HOORAY!!!! I LOVE DSL!!!!!!! Mine!!!! You can't have it!!! Get your own!!! Oh, yeah, and more of my fanfickly thing. Nice.

~Nekofujin, Queen of the Midget People Republic

Disclaimer: I don't own Outlaw Star. But maybe someday Gene will be mine...

******************************************************************************************************

"Are you sure you have your lunch?" Melfina asked with motherly concern.

"Yeah," Jim replied, tiring of Melfina's suffocation. "Don't worry, Mel, I'll be fine..."

"Got your underwear on right?" Gene teased. Jim glared. Gene, more serious now, said "Need a ride?"

"Nah, I'll take myself to school in Ehefrau." Jim checked his watch. "Well, I'd better be going..."

"See ya, Jim." Gene said, ruffling Jim's already un-neat hair. "When you get back, we have a job to get working on-- meet me at the bar when school's out, 'kay?"

"Okay, 'bye," Jim said, starting Ehefrau. He waved as he drove away.

Melfina waved back. "Do you think he'll be alright?" she asked Gene. "I worry about him..."

"He'll be fine," Gene replied, walking back into Starwind & Hawking Enterprises. Melfina remained on the stoop for a few more moments, gazing in the direction Jim had left.

***

Jim pulled into the school's parking lot a few minutes early. other kids, most of them younger than he, were already crowding around the front entrance. He attracted the attention of a few of his soon-to-be peers with Ehefrau.

"You can DRIVE??" a little brunette stared in awe, and reached out a hand to touch Ehefrau.

"NO!!!" Jim cried, jumping between the girl and his car. The rest of the children stared. "DON'T touch!" he warned them all. As a group, they slowly backed away. Jim breathed a sigh of relief, then checked his class schedule. His first class was Computer I. He shrugged on his backpack and left to find the classroom.

***

Jim had a surprisingly difficult time finding the classroom-- the school, as primitive as it seemed to be, had very complicated halls. He entered the classroom a few minutes late.

The teacher, a man who appeared to be in his mid-forties with a comb-over, glared, frustrated, at his computer monitor. After a few moments he noticed Jim's presence.

"Oh, hello," he said, gesturing for Jim to come in past the doorway. "You're Jimmy, right?"

Jim bit back a nasty reply. "Jim, actually."

"Right, Jimmy..." the teacher had returned to his computer, grumbling a few cursings.

Jim glared, but was still curious about his teacher's problems. "Jim. And what's wrong with your computer?"

The teacher gave the computer tower a good whack, then said, "It keeps coming up with this damned-" he stopped suddenly-"darned message..."

Jim gave the monitor a momentary inspection, typed a few things expertly, and stood back, examining his work. The teacher stared in awe.

"That should do it," Jim said, pleased with his "educator's" reaction. "Where should I sit...?"

His teacher waved in a general direction, where an unoccupied computer was. He took a seat in the flimsy plastic chair, questioning its durability. The boy next to him, black-haired and blue-eyed, waved his greetings.

"I'm Wally!" he whispered. "You're smart."

"Um... thanks," Jim replied. "I'm Jim." (heehee, redundant, yes?)

The whiteboard in front of the class instructed them to search for a few things on the internet as the teacher attempted to recreate Jim's expertise on his own with a dumbstruck expression.

Jim finished the assignment within the first few minutes (most of it consisted of finding kickball suppliers and how much an antique Dodge Viper would cost). Instantly bored, he began estimating figures for the Outlaw Star's expense, how long it would take to pay Fred back, and how many beers Gene drank in the last month.

The teacher, still immersed in trying to find out what Jim had done, raised his head at the sound of Jim's PDA. He walked over to where Jim sat.

"No electronics in school, Jimmy," he said sternly, gesturing for Jim to hand it over.

"Jim," he corrected once more. "J- I- M. And I need this for my business." He thought for a moment. "And check out what it does." He typed a few keys, then showed the results to his teacher.

"SOLITAIRE!!" the teacher squealed, then gasped as an exciting idea dawned on him. "Can you get solitaire on MY PDA?"

"Sure, give it here."

Jim's teacher trotted over to his desk, pulled out his archaic PDA, and gave it to Jim eagerly, who, after a few moments, returned it.

"Jimmy, you're a genius!" the educator cried, hugging his PDA.

"Jim," he corrected once more. His teacher, now sitting at his desk contentedly playing solitaire, didn't even hear him.

******************************************************************************************************

Alas, the end of another chapter. It's coming along better than I imagined it to... ^^!!! heehee! Anywho, another update shortly, I think... Ja mata!