Disclaimer: Nope. Still not mine. I gave a quarter of that decaying marshmallow to my cat. He didn't like it one bit.

Reviews from: SharkiesGirl, I read not write, icyslumber, Battlecry4ever, cuteismeep, jessiepotter11390, and Queen Biatch, yotakehisuo174, Mrs. Jones, Jousting Elf with a Sabre, rid3r chick, CherubChick92, Ember-1331 and daseyfan.

Words I have to reach: 2900

A/N: Yes! We (You and I) made it to the 100th review! Thank you Queen Biatch who was my 100th reviewer. I'd like to thank everybody else for reviews too. We couldn't get there without you. You guys have a very good view on Australia. No matter how...colourful our language is, you guys still love us. So, Laura and Alex are back to school. Yay! Now, I don't really know what schools or teachers in Brookland are like so this one is going to be just like mine. Let's see what happens, shall we?

IMPORTANT: I'm starting to use the characters you guys made up for me. I am changing them around a bit, so you may have to look really hard to find yours. If anybody still wants to make one, you have about a week. Either send it in via a review or PM. Details are at the bottom of the page.

"Bloody Hell!"

"Come on. There is still twenty-five minutes until the bell. I want you to come meet my old friends," Alex said to Laura and he walked her over to a group of boys he used to hang around with.

First there was Tom. Laura had met him at the shopping centre. Tom was tall. He had black hair and a tendency to poke fun at people. Then there was Colin. Alex wasn't very close to him since he had caught him doing drugs. Colin was rather bulky and had a large nose. He was normally a very tolerable person apart from that. And last but not least was Kelvin Smith. Kelvin wasn't part of the group when Alex had left to do his last few missions, but he assumed he was now part just to make up numbers. Kelvin was short, podgy, slow and rather unhygienic. He always had something gross on his hands and he didn't brush his teeth.

"Hey guys!" Alex said rather nervously, coming up behind them.

The three turned and faced him. Tom beamed and Kelvin smiled sheepishly. Colin didn't look straight at Alex and looked rather uncomfortable.

"Alex!" Tom half-yelled and they high-fived. "Sup, Laura?" he added, giving her a flirtatious smile.

"Hi Tom," Laura said, crushing Alex's hand.

"Colin, Kelvin, this is Laura. Laura, this is Colin and Kelvin," Alex introduced, hoping Laura would relax a bit so he could grow old with both his hands in tact.

"Hi," Laura smiled and shook both their hands. Alex noticed her cautiously wipe her hand on her skirt after touching Kelvin's muddy little paws. He grinned to himself.

For the next few minutes, Laura told a little bit about herself to the three boys. She said she was an exchange student from Australia and that she lived somewhere in the city near Sydney. Of course, Alex - and Tom for the most part – knew it wasn't true. Kelvin and Colin weren't any the wiser.

Soon, a lot more people had arrived and were greeting each other like they hadn't seen each other for ten years. Tom went off to greet his girlfriend, Ashley Barns, and Colin and Kelvin went off to the library to 'check up' on something. Alex gave Laura's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"How you doin'?" he asked her as they started walking around the school from a lack of anything better to do.

Laura made an unsure noise. "I'm certainly scared," she laughed, swinging their arms.

"Come on, I'll show you around."

Alex pointed out most of the buildings and explained how the bells and sirens meant different things. When he next checked his watch, there were three minutes until the meeting. They walked back from the oval and came to the 'Indoor Basketball Courts' just in time. Alex recognised heaps of people and others he assumed were new. He saw no sign of Joseph and Josephina.

"Good morning, students!" Mr Dan boomed as they all filed in and sat around the room.

Mr Dan was their year advisor and the Personal Development, Health and Physical Exercise teacher. It was a well known fact that he was an Ex U.S. Military Chopper Pilot. Mr (Dan) Dan was over six foot and had shaggy brown hair. Alex and the rest of the grade, as far as he knew, all got along with him. He was one of the nicer teaches. Alex pulled Laura up to where Tom and the group were sitting. They were about halfway up, looking down at the more studious students (sometimes called nerds) who liked to sit near the front at all times.

"Who's that?" Laura whispered, taking a seat on the bench between Tom and Alex.

"Mr Dan. We all call him Dan though. He's our year advisor."

