“I think that`s even worse. I am sure I would be in danger if my hoodie were red right now.”
“Eh?” He leaned in even closer to stare at her jacket, then looked at her completely bewildered.
“You know, Little Red Riding Hood? The color that enrages beasts and all? Well, nevermind, genius. I can see you`ve focused your efforts on brawn.”
“That`s not true! Our team got a gold in the lacrosse finals last year.”
“It`s okay that you obviously don`t get it. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue to not understand all my references, but to be a jerk on top of it is really too much for me to feel like hanging out with you.” The bus jerked to a stop, lined up with all the others in the school courtyard like a flock of golden chicks. She strode away without missing a beat, linking arms with the violet haired human guised Jackie a few feet ahead. He stared after her, lost in his thoughts.
Jackie looked back at him as they left but continued forward when he gave her a nod of permission Alyss completely missed while she looked at all the buildings of her new school. whipped her head around, scanning the area. “Are you feeling okay right now?” Jackie asked, resting her hand on the other girl`s shoulder, “You look a bit peaky after dealing with that nonsense. I promise we don’t normally get tough on newbies, they must have just felt like being a little weird because they were thrown off by a transfer in October.” Alyss tried to ask more questions about Aeron and the bizarre kowtowing of all the other students but Jackie just acted oblivious and wished her a good time at the new school. Alyss finally relented and allowed herself to be pulled in to the girl’s chattering which caused her to smile even more brightly. “Well, since we seem to be free for a bit, want me to give you a tour? Here we have most of the Science classes, and over there are the English buildings. Ah, and that`s the football stadium, and the soccer field. They have the flexible use fields in there, and next to them are our courts! We have volleyball and badminton teams, and I think there might be at least a tennis team. Those are the locker rooms, too.”
They continued to another building. “So this Friday is our big pep rally, and you are definitely going to want to be there. And this morning we are having conferences, so no one else will be here for at least another hour, which gives us plenty of time to settle you in.” She grinned conspiratorially. “And then Saturday is a great party! And of course I’ve been super busy because the student government is hanging up the posters and such now, after all we only have a week to bring up school spirit, and…”
Alyss smiled softly as she let her mind drift to other things. She looked about the expansive hall littered with wood doors and black lettering on their windows, and was struck by the oddity of the one metal door that was recessed into the hall and was missing the room number plate in English and braille posted outside all of the other doors.
“And I really don`t know where he thinks he can do that, it was such-“
“Jackie wait. What`s up with that door?”
Her smile briefly dimmed, but visibly rallying herself she answered, “That? That`s where Aeron and his gang hang out.”
“Huh. It looks mysterious. Maybe I`ll look in before classes start.”
Ashley looked around, crossing her arms for warmth in the August heat of the school. “You don`t want to do that. I can`t say more, but you don`t want to do that.”
Alyss looked at her doubtfully. “Look, I`m not trying to hide anything from you, but I just can`t. No one can,” she looked down, making it hard for Alyss to hear her next words at all, “It isn`t safe to.”
“Ah, is that so?” Alyss responded, smile tight and head spinning with so much new information she hardly noticed the girl’s words or fear and decided to just go visit the place on her own later. “Oh, wait,” she snapped into focus, “Why are there so many different fields and buildings? Does the whole county come to this school?”
“Eh, the whole county?” Jackie smiled and laughed, patting Alyss on the back with a strength rivaling the most developed body builders. Alyss stumbled, then rallied her strength to stand tall again. “No, no, most of them couldn`t afford to come here. We have students from most of the surrounding states, because those from around here are all farmer`s sons. This is the Tybolt Hall. We even have some international students. It`s kind of well known,” she giggled. “Didn`t you look up anything about your new school or read any of the brochures?”
“I didn’t realize I was going to get a pop quiz on the background of the school itself, so I didn’t study on it. I was a little busy catching up on all the schoolwork so I’d be on pace with the curriculum even though I’m here a little late to start the school year,” she admitted.
The other girl smiled. “I wasn’t sure if it was good to ask you that, but is there a reason you are here so late? September is the standard starting month across the US. Are you an international student or did something come up?”
She blushed. “Well, my parent’s job delayed our move a few weeks, and then issues with the contract on the house and new job delayed things a few more weeks. Honestly my parents wanted me to put off starting even more days but I wanted to get started as soon as possible,” Alyss admitted.
“So are you off to the office to get started on the paperwork and details?” Alyss nodded
