Disclaimer: I do not own the School of Rock movie. Anything you recognize from the movie belongs to those who created it, and anything or anyone you don't recognize (i.e. Amber) belongs to an is the creation of yours truly (that would be me). Thank you.

Author's Note: This is my attempt at a School of Rock fanfic. Feel free to be brutally honest in your reviews, I understand that everyone has their own preferences, and I know that no one's stories are perfect. Mine certainly isn't, but I hope to make it where people can have fun reading it. ^-^ ~Kris

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"Wait! Katie! I think I love you!"

Katie paused in the act of walking away—why was she even doing this?—and turned to look at Freddy. "What did you say?"

He took at deep breath. "I love you." When she was silent for a long time, he took her hands in his. "Please, Katie, believe me."

She sighed happily and hugged him. "I believe you. I love you, too, Freddy."

Freddy smiled, then bent to her ear, and said, "Katie!"

She pulled back, rubbing her ear. Did he have to say it so loud?

"Katie! Katie!"

"Come on, Katie, get up! You're going to be late for the first day!"

Her eyes snapped open, and seeing her mother leaning over her, Katie groaned. "I'm up, Mom, I'm up!"

Katie's mom gently gave her daughter a small whack before leaving the room, calling over her shoulder, "Breakfast is on the table."

Trying to get out of her bed, Katie got tangled in her sheets and fell to the ground, issuing a soft curse. Managing to free herself, she kicked the sheets back onto the bed before stumbling to the mirror, still half asleep. Bracing herself on her desk, she stared at her reflection, smirking slightly. "Nice dream," she informed herself. Grabbing her hairbrush and turning away, she added, "Just wish it was real."

~*~

Katie sighed, rolling her pencil across her desk as she waited for the tardy bell to sound. She had been sitting in their first period with the rest of her class for only a few minutes, and she was already bored. And forward … And back … And forward … And—

She was interrupted when something slammed into the doorway. Along with the rest of her class, Katie's head snapped up to see what had happened. Someone was standing in the doorway, shifting their bag back onto the shoulder from where it had fallen. "Sorry," they gasped to the teacher in an obviously female voice.

"It's alright," their History teacher Mrs. Daniels told her with a small smile. "You're not late. Take a seat."

There was a brief pause before the girl entered the room, nervously tugging at her book-bag's strap. She took quick inventory of the other kids, swept over Katie—and then did a double take, before her eyes widened. Katie instantly recognized her, too, knew her face and name without question: Amber Kirst.

Amber's eyes fell on the seat next to Summer and grinned. Following her gaze, Katie smiled before making eye contact with Amber and nodding. Summer sat in front of Katie, and the seat next to the class factotum was empty.

"Excuse me."

Amber turned around to look at Mrs. Daniels, who smiled and asked "Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no, sorry." She slipped into the empty seat she and Katie had agreed silently on, seeming to want to assure their teacher that there was no problem. Right at that second, the bell rang.

Mrs. Daniels stood, smiling at her students. "Welcome to a new school year, sophomores. Let's try to remember that you are no longer freshmen this year—you have new classes, new teachers, and new methods of teaching to put up with." Her smile grew broader. "First things first, of course, is taking roll. Now, when I call your name, why don't you stand up and say a little something about yourself." The whole class groaned, and she held up her hands. "I know, I know, it's a bit elementary, but maybe you'll find out something interesting about your classmates. Don't forget to tell me if I've pronounced your name wrong, or if you'd rather be called something else besides your given name."

Everyone looked at each other skeptically but shrugged.

"Samantha Alevi-Kyle?"

"Sammy," a girl with short, light brown hair answered, standing. "Um…I like photography."

"Thank you, Sammy. Thomas Bell?"

One of the boys sitting in the back row stood languidly. "Call me Tom. I like chicks."

The boys in the class laughed, and the ones nearest to Tom high-fived him. The girls settled for rolling their eyes. Once the boys settled down, their teacher continued. There wasn't much interesting or new to be found out. A few people named their favorite color, informed the class about a favorite hobby they all knew about, or joked around much like Tom had. Katie wasn't much better; when her turn came, all she said was, "I play bass guitar."

"Fredrick Jones."

He stood with a wince. "That would be Freddy Jones. I play the drums."

"Ambriel Kirst?" The students perked up at the mention of someone they didn't recognize, and Mrs. Daniels looked up at the girl who stood. "Did I pronounce that right?"

