Disclaimer: I do not own The Simpsons characters; only the original characters listed in this fic.

I accept constructive criticism. c:

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Switching the scene over to Old Springfield Elementary, the children's first day was not as dramatic or fast-paced, as evident by the excited shouts and the warm welcomes.

It was nearly noon, meaning that it was almost time to dismiss the kids for recess. Teachers kept an eye on their students as they drew, colored and got to know each other before the bell rang throughout the building, startling a few of the kindergarteners into crying fits. As they were calmed down, the rest of the children ran outside to the playground, eager to get back to the activities they enjoyed during the summer.

Maggie Simpson was one of them.

As she stepped out into the fresh air, she glanced around at all the familiar and new faces. So far, she really liked third grade. It was basically the same as second grade; she couldn't see what the big deal that Bart made about it was. He even tried to give her the answers for the future tests and quizzes, but she refused, saying that Mom and Dad would be livid if they found out. It wasn't a big deal for her, anyways. She wasn't as smart as Lisa but she knew enough to get by with average grades.

"Maggie, you dope, over here!"

Maggie gasped and looked around frantically for the source of the familiar voice. "Gerald?!"

"Oy!" She shrieked as a thick unibrow came directly in front of her vision. "Gosh, I told you not to scare me like that, idiot!" The boy laughed at her frightened face and patted her head. "But it's always fun to see you nearly pee yourself! What's up, Mags?"

"Other than having to see your ugly mug, not much."

"Oh wow. I was going to say that I missed you but I guess I'll take it back."

Maggie couldn't help but giggle at his mock expression of hurt. This was a normal interaction for them. They had hated each other since they were born up until first grade when Gerald stole her favorite juice box and a pack of cookies her mom had packed for her. The Simpson girl tackled him and ended up getting into a huge brawl with the boy, which had to be broken up by about three teachers. Of course their little fight ended with the two of them getting time out for recess for the rest of the week, leaving them stuck inside with each other and a teacher. On the third day, Gerald came in with an extra pack of cookies and a juice box and gave it to her as an apology. She could still remember the bashful look on his face when he mumbled that she hit good for a girl. In return, she slapped him on the arm playfully and told him to sit next to her so they could share the cookies. Since then, they've been the best of friends.

Maggie pulled him into a hug and giggled. "You know I'm just messing with you, Gerry."

"I know Mags, I know. Hey, have you seen Katrina?"

The girl frowned in response. "No, not yet. Let's look for her!" The two looked around the playground, searching for the third member of their little trio. They kept this up until Gerald shouted, "There she is!" He pointed to the giant oak tree near the groundskeeper's shed where a small, mousy-looking girl was sitting.

They ran over to her at top speed, shouting her name. Katrina looked up and smiled softly at the two. "Hey guys."

Maggie and Gerald sat down next to her on the grass. "What are you doing sitting here all by yourself?" queried Gerald. "Yeah, we thought you weren't here at all, we haven't seen you all day!"

Katrina shrugged and stared straight ahead as she muttered. "I just felt like it." Gerald and Maggie gave each other a puzzled look, wondering what was with their friend's offhanded response. But out of the corner of her eye, the Simpson girl caught a flash of bright pink by the monkey bars, which conveniently happened to be where Katrina was looking.

The pink turned out to belong to the tank top of a girl the same age as them, chatting with her friends and flipping her hair often. "Did Audrina make you?" The quiet girl swallowed hard and looked at her friend, nodding hesitantly. Maggie sighed and glared at the now cackling girl in pink.

Audrina was Katrina's older twin sister. You could simply look at the two and tell that they were polar opposites. Katrina preferred to wear long sweaters and pants while Audrina favored tank tops and skirts. Katrina had medium-length brown hair, tied back by a green bow; Audrina grew her hair out to her waist and came in with a new style every day. Katrina usually had a timid look on her face while Audrina's face exuded confidence and sass. But with opposites came conflict. The older sibling usually teased and tormented her younger sister, in and out of school, for being as she liked to put it, 'a complete loser with no friends'. This was part of the reason for her quiet demeanor, which infuriated Maggie to no end. Ever since they became friends, she vowed to keep her protected from her sister's harsh words, along with the help of Gerald.

