Aaaaannnddd here's the first official chapter of this ff! I hate myself for taking forever to write this, it should've taken me less time than this but I was just being my lazy self. Also, there was the fact that I have a ton of extra characters now, not to mention the boys, but I'll get to that later. On to the chapter? Oh, and also, each chapter would be written in at least one or two POVs. The POV in the prologue will be revealed if you read on...
Disclaimer: Don't own Newsies, Denton, or Bare (which I am currently obsessed with right now). OC's own themselves.
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Chapter One: Notebooks
Snitch
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Ah. You got to love mornings.
I smiled to myself, closing my eyes as I relaxed, my feet propped up on the desk before me while I comfortably sat in my chair, my hands placed across my belly. It was almost peaceful. It's hard to describe, I guess I'm just a morning person. Something about starting a new day just brings a smile to my face.
"MOM! STOP CALLING MY CELLPHONE!"
Dammit.
It was fun while it lasted.
I opened my eyes, scanning the room. It didn't take long to figure out who it was. Besides, I'm sitting here in a classroom and there's really nothing much for my eyes to look at.
Hmm. Well, actually…
There's a mighty lot of testosterone walking around.
But we're not going to go there.
Anyways, I'm in summer school. Why, you may ask? Well… just for the heck of it. But we'll get to that point later.
"Hello? Hello? Wait, you're not my Mom…"
Mush Meyers. I wasn't surprised. To make a long story short, he's one of the many jocks running around this school. Running this school even, if you could look at it. I couldn't blame him; it was just the way things were. I have to admit though, he sure is one of the nicest guys I know – not that I like him or anything, he's way out of my league. He just doesn't exactly get a long with his Mom…
"Auntie?! Why are you calling – No, this is not the number to our house…" he said a bit calmly this time, rubbing the nape of his neck, cell phone still firmly placed on his ear.
…Or maybe he doesn't exactly get a long with most of his family if you look at it that way.
CRASH.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" came a mumble near the front of the classroom.
What the hell…?
"You didn't see that, okay?" she said to no one in particular, laughing at herself before steadying herself to sit at her desk properly.
I have to admit, she did look familiar. Jaylene… something or other, if I'm not mistaken. She's one of the Asian girls running around here, I think. I haven't heard much about her except she actually likes classes, maybe except for history. That and the fact that she's Swifty's half sister, so there's no mistake he's up and running around here somewhere.
I sighed.
When is class actually going to start?!
Not that I want it to or anything, it's just waiting here gets you a little bit antsy sometimes.
I looked over next to the desk next to me towards a head of dark brown hair, resting on the crook of his arm. It's my fault he's like that, y'see. That he's asleep. But you wouldn't want to disturb something so… beautiful, right? He almost looks peaceful that way. Scratch that, he is peaceful. Dammit, I want to so much to just reach over and run my fingers through his hair, but…
But…
There's always a 'but'.
I don't know if he's confused or if I am, but I just can't fathom the fact that he's straight. Straight. It may just be me imagining things (though I do have to admit I sure do that a lot), except I can't help but think that he's like me. Gay. A homosexual. There's times when I see that its possible, when I see the clues, and I want so much to just reach out to him, but the minute I confront him about it, he seems so… so distant and I really can't blame him if he wouldn't talk to me about it. I just wish he would.
I know… I know it, that one day he'll know how I feel. Or at least understand me, which may be just as better. Then we'll skip off into the grass with the bunnies and –
"Snitch!"
"Huh?" I muttered, almost loosing my balance on the chair and realizing that there were at least nine other people in the room.
"How long have you been sitting there like that?" asked Kyriel, raising her eyebrow as she took a seat next to me.
She was our amiga that one. With her black hair and matching black eyes to go with it, and slightly pale skin, it makes you wonder why she doesn't have a boyfriend.
"Er, five minutes?"
"So, were you looking at him for five minutes like that?"
I felt my eyes widen.
"No, I wasn't!"
It was only… y'know, thirty seconds. Nothing wrong with that! Of course, that was only thirty seconds of this minute.
"Stop being such a scaredy cat!" she laughed, waving her hand. "How can you like Skittery? He's just Skitts!"
"Yeah…" I muttered. "Just Skitts…"
Just Skitts. Somehow that doesn't sound right… he isn't just Skitts…
"SNITCH!"
