:hi! Hope you all had a fantastic New Year! Here is chapter 2 and health permitting – because I have a sore throat, I don't believe it not again – I hope to continue my other fanfics too!

Each chapter will focus on a couple of plots at a time, and they all link up eventually. You'll see what I mean when you read it.

Life Starts Here

Chapter 2 – libraries gave us power

Chandler walked through the wide, downstairs hallway of his mother's house and stopped outside the living room.

"Hey, mom, I'm off now. I'll see you later, ok?" he called to her, hoisting his backpack up to his shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh…right…have a good first day sweetheart!" Nora called back to him, turning her attention back to her perfectly manicured nails.

Chandler rolled his eyes and stepped out of the three floor mansion he had been living in for the past three weeks. It had been difficult trying to enrol into a school; the PTA's seemed to be wary of a 16 year old guy who had just been expelled from his boarding school in Washington. However, Lincoln High had been an exception and before Chandler knew it, it was his first day.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered, beginning to make the short journey to what he considered was going to be hell.
****

"Hey, I'm sorry but I can't eat lunch with you today!" Rachel told Monica as they entered their homeroom class.

"Why?" Monica settled down at her usual desk, near the back of the room, and looked up quizzically.

"Um…Mr. Johnston wants to go over some math homework with me. He kind of insisted on it." Rachel giggled and sat down at the desk next to Monica.

Monica rolled her eyes and nodded, not saying anything. She knew where Rachel would really be, and it didn't have anything to do with math homework. She looked over to the desks near the window, where a small group of girls were huddled over a magazine, laughing loudly. Rachel fit in so easily with those girls, even more so since she had joined the cheerleading squad. She would be sitting with them today and not Monica.

"Hey, Rachel!" one of the girls yelled, waving ecstatically, "come over here! You have just got to see what magazine Gina's got!"

Monica watched as Rachel leaped out of her seat and walked over to the girls in a way that showed she wasn't too eager, but could be excited enough to see the girls at the same time.

She looked down and traced the faded ink marks on her desk with her fingers. Monica would never fit in with that group, she was too…different. It wasn't that she was dull, or had a warped personality…she was just different. She didn't spend hours sitting in front of a mirror every morning before school to make sure her hair was in perfect pristine condition. She didn't spend her lunch break standing outside in the freezing cold checking out the senior guys playing basketball or soccer and talking about them at the same time. She didn't have the perfect manicured face and designer clothes that made the boys turn and stare whenever she walked to her locker.

She was just plain, normal Monica Geller who still needed to lose a few pounds...in her opinion.

Monica Geller didn't share the inside jokes with the rest of the girls and bitch about people behind their backs. That wasn't what Monica wanted to be, so most of the time she kept her mouth shut, bit her tongue and did her work. That was her life and that was the way it was going to be.

So why was it that whenever she heard the high-pitched giggling from the direction of that window she felt so empty inside?

****

"You've got to be kidding me!" Joey whined, staring at his new senior teacher in disgust.

"No Joey, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you must repeat Junior year." Alison DeWitt, the senior year teacher, told him firmly. "Your high school studying in Italy leaves a lot to be desired. You are so far behind the rest of the grade it's not even funny."

"Oh come on Miss DeWitt, you've got to give me a chance!" Joey pleaded, slamming his hand down on the desk, "its humiliating being held back! The juniors are babies!"

"I think you would be a lot more humiliated in a few weeks' time when you take the exams and can't work out normal math from discreet math." Alison DeWitt said dryly, "You do want to graduate, right?"

Joey sighed miserably and nodded.

"Good," Alison said crisply, "you should go report to your new homeroom teacher right away. Mr. Bob Rafferty will make you feel comfortable in your surroundings. He's the school's councillor and mentor too."

"Fine," Joey muttered, picking his backpack up off the floor and walking out of the room.

He walked down the hallway to the classroom just next door and stopped outside. He looked through the little glass pane of the door, eyes widening. In the Senior Year classroom, the students were all seated quietly at their desks, waiting for their names to be called out on the attendance list. In this classroom, some of the juniors were seated on top of their desks, talking loudly, giggling. They didn't seem to notice the young looking, male teacher seated at his desk, a smile playing around on his lips as he watched his class.

Miss DeWitt had given the impression that if she ever caught her students so much as sneeze she would put them in detention for a month.

Maybe Junior Year wouldn't be so bad after all.

****

Chandler had watched Joey Tribbiani leave the classroom as he himself just stood in front of the class feeling like a loser. He wished this scholarly but pretty looking brunette-haired teacher would just direct him to a desk and leave him alone.

