All teenagers scare the living shit out of me.....

[Dani]

As the bell rang, Chynna dashed out of her classroom, trying to outrun her taller male classmates. It wasn't a difficult feat, given that she lived in a house full of teenagers and had to outrun them on a daily basis to get to the bathroom or to eat breakfast in the morning. Riverside was nothing but a world overpopulated with teenagers and babies. No matter where she went, she felt like the odd girl out. Even the kids in her homeroom, the ones that she was positive were the exact same age as her, looked like teenagers to her. Nearly out of breath, she headed towards her locker, excited that it was the last day of school and that she wouldn't have to return to school for three months. All she needed to do was just grab her books and run. Unfortunately, her combination lock had other plans. "Ugh!" she yelled as she fiddled with it. "Did you have to pick today to screw up?"

[Mia]

Andrew walked out of his classroom, a bit happy and sad that this was the last day of school. On one hand, he would miss his friends, the few that he had. On the other hand, he was glad to be out of the prison they called school and was ready for summer break. He held his bag in one hand and his art supplies in the other as he tried to avoid the people headed towards him in the hall. Finally making it to his locker, he gently set his stuff down and was about to put in his combination when he heard a voice beside him. Andrew smiled a bit when he saw a girl waring with her locker and said, "Excuse me? Do you need help with your locker?"

[Dani]

Chynna whirled around at the sound of the boy's voice, surprised to find him standing next to her locker. Did the locker next to hers belong to him? She couldn't believe that she had managed to go an entire school year without knowing that. Granted, she had only been there for half the year, but she still should have known that. "Yeah," she said, still attempting to open the lock. "I think my locker hates me. I can never get it to open for me. It always takes awhile." She kept fiddling with it even more frantically, pulling on it as hard as possible and banging on the door. "Do you have a crowbar?" she asked him, not entirely joking.

[Mia]

Andrew smiled a bit, laughing softly. "Lockers are fickle things, huh? They hate everyone from time to time." He walked a bit closer to her. "Maybe I could help? I don't have a crowbar with me unfortunately, but maybe if you tell me your combination I could try to get it open for you?" He figured since it was the last day of school, knowing her combination wouldn't hurt. Besides, its not like he would remember it over the summer.

[Dani]

Chynna nodded her head. "I'm pretty sure the lockers don't hate teenagers," she said, finally giving up on opening it. She let go of the lock and held it out for the boy. "If you want to give it a shot, it's seventeen, five, thirty-seven." She took a deep breath as she reluctantly spat out the last few digits. On her first day of junior high, she had practically sworn to her mother that she would never tell another living, breathing soul her combination. Oh well, at least I made it through almost a whole school year without doing it.....

[Mia]

"I don't think lockers are respect-of person." Andrew chuckled. He smiled when she gave him her combination and moved to try and open it. Sighing when it didn't open the first time, he shook his head with another smile. "See? It even doesn't like me."

[Dani]

Chynna giggled a bit at his similar misfortune. "I told you that they only like teenagers." Despite having just met him, she assumed that the boy was just finishing sixth grade like she was. After all, his locker was next to hers. She'd only been at Riverside for a few months, but the lockers at her old junior high school were all divided by grade and she figured the same would be true for at Riverside as well. She turned to the boy and flashed him a big smile. "Maybe we should go find a crowbar."

[Mia]

"Technically I'm a teenager. Considering I'm only 13." Andrew laughed, shaking his head. "But yeah, maybe we should find a crowbar." He scratched the back of his head with a smile. "Maybe we're doing it too fast?" He wondered, turning to try the combination on last time. He made sure to go slow this time, trying to get the numbers exact. "Success!" He laughed when he pulled open the locker, turning to her with a grin.

[Dani]

Chynna's expression grew a little sullen at the revelation that he was a teenager. "I see," she said, sucking her lip in a bit. She wasn't sure why that fact disappointed her or why it even surprised her. The whole world would always be dominated by teenagers and she would be a lonely, innocent bystander until she reached her thirteenth birthday next year. "Thank-you," she added with a polite smile after he got her locker open. "I really appreciate it." She turned to her locker and began emptying the contents of it into her backpack.

[Mia]

Andrew smiled a bit, tilting his head to the side. "Is it a bad thing, being 13?" He asked. He shook his head at her thanks, moving so she could get her books. "It's okay." He grinned. "It's the least I could do." He went to his own locker to get his stuff out like he started to. "It would've been rude of me to just stand here and let you suffer." He closed his locker, turning back to her. "I'm Andrew, by the way."

[Dani]

Chynna kept her back turned to him as she kept busy cleaning out her locker. "Maybe," she said quietly in response to his question. While she had very specific views about teenagers in general, she'd mostly kept them to herself. She felt that it was the safest possible option. She remained silent for a few more minutes as she finished up with her locker. She was surprised that she could have accumulated so much in such a short period of time. "My name's Chynna. You know, like the country, except that it's spelled funny." She tossed her now-heavy backpack over her shoulder and turned to head down the hall. "It was very nice to meet you."

[Mia]

"Chynna, nice name. Interesting." He frowned a bit when she began walking away, debating on whether or not to follow. He finally chose to go after her, since she wasn't that far away. "Hey." He said once he fell into step with her. "Sorry, I know I'm technically a teen and you seem to not like them very much, but I would like to get to know you better. You seem like a nice girl."

[Dani]

Chynna practically froze in her tracks when Andrew caught up with her. She hadn't really expected him to come after her, especially considering that she hadn't said anything of real interest to him. "You're not technically a teen," she replied, raising an eyebrow. "You are a teen. You're thirteen. You're not supposed to associate with lowly sixth graders like me." Despite her initial reluctance, she wound up smiling a bit at his compliment. "Thank-you again."

[Mia]

"Who made up that rule?" Andrew asked, crossing his arms. "I don't think age should really matter. Besides, you're only two years younger. It's not like I'm like, 18 and your 7 or something." He smiled to show he wasn't really angry. "And I don't think you're lowly." He didn't really think anyone was lowly, unless they were terribly horrible to people, and she didn't seem like that type of person.

[Dani]

Chynna paused for a minute, trying to figure out an answer to his question. "I don't know who made it up," she finally said. "But it's a pretty old rule. You know, one of those unwritten ones that's existed since the dawn of time?" Despite her belief in the unwritten rule, she couldn't help but agree with his logic about their ages. It wasn't a huge gap. In fact, some of her siblings had friends that had even bigger gaps between them. Still, she couldn't help but hold on to her own logic. "It's this thing called a social hiearchy or something," she said, remembering a lecture that her sister Alexia had given. "You're a powerful eighth grader that is conditioned to think of me as a lowly sixth grader. That's just how it works."