Shawn had had a long talk with his Mom the night before. She was watching TV on her bed while an episode of Murder, She Wrote was playing. Splitting her attention between Angela Landsbury and Shawn, she explained that Shawn would be going to school tomorrow and, as usual, it would be another new School. Shawn had returned to the room to find Bobby asleep in a chair, watching over a Ralph who lay in a pile of blankets in the corner of the room.

Now Shawn stared out the window watching the traffic slug along the Santa Monica Freeway from the passenger seat, his Mom driving him to this new school in the middle of the school year.

"It's only going to be a few days now and then." Mom explained. "Just do your best." She encouraged.

"I told the school that you're pretty much all caught up. I know we haven't really done a lot of the school work at home, but you're my son, so I know you're smart. Besides, you'll look back at all of this and laugh when you become a movie star. You'll realize that school, while important, isn't as important as acing an audition or making the right friends in the movie business. Life is about making great art Shawn. And there's no greater art than film."

She stopped in front of an old Buick, the traffic grinding to a

"I think your Dad would agree with me. He'd be here by the way, if he wasn't so busy working at his law firm. He wants to be here you know. He's just working overtime for you and me. For us.I know we don't see him much. But he does it for us. So that you can do what you need to do and make it big." she cleared her throat.  "What you want to do." she corrected.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:50, Tue 27 Dec 2016.

Despite doing it all the time, Shawn always felt a little nervous meeting new people, and school was no exception. At least with sets and auditions he knew sort of what he was doing - that wasn't always the case at school. Plus, thinking about Ralph and the Circus and Bobby's parents...it didn't feel nice. He tried not to think about Gaggles' words to him, and instead reached his hand over to his Mom's. "You and Dad work so hard for me - sometimes I feel like I don't deserve it..."

Shawn's Mom blushed. It was a genuine reaction. She gushed with emotion and gripped Shawn's hand, holding it in her own. "I'm so glad that you see it Shawn. You're not like most kids your age. Your special. I've always told you so. You've got that special something. I've got it too. I knew when you were born you had 'the magic.' Grandma had it too. It's something that's in our personalities. Something that makes other people like us. Something that allows us to bring happiness and sunshine to other people. To touch their lives in ways that are meaningful. I see it in you. I think a lot of the directors see it in you too. And I know, for a fact, that the teachers and kids in this school are going to see it in you."

The car pulled up to the front of the school. A modern design of angled concrete, sleek gray with marbled brown.  Kids were already leaving their school buses, slapping each other on the back and laughing. It looked like they were having a great time together. Like they had all known each other for a while.

Shawn gave his Mom a quick hug goodbye - he held her a little tighter than he might have normally before saying goodbye and heading into the school. Almost automatically, he found himself defaulting to the amiable, pleasant disposition he tried to present in new situations as he looked for where he was supposed to go.

Shawn got out of the car and headed up the steps of the school. A large concrete sign in bold black letters read:

'Little Valley School of Fine Arts'

It was here, it would appear, that Shawn would be spending the day. Indeed, perhaps several days. How long this would last until Mom focused him back on the studio was anyone's guess. Kids crowded the hallway pushed past one another on their way to class. Shawn didn't know what class he was in, and ended up meandering for a bit in the hall until one of the hall monitors looked up his name at the front office, eventually directing him to the class where he entered into Mrs. Hawkin's classroom only about a minute late.

The kids were still unsettled. And Shawn took a seat placing his book bag on the floor next to his chair.

"Hey! It's you!" A familiar voice said next to him. "It's you! Shawn!"

Shawn looked over toward the voice. It took him a moment to remember who she was; it hadn't really been that long, but so much had happened over the past little while "Sally! You're here too?"

Sally's face lit up as Shawn recognized her. She was about to respond, when a stern demanding voice at the front of the room announced:

"Pop quiz everyone! Take your book bags and put them under your desk!"

"Oh no! A pop quiz. Mrs. Hawkin's is one the meanest teachers I've ever had. And her quizzes are the hardest."

She turned to Shawn, who still couldn't see the teacher from his vantage point, the kids still settling into their desks, some still standing.

"It's OK. I'll let you copy. I know it's your first day. First day and there's a pop quiz. You helped me out before. I can help you." She offered.

OOC:

If Shawn does not decide to copy, he must roll Intelligence + Study -2.

