A new year. The summer holidays never seemed so far away. For many students, this was a new experience for them: high school. An exciting time where people grow and learn more about themselves. For class 4a however, this was their last year. The year that counted. Crash and burn here, and you'll end up nowhere. Most aspired to move on to university, those institutions that could bring you riches. They had to make this year a successful.

It was cool August day. There was some light in the sky. It was early morning. Kazuki had woken up at 6am because he was excited. Excited to be starting a new school in a new country. He came from Japan, a country renowned for its school culture. In the West, everything was different. Well, there were a few similarities too. At first, he was excited that there wouldn't be any school uniform. Wrong. The local authorities of Culborough enforced school uniforms. At least he felt comfortable in a school uniform. He was also stupidly excited for that yellow school bus that he had seen in American teen movies. He would be picked up in one of those. It was like some dream.

Standing by the kerb, he could hear the stillness of the morning air. This part of Culborough was quiet. A vast difference from Tokyo, where he lived in a small apartment that rose to 40 stories. He had his own bedroom here! The house was big. There was a second floor! This is what it was like being a Westerner. He could live with this. A loud noise punctured the air. He looked to his left, and saw a yellow bus come up on the right side of the road. They drive on the right here! The first time he crossed a road here, he nearly ended up underneath it because back home in Japan, they drive on the left.

The yellow bus stopped near Kazuki. Kazuki walked up to the bus and red the sign.
Rydell West High School school bus.
This was it. Kazuki climbed on board, said hello to the driver, and looked to his left. There wasn't many other people on the bus. They all looked terrified, so they must be new to the school. Kazuki sat by himself in the middle of the bus; not too close to the front so he felt like a 'loser', as they say here, nor too far in the back where he might look intimidating. Kazuki breathed a sigh of relief. He debated whether to put headphones in. He decided against it; it might detract people from speaking to him. The bus rumbled to life and he was on his way.

Ethan was up at 6:00 for a very different reason. He was looking forward to getting back into the routine of the school year but at the same time, he just wanted to sleep. He woke up at the first sound he heard, something that he never used to do until two years ago. He groaned and rolled out of bed, still half asleep and sulked as he made is way into the next room.

Over an hour later, Ethan realized that he was going to be late. He had a quick shower, threw on jeans and a t-shirt, and went downstairs to make breakfast. Half an hour later, he ran back upstairs and furiously changed into his school uniform. What the hell kind of preppy town is this where regular high school kids have to wear stupid uniforms? he complained to himself.

"Ethan!" his dad called from downstairs. "It's 8:30, you're going to be late!"

"I KNOW!" Ethan yelled back, louder than necessary.

He heard footsteps on the stairs. A moment later, Jack was standing in the doorway, "Look, Ethan, you need to be more organized and be on time for school. What's going to happen when you have homework to do? And football? That will take up even more of your time. Just because you're a -"

"DAD, I know!" Ethan cut him off. "I don't have time to drop Willa and Emma off today." he said hurriedly as he stuffed his school supplies into his backpack.

"Your mother has already left, she'll drop them off today."

Ethan turned to his father, clearly upset, "Mom's gone? But then who will -"

"I'll stay here until she's home. This time. This is your responsibility, you know, and your mother and I can't be expected to -"

"Oh my God, Dad, I don't need a lecture right now, I need my fricken Physics text book!"

Jack sighed and picked the text book up off the floor. Ethan grabbed it and ran out of the house without another word. He threw his bag onto the passenger seat of his black Toyota RAV4 and sped out of the driveway. Great way to start my senior year he thought.

Right before leaving for school, Kenzie took one last good look in the mirror. Gazing long and hard at ther reflection, she took inventory of her every feature. Perfect hair? Check. Perfectly glossed lips? Check. Perfect summer tan? Well, it's passable, if nothing else. Everything was good to go, and she was completely ready for the first year of what would be her last year of high school. After making a couple of faces at her reflection, she grabbed her books and went out the door.

