A/N: So Hiro never went to SFIT in this fic, or rather not yet, for whatever reason (the reason of the plot tbh). Y'know, sometime I'd like to write a fic where Hiro is the new kid, rather than Van. It'd be a change.

Anyways, enjoy!

This is stupid. Why does she have to go to a new school in the middle of the year? Why couldn't Ralph wait until the end of the year before he made them move? It's not like they moved far, but far enough for Ralph to be closer to his job and for Vanellope to have to switch schools and be a fair driving distance from her few friends. In the middle of the year. At a school she's never attended before. With people she doesn't even know.

Great.

Vanellope sighs to herself as she continues her walk to school. She doesn't know her way, so she looks at the directions she'd pulled up on her phone quite frequently.

'Why isn't there a bus stop near the house?' Vanellope wonders grumpily as she looks at the directions once more.

Hiro sighs. Not only is he going to get in trouble for skipping out on 'family night', but for lying, too.

It's Friday, which means tonight is Family Night at the Hamadas'. They usually eat dinner together, watch a movie, and sometimes play board games. Hiro had insisted to Aunt Cass that he has plans, but she wouldn't believe him. And when he said that it was because he was going to be hanging out with a friend that night ('I-It's not anybody you know, so there's no use in telling you who it is.'), she still wouldn't believe him. It's obvious that he was actually going to go to a bot fight. But when he said that he would bring the friend that he was hanging out with to the café before they hang out to prove that he was telling the truth, Cass agreed.

So now he's walking to school, gazing downwards as he ponders what he's going to do. He can either tell his aunt the truth and suffer through family night (it's not that he doesn't wanna spend time with his aunt; he just wants to do something that's not boring, like bot fighting), or he can find someone to act like they know him and that they're going to be hanging out somewhere.

But who?

Suddenly, right as she looks up, Vanellope bumps into someone, causing her to stumble backwards. With her mind wondering and not looking at where she's going, it's a surprise she didn't bump into something or someone sooner.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" she exclaims after steadying herself. Normally she wouldn't be so harsh, but today she's feeling particularly irritated. Who can blame her with the current circumstances, though?

"I should be saying that to you!" the person she'd bumped into retorts.

The stranger is a few inches taller than her, with hair the same jet black color as hers only way shorter, cut to his ears but still rather bushy.

She doesn't take notice of much else, though, and steps around him and walks away in a huff, causing the stranger to shoot a glare in her direction. She has to get to school; she doesn't have time for this. Yeah, she could have at least said sorry, but it's too late for that now.

It's only the third period of the day and Vanellope is already regretting not pretending to be sick this morning. So far, she's made it to her classes nearly a second before the bell rang. The amount of 'makeup work' she's been given so far is ridiculous, too. In her opinion, she should just be excused from that work.

Her stress only increases when the late bell rings while she's still talking to a teacher.

"I know it's a lot of work," the teacher (Ms. Mary*, was it?) says, "so I'll give you a week to do it, but please don't put it off to the last minute!"

"I won't." Vanellope responds, trying to be as nice as possible since she's talking to a teacher. "Thanks. Uh, do I need a pass to get to my next class?"

"Did the bell ring already? Goodness, I didn't even notice!" she exclaims. "Oh, I don't think you need one. Just tell your next teacher that I held you up."

Vanellope nods, and with a final thank you and farewell, she heads off to her next class. Calculous. Fun.

On top of losing her way around the halls, Vanellope ends up several minutes late.

'Hopefully this teacher isn't strict.' Vanellope thinks to herself and opens the door.

Of course, all eyes fall on her. There's a fair amount of people in the class; there's a girl with platinum blonde hair giving her a look of disgust, another girl with cherry red hair in pigtails who was too busy copying down notes to notice her, a boy with blond hair and freckles**, another boy who –

…Appeared to be the stranger whom she ran into this morning. He still seemed upset with her, what with the curious look that rather quickly turned into a frown. They catch each other's eyes, and don't gaze away until seconds later when the teacher clears his throat.

"Ahem."

Vanellope turns her head towards the teacher then, who goes by Mr. Gene***. At least, that's what it says on her schedule.

"You must be Penelope****." he says after looking at the list of students. "May I ask why you're late?"

Vanellope cringes. She hates her real name. If she wasn't late, at least everyone in the room wouldn't be staring at her. "Uh, yeah, but I go by Vanellope. I was just talking to a teacher and then lost my way is all."

"I see. May I see your pass, then?"

