This is quite a clichéd story, but please try it anyway! R&R and all that stuff!
Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare is a genius; all the characters are definitely hers!
Tessa walked into her new school with her head held high, trying to look like she knew her way around and knew what on earth she was doing. She went purposefully to her new locker, skillfully dodging broad shoulders and pointy elbows. She threw her new textbooks into the locker, keeping math and English, her next subjects.
Tessa awkwardly walked into the classroom, still trying to keep a high head, and hoping to walk to her seat with no introduction from the teacher; some had the awful Need to introduce the new kid. This teacher had the Need. As soon as he saw Tessa, he smiled and called her to the front, oblivious to her glare.
"Class, I'd like you to meet Theresa Gray, she just transferred to the school and I'm sure you'll make her feel very welcome in the classes you have with her. Say hello."
Tessa let her head fall, hair swinging down to hide her face, as she heard a bored drone of "Hello, Theresa". She lifted her hand in a small wave and the teacher laughed once, his large noise wrinkling with the action, the Need still hadn't been satisfied: "Well, Theresa, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself before we start the lesson?"
No. No, she wouldn't.
"I prefer to be called Tessa. I transferred from a school called Grangerwood, and I'm from America, New York."
"Anything else?" He was really oblivious to her glare.
"Um...I..."
"What do you like doing?"
"Reading." Maybe if she were curt he'd catch a hint? A thought about whether he couldn't catch a hint when a girl was rejecting him flitted through her head, and she instantly felt guilty, he wasn't doing this intentionally.
"Ah, a reader. Ok, I won't embarrass you any more," so he was doing it on purpose, Tessa lost grip of the guilt "you can take a seat over there." He pointed to a seat in the middle of the class, in full view of everyone.
Tessa set her jaw and walked to her seat, after nodding once at her new math teacher. Noting everyone's gaze on her, though bored gazes, she bottled her anger and carefully took out her books having set her bag in the ground.
"By the way, I'm Mr Langly." He smiled, and Tessa nodded again, trying to minimize her speech. Mr Langly talked them through a new concept, and then handed out some worksheets. Tessa glanced over at the person she was sitting with: a beautiful girl, with raven black and diamond-hard blue eyes looked back at her. The girl took in Tessa before looking away, uninterested.
"Hi, I'm Tessa."
"I heard." Oh right, Tessa had already been made to announce that. She didn't say anything else, and Tessa ignored her: she had tried to make small talk, if the girl didn't want to what could Tessa do?
English flew by a lot faster than math: the teacher did not have the Need, it was her favorite subject and they were studying A Tale of Two Cities, her favorite book. It also helped that the person she was sitting next to was willing to open her mouth.
"Hi, I'm Sophie, it's very nice to meet you." She smiled sweetly at me.
I smiled back at her. "I'm Tessa, I'm new around here."
"Well, I'd be happy to show you around?"
"Are you sure? I don't want to interrupt any plans?"
"No, no honestly, I'd love to. Inferna can be pretty confusing, if you don't know it."
"You have no idea! All the corridors look exactly the same, thank you so much!" I smiled gratefully at her, and she returned it.
"Don't worry about it, I could have used some help when I first joined here, people can be kind of intimidating around Inferna..."
"I think it's kind of cool that everyone's so confident, anyway, when did you join here?" I tried to keep the conversation flowing, as the teacher wasn't paying much attention to us.
"Um... about 2 years ago." Tessa nodded, still trying to think of something else to say. "Um... have you met my friend James?" Sophie gestured to a boy sitting next to her. He looked up and smiled. Tessa sucked in a breath. He was beautiful, with hair platinum- silver and eyes matching, James had high cheekbones and... Tessa was staring.
"Um..n-no." Oh god. She was stuttering. "Hi, I'm Tessa." She held out her hand trying to keep her voice cool and calm.
"James Carstairs, but everyone calls me Jem." He shook her hand and smiled at her.