The rest of the day flew by surprisingly fast and I soon found myself being led out to the parking lot to wait for my mom to pick me up. Skittery pulled me over to a green Neon, smiling brightly.

"This," he announced proudly, "is my baby."

I raised an eyebrow, "your car?"

"Yep, '98 Dodge Neon."

Opening the door, he slid in and stuck the key in the ignition. Skittery popped the trunk and walked around back to throw his backpack in. I looked into the car and was met with a mess of wrappers, books, even what I swear was a mascara bottle (I didn't even want to know how that got there. Maybe he has a girlfriend.). Whoa, he was a slob. Skittery sat back down in the drivers seat, leaving the door open so he could talk to me. He had barely opened his mouth though when a loud 'BANG' sent him nearly flying into the door frame.

He yelled, "What the hell is going on back there?"

I looked back at the trunk, a tall brunette was standing there, "God Henry," she snapped at him, "There's like no room for my bags back there."

Skittery hollered back, "What the hell are you trying to fit in?"

She rolled her eyes even though she must have realized he couldn't see her. "My backpack, my tote bag and my gym bag."

He got up, gently moving me out of his way and walked back to the trunk. "Jesus Nicole, what do you have in that bag?" he asked gesturing towards the rather large sparkly tote bag.

"Everything."

"No Shit. You'll have to keep up front with you. I have to fit three other bags back here. It's not just for you."

"Then I have to have front seat. I totally can not sit in the back seat with this."

I watched all of this with mild interest and quite a bit of awkwardness. If I was guessing correctly, this was Skittery's sister. I have plenty of experience with sibling fights; they're pretty nasty to watch.

"You're sitting in the back with Snitch and Ian. Jack gets shotgun. That's the deal."

"Does Mom know that only you and Francis get the front?"

"That was the deal for us driving you to school. You sit in the back."

She gave him a snotty look, threw her bag in the back seat and sulked over to talk to some other girls.

Skittery turned back to me "Sister."

"I guessed. I'm going to assume that she's the reason there's makeup in the car?"

He yanked the back door open; "There's makeup in the car?" he came out with the mascara bottle and a tube of lip gloss. Holding it out in front of him as though it was poisonous he strode over to his sister muttering something about, "No makeup."

I watched him gesturing madly at her, I couldn't hear anything, but it was obvious that Skittery was pissed and she was getting pretty worked up as well.

"Hey aren't you the girl with Skitt at the nurses?"

I looked at the source of the voice, Skittery's brother Snitch was standing at the back door.

I straightened up from leaning against the open driver side door, "Uh, yeah."

"Hm." Was all he said or murmured really before sliding in the car and popping a CD into the player. The CD player I noticed was actually literally a cd player that was plugged into Skitts tape deck. Rap filled the car and Snitch sitting in the back seat was happily mouthing the words.

"Turn that damn thing off!" Skittery had returned with Nicole in tow.

Snitch moaned as Skittery sat down and popped out the Cd. He handed it back saying, "Rap's not allowed."

Nicole slid into the other side of the back seat, "Nothing's allowed. No makeup, no rap. God, Hen you need to get a life."

Skittery chose to ignore her; he looked up at me, "Sorry about them. I'm cruelly forced to drive them."

"Oh please, we're the ones being tortured." Nicole whined, "Who's the girl?"

"Anna." Skittery pointed to his sister and brother, "That's Nicole, she's a sophomore."

She looked me up and down before saying, "Sucks to be you."

Ok, that was harsh, I'm not sure if she was talking about how I looked, I know I'm nothing spectacular, or if she was referring to the fact that I was hanging out with Skittery. I decided I didn't want to know, better to keep some sort of dignity, I'm not about to deny that it hurt, no matter how she meant it.

Skittery punched her leg, being the only part of her he could reach, "Shut up. And you've met Snitch."

She rubbed it, glared at him and pulled out a cell phone.

Snitch nodded at me, picked a magazine up off the floor and proceeded to read.

Skittery focused his attention back to me, "What do you think?"

"It's nice. Messy, but nice."

He laughed, "Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. Hasn't really been cleaned since we got it."

I was really hoping that it was recently that he had bought it, "Do I want to know?"

"Just the beginning of the summer."

I breathed a sigh of relief, "ok, 'cause honestly it would be a bit disgusting if it wasn't fairly new."

"Yeah." He smiled, "you like the school?"

"Strangest private school I've ever seen."

He shrugged, "It's not really a private school, yeah, you have to pay and you have to pass a test to get in. But there's no uniform or anything and it's really pretty cheap."