She was kind of hoping that this year would be... different somehow. For practically all of her life, she'd been just one of the Silicons, a supporting actress to Jessica's leading role. For once, Kenzie would not have minded having the spotlight focused solely on her. But then, that would involve actually, like, being in the spotlight. And Jessica would NOT like that at all. Kenzie, however, wasn't sure that she cared that much anymore. At least, not while she was just thinking about it by herself on the way to her car.

Kenzie started up her Ford Focus and drove towards the school. Who knew what this year would bring?

Carly tucked into the waffles she had made herself for breakfast. Her mother was asleep in bed, something that she'd likely do until about mid-afternoon. Her father had just left the house for his new job, which he was much more ecstatic about than Carly was with school. In her college in Scotland, she had worn her own clothes, and was just getting used to the idea of wearing what she likes. Now she was back to a school uniform, she wasn't feeling too pretty. She slipped into an oversized hoody, which she wore regardless of weather over her uniform to at least create some identity for herself. Looking in the mirror, she tidied her hair and looked at her body. "Not too bad I guess." she whispered to herself. She left the house and got into the brand new Fiat 500 her father had bought her (He had offered her bigger, better cars but she liked the cuteness of this one) and left for her first day at Rydell. Rydell. The name reminded her of Grease. She smiled as he got into the car, put on some shades and turned on her Marina + The Diamonds album.

"I've got it!" Stella shouted awkwardly, a spoonful of cereal still in her mouth. Her mother, Cynthia, turned in surprise, but didn't bother to ask when she saw Stella once again furiously scribbling in her notebook. Stella pushed her bowl away, and grabbed her jacket as she ran back to her room.

"Stella," Cynthia called, "You don't have very long, wait until you get back, you still haven't packed any of your books"

"I know, mom, I just really need to try this one out," she shouted back, running up the stairs.

"Stella, the bus will be here in about 5 minutes, you have to pack; this is the first day of your last year, I thought you'd be a little more mature by now."

Stella, resigned, walked back down the stairs and took some text books, and dropped them in her bag. She walked over to the mirror. Her dead straight hair fell calmly on her shoulders, nothing was out of place, her mother made quite sure of that.

"Now, Stella, your father's picking you up today, I'm working late, so please try to get out on time, you know what he's like."

"Yes, mom."

"Oh, and I've put your lunch money in your purse, and got you all new stationary."

"Thanks."

"Finally, the bus is here, have a good day."

Stella hugged her mother and walked off confidently to the bus, her sister Natasha following in her footsteps quietly. Stella was greeted with a high five as soon as she was onboard. Didn't know who they were, but it didn't matter. Optimism, she recalled her father saying, Is how we succeed in life, you never see a pessimist make it big. That was what Stella wanted, she wanted her name in lights, blinded by her own amazing achievements. But her fantasy had distracted her, and she'd already sat down without even noticing. A japanese boy was to her side, probably a little put off by Stella's silence. Damn, not a good start to this year, she thought.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around school before, are you new here?" She asked with some genuine interest.

Out of Character: If this is supposed be realistic then why does everyone seem to have brand new cars from their parents? I'm kinda starting to feel jealous here..

Dean's curtains were ripped open, letting the harsh light of day erupt into his bedroom.
"Ugh..." he rolled over and planted his face into the pillow.
"Dean..." he heard whisper to him, "Dean... Dean... DEAN!"
He rolled back over and glared at the person shouting at him.
Carla was standing over at him, a tired smirk on her face.
"Mum says you have to get up."
Dean checked his watch. It was only 6:30.
"Carla!" he groaned, "I don't have to leave for 2 more hours. Go back to sleep!"
Carla went to rip the sheets off his bed but he grabbed them instinctively and, reluctantly, agreed to get up. Dean liked sleeping au naturale and the last thing he wanted his sister to see his naked body.
Not that there's anything wrong with it, he though to himself, lifting the sheets up and taking a peek at himself. God I look good.
Grabbing a pair of boxers from the floor next to the bed, he threw them on and got up. Stumbling to the bathroom, he locked the door, and turned the shower on. Dean threw his towel over the glass, let his boxers drop to his knees and collapsed onto the shower floor.
Eh, screw it. I don't need to stand to shower.
He pulled himself into a sitting position and reached for the shampoo.

