WEDNESDAY 10th 13:00

Okay, so Ameenah had this...thing that she loved to do and, yeah, it's a little bit creepy and weird but it can safely be said that our Ameenah was way past the point of caring.

She loved to watch people. It was something she'd always liked to do; a secret indulgence. She just loved it.

She loved to watch them all live their shallow lives. Loved to know all their little secrets. She thought it was all so interesting, and a welcome distraction, too. She didn't actually want to spend any time with herself. No, she hadn't done that in a while.

On the Wednesday that it all went down ('It' being the beginning of their inevitable adventure), Ameenah was watching Wilson specifically. She'd been the new girl for exactly two days and had made exactly minus two friends. Yep, it seemed that she'd managed to already repel two people.

Good going Meena, she thought, rolling her eyes in contempt. As if her week couldn't get any worse.

But anyway, back to Wilson.

The first thing that Ameenah noticed was that he was breath-takingly beautiful. Like, the kind of beautiful that effortlessly surpassed 'mildly attractive' , positively zoomed past 'I must f*- freaking have you' and landed on 'I can't stare for too long for my own protection'. Death by exploded ovaries was not the way that Ameenah wanted to go.

However, as soon as she realised that Wilson was fully aware of his - let's call them 'aesthetic advantages', her attraction was immediately toned down. According to Ameenah, there's acknowledging the truth, and then there's basking in it. Wilson was just one of those guys that you see and instantly dislike. Ameenah didn't know what it was. Something about him seemed kind of... Douchey. Yeah, that was definitely it. Wilson seemed like a complete douchebag.

But that certainly didn't stop her from looking.

•••

Wilson was at his locker, talking to Ham.

It was always Wilson and Ham. Ham and Wilson. They were the kind of friends that didn't even remember formally introducing themselves. They just kind of, you know, clicked. Though Ham wasn't the only one in the school to have known Wilson in middle school (when he was going through his extremely awkward phase), he was the only one that never commented on his change in appearance. It simply didn't matter to Ham. When Wilson had come back after the summer, completely transformed, Ham simply nodded (seemingly unfazed) and said, "do you have the three bucks you owe me?"

And it was left at that.

And Wilson was grateful for that. After he got over the initial outrage of Ham's lack of interest in his reformed appearance, he knew that it was actually a good thing. It meant that Ham would always see him for who he was, no matter what he looked like. It meant that it would always be Wilson and Ham forever. Even when the looks faded away.

So, anyway, Wilson was talking to Ham about a double date he'd organised. A few weeks earlier, Wilson had sworn to get Ham a girlfriend by the annual homecoming dance (because Wilson was a firm believer in the healing power of high school celebrations) however, all the girls he approached didn't seem to even know who Ham was. They were all either too caught up in the fact that Wilson-freaking-Jones was talking to them, or reluctant about the prospect.

(One of the girls even fainted when Wilson approached them. This was definitely going to be harder than Wilson thought.)

"I got us a double date with the Li twins tonight," Wilson beamed as he placed some books from his bag into his locker. "Double the trouble. Double the fun."

Ham sighed, looking down at Wilson in disappointment, "triple the number of lairy drunkards in the back seat of my car after I'm the only one with enough sense to stay sober." He frowned quickly, the familiar worry lines emerging on his forehead as realisation dawned, "wait, the Li twins? I thought they hated each other. Remember, that whole thing when Molly tried to move out and Milly dyed her hair green?"

Despite Ham's reluctant attitude, Wilson's smile still didn't falter, "well it seems they have reconciled especially for us, my dear friend, Hammy. So this means you have to be nice to these ones." He stuck a finger at Ham in accusation, "no more condescending comments. No more correcting them in the middle of their sentence!"

Ham rolled his eyes, "anyone who says Steven Spielberg is the best director of our time because they bloody found his name on Wikipedia, deserves more than a condescending comment," he protested indignantly.

Wilson sighed and rubbed his temples in exasperation. Ham wasn't as good with people as Wilson was. While Wilson could charm any soul with a simple smile (which was weird because somehow he got away with being a complete douche?) , Ham remained sarcastic and unapproachable, which really didn't help his game with the ladies. It was the whole reason that Wilson had vowed to help him in the first place. Ham seemed lonely. Besides, any girl that could handle Ham and his -- eccentric -- personality was definitely a keeper. He just had to actually find one first.

