"Now that was a bust," Sungjae yawned as both Sehun and Zelo trudged back into the classroom, excused from their detention of standing in the hallways with paper signs pinned to their back pockets that read : I Am An Immature Manatee, Kick Me, which Jaejoong-sansaengnim had had the grace to cut out for them. Gongchan, on the other hand, had been deprived of that grace, and had been forced to sit in a corner of the classroom with a cone hat that said I Will Not Doodle pinned to his chest. Sungjong had ripped the tiara off his hair as soon as the peeved teacher had entered the classroom. Tao didn't look any happier than either Sehun or Zelo, as he was still sneezing in his wet blazer.

"Serves you idiots right, I'm dying here of pneumonia," Tao sniffed, and Ren handed him a tissue.

"Anyway," Sungjong rolled his eyes and turned to the board, "we're having a class meeting to determine if Ren here," he nodded towards the brunet's direction as he picked up a chalk, "is interested in joining the class council as either a class council member," he scribbled the words in slanting handwriting onto the board, "or the school council member," he wrote that down as well and tossed the chalk behind him, oblivious to its direction of flight, even when it landed less than gracefully between Changjo's eyes.

"OW!"

"What's the difference?" Ren piped up, interested. He had never been part of anything before, the public schools in the outskirts did not take co-curricular activites as seriously as they did in the city.

"Tao, explain."

"Well, technically, as a class council member, you're just holding a position to avoid joining the school council, which is led by none other than Choi Siwon."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means school council , but don't interrupt," Tao said sharply and Sehun rolled his eyes "so as class council member, you are required to do everything you are told to do by me and Sungjong, since we're the Prez and VP. You have to attend meetings like this, outings and sometimes work a bit," Tao recited and Sungjong wrote down everything on the board, "but it's no biggie, they're mainly held on school hours, so you won't have to stay back after the last period." Junhong was making furtive attempts to throw paper bits at his back.

"If you attend less than seventy percent of the total meeting periods, fifteen points will be deducted for every meeting missed, and twenty for the school council ones. So if you miss more than five meetings altogether, you get deducted at least sixty-five marks, and you fail Disciplinary Education."

"Hawly crap."

"Exactly," Tao smiled, "so, are you with us, or are you with us?," without waiting for a response, he slid a club application form into Ren's hands. He signed it with a flourish and shook Tao's outstretched hand, "please take care of me."

"Sure, meeting adjourned," Tao smiled and turned to grab Zelo by the collar.

Ren smiled to himself.

*

For Sungjae, trying to keep awake in Xiah's class was a little better than pure torture. For one, Xiah's voice rarely raised higher than a certain pitch and the dude, unlike Jaejoong or Yoochun, took murdering slacking-off students as an offence. Usually, he would slouch over his desk with his chin in his palm and feign headache or just blatantly sleep until Sungjong, who was on the seat in front of his left flicked him on the forehead. Today, he decided to pick on the new guy.

He picked up his ball-point pen, closed it with the lid and started drawing squares onto Ren's spine.

No response.

Surprised, since if it had been Sehun, he'd have been twitching like a hamster in a cage, he drove the tip of the pen further into Ren's shirt and started drawing his own name instead. He must have signed a thousand invincible autographs onto Ren's back, but the guy was as solid as a rock, sitting with his back as straight as an arrow as Xiah droned on about phonetics.

Bewildered, he dug his pen into Ren's back and poked him hard.

No response.

For the next twenty minutes, he drew Taylor Swift's face, signed his autograph and twisted his pen tip violently into Ren's back, to no avail. He was beginning to suspect that Ren was y as when as soon as the hammer struck the bell, Xiah stopped talking. Then, Ren jumped from his seat and started wriggling as though a ghost was tickling the heck outta him. Sungjae's mouth fell open and he stared down at the innocent pen in his hands as though he expected to see anything else but the blue G2 between his fingers. Ren actually twitched until he slid to the edge his seat, choking on laughter whilst Changjo slid away from him uneasily, looking evidently spooked at his sudden monkey show. Then, the brunet collasped onto his desk, wheezing and coughing.

Sungjae's eyes widened in terror as Ren finally collected himself and turned to dude behind him who was looking as scared as hell.

"Did you call me?"

"No," Sungjae shook his head violently and only started breathing when Ren had turned back to his desk, still smiling.

Hawly crap.

