My apologies for the overly cliché title. I really have no idea what to title this, because it's mainly just something new I'm trying. Please leave a comment; they're all welcome.

I'm looking for a beta, and I'm going to be picky about it. I want someone who's not afraid to be critical, not a kid whose grammar and spelling is worse than mine. So if you have the time and interested, PM me and see how it goes!

---

Black and White
Chapter One

"Salad fork is on outermost left, followed by the dinner fork. Soupspoon is on the outermost right. Then it's the beverage spoon, salad knife and dinner knife. Napkin goes on the left of the forks, with the fold to the left. Okay?"

-

"I'm sure you guys will get along fine." Mum positively beams as she ushers us out of the door, looking so glad that her precious son has someone to hang around with. With a final jolly wave, she closes the door and I'm out on the street, standing next to some guy who's supposed to be my new best friend.

And seeing as I don't even know his name, I figure I'm pretty much screwed.

"Joshua Williams- Josh," I introduce casually, sticking out my hand.

The stranger stares at it for long enough to give the impression that he has no idea what to do with a hand. I'm almost ready to give up when he grasps it suddenly- carelessly- and gives a half-hearted shake.

"Lee."

We don't say anything else to each other for the rest of the walk to school. I pretend not to care all that much, but his blank expression tells me that he doesn't give a damn in the world.

We're really off to a good start.

-

"Lee, my man!" A girl with dyed blue hair greets, a wide grin on her face. "Lookin' good!"

"Yeah," he says bluntly, throwing his school bag onto a nearby bench.

Blue-hair raises an eyebrow curiously, seeming surprised at his response. But then she spots at me and her face visibly changes. "Who's the new kid?"

"Josh," Lee answers for me.

Now I'm really starting to wonder whether this guy can actually use words that aren't monosyllabic. "Joshua Williams," I correct.

Lee sticks his hands into his pockets and leans against the wall, a scornful expression splashed across his face. "Yeah, well, that's surprising, seeing as you introduced yourself as 'Josh' earlier this morning."

"What's surprising is that you can use more than one word at a time!"

"You just talk too much."

"And you-"

A violent cough comes from somewhere behind me and I whip around to find Blue-hair biting her lip in a futile attempt to keep a straight face. She looks at us for half a second before bursting into laughter. "You guys are such dickheads- hell, you're gonna get along just fine." She beams, looking eerily like my mom, and sticks her hand out towards me. "Susanna Auden- Zanna."

I can't help but grin at the irony of the situation, and I notice that even Lee's lips are twitching in the hint of a smirk. I reach out and shake Zanna's hand in an almost cheery manner. "That's how you shake hands," I remark, with a sideways glance.

Lee's in the middle of giving a shrug when his eyes widen, and he grabs his bag and disappears around the corner.

"Huh?"

"Another teacher he's been skipping detentions with," Zanna explains. "He does the disappearing act a lot. Get used to it."

"And this is normal behaviour for everyone?"

"Nup." She smiles. "Only for Lee."

-

"-new student, Joshua Williams," finishes the English teacher, with a nervous smile. The class stares at him for a moment longer, before shifting their gazes to me. They try to look bored, but I can tell that they're interested in 'the new kid'. First impressions are important; I know from experience. And I'm determined to do a good job.

I stroll nonchalantly to the front of the room and flash a peace sign, immediately sparking more attention. "Joshua Williams. I usually go by Josh. Or Gorgeous." A couple of girls in the corner giggle, and a few friendly grins appear across the room. "I'm a pretty casual guy, a bit of a rebel… yeah." I smile at them, and I can actually see the female population swoon.

"Thank you, Joshua," mumbles the teacher, sounding relieved.

"Josh," I correct him, and take my seat in the back row, sandwiched between Lee and some blue-eyed, sassy-looking blonde with impressive curves. She looks at me coolly, but I can tell she's feigning the indifference.

So I wink at her.

Her eyes widen, and she blushes and looks away quickly.

From the other side of me, Lee makes a snorting sound. I want to tell him that he's acting like a complete asshole, but then I realize that hell, if I were in his place, I'd be doing the exact same thing.

So instead of listening to a lecture on writing essays, I spend the rest of the lesson trying desperately to think of a way to start a conversation with him. After all, I can't wink at him, nor can I act as I did in front of the rest of the class.

Not surprisingly, we haven't said a word to each other by the time the bell rings.

-

Lunch time puts me in a dilemma. Twenty-seven out of the twenty-nine people in the class head in the direction of the cafeteria, while the twenty-eighth, Lee, walks in the opposite direction.

And the twenty-ninth, me, stands in the middle, feeling entirely lost.

"Hey Gorgeous!" chirps a voice loudly. I spin around to find the blonde from English class waving me towards her. "Sit with us?" She says it in a questioning tone, but I can tell it's a command. Something like Hey Gorgeous, get your ass over here or you'll never have any social status at all.

