AN: the 1st bit was so short, I made this one longer to make up for it.

Chapter 1

The New Girl

Alanna walked into her first class, and looked around.

There was no teacher yet, the students were lounging around on tables. Her eyes narrowed. Only boys were in here. Of course, she had known the Sports Orientated Secondary School had only just started accepting girls last year, but surely she wasn't the only female in the place…? She paled a little at the thought of being the only girl in a school of rowdy, teenage boys.

Moving to the closest table, she let her bag fall to the floor beneath her feet, sinking into the chair.

She had decided to come here instead of going to a regular secondary school because she had always loved sports. Plus, she wanted to show the country that women could do well in areas always considered male territory. Her parents had raised her with morals, and a fire that burnt deep in her belly…

She noticed the sudden hush in the class and looked up from her crossed arms. She wore the same uniform as the rest of the boys, a pair of black baggy shorts and a pale blue polo shirt, made from light fabric that breathed.

Yet she stood out like a sore thumb.

The red hair, perhaps? She thought dryly.

"Well, look." The boy… or was he a man?…no, boy, definitely…in front of her turned his chair to sneer at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I grow an extra head?" Alanna snapped. He opened his mouth to reply, but the door to the class room opened, and a teacher came in to call the role.

Everyone hushed, until he had finished, and looked at Alanna. "We have a new student today." He smiled at her encouragingly. An old man with a shaggy, unkept head of hair and untrimmed beard, his jeans worn through at the knees and his shirt stained, he radiated intelligence. "Alanna Trebond, would you step up to the front please?" Alanna stood, and was about to leave her bag at the desk, until she spotted the none-too-intelligent neanderthal in front of her eyeing it off.

Grabbing it, she slung it over one shoulder, and walked towards the front of the class.

Clasping her home room teacher's hand in her own, she had to smile. It wasn't often that she did, but this man…

"Alanna is our first ever female student, and we are pleased to welcome her into the school community." She felt a slow blush creeping up her cheeks. Daming her peaches-and-cream coloring, she resolutely forced back the burning in her cheeks.       

 Her violet eyes scanned the room full of guys. She was technically in year 10, but they had put her up a year after looking at her school record. She got top marks in everything…except maths.

Her eyes caught on a pair of sapphire blue ones. The owner had stylish black hair and a slightly hooked nose, but was incredibly handsome. He had a certain air about him, the others seemed to look up to him.

"You'll need someone to show you the ropes," her homeroom teacher said, his eyes scanning the room and resting on a tall youth with muddy brown hair. "Gary?" Gary nodded, flashing Alanna a grin.

"I'm Myles," the teacher told her, turning back to her and smiling again. "Try to keep out of trouble, but if you need anything, come to me." She smiled at him again, and nodded, as the bell went, signaling the first class for the day.

Gary threaded his way to the front of the class. "Ready?" He asked Alanna. She nodded. "Good. We have all our classes in the morning, then after lunch we hit the gym." She nodded again, following him.

He caught up with the group of boys he had been sitting with earlier. "Alanna, this is Jon, Alex, and Gary." She threw each boy a grin but didn't offer her hand, or speak. They all towered over her, more so than most men.

"C'mon," Raoul growled, swatting Gary. "Its English first."

**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

Gary walked into the classroom, steering Alanna to the seat next to him. They were flanked by his friends.

"So where are you from?" Gary asked her, taking out his books.

"Queensland." Alanna told him. "The Darling Downs."

He nodded, than asked, "Why'd you move?"

"Personal reasons." It didn't feel right, to tip toe around the issue. She busied herself setting out her books. The last thing she wanted to see was sympathy.

She was pleased to hear the door open, and the class settled down. A handsome man, dressed in casual cargo pants and a navy shirt strolled in. He had the same hooked nose as Jon, with brown/black hair and a well trimmed beard.

"Shakespeare!" He called out, standing at the front. Someone groaned. Alanna perked up. "Today we will read sonnet number 135 and attempt to understand what it means." He sent a glance at the Neanderthal Alanna had met earlier.

"Listen up." He picked up his book, and sitting on the edge of his table, began to read.

 "Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy Will,
And Will to boot, and Will in overplus.
More than enough am I that vex thee still,
To thy sweet will making addition thus."

