A/N: What? I never finish chaptered anything? Oh, yeah...too bad, I'm going to finish this. Probably within the week, the fangirling I'm doing right now.

This is AU, obviously, and it's pretty much solely the intro right now. I don't think Kate will come in for a chapter or two. Don't worry, though, she'll be there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. If I did, there'd be way more than 6 seconds of YOU-KNOW-WHAT posted all over the internet.

Rick strolled unhurriedly through the hallways of PS 38, his new school for the last three months of the year. The bell rang out loudly and the students around him began to run, but he meandered for a while. It was his first day. He could always plead that he couldn't find the classroom. He was good at both making up stories and acting (thanks in no small part to his mother's melodramatic ways) and thus wasn't too worried about passing himself off as the clueless new kid.

Besides, he'd never gone to public school; he had attended fancy private schools for his entire life. Everything was new to him.

The halls were lit with fluorescent lights every few yards, so there was a small patch of darkness between each, giving the place the air of a movie prison or some relatively similar place. Not exactly a cheerful image, but Rick thought it fit. It was poetic. The place where so many are held against their will for the general majority of their adolescent lives. It was practically juvie.

He glanced down to check out his schedule quickly. He didn't really need it, and he knew exactly where his classes were, but it was always reassuring to know that you knew something. Rick didn't let anyone know it, but he was most self-conscious about looking stupid. Not acting stupid, but forgetting something in front of the class that the teacher had just said or not knowing what had been asked of him. He folded the paper in his hand, then unfolded it, then folded it again.

He bypassed going to his locker, as he would most likely be exempt on the first day for having all of his supplies anyways (which he did, but his teachers didn't need to know that). Approaching the door of his new history class, he rapped confidently on the peeling red paint, then opened the door and slid inside.

"Hello, there, Mr. Rodgers, nice of you to join us," the teacher called from her podium. She had rather large glasses, thin lips, and a rather enormous nose. "Please sit beside Ms. Queller, in that seat right there?"

"Sure thing, Ms..." he pretended to check the schedule, "Ms. Delana. It's a pleasure to meet you." He sauntered to his new desk like an Olympian walks to his first metal platform. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Ms. Queller," he said in a low voice.

She smiled brightly at him and played with her long blond hair. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Maddie."

He grinned back. "I'm Rick." He shook her hand. "So do you know people around here?"

She laughed and informed him, "I know everyone around here."

A/N: Not entirely sure whether I should hug ABC or slap them. Have y'all seen the newest sneak peek? It's on the front page of TVLine if you don't mind spoilers. If you haven't escaped them, go ahead and watch it. If you have...well, you must not have been reading many fanfiction stories for the past month. :D

Don't forget to review! Always appreciated, that is. 3