Disclaimer: I only own Izzy.
"I'm not going to school here."
"Get out."
"I'm not going."
"Well I can't afford any of those fancy private schools, so you'll have to."
"Or I could just quit school."
Her mother sighed loudly, knuckles turning white on the steering wheel as she stared at her stubborn daughter in the mirror of the car. "Get out, Isabel, or so help me I'll come back there and throw you out."
Groaning, Izzy shoved the door open and climbed out, making sure to slam it behind her. She didn't turn to watch her mother drive away at twice the speed limit, fixing her eyes instead on the dump that someone had seen fit to call a school. There were kids everywhere, playing one sport or another or just loitering as they talked to friends. More were still coming, passing by her without giving her a second glance, eager to get to their own before-school activities.
She should probably go in. Of course, she could take off and find some park or quiet street to hang around in until it was safe to go home, but her mother would have her head for it, after all the arguing and complaining she'd already done that morning. Best not to push her buttons any further. Shouldering her bag, Izzy followed a large group into the school grounds, turning left towards the front office. Surely they'd know what she was supposed to be doing here.
The lady behind the desk looked up from the screen of an out-of-date computer and smiled as she walked in. "What can I do for you?" she asked pleasantly, leaving her work for a moment.
"My name's Isabel Walker," Izzy replied, shrugging her bag into a more comfortable position. "It's my first day here, and I was wondering if I could get a timetable or a map or something."
"Oh, so you're the new student!" the receptionist enthused, tapping on her keyboard. "Welcome!" One final tap, and then she stood and clicked and wobbled her way across the room in too-high heels to where a printer was noisily spitting out a copy of a timetable. Snatching it up, the woman crossed the room again in the same cringe-worthy fashion, and handed over the timetable and a map of the campus. "Here you go. Just come back here if you have any trouble finding your classes and I'll rustle up someone to help you."
"Thankyou." Izzy forced a tight smile, took the papers, and bolted out of the room and into the thick spring air. It was barely October, but already the temperature was soaring into summer-like heat every other day, making it next to impossible to know what each day was going to be like. Today was going to be a hot one, it would seem. Suddenly she wasn't so sour about spending the day stuck in a classroom. With that in mind she stopped in the shade outside the office and glanced at her timetable - her first class was halfway across the campus apparently, hidden somewhere in the maze of buildings before her.
Determined not to get lost or have to ask that woman for help again, she set off, ignoring any curious eyes that happened to turn her way as she did. The classroom wasn't as hard to find as she had thought it would be, appearing in front of her within five minutes of her wandering. Most of the class was already there, standing around or sitting on top of tables, bags slung on seats to indicate ownership. The teacher looked up as she came in, frowning when he didn't recognise her. She gave him her name and he waved her on in, welcoming her to the school. Izzy grit her teeth and ignored the empty words, turning her attention instead to finding a seat that wasn't taken by some douchebag she had yet to meet. She was good at this sort of thing, at finding a place to hide - it was easy to spot an idiot. There was a whole group of them over in one of the back corners now. Disgusted, she turned away from that side of the room, seeking a seat well away from them. There was only one chair empty on that side of the room, next to some kid with overgrown hair and a sour look on his face.
Resigned to her fate, she crossed the room and dropped into the chair, throwing her bag on the floor at her feet. In the corner of her eye, she saw the boy looking at her like he was questioning her sanity or something. "Uh...what are you doing?" he asked.
"Sitting," she replied with a shrug.
"There are plenty of seats over there." He looked pointedly across the room to where the idiots were sitting, surrounded by a ring of empty seats.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" she asked. "I am not sitting near those douchebags."
"Great," he said sarcastically, and that was the end of it.
They sat through the class without speaking another word to each other, the boy disappearing into the crowd as soon as it ended. There was a short break between classes, and Izzy ended up wandering the school grounds trying not to look too much like a loser. People ignored her for the most part. She wasn't sure how to feel about that; she didn't want friends or anything and couldn't give a shit about any of the kids she passed, but at the same time, it would be nice to have a little recognition sometimes, a sign that she wasn't totally invisible. A total of three people had talked to her in the two or three hours she'd been here, and none of them because they wanted to.
This place was supposed to be a fresh start. Right now, it felt like the same old life.
Her next class was short, and most of the second row was empty, meaning she could sit seven or eight seats apart from the gossiping girls on the other end. Izzy hated those sorts of girls, and she was sure they were talking about her, judging but the not-so-secret looks they were giving her. She'd thought that would be the best lesson of the day, but she was more relieved to escape that class than she had been that morning, sitting awkwardly next to a boy she didn't know for an hour and a half.
Speaking of hour and a half lessons, it was a double maths period that came next. The first thing she noticed when she walked into the classroom was the boy she had sat next to that morning. Again, he was sitting in the emptiest part of the room, though this time a pudgy boy with a shock of red hair sat next to him. With few other options, she slumped down into a seat behind them, figuring that she could at least use them as a screen to keep the teacher's eyes from her.
It took less than two minutes for the dark-haired one to turn around, hanging off the back of his chair. "Are you stalking me or something?" he asked. "That's kind of creepy, you know."
"Just because we have the same classes, doesn't mean I'm stalking you."
"Why do you keep sitting near me then?"
Izzy shrugged. "Why do you sit near all the free seats? What is this, 20 questions?"
"More like two."
"Whatever."
"Who are you anyway?" he asked after a beat, a total shit-eating grin on his face.
"Are you trying to make it to 20?" she threw back.
"How is three close to twenty?" he replied. "You should move up the front if your maths is that bad."
"Four." She eyed him for a moment, sizing him up. Tall and thin, but tough-looking. He was from a rough background, she'd bet; he had that look about him. "Isabel," she blurted out suddenly. "Or Izzy or whatever stupid nickname you want."
