Chapter Text
November
It was the first day back in school after a long weekend for Halloween but there’s a new student.
“Jimmy and Joel! Be quiet!” Ms. Zside shouted at Joel and Jimmy, who didn't stop their bickering but lowered their voices so only they could hear what each other were saying.
Pearl had only met Ms. Zside around 20 minutes ago but she already knew she’s nice. Even when she gave out to people, she never seemed mean, just respectable. Though from the looks of it, Jimmy and Joel choose not to respect her.
The short, purple-haired teacher just rolled her hazel eyes and turned back to face Pearl and said in a lowered voice, “Those two never stop fighting, I know it’s only harmless bickering but oh gods does it get on my nerves,” Ms. Zside turned back from her position at the top of the room to face the rest of the class, ignoring the fact Joel and Jimmy had started poking each other with their pencils, “All right class, please settle down, I have something important to tell you all.”
As the students took their seats and started to quiet down, Pearl took in her surroundings. The classroom Pearl is in is a bit smaller than she had imagined and there's only around 18 kids in the classroom, all sitting in tables of two, having three tables in the front, three in the middle and three more at the back. Pearl had only seen American schools in movies as she’s lived in Australia her whole life. When she walked through the doors to enter the school, only about 30 minutes ago now, the school looked just like the ones in the movies. The halls were lined with lockers and banners supporting the sports teams and posters promoting after school clubs and associations.
“Who's that behind you?” asked the boy who had previously been stabbing a pencil into the arm of the blonde boy sitting beside him. He was sitting at the very front row to the left and has a streak of green going through his brunette hair. Pearl thought it looked a bit silly with his unkempt hair but still cool nonetheless.
“Well you would know by now if you hadn’t been so busy stabbing a pencil into Jimmy!” Ms. Zside waves her finger between the boy, who must be Joel, and the other guy, Jimmy. Joel just shrugged. “Okay, well seen as Joel’s just pointed out what I was about to talk about, this is our new student, all the way from Australia, Pearl Moon!” The teacher stepped back and nudged Pearl in front of her, presumably to get her to introduce herself.
“Hey,” Pearl said nervously, as she steps forward awkwardly and gives a little wave, “My name is Pearl, as miss just said and I like how many sports posters you have in the halls” Pearl said before she turned back to back to Ms. Zside.
No one cares that I like their posters, I should have said something more interesting. I'm so stupid. Why can’t I just say something normal like I have a dog? Why do I have to be so weird?
“Alright, you can all go back to whatever you were doing before. Joel and Jimmy, don’t go back to stabbing each other or I will tell every single one of your teachers and make sure you aren’t sitting next to each other. Pearl, you can take a seat in the empty chair over there.” The short teacher turned and took a seat at her desk without telling Pearl where ‘there’ was. She turns to look back around the room for the empty seat the teacher was talking about.
There was only one empty seat in the class, so that helped, and it’s at the back of the room right next to a girl who, in Pearl's opinion, was very pretty. She had nice emerald green eyes and curly red hair. She was sitting in the seat next to the wall and Pearl took the seat next to her.
In the seats in front of them was another person with long red curly hair, though theirs was much longer, curlier and a more dark red, and next to her sat a girl with straight pink hair.
The people in the seats next to her turned to look at her as soon as she sat down.
“Hey, you’re Pearl right? I’m Impulse and this is Skizz.” A brown-haired boy had turned in his seat to face Pearl and he was pointing at the person next to him who must be Skizz. Skizz, who also has brown hair but his is longer and all messed up like someone had purposely messed it up, waved at Pearl with a wide smile. He had pulled his seat around to be next to Impulse so he could talk to Pearl more easily.
“Yeah I’m Pearl. It's nice to meet you guys.” She said as she leaned her bag against one of the legs of the table.
“Nice to meet you too! I’m glad you like our posters, me and Impulse spent so long putting up the ones for our upcoming match”
Maybe they don’t think I’m weird. No, no they’re just being nice Pearl, don't be stupid.
“When’s the match? Maybe I’ll g-”
“Woah, I’ve never met someone in real life with an Australian accent before!” a voice said very loudly, cutting Pearl off mid sentence. In the middle row, to the right of Impulse and Skizz’s table, was a guy with a smile so big that it would be creepy if it wasn’t for how large and cute his eyes were. He had a very loud demeanour but the way he spoke doesn't seem rude, just sweet and excited. He had his chair pulled to the side and was leaning on impulses desk with his face against the palm of his hand
“Well now you have!” Pearl laughed, “What’s your name?”
