First Day.

The boy exuded confidence and that was the first thing most people noticed about him. The easy smile, the height, the charisma that was evident every time he opened his mouth, were only some of the ingredients that went into his charm, a charm he knew he had and used to its full extent, and today was no exception.

He strolled up the front lawns of Carrington Grammar (Men’s Campus) with only five minutes before the bell rang left. On one side, he had a pretty blonde girl (Kylie? Kelly? He couldn’t quite remember) who looked terribly excited to be in his company, even though it would mean she would be late, on the first day of school, and even though she practically had to jog to keep up with his large steps. On his other side strode Cree Smythe and Scott Williams, one of which was chatting quite quickly about something that didn’t seem relevant at the time, so the boy chose to ignore him.

Behind him walked a bunch of boys from his year level, or slightly below. He liked to refer to them as his ‘posse’ and he was never without them. Not that he ever needed to them to boost his popularity or protect him from someone, but he definitely liked the control he could exercise over the group. As he and his posse got closer to the school doors, many more boys who fancied themselves friends with him joined the group, or called out, shook hands or gave each other manly hugs.

As he finally walked through the open doors into the front hall, many of the younger students stopped to whisper, point and gossip, sharing stories that all seemed to begin with I heard he’s going to be the King next year!

He kissed Kylie/Kelly goodbye, (even though he was starting to get a suspicion her name was actually Natalie) coaxing her to try and get to her school on time, before turning his attention to all the boys coming up and greeting him, like he was some sort of celebrity. He liked to muse he was one, and the other boys certainly liked to play along. Yes, he was definitely one of most arrogant, egotistical people you could possibly wish to meet, and yet his friends and classmates rallied around him, for no real reason. He wasn’t the smartest boy in his year level, though he did do rather well, he wasn’t the nicest, even though he did try, he wasn’t even the richest, and money played a big part in the social ladder at Carrington Grammar. He may have been the best looking, he certainly believed anyway, but that didn’t really explain why his males friends ‘chose’ him as their leader.

Maybe it was that he seemed to be able to wriggle his way out of trouble with almost any teacher, (Except of course, crazy old Mrs. Donald from the girls campus.) maybe it was his exceptionally good luck (He said, skill.) with the girls, maybe it was the complete lack of parentage he had when his parents went away and the parties he could throw at these times. It could be the insanely close relationship he had with last year’s King of Carrington, for a lowly year ten, the fact he knew this year’s one, and the incredible likelihood of being crowned next year himself, or it could be just that he tried very hard to know everybody, whether they were worth knowing or not.

He liked this arrangement a lot, just like Bianca stated on Ten Things I Hate About You, “I happen to like being adored, thank you.” There was something to be said for having a lot of friends that liked you, even if they did make you late for your first day of VCE.

The boy and the small group of new year eleven boys from his exclusive inner circle followed the last of the crowd down to the auditorium, where all VCE students were meeting, and as they reached the grand double doors, a sneering voice said, a little too close for comfort,

“You’re late,” and could barely the control the amount of contempt mixed with glee. The boy and his friends shuddered visibly, looking up at the man standing before them. With red hair that hadn’t seen a comb since his last girlfriend, (never) a disgustingly patterned orange plain shirt with a scarily sharp pencil in the breast pocket, pointed yellow teeth that horribly reminded one of a dogs mouth, and smelt just as bad as well as a slightly manic glint in his eye, it was easy to see how Mr. Faye was one of the main subjects of Carrington Grammar folklore. Popular rumours involved Faye being a vampire who sucked the blood of kids who forgot to hand in their science assignments, him demanding favours of the sexual kind from the junior school boys in return for A+’s and the story that he had killed his own family and kept them in his freezer to eat for breakfast. (Hence the horrible breath.) As the boys got older, they started to realize that these rumours had more grains of cheesy horror flicks staring Snoop Dogg or a screaming wanna-be model, than actual truth, but it didn’t stop the older boys still being slightly scared and a lot disgusted by maths and science teacher.

“They’re late as well,” Cree pointed out. It was true; they weren’t even the last to file into the auditorium. Various year eleven and twelves walked straight past Mr. Faye, and another teacher herded the rest of the group away until the only people standing outside were Mr. Faye and the three boys.

“Maybe those boys have a valid reason for being late.”

“Who says we don’t have a valid reason?” Cree questioned defiantly, as Scott kicked him in the ankle.

“Me,” is all the teacher said, smiling rather evilly. “Detention. Come to me at lunch. All three of you.” The boy rolled his eyes, Scott muttered under his breath, the words ‘faggot’ and ‘thanks Cree’ only audible to his friends. Cree opened is mouth to argue, yet again, but Mr. Faye swept past them into the auditorium to take his place with the teachers.

“He just wishes he was Professor Snape, from Harry Potter,” Cree said moodily, as the three boys slipped into the back of the auditorium. “I wish he was Professor Snape. I could so get him with that pain spell thing, you know, what’s it called?” He looked to his friends as a passing teacher shushed them and the principal took the stage. The first boy gave him an incredulous look, whilst Scott offered,

“Crucio,” and then reddened a little when his two mates whipped around to stare at him.

