Disclaimer: I own the stuff you don't recognize. Which will be most of the main characters and Roslindale, Connecticut and I'm not sure about the rest yet. But I'll keep you posted, promise.



Serena's POV

I saw Gabriella walk down the hallway, down towards her locker, which I was leaning against. Motioning for me to move, she opened her locker, only for an avalanche of books to fall on her.

"Told ya so," I said as she glared at me. "What makes you so grumpy?" I asked her as she shut her locker with a large bang.

Gabriella shot me a bored look. "Rich and his little buddy Connor. They're jerks, major ones at that."

I gave my friend a sympathetic look, "What happened?" I asked as we neared our homeroom.

She sighed as she hefted her books from her right arm to her left. "I walked into school and Connor told me I punched like a girl."

I gave her a strange look, "But you're…?"

She shrugged, "That what I said, in between the giggle fits. Why are guys so stupid?" she sighed.

"Not all of us are," a voice said from behind.

We both turned around to see the guy Gabriella had slapped. It was little more than a slight red mark at the moment. I gave her a goofy grin and sat down. "Jordan," he said, sticking his hand out to Gabriella and then me.

I shot a look at Gabriella and she introduced the two of us. I don't like new people, except maybe Gabriella, cause she was nice to me, for no reason except to be my friend.

Jordan gave a funny little grin again and turned to me, "Can I call you Rena?" he asked.

I gave him a small smile and nodded.

He grinned again, "Great, you can call me Jordy if you want. Most people do," he then turned towards Gabriella, "You name's too long, can I call you Gabe?" he asked.

She nodded, "But only if I can call you Danny."

He nodded and the shook hands before the five minute warning bell rang. He stood up, waved and walked out. The two of us sat in silence before I turned to my friend.

"Well he was interesting," I said.

She nodded, "Yeah, he has that affinity to nicknames."

The conversations went of until the bell rang for homeroom to begin.

The day passed and I saw Gabriella waiting for someone outside the math room. "Who are you waiting for?" I asked, sliding up to her.

"Danny. I wanted to ask him something," she said simply.

I grinned, "You have a crush," I told her,.

She turned, "I do not! I just wanted to ask Danny something!"

"Ask me what?" Jordan said from behind her.

She turned towards him and blushed, "Um, I was wondering if you'd like to do something after school. You know, hang out or something?" she asked.

The corner of his mouth turned up, as if he was smiling slightly. "Sure, I'd like that. I'll meet you outside." And then he was gone.

I grinned at my friend, "You do realize you just asked him out on a date," I told her.

"I did not! We're just going to hand out. There is no dating being involved," she protested, shock evident in her voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, and the guy is someone you slapped yesterday. Interesting. But how did you're father react when he found out about yesterday?" I asked, changing the subject.

She gave me an impish grin, "I was planning on not telling him, cause I guess Bartlett didn't call or what ever. But I entered the shop, he took one look at me and told me to spill. I guess I have one of those faces."

"What faces?" I asked, thoroughly confused about what she was talking about.

"Those faces that say when you did something wrong. And my dad knew about it, creepy," she said.

I shrugged, "Creepy," I repeated. But deep down I was jealous. Jealous of the fact that someone cared enough about Gabriella to know if she did something wrong, why couldn't it be like that for me?

"But I told him that I was involved in a fight. He asked if started it, and I told him no, I just finished it. He then told me never to get involved with another's fight, it gets messy. He then told me to go in the back and start shelving books," Gabriella told me.

I looked at her, "Since when do you have such a cool dad?"

She gave me a sad smile, "Since he's wanted me." I sensed that the conversation was over and I switched the topic. This girl had more enigmas than I wanted to know about.

Gabriella's POV

I sat outside, waiting for Jordan to show up. Serena had already left, and wished me luck on what she called a date. It wasn't really. He just seemed cool and I like cool people, so why shouldn't we hang out, besides it is not a date.

"So this is the girl that slapped you around?" a voice said from behind.

When I turned I saw Jordan and the guy who had been knocked out yesterday. "Yeah, that'd be me? What's it too ya?" I asked, standing up.

He grinned, "Not much, but I also heard you punched the kid that punched me, Connor."

I winced when I heard this, the guy got knocked out because on one simple punch. "That guy, Connor, knocked you out with a single punch? I'm so sorry. It must have hurt."

He shrugged, "It wasn't bad. Just surprised me that's all, which made me lose my balance. So he didn't make me pass out, the cold hard ground did. Do you really think a malnourished albino prairie dog could do that to me?"

I blinked, "You're a strange person," I remarked finally.

He grinned and motioned for me to come closer, "I'll tell you my secret to my strangeness," he said.

