Title: Pieces of Blue - Chapter 1
By: Ashley Delfín
Notes: As I promised, the first installment on a series that, I hope, will last a while. Many thanks to Kaie, who proofread the story. All that you see here is mine and was taken out of my silly little brain, so if you even think about stealing it, you're cursed. Hope you enjoy it, and please send me your feedback!!!!!

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The twelfth grade class was dismissed from their first science class of the school year, and the students quietly cheered at the fact that the next hour would be dedicated to having lunch in the courtyard. They all left in small groups, except Amaranth, a seventeen-year-old with albino skin but dark hair and eyes. Not that he cared, of course. Right now his main worry was getting out of the classroom before a fellow classmate felt the need to confide secrets in him. He noticed Denise approaching him slowly, grinning like a madwoman. He dashed.

"Amaranth, wait up." The bouncy blonde cheerleader called to him before he could leave the classroom. "I need to talk to you."

"Denise." The boy turned his dark brown eyes and glared at her. "I'm not interested in any of your boy troubles, I don't want to know about any girls you think might want to date me, and I won't listen to any of the stupid reasons you may have for thinking that I'm just pretending to be gay. Leave."

"Oh, I love that shade of black on your lips, where did you get it?" Denise seemed to have ignored Amaranth's little speech.

"You like it?" Amaranth's reply was heavy with sarcasm. "I got it in hell. Why don't you go there and get one for yourself?"

Amaranth did not wait for a reply. For all he knew there was some sort of thrift store at the mall named just that and Denise would think he was inviting her in some sort of date. He turned around and quickly walked out into the lunch area. He maneuvered around the more crowded tables and sat down at one that was on the edge of the courtyard. The two girls who were sitting there gave no indication of noticing his arrival; they seemed too interested on a palm-reading book and their palms. Amaranth knew them both, the three of them together made three fifths of their little crime-fighting team.

The younger one was Amis, his little sister, who was fifteen years old and currently starting tenth grade. She was pretty and weird at the same time, having a slender figure and a beautiful chocolate skin color when her hair and eyes were of a silvery gray. Him having almost albino skin, obsidian black hair, and almost jet black eyes, it wasn't often people thought of them as siblings. The older one was his classmate and best friend, Cee Cee. She had red hair, reddish brown eyes, and freckles all over. She was also permanently frustrated over the fact she couldn't read palms as well as her father could (or the bottom of coffee cups, like her mother). That was why she spent most of the time researching the matter.

"So, do you see anything?" Amis said impatiently. "Come on! I need to go to the library, I promised Sister Nora I'd bring her some cheesecake for dessert."

"Hold on!" Cee Cee checked back on the book, "Well... I think it says here that you will have a series of challenges, but you will manage to overcome them using your technical skills."

Amis rolled her eyes and Amaranth couldn't help but chuckle. Amis' "technical skills" frequently helped her with challenges.

"Okay, so I suck!" Cee Cee growled at Amaranth, "At least this was better than Matthew's reading."

"Who knows," he replied, "there's still time for our little jock friend to get a boyfriend."

Cee Cee looked at him with her "get real" face and he grinned back. True, Amaranth was the only officially gay member of their little posse, but he was sure Matthew was at least bisexual. There was just no other justification for the amount of Keanu Reeves paraphernalia that the guy owned.

"Leaving, peeps." Amis announced her departure as the other two took out their respective lunch bags. "Sister Nora is expecting some cheesecake." With that she stood up and said, "Oh, and tell the others we should have a meeting to discuss the latest happenings."

"Sis," Amaranth said raising an eyebrow, "you would sound much less suspicious if you said things like 'test out the newest Squaresoft RPG' or 'try the lime Jell-O I made'."

"Sorry," she said with a smile that meant she wasn't really sorry and probably would forget what her older brother had said after the second step she took. "See ya!"

"It's good your sister is feeding Sister Nora, she seems so stressed out every time I see her." Cee Cee took out her trademark lunch: ham sandwich, orange, and Tupperware full of cookies.

