Tyson was rocking back in his chair picking at the frays on his lightly worn dark denim jeans as the teacher in the front of the room recited: "Bienvenue dans mon pays....Nous sommes heureux de vous avoir." Her thick accent made the lilt of the words much more pleasant than the English accented students who meticulously replied the same sentence. Before Mrs. LeGrange could say another phrase, the bell rang. Tyson was the first up as he grabbed his bag and headed for the door.

His black sneakers scuffed along the floor as he headed to his locker and dropped off his French and AP Calculus book. He grabbed his manuscript for theatre and his Political Science text book shoving them in his bag before slamming his locker shut.

The cafeteria was filling with students. He headed to the soda machine and bought a coke before turning and browsing the tables. So far he hadn't met up with any of his old crew and he hoped that at least one of them had fourth period lunch. He smiled when he spotted Izzi sitting alone.

"Mind if I crash your one-woman show?" he asked setting his paper-bag lunch on the table and taking a seat next to her.

Izzi was completely involved with her pizza, and didn't notice that she'd caught anyone's attention until her sat down and broke her from her reverie. Unfortunately, she'd just taken a huge bite of the pizza, so her mouth was completely full. But, of course, that didn't stop Izzi.
"Tyshun..mmph..shup maahn?"
Her words were muffled by the food as she managed to get them out; at least she had the decency to cover her mouth with her hand. Hamilton didn't seem to be doing a very good job at turning her into a lady thus far. After another moment of exaggerated chewing, she managed to swallow. She gave him that huge smile, chocolate eyes twinkling.
"Haha, sorry. This pizza's amazing! But yeah, anyway, what's up? How was your summer? I was worried I'd be alone with all the kids this lunch period."
She knew Tyson from a few of her classes, and though they hadn't really been great friends, they were familiar enough not to be completely awkward. But then again, Izzi wasn't ever really awkward with anyone.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period, and Dan Richmond jolted out of his seat and collected his things. He hoisted his messenger bag off the floor and onto his shoulder and carried a growing stack of books in his hands. The year barely started, yet school seemed to be going full steam ahead. Dan was starving, and thankfully, it was lunch. The lines were already long, and he knew that he could cut in line. After all, he was a senior, but he chose not to. He was too polite for his own good, sometimes. He stood in the gigantic line for ten minutes before receiving his tray of food, consisting of a turkey wrap, potato chips, and fruit punch. The food at Hamilton was decent, so despite the long wait, Dan really couldn't complain.

Dan felt like such a nerd with all the books he was carrying, but then again, he didn't care what people thought about him. He had a decent amount of friends, and that was good enough for him. Speaking of friends, he spotted Izzi and Tyson already sitting in a table in the back of the large cafeteria. He made his way over to him, flopping down and taking a seat next to his guy best friend. He unloaded his full arms, letting his muscles breathe for what seemed like the first time that day.

"First day back and look at this," Dan complained, nodding his head toward the pile of books on the table. "I am so glad this is my last year of high school. I'm so ready for university." He began to dig into his food, not allowing his aching stomach to wait any longer.

"Oh you know, summer was...well, summer," he said shrugging. Truth was his summer had been entirely boring. Nothing but working around the house and painting houses for some spending money during the school year. Not that his parents couldn't afford to give him allowance, but typical of his father, he wanted Tyson to work for it.

Izzi was one of the genuinely enjoyable people on campus. She was never short for entertaining conversation and she certainly knew how to give more than a few guys on campus a run for their money. He'd never really taken the time to get to know her, but seeing as she played sports, most of the jocks on campus were fairly familiar with one another. He and Izzi not being an exception to the rule.

"Dude, your load isn't going to get any lighter at college," Tyson said to Dan with a small chuckle. The two guys had met freshmen year when they both tried out for athletics. They ended up making the same team and from there is was all down hill. They were lucky enough to share a room this year so their late night studying [or partying] could be more easily accommodated. "So how about you?" he asked turning back to Izzi, "how was your summer?"

Dan quietly ate his food, letting Izzi and Tyson talk for a little bit. He and Tyson were roommates and best friends since freshman year. He trusted the guy with his life. As for Izzi, he knew her but not too well. He hoped to change that this year. She seemed like a really cool girl, definitely his type. She wasn't high-maintenance or stuck-up at all. He liked her tomboyishness, if that was even a word. Not that Dan was choosy with his friends but there were just certain kinds of people that he couldn't get along with.