*

Sungjong stretched in his seat like a kitten which had just awakened from a nap on a silk carpet and smiled to himself as he remembered that it was recess. He pulled the slate off his desk and slid it into his drawer before reaching into his bagpack for his lunch. He was in good spirits today, as he had remembered packing turkey sandwich, a rare luxury for the vain dude who appreciated weight gain no more than morphine. His fingers slid over the cardboard cover of notebook, his compass set container, his tattered Algebra textbook and d around for his lunchbox until he felt something thin slide over his thumb. Confused, he reached in deeper and his confusion was replaced with shock as his exertion onto the object resulted in a searing pain caused by needles piercing into his palm.

"Aaaaagh!" Sungjong shouted, attracting strange stares from his classmates as he tossed his bag aside, causing its contents to spill out on the floor, revealing....

A tiny plastic pot decorated with stick-on ribbons, in which stood a little green cactus, its thorns as sharp as pins.

"!" Sungjong took his time to scream at the top of his lungs as he cradled his shaking fingers, injected half-way with white prickles. Zelo took care to swallow his laugh as he choked on his sandwich.

"Good one," he muttered to Sehun, who turned to him, a confused smile on his face.

"Huh, what?"

"YOU," Sungjong shrieked, pointing to Sehun, "YOU AND YOU," his fingers flew to point at the direction of Zelo and Sungmin as well.

"What the heck?" Sehun and Sungmin chorused.

"ADMIT IT!" He screamed as Changjo tried extracting the thorns. Apparently, his attempts were not as delicate as preferred by the princess, for at his first sincere attempt, Sungjong gave a blood-splitting screech, pulled back his palm in one swift brandish and succeeded in hitting Changjo square in the nose, causing his fleshy classmate to fall back, holding his red sniffing-device.

"Oh, , I'm so sorry," Sungjong apologized his friend absently before swirling back to the three, "'FESS UP, WHO THE FECK PULLED THIS STUNT?"

"It wasn't me," Zelo shrugged, munching on his sandwich, "though I kind of respect the one who pulled it."

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Nothing."

"Okay," Sungjong growled, "if that's how you want to play it," he stomped to the door and kicked it shut. Everyone tensed.

"ANYONE AT ALL," he shouted brandishing Tao's staff.

"Uh," Tao muttered.

"No one leaves until I find out who did this," Sungjong yelled over his voice, waving his other hand, which resembled a porcupine.

"I think you better pull out the thorns first," Ren suggested as he watched his hand turn a deeper shade of red like a chameleon in an apple barrel.

"C'mon, Sungjong, who the hell s with you," Sungmin rolled his eyes as he inspected Changjo's nose.

"Sungjong..." Tao muttered as he watched the deranged VP swirl his beloved staff over his head.

"What, is the little too chicken to own up now?" Sungjong blatantly ignored Tao, "admit it, dip."

"Sungjong," Sungjae pinched his bridge, "you're embarrassing."

"Was it you?" Sungjong stared daggers at him.

"Heh, yeah," Sungjae said sarcastically, "yeah, I fancy visiting the market every morning to buy cactuses in tiny pots to shove into someone's bags, yeah. Think, Sungjong."

"I think cactus in plural is cacti," Gongchan scrunched up his face in concentration.

"Do I look like I listen in English?"

"Sungjong, listen you're holding the staff the wrong..."

The staff went flying out of his hands and hit Changjo straight in the abdomen. He gave a squeal of pain and doubled over, Sungmin holding his arm in alarm.

"...way," Tao's voice started breaking, "my staff."

"Why does no one care about me?" Changjo groaned.

Sungmin gave him the hairy eyeball.

*

Sehun tapped the heel of his shoes against the pavement behind the law office where his father worked, checking his watch at every five minute interval as he waited for his father to finish work. The parking area was empty, except for a few cars in their slots and the stereotype bustle of people rushing to their cars after office hours to join the evening traffic had ended half-an-hour ago. His father always finished work later than others, which was funny, since he owned the firm.

Sehun stopped tapping on the pavement and decided that he could be doing something a little more productive than leaning against the lamp-post and checking his watch. He reached into the side compartment of his backpack for his phone, and remembered Sungjong's cactus. He giggled to himself as Changjo's nose floated into his mind but stopped as soon as his palm closed over something soft.

And wet.

He pulled out his hand in disgust and emptied the compartment, trying to remember what he had packed into his bag that was soft and wet that morning. His phone fell out into his palm, along with his calculator, his jotter and...

A small bunch of stool irises fell out onto his calculator, its purple petals damp with brownish spots.

What the...

Thank you for sticking with me! Luv you guys! 

I hope you enjoy chapter 2! :)