"Adam! "

Adam opened his eyes slowly and looked around his room sleepily. Catching sight of his Superman alarm clock, he groaned as he read the time. "Mom! I don't wanna go to school!" he whined.

"I don't care what you want, you're going to school!" she shouted back. "And don't tell me you're ill. I'm a nurse, and I know when you're lying Adam Joseph Copeland!"

"Don't call me that!" Adam whined again, crawling out of his bed and immediately stepping on a stray Superman doll. "OW! Shit!" he hissed, instantly regretting his slip when the door of his room banged open and his mother stood in the threshold looking like the Angel of Death.

"What did you say?!" she asked shrilly.

"Nothing Mom," he said, ducking his head and trying to act innocent.

"Are you lying to me?" she asked, narrowing her eyes, knowing full well that he was.

"No Mom," Adam quickly answered.

"You know what happens to liars, don't you Adam?"

"Yes Mom," he answered again, recognizing the tone in her voice and knowing he had been caught.

"Okay then, as long as you know." she said, her voice softening. "You go brush your teeth sweetie and mommy'll make you some waffles. Okay?" she smiled, ruffling his hair and turning out of the room when he smiled brightly at her and said "Kay!"

'I am so cool!' he thought smugly to himself, walking into the bathroom and using the toilet, completely ignoring his toothbrush and toothpaste. When he was done he went back into his room and promptly fell over his Superman bin, sending pencil shavings and balled up paper - not to mention himself - all over his already messy floor.

Finding himself sprawled face down on the floor he quickly turned over and kicked the bin across the room, about to curse out loud again but biting his tongue and swearing in his head, deciding that even he wasn't stupid enough to swear in the house again. Especially since he had come to the conclusion that his mother possessed super human hearing abilities.

Pushing himself to his feet, he walked to his wardrobe and pulled out his clothes.

Stripping out of his Superman pajamas, he looked at his underwear drawer for a split second before deciding that the underwear he had on was clean enough to use (even though he'd had the same underpants on for two days running now), and, he reasoned with himself, changing his underwear would just make more laundry for his mother, so not changing his underpants was helping her in the long run.

Shifting his eyes to his sock drawer he pondered the same thing, but thought it was better to put a clean pair of socks on considering the ones that were tucked away under his pillow were getting a little smelly. Although for the life of him, he couldn't understand why.

Obviously it wasn't cause he wore them to play in the mud with Jay, then threw them in the lake, that was just madness talking! EVERYONE knew you threw your socks in the lake after you'd played in the mud, it was just common sense.

Sighing like he had the world's weight on his shoulders, he pulled a pair of clean socks from the drawer and picked up the clothes he had selected. His favourite pair of faded jeans and a T-shirt proclaiming 'Blondes Are Cute', a statement he didn't disagree with one bit.

Pulling the clothes on, he stood to leave the room, but not before picking up his discarded pajama top and rubbing it over his teeth like it was a toothbrush, then quickly taking a mint out of his secret stash. He sucked on it quickly before chewing it and walking out of the room, smiling to himself, remembering the day Jay had taught him that trick.

He was still smiling to himself when he breezed into the kitchen.

Looking up from her newspaper, Mrs. Copeland smiled to herself when she saw her son fully clothed. 'I knew he'd forget!' she thought to herself as she watched her offspring sit across the table from her and start to eat his breakfast with gusto.

"Adam sweetie?" she asked, resting the newspaper on the table and looking straight at her son.

"What?" he asked, cutting up a piece of waffle.

Smiling, Mrs. Copeland watched him load the waffle onto his fork, then just as he was raising it to his lips she said, "Remember what we talked about last night?"

She had to bite back a laugh when his hand froze in midair, leaving the waffle to hang, while his mouth dropped open, his eyes widened and he stared at her in shock.

Adam tried to make his mouth work; nothing would come out, but he kept trying anyway.

Attempting to get the words out of his mouth right now reminded him of the time he and Jay went to the aquarium and they both stood for hours impersonating the fish. He just knew he had the whole 'bob' thing down right now, but he was too shocked to appreciate it.

She CAN'T be serious, he thought to himself looking in his mother's blue eyes. She's got to be joking!

"I... I..." he stuttered, before being cut off by a wave of his mother's hand.

"Don't give me any of that 'I..I..' crap young man," Mrs. Copeland said firmly, deliberately hardening her voice against her only child while trying desperately not to burst into fits of giggles at the classic 'deer-in-the-headlights' look that was plastered all over his face.

"But Mom..." Adam breathed, last night's conversation flooding through his mind.

"No buts Adam, we agreed what your punishment would be and YOU..." she emphasized the word to help it sink in. "..said that you would do it. You AGREED to do it!"

"But..." he tried again.

"No buts!" he was told firmly, then before he could protest more his mother stood and left the room.

Standing huddled in a small part of the huge playground that lay in front of an old brick building that the kids from the local area liked to call 'TITS', (the building had been christened Titan Intermediate Towers School when it had opened almost forty years ago, no-one realising at the time the many hours of helpless laughter it would cause boys and girls alike), there was a heated argument being carried out by a small group of boys, each claiming that they could pull the better wheelie.