Maybe even a threat.

My glance turns back to Lee, but he's already disappeared.

So all I can do is follow the blonde to her table in the cafeteria. It's the largest one there, full of girls and guys all looking like they belong on the cover of some fashion magazine.

"This is Josh," introduces the blonde, gesturing at me. "And Josh, these are, uh…"

"The coolest people you'll ever meet," fills in some guy with a laugh. "We're the ones Larissa here-" he points at the sassy blonde, "-considers as friends," he says, air-quoting 'friends'. The rest of the table laugh. I really don't know why. Some popular sense of humor, I guess, with an air-quoted 'popular'.

They introduce themselves in turn, but I catch only a couple of names. A redhead by the name of Mandy, a guy called Matthew who's kind enough to warn me that Larissa is his chick and that I'd better keep my hands off, Arthur, who looks like the lead singer of Green Day, and a drop-dead gorgeous brunette who asks me to call her 'Nikky', supposedly because 'Nicole' sounds slutty.

I'm not sure how that works, but to hell with logic. Nikky it was.

When they're finally all done, I become the centre of attention. I have no idea what to do, so I introduce myself. Again. "Well, uh… I'm Josh."

"Yeah, we pretty much figured that out when 'Rissa introduced you," points out the same guy who did the air-quoting.

I flash a smile, mainly because I know that people love my dimples; partly because I still don't know what to do.

"Sit down, Josh!" Larissa exclaims, as though she's suddenly realized I'm still standing up, and I mentally thank her.

There's a bit of shuffling around; they're trying to find me somewhere I can sit without landing myself in between a pair of lovebirds. After a long discussion, I end up next to Mandy, who gives me a cute grin as I sit down. I'm surprised. She's the best-looking girl there except for Nikky, but she's supposedly still single.

By now, the conversation topic has already moved onto Arthur's recently-dyed, jet black hair. And from there, it moves onto gossip about the latest couples, then to the new English teacher, then to the latest music…

The conversation's shallow. There isn't anything funny enough for me to laugh at, or anything I can pretend to have even the slightest amount of interest in. And to make it worse, not a single person's eating. I mean- shit. Food is everything to me. I have a special weakness for dark chocolate, but as long as the food is good enough, I'll eat it. My parents tell me I have a bottomless pit for a stomach; I tell them I'm a growing boy struggling through puberty. They usually shut up at that.

But- shit. These people weren't eating! And there's no way in hell I'm pulling out my sandwich while everyone else yammers on about God-knows-what.

I practically run out of the canteen when the bell rings.

-

"How was school, honey?" asks Mum, looking up from her cooking as I slam the front door behind me.

I dump my bag on the floor and wonder if she would appreciate a truthful answer. School? A whole load of fucked-up shit. And trust me woman, I know shit. "It was fine," I lie instead.

She smiles. "Good. Now, do you want to invite Lee over for dinner? I hear his parents are away for the week and he's stuck living on cup noodles. The poor baby burnt himself with the hot water the other day, too."

I nearly burst out laughing at the idea of Lee cooking cup noodles, but think better of it when I see Mum's concerned look. "Sure, I'd invite him, but I have no idea how to contact him. And I swear I'm not lying!"

Mom gives me a funny look. "Lee lives across the street."

Oh. Right. I'd forgotten about that. I guess that meant I had to go invite him over.

Shit.

-

I press the doorbell, and it sort of… clanks. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I can't help grinning at the strangeness of the noise. I have the feeling that Lee himself made sure it sounded like that.

"-dropped his ruler three times to get my attention."

"Exactly my point! He's a cool kid, Lee. Give him a chance."

"You can hang out with him if you want to, but don't drag me into this, okay?"

Now I get the feeling that they- whoever they are- happen to be talking about me. Maybe it's because I dropped my ruler three times in class to get Lee's attention.

The door opens, and I find myself face-to-face with Lee and Zanna. Lee's as impassive as always, but Zanna flushes slightly pink. "Uh… hi," she greets timidly. "We were, uh, just discussing you."

No duh, I want to say. But if I don't come back with a guest, Mum's going to fucking kill me. So for the sake of my dinner, I put on a polite expression. "Mum was wondering if you would like to come over for dinner. You know, seeing as you're just across the street."

"No thanks," answers Lee immediately, and starts to close the door.

I think it's his tone that pisses me off, and I stick my foot in the doorway. "Look, I'm making an attempt to be friendly. I don't know why you have a stick shoved up your ass, but Mum's putting a hell of a lot of effort into this meal. So you'd better stop being a dickhead before I lose my dinner." The outburst is a little unexpected, even for me, but the stunned expression on Lee's face is priceless.

Five or so minutes later, all three of us are walking across the road to my place. Zanna's whispering something to Lee, but I can only hear the first few words.