He fell silent. Eyes falling on Alanna, he raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "Ralon." He turned to the Neanderthal. "Can you tell me what Will means?" There was a knock on the door, and he with a silent apology, he ducked outside.

"Duh." Ralon muttered. "Its what you sign before you die."

"Actually, in this sonnet, Will is a pun on the author's name, as well as being a variant of wish. In line 4, it means the female subject's genitalia to which the author wishes to make addition, or have sex with." Alanna said, sounding amused. "Evidently you haven't listened closely."

Ralon the Neanderthal turned to her and sneered. Being only the desk in front of her, she heard him say quietly, "Why don't you go back to milking your cows, country chick?"

"Milking cows, was I?" Alanna asked, feeling angry in spite of the weakness of the insult. "Aren't they suppose to teach you respect here?"

"Respect was it?" He leered at her. "For some jumped-up lesbian?" Alanna snarled at him, and caught the book her threw at her.

"For books is a good start!" She said. Getting her temper under control, she didn't see the teacher standing in the doorway. Sniffing disdainfully, she said with dignity, "You show yourself to be highly fed and lowly taught."

The teacher walked over to her, face impassive, and took the book from her hand, passing it back to Ralon. "Well versed in Shakespeare, I see, Miss…?"

"Trebond." Alanna told him. He made her feel uneasy.

 "Welcome, then, to my class. I'm Mr Conte. And I don't appreciate books being thrown." He sent Ralon a hard look, before walking to the front of the class again.

Alanna felt weak suddenly. That man had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"You have good taste in enemies." Jon told her. He was sitting to her right. "Even if you do make them on the first day." With that, the class began, Alanna silent.

**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

  Alanna had obviously gained the group's respect when she had shut down Ralon. Raoul, big and shy, with snapping black eyes, was the easiest with her, along with Gary, who kept chatting with her about not only Shakespeare, but anything and everything to come out in print.

After lunch, they showed her to the gym. When they went to change in the boys' change rooms, she had to knock on the door to the teacher's room, and use the girls toilet in there.

The sport uniform was whatever clothes you chose to wear. Alanna had come prepared, with a pair of loose lightweight tracksuit pants that tied around her middle, and a sleeveless shirt she wore when jogging.

Strapping her wrist, the only injury she had gotten from the car crash, she plaited her hair quickly, pulled on her runners, and leaving her bag in the teacher's room near the toilet, walked out briskly, feeling energized in spite of the cruel heat.

She found the four boys waiting for her, all wearing shorts and baggy shirts with different emblems on them.

"Ready to die?" Raoul asked her, grinning.

Her violet eyes darkened a little. "I'd rather live." She told him.

"Why'd you choose to come here then?" Alex asked, grinning along with Raoul. "Here, show us your timetable." Alanna dug into her pockets, and produced the piece of paper with her timetable on it, passing it to the boys.

Their eyes scanned it quickly. "You've got self defense today." Jon told her, handing it back. His eyebrows raised as they walked into the gym, a huge, barn-like building sectioned off by big curtains. They led her past a few different sections. "You're doing fencing, hey?" Jon asked finally.

"Yes." Alanna looked at him, her eyes guarded. "Why?"

He shrugged, and nodded at the 'room' that was before them. "That's your class in there." His eyes scanned the few boys gathered. "None of us are in here with you, so we'll see you either after school or tomorrow?"

She nodded, walking in and looking around. "The new girl." A student was sitting, totally at ease, on the cool floor of the gym. He had lively hazel eyes and was heavily muscled, quite handsome in spite of his overly large nose. "I'm George." He offered his hand.

Alanna, not one to turn down a potential friend, shook it. "Alanna." She told him.

"Well Alanna, you're in an advanced class for one so…" he looked at her. "Young." He finished, delicately.

She raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm only a year beneath you." She said, challenging him to argue. "Even if I'm not as tall, or…" She smiled sarcastically. "Manly."

He laughed, climbing lithely to his feet. "Feminist, hey?"

"You better believe it." She told him, alarmed at how much taller her was than her.

"Well, good thing you're in self defense, isn't it?" he asked, laughter glinting in his wicked eyes. "Had any previous training?"

"A bit." Alanna shrugged. She wasn't about to boast about how she had her black belt in three styles, and was a fourth Dan in another. "I wanted to pick it up again."

She hadn't done so much as a single pattern, or Kata, since the crash.

