Disclaimer: Basically, in this chapter I own Ceja Pierce and Corey Feldman, and Samuel Warren when and where they appear.  Disney owns the newsies.  The other characters are owned by their respective owners so don't steal them.  Oh yes, and teachers are either my creations or based off my teachers so leave them alone.

Cavanaugh Park

Chapter 1

Hotshot

I woke up in New York City
From my sleep behind the wheel
Caught a train to Poughkeepsie
And time stood still

She wrote me a letter from San Diego
To qualify her luck
These flights connect through Arizona
But I think I'll stay stuck

"I Woke Up in a Car" by Something Corporate

Chairs scraped the linoleum floor and the door slammed open as the dozen or so high school juniors dashed from the dark classroom.  Students poured from other doorways and the wing quickly crowded with people.  Many stopped at their lockers to drop off books or find a pen, but most just wandered in the general direction of their next class.  It was after all the first day of school; how much work could they get?

Ceja Pierce opened her locker to get her melting iced coffee, as they weren't allowed in the science lab.  She threw in her already beaten notebook and grinned as it made a satisfying clank against the bottom of the metal locker.  She shoved her schedule in her pocket and closed the locker. 

"CJ," a yell echoed from the next wing as she passed and a bright colored ball of clothing topped by brown hair skidded by here and into a nearby locker.

"You're an idiot; do you know that."  She pulled him up by the hood of his sweatshirt and reached into his pocked to pull out his schedule.  "But you have gym with me so maybe I can keep you from breaking something this year."

The boy, obviously Italian by his skin tone and hair, snatched the creased paper back from her and shoved it in his pocket.  "Long period Gym."

"It's not that big a deal, Race," Ceja shrugged, "We're paired with a freshman class; it's not like we're gonna do anything today."  She pushed open the field house doors and began walking toward the bleachers.

"So your gifted class was?" He asked.

"First day stuff.  New teacher; prepared speech."

"I should seriously transfer into that class.  At least I'd understand better what the lot of you were talking about all the time.  And if it's as easy to pass as you all say it is I just need someone to cover me in notes and I can nap."

"As long as I've got you to cover me as far as tutoring goes in that bullshit math class feel free to try."  She grinned, "Though I doubt the principal would be very happy to hear of you request."

"Hey, I'm smart."

"And you're also a troublemaker.  That is why you couldn't take that class if you wanted to.  Trust me class would be very entertaining if you were there."

As Racetrack turned to make a comeback and defend himself a group of rather small freshmen ran directly in front of him and he nearly tripped over one of them.  "Learn to walk!" He yelled, "Fucking geniuses, the lot of them."

As they reached the bleachers set up along the basketball court several of the guys in one of the corners called out to Race.  Not being a 'gifted' student had an advantage.  He did have more friends, and was popular even with the jocks.

"I'll hook up with you again as soon as class starts, Cej," he said before grabbing her coffee and all but sprinting up the bleachers.  He gave her a quick glance as he reached his friends and she rolled her eyes.

Ceja collapsed onto a seat in the front bench and looked over the approaching students.  Two junior classes and a freshman class made up the large gym class.  She mumbled greetings to those who passed her and tried to keep from falling asleep. 

The teachers came into the room several minutes after the bell rang and set up chairs in front of the bleachers.  One by one each rambled off their attendance list.  Ceja and Race, as well as several of their friends were lucky to find themselves in the class of the last teacher, Mr. Cotter.  He was retiring and it was an easy class.

He rambled off his list barely looking up, and used mostly nicknames the students had developed over the years.  He ignored the obscenities thrown back by a few of them. 

"Ok," he yelled once attendance was done, "Freshmen report to your teacher for locker assignments.  Juniors I want to see you running the track.  Come on people, we love to run…"

The three classes collectively climbed off the bleachers and after being assigned lockers the freshmen began to run around the track.  The upperclassmen laughed and picked their own leisurely strolls. 

Ceja easily picked out Race walking next to another boy, one who easily dwarfed him.  She jogged to catch up with them.  The boy with Race was everything the short Italian was not.  He was extremely tall, extremely thin, and extremely pale.  Shocking blond hair fell just past his ears.  A concert T-shirt, dark, torn jeans and a worn baseball cap were his chosen attire.  Wire-rimmed glasses, rested on the end of his nose.  She jumped on his back as they caught up.

Race rolled his eyes.

"So, you like class this morning, Alec?" she asked.

"I didn't fall asleep."

As the three of them passed behind the bleachers Race checked for teachers and took a flying leap onto one of the gymnastics mats.  The other two just climbed on.  A few freshmen passing by yelled out but Race told them off with a usual catch phrase. 

It was sort of funny.  These freshmen, many which were taller than Race, were scared of him.  Just as funny was Racetrack himself.  He was a shoe-in for the class valedictorian, yet he was the class clown and constantly napping in detention.  He was so popular and still hung out with the outcasted gifted more than the jocks.

