Cecily Amanda Scarlet and her brother, William Jacob Scarlet, stood side-by-side on the stone steps leading into Sherwood High, waiting for their friends. The siblings exchanged an impatient look when another five minutes went by without their friends. The two did not look much alike, though it was obvious on first glance that they were siblings.
Will was just above average height for a 17-year-old, with skin tanned from spending every available afternoon outside and dark blond hair held in a loose ponytail to his shoulders. Cecily shared her brother's complexion, but her shoulder-length hair was a pale blonde. Her pale brown eyes scanned the parking lot while her brother's grey ones closed in fatigue. Like every normal boy his age, he detested waking up for school.
After a few more minutes, two of the aforementioned friends arrived. The twins, Nasir Kareem and Azeem Dontai Sarcen, were both tall, reaching about 6'3", pale brown eyes. They also had black hair, though Azeem, the younger by ten minutes, wore his hair shaved close to his skull while Nasir let his grow out and bush around his head. The duo walked up to the Scarlets and nodded before standing on either side of Cecily.
The three males had been friends for over thirteen years, when they were four and Cecily three, and they had taken it upon themselves to protect the seemingly fragile girl. Cecily had grown out of a need for protectors, though, when she learned Karate. Now, the four of them could play-fight without worry that the youngest might be hurt badly. Cecily was also the one who helped her brother and 'protectors' pass some of their classes. The girl had skipped the 6th grade, putting her in the same grade as all of her friends.
They had gotten impatient and were about to go inside when they saw an interesting figure walk up. He had stringy, shoulder-length black hair, and black eyeliner surrounding his narrowed violet eyes. His ripped clothing seemed to suit him perfectly, and the quartet caught him wiping blood off of his knuckle.
When he saw the preps watching him, he smirked at them and threw an elaborate – and suggestive – wink at Will. He walked closer and closer to them, looking as though he was about to try to start a fight. When he reached them he brushed past without a second glance.
"Much Millerson! Tell me, when should I expect your cousins?"
"About halfway through class." Much continued to speak with the teacher for a few moments before walking away. Professor Tuck shook his head and made his way toward his classroom.
"What was that about?" Cecily asked. She, though a senior like the rest of them, did not know the relationship that Much had with her brother and friends.
"We kinda started a rumor about him a few years ago. We said he was gay, and now he does that every time he sees me."
Cecily nodded and straightened her uniform. She did not approve of her friends' habit of making fun of and picking on people, but there was not much of anything she could do. She adjusted the skirt of her cheerleading uniform again and looked out over the parking lot again. There were only three people left of their group.
Then, as if knowing that they were being thought about, Marion and Margaret Leaford walked up to the group from the staff parking lot. The cheerleading captain and co-captain were the younger cousins of the school principle, and had lived with him since their father died ten years earlier, making the girls orphans. The twin girls both wore their own cheerleading outfits, and their dark blue eyes were twinkling mischievously. Marion wore her dark red hair pulled back into a curly ponytail, while Meg's own lighter red locks hung straight to her shoulder blades. The two girls were darker than the Scarlet siblings, but not by much.
The six teens lounged on the stone steps, waiting for the last of their number to arrive. After what seemed like hours the bus pulled in, bearing the last of Sherwood High's elite. Alan Alexander Dale had blue eyes and flame-orange hair he wore in short spikes. His pale white skin looked even paler when surrounded by the tan people he hung out with.
"Alan-A-Dale! Come to join us at last?" Will joked, making the smaller boy smirk up at him.
"Of course. Hey Cecil," he greeted before kissing his girlfriend soundly, causing Will twitch in annoyance. No matter how old she got, Cecily was his little sister. When she was younger though, she had earned herself a place as one of the boys.
The six-year-old girl wanted to be one of the guys, and so had cut her waist-length hair almost as short as Azeem's. She put on some of Will's old clothes and introduced herself as Cecil. The boys thought it was fun, and had gone along with it, even after they all got into trouble.
They ran inside just before the bell rang and split up to get to their classes. Will, Alan, and Nasir all began their day with Professor Tuck. Almost ten minutes into class two people ran into the room, one out of breath and nervous-looking, and the other grinning dumbly.
"Ah, Mr.'s Loxley… How good of you to grace us with your presence. Do I dare ask what took you so long?" Tuck asked the two newcomers. Little John and Robin Loxley were the main outcasts of the school, along with their cousin, Much Millerson. Will couldn't wait to hear what excuse the midget and the ox came up with.
"Well," Little John drawled, "we would have been here sooner, but we got into a bit of an accident."
"Oh?" The professor sounded vaguely interested, and leaned against his desk in preparation for the story everyone knew was coming. Those two were almost always late.
"Yes. You see, we would be on time today, except that there were three injuries while we were preparing and once we got on the road. While getting ready today, Robin was attacked by some of the gel that escaped it's tub. I had tried to catch it, but it slipped through my fingers and fell to the floor. I was about to pick it off the ground when I heard an awful roaring. When I learned that it was coming from my stomach, I made a snap decision to leave the gel where it was, after all, it would soon get lonely all by itself and crawl back into the tub. While I was eating, the gel became so aggravated by it's inability to get back to it's friends that it attacked Robin, sending him flying into a wall. By tomorrow, he'll have a bruise, a mark of his war, if you will.
"The second accident was when a rogue shirt wrapped itself around his ankles and sent him flying down the stairs. If I hadn't been there to catch him, he may have died. The third accident came because of our arguing about what caused the shirt to turn evil. While driving, I turned away from the road for a moment, and almost hit an old woman. She said that she wouldn't press charges, since she could still remember us from when we were toddlers. After that near-hit, we hurried over, but it was already too late. So you see, it's really not our fault that we're so late." Little John grinned at the stunned professor as he took a deep breath. Robin shook his head and headed to his seat.
"Alright, that one was more than sufficient. Please take your seat."
"Can you believe he said all of that?" Alan asked Will, leaning over so that they wouldn't be heard.
"I bet the shrimp told him what to say," Will answered.
… … …
"Did you see Frank at lunch today?" Meg asked her friends later that day. Their football/cheerleading/band practice was over and they were lounging on the school bleachers. Nasir, Azeem, and Will were on the football team, the girls were all on the cheerleading squad, and Alan was part of the band and the men's choir.
"No… Why?" Alan responded.
"His face was so swollen and bruised! It looked like he got into a fight with Millerson and lost."
"That's not so unusual. Every guy in the school has been in a fight with that freak."
"But he doesn't always win!"
"And he doesn't always lose, either."
"Hey… Who's that?" Cecily suddenly broke in, pointing toward the forest. The other six looked up in time to see a very small boy getting beat up by a group of extremely large guys. The small boy started trying to run away, but the others had gotten too close for him to get far. He curled up into a tiny ball and rode out the beating. When the larger guys got bored and walked away, the small boy stood up and limped into the forest, disappearing into the shadows within seconds.
"That's the Loxley shrimp. He's always getting beat up."
"Couldn't you guys have helped him?" Cecily demanded.
"Why? Whether we do or don't Millerson and John are going to attack us tomorrow."
… … … … …
A/N: Well? What do you think of that one? The nest chapter begins all of the action. I'm not good with fight scenes, so don't expect many… Sorry.
ThanYous:
Random Person – The reason I wrote out their names is to show that they were the only ones watching (if you're commenting on the right thing…) I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks!
