Red Dawn by Lina Ben

Hello, this is my first Penguins of Madagascar story! This is basically a Penguins of Madagascar High School AU.

I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, any song references, any pop culture references or any songs on Private's ipod.

I don't own the Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer does. I also don't own "New Moon".

I don't own "New Divide" by Linkin Park.

Chapter 3: New Divide

I remembered black skies / the lightning all around me

I remembered each flash / as time began to blur

Like a startling sign / that fate had finally found me

And your voice was all I heard

That I'd get what I deserve

~New Divide by Linkin Park

It was 6030 hours that the alarm sounded, Skipper launching from his bed, up into the air and landing gracefully on the ground near Private's bed.

"Up and at 'em, solider! We have school today!" Skipper yelled excitedly, shaking Private awake. Private's eyes flickered open and he found himself face to face with his energetic leader.

"Urgh, I'm up already." Private said irritably and then yawned hugely.

It was school today, and the start of a new semester at Zoolander Heights High. It was finally September the first and Skipper was excited about it, well not really. Skipper just wanted an excuse to shake his team awake. Skipper kinda liked school, he preferred the teachers mostly and sitting with his team and friends at lunch. Kowalski however, was in laymen's terms "a total nerd". Kowalski's top classes were Maths and Integrated Science, but he hated English with a passion. Rico liked Psychology and Maths for who knows what reasons. Private loved English, Psychology, Maths and Integrated Science.

Quickly getting changed into his school uniform, Private quickly checked himself in his mirror. The uniform consisted of a white button up t-shirt, black tie, black school blazer, black cargo shorts in the summer or black pants. Skipper was putting on his shoes by the time Private fumbled with his tie.

"Uh, Skippah?" Private called to his leader, who glanced at him and walked over to help put on Private's tie.

Carefully, Skipper put on the smaller teen's tie. It was then that Private realized how close he was to his leader, they hadn't been that close since last night. Finishing in tying Private's tie, Skipper grinned at him before taking his wrist and pulling him towards the kitchen. They ate the cereal and toast in silence and quickly got their things together. Once everybody was ready they locked the apartment, and walked downstairs to the bus stop on the corner. Private noticed that nearly everybody in the apartment block was already there.

Rachel and Marlene were listening to an ipod together; Max and Rodger were debating about an anime show, Doris and her sister Ariel were looking in a science book, Samantha and Hailey were talking quietly and Julien and Mort were sitting quietly in the bus shelter with Mort hugging Julien side contentedly. It seems that the seniors of the apartment building were starting school later than the others. Doris and Samantha were the same age as the team, while Ariel and Hailey were both 13.

"Alight, men, we are starting our junior year. So I want the best grades for this year. That means no slacking off." Skipper told his team with an intimidating glare, he was just trying to make sure his team was focused so that they could do more missions.

"You can count on us, Skippah!" Private exclaimed and gave a quick salute. He then blushed in embarrassment, he hadn't meant to sound so corny. Skipper however, nodded in enthusiasm and let his lips twist into a content smile.

'He hasn't smiled like that in ages.' Private noted, as the bus came slowly down the street. The bus was silver and already had many students on it. Everyone got on quickly, and found seats. Kowalski pointed out four seats for the team to sit on and went to those. Kowalski sat by the window and took out his notebook, while Rico sat comfortably next to him. Private took the seat behind Kowalski and took out his ipod to listen to and Skipper sat down next to him. Private flipped through his play lists, trying to locate the new song he had downloaded three weeks before.

"Private, can I listen?" Skipper asked suddenly, startling the smaller teen.

"Of course, Skippah." Private mumbled and handed Skipper earphone. The music was deep and hypnotic and it was a well known song. Earlier in the year the team had gone to see "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and this song was basically the theme song for the movie. They listened for a while, and Skipper had leaned closer to Private. So close that Private could feel the heat radiating from the leader. Skipper had the side of his face nearly pressed to Private's cheek.

Ten minutes later the bus had finally arrived at Zoolander Heights High School. It was one of the best high schools in New York City and it boasted the best science program in the state. As the group walked to the Admin Office to get their class schedules, Private was day dreaming about the classes. As Skipper was in front of the group he was the first to get his schedule. Glancing at the schedule to make sure he got the right classes, he read the schedule.