"No one said anything about nicknames," he pointed out bluntly, to which Izzy shrugged. "I'm Shawn, and this is Nuts." He jerked a finger at the silent boy beside him, and she cast a glance that way.
"That sounds like a pretty stupid nickname to me," she said, baiting him.
"I've heard worse," he returned coolly.
"I've heard better."
At the front of the room, the teacher raised his voice, calling them to attention. Reluctantly, Shawn turned away, back towards the front, and Izzy slouched in her seat, looking for something that could distract her from the monotony of algebra. She didn't even understand half the stuff the teacher was going on about anyway – she'd moved schools so many times that she always missed bits, and of course none of them ever did things in the same order. This school was no exception.
The only upside to the long maths lesson was its conclusion, when she could finally get out of the stuffy classroom into an afternoon that was beginning to resemble an oven, but was fresh at least. This time, she followed Shawn and Nuts through the maze of buildings, wondering how on earth she had managed to lose him earlier. Nuts would have been easily lost in the crowd, were it not for his hair, but Shawn was a head taller than a good percentage of the crowd and easy to spot. Once, the boys turned around and saw her following, but neither made any comment on it (she wasn't sure Nuts could talk even if he did have an objection) so she stuck with them all the way to a corner of shade, where the three slumped down with their backs to the wall, Izzy a comfortable distance from the boys who hadn't actually accepted her yet.
The others pulled out a sandwich each, but Izzy didn't even bother reaching for her bag, knowing there wasn't much but a bruised and unappetising green apple rolling around in there. She wouldn't eat that thing if it was the last piece of fruit on earth – she'd only brought it to get it out of the house and convince her parents that it was time to buy something fresher.
Instead of thinking about food that wasn't going to come, she turned her eyes out towards the courtyard before her, watching a few kids play basketball, a group of girls on the benches be silly and superficial. Others wandered here and there, indecisive about where they should settle (or maybe they just liked being baked alive by a vicious sun). It was just the same as any other school she'd been to – a bit run-down, full of kids from backgrounds ranging from average to downright rubbish. No one here had parents with a pay check large enough to pay for a fancy school with a huge success rate for its old students, and so they had to settle for this only half decent but affordable alternative.
"Hey."
The voice came from beside her, and when she turned she was faced with Shawn holding out half a sandwich. She hesitated in taking it, aware that it was all he had and it would be polite to turn it down, but then her stomach growled and made the decision for her, urging her to take it from him. "Thanks," she said quietly, biting into it. She wasn't sure what was on it – some kind of salad, she thought, but it was delicious and gone within minutes.
There was her sign, she realised suddenly. A sandwich was as good a sign as any – at least she didn't feel invisible anymore. In fact, she almost felt like smiling.
Two boys appeared from nowhere, sparing her a few curious glances and striking up a half-hearted conversation with Shawn and Nuts (who could talk just fine when he chose to, it turned out). It was her turn to pretend to be mute, becoming invisible again as she observed the conversation. Either it was too hot for the boys to be bothered with being friendly, or they weren't particularly good friends, she thought as she watched – there was a sort of nonchalance to the two newcomers, like they were only here because they had nowhere better to be or no one else to talk to. They were gone before she knew it, walking off again back the way they had come.
"They seem friendly," Izzy commented, tucking a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear and watching them leave.
Nuts grunted an unintelligible reply, which she ignored. "That's Tyler and Ollie," Shawn said, eyes also on the retreating pair. "They're junior dragsters."
"You're into drag racing?" She turned to him sharply, eyebrows raised and a grin threatening to split open her face.
"My family is. I prefer my dirt bike," Shawn replied with a shrug.
"He won the junior nationals," Nuts added, his first contribution to a conversation Izzy was involved in. She got the feeling that it was supposed to be a momentous occasion, getting the quiet boy to speak, but she ignored it, focusing on the things he was saying instead.
"Junior nats, huh? Sounds like you're pretty into drag racing."
"I was helping my pop prove a point."
"Sure, sure." A wicked grin cracked open across her face, letting him know she was joking. He didn't have any reply for her, and then a loud bell rang out across the courtyard, telling them it was time to get back to class. "What do you guys have next?" Izzy asked, standing up and dusting herself off.
"Free lesson. What about you?"
She wrinkled her nose. "English or something like that."
Shawn laughed at her, and even Nuts cracked a smile. "Yeah, you have fun with that," the taller one taunted her, shouldering his bag and heading for the school gates.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Anywhere but here," Shawn answered, waving goodbye without a hint of pity or remorse on his face. Defeated, she turned away towards what would doubtless be the most torturous class of the day, trapped inside listening to a teacher talk about something she could guarantee she wouldn't understand while Shawn and Nuts were out wandering the streets and enjoying themselves.
The lesson turned out worse than that. Her teacher, some old guy with a bald patch and a tie covered in Christmas trees despite the time of year, subscribed to the 'set seating' religion of the classroom, and found her possibly the worst spot in the entire room, between a gossipy girl who didn't stop whispering to the friend she had somehow managed to have seated beside her and a total nerd, who alternated between answering every question the teacher had and sending scything looks across Izzy to the talking girls, who didn't even seem to notice. Suddenly, staring at the back of Shawn's head through an hour and a half of maths didn't seem quite so torturous…or sitting next to him all morning without speaking.
On her way out the school gates, and all the way home, she was on the lookout for the boys she had spent lunch with but to no avail – they had disappeared from the neighbourhood (or just gone home, as kids were wont to do once school was finished). She took a long, circuitous route that stretched the walk out to three times its normal length despite the heat, hoping to come across them, but eventually she could avoid home no longer and trudged into the ramshackle street that was her new home address.