"Agh, what?" I mumbled, jumping from my seat the second time this morning.
I should really try that paying attention thing much more… but then it doesn't really help when I'm off thinking about something else. Or, y'know, someone else.
"Mrrmph – penguins!" muttered Skittery, also jolting awake from Kyriel's shout a second later.
Aw, he's so cute. Hold on. Penguins. Hmm. And you wonder what's going on inside a person's head…
He groaned, rubbing his eyes before giving us a good look. "What'd you do that for?"
"It was mostly towards Snitch," said Kyriel, nodding towards me. "He was off staring at --."
AACKKKK!
I opened my mouth, ready to protest. If Skitts was going to find out about my undying love for him, it was not going to be this way! There were supposed to be sunlight, clouds parting, music playing in the background, and – okay, I admit, I have obviously thought about this before.
But before I was able to utter another word, an Italian looking kid stood up from his chair among a group of kids about my age that I never seen before, pointing his finger at another boy wearing a cowboy hat. One thing was for sure – they didn't go to school and I thanked the Lord for that Italian kid for interrupting Kyriel.
"Okay, okay!" he said, putting his hands up in surrender. "Double or nothin'! That's it and this'll be over!"
Ha. The guy sure was confident.
"Hold on," said the cowboy kid, standing up from his seat and walking over to the closed door with a smirk on his face. But this guy, he knew how to get a room's attention when he wanted it, and that what he was doing right now. Even Mush took the time to put away his cell phone to see what was going on.
He peeked outside through the small window. There were still kids outside, at least half of the class, the ones not yet willing to step inside and the ones who were soon to be late for this class. Not like they cared anyway.
"I bet you," he said, the Italian kid still watching his every move. "That you can't scare that guy right there. Then you'll have your eight bucks. Actually, it looks like the teacher's right behind him… make him jump in front of him and you'll have two extra."
I raised my eyebrow. Well, they were sure having their fun.
"Alright then," nodded the Italian kid, walking over behind the door as the cowboy kid made way for him.
I didn't even bother to watch. It was pitiful the way they played around just to get money from each other. I wouldn't even be surprised if they kept on doing that until summer school ended. Poor guy.
"Are the two of you taking another class after this?" said Kyriel, interrupting my thoughts as she looked at her schedule. "I got Music and Drama after break."
"Yeah," I answered. "I got that too. What do you they'll make us do? You think we can act and sing a song from Bare?"
"Geez, Snitch," muttered Skittery. "You haven't even watched the show!"
"I know," I said, shrugging. "But I do have the cd and nothing's stopping me from ---."
"AUGH! SHIT, WHAT?!" came a loud shout from outside. Well, looks like the cowboy kid was going to get his ten bucks for today.
A shuffle of footsteps came from outside as the door opened to a red-faced kid named David, the one the two probably were making a bet on, followed by a middle-aged man wearing a bowtie with a briefcase in hand. There was no mistake he was the teacher. With a BAD fashion sense, no doubt. He walked over to the huge table placed in front of the rows of smaller desks and chairs as more kids walked inside.
"Dude," said Skittery, looking at the doorway. "How many of us are in summer school this year?"
I was surprised too. I recognized Spot right away followed by the one and only Randy, his very own girlfriend, as they took a seat in front of the class. The next couple that came in the door was Alexia and Swifty. They weren't exactly a couple, you could say, they always persisted they were just friends, but everybody knew they were bound to get together eventually.
All the rest of the kids I didn't know, from other schools most likely, but there was one girl that I've seen walking around school for the past few days. I watched her take a seat, curly red hair stopping halfway down her back and blue eyes. Endora, was her name, I think. I heard that she was transferring to our school next year. The girl's probably here to get used to the atmosphere. Of course, you can't really do that without all of the other students.
"Hey, look, Snitch, its Lute!" said Kyriel, nudging me as she pointed towards the door. And sure enough, there she was, the proud and haughty big mouth that completed our group of four.
"Thank goodness I don't have math class for first period this time," she muttered, making her way towards us, taking a seat next to me. "I swear, if I have to go through that again, I'll probably end up sleeping behind my book just as always."
"I ain't complaining," I said, shrugging. "At least it's quiet when it's morning. Whoa, hey, I was just joking, don't hit me!"
I didn't say that she had a big mouth for nothing, did I?