The students fell silent after a while and Laura finally let go of Alex's hand. He was certainly relieved to notice the blood flow hadn't completely stopped. Mr Dan waited for some of the kids up the back to quieten down completely before starting.

"Welcome, or welcome back, to Brookland School!" The kids let of a very loud applause and a few even screamed and stomped. Mr Dan laughed. "I'm glad you are all excited. Now...put your hand up if you are new this year or only recently came!"

Laura put her hand up shyly and looked around for any other arms in the air. There were quite a few more than normal, Alex noticed.

"Okay, could those kids please come down the front here?"

Laura stood up and bit her bottom lip. Alex clenched his fist as she walked away and some guy tried to grab her bottom. Once she was down there, she seemed to relax a bit as she noticed there were five or six others in the same position. Alex studied the faces. He easily picked out Joseph and Josephina.

"Alright then, would you all like to introduce yourselves in the interest of 'getting to know' everybody?"

Before any of the other kids could introduce themselves, somebody spoke up, sounding incredibly bored and ignorant. "No. Thanks."

Mr Dan turned to the boy who had spoken. He was taller than most of the students and looked much older. He had dirty blonde hair, grey eyes, a strong stance and a cocky attitude. Joseph.

"Shut up, Rogers!" Mr Dan said and frowned. "One more word without permission and you'll be told to sit down."

"Fine with me!" Joseph exclaimed, folding his arms and winking at one of the giggly girls near the back.

"That's it!" Mr Dan yelled, blowing up. He pointed to a chair near the exit. "Go! Sit down now before I kick your sorry behind over there myself."

Joseph smirked. He unfolded his arms and slowly walked over to the chair before turning it to face the wall and straddling it. He waved at one of his new friends sitting near Alex. Mr Dan sighed and turned away, slowly rolling his eyes.

"Hmm...you!" He pointed at one of the girls who were half hiding from him in the small cluster of new people. "Introduce yourself."

The girl shyly stepped forward and smiled nervously. She had tanned skin and dark, frizzy hair. She wasn't the most attractive girl Alex had seen, but she wasn't too hideous either. "Hi!" she said rather shakily. "My name is Indy Forest and I just moved here from New Jersey in the States."

"Boo!" Joseph called from his seat. Everybody turned to face him. "Get lost, America!"

About ninety percent of the kids laughed – a few even going as far as to point at Indy. Mr Dan shot them a death glare and motioned for the girl to continue.

"Ermm...this is my first day here, and I'm enjoying it so far," she lied, a blush creeping up her face.

Alex felt sorry for the poor girl. It was her first day at a new school, in a new country and already somebody had made fun of her. He already hated Joseph. But, he could barely recognise Indy's accent. It was virtually non-existent.

"Well, that's lovely. Just take a seat near the front there while we get through the other kids and I'll pair you up with somebody as a buddy," Mr Dan said gently and pointed to a row of seats near the left side of the hall that was half deserted. The girl walked over and gratefully sat down. "Next is...how 'bout you?" He pointed at one of the boys.

"Hey, I'm Felix Polden, and I was expelled from my last school on the other side of London. Err...I like soccer...yeah," he trailed off. Felix was tall, slim and looked rather fragile. He had pitch-black hair that was spiked up and he had bright green eyes. Alex's first thought on him was that he was rebellious. But now, Felix was starting to remind him of a cat he had seen on a "LOST" sign.

Felix sat down and Mr Dan's gaze landed on Laura. "Would you like to introduce yourself, missy?" he asked, bending down to her level. Laura bit her bottom lip and shook her head. Everybody chuckled. Mr Dan smiled at her and whispered something in her ear that nobody else heard. Laura smiled, nodded and then beamed up at Alex.

"Hi!" she said really confidently. "My name is Laura Nickleson and I flew here from Australia the other week." The students all burst into chatter but Laura pressed on. "I speak ten different languages, I'm pretty new to the whole...city thing since I've lived in rural Australia my whole life and...I eat vegemite." The kids all laughed as she sat down.

"She's nuts, isn't she?" Tom asked Alex as Mr Dan tried to quieten everybody down again.

