This entire fanfic is dedicated to Nina-D-lux and those of you who still has a little princess deep inside and never actually got over your Princess-phase :P

Chapter 6

Mulan reached out to the direction of the ringing. As soon as her arm came in contact with the cold air, she immediately pulled it back into the warmth of her quilt. Her alarm clock was still blaring on her night stand.

"Uuuuunggggghhh… Cooooold…"

But the stupid little thing rang mercilessly. The damn alarm was shattering a perfectly good dream she was having, which may or may not have involved Shang.

"Hhrrmmmm… Go away sun!" she muffled through the pillow. "Uuuuuggghhhh…mmmmmm…" Her head was buried in her perfectly comfy pillow, avoiding the blinding sunlight that seeped into her room through the gaps of her curtain. Mulan decided to brace the cold and shot her hand out, probing around, feeling for her alarm clock.

God, she hated winter.

"Neeeed sleeeeeeeep… mmmrrhhmmm…" she moaned and searched blindly for her alarm clock.

When her hand finally found the cursed thing, she accidentally swiped it off the nightstand when her intentions were to reach for the snooze button. It hit the floor with a pang but that didn't stop the incessant ringing.

"Flippin'djbgfjsbhfgjahbgh! Ok, we get it! Shutthefullcuuup!"

But her alarm was mocking her like "Lol, nope."

Mulan swore under the covers. It's early in the morning and she'd already dropped her first f-bomb.

She finally gave in and sluggishly slid out of bed. So, soooooo cold. She extended her upper body, reaching out of the bed to the floor but never actually leaving the bed. She used every last bit of energy she had left and stretched her fingers out to the stupid clock that slid more than a meter away from the bed. When she finally picked the damn thing up, she jabbed the snooze button like five times just to make sure it stayed quiet.

"Uuugggghhh…" She threw the alarm down the end of her bed and snuggled back into her big mass of a quilt. Well, that was some workout, Mulan thought, feeling the soreness in her right arm. And soon, the weariness took over and she drifted back to sleep.

…

"… Mulaaaan…"

"…Mmmmm…"

"Mulan…"

"Uungghh… Five more minutes…"

"Mulan!" Someone yanked her quilt right off.

"Ah! What?!" Mulan rolled over so to see who was calling her, almost rolling off the bed. "I'm freezing!" Suddenly she sat straight up, eyes wide in panic. She remembers drifting back to sleep just now, but it felt like ages ago. How long had she been sleeping?!

"Oh shit, what time is it?!"

She received a smack on the leg from her mother who was hovering over her. "Don't cuss!"

"-Ow! Sorry! Crapcrapcrapcrap…" Mulan ruffled frantically around her sheets for her clock.

"I said no more cussing!" She received another smack to her leg.

"Ow! Crap is not a curse word- OW!" And another smack.

"Fine! Poop, turd, faeces! Would like a thesaurus too?!"

"It's already eight-ten," Fa Li informed her daughter. "And don't talk back to your mother."

"I'm not- What?!" Mulan jumped out of bed. "Why didn't you wake me up?!"

"Well that's what I'm doing now, isn't it?" her mother replied.

Mulan groaned in frustration. "Like, earlier! Ugggh!" She set her alarm for seven, planning to sleep a little longer 'till around seven-fifteen. She should've left the house half an hour ago!

"Don't forget to feed Little Brother before you go!" Fa Li reminded her.

"What?! Why!? I'm already late!" Mulan groaned.

"You know it's your responsibility to feed Little Brother, so don't give me that attitude!" Fa Li scolded her daughter.

"Fine!" Mulan let out a long groan.

Ugh?! God, I so want to swear out loud right now. Go away, mom! You're not helping!

Well ya'll can't starve the dog!

Shut up, little ghetto voice in my head, you're not helping either!

Mulan ran to her bathroom to pee and speed-brushed her teeth and washed her face. She didn't even care about combing her hair, she can just do that on the bus.

Mulan ran downstairs to pick up some books she scattered on the coffee table. "Hey grandma! Hey dad!" Mulan greeted them as she sped past them back up to her room to change.

Grandma was already at it with her oatmeal and high-calcium-low-fat soy milk by the TV watching the morning news. "Hey kiddo."

Mulan hastily grabbed the first shirt and pair of jeans she could find, pulled on a dorky looking jumper, grabbed her schoolbag, phone and laptop, then sped down the stairs again. Ugh, who cares if she looked like crap anyway, it's not like she's trying to impress anyone with her fashion style or even her appearance. I mean, ok, maybe she did want to… just a little… but that idea's already out the window. She'll just worry about looking like a mess later.