So yeah, this whole Li twin thing had to go well.

(Oh, and Wilson never did give Ham back that three bucks, if you were wondering. Wilson had simply hoped that Ham had forgotten, and Ham chose to believe that he'd get it back before they graduated college.)

•••

Just around the corner, Franklin was on the toilet. Not on the actual toilet toilet, though she very easily could have been. She was a human organism, after all. No, Franklin was sitting on one of the toilets in the cleaner's cupboard. One of the detached ones that didn't work.

It was a spare toilet, you see, in case one of the state of the art ones in the teacher's bathroom was to stop working. As well as this, it was the only place where you could really sit in the cleaner's cupboard. Of course it wasn't for students. Why waste wonderful square shaped toilets on students?

Franklin had already made a deal with Nice Colin the Cleaner that if she could sit in his cupboard and eat there during lunchtimes, she'd stay after school once a week and clean all the whiteblards in every classroom. Nice Colin the Cleaner hastily agreed, and Franklin knew she was getting off easy. He could have asked her to clean the boys' bathroom, or something equally as heinous.

Franklin hid to get away from her problems. Not that the incessant stench of bleach and mop water wasn't Franklin's favourite, but the main reason why she chose to camp out where she knew no-one would go was to get away from everyone. Get away from the girls who always made silly little snide comments whenever they saw her eat anything. And some of the boys that always looked at her with unnerving disgust. But it wasn't just them she wanted to get away from. Franklin was hiding from Jackson, the boy who had declared his love for her too many times to count, and who she knew was planning some extravagant way to ask her to the Homecoming dance. She couldn't allow it. He was delusional. They'd sat together in assembly once and Franklin had smiled at him and the next day he was reciting love poems. Freaking love poems! Franklin. Couldn't. Allow it.

Like, sure, Franklin was what you would call a hopeless romantic, but this wasn't exactly the high school romance she'd been hoping for. She'd watched all the movies, dreamed of all the possible scenarios in her head. Franklin wanted real love. The dopey kind of I-can't-stop-thinking-about-you love. The kind of love she knew she couldn't have with Jackson. Mainly because she knew that they had never actually spoken, so whoever Jackson though he was in love with definitely wasn't Franklin.

So yeah, there was that. Not to mention the fact that she was hiding from her music teacher, Mrs Santos, because she had once again failed to hand in her music coursework on time. Franklin knew that Mrs Santos would sniff her out sooner or later, but had rather hoped it would be later rather than sooner. Mrs Santos was scary and overbearing and spoke Portuguese when she was angry.

And Music was just so boring.

So Franklin was on a dysfunctional toilet in a janitors closet hiding from her problems. But, really, with both a lovesick Jackson and an angry Mrs Santos on the loose, she didn't think she could be blamed.

•••

Outside the cafeteria, Aloe had just narrowly avoided being pooed on by a bird.

He had left the busy canteen, had a
'mystery meat' sandwich in his hand and was about to take a hearty bite, when he heard the splatter of an unknown source directly adjacent to him.

Aloe froze mid-hearty-bite. He looked in wonder from the sandwich, to the place where the poop had been splattered, back to his sandwich. One or two steps to the left and he would have been directly under that bird poop. Aloe wasn't sure whether to be relieved that he wasn't currently covered in the stuff or to be sad that he didn't get some of the luck that it was said to bring.

He then looked at the left leg of the ratty, two year-old jeans that he always wore and saw that he was in close enough quarters to be in the splash zone. Aloe grimaced in disgust and silently cursed. He hoped this made him at least somewhat lucky.

Absentmindedly throwing the forgotten sandwich in the bin, Aloe edged round the fresh bird poop and walked in the direction of the boys' bathroom with his head down. Luckily, no-one had seen him, but then again, no-one really tended to see Aloe. Sure, he was noticeable enough with his ginger hair and freckled face, but he made sure to keep a general demeanour of apathy and dispassion in school. He didn't want anyone to see him. He always kept a neutral expression to warn people that he wasn't worth talking to (and more importantly, bullying). That there would be no entertainment or thrill in talking to him. Social interaction was too much hard work, and he much preferred to escape to whatever virtual world he was obsessed with that month. People are mean and thoughtless, Aloe often thought, and he couldn't deal with it. At least online, you could block anyone you didn't want to talk to.