"Cee Cee, she's a nun, not a pet. My sister is not feeding her; they're sharing their lunch hour. Amaranta gets to keep her sanity by not having to deal with our schoolmates, and Sister Nora gets to chat with someone that uses more than three percent of his or her brain. It's a win-win situation."

A loud yell from the other side of the courtyard caught their attention. Not that it was rare for yells to be heard in the courtyard; in fact they were fairly common, but they happened to recognize the voice of this one.

"Alas, you vile sacks of human flesh, how dare you turn away from a challenge?" Amaranth knew it was Esperanto, before even seeing the boy. Not only was the voice obvious, but only Esper would be babbling stuff like that around school. Amaranth's only hope as he walked towards Esper was that he was not picking a fight with the jocks or the cheerleaders. He was not in the mood to deal with either of them right now.

"Esperanto, there's no way you can win." He heard another voice and sighed with relief. It was the computer geeks. Esper annoyed the geeks but did not entertain them, so it was just a matter of pulling him away.

"Never have I lost at this game and today shall not be the day I start!" Amaranth finally noticed what they were doing. Esper was about to challenge the school's reigning chess champion for a match.

"Dude, you've never played chess before... you barely just learned the rules." True, thought Amaranth, but that was hardly an issue. Esperanto was the reason for Amaranth and company to discard any and all board games for video games and card games. Esperanto's lucky star made it impossible for him to lose at board games. Even if was by pure dumb luck (which it usually was) he won. Cee Cee and Amis had come to the conclusion that the only time they might actually have a chance of beating him would be somewhere in 2012, and they just couldn't wait for sweet revenge then.

"Esper..." Amaranth poked the sixteen-year-old's back. The boy turned, feigning indignation, which quickly dissolved to a wide grin.

"Hi Amaranth!" he said and instantly hugged his friend. Esper was very friendly compared to other eleventh graders. In fact, Esper was friendly compared to anyone, which freaked many people out. "You have to see what I found on the net! Is Matt with you? I want to show it to him, too." Completely ignoring the fact that he had just challenged the King of Nerds to a chess match, he walked away.

"Dude, really, what's up with him?" the King of Nerds asked.

"He's probably had too much sugar again." Amaranth smiled as if it this was normal. It wasn't. Esperanto on sugar was a frightening sight; Amaranth had witnessed it enough times to be sure of that. "Sorry to bother you."

Amaranth walked back to their table and saw Esper happily munching the health food his hippie parents had sent him as Cee Cee carefully peeled her orange. The fifth and last member of their team had arrived.

"Hey Matt," Amaranth said as he sat down next to the massive blonde jock, "How's the diet the coach has you on going?"

"It sucks, man!" Matt turned his enraged blue eyes towards him; "I had to give up my mom's lunch for this!" He pointed a muscular palm to a brownish blob in his cafeteria tray. "And I have to drink this protein milkshake thing that tastes like puke and then there's this strengthening bar stuff for dessert."

"Well, that could be nice, right?" Cee Cee smiled hopefully.

"Wrong, Coach gave them to us last year to try. They suck, he's just giving them to us 'cause he gets them for free." Matt offered the bar to Amaranth. "Trade you for whatever edible stuff you might have in that bag."

Amaranth rolled his eyes and fished into his lunch bag, taking out some cold pizza, an apple, a granola bar, and a small water bottle. He handed the granola bar to Matt who then proceeded to effortlessly throw the power bar into the nearest trash can. "Hey," Matt said, turning to Amaranth again, "Cee Cee tells me she's going to change schedules so she can be with you. Why didn't you tell me I could do that? I'm gonna ask too, we're in the B schedule, with all the jocks."

Cee Cee nodded quickly. "Anything's better than having to sit beside Amanda Pinski all day." Amaranth knew Amanda was one of Cee Cee's teammates from volleyball. He also knew Amanda's hobby was proving to Cee Cee that she was better at volleyball, and everything else for that matter.

