Disclaimer: I do not own Corpse Party. All rights belong to their respectable owners.

Chapter 1

Ayumi Shinozaki was walking through the lengthy halls of her new high school. She had felt that her old school had a bit of a bad name and she wanted a her college applications to look good. This was her junior year and she needed to get down to business. She thought staying with those rowdy kids would just bring her down. So she decided to make the transfer to a bit more of a distinguished school. The tuition had cost a bit more, but it was nothing that her parents couldn't handle.

"Class 3-1... Class 3-1... Ah! Here it is!" she exclaimed, relieved. She had been worried that she would make a fool of herself by walking into the wrong classroom. Ayumi had not been popular at her old school. She was considered to be a huge nerd because she enjoyed her studies and was also a bit socially awkward.

She knocked lightly on the door to her homeroom and waited for a response. She wondered if she was the only new student. It was the start of the new school year, so she doubted she was the only newbie, so to speak. But most of these kids had probably known each other forever, seeing as this was an escalator school and the middle school and elementary school were on the same campus as this one. Many of the kids had already picked their friends and social statuses. Could she really fit in?

Her thoughts came to an abrupt stop when the door in front of her opened. A woman was smiling down at her. "Hello, I'm Ms. Yui, your homeroom teacher. You must be the new student."

"Um, yes. Hi. My name is Ayumi Shinozaki. Sorry that I'm late, I got a little bit lost on the way here."

"Not to worry! You haven't missed a thing. Your seat is over there, by Miss Sasaki," Ms. Yui said. She pointed to an empty desk by a girl with very curly hair that was up in a high ponytail. The girl was also wearing the school's blue and yellow cheerleader uniform.

Ayumi walked over to her desk and dropped her things by her seat. She sat down quietly, so as not to disturb the bustling class. It appeared that she was wrong in her judgement of not being the only new student. It seemed that nearly everybody was in a group, talking. And as she looked closer, she noticed she could identify which cliques the students were in. The girl next to her, Sasaki, was surrounded by plenty if girls wearing identical uniforms. The cheerleaders. A bunch of guys wearing letterman jackets were talking about some sports event that had been on TV. The jocks. The nerds were conversing over the student handbook. The delinquents were smirking evilly and looking hungrily around the room, searching for their next victim. And then the normal kids were going about their their normal kid business.

"Hey! You're Ayumi, right?" Ayumi turned her head to the Sasaki girl, who had just spoken to her.

Surprised, Ayumi replied with, "Um... yes..."

"I'm Misaki! It's nice to meet you! We were just talking and we wanted to know if you'd like to sit with us at the opening ceremony," she said happily.

"Um... I'd be glad to," Ayumi replied skeptically. She had always been told that the populars were mean and selfish. But here was this girl, head of the cheer squad, asking a complete stranger to sit with her and her friends at the opening ceremony. Should she get her hopes up? Were these girls really that nice?

"Great! Let me introduce you to the team!" Misaki said excitedly. "This is Seiko Shinohara. She is like the funniest person I've ever met. She's also the best person I know at back handsprings," she said, pointing to a girl with brown hair that reminded Ayumi of cinnamon rolls.

"Nice to meet ya Ayumi!" Seiko said cheerfully with a wink. Ayumi smiled warmly in return.

"This is Naomi Nakashima. And that's Mayu Suzumoto. She's Kisa Kurakono. That's Hisae Kamigomo. This is Mei Shouji. And finally we have our foreign exchange student, Claire Francis. She's French," Misaki introduced everybody quickly.

"It's nice to meet all of you!" Ayumi said, loosening up a little.

"So Ayumi, we have a proposition for you." Ayumi's look turned from happy to confused at Misaki's statement. "You see, there's only nine of us. To compete and form a full pyramid, there has to be ten. This isn't really a problem right now, seeing as all we have to worry about are the upcoming football games but competition season starts after basketball season and we always like to be prepared. You seem like you'd be a wonderful topper to the pyramid. Would you like to come to the tryouts after school today?" Misaki asked kindly.

Ayumi was confused. These girls were supposed to be mean to her for being the new kid. They were supposed to sabotage her love life They were supposed to shatter her reputation. But instead, they were warmly and personally welcoming her to cheer tryouts. This couldn't be right. In all the movies and books, the first day of school was always the worst for new kids. People made fun of you and you ate lunch in a bathroom stall. You weren't supposed to befriend the populars. Something had to be behind this. There had to be some ulterior motive or some catch.

And yet, as she looked at their faces, she saw nothing but kindness. She decided for now that she would trust these girls. She felt safe. She felt like she was about to finally have a life outside of school. She pictured football games and sleepovers and parties and cheer competitions and laughter and friends and maybe even boyfriends, if she was lucky. And she might be at the top of the pyramid! For once, she was thankful for her short and light stature.

And so she smiled and said, "I'd love to try out. You'll see me there."