Weird. Summer thought as she sat in her first period waiting for class to start. I know Mr. Tani isn't a...typical teacher. But he's always here on time.

"Morning class. I'm sorry for my tardiness, I'm dealing with some issues at home, but I won't bore you all with the details." He said as he walked into class.

Issues at home? He love alone doesn't he? What is he talking about? Summer couldn't focus much on the lesson in class. She was too focused on what Chiaki said a moment ago. She almost didn't even realize when the bell rang and the other students began to leave. She gathered up her things and went up to see Chiaki at his desk who was rubbing his temples, while seeming stressed. "Chiaki, are you alright?" She asked.

"Hm? Oh I'm fine, just tired. Here, take this." He said handing her a key.

"Isn't this the key to the classroom?" She asked.

"Yeah, I need to head straight home after school for awhile so I'm trusting you with this." He told her.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. Now you should get to your next class. Don't wanna ruin your perfect attendance." He said opening the door for her. She gave him one last look of concern before she walked out the door.

"Hey, you look rested." Freddy said sitting down next to Zack.

"Yeah, thanks to you I guess." He said before they fell into an awkward silence.

"Hey, look about what happened at lunch the other day-" Freddy began.

"Could you not? Sorry to interrupt you, but I don't want to hear about it. And I don't want to hear about it today either. If you and Katie can't get along, I don't think I want to see either of you and I told her this too. So work it out. If not for me, do it for the band." Zack told him.

"Yeah, I can do that, I promise." Freddy said nervously.

"Something's wrong with him, I swear." Summer whispered to Leonard in their class.

"So you've said." He responded, barley interested. Ever since She met up with him, she'd been going on and on about Chiaki and how he was acting different and Leonard for one was tired of hearing it.

"No, like, more wrong than normal. He's been down before, but he always cheers up quickly. And there's no way he would ever miss practice unless something serious was going on. And he was late to class too, what's up with that? Leonard? Are you listening to me?"

"Mm-hm," he hummed when he heard he finish.

"Are you really?"

"Yes Summer," He said without looking in her direction.

"What color are my nails?" She asked.

"You're right as usual." He responded. "Wait, uh, blue." He said looking at her.

"Seriously Leonard? You need to start listening when I talk to you." She said annoyed.

"Babe, I know, but you've been on this for over a half hour. Can't we just talk about this later?" He asked.

"It's a serious issue and until I get to the bottom of it, I'm not letting it go."

"Not getting laid later, got it." Leonard said to himself.

"What'd you say?" She asked.

"Nothing Babe, nothing at all."

"Hey there, stud." Katie said to Frankie meeting up with him before lunch. He looked back at her unamused. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Freddy's my best friend." He told her.

"Frankie me and him have never gotten along."

"I know, but you guys have been civil with each other before. What happened?" He asked.

"What happened?" She said sarcastically. "Frankie, you 'bro' kissed someone else right in front of Zack. On his birthday."

"She kissed him." Frankie corrected her.

"We don't know that."

"Zack trusts him, and he's moving on. Why can't you? Before you say anything else, I'm not siding with Freddy against you. I'm not talking to him right now either." He said before he went about his way.

"Mr. Tani, are you here?" Summer asked as she entered Chiaki's classroom. He was in there and was asleep on his desk. "Mr. Tani? Wake up!" She said shaking him a little.

"Hm? Summer? What are you doing here? What time is it?" He said waking up, still confused.

"It's lunch time, but why are you in here sleeping?"

"I'm not getting much sleep lately, obviously. That's why I gave you the keys so you and the band can come here after school to practice. You said you're going to try to get us to play at the end of the school year dance right?"

"Well yeah, but you-"

"Then go back to lunch, you still have two more classes today." He told her shooing her out the door with a confused look on her face. As soon as she stepped outside, she got a call from Leonard.

"Where you at?" He said on the other line.

"I was just checking on Mr. Tani, I'm on my way back now." She told him.

"Of course you are." He muttered.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked annoyed.

"Nothing, nothing. See you when you get here." He said, hanging up.

"Hey," Freddy said awkwardly approaching the table. Katie turned away from him.

"Oh just sit down." Zack told him. Freddy sat down quickly and smiled nervously.

"Katie," He said.

"Freddy," She said without looking back at him. Zack faked a cough causing them to look over at him. He looked at both of them seriously and the two of them sighed.

"Listen Katie-"

"Freddy I just wanted to say- Oh sorry, you go first."

"No, no please, go ahead." He told her.

Katie took a deep breath in before starting. "Freddy, I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said to you. We've never really gotten along and I was using your breakup with Zack to go after you even though everyone else has moved on. I'm really sorry and hope we can go back to being kind of, sort of friends." She said.

"And I'm sorry I fired back just as hard." He said, removing his hat. "I was already under alot of stress but that's not good reason for how acted. Are we cool?" He asked, reaching out his hand.

"Sure," She said shaking his hand. "for now." She added, leaving him looking worried.

"This feels wrong." Summer thought out loud while her and the band entered Chiaki's classroom, with him already being gone.

"Who cares?" Freddy said, pushing past her. "We haven't gotten to practice with everyone here for while."

"Freddy, I'm pretty sure Chiaki being gone means we don't have everyone here." Zack told him.

"Don't logic with me right now." He whined.

"For someone who skateboards everywhere, I thought you'd be in shape to run a mile." Lawrence said with a smirk.

"How you shut the Hell up and let us play?"

"I'm going to Chiaki's place to check on him." Summer said turning for the door.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Leonard told her.

"Hm, that's funny, I don't remember asking for your opinion. Tomika did you hear me ask for his opinion?" She called over.