Dan swallowed his food completely before laughing at Tyson's reply. "Yeah, I know, but at least I can finally say I'm all grown up." He took a swig of his fruit punch. "I'm not even eighteen yet. Can you believe that?" He was looking forward to finally becoming a full-fledged adult. "We totally need to have more fun this year. We should start partying this week, you know. Have a bonfire at the beach or something." He wanted to make his last year at Hamilton memorable.

Sitting in front of his computer typing the last bits of his paper everyone else in the class had packed their things and was just waiting for the bell to ring. Some students had lunch, others just another class, but fortunately for him it was lunch time. As the bell rang and the students grabbed their bags and hightailed it out of the class, he just stayed seated and typed away, nearing the last sentences of his paper.

“Matthew class is over you can leave now.” Came MR Gross’s voice from across the room. “Go and eat lunch with the rest of the students.”

Finishing his last sentenced his smiled at his computer and quickly saved his work. “Just had to finish a paper on what I did over summer.” The paper wasn’t even for the class he was in, but he had finished his class work fast enough that he had free time to work on whatever he wanted.

“So what did you do over summer than?” Mr. Gross asked.

Packing him computer into his backpack he thought about the question, not wanting to tell him everything, but still wanting to answer the question so as not to seem rude. “Took my pills everyday, sat in front of the computer learning new things, and goofed off some.” With a faint chuckle he stood from his seat, grabbed his bag, and left the classroom with a wave to his teacher.

Making his way into the cafeteria he was not impressed to see all the students in line waiting for their meals. Deciding he was not hungry today he pulled a $1.50 from his pocket and walked over to a vending machine and bough a large bottle of water. Taking the water he stood in the middle of the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit away from the crowd. Finely spotting a near empty table he walked over and without asking if he could sit took a seat. Twisting the cap off his water bottle he took a gulp, than reached into a pocket on his backpack. Pulling out a clear orange pill bottle he popped the cap off and placed two pills in his hand. Taking another gulp of water he tossed the pills into his mouth and swallowed. They had a slightly bitter taste to him, but after taking them for two years he hardly cared.

"Haha, aw. Nothing too thrilling?"
Izzi smiled sympathetically, this time taking a smaller bite and chewing thoughtfully. She kind of knew about Tyson, that his parents liked to make him work. Frankly, she thought it was admirable, but that didn't mean she'd want to work herself. Luckily, her parents tended to give her what she wanted to shut her up, and what they wouldn't give her...well, she found ways of, ahem, attaining.
A loud giggle erupted from her full lips as Dan plopped down to complain, eying the large stack of books he'd brought with him. Somehow, Izzi never seemed affected by school. Her backpack was completely empty save for a notebook full of lyrics and a few pencils, and her locker was in pretty much the same state. Yet somehow, she still managed to scrape by. Noone, not even Izzi, really knew how she did it.
"Jeeze Dan, how many classes are you taking? Haha, and my summer..well, it was fun. I got my skydiving license!"
Izzi beamed happily, apparently very proud of the accomplishment. She'd spent most of her summer jumping out of planes. It'd been one of the happier times of her life.
"What about you Dan, how was your summer?"

After all the rumors from last season, everyone in this new school year already knew that Tess was no female. That meant only the freshmen would be in the dark, but rumors had a way of resurfacing when new faces showed up; so it wouldn't be long. But in truth non of that really mattered from the gender benders prospective. Being able to see the Amy he knew and loved every time a mirror presented itself, that is the only thing in this world that Tess needed. They could stay together forever and no amount of interference in this world would ever convince him to abandon her. That had been the entire point of the Lingstung's sending their son to this school though. Pretty soon puberty would hit and this ever lasting image of Amy he'd created would be shattered. Hopefully when that happened his parents were banking everything on the idea that Tess would snap out of this unhealthy obsession. Thus far no signs of what they were hoping on had surface and it was also worth noting that Tess himself hadn't consider it a threat yet... like he was convinced this body would simply grow the way that his will deemed.

After a good 5 minutes of letting everyone clear the halls while heading to the lunch room, Tess took up occupancy in the boys bathroom after knocking to make sure it was empty. This was all routine by this point, wait till everyone headed off to lunch then use the middle of the day as a form of half time in which to fix make up, adjust clothes, change uniforms for a class if need be... that kind of thing. This entire school was quite predictable as long as someone knew what time all important events too place... After entering the bathroom Tess positioned himself in front of the mirror washing off then replying any make up from eye shadow, liner, mascara, foundation or lip gloss that needed any kind of maintenance. The boy really didn't need to put it on heavy, his natural effeminate looks allowed for only light application to be necessary... but sometimes even Tess just wanted to rock it out and go for a hot look.

What this cross-dressing youth wore was in a word quite tacky and stereotypical... of a 15 year old following a 10 year old's logic. A lot of common female icons like Disney Princess, Hello Kittie or just simple star and hearts typically decorated any top Tess wore; the second mentioned would be the one he'd elect to wear on this day. Nothing that fell under the category of sexy really ever got adorn on his body, shirts always had sleeves and hardly ever revealed any hint of skin at the neck line or above the waist. However bottoms were a different issue as Amy had been quite prone to skirts in her youth, so Tess picked up the same habit. This one was a jean skirt that descended to just above the knees keeping to the dress code for having clothes longer than *Finger length*. That's right, Tess was following the dress code... frightening is it not? He'd lower himself to one knee doing a quick re-tie of the laces on pink high tops, then standing once more after to look over his appearance in the mirror. Satisfied with this reflection Tess would walk out to join the very end of the line for lunch after exiting from the bathroom.

Dan quickly finished the rest of his turkey wrap and potato chips, downing his food with one big gulp of the fruit punch. He got up and threw away his trash, placing his tray on trop of the trashcan. He sat back down in his seat, grabbing the book on the top of the enormous pile of books and examined the front and back covers of it. He read the quick synopsis of Crime and Punishment, eyeing it with fascination. "You know, I'm so glad I'm not Russian, no offense, Tyson. But it must be pretty darn difficult for those Russian kids to learn how to write their names. I mean, seriously. Fyodor Dostoevsky? So glad my parents named me Dan." He chuckled as he opened the book to the first page.

Dan began to read a little bit of the novel. It was one that he already read but nonetheless a favorite. He liked the classics and occasionally reread them over and over again. He heard Izzi ask how his summer was, and he replied with a laugh, "Too many for my own good. My summer was pretty boring. I just worked a lot. Read. The typical summer itinerary. Wish I could have travelled more though. The furthest I went was to Ireland. Visited some family over there. You?"

Putting his pills back into his backpack he listened in on conversations from other tables. Everyone seemed to be asking the same questions. “How was your summer, what did you do, did you have fun”… the same old blah that seemed to be spoken after every summer. The faint sound of laughter could be heard from around the cafeteria as others joked with their friends… something he had very few of. Coming back to reality he wasted no time in grabbing his water and taking down a few big gulps, while listening to the girl across from his address him.

She asked him if his name was Matthew, a funny question, but a good one to ask when you were not sure of whom the person was or if you have actually never meet. Focusing his gaze at her only a shocked feeling came over him as he couldn’t help but notice that the girl across from him was amazingly beautiful. “Yeah I’m Matthew…” He said in a low voice, showing no real signs of interest in whom she was or why she was talking to someone such as him. “Who are you?”

Izzi was consuming her pizza like a champion. Seriously, she downed it. There were a few things that Izzi really loved in the world, and food was at the top of the list. Unfortunately, she had a giant sweet tooth, so when she lost her metabolism, she was probably screwed. Well, she did play soccer, and exercised fairly regularly. So maybe not, but she'd definitely have to change her eating habits.
She nodded in agreement - her own background was Italian, and some Italian last names..well, she was glad her family names had been white-washed. She watched Dan read the book as she ate, occasionally surveying the crowded cafeteria. She'd never been one for reading classics, preferring fantasy and sci fi novels. She preferred to read about things that didn't exist, and imagine them, than read about the world she lived in.
"You went to Ireland? That sounds nice, i've always loved it there. So green and open. Haha, I got my skydiving license! That took up most of my summer, but I did go cliff diving with a few friends in Greece."
Izzi always tended to have thrilling vacations. She liked to do as much as she could over summer, fill up on the thrills, so she didn't go completely stir-crazy stuffed into this boarding school. There weren't any high places to jump from in the English hills.