She grabbed a bag of dog food from the kitchen cupboard and poured a load of cereal-looking thingies into Little Brother's food bowl, ditched the bag of dog food and ran back out to the living room to put on her shoes.

"Young people, always in a hurry," grandma commented and sighed.

"I'm late! Bye!" and with that, Mulan ran out of the house.

All three adults simultaneous shook their heads and collectively sighed at the spaz of a girl.

A few moments later, she ran back in. "I forgot my essay!" And she whizzed back up to her room again.

Then, just as fast as she appeared, Mulan disappeared out of the house in a flash. You could almost see the trail of dust she left behind.

Grandma Fa blinked. "Right…"

Mulan had a feeling today wasn't going to go very well. It's just one of those things where your day starts like crap and you're pretty sure the rest of the day will hold just as much promise.

She almost left her essay at home, which was the same one that she'd spent all night 'till three in the morning doing. If she did leave it, she would've completely flipped because no way in hell was she going to miss today's deadline.

So tired… Cold… Hungry…

She only had herself to blame for doing the stupid essay last-minute, and she could've slept an hour or two earlier if she hadn't "multitasked" whilst writing.

The moment the doors of the bus opened, she ran as fast as she could (without tripping, I might add) to school. In no time she arrived, but slightly out of breath. The guard by the gate gave her a disapproving look but didn't stop her as she hastily made her way into the campus.

Mulan tore through the halls in a panic. She already missed registration and it's already twelve minutes into the first class. Not good.

She made her way to her locker, grabbed her books, and then ran to her classroom. She almost knocked the door off its hinges when she made her grand entrance. Mulan wheezed, "I'm here!" She doubled over, extremely short of breath. After a few big gulps of air, she looked up to find twenty or so students and a confused teacher staring at her. To clarify, those twenty students were seniors.

"Uh…"

Fuck.

The students started to giggle, and a few low murmurs spread.

This is not my class.

Mulan bailed at lightspeed and went straight back to her locker, her face was burning bright red.

Fuuuuuuuuck. Goodbye reputation, goodbye dignity.

Well, that was the most embarrassing moment of her life. She can't believe she just went full retard. Like she admits she's done a few stupid things, but that was the single dumbest thing she's ever done and she had twenty people to witness her go full-on derp. It was the height of derpiness. Mulan couldn't find a better word to describe herself right now. A big, fat, stinkin' derp. She could just give herself the biggest face-palm of the century.

Idiot! Today's Tuesday, not Wednesday! My first lesson's English, not Geography! Ugh.

All she wanted to do was to crawl into a hole and die. But life seemed to have other plans.

Mulan went back to her lockers to pick up the right books and then zoomed to the right classroom. When she reached the corner of her class, she stopped.

Ok… Chill, chill… Breathe… No one else knows you've messed up… yet. But it's definitely not cool to go in wheezing like an idiot… Yeah… Just act cool… You're just late, no biggie… Yeah… Yeah… you can do this, Mulan… Act cool…

Girl, what do you know 'bout bein' cool?

Shut up! This is not helping my self-esteem!

You ain't even close, girlfriend.

Hey, I can be cool! And don't "girlfriend" me!

Oh really. Have ya'll seen yourself?

I… Yeah… But! …Yeah… Well… Hey! You're supposed to be on my side! Urgh! I can be cool! I am cool! I'm like the coolest of cools, ok? Bitches get jealous of my ultra… coolness! I'm like North-Pole-cool! Wow… God, did I just think that?! That sounded beyond lame… Mulan, get your shit together! Urgh?!

After the mental pep-talk, Mulan took a deep breath and took a sharp turn around the corner... But sadly, she never made it pass the corner. Instead, she went running smack-boom into a big mass of…

Shang.

"Ah!" Mulan knocked herself over and squeaked in surprise, mixed with horror, while the tall victim opposite her let out a loud grunt of frustration and annoyance.

She couldn't believe her luck.

Are. You. Fuckin'. Serious.

It was like the world was going out of its way to make her feel as much like crap as it can. Mulan quietly cursed herself for being a complete and total spaz and also cursed the incredible luck she seemed to be having today. When she thought it was embarrassing just now, boy was she dead wrong! Because right after this she is going to repeatedly bash her head against the wall and then really consider dragging what's left of her and go spend the remainder of her pathetic existence rotting in a hole, where she will wade in a pool of her own tears. Oh, the shame… the shame…

Ok, that was a little melodramatic. But it's looking like a really good option.

"I am so, soooooooo sorry!LikeI'mreaaaallysorry!Ididn'tseeyouandyoudidn'tseemeandIranintoyouand… " Mulan began to ramble.

