-1Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Coach Carter. Alex and Deano are both my characters however. Sorry for it seeming focused around Alex for the start., it'll go more into detail on everyone else as it progresses.

Alex stood at the bottom of the stairs, waiting by the front door, tapping her foot impatiently against the floor as she waited for her brother, Dean, who was one year her senior, to come downstairs. They were late for school. Alex would usually have walked, however, she'd twisted her ankle when she was rehearsing.

She didn't have any friends who could drive, and she didn't want to ask her grandpa for a ride either, since he suffered badly from arthritis. So the last, and pretty much, only resort, was Dean.

The two were polar opposites. Dean, or Deano, as he preferred to be called, the popular jock. Everybody knew him. Girls wanted to date him and guys wanted to be his friend. Whereas…Alex, was…not popular and nobody wanted to date her. It wasn't that she was ugly or anything, she was just viewed as…strange. If anybody did know who she was, and it wasn't because she was the one with the glasses and ginger hair, it was because they knew her brother. Those people usually just ignored her anyway.

Deano finally came downstairs, looking his sister up and down. "Alright Ginger, lets go." he said

Alex threw Deano a sharp glare "My hair is not ginger." she said "It's copper red."

Deano scoffed and laughed "Yeah, right, whatever, we're gonna be late. Lets go."

Alex rolled her eyes, walking outside to the car and going to get into the front seat.

"Whoa, what you doing? Back. I gotta pick up a couple of friends." Deano said "You keep that shut." he added, pointing to her mouth.

Alex didn't say anything, just got into the back of the car, pushing her pink and red wide framed spectacles up her nose and twisting a finger through a stray piece of hair which was sticking messily out of her ponytail. It actually was copper red, she guessed, a form of ginger, but it was a mix of blonde and ginger, almost strawberry blonde with a tint of…orange. But she liked it anyway.

The journey was mostly silent, apart from the loud hip hop music that Deano was blasting. Alex just sat in the back, flipping through her English notes. She didn't look up as the car stopped, not even to see who was getting into it. She glanced up as she heard the word 'Ginger' coming from the mouth of Jaron Willis, best known as Worm. She didn't say anything, not wanting to embarrass herself in case he was talking about someone else, instead she just looked down, continuing to read her notes. They made a further two stops to pick up Jason Lyle and Timo Cruz. By the time they arrived at school it was 10:15.

Without saying a word to any of them, Alex walked inside, heading straight to class. Each of the guys got out of the car, not bothering to even look at Alex. She was weird.

"How is it that you don't got a hot sister man?" Cruz asked, looking at Deano and grinning.

Deano shrugged "I don't even think she a part of the family. She's just plain weird." he said. Sometimes he felt kind of mean laying on his sister like that, but it was just what he did, he couldn't be nice to her. Two years earlier, they'd lost their older brother, Jamie 'Jimbo' Kelly, in a shooting incident. That's when Dean became Deano. He changed over night, started being mean to Alex. He was almost scared of being nice to her, to afraid that it would hurt more that way if he were to lose her. Deano had always been popular, just like Jimbo was, but all three of the Kelly children had been close. It was literally, over night that he became Deano.

"Well, she's got that whole stop light look going on." Lyle laughed

Worm smirked "Yeah man, she's like a baked bean." he said

"A baked bean.." Cruz said, shaking his head "You got problems man.." he laughed, walking inside.

Deano smiled, walking along the corridor with the other guys. "Aw shit here's your girl Lyle!" he exclaimed, laughing.

Lyle looked up and groaned "Aw man…this chick won't leave me alone.." he said "I'm out." he added, running off in the opposite direction.

………………………………...

"Hi, I'm new here, Damien Carter, I was just wondering if you could tell me where…" the young boy started, scanning down the timetable he held in his hands. "..Forget it." he sighed, realising that he wasn't going to get an answer as the receptionist, Miss Lucile Baker, didn't even look up. She was busy on the telephone, however this couldn't be noticed as she was using a headset.

Damien coughed, looking around. His eyes fell upon the person behind him, a short, petite girl with almost orange yellow hair. "Hey." he said

Alex looked up, startled. "Hi." she smiled

Damien smiled "I'm new here, and…I'm totally lost…do you think you could help me?" he asked

Alex looked at him, her mouth forming an 'o' shape. "…Sure…I mean…I'm already late so I might as well." she said "I'm Alex Kelly." she added, holding her hand out to him.

"Damien Carter." Damien replied, shaking Alex's hand.

"It's nice to meet you." Alex said "Wait a minute…are you the transfer from St Francis?" she asked

Damien nodded slowly "Yeah…How'd you know that?" he asked, a little confused.

"I'm your…'buddy'…I was assigned to help you…It wasn't until you said your name that I remembered about it." Alex explained, "Let me see your timetable." she said

Damien nodded, handing his time table to Alex, who quickly read through it. "Alright…you have Algebra first…" she said "I'll show you to your classroom." she added, starting to walk off.

"Don't I need to like…sign in or something?" Damien asked, pointing at the desk with Lucile behind it.

Alex waved her hand at him "I'll do it for you later." she smiled "She's on the phone." she explained

"Oh.." Damien said, chuckling slightly "I couldn't tell."

Alex smiled "Come on, lets go."

Damien smiled, Alex was the first person to be nice to him so far. He walked beside her through the empty corridors. "So.." he said, glancing down at her. "How old are you?"

