Marshall knows all the girls in school.

Marshall starts walking towards her. The closer he got, the more he recognizes the song she was playing. He starts singing along.

"... It's no surprise to me, I am my own worst enemy.

Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out me.

The smoke alarm is going off, and there's a cigarette still burn-ing..."

She slowly opens one eye, and raises an eyebrow. Marshall stands with his hands in his pockets, smiling.

"Never heard anyone else play that acoustic." Marshall compliments her. She doesn't reply, but just stares at him, with both eyes now.

Finally she breaks the silence. "So, you're good for something more than flirting with girls?" She smirks. "You might know that, if you'd talk to me before judging me." Marshall retorts, taking a seat on a bench across from this radical dame. "Whatever" she replies coolly, going back to the guitar. She starts playing a different song. He knows this one too. He begins to sing again.

"I got a regret right now...

The air is so cold and numb...

Let me go in her room...

I wanna take off her clothes..."

She looks up at him. Marshall is smiling. "I'm not surprised you know that one..." she laughs. "Ohh, she's got jokes!" he shoots back. She mocks him, and he sticks his tongue out at her. "You're such a child" she snorts. "A child with great taste in music," he gives her a wink. She rolls her eyes, and goes back to strumming the guitar. "I'll give you that" she agrees.

Another short awkward silence passes - Marshall usually never has to deal with these kinds of things, but this girl is different. He can't seem to swoon her. "Hey, I'll play you a couple songs" he offers. She looks at him with a smirk and asks, almost insultingly, "you play?"

"Yeah, sure. Since I was nine" he replies, running a hand through his hair, as if to say 'not-to-brag-or-anything.'

"Rad," she replies, "I've been playing since I was eight, but I guess i'll see what you've got." She hands the guitar to Marshall - 'His' guitar.


He plays fragments of a few songs, while she sings along. He couldn't best her musical knowledge - Nor could she best him. They play acoustic versions of punk songs, and old school rock back and forth all day long, only taking breaks for Marshall to smoke when the rain finally let up. They even play through lunch.

"You know smoking's bad for you right?" she tells him as he stands to take a five minute leave.

"Oh, really? No one ever told me."

"Sarcastic asshole," she rolls her eyes and smiles, "think I can bum one off of you?"

"Thought it was bad for you?" he replies, smirking.

She laughs, "Chyeah, if I listened to what people said..."

Marshall extends his arm to help her up, but she stands by herself leaving him hanging awkwardly. He plays it off as smooth as he could and takes lead on the stroll to his smoking spot. They slip behind the science building. Marshall offers this mystery girl a cigarette, and she accepts. He gives her a light too. They smoke in silence for a few odd minutes. Finally she breaks.

"You know, you really aren't such a bad guy, and I've never met anyone else that will play acoustic punk with me."

"Yeah, I bet you feel bad about giving me such a hard time, huh?" Marshall teases.

She laughs, "Nope" and blows smoke in his face. Of course he blows smoke back at her. This starts a smoke war, lasting as long as one of them still had a lit cigarette.

Marshall throws his cigarette butt up on the roof. She attempts to do the same, but the butt falls back down in front of her feet.

"What? Having trouble getting it up?" Marshall laughs.

She punches him in the shoulder, raises an eyebrow, and stares him down, before giggling.

"I have to give you that one, that was pretty funny."

The last bell of the day rings before they make it back to the break area. She starts to walk towards the parking lot, but Marshall calls out;

"Hey wait, you never told me. What's your name?" he asks, trying to be chill.

This is a wicked gal. She can play, has killer style, and a sense of humor. He has to at least know her name. She turns around, and shoots him a smile. She winks at him.

"I'm Marceline."


Authors note: I have a little more of this story written already, but I want to test the waters and see if anyone is interested in reading more of it. Reviews would be rad.

Enjoy the read, and take it easy.