"Well, all of us in the D group will be delighted to have you with us. However, if you get Denise to switch with you, I'll be very grateful."

"Hey, I'd take any excuse to talk with her," Matt said while trying to swallow some of the brownish goo. "Although there are enough open spaces so that having to actually switch with someone won't be necessary. But don't worry man, it'll be cool."

"Yeah," Cee Cee added, "I mean, airheaded stupidity is one thing. Having to hear half of the football team howl every time the quarterback spouts some moronic comment is way worse."

"Hee hee hee... I will eat you!" The three of them turned to see Esper biting his homemade bran cookies. "And you, too!" The sixteen-year-old bit another one and again giggled in a cute yet somewhat evil way. "I am the cookie eating platypus!"

"Platypi don't eat bran cookies, Esper," Cee Cee said bluntly.

"You mean platypuses," Matt corrected her, earning a glare that would've made a lesser man wet his pants.

"Yes, they do! I gave some of mine to one in Biology."

"Amaranth, he's doing it again..." While most of the team didn't care much for Esper's antics, Cee Cee seemed to have a hard time coping with him.

"Esper, there are no platypuses in the school." Amaranth took a bite off his cold pizza.

"Yes, there are!" Esper searched the pockets in his uniform's pants frantically for a couple of seconds. He produced a printout of a photo where a platypus swam happily in Australian waters. "I saw one just like this one during Biology, and I didn't know what it was. So I told Mr. Armande I saw a cross between a duck and a beaver and he told me it probably was a platypus. So I searched the net in Computer Lab and found this, and this is exactly what I saw!"

"So this is what you were going to show us?" Amaranth grabbed the printout.

"Yeah, that, and this." Esperanto took out another sheet of paper. The boy unfolded it and showed a fluffy bundle of gray cuteness hanging on a tree branch and peering at the cameraman.

"It's a koala." Matt said, stopping midway from gulping the whole powershake.

"Yes! I was thinking since I saw a platypus in Biology, I might see a koala in History."

"There are no koalas in this school, Esperanto." Cee Cee sounded as if she wanted to strangle Esper. Amaranth knew she most probably did. "And how is that even logical?"

Before Esper could say anything, Amaranth cut in. Not that he liked to be rude, but the large leaps in logic the guy was able to make at times made his head hurt. "Before I forget, Amis told me to tell you people we should meet. How about my house, around 6?"

"Sounds cool." Matt grimaced as he finished the powershake and the other two nodded. "Agh, horrible! Thanks for the granola bar, you rock." The jock ate the small, artificially flavored snack at record speed. "Well, the coach's having a pep talk with the team before lunch hour is over. I'll see you guys later."

"Here, have a cracker." Esper offered his last bran cookie to Matt.

"Thanks, man." Matt grabbed it and started eating it even before he had turned to leave.

"So," Amaranth asked Esper, "how's your schedule?"

Esperanto's smile suddenly vanished and his eyes sort of turned towards the right. It took some moments for Amaranth to realize that Esper was looking at some silent guys. The eleventh grade D schedule. In St. Marianne of Benevolence and Goodwill, that was not a good thing.

St. Marianne of Benevolence and Goodwill was a Catholic school that had everything from preschool to high school in a rather large campus. Junior High through High school was divided into five schedules labeled A through E. The A schedule was for those "excelling in academic and spiritual endeavors". This meant that those that prayed the most, had rich parents who donated a lot of money, and never did anything wrong (at least not publicly) were there. The B schedule was reserved for those in sports teams, thinking that taking class together would help team spirit. The C schedule was mostly average people, and the intellectuals that either didn't get into or didn't have a high enough average to get into the A schedule. The E schedule was reserved for students with learning disabilities, special teachers and everything. It was really a nice school, if you didn't mind devotional at 8 AM, daily. And sour priests and nuns. And the uniforms: black pants and shirt for the guys, black skirt and shirt for the girls, black shoes for everyone.