“You are such a nerdy loser Scott. Sometimes I really wonder why we’re friends,” said Cree, shaking his head. “I blame my mother. I think she feels sorry for you, thus why she insists on our friendship.” The boys were then shushed again, as the principal started what promised to be a very long and very boring speech.

Cree and Scott were at first at a loss on what to do. Fidgety boys with small attention spans back at school after a nice long summer holiday, and boring speeches by a boring man never mix, but as newly instated year elevens in their new clean blazers, they weren’t really sure if their old ways of messing around during assemblies would still be considered as funny as they were in year ten. They didn’t throw spit balls or kick the kids in front of them in the back of the chair; they didn’t start Chinese Whispers that always seemed to start off with something about Cree’s package or Mr. Faye’s lack of one. They were subdued and make did with fidgeting whispering and smothering laughs and before not long at all Cree was standing with the teacher in order to keep him quiet.

The principal droned on, “…and upholding Carrington Grammar’s men’s campus wonderful reputation … trying your best … most important two years of your life…” and everyone was finding it hard to concentrate. “… liaising with Carrington High is of particular importance … remember this year Carrington Grammar will be celebrating its gold jubilee … setting a good example for younger students…”

Teachers heated gazed bore holes in the wriggling students like it was their fault that they were stuck back in this hell hole, a few more boys got moved to try and keep quiet during the principals epic speech, three iPod’s and a phone were confiscated. In fact, it seemed only three people in the entire auditorium who were listening. One, was Mr. Faye, envisioning himself in the principals place (“…and one step out of line and you’re STRAIGHT to the dungeons!”) the second was the Year Twelve boy who was ninety nine point nine percent sure he was going to the role of school captain. The third, of course, was the arrogant smiley boy who had entered with Scott and Cree, he hadn’t spoken, moved, or even changed his facial expression all assembly and continued in this fashion until the principal’s speech finally reached a topic of interest.

“… and of course, a boy with an excellent reputation and impeccable school record, bound to do our institution proud … from a family that is a pilar in our community … who else could we choose for our Year Eleven captain but Daniel Rowe!”

Only then, amongst the cheers of his peer and the claps on the back from Scott, did Daniel let himself smile, a smile like he knew he was going to get chosen and all the hoo-hah was a kind of embarrassing yet necessary step for him to take to secure his position. Or maybe he was just thinking, “Well at least it’ll look good on my college apps.”

When the VCE’s exited the auditorium about twenty minutes before recess was due to start, the junior and middle school boys were already milling around the courtyard, entrance hall and front lawns. This wasn’t normal behaviour for the CG boys, as the school was so vast there were many primo hanging out points for the different groups and different year levels in various parts of the grounds. For the sports enthused, the well maintained oval was the obvious choice in the warmer months, and the gym in the wetter. The library, being open all year round, was a perfect haven for nerds of the school to play chess, read Star Trek and hide from bigger, tougher boys, who didn’t have the distraction of females to keep them from tormenting the geeks. The spot behind the grassy hill just before the school boundaries, was well hidden from the prying gaze of too-nosy teachers and was a well protected secret by students who wanted a smoke, to make any discreet ‘business’ transactions, or generally do anything they didn’t want viewed by teachers like Mr. Faye, or annoying year sevens with their high pitched un-broken voices, who considered narking on older kids the highlight of their day. But as it was the first day of the school, no one was quite sure where they belonged as yet. Boys had moved up ranks from junior school to middle school, and from middle to senior, and didn’t want to seem lame by being seen in a spot beneath their new rung in the social ladder, kids were forming new alliances, thanks to new home group allocations, new students and newly absent ones, fights over the holidays and in the case of the junior to middle transition – voices had broken, separating the newly ‘matured’ from the others. Soon enough, new groups and cliques would form and old ones would regroup and stalk off to claim various parts of the grounds as their own, and the school year would begin. But this process would not start just yet, as a considerable amount of the boys were waiting for the arrival of the girls from the Ladies Campus. It was tradition on the first day of the school year at Carrington Grammar, for the entire population of the Ladies Campus to make the ten minute walk across the track that connected the two campus’ just in time for recess, where both schools could spend the next half an hour catching up with their friends of the opposite sex, before they were all crammed into the auditorium for a whole school assembly. It was one of only two whole school assemblies held during the year, as it was incredibly hard to fit both campuses’ students into the one auditorium and the male year sevens and eights had to sit on the floor, which was quite a humiliating experience, especially for the new year sevens who considered themselves quite special. After the principal and any other speakers had exhausted every means of an inspiring speech they could think of, the two campus’ were allowed to mingle again until the girls were rounded up like sheep, by the teachers from their school acting as the sheep dogs, about half way through lunch. The considerable amount of time set aside for socialization and the fact only the after lunch periods were actual classes, made the first day of school very popular, and Daniel, Cree and Scott were determined not to waste a minute of it. As soon as they had been let out from the assembly, Cree and Scott had parted from Daniel’s side to scope out the changes to the student population. Who had left? Who was new? Who was going out with whom? Who was trying out for the football team? Had Drake Howard really opted to study dance for his VCE? Had Jamie Reed even bothered re-enrolling for this year? Were all very important questions for the Second In Charges for next year’s King to find out. Daniel had complete trust is his friends, as for as long as he’d know them, they worked together like a well oiled machine.

