Chapter One: Another Terrible Day

BeepBeepBeepBeepBee- Veronica Sawyer shut her alarm off as soon as her groggy mind would let her. She reluctantly got out of bed and started to get ready for another terrible day at Westerberg High.

Was she exaggerating? Not really, considering that she only had two friends and her crush only thought of her as a lab partner. Plus, all of the "popular" kids liked to bully her and the adults were idiots.

Veronica got dressed and packed her backpack. Before she left though, she picked up a picture on her desk. It was of two sixteen year old twins, a boy and a girl, wearing Mickey Mouse hats, with bright smiles on their faces as they stood in front of Cinderella's Castle.

"I miss you," Veronica muttered as her thumb lightly touched the boy's face.

That's right, Veronica Sawyer has a twin. Well, she had a twin. Unfortunately, Vincent, her brother, died in a car crash last year, a few weeks after that photo had been taken. The police had said that the driver sped into Vincent.

And the cops still couldn't find him.

Nobody really knew why Vincent died. He was a star athlete, a smart student, and lit up every room he was in.

But most importantly, he was Veronica's best friend and guardian angel.

He was the one who got all of the popular kids to back off in the first place, and put the adults in their place when necessary. Not only that, but Veronica and him could talk about anything, from politics to a dead ant on the ground.

Except he's dead now too. Veronica shook her head and went downstairs, ready for breakfast.

"Ugh, bacon and eggs again, Mom?" Veronica asked, after being served that same dish for the fourth time that week.

"Well, I was a bit woozy this morning, so there wasn't a lot of stuff that I could make," Veronica's mom, Carol, said to her daughter.

"What did I say drinking, Carol?" Veronica's father, Charlie said, sternly to his wife.

"Ok, maybe I drank a little, but I don't have a problem."

Charlie looked down at the trash can, seeing the beer cans on top. "Your Budweiser 12-pack, which you just got yesterday, would argue otherwise."

Veronica tuned out the rest of their argument. They fought like this almost every day for the past year. If only Vincent were still ar-

"Veronica? Veronica?" Carol said, snapping her daughter out of her daydream.

"Huh? What?"

"I asked if I'm still supposed to pick you up after the game tonight?"

"Yeah, Mom," Veronica muttered.

"Come on, Veronica, we don't want to be late," Charlie said, heading for the exit.

When Veronica was younger, she thought that riding in her dad's car was one of the coolest things in the world, but now she feels embarrassed by it. Why?

Because it's the only police vehicle that drops a kid off to school.

That's right, Veronica's father, is a police officer. One who was trying to catch the Shredder and his son's killer.

In other words, he had his hands full.

Once Veronica got out of the car, she met up with her friends, Betty and Martha.

"How's your mom?" Betty asked Veronica.

"Still the same as yesterday."

"And your dad?" Martha added.

"Busy as always."

"Well, look on the bright side. Tonight is the homecoming game!" Martha said excitedly.

"I still don't get why you want to go. You don't even like sports," Betty said.

"Oh I do," Martha said, before discreetly pointing at a boy with a beanie hat on.

"You still haven't asked Beanie Deanie out yet?" Betty asked Veronica.

"Beanie Deanie" was Veronica's secret romantic name for her crush, Jason Dean. AKA JD. He always wore beanie hats to school. Sometimes people picked on him for it, but he didn't really care. He could stand his own ground in a fight.

In terms of popularity, he fell somewhere in the middle. He wasn't in the elite, but he wasn't a complete outcast either. After all, he did manage to get some of the jocks off of Veronica's back sometimes.

Which was one of the many reasons Veronica loved him.

They also had chemistry together (how ironic). That was the only time Veronica's social anxiety would at least let her try to talk to him.

In other words, it prevented her from asking him to homecoming.

"No, but who knows? It might be safer this way. Homecoming probably won't happen if they can't catch the Shredder."

"Except homecoming is the most-sponsored event of the year. Gowan's not going to cancel," Betty said.

"Martha Dumptruck! Wide load!" said Kurt Kelly, the quarterback, as he smacked Martha's books onto the ground, before fist bumping his best friend, Ram Sweeney.

Veronica may have been a shy girl, but she couldn't stand people who made fun of her friends. "Hey! Pick that up! Right now!"

"Are you actually talking to us?" Kurt asked.

"Yes, I am. I wanna know what gives you the right to talk to my friend like that. You're both high school has-beens waiting to happen. You're future gas station attendants."

By then, a small crowd had gathered around them.

Ram whispered into her ear. "Outside. Right now."

This day couldn't get any worse, could it?

Apparently, it could, as Veronica found out after getting back inside. Luckily, Kurt and Ram only pushed her onto the ground outside. They would've done more if she hadn't pulled the "my dad's a cop" card.

But now she was in chemistry, the worst class ever. The only good part about it was her lab partner being Beanie Deanie. Honestly, the material itself wasn't so bad either. It was the teacher who Veronica despised.

"Miss Sawyer, you're three minutes late," Mr. Ripper sternly said.

"I'm sorry, bu-"

"I don't want to hear it. Now, do you have your presentation ready?"

"My-my presentation?" Veronica asked, to which Mr. Ripper nodded. "But mine's not due until next week!"

"No, according to my notes, you're suppose to go today."

"But, the schedule that you s-"

"I know what my schedule says, Veronica!"

"It's ok, I got mine done early. I can swap places with her," JD chimed in, hoping to defuse the situation.

"No, if she doesn't go today, she'll get a 0!" Mr. Ripper yelled, before sighing. "I honestly wish that you were more like Vincent," he muttered to Veronica under his breath.

Yep, this was truly another terrible day at Westerberg High.

The Sherwood Shredder forced his new knife into the pig at his secret slaughterhouse. "Good," he muttered as the knife instantly landed about halfway through the neck, oozing out blood from within. He had worked with too many bad knives over the years, to the point where he couldn't take any risks with them.

Killing and cooking animals were some of the few good things Mr. Shermer ever taught his son. The Shredder was actually thankful for that, as he wouldn't have survived as long as he had.

Animals were also easier to kill.

Humans were too flighty, and tended to scream too much.

And yet, their deaths were the most satisfying thing in the world.

That reminds me. The Shredder thought, before he went over to his desk.

He opened up a drawer, digging through too many fake ID's, before finding his list of teenagers in Sherwood.

He smiled as he crossed off four names. Now, there was only one thought in his mind.

Who's next?

A/N: Uh oh…

Thoughts? Any constructive criticism is welcome!

Thanks to inkyfrosting3217 for beta reading as always!

P.S. Here's a little PSA I forgot to put in the last chapter *ahem*:

DRINK RESPONSIBLY! (AND DON'T DO DRUGS)!