Lightning walked down the hall toward her first period class. She was in no hurry. This is the forth year in a row she got Mr. Raines for science. Freshman year it was earth science, then biology, then chemistry, and now physics. She didn't even know it was possible to have a teaching license in so many subjects. She wouldn't mind so much if he wasn't such an incredibly boring teacher. Nothing he says is interesting at all and everything he says is in the most monotone voice she's every heard. Regardless of how bad he is he's a heck of a lot better than Mr. Dsyley.

Mr. Dsyley placed a packet in front of Hope. At the top it was labeled "Summer Reading Exam." Hope flipped through the packet. It was five pages long, double sided! Even worse the print was so small he could barely read it. His only hope was that he had read some of these books before. First question. "Who is the protagonist in A Tale of Two Cities?" Oh Shit.

Hope stole a glance to the girls behind him. Serah was bent over her paper writing while Vanille stretched her arms and kicked her legs. The other kids in the class looked dead. The only thing he could do is guess. Thank God its multiple choice. He looked at the answers for the first question. "A-Sydney Carton, B-Roger Daltrey, C- George Washington, or D-Andrew Ryan. "Uhhh…" Hope sighed. He was pretty sure it wasn't George Washington, but who were the other three? He guessed Roger Daltrey. The name sounded familiar after all. After that the questions got even harder. They were all about symbolism and motifs. What the heck is a motif anyway?

Before he knew it the class was over. His teacher ripped the test from his hands. He looked at the two girls again. Vanille seemed confident despite not appearing to have done anything all period. She got up and skipped out the door. Serah gave her test a hard look before handing it in. She then smiled at Hope. "How'd you do?"

"What was the answer to the first one?" Hope asked nervously. The smile vanished from Serah's face.

"You…you didn't read it, did you?"

"No?"

"You put A for the first one I hope!"

" No? I picked C."

"ROGER DALTREY! He's the lead singer of The Who!"

Hope smacked his forehead and Serah patted him on the pack. "Its alright, you only failed one test." Hope stared at her. "What? Mr. Dsyley always does that. He makes the first question really easy and if you get that wrong he marks the whole test wrong."

"WHAT!" Hope took a few deep breaths.

"Don't worry. It'll be alright." Serah reassured him.

His next few classes went a lot better. He teachers were very friendly and helped him along. It wasn't until lunch that Hope realized he didn't have anyone to sit with. What was starting to turn into a good day just got a lot worse. He scanned the tables to see if he could spot anyone he knew. Someone came up behind him and touched his shoulder. He jumped and saw that it was Lightning. "You don't have anyone to sit with do you?" she asked him. Hope blushed and shock his head. "You can sit with me." she said and led him over to her table. There were already two senior boys sitting there. One had silver hair pulled back into a ponytail. He's probably gay…Hope thought. The other had messy long brown hair. They sat down at the round table and Lightning made introductions. "Guys, this is Hope. He's new this year."

"Howdy!" the brown haired one said happily. "I'm Rygdea. This here is Yaag Rosch, but everyone calls him Rosch." The silver haired boy smiled slightly. Hope felt really awkward sitting with all seniors. It wasn't his place. Rygdea and Rosch were talking about stuff Hope couldn't follow while Lightning sat there silently eating her lunch. Hope started to look around to see if he could spot anyone else. Right as he started doing this Lightning started talking to him.

"So, Hope, how'd English go? He has Dsyley." she said to her friends. Both of them started laughing.

"Oh, man. Poor kid!" Rygdea smiled. "You fail the summer reading test?"

"I didn't even know there was summer reading!" Hope cried. The three of them smiled. "What?"

"It doesn't count." Rosch said "He always does not. The first test doesn't count, it's just to freak everyone out."

Hope gave a huge sigh of relief. Suddenly a loud group of friends walked by and they all turned to look. At the head of the group was a kid with blonde hair wearing a large trench coat. He looks like a tool. Hope thought. They were all laughing and pushing each other around. He noticed Lightning was glaring at the group's leader. "Oh, gees." Rosch sighed and turned to Hope. "His name is Snow. Lightning here wants him dead."

"I don't want him dead." Lightning sighed as she turned back to her friends. "I just want him to stay away from Serah. She's to good for him."

"Oh please! You don't think anyone's good enough for your sis." Rygdea started. "You'd probably hate Hope if he was dating her."

Hope paled and shrank into his seat. "Not so." Lightning replied, oblivious to Hope's reaction. "Hope's not an arrogant blowhard like Snow." she then turned to Hope. "He struts around high fiving random people. He thinks everyone's his pal. What he needs is to get over himself."

"You just don't like him because he's dating Serah." Rygdea laughed.

"I didn't like him before that either."

"You didn't know him before that."

"I knew who he was." Lightning countered. "I'm so glad I'll be gone next year. I don't need to see how he'll act when he's a senior."

Hope watched Snow with his friends. A teacher came by and yelled at them to shut up.