Cree Smythe and Scott Williams had been best friends since forever. The whole clichéd shabang, the mothers that were friends, the birthdays that were only a few weeks apart, teachers got their names muddled up, the belief that they were twins separated at birth, despite the fact Cree was half a foot taller than Scott, and considerably more attractive. As far as anyone knew, they’d only ever had three fights, one in year two, one in year five, and one in year nine, over a book about dinosaurs, a computer game, and Karen Forysthe respectively. But even they had been short-lived, once they realized that dinosaurs weren’t as cool as robots, the computer game had a multiplayer function and Karen was as dumb as dogshit. There were evident differences in their personality - Scott being quite a bit cleverer than Cree, tended to think things through first and actually had a conscience, something that Cree, - with his loud, brusque and sometimes rude manner – severely lacked. Where Scott was obsessed with sports, Cree would much rather be hanging around the 7-11, insulting Carrington Public, also known as Barrington (Clever infusion made long ago of the words ‘bogan’ and ‘Carrington’) students, and waiting for the hot chick who worked there on a Saturday to finish so they could go and make out at the park. Scott was by no means a shy boy, he probably wouldn’t have been able to survive in his group of friends if he was, and even though he got a lot more A’s and a lot less girls than his best mate, the boys made a impressive team, hence why they were both going to be Daniel’s second in command next year when he received king ship, you couldn’t have one without the other. It amused Daniel to think of them as his angel and devil sitting on his shoulders, whispering into his ears, contradicting each other on what course of action Daniel, therefore, the rest of the group, should take. It also amused of him to think of how he generally went with Cree’s ideas.

Daniel walked out into the sunny courtyard where a lot of his friends were sitting, causing more ruckus as every boy there seemed to want to shake his hand, clap him on the back, and offer congratulations. He smiled the same smile; the one he may have thought came across as humble but really came across as him being incredibly up himself. But his friends didn’t care, shouting at him ideas and propositions (“Underwear should be optional for the girls!” “Sack Faye!” and “Hire strippers for school events!” were popular ones.) He was the man of the moment, and through the celebrations he dispatched Scott and Cree to check out the changes in the student body, keep him up to date. He had to keep his eye on the pie, he had won a victory today but he wasn’t going to let four years of hard work out the window.

“Aye aye boss,” nodded Cree, giving Daniel an army salute before starting his mission. Scott stood still a moment longer, surveying, before hurrying in the opposite direction to his best mate.

Daniel returned to his friends, finding his spot in the middle of them, listened to their stories from their holidays, laughed at the funny and slash or stupid things they had done, congratulated them on landing a hot chick or escaping trouble with some form of adult force, whether it be parents or cops.

He was one of a very rare group of people who actually wanted to be at school. Sure, his holidays had been fun and relaxing and all those things summer holidays should be, but before long he’d been itching to return to school, amongst his peers, where he could strut down long wooden corridors like he owned the place, make someone’s day with just a smile, outshine the nerds in maths class just to prove you could be good at school AND have a social life. He tuned out of his friends conversations and smiled self satisfyingly; a Year Nine student ran passed and announced the first of the girls could be seen coming down the track.

“Where are Cree and Scott?” he muttered. How was he supposed to properly start his first day as Year Eleven captain without his best friends slash sidekicks?

As if by physic connection, Scott and Cree rushed back to Daniel’s side within seconds of each other, bursting to spill their new finds. As they zipped through their discoveries, talking frantically over each other, Daniel revealed in his friends talent for gossip, even though most of it wasn’t that interesting to him.

“Any new guys?” Daniel asked, yawning. He could see the first of the girls in the distance, and wanted to cut Cree and Scott’s epic speech short.

“Yeah, one,” Cree waved vaguely to the benches near the entrance. “Big bloke, didn’t say much, he’s a boarder I think.” Daniel’s interest was immediately granted, big kids who didn’t speak were always a bonus, a posse could never have too much brawn.

“Big? How big?”

“Pretty big, but not like fat. Just, you know, big. I mean, boarders are generally either foreign or from some hick outback town where they marry their cousins and this guy looks like the victim of some serious in breeding, judging by the way he stuttered out ‘o-oh, I’m B-brendan’ like an absolute dimwit.” But Daniel wasn’t listening anymore as scanned the crowd and began striding in the direction Cree had gestured.

“Cree’s wrong,” Scott said, as he jogged to catch up with Daniel. Cree looked appalled at the idea of being wrong, but Scott continued with, “There’s another new kid. Zac someone, couldn’t understand him, this one is foreign.”

“Eh, he’s probably been snapped up by geek patrol already,” Cree rolled his eyes, glad his new kid was clearly superior to Scott’s.

“Trust you to think of a foreign kid as an Indian or Asian kid with a bowl cut and a calculator, dickhead. He’s, I dunno, normal looking. Bit skinny, dark hair, kind of pissed off looking.”

“Ah, this is the species commonly known as Emo-us Dork-us, and are known to suck out your soul and replace it with a shitty-band-listening-to, eyeliner-and-tight-pants wearing robot, run Scott, run!”

Scott stuck his finger up at Cree, “I’d rather have the emo kid than someone whose parents are likely Uncle and Niece.”

“Hey shut it man, my new kid could so totally kill yours with like one blow,” Cree accompanied this words with a mock punch to Scott’s face but was cut short.

