Before School

On the way to school, Cinder stayed quiet, navigating early morning rush hour traffic. Iko and Peony were bubbling, excited to see all their friends and find out who were in their classes. Cinder's car was a small '92 Subaru she had spent all her money on sophomore year. When she had gotten the car, it had been an unsightly pale orange, and had run only when it felt like it, moaning obnoxiously the whole way. However, since then, Cinder had done some work on the car, and Iko and Peony had picked out a baby blue to spray-paint it.

When they got to school, Peony and Iko went with Cinder to find her new locker. They trudged up the stairs while Peony compared her schedule with Iko's. At Cinder's locker, they stopped so she could put her books in.

"There he is, Peony," Iko whispered.

"Who?" Peony glanced around.

Cinder followed Iko's gaze to Kai, who Peony had been crushing on since a year ago when she had first come to East High School. Kai was comparing schedules with his friends.

Peony giggled, her gaze lingering on the handsome senior. Cinder rolled her eyes, checking her schedule to see which books she needed.

Kai came over and started turning the combination on the locker next to Cinder's.

He glanced at her. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she responded, unsure why he was talking to her but not wanting to be unfriendly. Behind her, Peony seemed to have lost all ability to move or speak.

"Are you a freshman?" Kai opened his locker and started putting his books in.

"No, I'm a junior."

"I've never seen you before."

Cinder shrugged. "I stay under the radar."

He smiled. "What's your name?"

Cinder shut her locker. "Cinder."

"I'm Kai."

She nodded. "See you around, Kai." Cinder turned and headed towards her first period, English. Peony and Iko followed close behind her.

"His locker is right next to yours!" Peony whispered urgently, bouncing up and down with excitement. "Did you see that? He talked to you!" She skipped a little and nearly tripped on the stairs. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah, I saw that. What's your first period?"

"Peony and I have biology together!" Iko provided.

"I'll see you guys at lunch, then?"

"Under the staircase," Peony confirmed with a beaming smile, and they went their separate ways.

Lunch

The hours dragged on through English, AP US History and Pre Calc, until, finally, lunch hour arrived. Cinder was the first one to get to their lunch spot under the stairs. She dumped her backpack on the floor and went to buy her school lunch. When she came back with a greasy pizza and a chocolate milk, her cousin Winter was unwrapping a cold cut sandwich.

"Hey, Winter." Cinder sat down in her spot and turned her pizza upside down to drain the grease onto the cardboard tray.

"Hello, Cinder. How has your first day been?"

"Okay. Already have several pages of Pre-Calc homework."

"Typical," Winter empathized. Peony and Iko came back from the lunch line. They sat down and turned over their pizzas, Peony announcing that they already hated Chemistry.

6th Period

Scarlet took a deep breath as she walked through the band hall, soaking in the familiarity. The band director, Mr. Erland, greeted her at the door with a high five and a "welcome back!" way too enthusiastic for a Monday.

Scarlet grabbed her trumpet from her locker and took her next to a kid named Carswell, also a senior, who had been annoying the heck out of her every band period for the last three years. Carswell, who was shining his fancy trumpet, looked up when she sat down.

"Hey, Scarlet, how was your summer?"

"Good, how was yours?" Scarlet asked without thinking, but she sighed inwardly when Carswell began telling her about all the places he travelled and mountains he climbed. Half-listening, Scarlet took out her trumpet and started oiling the valves. Looking around, she saw many familiar faces, and also a few new ones. In the second row, Scarlet's best friend Emilie was putting her flute together, chatting with the girls next to her. Behind Emilie, Kai was cleaning his saxophone. Soon enough, the bell rang, finally shutting Carswell up.

7th Period

Kai breathed a sigh of relief as he finally came to his last class of the day, French. He walked slowly to give himself time to decide where to sit. Since he was there early, there were only a few people there. In the middle of the classroom, Kai was surprised, and a little pleased, to see the girl whose locker was next to his this year. She had already gotten a textbook and was writing her name in the front cover. As he walked over, he racked his brain for her name. It was something to do with fire... Cinder!

"Hey Cinder."

She looked up, closing her book. "Kai!"

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Sure."

He put his bag down and grabbed a French textbook. Scarlet and Emilie took seats behind him and busied themselves conversing. Cinder wasn't much of a talker, but as the classroom filled up, Kai learned that she hated French, had three sisters and a cousin at the school, and that she was also in his engineering class (this, Kai noted, might be useful because he struggled with the class frequently). Kai found himself warming to Cinder, trying to get her to smile. At the end of class, they walked together to their lockers, and Cinder told him about her sisters.

"Iko and Peony do Theatre, and I do Theatre Tech, sound and stuff. Iko and Peony are sophomores."

"I wish I had siblings," Kai mused.

"No, you don't," Cinder laughed, and his heart jumped, unreasonably.

Kai drove home with his heart in his head and a good feeling about senior year.

After School

Cinder said goodbye to Kai and headed towards the auditorium. Mondays were the day the drama department's Theatre Tech Club met. When she got there, she sat down at the sound board at the back of the auditorium and made sure all the knobs were in place, before going in to the booth. Jacin and Aimery were already there, turning on the lights equipment. Jacin and Aimery were both seniors, and it was really just the three of them in Theatre Tech Club. Jacin and Aimery did lights, and Cinder did sound. Cinder also acted as something of a peacekeeper between Jacin and Aimery, who hated each other with a passion. Aimery was on-again, off-again dating Levana, self-proclaimed queen bee of the theatre department. Levana frequently terrorized Winter, who was good friends with Jacin, which led to a riff between the two boys.

Cinder dumped her backpack on the table in a corner of the booth and sat down. On stage, the theatre kids were arriving to talk about their fall play. Cinder's cousin Winter was talking enthusiastically to Cress, a talented sophomore dedicated to the theatre program. In one corner, Levana and her best friend Sybil were huddled, whispering, throwing furtive glances towards Winter and Cress.

A tentative knock on the door drew the Tech Theatre Club's attention. The door slowly opened and a boy stepped in.

"Liam!" Jacin greeted him with surprise. "Guys, this is Liam Kinney, I invited him because we're always saying we need more people in Theatre Tech Club, right?"

"Yeah!" Cinder introduced herself with all the friendliness she could muster, but she hoped he wouldn't be doing sound with her, because she could handle it on her own and didn't want anyone interfering. She was glad when Jacin started to introduce him to the lights equipment, but noticed Aimery stayed in the corner, hostile and resentful.

Author's note: Thank you guys for reading! Please tell me what you think - too much detail? Not enough detail?

First posted: August 2017

Updated: June 17, 2020