Monday 1st September Weekly Schedule Seth Sarge Form Class 11U3

1st Period English 1A 8:20- 9:20

2nd Period Maths 1A 9:20- 10:20

Recess 10:20- 10:50

3rd Period Music 1A 10:50- 11:50

4th Period Health Education Studies 1B 11:50- 1:00

Lunch 1:00- 1:30

5th Period Psychology 1A 1:30- 2:20

6th Period Art 1B 2:20- 3:20

He breathed a sigh of relief; he had gotten the right subjects after all. Quickly swapping subjects with his team he realized they were all in the same classes, only Kowalski and Private both had Integrated Science when Skipper and Rico had Health Education Studies and Kowalski had IT Studies when the other three had Music. Also swapping schedules with Julien, Max, Rodger, Doris and Samantha they all had a similar schedule to him. The younger kids then got their schedules and realized their classes were all the same. Private grinned excitedly; he wouldn't wait to see Ms. Tolhurst again. Coming back from DC, Private and Ms. Tolhurst had sat next to each other. Ms. Tolhurst was also going to be the new Psychology teacher. Glancing to the clock on the office wall, it said that it was 8:15.

"Skippah, we have to go!" Private said quickly to his leader. Skipper nodded as the group headed to their first English class. When they bot their there were still a lot of seats left. Private and Skipper sat in the available seats in the front, Kowalski and Rico both sat behind them, Julien sat in the seat to Skipper's left, Max, Samantha and Rodger sat near the back and Doris sat to the right of Kowalski.

On the bell, the teacher walked into class. He was young and looked as though he just got out of college. He had brown spiky hair, tanned skin and big green eyes.

"Good morning, Juniors!" The man said with a lot of enthusiasm. He had a bright smile on his face and his eyes shined brightly.

"My name is Mr. Fredrick, but you guys can call me Sam." The teacher, now dubbed as 'Sam' said. The class seemed to smile a bit, but clearly everyone wanted to get on with their English work. Skipper put his hand up casually and waited for 'Sam' to spot him

"Yes, Seth?" Sam asked when he spotter Skipper. Skipper's eyebrows shot up in surprise. How did that teacher know his name already? Private was also surprised.

'How does that teacher know Skipper's name already? He hasn't even taken the role yet.' Private thought worriedly. Could he be a spy for Dr. Blowhole or something?

"How do you know me name?" Skipper demanded hostilely, glaring at the now amused teacher.

"Your older brother, Peter, is a close friend of mine." Sam stated calmly and reassuringly, but Skipper found it patronising. Sam then walked to his desk and sat down, taking out a pen and a sheet of paper that had the role.

"Okay, so just give a shout out if you're here." Sam said nicely before calling out the first name.

"Kalen Berg?"

"Here, sir." Kowalski said feebly as Sam marked him off.

"Rodger Crocer?"

"Here! Oh, over here! Pick me!" Yep, Rodger was here. It was then that Private faded out of concentration.

"Percy Swimmer?" The English teacher's voice cut into Private's day dreams like a knife through butter.

"Here!" Private exclaimed quickly, wondering if the teacher had caught him day dreaming. Luckily, Sam moved to the last name on the list.

"Seth Sarge?"

"What do you think?" Came the sarcastic reply from Skipper, but when Private looked over to his leader Skipper had that same cocky smirk. After the role Sam started to chat about what they would be learning. They were starting with short stories first, then moving onto poetry and song writing and then report writing before Christmas. After that Sam then said that everyone could have free time to do whatever. Private put his earphones in his ears and listened to his ipod. Private glanced over to the teacher, who was currently grinning like a maniac.

'There is something off about this fellow.' Private thought worriedly as Julien slumped in his chair and fell asleep. Kowalski and Rico got out a contraption that Kowalski had been working on throughout the summer and began to test it out. About ten minutes later, the bell rang and the class left of Maths.