“Oh how rude of me, I should have introduced myself first, I’m Bdubs. The coolest in the class, and the whole school obviously!” He leaned across his table and reached his hand out, the one he had previously been leaning on, for Pearl to shake, though he didn't get quite close enough for Pearl to be able to shake his hand from where she was, so she got up and took a step and leaned over to where he was sitting and took his hand. He shook her hand excitedly but he had a strong grip, making Pearl rub her hand in pain afterward.
Bdubs sat back and nudged the guy who was sat beside him, “Etho, introduce yourself!”
On the other side of Bdubs was a guy who wore a mask that covered most of his face, only leaving his eyes, one red and the other so dark brown that it almost looked black. He had a dark grey bandana going around his short, light grey hair. He looked like someone straight from an anime, and Pearl loved it.
Etho cleared his throat before he spoke “Hey I’m Etho, if you didn’t hear Bdubs. I’m Canadian.”
“Nice to meet you Etho, I’ll make sure to remember that you’re Canadian.” Pearl waved at him with a laugh. As she was about to turn around and go back to her seat to talk with the girl she’d sat next to, the bell went off.
Pearl had been told to stay with her homeroom teacher after the first bell went off to get a tour. So, she said goodbye to the lovely people she’d just met and went back to her seat to get her bag. Her bag was very light as she hasn’t received any of her books yet so the only things that were in her bag was her pencil case, some flyers she’d picked up when she first came into the school and her homework journal, that had her timetable in it, which she had been given when the principal had shown her where her locker is. When she stood up after picking her bag up off the ground where it had been leaning against the table, she heard a voice speak beside her.
“Hi Pearl!” They said excitedly “I’m Gem.”
She turned to look at the girl speaking, Gem. “Hey Gem, nice to meet you.” She smiled.
Gem is who she had sat down next to, with the pretty red hair and green eyes. She was standing up now and was shorter than Pearl, by a good bit. To be fair though, Pearl was pretty tall, 16 and 5'10. Gem was wearing denim overalls with a green jumper underneath that really complements her eyes. Pearl wanted to stay and talk to her but she also really wanted to get this boring tour over with but when she was about to tell Gem she had to go, Gem spoke again.
“It’s nice to meet you too!” She started with a beautiful smile, “I’m sure you already know this but, you‘re going to be getting a tour of the school now, isn’t that fun! Well, not really, but it will be because I’m giving you the tour! Well not just me, Joel and Lizzie and Jimmy and Grian will be coming as well. Joel, Jimmy and Grian are only coming to get out of detention though. But Lizzie and I are coming because we want to talk to you!” She finished with an excited tone and the same beautiful smile. Her green eyes look so bright in this light, Pearl thought.
Why do I have boring, ugly blue eyes?
Pearl was glad that she was not going to be on a super boring tour with a bunch of super boring teachers but she wasn't much happier about going on a super boring school tour with a bunch of teenagers she didnt know, who will probably want to talk to her about why she moved here or talk about Australia. She loved living in Australia but she doesn’t really feel like talking to loads of people right now, especially about why she was here. Maybe it would be good though, after all she didn’t want to end up as a loner with no friends, not like in her old school.
This place would be different.
“Sounds exciting! Let's get going then.” Pearl lied, swinging her bag over one shoulder and walking up to the teachers desk, where Ms Zside was sitting, vigorously typing on her computer. She heard Gem scurry to catch up with her.
“You’re going to love this school so much, trust me. I know this probably sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo but I think our school really has a nice sense of community. Sure some people are aggressive and loud, Joel, but no one is mean to anyone in particular, except Jimmy but that’s all jokes.” Gem said as she skips to the top of the class, ahead of Pearl.
“From what I can see so far, I’m sure this is a nice school.” Pearl agreed
“Oh wonderful, you’ve already started talking. Pearl, Gem, come over here,” Ms. Zside instructed, waving them up to her desk, “I’m sure you already know each other now but Pearl, this is Gem. Her and four other students will be giving you a tour of the school today. The tour shouldn’t take too long and once you’re done, go up to reception and all your books will be there. Gem and the others can help you get your books set up in your locker if you need them to. Today for you is just getting set up and stuff so once you're done you can go home if you like, none of the teachers are expecting you in their class today. Tomorrow though, you are expected to be in class on time.”
“Will I be allowed to go home too?”
“No Gem, you’ve got an important science test at the end of the day, your teacher wanted me to make sure you’d be there.”
“Please,” Gem wined, “I’ll do the test tomorrow. I promise.”
