Greetings From HellCh.2

"And finally, if someone is able to scare the HELL out of you…shouldn't you be grateful?" Brad Stine

"326…326" I muttered as I walked down the hall. Lucky for me, there was no one with the last name 'Conlon' on my roommate slip. However, only three of the four spots were filled, so who knows?

I heard laughing, shouting, the crack of pop cans being opened, and rock music coming from a door about halfway down the hall.

"Oh, goody, here's my room" I said to myself half-sarcastically. "Six doors down from Party Central. Hoo-freakin'-rah."

I unlocked my door with the key Snyder had given me, dumped my stuff on one of the unclaimed beds, then headed down to the Wreck Room.

There were, I kid you not, about 25 people in the room, all of them shouting and laughing and eating and singing along with the radio. Someone noticed me and shut off the CD player, right in the middle of Jet's 'Cold Hard Bitch'.

"HEY!" said 10 surprised voices.

"Eh, shaddup!" said Liz, who'd also noticed me and was now standing up. "It's a frickin' CD, we always start it over."

Someone in the back started singing, "Cold hard bitch! Just a kiss on the lips-" until she shot them and death glare and said, "Shut up, Skitts." I turned to look at Skitts, wondering why they were glaring daggers at each other.

She cleared her throat and said, "Guys. GUYS! Igby, don't you hiss at me! We have a new face here in hell: His name is Anthony Higgins, but he's requested we call him Racetrack or Race, so we will, right?" There was no response. "RIGHT?!"

"Whatever" said a chick in a black hoodie with a red wife beater under it.

"Shut up, Smartass."

"What?! You said 'right' and I said 'whatever'! I was agreeing with you, for God's sake!"

"My bad. Sorry. Anyways, how 'bout everyone go around the room and introduce themselves, and say something interesting a bout themselves?"

"Ooh ooh ooh, can I start?!"

"Yes, Twitch, you may start" she said, hiding a smile.

"Well, my name's Jaime Greene, but people call me Twitch, 'cause I st-stutter occasionally, and I t-twitch when I'm nervous or scared. And, um…something interesting. Oh! I rigged up a system that lets us know when people who are not sympathetic to the Rebel Cause are approaching."

I just sort of stared.

"Twitch is a Star Wars fan, in case you couldn't tell" said Smartass.

"I never would've guessed" I muttered sarcastically.

"Hey! The witty sarcasm is MY job!" put in Smartass. "Hence the nickname. My real name is Vaughn Kensington, but I like my nickname better. And something interesting…hmmm…pretty much everything in my wardrobe is red or black!" she finished proudly.

"That's not interesting, Smartass" said a girl with spiky dirty blonde hair. "That's just sad."

She turned and flashed me a dazzling smile. "Hey, I'm Skylar Salvatore, a.k.a. Sunshine. Sunrise and sunset, I'm out there watching the sun. It was my grandpa's nickname for me."

"And she calls me weird" Smartass muttered.

"Oh, shaddup, the pair o' ya!" said a cheery voice. "Hey!" said a girl with hazel eyes, who reminded me forcibly of Chelsea from That's So Raven. I mean, you could feel the energy rolling off her in waves.

"I'm Isobel Brown, call me Izzy, and something interesting…lemme see…Bumlets is my boyfriend. Wave, mi corazon!"

Liz rolled her eyes as a Hispanic guy with thick black hair waved from where he was sitting in the back of the room.

"Hey, I'm Bumlets, don't ask how I got the nickname, not even I'm sure, and…um…I like cheese!"

I'm sure I had a blank look.

"Have you ever seen Dave the Barbarian? 'More cheese means bigger flaming loogies!'"

"Shut up, Bumlets" said a girl with green, cat-shaped eyes. They kinda reminded me of Avril Lavigne's. "You're not making any sense. As per usual." She smiled at me and handed me a Pepsi. "I'm Ekaterina Desana, but you'll forget that, everyone does. Just call me Kat."

"Can do. Thanks for the Pepsi" I said, cracking it open and raising it toward her, as if toasting her.

She laughed and called, "Hey, Two-Bits, come meet the new guy!"

Another girl, who had long dark red hair with black tips, came ambling over to where Kat was. She was wearing a T-shirt that said, "The voices in my head keep debating the lyrics to Hotel California". She noticed me reading the shirt and said, "Eagles fan."

"I see."

"I'm Adrienne Kyte, but everyone calls me Two-Bits, 'cause I never have more than a quarter on me at a time."

"Ah. I never would've guessed."

"You're doing it again! The sarcasm is MY job!" said Smartass loudly from the corner where she'd been making out with a guy with shaggy black hair. She looked over at me and smiled.

"This is my boyfriend, we call him Daft, 'cause…well, he's daft!" She laughed and threw an arm around his shoulder. "But he's a total sweetie."

Daft gave me a dopy grin. "Me real name's Grant, but, like Smartass said, I'm kinda loony, so…I get called Daft."

All of a sudden, I heard the low, steady beat of a bass drum, and everyone around me sighed and rolled their eyes.

"That's Dutchy" said a girl with black glasses, as if that explained everything. "Hey, I'm Fluxy. Nice to meetcha."

"Right back atcha. Why's he playing his drum, uh…?"

"Inside?" she supplied. "He's the leader of the drumline, so, practice always excites him. Every day, like clockwork, he starts playing 10 minutes before practice."

"Speaking of which" Liz said, standing up. "Practice starts in eight minutes, so we better haul ass to the band room. Race, you can come along and meet Denton, see if we've got a space for ya. You in?"

"Definitely. Can I meet everybody else later?" I asked.

"Claro. Of course! But now"- She spun around and pointed out the door. "¡Vamos el cuarto de bando!'" And she hopped out the door.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

A/N: I'm very sorry I didn't get everybody in, but I've got 15 OC's, and 10 newsies, and ay yi yi yi! It's too much for my tiny brain. I'm keeping a running list, so those who were left out this time will go in next time, cross my heart! Please review, I LIVE on reviews! (I swear they're addictive, LOL!) I'd do shoutouts, but I don't have enough energy to type 15 separate shoutouts, so I'll do one mass one:

SHOUTOUT TO ALL WHO REVIEWED:

I love you all, you rock my socks, your OC's are AWESOME, they will all be used, I PROMISE! Latah, love ya, bye!

P.S.-Marching band rocks my socks!!!!