Survival Of The Fittest

This homework is a joke. It has to be.

Asher Kerrington had taken up part of one of the lunch tables. All the books he needed for his assignments were stacked nicely beside him as he easily went through another worksheet. Since he had to go to fencing later tonight, he figured that he would just stay in the cafetorium after-school and finish up his homework. He could always catch the late bus home, where he'd have to eat and run, like every night.

"I could've just gone home and done this..." He said to himself as he scribbled an answer on the Chemistry assignment he was working on. "I mean, it's simple. A child could do this work."

He was used to much harder assignments, like he'd had at the the Academy. Ah, the Academy...he'd give anything to go back. At least there he would be challenged, unlike at this place...there would be a different set of people there, too. A more tolerable set...

But there was no reason to complain. Bayview had a decent reputation, as public high schools go, and since he was excelling here, it'd be easy to get into a college that would actually give him a run for his money.

Once he finished the sheet, he put it back in the folder for the class it went with and yawned. He had English and Math left...hm, what to do first...

Josie finally felt free. It was that time of the day that she wasn't restrained by silly rules of the classrooms. It was after school and Josie could finally sit and relax a little.

This particular day had been quite a lazy day for Josie. She woke up slightly late so her make-up was messily applied, her hair was thrown up into a ponytail and she was wearing a plain black hoody and some skinny jeans. She didn't look all too phenomenal.

Josie arrived at the cafeteria, or cafetorium, as it was called and glanced around the large room. She really wasn't feeling going home just yet. She just wanted to hang around a little longer and talk to her best friend, Sierra. The two of them had been wandering the school, looking for a good place to chat until they stumbled upon here. A cafeteria that was free of people. Mostly.

There was only a single other kid in the room who appeared to be doing homework of some sort. Josie felt bad that she and Sierra were most likely going to ruin any sort of semblance of peace and quiet.

Picking a table by the large bay window leading to the outside, Josie sat down on top of it, crossing one leg over the other. She folded her arms in front of her and nodded in Sierra's direction. "So...tell me the truth. I look horrible today, don't I? I got up like..fifteen minutes late. Oh my gawd, it was terrible. And then my mascara exploded.." Josie rolled her eyes dramatically.

"How's your day gone?" Josie asked after rambling on about her terrible morning. "Oh wait, hang on. There's a hair on your shirt." Josie plucked a strand of blonde hair from Sierra's shirt and let it flutter to the floor. That was just the kind of friendship the two girls had. Utterly open. They would tell each other anything, including if one of them had a disgusting booger hanging out of the their nose or if one of them looked terrible that particular day.

The petite, rainbow clad girl crossed her legs in an attempt to find a more comfortable position on the lunchroom table, which she happily perched herself on. The index finger found her hair and vigorously beginning twirling it, a bad habit she's had since childhood, as she listened to Josie's horror story.

"Harrrsh," The girl grimaced, "But, like, you don't look toooo bad and you can borrow thome of my mathcara, if you need to," Sierra smiled and began digging through the messy contents of her fluorescent pink backpack.

"I know it'th in here thomewhere..." She growled, until finally pulling out the rogue Revlon tube. "Give it back when you done though, cauthe, like, you bogart all my make-up," She said, feigning anger at Josie's apparent sticky-fingers.

Josie took the morsel of make-up with a wide smile and questioned Sierra about her day, only to receive an annoyed sigh in return.

"Ugh, well-" She started, but was cut off as Josie plucked a hair off her shirt, "Anyway, thtupid freakin' Thedric Pomeroyl tripped me in the hall today, like theriouthly. I don't get what his problem is," Sierra huffed, obviously annoyed at the boy and even more annoyed at the fact that she couldn't even pronounce his name right.

Asher didn't notice anyone else enter the room until he heard voices. Female voices, seeming to prattle on about nothing too terribly important.

Ugh. He twitched. It doesn't matter. I'll be done soon, and then I can leave...just don't pay them any attention...yeah, exactly.

That sounded hard, not paying attention to a pair of obnoxious girls. Would he be able to do it? Probably not. He got into shouting matches once a week with girls, usually one in particular...and hadn't the quota already been filled this week?

Asher shook his head to clear it. What mattered now was his homework. He pulled out his Math textbook and grabbed his notebook, quickly turning to the page that was assigned.

