Hello, and welcome to Lunar High! If you couldn't tell, this is a high-school AU - but trust me, it'll be unlike any other Lunar Chronicles high school fanfic. Kaider, Wolflet, Cresswell, Jacinter. Oh, note that everyone who's a student is about the same age (Levana and Sybil are students as well). So anyway, I really hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 1 - THE BEGINNING

Cress's POV

Cress stumbled up the steps, trying to keep her balance as she awkwardly squeezed her small frame through the other students around her, staggering slightly due to the weight of her backpack on her shoulders and the hard-bound textbooks in her aching arms.

Her outrageously long blonde braid was coiled around her neck six times, much like a scarf - specifically for this reason, so that the people swarming around her wouldn't stumble or tangle in the masses of hair. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she had cut it. She'd always been too busy studying to spare time for these things.

Cress heaved a shoulder against the heavy doors of the H Building, lurching forward and struggling to maintain a firm hold on her textbooks as the door gave way.

The hallway, too was swarming with people - more so than it had been outside. She was really going to be late if she didn't hurry. Cress ascended the steps, two at a time, her legs burning from the uphill stride - but she stumbled undignifiedly to a halt at the top of the steps as a flash of white-blonde hair and a familiar grin caught her eye.

He was here.

And he was standing right there.

Carswell Thorne.

Cress's throat went dry, but Carswell Thorne didn't even glance in her direction. He was slouched against one of the lockers, chatting casually with his twin sister. Who also happened to be Cress's roommate, Cinder.

Her breath caught as his lips quirked up in a familiar half-smile, and a small part - well, actually, a large part - of her wished that his grin was directed at her. Carswell Thorne, known to the school as Thorne, was the boy who made so many girls swoon at the sight of him - including Cress, though at a slighter extreme.

More than anything else, however, he was the school's all-too-notorious prankster.

Just like Cress and Cinder, Thorne was a Fire Strike.

There were four groups - known as 'Strikes' - the Fire Strikes, the Snow Strikes, the Earth Strikes, and the Wind Strikes. The Strikes attended classes together and could mingle to any extent, but each Strike had a different dorm building; and when it came to sports games and school competitions, the Strikes went against one another.

The Fire Strikes were great - the best, in Cress's biased opinion. And the Snow Strikes were the worst. The absolute. Dead. Worst.

The Snow Strikes were home to Levana, Sybil, and their gang, the most popular group in the school. As much as she may have hated to say it... Cress would definitely agree that Levana was scary. Really scary. She could scare people into submission, and would practically kill to get her way.

Fortunately, Thorne was the best prankster any set of Strikes could ask for - though often, he ended up pranking people at the wrong time - and always, always led to the Fire Strikes' victory on a day known to the school as 'Prank Day'. Essentially, the set of Strikes that played the best pranks won.

Thorne often got on everyone's nerves, especially the teachers - from sending an entire kennel of dogs into a classroom, to spray-painting one side of a teacher's hair, to rescuing a class from a fire that he had started, all the while wearing a ridiculous superhero costume that Cress thought showed off his muscular body too unfairly.

The last one was the absolute best prank - and also the most far-fetched - that Cress had ever seen before, and though alarms had gone off, the entire school - not just the Fire Strikes - had zoned out into gales of laughter.

Cress realized with a jolt that she had been staring, and quickly averted her eyes to somewhere else.

Right, Cress. Keep walking, and pretend that nothing happened.

Her head whipped around backward anyway as she heard a long groan from Thorne himself, and realized with a suppressed smile that Cinder had punched him on his bicep. Either way, even when he was grimacing and rubbing his bicep, he managed to look unfairely handsome.

It took some effort on Cress's part for her to force herself to keep walking briskly down the hallway, lugging her backpack on her shoulders as she hugged her textbooks to her barely-swollen chest and flung open the door to classroom H-214 and scrambled to sit down at her desk in the back.

Her textbooks landed on the corner of her desk with a rather loud thump, and Cress pulled out the notes - the revised copy, that she had rewritten and re-color-coded twice - and dropped her backpack to the floor beside her desk. This was her AP Advanced Physics III class, the one that most people - well, everyone except her - were failing. And she, on the other hand, had exactly a 99 average grade. Though she still wished it could be one percent higher.

She unwound the coils of her braid around her neck and let the long braid fall loosely to the ground, where it pooled at her feet. Adjusting it so that it pooled in her lap instead, Cress opened her notes to the page she had been studying.

"Crescent." Cress looked up in surprise, having not seen the teacher, Mr. Garan, enter. "Early as usual. You should really go enjoy your break, you know, instead of coming here as soon as third period finishes. You have ten minutes to have fun."

Cress flushed, the muscles in her forearm tightening. "Uh... I... uh... I think it's a better use of my time if... uh... I just stay and study." Damn herself for stammering so much! It was frustrating - she could never get in a proper conversation without the um's and uh's.

Mr. Garan smiled, a friendly smile. "If you say so. But please, don't kill yourself over this."

"I won't," Cress promised vaguely. It was something most teachers told her, and her reply was the same. Well, she was still alive, wasn't she? And she was doing well... decently... in most of her classes. Her grades ranged between 98 to above 100... so the only way to really pull them up to her standards would be to study harder, put in twice the effort that she did now.

Cress lowered her head and promptly went back to staring at the color-coded formulas and diagrams in her notes.

Winter's POV

Winter jumped slightly as she felt a broad hand clamp onto her shoulder and whip her around. She fought the all-too-displeased frown that threatened to creep onto her face as she saw Aimery's dark eyes sneering straight into hers as he held her.

She despised Aimery, who thought that he could use her for whatever twisted purposes he wished. But he didn't seem to understand that Winter. Didn't. Want. Him. Back. It was torture, pure torture, to talk to him every day with that same false smile plastered upon her face.

