2. Assembly

Chris Chambers stood all by himself outside the Assembly Hall waiting for them to open up for all the students who were all busy catching up with each other on their summer vacation. Everyone was talking, yelling, laughing and nobody paid him any attention. Just as good, he thought to himself. The only time those people did pay any attention to him was when they were mocking him or whispering about him behind his back, and both those things hurt equally. It was better this way then, nobody caring about him for the moment.

"Chrissy!" a voice called from behind him. He turned around and saw one of his few friends Gordie Lachance grinning at him.

"Lachance!" Chris replied with a smirk. "You made it back alive."

"I sure did, I came pretty close on getting eating by an alligator at one point but you know me. I beat the living crap out of him and made his head a trophy… Now we've lost track. Anyway, guess what I found!

"Well, it sure as hell wasn't your comb this morning," Chris said with a glance at Gordies' hair.

"Shut up! I'm going to ignore you after I have said what I am so eager to say. Eager I tell you, eager as hell…"

"Will you get to your point some time soon or can I expect you to be all babbly for the upcoming few weeks now?"

"Okay, I'll give you a few hints. It's a person. Most likely on the female sex. A catholic, kind of screwed up in ways we'll never know why. Guaaaaaoch! Stop pinching me!"

"I'll pinch you all I want when you say all those evil things about me!" a new voice cried. "Hey Chris, how's life?"

"Can't complain," Chris said with a big grin. "I think you're really hurting Gordie there, Alexis."

"Ow ow ow, YES she is! I'm sorry! I won't talk about you that way EVER again, I promise!"

"Okay, I'll stop. Mainly because it's so pathetic seeing you cry, you pitiful little man."

"I'm not CRYING," Gordie protested and rubbed his hurt arm. "It's just that you have the fingertips of a sharp knife, you demonic excuse for a woman. Just think, only a few seconds ago I was actually excited about being able to see you every day. Now I can't imagine what that will be like, I'm sorry, but I will probably have to kill you one of these days."

"From my point of view, I think it will be the other way around," Chris said. "By the way, congratulations on joining in on our exciting world of high school!"

"Thank you!" Alexis said with a big smile and then glanced at Gordie. "See, Gordie? At least some people like having me around."

Alexis Owen was a bubbly, 15-year old girl with a big heart and always a smile on her face. For some reason she wasn't very popular among the other student, mainly because she didn't fit into any clique. She was only being herself, in the kind of clumsy but warm-hearted way she was. Because of the lack of friends in her own grade, she had sought herself to the other outcasts, and among them found Gordie. Since she and Gordie were practically neighbors, the natural step of taking it to friendship was easy, and with Gordie, Chris followed. So before Alexis knew it, she had two best friends. After spending a year all lonely in junior high with Chris and Gordie away at high school, she was now extremely excited and hoping things would go back to the way it used to be, with the three of them having lunch and sticking together every day.

"Ooh look! We can go in now," she suddenly said and started making a weird little dance. "Come on! Let's get good seats!"

"Oh yeah, wouldn't wanna miss this," Chris muttered to Gordie, who smiled at Alexis excitement. "You're gonna poke somebody's eye out if you keep that up," he warned her referring to her wavering arms.

Alexis wasn't listening but stopped doing it anyway. "Hey, I know those girls, I bet they're the cool group of people, right?"

Gordie and Chris followed the direction she pointed in, and caught sight of Popeye and Mini Mackenzie and all their crowd of popular people who seemed to follow their every step sitting in the back.

"Sure, the cool people," Chris said with contempt in his voice. "If you consider bitchy cheerleaders and their dumbass jock boyfriends cool, then yes."

"Well, the whole world already does, so why shouldn't I?" Alexis pointed out. "Consider them cool that is."

"Cool or not, those Mackenzie sisters sure are hot," Gordie said with a grin at Chris. He didn't return it, he was busy watching them as they were flicking their hair and talking loudly, and for reason that bugged the hell out of him. Who were they to come and consider themselves better than everyone else?

"I still think they're a bunch of bitches," Chris slowly replied. "For some reason, I have a hard time finding that hot."

"Especially Popeye," Gordie continued, not paying any attention to Chris. "I mean, Mini's got it all, I'll give you that, but Popeye, oh man!"

Chris smiled at this remark. Gordie had had a crush on Popeye since forever. Although he knew his place on the scale in high school coolness. Popeye Mackenzie was at the top of it, and Gordie wasn't stupid enough to think in a thousand years he would have any chance on her, but you could always dream, right?

Alexis wasn't as amused as Chris was. "If I wanted to hear guys talk about which girl is the biggest turn on I would have stayed at home listening to my brothers discussing French porn stars."

"That's the discussions at your house?" Gordie said. "I gotta visit you more often."

"Anyway," Alexis said, wanting to steer Gordie away from porn stars. "Is her name really Popeye? That sounds really made up."

"I think her real name is LeeAnn or Leanna or something like that," Chris said. "That's what the teachers usually call her."

"Leigh Anna!" Gordie said with shining eyes. "That's the woman of my dreams."

Chris and Alexis exchanged amused looks, but Gordie didn't notice. His thoughts were far away, all the way to the back of the Assembly Hall.


AN: Reviews rock, so the more I get the faster I will probably update… ;) I hope you like the story so far!