(I got a lot of great responses from you guys! Here is the second chapter. We get introduced to a few of our BAU favorites. I hope you enjoy.)

I walked into first period English and scanned the open desks. Even with mom's declarations that I was going to be late, I was one of the first students to arrive. My entire life I had been a second or third row kind of girl. Not at the back, slacking off and passing notes, but not the very front row where the teacher was able to see exactly how closely you were paying attention. I picked a seat against the wall, two desks back. I pulled out a notebook and a pen, and threw my backpack on the chair next to me out of habit.

While I waited for the rest of my classmates to arrive, I began to doodle on the first blank page. For the past two years I'd had Mr. Parham for English. While I was a more than decent student, he had proved to deathly boring. Who knew it was possible to make reading 1984 and Frankenstein feel like tearing your hair out at the roots? But for this year, I had Ms. Prentiss. She had a reputation for being pretty strict and a complete hard ass, but surely that would be better than a teacher who made great literature feel like a chore.

"Uhm… Is this chair taken? Like by a person?" I looked up from my doodled flower meadow to find a girl I had never seen before. She was wearing a purple and black plaid dress layered under a bright pink cardigan. She had black finger-less gloves and fishnet stockings, with purple velvet pumps. Her hair was dyed a shade of red that I was shocked she hadn't automatically been dress coded for. Her peculiar look was finished off with bright pink lipstick and cat-eye glasses. For a moment, I couldn't respond, only gawk at her. "Soo… Is that a no?"

I blinked myself into action. "Yeah, I mean, no it's not. It's free." I grabbed my back pack from the chair and dropped it beneath the table. "Sorry. Force of habit."

"No problem!" She plopped down her back pack and began pulling out sparkly notebooks and a bag full of feathery pens. She slung it on the back of the chair and slipped into her seat. "I'm Penelope, by the way," she said, daintily offering me her hand.

I shook it awkwardly. "I'm-"

"Oh I know, you're Jennifer Jareau. I saw your picture on the school website. I kinda already know a lot about you, like you finished last year with a 3.89 GPA, leaving you sitting at third in the class ranking." Seeing my shocked expression, she cocked an eyebrow. "What? I wasn't going to start at a new school without doing a little research."

"Yeah I don't think my GPA is available on the school homepage. Where did you find out all of that?"

She waved a hand nonchalantly. "It really doesn't matter. Now fill me in on what wasn't available on the big, bad web. Ms. Prentiss, what's her deal?"

"Well, she's kind of known for being a hard ass. Assigns a lot of essays, but is overall okay. She's good."

She gave me a decisive nod. "Good." She pulled out a sparkly green pen with a little alien head on top. "What about Coach Hotchner? I have him for Government and P.E."

I gave her a sheepish smile. "How do you feel about pull ups and Indian runs?" The look of horror on her face answered my question and I couldn't help but laugh. "He's great in class. You'll learn a lot. But he's a real slave driver on the field."

She groaned. "I still feel like required athletic classes are akin to torture. Why can't the administration realize that this," she gestured to herself, "is the body of a goddess, and the only marathon I will be participating in is on Netflix?"

I laughed again. This girl was like no one I had ever encountered before. "Where did you move from?"

"San Fran. I'm a California girl, tried and true."

"Oh my best friend just moved to Cali. She's really loving Sacramento."

She gave a sigh. "I miss it. But I'm sure living here will be… an experience." She said, looking around the room with a discontented expression.

"Yeah, it's something all right. Do you like sports?" She gave me a glance that more than answered my question. "Welcome to Pennsylvania, where football rules and nothing else matters."

