Slammu washed his face as he and his brothers got up for the day. It felt a little strange to them as they were so used to the hideout and now being on campus.

"I still don't understand why we have to be human when we're in school.", Streex griped as he brushed his teeth, "I was better looking as a shark."

Jab rolled his eyes.

"Sure you were."

Ripster sighed.

"Dad doesn't want us to give the campus a scare or cost him his job.", he said trying to calm the growing storm between his brothers, "He just got it back and we just have to make it til next Friday and we're back in fins again."

That did the trick as his brothers took a moment to process what Ripster had said. They had finished dressing when they heard the bell ring.

"We better get a move on.", Slammu stated.

It didn't take them too long as they were on campus so they just had to make it to the hall they needed to go and after each went his separate way, Jab got to tech class where most of the class had gathered while the teacher had a clipboard and looked his way.

"Clint Bolton?"

Jab gulped.

"Yes?"

The teacher checked his watch before giving him a smile.

"You're a half hour early. Good display of dedication."

Jab sighed a breath of relief.

"Um thanks teach, just didn't want to miss some one on one time."

The teacher looked eager.

"Well I'd be happy to help Mr. Bolton.", he said calmly, "As will the others."

Jab took a seat and noticed a girl about four seats from his left wearing jeans, a navy blue shirt, a white sweatshirt, and sneakers. Her brown hair was tied in a pony tail and her green eyes looked bored.

"This tech exam is a joke.", she muttered(mostly to herself), "Teach probably gives it midterm so he can get a laugh or see who's actually studying."

Jab really felt a ping of amusement from the girl's talk and she took a break to flip her pony tail only to see he was looking her way.

"You okay?", she asked him.

Jab quickly regained himself.

"Yeah, just eager to learn.", he answered though he felt his face blush.

The girl raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to ask me for my name?", she guessed.

"Ms. Harriet Colt.", the teacher said interrupting the conversation, "May I have a word at my desk?"

Harriet nodded and rose from her seat before gathering her things and heading to the front of the class.

/

Ripster met up with the rest of his brothers during the lunch hour where the menu this time was grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, and a side of salad.

"What's with Jab?", Slammu asked.

Streex took a look and he brought a familiar smile.

"Looks like Jab is in the same boat as Slammu is."

Jab looked annoyed.

"Hey, I just met a girl who has an attitude okay?", he answered before bursting into a blush.

Slammu put a hand on his brother's shoulder as he took a sip from his milk.

"Yeah, I know. Diane was the same thing with me."

Jab raised an eyebrow.

"Where is she if I might ask?"

Slammu looked a bit confused.

"I don't know. She probably had classes and got to them before I got to mine."

"That would make sense.", Ripster said after taking a bite of his sandwich, "Well, I'm sure Dad is doing fine."

At that moment, a flier flew over to their table and landed at Streex's feet. He reached down and picked it up to show it was an advertisement.

"Matches in Romance?", he said with a confused look, "Find your soul's mate by taking our questionnaire."

"You just answer a few questions and you find your perfect match?", Ripster asked with a look of doubt, "I don't buy it."

He got up after he finished and dumped his trash into the trash bin before setting the tray on top of it.

"I'll catch up with you after school.", he said before he headed off to the pool table that the cafeteria had, "Maybe a pool game will help me work off this stress."

He had just gotten to the table only to find someone there already. It was a girl about his age with black hair with white highlights at the ends wearing black leather jeans, a dark gray top with no sleeves, a black leather jacket and boots taking a shot with her stick and sent the remaining pool balls into the holes while a group of boys were observing.

"She's good.", Ripster said.

The girl got up and looked over her shoulder giving him a quick glance of her icy gray eyes before turning back.

"Okay boys, pay up.", she said firmly.

The group of boys put money on the table til it looked like fifty bucks before the girl took it and put it in her jacket pocket and turn to Ripster again.

"You here to play too?", she asked raising an eyebrow.

Ripster took a breath.

"I..dabble a bit."

"You kidding me John?", one of the other boys answered, "You play pool better than most of anyone on campus."

The girl smiled.

"Really? Then how bout a game between us? I beat you, you buy me dinner."

Ripster got his nerve back instantly.

"Fine, but I beat you, you refund the money you took."

The girl's smile broadened before reaching aside and giving him a pool stick.

"Game on.", she said with a bit of sass in her tone.