Maths was about the same really, a new teacher and working with number. After the teacher did the role, everyone got stuck into the Maths Books and did some equations. Private smiled, he had always liked Maths while Kowalski loved Maths with a passion. With the bell finally ringing, the kids walked quickly to Recess. Typically, the school would just shove the kids outside for break and today was no exemption. There were many clouds into the sky, but they looked pretty non-threatening. Maurice walked out of his last class and headed straight to Julien, while Mort ran up to Julien and hugged his side. Ariel and Hailey walked up to their sisters and chatted about their subjects. Finally, Private found his friends sitting under a big cherry blossom tree. Skipper was munching on a cookie and Kowalski was eating a box of raisins. Rico was practically inhaling a huge cookie. They were all sitting on the bench, except for Rico who sat comfortably on the ground. Private sat next to Skipper and got out of his recess of Mars and M+M cookies and a box of raisins.

When the bell rang a few minutes later, Private, Rico and Skipper walked to the Music classroom, while Kowalski disappeared off to IT Studies. When they got to class, they realized the entire class was actually crowded around an ipod docking station with and ipod in it. The teacher wasn't here yet so Rico took out the ipod, turned it on and put it back in the docking station, selecting a song at random. It was the song "New Divide" by Linkin Park. The other teens were so mesmerised by the music that they didn't see the teacher come in. He was African American with light brown eyes and cool black dreadlocks that were pulled into a lose ponytail. He was tall and he wore a nice button up T-shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Hey, class. I'm Jazz Jackson, and no I'm not related to the Michael Jackson." He introduced himself with a calm smile. The teens glanced worriedly at each other, wondering when Mr. Jackson was going to punish them for looking at his ipod. But, Mr. Jackson seemed to read their minds.

"Don't worry, guys. You're not in trouble for looking in my ipod. In fact, I left that there for you guys." The teacher smiled down to his students. Private smiled, the school had gotten some really nice teachers this year.

"Now, who likes this song?" Mr. Jackson asked the class. Nearly everyone put their hands up, except for Julien who sulked. Mr. Jackson turned his attention to Julien.

"Now, why don't you like this song?" The teacher asked kindly, and waited for the self proclaimed king to answer.

"It is being a strange song. I am not liking it much." This statement was true because when Private took King Julien to see the movie, the self-proclaimed king didn't like it that much. Skipper rolled his eyes from behind Rico and Private sighed.

"Okay, guys, I have some homework I need you guys to do for me." Mr. Jackson said, causing the class to groan.

"Chillax, all you have to do is write a brief page on your favourite band and the music they play." The teacher explained, and some students nodded in excitement. They couldn't wait to do the homework.

After Music, Private walked be himself to Integrated Science and sat down next to Kowalski and Doris on the same table. They both smiled at him in greeting and turned back to their conversation about the new movie that was coming out in a month and eleven days. It was called "New Moon" and it was the second movie in the Twilight Saga. Kowalski and Doris were chatting about the characters and Kowalski was arguing that a vampire and a werewolf would make a better couple than a vampire and a human. It was quite funny to watch, but something was off. Kowalski wasn't blushing or stuttering around Doris anymore, he was speaking to her confidently and happily.

'Maybe he doesn't have a crush on her anymore…' Private thought with a relieved sigh. It wasn't like he was happy that Kowalski didn't like Doris anymore, it's just that at least Kowalski wouldn't get distracted by her when he was on recon. The teacher walked in when the bell rang, minutes later, and smiled warmly at the class. After taking the role, the teacher went into a full explanation on what they would be studying this year. Apparently, they were studying Forensic Science first, which made Kowalski squeal in excitement and collapse in a fit of insane laughter and made Doris sweat drop at his strange behaviour. Private smiled eagerly, he was ready to learn.

After Integrated Science was Lunch, so Private and Kowalski walked to the Cafeteria together. Doris ran to Samantha, Hailey and Ariel and started to talk really fast. Rico and Skipper were already sitting and eating when Private and Kowalski joined them. Rico grinned at Kowalski when he arrived and dragged him into the seat next to him. Private sat down next to Skipper quickly and began to munch on his fries. Skipper then leaned over and took some fries too. Kowalski was eating a sandwich he had packed for himself and an apple he had grabbled earlier from the lunch line.

"How was Integrated Science, Private?" The leader asked the smaller teen.

