He was tired, his eyes had given up on ever being open again. His fingers were blistered and sore, it had been an all night work session again. He hadn't eaten since he left his mother's house on Sunday and this long weekend was killing him.

Tomorrow you can eat. He thought to himself silently. He always looked forward to school days, he got two free meals and he got to talk to his friends all day, maybe even pick up some new books from the library. It was six o'clock in the morning, if he went to sleep now he could have 30 minutes of sleep before he had to get up to shower.

It was a bit difficult to get to sleep with his stomach growling and his drunken father singing Adele songs at the top of his longs, but somehow he managed.

He woke 30 minutes later almost as tired as he was when he fell asleep, he struggled to get out of bed as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Eric! Get me a beer!" His father yelled

Eric slowly rose from his bed, he walked to the refrigerator and picked up a can, opened it and handed it to his father who was still laying in the same pool of vomit he left him in last night.

"I'll clean up when I get home Dad, I have to get ready school now." He said, handing his father a pillow. "I'll be in the shower, call me if you need me."

With that Eric walked back into his room and picked up his chosen outfit he had laid out the night before. He grabbed a towel, his shampoo and deodorant and he walked into the hall bathroom.

He turned on the hot water and stripped down. He looked at his cell phone, he had 20 minutes left to shower, get dressed, fix his hair and do his eyeliner the way he liked it. It shouldn't have been a problem, but he was still so tired.

The water wasn't warming up, but he didn't really have time to mess with the water heater at that time. So he just manned up and jumped into the cold water. He frantically scrubbed his hair and face as the cold water beat down on his back. He quickly scrubbed the rest of himself down, shut off the water and toweled himself off. He was glad to be out of the cold water and into his warm clothes.

He quickly dried his dark hair and sprayed on his deodorant and drew on thick black lines on his eyelids. He tried to do something with his wet hair, but there wasn't much to do with it since he didn't get his shower the night before like usual.

He could hear a knock at the door.

"Eric! Come on man we're going to be late!" A boy called

Eric put his towel in the hamper and answered the door.

"Give me a second, I have to get my shit." He told the tall blonde.

Eric walked back into the house and grabbed his book bag from his room.

"Bye Dad, be home after school."

"Take that shit off your eyes you look like a queer!" His father shouted after him as he walked out the door.

He walked out to the front of his house and sighed as he sat in the front seat of his friends car.

"Whats wrong man?" The other boy said as he started the car.

"Just tired." Eric said quietly

"Another all nighter?" He asked

"As always."

"That sucks man, you know you can come crash at my house if your dad ever get to be too much."

"Thanks Darrel, but you know I can't just leave him."

"The options always there." Darrel smiled "Did you do the algebra?"

"Yeah you can copy it while I'm eating breakfast."

"Thanks, did you hear about the new girl?"

"There's a new girl?" Eric looked surprised because the small ocean side town barely ever had any new visitors so when there was one everyone knew about it.

"Yeah, I heard she was hot too." Darrel smirked "Red head."

Eric shook his dark hair and tried to do something with the wet strands.

"And who told you all this, Steve or Amber?" Eric rolled his eyes unimpressed with these people, already judging the new girl and they didn't even know her name yet.

"Steve, Amber's 99.9% sure that the red came straight out of a bottle." Darrel said as he pulled into the school.

"She's such a jealous hack." Eric said shaking out his hair again.

"Stop worrying about your hair, you look fine, geeze. Who do you have to impress?"

"Eh, who knows? Maybe the new girl can change my mind about girls." Eric smiled

"I hope so, I'm still kind of freaked that you've slept in my bed."

"I'm gay not a pedophile."

"I know, I'm just saying-Well you know."

"Yeah, yeah." Eric said as they walked into the school cafeteria.

"I'm going to get breakfast, here's the algebra." Eric said as he handed Darrel his notebook.

"Okay, if I see the new girl I'll be sure to call her over." Darrel laughed

"I bet you will." Eric laughed as he walked over to the breakfast line. He selected a doughnut and some milk and walked back to his table from where they could see a young red headed girl sitting alone reading a boo at a table across from them.

"I thought you were going to call her over Dare." Eric teased

"You know I'm no good with girls."

