The day after Asami's abrupt removal from the school and many days after that, the two remaining girls struggled to comprehend the situation. Opal, being the sort to wear her emotions on her sleeve, had spent the rest of the first day trying to stop herself from crying at the drop of a hat… but she soon found it impossible. When their classmates also learned what had happened many of them (specifically the girls) were quick to offer their support. Although they were young they all knew the importance of friendship, and to lose one out of the blue like that would, of course, have been a shock. Opal was thankful to them, eventually finding the attention of her classmates a perfect distraction.
Korra however… well, her reaction was on the borderline of being polar opposite. She completely withdrew herself from any and all social interaction; even when Opal made an effort to start up conversation to distract her she just blanked her, only responding in one word answers or with just a nod or shake of the head. She knew in her heart of hearts that keeping to herself was a bad idea, but she had opened herself up to Asami; she'd trusted her and considered her one of, if not the closest thing she ever had to a sibling… and now she was gone.
Yes, she was a social person, but she found it hard to make the leap from acquaintance to friend and, as a result, treasured anyone who she felt able to trust enough to make that leap. In the beginning she was just worried for Asami; what had happened?; was she okay?; and most importantly, what was the 'family emergency' that had caused her to leave? She'd tried getting back into contact with her, but when she rang her number she was just met with a dial tone. When she decided to make the journey down to her house she had found the gates closed and locked, the house looking practically abandoned.
Eventually, however… she turned to blaming herself.
It wasn't her fault, she was told time and time again by fellow students, teachers, and family alike… but she couldn't help but take Asami's disappearance personally. She began to convince herself that she'd done something wrong, that Asami must now hate her. Maybe that her card had proven too much for her and she'd just run away. Anyone she spoke to about this would constantly assure her that her thoughts were ridiculous, but that did little to stop the spiral Korra's mind was now on.
For the first few weeks Opal had did whatever she could to try and keep Korra talking. They had both lost the third member if their little group and to her the most important thing was to keep the remaining bonds as strong as possible. They needed to lean on each other for support… or at least that's what she thought was best. Korra just kept withdrawing and withdrawing despite her friend's insistence. She refused to go out at weekends, ignoring her parents' advice that socialization would be beneficial; she'd stay in her room instead, drawing and focusing on playing her drums.
Opal came to visit many a time to try and pull Korra out of her depressed shell to no avail.
Eventually both of the girls' patience wore thinner and thinner until they got into an argument, the only serious one they'd ever gotten into in the history of their friendship. This resulted in Korra stating aggressively she didn't need anyone any more, and Opal dejectedly telling her that she was now giving up on their friendship unless she grew up. It was a tough thing to do, but the way Korra had been behaving was only making Opal's life worse. Besides, she now had a group of new friends to support her at school. It wasn't anything close to the bond that she and Korra had shared, but she'd had to surrender to the fact that it was the best she was going to get in their current situation. Korra wasn't going to be changing her frame of mind any time soon.
As the final few years of primary school slowly dragged by, any hopes Opal had about Korra coming around were steadily dashed; the girl was now a recluse who barely spoke a word to anyone, even her own parents. Even the teachers were baffled as to how a normally chatty and highly sociable girl had done a u-turn in her personality. Her parents specifically came to the conclusion that while losing Asami had been the catalyst to her change in personality, it couldn't have been the only issue. At least, that was what they presumed. Korra never opened up about the topic to them no matter how hard they tried.
Thus, on a cloudy September morning as Korra stood in front of her bedroom mirror in her secondary school uniform, she didn't feel the same excitement as her peers. Instead? Nerves, fear, and an unsettling emptiness that refused to go away no matter what she did.
She tugged hesitantly at her jet black blazer; it felt much too big for her but she was assured that she would grow into it (a classic parent saying by all accounts). Nevertheless, she was glad to have something to cover her up; the dark gray skirt she'd been made to wear made her feel uncomfortable and exposed. Why did she have to wear a skirt? From what she'd heard the school allowed female students to choose between skirts and trousers, but for some reason the only items her mum had purchased were skirts. It wasn't short by any means… but she had always preferred trousers above anything else.
"Korra, sweetie? You ready to go?" Senna called out, breaking her daughter's train of thought. Korra gulped and took a deep breath. In truth she wasn't ready to go; she wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and block out the world forever… but she couldn't tell her mum that.
Instead, she reached down and grabbed her rucksack (stuffed with enough supplies for an entire school it seemed like) and opened her bedroom door.
"Coming!" She replied in a tone she hoped was enthusiastic as she hurried down the stairs to meet her mother who was waiting expectantly in the hall. Smiling warmly Senna took her hand, giving it a squeeze as she opened the front door and led them both outside.