---

Dean sat on his bed, uniform on and bag packed next to him. He checked his watch. 7am. A half-finished energy bar hung loosely from his hand.
Guess I have time for breakfast after all, he thought. He almost never ate or drank in the morning, it made him feel sick and he didn't like going to the toilet at school. As he thought about breakfast, he realised how hungry he actually was.
Well I have an hour and a half, might as well go all out.
He made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. His mother was sitting at the breakfast table, sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper.
"Morning," he mumbled to her.
She smiled back at him.
"Morning sweety."
Dean opened the fridge and grabbed a carton of eggs, some margarine, the bottle of vanilla essence and the milk.
"French toast? Again?" his mother inquired.
"Mmm hmm."
"Well, remember to clean up when you're done," she told him before turning back to the paper.

---

Dean stood outside his house, waiting for the bus. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he sent a quick message to his friend Jenny. Out of Character: YES BITCHES, I'M BRINGING HER INTO THIS AS WELL.
"Hey, you on bus? It's running late. :\"
As he hit send, the bus turned the corner and pulled up on front of him.
Wow, okay. That was lucky.
He flashed his bus pass at the driver and made his way down the aisle. He gave a friendly nod towards Stella and a new boy, when his phone vibrated.
"No, actually. I think it might have crashed or something. I hear that the bus demons are particularly flourishing this year."
He looked up and stared at Jenny, sitting in the back row sarcastically smirking at him. He sat down next to her.
"Dude, that was stupid," she told him.
Jenny seemed to have a new favourite word every month or so. Last year he had to endure 5 weeks of her calling him 'bro'.
"You do realise that the word dude has been uncool since, like, the early 90's right?"
"Whatever. I like it."
Jenny was weird, over-dramatic and had a LOT of character.
And that's why we're friends, Dean thought to himself.
She grabbed his head and thrust it downwards, taking a close look at his hair.
"DUDE! Is this a dye-job?! Looks darker!"
They spent the rest of the trip arguing over whether or not Dean had darkened his hair, and within what seemed like minutes, they had arrived at the school.
"LAST YEAR OF SCHOOL! LET'S GO SENIORS!" Jenny shouted, grabbing her bag and marching down the aisle. Everyone was staring at her, but she didn't care.
Dean rolled his eyes. Nothing's changed.
He picked up his bag and stepped off the bus.

Out of Character: Aw feck that was longer than I thought it'd be. Sorry.

Jessica pulled into the parking lot in her barbie pink escalade. She honked loudly when some weird girl stepped in front of her car. "Move loser, i have places to be!" she screamed out the window. She stepped out of the car, and walked to the front doors in her pink stilletos. She wasnt wearing that god awful uniform today. fuck it!she thought gleefully. When she walked in everyone looked at her. "Oh hey Jess! i heard you met like Lady Gaga over the summer!" said a lumpy junior. "Eugh" she grunted in disgust. She walked to her locker, the sounds click clack, click clack on the floor, where she found Kenzie setting up her locker. "Toats cute hair!" she said. Kenzie smiled proudly. "Eugh these freshmans equal so Ga-ross!" Jessica said. She looked at her schedual. Bioligy 30 first period. "Hey kenz, im having a new year party this saturday, Everyones gonna be there. Come, and help plan it!" Kenzie laughed. "You know New years is in January right?" "Yeah but i totally heard that in like England they celebrated it in september," she giggled. "
Any way, more reasons to throw a party!" Kenzie and her chit-chatted a while longer, before walking off to first period.