"I so totally pulled a wheelie for five minutes!" Jay Reso told the small group adamantly, backing his words up with lots of hand actions he saw his dad do once and which he thought were cool.

"You're lying!" Jeff Hardy, a small southern kid answered, looking at his brother for confirmation and smiling widely when Matt agreed.

"Yeah, you're talking crap Reso," Matt told him.

"I am not!" Jay retorted, offended. "When Adam gets here, ask him! He'll tell you I'm not lying! He'll agree with me!"

"Adam always does," Mark Calloway stated dryly, getting annoyed with the conversation already and wanting nothing more than to bang all their heads together.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Jay asked, moving from offended to angry in two seconds flat. He gave Mark a dark look, even though Mark was a head taller than he was.

"It means, Adam always agrees with you. I'm surprised you two aren't going out! You're always acting like boyfriend and girlfriend." Mark spat, raising to his full height when Jay took an angry step towards him.

"Whoa there!" Chris Jericho said, immediately stepping in front of Jay and holding him back. The last thing he wanted was for Jay to get into a fight with Mark and get the crap kicked out of him. No matter how tough Jay thought he was, there was no way in hell he could beat Mark in a fight.

"Let him go, Chris!" Hunter Helmsley laughed, "I wanna see a fight!"

"There won't be a fight Hunter," Mark said, suddenly bored.

"Why?" Jeff asked, staring up at Mark and wondering if he was chicken.

"Cause Adam's not here, and poor little Jay-Jay can't fight without his big bad boyfriend."

Giving off a small shriek of rage, Jay tried to throw himself at Mark but was restrained by Chris and Matt. The rest of the small group, including Mark, watched in amusement as Jay fought and struggled to get to get free, while saying every swear word he could think of.

Jeff, who lost interest almost immediately after realising a fight would not take place, looked around the playground with a sigh. He spotted Spike Dudley and Molly Holly kissing next to the swings and screwed his face up. How ANYBODY could kiss a girl was beyond him, they were yucky.

Looking over to the climbing frame he spotted the girls, shivering when Stephanie McMahon locked eyes with him and smiled brightly, showing off her braces. Ewww! He thought to himself. Icky! Icky! Icky!

Averting his eyes and doing a quick scan of the playground, he spotted Crash and Hardcore Holly arguing with Buh Buh and D-von Dudley. He watched with mild interest as they exchanged words, and all ended up hitting poor Crash upside the head before walking away in different directions.

He saw Steve Austin and Kurt Angle sitting by the wall having what looked to be like a serious discussion about Steve's name and Kurt's toy medals, which he never left home without and which caused him to get his ass kicked constantly.

Jeff smiled to himself as he remembered when Chris Benoit stole the medals and ran around all day with them shoved down his pants. Kurt had cried for hours and called for his mommy more than once. Even the teacher had gotten sick of his tears and sent him to sit in the corridor so he could get on with the class.

Looking at the small patch of grass next to the climbing frame and swings, Jeff spotted Shane McMahon, Rocky Maivia, Glenn Jacobs and Scott Levy playing marbles, which, Jeff thought, was really stupid considering they were playing on the grass and everyone knew you had to play marbles on the ground if you were going to play it right.

Suddenly a car door slammed hard enough to break the glass and Jeff was pulled out of his thoughts on the marble game. His attention quickly turned to the front gates of the school, where he saw a tall blonde girl having a heated argument with what must have been her mother.

Watching intently, his mind ran though a mental check before coming to the conclusion that this must be a new girl, and judging by the argument she was having with her mother, she was gonna be cool to hang around with.

"I HATE YOU!" Adam screamed at his mother when she refused to take him home.

Stamping away from the car and not bothering to answer his mother's shout of goodbye, Adam stalked through the school gates, his face like thunder and his lips pouting enough that you could fall over them.

He spotted the small group of boys he hung out with almost immediately, and seeing both Chris and Matt holding onto Jay's arms, his BEST FRIEND'S arms, didn't help his mood one bit.

Marching up to the small group, he yanked Jay away from Matt and Chris, shoving both boys away from his best friend and looking at Jay with concern filled eyes, asking, "Are you all right?" and shooting Matt and Chris a death glare when he spotted a small red mark on Jay's left arm. "A... Adam?" Jay asked, looking his best friend - his best GUY friend - up and down, completely shocked. Why was his best friend wearing a girl's checkered dress that came just above the knee? Why was he wearing frilly socks and big clumpy shoes with huge buckles on? And most importantly, why the hell was his hair in pigtails with bright pink ribbons in?!

But before he could get those questions past his lips, Mark stated, "I'm sorry Jay, I was wrong, obviously YOU'RE the big bad boyfriend in this relationship!" And with that he burst into peals of laughter, which was quickly followed by everyone else, Jay included.

Adam, his eyes wide and lips pursed, cursing his mother to all kinds of hell, attempted to explain why he was dressed the way he was but he couldn't talk over the laughter.

His anger rising threefold, he screamed that it wasn't his fault he was dressed like this, it was all down to his mother, but the small group didn't hear him. They just continued laughing, which of course attracted everyone's attention, and it wasn't long before every kid on the playground was standing around pointing and laughing at him.