The blonde pulled her into a tight hug. "Hey, don't worry about her. You've got us, we'll keep you safe." Gerald jumped on them and joined the hug. "Yeah! We'll teach her not to mess with our Kitty Kat!" The use of his nickname for her brought a small giggle out of the brunette.

"Thanks guys, I can always count on you two."

"Hey guys!"

The trio looked up to see a boy with shaggy red hair run over, holding a rubber ball in his small hands. Maggie's little heart started beating like crazy and her face heated up as he came closer.

His name was Tomas. He was the boy that she had a huge crush on. The boy that she thought was absolutely perfect. The boy that she wrote stories about in her diary.

Gerald smiled and waved. "Hey Tom, what's up?"

"We're playing some kickball, you guys wanna join?"

"Sure! Mags, Kat, you coming?"

Katrina shook her head. "I'm not really good with sports."

Tomas looked at her and smiled. "You could be the ball-getter, you won't have to do anything hard." This seemed to work as she smiled and agreed to his offer. He turned his gaze to the blushing blonde. "What about you, Mags?"

"O-oh! Well, um…yeah! I mean, I'll play! My dad says I can kick pretty hard!"

The redhead grinned. "Great! Let's go guys!"

With his command, the group rushed off to join the game. Maggie was beaming as she ran over, glad that she was able to play with her close friends and the boy she adored so much.

'Third grade, you're awesome.'

~•~•~•~

Back in Springfield High School, the hallways were filled with sophomores making their way to the auditorium for an assembly. Lisa was in the middle of the crowd, huddled next to Allison and Alex.

Alex turned her head towards her friends. "Kind of early for an assembly, huh?"

The other two nodded in agreement. "Can't remember ever having an assembly on the first day of school; and at 11:30, no less!"

Allison shrugged and made sure not to step on anyone's heels. "They must have a good reason, you know they wouldn't waste their time and money on something trivial."

Alex rolled her eyes. "You're right, this school district is too cheap to do that."

Lisa sighed and avoided stepping on a sheet of paper. "Let's hope this won't take too long, I'd like to actually learn something in class."

Following the crowd, the girls walked into the auditorium and looked for the first available three seats together. The platinum blonde pointed to a group of chairs. "Ooh, there's a set!"

Alex ran down the aisle at top speed and planted her bottom in one of the chairs, much to the dismay of a pale, heavyset boy coming from the other side. "Hey Alex, I was going for that!"

She glared up at him. "There's only one of you and three of us. I see a seat up front with your name on it, next to Cosine. Goodbye Ham." The boy huffed and walked off towards the front.

The other two girls sat down next to their best friend, attempting to get comfortable in the plastic chairs. Chatter filled the large room for the next few minutes until the sharp sound of feedback cut through, effectively silencing everyone.

"Attention! Can I have everyone's- "

Screeeech.

The sharp noise was met with cries of irritation and swears.

Principal Melbaum fiddled with the microphone. "This stupid thing- Ah! Attention! There we go." A smile plastered onto his face. "Hello sophomores and welcome. I hope you will enjoy your second year of being in our wonderful school." Snickers could be subtly heard throughout the crowd.

"I apologize for pulling you out of your classes but the staff and I have gathered you all for an assembly that could be beneficial to your future. Before you know it, you will all be graduating and going to college. During college, you may have to get a job to make ends' meet and pay for your tuition and fees. Maybe you won't have to then but eventually, you will be thrust into a career in order to make money and survive. Are we pressuring you to get one now? No. Are we trying to prepare you? Why yes, with a little something called an internship."

By now, students were looking at each other and muttering in confusion.

"Allow me to explain. An internship is any official or formal program used to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession. In other words, you are being given the opportunity to train and see what a certain occupation is like before you choose it as your career choice."

His explanation was starting to make sense to the teens, whose mutters lowered down.

"Without further ado, I'd like to introduce some of the local businesses who have volunteered to offer their teachings to all of you."

