Chapter 1

"Good afternoon class, my name is Gregory House. To observe the correct student/teacher guidelines, you will address me as Doctor House, or simply just House if three syllables is too much for you."

He was met with twenty pairs of blank, surprised eyes as he hobbled into the room, leaning heavily on his cane as he went. House surveyed the room as he set his (admittedly empty) briefcase down on the desk, feeling the same sort of frustrated disappointment that he felt at the start of every school year. This class was clearly as dim-witted as the last, if not more so, and yet he was expected to teach them advanced Biology?

He hated Headmistress Cuddy.

The fact that none of his students had dared even to blink since he had entered the room only cemented that idea in his head.

"Now, we're going to-"

He was interrupted by a boy walking in the room, glancing around and looking a little like a scared rabbit. House raised his eyebrows at the boy.

"Kindergarten is across the street," House said, notoriously short-fused.

It was true that the kid looked younger than the other teenagers in his class, even if it was only by one or two years. Unfortunately for him, his straw blonde hair and rather innocent looks weren't making this difference any less noticeable. He flushed slightly as the attention of the whole class turned on him, but raised his gaze to House with a slight defiance in his posture.

It was clear he was about to speak, but House simply turned back to the class, fully intent on ignoring him.

"As I was saying-"

"I'm in the right place," the boy said dryly.

He was Australian.

Oh, this was going to be precious.

"Your accent says you're quite far from the 'right place'."

The boy rolled his eyes and walked over to House, handing over a sheet of pink paper. House glared at him in challenge, annoyed that his 'scaring-the-newbies' speech was being so easily ripped to shreds, before glancing over the paper.

New student… accelerated learning… Robert Chase.

Damn, he was in the right place.

"Any relation to Rowan Chase, the doctor?"

He was surprised at the flash of emotion he saw across Chase's face, before green eyes narrowed.

"No."

He was lying.

House was starting to look forward to the upcoming school year

"Oh, so it was the other Australian transfer student that Cuddy told me about this morning, the one who's the son of Rowan Chase."

It was a complete bluff on his part, but the crossed arms and rather shuttered expression told House all he needed to know.

"What did he do to make you so mad? Cut off your yachting privileges?"

He was expecting for the Aussie to blow up in his face, yell at him, or at the very least to glare. Instead, Chase's expression didn't even falter.

"If you don't want me in your class, I can switch. There's an opening in Mr Wilson's."

Now that was just no fun.

"Take a seat," House said with a sigh, gesturing to the classroom at large.

Chase frowned at the abrupt change in his attitude, but didn't comment, instead trying to find somewhere to sit. There were numerous empty seats in the room but it seemed he was very aware of high school cliques as he glanced around. House noticed his gaze flicked almost longingly to the back row, as if that is where he used to sit in his school back in Oz, but dismissed it rather quickly. He must have noticed Foreman and his friends glowering at him, silently daring him to even try it.

There were a cluster of geeks in the front row, looking at him in slight admiration, no doubt connecting his 'accelerated learning' status with his pretty face in wonder. Chase looked away from them uncomfortably, obviously not used to that sort of attention.

The second row was no more promising, full of loners, or goths, or emos, or whatever they were known as to other teenagers. Chase clearly didn't fit there, being neither decorated with chains nor wearing black, even if he did seem to have a collection of issues to rival even theirs.

The third row was also not Chase's scene, full of members of the popular clique that he doubted the reserved, apparently troubled teenager would fit into. However, the third row contained pretty-girl Cameron who had an affinity to baby animals, flowers, and now, lost, cute Australians. She gave Chase a blinding smile, and, as the boy clearly had little choice, he took the seat next to her with a small grin of relief.

"Now that we're fully multicultural," House continued, justifiably receiving glares from every 'minority' student in the room, "we can continue with our lesson."

Chase tried to listen as House talked about the manufacture of proteins in an animal cell, but couldn't really focus. He had read over this topic during the summer anyway, so he could afford not to really pay attention. He was clearly not the only one as the girl next to him turned and offered him her hand under the table.

"Allison Cameron," she greeted with a smile.

"Robert Chase," he responded before nodding to House. "Is he always like that?"

"Pretty much. He's brilliant though, you'll see."

Chase hummed in a sort of agreement, but was still a bit sore about the mention of his father. He and his mother had moved to America to escape Rowan Chase. Well, rather he had moved his mother to escape Rowan Chase. Nevertheless, either way, he wasn't expecting his Biology teacher to have heard of him.

Maybe he should have gone further. England, perhaps. That was on the opposite side of the world. Surely his name wouldn't have travelled that far.

He sighed a little, knowing it was futile to think like that. He had worked for ages back in Australia to afford the plane tickets to get here, even longer for the crappy flat they now lived in. Another trip was probably going to kill him. Besides, they hadn't been here for long, maybe America was exactly what his mother needed.

"So when did you move here?" she asked. "I… um… noticed your accent."

Chase knew it was kind of hard not to.

"About four months ago, straight from Melbourne."

She raised her eyebrows, impressed.

"So you're sort of new in town?"

Chase shrugged, thinking it was more of a problem he was new to the country, before nodding.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, if you want, I could show you around, maybe we could grab a cof-"

"Hey, hey!" House called to them. "Surely you haven't found something more interesting than Biology?"

Robert and Allison looked to each other, speechless after being caught out.

"Swapping hair tips, although possibly to the benefit of Cameron's split ends," House continued, ignoring the way Allison raised a hand to her hair in horror, "doesn't help you learn about transcription. So… er… detention."

Chase slumped in his seat.

No doubt a rubbish start to a rubbish year.

A/N: So… what do you think?

A quick note on ages/roles for anyone who wants to get this sorted now:

Rowan is a famous doctor (still a rheumatologist, though) who has published a lot of articles and written books, so is pretty well known to Medical and Biological professionals. That's how House knew about him.

Chase is sixteen, Foreman, Cameron and everyone else in that class are seventeen. They're obviously all students.

House and Wilson are teachers (this will be explained later on). House is an academic doctor, not a medical doctor, i.e. he did a doctorate in Biology. Wilson didn't, hence he's Mr Wilson. (Mr House just sounds a bit too odd and he's meant to be a 'genius', so I doubt he would settle for anything less than being a doctor). And so that explains that difference.

As for Cuddy… yes, Headmistress Cuddy. :D

Other characters may appear in later chapters, but these are the ones mentioned so far.

Hope you liked it…?