Welcome to NHS
By Swiftly Li, as told to Keza: Queen of Procrastination
AN: Ark, I have SO much homework to do right now! But hell. That can be put off until tonight. Oh, and more importantly, most of the characters in this story are juniors.
This Chapter Sponsored By: Jeremiah Freed's self-titled album. Local rock is the BEST! You really must look into JFreed. They're pretty good live, too.
+
"So, what's his name?" I asked Magic as I gaze her a lift to school the next day.
"Hmm? Whose?"
"You know - the new kid."
"Dominic," she told me with a wry smile. I slowed at a stop sign and looked over, catching that smile.
"Don't tell me you already…"
"Ok, then I won't." I managed about another mile or so in silence before I had to ask.
"Fine, fine, tell me."
"Nope."
"No? This might be the longest you've known a guy without screw-"
"But we have a date tonight."
"Oh, right," I rolled my eyes and pulled into an empty space. "Silly me."
"Guys!" Dragonfly bounced in front of me, effectively cutting of my path to the door. "Come on! Morning entertainment!" and sprung off again.
"Hyper little bugger," I muttered. A few seconds later she reappeared and grabbed my hand to drag me over to where Sarah Jacobs and the rest of the cheerleaders were lounging. Sarah refuses to have a nickname, although several have been given to her. But that alone wasn't entertainment - the fun in the situation was the two people facing off against the cheerleader horde. Ah, of course - Riot and Oatmeal.
"Look, it's the cardigan whore," Sarah taunted, applying another layer of lipstick with a smirk in Oatmeal's direction. Oatmeal opened her mouth to shout something back, then paused and shut it again. Riot turned to her in surprise, Oatmeal just shrugged.
"Well, it's kind of true," she admitted. Riot rolled her eyes at her friend, then turned back to the crowd.
"Back ye demons," she said. "We need to get through the door!"
I glanced past Sky's head and saw she was right, the girls were effectively blocking one of the main entrances to the school. Of course Oatmeal and Riot had jumped at the chance to harass them.
I heard a door slam and looked over my shoulder to see the new kid - er, Dominic, stride away from a silver convertible. Apparently, it was his. The cheerleaders watched this and starting giggling, talking amongst themselves excitedly. Even Riot, Oatmeal, and Dragonfly stopped mocking the girls long enough to turn and drool… ew… damn, that's unattractive. Magic just chuckled from behind me. I felt a scowl come onto my face, annoyed already. He had his coat slung over one shoulder, and was combing back floppy black hair, radiating confidence.
"Hello ladies!" he greeted them once he was in earshot, flashing a wink and a mock salute before cutting a clean path through to the door. I watched with half a smirk as Ali turned "weak in the knees" to a literal statement and crashed to the ground. That smirk was again replaced with a scowl as even Chamelion stopped and stared as she was exiting through the door. As much as my stalker is annoying and all, I mean, come on! YOU LIKE ME! I wanted to shout. Instead I stared at the ground and grumbled to myself.
"That… that… that bum-"
"Let's just go inside," Pie-eater interrupted, appearing behind me.
"Wait, what did you just say?"
"Uh, let's-"
"Hah," I started towards the door. "Bum. Let's. Bumlets. Strange word."
I could see Pie's expression without turning around. He probably had one eye brow raised, eyes slightly wide, mouth twisted up into some strange half smile.
"I think you're strange," he said.
"I think you're-"
"AHEM. Chamelion, it's a little early for that," Pie again. Chamelion pouted, annoyed at being interrupted - but the moment was lost, so she frolicked off to find Adele instead.
"BOW DOWN! BOW DOWN DAMMIT!" a commotion down the hall caught my attention. Pie's eyes widened drastically.
"Steer clear," he warned. "It's not a good day for Schizo."
"Oy vey," I muttered in agreement. Ah, Schizo - our favorite - and luckily only - schizophrenic friend. On good days she's pretty normal, and we have halfway intelligent conversations about good bands… on bad days… well…
"BOW DOWN TO THE KING PLATYPUS!" she screeched. She was holding Classic's long brown hair in one hand, and trying to force her head down with the other. Classic looked absolutely petrified, and was obviously trying to scream for help. I could see that Asia had already run to get someone of authority, but I moved closer anyway, hoping to rescue Classic before Schizo snapped. Unfortunately Schizo caught sight of me first, and narrowed her eyes.
"Bow down," she hissed. I glanced around the hall, where a small crowd had started to gather, then bit back my pride and dropped to my knees. Schizo cackled and grinned deviously. I bowed, then saluted her and walked on my knees the rest of the way, placing my hands on Schizo's.
"Schiz, hon, why don't you let go of Classy?" I asked in my most soothing voice. I heard Pie and Ruin snickering from behind me and forced myself to ignore them.
"…therapist voice…" Pie was saying.
"But she won't bow down!" Schizo was protesting.
"Erm, she can't," I removed Schizo's hands and raised my eyebrows at Classic, hoping she'd get the message and just frikkin bow!
Classic blinked innocently up, somehow confused.
"Just bow," I said from the corner of my mouth.
"What? Swifty, speak up."
"Bow d-"
"Mr. Li. Ms. Smitherson," a deep, calm voice, sounded from above me. I gulped. Shit. The small crowd had immediately dispersed upon his arrival.
"Er…" I looked up and into the face of Mr. Seitz, our principal with scary sideburns. Wait, this isn't the time to talk about sideburns - I was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time, and tried to explain...
"Sir, I was just trying to help Clas- er…" I fought to remember her real name, and failed.
"Mmmhmm. After school detention, both of you," he said. I winced, but didn't even try to argue. Detention - I had only been there twice before… not happy memories.
I risked a glance behind me to see Schizo's reaction, but she wasn't paying attention. Rather, she was humming to herself and trying to twist paper clips into earrings. I sighed and got to my feet. There was no way I'd make homeroom, so I just started to my first class.
Gym, oh great. The last thing I needed right now was Denton's sweaty face studying me up and down as we did pushups. Honestly.
+
Gah, sorry, that was kind of short… I should have the next one out soon though - I just need to get some homework done. -groan- By now you should all have figured out who the new kid is… and I promise to bring in more of the newsies soon. Woo!
Next chapter… how bad can detention be?