“Do either of you ever shut the fuck up?” Daniel asked irritably. “And Scott, is that your new kid?”

The three boys looked over to where a boy matching Scott’s description was standing against a wall, listening to an iPod and looking around uninterestedly at the milling crowd.

“Cough emo, cough,” muttered Cree unsubtly, causing the boy to look up and stare.

“Good one, Cree, you’re such a dick, now he knows we’re looking at him and –”

“What did you say his name was?” Daniel cut him off.

“Zac, and will you two stop staring he’s going know we’re talking about him and considering I spoke to him before he’s going to know I went back and told you guys about him and then he’s going to think I’m weird and –” Scott said all this very fast and was once again interrupted with,

“And where did you say he was from?”

“I didn’t and, Daniel don’t even think about going over there!” But of course Daniel didn’t listen and began striding over.

“Hey look, its my new kid too!” whispered Cree, noticing for the first time that Brendan was standing only a few feet from Zac, not exactly standing together, but providing each other the comfort of not looking like a complete loner. Unlike Zac, who was staring lackadaisically back at the approaching trio, Brendan was looking at everyone around him with a mixed look of needing to vomit and that doom was certainly approaching. Daniel and Scott felt a small amount of pity for Cree’s new kid. Cree however, did not and greeted Brendan with a exaggeratedly slow,

“H-i Br-en-daaaaaaaaan,”

“Hi,” Brendan answered nervously, looking very much like he’d like to bolt in the opposite direction.

“I’m Daniel Rowe,” Daniel offered his hand to Brendan who shook it rather nervously, and then to Zac, who raised an eyebrow but still shook. “And these are my mates, Cree and Scott.”

“Uh, I’m Zac le Sioux…” Not bothering to say more, realizing that a) his English was pretty poor and b) these boys, like everyone in this country, were too fascinated with his accent to concentrate on his actual words.

After a pause, Daniel turned to Scott and said “He’s Canadian. You’re Canadian, right?” Zac nodded and Scott blushed red.

“Great Daniel, don’t want to make me look anymore like a weirdo, would you.”

Again, Scott was ignored as a high pitched female voice called Daniel’s name from across the courtyard, causing him to wince visibly.

“That bitch is getting really old, really quick,” Cree jerked his head in the direction of his group of friends who responded immediately by swarming in front of Daniel, Scott, Brendan, Zac and himself, swallowing the girl in their midst thus providing an escape route that Daniel was only too eager to utilize, quickly followed by Scott and Cree. Both Zac and Brendan moved backwards and were almost lost in the crowd till Daniel turned around and beckoned with a slight jerk of his head, and a look that said he was confused as to why they weren’t following him even though he had made no indication of this plan. Brendan obediently traipsed after the boys, looking slightly like a deer caught in headlights, Zac just stared as Daniel turned back and Cree shouted,

“Move it Canada!” The four boys started moving away quickly and Zac surveyed his options, realizing soon that he really had none. Feeling a bit like he was selling his soul to devil, he hurried to catch up with the others.

“What was that?” Brendan asked shyly from the groups new position, watching all the girls file into the school.

“They’re our little army, willing to face all matters of evil for us, even Skankzilla. Just thinking about it makes me patriotic,” Cree wiped a fake tear off his face and put his hand over his heart. “We’ve lost many good soldiers to Skankzilla and her minions of steel and mascara.”

“What Cree really means to say, is that he’s lost many of his little soldiers to one of the minions as out of school it’s perfectly acceptable to help them out of their clothing, whilst in school he must avoid them like some kind of fake tanned plague,” Scott interjected.

“Shut it Scott, its something to do with the light. When I see them at school I just want to cry but at night when they’re all coming at me its like something clouds my better judgement and I can’t resist. They’re like vampires!”

“Vampires? You’re a dickhead Cree, its nothing to do with the absence of daylight, but all to do with the presence of half a bottle of bourbon in your gut.”

“Can’t you guys shut up for like, five minutes? You’re so freaking loud that the guys efforts will be in vain ‘cause she’ll be able to find us, that’s if they don’t sniff us out first,” Daniel snapped. Cree sniffed under his armpits.

“Hey man, they won’t be able to sniff me out, I totally remembered to shower this morning,” Cree shoved his armpits in Scott’s face with a, “See? I don’t smell!”

“Nice aftershave man.”

“Thanks dude.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to attract some more minions with it.”

“I’m going to stab you Scott, seriously. Actually, I’m going to get my cousin to stab you, when he gets back from selling dope to year sevens up in Brisbane. He’s great, and everyone’s always saying how alike we are.”

“Why, does he bang skanky minions too?”

“Fucking plug your cock holes will you, if Skankzilla finds us I’m going to personally feed both of you to her first,” Daniel glared menacingly, causing Scott and Cree to fall into silence and Zac and Brendan to feel slightly dizzy, like they had just been watching a particularly zealous three sided tennis match.

“Aw isn’t that cute, the new kids are completely confused,” then in a stage whisper he said to Scott, “Do you reckon we’re talking too quickly?”

Scott smacked him in the back of the head. “Do you have to be a complete dickwad your whole life?” He then turned to Zac and Brendan. “There are a lot of people you’re going to want to avoid at Carrington if you don’t want your house egged on Halloween, one of them is Skankzilla.”

