After I go through enough songs to be a few hours, I feel myself getting tired, tired enough that my senses are being dulled. I realise this, and jump down, making my way over to Alex and shaking them. "Alex. Psst! Alex!"

They sit up straight off the ground, wide awake and ready to move. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

I shake my head, even if they can't see me. "No, nothing's wrong. It's just your shift and you weren't waking up."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yup. Now scooch, so I can get some shut eye." They dutifully get up and out of the way, and I watch as they climb up the tree with ease, before laying down and shutting my eyes to go to sleep.

I'm next woken up by Alex shaking me awake by my shoulder. "Hey, it's dawn. The sun's been up for a little bit. What do you want to do?"

I slowly sit up, rubbing my eyes and shaking my head blearily. "What? What, yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I'm up."

I stand up and stretch, looking over at our companions. "Should we let them sleep?"

Alex looks over at them as well. "Do you think you're strong enough to carry Rich for a while? I can get Aubrie, and we can let them sleep."

I nod, shaking out my arms and legs. "Sounds a-good-a to me. Let's try to do this carefully, so they don't wake up."

"Alright."

After some careful manoeuvring, we both somehow manage to get them both into semi-comfortable positions on our backs. We set off back into civilization, stopping occasionally to shift our companions on our backs. As we walk, I make sure to note any landmarks that I can find, so we can find our way back tonight. Trudging on, I think I recognize a few of the buildings, and motion to Alex to head over in the direction of the library.

Cautiously crossing the street, we walk over to stand by the trees in front of the library. Using the slowly brightening sky as a guide, I try to orient myself and figure out which direction Carlisle had pointed for the school yesterday evening. "I think he said the school was this way. We should probably start to head in that direction. Let's wake them up."

After everyone is awake, I double check that we're headed in the right direction, then set off. After around 10 minutes, we can see the school ahead. Knocking on the glass, I cross my fingers in hope that someone is already here. I quickly brush the dirt and leaves off of the clothes that the pixi- that Alice gave me, in an attempt to look presentable.

The door swings open to reveal a young woman in a dark red button down shirt, with matching pants. "Is there something you all need at 6:30 in the morning? School doesn't start for another hour."

I clear my throat. "Um, we actually need to register. You see, we just moved here, and so we haven't had time to register yet."

She raises an eyebrow. "Follow me."

She sets off at a brisk pace down the hallway to the left, eventually turning sharply to go through a door. Hesitantly, we follow. She comes to a stop behind the tall desk in the room. Sliding some papers across, she starts pointing to the different areas we need to fill out. I go to fill it in as I would have done in the past back home, but then I realise that circumstances are different here, and we're homeless. I quickly lean over to the others. "Put Carter for your last name. When we get a free chance, I'll explain why. And remember, we don't have a home or money. Watch what you write."

I opt in for free/reduced lunch, and I check the proper medical boxes. When it asks about our guardians, I write in emancipated. I collect the forms from everyone else and hand them back to her. "Can we start today? Or will we have to wait?"

She smiles. "It's always so good to see students eager to learn. Yes, you can start today. However, you'll have to wait about an hour, when our doors officially open. I'll see if I can get your schedules made up as quickly as possible."

She clears her throat and opens a drawer under her side of the desk and pulls out a folder. "Now, I don't know what levels you all are at, but here is our class list. I need you to select 6 classes, 7 if you want a zero period, 8 if you don't mind an extended school day. Some jobs might interfere, so do keep that in mind. I know this is probably not what you're used too, but this is just a new thing we're trying this year. It's been being used all across the states, and I'm so excited that they're giving our little town a chance to try!"

I frown slightly. 'I don't remember this in the books or the movies.' I shake the thought off. "That's great! It might take us a few moments to figure out what classes we want, though, if that's okay?"

She waves us off, "Oh, no! That's quite all right. Just ask me if you need any help."

I spread the papers across the counter, pointing to the two pages of core classes. "First, we need to figure out what classes we took before, so we don't retake. And I just realised that since this is a new school system, we don't have to do the stairsteps to get to the advanced classes. So we can basically take any class we want, provided that we can prove that we have the 'smarts' to take it. Some might have a test or section we might have to read to get in. We had a few classes like that at my old school."

"I'm definitely going to be going with the 8 period day, since I remember how annoying it was when that wasn't the schedule that got voted in. I'm going to take as many advanced classes as I can. I'm going to take Creative Writing, Anatomy, Pre-Calc, World Religions, Choir, Astronomy, French, and Photography. Those are all of the core classes, and I don't need to take Gym. What about you guys?" I finally pause long enough to look at my new family's faces. Alex is nodding at what I've said and Rich and Aubrie are still contemplating. I lean over to see what they're pondering, and I offer what little knowledge I know of the classes they are thinking about. After a few more minutes, I gather their papers with their choices and I hand them back to the secretary. "Are these your final choices?"

We all nod and make vague noises of affirmation. "That's great, though I see only two of you went with the eight period day. For you two, the school day starts at the normal time for the seven period, but goes an hour longer after school. For the others, it starts at 7, with your siblings, but ends at 2:30. Their school day ends at 3:30." She pulls up what I presume to be the software they use to make schedules, on the computer in front of her. "Now, this will take me just a few minutes to enter your class choices into the system, but I will soon have your schedules pulled up!"

AN: Sorry for taking so long to update. I'm failing a class right now, and I'm really stressed about trying to raise my grade. Yeah. I know where I want this to go, I just need it to get there. If anyone has any ideas, characters, places, or anything they want to see, just write it in a review and I'll be sure to check it when I can!