Major Problems

I bought a used 99 m/t civic about a month and a 1/2 ago after my contour got tboned and totaled. It has about 53000 miles on it. a few days after I got it started getting a bad exhast rattle (at least thats what I think it is/sounds like) Then last night/today it has been not wanting to start. It will turn over but not start. It starts up just fine after it has been sitting for a while, but if I go and try to start it within 2-3 hours of when it was last driven it takes a while for it to actually start, I have to keep trying. The belts have also sounded funny the last few days-like they are really loud, not squealing though... Any ideas as to what any of these problems are? oh yeah, no lights are comin on on the dash either..

as for the belts. check tension and condition.

as for engine not firing up.............check for spark and fuel.

as for the rattling noise, check cat shield and exhaust piping.

One other thing I some how completely spaced-It didnt want to start when I went to school today, or when I left school, but it finally did. I went to go start it to go to work and it didnt want to start, then it finally did and I left it running for a minute and ran inside-when I came back out it smelled like gas really bad, when my sister walked out the door 2 minutes later she smelled it as well-after the garage had been open for at least 5 minutes. So, along with not starting it reaks like gas.. I didnt drive to work, the car is at home, I had my sister bring me.

when it does fire up, does it drive and idle normal?

It runs a little rough and is loud-but I think thats probably because of the belt thing its got going, other than that and the very loud/annoying exhast rattle its fine

when it is not starting again, assuming you are recieving power, check for spark and fuel.