Chapter Two: Meet the Rustics

The group of six boys who sat in the corner at lunch were weird, to say the least. They were an odd bunch, as well, not really looking like they would hang out.

On the day of the new kids, however, they had skipped to hang out at Peter Quince's house, or rather, Peter Quince's basement.

Peter had light brown, shaggy hair and old clothing, and the coolest basement to hang out in, ever. Being the son of carpenters, Peter was a math genius. Sadly, he couldn't dance like his mom. Peter was, however, pretty good with other things, like keeping his crazy friends in some form of line. Too bad he was kind of out of line as well.

Also sitting in the basement was Nick Bottom, who lived above his mom's basket shop. He was very arrogant and spent his time trying to outdo others. If there was a play, he'd try for all the parts, male or female. Too bad he had the build of a football player and short black hair. Looks could kill…all chances of getting a part.

Sitting on a workbench was the only boy who hadn't always been in the city. Tom Snout was a tall, skinny boy with a strong Southern-country accent and dark brown hair. He could play a fiddle or sing, and he was okay at basketball, but was an expert at Frisbee. He was also quite an inventor, so Peter had changed part of the basement into a place for Tom's workshop on Tom's birthday. Even Nick had helped with the transformation, so when Tom heard about it, he burst out laughing.

So on this day, the two were watching Tom work, even though they didn't know what he was building. It was silent except the sounds of Tom's tools when the other three boys busted in from upstairs.

"GUYS!" yelled the shortest one, a blond, yelled.

Tom dropped his hammer on his foot at the sudden noise. "OW!" he yelped, bouncing on one foot. "What is it, Francis?"

"Yeah, Flute-man, what is it?" said Nick through his chuckles at Tom's accent and theatrics.

"Sorry, Tom," said Francis with a smile.

"PAIN…PAIN…PAIN in my foot!" replied Tom.

A tall, muscular black-haired boy called Snug calmly picked Tom up and put him on the workbench so he would shut up and listen.

"There's new kids!" yelled Robin Starveling, causing Tom to almost flinch off of the table.

"And how do you know?" asked Peter.

"Sweet sissy Lucy just texted me!" he said, brandishing his cell phone.

"So what do they look like?" asked Tom.

"Hot babes, hot babes, please let them be hot babes!" chanted Nick, and Snug rolled his eyes.

"Two guys, a Hawaiian-looking punk, and a little hyper fairy boy…"

"AWWWW!" groaned Nick.

"And one girl who's proven to be a model," Robin finished.

"YAY-AH!"

"Wow Nick…you sure you ain't got bi-polar?" asked Tom, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up!" barked Nick, shoving Tom off of the worktable.

"Owch, Nick! Not cool at all," grumbled Tom, grabbing Snug's wrist to pull himself up.

"I can't wait to go to schoo-ool!" sang Nick.

"SHUT UP, YOU TONE-DEAF FRIDGE!" yelped Tom.

He ended up on the floor again.