This did nothing for Adam's temper at all, and the laughing, coupled with the fact that no-one was listening to him, only made his anger rise to boiling point.

But it wasn't until Joanie Laurer, one of the girls that caused him to be in this mess in the first place, called him 'Amber' instead of Adam, that he snapped.

Screaming in rage, he grabbed a still giggling Jay's arm and marched his way out of the circle that had surrounded him, or more to the point, slapped his way out of the circle that had surrounded him.

He had just smacked Perry Saturn upside the head, and got the response of, "You're Welcome!" which drew a very confused look from Adam, when a bell sounded from inside the school and their teacher opened the doors, waiting patiently for his class to line up.

After lots of giggling and a few whines about sore heads, they had formed a line. The teacher smiled brightly at them, giving them all a cheery, "Good morning class!"

It was quickly answered with a mixture of laughing, whining and angry, "Good morning Mr. McMahon," responses.

After handing Mr McMahon a note from his mother explaining why he was dressed as he was, Adam marched over to his desk and slumped down in the chair, with what seemed like a permanent scowl on his face.

Reading the note and smiling to himself, Mr. McMahon sat down to read the register. Once that was done he noted happily that he had a full house (or classroom) of students, unlike Mr. Turner next door who Vince just knew was missing some kids. Mainly because of the fight his class and Ted's had gotten into.

He had watched the whole thing erupt from his classroom window not three days before, and he had watched the majority of Ted's students get the crap kicked out of them. He had acted like the proper authority figure when the time had come, but while it was happening, he was cheering his kids on to victory.

His smile grew wider when he remembered that the one kid who did most of the damage in the fight (because one of Ted's kids had pushed his best friend on his ass and made him scrape his elbow), was sitting at his desk staring moodily out the window, dressed like a girl.

"Okay class, get your books out and start your morning work," Mr. McMahon told them, watching as they moaned, laughed and sulked while they hunted through their desks for their books.

The class was still working intently when the bell rang signalling recess.

Blinking, surprised, Mr. McMahon glanced at the clock, then around at the kids who were rapidly shoving books, pencils and anything else on their desktops into their desks.

Not giving their teacher a second glance or waiting for him to dismiss them officially, the kids ran out of the classroom and made a beeline for the playground. Once there, they split into their usual groups and headed in separate directions.

"So we're gonna play now?" Stephanie asked excitedly, looking at the small group of boys huddled next to the climbing frame and searching out Jeff, smiling dreamily when she found him.

"Yeah!" Amy Dumas said, a mischievous smile playing across her lips at the prospect of kissing Matt. A boy she'd kicked, shoved, slapped, punched, and screamed at on more than one occasion, all in the name of love.

"Should we tell them?" Joanie asked, eyeing Hunter up then shifting her attention to Mark, then Jay, then Adam.

"Nah, they'll find out soon enough," Trish Stratus spoke up, looking all the boys over and deciding that Chris was the one she was going for.

"Okay," Amy started, standing in front of the small group of girls like a captain talking to her troops, each soldier eager to start the much anticipated game of catchy-kissy; one that the group of unsuspecting boys had no idea had been carefully planned out all morning. "Do you know who you want first?"

The group nodded, confirming her question, each girl eying their prey. She walked along the line the group seemed to have automatically formed and asked each girl who she wanted.

"Joanie?"

"Hunter!"

"Steph?"

"Jeff!"

"Trish?"

"Chris!"

"Jackie?"

"Adam!"

They all stopped for a second to giggle at that answer, considering the serious discussion they'd had about asking Adam to join their side and help them hold the boys down while they kissed them, but they'd wisely decided against it.

Getting back to the task at hand, Amy resumed her questioning.

"Ivory?"

"Mark!"

"Tori?"

"Jay!"

"Okay," she said again, casting one last glance towards the six girls in the group before turning around to face the boys and locking her eyes on Matt's black hair. "Matt is my choice... let's get 'em!"

And with that, the girls set off on a run towards their victims.

The victims in question, who were still laughing at Adam for being dressed the way he was, were half-listening, half-laughing while Adam bit out the terrible tale of how he came to be dressed like he was and what kind of gruesome death he was going to inflict on the girls who made this whole nightmare a reality.

The girls (who really could have cared less about Adam's threats) swooped down on the boys so unexpectedly that they all hit their targets with perfect accuracy.

It was like one big hit and run attack.

Matt, the first boy to be hit, didn't quite know what to do with himself. One minute he was laughing at Adam's vivid description of removing Joanie Laurer's head from her shoulders with only a spoon, and the next minute he was whipped around and found Amy Dumas' lips planted firmly on his.

Then before he could get his wits about him enough to shove her away and possibly smack her across the head, she was gone, running across the playground with a huge smile on her face.

Standing a little out of the way and completely dumbstruck, Jeff watched as the horde of girls pounced on their group.

He watched stupefied as Matt was kissed, then Mark, then Jay, then Chris, then Adam, then Hunter. Everything was happening so fast around him he never saw Stephanie sneak up, and was totally blind-sided when she grabbed his face with both of her tiny, sweaty hands and planted a kiss so hard and brutal on his lips that he was actually forced to take a step back.

