Chapter Six

The 7:21 got Aladdin to Pierre and Marie Curie Memorial Academy at 7:44. Exactly. He knew from the schedule that the Genie had produced for him that classes began at 7:55. So he had eleven minutes to... well, sit. He opted to sit outside rather than in, although everything at the school so far seemed to remind him of just how poor he was in real life. He would be willing to bet that the bench he was sitting on cost more than at least two months' rent on his apartment. Then again, almost anything cost more than that...

At 7:47, three limousines pulled up simultaneously. Aladdin could tell that the kids who stepped out of them knew he didn't belong. Oh well, he thought, I'm not here for them.

At 7:49, a Cadillac pulled up, and out stepped... the officer who had hired Aladdin? Shit! Aladdin ducked under a nearby picnic table and watched as the officer opened the door for a highly irritated looking Jasmine. Holy cow, how could she look so good in a polo and a pleated skirt? he wondered. The officer proceeded to kiss her on the hand and appeared to be offering to escort her inside. Oh no, they weren't dating, were they? No, no, Aladdin realized to his relief, Jasmine jerked her hand away and stomped off huffily. Aladdin wanted desperately to catch up and walk her in, but that darned officer stayed by the car until she was well inside the building.

At 7:52, Aladdin decided that the coast was finally clear and crawled out from under the picnic table.

At 7:58, he rushed into room 112, after whacking his head on the picnic table, slipping in his uncomfortable new shoes on the impeccably waxed floor, and slamming his last two fingers in the heavy oak door.

"And you are...?" asked the teacher, a strict-looking man with graying brown hair.

"I'm Alad--, uh I mean Al...an. Alan Prince. Ton. Yup, Alan Princeton, that's me." Aladdin shoved his hair out of his eyes and felt his cheeks flaming.

"Alan Princeton?" The teacher raised his eyebrows quizzically and ran a long finger down the attendance sheet. "Ah yes, here you are. Welcome to CMA. There's an empty seat over there." He waved a dismissive hand at a seat in the back of the room. "Jasmine can help you out for today."

Aladdin nodded gratefully and hurried to the empty seat.

"Are you Jasmine?" he whispered to her. It was just a formality- he had to milk this new kid thing for all he could. She nodded without even looking up from her notebook. This was going to be harder than he thought. "Cool. I'm Alan- Al." He winked daringly at her, but she didn't notice.

"Right..." Jasmine had turned around to grab a physics textbook for him off of the shelves in the back of the room. "We're just finishing Newton's--" She stopped short as he reached for the book and her eyes traveled up to meet his. "Do I...know you?"

"Um, well, I... uh, no. No, I've never met you before. Ever." There was a reason that Aladdin's father had been the King of Thieves, not the King of Liars. Clearly that reason was hereditary.

"Are you sure?" Jasmine pressed. "Where are you from?"

"East-- ah, East Malaysia. Yeah, my parents had to be there the last five years for work and they, um, took me with them."

"Oh. That's... cool." Disbelief was written all over Jasmine's face. "So you've never gone all around the city or anything?"

"Nah, it's too, uh, gritty for my taste." Aladdin flashed a weak smile. Jasmine gave him a funny look and then turned forward to the physics lecture. It was all Aladdin could do not to whack his head against the desk. Apparently he was also related to the King of Stupidity.

He tried his best to pay attention to the physics, but it was no use. Same for calculus and British Lit. He was so hopelessly behind these kids it was hilarious. And he didn't even have passing periods to try and talk to Jasmine- the kids stayed in the same room and the various teachers came to them.

Fourth period was different, though. Art. Apparently they had been working with charcoals for some time, and today they were assigned a charcoal sketch of the person next to them. Now, here was something Aladdin was good at- he had been taking portraiture in school since 10th grade. The charcoal flew across his paper- round face, delicate neck; big, big eyes; wavy midnight hair down to her waist, past the scope of the traditional head-and-shoulders drawing. He was just putting the last button on her polo when he looked up for reference and saw the real Jasmine staring back at him.

"That's...beautiful."

"Well, you're beautiful." Aladdin grinned. "I had to do some justice to my subject." He glanced over at her picture- she had drawn him in the T-shirt and baseball cap he'd worn when they met. "You're really good too. Interesting choices."

"You reminded me of someone." She seemed to be studying his eyes for any flicker to prove that she was right. The two stood like that for a moment, not noticing the second hand tick up to 12:00 until the bell rang, scaring the two apart.

Immediately, Jasmine busied herself packing up her books to go to lunch.

"Hey," she said, just as he was about to leave for the cafeteria. "You want to eat lunch with me?"

"Sure!" Aladdin could barely conceal his excitement. "Uh, where do you sit?"

Jasmine smirked, her eyes challenging him.

"On the roof."

A/N: Aah, this chapter and the next are definitely my favorites out of what's posted so far. Fluff is such fun to write... mwhahaha. Oh, I've been forgetting disclaimers, so: They're not mine. I promise to clean them when I'm done with them. They all belong to Disney. Even Bobby, Omar, and Cassie. Yes! Trivia time. In the original version of the film, Al had 3 friends, Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, that I chose to bring into this story (I took the liberty of making Kassim a girl, Cassie). So it's all canon. Of course, personalities are MINE, as is P-M CMA (the school, isn't that a fab abbreviation? ; ) I toyed with calling it Prep, rather than Academy, so it could be PMCMP...hehe). Andof course the lovely city of New York belongs to its inhabitants and the President, or whoever owns that stuff these days...Muchas gracias to my reviewers and keep on reading!!!! Sorry for the long A/N. I did warn you... : )