"Everybody, this is Chandler Bing. It's his first day at Lincoln High, so I hope you all make him feel welcome. We all know how daunting it can be when you don't know who anybody is." She smiled at Chandler, the first smile she had given him, he noted. "Take the seat on the left in the front row next to Ross, ok?"

Chandler looked over at who Miss DeWitt was pointing to and he groaned inwardly. Ross looked like the Lincoln High version of Roger from St Washington's.

"What a geek," he muttered as he watched Ross smile eagerly at him. He walked over and sat down.

"Hey, I hear you went to St Washington's!" Ross whispered excitedly, "that is so cool! Their science laboratories are supposed to be amazing!"

"Um…yeah," Chandler muttered back at him, "I guess they're ok."

God, was he really going to be seated next to this guy every morning? He felt relieved as Alison DeWitt started to do roll call. There would be no talking for at least another five minutes…or so he thought.

"Is it true you got expelled?!" Ross whispered in his ear.

Chandler sighed softly and turned to the wide-eyed student who was giving him so much attention already. "Yeah, I got expelled, so what?" he shrugged.

"It's just…I've never…met anyone who's been expelled from school before." Ross whispered, admiration spreading over his previously serious face.

Chandler couldn't help but smile. Ross probably didn't have a lot of friends at this school; he was that type of guy…quiet, shy, geeky…a pushover. Maybe he could have a bit of fun with this guy.

"Yeah, I beat up some geeky idiot in the grade below me. He was irritating so, ya know…" Chandler shrugged, biting his lip to keep from laughing. Surely any minute now Ross would laugh at the absurdity of the lie.

"Um…I see…" Ross looked at him weirdly, almost terrified and shrank away from Chandler's ear.

Chandler widened his eyes. Had Ross really just fallen for that? He really hoped there was someone who had a sense of humour in this place.

The bell rang and the class stood up to leave. As everyone pushed and shoved to the doorway, a couple of tough looking jocks tripped Ross up, sending him careering on the floor. The jocks laughed, shook their heads and walked away.

Chandler winced as he watched Ross stand up slowly, pick up his backpack and walk out of the room. Now he felt guilty for scaring the geek like that; it was obvious that Ross had enough problems without Chandler adding to them.

"Chandler!" Miss DeWitt beckoned from her desk, waving him over. As the last student left the room, Chandler watched as his teacher lifted up a file from her messy desk and leafed through it.

"Yes Miss?" he asked nervously.

Miss Dewitt looked up, eyeing him sternly. "I thought you should know that I've read your report from your previous school. Not surprisingly, it isn't that impressive in the way of conduct and behaviour. It's Lincoln's High's policy to keep an eye on individuals such as you. I've recommended you to the school's mentoring scheme."

"Huh? You mean I've got to see the councillor?!" Chandler exclaimed, "I'm not a psycho!"

"No one is saying you are, but I think it would really help you if you did see Mr. Bob Rafferty a couple of times a week during your free periods. I'm afraid you don't have a choice in this." Miss DeWitt eyed him meaningfully.

"Fine, whatever you say." Chandler muttered. He looked at his teacher nervously. "This Bob guy…is he…strict?" he asked hesitantly.

"If you mean is he going to have you lying on a couch all day, then the answer is no." Miss DeWitt replied, smiling wryly. "It could be said that he's too easygoing. He has a dry, sarcastic way with words though, and he'll get through to you. He is a nice guy with a lot more to him than you think. Just don't start talking about relationships; his wife died three years ago, it's a touchy subject for him."

Chandler nodded. "I wouldn't want to listen to the story of my past relationships either, so you needn't worry; I'm not going to bring them up."

"Good, so your first session with Bob…I mean Mr. Rafferty…is at 3.30pm this afternoon right after your last class. Don't be late."

"Yes Ma'am," Chandler saluted the teacher and sauntered out of the room, wondering what the rest of the day was going to bring.

****

"Monday morning and I've got Double Physics, wonderful!" Joey muttered sarcastically as he walked through the hallway. He moved out of the way as the crowd of cheerleaders from homeroom barged past. At the rear of the group, he saw the back head of a light brown-haired girl, her cheerleading skirt bouncing up and down as she struggled to keep up with the rest of the group.

"It can't be…" he muttered. He walked closer to the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl stopped and turned around. As they studied each other their eyes widened.

"What?!" the girl shrieked, her hands flying to her mouth.

