Lillian felt a thrill of adrenaline running across her spine as she stepped into the bus that was already full of her classmates. Or at least part of it. After the fire accident, all of the students were divided into six groups and each group had to stay in a different school until the situation calmed down. It was quite chaotic, but no school would accept over hundred students, so breaking the students into smaller groups seemed to do the trick. Lillian along with her classmates was heading over to a school called Sweet Amoris. She didn't hear a word about the school before and it seemed to be quite far away from their town once she googled the place on the internet.
Frankly, she wasn't looking forward to this new experience and she could already feel the rush of fear and anxiety as she heard the loud chatter and saw the excited faces of her classmates who were already thrilled to go. Sure, it was just another school, but it was a change in their lives and that made everyone if not joyful, then at least curious.
Finding an empty seat, Lillian dragged her body towards it, sitting down on the textured fabric of her seat. She was not exactly the popular type in her school and while she seemed anti-social, the truth was that no one had ever made an effort to truly get to know her. Whenever she thought she finally found a friend, she found out the truth behind their friendly faces which was that they were solely trying to use her for their benefit.
She scanned through the mini-bus with her caramel eyes and found out there were only dozen of them. 'Not bad,' she thought to herself. After all the less people she has to face, the better. They all seemed to be from her year, though she had trouble figuring the names of all of them. When she thought about it, she was almost embarrassed for not knowing the names of the people she spent about two years with.
Lillian's chain of thoughts was interrupted by light click of high-heels against the metal floor.
"If I could have a moment of your attention!" Francesca Thorne or Lady Thorne as the students liked to call her (it might have something to do with her medieval style of clothing, one never knows) was a History teacher and quite a young one at that. She could be easily confused with a student, if it weren't for her intense glare and constant scolding. She was even worse than the principal.
"I am sure you've all been informed about our current situation, however, there are few things that I'd like to discuss with you before we set off. Firstly, I expect you to be on your best behaviour, you can all be grateful that Sweet Amoris High School allowed you punks to attend their classes while our school is under reconstruction. Which brings me to the second point."
She paused, her stare firm and her lips pursed in a thin line. Her silver eyes travelled from student to student and after she made a brief eye contact with everyone, she crossed arms over her chest and straightened her posture.
"You were not placed together in the same group for no reason. I know it was one of you twelve who caused the fire and believe when I say this: I will find out who was behind it. Your principal may be blind to your mischief, but I am not and once the delinquent is found, there will be a price to be paid. Have a lovely week of adjustment, I shall pay you a visit after your first week to check up on you whether you behave appropriately."
With the last sentence she stormed off, only leaving a trail of unpleasant sound of metal creaking.
"Way to go." A ginger-headed boy from behind chuckled once their teacher was out of sight. Others quickly returned to their conversations as if nothing happened and soon their bus started to move.
Lillian had always enjoyed the vehicle rides, but having to listen to rest of the students chattering about nonsense kind of ruined the experience. She cursed at herself for leaving her headphones in her suitcase. As if her situation was not already awful, she was now forced to stay in a common dormitory along with her classmates, because apparently 'the town was too far away and it wouldn't make sense to travel two hours every day'. She would much more prefer getting up two hours earlier every morning than to live in a dorm room that was few blocks from the school. She had even forgotten to check the list of roommates, so she didn't even know with whom she shares the room.
Not that it mattered, she'd be annoyed anyways. Now she had to deal with an annoying teacher as well. She had no doubts Lady Thorne would check up on them as often as she could, not to mention she'd carefully interrogate all of them.
Truth to be told, Lillian was in oblivion in regards to the fire incident. Maybe it was an accident, maybe not. Maybe it was truly one of them who had done it. After all, there was only the twelve of them who had been in the school when the fire started. But Lillian was sure that she did not want to add proving her innocence on her to do list.
They arrived quicker than they thought and the bus suddenly stopped fiercely, making the students almost hit their heads against the seats in front of them. The driver muttered something under his breath and the students took that as an opportunity to finally step out of that rusty vehicle. Jumping out, one by one, they were all content once the air filled their lungs. Before they could pick up their suitcases, they were stopped in their tracks by a soft voice of an elderly woman.
"By all means, leave it. I already sent some people to deliver your luggage to your dormitories. Before we begin with some mandatory organization works, let me introduce myself. My name is Miss Shermansky and I am principal at the Sweet Amoris High School. This is Nathaniel, the student body president. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask him." She pointed at the golden haired boy who waved at them sheepishly as he was introduced.
