Disclaimer: Oh Oh. Do I own School of Rock? Are you absolutely insane? NO!

Note: You better like this, or I'll...

Chapter One: Find Something Sweet

"Whoa! Check out Lucas!" Zack Mooneyham shouted out, pointing up towards the boy on the stage. At just that moment, Lucas did a perfect drum solo ending.

"That was a wicked awesome solo!" Marta congratulated him.

"That guy never slips up," Zack said excitedly.

"He's the king," Billy agreed staring at the boy, "He can do anything on that drum set and sound great! I've been trying to take up drumming, but it's been a drag so far." He rubbed his arms and hands, which were sore after some time of practicing.

"There's no one like Lucas," Summer sighed longingly. She looked over at the pretty brown-eyed girl who was sitting cross-legged on the grass beside her. "He's so hot. Don't you think so Katie?"

Katie Brown shrugged. She didn't think about Lucas that way or any way, for the matter of fact. She zipped up the front of her jacket and frowned. It was November and that was just a hated reminder that winter would soon be here.

Meaning it would take twice as long for her to get to Band Practice walking or taking a taxi. Although she never took a taxi, it was a waste of perfectly good money she could spend on food. When she got home it would be even worse with her father shouting at her and her mother worrying. Talk about unbearable.

"It was okay," she said finally, focusing her gaze on the approaching boy. "Lucas has done better, and I heard a few mistakes."

Lucas strutted over just in time to hear the last bit. His bright green eyes looked into Katie's brown ones, daring her with the intensity of her stare. "I suppose you could do better, Van Gough?"

Katie frowned. It stung when he always made fun of her art. Still, Katie understood why others felt a need to poke fun at her ability to paint and draw. They were just jealous—even a little afraid—of the part of her that wasn't at all like them.

To an outsider, Katie wouldn't have appeared any different from anyone else in this grouping of rock'n'roll teens. She had normal dark brown hair, which from time to time she would swing back over her shoulders.

Her other friends would have about six piercing in their ears, however she didn't. She needed to keep up a good appearance, so she could get out of this hell-hole they called Omaha. She was the toughest and coolest rocker there was in the band, or around Omaha. Definitely not one to mess with, but a girl just the same.

But any outsider who thought that would be wrong. Katie was more than that. A lot more. She wasn't going to wind-up like her dead-beat parents and friends would—disgruntled factory workers in a small town, just like their parents. Oh sure, for a few years, playing on stage would give them a distraction from their dull lives. But eventually they'd get too old, and soon the playing would fade away like an old record player.

Luckily for her, she had something other than rock'n'roll to take her mind off things. Her artistic gift was her passion. Her gift from God. My ticket out of Omaha.

Someday Katie would become a real artist. But not here, which the idea of art was those fruits in a bowl paintings. Katie was determined to be a painter in the big city, or travel around Europe, painting famous monuments as well as enhance her skills in impressionism by visiting the Louvre in Paris. She would be appreciated for her amazing gift, and not be treated like an idiot by the likes of Lucas McGee.

"Hey Katie, I'm talking to you!" Lucas barked right in her face. "Do you think you can top that then?"

Katie frowned again. She was tired out and really wanted to storm off home and finish that art piece for her college application. But he'd given her a direct dare and there was no way Katie was going to back down and let that loser get the better of her.

She stood up slowly, stretching her long legs. Then she flipped her hair behind her, grabbed her bass, and made her way towards the stage area.

The others, especially Lucas and Zack, watching with genuine interest as Katie plugged her bass into the amplifier. Her pick moved over the stings quickly, playing with her eyes shut and swaying in a tuned motion.

She was feeling the song wash over her, take control of the bass, and vibrating with the intensity of the notes. This had to be as close to happiness as anything, and Katie loved the feeling.

But even balloons had to be burst sometime. As she ended with a flurry, Katie pumped her fists into the air. All right, in your face Lucas McGee.

She used her foot and dragged the cord from the amplifier, then with a quick removal of the wire from her bass, she triumphantly carried it over to where Lucas was sitting with the others. "That's how it's done," she said, shooting Lucas a smug look.

"Not bad," Lucas admitted, "But you've been learning and playing that song since forever. It's time you tried something new. I've got a new song down, although I need a bass player 'cause it's a duo. Drum and bass duo. You think you're up to it? I'd be glad to give you a little tutoring so you can get it just right."

Zack poked Summer in the side. "I'll bet he could show her a few moves," he joked.

Summer shot him a look. "Get your mind out of the gutter, you pervert."

Zack laughed and grabbed her around the waist. "Come on, you know you're the only one for me," he teased, playfully biting her earlobe.

Katie checked the time on a black plastic watch that was hidden beneath that thick jacket. "Not tonight. I've got to get home," she told Lucas, ignoring the comment directed at her from Zack. "Tomorrow's a school day. And this is my last year. I need decent grades."