"Rachel Green," Joey shook his head, not believing who was standing right in front of him, "Rome, last summer …you didn't tell me you were from New York!! You do know who I am, right?"

"Yes I do!" Rachel snapped, suddenly giving him a stinging slap around the face. "Thanks for sleeping with me and then not writing to me! Thanks for totally ruining my vacation last year!" She tossed her hair, spun around on her heel and stormed off down the hallway.

Joey stared around at the sea of faces in the hallway, all eyes suddenly on him. He rubbed his stinging cheek uncomfortably. "Yeah, so she does remember me!" he said loudly, laughing it off as best as he could.

****

Monica walked through the entrance of Lincoln High's library, grateful there was such a place to escape to at lunch. She was usually the only Junior in there at that time and it suited her just fine.

She decided to keep away from some of the Freshmen who hung out in there during the first semester – the new discovery of using the computer's free internet was too hard to ignore for them for now. There were a few Seniors in that day, all studying for their mid-terms, their heads in a book.

Monica was too afraid to approach them – they just seemed so much older and grown-up.

She found a seat in the corner of the room and picked out one of her favourite books on the shelves. She loved to escape in this book; the wonderful, unique characters giving her so much pleasure.

"Pride and Prejudice huh?" an amused sounding voice said just in front of her.

Monica's head snapped up, her eyes meeting with sparkling blue. She swallowed hard and shifted away from them, studying the owner of the eyes. He sat across from her at the small table; his dark brown hair wavy, an infectious smile on his face.

She gave a small smile back at him and shrugged. "I like the book." She replied.

"Well, sure, but I only know people who read that book to be in Senior Year. Its part of a new assignment we got going…but I don't remember seeing you in Miss DeWitt's homeroom." He grinned again, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms.

Monica blushed. "I'm a Junior and as I said, I like the book." She told him, going back to reading the object of the discussion.

"You like it? Seriously?"

Monica heard the surprised tone in this guy's voice and she suddenly felt irritated by it. She looked up again and sighed. "Yeah, you have a problem with that?"

"Well…yeah!" the guy replied, laughing. "The whole book is based on whether these two characters are going to get together at the end. It's so obvious they do, but did they have to drag it out so much?!"

Monica placed down her book on the table, not willing to let this guy keep his opinion. "This book is a classic." She protested, "You couldn't have Mr Darcy and Elizabeth get drunk, sleep together wam-bam thank you ma'am, the end! It isn't a soap opera!"

"Oh if it was a soap opera then Mr Darcy would turn out to be an alien or something," the guy contradicted her, grinning, "all I'm saying is that the book has so many missed chances for them to get together."

"Well, that's what makes the book so great." Monica told him. She picked up her book. "Now, do you mind…"

"Oh sure, no problem." The guy gestured for her to continue reading her book.

Monica began to read again, not realising the young man was still watching her read.

"I know why you're reading this, it's because of that British actor, Colin Firth!" he exclaimed.

Monica's head snapped back up once again. "Excuse me?"

"It's well known that in Bridget Jones' Diary the character 'Mark Darcy' – played by Colin Firth – was taken from Pride and Prejudice. He also played Mr Darcy in a TV version of the book." He grinned and tapped the book in Monica's hand. "You can't tell me you were interested in this before Bridget Jones?"

Monica blushed, annoyed that someone had seen through her reasons as to why she loved the book so much. "So what if that is the reason?!" she asked defensively, "I can like Colin Firth if I want to! He played a very good Darcy!"

"My god, I can't believe you just caved!" the guy howled, bent over double in mirth. "I would never admit to reading a book just because I liked the actress who played the character on screen!"

"Ok, who the hell are you?!" Monica demanded, slamming down her book.

"Chandler Bing," he held out his hand for her shake, but she made no movement. "Ok, look, I see I've offended you. I'm sorry, Colin Firth is one hot dude." He rolled his eyes.

Monica smiled in spite of herself. "You didn't have to say that." She told him, "Unless you're gay or something."

"No, that would be my father, and I'm happy to say that right now I don't look anything like him."

Monica giggled and held out her hand to shake Chandler's. "I'm Monica Geller." She told him.

Chandler smiled keenly. "I know a Ross Geller, any relation?"

"He's my brother." Monica told him, wincing.

Chandler widened his eyes at her in mock horror. "No wonder you read Pride and Prejudice! I think even I would come in here to read it to just get away from him!"

Monica laughed and nodded. "Yes, he's kind of a pain sometimes." She paused and studied Chandler, trying to remember if she had seen him around school. "Are you new here or something?"

"It's my first day."

