Rays of sunlight danced against the wallpaper and bounced off the katana belonging to one Randy Cunningham, a pale, lanky purple haired boy who was currently pointing his weapon directly at his sensei's face. In the blink of an eye, the older man lunged at Randy's knees to throw him off-kilter. As Randy moved to avoid the incoming attack, however, the door slammed open and caused Randy to nearly jump out of his skin. He tripped and stumbled backward in surprise, quickly twisting his body and pointing his sword to face the intruder (or whoever else it may be).

"State your business, civilian!" He barked on instinct, ready to hack and slice if he needed.

"What the juice, Cunningham?! Is this how you always greet your friends?" The person shrieked in response, a clear sense of surprise and terror wavering throughout his voice. Randy immediately pulled the weapon away from his face, mirroring their facial expression.

"Howard! What are you doing here?" He bent over a little and put his hand over his mouth, continuing to talk in a hushed tone as he spoke to the side and pointed towards the sensei standing several feet away from them. "I was kiiinda in the middle of something important, ya know.. Don't wanna make Smith mad!"

"Not cool, dude. You really need to stop pointing your sword at anything that comes in the doorway."

"I told you I'm workin' on it!"

"Well it sure doesn't look like it!"

"Then why're you here? Did you come here just to insult my natural reflexes?" Randy's tone was full of salt as he eyes pierced daggers into Howard's soul, causing Howard to feel a small chill run down his spine. Smith was not happy with the unwelcomed interruption of 'sacred ninja training', stabbing his sword inbetween the floorboards to where it stood up by itself. With much annoyance and both hands on his hips, he turned to scold Howard.

"Boy, what the juice is the meaning of this? You should know that Randy's training is vital to his self defe-"

"Yeah yeah, whatever gramps! Cunningham, you will not BELIEVE what great news I have for you!" Howard blew him off, waving his hand (and temporarily forgetting that Smith wouldn't be able to see that action as he was blind) and lightly shoving the teacher out of his way. Randy felt his hostility soften as it melted away in an instant at the childlike excitement of his friend. A large grin grew on his face – but what could he say? Howard's newfound joy was contagious! He stooped down to better match his short friend's height and propped his head on the top of Howard's hair.

"Whatcha got, buddy?" He drawled his words out, eyes half lidded with a dopey smile to match.

"WE GOT ACCEPTED INTO NORRISVILLE PEAK!" He shouted, waving the letters in his hand even harder. "LOOK! I got accepted as…wait, what? Ultimate Chess Player?!" He groaned. That was a bit of a lame talent to have.. "Why didn't they put me in as Ultimate drummer? I'm better at that than I am chess!"

"Mmm, sorry to burst your bubble my little frijole, but that's where you're wrong." A shit-eating grin consumed Randy's face as Howard frowned and, in a fit of childish annoyance, stuck his tongue out.

"Aaaanyways, incorrect talent labels aside…You got accepted as the Ultimate Swordsman!"

"Wait, what?" His speech was slow and surprised, tone full of confusion and little else. He shook his head and his hands as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait…! How did I even get scouted...? Was I recommended...? How…? I don't think I'm even that good with a sword…I'm better with games…" He trailed off, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Howard wriggled out from under Randy's resting head and grabbed Randy's cheeks, pulling his face down to be level with his own.

"Cunningham, does that really matter now? I don't think it does! All that matters is that we both get to go together! You know what this calls for?"

Randy blinked owlishly at first, though when he spoke his words sounded a little thick (probably because his cheeks were being smushed).

"A shelebratowy marathon of Grave Puncheh?"

"No! Well, I mean yeah but-! First!" He held out his hand to start their little handshake, spinning, turning, slapping, clapping and finally finishing with dynamic matching poses.

"So then when do we start?"

"A few days, I think! Should we research who else got accepted so we'll know what shoobs we got stuck with?" Howard snickered, motioning towards the doorway. Randy raised an eyebrow, almost as if he were questioning what Howard meant by the suggestion, but then said, "Oh fine, I don't see why not." You could practically hear the smile in his voice as he started to head towards the doorway, both ignoring the frustrated cries of the man in the black apron.

"Wow…we uh, there's a lot of people here, huh?" Howard sounded a little intimidated as he scrolled through the endless forums on the students. Apparently, this academy accepted just about anybody! There was the Ultimate Majorette, who was known for her extreme baton twirling skills that beat anybody in the world. There was also the Ultimate Gambler, known to cause a huge stir in playing card games. They were very famous and once bet their lives on a game of Der Monster Klub, and they still won despite not playing that game before in their life. Ever since that incident, they have been known to play that game more often than any other. So many Ultimate students were going to be a part of their class…and all the damn bastards had better and more interesting talents than them!

"What the juice? How the heck did he manage to make it in as the Ultimate Idol?! He was terrible when he last played with us!"

Howard had a sour look on his face when Levander Hart's face popped up on screen. At first Randy was bewildered at the sudden downturning of his friend's attitude, but when he read the name and saw the obnoxious bright pink hair he frowned as well. He shook his head slowly and made a "tsk" noise.

