Chapter 2: Welcome to Denerim High!
And there it was before her, a gigantic brick structure, three stories high, with some subtle hints of classical Calenhad-era architecture that had long since faded away. She had to admit she was disappointed, all she saw was a large, dilapidated old building, she could see that it had its glory days, but at this point it was well past its prime. But now was not the time to get caught up on appearances, she had to get to school fast, the last thing she wanted was to be late on her first day!
Talk about an awful beginning...
Much to Elissa's dismay, her worst fears had turned into reality... she WAS late. When she had finally managed to find her way to the auditorium she had opened the door only to hear someone on a microphone, the school principle no doubt, say "With that said I hope all of you have an excellent year here at Denerim High and manage to set the highest standards possible. Good day and good luck!", after which a loud siren pierced the hall and all the students stood up immediately and started rushing out of the hall as fast as they could. Elissa stood dumbfounded. How could this happen...? she thought. Her mouth was literally hanging agape but she soon picked up her pace and walked the other way. The important thing was that she wasn't late for her first actual class. "Stay calm Elissa, stay calm..." she kept saying inside her head. Now there was only one problem.. finding the actual classroom! She knew she had English as her first class and that it was on the first floor, but that was it.
"It's gotta be down the central hall somewhere... yes, I know it's there. Or – wait, was it down that hall to the left? I know I have the map somewhere... perhaps it was -" "OW!" yelled a female voice. Elissa dropped her bag in shock and all her books and belongings went tumbling out onto the ground. "Watch where you're going you little twat!" Elissa looked at the girl in shock, she was tall and had black hair which she had tied up in a ponytail, she wore a brown leather jacket with a black shirt underneath and tight jeans. "I.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump in to you, I just -", "Whatever." said the girl, before giving Elissa a venomous glance and walking off. "Oh maker..." Elissa whispered to herself. She could already tell she was going to hate it here. She got on her knees to pick up all her belongings and stuff them into her bag. Crowds of people were walking by her now, she could hear almost everyone who passed her laugh at her, her cheeks had gone a bright red. She fumbled around with her books for a bit, accidentally dropping some of them again due to her sheer embarrassment, sheets of paper flew all over the place, but she continued picking everything up at a hurried pace. "Do you need some help with that?" someone from behind her said, she turned her head around. Behind her was a young, gentle looking girl with bright red hair that went down to her chin. "Oh, no – it's just fine. I, um... I just...", "Here." said the girl, she walked over and picked up the sheets of paper scattered about the place and handed them to Elissa, who nervously stuffed them into her bag. After everything had been taken care of they both stood up. "I, uh... thank you." said Elissa, the red-haired girl gave a short giggle before saying "It was no trouble, I was glad to help out. I've often been in situations like this myself, dropping my bag all over the place, so I can relate." they both smiled. Elissa realised the girl had an Orlesian accent, she must have travelled a long way to be here. "I was hoping to ask someone..." said the Orlesian girl curiously "If they knew where the English room was? You see, it's my first day here, so I don't know my way around, all I know is that it is on the first floor, and nothing other than that. You wouldn't happen to know, would you?" Elissa suddenly lit up in excitement "Hey! It's my first day here too! I'm supposed to be going to an English class as well, but I have no idea where it's supposed to be, apart from that it's on this floor. So I guess that means we're going to the same English class then?", "It must be!" said the girl cheerily "Perhaps we should have a look around together, we can probably find someone who knows where it is located."
she slowly began to walk down the hallway "Come on. Let's have a look.", Elissa began to follow her before coming to a halt, "Hey, I didn't catch your name..?" she said, the red-haired girl turned around "Oh! My apologies. My name is Leliana, I'm from Orlais in case you couldn't already tell." Elissa gave a quick up-down nod of her head "Oh cool! My name's Elissa, Elissa Cousland.", Leliana gave a gentle smile "Nice to meet you Elissa!", and turned around once again "Now let's try and find this English room, I just hope we don't both end up being late on our first day!" she said in a semi-amused tone. They made their way up the hall.
There where almost no students left in the halls now. This indicated to Elissa that they were indeed late for their class. Oh well, at least now she wasn't going to be the only student in the school who was late on their first day, she thought to herself. They had already examined several of the classrooms but had not yet found the one, each classroom had the name of it's subject stamped onto the door, so they just had to find the one that said "English.". "Oh, Elissa, maybe we can ask that person over there." Leliana said all of a sudden, pointing towards her right, Elissa followed her finger and saw a boy with short, dirty blonde hair and a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt rummaging through his locker. "Hmm..." Elissa said, looking at him curiously. Leliana approached the man, "Excuse me.", he turned around to face Leliana, "I was wondering if you happened to know the way to the English room? You see, this is me and my friend's first day here, and we don't really know our way around the place yet.", "Oh, uh, the English room?" said the man "Mhm." said Leliana, giving a small nod of her head " Um, well... All you have to do is go right down this hallway and turn left at the first hallway you see, then the English room should be the first door to your left." said the man, all while making overly-expressive gestures with his arms. "Thanks so much!" said Leliana, smiling, the man smiled back, and then he looked over to Elissa, the two held eye contact for a brief moment, Elissa smiled, as did he, before she said "Thank you." and gave a polite nod of her head, she then followed Leliana down the hall.
They had finally found the classroom, just where the man had said it was. "English – Ms. Wynne!" Leliana said, they both gave a sigh of relief. "Come on, let's go!" Leliana said cheerfully."Here goes nothing..." Elissa whispered to herself. They both opened the door and made their way into the classroom.