Okydoky! So, here's chapter two! I hope you enjoy it, and I beg of thee to review!

That was the beginning of the beginning. Yep, the beginni...okay, we've been through this. It isn't really the beginning, but it's my beginning. Okay, the last one was my beginning when I told you when I was born and yadda yadda yadda. Most of you probably stopped listening to me ramble by then. That's okay. I ramble a lot. I am now. I'll just continue with my story.

"Okay, okay, play tryouts!" Lolly was yelling. I look up from the paper I'm drawing on. New idea for an invention. Play's more important.

I stand and walk over to Lolly. The Once-ler scoots over a bit to make room for me and I smile at him in return.

"We are having," Lolly continues, "a play written by myself. Tryouts are tomorrow after school. Now, I have to go see my newborn nephew -" A chorus of aww's circles around the group "- so you guys just hang for the rest of the period."

I flop down into my beanbag as he leaves. Oncie sits next to me as I pick up my sketchbook. "New idea?" he asks. I shrug.

"Sorta. Just something I was doodling." He takes the notepad from my hands and looks at it.

"Automatic flush for a toilet?" he says. Then he looks at me. "It takes four seconds to flush a toilet. You think people would be lazy enough to want it to flush on it's own?" I shrug.

"Ya know, Once, there are some pretty lazy people around here." I take the pad back. "Like Uncle Ubb."

"Uncle Ubb isn't so much lazy as...weird...kinda scary..." I laugh. He's got a point: his Uncle Ubb is a fairly scary man. He's horribly short with a tiny little hat and a loud voice.

"Aunt Griselda's scarier," I add. He nods emphatically.

"Whoo, you can say that again." I don't even want to start on his aunt.

"I would, but thinking about Aunt Griselda kinda makes me sick to my stomach." We both laugh.

"Wanna hear something disturbing?" Mike says, sitting behind me suddenly. Not really, I think. "Under all those clothes, you're naked." Oncie and I look at each other. "Yeah, disturbed." Mike walks off. I shake my head.

"I'm not sure how he's a sophomore..."

~!~!~!~

"Can I have your banana?" I ask the Once-ler.

"You would want it." Allulah winks. I roll my eyes.

"Here." Oncie hands me the fruit, which I un-peel and take a bite of it. At that moment, a girl with short red hair and dark brown eyes with a lunch tray in her hands came up to the table.

"Hi! I'm Melissa. Can I sit here, please?" she asks. I shrug and pat the seat beside me.

"Yeah, go ahead. We don't bite."

"Usually," the Once-ler says. I grin at him as Melissa sits down.

"I'm Sally," I say, smiling at her. "This is my best friend the Once-ler." I pat his arm. "This is my sister Allulah." I nod at Allulah. "And our friend, Yo-Yo." Yo-Yo waves.

"Hi," Melissa says. "I'm new and don't have any friends."

"That's okay," the Once-ler says. "I've lived here my entire life and I only have these friends." Everyone at the table laughs.

"I have tons of friends," Allulah says. "But I have lunch with none of them so I have to sit with these losers." I throw my napkin at her.

"Shut up!" I laugh. "You love us!"

"I love you," she agrees. "But I have to. I put up with them." She jabs her thumb at Yo-Yo then Oncie. I roll my eyes as the Once-ler says, "Our friendship means a lot to me too." We all laugh again.

"I just don't have any other friends," Yo-Yo says. "No one can handle how awesome I am." Allulah, Oncie, and I all burst out laughing.

"Good one, Yo!" I laugh, wiping tears from my eyes. "Golly, you should be a comedian with that sense of humor!" Melissa laughs.

"I guess I can bear to sit with you guys." She grins. "Maybe."

~!~the Once-ler's POV~!~

"Kids?" Rina, Sally's mother, opens Sally's bedroom door. We're both sitting on her bed, she's doing her math and I my science. We both look up. "Could you two mow the back, please? I would, but I really don't want to." Sally and I grin at each other. Most people hate mowing the lawn, like Rina, but Sally and I love it. She has two of the mowers you sit on and drive around on. As immature as it sounds, we often have lawnmower races, since it's such a huge backyard.

"Sure!" Sally says, dropping her math book on the bed with her not started homework in it. "Do we get paid?"

"With all my love," Rina says. Sally rolls her eyes. "And I do love you."

"We love you too," I laugh. "C'mon, Sal." I set my science work down and we go to the garage. The mower she uses is red while mine is green. I jump onto the seat and start it, smirking across at Sally, who just hopped onto her red one.

'You're going down,' she mouths at me.