/

Slammu, Streex and Jab had finished their lunch and arrived to see Ripster in a serious pool game.

"Whoa, who's bro playing?", Slammu asked as they came over.

A boy nearby leaned close as they saw it was a girl Ripster was playing against.

"She calls herself Sass. Most serious pool player around here. She just shows up and she's been beating pool players every lunch hour."

Ripster had finished his shot which sent three balls into the holes.

"Does every guy have to play you just to find out a name?", he asked.

The girl's smile didn't flinch as she took her shot by sitting on the table and taking it behind her back sending the next ball to send two balls into the holes.

"Ask the guys who ask me for my number."

After a couple more shots, they were down to the final shot, and it was Ripster's turn. The whole group tensed as Ripster lined up and took the shot and made it in. The girl took out the money she had taken and laid it on the table as the boys she took it from took it back before turning to Ripster.

"Name's Sarah.", she purred before giving her hair a flip and walking away.

Ripster felt his heart skip a beat before noticing the crowd looking his way. Luckily the bell rang and they had to get to class right away. In the hall, his brothers caught up to him.

"That was some game bro.", Jab said encouragingly.

Ripster sighed.

"Yeah, that girl really had me a couple times."

Streex smiled.

"Looks like big bro has a new admirer.", he said before looking at the flier he still had, "Maybe I should give this a go. See if I can find someone who can handle my..good looks."

Ripster shrugged. What could it hurt anyway? By the time he got to his next class which was geometry, he had gotten to his seat just as Sarah arrived in the room as the bell rang. The teacher who was in her chair looked her way annoyed.

"Ms. Farish, I have asked you to arrive a few minutes early this time. Not keep arriving just as the late bell rings."

Sarah just took her seat which happened to be a couple behind Ripster's as the teacher started the class.

"Now, who would like to demonstrate problem thirty two on page seven hundred and fifty one?"

/

Paradigm observed each shark in a special screen on his computer in his lair while his seaviants helped clean around the tanks in the back.

"I still don't understand why you're playing matchmaker.", Repteel muttered as he powered a vacuum to clean the floor, "And what does his new creation of yours do anyway?"

Paradigm's smile didn't flinch.

"It's all part of my latest plan.", he answered, "The Bolton brothers are formidable I admit to say, but luckily I have devised a special new creation to help remedy that. And it looks like our final shark is about to meet his match."

The seaviants took a break t observe Streex on a screen as the former shark was outside at the skate park which was used between classes at the university where a girl with brown hair tied in a pony tail hairstyle wearing jeans, a plain white shirt with paint splatters faintly seen which would suggest she was an artist and glasses was also there drawing in a pad before Streex landed near her and looked apologetic.

"Sorry miss, I wasn't being careful and I hope I didn't mess up anything."

He looked up as the girl looked over her pad to reveal her amber colored eyes.

"It's okay.", she said shyly, "It's not that good anyway."

Streex looked a bit eager.

"Mind if I see?"

Paradigm rubbed his hands together chuckling with malice in every syllable as the girl blushed.

"Go on. Give the boy what he wants."

The seaviants still looked clueless.

"You still didn't answer Repteel's other question.", Kilamari put in, "What does this new thing-"

"Quiet!", Paradigm snapped, "You'll see that soon enough."

The girl shyly showed her drawing to Streex to show that it was him she was drawing.

"Were you watching me?", Streex asked.

"Yeah.", the girl admitted, "I'm trying to find a good thing for the paining in my art class and you seem like the best option."

Streex looked complimented.

"Thanks, my name's Robert Bolton Jr., but everyone calls me Bobby."

The girl smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you.", she said taking his hand and shaking it, "I'm Amber Kelsey. I just started last week in this school."

Paradigm chuckled again.

"And my plan starts falling into place."

/

Dr. Bolton placed the final papers he had collected from his class before writing the latest diagram on the blackboard.

"After careful migration and by using echolocation, the gypsy shark is capable of using teamwork to feed the group in which it is hunting alongside."

Some of his students were taking notes as they were supposed to, but a few were clearly not into the subject.

"Who would hunt with a group of fish that isn't even like them?"

Dr. Bolton stopped writing and turned around. As much as he wanted to go shark on this student, to do so would not only freak his students out, but could also make him lose his job which was something he couldn't afford. Luckily he was an expert on handling misbehaving young people and he had a plan on how to get his point across.

"Well since you brought it up, would you care to tell the rest of the class what you think a gypsy shark could do to get the food it needs?"

