Lesson 1: Expect The Unexpected

"No matter what, expect the unexpected. And whenever possible, be the unexpected." - Lynda Barry

Mello woke up to a blaring alarm clock in the early hours of the morning. Sure, he got up at six o'clock every morning and spent the whole night before studying just to beat his main competitor, Near, which resulted in only four hours of sleep, but that never got him down! Probably because he was always down, but that was besides the point.

Mello never was one to listen to the birds whistle at dawn or marvel at the sunrise, so it was quite unusual to see him push the window in his roommate's bedroom wide open and breathe in the morning air, but hey, whatever distracts him from bullying another poor innocent child in the hallway was fine by Matt. Every morning he would witness his roommate stagger out of his bedroom and grumble about how "today he would beat Near" only to - quite literally - fall into his bed at two in the morning the next day from studying so hard.

Matt's tired green eyes watched his best friend's bare chest rise and fall in heavy breaths as he inhaled the crisp air from outside. He stretched his arms outwards, flexing his muscles and taking a deep breath in, before raising them above his head and yawning. The gamer couldn't help it: he had had a hard night battling trolls of the underworld and demon pixies from the bewitched forest to care if it seemed like he was creeping on his best friend. It wasn't like he was gay or anything (not that there's anything wrong with fancying men, it just... wasn't his cup of tea) but he did admire Mello for his ability to keep his body fit and in slim shape.

The gamer chuckled sleepily to himself as he realised how stupid his thoughts sounded. No, he didn't like Mello romantically (or sexually for that matter) and that's all there was too it. He pulled his duvet higher over his head, trying to keep the light away from his eyes, and prayed to Notch that he could go back to sleep. But his attempt at resting was fruitless, because not five seconds later, Mello had ripped the covers off of his deliciously warm bed and commanded him to get up. Matt wouldn't have complied if he didn't see the smile on his roommate's excited face.

"What's got you so happy?" he asked warily. The last time Mello had been this excited was when he had pulled a prank on Rodger (the orphanage's grumpy old manager) the night before and was keen to see the result in the morning, therefore dragging Matt out of his comfortable haven to watch. It was safe to say that the boys were both on wash up duty for the next month. That was over four years ago though, and he doubted Mello would resort to foolish jokes again to entertain himself.

"What are you talking about," the blonde dismissed the question but couldn't hide his smile no matter how hard he tried.

"Dude, you're smiling like you're about visit Willy Wonka's personal chocolate mansion. Don't even try to deny it." Matt deadpanned. His mood was immediately positive once he saw how thrilled the chocoholic was.

"Am not, now hurry up! I wanna get down to the training gym before the sheep does. I'm gonna get ready for our first lessons today by meeting our trainer. Hopefully I'll persuade them to give me full marks." A devious smirk fluttered on Mello's lips for just a second as he pulled off his pyjama pants and replaced them with a pair of black leather jeans that were flexible enough to fight in. He didn't need a belt since the pants were already tight enough to hold themselves in place, but that didn't stop him adding a studded belt and a few chains. Next he slipped on his leather vest but left it unzipped, threw on his beaded rosary and finally swept his messy hair into straight perfection.

Matt tried to be as quick as Mello when he changed, but he was still in the process of tugging up his faded jeans when the blonde had finished.

"Come on, Matt; we haven't got all day!"

Two minutes later Matt ruffled his shaggy hair around, only resulting in it becoming wilder than it already was, and snapped his famous orange goggles over his eyes.

"Done!" he cheered, but just as he thought he had finally archived something in the slow hours of the morning, Mello was already dragging him downstairs by his forearm.

'Not excited my ass,' Matt snickered to himself as Mello practically raced them through the corridors. When they finally arrived at the gym, the pair came to a halt. In front of the doors to enter the gym was a line of at least twenty children all varying from ages fifteen to twenty. The twenty year old just had to be Devon, of course.

"Hey, Melly!" he called to the blonde, "About time you showed up! I was beginning to think you'd forfeited." The sarcasm in his heavy American accent was almost too much to bare, but Mello knew he couldn't afford to screw up his first impression on his trainer by a fight before lessons even began. So, with all his strength, he grit his teeth and ignored the bastard in front of him.

Of course, Near was already there. He watched Mello's reactions to the brunette carefully, and was quite surprised that he didn't snap a violent comment back at him. The boy would've commented on his actions if the doors behind him didn't open.

Immediately, the growing crowd of teenagers rushed into the room and gasped at the sight. There in the middle of the ginormous, empty gym room, stood thirty adults in a huge triangle formation, all in a dramatic pose to mimic their fighting style. All except one.

At the very front of the group, at the apex of the triangle, stood a girl no older than eighteen with her left hand on her hip and a chocolate bar in her right. She put all her weight on her left leg and held herself with pride; confidence practically pouring out of her. Combat boots were strapped to her feet and black shorts hung off of her heart shaped hips. She wore a black leather jacket over a tight white singlet top that had the words "Don't Fuck With Me" written in black print across her curvy chest. Her long creamy brown hair was tied up on top of her head, letting tendrils of silky chocolate fall just past her shoulder blades. All in all, she was smoking hot.

The girl smirked as she saw the shocked expressions on all of the children's faces. She raised her right hand and brought her chocolate bar to her lips, gently caressing the corner of the bar with her pink tongue, before gripping it with her teeth and snapping the corner off. The noise it made echoed through the deadly silent room, causing most of the students to flinch.

"Welcome to hell," she purred.

Yay! Finally, all the main characters are here! Woohoo! Feel free to drop me some reviews, guys! In fact I encourage it! ^o^