"Don't bring me into this." Tomika told her.

"See, Tomika agrees."

"Wait what?" Tomika said in the distance.

"Look Babe, he's your favorite teacher and you're worried, I get it. But we need you here." He told her.

"No you don't, they got you." She said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Leonard, I'm putting my trust in you, to take care of these guys, whenever I'm not around. You got this right?" She asked him.

"Um, sure. I think? Yeah, yeah, I got this." He said confidently.

"Good, I'm out." She said leaving the room.

People really live in these kinds of neighborhoods? Summer thought. I didn't even think this part of town existed. She was in the east side of downtown Austin and, needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant place to be. Well, this is his address, so it must be his apartment complex. She walked inside and went up the stairs to the second floor and reached Room #214. This is it. She knocked on the door, timidly at first, but when no one arrived at the door, she knocked louder.

She heard shouting in another language on the other side of the door before it opened. "Oh, Summer hi, I was just-what are you doing here?" He realized.

"As the band manager I thought it in my best interest to check in on you to see if anything was wrong." She said walking inside. "Wow, your place is pretty clean." She said impressed.

"Not normally. It's only clean right now because-"

"Chiaki!" A deep voice yelled from a back room. He let out a sigh as an older Japanese man, with a stern frown walked out. He said something to Chiaki in Japanese, but Summer couldn't understand it. She guessed he was asking who she was since he look at her confused before speaking.

Chiaki responded to him in Japanese before turning back to Summer. "Summer, this is my father, Tani Hanto."

"It's uh, nice to meet you." she said feeling a bit awkward.

"You won't be saying that in a few minutes." He told her.

"Why is one of you students here?" Hanto asked his son. (they're speaking Japanese in this scene if it wasn't obvious)

"She's the manager of the band I came here to join."

"A child? Your band in being managed by a child?" He asked in a condescending tone.

"Dad, it's called 'School of Rock.' Being kids is kind of their thing."

"And I thought you leaving to join a band in the first place was ridicules. Now I see that's it's even more insane than I thought. Tell your band they'll have to find someone else. You're coming home."

"What? Dad, I can't just leave. I have a teaching job here and we might have a show coming up soon."

"Well, I'm afraid that's not really my problem, now tell her goodbye."

"Dad, I'm twenty-nine years old-"

"And you're also my son and you listen to me when I speak." Chiaki and his father fell into silence staring each other down before Chiaki looked over to Summer. Summer felt awkward and confused not knowing Japanese.

"Ok, I'll give you a deal." Chiaki began.

"I beg your pardon-"

"You like deals, now listen as it's my turn to talk. We have a show in Chicago coming up, as I mentioned. Come to the show, if you enjoy it, then I get to stay. If you're not impressed, I'll come back to Japan with you that day. Do we have a deal Father?" Chiaki asked, extending his hand. His father stared at him for a few moments, considering his offer.

"It's a deal." He said, shaking his son's hand. Chiaki turned towards Summer with a smile.

"Something good?" She asked.

"Something very good. Thanks for showing up, now let's go back to the school. I need to practice." He said as the two of them left his place.

Leonard was watching the band members practice while waiting for Summer to return. He didn't like how much time she was spending thinking about Chiaki, but he decided to trust her, after all, the two of them did work together, so he shouldn't have to worry right?

"Fear not, hope has arrived. For I am here." Chiaki said as he and Summer entered the classroom.

"Baby cakes, you've come back to me." Leonard said seeing Summer.

"If it makes you feel better, sure." She said hugging him.

Zack was on his way home, walking through the halls. He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and pulled it out to take a look, right as he bumped into someone. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's ok, I wasn't paying attention either." He heard a familiar voice say. He looked up and saw an old friend of his.

"Justin? I haven't seen you in forever." He said with a smile.

"No way, little Zack is that you?" Justin asked surprised.

"Yeah, it's me alright." He said with a laugh. Justin's and Zack's dads work together. They saw alot of each other in grade school, but then lost touch when Justin went off to middle school until now.

"Holy crap, you got tall."

"And, you haven't changed in the slightest."

"What're you doing here so late after school?" Justin asked as they began to walk down the hall.

"Band practice," He told him.

"Oh right, that School of Rock thing you do."

"What about you? Football practice?"

"What gave it away?" Justin still had his jersey on.

"That a real question?" Zack asked before they both started to laugh. Zack followed Justin to the locker rooms as they continued to chat and catch up. Justin said how excited he was to almost be done with high school and Zack told him how crazy his first year alone had been.

"Sounds like you've been through some shit." Justin commented as they were walking out of the school. "To be honest, I always thought you'd turn out to be gay."

"Oddly enough, you're not the only one."

"So then, if you're available, would you like to go out this weekend?" He asked his underclassman.

"Yeah, I think it's be great to hang out with you again."

"Uh yeah, but I meant go out like, on a date. With me." Justin said with a chuckle.

"Oh," Zack said as he felt his heart beating really hard.

"If it's too early from your breakup with Freddy, I understand-"

"No, no, it's fine. I'd really like to go out with you." Zack said calming himself down.

"Really? Cool." The two stopped to look at each other for a minute. "Hey, you want a ride home?" Justin asked.

"You drive?" Zack asked, impressed.

"Gotta get out of this town after this summer somehow." He said climbing into the driver's seat. "You jumping in or what?" He asked. Zack smiled and climbed in next to him as the car drove out of the parking lot.

Freddy watched as the car drove away. He had heard everything they said and sat down on the front steps of the school. "I really am just a fucking screw up." He said, fighting back the tears.