Anyway, the D schedule was plain bad news. It was basically reserved for students who did not have a specific learning disability but showed a "difficulty in scholastic endeavors", as Mother Superior had said it. It was also where the "weirdoes" and people who "unhealthily question authority" usually ended up. A sort of plan to keep them in check, since the D schedule was usually the least populated. God forbid they might actually develop a personality. Amaranth had good grades but his tendency to argue with teachers had earned him the troublesome badge and a permanent seat in the D schedule. This was only bearable since Cee Cee had always changed schedules to be with him. Esperanto, however, would have to suffer alone.

"You know," Amaranth said to Esperanto, "it's a good thing. It means that you're actually becoming an interesting person and they think they'll turn you boring again by putting you in there."

"Yeah," Cee Cee smiled, "and some of the people there actually think. They're not all stupid, some of them are there because they're different in a cool way, like you."

Esper looked down for a second, making Cee Cee and Amaranth worry. Before either could say anything he was already hugging Cee Cee. "That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!"

"True, but I swear I'll kick you if you don't let go." Cee Cee smiled while sweetly giving this warning. Esperanto got the message and let go. Of course his next action was to jump over to Amaranth was and hug him as well, so maybe he just decided he had hugged her enough.

"Oh well," Esper stood up, "I need to get my koala sighting stuff for History class. Gotta run!"

Cee Cee waited for the hyper boy to be gone, then turned to Amaranth. "Only he is able to see a platypus, plan to see a koala, and get some koala sighting stuff together in the same day."

"You're just jealous you didn't get to see the platypus," Amaranth teased her.

"Come on, I want to get some stuff from my locker, too."

The one good thing about lockers was that you got to choose your own locker at the beginning of the year. Matt, Cee Cee, and Amaranth always managed to be locker neighbors. It involved getting up at 3 AM on the first school Monday, but it was worth it.

This year Matt had gotten to school first, so he got to choose the lockers. This meant their lockers were closer to the football field.

"It could've been worse." Cee Cee frowned at Amaranth, "He could've chosen some nearer to the locker rooms. You know, the ones that smell like sweat."

"I know..." Amaranth sighed, "but I like to have the geeks as my locker neighbors. At least they don't greet you by trying to break your shoulder." Amaranth opened his locker and stared into it.

And after a loud yell, he proceeded to jump back, tripping over his left foot and falling flat on his butt. Cee Cee turned quickly and stared strangely at him. "What? Did you also find a platypus?"

Amaranth nodded.

"That's so not funny." Cee Cee peered into her friend's locker and saw the chocolate brown, duck-billed platypus standing on his hind legs and staring at both of them with a bored look. She then proceeded to yell and fall flat on her butt right next to Amaranth.

"Okay, let's not panic. There should be a perfectly logical explanation for this." Cee Cee whispered to Amaranth.

"I'd love to hear it." Amaranth whispered back. The platypus blinked and in breakneck speed Cee Cee stood up quickly and shut the locker door.

"Cee Cee, you shut my locker!" Amaranth stood up.

"There's a PLATYPUS in there!"

"So are my World Affairs and Calculus books!"

"What if it attacks us?"

"We die, but I get my books. So at least I'll die happy, move."

Cee Cee stepped away from the locker and looked at it worriedly, Amaranth rolled his eyes. The shock had waned by now and he remembered platypuses were not man-eating creatures. He opened the locker door again and looked down, hoping that the platypus was not there. It was.

"Just take the book and close the door." Cee Cee was now standing a few more meters away.

"Yeah, because I WANT to leave a platypus inside my locker." Amaranth frowned and took his Chemistry book from the upper shelf. He looked back down and stared at the platypus for a second. "Hey, little fella." Amaranth kneeled down and neared his hand to him. The platypus still seemed bored.

"Amaranth, what are you doing?" Cee Cee stomped her foot.

Amaranth ignored her. "How did you get in my locker?" The platypus looked up and suddenly stretched his front webbed-feet up towards him.