Unwittingly, Jeff's mouth dropped open in shock during the kiss, and Steph, not being one to miss an opportunity or squander the hours of homework and dedication she'd put in in front of the huge mirror in her bathroom, shoved her tongue into Jeff's mouth.

Upon contact, Jeff's eyes widened in sheer terror. He screamed like a banshee and shoved Stephanie away, his hand automatically flying to his mouth, trying to wipe the touch of her tongue out of his mouth.

He was still wiping frantically and gagging slightly at the thought of another person's tongue touching his when Adam screamed at the top of his lungs and set off at a dead run for the scattering girls.

Taking his lead, the rest of the boys followed suit, each going after the girl that had inflicted the horrible torture on them, but every time one of them caught a girl she would scream and they'd be bombarded by the others and kissed again.

Hunter, who had so far been kissed by every girl and Joanie twice, stopped to catch his breath. He looked around the playground, panting slightly. In the far corner, he saw Chris become another victim to the disgusting kissing spree the girls seemed to have gone on. He saw Adam, Jay and Matt chasing Amy across the yard, all three boys promising death when they caught her, but Amy just laughed and continued running.

He scanned the area for Mark and spotted him watching the activities of his friends with a scowl on his face. He also noted that he kept rubbing the back of his hand over his mouth, obviously trying to get rid of the feel of Ivory's lips on his own.

Finally, his eyes rested on the wall where a very pale Jeff Hardy sat.

Deciding he'd had enough of this game he headed towards the younger Hardy brother, but not before getting shoved on his ass as Adam, Jay, Chris and Matt barrelled past him, all running for their lives' worth from Amy, Joanie, Jackie, Tori and Steph.

Picking himself up and dusting himself off, he walked over to the wall and sat down next to Jeff.

"Are you sick?" he asked, getting straight to the point, looking at Jeff's pale face.

"She kissed me," Jeff said, barely above a whisper. "She KISSED me."

"We all got kissed Jeff. Get over it," Hunter told him, smirking as he watched his four friends get tackled to the ground and kissed by each girl.

"But she touched me with her thing," Jeff said, staring straight ahead, his gaze fixed on nothing as his mind replayed the horror he'd gone through.

"Huh?" Hunter asked, his eyebrows knitting in confusion at Jeff's words.

"Stephanie! She touched me with her thing!" Jeff told him again.

"Jeff," Hunter began, staring at Jeff like he'd lost it. "Stephanie hasn't got a thing, she's a girl!"

Shaking his head vigorously but still staring straight ahead, Jeff told him, "No, her thing! She touched me with her thing! She put it in my mouth!"

"Uh..." Hunter trailed off, moving a few feet away from Jeff. "What are you talking about?" he asked almost reluctantly, telling himself that if Jeff mentioned anything about witches or tentacles, he was outta here!

"St- Stephanie..." Jeff stopped to catch his breath. "She... she... sheputhertongueinmymouth!" he said all in one breath.

"What?" Hunter asked, unconsciously moving forward, his curiosity suddenly spiked when it took Jeff a few minutes to compose himself.

"She put her tongue in my mouth." Jeff said again, this time slower and more clearly. Finally he shifted his gaze and looked at Hunter.

A look of total shock had taken over his friend's face, quickly replaced by revulsion before Hunter screamed, "EWWWWW!!" and bolted out of his seat, flying across the playground screaming "Ew! Icky! Gross!" and wiping his tongue.

Before Jeff could run after his friend and tell him it wasn't his fault Stephanie had stuck her tongue in his mouth, the bell rang letting all the kids know recess was over.

Once the class was seated again, the girls on one side smiling happily and letting off delighted giggles every now and then, and the boys on the other side scowling every time a giggle was heard, Mr. McMahon told the class to get their maths books out.

This simple request immediately started an argument between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle.

"I'm gonna do loads of sums and Mr. McMahon is gonna like me more," Steve said smugly, taking his maths book out of the desk.

"Nu-uh! He's going to like me more. And I wish you would speak properly Steve. Don't use words like 'gonna'. I mean, is it so hard to say 'going to'?" Kurt commented.

Steve stared at him with an 'oh-you-did-not-just-correct-me!' look as Kurt got his books from his desk, totally oblivious to his glare. "Are you looking for an ass-whippin'?!" Steve demanded.

Looking at Steve once, twice, three times, Kurt eventually asked, "Who? Me?"

"Yes, you moron! Who the hell else do you think I was talking to?!"

"What did I do?" Kurt asked, confused, before adding quickly, "And it's 'whom' not 'who'."

"You ARE looking for an ass-whippin', aren't ya?!" Steve growled.

"What? What did I do?" Kurt asked again, totally unaware of how close he was to getting smacked around the head for the third time that day by Steve.

Throwing his hands up in frustration and shoving Kurt, Steve threatened him that if he so much as breathed the wrong way he would have to shove his toothbrush up his own ass to brush his teeth, before turning his back on him and starting on his maths work.

On the other side of the classroom, Adam and Jay sat facing Matt and Jeff.

