Chapter One

Peridot grumbled as she stuffed her green-cased laptop into her backpack. She could already tell that the first day at her new school was going to suck majorly. No friends, no old acquaintances from middle school... heck, the only person she would know was her older cousin Jasper. And she definitely did not want anyone knowing she was related to Jasper. Jasper was the kind of person that would bully you into giving her your lunch money just for the fun of it, then steal your homework for good measure. She adjusted the neon green alien decoration hanging from one of the zippers on her similarly colored backpack, then heaved the massive thing into her shoulders with a groan. Even for the first day of school, the backpack was full to bursting with binders, pencils, and notebooks galore. Why teachers would even ask pupils to bring anything on the first day was beyond Peridot.

Ever since she had left her old home and family (they had sent her to get a better education, as her hometown's schools were notorious for being low on teaching standards), she had been living as a temporary foster child of the Frymans, who graciously agreed to let her stay with them until she graduated high school. She had come to accept them as her 'family', at least until she could return to her old hometown. For the time being, she needed to go to school at Crystal High, the closest high school to Beach City. Her cousin Jasper, who had joined her in her move to Beach City, was staying with the Pizza family next door, upon Peridot's parents, aunt, and uncle's request to have them 'close but not too close' (Jasper had a tendency to beat Peridot up behind their parent's backs).

Peridot waved to Ronaldo as she walked out the door. He was occupied by typing furiously on his tablet, probably editing his latest conspiracy theory video. He waved halfheartedly, his eyes still glued to the screen. Peridot sighed as he continued to type, ignoring her completely.

Outside, Peedee was waiting for her, backpack on.

"What took you so long?" he asked, irritated. "Now we'll be late for school!"

"Hair," Peridot quickly lied, gesturing to the odd triangular spike of blond hair on her head. She really didn't want the Frymans to know that she spent all her spare time writing fan fictions. Even though the whole family was weird themselves, she was somehow afraid that they would think she was weird for dedicating much time and effort into her Camp Pining Hearts stories. There was a recent increase in the amount of of Percy X Paulette shippers, and she needed to keep writing to preserve the obviously superior, yet dwindling Percy X Pierre ship.

"Girls and their hair." grumbled Peedee. "Well, we'd better go now, or we'll be even later." He readjusted the backpack straps on his shoulders and began walking. Peridot followed and grinned, marveling at her ability to keep her fan fictions a secret once again.

She walked behind her foster 'brother', trying to keep up with his quick pace. She was quite fond of Peedee, as he understood her liking for Camp Pining Hearts, but he could be annoying at times. Like when he tried to get her to help him cook a batch of fries? Totally aggravating! Or when he made her throw away the burnt fry remnants she had worked so hard to make, because they were 'not fit for human consumption'? So bothersome! She supposed it was just a thing that Mr. Fryman called sibling rivalry. She wouldn't know. She didn't have any real siblings.

As she followed Peedee to the high school, her foot caught on an uneven sidewalk crack. Too late, she tried to step backwards to avoid tripping. Yet, in a confusing blur, she was on the ground with a throbbing pain in her side and her backpack on top of her. Peedee turned around in surprise as he heard her yelp of astonishment.

"Peridot, what happened?" he asked, picking up some of the papers that had flown out of her stuffed backpack. Peridot struggled on the ground, the weight of the backpack on top of her too much for her to stand up. No one except Peedee and herself seemed to notice she had fallen over, and Peedee was too busy collecting her fallen papers to help her up.

"Oh, I just... tripped." she explained, embarrassed. She tried to push herself off the ground, but the crushing weight of the backpack forced her back down.

"Hey, do you need help?" called an unfamiliar voice to Peridot's right. Peridot glanced over to see a tall girl with short blue hair jogging towards her. She blushed, embarrassed that someone had seen her fall over. The blue-haired girl stopped in front of Peridot, kneeling down to her level.

"Would you like help off the ground?" the blue-haired girl asked her, holding out a hand. Peridot blushed a darker shade of red and took the girl's outstretched hand. She stepped up off the ground and brushed off her shirt. Realizing she was still holding the girl's hand away, she quickly broke the contact and used both hands to pick the dirt and pebbles from the sidewalk off the jacket. She winced as she brushed over the part of her side that had hurt before.

"Yeah, you might have a bruise there. You fell pretty hard." the blue-haired girl said, bending over to pick up the alien charm that had fallen off Peridot's backpack. She handed the alien back to its owner with a smile.

"Thanks so much for helping me! I'm Peridot, by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm Lapis Lazuli. My friends call me Lapis." the blue-haired girl replied, smoothing her skirt.

"Can we be... friends?" asked Peridot, fiddling with the alien charm while still looking at Lapis.

"Of course! You're now the only person I know here, besides my sister, Malachite. And she's..." Lapis trailed off, her voice falling to a whisper. "Not the nicest."

"Oh, me too! The only people I know are my foster brother Peedee and my older cousin Jasper. Jasper and Malachite sound pretty similar, actually."

"Lapis! You'd better get over here before I make you!" growled a gruff voice.

"That'll be Malachite." Lapis sighed. "Well, I have to go, but I'll see you at school. Hopefully we have some classes together!" With that, she walked off, leaving Peridot smiling after her.

"Here, you dropped these." said Peedee, handing her the papers he had picked up.

A/N: Yay! First chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll try to update soon. I'm really excited to be writing this, even though I know there's already tons of Steven Universe High School AU stories out there. I've had this idea for a while and I decided to finally write it! Please leave a review to let me know what you thought. Bye for now!