The beginning of each school year was always a bundle of excitement for students regardless of year. New lockers, new classes, new faces and new friends and still riding the buzz from summer vacation. For seniors, it was the final year before they went off to college and that alone added to the usual excitement for the first few days of school before the workload effectively broke the student and they fell back into the melancholy that was the stress and anxiety of high school. Students would grow bitter of their locker placements because they 'aren't close enough' to their friends or classes, students complain about their new teachers or how they don't have their friends in certain classes. As for new faces and new friends? It's a rare case if friends change up and add more or less to their little cliques.
Peridot awkwardly tugged on the strap of her dull brown messenger bag, covered liberally with pins of various sizes and designs. With her head held low, she trudged through the crowded halls, intent on getting to her classroom so she could get to work. Unlike most students, Peridot didn't feel the buzz of excitement over starting a new school year, she didn't bother deluding herself in the idea of a new beginning. What was the point? Even if she tried to make any changes, everything was just going to stay the same regardless. She'd keep her same small band of friends, she'd stay on the lower end of the totem pole as the school's outcast nerd. The same students would pick on her, the same students would ignore her. Just trying to change anything was a waste of time and energy.
The final year of high school for the short blonde senior only meant a metric ton worth of books to carry every day, nights spent slaving away doing homework and studying, and the neverending "Your grades could vastly improve" from her mother despite the A's she'd bring home. All it meant was stress, stress, and more stress. The only real silver lining she could find, however, was the art class she'd taken up for the first semester.
Though Peridot's mother was very pushing and insistent for Peridot to do something 'useful' with her life, such as computer work. She was taking programming classes this year too, her mother told her if she did well enough she could start working for her mother's tech company. It was a career guaranteed so long as Peridot behaved. More than she could say for the majority of her classmates. She liked programming enough, but, she had a soft side to art as well. Programming was work, enjoyable but still work, art had been her release from stress and a form of relaxation for her, and now she'd get to take classes for it.
Slipping into the classroom, a sizable room with long, paint stained tables and walls lined with canvases, paint and other art supplies, Peridot found herself a desk towards the back. There were only a few other students in the room. Some she recognized, some she didn't.
The blonde had barely put her bag down and pulled out a notebook before an arm slung around her frail shoulders and almost pulled her from her seat.
"Yo! Peri! Fancy seeing you in this class," Amethyst greeted as she ruffled the already rather unruly short hair of her best friend. The latino woman had a large smile, as usual, eyes shining with playful mirth as she took a seat next to Peridot at the table, "Glad I get to spend my first class with you, nerd."
Peridot couldn't help but smile a little when she was released, straightening her glasses a bit and nodded, "Yes, well… I managed to convince Mother to let me take this course," she explained. In truth, she told her mother she needed to take a fine arts course still to be able to graduate, and her mother begrudgingly let her indulge in a class despite it, in her words, teaching students useless skills that'd get them nowhere.
"It's like Hell froze over," Amethyst whistled as more students began to trickle into the room, loud and full of laughter as they grouped up with their friends. The class would be starting pretty soon, "I hear they hired a new teacher for art since Vidalia left." Vidalia had been the school's art teacher for the past six years, but, during the end of last year, she left when her husband transferred. Honestly, Peridot wasn't sure how that worked, as far as she understood Yellowtail was a fisherman and didn't quite get how he would transfer. Maybe all the fish he caught went away and he needed to follow them. Didn't matter.
"So long as she isn't some old windbag that'd make this class boring," Peridot answered as she flipped her notebook open. She jotted down the date and time, along with the class she was in, ready to write down any notes she might need to put down for the first day. The teacher was probably just going to go over the usual introductory things, but, it never hurt to be prepared.
With a nod, Amethyst leaned back in her chair, "I hope she's hot."
"Don't you have a girlfriend already?"
"Doesn't mean I can't still appreciate a good looking woman," Amethyst shot back, "I don't mind when Pearl gives doe eyes to the nurse, she doesn't mind when I appreciate the bodies of other women. So long as neither of us touch. Doesn't change that we love each other more than anyone else."
Shrugging, Peridot didn't have anything to say to that. Romance wasn't really her specialty, neither were relationships for that matter. The most she understood about either was from what she saw on TV. Single and not ready to mingle was her slogan.
Just as the bell rang signifying class to start, a woman stepped into the room and all voices hushed. She walked with an air of authority and power despite her petite size. She didn't look that old either, maybe fresh out of college, her hair was a dark blue that Peridot was sure was against protocol for teachers, not that their principal would have cared. She wore a blue blouse and blue jeans that matched her blue eyes, everything about this woman was blue.
Dropping a pile of papers onto the otherwise empty desk in front of the class, the woman turned to the board and grabbed a marker. Without saying anything she wrote in flowing curvy lettering Ms. Lapis Lazuli . At the end of both 'L's, there was a fancy type of curve to them. Underneath her name, she added an email address, presumably so students could email her should the need arise.
Turning back to the class, Ms. Lazuli flashed the students a smile, "Hey there, nice to meet you. I'm your art teacher, Lapis Lazuli. You can call me Ms. Lazuli," she introduced herself in front of the class, putting both hands on her desk and shifting her weight onto it. "I'm going to be honest with you all. I'm not going to be as lenient as you might expect for a teacher from an art class. If you put in actual effort and do your best, you're going to pass. But for those of you who are just taking this class expecting an easy A without even trying, well, you'll be thoroughly disappointed. Yeah, I'm looking at you, table six, left chair, keep laughing like that and you'll find that I can just as easily fail you. I doubt your parents would be all too happy to hear you failed art ."