"I will have to return to my work soon, but I'd like to welcome you all in our school and I do hope you'll be an asset to our educational system." Few students snorted at that comment but she seemed to be unaffected by it.
"Now I shall leave you with Nathaniel, he'll explain everything to you. Don't worry, you're in good hands." She finished with sweet smile and left Nathaniel with the rest of the students.
Nathaniel coughed a bit to draw attention to himself, uneasy from having to face such a large group of new students.
"Right well usually the new students have to hand in a bunch of paperwork, but luckily for you, your school has already taken care of that. The classes do not start for you until tomorrow, in the meantime feel free to look around the school and by the end of the day, please let me know what kind of club you wish to choose. You can either attend Gardening or Basketball club, it's up to you."
"Two clubs? That's it?" Rosella, who was a bit fed up by her situation asked, putting a swarthy hand on her hip. She wasn't usually mean, but the lack of sleep and being obliged to practically start a new life, took its price on her.
"Welcome to Sweet Amoris." Nathaniel responded with a smile.
"At least there's basketball club." Caden, member of their basketball school team, muttered.
"There's a city map in the hallway if you need one, though this is a small town, you should be able to find everything quite fast. Your dormitory is two blocks away from here, it is a large light blue building. You won't miss it."
"When are we going to settle in our dorms?" Rosella phrased the question this time in a calmer voice. She did not need to make enemies on the first day in new school, so she tried to be on her best behaviour just like Lady Thorne suggested.
"Well the classes end in an hour, so until then please remain on the school grounds. Then you are free to go." The blonde boy responded to her question and when no one seemed to have any further enquiries, he led them inside of the school.
Once they were all in, Nathaniel advised them to look around a bit and pointed at the door that had Student Council Room written on it, adding that whenever someone needs anything, he can be found in there.
Rosella looked around, the school seemed quite big to her, compared to the one she was used to. 'Well it doesn't hurt to look around.' She thought to herself, when she noticed almost everyone headed off somewhere.
Just as she was about to turned around to head towards the second hallway, she bumped into someone.
"Watch where the fuck you're going!"
Rosella looked up to see a blonde angelic face that looked a bit similar to Nathaniel's. 'So that is the queen bee.' Rose thought and chuckled at the blonde Barbie in front of her.
"Tss, tss. Such language." Rosella had fake concerned look on her face and the blonde was left puzzled.
"What are you, like new here or something? You obviously don't know how things work around here." The blonde laughed at her as she said it and put hands on her hips, tilting her head so that her golden locks could fall gracefully on her back.
"Please, educate me." Rosella replied, sarcasm dripping off her tongue. She had had enough for today and a school drama queen was the last thing she needed.
"Well, there are certain social-" The blonde began explaining, but was cut off by Rose's hand.
"Listen there, Goldilocks-"
"Amber."
"Gesundheit. You may be plastic, while life is fantastic, but you will shut your trap when I'm around. Actually, scratch that. When anyone from my school is around. I will not see you harassing any of my friends either, comprende?"
"I do not harass-"
"I'm not finished. I don't know what kind of privileged life you're used to, but you won't get any special treatment from me."
"That's not-"
"Still not finished." Rose chuckled in a singing voice and smirked at Amber. "You may look like a princess, but your manners are miles away from royal ones. If you have any problem with me or someone else, then there's the door, bitch."
Amber looked at the brunette in front of her with her mouth open, wondering who the heck that new girl was that she dared to talk to her in such manner. Obviously this newbie didn't know what she was in for.
"You just got yourself into trouble, last season." Amber smirked once she composed herself, referring to the girl's clothing. "I shall make sure my brother, the Student Body President, knows exactly what kind of bully you are. Actually, maybe even the Principal would be interested in hearing this."
Amber's words seemed to have effect on Rose, though the brunette kept her expression unchanged. Nathaniel seemed quite nice, it was hard to believe he'd be related to this blonde monster. But one should never judge a book by its cover.
"Do it. See if I care." Rosella retorted, raising an eyebrow at the blonde before turning on her heel and leaving the furious Amber behind.
This was definitely not how she imagined her first day. Rose was terrible at keeping her mouth shut, though she hoped she would avoid trouble at least for a week. Rosella was not some sort of rebel who would get into trouble often, quite the contrary, she was a straight A's student and often engaged herself in school sport events, yet the trouble always seemed to find her. Just like it did now.
She cursed at her situation. New school, new accommodations, new people. All of that while being under suspicion for arson at their school. It was rather ridiculous. If she wasn't feeling so awful, she would have even laughed at the irony.