“Your teachers don't have time to be making compromises for students just because they want to go home.” The teacher dismissed, “Joel stop flirting with Lizzie and get over here! Jimmy and Grian, you need to come over as well, we don't have all day. Chop chop.”
Joel, who had been messing with the pink haired girl that was sitting at the table in front of Pearl and Gem, was the first to stand up and made his way up to the room. Jimmy followed him and then the girl with pink hair, and now that Pearl can see them, bright blue eyes. She's a little jealous of how nice they look on her. The other guy, Grian, who had dirty blonde hair and eyes so dark that they almost lookws black, stood up at his seat but instead of following everyone else, he picked up his bag up from the floor and placed it on the table before he unzipped it and rummaging around the bottom.
“Grian what are you-” Ms Zside says, cutting herself off. He must do this kind of thing a lot. "Just hurry up we don’t have all day.”
“Yes! Found it, okay let's go.” Grian says, holding up a pen before walking over and joining everyone else.
The four students who just came over from where they were sitting, had gathered around the teacher, forming somewhat of a circle. On one side of Pearl was her teacher and on the other side was Gem. In front of Pearl is the ocean eyed girl, Lizzie and next to Lizzie is Joel. Grian was standing on the other side of Joel and in front of him was the blonde haired boy, Jimmy, who was standing between Gem and Lizzie.
“Why does he have a pen?” Pearl whispered to the redhead girl next to her.
“I’ve no clue, Grian’s always just doing weird stuff though so don’t bother questioning it.” Gem shruged.
“You aren’t going anywhere yet, Grian,” Ms Zside turned around and handed Pearl a folded sheet of paper, “That’s your weekly schedule, it has all your classes and where they are. Your classmates are going to bring you to all the important places in the school, like the cafeteria, along with the classrooms on this list so you know where to go. I would appreciate it if you guys don’t go running around the empty halls or banging on lockers, there are students still trying to learn.” Ms. Zside gave them all a stern look, which made Pearl rethink what she’d thought earlier about her being a nice teacher.
“Alright, alright. We’ll be on our best behaviour, don't worry. We need to make a good impression for our new classmate anyways.” Joel says, looking over at Pearl and grinning widely.
“Okay then, you can start the tour now. I have a class to teach.” Ms. Zside turned around and walked out of the class and left Pearl alone with a bunch of teenagers she barely knew.
Great. This is just great.
“Hi Pearl, I’m Lizzie. It’s nice to meet you.” The girl with the pink hair and ocean blue eyes standing in front of her said.
“Yeah, nice to meet you too.” Pearl said with a genuine smile as she unfolded the timetable in her hands. Before she got the chance to read it, Joel snatched it from her hands.
“Okay, so it looks like you have a lot of the same classes as me, which is pretty good for you as I’m the coolest in the school.” Joel said smugly, Lizzie punched him jokingly on the shoulder and Joel rubbed his arm, pretending to be really hurt.
“I’ve heard that from someone else already.”
“WHAT?! I bet it was bdubs. He’s always saying he's cooler than me!”
“I guess you’ll have to fight each other to show who’s really the “coolest” of all.” Grian joked.
“Well if it comes to it then I’ll show him who’s boss! That little horse girl doesn't know what's coming” Joel replied smugly but not seriously.
“With what muscles?” Grian laughed. Joel pulled out a pen from his pocket and poked Grian, “Ow! I have a pen as well and I’m not afraid to use it!”
“Can you guys stop your stupid bickering? I’m not sure if you remember but we’ve got a new student to give a tour and if you do a good job you get out of detention.” Gem said snatching Joel’s pen from his hand.
“Jeez, sorry mom,” Joel said and rolled his eyes dramatically, “I do think we should start the tour though. I’d like to be done before lunch.”
“Joel lunch isn’t for a few hours, you're not going to miss it,” Jimmy said as he snatched the schedule from Joel who poked him with his pen in retaliation but it didn't seem to faze Jimmy, “You’ve some classes near here, we can go to those ones first.”
“Alright Pearl, time for the tour of the century.” Grian said sarcastically with half assed jazz hands before he turned and headed out the door. Jimmy and Joel follow him.
Lizzie watched Joel leave and then turned back to Pearl, "Sorry about them, they think they’re the ‘Bad Boys’ of the school. Don’t take them seriously though, they don’t mean any harm. Joel and Bdubs are friends by the way, Joel would never actually fight anyone. He’s too scared.” Lizzie explained with a laugh. Pearl nodded in response.
Once they were all outside, Jimmy lead the group outside a door just down the hall from their homeroom, “This is the history room that you're going to be in. I don’t have history here ‘cause I’m too cool for that but Gem, Joel, Lizzie and a few other people from our class do. I’d go in but there’s a class going on right now and that history teacher is scary.”
