READ! VERY IMPORTANT!

I've been working on this story for a while, but I wasn't going to post it until later this summer. Sadly, that's not going to be possible because I have been banned from FF until August 1. For those of you following my MoA story: at least I'll now have time to write a bunch more chapters on the airplane flights! I will update all my non-oneshot/complete stories on August 1. I swear.

Piper looked up at the building looming above her, taunting her. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and hauled her suitcase up the stone steps, not even sparing a glance behind her at Jane. She heard the car depart as soon as she opened the door of her new school. No hope now. She was still hoping that her phone would ring at any second and her dad would tell her that it was all a mistake and that she could come home, but she knew it wouldn't happen.

"Hey. You Piper McLean?"

Piper spun around to see who'd asked the question. A very average looking Latino boy of about fifteen stood there, his eyes displaying his mischief. He was dressed in simple jeans and an olive t-shirt with a grey hoodie thrown carelessly over it. Piper had never really like a guy before, and she could already tell that this boy wasn't an exception. He just had more an aura of possible good friend than crush. Warily, Piper nodded. Even if this boy seemed friendly, she still wasn't sure about the mischievous-ness of him.

"Cool. I'm Leo Valdez," the boy said. "They, uh, assigned me to show you around since I'm in most of your classes." Leo rubbed his neck nervously. Piper could somehow tell that the gesture was a habit even though she'd never even seen him before.

After a brief moment of awkward silence, Piper said, "So, maybe I could put my stuff somewhere?"

"Oh, right! Yeah, your dorm's this way." Leo sauntered down a hallway. Not in a cocky way, but more of a class-clown way. Piper also noted that he must have been ADD or ADHD, the way his hands kept fiddling with tings he pulled from his jacket.

As the two walked down the wood-paneled hallway, Leo struck up a conversation that Piper found uncomfortable, but for some reason she wasn't as uncomfortable about it as usual.

"So, why arre you here?"

"Uh, the school? Well, I was caught stealing. Not stealing exactly, but more like asking someone for something and they give it to me. It's weird. The last time, I asked this dealer for a BMW, and he just gave it to me."

"Right."

"I knew you wouldn't believe me. What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Why are you here?"

"Eh, this and that. Ran away from a few foster homes, got landed here. A-a-and, here's your dorm. You'll be sharing with two girls, Alona and Kaylee."

Piper poked her head inside and found three beds, dressers, and nightstands as well as a plush green circular rug. Two of the beds seemed recently used while the last was crisply done, still perfectly made. Only one of the three dressers was unadorned, as was the case with the nightstand. Just by looking at the other two girls' belongings, Piper could tell that they would not be friends. Makeup and nail polish sat around, haunting the place. Pastel, almost skimpy clothes peeked out of dressers left half-open. Piper shuddered. She couldn't wait until the end of the year already!

"How long do you think you'll take? 'Cause I might just come back later instead of waiting around…"

Piper cocked an eyebrow at the boy, then walked in and unceremoniously dumped her suitcase and backpack on her bed. She unzipped the suitcase, opened the drawers, and set handfuls of shirts, jeans, socks, underwear, and other articles of clothing into the drawers without too much thought. As long as they were organized somewhat neatly, it didn't matter to her how her clothes looked in the dresser. The contents of her backpack were dumped on the nightstand and roughly arranged. After the three-minute process had been completed, Piper turned and faced Leo, who looked both stunned and impressed.

"Wow," he marveled with wide eyes. "No make-up, polish, or a hint of pink."

"You've pretty much got me down pat, then."

Leo tore his eyes away from the pretty-much-everything-free third of the room to look at her. "You have now earned your first bit of respect from a student of this school, and you've secured the fact that you'll have absolutely no friends at this school."

Piper shrugged. "I guessed as much."

"Yeah. Anyway, should we go? We've got, uh, science, I think."

"You think?" Piper inquired. Why did she gotten the bad luck to have the buddy who didn't know his own schedule?

"It's only the beginning of the third week of school and I'm ADHD. Do you honestly expect me to have memorized my schedule? Anyhow, I'm sixty-one percent sure, and that's pretty good for me."

Piper sighed internally. "Fine. What will I need for today?"

"Just a binder, pencil and eraser, and a notebook."

Piper made her way to the bedside table and asked, "How many rings and what size of notebook?"

"Four and A4, I'm pretty sure. And if you're a bit forgetful, you might want to take a B5 notebook for weaving so that you can put down the different patterns we use."

"Check, check, and I might as well take the extra notebook."

•••

Science was boring and weaving was useless. Once classes were finished, Leo had taken Piper back to her dorm and knocked on the door, which was opened b

The door opened suddenly, revealing two smiles on bright faces.

"Sorry about our attitude earlier," Alona apologized. "We just don't like that Valdez boy. If you want a good rep., then stay away from him. Anyway, come on in!"

Piper was stunned. This was definitely new. She cautiously stepped inside, wary of what may be to come.

"We only have a few rules," Kaylee started. "Rule one: we don't share clothes–only make-up and polish. Rule two: we're in charge of waking up on our own. Rule three: showers are first come, first serve. Rule four: every Monday morning is room check day, so we need to have the room tip-top tidy by then. Rule five: have fun!"

"Uh…okay…" Silently, Piper wondered what these two were scheming. She slowly stepped inside. Alona came out of the bathroom in her pyjamas and Kaylee went in to change. Alona immediately started talking in that popular girl this-is-going-to-be-so-exciting way. "We're going to get to know each other tonight. I'm going to go first, and then Kaylee, and then you, okay?"

"Yeah…"

"It'll be so fun! Oh, it's your turn." Kaylee stepped out of the bathroom.

Piper got up, took out her PJs, and quickly changed in the bathroom then went back out to the two other girls.