Disclaimer: If I owned FNL I probably wouldn't be writing this fic, now would I? If I did I'd probably be rolling around naked in money...That was even bad imagery for me, sorry. But basically it's be nice if you didn't sue me. If you sue me I will have my henchmen hunt you down and gut you. We clear? Good. And yes I have henchmen, incase you were wondering.
Author's Note: Sorry guys for my poor updating skills. Shame on me. My life has been hectic to say the least. I won't bore you with the details, let's just say there was snow involved & I'm a sucker for snow & then there was Christmas, HELLO! I LOVE Christmas, then some other boring stuff. Right, sorry. On with the story then!
Brilien slipped into her classroom with barely a minute to spare, taking a heavy sigh of relief she leaned her head against the door for a brief second and let out one last sigh, all the while attempting to ignore her burning wrist from Tim's grip, straightening out her shirt and smoothing her hair she swaggered up to the desk in the from of the class where, who she assumed, her English teacher was sitting. She cleared her throat successfully gaining the middle aged man's attention.
He looked up at her through the top of his black rimmed glasses and smiled warmly. "Brilien Murphy, I presume?"
Brilien nodded her head but once and smiled. "Yes, sir." She said just as the shrill bell rang indicating class was in session
"Alright then, I'm Mr. Anderson, by the way." he said looking at the clipboard that was lying on his desk. "Lucky for you Miss Murphy, it just so happens I made a new seating chart this morning and added you in. You are in the third row, far left by the windows." He said gesturing to the desk he had her sitting in with his index finger.
She gave him a small thankful smile. "Thank you, sir." She began walking to the desk he had instructed her to sit in.
"Oh, not yet, Miss Murphy. You haven't introduced yourself to the class yet."
"Please say you're kidding, sir."
"I most certainly am not, Miss." He replied, almost appalled by her accusation.
Damnit! Brilien silently cursed, but put on a fake smile. "Hi, I'm Brilien Murphy, but most people call me Bri, easier to remember, I guess, aaaand I just moved here. Yep, that's about it. Sitting down now." She said shuffling her way to her assigned seat with her head down focusing very hard on her feet. Some of the class laughed at her introduction whether it was at her or because they thought she was trying to be funny was a mystery to her. Great ways to make new friends, Bri. She thought to herself slumping down into her seat. She hated Mr. Anderson. She hated him with every fiber of her being.
Mr. Anderson instructed everyone to take out their reading for the semester. As they did he made his way over to Brilien, with a small stack of papers. "I'm sorry about making you introduce yourself, Bri, but I do it to everyone, honestly."
She smiled as his apology. "It's okay, Mr. Anderson." I might actually believe you if you weren't such a smug bastard.
"Alright," he started, man he said that a lot. "Here is your syllabus, why? Because syllabus' are fun, I'm going to need that back by tomorrow with you and your parents' signatures," he said putting the thick stapled packet on her desk. Okay, so he earned one brownie point in her book for the sarcasm. "also here are the class rules," he added on to the pile with another packet. "and finally, this is the book list for the year, the ones highlighted are the books we will read in class, the others are ones you may choose from to read outside of class, I require fifteen hundred pages a semester." He said placing the final packet atop of the others. "I hope this is not too overwhelming, especially for your first day."
"Oh, it's not, sir." She said with an almost smug smile. "This is easier than the stuff I'm used to." She added with a smirk, she examined the book list briefly. "Yup, no problem at all, I've read most of these books before."
"Well good then." He cleared his throat. "I must go check off the other students' reading assignments from the night before."
"Buh-bye, then." She said mockingly waving with only her fingers as he retreated.
The rest of the period went by rather quickly. Bri spent it reading through the rules and the syllabus she thought most everything in both were complete crap or completely obvious, either way it amused her for the rest of the period. When the bell rang she quickly gathered up her belongings nearly throwing them in her bag and headed for the door, this time, no one stopped her, what a relief.
She had found her way back to her locker without getting lost. That was an accomplishment in its self for her, one that she applauded herself in her head for, while her inner-self was bowing to the applause she didn't notice a certain fullback standing behind her with his arms crossed and a lopsided grin on his face. He stood there while she carefully placed the books and packets she had received in her previous classes on the top shelf.
When Bri turned around she was in mid-blink not noticing the figure standing in front of her, making it difficult not to run into said figure, also making it difficult to stop herself from falling back against the lockers hitting her head on one of the dials and falling flat on the floor flat on her behind. She cursed the need to blink, she would never blink again. Particularly when he was laughing at her as hard as he was.
"Dear lord!" She exclaimed, clearly annoyed while rubbing the back of her head, still sprawled out on the floor and he was still laughing. "What in the world are you doing?" She asked him in a much calmer voice though annoyance was still clear in it.
