Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies, and I don't own Ershey, Striker, Sapphy, or Izzy. Yeah, they own themselves.

NEW FIC! YAY! Okay, I know not all the characters aren't in the first chapter, but they will DEFINITELY be in the second chapter... I just couldn't make this one too long or people would lose interest. cough Okay, on with the fic! :D

SKITTERY

Ah, Monday has finally arrived after a weekend of complete and utter boredom. Today, I can finally rejoin my friends, loitering in the hallways of the fourth floor, walking from class to class, ready to gain more knowledge and--

Who the hell am I kidding?

I fucking hate school.

But here I was, anyway, climbing the uneven staircases to the fourth floor of my high school building. Who the hell decided to put so many staircases in this stupid building? Two flights to each floor. Four floors. Eight flights of stairs from the first to the fourth floor.

Then, of course, the administration decided to give me most of my classes on the fourth and first floor. Also, the two classes I don't have in the high school building, gym and drama, just HAVE to be all the way across the campus. So, that's eight flights of stairs climbed more than once a day, plus two trips to the other side of the campus.

I fucking hate school.

The first person I see upon reaching the fourth floor hall is one of my good friends, Ershey Williams, who had just returned from a week long vacation on Saturday. She must've missed me a lot, because before I knew it, I was being tackled to the ground by a giggling tornado of Ersh-mass.

"Hey Ersh," I said, wincing in pain. I think I'm being stabbed by a ruler in my bag…

"HI-I-I!" she replied in a singsong voice, rolling off of me and standing up. I got up, too, dusting myself off and making sure that ruler didn't do any permanent damage to my back.

"How was California?" I asked, making my way to my locker. She skipped along beside me. Too happy, that one.

"It SUCKED!" she replied, as we reached my locker. "I couldn't enjoy any of it! I missed you, and Mush, and Kyriel way too much!" I rolled my eyes at the mention of Kyriel. What? It was a reflex. The next thing I knew, Ersh was tapping her foot and folding her arms tightly.

"Y'know, I'm gonna get you two to become friends whether you like it or not!" she said stonily. Ersh and her mood swings.

"Oh, please do," I replied sarcastically, tugging on the lock of my locker, frustrated by it. Damn rusty old locks. OPEN!

Ershey rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. You two have known each other since we were seven!"

"Yeah," I replied, tugging at my lock again. "And we've hated each other since we were seven, too. HAHA! IT OPENED!"

"How can you hate someone for ten years?" she asked, sighing exasperatedly. I opened my locker door, and about a million crumpled up pieces of paper fell out of it. Taped to the back of my locker was a note.

"Happy Monday," I read. "Love, Kyriel."

I fucking hate school.

ERSHEY

"See?" I said, trying to make the best of the situation. "She loves you!" I forced a smile.

Skittery ripped the note out of his locker angrily. "Give me a break, Ersh. You know that there was sarcasm dripping all over this goddamned note!"

I sighed. It was useless. See, I have this theory: My friends, Kyriel and Skittery, both have this undying love for each other but hide it by pretending they hate each other. So, I've been trying to get them to be friends since we were all seven years old. I mean, everyone loves happy endings right? And as my job as The Matchmaker (alright, so I've never ACTUALLY matched up two people, yet), it was my job to make sure that—

"MUSH!!" I yelled, pulling my attention away from Skittery and over to one of my other best friends, Mush, who had just entered the hallway.

"ERSHEY!!" he yelled back, smiling. We ran towards each other.

It was kind of hard to tell who tackled whom, but the outcome was still the same - a laughing mess of Murshey on the floor.

"I missed you!" I exclaimed, jumping up and helping Mush off the ground.

"I missed you, too!" he replied. "It's so boring here without you."

Mush and I had been best friends since we'd met, which was when we were seven years old. Yep, all of us met when we were just seven. Cool, huh? And the best part was that we've all been the closest of friends since! Well, except for Skitts and Ky… but I'm gonna change that. I. AM. DETERMINED.