Shang rolled his eyes. He just raised his hand and silenced her. "Just… watch where you're going."

He got up and brushed off the dust. Then without another word, he disappeared around the corner, leaving Mulan sitting awkwardly on the floor.

As soon as Mulan entered the correct class, the teacher only tossed her one snappy comment about her punctuality and she was free to take a seat.

The class was in a bit of a frenzy as people were walking around, handing in things to the teacher, asking questions, chit-chatting… Mulan was about to sit down when Meg stopped her.

"Wait! Stay right there!"

"Meg…" What now? All Mulan wanted to do was to sit down.

Meg made a noise of protest when Mulan tried to sit.

"Meg, look…"

"Cover me! I'm still writing my essay, just bear with me for a sec…" Meg was frantically scrawling on a piece of paper.

"Speaking of essay…" Mulan quickly took hers out of her bag.

"You're done? Wait, of course you're done."

"Yeah, well I didn't start mine this morning."

"Hmph! Why were you late anyway?"

"Ugh, I was… Like just now… Ugh, never mind… Shut up and just write your essay!" Mulan got a little more defensive than she needed to be.

"Oooh, someone's cranky." Whenever Mulan tells people to shut up, you know that she's giving away a sign that something's up.

"Has everyone handed in their essay?" the teacher shouted out to the class.

"Shiiiiiit!"

"Told you," Mulan said as she was about to leave her desk. "I'll tell you what happened later," she muttered so only Meg could hear.

Meg smiled to herself. From the sound of it, whatever happened this morning, Meg knew she was in for something pretty big.

On the other side of town... Some people's day seemed to be going a lot smoother than Mulan's.

"Wait… wait for it… Aaaand…. WHOO! Hah!" The boys hollered in unison as John Smith got a shot straight into the bin.

"Naaaaice!" Eric commended his friend.

"Thank you, thank you…" John did a fancy little bow to his small audience.

The ambience of the classroom was perfectly casual as the group of boys messed around, trying to up-stage each other by seeing who can get the most shots into the bin, substituting it for a hoop. Only a few other students felt disturbed by the noise they were making because those nerds were actually bothered to prep for class.

"Ok, ok…" John composes himself and takes a sheet of paper from a random desk and crumples it into a ball. "Now watch this…" He resumes his position, meters away from the bin, but this time he has his back against it.

"You're gonna miss."

"Oh bugger off, Jim," Thomas dismissed their pessimist of a friend, who in response just gave him the finger.

"No, no. I'll get it in. You watch." John was in ready-position. He was in "the zone". John beamed and pointed at Jim to watch, and then at himself, "I got this."

Jim rolled his eyes but humoured his friend and took off his ear phones and laid his phone aside. He gave John a nod, signaling for him to shoot. Daring him to shoot with the mere challenging expression in his eyes.

John shifted his weight from side to side, not the least bit worried or pressured by the scrutiny of Jim's gaze. Then with a casual flick of his wrist, the ball of paper flew over his left shoulder and…

"Ohhhhhhhh!" The room erupted in triumphant cheers. John turned around to look at his handy-work then turned back to grin at Jim.

"Ten points to Gryffindoooooooor!" Eric shouted out to John. The boys high-fived all around.

Jim just slow-clapped at John. "Not bad… not bad…"

Aladdin suddenly burst into the classroom. "GUYS! Duuuudes!" He had a wild look on his face and his hair was disheveled, well his hair was always messy, but you get the gist of it.

"Al!"

"Allllll!"

"Alllllllll… paca!"

Jim just waved casually.

"Alpaca? Well that's new." He gave Thomas a look.

"What? Just sayin'…" Thomas shrugged.

"Weirdo. ANYWAY guys, IthinkIfinallygottheknifesongdown!" Aladdin smiled proudly at himself as he made his way over to his circle of friends.

"Duuuuuude. Slow down, man! Like, you high on weed or something?" Eric asked skeptically.

"What?! Pff, naawwww. I wish! Nah, I just had some weird Turkish coffee this morning. Man those things pack a punch! It's like Red Bull but in the form of coffee! Speaking of bulls, I'm so pumped I feel like I can wrestle one… or five! Yeah!" Aladdin was a little on the hyper side, he did a little fist-pump. All these years living with his err… "eccentric" uncle may have rubbed a bit of the crazy off on him.

"Red Bull has just as much caffeine as coffee, dumbass," Jim pointed out to Aladdin curtly.

John chuckled, "Did you say knife song?"

"Yeah, the knife song! What other knife song is there? So anyway, I was like drawing those graph-circle-thingies last night, right?-"

"You mean an arc," Jim interrupted.

