Hi everyone. First, we would like to thank everyonefor their Awesome (to borrow from the Captain) reviews. They really help. Second, we would like to apologise for the long wait for this chapter but it's a much longer chapter. We hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: We do not own Chuck.

TeamBartowski

Burbank High School. Place of the education to roughly two thousand and eight hundred pupils and a faculty of one hundred and ten. Located in Burbank, Los Angeles County, California.

Chuck turned the page in his hands around several times, trying to decipher where he was. The school was so damned big! Finally figuring out where he may be-he still wasn't sure- he set off in what he hoped was the direction of 14 B, his homeroom. In a quicker journey than he had anticipated Chuck was standing outside his homeroom. Wiping his suddenly sweaty palms on his jeans he opened the door to be met with at least twenty stares, not all of them kind. There was a small silence as soon as Chuck entered.

"Charles Bartowski?" His teacher questioned, looking up at from his position at his cluttered desk.

"Uh-Yes." Chuck replied quietly, keeping his gaze on his scuffed black Chuck Taylor's.

The teacher sighed, looking around the room. "There are empty seats at the back. So take your pick." The teacher gave a small wave to the back of the room, giving Chuck an encouraging smile.

Chuck walked between the desks; head down, not wanting to look at anyone in the eye, not wanting to be noticed. Dropping his shoulder bag at the side of the desk he lowered himself onto the seat and traced the scars made by previous students on the desk while the teacher began to read out notices. Clubs were beginning, try-outs were being held for teams…

Chuck's head rested on his hand as he tried to concentrate on the teacher, Mr Barnhan. After another few minutes of notices the students were allowed to chat to each other, catch up on the happenings that they may have missed while on holiday. As soon as their teacher had sat down at his desk everyone had gotten up and milled around, finding their friends. Everyone, except Chuck and the only other person sitting at the back of the room. Turning his head to look at his companion he saw the girl from earlier this morning, Sarah. That was her name. 'Beautiful name.' Chuck though once more. Chuck gave her a small smile and was surprised when she returned it with one of her own. Chuck's breath caught in his throat as she smiled. The smile, even though it was a timid one, lit up her face, removing the worry that previously crowded it.

Chuck tried to introduce himself once more, but once more he was interrupted, this time by the bell. 'So much for being saved by the bell.' Chuck thought ruefully as he looked up his first lesson on his timetable. 'Maths. Fun.' Chuck thought sarcastically.

Chuck collapsed into the seat at the front of the room. 'Computer Technology. Last lesson before lunch. Thank God.'

Their teacher stood at the front of the room, arms crossed a top his yellow dress shirt and grey blazer. He looked like he was a salesman of some sort. Their teacher watched everyone as they sat in one of the seats in the centre of the room; the computers were bordering the room. Their teacher spent a few minutes staring into the eyes of every pupil after they had all sat down, as if trying to stare them down, before clapping his hands and speaking to the class. As the teacher opened his mouth to speak Chuck had an inkling that this class would border on torturous, no matter how much he liked the subject.

"Okay listen up kiddies." He ordered, as he looked at the seated pupils in front of him condescendingly a sly smile playing on his lips.

'Totally called that.' Chuck thought as soon as he heard the teacher's patronising tone. Chuck gave an inaudible sigh as he readied himself for an hour's worth of this particular tone.

"I know some of you think that computer tech will be hard but let me reassure you that you will only find this class difficult if you are a complete and utter idiot." Their teacher, sounded reassuring and Chuck almost rethought his whole idea that Computer Technology was going to be torture.

That is until the teacher said:

"So I am expecting most of you to find this class extremely difficult." Maybe his first impression had been right. The teacher's eyes raked over the some confused some knowing faces that looked up at him and Chuck could have sworn that his eyes rested on his a bit longer than the others. "Okay now slackers, time for work. I've got a PowerPoint that I want you to look at and then you are to take notes. Just remember," the teacher's eyes raked over the whole class, "only those who show incentive will be passing this class." This time the teacher's eyes lingered on the pack of smirking jocks at the back of the class.

"Yes Mr Milbarge." The class chanted.

It was official.

Computer Tech was gonna be Hell.

Mr. Milbarge turned off the lights and turned on the projector, which was linked to the small laptop on his desk. He fiddled around with the mouse opening files and then a PowerPoint popped onto the screen. The teacher began to flick between the slides slowly but soon he began to speed up until the words were a blur on the screen. It was making Chuck dizzy but he found that he couldn't turn his head away; in fact he couldn't do anything. He tried asking someone to make it stop but his mouth wouldn't respond to his command. After a few more minutes the power point came to an end. Chuck shook the cobwebs out of his head and was pleased to have gained the ability to move again. Chuck shuddered as he remembered the sensation of no control over his body. Chuck groaned and raised a hand to his head and massaged his temple as he felt a headache coming on. 'What the hell was that?' Chuck thought to himself.