Lately, I've been having thoughts about me and Mush's relationship. Not bad thoughts, of course, just… interesting ones. It was the first time I'd ever actually wanted to be more than just friends with him. I loved his smile, his hair, his eyes…

But I could never tell him. No way. It would ruin our friendship, I know it would. The only person I've told is Kyriel.

"ERSHEY'S BACK!"

Whoo, check that out.

I whipped around quickly and was enveloped in a tight hug.

"Ky!" I said in a mock whine. "I'm supposed to tackle you! You ruined the process!" I poked her in the tummy just to annoy her, and she jumped backwards.

"NO POKING!" she exclaimed, holding her hand out to keep me at a distance. We immediately broke out into fits of laughter. We were weird like that.

"Hey Mush!" Kyriel said, smiling. She turned to Skitts and merely nodded.

"Skittery."

"Kyriel."

I HATE TENSION!

"SO!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands together. "What did you all do while I was gone?"

"I got a hair cut," Kyriel said grimly, fingering her jet black which now fell just past her shoulders. I gasped.

"You cut your hair?!" I asked, my eyes widening. "But your hair was so beautiful when it was longer!"

"I know," Kyriel replied, then glared at Skittery. "I guess some people think sticking gum in someone's hair is funny."

"And some people," said Skittery, glaring back, "Seem to think that 'redecorating'— (He shot air quotes at her) – someone else's locker is pretty damned funny as well. How the hell did you get my lock combination?"

Kyriel smirked mischievously. "A-ha, so you found my note?"

"Don't change the subject. How did you get my fucking lock combination?!"

"OKAY!" I yelled, sliding in between the two. "Now that we've gotten all caught up with you two, let's find out what Mush did."

Mush shrugged. "I kind of want to see what's gonna happen next in this argument." I shot him a look. "I mean… I… Went swimming?"

I blinked at him. "You went… swimming."

"Oh, alright, I did nothing," he said, rolling his eyes. "Seriously, Ersh, it's no fun when you're not around! I've got to deal with these two always bickering about something! You'd better not leave again. I swear, I'll die if you leave me again."

Melt. Melt. Melt. Melt.

…

Melt.

SAPPHY

"Aw, PLEASE?!" I pleaded to my teacher, following him upstairs to the fourth floor. "Please, please, please, please, please, plea—."

"You'd better quit it, young lady," he replied, whipping around and staring at me menacingly, "Or you'll get TWO detentions." He opened the door, and we entered the fourth floor hallway.

"But… But, Mr. Pearson!" I begged, clasping my hands together. "I already have five detentions!"

"Oh, yeah," he replied. "That's true…"

My eyes lit up. This teacher DID have a heart!

"Five detention equal one after school detention. See you later this afternoon," Pearson said, and walked away.

Shoot me.

"ARRRGGHHH!!!" I yelled, kicking a nearby locker and instantly regretting it because now I had a aching foot. Could this day GET any worse?! I HATE MONDAYS!

"That wasn't very smart, now was it?" said a voice from behind me. Oh, great, just what I need. A smart-aleck.

I slowly turned around. "Look, guy, I don't need a… a…" I trailed off. Standing in front of me was Racetrack Higgins. I'd shared lunchtimes detentions with him many times but he'd never said a word to me until now. Not that I wanted him to… I mean, I… Well…

Yeah, alright, I like him. Leave me alone.

"You okay?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and snapping me out of my reverie.

"I'm fine!" I said, sounding perhaps a bit too happy. "H-How are you?" What the? Why the hell did I say THAT?!

Race gave me a weird look. "I'm good… I was just listening to your little begging scene with Pearson. Nice try." He SAW me?! I'm not turning red, am I?

"Yeah, well," I replied. "I don't exactly need an after school detention." Race laughed.

"Like anyone needs any kind of detention," he said, smirking. Gotta love that smirk.

I nodded in agreement. Before I could reply, however, the bell rang. Damned bell.

"Well, I'll see you after school, kid," Race said, turning to leave. I raised an eyebrow.

"After school?"

"I threw a water balloon at him."

"Gotcha."

Whee, and there you have it! Well, you know what to do, review, review! :D Muahaha... hoorah for bad rhyming!