Hey all. Its finally here, the fist chapter of hopefully a long running fanfic. All my finals are done and I now officially a HIGH SCHOOLER! WHOOT WHOOT ok people here it is, finally, enjoy!\\\
-------------
DISCLAIMER- Yes, Jonathan Larson (god), made the wonderful character of Mark Cohen. However, may I remind you, my Mark Stein, is based off him. So I am in no way ripping of the amazing Rent creator, and I also own my fictional characters such as Nina Waters and all others.
-------------
Chapter 1. A Whole New World
Mark's POV
Today was Admissions Day at ValleyView, my new school. My whole life, until now, I had lived in New York. My grandfather died over the summer, so we moved here to California to help my grandmother though this. My mom had grown up here, so to her it was going home. But I had never felt less at home in my life. I am used to turning away from things that scare me, pouring myself into something, anything else, most often my work.
My grandfather had been my friend, another father, he had taught me how to use a camera. He had taught me how to see what's really behind the lens. Normally, with him gone, I would have tried to ignore that pain in my heart and move on, distracting myself with the life of the city, filming everything. But instead, I moved here and I'm right in the middle of the heartbreak with nowhere to hide. Filming is my passion, with my grandfather…dead, it's all I have left of him.
I fixed my collar in the mirror, unfortunately unlike my old school in New York, at ValleyView they have a uniform. Straightening my glasses, I picked up my camera off my new desk. I faced the lens to the mirror and started to film, "First shot Mark, getting ready for his big scary day ahead of him." I shut it off, keeping it in my hand and walked down the boxes still unopened of household items. Mom smiled as I sat down at the new kitchen table. "Nearly ready for today?" I nodded as I stared out the window to the unfamiliar sight of a pool in the backyard and the backyard facing the overpopulated area they call The Valley. Mom called upstairs, "CINDY! Are you almost ready? I am sure you look fine. We're going to be late if you don't hurry up!" Cindy, my older sister, rushed into the kitchen, in yet another outfit. Nervous about today Cindy had been aggravating my all morning, trying on different outfits, all within the dress code, but slightly different every time. Cindy came and sat down next to me, "Yep." "Finally." I muttered under my breath. Cindy started to drum her fingers on the table; she always does this when she gets nervous. "Mark, if you were a girl you'd understand." "You're still crazy." She scoffed as reply. She and I would both be seniors, somehow, because she would be around me all the time, it apparently gave her the need to appear fashionably smarter. To me the idea seemed crazy no matter how she posed it.
Mom quickly fed us breakfast before we got into our new car and drove to ValleyView. AS we pulled onto the school campus, I realized that it was very different than I had thought it would be. This high school looked as though it had been recently added, it looked pretty high tech and very big. I turned on my camera, and panned it, filming the rest of the campus as well. Unlike the high school, the other parts were older buildings or trailers. I had been expecting something that looked more like my school back home. The difference in appearance was only going to make it harder to forget the pain. I quickly switched it off. We were getting out of the car when Cindy turned to me. "Mark you shouldn't bring you're camera it's rude." Wanting to find a way to avoid leaving my camera, I looked up at Mom with pleading eyes. "Cindy, it's fine. Your brother can bring his camera if he wants." I sighed with relief, Mom seemed to understand what a connection I had with grandpa. I clutched it like a sacred item, and stepped out o the car onto the parking lot. It felt like stepping onto a foreign planet. I turned the camera on again and pointed the lens at myself
"Zoom in on Mark as he starts a new life in a \whole new world-"I heard someone call my name in the distance. I turned to where the noise was and panned the camera and focused it as a girl came into view. She had green eyes and what looked like brown hair. But as she came closer, I could tell it was more golden than brown. The camera seemed to love her.
"Are you Mark Stein?" I nodded from behind the eyepiece. She smiled acknowledging the camera.
"You film?" I nodded again.
The girl's eyes sparkled, "You wear glasses, love to film, and you name is Mark?" I nodded. I straightened my glasses. Then suddenly without warning she threw her arms around me and gave me a hug.
"Thank you for coming!"
OK this is weird. Why is she thanking me for coming?, I thought as she pulled away.
"Sorry about that. You remind me of someone."
"That's ok."
"Um, my name's Nina. I'm your host person. I'll show you around if you'd like." I smiled and nodded in response.
"Alrightie, now for the grand tour. This way." I followed her out of the parking lot onto the school campus. All the while I got my camera ready to film the tour, trying not to walk into anything. We stopped in front of a glass building.
"That's out theatre." I was impressed, at my old school had to have fundraiser's for a whole year to get all the funding for the theater, it wasn't a small project. She led me down stairs and showed me where my classes would be, well, our classes. As my host person, we had the same classes. Then Nina took me down another flight of stairs where she brought him over to a group of girls sitting on a table in what they called, "The Breezeway".
As we neared the table Nina whispered,
"Sorry in advance, my friends are...interesting."
"It's fine, I can handle it." Back in New York, we defiantly had a diverse group. She raised her eyebrow but continued towards her friends. One of them, a bleach-blonde, screamed out to her,
"NINA, hey! Where've you been?" The girl ran over and nearly tackled Nina. It looked hilarious on film.
"Jesh Rosie, not so loud, I was showing Mark around." Rosie turned to me,
"You're her host student?" I nodded, zooming in on her face. "You're weird." She declared before back to the group of girls.
"Thanks I guess." I muttered as Nina came over. She put her hand on my shoulder, sending an odd feeling all round.
"Don't worry, you're not weird. Our group is the most, unique; I guess you could say, of the class. So it must mean she thinks your fit to join us." I stared at her, unsure which was more odd, the fact that she thought she was weird, or that she had deemed us equally weird. Ignoring this I moved closer to meet Nina's friends. All of them were different, some kind, others outgoing. One was from New York, her name was Noelle, it was nice to meet a fellow New Yorker, but it also made me a little homesick. There was only one other boy, who had been hiding towards the back of the crowd at first. His name was John, and while the girls giggled and chatted about their summers, we both hung back at talked about ours. I was about to go and film the rest of the school when suddenly a voice boomed on the loud speakers. "Will all students please enter the theater for an informative assembly."
I saw everyone around me groan, they had all heard this speech many times. We all headed of the side entrance, but a ladyheld me back, "Please turn off your camera." I grimaced and did so before entering the theater behind Nina.
The speech was as predicted, extremely boring. So instead I looked around, with out the lens, my eyes till observe. On the other side of the room, I saw Cindy sitting with a group of girls, she had already found friends. Closer to the front I saw mom looking at her watch, then I noticed the empty seat next to her.
Dad's late again. I thought. Around us were the many other groups, jocks and their girlfriends, goth, emo, all the younger grades, everyone. It would be an interesting year.
An hour later, they were let out. I played with my camera waiting for Cindy and Mom. Nina waved and cam over to me, "Mark I have to go, but it was really nice to meet you. Call me if you have any questions." She handed me a scrap of paper and then ran over to her and car and hopped in. "Bye!" She waved from her car before driving away. It would be a very interesting year.