Chuck looked at the lined paper of his notebook before him with confusion as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. Chuck felt a small rush in his head and he was remembering things that he didn't know before. He glanced at the empty pad and began to write. As Chuck went to flip over the page a hand came down on his pad.

"What do you think your doing?" A low menacing voice questioned.

Chuck's head snapped up and he instantly recoiled when he noticed how close Mr Milbarge was. He was leaning over the edge of the desk; one hand to keep him balanced was resting on the desk.

Confused by his teacher's anger at following instructions Chuck stumbled over his words as he tried to explain himself. "I-uh-was writing-uh- some notes. Just liked you –uh- told us…" Chuck's explanation dwindled into silence as Mr Milbarge's face quickly transitioned from white to beet root red. Chuck shuffled his seat back, unnerved by the teacher's radiating anger.

"Oh, writing notes were you? That lame excuse won't work with me, young man." He said with a sneer as he looked down on Chuck from his standing position. "Hmmmm." He mused, his forefinger tapping his chin lightly in a thoughtful position. "Maybe a love note?"

He looked at Chuck's wiry frame and wild curls and chuckled, "No, what girl would want to go out with you!" Mr. Milbarge snorted and the rest of the class was sent into hysterics at Chuck's slow torture.

Chuck was thankful to see that some looked slightly apologetic as they laughed half-heartedly. Mr Milbarge dramatically grabbed the notebook off Chuck's desk and waved it above his head in triumph. 'Of what?' Chuck had no idea. "The moment of truth!" He exclaimed to the class.

Mr Milbarge opened the notebook and began to read through Chuck's detailed notes. As he did so his smug smile disappeared and a frown graced his features. "Is this a joke?" He asked Chuck in a deadly whisper. The class looked between Chuck and their teacher in obvious confusion.

They weren't the only ones. Chuck's brow creased as he tried to understand why he was being reprimanded for this. "I-uh-wha-what?" He stuttered, his expression quizzical.

"Where did you get these notes?" Mr Milbarge's voice steadily began to rise as he walked back towards Chuck's desk.

"I wrote them down!" Chuck exclaimed. "You saw me write them down!" Chuck rose out of his chair, his hands flying in front of him in perplexed exasperation.

Mr Milbarge was now looking up at Chuck and he didn't seem to like it. "Sit down boy! I will not tolerate you talking to me in such a way. Stop lying to me. You could not have written down these notes now because no one, could see, let alone remember everything. Mow riddle me that." Mr Milbarge finished with a flourish and a devious smile that adorned his face as he looked at Chuck's shocked expression, mouth hanging open as he stared at him.

Chuck didn't know how to answer. He didn't know how he had done it himself. How could he explain that he was in the dark as well?! 'I don't know sir. I just do' Yeah right 'cause that was really gonna work. Chuck realised that his mouth was still hanging open and he quickly snapped it open as he tried to formulate a response. He thought that this would be a good thing, whatever 'this' was. Apparently not. Settling on a neutral- and lame- response Chuck said haltingly, "I have a good memory." A slight lilting at the end of his statement made it sound more like a question as Chuck crossed his fingers, unseen beneath the desk.

"'I have a good memory.'" The teacher mimicked in a high-pitched voice. "This time I'll let you off, but bear in mind, I will be watching you. Oh yes. I'll be watching you very closely." The teacher's face was only a few centimetres away from Chuck. As he drew away he gave Chuck a fleeting malevolent smile. Chuck shuddered at his look.

The bell rung and everyone rushed out of the room, to eat and meet with their friends. Everyone save the jocks who were quietly conversing with Mr Milbarge who had a smug grin on his face and was jotting things down in a small brown notebook as Chuck walked out, the conversation and what it could mean was the last thing on his mind.

Chuck walked through the crowds, looking for a place to eat his food in peace. He passed several tables, students remaining within the strict boundaries of each table, clearly highlighting the groups within the school. Jocks, Geeks, Goths… Chuck made his way slowly passed these groups, head down, he didn't want to attract too much attention, especially not from the jocks. He didn't want trouble, he just wanted to make his way through high school with good grades, college applications and as small amount of trouble as possible, preferable none, but you can't be picky.

Chuck found a relatively empty table, in the corner of the room. There were two other people, a girl with wavy brunette hair and a boy with bleach blond hair, that had so much wax in it, a truck falling o his head wouldn't make a dent, sitting at the table. "Do you mind…?" Chuck trailed off as he pointed at an empty chair, his action clearly finishing his incomplete question.

"Yeah, sure." The girl answered with a warm smile. "I'm Lizzy."

"Chuck." The named answered and stretched out his hand to meet her already outstretched one.

