Amy's perspective

It's the second day of school, and I plop down in my homeroom desk. The large purple cat sitting next to me touches one of my quills. He asks me, "Do you always keep your hair like this?"

My quills are really short; shoulder length to be exact. I've never been a fan of long hair, as it can get in my way and into other things. So I've always kept my quills short, just like my mom.

"Yeah," I answer him.

"It's pretty," he smiles. He then tells the lavender cat in front of him, "See Blaze, isn't her hair cute?"

"This is Big," Blaze, the lavender cat tells me, referring to the larger cat. "He's almost too gay to function."

"Nice to meet you," I tell them.

A male green hawk walks by Blaze and interrupts us. "Nice extensions, Blaze," he mocks her, pointing to her ponytail. "What're they made of?"

"Your mom's chest hair!" Blaze angrily shouts at him. She calms herself down and turns back to me. "I'm Blaze."

"Hi," I respond. "I'm Amy." I pull my class schedule out of my backpack and ask them, "Do you guys know where Room G14 is?"

Big takes the schedule so that he and Blaze can examine the paper properly. The former reads aloud, "Health, Tuesday/Thursday, Room G14."

"I think that's in the back building," says Blaze.

Big nods. "Yeah, it's in the back building," he repeats his friend's statement.

"Yeah," Blaze adds. "We'll take you there."

After homeroom, Big and Blaze guided me through the hallway to my first class of the day. As we walk outside, we sit down on the grass, all the way across from the main building. Big continues reading my schedule until he asks, "You're taking 12th grade calculus?"

"Yeah," I answer him with a smile. "I like math."

Big, however, frowns. "Why?"

"Because it's the same in every country," I say. I love math, and I don't want to let anyone tell me otherwise.

"That's beautiful," Big tells me. He then turns to Blaze and says, "This girl is deep."

See? Maybe Big's opinion on math might change. Wait...weren't we supposed to be going to health class? I ask Blaze, "Where's the back building?"

"It burned down in 1987," she answers. Did she just lie to me?! Something doesn't seem right...

"Won't we get in trouble for this?" I ask her. I need to be able to trust her.

"Why would we get you in trouble?" Blaze questions me. "We're your friends."

I know it's wrong to skip class, but Blaze said we were friends. And I was in no position to pass up friends. I don't want a similar fate like yesterday. I guess I'll never know what I missed on my first day of health class.

3rd person perspective

Amy's health class takes place in a small area of the school gymnasium. Her teacher is a male gray elephant wearing a green tracksuit, and he's standing in front of a rolling chalkboard. He lechures the class, "Don't have sex. Because you will get pregnant, or lay an egg. And die."

One of those people, huh?

"Don't have sex in the missionary position," he continues. "Don't have sex standing up. Just don't do it, okay?"

He picks up a plastic container filled with packaged condoms and hands them out to the class. "Okay, everyone take some rubbers."

Amy's perspective

Big asks me, "Why didn't your parents just keep homeschooling you?"

We were talking about my life in Africa and that we ended up moving here because of my mom's job. "They wanted me to get socialized," I bashfully answer.

"Oh, you'll get socialized, all right," Blaze tells me. "A little slice like you."

What? I question, "What are you talking about?"

"You're a regulation hottie," she says. She takes out her notebook and asks me, "Your name is spelled A-M-Y, right?"

"Yeah," I say, rolling my eyes. 'Amy' is not a difficult name to spell. Just saying.

Big looks across the school area in shock. "In the name of all that's holy," he begins the new conversation. "will you look at Cassie Milligan's gym clothes?!"

Blaze also looks ahead. "Of course all The Plastics are in the same gym class," she replies in disbelief.

"Who are The Plastics?" I want to know.

"They're teen royalty," Big explains in eagerness. "If Emerald High was Us Weekly, they would always be on the cover."

Blaze points to a female yellow duck, sporting a white bill. "That one there is Cassie Milligan," she informs me. Cassie is wearing a light green sleevless shirt and the tiniest black gym shorts I've ever seen. Big was definetly onto something! "She is one of the dumbest girls you will ever meet."

