Everything About You
Part One
Beep-beep-beep.
Connor Chase frowned, coming to a stop at the entrance of the high school he'll be attending for the next two years. He adjusted his grip on his backpack and slipped his cell phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. He glanced down at the object, pressing the buttons needed to not only unlock the unit but to get to the received text message.
It was from his older sister and it read:
'Good Luck!'
He rolled his eyes, quickly tapping on several keys for his reply:
'Who needs luck? It's just high school. Several boring hours cooped up inside dull walls.'
After sending it, he entered the building, his cell phone still in his free hand while his other gripped the strap of his bag, knowing that it wouldn't be long until he received a reply.
Beep-beep-beep.
No, not long at all. The text message read:
'Sunnydale High is anything but boring and dull, Connor.'
And he scoffed, his thumb moving against the keys once again for his reply:
'I'll have to wait and see that for myself.'
Not a second after he sent the message, his ears were met with the words of a stranger, "Cell phones aren't allowed inside the building."
Connor looked up, expecting to find a teacher or some other form of an authority figure standing before him, but was surprised to find a young girl, about his age maybe.
"I'm new," he found himself saying to her. "I'm sure that I'll get off with a warning and, hey, that's only if I get caught."
She smiled at him and held out her hand, "Dawn Summers."
"Connor Chase," he replied, gripping her hand with his freed one. The cell phone moved to the hand holding his bag, the device going off once again when he received a new message. He ignored it for the time being, "Would you mind pointing me to the administration office? I was told that I would need to report there on my first day."
Dawn nodded, letting him know that the office was just a few feet ahead and to the right, the door labeled accordingly.
The school bell rang just as he thanked her. He grinned when she said that it was no problem and that she hoped that they would see each other again. And as he watched her walk away, he couldn't help but hope so, too.
Beep-beep-beep.
Another text message.
He shook his head, turning his attention to his cell phone as he slowly made his way to his destination. The first message was:
'You won't have to wait long. Trust me.'
And the second message:
'Be careful, Con. For me.'
Both messages were still from his sister and he sighed, knowing that she would know better than he. She had graduated from the same school six years prior, after all. He replied with:
'I always trust you. And hey, when am I not careful? Anything for my big sis.'
With the message sent, he quickly switched his cell phone to its silent mode and slipped it back into the back pocket of his jeans. He gave a short knock on the door of the administration office and, not waiting to be called in because he wasn't so sure if he should have knocked in the first place, he pulled the door open and stepped inside.
"Shouldn't you be in class?" the blond woman seated behind the counter asked immediately, watching his every move.
Harmony Kendall the name plate read.
He came to a stop directly in front of her, "It would help if I actually knew what my classes were."
"Excuse me?"
Connor rolled his eyes, his backpack dropped to the floor a breath later and he bent down, unzipping the bag and pulling out his binder. He retrieved the registration papers that were placed inside as well as other necessary documents needed and a photo ID. He dropped them in front of her, "Connor Chase, new student of Sunnydale High."
She stared at him, her facial expression twisting into one of dislike as he spoke.
Annoyed with her lack of helpfulness, he rested his arms on the counter, a sneer creeping to his lips as he leaned in towards her, stopping a couple of inches away, "Listen, Harmony. May I call you Harmony?" He questioned her, but continued on, not giving her the chance to respond to his question, "You have two options here, really.
"Option number one, you can continue to waste my time and stare at me like I'm just going to disappear right before your eyes. I'll walk into the principal's office and let him know just how *well* you're doing your job. Then, we'll just wait and see how much longer you'll actually have this job."
He paused after his threat, wanting his words to sink into her brain, if she even had one, before he straightened his posture and grinned down innocently at her, "Or option number two, you can pull out whatever stick you have shoved up your ass, file my papers, hand me my class schedule, and I can go on with my life and forget about just how useless you are."
Fifteen minutes later, Connor left the office with his class schedule and a story to tell his family once he got home. Walking down the empty hall with his cell phone in hand once again, he keyed in a quick message, sending it out as a mass text:
'Hoping that this school isn't filled with incompetent people like Harmony.'
...
"I just moved here from Los Angeles," he found himself explaining to his US history classmates. Being the new kid can really suck, Connor thought as he repeated the same string of words he had told in his previous classes. The only advantage he saw this time around was that Dawn seemed to be hanging onto his every word. He smiled inwardly.
"My sister wanted to get away from the craziness that is LA and I'm living with her and her husband since I'm not old enough to have a place of my own. Not that she'd actually let me live by myself even if I was. She's real big on family and staying together and all that. She actually used to go to this school, which was one of the reasons why we moved back. She wanted something familiar."
"You sister wouldn't happen to be Cordelia Chase, would it?" a girl in the back wanted to know.
Connor frowned, "Yeah. Do you know her?"
"Not personally, but I know of her."
"You know of her?" His frown deepened.
"Yeah, she's, like, one of the greatest cheerleaders that ever held a pompom here in Sunnydale High."
His frown disappeared and instead he smirked. He had forgotten that his sister had been a cheerleader. So much had changed from her time in Sunnydale and from the time they had spent living in Los Angeles.
"Cheerleader. Of course. You wouldn't happen to be one, would you?" he asked out of sheer curiosity.
When she had replied with a proud 'yes' and stated in a superior tone that she was one of the youngest co-captains in Sunnydale history, he laughed out loud. The girl scowled.
"As talented as you may think you are, you'll soon realize that the world is bigger than ra-ra-sis-boom-bah," he said with a smirk.
Laughter scattered in the classroom, the non-cheerleaders taking no offense to his comment while the cheerleaders glared at him. He was pleased to find that Dawn was part of the non-cheerleading portion of the class.
"And for your information, not only does Cordelia hold the record of being the best cheerleader in Sunnydale, she also holds the record for being the youngest captain. Let that deflate your ego a bit."
Without much else to say, well without getting into any trouble, that is, Connor made his way to the only empty desk in the classroom. That just happened to be next to Dawn. He smiled at her.
"So we meet again."
Dawn smiled back at him, "I hoped we would. Although, I don't think Sarah is thrilled to have to share a class with you."
"Sarah?"
She casually pointed to the still fuming cheerleader at the back of the class.
Connor chuckled, "No, I don't think she is."
"How does the rest of your schedule look?"
He shrugged, taking the piece of paper out of his pocket and handing it to her. She scanned through his classes and gave it back to him with another smile.
"Well, we're stuck with each other again for lunch and seventh period chemistry."
"Lucky me," he replied with a flirtatious smile. She blushed and looked away from him, concentrating on what their teacher was saying. After watching her a moment longer, he turned his attention to the front of the class and did the same.
Sunnydale definitely had its perks.