"What's wrong with you?" Adam demanded huffily when he noticed Jeff wiping at his mouth repeatedly.

Upon hearing Adam's question and flashing a quick glance to the kid he was talking to, Hunter shivered visibly, screwed his face up and let out a low "Ewwww!" which Jeff heard instantly. He threw Hunter a quick, almost scared look before turning to face Adam again and muttering a barely audible, "Nothing."

Shrugging his shoulders and giving the small southerner an uninterested look, Adam looked across the classroom at the girls and shivered himself. How those creatures had the NERVE to touch him was unbelievable and he made a mental note to himself to always keep one eye on them.

Grimacing when Joanie grinned at him, he turned his attention back to his maths book and looked at the blank page in front of him. He sighed to himself before thinking, 'Why the hell do we need maths anyway? It's never gonna help us! It's just a bunch of stupid numbers!' But in truth, Adam knew he was no good at maths, though not for his lack of trying. It was just impossible for him to work all that stuff out. But Jay had no trouble with it, he seemed to glide through his work...

Suddenly, a light bulb went off over Adam's head and he turned to his best friend.

"Jay..."

"Need me to slap you in the head to get your brain started?" Jay interrupted, without looking up from his work.

Adam scowled at him before spitting, "I didn't need your help anyway!"

"Well, what were you gonna ask?" Jay questioned, his hand moving rapidly, writing the answers to the questions that were in the book in front of him.

Stumped for a suitable answer, Adam went with the safest route.

"I'm not telling you now!"

Finally looking up from his work, but turning his book over so Adam couldn't see any of his answers, Jay spoke in a clearly bored tone of voice. One which seemed to be used a lot around his best friend wherever work was involved, he noted to himself. "Fine. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

"I know I don't have to!" Adam huffed, glaring at Jay and trying to look menacing, but the effect was somewhat lost when he had to brush some hair out of his face from his left pigtail.

Jay, being well used to the pouts Adam went into this time of day, sighed before caving in and asking, "What do you need help with?"

"Nothing!" Adam snapped. The last thing he wanted right now was help from an ungrateful idiot like Jason Reso! He would do his work by himself.

Pulling his math book over, he thumbed through it until he got to the right page. He stared at the sum intently for several minutes, before he came to the conclusion that he was stuck. So he moved onto the next question... and the next... and the next... and the next.

He had gone through all the questions on the page three times and he was about ready to throw the book across the room in frustration when Jay said quietly, "If you carry the three in question one, you'll see that it's easier to get the answer."

Giving Jay a sideways glance, Adam looked at question one and found out he was right. Nearly grinning to himself, he quickly flew through the question and to his surprise he flew through the others with next to no problems. He almost groaned in disappointment when the bell rang signalling lunch.

Almost.

After sandwiches had been swapped and eaten, after milk, orange juice and cola had been drunk (or in Kurt's case, thrown across the school yard by a VERY angry Steve Austin), the kids were free to do what they wanted until the bell rang.

First on Adam's mind was revenge on the girls for what they had done at recess, but he was quickly side-tracked from that train of thought when Chris suggested they play Commando, using the huge oak tree that stood in the corner of the field as their base.

After a brief but heated argument over who would lead the group of soldiers into battle (the enemies were unanimously decided to be the unsuspecting kids from Mr Turner's class), the group gathered at the bottom of the oak tree that was now headquarters.

"Who's gonna be lookout?" Matt asked, scanning the field and surrounding areas looking for the girls and relaxing slightly when he spotted them at a safe distance playing hopscotch.

"I will be!" Adam volunteered immediately, turning round and climbing up the tree before anyone could argue. But it wasn't until he was halfway up and he heard muffled giggles that he remembered he was wearing a dress, and from the way he was climbing, he was flashing his underwear.

His SUPERMAN underwear his mother had insisted he changed into that very morning. Thinking quickly and trying to save what dignity he had left, Adam started to shimmy back down the tree but not having climbed up a tree (let alone down one) in a dress, he misjudged his descent and got the bottom of his dress caught on a small protruding branch. And the further down he shimmed, the further up the dress went.

When his feet hit the ground, the bottom of his dress was up around his arms.

Adam tried to unhook himself, but since he'd never worn a dress in his whole eight and a half years of existence, he was lost. He struggled and fought with the material, spitting curses out and audibly damning his mother to hell. Of course, watching Adam's dance with the dress and hearing the curses streaming from his mouth sent all the boys into fits of laughter. Laughter that Adam could hear quite well, and which spurred him on to fight even harder with the dress.

Hearing the uproarious laughter from the direction of the oak tree, and recognising her beloved Matt's laughter anywhere, Amy looked up from the giddy conversation the girls were having about that morning's successful game of catchy-kissy in time to see Adam fall to the ground after what seemed to be a spirited fight with his dress.

Listening to the laughter almost triple in volume, Amy frowned slightly, barely noticing that the conversation around her had stopped as the girls focussed their attention on the boys, who were still laughing wildly.

Jeff, who was still trying to deal with the trauma of having Stephanie's tongue in his mouth, was one of the gathering crowd that had watched Adam fight with his dress. And he was in the same crowd that was currently falling over themselves laughing when Adam fought himself right out of the dress and fell to the floor.