"It was fine Skippah. We are going to be learning Forensic Science." The light blue eyed teen said with a smile.

"Good, you and Kowalski should be excited." Skipper said with a faint smirk, but his eyes shone in deep thought.

"Also, I found something out." Private said excitedly to his leader. Skipper raised his eyebrows in interest.

"Yeah?" Skipper urged Private on, wanting to know what the smaller teen had found out. Kowalski tore his eyes of his food and glanced at Private, also in interest.

"I'll tell you later, sir." The smaller teen shrunk under Kowalski's stare.

For the rest of lunch, nothing really happened. The bell rang, signalling the start of their next class. Psychology was a fairly new class, but only Private and Skipper had taken this class the last school year. So when Private walked with his friends, he wondered what he was going to learn this year. Skipper seemed fairly excited, but Kowalski was deep in thought. Rico looked a bit pale, Private noted but still walked on. When they all arrived at the classroom, everyone's mouths fell completely open. There were three big comfy couches that you could just sink into, a plasma screen TV with a Wii, a few desks in the back with office chairs that you could spin around in, and three of those weird sofas that they had in Psychiatrists offices with chairs next to them and a circle of comfy cushions in the far corner of the room. Some of their friends were already there. Doris and Marlene were sitting on one of the big comfy couches with Julien, who looked rather excited. Max and Rodger were sitting together, on another couch talking about if they should do a radio show or a web show together.

Minutes later, Miss Tolhurst walked in carrying a box. Quickly everyone sat down in the circle of aligned cushions. Private sat down in between Skipper and Julien, while Kowalski sat in between Doris and Rico who had sat down on the other side of Skipper. There weren't many people in the class. Only 14 students, including Private and his friends, Julien, Max and Rodger, Doris and Marlene and five others that Private didn't know to well.

"Hello, class. I'm Miss Tolhurst, your new Psychology teacher." The teacher greeted the 14 students with a smile. The class felt rather smiled back and relaxed. She then took the role and asked us to get out a piece of paper and a pencil. After everyone got out a pencil and a piece of paper she then told the class to write down three sentences, two statements being true and one statement being false. The game was called "Two Truths and a Lie" and Private had indeed played this game before. He had played it when he had first met Skipper, Kowalski and Rico as a learning exercise. Carefully, Private wrote down his three statements.

1. My older brother is 5 years older than me.

2. I have been with me friends for 3 years.

3. I hate the sunrise.

The third one was the lie, but most people in the class wouldn't peg him for it.

By the time the class had finished playing the game, Private had learned a few things about his friends. He had found out that Marlene hated walruses, Doris loves dolphins and owns a dolphin called Bubbles, Julien has a pet gecko called Stevie, Rodger had written a famous play, Max hated anything Twilight, Kowalski had invented a ray gun that made people fall in love, Rico had a special bomb hidden in his room and Skipper has a secret crush. The game was rather fun but Private had thought he already knew a lot about his friends.

'I guess you can't know everything about your team-mates.' Private thought with a smile as he doodled Skipper's name in his notebook. After the game Miss Tolhurst had given the class free time until the end of class.

Beneath the drawing of Skipper's name Private wrote a short note.

"Something seems off about our English teacher." Private scribbled and quickly tore out the note and handed it to Skipper, who was dragged into a conversation by Julien after the game had ended. Underneath that Skipper had written back to Private.

"Sam? Yeah, something just doesn't sit right with that guy." Skipper's slanted script had said. Something was wrong with that English teacher, and Private was going to find out one way or another.

When the bell had rang at 2:20, Private and his many friends walked to Art. Art was their last class of the day, and Private was excited. The Art teacher was a strange one. Her name was Angelica Fairheart and she had curly red hair that reacher her shoulders and light hazel eyes. She was also Alice's sister, strangely enough. When everyone filled into the class, Miss Fairheart quickly took the role and got Marlene and Doris to hand out big sheets of paper and an art pencil each.

"Today we are going to draw what we see in our minds, kids." She instructed the class.

Private, who was seated with Kowalski, Rico and Skipper quickly started drawing a picture of the sunrise he had seen while on his camp. Skipper was drawing a picture of his team-mates. Rico was drawing various pictures of explosions and Kowalski was drawing a picture of a science lab. As Private picked up the red pencil, he fell deep in thought about what had happened on the camp.

