Here it is, chapter 2 in all its retyped and heavily cut glory. The original had character description and exposition out the whazoo. I decided to keep most of that stuff as bare-bones as possible for now and I'll add what's needed later. Also Chapter 3 is going up alongside this so I need to finish that too.

Thestorystartshere

Dark Schools

Chapter 2

First Day Shuffle

Dark and Solaire burst out the front door and bolted down the street. Luckily, Firelink road wasn't too far from school. As they ran, they were soon joined by another student dashing just as quickly as them.

"Hey Lautrec."

"Good morning Lautrec."

"Mornin' gents." Lautrec Carim replied. He was a junior at Lordran Private Academy and had been friends with Dark and Solaire for a couple of years. The boys liked him and almost everyone considered him "cool", but he had a reputation for being a delinquent. Rumor had it that he had a secret girlfriend that gave him a special ring.

"Did you wake up late too, Lautrec?" Dark asked casually, despite the speed they were moving.

"Nah," came the equally casual reply, "I just like to push my luck and piss off Ol' Principle Chesty."

"Lautrec," Solaire admonished, "try to show some respect." Lautrec just laughed and sped up. The three boys reached the school gates and darted through just before they slammed shut. Ms. Velka, the Dean of Discipline glared at them.

"You're pushing your luck, Mr. Carim!" she shouted behind them. Lautrec threw his hands up incredulously.

"Why do they always go after me!?"

The three screeched to a halt in the lobby and began to catch their breaths. After that, Lautrec slapped their backs and they marched into the gymnasium. There was going to be an opening ceremony conducted by the administration, then students would proceed to homeroom for class orientation. After that, they would receive their schedules and head to their classes to meet their teachers. They would then break for lunch, and after would proceed to another ceremony where the freshmen would receive their uniforms and the senior student council would give a closing speech. Dark scanned the throng of students until he found who he was looking for. He then walked up and smacked his adoptive brother upside the head. Oscar yelped and clutched his skull, Annie just looked bored.

"That's for not waking me up, doofus." Dark explained pointedly. He then glared at his sister, "You too." Oscar gave him an annoyed glare. "Why didn't you slap her too?" He complained. Dark just shot him an unamused look, and responded with a simple "I don't hit girls." Oscar mumbled something under his breath and Dark sighed. Annie simply continued staring, until Lautrec sauntered over, then she shot him a dirty look and made a point of turning away from him. He scratched the back of his head and sighed.

"Morning to you too, sweetheart." He then bumped fists with Oscar, a fellow junior, and turned towards the stage. "Should start any second now." He remarked "The annual mind-numbing 'don't-be-a-shithead-or-else speech." Solaire broke off from the group of other sophomores he was conversing with and rejoined them. Then, just as Lautrec predicted, Principal Gwynevere Cinders took the stage.

"Good morning, students. To the sophomores, juniors, and seniors, welcome back, and to the freshmen I say welcome to your new home. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Ms. Cinders, the headmaster here at LPA, but you may refer to me as the principal. Now then, I'll be blunt, as students of such an honored and prestigious school, we fully expect you to…blahblablahdontbeashitheadblahblahblah."

Dark tried as hard as he could to pay attention to the speech, but he just…couldn't. It wasn't his fault really, they were just so…rotund. You'd have to two-hand them just to…

"AHEM!" He was snapped out of his thoughts by someone loudly clearing their throat. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed the owner of that throat glaring at him. However, instead of getting intimidated, he could only recall certain lyrics from a certain song.

'Dude looks like a lady.'

Gwyndolin Cinders was not an intimidating figure, and while Dark was sure that he didn't appreciate the fact his sister was being ogled at by every single guy in the room (sans Solaire) he wouldn't pose a threat, so Dark just turned back to the (thankfully ending) speech.

"Now you will be directed to homeroom, where you will be given your individual schedules. You will then proceed to go to all your classes for 15 minute periods, with a 30 minute break for lunch. Please listen closely, as homerooms will be called by the last name of the first and last students."

Dark waited patiently until his homeroom was called. He then filed out the door and strode down the hallway with the rest of them. He didn't bother to talk to any of them. They were all hollow, for all he cared. It wasn't until he felt some one pulling at his sleeve did he start paying attention. He looked to his side and found Quelaan Izalith standing next to him, smiling shyly.

"Good morning, Onee-chan" she greeted softly. Dark grinned awkwardly. Quelaan was an awkward girl. When she was young, she was diagnosed with Blight, a severe disease that left her near death. As a result, she was forced to stay hospitalized for most her life. However she was also a super genius and was allowed to skip a grade to attend LPA. Quelaan was also a super huge otaku and loved anime, something Dark begrudgingly liked as well. He preferred dark fantasy over Super Happy Nippon Fun Time Yes. He wanted knights fighting losing battles against horrendous demons, doomed to fail and die, not some Technicolor teen angst factory brood over his ambiguous life while surrounded by a gaggle of impossibly proportioned girls. He liked Berserk though. And Fist of the North Star. And Jojo. Oh, and there was that one scene in Angel Beats that really got the feels flow-

"Now, now dear sister, try not to bother 'Onee-chan' too much. Lest people find out what that term means." A piercing cackle shook Dark from his thoughts, his mood darkened considerably.