"Yes, but people usually call me Amber."

"Alright, Amber, go on."

"Um…" She slowly shook her head, raising her shoulders. "I transferred from an all-girls school?" she offered tentatively. At the teacher's nod, she sat.

As the rest of the class continued to stand and "introduce" themselves, Katie leaned forward and slightly to the side, keeping a watchful eye on their teacher. " 'I transferred from an all-girls school?' That's all you could come up with?"

Summer raised an eyebrow. Did Katie know this girl? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Amber lean back and she whispered, "Oh, yes, because 'I play guitar' was so much more imaginative—"

"Ms. Kirst!"

Amber jumped at the teachers words, and her head quickly snapped up at full attention.

"Is there a problem that you would like to share?"

Amber shook her head so quickly, no one would have been surprised if it had flown right off. "No, ma'am."

"Then I think your business can wait until after class."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you."

Amber and Katie didn't dare say a word for the rest of the period. When the bell rang, however, the two girls immediately stood with the rest of the class, and rushed outside.

"Oh my God!" Katie exclaimed, hugging Amber tightly.

"Oh my God!" Amber's answering hug was a tight has the one she had been given.

The two pulled back from each other, each still holding the other's shoulder, and after a brief pause they both shrieked, "Oh my God!" before hugging each other again.

"Well," Summer said primly from where she was watching them in the doorway. "Now that that's been settled, I'd like to point out that the tardy bell is going to ring soon."

Amber gave her a startled look, before whipping out a paper. "Do you know where this class is?" she asked Katie, pointing at the schedule. "They didn't give me a map."

"Um, yeah. You go down the hall, turn left, and it's the fourth door on the left."

The other girl gave her another quick hug. "Thanks." She began to walk backwards away from Katie. "See you at lunch?"

Katie grinned. "See you at lunch, if not sooner."

With that, Amber turned and dashed down the hall, even though the class wasn't that far and she had three minutes left. Katie turned the opposite direction to go to her class, and stopped when she saw Summer's calculating look. "What?"

"Do you know her?" Summer asked as they pushed their way through the crowded halls.

Katie nodded happily. "She's a friend from my old school. I haven't seen her in ages, and I'm just so happy to see her again!"

"Oh." The other girl didn't manage to catch Summer's sad look, as the smaller girl had turned into a classroom different from the one Katie was headed for. "See you at lunch?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Yeah, probably. Bye."

Summer stopped and looked after her friend. Suddenly, she was pushed gently from behind, and she turned to see Zack. "Katie's still your best friend, you know," he told her quietly.

"Don't you have anything better to do than listen to other people's conversations," she snapped. As she sat in her seat, she added, "And it's not like I was worried or anything."

He opened his mouth to answer, but the bell cut him off. Just then, the teacher walked in and informed him that he would be marked tardy because he was not seated. The things I do for my friends, Zack thought with a groan.

~*~

"Was that her?!"

"No."

"There she is! Oh, never mind…Hi Sarah…"

"Katie!" Alicia grabbed her friend's arm. "You're going crazy! Calm down."

Alica, Katie, Zack, Summer, and Freddy were walking down the steps in front of the school at first lunch, and Katie was looking this way and that for her friend.

"I'm sorry, Alicia, but she's new. What if she got lost? What if someone hurt her? What if—"

Throughout Katie's tirade, Summer had spotted something. "What if she got involved with Nick and his gang?"

Katie rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Summer, I think she's smarter than that."

"Apparently she's not." Summer pointed across the yard to where Nick was laughing with his friends near the big tree next to the road. Creeping up behind them was Amber.

Katie groaned. Nicholas James was a junior who thought that he was the greatest thing on Earth, and his friends were the same way. They were pretty popular with the upperclassmen, but not much of the freshmen or sophomores liked them very much; the boys thought they were too cool to hang out with lower-classmen, and informed all of them as such. Unfortunately, new girls had a way of falling for one of them. It's not like they were all bad looking.

"Quick, let's go warn her," Katie said, grabbing Summer's arm and dragging the girl towards the large tree. Just as they were within earshot of the group, however, Amber jumped on Nick's back. The older boy quickly caught her legs as she locked her arms around his neck so that she was in piggyback position. "Nicky!" she said in a singsong voice, and the two girls stopped short.

