Star's POV
Half asleep in what the humans call a desk, I try to pay attention the human teacher called Mr. Gibbons. I'm in a class called math. The first twenty minutes I tried to follow along, but none of this makes ant sense! So now I'm just pretending to pay attention-I'll ask for Toboe's help after class. I look over at the clock, too bad I can't read it! I know how to read a few human words, but I have no clue how do deal with what are called numbers. A loud bell goes off and Mr. Gibbons says,
"We'll finish the lecture tomorrow!" I get up and follow Toboe.
"So what do we have next?" I ask him.
"Now we have lunch." He says, smiling at me.
"Good, I'm starving." We walk into a big room, full of lots of weird long tables and bench bottoms that appear to be attached to the table tops. I sit down at one of the weird tables at the back left corner of the room. I open the meal in the brown papper bag that Toboe's mom gave to me.
"I have Cesar Salad, two boiled eggs, a baloney sandwich with cheese, and a bottle of orange juice." Says Toboe. "What did she give you. Star?"
"Lets see," I rip open the bag, "I have chicken, two, uh, boiled eggs, hot, little green trees, and a bottle of orange juice."
"That," he points to the green trees, "Is steamed broccoli."
"Oh, yeah, right." I say, rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. "Do you think Kira will have lunch with us?" I ask him.
"Probably, the junior class usually has this lunch. The only reason she wouldn't sit with us is if she made friends in her earlier classes." Toboe says.
"Well, I don't see that happening. She doesn't get along too well with a lot of people, and considering how this day got started, she's probably been grumpy to everyone all day." I respond. I take a big bite out of my chicken, and hear,
"Hey Star, hey Toboe!" I look up to see Kira running over to our table.
"So what did Toboe's mom pack you?" I ask Kira as she sits down next to me. She rips open her bag, more harshly that I did mine. She dumps all the food on the table.
"Looks like I got the same exact lunch as you." She says, eyeing my food. She reaches over for the chicken I set down, so I slap her down.
"Hey! You have your own." I take another big bite of chicken, and smile at Kira, face full of food.
"So how's your day going, Kira?" Toboe asks.
"Not too bad. That guy from this morning who helped us out is in two of my classes." She says, a small smile creeping on her face. I look at her, and lift my eyebrows. I mouth to her, Kira's in love! And she mouths back, Shut up!
After all three of us finish eating, we go outside to a small field and sit under a tall, thick oak tree. We talk about the most random things, just what comes to mind. Then we are interrupted.
"Fight, fight , fight, fight!" I hear a large group of people chant. We go to the back of what Toboe calls a cafeteria, and see people gathered in a large circle.
"What's going on?" Kira asks a guy on the outside of the circle.
"Keba picked a fight with Jay." The guy responds.
"Seriously?" She yells with a worried tone in her voice.
"Who's Keba?" I ask her.
"He's the guy from this morning!" She yells above the crowd, so I can hear her. Kira starts shouldering her way to the front of the crowd.
"Wait!" I yell at her. I moan, and push my own way through the crowd, following her.
"Star, don't!" I hear Toboe yell at me. I reach the center of the circle right next to Kira, Toboe reaches my side shortly after. I see Jay and Keba rumbling. Keba swings his leg around, and hits Jay from behind. Jay falls flat on his face, but springs back up on his feet in seconds.
"C'mon Keba! Show him what you got!" A boy with light brow hair and eyes, wearing a yellow jacket cut off at the elbow with a black stripe up both sleeves. He has gray pants with yet again black stripes up the sides of both legs, and black sneakers.
"Why are they fighting, Hige?" Kira asks the boy.
"Well Jay started it. He pushed Keba's shoulder, and told him to stay out of his business. Keba scoffed and told him he was powerless without his lackeys, and then they got into this full out fight." Hige puts his attention back on the fight.
"You know him?" I ask Kira.
"Yeah, he's in the same classes as me and Keba." I nod, and look back at the fight. Jay has a bloody nose now, and his lower lip is cut, whereas Keba doesn't have a scratch on him.
"That does it." I hear Jay mutter under his breath. He pulls out a little knife from his leather football jersey, and charges at Keba with it. Everybody runs away except me, Kira, Hige, and Toboe.
"Keba, watch out!" Hige yells.
"Damn it!" Kira says softly, grinding her teeth together. Keba drops to a push-up position, dodging Jay as he viciously swings his knife. Keba rolls under Jay, and springs up off his hands, standing up.
"Hey!" A deep voice yells. A teacher comes running up to the fight scene. "This is a place of learning! Not a gang-bang competition ground! Now who started it!"
"He did." Keba says, wiping sweat off his fore head. Jay drops his knife on the ground.
"Mr. Barker, come with me." The teacher says, waving his finger at Jay. "I'm going to have to talk to Coach Salmons about the line up for tomorrow's football game."
"But I'm the quarter back." Jay says.
"I'm not one to give special treatment." The teacher says, pushing Jay towards the office.
"You ok, Keba?" Hige asks.
"I'm gonna mess him up." Kira says.
"There's no need for that." Keba says to Kira. "That was enough fighting to last a life time." Keba circles his head, popping several joints in his neck. Just then, a school bell goes off.
"See ya guys later." Kira says to me and Toboe, walking off with Keba and Hige.
After lunch Toboe and I have English class. Then we have history, and P.E (officially my favorite class). We now walk to the last class of the day.
"So what do we have now?" I ask Toboe.
"Well the seventh class is optional to the student. There are a variety of electives. Otherwise, you can just use a period as a study hall. I choose drama as my elective, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to."
"No, no, its fine." I assure him. We walk into a room with purple walls and the same tan colored tile as the rest of the school. However, in the back of the room the floor is raised to be higher than the rest of the floor, and made of wood. "What's that?" I ask Toboe, pointing to the raised part of the floor.
"Oh, it's a stage. A small one, but it is just for practice, after all." I nod my head, still not really sure what a stage was.
"Ok everybody, take your seats." A thin woman comes in wearing a long purple dress and a white cotton-looking jacket. She has rectangular black glasses, black hair with darker blonde roots and hair tips, and ivory skin. "I understand that we have a new student. So let them come to the front and introduce thy self." I walk up to the front of the room.
"Hi, I'm Star." I say to the class.
"Welcome Star!" Everybody says, pointing out two fingers on each hand, crossing their arms, then circling them.
"In our class, that is how we welcome one." The teacher says. "Oh yes, and I'm Miss Bowen." She says, then motions me back to my new seat. "This week we will be working on a new play. Then we will be putting it on at the next school wide pep-rally." The teacher says, excitedly.
"What play?" A girl with platinum blonde hair and hazel eyes asks Miss Bowen.
"We are going to put on Beauty and the Beast."