Tim straighten up and tried to compose himself. "Well," he started before he began laughing again seeing her still on the floor looking helpless. "I saw you leaving your class and thought I'd see what you had next and if you wanted someone to walk you there or perhaps carry you." He winked as she stood up and brushed herself off.
She glared and pointed her index finger at him. "Shut up, you caught me off guard is all, I don't need anyone to carry me, thank you very much." She spat her glare still fixed on him and her finger still pointed at his chest
"Well how about someone to walk you?" He asked determined "You didn't mention that."
"Or you could just point me the way to the gym and we'll be okay." She said lowering her finger, moving both hands to her hips and her glare transformed into a defiant look.
He smirked. Bri had come to hate that smirk, it always meant bad things for her, well in the one other time she'd seen it that's what it meant. "It just so happens I pass by the gym on my way to my next class." That is the smirk of pure evilness and perfection
She groaned and rolled her eyes. "So this way?" She asked pointing straight ahead. Might as well give up. She thought to herself. He can't be all bad, I mean look at him. He looks like a Greek god, that is never bad. She internally scolded herself for those thoughts, but maybe she should give up on that too.
"Yep, that way." He replied as the both started walking in the direction.
They walked most of the way in silence, Bri was taking all the sights in, by sights meaning lots and lots of school sprit, it kind of freaked her out, it was a bit much. All that blue and yellow became a huge blur to her during some point of their journey to the gym.
She had to ask, "You guys are a spirited bunch aren't you?"
"Well it is football season." He retorted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yeah, well, football season isn't this big of a deal where I'm from."
"California, right?" She nodded at his question. "Makes sense why it's not, then"
She gave him a confused look, not offended, just curious she asked him: "Why's that?"
He cleared his throat, "Well most Californian football teams suck. Seem that they should stick to surfing or whatever it is they do there. Football is big in Texas, real big."
"Everything's bigger in Texas." She mumbled meaning for only herself to hear it but it was said loud enough for Tim to hear it.
"Exactly!" He exclaimed. "Everything is bigger in Texas. You're catching on."
She was taken aback. "You guys seriously go by that here?" When he nodded she laughed slightly. "Wow." She covered he mouth with her hand trying to conceal her amusement.
"What?" He asked her truly oblivious to how funny it must have sounded to someone not form Texas, it only made sense to them.
She moved her hand away from her mouth. "Nothing, nothing at all." She replied biting her bottom lip to keep herself from laughing.
"Whatever." He stopped walking, she looked up at him confused. "Here are the locker rooms, see ya later." He said picking up his former walking pace but turned around to look at her, still walking. "And by the way Brilien, everything is bigger in Texas."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it is, Tim." She shot back. "And by the way, call me Bri." She added walking away from him and making her way into the girls locker room to find her teacher. Mrs. Burns. She was not looking forward to an embarrassing period of whatever sport they decided to make them play in a small Texas town gym class, it was bound to be bad.
After Bri walked into the locker room Tim started his way to his health class, which actually was just past the gym. He sauntered in and sat next to Matt Saracen, who was looking intently at a paper he was writing.
"Hey QB1. Whatcha writin'?" He asked, not really caring, just asking for the sake of conversation. He slouched in his seat, trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in, it's not like he was going to use anything he learned in health, he got it, practice safe sex.
"Hi Riggins. It's a paper for English, I forgot to finish it last night, Grandma had an episode." Matt replied with disinterest in anything else his teammate had to say.
Tim caught on to his tone and nodded, he was bored already and class hadn't even started yet. Soon as the bell rang he began dozing off. Apparently they were watching a movie today, the gods were on his side today. When the lights were turned off he heard Matt sigh in frustration. Good thing for Tim he was going to sleep the whole period so he didn't have to listen to anymore of those sighs.
Dodge ball, anything but dodge ball. Why did it have to be dodge ball? She could at least try to avoid being injured in any other sport played in gym but dodge ball. And they were making her play! It was her first day, she was wearing borrowed gym clothes, and the worst part, shoes. That made her want to hurl. The thought of contacting athletes foot made her shudder. This school be damned!
Bri could hear whispered gossip about Tim walking her to class. Only small tidbits though. Do you think she'll sleep with him on her first day? Is she Riggins' type? At least he's moved on since Lyla. There were soft giggles after that one. Did you hear them talking? It sounded more like flirting to me. She hated people talking about her. It was just him going the same direction as her.
"Ladies! Stop gossiping as get your butts into the gym! Time to break in the new girl!" Came the deafening voice of her gym teacher.
She heard a girl whisper to her friend "I think Tim will take care of that." The two erupted in a fit of giggles.
"I wouldn't mind him takin' care of me." The other girl replied.