"What styles?" George had read her like a book.

"Aikido, and a style that mixed the best of Kung Fu, Jujitsu and Aikido together."

He smiled slowly. She felt her heart beat pick up. "Heard you've fallen in with the Prince." George said lightly. At Alanna's puzzled look, he explained, "Jon and his group. Jon's nickname is the Prince."

"I won't ask why. Probably some weird male naming ritual requiring a lot of beer and bragging."

"You forgot the back-slapping." George supplied. Alanna grinned at him.

The teacher came in, a short, wiry man of Asian decent, and introduced himself plainly as 'Bill.'

"You're all new faces," he looked around at the ten or so boys, plus Alanna. He didn't have a trace of an accent, as she had half expected. "I'll call out names and you call out your rankings as we go through the roll I think." He picked up the clipboard near the entrance to the enclosed space.

First was, "Cooper, George."

"Is this what we've received at school, or in our own time?"

"School." Bill said.

"Then I'm a 12." He nodded, scribbled something on the clipboard, and continued down the role, without calling out Alanna's name.

When he looked up at her, she felt her cheeks going red. Had Jon led her to the wrong class?

"A new student," He smiled at her. "You won't have a rank yet, until we see in class what you can do. I'll evaluate you today." She nodded. "Have you had any formal training?" He asked her.

"She's had a bit." George slung an arm around her shoulders, not in a sexual way, as though she were one of the guys. "Want me to go with her? If she doesn't know her stuff, I can help her, and if she does, then I can challenge her."

George, apparently, was the highest ranked in the class.

"Excellent idea, George." Bill smiled at him. "The rest of you, run through the patterns you know. I want neat lines and clean techniques." He watched them form lines, eyes narrow. "And start at the start." The boys stopped what they were doing, and prepared to move into the first pattern. "Keep in time." Bill told them, leading Alanna and George into a corner.

"What'd you do to your wrist?" George asked, taking his arm off her.

"I injured it." She told him shortly. Well, it wasn't a lie.

Bill looked at her bandaged wrist. "How?" He asked. "Is it serious?"

"I was in a car crash." Alanna told him, "and it isn't serious."

He looked a little worried, but nodded. "What prior training have you had?" He asked.

"A few different styles," Alanna evaded. "What are you evaluating?"

"Just your technique, and fighting style."

She nodded. George had stepped up to a white line in the center of a painted square.

Walking around the outside, she bowed as she walked in, her palms flat on the outside of her thighs, before continuing. She saw George give her an approving smile.
"What style is this?" She asked him.

"Oh, a mix." He shrugged. "We'll be doing basic sparring."

Alanna nodded. They both turned and bowed to Bill, the referee, then turned back, and bowed to each other, not dropping eye contact.

"Hands up." Bill called. They both stood back into fighting stance, left foot forward, right foot back, and brought their hands up, George bringing his to his jaw, hunching over a little, Alanna holding one at temple height, the other a little below her chin. "Begin!"

Alanna stepped back lightly, wishing she had thought to take off her runners. She was used to fighting in barefoot.

"Your supposed to be attacking." George told her, grinning. He hadn't moved. Alanna muttered something about not telling her the rules, before moving to the side of him, pivoting to kick at his stomach. He blocked it and brought his knee up to hit her inner thigh. She danced back, holding her hands out away from her body as she settled into a stance. "I attacked." She told him, purple eyes dancing. "Your turn."

He grinned, bouncing forward, throwing two punches, forcing her to duck under them.

She caught him in the stomach with her knee, following through with an elbow strike that would have broken his nose had she not stopped.

"Stop!" Bill called. Alanna stood back, bowing low. She must have done something wrong. George, rubbing his stomach but grinning, watched as the short teacher came into the ring. "Stand. You have trained with Senseii Phillip, have you not?"

Alanna stood slowly, unsure. "Yes…" She said slowly, frowning. "Golden Tiger Aikido."

He clicked his fingers, grinning widely. "He spoke to me of a purple eyed student. Said they were very talented."

Alanna's eyes widened, and a blush tinted her cheeks. "Thank you." She bowed her head.

Bill clucked. "That'll do for you two." He told them, beaming. "I know exactly who to ask to get Miss Trebond's ranking."

George sent her a regret filled look. She shrugged. "Now." Bill went on. "You must already know these patterns…"