Instead of heading to the car, Korra was lead down the road to a layby where a handful of students were gathered. As it turned out her new school, Northern Academy, was far from local.
It was miles away in a town Korra had never been to before; there were plenty of schools nearby but her parents had done their research and decided that this school would be the best for her. It had the highest ratings from Ofsted, whatever that meant. So, as a result she wouldn't be getting a lift into school as she had before, instead she would be taking the bus there and back.
When they reached the rudimentary bus stop, Senna turned to her daughter and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Have a great first day love." She said softly, planting a kiss on the top of Korra's head. In the background Korra picked up on the sound of quiet laughter, and when her mum relinquished her hold on her she glanced over her shoulder to see some of the older students smirking at her. What was their problem? Suddenly, Korra felt the nerves in the pit of her stomach rear their heads again, and she quickly stepped away from her mother's embrace. Senna furrowed her brow in concern, but she unfortunately didn't have the time to press the matter. Glancing at her watch she sucked in a breath. "Okay, I've got to head off now, will you be alright?"
"I'll be fine mum." Korra replied flatly, looking up to meet her mother's gaze. "Really." She insisted. That was a lie, of course, she didn't want to be here at all, but she didn't want to worry her mum any more than she already had. So she simply gave her mother a wave and a smile that she hoped wouldn't be read as false, then when her mother was out of sight she turned back to the group of students. She could have headed over to them but there was something about them that threw her off; she didn't like it. Instead she just stood where she was, hands shoved in her pockets and eyes glued to the ground in front of her.
Her eyes flicked up however a few minutes later when she noticed some of the students beginning to move. A large, yellow and brown double decker bus with a significant dent on the corner of the roof came rattling around the corner before coming to a shuddering halt in front of the students. Korra stared at the bus in disbelief. This was supposed to be a school with high standards, why did they have such a rattle trap for a bus? It didn't add up, but she had no choice but to line up behind the other students and board. As she stepped on she wrinkled her nose. There was a definite smell of damp in the air, coupled with a scent she could only assume was that of discarded food; the bus driver gave her a look as she showed him her pass. He, like the bus, looked old and certainly worse for wear, with a look of distrust in his eyes. It was as if he viewed every student getting on his bus as a potential ticking time bomb. It certainly unsettled her but she tried not to think too much of it.
Glancing about, her eyes settled on a spot right at the back and she made a beeline for it, but a hand shot out and stopped her in her tracks.
"Year 7's down the front." Said a female student with bleached blonde hair. Korra glanced over at her, blinking in surprise. However, it was clear that it wasn't a joke, the girl was refusing to let her past, so she quickly retreated and found herself a seat at the front. She took off her rucksack but decided against placing it on the floor in front of her as the floor of the bus was damp and muddy. Wait, was that a hole? She shook her head and clasped her bag close to her chest instead.
The bus started with a wheeze and moved off after several slow, yet somehow also lurching movements. The vehicle took them round all the back roads, collecting up more and most of the school's students as it did so. It didn't take long for Korra to discover why the bus had the dent in its roof; a lot of the country roads weren't suited for such a tall vehicle, with many low hanging branches hitting against it with loud thuds and crunches that could be heard and felt throughout the vehicle. It was a miracle there wasn't a hole on the roof already.
Korra tried to pass the time by watching the scenery outside. She'd had to wipe the condensation off of the window and had grimaced at the thin layer of dirt now covering her hand, but it was worth it. She'd always been the sort of girl who preferred the countryside over the city; rolling hills and lush green forests trumped the grey walls and sharp lines of manmade landscapes any day. With a pang she suddenly realized that the scenery looked familiar; in the very distance she spotted the outline of a house that she hadn't visited for years. She winced, that meant that every time she headed to and from school she would be passing Asami's old home. How was that fair? She'd spent ages trying to push the negative thoughts surrounding her old friend out of her mind and now they would return to her every day for the next five or so years. She sank back in her chair and turned her gaze down to her feet, letting out a low sigh and resigning herself to her new situation. What could she do about it anyway? It was out of her control.
By the time the bus reached its destination, Korra's interest in the world around her had dropped even further. Even when she gotten off the bus and looked around she didn't stop to really take in her surroundings at all. She'd already been here once before anyway with her old school; they'd been given a brief tour of the facility in preparation for their enrollment and even then it hadn't been that impressive. Sure it was huge with long, narrow hallways and tall staircases, but it wasn't so much impressive as it was intimidating. As Korra followed the rest of the students she recalled how tall the older students had seemed on her induction day; they probably weren't all that tall in retrospect, but for an eleven year old, sixteen year old students appeared to carry the same level of confidence as adults did and, as a result, gave off the impression of being taller and prouder.
