There is nothing worse than being stuck in the auditorium on the first day back at school while it is 90 degrees outside.
The classic speech Principal Webber is giving at the front of the auditorium, right up on stage, is interrupted with the sound of crinkling papers and murmuring children, all complaining about how hot it is. They fan themselves with lined papers ripped out of their yet-to-be-doodled-on binders and notebooks. Those who are unlucky enough to have longer hair resist the urge to tie it up, worried they're going to ruin the 'do they so methodically styled earlier that morning.
"We live in Seattle, for God's sake." Cristina Yang leans over to whisper to her best friend, Meredith Grey. "Why the hell is it five-hundred freaking degrees and sunny on the first day of classes? Isn't it supposed to be, like, rainy here?"
"Oh, shush," Meredith draws the little attention she had on Principal Webber's speech to wave Cristina off. "It's only, like, ninety."
"'Only ninety!'" Cristina mokes in an over-exaggerated, over-pitched voice. "You say as you fan yourself off like a mad woman."
Meredith elbows her lightly. "So what? I get warm easily, it's not a big deal."
"Why does he insist on giving the same exact speech every year?" Cristina shakes her head pitifully. "I mean, he's a good principal, as far as principals go! You'd think he'd be able to come up with something different?"
Meredith glances at the group of freshmen sitting in front of her. The majority of them are listening intensely. Three are taking notes. One is tearing up.
"How is it I'm already annoyed by the new meat?" She slouches more into her chair, resting her knees on the seat in front of her. "We were them, like, yesterday." She accidentally nudges the head of the person sitting in said seat, one of the freshmen, and he whips his head around. Meredith gives him a look and he cowers slightly, facing forward and cowering into his seat. The girl next to him, one of the ones taking notes, leans over to him, apparently asking what's going on, and then turning around. When she catches Meredith's questioning eye, her eyes widen and copies her friend's actions from before.
"What was that all about?" Meredith murmurs to Cristina. Her best friend shrugs.
"I dunno," She chuckles under her breath. "Probably intimidated by us."
"We're only sophomores."
"Hell yeah we are!" She claps her hands, shifting in her seat with excitement. "Who cares if we're not even halfway there? We're not freshmen anymore and they are!" She glances at her friend. "Mer? You okay?"
"What?" Meredith snaps out of her daze, meeting Cristina's half-concerned, half-amused gaze. "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."
"Whatever you say." Cristina rolls her eyes and slouches back into her seat, reluctantly turning her attention to Principal Webber, deciding that her best friend isn't gonna be the best conversationalist during this assembly.
Once she knows Cristina's off her back, Meredith's eyes fall back on the senior boy sitting towards the front with the really nice hair. Derek Shepard looks back and he smiles that dreamy smile of his, giving a subtle little wave. Meredith grins back, hiding the reddening of her cheeks behind her hands before trying to distract herself.
God, she can't wait for sophomore year.
"How many classes do we have together?"
"Jackson," April rolls her eyes, amused. "We went over this a million times already."
"Yeah, I know," He smirks coyly. "I just want to remind Alex."
"Oh, c'mon, man." Said boy groans, tilting his head back. "I get it. You have more classes with April than I do."
"I have more classes with April than Alex does!" Jackson dances around Alex, throwing in the occasional hip-thrust. "I have more classes with April than Alex does!"
"You guys!" April nudges both of them with her free hands, reddening. "Stop it..."
"Okay, yeah, you get more classes with her and everything," Alex gets a word in once Jackson finally stops dancing. "But I live with her."
"Alright, whoa, you can't pull the sister card." Jackson holds his hands up in defense. "That so doesn't count."
The trio walk through the halls for their first class after the assembly, all three taking out their schedules to make sure they're headed in the right direction.
"Study Hall is first, right?" April asks, leaning towards Jackson. "302?"
"302?" Alex looks up from his own schedule to check out the hallway and groans again. "Dammit! What am I doing on the third floor? I gotta go." And, with that, Alex turns around on his heel and heads towards the stairs, hurrying down them.
"Oh," April watches her step-brother rush downstairs. "I hope he's- oh!" She's interrupted by a tug on her arm and she lets out a little yelp as she's pulled into a cramped supply closet. She's about to say something when she's stopped by a pair of lips on hers, strong hands around her waist.
She lets herself melt into the kiss, like she always does, but only briefly before moving her arms from around his neck to lightly push him by the chest.
"J-Jackson," She tries, giggling. "Jackson, we have study hall, remember?"
"So?" He smirks at her and then leans back in to work at her neck. "It's just study hall. We'll say we got lost or something."
"I-" She stammers, but there he is, at that one spot by her collarbone, and she holds back a whine. "We're not having sex in a supply closet on the first day of school, Jackson."
"Why not?" He's not letting up, making his way up her jaw and towards her mouth. Just as he's getting to his goal, she reluctantly dodges his advance, cupping his face with her hands.