"Okay, okay, everyone in their seats! Class starting!" exclaimed the teacher, walking about the classroom to usher the others inside.
"C'mon, it's already eight and --- sorry, didn't see you there, miss. What's your name?"
"Jamima," answered the girl that our teacher had almost ran over.
Hold on. Jamima? Jamima Yeager?
I sure wasn't the only one who was shocked because it didn't take long for Skittery and I to exchange glances before looking back at the situation.
"Okay, then, Jamima, take a seat."
I raised my eyebrow, turning my attention towards Swifty who looked like his jaw was about to drop any second. And I thought my summer would be boring. Jamima's Swifty's ex-girlfriend. The fact that Alexia was also taking classes with them right now didn't make the situation look a bit better.
"Looks like everyone's about here," he said, looking about the sea of teenage faces about the classroom before closing the door.
"I'm Bryan Denton, but you can call me Denton if you like. I'm going to be your teacher for Creative Writing and Advanced English this summer. I worked for a newspaper a few months ago, so this may seem a bit new to me, but I did work as a substitute when needed. Now, seeing that there's so many of you… at least thirty in this classroom, this is going to take a lot of patience from both you and me. We don't want everybody at each other's neck, now, would we?"
"Uh, sir?" said a girl, hesitantly raising her hand.
"I'd also like you to make it a point to say your name when I call on you, or when you talk. Sorry, yes?"
"Oh, um, I'm Elizabeth." Oh. Conlon's sister. "What exactly are we going to be doing this year?"
"I have a lot of ideas and projects for this class, one of them I'm going to be announcing in just a few minutes. But, of course, we're going to be writing. There's also a possibility of us reading a book that…"
"We're going to read a book?" said a boy with an eye patch over his left eye as a chorus of groans filled the classroom. "Oh, the name's Blink."
Oh gee. I wonder why.
But I did have to say that reading a book during English class is wearing me out. Can't we do something else more interesting?
"I'm Sapphy. Anyways, what do you think we're supposed to be doing in an English class?" muttered a girl from the front row, turning around to look at Blink with her blue eyes. "You read and write, doofus!"
I couldn't help but laugh. Smart girl, that one.
"Well, yeah!" shouted a boy from the back of the room this time. "But at least make it an interesting book! I'm Bumlets."
"Er, my name's Brandie," mumbled a girl with green eyes and light brown hair. "If we are going to read a book what book is it going to be, anyway?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Okay, calm down!" said Denton, chuckling as he raised his hands in front of the class to calm us down. "Y'all are pretty riled up about this book, huh? If you didn't hear me earlier, I said possibly. So lessons and activities might change eventually. One thing's for sure though, we're going to have one heck of a discussion when we need one. Now you all look a little antsy for what we're going to do in this class, so let's start out with your very first assignment. Your assignment until summer school ends."
Assignment?
Geez, the guy's making us work this summer! But 'course, what did I expect? I'm in summer school!
But before we could say anything, he had motioned towards a stack of notebooks on his desk. There were about forty of them, just enough for all of us and those that would eventually lose a notebook. He leaned against the table, his arms crossed before his chest.
"Each of you are going to have one notebook," he said, taking the stack of notebooks as he handed them towards Swifty to distribute to the class. "And you're all going to keep this until the end of this summer school. Now, what you're going to do is write whatever you want in this notebook. Yes, anything you want, but I would really like it if you would treat this notebook as if it were a journal."
A journal?
Makes me think of little girls, holding their pink diaries, the pages filled with doodles about their crush.
Well, you can say I am a girl. Not physically, anyway.
"Uh, I'm Itey," said a boy, leafing through the newly acquired notebook in his hands. "You want us to write in this? Anything you want? So, like, we can write bad stuff about our peers?"
"If you really want to, but the thing is, you will be held responsible for what you write inside if anybody else finds your notebook. I'm giving this to you, so it's basically yours."
"Mr. Denton, are you going to be reading what we write?" said a girl much who looked much like the Italian kid. His sister, I guess, who later said her name was Saiorse. However you say that.
"No, I will not," he said, shaking his head. "But I will be checking your notebook at the end of each week to see that you have written at least four or five times in your journal. Now, I'm not doing this to know whether you like me or not, although that'd be a good idea, but I'm doing this to get all of you accustomed to writing. This'll get your creative juices flowing."
