The self-inserts.

Secondary School.

Jonah was certain this place had a doorway to hell or was built by the demons who dwell there. He hated it, coming in to pointless lesson after pointless lesson, suffering through the endless idiocy of his class mates.

People said he was anti-social, Jonah said he had a brain that he didn't want to erode by talking to these idiots.

First period of five throughout the day was Music. It took place in... well, pretty much the entire music department. The classroom that they came to at the start of the lesson was surrounded by Macs and Keyboards, with a window on the left and a board on the right showing many printed out powerpoints about the Beatles, all of which were done by younger students a couple of weeks down.

It was the last complete week until the summer holiday and, though some may say final weeks are easy, surviving school still had it's challenges. The glaring hot sun that even Celestia would tone down was one of them, meaning Jonah had to ration the water in his water bottle strategically and make sure to remember to fill it up at lunch time so he could keep cool. Another challenge was the variance of lessons. In Music, he had to practice a couple of solo pieces that he would eventually preform for his B-tech. In English next lesson, He'd be starting an assessment that counted towards 15% of one of his English GCSEs. After breaktime, He'd be watching a Docu-drama about Hitler in History. Needless to say, the difference in brain activity required in these 3 activities was huge.

But, as ever, the biggest and most unavoidable challenge was the other children. They'd be even worse this week: They were beginning to grow whiny under the heat of the sun; a couple of schools across the country were actually closed because of the intense heat wave, giving the fools every reason to believe that this one should be shut too. Even worse, the assessment that Jonah had to do in English coming up would take place in the classroom, as it wasn't important enough to be taken down to the hall for, and the teacher would be juggling 2 different classrooms.

If you couldn't figure it out, this meant that, throughout the assessment, the worthless mindless mainstream slaves who thought they were worth something (A.k.a the naughty kids) would be giggling and whispering and talking and possibly even throwing things about during one of the most important hours of Jonah's life, where he really needed to concentrate because he wanted a good grade.

But Jonah had been suffering these kids for almost 3 years now, and was a hardened warrior within the psychological battleground that was the school grounds. He knew the safe lessons, the troublesome kids, the correct thoughts, and the safest routes to the lessons he needed to get to. The only thing Jonah really didn't have was an ally. Oh sure, he had his mother and father, and they were always there whenever he needed to share the pain of the school life, but there was no-one he could savour little victories with, or anyone to calm him down a bit while actually at the hell-hold. Again, there were special teachers who tried to help, but they couldn't really understand. They dealt with kids, Jonah wasn't one.

He sat on one of the chairs scattered around the music room, though there were no tables. The music room was neat like that. He looked around the classroom and saw something out of place. Natural blonde hair. There were no natural blonds in the music class, but then again it was entirely possible that someone else had a late change of mind and wanted to do music instead. But now he was looking closer at the girl, for there was something eerily wrong with her. She was sitting with her hands crossed in her lap, her legs softly swinging, and her head was ever so slightly tilted towards the ground. He couldn't see her eyes, though if he could then he'd put his pocket money on the fact that they were distant.

But before he could analyse the girl anymore, Mr Maple called for the register. He listened out for his own name, as well as the girls. How she spoke was crucial.

"Jonah Troncks." Sniggering. You'd think after 3 years they'd get used to it.

"Yes, sir."

"Lily Trinkle." Jonah had never heard of the name, but the school had two-hundred and fifty students in his year alone, it was  one of many unknown to him. More sniggering.

"Thank you." Sir said, sternly. Hang on, why'd this girl get special treatment? Then he saw the look passed between the girl and sir and it him. This girl was new.

Which means she'd need a buddy.

Picked by one of the few competent teachers in the school.

Now, Jonah liked Mr Maple. He was a brilliant and passionate musician, as well as an entertaining teacher if nothing else. No-one ever fell out with him, and he was generally a very understanding person. However, since he could show favoritism, he wasn't able to help Jonah too much with his problems except give him a great lesson whenever he came to his classroom.

Of course, he probably had talked to the girl before the lesson and got to know her a bit, so he could assign her to an appropriate person. Who better then the anti-social friendless Jonah, used to the school's dangerous ways!

He'd be metaphorically carrying her all day. Shuck.

The group of kids each went off to one of the practice rooms, and a couple went and turned on the macs to listen to some music. Jonah went to a nearby Keyboard and began practicing one of his solo pieces, but was quickly interrupted by a polite tap on the shoulder. He turned and saw Lily's face for the first time. She had shiny cheeks, and deep, sea blue eyes. above her right lip was a bright red spot, and a couple of blackheads were dotted around her nose. She was about as tall as him. Jonah looked at Mr Maple, who beamed back at him. He could almost see the halo. Jonah sighed.