"You're such a pussy. She's probably scared to death." Eric said as he finished his breakfast and downed his milk. "I'll be back." He said as he stood up and walked over to the table the girl was sitting at. He looked at her, she looked different than all the other girls.

"Hey, I'm Eric." He held his hand out to her. She lifted her head and smiled, she had dimples over her freckled cheeks and sea green eyes.

"Ariel." She said softly as she took his hand and shook gently. "Its my first day."

"Oh I know," He laughed "Everyone knows everything about everyone here."

"So what have you heard about me?" She blushed

"Not much so far, but give it a week." He smiled "If you want you can tag along with me, I can show you around and introduce you to some cool people."

"I would like that." She smiled softly, the bell ran loudly

"Well then follow me little lady, the adventure begins." He made a corny bowing gesture and motioned her to the hallway. "Did they give you a schedule?"

Ariel nodded and handed him a slip of paper folded into a square. Eric unfolded it and smiled when he realized that they had not only homeroom together, but also their lunch period, English and math classes together.

"It looks like you're coming with me to homeroom." He smiled offering her his arm

"Why thank you." She giggled as she took his arm

"This way my lady." He smiled as he led her down the hallway to Mrs. Downing's classroom.

When they got there Eric introduced Ariel to Mrs. Downing and informed her that he had been Ariel's tour guide.

"Eric you be nice to Ariel," She teased "Don't scare her off, she's new."

"I'm a real lady killer." He joked nudging Ariel showing her to an empty desk.

"Oh I can tell. Everyone is staring." Ariel smiled, her eyes bouncing around the room.

Eric stopped to look around the room, sure enough everyone was gawking.

"That's probably not at me," He tried to put on a light face to cover his worried expression. "They are either looking to see the new girl, or gawking at who the new girl is talking to."

Ariel looked puzzled, she was going to say something until a large boy came over and stood next to the desk she was sitting at.

"Gee girl, you're pretty. You ain't got to talk to the faggot." He said with a hillbilly twang.

Ariel didn't look impressed, but she did look back at Eric who's face had turned a shade similar to her hair.

"You're gay?" She asked

"Yeah," He groaned "I didn't think it mattered since you'd probably find new friends-"

"That explains why you haven't hit on me yet like this kind, erm-" She paused thinking of the correct word "Gentleman?"

"That would be the reason exactly." Eric laughed "Although, you are one of the prettier girls in the school-"

"What would you know about pretty girls, faggot?" the hillbilly snapped

Ariel stood up, her green skirt shimmered in the light.

"Lookie here buddy, Eric is my friend and you are going to leave him alone." She said jabbing him in the chest.

"Or what little missy?" He said slapping her finger away from him.

"Or else you'll have to deal with me." Ariel snapped

"Oh look here boys!" The hillbilly said to his friends "We got us a fire cracker!"

"Shut up Steve," Eric said grabbing Ariel's arm "she's a girl, and she's new." He said pulling Ariel behind his back.

"But you're not." The boy smirked pushing Eric back a few feet.

"I'm not playing this game today." Eric breathed

"You don't have a choice faggot." The hillbilly threw a fist at Eric.

Eric reacted in a split second, catching his fist in midair.

"I haven't gotten enough sleep to deal with your nonsense today. Please, just leave us both alone." Eric said calmly

Steve took his hand back from Eric as he snarled some obscenity.

"Don't touch me queer." Steve said as he walked back to his seat.

Eric looked at Ariel, who was obviously impressed with him.

"Wow. Do you do this often?" Ariel giggled

"Every day of my life." He smiled, cracking his knuckles.

"Why didn't you lay that jerk out?" She observed his obvious muscles

"I'm a pacifist." He laughed "Doesn't make too much sense on my end, does it?"

Ariel laughed, her white teeth looked almost translucent in her mouth.

"Do you want to get some ice cream with me after school?" Ariel asked

Eric laughed, trying again to fix his wet hair.

"You want to make it a date?" He smiled

"Oh definitely." Ariel giggled as the bell rang

"Great, I can get my friend Darrel to drive. Shall I escort you to English m'lady?"

"It would be my honor." She took his hand and they were off to their first period class.

Well this is the new story since I finished Alice.

I hope you all liked it and such, please leave reviews and tell me what you think.

Updates will be given at regular intervals if I think someone is reading it.

Thanks for reading, As always much love from

Marni.