Private growled angrily as he ran. He was late to his last training session of the camp. It was the alarm clock's fault. He was 10 minutes late when he got there and tried to apologize for his lateness to his supervisor, Mr. McKesson. When Private glanced up he saw that Mr. McKesson wasn't there at all. It was Perry Swimmer, his older brother. Perry had teal spiky hair, deep brown eyes and a normal black and white Force uniform. Perry glared down at his younger brother with hateful eyes.

"Shut up and warm up already. I have no time for useless excuses." The older agent spoke coldly. Private hadn't heard that tone of voice in years and he felt uneasy being on thee receiving end of the cold tone. After Private had warmed up he and Perry got out the boxing gloves and began to spar.

Private knew it wasn't a friendly spar when Perry threw the first punch. The punch had landed on his side of his head and it made Private's head spin. More punches and kicks were traded and insults came just as quickly. Finally, Perry had him pinned to the wall and was breathing heavily on Private's neck. Blood leaked down Private's chin and onto his neck. Perry gently stuck out his tongue and licked the blood of the teenager's neck. Strong teeth brushed over the skin of Private's neck in warning.

"No, don't…please…you can't…Perry!" Private whimpered against Perry. The teeth gently bit down, piercing the skin and drawing blood…

"-vate, Private!" Skipper's voice broke Private out of his reverie and turned his attention to his leader. Luckily, Art ended minutes later. Putting his unfinished sunrise picture into his new Art Portfolio, Private left the school in a hurry. Deciding not to take the bus home, Private began to walk home. It only took 20 minutes to get from the school to the apartment building, so the small teenager dawdled home. When he arrived at "The Zoo", he took the lift to the first floor and walked to the apartment.

"Private, where were you?" Skipper yelled immediately as Private entered the apartment.

"I decided to walk home, sir." Private said acidly as he walked past Kowalski and Rico and disappeared into his room. Skipper followed him and slammed the door behind him.

"Have you forgotten the credo, solider?" Skipper's dark sapphire blue eyes narrowed as he glared at the other teen.

"Never walk alone?" Private asked. Oh yes, he knew the credo. It had been drilled into his brain for the last 3 years, so yeah he knew the credo.

"Yes, that's the one." The commander said in relief, sighing. Private hung his head, hiding the tears that were threatening to spill.

"I'm sorry, Skipper. The memories just came flooding back, I couldn't control them." The smaller teen whispered, staring at his shoes. Gently, Skipper placed a hand under Private's chin and tilted his head up. Skipper could see the already there tear stains and the big bright blue watery eyes.

"No, I'm sorry Private. I should have listened when you said you didn't want to talk about it." The taller teen said quietly with sad eyes. Private gasped quietly, he hadn't seen his leader's guard drop since last night.

Later that night, after dinner Private was taking a hot shower. As the warm water brushed over every surface on his skin, he gently ran his fingers over the bite mark on the base of his neck. The teen knew that the mark would heal over time, but Private knew the emotions and feeling would remain there forever. After the shower, Private got into his pyjamas and climbed into his bed. When Skipper walked into their shared room and few minutes later, Private pretended to be asleep. Skipper quickly walked over to the door and locked it. Skipper then made his way to Private's bed and sat down on the edge of the bed. Private gave a soft fake moan and Skipper leaned over him, to check that he was asleep. Skipper then quickly, leaned down fully and pressed a soft kiss to the smaller teen's forehead and gently ruffled his hair.

Later that night, Private was convincing himself that he had in fact dreamed that. It was too bad that the answer was always going to be the same. Skipper had kissed Private on the forehead, and they both knew it.

So give me reason / to prove me wrong / to wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes
Give me reason / to fill this hole / connect the space between
Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies

Across this new divide

~ New Divide by Linkin Park

Thanks for reading, my friends! Did anyone see any more references to the show?

Peter, Skipper's older brother in my story, is Peter the Panda from Phineas and Ferb. So, I don't own Phineas and Ferb.

I don't own "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen".

From,

Lina Ben