Markus was one of the first people to enter the classroom. There were a total of about seven other kids plus the teacher. He doubted this was the entire class. One girl was sitting on her desk with her feet on the chair facing backwards, talking to two of her male friends. There was a boy by himself in the farthest corner of the classroom taking notes on god knows what; because there wasn't anything that had been taught yet. Then there were three girls standing in the front of the classroom near the teacher's desk, also talking. One was leaning on one of the desks, but turned her head when she caught sight of someone entering the classroom. She seemed to do a double take.

The girl stood straight up from where she leaned, and starting walking over to Markus, completely abandoning her friends in the middle of the conversation. The girls were confused at their friend's behavior for a moment until they too looked where she was walking, and it became clear.

Markus noticed the girl heading in his direction, and stopped in his tracks. He looked at her face and took in the details as she approached. This girl had orangey blonde hair, and dark brown eyes. She was much shorter than Markus, so he had to look down at her when she reached him. She had her hair in a ponytail high on her head, and wore a cheerleader's uniform. It had the school's colors, he presumed; brown and white, with a little bit of navy blue.

"Hey, are you new? I don't think I've seen you around before." Was what the girl said first, smiling. She seemed friendly enough, Markus decided.

"Yeah, I am new. I'm Markus." He replied, giving her a small smile back. She gave a wide grin.

"Well it's nice to meet you Markus, my name's North." North introduced herself, twirling a rebellious strand of hair that wasn't contained within her hair tie, and biting her lip as she finished her sentence and stared at him for a moment. She turned her head a little to her friends she was talking to, who were a few paces behind her. "And these are my friends Amelia, and Blaire."

The girls she gestured to were also wearing matching cheerleader uniforms. One had bright blue hair she tied back in a loose ponytail, and the other had short brown hair, bangs swept to the side. Both had brown eyes just like North. The one with blue hair gave him a wave, while the other just swept her eyes over him; sizing him up, he guessed.

"So Markus, what do you like to do?" North asked, sitting herself on a desktop in front of him. Markus thought about it. I mean, he did occasionally paint with his dad, which he loved doing, but not often enough to call it a hobby. But other than that, he couldn't think of anything. After a few moments of silence, North understood that he couldn't find an answer. "Do you play any sports?" She suggested.

Markus had thought about maybe joining some kind of club, or team at his new school; he just hadn't decided on which one.

"Never have before. Do you have any suggestions?" He asked her shrugging. North's mouth nearly fell open before she caught herself.

"What?! Come on, there's no way a guy like you doesn't play some kind of sport!" She practically yelled, catching the attention of others who weren't supposed to be involved in the conversation. Markus didn't mind, though. He enjoyed the, what he assumed had to be, compliment on his body form.

"Uh, thanks, but no. Never played much of anything. Wouldn't mind trying though." He shrugged again, not seeing the big deal.

"Oh my god, you have to try out for the football team! Or the basketball team, you're really tall." North gave her input. Markus nodded at her suggestions, deciding to start with her first one.

"When are football tryouts?" He asked, remembering the barren walls in the hallway, where there would sure be flyers soon to tell him. But if North was cheerleader, maybe she knew.

"They're the same day as cheerleading tryouts; Thursday." That was two days away. "I'll be there, since I'm the head cheerleader." North said with pride as she flicked her ponytail over her shoulder. "What do-"

"Sorry sorry sorry! I hit snooze on my alarm, and I was all the way across town, and I had to stop to get coffee, obviousl-" The girl who'd been yelling why she was late, even though she technically wasn't, stopped mid-sentence when she looked up at the new boy. She immediately plastered on a flirtatious smile while she checked him out. "Well hey there handsome, what's your name?" The girl bit her lip and stuck her hip out to one side. Before Markus could give her his name, North cleared her throat.

"Traci, this is Markus. He's new." North introduced him for him. He was probably wrong, but he detected a hint of harshness in her tone. "Markus, this is another one of my friends, Traci." Markus looked at the girl who still was looking at him like he was a piece of meat. She had a long brown bobbed haircut with straight bangs, brown eyes, and was slightly tanner than her friends. She, too, wore a cheerleading uniform, and had a messenger bag strung over her shoulder. She also had on a lot more makeup, he noticed.

"It's nice to meet you Tarci." Markus gave her a smile. Traci took a step closer at this, going to open her mouth again, but getting cut off by the bell.

"Sit down!" The teacher immediately yelled, despite over half the class not even having shown up yet; probably still out in the hallway. Markus felt a tug on his bicep.

"Come on Markus, you can sit with us!" North was already dragging him to the desks in the middle of the room, and plopping him down in the center one before he could even agree or disagree. For a small girl, she was quite strong. North sat in the desk to his left, Traci sat in the one in front of him, and the other two girls sat in the two desks behind him next to each other.

Soon, nearly every desk in the room was filled up. He'd ended up surrounded by a lot of friendly faces and personalities; a few football players, too. North had told them of his plans to try out for the team, and they'd given him encouraging words, and tips, and told him how their coach was a pretty chill guy named Coach Fowler. Markus nodded along, and talked about whatever topic that came into conversation until the teacher finally stood up from his desk and introduced himself.