He was giggling helplessly when Adam popped back onto his feet and yanked the dress down from the tree, earning himself the misery of hearing a big ripping sound come from his dress.

Quickly realising he was standing in front of just about every kid in the school in nothing but his Superman underpants, he hurriedly tried to arrange the dress into some sort of order so he could put it back on but the more he tried, the more tangled the dress seemed to become.

Getting frustrated easily, and angry even easier, Adam was just about smoking when Mike Awesome, from Mr. Turner's class, elbowed little Shannon Moore in the ribs and guffawed, "Looks like blondie's not so tough now!"

Upon hearing the words, Adam's head snapped up like the bar on a closing mousetrap, and he glared at Mike until Mike stopped laughing and focussed on the irate blond once more.

Jay, recognising the look in Adam's eyes immediately, backed up a few steps to give Adam all the room he needed, so when he got his hands on the idiot child that dared to even try to make fun of him Jay wouldn't be in the way of any stray arms or legs that could hurt.

Mike gulped hard when he looked at Adam's stony, unreadable expression.

"What did you say?" Adam hissed, silencing the crowd instantly.

The whole playground (which was now gathered around the oak tree), had seen Adam's temper. Most of the kids who were watching this small exchange between Adam and Mike had been on the receiving end of that temper (some on more than one occasion), and they all seemed to know how far to push their luck.

But this Mike kid was new. He'd only been here for three weeks and he didn't have a clue about the volatile temper Adam had, and that lack of information lead him to his current situation, which was near trembling under Adam's furious glare.

"N-Nothing..." Mike stammered.

And that was as far as he got because the next thing he knew, Adam's right fist connected with his face and he was knocked on his ass. Once there, he immediately started to cry.

Seeing his newly-found friend crying on the floor courtesy of one Adam Copeland, Lance Storm took a risk and dived on Adam's back, knocking him off-guard and sending him sprawling to the floor.

Seeing his best friend get knocked to the floor by Lance Storm kick-started Jay into action and he pounced on Lance, fists and feet flying.

There was a brief pause amongst the crowd of children during which Mr. Turner's class had enough time to see Adam rising to his feet, then all hell broke loose.

Adam lunged at Lance when he saw him smack Jay across the head, sending the little blonde to the floor, and proceeded to beat the crap out of him.

Not to be outdone by a guy like Adam, Mark grabbed the nearest member of Mr. Turner's class, who just happened to be Dallas Page, and smashed him into the oak tree.

Matt watched as both Adam (who was still in just his Superman underpants) and Jay beat on Lance, then turned their attention to Mike when he got back to his feet. Watching the best friends fight, Matt made a mental note never to get on the wrong side of either of them. He was just about to turn and go find a better spot to watch the fight from when he was grabbed by the hair and shoved into the oak tree.

Making a small 'Oof!' sound when he made contact, Matt had just enough time to turn around and see the guy who threw him into the tree (Chuck Palumbo from Mr Turner's class) get smacked in the face and kicked in the nuts by a fuming Amy, who had watched in horror as what she had come to call her man was thrown into the tree by Chuck.

Jeff, not wanting any part of this particular fight whatsoever after his eventful morning, tried to sneak out of the line of fire, but was cut off in his attempt when Hunter bodily threw Billy Kidman past his face and onto the ground five feet from where Jeff was standing. Staring at Hunter in slack-jawed amazement, Jeff never saw Sean O'Haire sneak up behind him, and he was blind-sided for the second time that day.

His confused mind was barely able to register the hard yank on his hair that sent him to the ground before pain exploded in his side, due to a sharp but powerful kick from Sean.

Stephanie, who had also thought it was a good idea to avoid this fight and was sitting happily on the monkey bars not ten feet away from the brawl, jumped off the seat she had perched herself on and gave off an ear-piercing screech before charging full steam ahead when she saw the vicious kick delivered by Sean O'Haire to the object of her affection and the one boy she actually thought about marrying.

She barrelled past Mark who was knocking people out left and right.

She flew past Hunter and Chris who were in the middle of giving Dallas Page a wedgie he'd never forget.

She tore past Matt and Amy who were, between them, kicking the crap out of Chuck.

And she zoomed past Adam and Jay who had started to play catch with Mike Awesome via their fists.

She was like a homing pigeon, or a cobra eyeing up its pray before going in for the kill. And right now, killing Sean O'Haire for touching HER Jeff was exactly what she intended to do. She was at least three feet away from him when she jumped high into the air and straight onto his back.

Sean, who had been blissfully unaware of the danger he had put himself in when he kicked little Jeff Hardy, was surprised to say the least when Stephanie jumped on his back and knocked him for six. He was quite frankly amazed when she flipped him over, punched him in the mouth, then stood up and stamped on his stomach hard enough to make him sick before running over to the smaller Hardy and crooning over him like he was a lost puppy.

Poor Jeff, who had no idea what happened or who'd saved him, let out a pitiful moan as he buried his head into what he thought was Matt's lap and stayed there for several minutes enjoying the comforting feeling.

