"This is stupid," Mick mumbled as he and Len, his best and really only friend, made their way down the not yet crowded hallway of the school.
It was Mick's first day back since being released from Juvie, a place he had already spent the better portion of his teenage years. He was taken in at fourteen, just a few weeks before he would've finished eighth grade, for the destruction of his home and the subsequent murders of his parents. They had given him schoolwork to do over the course of his sentence, and only once Leonard was thrown in and explained that if he didn't do any of the work he'd be tossed right back into middle school once he was out did he finally start doing just enough to qualify him for high school upon his release. At first he hadn't believed he ever would be released of course, but then the social workers told him that he wasn't being tried for murder and only for arson. The state hired lawyer somehow convinced the judge to reduce his sentence from five to two years. So here he was, starting high school at sixteen.
"I know," Len agreed, he had only been back at school for a month after serving his three-month sentence for a relatively minor theft. "But it's also pointless."
Mick grunted at the statement, "That supposed to make me feel better?"
Len sighed at his friend's comment, "Maybe," he relented just as they reached the door that lead to the guidance office. "Look, do you know who the kids are that get recruited for this peer mentoring thing?" He asked, rhetorically of course. "They're the same ones that are on the honor society, or at least close to it." He deadpanned, "Saying that they helped the screw ups looks good on their college applications, but whoever they stick you with I can guarantee will want nothing to do with you. They'll hang around you today so that they get the credit, and then they won't go further than just a smile when they see you in the hall." He explained and Mick nodded, he trusted Len's assessment of the program considering he had already been stuck in it for a month, that and Leonard very rarely made a misjudgment.
"Ok," the older boy said before taking hold of the door to the office, "See ya later," he said to his friend.
Inside of the guidance office there was a secretary who promptly, and rudely, demanded to know who Mick was looking for. He told her that he was looking for Mrs. Stein and she rolled her eyes as if appalled by the fact that he didn't already know where the woman's office was, and for the record he probably could've found it had she not jumped all over him the second he walked through the door. But she directed him to a small room just at the end of the office's even smaller hallway. Once there he peered inside the open door to find that the closet sized room was mostly dark, lit only by a single desk lamp, and there was a blonde woman sitting at the desk and rummaging around each and every drawer as though she had misplaced something.
Unsure of what else to do Mick remained silent in the doorway until the woman glanced up, and when she eventually did an embarrassed smile spread across her face.
"Hello," she greeted breathlessly as she sat up and pushed some of her hair away from her face. "You must be Mick."
Mick nodded but kept his feet planted where they were.
"Well don't just stand there. Come in, come in!" She beckoned and so Mick obeyed and went and slumped into the seat across from her, letting his backpack slide off of his shoulder and to the floor. "So, how are you this morning Mick?"
"You've got to be kidding me," the teenager thought to himself. It was almost laughable how frazzled and cheery Mrs. Stein was this early in the morning; it was certainly a stark contrast to the secretary out there who had clearly fallen off the wrong side of the bed this morning.
"I'm alright," Mick replied with a shrug and the most bored expression that he could manage.
"Good," the older woman replied with a bright smile before she promptly returned to her previous action of tearing apart the contents of her desk. "I'm sorry, I'm just looking for a form that I misplaced." She apologized and awkwardly Mick shrugged in response.
While she rummaged around for her paper Mick took the opportunity to glance around the small, and horribly lit, office. There were a few posters tacked to the walls, the ones with those inspirational quotes about success written on them. There was one more chair somehow crammed into the room, resting empty by the open door. The cluttered desk was mostly decorated with various knick-knacks and pictures, many of which showed a man with glasses and white hair along with a little girl of various different ages, but obviously the same girl.
"There now," Mrs. Stein proclaimed as she placed a piece of paper onto her desk and began smoothing the crinkles out of it. "I knew it had to be around here somewhere." She continued with a small laugh, she then eyed Mick but he continued to stare blankly at her desk.
He obviously wanted to be anywhere else on earth right about now, most of the kids who she summons to her office do. But she wanted to at least try and make him comfortable in here, so she opened her mouth to ask him something, anything, about his interests, thinking that might get him talking, when there was a knock on her open door.
At the sound of the knock Mick looked over his shoulder and was met with the sight of a girl with dark skin and even darker hair standing there, eyes asking whether or not she could enter.
"Amaya!" Mrs. Stein exclaimed, this woman really was too happy for this time of morning. "Come in!" She beckoned and so the girl did as instructed, grabbing the final chair and maneuvering it over to the side of the desk because getting it to the other side of Mick was just going to be too much of a hassle for everyone.
As she sat down Mick took in her appearance and determined that for once Snart's words might not be so reliable, as Amaya hardly resembled the description his friend had given of his own peer mentor. Leonard had described the girl he was assigned to as a wannabe Barbie, which didn't seem accurate for Amaya. She was clothed in black skinny jeans and a matching leather jacket, he couldn't see her shirt due to the jacket but he highly doubted that it was doused with glitter. Her tiger printed backpack also caught his attention, and he thought that just maybe he wasn't going to totally hate this girl.
"Mick, Amaya here will be your mentor. She's the honor society's newest member and vice president of the history club." Mrs. Stein gloated and while he did notice Amaya's obvious discomfort with the praise he still decided to revoke his previous thought; he was definitely going to hate her.
