Disclaimer: Not ours. It's Jonathan's. Although Ms. Foley, Mr. Murray and Ms. Reid are real, very awesome people, we don't own them either.

More odd pairings. Yay for odd pairings! And thank you guys sooo much for your reviews! We love you!

Roger bolted up at the harsh ring of the school bell. Shit… he thought, rubbing his already aching head. A shouted announcement of a homework assignment floated over the sounds of notebooks closing and zippers zipping that filled the room. The guitarist scoffed, scrawling it down on the blank page of his notebook. Carefully, he glanced over the shoulder of the girl in front of him to get an idea of what they were studying. French Revolution. Something he knew absolutely nothing about nor would need later in life.

He slid out of the room, managing to avoid the inevitable lecture from the history teacher. Bodies filled the hall, laughing and chatting. Roger's headache just throbbed harder at the bustle. He backed into a little alcove off the hall and dug his schedule out of his pocket. Second block… chorus. Just his luck. At least Mark was in the class. And Maureen, though she normally annoyed the shit out of him rather than entertaining him. Roger sighed, breaking through a giggling group of sophomore girls who were closing in on him. He started on the familiar path to the chorus room. Two hours down, six to go.

Collins couldn't believe it. He had left when the bell rung to find the office. It had only taken him two minutes to get from there to the computer lab. Simple logic dictated that it should take him the same amount of time to get to the office from the computer lab. But here he was, nearly ten minutes later, and he was just walking into the room thanks to the help of a passing freshman. They are fourteen year olds who've been here for as long as I have, but they know their way around. So much for my genius I.Q., he thought bitterly. He sighed. The receptionist smiled kindly at him when the paper he had been holding floated down in front of her. "First day's always the toughest, hon. You'll get used to this place." Collins managed to grin back at her.

"Thanks." He turned to leave, but stopped when he heard his name being called.

"Mr. Collins!" The vice-principal, Benjamin Coffin III, exited his office, a young girl in tow. Collins, being the observant man that he is, looked from the girl to the administrator. The girl's shirt was askew, and she was tugging at her obscenely short skirt. Benny (as he was asked to call him) was straightening his tie and buttoning the top button of his shirt. "Mr. Collins, could you do me a favor? Could you escort Ms. Marquez to her class? It's chorus, she'll lead you there. Make sure she doesn't get sidetracked. Thanks!" Benny was hurrying back into his office before Collins could accept or reject his offer.

She giggled. "They call me Mimi, by the way. Come on." With a swing of her hips, Mimi strutted out of the office, drawing the gaze of some delinquents seated on the bench. Collins followed her. Could this school be any crazier?Maureen hurriedly tossed the drama books back on the stage and sighed happily as the bell rang to dismiss everyone to second block. "Come on, Ang," Maureen chirped as she grabbed onto his hand. "To chorus class we go!" She pulled anxiously on his hand as she moved towards the door of the auditorium. "This is going to be so much fun! I'm so glad that we have another class together. And you'll get to meet Mark and Roger," she paused. "And everyone else!"

Mark scurried out of Spanish as fast as he could, avoiding any further interaction with Señorita Moore than he'd already had to suffer through. Of course she'd called on him and asked him to speak in front of the class, on the first day of school no less. Mark sometimes wondered why he'd signed up for Spanish four. He knew he couldn't speak the language and he really wasn't a fan of the teacher either. But it would look good on a college transcript, or so his mother told him. She was convinced her son was going to go to some great college and become a famous doctor or lawyer or something else that was incredibly dull and boring and un-artsy.

While his mind was wandering, so were his feet and Mark soon found himself tumbling down the front stairs outside of the main office. He landed with a thud on his back, rolling to protect his camera and as he looked up he found a familiar pair of brown eyes staring back.

"Mark, are you all right?" she asked, extending a hand to the clumsy blond.

"Yeah," he mumbled, grabbing onto her hand. "Thanks Mimi."

As Mark stood up and brushed himself off, he noticed that Mimi wasn't alone. Collins, the computer aide, was hovering over her shoulder and looking over at him. Mark felt his face flush and he must have been as red as a tomato. Mimi giggled as he shuffled nervously.

"Where are you off to, Marky?" she asked.

"Erm, chorus," he replied.

"Me, too," she smiled. "Walk with us."

"Okay," he nodded as he followed the pair towards the classroom. Angel walked with Maureen… or at least, attempted to do so. The throngs of people crowding the narrow hallways made it tough to do so at some points. He kept his eyes locked on Maureen's dark hair, following her to the chorus room. He wasn't surprised at the number of people that she greeted as they walked. Angel managed to make it to the chorus room in one piece, exhaling nervously once they stepped inside the large room. "You okay, Ang?" Angel grinned at his new friend, shrugging.

