Hey guys!

Really sorry this has taken AGES to put up, but I have been busy with loads of other stuff. I know that this recruitment thing is boring at first, but I promise it will get better… SO much better. I already have plans… muahaha.

Peace out people.

It was late afternoon, and Ashley, Justin, Jake, Matt, Jenny and Bailey were sitting in the dormitory, playing play station on Ashley's TV. Justin's Art Vs Science CD played softly in the background and a bowl of cheese balls and chips sat in the middle.

Jenny swerved her controller, narrowly missing the bowl, as her car crashed into the barrier on the screen. She scowled and grabbed a handful of food, before standing up and brushing the crumbs off her school uniform.

'I never win in that silly game.' she groaned. 'Boys always win.'

Jake grinned. 'It's our awesome skill. Girls can't do that sort of thing.'

Bailey hit him over the back of the head. 'Don't be so sexist!'

She was only nine years old but her hands were strong and Jake moaned and dropped the controller, his car running off the track and crashing into a wall of tyres.

'Look what you made me do!'

Jenny smirked. 'Don't think you deserved it?'

Jake sighed, and Justin and Ashley stopped the game. Matt looked pissed off but didn't bother arguing. The game was as good as over because everyone had quit.

'Better go to dinner.' said Justin. 'Kirsten gets angry if we're late.'

'Who's Kirsten?' asked Ashley.

'She's main house parent - The one who smokes about a hundred fags a day.'

Ashley sauntered down to dinner with the rest of the crew and sat at a table right in the centre. Jake turned to her with a serious look on his face.

'Listen. This place is not a place where you want to mix with the wrong sort of people, and that all determines on where you sit in the dining room. Over to your right you can see the nerds. Don't ever sit there, or your social life will not stand a chance. Straight in front of you are the Barbies. They are not the sort of people you want to talk to, because all they talk about is makeup and guys.'

Jake stopped talking and looked scared as a large group of teenage boys strode past. They wore steel-capped boots, heavy metal t-shirts and menacing glares. He started talking again when they were out of ear-shot.

'That's the gang. Never mess with those guys. Ever.'

Ashley nodded and stood up to get some food. As she did, a member from the gang pushed into her and grinned.

'Hey baby, wait til' tonight!'

Ashley looked at him with a scowl on her face.

'Pervert.' she muttered.

The food was nothing like the grub she got at CHERUB. What she got here was mushy potato and peas with a half-cooked steak and a glass of water. There were no desserts and kids were sent straight back to their rooms to do their homework afterwards. Because of this, most kids spent most of their time talking rather than eating, in order to waste their homework time. The only kids who actually left after dinner were the members of the gang. Ashley guessed that they weren't going to do homework. It was more like vandalism that came to picture.

At 8:30, two hours after dinner had started, there were still kids finishing. Ashley sat at the table with Jake, Justin, Jenny, Matt and Bailey, talking about fun times and crappy school assignments. She was pleased to hear that all of them except Bailey knew martial arts, and said that they would defend her if she was ever in trouble. Ashley said that she too knew them, and that just about sealed the deal.

Half an hour later, Kirsten came in and yelled at them to hurry up and go to the hall as soon as possible. Hearing this, the kids slowed down incredibly and moved like snails, which irritated Kirsten even more. When she had finally got all the kids out of the dining room, she led them down a long corridor to a large room filled with rusty seats. Ashley took one, and Justin sat down next to her. The other four sat in the next few seats along the aisle. Kirsten marched up to the microphone on the wooden platform with a determined look on her face.

'OK, kids. This is another unexpected meeting.'

The kids groaned and one of the Barbies swore from her back seat.

Ashley looked at Justin. 'What's wrong with the meetings?'

'They have them about every month. It's where they call out all the 'naughty' kids and embarrass them. They also introduce new people, so I guess you'll be up for show.'

Kirsten scowled at the noise in the room and continued.

'Everyone, quiet! We have few new kids here, Ashley and Eve. Come up here, girls.'

Ashley grunted and stood up, before following a blushing Eve to the platform.

She could see all of the kids now; there looked about fifty. So much for the two hundred they said they had, thought Ashley.

After a few embarrassing moments, she was allowed to sit down and then came the real show. A kid called Billy Bradford was called up. He was short and fat, with long hair down to his shoulders.

Kirsten welcomed him with a fake looking smile, before turning to the audience.

'This piece of filth you see here… is a thief!'

A faked gasp shot up around the room and all the kids burst out laughing. There were a few cries of Go Billy and you rule, before Kirsten yelled into the microphone. Unfortunately, it was facing to toward the speaker and a deafening piercing sound screeched around the room.

All the kids screamed before bursting into another round of laughter. Someone jumped up and opened the door, and everyone poured out of the room.

Ashley ran with everyone else, laughing and shouting at the tops of their voices down the corridor and into their separate rooms.

Back in the room, Ashley collapsed on her bed and dissolved into another round of laughter. Matt came in and grinned.

'You should have seen her face when the mic screeched!'

The others all poured into the room, and sat on their various beds. Finding the strength to get up, Ashley picked up the play station remote and locked the door.

'Who's up for another game?'

*

Ashley awoke to a pillow being stuffed in her face. She fought it off and sat up, grinning at her friends as they pulled away with the pillows.

Justin looked serious. 'You have to get up! Look, it's seven thirty. Breakfast is now, and school starts at eight-thirty.'

Nodding, Ashley rushed into the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later in the school uniform, which Jamie had given her the night before. She followed the others down the hallway and into the dining room.

Breakfast was rice bubbles or cornflakes and home brand juice. Before heading off to school, she grabbed the mobile she could use to call Tom and slipped it into her pocket.

The trip to school involved walking to the bus stop a kilometre away, before taking a forty-five minute bus ride to the school. Ashley got on the bus and sat next to Jenny, while the others scrambled for seats. The quiet kids played cards and traded weird looking objects, and the louder kids yelled across the aisles and hit each other with sticks and broken off handrails.

When they got to the school, the kids scrambled off the stifling hot bus and out into the fresh air. The school itself looked like a building taken straight out of the dark ages. The walls were crummy and the windows were tacked up with tape.

Ashley walked to her classroom with Justin. He was also in year nine and they were in the same class. The classroom was dirty and twenty old desks sat in rows down the centre of the room. They walked to the back of the room and picked a pair of desks by the window so at least they would get some fresh air. The teacher walked in an ushered them all to sit down.

The lesson was a complete bore. It was much different to CHERUB, where there was always a teacher on your back telling you to work. Here, kids threw things around the room, disrespected the teacher and didn't do any work what-so-ever.

It was rather like the children's home she had been in before being accepted into CHERUB.

At break time, Justin and Ashley met up with the others and they walked to the corner store down the road. The sky was beginning to darken and black storm clouds rolled over above them.

After school, the six walked home after being dropped by the bus. The wind was howling and the sky was a dirty black.

Jake looked up at the sky and remarked. 'Looks like we're in for a storm. We should hurry home before the rain catches us.'

Ashley nodded, and looked up. The clouds looked like they would burst any minute.

They ran back to the home and got indoors just as the rain started bucketing down. The wind howled even louder that night and the windows creaked like they would fly off at any moment.

Ashley forgot all about it and fell asleep, no knowing what awaited her in the morning.