“You’re just scared of him because he’s the detention teacher. Don’t worry about Mr. Z, he’s chill.” Gem said reassuringly.
“Tim’s scared of every teacher no matter what that they do.” Grian said jokingly, poking Jimmy with his pen. So that is why he had brought it, just to poking people. Fun.
“Tim?” Pearl thought his name was Jimmy, why’s Grian calling him Tim?
“Ignore Grian, my name is Jimmy, he just made up the name ‘Tim’ to be annoying.” Jimmy explained while he rubbed the part of his arm Grian had just poked.
The group of juniors spend the rest of the first period and all of the second going around the school, showing Pearl most of her new classes (they couldn't go to the history class because the hall it’s in was closed off for maintenance.) but they don’t go into any of the classrooms as they were either locked or in use.
Pearl’s old school was pretty small for an Australian school, but compared to the school she’s in now, it seems so tiny. The lockers in her old school were only about a foot tall, just big enough to fit her books and maybe her lunch or a coat. Here though, they were big enough to fit a whole person. She didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing though.
“So, where are we going now?” Pearl asked Gem as the bell rang, signaling that the third period of the day had begun, and hundreds of teenagers fill the halls.
“I’m not sure. What classes have we not gone to?”
“Well, we could go to the English class but English is boring and we haven't gone to the cafeteria or the sports field outside so let’s just go to them.” Jimmy said.
“But what if Pearl wants to go to the English class, Tim?”
“Pearl, do you want to go to the English class?” Jimmy asked.
“No, not really.”
“There you go Grian, she doesn’t want to. Now let’s go!” Jimmy turned around from the rest of the group and started skipping down the hall, weaving in and out of the students who gave him confused looks.
“God, he’s such a little kid sometimes.” Gem rolled her eyes in a joking and melodramatic manner before she followed behind him.
As everyone else made their way up the hallway, Pearl spotted a poster for their school's football team
Big Football Match
Big news
All are welcome to attend
Pls attend
GAME IS AFTER SCHOOL TODAY AT 5.00pm
GO GREEN GECKOS!
“Pearl, let's go!” She heard Jimmy call. She took note of when the match was and jogged down the hall to catch up with her ‘tour guides’.
It took them a while to get to the cafeteria as there were still students in the hall, which made it hard for them to move around but also because the school was just massive! Pearl was amazed at the size of the school. In Australia they did have loads of big schools but she didn’t go to one of those schools.
Pearl used to live in a small town in the countryside of the south of Australia. She always liked it there. She didn't have that many friends and the ones she did have weren't the nicest. Maybe she’ll make some good new friends here though! They all seem kind of nice.
Her parents had just had a nasty divorce and her dad always wanted to live in Florida, so he used the divorce as an excuse to finally move. As much as she wanted to have stayed in Australia, she’d rather stay with her dad. Even if they have to live in a run down, old apartment in the worst place in the city. At least she still lives next to the beach.
“Alright, so this is the lovely cafeteria Joel is so eager to eat in. The options for food aren't great but the food they do have is delicious!” jimmy explained.
“Over here,” Gem said, taking over from Jimmy. She lead Pearl over to where she saw a counter to get your food for lunch. There was no food there right now but Pearl saw the cafeteria ladies getting stuff ready in the kitchen behind the counter. “Is where our lovely lunch ladies give us our scrumptious lunch, pizza, spaghetti with meatballs, chicken goujons and chips and pasta pesto are my favourites. They also offer some vegetarian, vegan and celiac food. If you have any other food restrictions there are more opinions but I can't be bothered to list them. This is the menu,” She points to a yellowish coloured poster on the wall, “It has all of the foods I just listed and some more but we really don’t have that much option here food wise.”
“How much does the food cost?” Pearl asked. She’s not broke but she didn’t want to be stressing her dad out about money so she can buy her lunch in school. If it’s too expensive she could always just bring food from home.
But what if they judge the food I bring in?
“For most meals it’s $2, 20 cents more if you want a drink with it, and then for other foods it depends but nothing is over $3.50”
“That’s such a good price for a full meal.”
“Yeah, our school really focuses on making sure everyone can be included and one of the ways they do that is keeping the food affordable.” Gem said proudly.
“You’re making this whole tour sound like a ploy to get her to join a school she’s already in. Can we skip the whole touring bit and just go to the field? I'm bored of this.” Joel said.
They all exchanged an agreeing glance before Gem said, “Alright, let’s go.”