“Wait, whose going to egg their houses because of Skankzilla? We’re the only ones who have enough sense to know we should stay away from her,” interjected Cree.

“We’ll egg their houses,” said Daniel. “And Cree, Scott and I don’t know we should stay away from her, we do stay away from her. We’re mature enough not to give her any ammo.”

Cree raised an eyebrow, “Dude you banged her best friend to piss her off.” Daniel sighed and gave Cree a long suffering look, running a hand through his hair.

“It’s not my fault she wanted me so bad.” Zac raised both eyebrows at this statement and wondered for the millionth time in the last ten minutes, what he’d gotten himself into.

“Anyway,” Scott continued. “Skankzilla is more commonly known as Lucy Preston, and as you can probably tell, she has a, ahem, little thing for Daniel here.”

“Little? The chick threatened to kill herself if he didn’t take him to his cousins wedding. Pity she didn’t go through with it when he ended up taking Carlee Windsor.”

“Well yeah, obviously she didn’t kill herself, but she’s back with a vengeance. She tried sleeping her way to him, but that just got her a bad reputation –” Scott continued, before Cree cut him off with,

“So then she tried showing up at his house with the whole naked under the trench coat thing, but as it worked out, we were having a boys night, so all she got out of that was humiliation, so basically she’s an angry stupid skank whose on the warpath and is most likely going to eat Daniel if she ever gets him. Just like that weird kind of spider.”

“Basically now she’s trying to make him ‘jealous’ by trying to flirt with his mates, she failed with me and well, kinda succeeded with Cree but really that’s to be expected.”

Cree nodded solemnly. “Be alert. Constantly. She’ll attack at your weakest moment. Her or one of her skanky minion friends.”

“Courtney’s not so bad Cree, she’d probably be a lot nicer if she didn’t hang out with those girls.”

“Courtney is so bad, Scott my friend. She hangs out with them, and no matter what she’s really like, she’s a skank by association. Just like you’re only cool by association.”

“Thanks man.”

“No problems.”

“Um, Rowe, mate, any good reason my protégé is hiding instead of greeting the populace?” This voice evidently wasn’t Cree or Scott, but a tall boy with blonde hair, standing in between an even taller boy with a halo of red hair that made it look as if his head was on fire, and a squat but incredibly tank boy with a buzz cut who looked like he’d have trouble if you asked him to point you in the direction of the library, but able to perform a perfect body avalanche wrestling move.

Daniel jumped up and pumped the blonde boys hand in an enthusiastic hand shake.

“Your Royal Highness, how are your first few hours of official duty feeling?”

Zac and Brendan exchanged glances. Even though he said this with a huge grin on his face, it sounded incredibly stupid to be calling another student ‘your royal highness’ and it seemed a lot like Daniel was being a giant suck up.

“Daniel, my friend, when you get here, you’ll understand,” the blonde boy said in a whimsical tone, his grin matching Daniel’s. His henchman made cave-men grunting sounds and Daniel shook hands with them too.

“We call them Ranga and Meathead, for obvious reasons,” whispered Cree. “But saying that’s probably sacrilege now, so we should probably go pay our respects.”

The new boys could not make head or tails of this but stood obediently behind Scott and Cree as they shook hands with the three boys and said things like “Congratulants, mate,” and “No one better!” before turning around to introduce.

“This is Zac, and Brendan. They’re new Year Eleven’s,” Scott informed the three boys.

“And guys, this is Darren and Bradley,” Cree pointed to ‘Ranga’ and ‘Meathead’, and it wasn’t lost on the new boys that Cree was being a lot more pointedly polite in front of these boys than he was before.

“And of course, this is, the man of the moment, Ben McKenzie, better known as the newest King of Carrington,” Daniel continued, still with his ridiculous grin.

The six Carrington boys waited for Zac and Brendan to look impressed, but in reality they just looked dumfounded. Brendan then recognized the blonde boy, Ben McKenzie as the school captain from the earlier assembly, and was even more confused. And his old school, the main role of the school captains had been to chase the cows off the oval before lunch so the boys could play footy, and that had defiantly not earned them a royal title. Zac on the other hand, was trying very hard to not to laugh, and muttered something in French about small town kids and their need to get a life and when Meatheads bicep twitched violently, he was very glad they couldn’t understand him. Unlike Brendan, he didn’t recognize Ben as the school captain from the assembly. He’d been too busy trying to block out the principals voice with some Pennywise.

“Uh, pleased to meet you?” Brendan finally stuttered out, breaking the awkward silence with more of a question than a greeting and Ben laughed as he shook his hand, and a reluctant Zac’s.

“New kids. Dunno about the war, do you? Well, you’ll learn from the best,” he told them and bid them goodbye, (“Loyal subjects to meet and greet, you know the deal.”) Darren/Ranga and Bradley/Meathead still glued to his side. Zac was beginning to see a pattern with those boys and the boys he was hanging with but before he could really thing about it, Cree smacked him and Brendan over the back of the head and said something about “making them look like idiots” and all politeness forgotten. He probably would have gone on but was interrupted with,

“Daniel Rowe, why on earth are you hiding behind bushes?”

