All right, here is my second attempt at an AU. I hope this one is a little better. This was actually an original idea, but I decided to turn it into a GW story to see how it does. And the characters fit nicely in it.

Enjoy!

Her first day at the new school was a disaster. Not only had she fallen and spilled all of her notes and books across the entire hallway during passing period, but she sat alone at lunch. Not a single person tried to talk to her; not even in her classes. She was introduced in homeroom and everyone gave her a half -hearted 'hello', but that was the end of it. She had watched them the entire day and everyone seemed so busy, so complacent in their lives that no one seemed willing to allow an outsider in; even for a day. She had been the most loved person at her previous school, but now she felt so alone. She tried multiple times to converse with others, but she was shunned. She thought she wasn't speaking loud enough so she raised her voice a little louder. That's when the strange looks started.

When she walked home, she hung her head. She was not prone to hanging her head in such a manner, but her lonely walk home would be her only time to feel sorry for herself. The moment she walked into her house and saw her mother, she would plaster a smile on and make up new made friends. It would be difficult, but she had to pretend that the sudden move didn't devastate her. Although it had, she wasn't about to let her parents know. They really did make the best choice and she couldn't argue with them no matter how unfair she thought it was.

Just as she began crossing the street to her new home, a car drove passed, blaring music and the passengers screaming at the top of their lungs. She stood still, petrified that she was almost ran over and stared at the car as it zoomed down the slow speed street. How rude they were. Surely they could see her walking. Once they were out of sight and the echoing music faded, she let out a heavy sigh and started across the street again.

"Hello Relena, how was your first day of school?" Her mother asked excitedly, turning away from the remaining boxes in the living room. Relena didn't know why they didn't just hire people to help unpack. They had already hired people to pack and move them.

She put on her best smile, tossed her book bag to the floor and said as happily as she could, "It was wonderful! I made three new friends."

"Excellent, dear! It's not so scary, is it?"

Relena shook her head, turning away and started to climb the stairs to her new bedroom. It had been the most humiliating day of her life, but she would never speak of it to anyone. Ever.

Dinner that night was just as painful. Her father came home from his new job and spoke eagerly about how wonderful his new colleagues were. He was jubilant about the whole transition, but Relena began to think he was lying too. In her whole life, she had never seen him this happy after work. He was a politician. He wasn't paid to be happy at his job. However, she had discovered long ago that her parents spoke of their issues in private, as if she wasn't old or mature enough to learn the hard truths of adulthood. When her father asked her about her first day of school, she reacted the same way she did with her mother. She smiled brightly and began rattling off three girl names she had come up with while lying on her bed before dinner. She revisited old memories for a story to tell them. These three girls didn't exist and their behavior was much like her old friends, but she was sure she could fool her parents for the night. She hoped that her second day of school was a little better.

The next day, she held her head high again. She walked through the school, books and paper tucked neatly into her book bag so she wouldn't drop them again. She kept silent through her classes, taking notes and busying herself with her academics. She didn't want the others to think she was bothered. However, she decided that she would find someone that ate alone and join them. She didn't care if they were the leper of the school. She figured out that everyone deserves to have friends.

She walked through the cafeteria line, piling up her food eagerly and paid the grumpy lunch lady. She continued to smile, knowing that she was about to make a new friend. She stood around the cafeteria and looked around. She scanned over the sea of heads, all colors of brown, yellow and red. She tried to drown out the laughter and chatter of friends. She ignored the stares from the nearest tables. She ignored the girls that hid their whispering mouths behind their hands. Finally, she found a sole person in the back of the room. He sat there, staring out of the window and ate a small package of potato chips. His clothes were tattered and worn and his dark brown hair was a disheveled mess. She smiled sympathetically and confidently walked over to him.

"Hello," she said, setting her tray down on the table and sitting next to him. "I'm Relena Darlian."

The boy looked over at her, "Hn."

"I saw that you were sitting alone and decided to join you. Everyone needs a friend to sit with at lunch, right? Maybe we can become lunch buddies?" She laughed lightly, knowing that it sounded kindergartener, but it was her best shot. She had never been the first person to speak to a new friend.

"I have friends." He said rudely.

"I didn't say you didn't," Relena said defensively.

"I don't need your sympathy. I have plenty of friends. Leave me alone and go back to your friends." He stood up, crumbling his potato chip bag.

She hung her head sadly. She had failed at her first and now final attempt at making a friend. She wanted to apologize immediately, but she knew he was already gone. She sat there, staring at her tray of food and had no interest. This day had suddenly succeeded in being worse than yesterday.

He was fuming, mind racing with the outrageous thoughts that usually accompanied him. He didn't know what that girl wanted to talk to him. He was sure that her friends had put her up to it. Ever since he had been gone for a couple months last year, his classmates decided that whichever rumor they had heard was true. He was crazy. He was a drug addict. He was a military brat. The stories were crazy and none of them true. There was only one other person in this school that knew where he was and that person wasn't going to tell anyone.