"I'm 16." Alex replied, adjusting her red beret on her head. "You?"

"Same." Damien said

Alex smiled and then groaned "Oh God.." she said, looking down the corridor where Lyle and Worm were, hanging around by the lockers.

"What?" Damien asked, looking at the two guys "You know them?" he asked, recognising both guys from earlier in the morning when they'd been laying in on him for coming from St Francis.

"No. Not really…well…yeah…they're friends with my brother…the skinny guy, that's Jaron Willis…he gets called Worm…he always points out the colour of my hair." Alex explained "The other guy, Lyle…he's just…a jerk."

Damien furrowed his eyebrows "What's wrong with the colour of your hair?…I like it."

Alex looked at him and smiled "Me too." she said.

"Hey Carrot top." Worm said. "Hey Lyle, look, she's made friends with our little man, Malcolm X from St Francis. You guys a couple?"

"Grow up." Alex said, stopping and glaring up at them both as they stood in front of her and Damien.

"Me? Me grow up?" Worm laughed, placing his hand on the top of Alex's head.

Alex shrugged Worm off "Shouldn't you be in class?" she asked sharply. "Dean told me about keeping a 2.3 average…guess you two aren't going to last on the team very long." she said

"Yeah yeah…what about you? Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Worm replied.

"Naw…Yo man…they're playing hooky, going for a quickie in the library." Lyle piped up.

Worm laughed "So Ally, you don't mind if I call you that do you?.."

"Yes actually. I do mind. Now can you please move out of the way?" Alex replied

Worm placed his hand over his heart "You hurt me Baby." he said

Alex rolled her eyes "You're nauseating." she said.

"Can we just get past man?" Damien asked "I don't wanna be late…"

Lyle sighed dramatically "Well why didn't you just say so?" he said, glancing at Worm.

"Yeah dawg, you should've just said that before. I mean, we wouldn't wanna make you late. We're looking forward to seeing you on the court later today." Worm said

"Yeah…right…" Damien mumbled "…Later.." he said quietly, following Alex.

"They're just being mean to you because you're new…and from St Francis." Alex said

"What about you?…Why are they so mean to you?" Damien asked.

"Because my brother lets them do it." Alex replied, stopping outside of a classroom "Here we are. I'll see you later then." she smiled

Damien smiled "Thanks again." he said "I'll see you." he added before walking inside.

Alex sighed, making sure that the teacher was alright with Damien being so late, then she walked off to go to class.

………………………………...

"A tutor?" Jason asked, looking blankly at Coach Ken Carter. "Why do I need a tutor?" he asked, staring across at the coach sitting on the opposite side of the desk. "I have a 2.3 GPA…"

"You can do better." Coach Carter said. "I've asked Principal Garrison to get you a private tutor." he added, looking at a white sheet of paper, then handing it to the young man. "Go to the library now, you'll find your tutor there." he explained.

Lyle sighed and stood up "Alright." he said, dragging his feet as he walked out of the room. He dawdled to too the library, going inside and sitting down at one of the tables. He looked up as he heard the door closing and closed his eyes, silently cursing. "You're my tutor." he said "Aren't you?"

Alex walked over to the table "Only because it's benefiting me." she said, stopping at the table "Alright. Let's start with the basics." she said, flipping through one of the big books, chattering away about it.

Lyle sat staring at her, not really focusing. He didn't understand it. He glanced down at her leaned over the table, random bits of hair sticking out of her ponytail, her hair was quite cute really. She wasn't ugly or anything, she was quite pretty, once you got passed the fact that she was a complete weirdo. He found himself, analysing her almost, and pretty soon he was distracted by her. He wasn't remotely attracted to her, but there was something about her, which was ever so slightly fascinating him, making him unable to stop staring at her.

Alex looked up, removing her glasses and placing them on the table. "Jason." she said, "Are you listening to me?" she sighed

Lyle shook himself out of his thoughts, looking at Alex "Lyle." he said

"What?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Call me Lyle. Nobody ever calls me Jason." Lyle replied

"Well I'm calling you Jason." Alex said, cleaning her glasses.

"Fine. I'll call you Ginger then." Lyle snapped "Or Carrot top or.."

Alex closed the book and stood up "We're done for today." she said "I'm not gonna tutor you if you can't be polite to me." she said sharply "I'm helping you out. I don't have to do this. And if you can't give me any respect, then I won't tutor you at all." she snapped, picking up her books and walking towards the door.

Lyle sighed and got up, grabbing his bag and quickly following after Alex. "Alex! Wait!" he called

Alex, who was now halfway down the corridor bit her bottom lip and stopped in the middle of the hall. She slowly turned around "Yes?"

"I'm sorry." Lyle mumbled "I'll call you Alex from now on if you promise to keep tutoring me."

Alex nodded and smiled ever so slightly "Ok." she said "But I actually do have to go. Next session is tomorrow night. You can come over to my place at about 6pm, is that okay with you?" she asked

Lyle nodded "6pm." he said "Alright, see you then Gin-Alex."

"Bye Jason." Alex said, quickly walking off down the hall, headed home.

Lyle watched Alex go, shaking his head as he looked down at her butt, he couldn't check her out, that was totally gross. With a sigh, he turned off in the opposite direction that Alex had went, walking off down the hall, putting both Alex and Math to the back of his mind.