Aloe did have one friend, though. Well, less of a friend and more of a friendly acquaintance. Clarke was a flamboyant, (probably?) asexual boy that he had met when he was deliberating whether or not to join the LGBT+ society (who had yet to gain rightful recognition in the school). Clarke was about to go in to the room where the club was held one lunchtime, and saw Aloe loitering outside the doors. He'd talked to Aloe and noticed him when no-one else seemed to. He made Aloe feel like he belonged, even though it was only for a few minutes.

However, though Clarke seemed to have a kind heart, Aloe still didn't want to be noticed by anyone, and knew that being associated with someone as outgoing as Clarke would destroy his hard-earned cloak of invisibility. This was why he often tried to avoid Clarke whenever he could. But on that day, Aloe was too preoccupied with the poo situation to see Clarke coming, and as a result Clarke took the opportunity and pounced.

Aloe was cornered.

"You've been avoiding me," Clarke narrowed his (beautiful) hazel eyes at Aloe accusingly. He had Aloe pinned against a nearby locker, and already Aloe could feel some eyes on them. Could feel his invisibility slowly slipping away.

Aloe shook his head quickly, not daring to say a single word, or even breathe. He closed his eyes, imagining that he was somewhere else- somewhere better, perhaps on a battle field, or in the Sonic universe.

"Hey," Clarke's voice softened, as his Greek eyes searched Aloe's muddy green, Scottish ones. He let go of his arms and gave him some space to breathe. "You alright?"

Aloe stayed silent meanwhile, keeling over and catching his breath. He could see that people had started to lose interest in the situation, which made him feel significantly better. He slowly got up, recovering from the alarming ordeal-

But then he saw Ham. Walking past with his friend Wilson, looking effortlessly good. He was wearing a grey beanie today, and he smelt like mint gum and Aloe couldn't take his eyes off of him. He was a boy frozen in time.

Then he was brought back to reality as Clarke spoke, and his eyes were ripped away from Ham, and Aloe stood straight, blushing foolishly. Aloe had liked Ham for about four years now. It started off as mild interest, as Ham was in many of Aloe's classes in middle school, and he saw Ham everywhere. However, it was the typical case of unrequited like. Aloe knew he would forever be invisible (cue the violins and sad music).

"What's wrong?" Clarke asked again, when Aloe didn't answer him the first time.

Aloe looked down at his stained pants leg and sighed. He had given up on evading Clarke, and a wave of sadness washed over him as he thought of Ham. Of what would never be. Clarke's eyes followed Aloe's and within seconds he understood the poo situation.

"C'mon mate, let's get you cleaned up," he said, taking Aloe by the arm and leading him in the direction of the nearest bathroom. Aloe followed complacently. "And afterwards," Clarke ordered, "we're going to have a conversation."

Aloe couldn't be more fearful of what was to come.

•••

Dylan was in the cafeteria , with her friend Tripp when she heard she'd been called to the Principal's office.

She'd been sent there because her ignorant teacher refused to call her Miss Rodrigues instead of Miss Smith and she kinda-sorta freaked out on him when he'd made a snide comment and the whole class had laughed. Chairs may have been thrown, illegal words may have been spoken-

At least, in Dylan's head this was the case.

- the bottom line was that Dylan was Miss Rodrigues and Miss Rodrigues most definitely wouldn't stand any authority figure disrespecting her. So she acted out, to protect her name. It's what any self-respecting person would have done. Dylan Rodrigues didn't see why there was a need to involve the principal.

On the outside, however, Dylan Smith remained passive as ever.

The sad reality was actually that the principal was her father, and Dylan had been called to his office probably for him to discuss her College Application a year early or something. There was  no exciting reason why she was there that involved Miss Rodrigues, which was everlastingly disappointing to Dylan. But one day, she knew she would let her alter ego show. One day. The world wasn't ready just yet.

So Dylan was probably doing the least interesting thing at that time, stuck on an uncomfortable chair with her arms crossed defiantly and her eyebrows furrowed. She was quite a sight.

And thus, it was at this moment, on that particular Wednesday lunchtime, when Ameenah was watching Wilson and Wilson and Ham were at Wilson's locker and Franklin was on a toilet in the Janitor's closet hiding from her problems and Aloe was dealing with the poo situation when Ham walked by and Dylan was really doing nothing interesting in the cafeteria that Principal Smith was minutes away from making the announcement that would alter the course of all their futures. And they had no knowledge of this whatsoever.

Now, let's get to Ham.