I leaned in, humoring him.

"Dance my puppets, dance," he shouted I my ear. I back up a bit, tripping. Jordan caught me before I could fall.

"You are an idiot!" I said.

Zane grinned, "I know, that's what people tell me. But it's so much more fun being as I am. But I heard that you and Jordan have a date, so I'll be off.

"It's not a date!" both Jordan and I yelled at him.

He grinned and waved as he walked off.

The two of us were left along and I turned towards him. "So, what do you want to do?" I asked. He just shrugged. Sighing, I looked at him. "Fine, then we're going to my house, I need to get out of this ridiculous outfit."

He grinned at me and nodded, "Okay. Whatever you say."

As we walked along, I found out that he had moved to Roslindale this summer, just like I had, except he had come east while I came south. He was telling me about his cousin when I brought up how his cousin acted about the fight.

"Um well," he said, putting his hand on the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. "He wasn't happy. When I was younger I went through a period of fighting and I ended up getting carted to a bunch of therapists by my parents. And then I came here with my cousin, and he had hoped the fighting would stop. So that sums it up pretty much," he said. I could tell that there was more to the story, but I didn't press. I knew what it was like when there were things you didn't want to tell other people.

I told him about my father's own reaction and by the time I was done we had reached my house. Quickly, I darted up the stairs and into my room, intent on my search to find jeans and a tee shirt. I was downstairs in a little under five minutes.

"That was quick Gabe," Jordan announced as soon as I ran downstairs.

I shrugged, "Didn't want to keep you waiting." And with that we walked out of the house and back towards the town center, where we could spend the rest of the afternoon lazing about.

We were sitting in the Starbucks when Jordan sneezed, sneezed again and then coughed. I gave him a hard look, his face was slightly flushed and he kept blinking. After sneezing for a third time I sighed.

"Do you feel okay?" I asked him.

He shook his head, "Nope, I'm peachy keen," he said, grinning. The grin looked a bit forced.

I snorted indignantly, "Yeah, and I'm the amazing bouncing ferret."

He looked up at me; "Ferrets can bounce?"

"That's not the point!" I told him sharply, throwing a balled up napkin his way. It hit him in the nose. "Come closer," I instructed. He leaned over and I felt his forehead, he was very warm. "You're burning up."

"I feel quite fine though. I'm not sick," Jordan tried to convince her.

"And I'm a Spanish hermaphrodite leprechaun," I told him, "Now why the hell are you refusing the fact that you're sick." I leaned back and waited for his answer.

"Cause I don't like the doctors," Jordan sat back and pouted.

I grinned, "That's it? Just ask to stay home tomorrow. You really don't need to go to the doctor."

He scowled at me, "You don't understand. My cousin, Oz, is like a she wolf. If something's wrong, he won't leave me alone about it. And god forbid I'm sick," he folded his arms across his chest and pouted.

"You're pouting again," a voice said from above Jordan. I saw the guy coming, I just thought it was better to let Jordan make an ass of himself.

"Oz!" Jordan said, surprised.

I smirked, "He's sick," I announced.

"Am not!" he retaliated, pouting even more.

"Are too," Oz said, breaking in. He felt Jordan's forehead with the back of his hand before pulling the pre-teen up.

As they were walking out I shouted after them, "If I see you in school tomorrow I'm marching your ass back home, where ever it is!"

Jordan shot me a scowl while his cousin, Oz shot me an amused look, and then, they were gone. Finishing my coffee I headed down to the bookstore in order to finish my afternoon of laziness.

"Hi papa," I said, kissing him on the cheek.

"My angel, where have you been?" he asked returning the favor.

"I was hanging out with Danny," I said simply, reshelving a misplaced book. I forgot to explain exactly who Danny was.

My father's eyes darkened, "Danny? Is he a boy? I don't like boys, especially little hormone driven ones."

I laughed. My father could be so over protective sometimes.



Author Note: Some lines do not belong to me. Such as: "Dance my puppets, dance" and Connor being a malnourished albino prairie dog. They belong to the people who run the Fruitcake Alliance, which is at "www. angelfire.com/wierd2/thwackage" Oh, and the whole "It's note a Date" is from one of the really old Doug episodes. I would like to note that a very fluff filled chapter will be done for the next chapter, which will deal with something that was brought up in this chapter.

And if you want to see more of Wesley and Angel along with Connor, you'll have to wait, the plot bunnies are getting to me and they mostly have to do with me torturing Jordy (which mostly means him getting sick and stuff). In order to get them all out, I will be writing a fic that has to deal with Jordy and Oz with what happens before this fic takes place. It will be posted after I write this.