As though on cue the aforementioned student stopped his barely hidden snickering, shifting awkwardly in his seat as he looked away from the teacher in front of them.
Letting out a low whistle, Amethyst drew her attention to the girl beside her, "Man, she's something," she whispered quietly, eyes trained on Ms. Lazuli, "Vidalia's bound to be proud of being replaced by someone like her. Damn is she hot, too."
Peridot cast her a low glare, "Amethyst!" she hissed quietly, cheeks taking on a light pink hue. "You shouldn't talk about a teacher like that!" but, her friend wasn't wrong . Lapis Lazuli was attractive in her own right, and she couldn't have been too much older than the students.
"Is there something you would like to share with the class, table 10?" Lazuli called out to Peridot and Amethyst both straightened up in their seats as a few of their classmates turned to face them. Lapis was staring at them with an expression of annoyance, but if looked closely they could both see the amusement in her eyes. With arms crossed, she waited, giving a 'Well? Go on.' sort of gesture for the two.
Peridot almost stood up from her chair to speak, ducking her head low to avoid looking at the classmates or her teacher, "Uh, no, miss. S-Sorry," she stammered, feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
"I see, well, please try to keep the noise level to a minimum when I'm talking, that goes for all of you," Lazuli said as she reached out onto her desk to pick up some of the papers she'd brought in. Moving to approach the tables, she began dispatching the pages among her students, "Well, moving on. Since today is the first day and all, we won't be going over anything class related. Instead, I'm giving you all a sort of get-to-know-you sheet. Fill out with your name, age, any nicknames you would like to go by- no promises I'll call you by that. You can see there are other questions on here, and I want you to answer truthfully. This is so I can get to know you all, and get to know what sort of students I'll be dealing with."
There were muttered and mumbled responses both good and bad by having to do something like this, and soon the sound of pencils and pens scribbling away was filling the room. As Lapis got to the last table, she placed the two papers for Amethyst and Peridot. She stayed there for a second watching them for far longer than Peridot felt like she should have. Not that the student dared met her teacher's gaze, quickly filling out the page in silence, as though Lapis wasn't there. If she was being honest, feeling her staring at her was making her stomach do flips as anxiety gnawed at her from inside.
Lapis lingered at their table a little longer before she moved back to her desk up front. Every so often Peridot would look up and find those blue eyes watching her before they moved on to a different table.
She's just surveying the class, calm down. Peridot tried to assure herself that it was okay, but couldn't help like she'd already gotten on her teacher's bad side somehow. It wasn't unusual, Peridot felt like lots of people tended to dislike her right off the bat, not that it made her feel good or anything. Instead, she tried to focus on filling out the sheet given to her.
It was simple questions, where she was from, what year she was in, three interests, what she wants to do when out of school. The type of questions one would expect on a paper like this. Amethyst was already done with hers before Peridot had even finished, probably filled most of it with puns or stupid kinds of remarks.
Because it was the first day and that there wasn't much to do, the class didn't do much, spending the remaining time talking to each other to get to know their fellow student and before long the bell was ringing signifying the class period was over and it was time for the students to get to their next one.
"Peri! Damn, girl," Amethyst quickly yelled as she grabbed Peridot and dragged her down the hall when they left the room, "I swear Lazuli was staring at you the entire period! What did you do?"
"Apparently something," Peridot muttered as she adjusted her grip on her bag, walking at a brisk pace so as to not be late to her physics class, "I didn't even do anything and it feels like she already doesn't like me."
But her friend was snorting with laughter as Peridot said that, "Doesn't like you? Sure, if that's what kind of feel you got from it," the girl teased, giving Peridot a rather rough shove forward, "But, I've got to head off to my English class, I'll catch you at lunch!"
Waving goodbye, Peridot didn't even get a chance to agree before the woman was running down the hall in the opposite direction. Heaving a sigh, she marched on forward, ready to get through with her physics class and continue her day as best as she could.
She didn't have another class until the following period, which would be good for days when she had projects to review or grade. As of right now, Lapis sat back in her chair, leafing through the papers she'd collected, reading the names and interests. Dogs, Planes, Football, Boobies, she couldn't help but snicker at the less than mature response one student put for their interest. It was high school, what could she expect?
She glanced up at the back table in the room and then flipped through some more papers until she reached last ones. Peridot Olivine. What a nice name, ironic too. But, she supposed her name was just as much a joke. The girl was so short, and with her blonde hair so messy, sticking up and out almost like she was trying to make a triangle, it was hard not to notice her.
Honestly, she was kind of cute.
She even got a little kick out of how fidgety Peridot seemed to grow when Lapis lingered at her table after handing out the papers. She'd purposely stayed in the back longer than she needed to watching Peridot, and even at her desk she'd watch her student before moving on to some other kid in her class whenever Peridot looked up. A grin made its way to her face as she thought it over. She wanted to make Peridot flustered even more, and she had all the confidence in herself that she could do that easily.
Lapis knew it wasn't appropriate by any means. But, since when did she consider herself one who stuck to the rules as though they were tattooed onto her tanned ass? It would be fun messing with her. What's a little harmless teasing going to hurt?
She could already tell this was going to be a fun year.