Or

If Shawn Decides to copy, he must rolls a Stealth + Subterfuge Roll with at least 1 success.

If he succeeds, he rolls Intelligence + Study + 6.

The grading scale of either is as follows

0 successes = F

1 Success = D

2 Successs = C

3 Successes = B

4 Successes = A

Shawn gave Sally a grateful look. He whispered his thanks as Mrs. Hawkins passed out the quizes.

OOC: 22:47, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 3 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 5,7,9,10(+9),2.  Stealth + Subterfuge.

22:49, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 6 successes using 8d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 2,8,4,10(+10,7),8,8,8,5.  Intelligence + Study + 6.

Shawn placed his trust in the answers that Sally had provided and in the idea that the note passing scheme they concocted would not be detected. Afterwards, Mrs. Hawkins collected the quizzes and began her lecture. A few hours later, Shawn found himself walking towards the lunch hall for mid-day recess with Sally.

"So are you going to be here now. I mean regularly? Are you still working?"

Shawn shrugged. "I'm still looking and working, and Mom says it'll only be a few days now and then. How about you?"

"I've got a small part as one of the voices in The Secret of Nim." Sally said. "But it's not enough to keep my Dad happy. If I could have one wish, it would be to make sure that I could land a really big movie part. This way, I know for a fact that I would be able to make him happy. Even if it meant that I wasn't going to be able to do as much stuff as before. I mean, it's not like I get to do much anyway. So that means I'm not happy and he's not happy. I think parents probably should be happy, because they say that kids are always happy, even though I feel sad a lot of the time. I think I'm just sad because I don't appreciate everything. That's what my Dad says."

Shawn gave Sally a sympathetic look. "Yeah, my Mom says I just need one big part and things will take off. That's probably true for you too."

It was around this time that Eric came peddling up to cut both he and Sally off from where they were walking.   Shawn had never met Eric, but would come to know him as one of the worst possible kids he had met up to that time.  This moment, right now, was the beginning of a series of events in which the fates and actions of both boys would change forever.

Now Shawn was familiar with jealousy. He had seen Mom get angry at Dad one time when the family was at a stop light. The light had turned green, and Mom had caught Dad looking at a pretty blonde on the sidewalk with her hair permed. Horns behind there car had begun to honk and Mom yelled at Dad for the next fifteen minutes about how girls like that weren't 'normal' and how that's not how 'real' , 'everyday' women look.

Shawn had also been asked to participate in movie scenes where he played one of the onlookers in a disfunctional family where the Dad was cheating on the Mom or the young group of friends got angry at one of their own for spending too much time with a new girlfriend. Such was the case in the movie I Want This Date to End So Badly, which went straight to VHS, but did appear briefly on a Sunday morning slot. Shawn remembered how Mom said that would be a good resume builder.

But nothing could have prepared Shawn for the kind of jealously he witnessed the moment Eric stopped that bike.

"Hey! You! Dork-face! Yeah, I'm talking to you!" the kid yelled at Shawn. "What are you doing walking with my girl!"

He dismounted the bike and let it crash to the ground, walking straight up to Shawn so he was nose-to nose with him.

"Ummm...Eric, this is Shawn. He's a friend of mine." Sally said, pretending not to notice the clearly confrontational atmosphere that had descended like a sudden tornado, threatening to explode into a fight.

"Shut up Sally!" Eric snapped, returning his gaze to Shawn, inches away from his face.

Shawn tried to take a few steps back to defuse a little bit of tension. "I was just talking to Sally about movies." He tried to sound polite and agreeable even as his eyes darted around, looking for a way out.

Eric looked straight into Shawn's eyes.

"I don't like you." He said firmly.

"I'm telling you right now. I'm going to be watching you. You're on my list now buddy." He said, not sounding like a buddy at all.

"That means I'm going to be watching you."

"You...you...fart face." He finished, rather lamely. Though his words were someone childish, his face seemed to be barely withholding a desire to pummel Shawn on the spot. Indeed, it almost looked like he was eager for any excuse.

But then, seeing that Shawn had backed down, some of the tension around the two boys appeared to dissipate.

"Come on Sally. We've got some things to talk about."

"Ummm....bye." Sally said to Shawn, head down.

"Bye Sally...bye Eric... A little overwhelmed, Shawn let them go talk while he wandered off in a slight daze.

OOC: Shawn Join's Thread:

Shawn: Dad's Happy And Bobby's Mad