Gregor finally arrived to King's Fork High School, when his watch read 7:43, and there were very few people about. He recognized a few faces from last year, from Middle School (9th Grade) but didn't try to interact. Gregor was a social outcast, and had not made any attempt of even trying to build a friendship for three years, eleven months, and twenty-two days. Not even with his sisters. Speaking of which, Lizzie would most likely arrive within the next hour — by car —, but would travel into the King's Fork Middle School Building.

Kings Fork was made up of four buildings, and a soccer/football field. There was the Middle School building, the High School building, the cafeteria, and the gym.

The gym.

Gregor always had an excuse for not participating in gym class. Usually something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but my legs are hurting and I can't run," or "I broke my hand over the weekend and unfortunately cannot play basketball." He came up with these excuses for only one, simple reason. It was because he was afraid.

He was afraid that if he starting exercising, that if he started working his body too hard, then the Rager deep within him would awaken.

If you are a Rager, than it means that you are a "Natural Born Killer." While being a Rager did help squeeze Gregor out of some tough spaces in the Underland, it was of absolutely no use in the Overland. Practically everyday, Gregor had these horrible fantasies of himself. Fantasies of himself, ripping his classmates throats out, caving their heads in, killing his family. The worst part though, was that the whole while, he would be laughing. Laughing and grinning so hard, it hurt. The grin, stretching from one side of his face to the other. The laughter, maniacal, terrifying. It was the sound an insane, disturbed, demented person made. It was excruciating. Gregor still remembered the day a certain rat, by the name of Twitchtip (who was one of the few gnawers he would trust with his life), told him that he was a Rager. He denied it at first, saying he was in no way a Natural Born Killer, but after a bit more time in the Underland, he realized Twitchtip was right. He was a Rager.

He was a danger to society.

Eventually, all of these terrible thoughts converging on his already-fragile mind, slowly came to a halt (as Gregor forced them to), as one of his "friends" from last year, walked up to him. Gregor looked at his watch. It was 8:48, he must have been day-nightmaring for much longer than he realized.

"Hey Gregor! How's life?" His friend Corey Graph said, walking up to Gregor. Corey was roughly 5 feet, 10 inches tall, - making him around two inches shorter than Gregor - and had dirty-blond hair, with bright, blue eyes. Actually, the brightest part of Corey was his mind. While Gregor was mainly street-smart, and had grades consisting of mostly B's and C's, Corey was more of a book-worm, and was a pure genius. Uncannily similar to Lizzie, who had skipped the entire sixth grade, and was now entering seventh. There was no doubt in Gregors mind that she would be smarter than everybody in the grade, even more intelligent than a few of the teachers, probably. What worried Gregor was Lizzie's ability to make friends. She had always been a bit awkward, and was now extremely so. The only friend she had had, had been that creepy - uh . . . special kid Jedidiah, but he was long gone now.

"Hey, man! Gregor, I asked you how it's going!" Corey said, not in rude, or mean way, Corey was very kind and friendly. Sometimes he could just get . . . excited.

"It's okay." Gregor responded, in a low, dreary voice. While Corey was so full of hope, and life, Gregor didn't have any of it. He had never even tried to become friends with Corey, it just happened. In the eighth grade, some bully had shoved Corey into a locker, causing him to drop all of his books and papers (with 1 minute till class, too!), and then started to walk away, snickering to his cronies. Nobody even gave him a second glance. Gregor took pity on the boy, and helped him gather his belongings. Ever since then, he and Corey had been, unfortunately, best friends. Yay. . .

"Cool! So are you excited for school? I know I am. I already preordered my schedule, and yours too! That means we're the only kids here who already know what our schedules are. Pretty sweet, huh? Oh, right! I have yours right here, check it out!" Corey said, handing Gregor the slip of paper. See? Excited.

"Thanks." Gregor mumbled, hesitantly. He looked down at his schedule.

Gregor Spearman

- Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday -

1st Period - English - English - English - English - Robotics -

2nd Period - Robotics - Science (life) - Robotics - Robotics - Science (life) -

3rd Period - Science (life) - World Language - Science (life) - Science (life) - World Language -

Lunch -

4th Period - World Language -World Language - History - World Language - World Language -

5th Period - History - History - Math - History - History -

6th Period - none (go to sports)- Math - none (go to sports) - Math - Math -

Sports (gym) -

"Oh cool! We have Robotics and Math together!" Corey exclaimed.