He walked up the stairs and entered the first classroom. He knew his friends would be in there. They always were. The teacher was in the other room, sitting on his computer. His friends enjoyed their newspaper class too much to take a lunch. Most days he would take his lunch into their class, but today seemed like a good day to stare at outside on ground level. How wrong he was to think the cafeteria was the place he would get some solitude.

As he walked into the classroom, he saw his spiky haired friend leaning over the back of a chair, pointing at the computer screen and whispering in his platinum blond haired friend's ear. His confidant was lying on the floor, eating pretzels and humming an annoying tune they heard on the radio that morning.

"Heero!" his confidant exclaimed.

His other friend, whom he used the term friend loosely with, was Chinese; he was an exchange student and was the meanest of the bunch. Wufei peered over the cubicle of the other side, nodded and disappeared again. Trowa leaned away from the chair, waving lazily to their friend. Quatre didn't seem to hear his entrance.

"Come and join me, buddy!"

Heero sat next to Duo, his one and only true friend. This was the one person that knew his deepest and darkest secrets, but he was also the most annoying person Heero had ever met. They were friends by default.

"How was lunch in the big cafeteria? Meet any hot ladies?" Duo sat up, grabbing a handful of pretzels. Most of the time, Heero was convinced Duo could read his mind. Although the girl was more than likely toying with him he couldn't deny that she was pretty.

"Just the usual," Heero answered, taking one pretzel at a time.

"Speaking of hot ladies," Trowa said, joining them on the floor. "Annie told me about this party tomorrow night. I think we should go."

"Annie? You mean that one girl with the huge rack?"

"No, she's got nothing at all. You know, she's the one with the half shaved head."

"Oh! Why did she do that?"

The boys laughed, and continued on about their upcoming newspaper. They were the stars of it. Everyone always commented on their writing or their topics. The school newspaper was to be about the school, but somehow they always found ways to put in gossip or fun facts about the staff inside their stories. Heero wrote only one article for the newspaper, but the teacher had it removed since he wasn't technically in the class. Heero spent most of his lunch and after school time in the classroom so the teacher knew him well, but he wasn't allowed to write for them. The following week, Heero allowed Trowa to publish the article under his name instead of Heero's. The teacher never said another word.

Once the bell rang for lunch to be over and classes resume, Heero and his friends parted ways. He accompanied Quatre to their History class, but stopped in his tracks when he saw the girl walk into the same class. He hadn't realized they shared a class together. Today was also the day they got assigned a very large and very important report due by the end of the semester for half of their grade. It was also a group project. Heero had a very bad feeling about how his day was about to end.

Quatre noticed his friend stalling and turned around, "What's wrong?"

Heero cleared his throat, "Nothing, thought I just saw something."

Quatre frowned and looked behind him. The girl was now talking to Annie, the girl hosting the party. Annie was overly friendly to everyone, even the people no one spoke to. More than likely, the new girl was getting invited to the party. Quatre turned to look at him again, "Who is that girl?"

Heero cleared his throat again, "I don't know. You're the social butterfly so you should know."

The blond shook his head, "Must be new. I'll introduce us."

Heero cringed inside; taking a step back, but Quatre pulled him closer to the girls.

"Hi Annie!" Quatre shouted, waving to her. He had plastered on his charming and dazzling smile that all of their classmates loved. The Yearbook class had already informed him that he would be winning 'Best Smile' award by the end of the year.

"Hi Quatre, did you hear about my party?"

"I did, Trowa just told us. I think you can count on all of us coming."

"Wonderful! I just invited Relena Darlian here to come too. She's new and doesn't know anyone so I thought a party would be the best thing for her."

"Naturally, parties are always the best way to find out what people really are. Everyone's different at parties any way."

Annie nodded, the half of her head that had hair swung in encouragement, "So, do you think you'll come?"

"It's possible." The new girl, Relena smiled, but Heero felt her cerulean blue eyes on him.

The final bell rang and their teacher was staring at them now from his stool behind his podium. The four of them entered, feeling scrutinized… or it was just Heero.

Relena sat in the back of the class feeling exhilarated. She had finally spoken to someone other than that rude boy at lunch. She also had gotten invited to a party. She wasn't unknown to parties and knew what to expect, but this was a new town with new people. She smiled as the teacher explained their report. She didn't hear anything about what they were supposed to be writing about or that they were being paired up. She didn't realize that everyone was moving around until the rude boy sat beside her suddenly.

"Revolutionary War," he said, startling her out of her thoughts.

"What?"

"We'll be writing about the Revolutionary War. I know quite a bit about it and can write it in a night. This pairing up isn't necessary for this assignment."

"Well, what if I wanted to write about World War II?" She snapped, shocked he was still being rude.

He looked at her as if she was dumb. She scowled, pursing her lips and stared at him. She refused to let this boy think of her as dumb. She was quite intelligent and could write her own paper.

He turned, startling her scowl off of her face, "Listen, we're not going to agree on a lot of things. I think it's best if we just agree on this paper and let me write it. It's an easy A and no extra work for you."

"No, I like to work for my A's."

"This isn't going to work out between us," he said, turning away from her. He was right about that. They wouldn't work out, but she wasn't going to let him win the writing assignment.