"You play?"

"Yes." Her voice was high, and sweet.

"You got a piece to practice?" This time she only nodded.

"Well, there's a bunch of keyboards here. Go ahead and practice."

"Aren't you going to..."

"To what? Make a move? To ask you to let me hear you play?" he scoffed. "There's a hundred and twenty four other boys in our year for that." She sulked to the keyboard beside him. Jonah sighed. He hated doing that. Being mean wasn't his forte, but sadly, it's something that you get better at the more you do it. He looked at the girl again. She was repeatedly pressing the on button with little success. He didn't know why, but he walked over to a black box behind one of the the macs and flicked a switch on it. The girl turned the keyboard on, and looked at the boy open-mouthed.

"Thank you." she uttered. Jonah simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to his keyboard.

Fifty minutes later and it was almost the end of the lesson. Jonah was in the middle of playing one of his pieces when Lily once again tapped his shoulder, making the boy jump. "GWAA!"

"Oh! I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He muttered. "What is it?"

"I was just wondering how to get to S3, that's where my next lesson is." Jonah sighed. that's where he was next, too.

"Show me your timetable, I'll explain everything." he unfolded the small piece of paper she had given to him and looked at what he first thought was a copy of his own timetable.

"Huh..." he said slowly. "Seems you've got all the same lessons as me."

"So I guess i can just follow you to lessons, then?" Jonah looked at the girl, then to to the gods he had somehow angered, praying them to forgive him. He looked back at the girl.

"I guess so." He sighed.

Daniel made it to S3 late. He probably could've made it if he hurried, but it was far easier to make an excuse and take a few words. When he entered the bog-standard classroom the teacher, Miss Greenbee, Turned to him and pried;

"Why are you late?"

"Had to get my book from my locker miss."

"You've missed the first 5 minutes of the lesson"

"Sorry miss." he lied.

"It's your time you're wasting. Sit down and start your assessment." he reluctantly did as he was told. Jonah looked at the boy with a frown, shaking his head as he got back to work. He despised that type of person, who pranced around treating others without respect. It was disgusting to him.

The bell rung. Breaktime. Daniel was up and out of the classroom almost immediately while Jonah waited for the crowds to diminish slightly. He looked over at the girl. She was doing the same. Strange, he thought she'd want to get away from him as much as he'd like to get away from her.

"You're not normal." She said. Jonah froze behind her, speechless. He didn't know why the sentence struck him as odd; perhaps it was the way she said it. She sounded as if she were in deep thought. "Believe me, I know." She silently left the room. Jonah followed after her,

"Hey, wait!" he called. the girl turned her head. Jonah realized he had no idea what he was going to say "You know where the next lesson is?" he wanted to punch himself. Lily nodded, and pointed down the hall. "S23" She said. He knew she understood. "Right then..." The girl hung there for a second, looking at the boy. She sighed began to turn round.

"Know what you're going to do at break?" he asked. Once again, the girl turned.

"What are my options?" she smiled.

"Sadly, not much. You can order a snack from the cafeteria, sit in the hallway downstairs, or go to the library or-"

"Library sounds good." She interrupted.

"Oh. Well, okay then. This way." He walked past her, and she followed. They descended the stairs and entered the crowd of rambling, shouting, pushing teenagers. One of the worst things about school is the noise at break and lunchtimes, hence why Jonah spent most of them in the library, where it was quiet. The girl obviously thought the same way.

He hadn't expected that.

Nor did he expect Daniel to take an interest in the new girl. But then, he wasn't thinking about Daniel at the time. Daniel himself had heard from a friend who went to music about Lily and had gained a small bit of interest in the girl, but when he first saw her following after that asshat Jonah he knew she'd be trouble. The gang of boys walked up to the girl. Jonah silently continued to the library.

"Who are you?" He asked the new girl, though he already knew it.

"I'm Lily, who are you?" she chirped. The boys laughed.

"I'm Daniel. You new round here? Got a boyfriend quickly, eh?" He teased.

"Hmm? where?" she asked.

"Wh...where? huh?"

"You said... oh, never mind," She rolled her eyes. "Excuse me." with that she slipped past the boys into the library entrance. Daniel looked at her in annoyance. By rolling her eyes, she was acting as if she was better than him, he thought. She was wrong to think like that, the bitch had barely know him for 2 minutes.

What an awful human being, He thought.