Title: A Priori

Fandom: BBC Robin Hood

Author: vultures, a.k.a andthedescent

Rated: Teen

Spoilers: None

Characters: Robin, Marian, Outlaws, Sheriff, Gisborne, OCs.

Summary: Robin Hood and his trusted gang face down their age old enemies and try to get the girl. The setting, though, is somewhat changed. Their battlefield is a council estate and a secondary school takes the place of the castle, but their old quarrel is just the same.

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing these characters from good ole Aunty Beeb. Don't sue me. I promise I'll bring them back more or less in one piece.

A/N: Written because I saw the challenge on Lady Clark of Books' profile, and thought it looked fun. So this is me, having a go too.

It was first thing on a Monday morning, officially the worst time of the week. To make matters worse, it was the first day back at school after the Christmas holidays, and I'd just been getting used to having a lie in. Being woken up at half past six by my radio alarm clock had been most displeasing. To top it all off, it was raining. Not heavily, just the sort of fine drizzle that you don't even notice until much later, when you suddenly realise that you're soaked. And my hair had probably gone frizzy. Fan-bloody-tastic.

"Alright?"

A voice startled me from my oh so cheerful musings and I looked as Georgia slipped into the seat next to me.

"Alright?," I mumbled into my arm, lacking the energy to raise my head up off of the desk to greet my friend. She nodded, grinning cheerfully. Sometimes I wished that I could be a morning person, too.

"Have a good Christmas?" she asked and, without waiting for a reply, quickly answered her own question. It was a habit of hers. "I did. Mum and dad got me the camera I wanted. You'll have to come round and see it. I was gonna bring it in today, but thought I'd better not. Didn't want it getting nicked."

As she spoke, she threw a pointed glance over her shoulder towards the back of the room, to where Safiyah was sitting, reading a battered old book out of her bag. Her eyes were fixed on the page and she appeared oblivious to the insult just tossed at her, but I saw her glance upwards briefly as John and Guy, sitting behind us, laughed. Then she caught me looking and her expression hardened as she glared at me. I just raised my eyebrows in reply and turned back to the people seated around me. If the girl was going to hate me for who I was friends with, I wasn't going to try and be friends. After all, the rumours about her might well be true.

"Hi, Maz," Guy grinned as I turned to join the conversation going on next to me. "Have a good new year?"

"You should know," I rolled my eyes, "You were there most of the time, hanging around on my doorstep." Georgia snorted in amusement, and he had the decency to look just slightly shamed. Before he could say anything back, however, somebody else had cut in.

"I saw you at the shops on Saturday." John Sheriff, everybody. Our resident gang leader, sado-masochist, and unrepentant busybody. He was eyeing me slightly suspiciously, as though I had no right to do such a thing as to go into town and stock up on mascara and deodorant.

"Yeah? What's it to you, Sheriff?"

"Just that you were with a bloke. Not from round here. And he looked like one of them council estate scum," he wrinkled his nose. That was the thing about him; if you were one of his mates, you were laughing. He basically controlled the school and most of the estate, and his cronies tended to have a good time of it. But he liked to be in control.

"That was my cousin, thanks!" I snapped, glaring at him, and pretended not to notice the visible look of relief on Guy's face. As if he had any right to care who I was out with, anyway. But then, even thought I hated to, I felt the need to validate myself. Sheriff and his gang made life easy for me when I was one of them, but if I crossed them they had the power to make things very difficult for me indeed. "And he'd just got off a flight from Australia. He was jetlagged." I added irritably.

"Just looking out for you, princess," Sheriff shrugged.

"Yeah. Thanks," I answered, glancing at the clock on the wall. My ten minutes stuck in this classroom were almost up, and then it was off to first lesson. Maths, the joy. I stood up and picked my bag up off of the floor before Guy could offer to carry it for me. He might have been sweet, in another life. As it was he was just vaguely scary.

"It's time to go," I added, unnecessarily, because a moment later the bell that signalled the end of registration began, and the lot of us scurried out into the corridor before our hapless tutor could work out that she hadn't actually taken the register yet.

As I slipped into the chaos that was the main corridor, I weaved expertly through the crowds to make my way to maths before my irritable teacher could scold me for being about two seconds late. I was almost there when something hard - an elbow, I realised a moment later - connected with my side and sent me staggering into the wall. I threw my hands out to catch myself, but the owner of the elbow had already realised their mistake and grabbed my arm to steady me.

I spun around, mouth open and ready to chew their bloody ear off for shoving me, and froze.

The eyes. The smile. The too-long hair. I recognised them.

"Sorry about that," the boy who'd run into me said, and I recognised the voice, too. I watched as his eyes widened then, and he raised his eyebrows as he looked at me. "Marian! Marian Fitzwalter, yeah?"

It was only my childhood playmate. The boy who, at the tender age of five, I'd kissed on the cheek and promised I would marry someday. Only Robin Locksley.

My mouth opened, and I was uncharacteristically lost for words.

"Uh…"

He laughed.