A Maxerica AU

Chapter 1

America POV

"America Singer, if you're not out the door in ten minutes, you're going to be late for school!" My mom yells into my ear. Literally into my ear. She's standing by my bed, shaking me awake. "Okay, I'm up." I mumble incoherently, rapidly blinking my eyes. I quickly change, running out the door just in time to catch the bus. "Hey, America." My bus driver says to me as I leap up the steps. "Hi, Joan." I reply. Joan's the only one on my bus who talks to me anymore. My stop is the last one, so the bus is always full. I slide into a seat with a boy playing a video game on his phone. At least he'll be too consumed with whatever he's playing to notice me. We unload onto the cement sidewalk near the school. A bleach-blonde girl glares at me, eager to get to her boyfriend. "Move out of my way, freak." She sneers, giving me a rough shove. Welcome to my world. I sigh, hefting my 20 pound backpack higher on my shoulder. My first class is Trigonometry, which goes fairly smoothly. I sit next to Owen, a quiet boy who expresses himself through the clarinet. English is fine. Mr. Bartley goes into huge lecture about Henry David Thoreau and his book Walden. I sit next to a girl named Fiona (Castley, I think her last name is) who is fairly okay. She thinks she's so much better than me, and only talks about boys and their potential relationship- wise. My third period is Chemistry. Kriss Ambers is in my class, and she's always a big pain. All she cares about, like Fiona from English, is boys. Particularly Maxon Schreave. He's the 'One' at my school, and practically every girl likes him. I'm don't quite get why though. He looks good and everything, but to me he seems kind of stuck up. In The Selection Prepatory Academy For Later Life (Which can be abbreviated to TSPAFLL), there are these things put in place called 'castes'. Maxon, whose parents own The Academy, is the only One in the student body. The popular kids are Twos, the slightly less popular kids are Threes (you can also become a Three by being outstanding academically), the Fours are the regular kids, and the Fives are the ones who are here on an art scholarship. Like me. Next is music, my favorite class. After that is lunch. I really hate lunch. Reason being Mr. Aspen Leger. He hates me. The sad thing is though, we used to be freinds. "Bye, Mrs. Schreave." I manage to squeak out. Mrs. Amberly Schreave is my favorite teacher. She's always been so kind to me, especially when everyone else isn't. She smiles. "Have a nice lunch break!" She calls. Though it's nice of her to say that, the prospect of my lunch being remotely nice is an unlikely prospect. I head off to the lunchroom. What I see stops me in my tracks. Aspen Leger. Waiting for me. He usually waits for when I'm walking to my next class, but it seems like he wants an audienc. Standing next to him is Kriss Ambers. She hates me because her beloved Maxon Schreave smiled in my general direction once, when we were all still Freshmen. I try to dodge them, hiding behind a brunette whose name I think is Sosie. Too late. They see me. Aspen saunters up and slams me to the floor. "Stop." I say, glaring at him. He's teased me pretty badly before, but this is the first time it's gotten physical. He smirks. "Why would I, if I'm already having so much fun?" His voice is dripping with sarcasam. A rough kick to the ribs. Will it ever stop? I think. Probably not. I'm not strong enough to fight back and even if I were, his friends are equally huge. We don't have teachers on duty during lunch- it's supposed to build 'a sense of responsibility for controlling yourself appropriately when no one is watching' or whatever- and my fellow students won't, because Aspen is a Two. Realizing that he's not going to stop until he hears a snap, I boldly stand up and attempt to walk away. He grabs my arm and pulls me back. "No leaving until I say so." Aspen grunts, readying his arm for a punch. I close my eyes and wait. "HEY!" A boy's voice echoes through the cafeteria. "YOU CAN'T TREAT HER LIKE THAT!" I feel like I've hears that voice before. "Oh, really? Why not?" Aspen sneers in return. "BECAUSE NO LADY SHOULD BE REGARDED IN THAT WAY! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!!!" I open my eyes, watching Aspen to see how he'll recact. He has a massive ego. As I observe, his head whips around. My eyes follow his gaze. Maxon Schreave is striding towards us, his sleeves rolled up and his face flushed with anger. Kriss immediately rushes to him. "Maxie!" He shakes her off. "Get away from me, Kriss." Once he reaches Aspen, he yells, "MARCH STRAIGHT TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE!!! AND IF YOU EVER LET ME CATCH YOU TREATING HER OR ANYONE ELSE IN THAT TYPE OF MANNER, WELL LETS JUST SAY YOU WILL WISH YOU NEVER HAD BEEN BORN!" I take that oppurtunity to rush out of the room, into the courtyard. It's called a courtyard, but its basically a garden. I rush to a random bench. A few minutes later, someone sits beside me. I look over. It's Maxon. I state at him until I remember my manners. "Thank you so, so, much for saving me." I say. He waves it off. "Are you alright?" Maxon asks. I slowly nod. "What's your name?" he wants to know. "America." I say. "I'm Maxon." He says, like I don't know who he is. "I know. You're the son of the Headmaster!" He shrugs. "Oh. Yeah, I guess. Now, America, has that boy harassed you before?" "Not very physically, I suppose. Just little things, teasing, name calling, the occasional punch or kick." His eyes widen. "I'm fine though." I say hurriedly. "Why in the world would he pick on you?" He questions, and the whole story about Aspen and I being freinds when we were younger but once we went to TSPSFLL, he suddenly hated me, then how my other old friend, Ashley, moved away, all spills out. Maxon sits there. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that. From now on, I'd like you to sit with me and my freinds." He announced. "But... You're a One, and your freinds are all Twos, and I'm a Five." I admitted. "Castes don't matter. We sit with who we want to sit with. Marlee and Elise used to be Fours, and Carter was a Three. Once I started sitting with them, they got 'elevated' or whatever, to the Two status." He rolls his eyes. "Thanks for offering, Maxon. I hope we'll be good freinds." I smile, then regret my words. What if he didn't want to be freinds? Maybe he just feels sorry for me... I think, praying that I haven't lost my chance to have a group to sit with. "I hope so too." he says, grinning. Inside, I let out a huge sigh of relief. "Which class do you have next?" He wants to know. I groan. "Etiquett with Ms. Silvia." I groaned, but he beamed. "So do I! Would you like to walk together?" He asked, offering me his arm. Together. I like the sound of that.