The student froze. Clearly he wasn't one to speak out loud and in front of the class when he doubted a teacher and Dr. Bolton could see it. The student fidgeted a bit and looked nervously from one side to another as the others watched with eager eyes waiting for what he was about to say.

"Um..it could...find slower fish?", he guessed.

"At a swim rate of thirty miles per hour I doubt it.", Dr. Bolton said calmly, "Nature has ways of individuals overcoming differences to benefit everyone they know. I expect a full report on this shark from you on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. And don't even bother to download something from the internet cause I can tell when a student is lagging behind or bullied someone else into doing their work. I expect this report a full five pages long and hand written I might add."

The student looked shocked.

"Seriously? I'm already-"

"Care to make it ten pages?", Dr. Bolton asked cutting him off and raising an eyebrow.

That shut the student up as he got out his text book and started working.

Dr. Bolton smiled and turned back to his diagram chuckling under his breath.

"Works every time."

As soon as he finished, the bell rang signaling the end of class for the day and the students began leaving. One student however stayed behind and it wasn't the student that Dr. Bolton had assigned the five page report to.

"How did you do that?", she asked him.

"I raised four boys who were like that.", Dr. Bolton answered her, "I also read your report on the blue ring octopus and I must say it really made the grade."

The student blushed.

"Well, I better get to my last class."

Dr. Bolton nodded as she left and he got ready for his next class. It wasn't work in a lab, but it put food on the table, a shirt on his back and kept a roof over him and his son's heads.

/

After the final bell, the boys met back in the dorm with Dr. Bolton already there with Bends and Lena.

"Hey guys.", Bends said very pleasant, "How was your day?"

"I met this great girl at lunch and she plays pool.", Ripster said dreamily.

Dr. Bolton who was grading papers from his classes paused for a moment as he listened to his sons talk about the girls they had met. He came in as he noticed the flier Streex still had and it caught his eye.

"What's that in your hand son?", he asked.

Streex pulled out the flier from his pocket and handed it over.

"Oh just something I found in the school paper. Dad, maybe you can try it yourself."

Dr. Bolton looked at the flier, but then discarded it into the trash.

"I don't go on arranged dates.", he said calmly, "You only fall in love once and I did."

"I thought your work was your first love.", Bends said a little surprised.

"Nah, Dad first met our mom before he got carried away with his work.", Jab said.

Dr. Bolton shuddered for a second, but luckily nobody saw it before he regained his posture.

"Well, I better get back to grading papers for my class.", he said quickly.

He went back to the room as Lena and Bends got dinner set only to find someone else was in the room. The chair turned to reveal Theo sitting only to rise out of it.

"Enjoying your work?"

Dr. Bolton paused.

"You again?", he asked, "Why are you here?"

"Call it a hunch.", Theo answered, "Do you not find that it's a bit odd that each of your boys happen to meet his perfect match and in a short time span?"

That got Dr. Bolton's attention and he turned to see the door was closed behind him.

"You think it's something fishy?", he asked turning around to see Theo wasn't there, "Theo?"

He chose to shake it off and headed to his computer and finished grading papers while thinking of what Theo had mentioned.

"Yeah, it is weird that my boys had met the perfect match, but why?", he thought to himself, "Paradigm and his goons haven't tried anything, but why do I get that sinking feeling I usually get when something foul is unfolding?"

He caught the aroma of steak which clarified to him that dinner was being served and he stacked the papers and headed to the kitchen unaware that outside his window, Theo was observing and turned to his book open to a page.

"So my little clue gave the parent the boost he needed to catch on.", he said(mostly to himself) as he turned the page, "But the saying goes: when something seems too good to be true, it often is. And yours truly has a very ghoulish encounter in mind for the Street Sharks. One I'm sure will send shivers down their fins."

He paused to see the page in his book open to reveal something lurking in the shadows near the gym building.

"Well, time to get things moving along.", Theo said smiling.

He lifted a finger that lit up and pressed it to the book. Instantly the gym building in the distance quivered and settled before anyone noticed anything. Theo turned and walked off taking his book along with him.

"So it begins."

He looked into the book to reveal something moving around in the shadows until it lifted up into the rafters clearly checking the place out.

"Best of luck Boltons.", he stated as he closed the book, "You're gonna need it."

And in less than a minute, he vanished with his book leaving nothing behind.

To be continued...