'Only to bow,' I mouth back. She grins and starts hers .

~!~Sally's POV~!~

"I so beat you!" I sing as I skip in front of Oncie. He rolls his eyes as we walk into his house.

"You did not. It was a tie."

"Says the loser!" I sing again. His brothers, Bret and Chet, run down the stairs.

"Hey, Chet!" Bret yells, grabbing a throw pillow from the couch. "Go long!" He throws the pillow across the room. It hits a picture frame, which falls and hits the ground.

"Bret! Chet!" Arlene, their mother, yelled, running from her bedroom. Her hair was covered in silver and a strong smell of hair dye followed her. "Stop throwing that pillow around now! Are ya'll trying to end up stupid like your brother?" She jabbed her hand at Oncie.

"Thanks, Mom," he says sarcastically. "Let's go upstairs," he adds to me. I nod and follow him up the stairs. Once upstairs, I sit on his bed.

"What'cha wanna do?" I ask, leaning back on the pillows.

"I don't know. Whatever you wanna do." He grabs his guitar and sits in his desk chair, strumming a few chords. "I could teach you how to play, if you want." I smile.

"Sure!" He stands and walks over to me, sitting beside me and looking down at his guitar.

"Okay, this is -"

"Oooonnnccie!" Arlene calls, walking into the bedroom, still dyeing her hair. "Have you seen the kitchen?"

"A few times, yeah," he replies. I fight my laughter back.

"Don't be a smart-ass, Oncie," Arlene snaps. "The kitchen is filthy. You need to clean it. Sally, you help him. I expect it to be clean in an hour." She leaves, shutting the door behind her.

"You know, Mom," he says, even though we both know she can't hear him, "since you asked so nicely, I think Sally and I will clean the kitchen! Not like we're doing anything, or have homework we left at her place that we should really finish. Nah, we'll do what you could easily do!"

I laugh and shake my head. "Oh, Oncie, I love you."

"Who doesn't?"

~!~!~!~

"Nervous?" the Once-ler says as I sit beside him. I shrug. "You'll be great, Sal. You gotta get the part."

"I just hope Lolly thinks that," I say nervously. We're at play tryouts for Lolly's play, which is called Love and Stuff. I want the lead role's best friend, Angie, who has a lot of lines, but a happy personality.

"He will," Oncie says. "You're fun. It'd be hard for him not to pick you." He takes my hand and squeezes it reassuringly. I smile at him nervously.

"And I'm sure you'll get the part of Benny." Benny, short for Benedict, is the lead role's brother, who rarely speaks, but when he does, it's something funny.

"Thanks, Sally." He smiles and squeezes my hand again.

"Okay," Lolly says, running onto the stage. "I need Angie and Ray...Sally and Mike, you two first!" Oh, damn. Mike is trying out for my love interest. I sigh and walk up to the stage with my script in my hand. Mike winks one of his green eyes at me.

"Okay, start from when you two first meet, please," Lolly says. "And...go!" I look at my script.

[Angie is standing with her nose in a book; Ray walks up, looking at his feet and going quickly; he bumps into her]

"Hey!" I drop the script, my "book". "Watch it, dork!" I bend down and pick up the book. "Where are you going so fast? The moron convention is the other way!"

"Sorry," he mumbles. "I was just -"

"Being a total idiot?" I snap. [Angie sighs] "I'm sorry. I've had a rough day and...I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he mumbles in return.

"No, it's not..." I brush my hair from my face. "Having a bad day is no excuse to...I'm Angie." [Angie puts her hand out to shake his; he does to tentatively]

"Ray," he says.

"Hi, Ray!" I smile. "Again, sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," he says. "I should have been watching where I was going."

"No, it's okay," I insist. "I shouldn't have been reading in the middle of the sidewalk." [They smile at each other] "So, uh...see you around?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"You...want to see me again?"

"Sure. I mean, why not, right?" I smile slightly. He smiles back.

"Right. So...bye, Angie."

"Bye, Ray..."

"Okay!" Lolly calls. "Good job! Good job! Now, let's have Allulah and Carlos!"

~!~!~!~

"How was school?" Dad asks from behind his newspaper as the Once-ler and I walk in my house.

"Fine," we reply at the same time.

"Anything good happen?"

"I got a hundred and eight on a math test," Oncie says.

"Atta boy, Once."

"I passed the math test," I say.

"Great job, Sally!" Dad exclaims. "What was the grade?"

"Seventy-two," I reply.

"Good girl! Let's put it on the fridge!"

Did'ya like it? You just responded to me. But I couldn't hear it. So you should review and tell me! :D