"Yeah whatever, those circular thingies, that stuff in math- And I thought 'Yeah screw that!', so I pretty much dedicated my entire night learning the stupid song. And NOW, I can proudly say that I've mastered the knife song! Huh? Huh?!" Aladdin grinned at his friends for a response.

"Well?" Thomas gave Aladdin a look.

"Well, what?" Aladdin didn't seem to get it.

"Show us!"

"Ohhhh… Psh, yeah!" Aladdin rifled around his backpack for his compass violently. When he still couldn't locate it, he impatiently poured the contents of his bag onto the floor, all the junk that he never bothered to clean out pouring out for the world to see. There were textbooks from last year, used tissues, wrappings of an eaten Mars Bar, a single sock, pens and highlighters that don't work, loose change, an overdue library book… "Where's the damn thing?!" He cursed.

The boys just stared at Aladdin. "What are you looking for?" John finally asked.

"My compass! Gah, where's the damn thing?!" Aladdin went through his junk impetuously.

Thomas spotted it and picked it up amongst the pile of clutter. "This?"

"Not that kind of compass, you dolt!"

"Oh."

"Yeah! Dolt." After which Thomas received a light slap at the back of his head from Eric.

"Ow! How the shit was I supposed to know?!" He glared at Eric.

"Hey, isn't that my compass?" John took the thing from Thomas' hand and looked at Aladdin suspiciously. "I gave this to you ages ago!"

"Well you never asked for it back, so… WAIT! Found it!" Aladdin picked the compass up (the kind you use to draw circles, by the way) and shoved all his other things back into the backpack just the way they were. A mess.

"Ok bitches, you're all in for a show because I've got the knife song down!" Aladdin smiled contemptuously as he took the device out of its box.

"Is this going to be like the time you tried rapping to 'Super Bass'?" John smirked.

"Fuck you! I was drunk, ok?!"

John, Eric and Thomas chorused in unison, "'I said, excuse me, you're a hell of a guy; I mean my, my, my, my you're like pelican fly; I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving your tie…'" Their voices were cracking and their singing was horribly out of tune, which sounded exactly like Aladdin did. John even pulled Aladdin's tie mock-seductively at the word "tie" and gave him a look that would normally get teenage girls *ehm* aroused.

"Fuck off! I told you, I got this, 'kay?" Aladdin snapped.

"Geez, that coffee's clearly got you on the edge," Eric snorted. But one look from Aladdin and he was silenced.

"As I was saying…" Aladdin regained himself and looked at his friends to see if anyone else had something else to contribute. Seeing as they had none, he placed his left hand on the desk and took the compass with his right.

"Whoa…" Jim eyed his left hand which was splattered with red dots, "Pretty sure that's not from a red pen…"

Obviously, the scars proved that Aladdin had really been practicing.

"Why so hardcore, dude?" Eric asked.

"I practiced with a pencil first, then I tried it a few times with the compass." Aladdin grinned again at his friend's admiration for his badass-ery.

"Is this is seriously what you've been up to all night?" Thomas looked at Aladdin dubiously.

"Pretty much!" And he spread the compass apart and held the pointy end. "'The following stunt is performed by a trained professional. Any attempt at re-creating or duplicating the same or similar stunts may result to personal injury or property damage. Our producers are not responsible for any such injury or damage so don't try this at home, kids!'"

The guys just rolled their eyes in response.

Then Aladdin began singing, "'Oh…'" He let that note drag out, "'I have all my fingers, the knife goes chop chop chop. If I miss the spaces in between my fingers will come off…'" and jabbed the needle of the compass at a steady pace.

The boys started to join in, a little hesitant at first, "'And… if I hit my fingers, the blood will soon come out. But all the same I play this game cause that's what it's all about!'"

Now they were gleaming and even Jim was joining in the singing, "'Oh… chop chop chop chop chop chop, I'm picking up the speed. And if I hit my fingers then my hand will start to bleed!'" Aladdin picked up the pace as his smiled broadened and they repeated the chorus.

"'…chop chop chop chop chop chop, I'm picking up the speed…'" Jim was smiling anxiously with the rest of the guys, and they attracted the attention of some boys outside their group. Soon more and more people were joining into the singing as the song was repeated over and over whilst Aladdin stabbed faster and faster.

He had an insane grin plastered on his face. As the song was reaching a climax when the crowd of boys chanted the chorus for the third time, "'…Chopchopchopchopchopchop, I'm picking up the speed! And if I hit my fingers then my hand will start to bleed!'" They ended with a shout of "Hoy!" and Aladdin firmly planted the compass into the table with final stab.