Out of Character: THE QUEEN BITCH IS HERE. MOVE ASIDE BITCHEZ

Kenzie put the last of her books in her locker and squealed with excitement. A party! An oddly themed party, but a party nonetheless. She loved throwing parties, and she and Jessica made a great team for putting them together.

"Well, I guess it is a new school year, if that counts," she said to Jessica. "But can you actually get new years decorations at this time of year?"

"I'm sure we'll figure something out," Jessica reassured her. "Anyway, I still have all that stuff from my New Years Extravaganza last year."

Kenzie nodded and shut her locker door. She just had one question she needed to ask. "So by everybody, you don't mean Mike, do you? Cuz I swear, if I see him there with Jordyn..."

"No, of course not. Friends don't invite ex-boyfriends to parties. That would just be a recipe for disaster."

Relieved, Kenzie returned the topic of conversation to party planning and the two of them made their way to class.

Out of Character: We're going to homeroom or whatever it's called first! A first chance for people to interact with each other.

A girl sat down next to Kazuki. She had brown hair. She was pretty.
"Yes, simply I knew student," Kazuki answered.
This girl looked at him. "I'm Stella."
"Kazuki."

They talked all the way on the bus. Kazuki could tell she had an artistic side to her by the way she presented herself. In the west, they have this famous singer.
Maybe she will become like this Lady Karkar dude.
A guy waved hello at Stella, and smiled at Kazuki when he got on the bus.
Wow, he's really cute.
It was amazing that they had the same homeroom together. Kazuki needed a guide, and one had chosen to sit right next to him. Even if she did turn out to be an evil bitch, Kazuki will always have a little loyalty to her.

When they arrived at school, Stella led the charge. There were hundreds of students milling around. Because Kazuki didn't have a locker, he'd have to wait until homeroom to know which one he has been allocated. Lockers! Kazuki didn't have one back in Japan. He waited while Stella put her things into her locker. She offered to put some of Kazuki's things while he didn't have one but he declined her offer. It wasn't too heavy.

"Are you sure, Kazuki? I mean, I have a lot of room, and I really don't mind." But he declined again. He had looked a little bit excited when he saw the lockers, it was a new concept to Stella that the Japanese didn't have lockers, but really it wasn't too hard to digest.

"Do you know which homeroom you're in?"

"4a," he responded.

Stella laughed lightly, "Great, so am I, do you wanna go now? There's not much to really see around here." But Kazuki was still looking around in a sort of half-awe. Stella grabbed his arm and playfully edged him towards the room.

"So I guess there are a couple of people you should stay away from, well, everyone should stay away from, well, mainly one. Jessica, she's kind of a sociopathic freak. But don't worry, she's not too smart so just say a word longer than 3 syllables and she'll be too confused to hurt you." Kazuki was nodding in earnest, thought Stella wasn't to sure he understood what she was telling him.

There were quite a few people already in homeroom, Stella took a seat near the middle of the class and Kazuki sat in the desk next to her. Jessica walked into homeroom with Kenzie following her obediently. Stella slyly caught Kazuki's attention, and tried to explain that Jessica was the one he should be careful of, but she only confused him, and admittedly herself. Jess looked at her with disdain.

"Ugh, couldn't you have commited suicide for your 'art' over the summer?"

"Jess, dear, centrifugal."

"What?" She turned to Kenzie, "What does that even mean?"

Kenzie went to reply, but Jess cut her off. "You know what, it doesn't matter, you're so immature."

Jessica sat in her seat. She hated Stella. Bitch was gonna get it. Jessica never lost. EVER. She was deep in converstation with Kenzie when the teacher came in. Mrs hartfeel or some deep shit like that. After being lectured about the new school year, she walked over to Stella's row, and as she walked by "tripped" on her shoe, grabbed out and yanked a chunk of Stella's hair out. "Oopsies!" she said before giggling. "Not like you need it anyway. You look man enough, Oh and i see you have a foreign pet? What is he like Cambodian or something?" she laughed before walking back to her seat. This year, im gonna rock she thought.