I nodded in agreement; it was hard to explain exactly what the school was. It definitely wasn't public, but it wasn't really private exactly either. I didn't really understand, but I wasn't about to get into it.

"The teachers seem pretty cool." I added.

"Yeah, they're good. It's really only Weasel and Snyder you have to watch for. They really have it out for us."

The vice principles, right. I'd already been warned, by Jack actually, who can't walk down the hall without one of them trying to get him in detention for something.

Speaking of the devil, "Have you seen Sarah? Or Jack?" It was David.

He was asking from over the door of the Ford Focus in front of Skittery's neon.

Skittery shrugged, "I'm waiting for them too. Have to go to the elementary school for Ian. He's going to be upset if I'm late."

"Yeah," Dave said, "me too, you know, Les."

Skittery nodded, "Yeah."

David smiled at me, "Hey Anna."

I smiled back, "Hey."
"You seen them?"

"No. Sorry."

He nodded, "Right. Hey Skitt, you know where Blink parked?"

Skittery shook his head, "Nah. Why?"

"He's got my math book. Didn't bring his today. Borrowed it."

"Oh. Sucks for you."

He shook his head, "Not really, no homework. But I did want to get a better look at it, see what we'll be doing."

Skittery rolled his eyes. I smirked; I never would look ahead at a math book. I barely kept up with the class; it was no wonder that math was easily my worst subject.

"Finally!" David yelled, "Will you guys hurry up?"

Jack and Sarah were walking towards us holding hands; Jack stuck out his tongue at Dave, "Patience is a virtue!" He shouted back.

In the back of the car, Nicole was gasping, "You did not! That's so awful! He did not! No! What an ass."

I raised my eyebrows and Skittery leaned back to see his sister, "What are you talking about?"

She covered the mouthpiece, "It's highly personal. No! EWWW! That's so gross. He can't treat you like that!"

"That's disgusting." Skittery muttered. "Give me the phone Nicole."

"Hell no! No not you. Henry. He wants my phone. I know so insensitive right?"

Skittery held out his hand, "Come on. I don't want to hear about your friends love-lives. You whine about yours enough."

She slapped his hand away and continued gabbing into the phone. He sighed and turning around so he was kneeling on the seat and lunged, grabbing the phone.

"Hey!" Nicole yelled jumping to get it back.

Skittery held the phone to his ear, "Sorry, you'll have to call her in about an hour. What? Bitch." He hung up the phone and tossed it in the glove compartment.

"Henry! Unlock that glove compartment now!"

"No. You'll have to live. New rule. No cell phone."

She gaped at him and slumped back in her seat.

Skittery grinned apologetically at me, I shrugged, "I've got an older brother. We're worse."
"Hard to believe." Jack said as he slid into the passenger seat while Dave and Sarah backed out of the parking lot.

I grinned, he'd better believe it, we killed each other. We were never left alone, ever. During the summer one of us would always go to camp, usually my brother as he was deemed least trustworthy.

"Anna! Anna!" I looked up at the sound of my name. My mother had her hand out our car window and was waving frantically. I waved back and grinned at her.

Jack looked out the window, "That your mom?"

"Yeah. Guess I better go."

Skittery stood up to look over the car at Mom, "Looks nothing like you."

"Yeah, well. See you later."

Skittery grinned at me, "Tomorrow." He got in the car and shutting his door started up and pulled out.

Jack stuck his head out the window and waved like crazy, "Bye Anna!"
I laughed and waved back.

I walked over to my mom's car and got in, tossing my backpack in the back. I leaned over to change the station. It was my first day at a new school. I should not be forced to listen to classical.

"How was it?" she asked looking at me intensely.

I settled on a station, "Good."

She nodded, concentrated on pulling out of the school then, "Meet any friends?"

"Yeah."

"That boy with the car?" she asked looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

"He was my tour guide. Turns out he's got a big group of life-long friends."

"Hmm. How many?"

"Oh, like 12." I said calmly.

She gaped at me, "Twelve! Well, what are their names?"

Ummmm…..I wasn't sure I could remember all their names. "Skittery, Sarah, Jack, David, Kid Blink, Racetrack, Pie Eater, Mush, Dutchy, Specs……Crutchy….Snoddy….I think that's about it."

"Strange names." She commented, "Are they all boys?"

"I don't know their real names. No, there's one girl."

"Oh dear God." She mumbled.

She could worry about it if she wanted, but I was happy. Mom wouldn't be thrilled about me hanging out with guys all the time, but she'd get over it, and anyway, there was Sarah. Not for the first time that day I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting….