It was the beginning of the school year and things were slow as everybody settled back in after a long summer away. Many kids were walking around with embarrassing new hair cuts and cloths their moms picked out for them. These were mostly freshmen who struggled to find their way around and stay out of the mean kid's way. But, dreadful as it was for most kids going back to school, it felt like a new beginning. And a sad ending at the realisation that the first day of fall was next week. The weather had been getting slightly colder and some of the leaves were just beginning to change. A sure sign of happy days gone, school days ahead.

The school itself was average. Brick walls that were painted white, tile floors with a boring pattern, lockers colored and ugly shade of blue. It was in a suburban kind of town, known as Springfield, not small but not huge. The teachers announced that the school board had decided test scores weren't high enough last year. So they would be requiring the teachers to assign more homework. None of the teachers were very happy about this at all, more grading for them to do and more attitude from the students. Raise in pay to go with it? Not a chance. Today, there were tables with sign up sheets for every after school activity and club. Foot ball, debate team, theatre, cheer leading, anime club. Though for the sports you had to have at least a C average, some higher. The teams were known as the Springfield Sauropods. Yep, they had a long necked dinosaur for a mascot. Apparently one of these giants had been discovered while the town was being built or something.

Andy plopped down at an outside table at lunch and let out a sigh. He was bummed about the news of more homework. He didn't see what use it was to him since we was going to be a rock star. That was his dream, to be on stage with hundreds of people cheering 'Andy! Andy!' or the name of his band, whenever he or one of the other members thought of one. He had already tried out for American Idol when it came to a near by big city, but all it got him was 6 hours of waiting and a paper bracelet. He stabbed the straw into the foil on the top of his chocolate milk box and sighed again. Homework was extremely difficult for him to keep up with... now there would be more of the evil stuff. Boy he wished he had a dog... oh well, at least he had five amazing friends who would help him! Living close by, they had spent all summer together, with the exception of when someone went on vacation. He sipped the chocolate milk, not excited to touch the rest of the school food on his tray... if that's even what is was.

"Why don't you just bring your lunch?" Winter asked Andy, noticing the dreadful look on his face as she sat down at the table. "I gave up hope of this cafeteria serving us edible food a long time ago."

She put her large blue book bag on the table and unzipped it. Inside it was a mess. Papers were just crammed into it, pencils and pens laid toppled all over the place. Inside she had an extra pair of shoes as well. Over the summer, and now into the school year due to delays, she had been helping the gardening club with one of their projects, planting and landscaping a new garden for the front of the school. Her mother had been complaining when she’d just waltz into the house afterward, tracking mud and dirt all over the floors. Not that Winter really cared how clean the floors were or anything, but she just figured she’s save her mother the yelling and put on some clean ones when she was done. “Ah,” she said, as she grabbed onto her paper lunch bag. “Yum.” She opened up the sack and pulled out a plastic bag, filled with a chopped up apple, a container of peanut butter for dipping the slices into, a packet of cheddar cheese crackers, and a ham and Swiss sandwich, but of course, Winter attacked the apples and peanut butter first. She loved peanut butter. “You want some?” She asked Andy, holding the bag and container out to him... As she looked at the hand in front of her she frowned. "Dang it!" She twisted it around, revealing the large blot of ink on the side of her palm. "Wonder which pen busted this time..."

"Because," Andy replied "my dad forgets to pack me a lunch sometimes and I don't get up early enough to do it myself. So when he forgets, I'm stuck with..." He paused as he looked down questioningly at whatever it was in front of him "chocolate milk!" He laughed and took another sip. He watched as she dug into the black hole of papers that was her bag. He couldn't complain though, his wasn't much better. And at least it looked like she had mostly school papers, his bag was filled with music sheets he had filled in, with some still blank. Instead of paying attention in class, he wrote songs. Or tried to. "Apples and peanut butter?" He said after she had asked him if he wanted any, thinking that combination was a bit odd. "That's ok, I don't want to steal your food." At that moment, his stomach growled. He sipped his chocolate milk again and looked away, a little embarrassed. It's not that he thought her lunch was gross, he ate like a foot ball player, so a few apple slices would barely serve as an appetiser anyway. That's why Andy rarely took handouts, they wouldn't do much but deprive other people of food. The carton made an obnoxious slurping noise, the milk was gone. He put it down on the tray to be trown in teh garbage. "Why are your pens always exploding?" He asked, still sad that his lunch was gone.

Ethan pushed open the door to the outside with his back, as his hands were full with a book in one and two McDonalds bags in the other. He had a pair of expensive headphones around his neck and was dressed head to, well waist in geek swag. A shirt that gave the top three reasons for car crashes, the third reason being turtle shells, his hoodie read 'Guns don't kill people, Magic Missiles kill people', and a backwards baseball cap that had the World of Warcraft quest giver question mark above the bill. When he got up to the table he plopped one of the bags down in front of Andy. "You should look into a job man, either that or just put up with the school crap." Ethan didn't have much room to talk, he had never been able to hold a job for more than three weeks, but at least he tried. "So any important announcements this morning? I was sleeping." Ethan slept through all his classes, yet somehow managed to pass all of them with a C average. He called it skill, but it was probably more closely related to a miracle. He put down his other McDonalds bag and slipped a bookmark into his page before sitting down and pulling a box of chicken tenders from the bag.

"Another one of my pens exploded," Winter told Ethan, as she stuffed another peanut butter dipped apple slice into her mouth. "And no fair," she whiffed at the air inhaling the scent that wafted from the McDonalds bags. She sighed. "I need a job too, but it was summer break and who wants to waste their summer... working..." she grimaced. Well she had done that anyways, working with the gardening club and all, but it was more fun than anything else. For her at least, not so much for the poor victims she constantly bombarded with the garden hose. She's lucky they hadn't sent her packing. "Oh, and can you believe it. First day back at school and I already have homework for some of my classes. Nope, I certainly can't. Un-be-lievable." She huffed. Why did school have to suck so bad. At least the homework part. Her parents weren't going to let her casually slip by this year. Last year she managed to barely scrape past her exams and pass her classes. Mainly because she refused to study. What could she say... it was boring and she has a short attention span.

Andy's eyes widened at the site of the magical bag placed in front of him. "Oh my gawd... thanks man!!! I really owe you one!!" He wasted no time diving into the greasy food, he was starving!! He took his time to answer because he now had a face full of food. Chew... chew... gulp! "Don't have time for a job.." Chomp. "Mot emuf practes tme." He said with his mouth full. Last swallow and it was already gone... "it doesn't give me enough rehearsal time. Once I get a record deal, I won't have to worry about it anyway!" He crumpled up the bags and squished them into the slude on the tray that was beginning to harden. "Yeah, there was an announcement." He said finally answering Ayden's question (I thought his name was Ethan?). "We're getting like, double homework! It sucks!! We've NEVER had homework on the first day of school before! Totally unfair! Especially to those of us who don't even need it!" Andy was fully convinced school was useless to him. It was all about the music!

Yup, i was living the happy life. Always got A's and B's on my tests and had a world-wide tour over the summer with my band, the Dragon Jewels. I had just signed up for cheerleading and the upcoming play, and this year, I was going to kick Cassandra's butt and take her position as cheer captain. As for the play, I signed up for the pretty girl who had control over the elements. Crazy right? Well, our school likes doing magical and fantasy plays. I found the table my friends were sitting at, only to find Andy scarfing down a McDonalds happy meal like there was no tomorrow. That's Andy for you. I walked towards them and I tripped over an outstretched leg. Luckily I did a cartwheel and landed safely on the ground with my lunch still in my hand. "Nice try, Cassandra." I said smirking. "Don't flatter yourself. I wasn't even trying. But then again, what would you expect from a orphan girl. I bet your mom faked her death just to get away from you." Cassandra replied. I got so angry that i snapped. I punched Cassandra straight in the face. I was sick of her stupid and snotty attitude. But before she could try to punch me back, which I doubted she could do, a voice spoke up. "Girls." it said. I turned around and saw the principle. "Busted!" I thought.

The principle took us to the office and told us a whole lecture about being good role models. Being the sneaky and bored girl i am, I mostly zoned out during his speech and just pretended to be listening intently. He told Cassandra to leave. "Dawn, you are a model student. Why would you do something like this?" I told him about what Cassandra acted and what she said. Not wanting to get in trouble, I skipped the parts about me fighting back. Which I always did, but with words, not fists like this time. He told me this was unforgivable and that he was going to talk to her parents. He let me go and i thought about my best friends, Winter and Sandy. I laughed. "Sandy would just die for this kind of gossip. I can't wait to tell Cassandra about this tomorrow. Speaking of Cassandra, I still have to call my buddies about the little, suprise, im planning for her."

Ethan smiled and shook his head. "I keep telling you need some more heavy duty pens." Not bothering to comment on their excuses for not working, it wouldn't matter anyways (the only reason Ethan got a job is he was bored at home), he silently ate his chicken til the news of homework came up. "What? Your kidding me!" Homework, the spawn of Satan. It was one of the punishments God created for his betrayal, Ethan would swear that on his mother's empty grave (she wasn't dead yet.) After finishing three of five of his pieces of chicken he slid the rest over to Winter. He bent down and opened his bag, just now noticing all the paperwork from his classes, he let out a loud groan. "Are we allowed to go on strike? It only seems fair that students are able to go on strike. You guys wanna meet up at the library later to get this crap out of the way?"

Winter's eyes lit up as the rest of Ethan's chicken was slid her way. Honestly, they turned about the size of dinner plates. "Muchos gracias, mi amigo! I dub thee bestest friend of Winter... along with everyone else of course." She started to trail off on what she was saying as she noticed a disturbance in the cafeteria (like the force but closer). It was Dawn, at it yet again with Cassandra. Winter couldn't help but smirk as she watched the scrimmage unfold, only to be broken up by the principal. Winter would have come to Dawn's rescue... if it hadn't seemed like Dawn was doing most of the beating anyways. Without batting a eye as her friend was dragged away like some kind of criminal (because Dawn could talk her way out of it), Winter turned her attention back to the other two at the table. "I say we wait until they get out of their cars in the mornings and throw red paint on them... wait... No nevermind, I'm pretty sure that's another kind of protest. But the library sounds like a good idea! At least having you guys there will make things... less... boring. We should tell Dawn and everyone else too."

"Believe me I wish I were kidding!" Andy didn't noticed Dawn approaching, he was to busy eating to think of much else. He was barely in tune with the conversation. But once he looked up he saw Dawn and some other girl getting dragged off. "Hey, what's going on?" Oh yeah... that looked like that girl he had heard Dawn talk about a few times. Apparently she was mean or something. What was her name? Oh well, he knew he didn't have to worry to much about Dawn. He had completely missed the tripping and punching, even though it had caused quite a stir with all the other kids around. "Or, we could simply not do our homework and get all the other students to follow us!" Andy thought about that for a minuet... it didn't sounds completely crazy, but pulling it off would be extremely difficult. He sighed "the library it is then." Gawd he hated that place! It was musicless, therefore joyless! But, if he didn't get decent grades his dad would make him go to summer school... again.

Lynn looked around the cafeteria in search of her friends, trying to ignore the commotion caused by Dawn and Cassandra. Lynn rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling; Dawn frequently got herself into trouble, but always knew how to get out of it again.
She finally found the others sitting at the table, with Andy having just gobbled up some McDonalds and Winter in the process of finishing hers. Lynn caught the last few words of their conversation as she sat down on an empty seat.
"You guys are going to the library?" she asked, smiling. She had also wanted to ask them to go, because of the massive amounts of work given to them despite the fact that it was the first day of school, and was happy that she wouldn't have to go on her own.

I walked to the cafeteria smirking. Once again, I, Dawn Sapphire, have wiggled my way out of trouble. But I guess I shouldn't make it a habit, or else it's gonna be me being told on. Not that I had any parents that the principle could talk to.
I made my way to the guys. "You guys are going to the library without me?" I asked them while doing a fake pout. I could tell all of them were suprised, except Winter. I could hear things even if I'm not there, and oddly enough, I could always tell what they're serving in the cafeteria. Weird. Anyway, back to the conversation. "Well, aren't you guys in luck. I finished my homework already, and I could tell you what the answers are. Or maybe I'll just tutor instead." I liked messing with people and that was exactly what I was going to do at the library. "So, do you think you can help me pull off a little prank on my dear friend Cassandra tomorrow? It's small and simple. She always goes to her dorm at free period. We leave a little string at the door, and as soon as she trips, a bunch of seaweed and raw fish will fall on her. Since we don't have to hold the string we won't be there, and we won't get caught. They'll just blame it on Micheal. He'll do anything to get in detention with his crush Natalie. This was even a request from him, so it's a win-win. What do you think?"

"No." Ethan's answer was swift and easy. Dawn's shenanigans annoyed the living hell out of him. Ethan enjoyed his occasional prank, hell he had once placed an airbag in his cousin's couch, but this whole rivalry thing with her and Cassandra was petty and rather pathetic. "I'm not getting myself in trouble. Plus we have different classes, you can't give me the answers to my Creative Writing homework. If Micheal wants to go to detention he can go piss on the projector again." That was a long story involving a smartass English teacher. He turned back to the new arrival, Lynn. "Yeah, I got a few books I need to pick up anyways." And after he got a hold of those books it was guaranteed he was gonna need someone to keep him focused on his work.

alright, alright. I can tell your annoyed. I won't do any pranks. But if she starts being snobby again I'm doing it with or without you. Anyway I changed my mind and said I was just going to tutor, remember? I'll go to the library too. I finished my homework so I want to check out a book to read." Then the bell rang. "Since we have to go to class, I guess I'll have to go after this period is done." I turned to Ethan just as I was about to leave. "Oh, and Ethan? Creative Writing was my first subject today." I stalked off and checked my new schedule. "Next up, English."

(guys, dawnfire07 isn't in the game any more. So just ignore everything that happened since she got there)