Newbie?" the big, intimidating one asked.

"Yup! That's me!" Alex did jazz hands. "And you are…"

Two of the boys at the table just raised their eyebrows, but the third, smallest one held out his hand and wow he was adorable and—

Alex blinked, remembering to hold out his hand and hoping that he wasn't blushing too much because that would be creepy and geez, he wanted this guy to like him.

What the fuck?! I'm a fucking creep.

"John Laurens," the really-fucking-gorgeous boy said. Hamilton took his hand, which was surprisingly soft, and shook it. "And if you like Sprite, we can be best friends forever."

Sprite wasn't quite Alex's thing, but that didn't really matter anymore. "Glad to meet you, then."

The guy with really curly hair and a manic smile groaned, putting his head on the table. "He's on his third Sprite already."

"Don't mess with me," Laurens jokingly warned, giving the curly-haired guy a punch that was more of a tap. Alex's heart fell. Is something going on between them? Jesus, why do I care? God, I'm a creep.

"Je m'appelle Lafayette," curly-hair introduced himself.

"Ravi de vous rencontrer," Hamilton said.

Lafayette grinned. "Nice to meet another one of us." His voice had a thick French accent, and suddenly, Alex didn't feel so alone.

"Hercules Mulligan," the buff guy introduced himself. "And I'm the least creepy out of these idiots."

"He fucks horses." Laurens interjected. Mulligan raised his glass of water as if toasting Alex, and winked.

Alex choked on his Coke.

"And if it isn't Aaron Burr!" Lafayette said. "Gonna sit with us today?"

"I have plans."

"Studying again?" Lafayette teased. "You should take a break. Sit with us this time. We're thinking about the best way to piss off King so much that he quits."

"Then we can finally get shit done," Mulligan added, turning to Alex. "Principal King Dickhead has been blocking every fucking idea that anyone else has. Very firm believer in nothing ever changing, ever."

"An asshole," Lafayette summarized. "And he's—"

Laurens cut him off. "He's a guy that needs to go. How about it, Burr?"

"Sounds like a horrible idea," Burr said. "I'll see you later."

Laurens groaned. "God, Burr. King can only last for so long. We might as well try to get rid of him as soon as possible."

"Do you ever get bored not doing anything?" Alex asked before thinking better of being rude. "I mean, you just study a lot, right? Don't you ever want to take a stand? Not like I'm saying that the principal should die or whatever, but do you actually gain anything from him staying, or…" Alex trailed off before he could continue his entire tangent of dissecting Burr's possible motives at the look on Burr's face.

"Damn," Lafayette grinned. "I like you, kid."

"You're the same fucking age," Mulligan said. "Sophomore, right?"

Alex nodded, taking a seat. "So what's the deal with King, anyway?"

"Like I said, he's an asshole. All of the fucking teachers, the whole damn student council—and they never agree on anything!—try to get things done, and King makes sure that everything stays the same," Lafayette told him.

Laurens nodded. "Charles Lee, the student council president, is pretty bad too. But Esther DeBerdt is the vice prez, and she's been pushing for better elective funding, for a GSA, for more language teachers, and all of the teachers support her, and King keeps shooting her down."

"But why?"

The three sophomores began talking over each other, going over every injustice that Principal King had ever carried out, every thing that King had done to hurt the people at the school. With every word, Alex got more and more angry. He didn't like people that abused their power!

But Burr interrupted them. "It doesn't matter. He's the principal. There's no point in fighting it. We don't have any power, anyway."

But Alex began to smile. "That doesn't mean that we don't have a chance."

The four boys looked at Alex, surprised.

"No offense, but you're kinda new here," Mulligan pointed out. "What makes you think that you can change anything?"

Alex shrugged. "All that I know is that I am not throwing away my shot