Hey guys! So I just gotta say something before I start the story. I'm not gonna change them completely, Armin's still going to be a fricken braniac and kind of a wimp but he builds a tough exterior around it because of all the bullying he received throughout elementary and middle school. Annie still is kind of distant from everyone else and she's still kind of a bad ass, she's just more approachable and has more friends and stuff. So as I said, I don't want to change them completely, just enough for the story to work.

I don't own SNK or the characters, enjoy the story!

"Arlert!" Mr. Shadis bellowed, rudely waking me from my nap. I rubbed my eyes and glanced up at the teacher, who was now standing at my desk. He was tapping a ruler against the desk and scowling at me, his mouth twisted in a weird frown/growl. "You were sleeping in my class again!"

I frowned. "Thank you, Mr. Captain Obvious."

Mr. Shadis's face turned beet red, since this happens almost everyday, nobody was really paying attention. When Shadis opened his mouth to say something, the bell rang and everyone rushed out the door. "After class, Arlert." Shadis growled and motioned for me to follow him back to his desk. I sighed and glanced at the clock, it was noon. Lunch time. My stomach growled just thinking about it. "I don't have all day Arlert." Shadis growled.

I bit back a retort and went over to his desk. "Yeah, what do you want?" I asked as politely as I could and rapped my knuckles on his desk. Shadis sighed and his face softened a fraction.

"You gotta drop the act kid." he said and scowled at me again. "I know your smart. You just act like an idiot."

I scoffed and turned my face away. "Whatever." I dismissed and grabbed my backpack and walked to the door. I almost made it out but then Shadis called out.

"Arlert."

I don't know why I stopped. "Yeah?" I asked without turning.

"Promise you'll try, kid."

"I won't make any promises, teach." I responded and walked out.

I sat alone at my table in the far corner of the lunch room. I was eating some more tasteless children meat that the school called 'lunch'. I decided to see what was going on at the popular table, so I dragged my eyes away from my lunch to the popular table. The first person I saw was Eren Jaeger, my ex-best friend. After 5th grade he decided to ditch me for the populars, and became the most pompous ass to ever walk the Earth. I then saw Jean Kirstein who was currently fighting with Eren. He and I had been at it since kindergarten, so I've always hated that dickweed.

I then saw Ymir and her girlfriend Krista, who were laughing at Jean's expense. (He got a face full of mashed potatoes.) Krista was nice, but everyone stayed clear of her because Ymir would seriously fuck your shit up if you would even so much as glance in her girlfriend's direction. Then there was Reiner and Bertholdt, football stars. And finally there was little-goody-two-shoes Annie Leonhardt.

She was a straight A-honor role student, popular, and almost as likeable as Krista. Almost. If you got on her bad side she wouldn't hesitate to kick your ass. She was reading, from what it looked like. I snorted and shook my head, I remember when I would have read in public, but then I would get made fun of and had the book get thrown away or something. Then maybe get a swirly for good measure. Before I realized that I had been staring, her eyes flicked up to meet mine. I frowned and looked away, but my eyes glanced back at the table to see her staring at me still. I scowled. What was her deal?

I snorted and stood up the go throw away my food.

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."

He didn't say any more, but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought — frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.

"What are you reading?" a voice asked, which snapped me out of my in-depth reading. I glared up at the culprit and saw that it was no one other than Annie Leonhardt herself. I quickly tried to hide the book in my backpack.

"None of your business." I spat and shoved the book in my backpack. God dammit, I thought all the populars would have been gone by now. Serves me right to get caught, I was reading in the library. In plain sight! Annie frowned as I got up and pushed past her.

"Hey." she said bemusedly as she followed me. "That's rude you know."

I ignored her and kept walking, what's her problem? Why's she so interested? First lunch now this? I scowled and pushed open the door and hoped and prayed she didn't follow me home. "Hey, Arlert. I'm talking to you." she said from behind me.

I whirled around and caused her to stop short. "What the hell? Can you just leave me alone?" I asked and gripped my backpack strap. Her eyes widened slightly, then a bored expression crossed her face.

"I just asked you what you were reading. You don't have to get so pissed." she reasoned.

I huffed. "Well, if I tell you will you beat it?" She shrugged in reply.

"The Great Gatsby." I said, almost with a hint of embarrassment. "I-it's an assignment." I lied quickly. I didn't need her to know that I was a closet nerd. She brightened slightly.

"I'm reading that too. How far are you?" she asked.

"I just started. I could have gotten farther if you hadn't interrupted me." I snapped.

She didn't seem to notice that I snapped at her. "You could have gotten farther, if you had just answered the question instead of freaking out and leaving." she said and crossed her arms. "Why are you so scared of me, Arlert?" she suddenly asked after a moment of silence and took a step closer. It made me shiver, even though it was about sixty degrees out.

"I'm not." I spat, but me stepping back said otherwise. She smirked and stepped around me and started to walk away.

"See you later, Arlert." she said without looking back.

AN:

Oh my god guys I'm not sure if I like it or not. But I think I might like it.

So, this is my first submission of 2014 guys! *parties*

Anyway, I haven't read the Great Gatsby yet, but it's on my reading list!

The Great Gatsby belongs to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Reviews and Favorites are very much appreciated! :D