"What's it doing?" Cee Cee peered from behind him.

"I think..." Amaranth looked and sounded confused, "I think it wants a hug."

"Oh my God, that's so cute!" Cee Cee's voice went up a few notes.

"Weren't you over there? Cowering in fear from the terrible, horrible platypus?" Amaranth reached down and picked up the platypus. The platypus squirmed until Amaranth finally held him closer so that its head was resting on his shoulder. "I wonder how it got here. I mean, it's not every day you see a platypus hanging around freely in a school."

"Just wait for a 'Lost Platypus' poster to appear. You might even get a reward of sorts." Cee Cee was now petting the duck-billed mammal. The bell rang and she grabbed her backpack. "Well, I'll see you two cuties later. Oh, and Amaranth?"

"Yes?"

"If you EVER tell Matt or Amis about my reaction to the platypus, I will hurt you just like when we were kids. Except now I am stronger and taller than you, and have imagined new and more painful ways to make men submit to my will."

"Geez, you take all the fun out of everything." Amaranth rolled his eyes, trying not to show fear. Cee Cee was a force to be reckoned with.

"Just for you, and that's just because you're my best friend." Cee Cee smiled again and petted the platypus before heading for her next class.

"You know, platypus," Amaranth also headed for his class, "at times I think I am her best friend because I'm too afraid of being in any other status with her." Groups of students were starting to appear in the hallways. The few that actually noticed the platypus he was carrying did nothing but stare at him strangely. A girl even muttered something about a "cute stuffed animal". Amaranth took a look inside his classroom before entering. No one was there yet.

He entered and sat down. The platypus slid down and lay on the desk. Amaranth stared at it. "I don't suppose you'll tell me why you're here or how you got inside my locker?"

The platypus turned, acknowledging the source of the voice, and blinked. Its round black eyes were unexpressive. Until the piercing shriek, that is, that made the platypus' eyes widen and Amaranth fall off his chair.

"Oh my God, that's the cutest platypus I've EVER seen!" Denise ran towards the platypus, whose eyes now showed the beginning of panic. It leaped off the desk and shot up Amaranth's shirt. "Oh my God, he's shy, too! That makes him even cuter! Amaranth, stand up so I can hug you and the platypus."

"Denise, I'm on the floor, in pain, with a rare Australian mammal inside my shirt, and probably deaf because of your nasal shriek. If you hug me, I will strangle you and then feed your corpse to flesh eating insects!" Amaranth was lying face down on the floor with a nice, platypus-shaped hump in his shirt. "When I get up, if I get up. Is my leg bending the right way?"

"Yes, it is, silly." Amaranth cringed. "And you can't possibly be deaf, you so totally heard me and answered." Denise smiled and crouched so she'd be closer to him. "Who's your little friend?" Amaranth heard other students come in, and hoped he could find something to kill himself with in that position.

"Lancelot!" The platypus' beak appeared from inside Amaranth's shirt. Denise turned around and Amaranth was able to see the black shoes and pants belonging to a classmate. "Uuummm..." the guy's feet were now about an inch away from Amaranth's nose and his voice sounded far, far up. "Lancelot, what are you doing inside Amaranto's shirt? I'm sorry, man."

Odd, the feet knew his name and he did not recognize the voice. "Umm... it's okay." Amaranth felt the guy crouch down and poke the platypus inside his shirt. "Could you just coax him out or something, I've read they have poisonous claws." Amaranth tried to hide the embarrassment in his voice with more than a hint of annoyance.

"Dude, I'm sorry." The voice really sounded sorry, which made Amaranth feel sorry. "Come on, Lancelot, walk out. And don't worry Amaranto, the claw is a retractable claw platypuses only use when they're scared. Lancelot rarely uses it, though."

"Great, my death certificate will read 'rare poisoning by normally polite platypus'." Amaranth felt Lancelot waddle out of his shirt and he stood up, refusing the help of his classmate. He tucked the back of his shirt inside his pants again and ignored the giggling of his other classmates.

