A/N: Okay I really want to do this. I am going to edit all these chapters. And- not start any new stories. May or may not finish this story, but I’ll try…enjoy m’dears.

Ch1

The boy grimaced and bit his thumbnail, his gray eyes worried. He wished he hadn’t eaten breakfast. When another groan came from his mouth, his dad turned his head to examine the bundle of nerves in the backseat.

“Zach, if you worry like that, you’re going to make yourself sick.” He commented gently.

Refusing to remove the thumb from his mouth, Zach looked at him, and then quickly changed his gaze to the trees going by as his stomach did another flip. They fell into an awkward silence for what must have been the fifth time since picking Zach up for his first day at his new school. He had insisted on driving him there, although Zach would have preferred walking. He hated being the new kid. He was shy and when he did manage to talk he turned a bright red that traveled to the roots of his hair. Why they had to move againwas his fault this time anyway.

"It looks like it's going to rain." His dad tried again.

Why had his dad had actually bothered to show up for his first day of school? He had never shown any interest in his son’s life before. Soon he would be leaving again on a business trip around Europe. He was leaving Zach with his grandmother and wouldn’t be returning for months. Zach didn’t mind really, his grandmother was fun and kind; she had been a hippy back in the days, and she wasn’t even as old as many grandmothers were.

Haphazardly swiping strands of hair out of his eyes, he swallowed hard and wrapped his arms around his middle. He pulled a hair tie off his wrist and pulled his hair into a low ponytail. He had meant to get his hair cut before his first day but when he had called to make an appointment, the girl at the reception desk had sounded like his sister. She had loved his hair and liked it long. Sighing he glanced back out the window and moaned quietly. They were sitting in front of the school. Kids were staring at the car- had it been sitting there that long? With a grimace he slung his bag over his shoulder and opened the doors to the place he had been trying to escape since fifth grade- the world.

Kids were already whispering.

“The start to a terrific year!” he muttered to himself. Lowering his head, he proceeded to absorb himself in his shoes and began the walk down the concrete path to the front of the school.

“Zach!”

His head shot up and he turned towards the car

“You forgot your notebook.” His father looked uncomfortable for having to shout and held the offending object out the car window.

Oh fantastic. Cheeks flaming, he shuffled back to the car.

“He’s cute.” A slender girl with her hair pulled back into a loose bun followed the boy with her eyes. “Yeah?” Here she turned to a boy standing next to her.

James glared at her. “I wouldn’t know.”

She ruffled his hair affectionately. “Jamesy, I believe you do know.”

“I’m –not- gay.” He said tartly.

“Now, now. Did I say anything about that?” She tapped her lips. “Someone’s a little touchy about something. That normally means-”

“-Kat, we’re going to be late for class.”

Kat her eyes and turned back to the boy who continued to stare at his shoes while walking. “I want to watch the cute new kid so we can introduce ourselves. Since when have you liked getting to class on time?”

James sighed and turned to walk into school, knowing Kat would follow. Sulking, yes, but she would follow.

“Oops.”

He turned, to see that Kat had bumped into a girl carrying her science project. It involved paint. Wet paint. The rest of the hallway parted like the red sea before Moses. With a sheepish expression, she caught up to him. Shaking his head, James grabbed her wrist and began to drag her down the hall, ignoring her complaints.

“James. You’re messing up my wrist. Wait! Wait! I’m going to drop- aww man I needed that.” James stopped in front of a door and Kat banged into him with a yelp.

“Dude. You really can’t stop like that.” She grumbled, rubbing her nose.

He smiled sweetly and steered her towards the door. “C’mon Kat. Math class. Aren’t you excited?”

“Math class in the morning…Do I look excited?” She asked darkly.

“You look like you ate a live spider.”

“Lovely way of putting it.” Kat reached tentatively for the door and swung the door open.

A bubbly voice greeted them. “Good morning, morning, morning Miss Haptoff! Will you be joining us for class today?”

Kat winced at the inhumane happiness. “Whoops, wrong class.” Turning on her heel she began to walk away, until James caught her arm and swung her back.

James flashed a bright smile. “Yes Mr. Gonkard. We both will. Kat was just saying what a lovely day it was today.”

With a bemused expression, Mr. Gonkard peered out window at the bleak gray sky. “Well Miss Haptoff! I say, that is the perfect spirit to have in the morning!”