Kenzie should have expected something like this happening, she supposed. After all, there wasn't a day where Jessica didn't pull out someone's hair, or destroy stuff, or something of the sort. Kenzie had been hoping that it wouldn't start until at least second block today, but that clearly wasn't the case. She shook her head. All the crap I put up with. It's ridiculous.

She sat down in the desk next to Jessica and for the most part tuned out what the teacher was saying. It's not like it will be anything new and important anyway. As the teacher droned on, Kenzie looked around the classroom. There were more new faces than she thought there would be, but it did make sense, since the town was going through a bit of an economic boom. Most of the newbies Kenzie wouldn't have much to do with, but there was one guy sitting near the back that looked kind of hot. She thought she might have seen him around town this summer, but she really wasn't sure. She was definitely going to introduce herself later.

She turned back to the front just in time to hear the teacher mention something about permission forms. It was probably just another lame school trip that nobody who was anybody would end up going on. Kenzie looked out the window and resumed planning for the party on Saturday.

Cassie had woken up late that morning. Her dad, who looked like he had been up all night working came into her room saying she only had a few minutes before she needed to leave. Luckily Cassie was used to waking up late, she usually did every morning, and she had her stuff set up in a sort of assembly line and she was the machine. Quickly pulling on her uniform, brushing her hair, and puting on a sparkly headband, she grabbed her keys and headed out to her car. A 1986 Toyota camry, something she had saved up for and bought herself. It was rusted on the back doors, so they were very difficult to open, and it usually took a few tries to get it to start. But she loved that car, and when it was on, it ran great.

She pulled into the parking lot and walked to her homeroom, where quite a few people were already seated. Of course, just her luck, Jessica and Kenzie were in her homeroom. They hardly knew Cassie existed, but when they recognized she was alive and breathing, they liked to make her life miserable. Cassie quickly scuttled to the back of the room and sat down, hoping to just fly under the radar.

She was going through her bag to find her journal to start writing in when she found a huge hole on the side. "Ugh, great" Cassie muttered under her breath. However, one of Cassie's hobbies was sewing, and she kept a thread and needle with her everywhere, and she quickly patched up the hole and looked around the room, where everyone seemed to be talking to each other. Maybe someone else would walk into homeroom, someone as alone as her.

Out of Character: In case you were wondering, Cassie's car is the car I have in real life haha

Out of Character: Ethan's dad works at a car dealership so I thought he could have a nice, new car.

Somehow Ethan made it to school a few minutes early and slipped into a desk near the back of the room. He had picked up his class schedule the week before at a quick tour/orientation for new students. What he really wanted was a locker so he could ditch his back pack full of text books.

The teacher at the front of the room was talking about something that didn't seem important so Ethan used this time to look around the room and try to figure out some of his classmates. There were a few hot girls and an Asian boy, the usual jocks, the artists. Was one of the girls sewing? Not many kids his age hung out at the grocery store but he was sure that he had seen some of them around town this summer.

Just then, his worst nightmare came true: the teacher called on him and asked him to stand up and introduce himself to the class. It was like being back in elementary school. He stood up and awkwardly adjusted his tie. Raising his eyes to look at the students around him, he said in a pleasantly deep voice, "Um, I'm Ethan Vale. I moved here from Woodbridge, Connecticut in July, and I work at Main Street Market and play football." He sat down as quickly as possible as the teacher came to his desk and handed him his locker number and combination.

She walked back to the front of the room, smiled and said "Now, who's next?" as she picked up her class list.

Ms. Ruthie had finished speaking to the class and was getting everyone to introduce themselves. She called up Kazuki.
"Hello, I Kazuki from big island of Japan! よろしくお願いします。" He bowed.
He could hear giggles coming from the girl who grabbed Stella. He had resisted punching her when she ripped out a bit of Stella's hair. That girl really didn't want to mess with Kazuki. Ms. Ruthie smiled at Kazuki and handed him his locker key and timetable. He looked at the whole class for the first time. They were an odd bunch. These are the peoples that he'll be with for the rest of the year. He went back to his seat and smiled at Stella.