Zac and Brendan whipped around to see if the voice belonged to the girl named Lucy they’d been hearing so much about, and what elaborate method Daniel would use to escape this time but instead of disappearing behind a cloud of smoke, he grinned and jogged over to hug the girl, lifting her off the ground as she giggled. When she was set back down the boys realized she was not the tacky ‘Skankzilla’ that had been described to them but a pretty, short-ish girl with long wavy brown hair and a smile that stretched all the way across her face. The girl was fifteen-turning-sixteen year old Kathryn Walker, and this was quickly relayed to the other boys.

“And this is Zac and Brendan, wait sorry, Brendan and Zac, they’re new,” Daniel told her, gesturing a little in their direction.

“Hi, I’m Kate,” she offered them a bright smile as she said this, but quickly turned back to Daniel to gush, “You were so right, it’s beautiful there! And the beaches, Danny I think I’m in love!” He laughed and hugged her again.

“It’s good to have you home Katie, the Bonatti’s had some stupid party for that little kid of theirs, can’t remember his name, it was shit without you.”

“It was his birthday, silly,” Kate laughed. Daniel scratched his head.

“Well, that explains a lot.”

As this was happening, Brendan was working up the courage to ask Scott or Cree whether Kate was Daniel’s girlfriend and one could forgive him for making such an assumption, from the giggles and the hugs, but he was horribly off the mark. Daniel and Kate had been family friends since she was born, just under a year after he was, and had been joined at the hip at every family and friends events since. They were strictly friends, even though Kate was quite proud of having the title of his First Kiss, at the start of year seven when they had wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He looked out of her at the many CG parties, and she looked out for booby traps vicious ex girlfriends were planning on setting. They had a great friendship, except for one, not so little problem.

“Rowe, nice to see you’ve got your mitts all over my girlfriend, again,” a sneering Italian boy announced, in mock joy.

“Yeah, she must have escaped from the extra short leash you’ve got her on,” Daniel spat, taking a step towards the boy, surprising Zac and Brendan as he had come across as calm and collected.

“You’ve got some cheek Rowe, you really do. Someone ought to teach a shmuck like you a lesson,” the boy said smoothly, taking his own step forwards.

“Liam, please, stop it. It’s embarrassing!” Kate spoke up in a small voice, tugging on her boyfriend’s hand.

“Embarrassing, Kate? You know what’s embarrassing? Seeing my girlfriend all over another guy,”

“I wasn’t…” she petered off and Daniel’s face flushed red with rage.

“Di’Angelo, I think its time you left,” Cree said to Liam, standing in between the boys. “You’ve caused enough trouble for the first day of school.”

“I’ve caused enough trouble? I wouldn’t have to cause anything if your mate there learnt to respect women,” Liam sneered again and then turned to leave, yanking Kate along with him.

“I need to learn to respect women? You fucking no good barstard son of a bitch -”

“Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, mate. Stop. Calm down, come on. Let it go.”

“Yeah, whatever,” muttered Daniel, feeling an immense amount of hate flow in Liam Di’Angelo’s direction, and a slight amount of embarrassment at himself for not staying calm. “Come on, let’s go.”

Zac and Brendan looked at the three boys and as they headed down into the main drift of students, Scott leant over and under his breath said,

“In case you couldn’t tell, that’s the second persona non grata in Daniel’s world. Arrogant slime ball is all he really is, Daniel got suspended last year for getting in a fist fight with him. Probably would have killed him, but you know, there’s the problem of Kate. Kate and Liam have been going out for like, over six months.”

“Why is she with him if he’s such a tosser?” asked Brendan, watching Liam and Kate in the distance.

“Well, they say love is blind, but in Kate’s case it’s deaf, dumb and brain dead too.”

“But why doesn’t anyone tell her?” Brendan pressed on, earning him a disgusted look from Cree.

“Okay, Country, I know you’re most likely from bumfuck nowhere and most of your relationship expertise comes from dating a cousin or screwing the family goat, and I’ll let your stupidity slide for a while. I mean, I’m a nice guy, and I want you to fit in here, I’m sure you’d do the same for me if I ever ended up in whatever hick town you come from, you know, take me to the local barn dance, hay bale throwing contests, whatever. But kid, look around you. Do we look like a bunch of all friendly hand holding hippies here?” Brendan looked around and was really forced to admit they didn’t. Unlike at his old school, where choices of friends around your own age were slim to none, this school had many possible choices of friends, and in the same case, enemies. He’d only been at this school a couple of hours and he had already encountered boys who had more friends than people he had ever met, girls who’d had more screws than his barn back home and rude Italian boys with really odd haircuts, and was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed.

“It’s okay Country, it’s not really that hard once you get used to it. It’s just like Mean Girls. I mean everyone whose had a girlfriend, or a sister or a female cousin, or in my case a slightly gay best friend, has seen Mean Girls,” ignoring Scott’s cries of indignation, Cree patted Brendan on the shoulder, without the usual air that a six foot tall AFL playing boy would use whilst slightly patronising a boy half a foot taller than him with a considerable amount more muscle, who listed pulling calves and utes out of bogs as skills. Cree looked around whimsically at his fellow students before continuing. “We have all the cliques, you know. People think cliques are reserved for movies and phycologists on ‘A Current Affair’, but really, different groups are inevitable. Everyone wants to fit in, and who better to fit in with than people who are like you?”