"Yeah – " He jumped out of the way to avoid being hit by the opening door. A well-endowed Latina girl walked in, going to Maureen. The two started chattering loudly. Two other people had followed her in: a tall, handsome black man who looked somewhat bewildered and a short, small blond guy with glasses and a scarf. The older man nodded at Angel, grinning slightly before he clapped the blond's shoulder.

"I'll see you later?" Angel's eyebrow rose.

The blond smiled back, his face flushing pink. "Uh, yeah. Fourth block. See ya, Collins…" Collins grinned again. This time the expression lit his face in a way Angel had only seen before when his parents smiled at each other. Angel hid a smile as Collins left and the blond went over to Maureen. It seemed that love was in the air. This thought made his gaze stray to Maureen for reasons he didn't know. Angel shrugged off the feeling and went over to his friend. Maybe the people she was talking to would be as nice as she was…

Joanne passed an unfamiliar black man as she entered the chorus room. She was about to go to talk to Maureen and Mimi when the bell rang again, signaling the start of class. "Come on, guys, the bell rang!" The students gathered near the door headed to their seats. Most of the class was upperclassmen who had taken chorus before, so they automatically went to their sections. Joanne seated herself on the edge of the alto section near the tenors, hoping that she'd score the seat next to Roger. No such luck. The rocker was sitting on the other edge of the tenor section, near the basses, next to his friend Mark. Joanne sighed gently, propping her chin in her hand and looking to the group of freshman gathered in the front of the room.

"All right, so it's a new year. This is chorus, I'm Mr. Murray and you guys need to find seats. Soprano, bass, tenor, alto," he dictated, pointing to each section in turn. "If you don't know what part you are, just go somewhere for now and we'll talk after class." The little group dispersed. A lanky Hispanic guy headed for the seat next to Joanne. The girl smiled welcomingly.

"Hi, I'm Joanne Jefferson. Are you new here? You don't look like a freshman…"

The boy grinned. "Yeah, I'm new. I'm a senior. Angel. Angel Dumott Schunard," he introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Angel. Have you met a lot of people here yet?" she asked as Mr. Murray started calling out folder numbers.

"Just Maureen." He glanced over to the sopranos. Maureen smiled over at him and waved. Angel returned the favor before looking back at Joanne. "Are you – "

"Joanne!" Joanne brought her gaze back to the teacher. "Folder 74. Do you mind sharing with Mr. Schunard for the day?"

"Nope!" Joanne winked at Angel and left to get her folder, passing Roger at the stack of folder slots. He half-smiled at her. The studious girl felt her heart flutter at the sight of the bad boy's grin. She retrieved her folder in a sort of daze, reliving the moment over and over as she walked back to the seat."Rog… Roger…" Mark called to the rocker. "Roger!"

"Huh?" Roger asked, looking over at the tenor. "What?"

"What are you looking at?" Mark asked, trying to follow his line of vision.

"Nothing," Roger lied, turning away from the alto section. "I was just… daydreaming. Thinking about the gig on Friday."

"Oh," Mark nodded, oblivious to Roger's cover up.

"So how's Mo?" Roger teased. "Get any new orders lately?"

Mark scowled at the guitarist and rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Rog," Mark replied. "She doesn't boss me around."

"Mhm," Roger said as he attempted to stifle his giggles.

"She's good," Mark answered. He looked over at the dark haired diva who was busy catching up with Mimi and smiled, waiting for her to glance over at him. "So, how's your first day going?" Maureen asked the bubbly Latina.

"Fine," she smiled, thinking back to this morning. "How's yours? Have any classes with Mark?"

"Just this for now," Maureen shrugged.

"That's too bad," Mimi replied as she adjusted her tank top, trying in vain to cover her cleavage.

"Meems, can I tell you something?" Maureen asked, leaning closer to the girl.

"Sure," she nodded. "Of course you can."

"I'm thinking of breaking up with Mark."

Mimi gasped, covering her mouth with her hand as the diva made her announcement. "No," she shook her head. "Really? Why? Mark's a sweet guy."

"I know," Maureen replied. "I know he is. I like him a lot, but he's just so… clingy! It drives me nuts. It's like I can't do anything without him being right there, monitoring me. And well," she paused and glanced over at the tenor section. "I think it's best we just be friends."

"Well," Mimi sighed. "I see your point. As long as you guys stay friends. I couldn't stand it if we all didn't hang out anymore."

