“Pen, Pen, wake up, wake up!” Freedom yelled at her twin brother from the other side of his door. “We’re going to be late for our first day of school if you don’t get your butt in action!”

“Hmmm, late for school, oh, we don’t want that, do we?” Pen yawned with sarcasm dripping from his tired voice.

“I know you don’t care, but I do, and if you aren’t downstairs in five minutes I’m taking the truck and leaving you with the tractor!” This threat got Pen’s attention. There were no busses at Roosevelt High so students had to find their own means of transportation. A car or truck was best, a scooter or bike was fine, but a tractor was social suicide. The students all lived on farms in this no where town, Kansas, but to admit that to each other just wasn’t done. Pen wasn’t in the popular crowd, but to hold his current standing on the social ladder, he couldn’t be seen driving a tractor.

“I’ll be down in 2 minutes.” Pen yelled back as he heard his sister pad down the stairs in her flip flops. Finding a band t-shirt that didn’t smell too bad and a pair of jeans that weren’t ripped in too many places, Pen glanced in the mirror on the back of his door to check his appearance. He was tall and thin, just like his sister. It was great for her, she was pretty; she was in the popular crowd at school. But for a boy, being tall, thin, and pretty just screamed for mockery. He pulled his fingers through his shoulder-length, auburn hair. It wasn’t perfect but it was enough for Pen. Grabbing his beat-up green backpack he raced downstairs to the kitchen where his sister was waiting.

Freedom was tapping her foot impatiently on the linoleum floor. She had obviously gotten up early to make herself up as best she could. She was wearing a strapless white shirt and hot pink skirt that showed off her figure perfectly. Her platinum dyed blond hair was freshly streaked pink to match her skirt and about twenty pink and white bangles hung from her wrists. Even her nails were pink. She flipped her long hair back and picked up her pink purse to head to the truck. Pen followed, rolling his eyes. His sister was always keen on looking her best, and he just didn’t get it. “Must be a girl thing,” he thought.

It took Freedom three tries to start the ancient pick-up truck. The rusted, white truck had seen better days. All the same, it got them the fifteen miles to school without mishap. Pen hopped out of the truck while Freedom was looking for a somewhat shady spot to park. He knew that annoyed his sister.

Heading up to the school building, he looked around for his usual group of friends. They weren’t too hard to find. The rockers, as they were called, always wore black t-shirts and so, stood out from the crowd of bright colors. Pen found them standing around the flag pole finishing their morning caffeine before class started. There were five of them, including Pen. They were dubbed the rockers because they had their own amateur band named Blue Spades. They would practice after school at the drummer, Flea’s house. Only the teachers at school called Flea anything but. Aside from Flea, there was Mike, the bass player, and Matt, the first guitarist. Pen played second guitar and sang. They weren’t bad, but the audience for rock was miniscule in the tiny town.

“Pen, where you been, man? School starts in like, one minute.” Flea said in his “taco bell dog” voice. Flea lived to impersonate people.

“I slept in, as always.” Pen answered. He looked at the school, and sure enough, it looked like the whole student body was trying to get into the school at once so as not to miss first bell. The rockers headed in after everyone else. Pen looked around to see if Freedom had made it in already. He didn’t see her, and assumed she was with her own group of friends, the student council. They were the most influential people of the school. They always had the newest clothes, the best hair, and looked like movie stars. They ran the place, or at least acted like it. Pen disliked every one of them.

-this is a work in progress, please critique-