"See, I told you Josh was cool."

-

Mum's surprised at the extra guest. Not annoyed or anything, because she'd always wanted a daughter to fuss over; just surprised. Not that she shows it, as she welcomes Lee and Zanna in graciously.

"Hi, uh, Mrs Williams. I'm Zanna. I mean, um, Susanna Auden." Zanna looks uncomfortable using her full name, and Mum, being Mum, obviously picks this up.

"That's a cute nickname." She smiles her motherly smile, which Zanna returns with a grin.

"Dinner's almost ready, so could you kids help me set the table? It'll-" Mum's expression suddenly changes and she sniffs at the air, before muttering something Russian heatedly under her breath. She thinks I have no idea what it means, but I've heard her use it so many times that I asked around for what it meant. Turns out it's bad language. As in seriously bad.

I guess it's kind of morbid to hear your well brought-up, supposedly elegant Mum using words like that, but I know better than to laugh.

"Thanks!" she calls hurriedly over her shoulder, and disappears into the kitchen.

The three of us are left staring at each other awkwardly. I have no idea what to do, so I open my mouth and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. "The dining room's this way."

They follow me to the dinner table in silence. I get out a stack of plates and cutlery, and place them on the table. "Salad fork is on outermost left, followed by the dinner fork. Soupspoon is on the outermost right. Then it's the beverage spoon, salad knife and dinner knife. Napkin goes on the left of the forks, with the fold to the left. Okay?"

Zanna's jaw has dropped and she looks a bit like a goldfish, and even Lee's eyes have widened. I notice that they're a strange colour- a shade of grey that looks both dark and light at the same time, as though they can't decide whether to look calm or chaotic.

Weird.

"What?" I ask, completely lost as to why they're staring at me like stunned rabbits.

"You just sounded like a fucking huge textbook on etiquette," Zanna tells me.

"I guess…" I shrug. "I've grown up learning all about salad forks. I'm used to it."

"We're not." Amazing, it's Lee who answers this time.

"Get used to it. Mum's fallen in love with you both, and you'll probably be coming over for dinner for the rest of your lives."

There's an embarrassed sort of silence as they both try to work out whether or not that's a good thing.

Finally, Zanna gives a shrug, followed by a bright smile. "Okay. I guess that means we're gonna be hanging out more often, then."

I'm not too sure if that's a good thing.

-

Dinner is… almost pleasant. There aren't any uncomfortable silences, because Mum and Zanna are both chattering away like there's no tomorrow. I interrupt them every so often to give an opinion, and Lee makes a 'hn' sound now and then.

But the food is amazing, as usual. I've been living with Mum since- well, since I was born. That's sixteen years, and her cooking never fails to impress me. And because I didn't eat a single thing at school, I'm stuffing my face at the dinner table. Politely, because there are guests, but it's hard to look dignified while shoveling curry into our mouth.

"Joshua!" Mum scolds, looking horrified when she realizes exactly how her son is eating his dinner.

I grin guiltily. "Uh, I'm… hungry."

She doesn't look too pleased with my excuse, and I don't blame her. But a snicker from Zanna cracks her steely expression, and a moment later Mum's smiling as well.

"Really. Men these days."

Zanna nods enthusiastically in agreement, and they're off babbling again.

I look over at Lee, who happens to be rolling his eyes. Well, at least I'm not the only one suffering. "Women talk too much," I offer as a conversation-starter, hoping that this will go better than our previous conversations had.

He stares at me, and even though my hand isn't stuck out, I have a weird sense of déjà vu. I'm ready to give up and continue eating my curry when he answers suddenly. Carelessly.

"You talk too much."

"I do not!" I answer, defensively.

Lee smirks. "If you say so."

His calm tone is infuriating, and for a moment, I'm tempted to catapult a spoon of curry at him. But my conscience gets the better of me, and I decide to chip at his ego instead. "At least I can cook cup noodles without burning myself."

The smirk slips from his face, and I cheer inwardly.

"It was an accident," he grumbles, sounding like some kid who's been unfairly punished.

"Poor baby." My words drip sarcasm. Lee tries to glare at me, but his ego's obviously shattered, and he looks about as threatening as a wet puppy.

The rest of dinner is okay, I guess. Mum and Zanna continue their chatting, and Lee and I are having a civil conversation with a minimal number of insults.

This is pretty damn good for our first meal together.

-

When it's time to leave, everyone's waving and thanking each other for the company. Even Lee. He doesn't look murderous in the slightest, which is a bit of a surprise.

And as they're finally out the door and I'm clearing away the dishes, I can't help but think-

If dinner's going to be like this from now on, I won't mind too much.

---

That's the first chapter, all done. I'm going for a real-life approach in this story, because I've noticed that my writing is usually a little far-fetched and dramatic. Just like me. Once again, all comments welcome; thanks.