“I guess I’m just the glass half full type of gal Mr. Gonkard!”

By now, Mr. Gonkard had already turned and was heading back into the classroom. James face twitched. “Gal?”

Kat shot him a withering glare. “Do –not- mess with me.”

Zach, at that very minute, was attempting to prolong the walk to his classroom. The guide in front of him had left him behind a good 6 minutes ago and had yet to notice that he was falling behind. Eyeing his schedule, he saw that he had math first period with a Mr. Gonkard. The only thing he had noticed by moving again and again was that math stayed the same. It always had the same monotone teacher, the class that didn’t care, and the problems with the same unhelpful, pointless diagrams. He made a face. He hated math. He stunk at math. Math was evil. With an underlined, capitalized, italicized, bold ‘E’.

He noticed the people from the classes he was passing were looking at him and blushed. He wished a giant dragon would come along and eat him. Maybe a rampaging giant squid instead, that was more likely than the dragon. Zach had hoped that he might for once go to a public school, but instead here he was in the uniform slacks and tie.

His guide interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. Luther.” She smiled and shook her finger. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

He looked at her questioningly. Maybe giant rampaging squids got angry at the color of pink, like the suit Mrs. Trosky was wearing. Where did you even get a suit that color?

“You’re trying to draw out this lovely walk with me.”

Raising his eyebrows he looked at her and nodded dryly. “You caught me.”

She beamed. “Come now Mr. Luther, you better hurry or you’ll be late for class. I’ll assign someone to be your guide.” He continued to stare at her, an expression of horror slowly filling his face. Sure, he didn’t like her, but assigning someone else to be his guide didn’t seem to appealing to him. Especially since they would be his age and might turn out to be a hyper, ditz of a girl. Still smiling, she turned to the door in front of them. “Here we are.”

He hurriedly walked over and opened the door. “Ladies first.” He murmured softly at her surprised expression. Good manners could get you pretty far in school with the office staff. That was another thing he’d learned.

Frowning, James was trying to figure out what Kat was trying to mouth to him. It looked like she was telling him that the nude key was outside. He jumped when he hear the door opening. He glanced up to see who would get in trouble for being late and it finally clicked with him who was outside. The new kid. Twisting he looked back at Kat, who grinned at him.

It seemed the new kid didn’t want to be there. He was staring at his converse shoes as Mrs. Trosky talked with Mr. Gonkard, a light blush dusting across his features. Nodding, Mr. Gonkard stood up as Mrs. Trosky turned and headed toward the door. She winked at the kid as she walked by. She was wearing a rather peculiar shade of pink that made him envision barbie throw up. Poor new kid, the lady was probably flirting with him the whole way up here. The office staff was crazy.

Mr. Gonkard cleared his throat loudly. “We have a new student with us today. Now his name is-” he paused and looked toward the boy standing in front of the class. The boy continued to stare at his sneakers, until he realized Mr. Gonkard was talking to him and looked up with a snap, surprise etched into his face.

Poor, poor new kid.

The redhead mumbled something. Mr. Gonkard lowered his head and put his hand to his ear. “What was that?”

“Zach.” The kid managed to speak louder.

“Do you have a last name, Zachary?”

“Luther.”

A silence ensued as that class scrutinized Zach standing in front of the blackboard. You could tell the school didn’t get new students very often. The boy mumbled something else. Mr. Gonkard leaned forward slightly, then straightened and flashed a big smile. “No, no Mr. Luther. You can’t sit down quite yet. We need a volunteer to show you around.”

James swiveled again to look at Kat. NO, he mouthed. Oh yes, she mouthed back with an evil grin. Then she looked away, ending further argument and her hand shot into the air. Along with all the other girls in the class. James groaned softly and placed his head on his desk.

“Mr. Gonkard! Mr. Gonkard!”

James shuddered. Ditz girl nation. He watched the new boy, as Zach looked with fearful dismay at all the girls’ hands in the air.

Mr. Gonkard turned off the lights and everyone fell silent. He surveyed the hands around the classroom. “Julie?”

A near-bouncing-out-of-her-seat girl with brown curly hair looked hopeful.

“You may show Zach around.”

Looking smug, the girl basked in all the other glares.

James took this opportunity to glance at Kat, who was looking at Julie with a determined expression. She caught James’s eye and raised her chin.