A huge grin spread over Stephanie's face and she flashed all her braces off when she felt Jeff snuggle against her. Distantly she heard the bell sound, indicating the end of lunch time recess, and she barely heard the shouts from Mr Turner demanding to know why half of his class were sprawled on the floor unconscious and the other half were very near it.

All she could do was focus on the warm head in her lap.

Ten minutes after the bell had sounded telling everyone lunchtime was over, Mr McMahon strolled into his classroom with a small smile splayed across his lips. His eyes roamed over all the children, making the smile widen ever so slightly. He'd spent the last ten boring minutes stuck in the principal's office talking with him and Mr. Turner about the display the children had put on in the school field.

He'd barely been able to suppress his smile when Ted had whined to the principal about the lack of discipline Vince's children had. But Vince was quick to point out the fact that all of Ted's children started to cry if they were so much as looked at the wrong way. A point that was proven almost immediately when a small knock was heard and little Shannon Moore shuffled into the room.

Shannon, who had been positively mortified when Mr Bischoff had selected him to go run an errand to the principal's office to get his teacher, stood stock still in the middle of the huge room. A room that he had never graced, but was still terrified of. He lifted his small frightened eyes to the three large men in the room, one of whom being his teacher, and promptly burst into tears.

Rolling his eyes at the child and turning towards the principal, Vince had said brusquely, "See what I mean?!"

Nodding, the principal gave up with both teachers and sent them on their way, Ted tending to a sniffling Shannon and Vince with a smirk on his face.

Dismissing Mr. Patterson with a wave of his hand when he got back to his class, Vince looked at the kids and beamed with pride. He'd watched the fight erupt from his classroom window, the same as he had watched the fight that had happened three days ago. And he was proud to say that once again, his class had come out on top.

Stephanie, whose happiness exceeded her father's, was staring dreamily at her object of affection who in turn kept throwing her scared, panicked glances, which when seen through Steph's eyes were full of love and screamed 'Marry me!'.

Even when Jeff had found out he was snuggling the girl he had come to fear rather than his brother and had sprung to his feet, shot across the sea of unconscious bodies that was Mr. Turner's class and hid behind the first friendly face he could find, this hadn't damped Stephanie's feelings towards him in the slightest.

Unfortunately for a very traumatised Jeff, the first person he found had been Adam. And when the little southerner tried to seek some sort of solace from the lanky blond, he'd earned himself a hard slap across the head and was thrown back into the waiting arms of Stephanie, who had followed him.

Needless to say, Stephanie had been thrilled.

Jeff, on the other hand, nearly passed out with fright and had immediately started to screech at the top of his lungs for Matt, before starting to wail when his protector didn't materialise instantly to save him.

Matt had heard Jeff's frantic cries as soon as they started, but he couldn't move to save his brother from the clutches of Stephanie because for what had to be the millionth time that day (to Matt anyway), Amy had grabbed him and planted another awful kiss on his lips.

It was then that Matt made a vow to himself, whilst listening to his brother's terrified screams, that he would NEVER let a girl kiss him again.

No matter what.

Then Jeff's cries reached fever pitch and Matt had swooped down like the big brother he was supposed to be and ripped Jeff away from Stephanie, telling her to leave his baby brother alone lest she get a swift kick in the ass.

In answer to this, Steph had merely sighed happily before wandering off into the school.

Adam sat on his chair, pointedly ignoring Jeff's occasional moan of despair, and examined the huge hole in the dress.

After he had figured how to put the thing back on, he had discovered the ripping sound he'd heard was the bottom half of the dress tearing from side to side. He sulked to himself that if he tore it the rest of the way, the dress would be up to mid-thigh rather than his knees.

And to top it all off, he'd got himself a fat lip when Jay had taken a swing at Mike Awesome and smacked him instead when Mike ducked. So when Mr. McMahon announced cheerfully that since the class had been 'absolutely fantastic' today, the rest of the afternoon would be spent doing art (specifically painting), Adam barely flickered.

He moodily rose to his feet, trying to keep his dress together; he gave up and stuck his tongue out at the vile object before stamping to get the blank canvas board, stand and the paints from the cupboard that was in the classroom.

Jay could barely suppress his joy when he heard the sacred word spoken by his teacher.

He LOVED painting. He loved it more than playing computer games, he loved it more than playing Commando, he loved it more than riding his bike, hell, he even loved it more than hanging out at Adam's house. Even if Mrs. Copeland DID make the best peanut butter sandwiches in the world.

He practically bounced to the cupboard to retrieve the things he needed and promptly ran into Mark as he was walking out of door, sending paints and brushes all over the floor.

"Look what you did, you idiot!" Mark hissed.

"Sorry Markie!" Jay called happily over his shoulder as he ran into the cupboard, barely avoiding a swipe at his head by Mark.

Once inside, Jay stood directly in front of the paints, concentration etched on his face as he carefully considered which paints would be good for the picture he wanted to paint of his fist smashing into Adam's mouth.

Finally choosing his colours (and slapping quite a few stray hands in the process that tried to pick a colour he hadn't dismissed as useless to him yet), Jay emerged from the cupboard smiling brightly.

