Disclaimer: I, Reita, do hereby NOT claim any characters, places, or etcetera from the Anime Hamtaro. I do NOT claim any of the parts, scenes, script, characters, exact plot, and etcetera from the film John Tucker Must Die as well. Signed, RMS.

Author's Note: Well, sorry everyone about the wait. I was in Florida for a week just the day after I started this and tried working a little bit in my spare time. Chapter two is finally done and I have started writing number three, so yay! I'll update quicker now that I have nothing else to do unless I get some sort of Writers' Block again. (Dun dun duuuuuuun!) But, let's hope that doesn't happen for my sake. ;D Thanks for all of the nice reviews, lupyne, CrystalGurl101, SilverAngel223, and Helsinki Demon ( and for the fave in her case!) and also to Hollywood Knight and Cherrie-Sakura for e-mailing me their feedback. Thanks for the support, all and thanks for reading!

Chapter Two- It's His Story, I'm Just Telling It

My paws were soaking wet and started to feel pruny. I looked down to check if there were any wrinkles. There were none, so I began to take a stack of rinsed-off plates to the dishwasher.

"Ugh!" I cried, getting dirty water on myself. How gross. I started towards the dishwasher again.

The clatter of the plates only distracted my mind a little. I was still preoccupied with thoughts of the events from earlier on that day. Why I kept looking at these girls, why Stan kept catching my- and their- eye(s). I felt as though there were some sort of meaning to it all.

I'd been going to school here for two months now and still felt very invisible. It wasn't that surprising, really, but it made me pretty upset. I didn't even know why. Well, yes, I did a little. It's because I guess I figured things would be different here for a change. But they weren't. Not by much, anyway. Would they ever be? Maybe. I remembered just that past week in the hall, some girl asked if I had any drugs to sell. All I did was peep out a 'no'. Maybe if I would have said 'yes', she'd talk to me. I thought she thought I was a narc.

Mom had always encouraged me to take part in school functions, so after school, I went to the big soccer game against the Eagles. I guess I was noticed more than I thought, because when I looked for a seat some kids on the bleachers glared at me because I got in their way. The game hadn't even started yet! I made myself comfortable between a girl in wild clothes and a guy who couldn't have looked less enthused. I wondered why he was even there. In front of us, this other boy who acted like the whole team were his kids kept jumping up and screaming, 'Go Grizzlies!' It was amusing and kind of cute. I was so busy paying attention to him and the game to realize no one was speaking to me. That's how it always was, anyway. In the halls, others bumped into me without saying a word. Were they seriously that rude or did I really not amount to anything?

At that point of thought, I dropped a dish and thought it broke because of the noise it made as it shook on the floor. I never seemed to get attention unless it was for something bad. This time was no exception. An old man looked at me from his soup.

I had one of the most unglamorous part-time jobs ever, but at least it wasn't fast food or as bad as only getting paid for taking out the garbage.

A kid named Howdy was in charge of that and had just gotten a hole ripped in one of the trash bags, making a mess on the floor. I took off to help him, turning on the full dishwasher.

"Nu-uh, Candace. Ah got it."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Plus, ya got dishes to do."

"I'm finished."

"Welp, ya got customers to wait on, so go."

"Okay."

"Thanks heaps anyway."

I felt bad. I really didn't have anything to do. I walked back to the counter and started shining up glasses, starting to think again about the soccer game, playing with my black apron's strings every now and then.

-.-.-.

Late afternoon was fading into early evening. Just as the chilly twilight air began to blow, the overhead lights turned on, making the field luminescent. Candace clapped and bounced a little in her spot as one of the Grizzlies stole the ball right before a goal was made by the Eagles. She began to giggle when the boy in front of her leapt up once again ecstatic.

"Yeah Grizzlies! Go get 'em, Jeffery! You got it, Jeff!"