"Dude, you don't have to get so angry," the voice said. Amaranth looked up and stared into the guy's... chest. Yikes, he was tall, probably taller than Matt. Amaranth looked up. Yes, a couple of inches taller. He also had longer, darker hair, much darker, dark chocolate brown. Not to mention the beautiful, piercing honey-colored eyes. Not as muscular, but that was okay, he was obviously well built. And tan, a dark bronze tan, the kind Amaranth preferred.

"Oh, he's not really angry." Denise appeared behind Amaranth and hugged him, breaking him free of his trance. "When he's really angry he promises me to throw me to flesh-eating insects while still alive."

"So this is his nice side, then?"

"Not at all! Normally he's cute as a button." Denise held him tighter, Amaranth suspected that it was because she realized he was rushing for a crush on this guy.

"Well, anyway, Amaranto-" the guy began.

"Amaranth."

"What?"

"Call me Amaranth, everyone calls me that." Amaranth grinned and at the same time tried to look annoyed. He was sure the end result was not a pretty one and was glad he didn't have a mirror.

"Dear Lord!" Everyone turned to see Mrs. Dietrich, their World Affairs teacher enter the room. She was a tall, blonde woman who was seldom seen without a smile on her face. "I'm sorry I'm late, but Brother Henry held us all up in the faculty room so we could pray for the world." She looked up and surveyed her class. "Amaranth, are you planning on sitting down anytime soon?"

Amaranth suddenly noticed he was standing alone in the middle of the classroom. The platypus guy had taken the seat to his left and Denise had let go of him at some point and taken the seat to his right. "Umm... no. I mean, yes. I mean-" He ordered his mouth shut and sat down. Or at least intended to, since he hadn't picked up his chair after the whole shrieking and falling. Amaranth found himself on the floor for the third time that day.

"Sorry," he said as he stood up and picked up his chair. The class' giggling was louder this time, and most of them were not bothering to hide it. He turned to glare at the other guy, but he was smiling and that made him look even better. He turned away blushing, which in an albino is just as subtle as a fire alarm. Denise noticed.

"Amaranth, are you feeling alright?" she asked, true concern on her voice. Damn her cuteness, Amaranth thought, why can't she be snobbish and mean like any other cheerleader?

"Yeah, I'm okay," he said smiling.

"Amaranth, you're bright red!" Mrs. Dietrich walked towards him and placed her hand on his forehead. "You're burning up!"

Amaranth knew his temperature was most probably normal, but Mrs. Dietrich was a mom before a teacher. This meant that she was a caring teacher but at times overdid it. She looked at him concernedly and he could just feel the rest of the eyes in the class loving this sight, as it was a source of teasing for weeks to come.

"I think you should go to the infirmary," she finally said and began walking to her desk in order to write the proper hall pass.

"No, Mrs. Dietrich, I'm fine, really."

"Nonsense, someone will need to go with you," the teacher said, still filling out the hall pass.

"I'll go." Both the platypus and Denise said and stood up in unison. Amaranth could feel his blush reaching new levels.

"Denise, you're staying, I need someone to ask all the stupid questions everyone else has but is too shy to ask." She looked up and eyed the platypus guy, and then muttered an okay and wrote a second hall pass. "Okay then, go, wait for him, and come back. Don't make him overexert himself."

"I'm fine!" Amaranth said again, refusing to stand up. By this point the platypus guy was beside him and already had a hand on his shoulder. Denise hugged him, kissed him on the cheek and sat back down.

"Amaranth, I want you out of this classroom and on your way to see Sister Beatrice right now." She took the mom stance and the class grew quiet. Mrs. Dietrich's mom stance was the final warning before she mentally put you in her "needs better discipline" list, which would get you at least one parent-teacher conference, and one week's worth of tutoring sessions. Amaranth stood up and began walking towards the door, the platypus guy a walking tower next to him. Why couldn't the teacher, at least, mention the platypus guy's name, he thought.