"I… didn't get a pass."

"What teacher are you coming from?"

"Ms. Mary."

The teacher scoffs and shakes his head. "Can't be. She always gives passes to her students." he turns his head back to the board and continues to write the notes on the board. "Go back and get a pass from her."

"But she told me I didn't need a pass. I'm already here anyways."

"And I'm telling you that you DO need one. So go back to her and ask for a pass."

"But I don't –"

"Or you and your attitude can go to the principal's office."

Vanellope pauses, confusion and anger etched on her face. It's her first day here! What'd she do for him to send her to the principal's office?

"Go to the principal's office?" she questions. "For what?!"

"For back talking and interrupting my class!" Mr. Gene exclaims angrily, stopping his note writing to face her. "If I were you, I would listen before you get in even more trouble. Do you understand, Miss. Penelope?"

Vanellope clenches her fists. It's practically impossible for her to keep her snarky remarks to herself right now. "See, I would but I'm not sure where the principal's office is. I wouldn't wanna be late for my newly scheduled meeting with him, huh?"

Her teacher glares at her, but Vanellope merely smirks back. That remark was totally worth it.

"Hiro," Mr. Gene says angrily without breaking his gaze.

Hiro hesitates. Is he in trouble too? All he did was watch the argument like everyone else in the class! "Y-Yes, sir?"

"Would you please show Miss Penelope here to the principal's office? You already know this stuff, so I'm sure you won't miss anything." he says angrily before turning back to the board.

Hiro inwardly sighs as he stands up. "Sure, Mr. Gene." He really doesn't want to do this, especially since this girl he ran into this morning seems to have quite the attitude. But what other choice does he have? Tell an infuriated Mr. Gene no? He's more than smart enough to know not to do something like that.

Vanellope shakes her head. "I'm sorry, what did ya just say?" she questions the teacher with crossed arms. "I didn't understand you. Unfortunately I don't speak moron."

Every person in the room's eyes widen. Is this new kid crazy, talking to a teacher like that?! Even Hiro is shocked. He's not too fond of this teacher either, but he would never say something like that to his face like this girl– what did she say she liked to be called? Vanellope?

Hiro, feeling a sudden rush of panic, takes hold of the girl's arm and pulls her out the door before Mr. Gene has time to recover from the shock of being spoken to is such a way by a student. Vanellope seems against being pulled along by him, but doesn't get the chance to protest.

"Are you crazy?!" Hiro exclaims once they're out of the classroom and quickly walking down the hall.

"He was the one being a jerk!" she replies angrily.

"Yeah, he always is, but it doesn't mean you can talk to him like that! That's just asking for a year's worth of detention!"

"Too late for that!"

Hiro stares at her in shock with wide eyes. From what he'a gathered about her so far, she seems rude, short-tempered, and sharp-tongued.

"Look, I know that was a stupid thing to do, but I wasn't gonna take that! He was being ridiculous!"

Hiro doesn't respond.

She sighs. "Okay, I know that I was kinda a jerk too this morning," Vanellope says less angrily in regard to their accidental meeting on their way to school that morning. "but could ya just… back me up when we get to the principal's office? I can tell that you hate that teacher too, and if we both tell the principal about Mr. Gene and how awful he is they'll have to keep us out of trouble!Whaddya say?"

He doesn't speak for a moment. "Keep 'us' out of trouble? That was all you! And you should've thought about that before you told him off."

"Oh, c'mon, just help me out here! I'll pay you back somehow, I promise."

He wants to look her straight in the eyes and say 'no way!' But she said that she'll pay him back somehow. And he knows just the thing…

"Aunt Cass, this is the friend I told you about. The one I'm hanging out with tonight. Vanellope, this is my Aunt Cass."

A/N:

* , like Mary from the Penthouse in WiR.
**The girl is obviously Taffyta (Taffyta's voice actress, as you may know, actually voiced Disgust from Inside Out! Hence her giving Van a look of disgust. c; And the blonde boy and freckles is Rancis.
*** , like Gene from the penthouse. Pretty obvious why he's such a crappy teacher tbh, after seeing how he treated Ralph.
****In modern verses, I like to think that Vanellope's real name is Penelope, but she never liked it so she just tells people her name is Vanellope; Vanilla and Penelope mixed together.

Aaaaand that's it! Sorry that it's OOC, and I know, it's a bad place to stop, but this way I can either keep it ended there, or if you guys want, I can continue it!

Thanks for the request, anon! I hope you liked it!