FicWad

I stepped off the bus with Mel at my side. Here it goes, another first step into another high school. As if feeling my apprehensiveness at the situation, Mel grabbed my arm and flashed a comforting smile at me. I grinned back at her. At least here I had someone I knew.

"Come on guys, let's show the world the awesomeness of us!" Frank jumped off the bus and slapped our shoulders to get us moving.

We laughed at the irony of his excitement. How he could make going to high school into an excitable event was beyond me.

The interior of the school was much like the other ones I'd been to. The office was right next to the front doors and the cafeteria was down the hallway. That's where my new friends and I departed.

"I'll catch up you guys, I need to go to the office to get my papers." I told them offhandedly. I really didn't know the dynamics of the group. I mean, I was Mel's cousin, but that didn't necessarily mean that the guys were my friends. Though I hoped that they wouldn't mind me tagging around with them. It's not like I had anyone else to hang with.

Mel replied. "Okay, just meet us in the cafeteria alright?" I nodded and she went along with the guys while I made my way to the office.

It was like any other office. There were desks with middle aged women sitting at their computers. Ficus's and other plants decorated the place, trying to give it the feel that something in here was alive. Unlike the decaying women that actually inhabited it.

I went up to one of the decrepit secretaries and she looked down her nose at me.

"Yes?", she asked in an annoyed tone. Which I really didn't understand. Come on you old hag, it's not like you were doing something really productive, besides more paperwork.

"I'm here to get my schedule and locker assignment.", I answered politely nevertheless.

She rolled her eyes and went over to a filing cabinet. "Name?"

"Maude Lamnet." I replied. She went through the files with what looked like claws but would probably be classified as human hands if tested.

She made a sound of discovery and pulled out a few sheets of paper. "Here you are, I believe it's safe to say that you can find the cafeteria on your own?", she asked, making it sound like I was an imbecile that couldn't tell the difference between my foot and my ass.

With clenched teeth I told her. "Yes, my cousin pointed the way out to me before. Thank you so much for all your help.", I piled on sarcasm in a sugary sweet voice. She merely gave me a glare and motioned for me to leave.

"Stupid old hag.", I muttered as I left the place. Walking down the hallways, I took notice that the school colors must have been a navy blue and gold. Or at least, that was what the tiling and paint on the walls alluded to.

I came to the doorway that Mel had pointed to and was overcome with the sudden noise level. Yes, this was definitely the cafeteria.

Groups of kids were already at the tables, each displaying a cliche click like a high school setting was supposed to. Some people were eating breakfast that was provided by the school and others were just chatting with their friends.

When I stepped in, I suddenly had a hundred eyes on me. I ignored the burning stares and concentrated on finding Mel.

"Maude!", someone called my name to the right. I swung around and tried to locate the voice. Finally giving up and regressing to basic senses, I started sniffing to try and find Mel's scent, or even her group of friend's own odd scents.

I caught onto her's and started following it when something happened. It was almost like a freight train of pleasure had hit my nose. My mouth started to water and I could feel my pupils dilate. The sheathed teeth in my upper jaw began aching painfully and my claws threatened to show themselves.

Sensing what was going on, I had enough self control to cut off the air supply to my nose and began breathing deeply through my mouth. Taking gulps of air to calm myself down, I realized that I was making a scene, appearing to be freaking out in the middle of the cafeteria.

Keeping myself restrained, I desperately started searching around for Mel. Someone grabbed my arm and I swung around, ready to shout at whoever it was. I was tense, slightly on edge, and extremely emotional about whatever had just happened to me, and I was ready to take it out on whoever would dare touch me at the moment.

That is. Until I actually got a look at who it was.

A guy with honey-colored eyes was hold my arm loosely and pointing over his shoulder. Dark hair fell down onto his shoulders while pale skin contrasted deeply with it. High cheek bones and a delicately small nose gave his face a slightly feminine look to it. However his jawline was sharp enough to show that he was most certainly a man. I finally realized that his jaw was moving and I was able to hear his words through my dazed mind.

"-Mel's over there. I guess you're her cousin right?" I realized he asked me a question and nodded faintly. He smiled and held out his hand. I shook it lightly.

"Cool, I'm Gerard. My bro and I hang out with her group, wanna go sit down?" I nodded and he chuckled slightly, pulling on my arm to direct me to where they were. They were all sitting around a table. Mel, of course, was next to Frankie and she watched as I approached.

She stood up from where she was sitting and looked at me in concern when I finally sat down across from her. "Hey are you alright? I saw you go pale up there. I yelled at you but I guess you couldn't hear me.", she looked me over. Gerard, I noticed, went over to sit between Frankie and a new person. He looked long and lanky with dirty blonde hair sticking out from under a knit cap.

"I did, I just couldn't find you in the crowd. Guess I got a little anxious.", I chuckled weakly.

She looked at me sharply and I mouthed 'Later." She nodded in understanding, but to keep up with appearances around her friends she stated, "Well then, I guess it was a good thing that Gerard helped show you where we were."

I nodded quickly before speaking to Gerard directly. "Thanks by the way, I'm Maude."

He smiled. "Nice to meet ya. This here's my brother Mikey, in case you didn't know." He gestured to the dirty blonde boy, who lifted a finger up in greeting. I realized that he had a pair of ear buds on and was in his own musical world.

I returned the greeting and started listening to the conversation that was going on between Frankie, Ray, and Bob. All three of them were arguing about who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman.

"No way dude, Superman would massacre Batman with his heat vision.", Bob deadpanned. Frankie opened his mouth to argue back, "Yeah, but if Batman could get his hands on Kryptonite, then Superman's just a goner. No fight even needed."

"Boys, boys, I have a feeling it would be a truce. Besides, they're both hero's and on the Justice League, it would have to be an alternate universe for them to fight each other.", Mel split the fight up. Only to have all three of them stick their tongues out at her.

She glared icily at them. "I'd advise you to put those tongues back in unless you'd rather lose them." They immediately complied.

Frank wrapped an arm around her. "Oh come on babe, you know you couldn't cut mine out, it has too many uses that you like." He winked at her.

I made the motion of gagging and heard a few giggles in return.

The bell rang and we all stood up. I looked at the piece of paper that secretary had given me and saw what homeroom I had. Luckily, since Mel and I had the same last name, we were in the same homeroom. Frank gave Mel a quick peck on the cheek, then she joined me, and we walked out of the cafeteria to begin our year of misery.