But as much as she would have liked, she couldn't just push him away. He would hurt her, hurt those she cared for, to make her pay for not loving him back... as he had threatened before.

He was always too forward with her, too much for her liking. As much as she would have liked to miss the look of unmasked hatred dancing his his eyes every time she backed away from his hands, she caught it every time, though she did her best to ignore it.

Winter's smile dripped with faux sweetness as she blinked at Aimery. "Hello, Aimery."

"Hey, beauty." That was one of the other things that she hated about Aimery. Well, honestly, Winter couldn't hate anyone more. He acted like he had full control over her, like she was just another of his dolls that he would like to play with in the most horrid of ways.

He reached out a massive hand toward her, and though all instincts warned her to run and never look back, Winter allowed him to guide his arm around her waist. She sucked in a breath sharply, making herself smaller as to have less of her brushing Aimery's arm.

Aimery seemed to notice it, and he jerked her back toward him, harshly, and Winter stifled a gasp from the sudden movement as she was thrown against him.

Winter felt heat rise to her cheeks as she took an all-too-casual step back, though Aimery's taunting smirk didn't shift one bit as his grip around her tightened. She shuddered, trying to keep her displeasure concealed behind her practiced mask.

But she lost it entirely as Aimery's other hand slid around her as well, moving slightly farther down than she would have liked. Winter trembled. Aimery had never gone this far with her before, and she most definitely didn't want him to, either.

Winter's breath came sharper, faster than usual - though she knew it was a dead giveaway for Aimery. But she was almost sure Aimery knew she despised him, though he took pleasure in taunting her like this, day in and day out. Winter shut her eyes as Aimery stepped closer to her.

Her muscles tightened, as Aimery ran his hand over her. Like she was nothing more than his property.

It was merely instinct, as Winter shoved his sturdy hand away and backed up as far as she could against the lockers. But she had nowhere to go, she realized, when dark fury flashed in Aimery's eyes, as he prowled closer, a predator circling its prey.

Winter really wished she could disappear.

Or better yet, she wished Aimery could disappear. She... well... she wouldn't really go as far as to say that she wanted him dead - because she wouldn't wish death upon anyone, even Aimery - but she knew her life would certainly be ten levels better if he were just gone.

Aimery was closer, now, too close. His dark eyes met her fearful ones, and Winter's teeth clenched as she felt his gaze drop to linger on her lips.

She'd never been kissed before, though Aimery had often tried.

Apparently, that was going to change, now. And she had no say in the matter. Winter felt the hair on her arms rise slightly, trembling and pressing her hands back against the lockers - as if she could disappear into one of them - as Aimery made to close the distance between them.

A strong hand clamped around her shoulder and pushed her to the side before Aimery's skin could brush hers, and Winter could do nothing more than gape dumbfoundedly as she landed rather roughly on the ground. What just happened?

The brief pain of the impact cleared, as did her blurred vision.

Staring up in surprise, she saw an unfamiliar blonde boy growl something low and undetectable to Aimery, before punching the latter straight on the nose. Oh, she had wanted someone to do that for so long, now; she'd never had the freedom to do it, as much as she might have wanted to. Winter shrieked as Aimery, almost unfazed save for the bluish ring on the side of his nose, struck the newcomer across the face, without the slightest hesitation.

She looked around, frantically. Why weren't there any teachers watching this? Maybe one of them could have pulled the boys apart, but there was no one here. Actually, there was no one here at all, except for the three of them, in this hallway.

"Get. Away. From. Her." This time, Winter could clearly pick up the words of the blonde newcomer. "Can't you see she doesn't want you?" She moved to the side, so that she could see more of his face now. She found him to be quite handsome, actually, with a strong jawbone and well-toned skin.

Winter cringed inwardly as the newcomer grabbed Aimery by his shirt and practically hurled him across the floor. Damn, that boy was strong.

But at least Aimery was gone, now. He swore, a vile word, at the newcomer, then stood up, glared daggers at Winter, and stalked away, down the hall. Winter slowly got to her feet, trying to make herself appear slightly less pathetic in front of the boy.

He turned.

Oh.

He was even more handsome up close, Winter realized, as he stepped toward her. Winter felt a pink tinge rise to her slowly-warming cheeks as he nodded calmly to her, almost as if nothing had happened, and he hadn't just sent someone skidding across the floor.

Winter managed a shaky smile, one hand entangling itself in her short black curls, and the other pulling down her flowery shirt self-consciously.

The boy reached out a hand. "Jacin."

Winter blinked.

"I'm Winter," she replied, though her voice came out as little more than a shaky murmur. "Thank you... for that."

He nodded. "You shouldn't let anyone treat you like that."

"I... I don't have much of a choice." Stars, why did her voice have to come out all dry and hoarse? "He-he'll hurt me and my friends if I don't."

To her surprise, the boy - Jacin - stepped closer and placed a strong hand on her shoulder. Winter looked up into the depths of his beautiful blue eyes, feeling a small, slightly-flirtatious smile flit onto her lips. He smiled to her. "Well, guess what? I've got your back, now."

Winter stepped closer to him, and touched his hand. Gently. She honestly didn't know what to expect - but he didn't react. "You have no idea how much that would mean to me." It would mean staying away from Aimery forever, not having to live with all those fake smiles and sweetness, not having to worry about Aimery's moves toward her...

Jacin nodded, then dropped into a mock bow. "Your most trusted Guard, at your service, Princess."

Woohoo! First chapter done! I'll update as soon as I can.

The POVs will switch around a lot, but I'll make it clear :P (Sometimes, there will be an 'Unknown POV', but it will all get cleared up in time)

Review!