"We will," Maureen assured her. "Oh, I've got to introduce you to Angel after class. He's right over there," she pointed to the Hispanic boy who was chatting with Joanne. "We had theatre together this morning."

"All right," Mr. Murray shouted over the loud roar of students. "See you on Thursday!"

Maureen was about to walk over to Angel when a pair of hands grabbed onto her waist. She spun around in the grasp of her boyfriend and smiled. She kissed him quickly on the cheek before escaping from his hands. "Hi Pookie," she greeted.

"Hi Maureen," he smiled. "What have you got next?"

"Umm, lunch," she replied. "With Mimi and Angel."

"Me, too," he said. "We can all sit together."

"Yeah," she forced another smile. "Come on, I want to introduce you and Mimi to Angel."Roger slouched out of the room behind Mark and Maureen as only he could. With the two people in front of him, there were two others: some skinny Latin kid that Roger didn't know yet and Mimi. For once, she wasn't flirting with him, something Roger thought of as a welcome change. He was forced out of his thoughts when he bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry… Joanne, right?"

The pretty African-American girl smiled and blushed. "Yeah. Sorry about that, Roger," she mumbled. A piece of paper fluttered out of her full arms. "Shit…" she whispered, trying to bend and retrieve it. Someone else ran into her from behind, making her drop all of her books. The person didn't even stop to help her.

"Ass!" Roger called after the kid. He knelt and helped Joanne gather her many notebooks and texts, including the paper she had originally dropped. It was her schedule. "Hey, you have lunch now, right? Would you like to sit with us?" The question surprised even him.

Nevertheless, Joanne nodded. "Yeah, I'd like that," she mumbled, smiling shyly. Roger put a hand on her shoulder and turned her in the direction that his friends were going. Angel dug around in his bag again once he was sitting at a table in the cafeteria. His lunch was somewhere in here… ah! He extracted the paper sack from the depths of the thing, avoiding pulling out his makeup bag with it. That would cause a scene worse than he already did by himself. Mark was the only other person at the table since Maureen and Mimi had gone to buy lunch. "So, how long have you and Maureen been dating?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"About six months. She's a really great girl," he replied, smiling wistfully. Angel tried to return the gesture but found an irrational jealousy blocking his ability to do so. He was about to say something else when Maureen slid into the seat between him and Mark. Mimi sat on the other side of the blond. Mark put his arm around Maureen's shoulders, glancing up to see someone else coming to their table. Angel followed his gaze to a blond rocker-type who had his hand on Joanne's back. "Finally! Roger, what the hell took you so long?" Mark exclaimed as they slid into the two remaining seats.

"I got sidetracked… Some ass ran into Joanne, so I helped her get her stuff back. Hi," he said, noticing Angel for the first time.

"Oh! Guys, this is Angel. Ang, this is Roger and Joanne – "

"We've met," Angel informed Maureen, grinning at the black girl. He raised his eyebrows at Roger before glancing pointedly at Joanne. The girl smiled, embarrassed. Angel shook his head and forked up a bite of his salad. Mark was looking over at the corner where the new aid was standing. Love was all around him. Angel focused his eyes on the table, smiling gently. He would fit in here… thank God."So guys, you coming to the gig on Friday?" Roger asked the table as he bit into the mystery meat sandwich he'd picked up in the hot lunch line.

"Ew, Roger," Maureen grimaced. "Do you even know what that is?"

"Nope," Roger grinned, his mouth full. "And I don't wanna know so don't say anything."

"Yeah, we'll come," Mimi nodded.

"Cool," Roger smiled as his elbow brushed up against Joanne's. "Sorry," he murmured.

"That's okay," she said quietly, dipping her spoon back into her yogurt.

"Are you coming with us, Jo?" Maureen asked as she attempted to wiggle out of Mark's grasp.

"Yeah," she nodded.
"Hey, Maureen," Mark asked, calling her attention back to him. "Wanna go to the movies this weekend?"

"Umm," Maureen paused. It was now or never. She had to get out of this and she had to do it now. "I don't think so."

"Oh, okay…" Mark looked down at the table. "Wanna grab some dinner some night this week?"

"Mark," Maureen sighed. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah," Mark nodded. "We're talking."

She pushed away from the table, being careful not to elbow Angel in the face. "We'll be back," she said, grabbing onto Mark's hand.

"What's up?" Mark asked as she dragged him out into the lobby.

"Look," she put her hands on her hips and glanced out the window. "Umm, see the thing is…" she glanced back at the cameraman and sighed.

"What?" Mark asked, grabbing onto her hand.

She wiggled her hand out of his grasp and stared into his eyes. "Mark, I think we should see other people."