"Lon." The boy, Lon, next to Lizzy interrupted with an impatient sigh. Flashing Chuck one more smile, Lizzy returned to her previous conversation with Lon, leaving Chuck to his own thoughts. Not that he minded.

Chuck pulled out his lunch from his bag, pleased to see that it had not been crushed against all his notebooks and various-unnecessary- pens. Chuck pulled out a hastily put together cheese and ham sandwich and began to eat, his mind wandering from this simple task.

Chuck's mind didn't wander too far. It ambled its way to his last lesson. He had no idea what had happened in there. Should he tell someone? Ellie? Would they think him crazy? Would they do tests on him? Chuck shuddered at that thought, he hated needles and tests meant needles, lots of needles.

He was confused at his teacher's response; he was merely doing what he was told, what the whole class was told to do. And what happened? He got grilled as if he was a spy in a foreign country. Like James Bond in… well, in all of his films, basically. 'For a suave and awesome spy he sure does get captured by the bad guy a lot.' Chuck pondered before returning to his previous musings. He tried, fruitlessly, to understand what he had done wrong. After a while he gave up. It was pointless, he honestly had no idea what happened in Computer Tech, but he knew that it wasn't going to be a good subject.

Chuck enjoyed working with computers. He loved them in fact. It was a passion he shared with his…Chuck tried to swallow whatever was suddenly blocking his throat at the thought of his…dad. His father had been –was? - an engineer. He used to work from home. To keep Chuck occupied his father would place him in his lap while he worked. Chuck became enraptured by his father's work from a young age and set out to follow in his footsteps. At the age of six he had his own computer, beside his father's, his mom had taken a photo of them each witting in front of their computers and working. Well, his dad was working, Chuck was playing games. He was six!!

A few months after that photo was taken, his mom had left, leaving a broken shell of a man and two confused children. After their mom had left their dad had delved into his work more than he usually did, which was a lot. At first Chuck understood his father's need to get away from the real world, not wanting to face the stark reality that was the truth.

Chuck understood his father's want for solitude-at first. After a while though, Chuck started to get angry with his father for not paying attention to him and his sister. They needed him and he never gave them a second thought. They got used to looking after themselves, after each other, they didn't need him. Sure enough a less than a decade later he left them. No explanation, nothing. Chuck had been looking forward to Computer Technology; it was something he was good at. But after that lesson, he knew that it wasn't good to be enjoyable.

Sarah sat at a table filled with Carina's friends - John Casey didn't really have any friends. Not that he really cared.

Sarah sat silently as Carina talked with her friends non-stop. Her day hadn't been extraordinary in any way, nor hadn't been terribly boring. It was just…normal. Which was a good thing. That's all she really wanted out of this experience. Out of life. A chance to be normal.She'd never had that with her father, moving from state to state as though it were a game. But, now, there was no more of that. She was staying in one place, in one home. One family. She wasn't really comfortable with her new family; they represented something that she had never really had. A family, a life. Love. She had been abandoned so many times, this time could be no different, she could not open her heart, open herself once more because it was inevitable that she would be left alone, hurt.

Sarah looked around at the gargantuan canteen area. Every table was full to the brim, people forgoing the actual seats and sitting atop the tables, chatting to one another. Some angry, some sad, some happy. She saw some of the people she had met during the day, some kind, offering to show her around, be partners in assignments. Some were indifferent, choosing to ignore her.

As her eyes scanned the room, the fell onto a table that wasn't full, actually only three people sat there. Two boys and a girl. One of the boys, who looked like he'd bleached his hair, was sitting close to the girl and their heads were bowed towards one another. The other boy sat on the opposite side of the table, staring into space with a sombre look on his face, a half eaten sandwich in his hand. Suddenly he sat up, walked to the bin, threw a bag filled with, what she assumed, was the rest of his lunch in to it. He then proceeded to walk out of the room.

He passed several tables. One of them was occupied by the jocks. As he passed that table one of the jocks pulled his head towards his own and whispered something into his ear. Sarah didn't know what he said but it had a resounding effect on the curly- haired boy. His face twisted slightly as if in pain, then it returned to its previous thoughtful look. The boy stood up from his forced bowed position and walked passed the jocks and out of the room without saying anything or looking back once.

Sarah hadn't noticed, but while she was watching the unknown boy Carina and her friends had stopped talking and were watching her with amused smiles on their faces. Sarah raised an eyebrow quizzically at their expressions.

"Who's that you've got your eye on then, Sarah?" Carina asked the question that seemed to be on all of their minds. The girls leant forward eagerly.

"No one." She said with a small shrug, turning her gaze to her food. Some one scoffed at her answer. "What?" She said as she looked back up only to be met with six penetrating looks. "I don't know." She admitted sheepishly. The girls grinned at this.