Judging from the fact that he winced, she had said it straight in his ear—very loudly. He turned his head slightly to the side so that he could see the younger girl out of the corner of his eye, and smirked. "That should come with a large, loud warning signal," he said dryly, and his friends grinned, nudging each other and sending Amber sly looks.

"But that wouldn't be any fun," she protested, then laughed and kissed him on the cheek.

That was going too far for Katie. "Amber!" she called, marching up to the group of teenagers.

Amber turned her head and smiled at the approaching girl. "Hi, Katie!" She looked back down and whacked the boy gently. "Let me down."

"Hey, you're the one who jumped on me!" Nonetheless, Nick dropped his arms as Amber dropped back to the ground.

Amber tilted her head and placed her hands on her hips as she waited for Katie to reach her. "What's up?"

"I've been looking for you all over the place," Katie informed her almost accusingly. "Where've you been?"

"Looking for Nick. I told him to meet me near the parking lot"—she shot a glare at the boy, who shrugged innocently—"but I guess he misunderstood."

"Didn't anyone warn you?"

"Warn me about what? Does Nick always 'misunderstand' things like that?"

Katie felt someone move behind her, and she realized that her four friends had caught up with her. "No, not that," she answered, sending Nick a glare also. "I meant didn't anyone warn you not to mess with him?"

Amber look confused, but slowly she seemed to understand. Spinning around, she looked at the boy suspiciously. "What did you do?"

He gave her another shrug. "Nothing."

"Nick," she said in a warning tone.

"I didn't do anything!"

"Yeah right," Freddy scoffed. "Him and his friends live to terrorize lower-classmen."

"He and his friends," Summer corrected him absently, wholly absorbed in what was happening. She didn't even notice when he made a face at her.

Amber turned back around, regarding them with a confused look. "And you guys took him—them—seriously?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look at them! They're harmless."

The five looked at the group of six boys doubtfully. Even in uniform they looked like a street gang. Katie shook her head. "Amber, you don't know them."

Amber laughed. "Of course I do. I go over to Nick's house all the time, and the boys are usually all there, too."

"You do what?"

Nick leaned around Amber. "Do you have a problem with cousins visiting each other?"

Katie stared at him. "C-cousins?" she finally managed to stutter out.

Amber looked confused. "I thought you knew that."

"She can't have known I was your cousin unless one of us told her, Amber."

"Oh. Right. I'd forgotten. Anyway," she continued, turning back towards Katie, "I'm telling you, Nick, Charlie, Isaiah, Kyle, Derrick, and Micah are harmless."

"Hey!" Nick protested. "We are not."

Micah hunched over, holding out his hands like claws. "Fear me," he rasped, as the other guys laughed. "Feeaaar mee!"

Amber pointed at him. "You see? They're not scary or anything, just stupid."

Micah stopped in the middle of his act of scaring a lower-classmen. "Who're you calling stupid, stupid?"

"She's calling you stupid, stupid," Nick told him dryly. "Stop insulting me and my friends, Ambriel."

She ignored him. "Katie, I'm sorry you took so much time trying to find me. I was going to meet up with Nick real quick before finding you, but I had to take more time finding him than I thought I would."

"It's not my fault you heard 'meet me near the parking lot' when I clearly said 'I'll be in front of the school with my friends.'"

"Shut up, Nick." Amber gave Katie her best puppy-dog pout. "Do you forgive me?"

Not being able to resist that look, Katie laughed. "Yeah, yeah, just stop doing that!"

"You know," Summer said from behind Katie, "we helped to look for you, too."

Amber smiled at her. "I know, and I'm sorry. Do you guys forgive me?"

"Sure we do," Alicia answered quickly, catching the death-look Summer was giving the other girl.

"You guys are the best!" She hugged Alicia before drawing the others into the hug. When she released all of them, she turned to Katie with a shriek, and they began to hug again. "I just still can't believe you go to this school!"

"I can't believe you transferred to this one!"

"You still have your bangs!"

"You streaked your hair!"

"Only a little, though. Blue still your favorite color?"

"Yep. Apparently read is still yours."

"Yep." Amber touched a hand to her auburn-streaked hair.

They paused for breath, smiled at each other, and then again simultaneously said, "Oh my God!" before starting all over again.

Freddy cautiously approached the junior boys. "Do girls always do that?" he quietly ask Nick.

"Only when they see each other." Nick turned calculating eyes on the younger boy. Finally he held out a hand. "Truce?"