As soon as she had entered the main hallway she was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of students surrounding her. Kids and teenagers of all shapes and sizes hurried around, the individual conversations and movements blurring together into a cacophony of sounds and sights that Korra quickly became overwhelmed by. Pulling a crumpled map out of her pocket she looked it over briefly before taking the left hand side of the hallway and sticking close to the walls as she did so. Apparently there was a rule that dictated that students had to stick to the left side of the hallway to avoid collisions, but not one student seemed to be obeying that rule, so Korra kept getting bumped into and jostled about as she made her way slowly down the hallway to her form room.
She double checked that the sign on the door corresponded to the note on her map, then pushed open the door of I.T. Room 3. There were already several students present, already separating off into little groups. There weren't many primary schools that fed into this one secondary school, so it wasn't too much of a surprise to her that many of the students had come here together. She, unfortunately, didn't recognise a soul; even if she had she doubted they'd want to talk to her, anyway. She hadn't really made much of an effort to keep any friends.
Without much thought she picked a spot in the corner of the room, hefting her bag onto her new desk with a small grunt of exhaustion. Seriously, how much junk did she need in her bag? It was ridiculous.
Shortly after, the teacher entered the room. Her form's teacher was an older man, his hairline having well and truly receded. Clearing his throat he glanced about the class. When no one seemed to take notice he clapped his hands together loudly; the students responded this time, all taking a seat and watching him attentively.
"Good morning!" He announced somewhat gruffly. "My name is Mr. Nguyen, I will be your form tutor for the duration of your time here at Northern Academy. Those of you sitting in this room will be classmates for the following few years, so I believe it's best that you get to know each other a little better. After I take the register I will be pairing you off with another student you do not know and the two of you will just have a little chat. Alright? Excellent!"
Korra blinked as she watched him settle behind his desk. He was clearly trying to be friendly but there was something about him that gave her the impression that he wasn't particularly happy to be there. She could only guess that he'd been a teacher at this school for a long time, and was maybe bored? Regardless, it didn't instill her with much confidence.
Once the register had been gone through, Mr Nguyen began walking around the room and assigning the students a partner. He was clearly making sure that students that had come from the same school were divided up almost immediately, this included a large group of boys who had taken over the centre of the room. Korra soon found herself in the company of one of these boys, much to her unease.
He was tall, taller than she was, with pale skin and locks of black hair that fell across his angular face. He carried himself in a way that was so confident it was almost cocky, and it put Korra's back up almost immediately. Flipping his hair he gave her a sidelong look and a smug smile.
"Hi, the name's Tahno. You are...?" Korra licked her lips nervously. She had barely spoken to anyone for the past few months, so now talking to someone who was completely new threw her off in a way. Eventually she opened her mouth to speak, only for Tahno's hand to shoot up in the air. "Sir? Can I switch? This one's not talking!"
A wave of laughter rippled across the classroom, causing Korra to sit up straight and glare at the guy beside her.
"Hey, that's not fair!" She protested, to which Tahno just shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah sure, whatever." He replied smugly before getting up and moving to a different chair despite Mr Nguyen's protests.
Korra felt anger bubbling up under the surface, but it was quickly quenched as she felt the eyes of her fellow classmates upon her. Embarrassment replaced anger and she shrunk in her chair with her eyes glued to the desk in front of her.
That, unfortunately, seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day. During each class she deliberately sat all the way in the back and kept her head down. The embarrassment from earlier still hadn't worn off, it was as if the rug had been pulled out from underneath her; she hadn't felt very confident going into this new environment and now she felt even worse. Any remaining confidence she had left her the moment she opened her mouth.
Some of the other students made an effort to talk with her and she tried her best to maintain a conversation, but it would slowly drift into awkward silence. It wasn't like she didn't want to talk, it was just that the incident with Tahno that had really thrown her off; even she was surprised as how much of a shut in she was being at that moment.
When the bell signalling the end of the day sounded and she clambered back onto the bus, all she could think about was getting back home to her bed. Her mother was there the minute she opened the door, eagerly questioning her about her first day. She managed to smile and nod her way through question after question before finally making her way up the stairs. Closing her door she slumped onto her bed. This didn't feel fair to her at all. From what she'd heard Secondary school was a place where you could find yourself, and so far all she'd found was that it was very easy for her to feel humiliated. Any slight flicker of hope she'd had about starting over again had been dashed and she felt… well, she wasn't sure exactly how she felt. It was a mixture of nerves and anger and… emptiness?
Not even bothering to change she grabbed her duvet covers and pulled them up over her body; curling up in a ball and closing her eyes. She hoped that tomorrow would be a better day for her, but there was a part of her in the back of her mind that knew that wasn't going to be the case.