Suddenly the boy on the field was surrounded by a few members of the opposing team. Stalling for just a second, he kicked the ball hard so it would go skyward. Despite all of this action, Candace was getting drowsy. She bounced some more in an attempt to stay awake and thought about the things she's been pondering about during class- like questions hamsters, she was one of them, just couldn't find answers to, like why did hamsters always have to make stupid decisions all the time? (i.e. her mom) Or, why would just sitting at a desk all day doing nothing tire somebody out so much? (How did sitting there at the game do the same?) But, most importantly, what made every living thing in the whole town, the entire state, maybe even the country; the continent; the whole western hemisphere, possibly the total population of all Earth and the universe, absolutely love and worship Stan Williams?

It was because he was every guys' god, hero and envy and every girls' fantasy future husband. Athletic, popular, charismatic- practically King of the School (he was for homecoming and Junior prom even though he was only a Freshman or Sophomore at the time), not to mention he was extremely handsome, everything just seemed to automatically fall into place for him. He was team captain and one of the best players on the team- most likely to play professionally when he was older, he had seemingly a thousand and ten friends (which were more than likely all fans), and with his charm, stunning green eyes and sexy figure, smile, and tiger-striped fur, he could get any girl he so desired.

But there was something else no one could put a paw on, something more that was disguised by all of his merits, something... very strange, almost superficial.

Candace couldn't help but notice that faint air about him as well then, but that was when the crowd went insane as the ball traveled in a perfect arc to... None other than golden-boy Stan, perfect life extraordinaire.

As his big toe graced the ball with it's touch, a shriek from the other side of the Home bleachers got her attention.

"Go Ztan! Keel zose Eagles!" The shrillness of the enthused caller made Candace curious as to who they were. Her eyes scanned the bleachers for a moment until she found her- some pretty white-furred girl with even prettier semi-wavy medium-length hair held in pigtails.

She recognized her as Bijou Kreviazuk, a passionate lover of nature and strong believer in free will. She was funky and original with a bit of spunk for looking so calm and reserved and was probably yet another one in the humongous harem of Stan's. Most likely. She was almost too pretty for that.

Bijou sat back down after her enthusiastic fit and Candace started watching the game again. Twirling her beautiful pale locks, Bijou turned to the ham-girl next to her.

"Vell, not vreal eagles, cuz eagles are endangered." She said it almost embarrassed.

"Ahh..." the other girl replied absently, still focused on the game.

Just a few more seconds until the half-time buzzer sounded, the Grizzlies- or more specifically and with no surprise- Stan, scored a goal, taking a two-point lead. Bijou screamed along with everyone else rooting for the Grizzlies and just about all of them were standing up. Candace was no exception. She yowled and hooted as loud as she could, pumping her fists in the air as the boy in front of her nearly began to sob in glee.

To add to this merrymaking, the cheerleaders flipped, cart wheeled, or ran their way onto the field, chanting and waiting for the outdoor loudspeakers to start playing the song for their routine. One girl in particular caught Candace's eye. She was headstrong head cheerleader Sparkle Cline and as she tried strutting her way across the field to join her squad just as the school news reporter, who also got Candace's attention, walked towards the camera. The blonde and curly-haired brunette collided shoulders, snarled shortly and glared at the other. Stan quickly looked over. Sparkle winked at him. He grinned.

'Huh. That was weird,' Candace thought, watching the cheerleaders finally start up their energetic routine.

It wasn't really that odd, though. The girls belonged to such differing cliques, it was practically natural for them to hate each other.

Sparkle Cline was, in a few simple words, sassy, too-good-for-anyone, and aggressive. Perfect lead cheerleader material. That, and she was 'absolutely the hottest thing' and had this real wild attitude that made her a hit and MVP at parties. It was almost obvious that she and Stan would work well together, or at least already had a thing for one another, that- Oh? Maybe it was with the school news reporter...?

Pashmina Smith, intelligent beyond compare, had Stan's arm wrapped around her naturally stiff shoulders as she let him speak into her microphone. A small blush stretched across her face.

Pashmina, unlike Sparkle, was Harvard or Yale-bound. She was in the school government as secretary, won a lot of academic awards, spoke many foreign tongues, and stayed involved in tons of organizations in which she spent almost all but her study time doing things for or with. Her maturity and professional ways for her age were almost scary as well.

"Goooooo Grizzlies!"

As the cheerleading squad finished, a tiny yet strange thought went through Candace's mind.

How come those girls were some of the only hamsters she seemed to focus on that evening?