"Hello, chaos witch." He greeted in a monotone voice.

Quelaag Izalith shot him a cocky smirk and flipped her hair.

"Oh come on Souls, you know you love me." She giggled as he rolled his eyes and turned away from her, hiding his grin. Dark was one of the few boys that didn't see Quelaag as a walking pair of tits and was pretty good friends with her. She had a reputation for being slutty and psychotic, but Dark knew she cared deeply for her sister. Besides, he knew better than to fall for her traps as most boys that messed with ended up burned, literally. The Izaliths were known playing with fire, which made sense since they owned a fireworks store, but it wasn't always…let's say, "Seen admirable by the law".

The group made idle chit-chat (mainly Dark listening to anime recaps and innuendos) until the sisters reached their homeroom. Dark then entered his own homeroom and slipped back into his own little world until the proctor arrived.

"Good morning, everybody. I am Mr. Soapstone, the head life education teacher here at LPA. I am also your homeroom proctor. Now I'm just going to take attendance and then we'll-REDMOND AND WHITETTE YOU STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!" Mr. Soapstone stomped over to two student, who happened to be his twin son and daughter, who were bickering and pulled them apart. "I swear, if that condom never broke, my life would be far easier. Now then class, let's introduce ourselves. Please state your name, an interesting fact about yourselves, and a quick greeting. For example, my name is Orange James Soapstone, or O.J, and I'm the raddest teacher in this school. How's it hanging?" He smiled out at the students who stared blankly back. Dark wasn't quite sure what to make of him. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and some wrinkled khaki shorts. Combined with his shoulder length perm, chin strap, obvious cigarettes in his shirt pocket, and sunglasses resting atop his head, he painted the perfect picture of somebody trying too hard to be the cool teacher. There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted far too long before somebody stood up and mumbled out "My name is Priscilla and I like books." before quickly sitting down. This apparently broke the ice and Redmond Soapstone shot out of his seat and chucked up some weird hand sign. "Yo, whaddap bitches? My name's Redmond and I like fuckin' up little pussy ass bitches. Y'all bitches best not even try to fuck with me, ya heard." He was then promptly hit in the forehead by a marker thrown by his father who screamed "DON'T BOTHER SPEAKING IF YOU HAVE NOTHING INTELLIGENT TO SAY, YOU MORON!" Redmond dropped back into his seat, clutching his forehead, and his sister rose, pushed up her glasses, and cleared her throat, "Hello, my name is Whitette and I enjoy doing chores, homework, and…other things. Please excuse my idiot brother. He's a moron who will never be able to experience intense, toe-curling…joys like I have." She then shot a sultry glance over at most of the boys in the room, however, this was not noticed by her father, who began incessantly fawning over her. "Oh, my dear Whitette, you're such an angel! You bring so much joy into the dark void of Daddy's life. Unlike your waste-of-space brother. Oh please, Whitey, never grow up and leave your poor, poor daddy!" Dark was more than a tad creeped out by this display and decided to tune out for the rest of the period. Various other students went, but he paid them no mind. He was perfectly content to sit in his desk and stare out the window. That was until he psycho homeroom proctor decided to single him out.

"How about you, young man? Who are you?"

Dark didn't even bother looking at him and simply said "I'm Dark."

"That's…not really following the rules."

"Do expect me to get all chipper, jump out of my seat, and say 'hi my name is Lyle Souls and my dream is to make friends with everyone in the world. Space is awesome'?"

…

"Sort of…"

"Yeah, not gonna happen." Dark leaned back in his seat, placed his feet on his desk, and rested his head on his fist. Mr. Soapstone shrugged and moved on. Eventually all but a few people had gone when Rhea Thorolund stood up. Dark didn't know much about her, only that she was crazy rich, crazy popular, and crazy hot. She brushed a lock of red hair from her eyes and spoke "My name's Rhea Thorolund and I love Jesus and making friends." She then pointed right at Dark "And I'm going to befriend the hell outta you." She stated with much confidence and a small smirk. Dark glared at her from the corners of his eyes. They stared each other down for a few moments before Dark glanced away with a grunt of "Tch, whatever." Rhea seemed satisfied and sat back down. Dark decided that he didn't mind her so much, but he felt people glaring at him. Hi figured it was probably her fan club consisting of Vince and Nico, her two best friends, and Petrus Port, a fat boy who obviously hated her, but took advantage of her kindness. He paid them no mind.

Soon, Mr. Soapstone released them and Dark prepared to go to his classes. Before lunch he had to go to his Algebra, Chemistry, Computer Applications, and Literature classes.

Thisisatransition

Dark opened the door to the Chem lab and entered. His Algebra class was uneventful. His teacher, Mr. Ingward, was nice and all, but seemed crotchety and boring. Dark was a bit excited for Chemistry. He had heard stories about the teacher.