“You know, this is enlightening and all Cree, but what the heck does it have to do with Kate and Liam, or really anything at all?” Daniel’s mood had not improved even as he moved amongst people, greeting some with a handshake or a kiss on the cheek, depending on the sex and didn’t even bother to turn to snap at his friend.

“Daniel, my dear friend, it has everything to do with everything. You see, boys, not only do we have these specialized groups at Carrington Grammar, but they have social ladders. You’re basically at the bottom of the heap if you’re a nerdy fat chick or a greasy Children of Bodom listening to music freak, and only slightly better if you’re an Asian boy with super-Sayan hair. And it’s not me being nasty or racist by saying this, it is just the way our world works and our delicate ladder goes on, until you find us at the top of the food chain, over-seeing our loyal subjects with a heart of love and a fist of iron.” Cree banged his clenched fist on the bin he was passing for emphasis.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Cree is slightly prone to the dramatics. We don’t lead anything; we just have a lot of friends, and are one of the more powerful groups at school. Unfortunately another of these powerful groups is Liam Di’Angelo and his barstard friends,” Scott said.

“And for some reason, dear Kate has forgotten which social class she belongs to and has been dating well under her means for the last six months. She’s probably doing it as like, charity work, you know? Volunteering. It probably looks good on her résumé. But the more you try to convince Kate that her boyfriend is a greasy shmuck, the more she holds on like glue. Super glue even. You just don’t tell a girl like Kathryn Walker what she can and can’t do,” Cree seemed please with his explanation and quickly scampered after two girls walking in front of them.

Brendan felt that a simple ‘no’ would have been a much simpler answer to his question, and blinked a couple of times in quick concession which he regretted after as he felt it probably made him look very stupid. He turned to Zac who had wisely kept quiet during Cree’s epic and confusing speech, and found him quite unfazed by his surroundings and the weird self-important boys who had taken them in, and with a sick feeling realized that none of this was all that new to Zac. Zac may have been new to Australia and to this particular school, but the school social system in general wasn’t a shock, and the idea that the foreign kid with an iPod full of artists he had never heard of and the habit of muttering in what Brendan guessed was French, was going to find it easier to adjust than he was, was rather frightening.

Cree had caught up to the two girls, both pretty but plainly so, one blonde and one brunette. Cree had his arm slung casually slung around the blonde’s shoulders and by the time the two new boys had caught up they heard the brunette ask,

“Do you boys know where Kate has gone?”

Cree smirked, “Interesting story actually, we had a slight altercation with Kate and His Royal Greasy-Pants just before.” Both girls sighed.

“You guys really need to leave Kate and Liam alone. It’s been seven months now, why can’t you just let him have her?” said the blonde, wriggling out from an outraged Cree’s grasp.

“Leave him alone? Let him have her? Carlee, princess, are you feeling alright? Have your senses taken a holiday? Has your IQ gone down the drain? Let him have her, honestly. Did Bruce Willis just let the meteor have Earth? Did the fat bloke in Troy let Orlando Bloom have his hot blonde wife? Did Simba just let Scar have the Pride lands? No, of course not! They fought for what they believed in!”

“You don’t have anything to believe in Cree; you just don’t like Liam because he’s running for kingship against Daniel and, like all your female friends, you think Kate is your property and you don’t like to share. All of you boys, you’re just so hate-full for like, no reason.”

“It’s a bit like ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” mused Scott. “With Kate and Di’Angelo as the main roles and Daniel as Juliet’s crazy cousin who pashes his own aunt.”

Cree nudged Brendan. “Conversation’s been brought back to your level.” Zac and Brendan, who had been lost during the entire conversation that was all the more confusing as they had not been introduced to the two girls, had just been remembered.

“New recruits?” asked the brunette, looking both boys up and down.

“Something like that, Zac and Brendan, this is Carlee and Raz. Rhiannon,” drawled Daniel, pointing to blonde as he said ‘Carlee’ and the brunette as he said ‘Rhiannon’. “Come on boys, let’s keep moving.”

“Nice seeing you too, Daniel,” said Rhiannon, raising an eyebrow and putting a hand on a skinny hip. Daniel shot her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Sorry Raz,” he said, giving her a quick hug. “Just in a bit of a shitty mood at the moment.”

“Yeah, we couldn’t tell,” she said sarcastically, but with a smile.

Cree snorted, “Bad mood, my ass. He’s just worried he got out insulted by Di’Angelo on his first day as Year 11 captain.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Shut it Cree, or I mean it when I say next week you’ll be stocking up on Creed and wishing you hadn’t cut your hair since you were nine.” Cree surveyed the nerdy music boys walking past, and shut his trap.

After shutting his trap, of course, he reopened it again in about a nanosecond to declare, “I’m really glad I’m not one of those boys. I mean, they must, never get laid. If I was one of them, I would have never ever got Carlee.”

The boys watched Carlee’s retreating back. “Carlee’s your ex girlfriend?” Brendan asked, slightly bug eyed as Carlee had seemed like someone whose standards were way too high for Cree to fill.

“If he can call her that, I mean they went out for, what, a whole week or so? Till he tried to put his hand down her top at the movies and she broke up with him,” Scott told them and Cree smirked, like it was a good thing that he had a reputation for manhandling everything with breasts.

