The next Monday at school would kick off homecoming week. During this time, our school would do several unusual and cheap things to excite us about it. The principle would tell us part of a story every week, ending in an assembly that acted out the last bit. There would be contests and dress up days and it would end up being quite, er, special.

Monday was 70's day where we had to dress up in outfits from the seventy's. (cough cough hence the name 70's day. cough cough) They also played music during the passing periods that seemed to be from the old principal's personal collection. Which basically meant, the songs really sucked. We caught freshmen dancing retardedly in the hallways and did our duty as upperclassmen by shoving them in lockers. Or at least threatened to do so. (We'd *never* hurt a freshman, well, maybe Jenn's sister. Winks to Jenn).

At the beginning of the day, we had an assembly where random teachers dressed up as tigers and danced around to our school's "theme song", Eye of the Tiger. (hmm, I wonder what our mascot is). Then the principal (remember, she's really Mystique) had to announced the boys running for homecoming king. The only ones willing to run were a group of identical triplets. Kurt and I heard a group of preps in front of us talking about which one was hotter.

"Brian's hotter, his eyes are like totally more bluer."

"Nah ah, John's hotter, he's like so got the better hair."

"No way, Wayne is like so the most hot, he's the tallest."

Priya had evidently heard as well. "Excuse me, uh, but they all look the same, duh. They *are* kinda identical triplets." (Side note to Priya: I know that identical triplets aren't exactly plausible, but it more funnier this way. Winks to Priya. And for everyone else that doesn't even know what we're talking about, then its betterer this way for you to. Winks to everyone else.)

The preps glared at her. "Like, what's wrong with you. They all look like totally so unique. I mean look, one has, like a red shirt, and like the others have blue. And they're different blues. I mean navy blue and dark blue. You so must not have taste in men. Don't you like date that Pietro?"

"Looks aren't important to me. I care about mind and abilities. I could care less if who I was dating was ugly or not!" Pietro shifted uncomfortably in his seat and Priya realized that some of what she had just said *might* be taken as an insult . "Er, I mean, (cough cough) well, hmm, nice weather we're having."

I laughed to Kurt. "Oh that Priya. But she's my best friend, ya."

Next, someone named "The Rope Warrior" was introduced and started doing some very, er, strange and odd jump roping tricks that he had devoted his entire life to learning. Like jump roping with his butt. (This is an actual person that once came to our school).

After he finished running around twirling a glow in the dark rope with the lights off, a group of tumblers came running out, announcing they were from the "Jessie James school for juvenile delinquents and/or pocket protector people." They jumped over each other on little mini-trampolines and then did somersaults. (These people came to our school also, only they had a different name. Our school hires really bad entertainment. They make bad choices! Let's see if anyone gets that very obscure reference. Which they won't because I didn't do it quite properly.)

As soon as the disturbing torment was over, we were dismissed back to our classes with the promise of "an even more spectacular production next time." We escaped while we had the chance.

During the last class of the day, the intercom crackled to life.

"You can't make me do this! It's not in the job description!"

"C'mon Ms. Baxter, its not so bad."

"This is degrading!"

"It's tradition!"

"Well, you can take tradition and shove it up my- is that light supposed to be flashing? No? Er, Hello student! I'm sure you're all eager to hear this year's exciting tale that leads up to Friday's big assembly. This year its about tigers, princesses, and defeating our archrivals, the snowbunnies!"

"That's what its about every year." I told Kurt. "Pretty much the same plot, and guaranteed to put you to sleep or in a coma from the stupidness of it all."

"One day Tom the tiger was sitting in the jungle, because that's where his home was. He was sad because his mommy tiger had taken away his music by Raffi. She said that it was the devil's work. He got together all of his tiger friends and they staged a protest to get their Thumbalina and Baby Baluga songs back. But their efforts for musical freedom were interrupted by a call for help by a little birdie. The four great princesses of the land had been captured by the evil snow bunnies and were being held prisoner in the evil land of the north. Aurora, aka sleeping beauty, Belle, aka beauty, Cinderella, aka, er, Cinderella, and Princess Toadstool were all being held captive in exchange for the very valuable homecoming fireworks. What will happen to the princesses? Find out tomorrow, when we return for the next installment of The Tiger's Trouble."

Kurt looked horribly afraid for the sanity of whoever had written that. Our old principal wrote them for fun and probably had enough archived to last until the next millennium. "Are they all gonna be like that?" I nodded gravely. But then we tried to picture Mystique in her true form reading something like that and nearly fell over laughing. Priya was sitting three rows back, looking shell shocked. Evidently princesses were her weakness. "Hey, the computers just started on fire!" Or maybe they just made her really, really angry.

The fire alarms went off and we all hurried outside where we met up with the others and pushed Andy into the swamp where geese tried to eat him. (Our school has a very disgusting and creepy swamp and no one really knows why) The school let us out early, and although five computers melted beyond recognition, which wasted about a years worth of technology funding, not enough damage was caused to prevent us from coming back the next day.

(AN: In all seriousness, that is how our school celebrates homecoming. It's quite, er, special, and really gets us in the romantic sort of mood. (falls over laughing) Or not. Maybe if our school used funding better, (growls angrily at the injustice of it all) then we could have a proper homecoming, but hey, this is a school! Let's not get our hopes up.)