A figure that could be described as nothing more than thin, long, and lanky flew by them less than a minute later.  He cleared the mat and bounced back on a moment later. 

"Morning," he muttered.

"Hi Blake," Dutchy said.

The others mumbled greeting, or rather grunts, as it was still early, as two more girls joined them.  The two were complete opposites.  The first was about as Goth and punk as one could get without breaking the school's dress code.  Her clothes were covered in tears and safety pinned back together, and her boots made her at least three inches taller than she actually was.  Her counterpart, though shorter, was a prep.  Pac Sun t-shirt, and Weathervane jeans.  The only thing remotely out of place about her was the black fedora that covered her bobbed hair. 

"Dude, that class was boring," The prep, Lute said.  She turned her attention To Race, "Morning fucker, it's been a while."

"Fuck you bitch." Race shot back.  It was their code.  The two had lived next door to each other their entire lives and insisted they had to pick on one another. 

But then Lute did have a tendency to pick on people she loved and Race told everyone to fuck off.  Most just figured it was their way of saying 'how are you' because it was actually rather painful if you contemplated it too long.

"You wish." Lute grinned.

"I hate school," Calica, the punk, groaned.  She announced the same thing every morning. "Hell with fluorescent lighting, that's all it is.  Our principal is the devil and we're stuck here for the next nine and a half months."  She groaned, "They should call it prison."

"And to think you haven't been to a difficult class yet today?" Blake agreed.

"You're not exactly helping my cause here, pretty boy," she muttered.

"Well, it's true," Race pointed out, "I mean your gifted class isn't exactly rocket science, and you and Lute walked, what, two laps."

"Two laps in these," she held up one three-inch heel.

"You wore heels to gym, why?"

"I didn't know we had Gym today, fucker." She complained. 

"Hey, it's my job to call him that," Lute snapped.

Another girl dropped onto the edge of the mat. 

"Morning Aria," Dutchy greeted.

She ignored him, instead choosing to stare at the ceiling, either waiting for it to fall on her, or for it to give her the answers to life.  Finally she broke the silence.

"So we have the Pope, huh?  Should be an entertaining class."

"The Pope, really, what class?" Race asked.

Without hesitation Lute hit him upside the head.

"Mr. O'Connor.  Also known as Pope OC.  It's a long story from freshman history.  Trust me; let's not go into it.  He's the gifted teacher for the junior and senior classes." Ceja mumbled.

"Much better than Mr. Die-sinners-die, though." Dutchy pointed out.

"Heard they fired him," Race said.

"You really should take that class," Dutchy agreed, "You know as much about it as we do."

"At least I'd be able to understand what the hell the lot of you were talking about all the time." Race huffed.

*       *       *      

Eric Mordall split from his friends Angelo and Skittery shortly after second period let out.  The two of them were both heading to the next wing of the school for history or math, or some moronic classes.  Eric, on the other hand, had to go to his locker and then go to the other end of the school for his Spanish class.

Lovely.

He grinned as he reached the lockers.  A few of his friends were in the row along with him.  There was Mandy, who he had first period with, along with Mandy's brother, David, and girlfriend, Heels.  Mandy and Heels were busy doing what, well basically what Heels and Mandy did. In doing so they were effectively blocking De, as they affectionately called David, from getting into his locker.

"Might I remind you that it's the first day of school, or would you like me to tip you off that Lucas (big bad principal) is coming down the hall?"

Both girls immediately separated and worked on trying to get Mandy's locker open.  De opened his locker and mouthed a 'thank you'.

"Damn, Eric, don't you look cute today?" Mandy said looking at him, "I like the highlights."

"I've had them for the past month."

"Oh," she shrugged.

"Where are you guys off to?"

"French."

"I hate languages.  I've barely mastered English and my parents want good grades in something completely different.  It makes no sense."

"Welcome to life, kid." Heels greeted him.

After the period of wonderful, or not, world languages the four of them met up again and began on their way to the cafeteria for lunch.  Hoping that at least the food would improve, since most of the teachers hadn't. 

"You've got to be kidding me," De muttered as they turned onto one of the back halls toward the cafeteria.  Pete Hargis, and Jack Kelly, two of the most well known jocks at their school were leaning against a set of lockers looking bored.

Hargis, better known as Haggle grinned and hit Jack's arm to get his attention, "Look what we got here."

"The little gifted shits." Jack agreed.

"Hey, I ain't gifted," Heels argued.

"But you're not about to walk on out of here if we give you the chance are you?" Jack asked.  He shook his head when she didn't respond, "I thought not."

"So what do you think we should start of with this year, Kelly?" Haggle asked, cracking his knuckles.  It wouldn't have been intimidating in the least if Haggle weren't so, well, large.  Damn football players.

"Well, I think you should start by picking on someone with an IQ as low as yours.  Which leaves, well it basically just leaves Jack."

Haggle and Jack both turned to find the source of the insult.  Leaning against one of the lockers behind them was a tall, rust-haired boy.  He grinned widely at them, not the least bit intimidated.  He looked so calm that if you didn't know him you'd swear that Chris Feldman had a death wish.