"Wow, how are you coping?"

"What do you think?" Chandler asked, laughing, "Its lunch and I'm in the library arguing with a Junior about Colin Firth! I have zero friends, I've managed to annoy my Biology teacher, Mr Fisk, already and I have tonnes of homework. I'm coping quite well considering!"

"If it makes you feel any better, Mr Fisk is a jerk, I don't have any friends either and I have two Math reports to hand in tomorrow which I haven't started!" Monica spread out her arms and shrugged.

"You don't have any friends?" Chandler asked quietly, "really?"

The smile faded from Monica's face. "Well, there is one friend, but she's usually too busy to spend any time with me."

"Well, then I guess you and I should hang out sometimes!" Chandler offered, smiling.

"That would be cool…thanks." Monica said hesitantly.

"No problem." Chandler said softly, smiling reassuringly at her.

****

"So, Chandler, how was your first day?" Bob Rafferty asked pleasantly later that afternoon.

Chandler shifted around in the leather-clad chair placed in front of Bob's desk, feeling increasingly uncomfortable being in the presence of his mentor for the first time. "It was ok…I guess." He muttered, looking down at his feet.

"Look at me Chandler, I hate it when students won't look at me." Bob instructed.

Chandler looked up at his mentor, taking in the young face – he was probably about 33 years old – the dark, black hair, brown eyes and friendly smile.

"Ok so I'm looking," he said now, "what's your point?"

Bob sighed and leaned back in his chair behind the desk. "How am I supposed to help you if you don't talk to me?"

"I don't need any help; I get along just fine by myself."

"Yes of course you're fine," Bob said sarcastically, "on the first day, you upset Mr Fisk by saying his pet Goldfish looks like a bloated whale. Why did you do that?"

"I was trying to bring a bit of fun into a very boring lesson!" Chandler protested, "The man was talking about plant organisms for crying out loud!"

"You needed to know what he was teaching you, I really don't see why you had to cause such a disruption."

"Ok, I thought this was a session where I talked and you listened?" Chandler demanded, "I didn't come here to be lectured!"

"Ok, so talk." Bob gestured for him to continue, "Go on!"

"Ok, my day has been crap. I arrived to find that I've been put next to the geek of the class – who followed me around all day – and I had to hide out in the library. I ended up nearly getting into a fight with his sister over Pride and Prejudice!"

"Over…Pride and Prejudice?" Bob's lips twitched slightly, "how did that happen?"

"Well, the sight of this pretty, high school chick spending her lunch hour with her head bent over a Jane Austen classic kind of threw me a little," Chandler confessed, "you've got to remember I went to a all boys' high school. I hadn't communicated with a girl in about three years! So I just thought, 'let's rile this girl up and find out what happens!'"

"And what did happen?"

"Well…I riled her up! And she gave all she got! That surprised me!" Chandler scratched his head, "I was expecting her to go off in a huff but she stuck around. We ended up talking for a while."

"So…what you're saying is that you've met your match?" Bob prompted.

"Hell yeah! What's weird is that she doesn't have any friends! How can you not be friends with someone like her? She's quirky, interesting, and funny. She has weird taste in books but you can pretty much get past that after a few minutes…"

"I think your day has been more successful than you think." Bob interrupted, writing in a notebook.

"What do you mean?"

"You've made a new friend." Bob said simply, "maybe in weird circumstances, but you met someone you like. Your day has been like any other teenager's first day at a new high school."

Chandler smiled. "Hey, you're good!" he exclaimed, "Miss DeWitt was right about you!"

Bob jumped in his seat and cleared his throat. "Allison…I-I mean Miss DeWitt said something about me? What did she say?"

Chandler arched an eyebrow at Bob, wondering why he had gone all twitchy. "Um…she said you were a nice guy with a lot more to you than people think." He quoted, trying to remember.

"R-really?" Bob stuttered.

"Yes," Chandler said slowly, studying Bob closely. The mentor's cheeks had gone red a little.

"So…um…I think that will do for now Chandler," Bob said suddenly, "this was a good first session. Do you want to come back on Wednesday, same time?"

"Sure, Mr Rafferty." Chandler stood up and reached for his backpack, still wondering why the mentor was acting all flustered. He shook his hand. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye Chandler." Bob mumbled distractedly, looking out of the window.

"Weird," Chandler muttered, walking out of the office. "Just…weird."

End of Chapter 2

:bonus points if you get where the chapter title comes from, it isn't just a reference to the scenes between Mon and Chan. And oh yes, didn't you notice? Bob is back!