Author's Note: Jumping right into it.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mentalist and would not be foolish enough to claim to.
"107, 107..." Jane murmured, staring down at the piece of paper in his hand and then squinting around at the nearby classroom doors. 104, 106- He turned about. All evens. Where the heck were the odds? "'xcuse me?" He stopped a passing grown-up in the otherwise empty hallway with a hand on his arm.
The teacher was slightly balding, with a bit of a paunch but an air of authority and humor about him.
"107?" Jane questioned, gesturing around them.
"Wrong hall, kid. Go back to the intersection and take a right." The teacher pointed a thumb back the way that he had come from.
"Thanks...uh-"
"Minnelli." The man said succinctly, nodding at Jane to get along.
"Thank you, Mr. Minnelli." Jane said effusively, earning himself a rather gruff half-smile before the principal turned away. He grinned and started hurrying the other way. The man didn't fool him for a second. Giant teddy-bear, for sure.
His sneakers squeaked against the tile as he hurried down the hall, took the needed right hand turn and sped to the door clearly marked with the numbers one, zero, and seven. He pulled the door open and stepped inside.
The first class on his schedule was Geometry, but for all the noise that seemed to come out of nowhere and hit him like a bus, it might as well have been a zoo. Kids were throwing stuff at each other and talking loudly. A few near the back were just laid back, as though they didn't care one way or another if people were loud or not, they would still be doing the exact same thing. There were two that were reading and one that looked like he was trying to do last nights homework in the time it would take for the teacher to start teaching. Class hadn't quite begun, though Jane knew he had missed the beginning bell.
Apparently the teacher was having trouble getting the class to come to order.
No wonder though. The teacher, Mr. Wainwright, looked like he wasn't any older than they were and it was obviously his first year teaching based on his ignored attempts to get the students attention. Jane apparently served well as the needed distraction. The loudest of the kids were just starting to notice him. In the lull that his appearance created, the teacher took control. "Quiet down now, kids, we have a new student starting with us today." The man smiled tightly. "Mr. Patrick Jane, your assigned seat will be right here." Wainwright gestured at an empty seat near the middle.
Without question, Jane took it. He knew he needed to stay slumped, to blend in. No need to draw attention to himself on the first day. He needed to suss out the general population first. While the teacher continued to talk, calling for the previous night's homework, he took the time to covertly study his new classmates. After all, these were most of the kids in his year- the ones he would be seeing the most of for the next six months or so.
The boy sitting to his right was obviously a jock. Football and wrestling based on his physique. His brown hair was cropped very short, but still managed to spike straight up at the top. His jersey said RIGSBY in bold letters. He was the one frantically trying to finish his homework before it was pried from his hand.
The girl in front of him was a curly dark-blonde who continually kept trying to get a good look at him, no doubt attempting to assess his future status in the high school pecking order.
The girl to his left had bright red hair that was carefully pinned back from her face with bright butterfly clips. When he had passed her, she had smiled sweetly at him, so he guessed she was the 'nice girl' sort. She was paying close attention to the teacher too, so he also guessed she was a bit of a goody two-shoes. Almost everything about her screamed 'easy mark'.
He tried to peak over his shoulder behind him, but suddenly, he had to sit up a little straighter. Not because he was paying attention to Wainwright, but because a foot had shifted at the back of his seat, leaning through the square hole there into his spine. He leaned forward onto one arm on his desk to get away from the protrusion, pretending to be studying the things carved into his desk. Then, carefully, he glanced back.
All he could see was wavy, dark black hair. A girl, but she was leaning over for something in her bag so he couldn't quite garner anything else. When she sat back up, he looked forward again so that she wouldn't know he had been looking at her. The change in her position eased the pressure off his back. Though he could still feel the presence of her foot, like an added weight, it wasn't doing any harm. It was a little annoying when she moved, but otherwise, it was kind of- nice.
The girl in front turned to hand a stack of papers back to him, flashing a smile obviously meant to put him at ease, but all it did was make him wary. It was a false smile. He knew, because he wore it often enough himself now to be able to tell.
However, he felt a little better when he took the worksheet off the top of the pile and was able to turn, hoping to use the opportunity to get a better look at the girl behind him. He liked to actually see the people he was going to be interacting with.
She was leaning back as far as she could in her chair though, with her dark hair covering most of her face, and didn't even look up his way. All he was able to see was a smattering of freckles across pale skin in the gap between her hair, dark fingernails and an old jean jacket with holes before she took the papers and he had to turn around again or risk openly staring at her. Her lack of eye-contact intrigued him, but there was in no rush to this.
It was hard to get a good look behind him, but Jane could see to his right, behind the jock- a girl with pink crimped hair and a sucker in her mouth. She was speaking quietly with a stony faced Asian kid- Korean origins by the look of him- behind her, completely ignoring the teacher.
Jane looked to his back left.
The boy sitting there had dark brown skin and a lazy smile as he tried to talk to the other boy behind him, who had light brown hair and was wearing some kind of twisted smirk.
Jane turned back to face the front. Forward right was another jock, this one with even shorter and darker brown hair than the first.
Forward left was a girl with straight, light blonde hair streaked with blue.
The red-head's hand shot straight up in the air.
Wainwright called her "Miss Van Pelt" and when she answered his question right, he gave her an encouraging smile.
"Kiss-ass." Someone in front coughed.
Instantly, the foot left the back of his seat and Jane shifted uncomfortably at its absence. "Shut it, Rebecca." Was snarled into the air. She sounded serious and dangerous.
The girl up front, with a bob of black hair framing a square face, sneered but turned around quietly none-the-less.
"Now, none of that." Wainwright sounded sharply, but once again, Jane had stopped listening to him.
Beside him, Van Pelt ducked her head to look back and gave a hesitant, grateful smile to the girl seated behind him.
The foot returned to his back.
He couldn't help but wonder if the girl behind him was wearing a smug expression or not. In fact, he couldn't help but wonder about her in general. He liked secrets- mainly because he liked being the one to bring them to light. Was she the protective type? Was there a connection between the two girls, or was she protective of everyone? Was it because she particularly disliked this 'Rebecca' character? Either way, it bared further examination.
Jane grinned.
He couldn't wait to get started.