"You didn't know that?" Gregor asked, slightly bored, but a little curious.

"Of course not, I wanted you to look at the your schedule first. It is yours, after all." He said.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess." Gregor said, not really caring. His watch read 8:58. Lizzie still had not arrived, his family probably got caught up in traffic or something. Or maybe she wouldn't even come. She did seem to look a bit ill last night.

The doors had opened around twenty minutes ago, and there were many people lingering in-and-outside. Gregor decided to go on in, as did Corey.

"Hey guys! Wait for me, please!" Spoke a voice as Gregor and Corey were heading in. Gregors watch displayed the time 8:59.

"Hey Sarah!" Corey said, as a girl by the name of Sarah Chute walked up to them. Interesting factoid, Corey had a major crush on Sarah, and Sarah had a major crush on Gregor. How unfortunate.

"Hi." Gregor sighed, Sarah Chute was a bit hard to deal with sometimes, she had too much energy. And Gregor had a feeling today would be a very energetic day, what with it being the first day back to school and whatnot.

"Hi Corey! Gregor." She said Gregors name in such a way, it made Gregor cringe inside. She said his name in such a dreamy, lovestruck, creepy way, it made him want to puke.

Corey took notice of this, and, immediately, became jealous.

"Duh, uh- I wa-was just t-t-telling, uh, Gregor here, um, uh, so-some interesting facts about-t dino-dinosaur-saurs." He stuttered. Gregor thought he noticed Corey holding his breath.

"Uh, cool." Sarah said, clearly not interested. Corey slumped. "So Gregor, how was your summer? Do anything interesting? Work out? Get a girlfriend, maybe?" She said this last part darkly, obviously hoping he would say no.

"No. Still single." Gregor replied, in short, simple sentences. He would be a master at talking to spinners. Spinners were the colossal spiders of the Underland, and humans spoke to them in short, simple sentences. This just happened to be the only way Gregor knew how to speak. The time was now 9:02. H was officially late. Great.

Sarahs face immediately brightened. "Aw, thats too bad," she said, probably ecstatic on the inside. Then she took notice of the time (fianlly). "OH CRUD! Ugh, I can't be late on the first day. See ya'll at the opening-school assembly!" She said, winking at Gregor, and then rushed away. Sarah was an odd girl. With a small, yet powerful frame, she was only 5 feet, 9 inches tall, she had practically golden eyes, and a mop of fiery red hair resting on her freckle-covered head. It often looked as if she was on fire. Corey sighed.

"What's wrong." Gregor asked, although he think he already knew.

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain." Corey said.

"Try." Gregor countered.

Corey straightened. "Okay, so. You know Sarah?" Corey asked, although he already knew he did. Gregor nodded. "Well, I- I really like her. A lot, ya'know?" Gregor nodded again. "Well, I don't think she likes me back, I think she likes this other guy, but I don't think he knows, and it's really disheartening. To not have her like me back." Gregor nodded once more.

"I understand." Gregor said softly, and he did! He knew just what it felt like to not be certain if somebody shared your feelings of love, and assumed it would only be one-thousand times worse if you were one-hundred percent sure, they did not like you back.

"You do?" Corey asked. Normally, Gregor would have just nodded, but he could see the mixture of emotions on his friends face. Disbelief, hesitation to trust, the longing to believe, sadness, and confusion. He really liked Sarah, apparently. Why? Gregor did not know, but he did know he had to make Corey feel somewhat better, which is why he said what he said, and decided to not nod, just this once.

"I do. And I can assure you, the guy she likes, does not like her back." Gregor said, quietly, but firmly. And with that, he walked off to the assembly, leaving behind a stunned, speechless Corey.

The time was only 9:04

AUTHORS NOTE:

Aaaaaannnnd the second chapter is up! Thank you all for the kind reviews, and for pointing out my errors! I understand this chapter has a slightly rushed ending, but hey, I have an alibi. . . . I got tired. ANYWAY! I can assure you all that the next chapter will be available shortly, but it might take a day or two if I want it to be a really long, detailed one. Phew! I have newfound respect for authors. Writing is hard! Welp, until next time, Cya!

Rotting Hood, out!