Disclaimer: Darren Shan, Steve Leopard, Mr. Dalton, Tommy Jones, and Allan Morris all belong to Darren Shan

Chapter I

The bell started to ring, and the hallways quickly flooded with students; every one was rushing as they made way to their lockers.
"Darren, wait up," Steve Leopard shouted through the crowds of older kids pushing past him.

I looked over my shoulder as Steve cursed off an older looking stranger who had bumped into him, almost making him drop his books. Steve's real name is Steve Leonard, but everyone says Leopard since he's pretty tough, and sometimes scary. Still, he's been my best friend since kindergarten- My mom says I was drawn to his wildness.

"Oh, hey," I stopped walking, waiting for Steve to catch up. "You okay?"

"Yeah.." Steve muttered, now walking besides me to our lockers. "I swear, no one pays attention to anybody. They're too much in a rush to actually notice someone trying to get to their locker."

"Uh huh." I murmured. Steve does the same thing all the time, so he really shouldn't be saying anything.

Our lockers are right next to each other, so we always talk between periods which was pretty cool- Even though it usually made us late.

"So that new girl is supposed to be here today, right?" Steve asked, throwing his science book into the untidy locker.

"Yeah, I think she's gonna be in our Math and History class."

"Oh," Steve sighed. "I thought she was just in our History class.. I bet she's just another teachers pet like all the other girls. Idiots.."

We both slammed our locker closed. First me, then Steve did the same a second later. "Well, yeah-" I was interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing. The hallways quickly started to clear as we grabbed our books and ran for room 204. "Mr. Dalton is gonna be P.O'd if we're late again, Steve." Of course, Steve didn't seem to care too much. He was Mr. Dalton's favorite student. Steve can get away with just about anything in his class. For example- He can use a lot more curses in his writing then I would never be allowed to use.
Quietly, we slipped into the classroom door and sat down in our desks. Mr. Dalton was facing the board while writing down our homework, so hopefully he would think we got here the same time everyone else did. I started to slip my books under my desk. Mr. Dalton turned around and looked at everyone. No- he was looking at Steve and me.

"Boys, this is your second time late. I'm giving you a warning, but don't let it happen again. If it does I'm afraid I'll have to assign both of you after school detention." Mr. Dalton said firmly, sitting at his desk.

"Anyway, I'd like to introduce a new student today. She should be here any minute now."

A moment later, the new girl entered the classroom. She stood in front of the door, holding a binder tightly.

"Please welcome Ariel. I'm sure you'll all be very polite as to show her around a bit if she needs a hand."

Ariel nodded to Mr. Dalton. "Where should I sit..?"

"Right next to Tommy."

Tommy raised his hand. "That'd be me.." Tommy Jones was another one of my best friends, along with Alan Morris. By the smirk on his face, I could tell he was happy with the seating arrangement. Dare I say it.. Ariel.. Well, she was kind of cute..

"Okay class," Mr. Dalton Began. "You may take out your books and turn to page 217, and start doing the questions.
Everyone opened their text books like Mr. Dalton asked, but then began passing notes when he looked down at his work. Just as I was reading the first question, something hit me in the back of the head and fell on the floor besides me. Leaning down, I picked up what appeared to be a note, and unfolded the paper. Inside it read:

Darren-

Dude, you gotta check this out.. Pass me a note back and I'll pass it to you… It's unbelievable..

-Allan.

Curious.. I ripped a piece of paper out from my binder and spread it out on my desk. "What's up?" I wrote, then folded it into a small square. Looking up, I saw Mr. Dalton still paying no attention to our actions. Quickly I turned around and threw the note back at Allan, who went to catch it but missed, and had to pick it up of the floor. I then turned around and continued working. But still, I really wasn't thinking about doing my work. There was only one question on my mind:

What was this 'thing' that Allan wanted me to see, and why was it so important?

Little did I know, this "thing" was going to change my life forever.. For the worse..After this note was passed to Steve and Tommy, Allan threw it to me. Once again, another folded piece of paper was thrown at me. Instead of hitting me in the back of the head this time, it rolled onto my desk. Unfolding it, I quickly read through. My jaw seemed to drop slightly as I silently read the paper in awe.

It was a flyer or something, for some sort of traveling circus. There was a picture of a wolf's head at the top. The wolf had its mouth open and saliva was dripping from its teeth. At the bottom were pictures of a spider and a snake which looked just as vicious as the wolf.

Just beneath the wolf, in big red capital letters, were the words:

CIRQUE DU FREAK

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY-CIRQUE DU FREAK!

SEE:

SIVE AND SEERSA-THE TWISTING TWINS!

THE SNAKE BOY! THE WOLF-MAN! GERTHA TEETH!

LARTEN CREPSLEY AND HIS PERFORMING SPIDER-MADAME OCTA!

ALEXANDER RIBS! THE BEARDED LADY!

HANS HANDS!

RHAMUS TWOBELLIES-WORLD'S FATTEST MAN!

NOT FOR THE FAINTHEARTED! SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY!

After reading it a few times, I noticed the classroom suddenly became silent. Raising my eyes, I saw Steve turned around in his seat, sticking his tongue out at me. Slowly looking up, I saw Mr. Dalton, who picked up the flyer and began reading it. He was obviously angry, and started going off about how cruel freak shows were and how none of us should even think of going.

"Mr. Dalton, sir, do you think maybe I could keep they flyer? I wanna hang it over my bed as a poster," Steve asked, once Mr. Dalton was finished lecturing us.

"Well, I suppose that wouldn't do any harm.. But first," Mr. Dalton took a pair of scissors from his desk, cut the address of from the bottom of the paper, then threw it away. "Here you are," Mr. Dalton said, handing it to Steve.

My heart dropped when Mr. Dalton threw the address away- I really wanted to go.

"Okay every body, back to work." Mr. Dalton announced, then looked down at his papers.

"Mr. Dalton?" Ariel asked, raising her hand. "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Mr. Dalton nodded. "Hurry up and come right back."

The new girl got up and just about everyone in the class started looking at her. She walked over to the garbage can, which was next to a table. I don't know how she did it but she snatched the slip of paper from the can like that. I looked over at Mr. Dalton, who didn't have a clue what was going on. She peered over her shoulder at him, slipping the piece of paper into the front pocket of her hoodie. Right after she did that, Mr. Dalton looked up at her. Oh man. I thought. She's gonna get it..

But Ariel just smiled at him, and grabbed the bathroom pass off of the table by her. Next she walked over to Steve's desk, and making a fake innocent voice, she asked: "Can I borrow a pen?"

Steve blinked, probably just as confused as I was. "Um.. Yeah.. Sure.." He said, then handed her a black ball point pen. She began writing her name on the bathroom pass, then quickly slipped the paper on his desk and walked out of the door.

Tommy, Allan, and me began to exchange confused glanced, then looked at Steve. He just shrugged it off and smiled. Who cares what just happened? Where going to see the Cirque Du Freak!