She was feeling pretty close to enraged. Who gave these girls the right? She shook it off and took a deep breath slowly counting to ten. Okay, she counted to on hundred, it took he a while to calm down. These girls didn't know her and she wouldn't give them the chance. She just followed the class up to the gym and continued counting. One-two-three-four-fi-
Her counting was cut off by one of the nasty girls from the locker room. "Hi, you're Brilien right?"
"Yeah…" She replied through clenched teeth not bothering to tell them that she goes by Bri.
"Well do you want to be on our team?" She asked her with a sly grin.
What the- Whatever. "Sure." She said the group skipped off ahead of her leaving her to glare at the back of their heads, plotting the many ways she could kill them all.
Bri's plots of homicide were cut off by the shrill sound of their lovely, not-so-feminine gym teacher's whistle that caused her to cringe. Coach Burns as the other students called her began spouting out the rules of the game which everyone already knew. You get hit you're out. Simple enough. Bri's plan was to get out of the game as quickly as possible, as it always was. Who needs dodge ball anyways?
At the sound of the second whistle the first round started and Bri got out quickly, just like she hoped. She took a seat on the bleachers and observed the rest of the game while more and more people joined her. One petite blonde sat next to her.
"Hi! I'm Julie Taylor, I'm coach Taylor's daughter." She squeaked out in a happy voice and outstretched her hand.
Bri smiled, she seemed nice enough and didn't seem to be in the mood for trash-talking. So she shook Julie's hand taking it as a peace offering. "Hi, Julie, it's nice to meet you. I'm Brilien, but I go by Bri."
Julie nodded still smiling. "Brilien, cool name. Oh and this is Tyra." She said indicating to the tall blonde girl sitting behind her, almost scowling at Bri.
Bri smiled up at her and only received a more scathing look from the girl. Tyra. Not a big fan of peace offerings. Got it. She noted to herself but thought she'd try again. "Hi, Tyra."
"I hope you're not planning on going after Tim Riggins, he's a real piece of work." She said in her southern accent that she pulled off beautifully.
"I wasn't, I mean I'm not. Why does everyone think I am?" She asked angrily.
"Because girls tend to think of him as a god and he uses that to his advantage." Tyra said.
Brilien sighed. Oh, boy. Of course the hot bad boy just had to talk to me. "Then I guess he will be disappointed with me…Did you and Tim have a thing?" Her voice full of curiosity.
"Yeah we did, then we didn't, then we did again, so on and so forth. Well then he slept with the one girl I hate, who also was his best friend's girl. Nice guy huh?"
"Wow busy little boy isn't he?" She asked the rhetorical question and her voice dripping with sarcasm. She couldn't believe what a jerk her was. She just thought he was a playful flirt, but not someone who'd betray a friend like that. People are just chalked full of surprises these days.
The demonic whistle sounded once again, this time signifying freedom to go change. This made Bri want to do a little happy dance, she refrained and kept it on the inside. She hurried into the locker room talking animatedly with both Julie and Tyra, who warmed up to her after their "heart-to-heart" so to speak. They changed as quickly as humanly possible, Coach Burns let them out later than she was supposed to, guess she got caught up in the adrenaline of watching teens play a barbaric sport. When the bell rang the trio rushed out laughing about the other girls in the class who were talking about Bri and Tim earlier.
As they made their way down the hall to a class Tyra and Bri shared they ran in to Tim, who was a little more than shocked to see the three together. There was no way this could be good in his eyes.
He coughed and his eyes went wide. "Hey…" He trailed off.
"We'll let you guys talk. I'll see you next period, Bri." Tyra said dragging Julie down the hall, the both of them waving.
"Hi…" Bri started, she had no idea what to say so she waited for him to say something while rocking back and forth on her feet.
"So, uh, I see you met Tyra…" Tim stuttered.
She bit her bottom lip and nodded slightly. "Yep…I should go."
"I guess so. What way are you headed?" He asked.
"Same way Tyra went." She said pointing behind Tim.
He nodded. "I'm the other way." He said gesturing his head behind Bri.
"Well see you around…" She said walking away.
He took a deep breath in. "Bri, wait!" She turned around and looked at him square in the eye. He sighed. "I know what Tyra told you, about Lyla, am I right?" She nodded solemnly. "I thought so. Look I was a bad guy then, I'm not say that I'm good now but her and I were both hurting about Jason being paralyzed and all and we just let it out in the wrong way…" He trailed off again.
"Why are you telling me this?" She asked her voice softened as did her facial expression, she took a step toward him.
"I don't know, I just am." His voice sounded almost angry.
"Oookay then. Well I need to get to class. See you later." She said turning on her heel and walking away. She had a second thought and craned her head. "Hey, Tim, thank you."
"For what?" He asked.
A ghost of a smile flickered on her features. "For being honest."
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