(Author's Note - This branch requires a bit of setup, and takes someone from outside the normal cast of characters and shows it from their perspective.)

Monday Morning

Barbara Harris woke up and climbed out of bed. Barb was fourteen and a freshman at Lake Point High School. She looked around her room and scrounged up a pair of clean jeans, a black t-shirt that said, "Pluto, 1930-2006", and a pair of socks. "I definitely need to do laundry tonight," she mumbled. Her room was a mess. There was a pile of clean clothes, a pile of dirty clothes...and neither of which were in the hamper or drawers. She had a computer desk as well as a folding table where she worked on various projects and hobbies.

She headed to the bathroom and quickly showered and cleaned up for the day, then got dressed, hurried back to her room to grab her black jacket and bookbag before heading out the door to school, getting there well before what was called Period 0. This was the 45 minutes after the building was open, but before first classes. The school had a staggered schedule. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the schedule was different than Tuesday and Thursday for one. She hurried into the cafeteria to grab free breakfast, quickly gathering a tray and heading to a corner to eat. The breakfast program was only used by a minority of students, but it was an option. As she ate, she quickly finished a few bits of schoolwork before the bell for first period.

After finishing her food and the work, she cut out the side entrance because it was faster to cut back to the front entrance than go through the building, which would be against the crowd of students entering. "Hey Harris...where are you rushing off to?" A male voice said as she hurried toward the back of the gym. She paused and turned, seeing a familiar face. It was Mr. Quinn, the teacher who ran Service Class, which she had gotten into for the spring semester. He had just finished smoking a cigarette and was heading back inside. Quinn was the opposite of what she expected teachers to be like. He treated students like people...all of his lessons were doing actual things over talking about them, and he was scruffy. He wore a button down shirt, a brown jacket, and had a rather scruffy beard. The other teachers looked much more put together.

She slowed down. "Just getting to class," she said.

"Let me walk with you," he offered. "I'll open the side entrance, save you a minute," he joined her as they headed around the back of the gym.

There were a bunch of Goths hanging around on the rocks behind the gym. Barb paused her gaze for a moment on one of them, who had a pair of goggles and a latex outfit, before focusing back on her teacher. "First day of Service Class."

"For you. Remember, the others are Juniors and Seniors...a freshman hasn't done this before. Last semester you were just hanging around."

"They haven't given me a hard time since I got that computer to post that none of them could fix. They know I know what I'm doing."

"That doesn't mean they always appreciate the newbie...or the fact you are the first girl to join since I started the class. Or that you are a freshman. That is three reasons to give you a hard time. I know you can handle it though." He unlocked the side door so they could both enter before they split up. "See you later."

Lunchtime Monday

Barb waited on line for her lunch when suddenly several cheerleaders walked in front of her as if she wasn't there. "Excuse me!" she said. "Didn't you see me on line?"

"Freshmen are supposed to be invisible," one of them commented.

Barb looked at them. "And cheerleaders are supposed to be mean selfish bitches who think they own the place. Way to go living up to the cliche. It's a line. No one cuts."

"Yes...no one like you. But we're someones," the red haired girl replied.

Barb fumed at that, and fumed even more when the cheerleaders let in Sarah McMillan...She didn't know all of their names, but everyone knew Sarah, even if you wished you didn't. And her boyfriend. She finally turned, took one of the cold sandwiches as opposed to the hot food, and stormed out of the cafeteria in a huff...nearly colliding with one of the Goths.

"Watch where the fuck you are going," she said.

"Sorry..." she said, sidestepping them before heading somewhere to calm down, visibly angry and mumbling something under her breath.

The Goth turned to her friends. "What crawled up her butt?"