"Yeah, pretty much," Alex answered, smiling at Laura as she swivelled her head to wave at him. A few people had been watching her and carefully followed her gaze. They frowned at Alex but didn't have time to ask questions seeing as Mr Dan had finished convincing one of the girls out the front to talk and ordered silence.

The next girl was also short but she looked much more serious than Laura. "Good morning. My name is Alicia Prince and my parents just went through a divorce and now I am living with my Dad just around the corner. I'm aiming to become a musician when I leave school and...yeah...that's about it."

"Okay, take a seat." Alicia went to sit down and Mr Dan looked around. "Okay, one left. You take it from here."

Josephina. She wasn't as tall as Joseph, but she wasn't much shorter than Alex and Tom either. Her hair was a dark blonde and it was styled up neatly. Her eyes were grey like Joseph's but hers were surrounded by eyeliner and the rest of her face was caked with makeup. Her skirt was very short and her top was tighter than the other girls'.

"Hey," she said in a very girly voice. "I'm Josephina but you can all call me Josie. I like apples, I hate body odour and I wish I had two ponies, not just the one."

Josephina wiggled off to the side and sat down, examining her nails just like that girl at Laser Quest had. Alex grimaced to himself. If he had to be involved with that...thing, he was sure the mission would be a lot harder than he had first thought. Then again, he was much happier that this mission didn't involve guns and high death risks.

"Alright then, that's all of us!" Mr Dan said. He then turned in the direction of Joseph who was pretending to snore. "You can get your arse back over here if you behave."

"Yes, Miss," Joseph answered, smirking.

Mr Dan scowled. He ignored it otherwise and turned to face the new students. "Okay, Laura, Indy, Felix and Alicia, you'll be partnered in just a minute. Does anybody want to volunteer to show these kids around?' Mr Dan yelled over the noise.

Alex, Tom, Kelvin, Colin and a few others put their hands up. Joseph put his foot up. Another burst of laughter echoed throughout the hall. Alex felt himself clench his fists with anger.

Mr Dan stormed up to Joseph and grabbed the front of his shirt. "One more snide comment or inappropriate action and I'll have a letter written to your mother." Mr Dan released Joseph's shirt with a violent tug and Joseph's neck cracked with a sickening snap.

Alex winced despite himself. He knew pain when he saw it. Once Mr Dan cooled down, he re-asked the students if anybody would like to volunteer, and this time only Alex and Tom put their hands up. Mr Dan frowned.

"Okay, you two will do." He gestured for them to join him down the front.

As Alex sifted his way down to where Laura and the other students were sitting, he heard whispers.

"-drug addict-"

"-never comes to school. I reckon that-"

"-I always thought he was kidnapped by that guy who-"

"-kinda cute-"

"-knows that new girl. Laura, was it? I'm not-"

"-they say he is really snobby and sometimes he'll-"

Alex tried to ignore it, but it still got to him. Once he reached the front, Laura immediately smiled at him and he instantly felt better. At least he still had one good friend left. Mr Dan paired Indy and Laura up and told Josephina to go and sit back down since she had already been attending long enough to know most of her way around. He then assigned Tom to stick with Alicia and Felix while Alex went with the other two.

"Okay, I just want you to direct them to their classes and show them around a bit. Maybe even introduce them to all their teachers. You don't have to follow them around the whole day, but keep an eye out, alright?" Alex and Tom nodded. "Good. I'll hand out all the timetables now so just take a seat for a moment."

They did as they were told and Mr Dan ordered the pupils' attention again. It took half an hour to hand all the timetables out, giving the kids time to all catch up a bit and giving Alex time to study Joseph and Josephina for a few minutes before they were lost in the crowd.

Laura and Indy seemed to get along quite well. They were chatting like a couple of old friends whenever Alex tuned in to their conversations. By the time Mr Dan had organised everybody, answered questions and followed up any problems, it was recess. None of the kids were complaining. One less class wasn't going to do much harm.

"What bell was that?" Indy asked rather hurriedly while they all emptied out of the hall.

"Just the bell for recess," Alex answered, smiling at her.

"Oh!" Indy sighed. "That's good. What now?"

"Well..." Laura said, looking around. "Err...Alex? What next?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "We have something to eat, we have a bit of a run around or a chat and then when the bell goes again, we go back to class."

"Sounds fun. At my old school, we just hung out." Indy flicked her hair over her shoulder once she had finished.