Before she could respond, Ms. Prentiss comes into the room. "Alright, alright everyone take a seat. The bell has rung, it's time to get started. Now I recognize most of you from seeing you in the halls around school, but I do spy a few new faces, so we're going to go around and briefly introduce ourselves." There was a collective groan from the class. "I know, it sucks, deal with it. I want everyone to go around and say your name, some of the extra curricular activities you are involved in, how many siblings you have, and your favorite book. I'll go first, okay? I'm Ms. Prentiss, I teach junior and senior level English. I'm also the sponsor for the debate team and help edit the school newspaper. I don't have any siblings, and my favorite novel is Kilgore Trout by Kurt Vonnegut. See? Relatively painless. So let's start here. Take us away Ethan."

As he began to reluctantly introduce himself to us, most of whom he'd known since elementary school, I could feel my heart begin to pound and my stomach ache. No one liked the first day of school 'facts about me' routine, but there was very little I hated more than being asked to quantify how many siblings I had. It used to be so simple. Two, a brother and a sister. But now what was I supposed to say? Do I still get to count Ros? Do I just count Travis? What about Mark's kids, Lindsay and Isaac? Am I one of two, three, four, or five?

It came to Penelope. "Hi, I'm Penelope Garcia. I just moved here from San Fran so I'm not involved in anything yet, but I'm a shoo in for the AV club. I'm an only child and my favorite book is Pride and Prejudice." She finished with a thousand watt smile and then turned expectantly to me. I swallowed thickly.

"My name is Jennifer Jareau, but everyone calls me JJ. I play forward on the soccer team. I have, um," I took a moment to swallow again, "four siblings. My favorite book is Looking For Alaska." I finished an a rush. If anyone had noticed my inner turmoil, no one mentioned it. The girl behind me, Allison, took her turn.

When everyone was finished, Ms. Prentiss passed out a stack of papers. "This is your syllabus for the year. 80% of any questions you might have for me can be answered from here. When is a paper due? Check the due date section. What are we reading next? Check the assignments. I forgot my essay at home, can I turn it in tomorrow? Check the policies. The answer, by the way, is sure… As long as you don't mind me taking off fifteen points for every day it's late."

"We're going to be reading a lot of great literature this year. First up will be The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. At the end of October we're going to tackle The Crucible. You will come back from Christmas break having read To Kill A Mockingbird and at least three others from the list I've provided," she paused a moment, waiting for the groans to diminish, "and your final essay and project will be based off of one of the novels from the list. We'll finish off the year by reading some great poetry, both classics like Shakespeare and modern works from writers like Maya Angelou, and then you'll take a crack at writing your own."

She went on to explain her class policies and what to expect from her. I chewed on the inside of my cheek and my hands found their way to the horseshoe charm I wore on a chain around my neck. This class was going to be a lot of work. Add that on top of my other classes and soccer, and it felt like it was going to be a very long year.

The bell rang and we all stood up to trudge to the next class. "Where are you headed?" I asked Penelope.

"American History. You?"

"Chemistry."

"Ah. Gross. Well I'll see you around, okay? Bye JJ!" She slid her backpack on and bounded off. I laughed and made to follow her, but was stopped by Ms. Prentiss as I neared the door.

"JJ! Hey can I speak to you for a second?" I nodded and followed her to her desk.

"I just wanted to apologize for the beginning of class. I knew that I would have you in class this year, I should have recognized you, but I didn't make the connection until the last minute." At my confused look she elaborated. "The sibling question. I had Rosalind in class."

And just like that, the stomach ache was back. "Oh… It's fine. Don't worry about it."

She gave a small nod and smiled as she leaned against the edge of her desk. "I really liked Ros. She was wonderful to have in class, so passionate." I stood there awkwardly. I didn't need this woman to tell me how great my own sister had been. "Anyway, I just wanted to grab you and say I'm sorry. And I'm glad to have you in class, I think it's going to be a big year. Junior year always is."

"That's what they say." The next class began to filter in and she gave me another small smile and patted my shoulder, letting me know I was free to go. I hurried out the door and anxiously made my way to the science hallway, trying desperately to quiet the onslaught of emotions that were fighting their way to the surface.