Lisa tuned out of the introductions, thinking about her future. She was pretty sure she was going to college after high school. At the rate she was going, she would be able to grab nearly every scholarship there was to offer and go on a free ride through, hopefully, Yale University. The last thing she wanted to do was depend on her parents' money, even if they insisted. It was clear that they were going to have to pay to help Bart through college, due to his inability to grab more than a couple of scholarships. Even with his job at the Android's Dungeon, it wouldn't have been enough to even pay for one year's tuition.

This led the Simpson girl to the issue of acknowledging what major she wanted to delve into. Lisa had been a jack of all trades since she was a little girl and showed potential for multiple fields; music, veterinary, science, environmental and even social justice. She had loved them all equally but realized that as the years went by, she'd have to pick one and put it above the others in order to make a career out of it. In her eight year-old mind at the time, the blonde dreamed of being able to equally dip her toes into all of these fields; when middle school had started though, she realized that such naivete was a pipe dream. Shaking her head to bring herself back to the present, Lisa decided to tune back in to hear the important information that was being thrown out.

She couldn't have tuned in at the worst time.

"Hey y'all, my name is Luke Stetson and I'm here to talk to you guys about the Lazy I Ranch."

Lisa's jaw dropped as she felt her heart stop and her stomach twist at the name.

'Luke? Luke?!' Unpleasant memories started flooding Lisa's head.

Going to the Lazy I Ranch in the past was the family's way of getting away from the annoyingly popular song that Homer had made. It was Bart's suggestion but Lisa was opposed from the second they had set foot on the ranch. She had soon met a junior wrangler by the name of Luke Stetson; her tune changed quickly and she couldn't have thought of a better place to go to. She adored how environmentally conscious and sophisticated he was compared to the loud and stereotypical cowboys. As a result of that, she gained a serious crush on him. Unfortunately, a mishap resulted in Lisa mistaking his sister Clara for his girlfriend and in her jealous state, she sent the poor girl in the wrong direction and nearly got her killed. Bart helped her rescue Clara but Lisa fessed up to Luke on her misdeed and in return, got rebuffed by him. It hurt her bad but she felt that she deserved it for what she had done. She decided to take that lesson and hold it in order to keep from repeating her mistake; never had she imagined that the same boy would waltz back into her life years later.

While she was reminiscing, Luke had finished his presentation, applause filling the auditorium. He stepped back in line with the other volunteers as Principal Melbaum stepped forward to the microphone. "Thank you Mr. Stetson, and thank you to the rest of the volunteers for coming to our school today to give these students job opportunities. Now everyone, we have fifteen minutes until the bell rings. In this time, the volunteers are going to be handing out fliers and information about their businesses on the stage. Feel free to pick one up and have them answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your time."

Once the microphone was turned off, the chatter from before returned as kids fled to the stage or sat in their chairs talking to each other. Lisa was still reeling while Alex and Allison spoke to each other.

"Wow, this was pretty fetch of Melbaum to do! Free internships? Cha-ching!"

"Alex, you do know that we don't get paid for these, right?"

The platinum blonde stared at her best friend in shock. "What?!"

"Well, actually, it depends on the company's policy…"

"Is that so? Well, I'll just ask who pays the most, no biggie."

Allison scowled at her in annoyance. "You're supposed to be working for experience Alex, not solely for the money. It's not like you need any, your family is rich!"

The fashionista pouted and sighed. "Okay, okay, I'll listen to your goody-two shoes wisdom and go for the 'experience'." Her statement was emphasized by making quote marks in the air with her fingers.

Allison rolled her eyes and turned to Lisa, only to notice her crestfallen expression. "Lise, you okay? You don't look so good." The Simpson girl looked up in surprise, nodding her head quickly.

Alex leaned over the redhead and whispered to her best friend. "Is it that time? I've got some tampons and Aleve if you need any."

"Alex!"

"Oh hush, it's a valid question."

Lisa swallowed and looked them in the eyes. "I just…feel a little nauseous, that's all. It'll pass, don't worry."

'As long as I don't see him for the rest of the day…or the rest of my life.'

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