At least I'm not the only one. Ethan thought, relieved. He thought back to his other "first" day of school, the only other one he ever had. It was kindergarten and he couldn't wait to ride the yellow school bus. It wasn't until he got on the bus that he realized his mom and his new baby sister weren't going with him. He was just about to cry when a girl with long, blond hair tapped him on the shoulder and said "Hi, I'm Abby. Wanna see my new book?" She pushed a pair of small glasses up her nose and smiled at him as he slowly slid onto the seat beside her. She handed Ethan the small book with its thick, shiny pages and they sat together in silence, both reading it to themselves as he flipped the pages. From that day on, they were best friends.

He snapped himself out of the memory and tried to push the thought of Abby away. Deep down, he knew that moving away wouldn't make him forget her, but he had hoped that it would.

"Hello, I Kazuki from big island of Japan! よろしくお願いします。" He bowed.

Stella smiled, Kazuki was so sweet, she was so glad about her dazed walk that ended up with her sitting next to him. But her musing over joy was cut short when she heard Jess cackling behind her. She'd decided to ignore Jess' little attack on her hair, she was above that, but there was no way in hell Jess was gonna ruin another year for her. Stella quietly attracted Jessica's attention, and sweetly put up her middle finger to her. Who cared about sophistication?

Ignoring Jess' response to her little gesture, Stella looked around the class room, to see who was there. Cassie was sewing again, she noticed. Stella made a mental note to get to know Cassie more, she seemed sweet. There was the other new guy, Ethan, he looked like he'd get on fine here. Other than that, really nothing had changed.

Out of Character: Am I right in thinking that homeroom really needs to come to an end soon? D: We've been getting ready for school since the 29th. xD

After a morning of biology with lump Ms. NewBerriy, Jessica was more then happy that it was lunch. The first day had always been closed campus, this was the schools way of forcing people to mett each other. "Eww" she said as she looked over at Stella who was loading up on carbs. She got in line, and stacked potatoes, fries, ketchup, and a burger with extra mayoneis on it onto her plate. Kenzie's mouth fell open. "You never eat that much!" Jessica shot her a wicked glare. "I dont. You're right. Im not eating this.." she payed and walked over to where stella was sitting. "Ohh Stella darling!" she said in a sing song voice. Stella turned slowly and gave Jessica a look that resembled a constipated rhino. Jessica flung her lunch at Stella. It was like slow motion. She saw the potatoes arc toward Stellas face, and the ketchup splatter on her shirt. "Oops!" Jessica giggled. "I slipped.. again!" she cackled before turning, and throwing her cranberry juice at Stella, she looked back to see it splat on her book. "Ha! Lets go to Starbucks Kenzie!" She said before walking to the door with a triumphant smile on her face. Out of Character: I warned you.

Ethan made it through his morning classes without any more embarrassing speeches to make. He was part of a large class, every desk in every room was full and he found it easy to be invisible, at least for now. When lunch rolled around, he was looking forward to going home for an hour but found out that the school was locked down for the first day so instead he called his mom and explained why he wasn't coming home. When he hung up, he walked into the cafeteria and looked around - it was packed. He would have to find someone to sit with.

As he scanned the room, he saw the exchange student and a nice-looking girl - Sarah? No, Stella - sitting and a table that was only half-full. Ethan threw a few things on his tray without really noticing what they were and walked towards his classmates. When he was just a few feet away, he saw the blond girl from homeroom - Jessica, he thought - throw a tray of food at Stella and leave the campus with her sidekick, laughing.

Ethan shook his head in disbelief and quickly walked to Stella's table. "Hey, you need some help?" he asked, offering her his napkins. "Hey." he nodded to Kazuki and then said to them both, "I'm Ethan and that girl is a bitch."