Creative juices, huh?
Hmm…
"So we really have to write in this?" said Skittery, interrupting my thoughts, holding up his black notebook. Wait, I wonder what he's going to write in his notebook…
"I think it's a good idea! Oh, my name's Mel."
"But we have private thoughts, feelings, and…"
I looked down at the notebook in my hands, turning towards the first page, oblivious to the rest of the class and their arguments towards Denton. Maybe this idea wasn't too bad. I bit my lip, taking my pen in my hand and twirling it about my fingers as I looked at him. Hmmm. He said that he was just going to read it, right? That he was just going to check it… so there'd be no harm done. Besides, I ain't one of those people who leave their things around so there wouldn't be anybody to read it.
So then, everything would be okay, right?
I sighed, glancing at Skittery, who was still heated up in the classroom discussion, before I looked back down at the empty lined paper before me. I admit, I wouldn't mind writing in it. Though what made it better was that I knew exactly just what to write about.
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Mreh. I really don't think I did all too well with this chapter. Anyways, I tried fitting all of you in (don't worry, all that sent a profile are in this story) and introducing you in this chapter. [gasp] And I also figured out why I haven't been getting any emails from you guys! The underscore in my email where it was supposed to be didn't show up. Sorry 'bout that. I blame for it.
Also, what I forgot to add on my CC is an email that so that I could contact you guys, ask questions and such when I need to. So it'd be really awesome if you guys can add your email or even your AIM sn if you want to (mine's ersheykiss) in your review. I really need this so all of you can know what your actual part in this ff is. I won't be listing it up here. Okie dokie? [grins]
Shout-outs!
C.M. Higgins: Thanks for your profile! I didn't get your email though, but that's alright... good thing you left it as a review.
Frenchygoil: Frenchyyy!! huggles I haven't heard or talked to you in so long! Ack, horrible summer job? At least you got the money that you earned, right? Oh, I've also been meaning to tell you sorry about not replying to your emails before for beta-reading your ff! I was busy and I always planned on emailing you back, but I just never had time to. Anyways, thanks for sending in a profile!
TheLoneReed: Hahaha, Fighter, honey! Yeah, I finally finished your one-shot! After how long? [wink] Haha!
Sapphy: Meep, thanks for the profile! I hope you figured out who the POVer is in the prologue!
StormShadow21: Aw, thanks! Hahah, I just HAD to say something about his bowtie... who couldn't?
Lady of Tir Na Nog: Well, I was in summer school last year, so I'm just trying to mirror some of what we did. Anyways, hope you're doing alright in summer school and that you like this! Thanks for the profile!
Moonlights Sundance: Don't worry, I'll be using your character. :) And I'm taking that flirting with Jack subject seriously! [wink]
Azn-kimmi: Hey! Yeah, wouldn't want to cuss in front of the teacher, right?
Uninvisible: Got your profile! Hahah, I'm real glad you figured out a way to send it to me, I was wondering how I was going to get your profile since you didn't leave it in a review. :P Talk to you on AIM!
BoogityWhup14: Thanks for the profile! I used ya in this chapter, see? [points and smiles proudly]
turpentine chaser: Thanks for the profile! Hope to see you more around, okie?
Raven: Awesome full name for your character, by the way. Makes me want to have an Italian name!
Coin: I'll try putting you in where I need to, otherwise, thanks for the profile!
pizzaDORK: Hahah, thanks! I have a lot of ideas shooting outta my head, so it'll be really chaotic...
Song Birdy: Sorry 'bout the whole email thing. 'Twas my fault for not checking if it ended up okay and for screwing it up. :P Mreheh. Yes, AU fics ARE fun.
Dreamless-Mermaid: Leaving your profile in the review's alright, since the email I put there was messed up. :P Ack. Anyways, I'll be putting you in the ff so be happy! Heheh.
geometrygal: Aw, heya! Haven't heard from you in a while... don't worry 'bout it, I'm adding everyone in the CC that applied anyway. I think I became overwhelmed when I realized I have 30 characters or more. :P
Written Sparks: Thanks! Yeah, creative writing's awesome... hahah, the things Denton would be making to these poor kids...
Cerridwen4: Hahaha, I agree with you on the waking up part! I ain't much of a person who wakes up early. :P I'm writing this at one in the morning as I speak... or, type.