The morning had been a typical one, struggling to stay awake through classes filled with general education after another late night. Nathan wasn't sure when the last night he actually slept well was, and he had no one to blame but himself. It's not like he was studying. After a quick trip to his locker to drop off the few textbooks he'd carried with him through the morning, Nathan made his way to the cafeteria and quickly found a spot in one of the branching lines.

Pizza -- what a good old standby. Grabbing a couple slices and quickly following it up by a few steps to the soda machine to grab a Coke, he found a spot at a small round table to sit down and look out the window.

It wasn't that he never sat with his friends, or that they never sat with him, but during the school day they all seemed to go their own way, for the most part, only coming together after classes were over to complain about their days or enjoy the occasional cigarette in the courtyard when the weather got a bit colder.

So, he sat, his gaze shifting from the large window to others in the cafeteria. Occasionally he gave a smile or nod to familiar faces, and wondered how after four years of attending this school, he still didn't know every face.

Dan was really enjoying his conversation with Izzi. He was getting to know more about her, and she seemed very adventurous and going, open to try and experience new things. "You need a license for skydiving? I thought you just needed a good stomach." He laughed at his own little joke, scratching his head as he did so. He was never the one for thrill rides at amusement parks, and he certainly didn't think his stomach would be able to handle something like skydiving. "Don't tell me you're a licensed bungee jumper too? That is, if they have licenses for that." He wouldn't be surprised if it actually existed.

"So you're a junior, eh? How's year 11 treating you so far?" Dan asked curiously, still speed-reading the interesting book. He was already on page 5. His thoughts drifted to try-outs. As always, he was planning on joining the lacrosse and swimming team. Then, he'd do Debate and Student Government and hopefully become the Student Body President. He had high hopes for his future, and he was planning on moving to the land of opportunity: America. He had his sights set on Ivy League university. It was definitely a big deal to him.

Adventurous was definitely a good word to describe Izzi. Her parents called it hard headed, stubborn, and reckless, but she definitely preferred adventurous. It made her sound cooler than she was.
"Yeah, well, to jump along you do. If you don't you have to jump tandem, with an instructor attached to your back so you don't forget to pull the chute."
Izzi giggled, biting her lower lip, remembering how a friend she'd gone with actually had passed out while free falling. Izzi was always the first in line for amusement parks..really anything that went high or fast. It was her crowning glory and her greatest downfall. She'd already broken a good amount of bones adhering to her reckless lifestyle, and she knew her parents, when they weren't yelling at her, were always worried about her. She smiled warmly at Dan, enjoying his jokes and interest.
"Ha, well, no, I don't have a license for that, but it's another of my hobbies. Too crazy for ya, Mr. Bookworm?"
Izzi grinned at him to let him know she was just joking. She was used to a little teasing, and would usually return in kind.
"And yeah, Junior. It's okay so far. Trig is a nightmare, ugh."
She sighed dramatically. She really hated math, and she had suspicions that it hated her as well. She didn't really have many plans for the year; her main goal was to try to have fun, and write more music. She'd be continuing in all the sports and clubs she'd been involved in..so, nothing really too new.
"What about you? Big bad senior man...what are your plans for the year, and beyond?"
She wiggled her fingers at him, humming the twilight zone theme song with that last word. She was secretly jealous of him - she wished she was as close as he to getting out of high school and becoming a real person.

Bumble Bee, the thought of it made him laugh. “Well Bridget I will make sure not to call you… well that name. I don’t know about B either, more of a letter than a name.” Taking another gulp of his water he cracked a smirk. Inside he was glad that he was at least on his way to maybe becoming a friend with someone new. “11th grade this year, my third year here and hopefully I will only have to be here for one more.” He never liked being at Hamilton, not since he was sent here at the same time he was starting “treatment” for his depression. “What grade are you in… B?” Asking more than stating, not sure if it was okay for him to call her B, even though she has said it.

Again taking another gulp he listened faintly into the background, the conversations the same still. No one seemed to be talking about school much, it had to all be about summer and what they did. To bad he didn’t do enough to actually carry on a conversation about him summer. He could easily sum it up in one page, and he did on his computer before coming to class. Turning his attention back to Bridget he focused the best he could waiting for her to talk again, hoping he had not missed anything to important while he blanked out.