"You sure it's smart to be making comments like that when there's one of you and two of us?" Jack asked.

"Hey, I always bring reinforcements."  He motioned for them to look behind them.  Swifty Li, and Rich Jones had joined Heels, De, Mandy, and Eric.

Now, though the jocks weren't exactly smart they knew when they couldn't handle something.  The two shrugged it off as if they hadn't been interested in the first place, and left.

"Well, it should be an interesting year." Swifty noted.

The group, now considerably larger walked down the hall and into the cafe. They split to get lunch from various lines and met up with the other students at a large table by the windows.

*       *       *

Two square tables were pushed together next to one of the windows and chairs were crowded around it, probably many more than allowed, but it wasn't as if anyone cared.  An assortment of plastic trays, paper bags, drinks, and snacks from the stand were dropped onto the tabletop.  It was quite odd to see so many gifted students together outside of class.  Don't get it wrong, they were all friends, but most of them did different things and hung out with different people.  But there it was, twelve of them at one table, plus four non-gifted students. 

It was really quite funny; Race, Skittery, Heels, and Swifty weren't gifted but had somehow integrated themselves with this group over the years.  They'd gotten nicknames out of it too.  The gifted kids, or those who spoke about their soul twins using a permanent nickname, so of course these kids wanted nicknames too.  And oh, the stories behind some of them…  But that's not the issue at hand.

They crowded around the table and dropped their various foodstuffs onto the top.  All either started eating or talking to someone else.  Well, except Race who started stealing food off people's, and by people's I mean Hawk's, plates.  That, however, was typical.  Race saved whatever money he had for lunch for whatever else he needed.

"Nympho!" Lute shouted across the cafeteria at another of her normal friends.  "Can you give me a ride to work this afternoon!?"  Of course, she was completely oblivious to the looks of horror thrown her way by faculty members and freshmen.  There was a reason for Nympho, or Zach's, nickname.

The gangly boy strolled over with a wide grin on his face.  He looked happy until he noticed whom Lute was sitting with.  Suddenly his face took on a mask of nervousness.  "What was that?" He asked, leaning on the back of Lute's chair.

"Ride to work after school?"

"You gonna give me gas money this year?"

"Don't answer a question with a question."

"Answer."

"No."

He shrugged, "Be at my car after school."  With that he was gone again, walking as fast as possible away from the table.

"What's with him?" Aria asked as she took her seat.  "Seriously, Lute, what does he have against us?"

Lute shoveled a forkful of whatever food was on her tray before answering, "He doesn't like the gifted."  

"And he's friends with you?" Race asked, "I thought you were a stage four."

"I am, but he knew me before he knew I was gifted for a long time.  It's a complicated situation; just don't hate him for it.  He's confused."

The other conversations at the table went back to normal and Nympho was forgotten.  Lute, however, kept looking over her shoulder at Nympho.  It pissed her off that his parents were so prejudice and that they'd passed it on to him.  Just, God!  Someone should pay for all the hell it caused!

*        *       *

 'Snitch' she called into her mind that night as she lay in bed.

'Dude, it's late,' a voice echoed through her mind, 'What's up Swinger?'

'Do you have any good friends who aren't gifted?'

'Tons.'

'What would you do if they didn't like you gifted friends because they were gifted?'

'Does he know you're gifted?'

'Yeah, but he knew me a long time before he found out.  It's just…' she groaned both inwardly and outwardly, 'It's just his parents are so goddamn frustrating.  They act like I'm some kind of plague.'

'So it's their problem.'

'Yeah, but he's all nervous and stuff around my friends and it sucks.'

'Some people are like that, dude, if I were you I just wouldn't force it on him.  Maybe he'll get it sometime.'

She shrugged, 'Maybe.  So how was school for you today?'

'Hell, but then what else is new?'

'Good point…'

A/N: Ha, another chapter done!  There I introduced most of the main characters, at least the ones at the main school.  Their soul twins will be introduced over the next few chapters I guess.  And Shade, the teacher is Mr. O'Connor, who kicks ass in real life, and is completely the reason I'm taking Economics AP next year.  Kez, I'm working on Last Chance I swear, and thank you ::names self queen of first chapter hooks::.  SaL, you said I could use it. 

So yes, again, chapter one is done.  I wish it were longer and it seems a bit off to me but whatever.  Those of you that have questions please ask, and if anyone can think of something for me to call them other than gifted I'd owe you a million because it just sounds bad.  Sorry for the no warning on slash, but it's really just because the characters were submitted to the cc that way.  I won't put up a warning until/unless it becomes a major part of the story.

It'll be easier to understand once we start using all nicknames and you know who everyone is.  So leave me a review::sends subliminal messages for you to click the little purple button:: and I'll see you next time.

~Next Time~

Another class with the gifted kids, long period too boot, and you find out their nicknames.  A bit more is explained.  A mass chemistry class (a class I love at the moment)  and they go to the park.

~Hotshot~~~