Speaking of the teacher, he was nowhere to be found. On the white board was a seating chart and instructions to wait patiently. Dark looked at the chart and headed over to his seat, which just so happened to be right next to Rhea Thorolund. She smiled at him as he sat down.

"Ready to learn about the wonderful and simple world of atoms and bonds with me Dark?" she asked sarcastically, "It will be oh so fun and easy to learn." He snorted and placed his bag on the floor next to him. "Actually," he responded, "I hear this class ain't that bad." Rhea hummed in agreement. "Yeah, apparently this class is more hands on than lecture based like at other schools. Plus I hear that the professor really loves to do experiments and labs." She added. Dark nodded his head before adding "That's cool, but I highly doubt we'll be blowing anything up on the first day." Just then, a door in the back of the lab blew open and in rolled a man in a wheel chair. He was quit skilled at handling it, as he weaved through the rows of lab tables, speaking as he went.

"Greetings children, I am Professor Scaleless and I welcome you to Chemistry class. I'm sure you'll find it wonderful and easy to learn." He then stopped in front of the white board and wheeled around to face them. He peered over his spectacles, and grinned at them, "Now then, who wants to blow something up?"

Thisisatransition

Dark, Rhea, and the rest of their Chem class stumbled coughing out of the lab followed by a cloud of smoke. Professor Scaleless rolled out and waved some smoke away, "Now that, class," he began, "Is why we don't mix to highly unstable compounds simply because their names sound cool. Now gather around, I have something very important to tell you all." The class leaned in expectantly to listen to the professor, who cupped his hands around his mouth and whispered "Lightening" before laughing maniacally and wheeling down the hallway, leaving his students dumbfounded.

As everybody hurried off to their next class, Rhea turned to Dark and spoke, "Well, that was weird." Dark simply nodded, "Yeah." Rhea shifted her books in her arms before speaking again, "Hey, I have to get to my History class. Would you mind walking with me?" Dark snapped his attention back to her, "Hmm, oh, sorry, but I'm heading in the opposite direction." Rhea nodded her head, "Oh, okay then." There was an odd hint of disappointment in her voice, but she quickly added, "Have fun, I'll see you around." Dark watched her hurry off before a voice pulled him away.

"Baka Onee-chan." He turned to see Quelaan staring at him with a blank expression. Before he could respond, she turned on her heel and marched down the hall. Dark stared after and could only utter, "What'd I do?" Once more he was distracted by a voice.

"Oh, poor, poor, innocent Lyle. It's almost painful to see someone this stupid."

"I agree, you'd think after hanging around me, he'd have way more luck with the ladies."

"Actually, now that you mention it, I'm not surprised in the slightest."

He turned to see Oscar and Lautrec leaning against a row of lockers, regarding him. He raised his eyebrow at them, "What are you two chucklefucks blabbering about?"

Oscar simply clapped him on the shoulder and started pushing him gently down the hall, "Nothing, little brother. Let's go, we're heading the same place you are."

Thisisatransition

Dark trudged into his English class. He was tired, hungry, and just didn't give a shit anymore. His computer class seemed alright. He wasn't really paying attention as he was trying to get Quelaan, who was also in that class, to not be mad at him. It had taken three bad jokes, two cat pictures, and a peace offering of promising to buy her Pocky to get her to crack a smile. Afterwards, she forced him to carry her books across the school to her next class, leaving him to dash back to get to class on time. He was lucky he didn't run into Ms. Velka, though he did almost crash into a janitor who shook his fist and shouted something about "Hurting Yulia."

"Hello, young man, and who might you be?" The instructor asked. Dark simply panted out his name.

"Ah yes, Lyle Souls. Welcome, welcome. I am Mr. Logan, please take a seat. You may sit anywhere you like." Dark shuffled over to an empty desk and slumped into it, while Mr. Logan began the period.

"Welcome one, welcome all, to ELA and Literature class. If you aren't supposed to be here right now…then aren't you a sadist." A loud laugh came from next to Dark. He turned to glare at the boy who generated the offending noise, who looked sheepish and apologized, "Sorry, but Uncle Lo-I mean Mr. Logan is just so funny. I'm Griggs by the way." Dark just ignored him and tried to pay attention to Mr. Logan.

"I will now tell you two things that should be obvious to you. First…That is a big hat." He stopped and pointed at a hat hang on a hook above his desk. It was, in fact, a rather large piece of headwear. "Second…This is going to be your least favorite class. We are not going to be studying happy Disney fairy tales. You're all too old for that. It's time you realize not every story has a happy ending. Now please bring The Canterbury Tales for next week, and in a few minutes you'll be off to lunch."

Dark leaned back and grinned. He had a feeling he was going to like Mr. Logan and Lit class. In fact he had a feeling he would like all of his high school life.

Now if he could only find a girl who was interested in him.

Thechapterendshere

Whew, that was a biggun. That one was longer than any paper I've ever written for school, and way more fun. Now on to chapter 3.