Rosella looked around, finding herself near the staircase and before she could help it, she collapsed on the stairs. She refused to cry, not when someone could easily walk in on her. But the truth was, it was too much on the petite brunette. Way too much to handle it solely by herself.
When she walked out of her house in the morning, her parents barely noticed her. Heck, they even looked happy that their eldest daughter would be out of the house. One less person to worry about.
"Are you alright?"
Rose looked up to see the person that addressed her, only to face a rather handsome tall boy with white hair who seemed to be around her age. Though his intentions seemed clear, Rosella had enough interactions with strangers for one day. She quickly got up as if she got burned and her momentarily weak face was replaced immediately by the cold mask she wore so often.
"Perfectly fine." Without any emotion in her voice she left the stranger and walked away as far from that place as possible.
Erin was aimlessly walking around the courtyard alone, since her brother ditched as soon as they found the school gym. Though on his defence, he did seem rather sorry for leaving her like that, but Erin shrugged it off. She knew what sport represented for her brother and couldn't take that away from it. She would have joined him, however she was not gifted in the athletic spectre. Or any spectre for that matter. She couldn't sing, dance, paint nor play any instrument. Her grades were barely okay and the only thing she was ever praised for was her looks. The only thing she was born with.
So in other words, she had fine genetics and no talent whatsoever. At least she was away. She certainly wouldn't miss her so called friends who only talked to her because they either thought they would get laid or they thought they would be more popular when being around her. Disgusting indeed.
She sat on the edge of a bench and reached into her pocket for a pack of cigarettes. She didn't like smoking around her brother, because he would always scold her, but right now no one was in sight and she needed the nicotine in her lungs desperately. It was an annoying habit, really, one she wished she could get rid of, but whenever she tried, she ended up finding comfort in that legal drug again.
When she finally took out the golden white pack, it was creased and half-torn. Opening the package, she hoped the last two cigarettes she had there would be untouched, but unfortunately she was wrong. Both of the cigs were torn in two, probably a result of her bus nap.
"Fuck!" She cursed, throwing away the pack. There was no way she could smoke them now, they were practically destroyed. "Great, just when I need them."
"Isn't talking to yourself the first sign of madness?"
Erin was so caught up in her cigarette issue that she hadn't even noticed the red haired guy approaching her. She scoffed loudly as he smirked at her.
"What are you, a doctor?" She retorted and he only shrugged his shoulders, taking out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one.
Erin was tempted to ask for one, but she mentally scolded herself. She can't just go around and ask a stranger to support her addiction, when it was her fault that she had nothing to smoke now.
The jerk next to her apparently noticed her stare, because his smirk just got wider. Normally she would get annoyed and storm off, but once she smelled the nicotine, she knew there was no way she would get herself out of it.
"Shouldn't you be in class or something?" She taunted to take her mind off of the smell and also to break the silence. She disliked the quiet. Words were predictable, you knew what to expect. But silence? That one was deadlier than anything.
The redhead gave her a look as if she truly did belong to the psychiatry and continued smoking his cigarette.
"Not really." He replied curtly. Small talk obviously wasn't a good idea.
"You could at least share, you know." Erin added, unable to withstand the need anymore. The irritation in her voice could not be overheard, but even if the boy in front of her noticed, he didn't show it.
She was angry at herself for giving into such simple object that fuelled her addiction, but until she figures out a way to stop her habit once and for all, she'll just have to cope with it.
"First day didn't go according to the plans?" He teased once he handed her the cigarette.
"Aren't you a bright one." Erin retorted and inhaled the nicotine lightly. She never smoked the drug all the way to her lungs, but rather enjoyed when it lingered inside of her mouth. Oral cavity cancer was easier to get than a lung one and Erin enjoyed being so close to death. The adrenaline brought chills to her spine and she breathed in the danger.
"Sorry." She added, once she realized that her response might had been a bit too bratty. There was no reason to take out her not so joyful mood on others.
"No need." He replied, amused by her awkward apology. They continued sitting like that for couple of more minutes, bathing in the silence and nicotine smoke.
AN: Hello everyone, Katerina present! This is my first MCL fanfiction, which I have planned for quite some time and already have several chapters written. The rating will change as the story evolves. As you can see there are multiple OCs of mine and there will also be multiple ships. I will try to introduce my characters in a way that you won't get lost in the story and characters, since there are plenty of them.
Please review if you liked the story or even if you disliked it, every opinion whether positive or negative pushes me forward.
Arivederci for now, see you in the next chapter!