Josie's eyes lit up as Sierra handed her to the tube of mascara. "You rock, Sierra! Where did you get this dank mascara...? I kinda like it." Josie then proceeded to dig through her large black purse with a skeleton embroidered on it. She found a mirror and began applying mascara to her lashes. She felt so naked since she usually had fake ones on. And fake lashes took forever to glue on and Josie just didn't have the time that morning to apply them.

After a few minutes of mascara-coating, Josie handed to tube back to her best friend. "Oh my gaawd, this stuff goes on SO good! I like it! I'm a-gunna have to buy myself some of this stuff."

Josie then dutifully listened to Sierra's day. Her face slowly got darker and darker. "Thedric Pomeroy tripped you?! Where is he?! I'm going to talk to him!" she raged, her fists gripped so tightly, her knuckles were white. For a moment, she paused to wonder if his name really was Thedric, or if that was just Sierra's lisp. Josie didn't personally know any Thedric's.

"Anyway, I am going to talk to him! I'm not letting this Thedric boy get away with tripping you. That's so mean, I mean, my gawd. .. Is his name really Thedric?" Josie asked.

She glanced over slightly at the working boy. "Is that him, Sierra? Is that Thedric? I'll go beat him up for you, you know! HEY YOU!" Josie yelled out, referring to the boy.

Asher gripped his pen when the girls called out to him, and he gritted his teeth. Ooh, they'd done it now...

He slowly turned around to face them, glaring with all the intensity he could muster up. He was a little tired, so his glare wasn't as strong as he wanted it to be.

"What?" He said abruptly, keeping his eyes as icy as possible. If he was lucky, maybe they would get the idea that he did not want to deal with anyone. Honestly, you wouldn't have to deal with me if you kept your big mouths shut.

After school was the best time to sit in the cafetorium. No noisy people, no classes to get to. And besides, it wasn't as if Harold especially had much to do at home besides give his parents the typical status report. If he wanted to, he probably could have stayed in school all night, except the janitors got irritated at him. Apparently, they couldn't lock up unless everyone left, and like any sensible person, they didn't want to get fired if they could help it.

Upon buying some food, whatever it was, out of a vending machine, Harold sat himself down at an unoccupied table and hooked up his laptop to a nearby wall outlet. He debated whether or not to put in headphones, seeing as the place wasn't really that crowded. Ultimately though, he didn't want to risk annoying people, so he just plugged them in. It was better to do that than risk having one's head smacked into the table. It had happened at least twice this semester.

Oh, lovely, ANOTHER Leekspin video on Youtube. These people and their crazes...they're like a bunch of sheep just following the leader right off a cliff. Not a bad remix though.

Not too surprisingly, his own videos had fallen victim to the 1-star crowd. It seemed that the best way to popularity on the internet did not involve saying that the big-name animes were all cheap and stupid, and that everyone should instead watch an obscure and mostly exploitative show which does nothing but examine its own navel for about 2/3 of it. Redeeming social value be hanged, it seemed. All they wanted was overblown fight scenes.

I don't know why I bother angrily commenting back at these idiots. All they want is flashy special effects and endless flashbacking.

A toothy grin spread across Sierra's face as Josie threatened bodily harm on Cedric Pomeroy. Ever since she could remember, Josie had been the first to jump to her aid at school and, no matter how embarrassing it got at times, she absolutely loved Josie for it. Lord knew how flustered she got when it came to conflict, especially when someone verbally attacked her.

"Is that him, Sierra? Is that Thedric? I'll go beat him up for you, you know! HEY YOU!"

Heat rose to Sierra's cheeks the minute Josie began yelling at the innocent boy. No matter how great a friend she was, Josie sure knew how to start a scene.

"No, no, no," Sierra stammered, "Thedric, y'know, like with a 'THee'," She explained, making sure to draw the letter C in the air. "The really thkinny weird kid?"

Sierra made sure to send and apologetic look Asher's way, though he probably didn't deserve it with that attitude of his.

Charlie pushed open the door to the cafetorium, heaving a long, quiet sigh as his hands buried themselves deep into the pockets of his olive-green jacket. He was feeling particularly hard-boiled that day, and with no volleyball practice and no real reason to go home, he figured he might as well check the usual spots to see if any of his friends were around to hang out with.