"Jackson," She glances down at his lips before meeting his gaze. "We have to tell him." He sighs, resting his forehead on her shoulder. "I know, but we have to. He's my brother. We have to tell him."
"Exactly!" He mumbles. "He's going to kill me."
"Okay, fine, but he's still your best friend."
He lifts his head. "I thought you were my best friend."
"I'm your..." She gestures between us. "Whatever. We are."
Jackson gives out a little laugh, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. Whatever we are." He's mad at himself for hoping she'd say "girlfriend".
"Yeah." She nods. She stares at him for a moment, although he's not looking back, and takes his face in her hands again to pull him down and kiss him sweetly. "We should go."
"Yeah, yeah. We should go." He repeats, trying to cover his still lingering disappointment.
She traces her thumb over his cheek before pulling away and picking up her bag, which she had dropped on the ground in the heat of the moment. "I'll go first and you'll wait a few seconds? I'll see you in class?"
He frowns. "Well, I thought we could walk together... First class, and all."
April raises her eyebrows. "Oh! Well, yeah, of course, I'll just, um, wait outside?"
"No, no." He shakes his head. "No, it's fine, it's whatever. We have a million other classes together, right? I'll meet you in class."
She gives him a meek smile and sneaks out of the closet, closing it softly behind her. Jackson counts to one hundred in his head before following suit.
Later, after being scolded at for being late for the first study hall of the year, Jackson tosses a folded up piece of lined paper in April's lap. Looking around to shoot a confused look at the culprit, he gestures for her to open it. She does so, giggling and reddening after reading the contents.
can we have sex in a supply closet on the second day of school? ;) -j
She rolls her eyes, glancing back at the author of the note. He's on his phone, acting overly innocent. She laughs, folds the note back up and sticks it in the pocket of her dress, and bites back a stupidly obvious smile.
"Hi!"
George jumps in his seat, startled by the presence of the girl next to him. "Oh, um. Hi?"
The girl smiles at him. "I'm your desk neighbor." She points up at the board at the front of the classroom, where "O'MALLEY, GEORGE" and "GREY, ALEXANDRA" are written side-by-side.
"Oh, yeah." George sticks his hand out and she takes it to shake. "I'm O'Malley, George. Nice to meet you..." He glances at the board. "Grey, Alexandra."
"Oh, you can just call me Lexie."
"Lexie it is, then."
She nods, pulling her books out of her backpack. "So, we're freshmen, huh? That's so crazy!"
George freezes for a moment, feeling his armpits get warm. "Freshmen. Yeah, yep. So crazy." He folds his schedule, which he had in his hands, in half, hoping she wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on his side that day. Or any day, as of late.
"Oh, is that your schedule?" Lexie questions, taking hers out of her pocket. "Lemme see, maybe we have some classes together!"
"Oh, no, that's fine." He shakes his head nervously. "Just tell me what you have. I have my classes, uh, memorized."
"Oh, okay, when do you have Biology?"
"Uh..." He searches his brain for an answer, but he's not quick enough.
"Oh, just let me see." She manages to seize the piece of card stock from his grasp and reads it over. "Why are you in Chemis- you're a sophomore?!"
"Can you keep it down please?" He yell-whispers, slouching down and pulling him down with her.
"Why are you in freshmen English?" She murmurs back, confused.
"I..." He shakes his head, sighing. "I failed the final last year, which brought my grade down enough to fail the course."
"Oh..." She sits up, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"No, no," He stops her mid-sentence, shaking his head. "It's fine, it's just... Don't tell anyone else, okay?"
"No, of course not, I would never!" She holds her hands up in her defense. They're quiet for a beat before she opens her mouth to speak again. "It's just-"
"Oh, look!" He gestures to the front of the class, where Ms. Bailey is standing. "The class is starting!"
Lexie apologizes under her breath and slouches down in her seat, the two of them facing forward.
"Welcome to English 9 Honors." Their teacher starts, passing out class syllabi. "I hope you are ready for one of the hardest classes of your life!" She scans the room under she catches George's gaze. When she does, she nods respectfully.
George nods back and groans once her attention is off of him, lying his head on his desk.
This is going to be a long, long year.
disclaimer: i do not own greys anatomy. also, if this fic seems similar to another au or something you may have read before, i apologize. i did not plagiarize anyone and there are so many high school au's on this website, it's kind of ridiculous to expect some of them not to be similar.
honestly, i live and breathe for high school au. especially with a cast as big as this one. currently, i am working on the second chapter of this. so far, i have set the basis for the mark/lexie relationship, but that's as far as i've gotten. i don't know how long this fic will be in all, but i do know i want to try my best to get to the end of the school year. the ships and the characters i have set up are all in the relationships/characters thing at the top, and i want to be able to work in teddy and izzie (especially teddy with henry bc henry was such a babe), i'm just not sure how yet. if you have any questions, just let me know in the comments or something! thanks for reading!