"Dunno, bro. Might be the same reason you were accepted as the Ultimate Chess Player." He joked, nudging Howard with his elbow. Howard pouted and puffed his cheeks out, stomping his foot on the ground in a mini tantrum.

"I thought we wouldn't have to see his snotty face again! Remember the time he kicked us out of his band when he first got famous? In front of a crowd of literally thousands of people? Dude, the kids almost as bad as Doug!"

"Howard, baby, relax! It's all good!" He closed his eyes and pat Howard on the shoulder with one hand and making some sort of wide gesture with the other, tugging the shorter boy near him. "Just think about it this way; once we get into that school we're gonna be set for life! It won't matter if Levander is in the class with us or not, or whoever else gets in! We'll only be with him for three or four years!"

Howard went to reply with something snarky, but stopped. After failing to find the words to express his feelings, he pouted again then threw his hands up in the air. All he said in response was, "I guess!" Randy pat Howard's back yet again and nodded happily, speaking in a soothing voice. "That's it, ease up buddy. Everything will be fine."

A few moments of silence passed by of Randy just rubbing Howard's back in a circular motion before either of them spoke again.

"…Cunningham?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"Wanna start punchin' some graves yet or..?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

Right as they sat down to play a round of their games another person entered the room. Standing before them now was Howard's older sister, Heidi Wienerman. Everything about her radiated confidence; from her pose to her hair and even her victorious expression. Howard simply rolled his eyes, irritated that she ruined the moment he had going on with his biffer.

"Guess what, stinkbrain?"

"Whaat? Whaddaya want, Heidi?" Howard groaned, stomping his foot like a child.

"I got accepted!"

"Accepted for what? Clown college?"

"No, you shoob, it's Norrisville Peak!"

Howard froze in total horror. Why would she be accepted to the same school as them?! Howard dropped to his knees, threw his arms into the air, and let out a pained, melodramatic cry of "WHYYYY-HY-HYY?"

"Oh come on, Howard. Be mature about this. It's only to be expected from somebody with talent of my caliber!" She smirked devilishly at her brother. "And better yet, I bet you didn't get accepted!"

Howard snapped up at that. "Inncorrectomundo!"

"There's no way in hell that you'd've been accepted for such a prestigious school, Howard."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Then prove it, short stack!"

"Gladly!"

He practically rammed an unsuspecting Randy to the ground in an effort to snatch the papers sitting beside him, pinning the purple haired twig down by laying on him. For a small bit, he flailed wildly trying to get himself untangled from the boy currently stuck under him. Soon afterward he stood up and obnoxiously waved the papers in Heidi's face while making a very smug gesture.

"How do I know that those aren't fakes?"

"Do you need to see the envelopes?"

"Why are you offering to show me an envelope? What's that gonna do? Unless you're tryina say you have one with the official carp seal, in which case—" Heidi abruptly paused and her eyes widened as if she was having an epiphany. Her face turned bright red and she frowned heavily.

"Yep. You know exactly what I mean."

"But why? You hardly excel at anything but math!"

"I was scouted as the Ultimate Chess player, thank you very much!"

"You? Chess player? Hah! That's the funniest thing I've heard in ages!"

"You wanna bet? I beat the world's smartest and 'perfect' chess player in middle school! Heidi, how can you forget such an awesome victory?!"

"Hmph! Whatever. If you really have been accepted into the school, refrain from associating with me. For like. Ever. You're too embarrassing and troubling to have around." She turned her nose up high into the air and walked out of their room, slamming the door closed with stomping noises following soon after.

"You know, you and your sister fight a lot. And I mean a honkin' LOT. Why?"

"Cunningham, not now. Let's just punch some graves. Better yet, why don't we go out and do something? Anything that gets me outta this house and away from her."

"Uh, okay? Sure I guess."

As Howard and Randy went to step out the door, two hands jerked them back.

"Oh-hohohh no you don't! Mom said I have to watch you two, and I'm not going to have a repeat of last time I had to babysit you assholes!"

"What? Not fair!" Howard whined, struggling to escape Heidi's grasp.

"Dude, we're 15! I think we can handle going out to the mall by ourselves!"

"And therein lies the problem, Howard. You are 15! You're barely a teenager! So sit down, shut up, stay awhile. I could keep you here alllll night."

"Uh, Heidi, it's only two p.m….." Randy tried to interject, holding a finger up.

"Shut it, Sandy!"

Randy pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Randy. It's Randy, my name is Randy, it's always been Randy, known ya my whole life."

"I don't have time for your sass, Mandy."

Randy deadpanned at Heidi. "Alrighty then."

"So when can we go to the mall?"

"Howard, I literally just said you aren't supposed to go anywhere."

"I heard Lethander was comin' to the mall today for a signing. Shame we couldn't go today. I know how much you loooove Lethander." Randy said, inspecting his nails nonchalantly. Heidi kept a blank face for several minutes as if she needed time to analyze what Randy said, then sharply turned and darted out the door. No more than two minutes later her car pulled up and she rolled down the window. She deadpanned at the two boys.

"Get in losers, we're going shopping."