Upon entering the cafetorium, he saw just what he was looking for; good ol' Harold typing away on his laptop. Charlie had always liked Harold. Perhaps it was his love for video games and anime, or his grade-A intellect, or even the aspect of him that drove many people away: his tendency to try to get into people's heads. Charlie never was very gifted in debating, but he thoroughly enjoyed his little logical discussions with Harold, even if he does seem a bit condescending at times. But then again, Charlie was guilty of being haughty at times himself, so he couldn't hold it against Harold.

Walking over to where Harold sat, Charlie glanced over at the little exchange going on between Sierra, Josie and Asher. Emitting a low, barely-audible grunt, he turned his head away, trying to distance himself from the three of them. Josie was alright, lil' Sierra was kinda cute, but Asher...Charlie didn't like that guy. He seemed to set off practically every psycho-alarm in Charlie's head. He was huge, he was surly, and he seemed to have it out for every girl he saw. Now, Charlie would hardly call himself chivalrous, but acting so belligerent towards girls just for them having an extra X chromosome struck a bad chord with him.

Shaking his head, Charlie turned his attention back to Harold, attempting to block Asher from his mind before he made Charlie feel even more hard-boiled than he already was. "Hey man," Charlie said as he lightly tapped the knuckles of his fist against Harold's shoulder, sitting down next to him and glancing over at the screen of his laptop. "What'cha watchin'?"

Josie casually glanced back over to Sierra. "Oooh. Cedric," she said aloud. "I guess Cedric makes more sense..Never heard of that kid before," Josie thought to herself. Then again, as of late, she rarely paid much mind to any of her classmates. She was too consumed with all her scenester friends, which mostly consisted of herself and Sierra.

Josie turned back to look at Asher. She was met with a very icy glare on his behalf. "Never mind, I just mistook you for someone else. Geez, stop giving me that look! It's burning me," Josie said sarcastically with an eye roll. She pretended to shield her eyes. Why were those smart kids so mean?

Josie automatically assumed that Asher was a "smart kid" since he had chose to do his homework in the cafeteria after school instead of choosing to ignore it, like Josie usually did. She was quite proud of her 1.9 GPA.

She looked back over at Sierra. "ANYWAY. If I ever see that Cedric kid, I'm giving him a lesson that he won't forget. With my fist. I'll curb-stomp him! What a jerk! Weird skinny kids are so..so ugh!" Josie muttered, suddenly jerking her head to the side in a violent manner. She was just sweeping her long emo-style bangs to the side, which she did pretty often. It made her neck tired though...

"This weekend, we should like...totally go to the mall and get some cool stuff, then go to a concert. I know that like, seven cool bands are coming to St. Paul on tour. Like 'Bloody Curtains of Our Suicide Love' and 'Kill My Family with Poison Heart Candies.' I loooove those bands sooo much," Josie gushed to Sierra. She was talking slightly loud, still not being considerate to poor Asher.

"..." Asher just grunted slightly and turned away. Honestly, people should get their facts straight before they call others out. Stupid women...

Yes, Asher disliked women. He didn't even keep it a secret, and didn't care if others knew. In his eyes, if you're not up-front about who you really are, then why bother being? It was too much work to actually lie, anyway.

Sighing, he finished the last problem on his math homework and started to pack up his things. He knew he wouldn't be able to get anything else done in here, what with all the people coming in. As he shoved his last belonging into his backpack, he glanced up at the girls again. He could here their conversation from here; something about a concert of some sort. Frowning, he sholdered his bag and headed out. There was still time before the late buses would arrive.

((Asher Kerrington continued in Music of the Spheres))

(Continued later from Watch The Sky)

Erin headed toward the cafetorium, today had been a horrible day for her. First she wakes up late, her mother forced her to wear her skirt, she arrived late, then she missed lunch because she spent most of that time going to her teachers and finding out what material she missed so she could read up on it tonight, worst of all she had no idea what happened in math today because she hadn't seen Edward for the rest of the day. If she didn't get something to eat she would never be able to make the walk home. She saw another student, a male passing by, he seemed like he was rushing away. Could something have irritated him?