Freddy paused before taking the offered hand. "Truce."

Zack shook his head. "I'm not sure if there was even a war between us."

Nick shrugged. "There wasn't much of one. This is just to make it official." He winced at a particularly loud shriek from his cousin. "Thanks, Amber," he called to her. "I think I've gone deaf."

She barely gave him a glance. "Can you hear me, Nick?"

"Yes."

"Then shut up."

~*~

After school, Katie was sitting on a bench near the parking lot waiting for her ride home when someone shouted her name. Turning, she smiled and waved at Amber. "Hey," she said cheerfully when the girl reached her.

"Hey! Are you waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, my mom's coming to pick me up." The brunette made a face. "I hate driving to school. The parking is horrendous. How about you?"

Amber sat down and said, "I think Michael is picking me up. He's the one that dropped me off."

Katie laughed. "I'd almost forgotten that you had brothers!"

The other girl gave her a wry smile. "I could never forget about them, no matter how much I want to sometimes."

"How are they?"

"Well, do you remember that girl Gabe was dating? Mary?"

"Um…Yeah, I think so. Blonde? Blue eyes?"

"That's the one. They got married."

"No way," Katie said with a gasp. "What about Michael?"

"Oh, he's still looking around, you know." Amber trailed off, and then suddenly sat bolt upright. "I just had a brilliant idea!"

"What?"

She turned to Katie excitedly. "Why don't you come over for dinner tonight?"

"I wish I could, but my mom…"

"Here," Amber answered, digging through her bag and producing a cell phone. "Call her and ask."

"Alright…" Katie dialed her mother's cell phone number and waited. "Hi, Mom? You remember Amber Kirst, right? Uh huh, that's the one. Can I go over to her house for dinner? I know it's a school night, but I promise I'll be home before curfew."

"Let me talk to her," Amber whispered.

"Hold on, Mom, Amber wants to talk to you."

Amber took the phone from Katie and turned away as she said, "Hi, Aunt Claire. Yes, It's good to hear from you too…"

Katie didn't hear anything else, as Summer came running up at that moment. "Katie! My mom called and said she has a flat tire, can you take me home?"

"Well, I might be going to Amber's—"

"Oh, thank you, Aunt Claire! Katie, you can come over, as long as we have you home by nine."

"Great!" Turning back to Summer, Katie gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Summer."

Amber finally seemed to notice the other girl. "What's wrong?"

"Summer needs a ride home."

"We can take you home," Amber offered.

Summer stared at her for a while before shaking her head. "I don't want to impose on your reunion."

"You won't be! In fact, why don't you come over for dinner, too? I kind of want to get to know you."

'Kind of' want to get to know me? "I don't know…"

"Come on, Summer," Katie said with a smile. "Come with us! It'll be fun."

"Well…Alright. Just let me call my mom."

They had been waiting for ten or so minutes when a black Acura rounded the corner and stopped in front of them. The front window facing them rolled down, and a man with black hair and eyes the same shade of green as Amber's grinned out at them. "Excuse me, but do I know you?"

Rolling her eyes, Amber leaned through the window, crossing her arms on the frame. "Hi, Michael." Looking in the back seat, she smiled that the two-year-old child blinking sleep from her eyes. "Hi, sweetheart."

"Hi, Auntie Ambuh."

"Amber? Is that you? I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you in that blue uniform, looking all grown up."

She chose to ignore that. "Is it okay if two friends come over for dinner?"

"Of course. You know how much Mary likes guests."

Amber turned and waved the other two girls forward. "You remember Katie, don't you? From the fourth grade?"

"Why I believe I do. Hi, Katie, we haven't seen you for a while."

"Hi, Michael."

"And this," Amber continued, "is Summer, a new friend."

"It's nice to meet you, Summer."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kirst."

Michael winced. "Please don't call me that. I still like to think I'm young, and I prefer Michael."

"Alright, Michael."

Amber turned to look at the two girls. "I hope you guys don't mind sitting next to Kerry. She's our niece."

"Of course we don't mind," Katie said politely. Almost as if to prove her point, she opened the door and sat next to the two-year-old as Summer moved around the car and sat on the other side of the child.

"Everyone ready and all buckled up?" Michael asked as Amber and Katie simultaneously closed their doors.

"Ready."

Michael shifted gears and turned up the radio. "Let's get going, then."