Just as Blaze says that, a football is thrown to Cassie, only to hit her chest. The duck leans over to grab it - or attempt to grab it, anyways.

"Big sat next to her in English last year," Blaze points out, trying not to laugh.

Big turns to me, dumbfounded. "She asked me how to spell 'orange'," he tells me. Wow - that's all I can say.

"And that white dove?" Blaze continues, this time pointing to a white dove with short, dark red hair. "That's Elise Colombo."

Elise's gym clothes are the same colors as Cassie's, though her style is different. She's wearing a short-sleeved shirt, which is tied up to show off a big chunk of her midriff, and although her shorts aren't as tiny as Cassie's, they're still revealing as hell, showing off her very tan legs. Or maybe gold? Who knows? Cassie throws the football to Elise, only to knock her over.

Big explains to me, "She's totally rich because her dad's the king of Soleanna!"

King? Then that means Elise is a princess!

"Elise Colombo knows everybody's business," Blaze adds. "She knows everything about everyone."

"That's why her legs are so tan," Big says, then turns his voice to a whisper. "They're full of secrets!"

Finally, Blaze concludes, "And evil takes a Mobian form in Rouge Bayle."

Rouge is a white bat with shoulder-length hair and tan skin (not as tan as Elise's legs, thankfully), gliding above six different guys. "Don't be fooled," Blaze tells me. "because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing, slut-faced ho-bag." Rouge sets foot on the grass, showing off her short-sleeved shirt, the ony one of the three to not be ruined, and her small shorts. She blows a kiss to the boys and walks over to Cassie and Elise, all happy to see each other. "But in reality, she is so much more than that."

"She's the queen bee," Big adds. "The star. Those other two are just her little workers."

"Rouge Bayle," Blaze wonders. "How do I begin to explain Rouge Bayle?"

Here are the comments we have about our queen bee:

From an overweight female yellow dog, "Rouge Bayle is flawless!"

"I hear she has two Fendi purses, and a silver Lexus," a female magenta swallow says with a smile.

"I hear her lips are insured for $5,000," says a male magenta chameleon.

"I hear she does car commercials," a female orange badger says. "In Japan."

From Patricia Becker, "Her favorite hobby is treasure hunting."

From two girls, one of them being a small mint green beaver, "Before high school, she used to work for the government." The blue goose bound to a wheelchair adds, "And she got paid in jewels!"

Finally, from a female light yellow cat, "One time, she punched me in the face. It was awesome!"

As we walk through the hallway to lunch, Big continues to talk about Rouge. "She always looks fierce," he exclaims. "She always wins Spring Fling Queen!"

"Who cares?" Blaze asks, annoyed by her friend.

"I care!" Big retorts to her. He turns to me and informs, "Every year, the seniors throw this dance for the underclassman called 'The Spring Fling'; and whoever is elected Spring Fling King and Queen automatically becomes head of the Student Activities Committee."

He turns to Blaze and tells her, "And since I'm an active member of the Student Activities Committee, I would say, yeah, I care."

Blaze rolls her yellow eyes in amusement. "Big, you've truly out-gayed yourself." She rips a piece of paper from her notebook and hands it over to me. "Here. This map is gonna be your guide to Emerald."

Turns out, she drew an entire map of the school. What really catches my eye is the cafeteria, specifically the names of each tables. Blaze tells me, "Where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial because you got everybody there." She begins to list them out. "You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, JV jocks, nerdy reptiles, cool reptiles, unfriendly jungle hotties, girls who can fly, girls who can't fly, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of The Plastics."

I decided to get a school lunch today, as just as I begin to walk over to Big's and Blaze's table, a black hedgehog with red highlights walks up to me, blocking my path. "Hey," he greets to me. "We're doing a lunchtime survey of new students. Can you answer a few questions?"

"Sure," I respond.

The hedgehog asks with a smile, "Is your muffin buttered?"

"What?" I wonder. I didn't even order a muffin. I ordered an apple, chocolate milk, and a balogna, lettuce, and cheese sandwich!