Alex surveyed her thoughtfully. "Who's up for a game?" Laura and Indy perked up. "Okay, let's play hide and seek! This version has 'home' too." Alex dumped his school bag down near a shady tree around the corner of the canteen and the girls followed suit.

"Who's counting?" Laura asked, looking between Alex and Indy.

"I will then," Indy said. She turned to face the tree and closed her eyes. "One. Two. Three..."

Alex and Laura both turned and sprinted away. Laura headed towards the library and Alex followed to make sure she didn't get lost or find herself in trouble. They hid behind a thick bush where they could peek through the branches and see where Indy was counting. They both crouched down and watched their new friend. After about twenty seconds, and Laura kicking a football away after it had wandered off of the oval, Indy turned away from the tree and started looking around.

"I love this game!" Laura said.

"Yeah, I used to play it all the time with my friends but I haven't lately," Alex said back, watching as Indy started wandering in the opposite direction. "Wanna make a break for it?" he asked.

Laura shook her head. "Not yet. You see how she is only wandering a few steps and then turning?"

"Mmmm...?"

"Well, that's because she hasn't yet decided where she wants to go. Wait until she is the same distance as us away, give or take a few meters, and then sprint."

"Alright. Is she far enough away yet?"

"Err...yeah. Go!"

Alex and Laura stood up and dashed up to the tree. Indy didn't even spot them once until they had made it safely back. Alex and Laura panted for a bit before it was Indy's turn to count again. This time, Alex and Laura split up. Alex hid behind a large group of people nearby while Laura skilfully positioned herself behind a skinny bush on the opposite side of home than Alex.

They both waited for Indy to wander away a bit until they decided to run. Unfortunately, Indy had become a little smarter and found them as they were both making a break for it. She ran back to the tree just as both Alex and Laura were both about ten metres away. She had a choice to go for either of them. Alex took a step closer, so did Laura. Indy was torn between running for Laura who was a little slower than Alex but was closer or going for Alex who seemed to be the easiest option even though he was really fast.

"Ahh!" she said, laughing. "I can't pick!"

Alex and Laura both smiled and started stepping sideways. They slowly moved until they were almost touching.

"One...two," Alex whispered under his breath. "Three...four..."

Indy sprinted towards them. Seconds before she reached them, both Alex and Laura sidestepped and narrowly avoided her. By the time Indy had turned to chase them, her friends had almost reached the tree and there was no point.

"Aww...guys!" Indy whined with a smile on her face. "You are too good!"

"I know!" Laura said and grinned. "I'm hungry!"

"Alright," Alex said, starting to walk back to their bags. "Let's grab something to eat before class starts again."

"Yeah..."

The three sat down and started eating. Laura had an apple, Indy had a banana and Alex had a packet of chips. He shared them around before they started on their fruit. While they were eating, Alex looked around. He could see Josephine sitting with a few girls he recognised from the cheerleading team as well as Ashley, Tom's girlfriend. He briefly wondered where Tom had taken Felix and Alicia but he didn't have time to look.

Joseph and his mates had come up behind them and weren't looking too happy.

Word count (without notes): 3019

Word count I needed to reach: 2900

A/N: Another one up! Hurray for me! So, as I was saying, I am including new characters if anybody is interested. They may not turn out how you wanted, but I'm doing the best I can. So, if you want one just fill out these questions (I included an example):

Name: Bobby Krait

Age: 14

Appearance: Black hair, blue eyes and very fat.

Status: Student

Interesting Fact: Likes Laura.

Extra: Has a fixation with cheese.

See? So, yeah. If you are interested I am right here. Also, I am going to rewrite the first ten or so chapters, so if anybody would like to help and actually has the time, that would be lovely. I will probably notify everybody once I rewrite, but you really don't have to read it if you don't want.

This chapter's question (not worth anything this time because I have holidays and I am very busy. But...if you are lovely I will include extra words!): Are you a boy or a girl?

My answer: I'm a girl.

Yeah, I know, so easy. But, seriously. It is interesting to know how many of each gender actually read this. So, there you have it. I will update soon. I get my report tomorrow! I am coming 138th in my grade at maths out of 150. Who's a slacker? I am! Wish me luck with my mark!

RG

xox