A moment of silence ensued.

Aladdin panted, eyes wide, with adrenaline pumping through his veins. There was a moment when he just looked at all the guys in silent disbelief, then at his unscathed hand, and back at the guys again. All at once, they all burst into cheers, like he had just turned water into wine.

"WHOOOOOOO! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Aladdin was laughing manically, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! HAHA! WHOOOOOOOOO!"

Jim too was grinning to the point where his jaws were hurting, a feeling he wasn't accustomed to.

Just as abrupt as the noise began, it ceased immediately when the teacher stepped into the classroom with a menacing glare at the boys. They all scuttled back to their seats like cockroaches from a can of Raid (yeah, not a pretty sight, but pretty much as fast as those little bastards).

Aladdin settled into his seat as class commenced, but then the saw the marks he left on the table. There were very distinct holes born into the wood of the desk, which he was sure the teachers and janitorial staff wouldn't take kindly to. Heh… oops. He swiftly covered the desk with a textbook, and rest his head in his hand with his elbow on the book casually, acting bored. It's good. It's all good.

He stayed in that position for a minute or so but his arm was starting to get tired. Damn. It was hard to act bored over actually being bored. Aladdin was still feeling very fidgety from all the action just now. So he decided to pretend to take notes and ransacked his bag for a pen. He tried to copy down the things on the board but to no avail, since his pen was out of ink.

"Dammit!" he hissed silently.

He took another pen out of his bag – it didn't work. He tried a third, fourth, fifth, sixth… but they were all dried out. Aladdin quietly cursed. He seriously needed to buy new pens. Those fancy-ass quills and loud-coloured feathered pens his uncle owned don't exactly count as proper pens. Yeah, he desperately needed a new set of stationary, not that he does much homework or just writing... with pens... at all... but hey, you never know when pens could come in handy, like right now. "Psst. Hey man, you got a pen I can borrow?" he whispered to Eric who was sitting in front. In no time, Eric slipped him one.

"Thanks, man," Aladdin whispered.

The class remained in absolute silence again as the students continued to jot down their notes. All of a sudden, there was a soft "Shiiiiiii" sound as the entire class, including the teacher, turned to look at John who was sitting in the row next to Aladdin.

"Shiiiiiiii-…take mushrooms… Heh…" John's eyes darted around, looking a bit sheepish.

The teacher narrowed his eyes at John but then let it drop and continued on with class.

"Nice save," Thomas whispered from the next row.

"Yeah…" But John's mind was already somewhere else as he just realized that the same paper he threw into the bin just now was his History homework.

Well, fuck me.

A/N:

Ok, first off, I'm really, reaaaally sorry for going hiatus for such a looooooong time. I've been really busy with school, and I have major writer's block. The sad thing is, I'm only going to get busier, so I'm not going to have much time to update this story. That doesn't mean I'm abandoning this fanfic because I want more than anything to finish the story. Like I said, I have most of the shizzle planned out for this story and it's going places, it's just some details stump me out /: So I'll only update every so often, especially when inspiration strikes me while hot :P

This chapter was meant to have waaaay more. I know there's doesn't seem to be a proper end, because there isn't. Yeah, I've rushed this chapter out *sorry* just so some of you have something to read on :3 I've had this saved in my doc manager for ages but haven't found the right details to move it along... That doesn't mean I have absolutely no idea how to continue this story right after the end of this chapter, I'm just missing a bridge to get this ot of the story to connect to the other bits. Sorry, I know there are loose ends in this chapter, so when I upload the next one, I promise I'll tie them all up.

- This is me just throwing some nice scenes and interaction between characters out there. Mulan and Meg are the best :D (I know some of you wanted more bits on them and of course Shang)

- INTRODUCING... John Smith, Thomas (from Pocahontas), Eric, Jim Hawkins (from Treasure Planet) and Aladdin! *whoo* As you might have gathered, they're from the boys' school I mentioned earlier in chapter 1 :P Uh... yeah, guys swear. Uh... I'm not 100% sure guys talk like that, because I'm not a guy. Uh... I hope it didn't sound weird? /: Oh and I don't mean to make Eric sound like surfer-dude ditz xD He just... drags out his words a little when he's with his bros... yeah...

- OH! And before I forget, if you haven't already, I urge you to go back to the previous chapters where I've updated most of them and added nice little bits in them to make the story better (E.g. more between Yao, Ling and Chien Po at the beginning, and also more with Meg, Mulan and the group)

Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading :) Please leave comments! Pwease? Btw, I also have a deviantart account of the same name with some Disney fanart if anyone's interested :P

Till next time ;3