Welcome to Gaia! ::

[GM]
We open on this brisk late summer morning the the hustle and bustle of a small but busy town getting ready to gear up for a new school year. Parents are getting ready to go to work, kids are dragging themselves out of bed and getting ready for another seemingly pointless year at North Hackettsville High School.

The town is small enough that most students walk or those that have cars can drive, but that is mostly a status symbol rather than a need to drive.

As a point to remember, most parents work directly for Trance Microelectronics. This is a multi-billion dollar facility, which sprawls several dozen acres across the northern edge of town. Almost all oft he research carried out there is top secret work, and employees are forced to sign non-disclosure forms constantly, not even telling their spouses or children what they work on. They also are not allowed to take work home with them.

While there is always an air of mistrust about the company, they are the only steady work in town, and they pay amazingly well and genuinely seem to care for their employees and their families.

Didn't mean to go off on a tangent there, but it is useful information though.

Again, we open on our students preparing for another school year. I won't name teachers for now, but I will keep track of the ones we make and what they do.

Please be sure to post your avatar for your teen when you post. You may write in third person, but please try to refrain from writing lines for the other players if you can help it.

I can make side threads if necessary, just ask! Let's keep out of character stuff in a separate thread, maybe int he main forum?

I think that's it for now. Enjoy your day at school, kiddies!

Elise wakes up early, too nervous to go back to sleep, and tries to calm her first-day-of-school jitters with her DS and a copy of "The Legend of Zelda" for the GBA. It works so well that she hardly notices the knocking on her door that comes an hour later -- it's Owen, her family's housekeeper-slash-butler-slash-chauffeur, and he's brought her hot pancakes and maple syrup (the real kind), her favorite breakfast.

After eating as quickly as she can, she rushes to get ready for yet another year at NHHS, almost leaving behind her new notebooks and school supplies in the process (but not forgetting to tuck the DS in the coveted first pocket of her schoolbag). Finally dressed, she drags a comb through her hair, checking the result in the hall mirror on her way out the door. "Same as always," she mutters, frowning a little and trying to pat down the flyaway hairs that always stick up along her hairline. Owen gives her a reassuring scruff on the head as she runs by, and despite his offer, she decides to walk to school instead of having him drive her. The jitters are back, and maybe the twenty-minute walk down to the high school will help calm her.

Once on the road, she sighs and pulls out her cell phone, contemplating calling Kenz. They'd just talked the night before, though, until they were both barely awake, and they'd see each other in less than half an hour anyway. Maybe we'll finally have homeroom together this year, she thinks, and smiles. I hope so.

The walk to school is uneventful, and once there Elise settles in by her locker and pulls out Zelda again, waiting for Kenz and the others to get in so they can compare schedules before homeroom starts.

"Friggin' skater punks..."

Ryan brushes his jacket off a bit, still ticked off that the kid on the skateboard just slammed into him. What was his name again? He heard Mack call him "Hollywood" before. He'll have to return the favor to the kid later though. This was the year he was going to beat Riley to Mack's house, the year Mack sees him as her true love. He will not be denied. He would be the one to walk her to school.

he checks one more time to make sure he has everything, books, backpack, 2 cups of coffee from the Diner, one for him and that other well, we already know who that one is supposed to be for. He had this day all planned out. He just had to beat Riley, that's all. He's done it before, shouldn't be too hard to do again.

He rounds the corner onto Mackenzie's street...

"To pee or not to pee, that is the question," Riley yawned as he rolled over in his bed. His alarm clock was blasting From Here to Eternity by his boys, Iron Maiden for the past 3 min. His Cell went off "and there's your answer," he murmured as he picked it up. It was Mack, calling him as she did every morning to get him out of bed. He had about half an hour to pick her up and head to school. "Plenty of time," he stated as he dragged himself into the bathroom to perform the manly morning rituals.

He ached. The summer practices of football camp worked on him hard. They had a new linebacker this year. A huge, corn fed boy from Arkansas who managed to get by his line crew and his guards to sack him not once, not twice, but 10 times in one day. "At least he's on our side on the grid iron," Riley smiled as he tied his shoes and made way to the kitchen to grab that last slice of day old cold pizza from the box for breakfast. Taking the pizza between his teeth, Riley made way towards the door and onward to his truck.

On his way to pick up Mack, he spots Ryan walking down the sidewalk. Riley rolls down the window of his truck and pulls up beside him. "Hey bud, want a lift?"

Mac waits outside waiting for Riley's truck. She checks her cell, sighs and crosses her arms. Finally she hears the familiar rumble of his engine coming down her street. She smiles when she sees him, then notices Ryan. Her smile gets bigger. Sigh, the two best looking, nicest guys in school coming to pick her up. When did she get so lucky. If only Ryan would ask Elise out, then things would be perfect!

Riley pulls up and tosses her a lopsided grin. Her heart thunders in her chest. Ryan hops out and motions for Mac to get in, which she does quickly. Riley puts his arm around her and kisses her briefly. Ryan slides back in and closes the door. Mac and Ryan's knees touch, which makes Mac blush slightly. Ryan IS quite good looking, if there was no Riley maybe she'd be with him now. But there's no use pondering that, since Riley is here. Mac looks from Ryan to Riley, smiles and says "Ok my knights - Onwards to victory! Or at least homeroom."

Finally making it to school, Hollywood scoops up his skateboard and heads off tto his locker. Figures, he beats everyone to school... except Elise. She's standing there, leaned against her locker, playing DS. He decides to lean up against a doorframe and see how long it takes for Elise to notice him.

As Riley's pickup comes to a complete stop in what is basically assumed to be Riley's spot in the Parking lot (Someone once scrawled it in spraypaint just in case anyone forgot) Ryan climbs out and offers Mack the second cup of coffee on her way out.

"Just the way you like it!"

After he hands off the coffee, he moves along towards the school.

"Hey, if you're free after practice, wanna go hang out by the lake? The water is still warm enough to go swimming!" Ryan calls back to them, smiles, flexes his right arm real quick before running off to catch up with some of the other jocks on the football team. He turns back to wink real quick and disappears into NHHS' waiting maw. As he passes Elise and Hollywood, he slugs the skater-boy in the arm fairly hard and is gone.