Heading to his desk and setting up the stand, he carefully perched the blank canvas on it before going to fill a small pot with water, placing his brushes in it to give them some time to soften.

Then the painting began.

Hunter opted to paint his bike. His beloved blue bike that he rode around on all weekend.

Mark hated painting more than he hated girls, so he scowled as he painted Homer Simpson killing Mr McMahon.

Chris happily painted a cow.

Jeff painted a boy cowering in the woods.

Matt painted Superman.

Amy painted Supergirl.

Stephanie painted herself and Jeff at their wedding.

Jay painted himself hitting Adam as he had planned.

Giving Adam's work a quick glance, Jay did a double take and stared at his best friend's work openly before sputtering, "What's THAT supposed to be?!"

"A painting," Adam answered moodily.

"But it's BLACK!" Jay told him wide-eyed, gaping at the near black canvas.

"Nice to see you're not colour-blind," Adam stated dryly, dipping his paintbrush into the black paint and continuing to cover the canvas with it.

Shifting his eyes from Adam to the painting then back, again Jay squeaked, "But WHAT is it?!"

"The sky," Adam answered.

"The sky?!" Jay nearly screeched.

"Yes."

"But that's not the sky! The sky's blue!" Jay pointed out.

"It's the sky at night," Adam said, uninterested.

Jay's mouth hung open as he tried to sputter an answer out. His mind wondered silently if that punch he had mistakenly given Adam was a lot harder than he first thought, and if his friend was suffering from a weird after effect of his obvious strength.

"But... but... why don't you paint a PROPER picture?" Jay asked, glancing at his masterpiece.

Sighing, Adam stopped covering the canvas and turned to Jay with a scowl on his face.

"What? A proper picture like those stick men you've painted?" Adam asked scornfully. This day had been like a walk through downtown hell for Adam and the last thing he needed was the guy that USED to be his best friend whining about his picture.

"Hey! Those aren't stick men!" Jay said indignantly, glaring at Adam.

"Whatever. But just so you know, people have four fingers and one thumb, not six fingers and three thumbs," Adam said pointing to the hands on one of the stick men. "I thought you could count Jay. After all, you ARE supposed to be the Math King."

Staring open-mouthed at his (now former) friend, Jay tried to tell Adam that those weren't extra fingers and thumbs, they were merely the arms and legs of the people lying behind the Adam in the picture, but no sound came out.

"What's wrong Jay? Cat got your tongue?" Adam mocked, before turning back to his own work and getting the crap scared out of him when Jay shoved the stand holding his 'sky' painting over onto the floor.

It was Adam's turn to stare open-mouthed at the unexpectedness of Jay's actions.

But it didn't take Adam long to regain himself. Picking up his paintbrush, he dipped it in the small pot holding the black paint and flicked it over Jay's work, making a big line of splattered black paint streak across the bright colours of Jay's stick men.

Dipping the brush in the paint again, Adam turned to Jay and flicked it at him, creating a line of black paint running from Jay's forehead to his waist.

Retaliating immediately, Jay picked his brush up, dipped it in the red paint pot and flicked it at Adam, making the pitiful-looking state of his dress even worse.

Grunting in anger, Adam dipped his paintbrush again and flicked it at Jay, but Jay ducked out of the way and the black paint hit Mark right between his eyes, and ran a line straight down the middle of his face.

All activity in the classroom stopped.

Mark slowly lifted his hand to his face and wiped at the paint there. Silently, he reached over and picked up one of the small pots with blue paint inside, and swiftly flung the whole thing at Adam, who immediately jumped to the left causing Chris to get the entire paint pot splattered over his t-shirt.

It was about that time that all hell broke loose.

Paint flew around the classroom covering anything that moved - and everything that didn't. Paintbrushes were dipped in stray puddles of paint and flicked at the nearest person. Stands and canvases were knocked to the floor and stamped on, and high-pitched screeches and screams were heard all the way down the corridor.

Mr. McMahon, who had told the kids he was going on a message and trusted their innocent faces when he asked if they would be okay by themselves for five minutes, was just returning from a quick cigar break when he heard the commotion.

He raced down to his classroom, wondering if his class was beating on a student from Mr Turner's class who had stupidly strayed in that direction. He flung the door open - and got a pot full of purple paint thrown in his face.

For the second time that day, all activity in the classroom stopped.

Home time.

Never a more beautiful phrase had been spoken for all the paint-covered kids in Mr. McMahon's class. The bell had sounded and they could get away from being on their knees scrubbing at the paint on the floor, or from standing on their feet scrubbing it off the walls.

They waited patiently for their teacher to dismiss them, and when he did they flew out of the classroom running and laughing, all friends again. Each child grabbed their belongings from the small cloakroom that was theirs and headed for the doors that lead out to the playground and on to home.

Each child ran for their respective parent; most got horrified looks and quite a few earned the right to brag about making their parents scream. But the loudest scream came from a woman wearing a nurse's uniform.

And a lot of the kids had to laugh when Mrs. Copeland took one look at her son and screamed at the top of her lungs,

"Adam Joseph Copeland! What have you done?! That dress was your GRANDMOTHER'S! She'll fucking KILL me when she sees it!"