"G'morning, peoples," Tara said, waving at her friends as she entered the school the next morning. Maria greeted her with head nod and put a finger up to let her know that she was on her cell phone.

"Okay, okay. Just pick them up from soccer practice!"

"Your brother?" Tara asked. Maria sighed. "Yep. I'm so glad they don't go here."

"Thank goodness you have money right?" Tara asked sort of innocently.

"Not really how I'd put it but yeah, I guess," Maria replied, a little surprised.

"…."

"Hi, Tika," Tara said. "Is something…"

"Hold on," Maria said. "Maria. Good friend of Tara."

"Tika." The dark-skinned girl smiled slightly, but returned to frowning.

"Are you always like this?" Maria asked nervously.

"No, I just want to know why he's staring at me." Tika pointed towards Tuesday, who was giving her an evil glare while hiding behind his locker door. Tara sweatdropped. "Tuesday…."

"I feel an evil aura emanating from her," he said, attempting to sound dark.

"I'm not evil," Tika replied, returning his stare.

"That's what they always say…"

"Has he always been an idiot?" she asked.

"Hey!" Tuesday emerged from behind his locker, fists clenched. "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it means…"

Tuesday's face turned a light shade of red. "Why…you…"

"Tuesday!" Tara said, grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him towards Tika. "This is Tika."

"…Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"So…you two can get better acquainted!" she remarked hesitantly.

"Uh-huh. I bet she…"

"There you are," Matthew said from a distance. Tika turned and waved at him as he approached. "You need to stop leaving so early in the morning."

"I'm restless…" said Tika, rather blankly.

"*sigh* Anyway, 'sup'…um…"

"Tara."

"Tara," he said, seemingly tasting it on his lips. "Cool."

"…" Erin suddenly emerged in front of Matthew, who kept his cool posture. "Hi."

"Hi," Tara's boyfriend replied cautiously. Blaine approached Matthew from behind, not expecting to receive the same glare. Tara rolled her eyes. "Just jealousy, guys."

"I am not jealous," Erin growled, still staring at the two boys.

"Dude, don't worry about it," Matthew said after a few minutes. "I'm not interested in your girlfriend."

Blaine only nods.

Erin, seemingly convinced, backed up a bit. Soon, Sarah and Kira arrived. "Hello, peoples," Sarah said, waving. Kira, upon noticing Matthew only waved slightly and held her head down, blushing.

To make matters worse, he decided to introduce himself to her. "Wow, you're a shy one, aren't ya?"

Kira's face turned an even brighter red. "Uh…"

"I'm Matthew," seemingly oblivious to her flushed face.

"…Kira…" She finally managed to say in a squeaky tone.

"Nice to meet you," he said, smiling widely. Kira only nodded slightly, trying her best not to lock eyes with him. "Friends, 'kay?"

Steam nearly poured out of her ears. "…O-kay…"

"Good!"

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite," Tika replied. Mathew's expression became stoic as he turned his head to face her.

"That wasn't a pun," she whispered.

"?" Kira clearly showed her confusion. Tika only told her to ignore it. "Anyway…

"Hola!" Matthew blushed out of embarrassment as Maria stared him in the face as she greeted him. Pulling back, she nodded. "He's is cuter up close. Sweet!"

"Er…"

"Don't worry," Tara replied. "She's always like that."

"I see," Matthew remarked rather nervously. "So…"

"Just saying." Maria smiled. "I tend to be rather frank…"

"You're not the only one…" Sarah remarked. The Hispanic only rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She then noticed Blaine, leaning on the lockers nearby. "You okay, there?"

He nodded.

"You anti-social? Introverted?"

"Not really," he remarked, rubbing his neck. "I'm just waiting 'til my input is needed."

"As if…" Tika hooked him under the arm, trying her best to drag him over. "He's shy, right now. When he warms up to ya, you'll see a different side to him…Come on!"

She began to pull at him, straining as it him as he stood there, smirking. Finally, she huffed and whispered something in his ear. Blaine nodded slightly. Tika finally managed to drag him over, where he stumbled along, only to stop in front of Tara.

His face warmed up considerably.

"See?" Tika asked. "He's quiet now…"

"It's not like I'm a science experiment," sighed Blaine, irritated.