"Sorry," he says. He then rephrases his question. "Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?"

Some of the guys behind him snicker. "My what?" I ask, still confused.

"Is he bothering you?" a deep female voice asks me. I turn around, and I see The Plastics, looking concerned for me. The person who asked me was Rouge, and she asks the hedgehog, "Shadow, why are you such a skeez?"

Shadow rolls his eyes, hiding his laugh. "I'm just being friendly."

Elise tells the jerk in a softer, yet harsh voice, "You were supposed to call me last night!"

Rouge sits tall and tells him off. "Shadow, you do not come to a party at my house with Elise, and then scam on some poor innocent girl right in front of us three days later!" she scolds him. "She's not interested."

She turns her attention to me. "Do you wanna have sex with him?" she asks, just to be sure.

"No, thank you," I answer without hesitation.

"Good," Rouge smiles. "So it's settled." She turns her attention back to Shadow. "So you can go shave your back now!"

Shadow tells him as the bat says, "Bye, Shadow." He turns around, muttering "Bitch," under his breath, and walks away.

I was also about to leave, but then Rouge says, "Wait! Sit down."

I look over to Big and Blaze sitting in another table across the cafeteria, signaling me to sit with them. I really want to, but I also don't know if I want to pass up Rouge's offer to sit with her group.

"Seriously," she continues. "sit down."

I finally sit down with The Plastics, sitting in the chair across from Rouge. She asks me, "Why don't I know you?"

"I'm new," I answer. "I just moved here from Africa."

"What?" Rouge wonders.

"I used to be homeschooled," I add.

"Wait," she continues. "What?"

"My mom taught me at home-" I start.

"No, no. I know what homeschool is," she interrupts me. "I'm not stupid."

She then asks me, "So you've actually never been to a real school before?" I nod in response, and takes the information in with a smile. "Shut up!" she raises her voice. "Shut up!"

Is she confused? "I didn't say anything," I remind her.

"Homeschooled," Rouge says. "That's really interesting."

"Thanks," I smile.

Then she says, "But you're, like, really pretty."

I am? Did she just assume that homeschooled kids are ugly? Brushing that implication off, I respond, "Thank you."

"So you agree," Rouge says.

"What?"

"You think you're really pretty," she tells me. Maybe sitting with her was a bad idea...

"Oh," I begin to say. "I don't know..."

"Oh my God, I love your bracelet!" Rouge interrupts again. She touches the bracelet I'm currently wearing, brown with black beads circling around it. "Where did you get it?"

"Oh, my mom made it for me," I reluctantly say.

"It's adorable!" she compliments me.

"Oh, it's so yant!" Elise adds.

Rouge frowns and asks her dove friend, "What is 'yant'?"

"Oh, it's, like, slang," Elise answers. "It's short for 'brilliant'."

Yeah... I don't really understand slang, and why so many people use it. That word Elise came up with just sounds stupid.

"So if you're from Africa," Cassie begins to ask. "why is your muzzle pale?" I have really fair skin.

Elise is shocked by the duck's question. "Oh my God, Cassie!" she cries. "You can't just ask people why their muzzle's pale!"

Rouge then asks me, "Could you give us some privacy for, like, one second?"

"Sure," I reply.

The Plastics huddle together and whisper to each other. After the finish, Rouge says to me, "Okay, you should know that we don't do this a lot; so this is, like, a really huge deal."

"We wanna invite you to have lunch with us everyday for the rest of the week," Elise adds.

Really? What are Big and especially Blaze gonna say about this? Maybe The Plastics might not be horrible after all. Rouge and Elise complimented me, so who knows? Maybe Blaze was wrong about them. I begin to say, "Okay..."

"Coolness," Rouge responds, interrupting me once again. She seems to do that a lot. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

Cassie chimes in, "On Wedensdays, we wear pink."

And Chapter 2 is finally over! This was a really long one for me to write; I forgot how much I love writing! Next chapter, we get to read Big's and Blaze's reactions to Amy hanging out with The Plastics. If you like this story so far, please leave a review, like, and follow, and I'll see you in Chapter 3!