Lucas snickered. "For what?"

She paused, a finger at her lips, pretending to be gazing at the sky. "Uh, college?" she said sarcastically. "I'm going to need a scholarship if I'm going to go. And they don't give those to people who achieve less than a B. I've got a science exam tomorrow, and somehow I don't think the name of the band who sung Highway to Hell is going to be one of the questions."

"That would be ACDC," Zack noted with pride.

"You know that, and yet you can't get more than a D in history?" Katie sighed, "What are those teachers thinking?"

"ACDC's more important to me than one of those stupid Generals in the Russian Revolution Mr. Moon always making us memorize. What's that about, anyway? We don't even live in Russia."

"There's more to the world than Omaha," Katie reminded him.

"It's not as if we're ever going to see it," Zack moaned. "My old man was born in this place, and he's never been anywhere else. He's stuck here till he's dead."

"Doesn't mean we won't get out of here," Katie suggested.

"Yeah right," Lucas interrupted. "Now let me get this straight. You're going to be a famous artist right? Was that in Paris, Rome or London?" The others laughed at Lucas's posh-voice imitation.

Katie didn't join in with the giggling. Instead, she glared and then rolled her eyes. "Go ahead, make fun. But I'm not winding up working in the Jones Factory making all sorts of contraptions like my parents."

"Sure you will," Billy insisted. "Everyone in Omaha works there. Making things is out entire future. Even though it's pointless, it still pays." He laughed at the irony.

"Not everyone. Not me," Katie insisted.

"No, you won't wind up at the factory," Lucas agreed.

She looked at him, suspicious at his sudden show of support.

"You'll be trekking around the country following me," Lucas continued with an air of arrogance.

"Excuse me?" Katie asked. She was proven right with her suspicion. Lucas never supported anyone except herself.

"Sure. While I'm touring around the world, you'll be down there in the crowd, cheering me on. We'll travel the world together. If you're lucky, I'll even let you carry my drumsticks." He held his drumsticks out to her playfully, dangling them in front of her face. She pushed them away distastefully.

"Yeah, but she'll only do that until the baby Lucas and Lucy pop start popping out," Zack joked. "Then it's back to Omaha with you, Katie. Settle down, raise a family."

Katie sighed. These so-called friends had been with her for years, and they still didn't know a thing about her. If they did, they'd understand that she would not take to cheering an arrogant boy like Lucas on stage.

It would be the other way round, with her rocking out on stage and poor little Lucas looking glum that he wasn't the famous good-looking one. And certainly wasn't going to be the mother of Lucas McGee's babies. Much as he would take pleasure in making those babies and wanting it that way.

Lucas had the hots for Katie since forever, although she's never even so much as kissed him—except for that childish spin the bottles game at Marta's birthday party. Since then, he'd been trying to persuade her daily. But that guy just wouldn't get the message.

Not that Lucas wasn't good-looking. Almost everyone found him attractive. What with his bright green eyes and dark brown hair, and a lean body that appeared athletic. Katie was well-aware that Lucas had dated—and probably slept with—at least half the girls in Omaha.

The poor half.

The rich girls wouldn't have anything to do with these teenage delinquents, the "factory brats," as they called them with disdain. Those girls had their sights on the sons of rich bankers, lawyers, doctors, and factory owners in town.

In Katie's point of view those rich teenagers were going to wind up just as them. After all, they'd be stuck in Omaha too. Their prisons would be bigger and more lavish then the standard track housing the parents' of her friends lived in. But they would be prisons just the same.

"See you later," Katie said with a harsh laugh as she slipped an arm through the bag which carried her bass, and headed towards home.

"Hey Katie," Lucas shouted as he hurried out of the building to catch up with her. "You coming to Band Practice tomorrow?"

Katie turned around and shook her head. "I can't. I've got to work."

"What time?"

"I'm going straight to the shop right after school."

Lucas studied his kit for a minute. "I got a busted skin on my drums on the last play," he admitted. "Do you think you could—fix it for me?"

Katie momentarily weighed this out. Lucas's drums had taken a rather hard beating these few weeks. He could probably use a whole new set. But he couldn't afford it. None of them had much cash anyway. She nodded.

Besides, Eric, the owner of the Vintage Records music shop where Katie worked part time, usually didn't mind when she helped out people like Lucas McGee. Eric never tried to make money off the struggling bands. He made his living selling fancy custom guitars or CDs and all sorts of stuff to the wealthy children who saw playing as a hobby and trend, not a way of life.

"No problem," she agreed. "Just bring the busted drum by the shop tomorrow. If you're lucky, I could paint a custom design for you on the new skin."

Lucas grinned gratefully, "Thanks Katie. You're the best. Really."

"I know," she teased him as she headed down the street. "It's all of you who keep on forgetting."

"I never forget," Lucas murmured under his breath as she disappeared from view.

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