"I like him!" Tuesday replied, only to receive a growl from Tika. "What? This guy's cool with me!"

"You are really starting to get on my nerves…"

"Guys, guys." Matthew stood between. "We've barely been here a week and already you've made enemies."

Tika's mouth formed into a thin line as Tuesday licked out his tongue. "Oh, this ain't over, yet," she growled, pointing at him.

"C'mon, let's go." Blaine hoisted an angry Tika over his shoulder. Somehow knowing that it was pointless to argue, she only crossed her arms, glaring at Tuesday as she was taken away. Matthew threw up the peace sign. "We'll see you guys, later then," he said, waving, particularly at Kira. As they left, the group turned towards her, only to see that she was staring straight ahead. The Japanese-Mexican, realizing that she was being stared at, blushed fiercely and pushed the others away. Maria smirked as her friend quickly walked towards the stairs.

"You'll find them in there."

"Thanks, Coach."

Blaine opened the storage closet of the gym. Seeing his target, he waved Matthew in and opened the door that read "Weight Room." The redhead stretched as he followed his best friend inside.

"So, what are we supposed to do again?"

"Set up these weights for the football team," Blaine replied.

"Why us?" Matthew asked.

"Coach's orders, that and we're free until we go to work. Besides, we have to talk to some of the teachers, remember?"

"Right…" Matthew picked a 50 lb. weight and set it on a bar, repeating the process on the other side. He then turned towards Blaine.

"Need a lookout?"

"Go ahead."

"How much time do you need?"

"10 minutes."

"Got it."

With that, Matthew took off his hat and headed to the door, ears attuned to the outside. Blaine picked a 25 lb. dumbbell and tossed it in the air, catching it with relative ease…

"*sigh* Why did I have to watch Avatar that night?"

Tuesday lumbered across the hallway towards the gym.

"Of all nights, I had to choose that one," he griped. "How I am supposed to know we had a pre-test in the morning? In gym of classes! Heck! And now, I have to help straighten up the locker room…both of them."

Of course, any guy would jump at that opportunity.

But Tuesday was not one who got particularly excited about going into the girls' locker room, whether there were girls in there or not.

Call him crazy, but there are certain reasons why…

But he had no time to think about them as he grabbed the broom and began to sweep the gym floor.

And then there was Tika.

Tuesday quickened his pace.

What was it with her? Something seemed a bit off when he first saw her anyway. It was wrong to judge….

But judging by her reaction, she didn't take to him too favorably either.

"Dude, watch it!"

"Huh?" Tuesday replied aloud. "Anyone there?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

"*sigh* Are you done?"

"Almost."

Tuesday followed the sound of the voices to the storage closet. "Hello?"

Immediately, he heard a scurrying of feet and some hushed voices. Finally, a large clang was heard and he rushed towards the source, the weight room. Matthew lay sprawled backwards over a tumbled pile of weights.

"You okay?" Tuesday asked. Matthew's head popped up and he could swear that he saw something brown, in fact, two brown objects sticking up out of his head before the cap quickly covered them. "Yeah, I'm good," the redhead murmured, stumbling over his words. He took Blaine's outstretched hand and pulled himself up. "Something up?"

"Oh, no, I heard something and was just coming to check it out," replied Tuesday. "That's all. You guys need any help?"

"Nah, we're good," Blaine said, smiling a little. Tuesday only eyed them a bit suspiciously before leaving. He never noticed as Matthew watched him from behind the door post, eyes narrowed until he watched him leave the storage room. Giving Blaine a thumbs up, he moved out of the way as his best friend began to gather up the weights in the neat piles they were originally in.

PF

"Why do I have idiots as friends?"

"Hey, he didn't see anything!" Matthew nearly blurted out, chowing down on a hamburger.

"Yeah, but still," Tika lamented, sipping on some milk. "If you weren't there, Blaine would've been caught. And I have no idea how Tuesday acts...and I don't even wanna know..."

"Ok, ok," Matthew sighed. "We'll be more careful. Why do you I think I suggested hats?"

Tika motioned to Blaine. "At least he doesn't have to wear one."

"Don't make me mad," Blaine warned blankly. Tika only rolled her eyes playfully and turned back to her lunch.

"E' O!" All heads turned to see Tara, tray in hand as she heads over to their table. "Mind if I squeeze in?"