Erin entered the cafetorium and headed right to the closest vending machine. As expected everything in it was junk, still Erin would have to consider the consequences of such food later as her stomach was tell her that skipping two meals is a very bad thing. She decided to just go with something random to get it out of the way. Just as what seemed to be a pack of potato chips, which her mother would kill her for if she knew she'd eaten a pack of such greasy food, slowly removed it's self for it prison to fall into a suitable place for Erin to grab it, the machine decided to stall and the chips stuck where they where forever out of Erin delicate reach. All she could do is rub her eyes with her thumb and pointer finger trying to stop the oncoming headache.

Fuck, great the perfect shitty end to this perfect shitty day! Ok Erin keep you cool, things could be much worst.

She lightly hit the side of the vending machine, she knew it would do no good, she was just trying to calm herself. She just sighed and smiled.

"Well that's just tragic, oh well bad day, I'll just make sure tomorrow is 10x better then my average day then!"

She gave a little laugh as her stomach growled. She just flicked her hair back a little with her hand and looked around at the people in the room with her.

Josie Vernon and Sierra Manning huh? I know their names, but nothing about them at all. I never thought of introducing myself. Nahhhh I don't know something about them always made me feel awkward. We have nothing in common and I think I only have one class with them anyway, I don't even know why I remember their names, I think it's their look or something.

She continued to look around, their where two boys as well, but she didn't recognize them at all. One seemed to be on a laptop. She heard a sound behind her like a bag crunching as it hit the ground. Erin grinned ear to ear and turned around. Looks like today may just turn around after all. She leaned down and picked up the potato chips, but now that she had them she didn't really want them even the bag felt greasy. She sat down and put the bag infront of her and just stared at it.

((Omar Burton continued from Life Wasted ))

The cafeteria. Normally a relaxing place after school- the asshole 'cool kids' were usually off finding a way to get drunk, and the asshole normal kids like Kent were usually off trying to find a way to be one of the 'cool kids'. If you came there after school, you pretty much had the opportunity to do anything you wanted.

And right now, Omar was in the mood to get his homework done. He hated doing it at his house- there were just too many distractions there. If he did it here though... he could finish quickly and then have time to do what ever he wanted at his house. He'd probably read. Depended if there was any good shows on TV, though.

Omar took a look around the place, and noticed that there was nobody here that he really disliked. Then he saw her- that girl with the annoying lisp. Boy, did that piss him off... she couldn't even pronounce her own name!

Ah, whatever. Omar took a seat at one of his tables, and placed his books in front of him. He'd probably work on history first- history was his least favorite subject. Dates and dead people... what a load of shit. He put his back to the lisp girl, opened his textbook, and hoped to God that she didn't feel a sudden need to start talking.

-And in conclusion, don't try to lecture me about how "AMZNGLY AWSOME NATURO IS," random internet person. If you want to make a coherent argument about something, then consult a spellchecker-

"What'cha watchin'?" Turning from his computer to see who was talking, Harold saw that Charlie was looking over his shoulder. He rather enjoyed the fellow's company, as Charlie was one of the few people in this school who actually liked to talk to him. Debate, after all, was not something every man was acclimated to.

"Ah, hello, Charlie," said Harold as he finished typing his response. "I was just checking on my Youtube videos. Same as always, it seems. If they had an award for Least Popular videos, mine would probably be in there."

Taking off his headphones, Harold suddenly noticed the noise in the room, rather surprising for the small amount of people. Scanning around, he found the source straight away. Two ladies were chatting up a storm about a fellow who had just left. Normally, he wouldn't notice, but they appeared to be a little loud about it. "Some people have no respect..." he mumbled to himself.

"Eh, what can you do?" Charlie asked rhetorically, shrugging his shoulders at Harold's commentary about his YouTube videos. "C'est la vie." Glancing at the laptop screen, he caught sight of the scalding comment that Harold was in the process of writing. "You shouldn't bother with those trolls," he said as Harold was removing his headphones. "Your carefully-worded arguments are falling on deaf ears."

Hearing Harold's grumbling about respect, Charlie looked over his shoulder at the two girls. Asher had since retreated out of the cafetorium, and now they were yakking about bands or something. Rather loudly too, he added after a beat.

"Think one of us should say something?" he whispered to Harold. He was considering asking them to tone it down, but he didn't want to draw unnecessary attention to himself...