“Besides,” Daniel spoke up, trying to sound light hearted but failing terribly as his voice still rung with suppressed anger which Scott and Cree had noticed and decided to protect themselves from by making a space between them and Daniel by placing the new boys in between them. “Being one of Cree’s ex girlfriends isn’t exactly an illustrious title. Almost every second girl here is an ex affiliate of his; ex girlfriend, ex friend with benefits, ex ‘single but taken’, ex make out buddy, whichever way you wanna put it. It’s kind of sick actually.”

“Hey, buddy, you’re not exactly Mr. Innocent, you were out loosing your V’s whilst I was still at the awkward ‘how do I let her know I want a BJ’ phase.”

“That had nothing to do with innocence just that I’m a million times hotter than you and your reputation is like a million times worse than mine.”

“Whatever you say bro, besides, least I’ve never been with her.”

Cree was nodding his head in the direction of two girls who were dawdling into the school gates, one short with a choppy haircut and pimples dotted over her face. She was wearing a black band hoodie and a look on her face that clearly read she’d rather be anywhere but here. The second girl was a lot taller, and a view of her face was almost completely obstructed by oversized sunglasses with white frames. She was chewing the inside of her mouth and held a foam coffee cup in one hand. Her shoe laces were untied and her fringe fell lazily into her face. Brendan and Zac were assuming Cree was referring to the shorter, and largely uglier of the two girls but soon stood corrected as Scott elbowed his friend in the ribs and hissed,

“Good one, dickhead,”

Daniel had already started striding towards the duo with a slightly sick smile on his face, like an extra greedy car salesmen in his tacky suit spying an innocent young couple or a little old lady. Scott quickly caught up to him, but as Zac and Brendan went to follow, Cree held them back.

“You really wouldn’t want to get too close,” he warned.

“Welllllll, look what the cats dragged in,” called Daniel, in almost the exact same voice Liam had opened his and Daniel’s earlier argument with.

The tall girl’s head shot up and you could pretty much imagine the eye rolling mixed with evil glares that were going on beneath those huge glasses.

“What do you want, Daniel, you slimy arrogant son of a bitch excuse for a human being,” the girl spat out with so much venom in her voice Zac actually took another step backwards and Brendan was quite glad Cree had advised them to keep back.

Daniel, on the other hand, still seemed quite amused and took a couple of steps closer to her.

“Coffee? Sunglasses? Tut tut Jamie, hung-over on the first day of school? What a bad bad start to a new year,” he shook his head in mock disappointment, though it’d be very hard to take his insults as joking banter.

“You know what would be a bad start to the year Daniel? If I kick you in the balls and you vomit all over your nice new blazer. I don’t want to do this as that would involve a body part of mine coming that close to your genitals that have been stuck in every open hole in Carrington. Kindly piss off.”

All her words sounded loaded with poison and like she’d like nothing more than to knock the patronizing grin right off Daniel Rowe’s face.

“Who is she?” Zac asked, speaking up for the first time in ages.

Like an old man about to tell an old tale, Cree rubbed his hands together and sighed. “She, Canada, is the stuff legends are made of, grown men cry at the sight of her, she eats live chickens for breakfast and steals babies in the afternoon. Don’t get too close because she can cut your head off with just a glance.”

“No, really,” Zac persisted, quite over Cree’s need to over dramatize everything.

“Really? Reality is so boring Canada. In reality, she’s just an annoying Poor Little Rich Girl crack head bimbo bitch who is constantly depressed ‘cuz daddy gives her a shit load of money and all she does is spend it on drugs and no one even knows why she bothers coming to school. Daniel hates her with the passion of a thousand suns, even more than he hates Di’ Angello and Skankzilla put together. I used to think he fancied her but really, its just pure, undiluted hatred. And in reality Canada, I stand this far away because last year she threatened to knock me out and I’m still worried she’ll back up that promise.”

Cree looked at the girl and shuddered, before finishing, quite cruelly, “In reality, all she is is Jamie Reed and all she is is a future high school drop out drug dependent single mum. Wasn’t it more fun to pretend she was a baby snatching monster?”

Brendan, bewildered, and Zac, less than impressed with his new friends, watched as Jamie Reed stalked away and Daniel, wearing a grin and Scott, shaking his head, re joined the group.

“Feel better now mate?” Cree asked, clapping his friend on the back. Daniel just smirked and started walking back up to the courtyard.

“By the way Cree, you were wrong, you were with her once, remember? You went out with her for a bit in year eight to annoy me,” he called back.

Cree stopped and thought about this, screwing up his face in a rather unattractive matter. “Now that you mention it, I did. But it doesn’t really count, she basically wasn’t Jamie then.”

“And how do you figure that?” asked Scott.

“Cuz she didn’t put out,” Cree snorted his words as they mixed with a laugh that Daniel and Scott joined in. Brendan still looked like a deer caught in headlights, and Zac wished he had a more confident and cooler ally in this strange school with these power crazed boys. He wondered if the school nurse here was as stingy in giving out aspirin as the one at his old school had been, because as he heard Cree shouting, “That’s Country and that’s Canada,” he mused that he’d never been in more need of a painkiller.

I apologize for not knowing how to do indents...