"Sure, go ahead," Tika remarked, smiling.

Tara sat inbetween Matthew and Blaine, not even noticing when the latter coughed a bit and turned away.

"So, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing much,"Matthew replied. "Just..talking about...stuff..."

"Such as why you have have two hamburgers?" Tara asked, causing Tika to snicker. Matthew only pulled on his collar as he tried to think of an excuse.

"High metabolism," Blaine finally said. "Both of 'em."

"Ha, you're one to talk," retorted Tika. His expression turned completely blank, causing Tara to giggle.

"So, all of you guys have big appetites, huh? Cool."

"...Really?" Matthew asked.

Tara only nodded. The group simply exchanged glances and continued eating, still a little surprised at her response. In the distance, Tuesday watched them, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

"I thought you hated romance."

"Ack!" Tuesday yelped. "Don't do that!"

"Well, you are staring at Tika," Erin stated. The cyan-haired boy only huffed.

"There's something strange about them," he continued. "I don't know what. They're hiding something."

"Like?"

Tuesday only stared at Erin, who smirked in response.

"I will never understand you, dude."

"How can you ask so casual about this?" Tuesday asked, not noticing that Erin found his seriousness funny. "I mean, your girlfriend's over there and you can just…Erin?"

He sighed heavily once he saw the blonde heading towards the table at light speed. Tara could be heard teasing him about his jealousy. Turning around, Tika noticed him and narrowed her eyes before turning back to her friends.

PF

"What? Are you kidding me? I don't want to be seen sitting next to that creep! Count me out!"

Well, that's what she wanted to say.

Instead, she said this.

"Yes, ma'am."

Now, the only thing they could do without insulting each other was glare at each other. Surprisingly, it had been going nonstop for at least three minutes until finally Kira walked in between them.

"Guys…"

"Hm?" Tuesday broke his stare. Tika only continued until she sighed and stared at the redhead.

"You have it a lot easier than I do."

She nodded her head back towards her desk, where Matthew was sitting right next to it, head down as he read the section assigned by the teacher. Tuesday and Tika simply looked on, seemingly confused. Kira only rolled her eyes and smiled.

"Just try and get along long enough not to fail," she finally replied. This seemed to do the trick, for both sighed in unison and scooted their desks just close enough to start on the assignment.

"He was just asleep a minute ago…" Blaine said. His partner, Tara, was currently hard at work.

"Hm?" she said, looking up. "Oh, Tuesday. He only does that was someone he hates is around. You mention their name and he's wide awake. The rest of the time he's asleep, or at least he pretends he is. He's weird like that."

"And he insists we're weird, "Blaine replied, causing her to giggle. Not like we aren't.

"So…"

"Oh, yeah, right." He turned his attention back to the assignment, not expecting Tara to be facing towards him. When she looked up, their faces were only a few inches away. Blaine could only stare as she asked a question…and repeated it, just louder.

"Blaine?"

"Wha?" He snapped back to reality. "Oh! I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm good."

Tara only raised an eyebrow before turning her attention back to the subject at hand. Resisting the urge to sigh out of relief, he joined her.

PF

"How was I supposed to know that she ducked?"

"The look on your face as priceless!" Maria choked. Tuesday only huffed and opened his locker.

"For all I know, she probably threw it at me…"

"How many times am I going to say that I didn't?" Tika sneered, causing Tuesday to jump.

"Stop…doing…that!"

"I barely even know you. How am I supposed to know?"

"I don't care!" he yelped, waving his arms around. "Everyone does that to me! Sheesh!"

Tika only rolled her eyes and turned to leave.

"Tika!"

"Hm?"

"I mean, *ahem*…"

"What…crap! Why didn't you tell me, Blaine?"

"…I'm a dude who wants to respect a girl's privacy?"

"And I told you to tell me when that happens!"

"And I w…never mind, everyone's staring at us. Let's go."

"I heard everything that you guys just said!" Tuesday exclaimed. He never expected Tika to come blazing around the corner and stare him down until she loomed over him.

"Heard WHAT?"

"Nothing," he squeaked. "I heard nothing."

"Good." He watched her storm off. It was a full minute before the group starting laughing again, causing him to facepalm and silently swear revenge on the hot pink-haired African-American.