"Hello class, my name is Mr. Kirby. I'll be your Advanced Algebra teacher this semester." The man clapped his hands together. "First thing's first," he pulled out a box of tongue depressors from his desk drawer, and tossed them onto the first desk of the first row. "Pass it around, take one, write your name on it." The class groaned. "Yeah yeah, well, until you're grown up enough to raise your hand to answer a simple question in a high school math class, you're not grown up enough for popsicle sticks." The class groaned again, just a little quieter.

It was one of those classes. That actually taught on the first day. No remorse. Not that Markus minded; he didn't have trouble with math. But North clearly hated every second of it. She was constantly passing him notes when Mr. Kirby wasn't looking. Some were legit questions, to which he replied back, and asked her in return. Some were little jokes that Markus nearly let out small chuckles at, but caught himself. She definitely made class more interesting. He saw another piece of paper land on his desk. Markus unfolded the small paper.

What class do you have next?

He took his pen, wrote his answer, and made sure Mr. Kirby wasn't looking when he handed it back to North.

English Lit 2 I think

He saw North pout out of the corner of his eye before scribbling out a response.

Damn I have gym next, not that I don't like gym, just sad that we don't have the same schedule

We can check them after class, see what else we have together

Maybe chemistry ;)

Markus nearly blushed, and laughed, at the words, wink face, and the pun. He looked up at North to see her actually wink at him, and he didn't know how to respond with anything other than,

Maybe

He saw her smile widen, and it made him smile. He wasn't used to that kind of attention from anyone. But ever since he arrived here, he'd already been flirted with by two beautiful girls. He took a moment to wonder how North would react if she found out he swung both ways; him being out to and accepted by his father, he didn't really care what other people thought. But his last school wasn't very forgiving of anything other than the standard straight. The reason he wondered was because if he ever did get the courage, and chance to ask her out, and date her, he'd want her to know.

And before he knew it, the bell was ringing, signaling the end of first period. North practically sprung up out of her seat, but made no move towards the door. Markus took his time in packing away his things, while Traci turned around to face him, resting her elbow on his desk, and her head in her hand.

"So Markus, what are you doing this weekend?" Traci asked in a sultry voice. Markus froze for a second, not expecting the bluntness she offered. But before he could say anything at all, North was already at his side once again.

"Come on Markus, I'll show you where your next class is!" North said, her attention completely focused on him, but she seemed to be fighting back grinding her teeth.

"Oh-kay…" He replied, slightly confused. He looked back at Traci, who's question he had not answered yet. He was going to answer her, but North had locked her right arm with his left and was pulling him out of the room.

"Talk to you later Markus." Traci said with a flirtatious wave. He waved back.

"Bye Traci." Was all he could get out before they left her behind in the classroom.

"Traci!" North yelled when she found her best friend in the girl's locker room talking to Amelia, and Blaire. Traci looked over at her.

"Sup North?" She asked casually. North knew her friend hadn't technically done anything wrong, yet, but that didn't stop her from being pissed off.

"What the hell was that?! Lay off of Markus." She told her friend, putting her hands on her hips. Traci laughed.

"What's the big deal North? You know me, nothing more than one night stands." Traci said. North knew it to be true; her best friend's reputation was being known as the school slut. And she wore it loud and proud. After North let out a huff of frustration, Traci laughed even more. "Aww, does little Northy have a cruuush?" Her best friend teased her. She heard sniggers from behind her, and turned to find Amelia with a hand over her mouth, lightly laughing. She glared at her, not appreciating being teased.

"Something funny, Amelia?" North spat. Amelia immediately shut up and dropped her smile, looking down at the floor in shame, and slight fear. This earned North a very strong, but completely unnoticed glare from Blaire behind her back. North directed her attention back to Traci. "And no, I don't have a crush. And the big deal is that I think he's cute, and I saw him first. So back off." Traci laughed again.

"Alright North, I'll tone down the flirting. But if he comes looking for me, I'm not responsible for any R rated activities that come after. That's all on him." Traci said. North rolled her eyes, knowing that was the best she was going to get.

Hello everyone! Thank you for taking time out of your day to read chapter 2 of Jericho High! It means a real lot to me, and I really hope I stick by it.

Couple things before I sign off.

First, I got the names for the the two Traci's who fell in love at the Eden club from the talented icantloseyou on (the story in particular I got it from was Freedom to Live), and I also had their permission to use the idea, so a big thank you to them! I also used another Traci model for a character and just called her Traci.

Second, I was thinking about it, and I realized that since this story is going to be mainly focused around Sikus, that the other character's chapters might not always be as long as Markus's, but who knows, maybe I'll surprise even myself! But I do have the plot all planned out, so I'm not going into this blind. I know where I'm going with this whole thing.

Third, poll for the Hannor and Karther relationship development is still on my account. Thank you to erikam1015 for your input in your review, and you were probably the one person who voted on the poll, but if you weren't then thank you to whoever that was!

And last, but not least, thank you so much to those who reviewed, favorited, and followed this story! Like I said, it means a lot! I'm a little rusty with my writing, so it's good to see some positive feedback!

Please don't forget to leave a review telling me what you thought of the chapter, the story, any constructive criticism you have, and/or your opinion on the ships.

Bye guys!

Words: 2,046

Date Published: June 26th 2018