"So what?" He found himself asking, "I'm just supposed to follow her around or something?"
Amaya groaned at his apparently stupid question, really the only thing giving Mick any comfort in this was the fact that it didn't seem like she wanted to be a part of this any more than he did. Maybe Snart was onto something after all with his theory on the mentors.
"More or less," Mrs. Stein replied, "Amaya will show you around the school and see to it that you get to your classes, and to make that easier we tried to put you in a few of her classes. There's a meeting for everyone involved in the mentoring program today after school, I expect to see both of you there." She said sternly, as though she knew that at least one of them had plans of ditching.
"Don't worry, we'll be there." Amaya assured the counselor, her voice just as disinterested as Mick was convinced his own would be.
"Good," Mrs. Stein said, "Well that's all that I need from the two of you, and class is going to be starting soon, you should probably get going."
Mick was on his feet by the time she finished, more than ready to get out of here. Amaya wasn't far behind him, though she at least possessed the manners to wait until Mrs. Stein had finished speaking. But Mick didn't find himself waiting long for the girl to gather her backpack onto her shoulders and follow him out of the office, calling a "goodbye" over her shoulder to Mrs. Stein.
"Well, this should be fun." Mick grumbled as they exited the office and entered the now crowded hallway of the school.
"Just let me see your schedule so I know where to take you." Amaya more or less demanded, pulling him along with herself over to stand against a wall and out of the way of the other students walking laps around the square that was the first floor.
With and annoyed huff Mick shrugged his black backpack off of his shoulder and unzipped the main compartment. With one hand he held the bag and with the other he pulled out a crinkled up ball of paper and handed it over to Amaya.
"Here," he said, she looked slightly off-put by the papers condition but didn't comment on it as she took it and unfolded it's numerous edges.
"Ok," she mused to herself while her eyes scanned the schedule. "It looks like you have French first period which so do I, next you have chemistry while I have home economics." She continued to scan the rest of the list in silence before handing it back to him. "Ok, follow me to French, after that you're on your own for two periods but chemistry is just down the hall from French and besides the school is a square, if you get lost just look at the room numbers and don't turn around. So long as you're on the right floor you'll eventually end up where you need to be." She explained while he grudgingly shoved the paper back into his backpack. "Any questions?" She asked with a smile that he could've sworn held a hint of smugness, perhaps enjoyment of his misery.
"Yeah, how long do I have to be stuck with you?" He asked, cold, blunt, and only half sarcastic, just as had always been his way.
"Until they decide you don't need to be in the program," she answered seriously and not seeming to be even the least bit offended by his tone.
His eyebrows knitted together at her words, "They?" He asked, "Whose they?"
She shrugged at the question, "The people who put you in the program, you know assuming you didn't enroll yourself." She said and he fixed her with a deadpan glare, to which she nodded. "Didn't think so," she admitted and before she could say anything more the warning bell rang out, signaling that they only had three minutes to get to their homerooms; and of course they had been placed in the same one.
"Let's go," she huffed and set off, making Mick hurry to catch her.
"Hey!" He called, though it was needless considering it didn't take more than a few seconds for him to walk up beside her once again. "You didn't answer my question, who are they?"
"I don't know," she replied as they entered the stairwell, the tightly packed crowd of students forcing Mick to walk behind Amaya rather than next to her and thus temporarily halt their conversation.
Once they were out of the stairwell and making their way down a corridor on the second floor, one that was still crowded but much less so than the stairs, he fell into stride beside her again.
"It's different for every person," she explained, "Mrs. Stein is a constant for everybody, as is Mr. Merlyn; the school adjustment counselor. After that it really depends, but usually one or two teachers, the guidance counselor you're assigned to if that isn't Mrs. Stein, and your parents."
Mick nearly stopped dead in his tracks when she suggested those people, and of course she noticed.
"What?" She asked, trying to hurry him along before somebody could walk right into him.
"Nothing," he insisted, commanding his feet to once again follow her as she led them to homeroom.
"Are you sure?" she asked as they entered a room and she nodded to the teacher, though Mick couldn't tell if that was a "hello" or a silent message that the stranger she had lagging behind her was the new kid. He decided that it was probably a little of both.
"Yeah just…" He trailed off, the facts clicking inside of his mind that they hadn't told her anything. She didn't know who he was, where he's been, what he's done. She knew about as much about him as he did about her, which was nothing. "I don't live with my parents." He finally decided to say after sliding into the desk next to the one that she had claimed for herself.
"Oh," she said softly, barely audibly. "Well whoever your guardian is then," she amended and Mick huffed as he slumped back into the seat. If that were the case then he was going to be stuck in this program for the rest of high school, hopefully Len was right about the first day being the worst of it.
Author's Note: Ok so I was challenged to write a Beauty and the Beast fic for Foxfire (or whatever we're calling the ship of MickxAmaya.) Normally I'm not a fan of high school AU's but this is all that would come to my mind so I'm going with it. It'll mostly be Legend's characters but I'm sure some of the other shows will eventually make some appearances. Some people have been left as adults, and obviously some people who have a huge age difference are now the same age. I'm aware that not all of the characters were in high school at the same time, so i've decided to write this as if it were during the late 90's or early 2000's. (Basically I just don't want cell phones or anything more advanced than that for comedy reasons). So that's my little note, letting you all know that I have no idea what I just got myself into, let's see how this goes!