"I overheard one of the geeks talking about a new student, curly haired with brown hair." Alice said raising her eyebrows at Sarah. "Charles…something. Anyway, he was in her maths class. Apparently he's very smart, cute and quite pleasant, but he doesn't really talk much. I can see him being smart. Cute? I suppose in a round about way he is. Pleasant? Isn't every man meant to be pleasant, but what they usually want is to get into your pants."

"Not that you mind. Huh, Alice?" One of the other girls said with a laugh, Sarah couldn't be bothered to remember her name. The other girls followed her into her laughter. Sarah let out a small smile.

Her smile faded as she turned to look at the now closed doors of the cafeteria, thinking about a certain Charles.

Last lesson of the day. 'Finally,' thought Sarah as she took a place at one of the desks. She sat in silence as the room filled up with rowdy teenagers eager to see the end of this lesson.

"Alright class! Come on now people. Trust me, you're not the only ones who want this day to be over!" The Music teacher, Miss Garrett called. Surprisingly, everyone actually shut up. "Welcome to music. A lesson where you can make as much noise as you want without being told off for it. Seems right up everyone's alley." She looked at everyone, assessing them, but there was no patronising look in her eye, the look that so many teachers have.

"I'm going to go through your names and I want you to tell me if you play any instruments. Okay?" After hearing a murmur of ascent from her students Miss Garrett started calling out names. As each name was called out a student stood up and gave his or her reply. Sarah wasn't really paying attention. Not until the teacher called out:

"Charles Bartowski?"

Sarah's head snapped up and she massaged the pain that came with the sudden movement. As she had thought, Charles Bartowski was the curly haired boy of her constantly drifting mind. Not that she knew why. He was a geek. Looked like one and acted like one too.

"Piano and guitar." He said quietly. So quietly that he could barely be heard and the teacher had to ask for him to repeat what he said. Which he did and after he immediately sat down, eyes glued to the patterns his fingers were tracing on the desk in front of him.

Miss Garrett continued down her list and she finally came to:

"Sarah Walker?"

Sarah stood up and said in a clear voice that did not betray her underlying nervousness at being the centre of the class' attention, "Violin."

As she sat back down she felt herself being watched. Turing her head ever so slightly to the left she saw Charles watching her. As soon as she turned her head to get a better look at him, he turned his insightful gaze back to his apparently ever so interesting desk. Until…

"Charles Bartowski."

Charles' head immediately rose to look at his addressor. "Yes?" He asked.

"Would you like to come up and play something for us on the piano?" The teacher asked.

"I'm thinking that 'no' wouldn't really get me anywhere." He chuckled as he stood up and made his way, painstakingly slowly towards the baby grand situated at the front of the room.

Several students gave a small laughed quietly at Charles' nervous humour. The teacher gave him a comforting smile as he sat on the small stool. Before raising his hands to the keys he wiped them on his jeans.

Then, closing his eyes, he raised his fingers to the keys and began to play.

The room grew silent as Charles' melody washed between the students softly. The melody was beautiful and Sarah found herself entranced by Charles' rhythmic movements, his hands rising and falling on the keys. Suddenly the music stopped. Everyone started mumbling to each other, confused at the abrupt stop. Miss Garrett opened her eyes, which she had closed as Charles had began to play. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at him.

"It's been a–uh- a while since I played. Kind of hard to remember it all." Charles gave the teacher a small smile and she nodded, accepting his excuse but Sarah saw the teacher watching Charles thoughtfully as he made his way back to his seat.

As Charles sat down one of the jocks from the back of the room called out to him. "Thought you had a good memory 'ey Charley boy?"

Charles tensed at the laughter from the back of the room. Sarah wondered what had happened. This was her first lesson with him, leaving five lessons in which the jocks could have begun their torture of him

Charles turned around with a calm expression as if he hadn't heard their remark. Shrugging he said, "I guess I have selective memory." Grinning at the shocked faces of the jocks who didn't seem to like being answered back, Charles turned back to stare at his desk.

The appreciative looks and low chuckles from the rest of the class seemed to go unnoticed. Sarah watched him thoughtfully until he suddenly looked up and straight in to her eyes. She quickly turned back to the front of the room, ignoring the feeling that he was still watching her.

For the rest of the lesson the teacher talked to them about their course until, finally, the bell rang, freeing them from their incarceration. Everyone immediately sprung up and headed for the door, their bags hadn't even been opened during the lesson.

Sarah looked around the room and saw the tell tale curly hair of her purpose of her searching gaze sweeping out the room in the tide. Sighing, Sarah picked up her bag and made her way to her locker to collect her books.

We hope you enjoyed this chapter and we'll try to get chapter 4 up as soon as possible. We look forward to your reviews and feedback.

TeamBartowski