Richard Castle walked up to the school gates with considerably less swagger than usual. The thing was, he'd never seen these school gates before, aside from that time Faircroft High School was featured on the news after a murder. He swallowed apprehensively. There was a throng of students striding past him, mostly in groups chatting and laughing. He stumbled forward after someone hit into his right shoulder, corrected himself and stood looking up at the tall red and white brick building. Richard hated new schools. Unfortunately, aged Fifteen, he had a habit of making sure he was sent to new schools regularly, usually because of being a persistent jackass but most recently for taking a cow up twelve flights of stairs and leaving it on the roof.

Rick hated all things about school. He hated teachers thinking they were smarter than him, he hated other kids for making fun of him but most of all he hated the girls in high school. The girls were always the worst. Mainly because they broke his heart, or ignored him completely in the first place. He remembered a time he wrote a love poem for a girl who, after breaking up with him, posted the poem all over school for everyone to laugh at. Rick shuddered at the memory and walked into the building. Maybe this school would be different, it had a swanky uniform for a start, although he had already decided he severely disliked the burgundy woollen vest.

"Richard Rogers?" A man walked up to him through the crowd of students. He was older looking, grey hair and a smart suit but not much taller than Rick. He wore a navy spotted bow tie and his eyes were deep and tired. Rick rolled his eyes at the use of his previous surname. He'd changed it unofficially to Castle after starting an online story blog- Castle sounded cooler. Nevertheless, he nodded in acceptance of his legal name and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah."

The man sighed.

"Principal Duncan. Follow me" the man said in the least enthusiastic voice Rick had ever heard. Richard sighed in response and followed the Principal through the shady halls to his office. The large oak door thumped as it shut behind the two of them and the Principal took a seat behind his desk. Rick went to sit in the chair opposite but a booming noise made him jump up in fright.

"Did I give you permission to sit down?!" The principal had an unusually loud voice for someone so small. Rick coughed nervously.

"No." Rick muttered with as much attitude as he dared. The Principal raised his eyebrows.

"I believe you mean 'No Sir'".

Rick tutted and muttered a moody "Sir" and put his hands back in his pockets. The Principal slid some paper across his ancient desk and eyeballed Rick.

"Mr Rogers you have been kicked out of five schools in five years and unfortunately you have ended up here." The Principal sighed again.

"We will be watching you, and at the slightest sign of trouble you will be directed straight to this office and I will take great pleasure in inventing new and exciting ways to punish you. Do I make myself clear Mr Rogers?"

The Principal stared hard into Rick's eyes. The boy nodded and swallowed. The Principal smiled like a shark.

"Good. Now, here is your timetable. Get out of my office."

Rick took the paper and left hurriedly, deciding he would try his very best to avoid spending unnecessary time with Principal Duncan and his deceivingly loud voice. That was easier said than done though as trouble seemed to find Richard Castle even if he was trying to avoid it.

As he walked down the corridor towards room B4 in the west block (wherever the hell that was in this maze of a school) he was stopped by a commotion in the hall. Trouble always found him. A group of three boys blocked the corridor, surrounding one smaller boy. The smaller boy had light brown hair, slicked to the side with gel. His uniform was immaculate, save his backpack which was currently having its contents tipped out by the group. They were laughing and stamping on the books, pushing him between them, completely ignoring the smaller boy's attempts to retrieve his stuff. Before he even realised it himself, Rick was down the corridor and pushing one of the boys out of the group and into the wall.

"Hey!" The boy shouted, arms up in protest of Rick's manhandling. He ignored the boy and turned to the group, pulling off another kid and throwing him to the side, face set in stone. He stepped forward and crouched down to help the boy pick up his stuff, as the three other boys stood dumbfounded.

"You ok?" Rick asked the boy, who nodded. He didn't look frightened, more like annoyed.

"Hey new boy, who do you think you are?!" Rick looked up to find the source of the voice. He found it to be the supposed leader of the group. The kid eyed him with anger and curiosity. His short black hair shone under the hall light and his uniform was shabby. Rick stood up slowly to meet the boy's eye line. He smiled a half smirk.

"I'm Rick. And you?" Richard smiled politely though his eyes flickered in hesitation.

The boy's eyes glinted as he chuckled in brief amusement but his body portrayed anger.

"Tyson. Jerry Tyson."

Rick sniggered and tilted his head. The group eyed him with a hint of malice. Rick stood up slightly straighter.

"What like Bond, James Bond?"

Tyson smirked and tilted his head to match Rick's.

"This is Ethan Slaughter, Josh Davidson…" He pointed to two larger looking boys then took a step closer to Rick, his breath smelt minty and Rick could see hate his dark brown eyes.

"Choose your enemies carefully Rick."

Tyson stepped past Richard, shoving his shoulder as he passed. Slaughter and Davidson followed, also bumping Rick's shoulder for good measure. Rick swallowed, trouble on his first day- great. He crouched to the smaller boy who was busy gathering his bag. The kid looked up and smiled.

"Hey, thanks bro." The boy extended his hand and they shook, standing up as they did.

"Kevin Ryan. You're Rick Castle?" He questioned. Richard nodded. The kid paused for a second and looked confused.

"Like, the Richard Castle that writes the Derrick Storm online novels?"

Rick nodded and smiled warmly at the mention of his work. Kevin grinned and shook Rick's hand harder.

"No way, I love those stories man!"

"Thanks."

Kevin let go of Rick's hand and they began to walk down the corridor.

"Hey, I'm sorry you had to get involved with Tyson. He's… uh… not very nice." Kevin looked at Rick, worried.

"He's just a bully, don't worry 'bout me." Rick responded, smiling. Kevin still looked concerned.

"Yeah but you shouldn't have had to get involved."

"No-one else was gonna."

Kevin shrugged in agreement and responded.

"It could make a good story?"

"What, new kid saves ugeeky kid and together they kick ass?"

Kevin turned to Rick with false exasperation.

"Hey I ain't that geeky!"

"Dude you read my geeky online crime novels…"

Kevin chuckled and continued to walk.

"Fair point."

Rick jogged to catch up.

"Hey Ryan…"

"It's Kevin…"

"Ryan… Kevin? Whatever, look do you know where room B4 is? I got first class there now."

Kevin smiled.

"No joke? Me too! I'll take you there Castle."

"It's Rick…"

Kevin smirked and mimicked Rick's voice. "Castle… Rick? Whatever…"

Rick grinned and followed Kevin down the corridor, chatting about his novels with his unusual friend, on his unusual first morning of his unusual first day.