Avery woke up early just as promised. She went about her routine of eating breakfast, showering, and then getting changed into day clothes. In the blur of sleep, she didn't see the backpack resting on her desk until after she got dressed. It was a plain black backpack, nothing special. Attached to the front was a note that said "Remember" and had a stamp of the Bat symbol at the bottom. Hidden behind the note was a keychain hanging off the main zipper of the pack, it too had the Bat symbol.
"Maybe I should replace it with a Superman shield to mess with him," Avery joked aloud.
On closer inspection of the pack there was a main zipper leading to the roomy part of the bag. Inside it was filled with basic school supplies. There was a small pocket on the front, opened by a zipper. Inside that pocket was a plain black leather wallet with twenty dollars in the main fold. On a sticky note attached to the wallet it said "For lunch and emergencies only".
"Well thank you, Batman." Avery waved the wallet generously.
Avery looked inside the other folds in the wallet and found another note. It read, "Don't do anything stupid."
"So much faith in me," Avery huffed and put the wallet back in its original pocket.
She quickly put an extra sketchpad and colored pencils in the bag and lugged it on her shoulder. A knock resounded off her metal door.
M'gann called from outside the door, "Time to leave."
"Coming!" Avery called and grabbed the boots she wanted to wear today. She decided she would put them on during the ride to school.
The door slid open as Avery exited her room. M'gann was leaning against the opposite wall at the ready to go. If anything, the Martian seemed a little uneasy. The two hadn't talked since movie night, and it was just meaningless chatter at that.
"You look nice today," M'gann broke the silence.
"Thank you, I want to make the right first impression after all," Avery smiled hesitantly. She was wearing a loose black and white sweater with large, horizontal stripes about an inch in width. Paired with that were dark blue jeans bought with holes in the knees. On her feet were mismatched socks, one plain green and the other black with a pink toe and heel. In her hands were black lace-up boots that went half-way up her calf. Her black hair was sitting straight in its regular choppy style. The thick glasses Avery seemed to prefer above all else were perched on the bridge of her nose.
"Shame you didn't put on any of the makeup we bought."
"I do not know how to apply makeup," Avery admitted.
"Maybe I can teach you when you get back from school," M'gann offered.
"Okay," Avery accepted. "That should be fun."
"Yeah," M'gann quickly agreed.
They walked in silence to the bio-ship. They rode in silence until M'gann parked the camouflaged ship.
Avery finally gave up with the awkward silence. "Well, this conversation has been oodles of fun. Maybe next time we will not have to tip-toe around available conversational topics, hmm?"
M'gann nodded, "I just don't really know much about you, so when you were talking about your past it felt like I knew even less, if that makes sense. Next time we can just talk."
"That seems perfect," Avery accepted the answer.
The Martian pointed out the window, "The school is a few blocks in that direction, you can't miss it. You'll have to go to the main office to get your schedule. It's to the right when you go through the main doors. You're a bit early, but that'll give you time to look around. Good luck." M'gann smiled assuredly.
"Thank you," Avery smiled back and walked down the ramp of the craft.
As she stepped off, she noticed the deserted parking lot M'gann landed the ship in. No witnesses at the least. So Avery got to walking in the direction M'gann pointed. Butterflies fluttered around in Avery's stomach in anticipation.
"Come on, you can do this. Just a normal teenager," Avery whispered to herself as a pep talk.
Soon, she reached the paved area dedicated to students with cars. The teen stayed on the sidewalk and continued walking towards the front doors. The feeling of being watched replaced her nervousness for a second. But when she turned around, there was nothing there but a few scattered cars and people, nothing out of the ordinary. Avery shrugged it off as more nervousness coupled with her being the new girl. People didn't recognize her, which was reason enough to look for an extra second or two in a town where everyone knew everyone.
Shaking off any last dredges of nervousness, she walked through the doorway and made a right, as M'gann had directed. The main office was plain in view, complete with a sign so you knew where you were. Avery promptly entered through that door also.
Inside was a large wrap-around desk, taking up most of the small room. There were little off-shooting hallways marked with various names of administrators. Behind the desk was a plump lady with short, brown hair neatly done up in curls. She was tapping away at a computer and calling out instructions to a male teen behind her, who was shuffling around various papers on a side table, seeming to be looking intently for something.
Avery stepped forward and cleared her throat, "Excuse me?"
"Yes, sweetie?" The lady said with false kindness, like she's met too many brats in her day. Her name tag indicated her name was Ms. Joyce.
"I am new here. I was told to come here for my schedule," Avery tried to phrase everything kindly. It already looked like the woman didn't want to be here, why make it worse?
"Name?" Ms. Joyce began typing away at her computer, seeming to pull up student files.
"Avery Brave."
Within a few seconds the nearby printer was running and spit out three sheets of paper. Ms. Joyce rolled over in her plush chair and picked them up. She rolled back and pulled a pen out of a nearby cup. "Sign your name here please," Ms. Joyce tapped a blank line at the bottom of one of the papers.
Avery complied, signing in neat cursive.
"Alright, you have to get each of your teachers to sign this. Bring it back here at the end of the day and give it to me." Ms. Joyce put the two unseen pages side by side. One was a class list, the other was a map for the school campus. She began marking the classes on the map by their room number and the order. "Follow this to get around today; you can look around until first period starts."
Avery was about to say her thank you's and leave to try to find all her classes when the boy who was shuffling through the papers turned around and interrupted her.
"I can show her around Ms. J."
The boy had dark brown hair loosely covering his forehead in waves. Even from where she was standing, Avery could see he had bright green eyes. His easy going smile complete with dimples would've made a lesser female swoon. His lightly colored skin was marked with a few freckles here and there; not just on his face, but on his exposed arms too. He proudly displayed the Flash shirt he wore. His jeans were a little dirty with grass stains that looked like they would never come out on the knees. All in all, he looked like one of those pretty-boys you see on TV, and on occasion, in real life.
"Did you finish your work over there, David?" Ms. Joyce turned around in her chair to look at the boy.
"Sure did, even sorted through the club flyers." He flashed another pretty-boy smile.
"Fine," Ms. Joyce didn't look like she cared if he finished his work either way anyways. She in turn went back to tapping away on her computer as David led Avery back out the office doors so they could speak freely.
Once outside, David snatched the papers out of Avery's hands and began studying them. "First period, English Honors. Second, gym. Third, Geometry Honors. First lunch. Fourth, Biology Honors. Fifth, art. Sixth, History Honors. That's a whole lot of honors classes you've got there. Kid genius or something?"
Avery chuckled. "More like high expectations."
"Either way, we've got first, fourth, and history together. Along with lunch." David scanned the schedule again, looking specifically at the room numbers. "Ready for the grand tour then?"
"As ready as I will ever be," Avery shrugged and gestured for David to lead the way.
After a few seconds of silence David broke it yet again. "New to Happy Harbor?"
"Yeah, if it was not obvious by my cluelessness," Avery joked.
"Where'd ya live before moving to this small slice of hometown heaven?" David playfully elbowed her in the arm.
"Gotham."
"Oh," David's eyes went wide. "Well, that's a big change. Why'd ya move?"
"Parents died, had to move in with my cousin." Avery clipped her words.
David blanked for a moment, "Uh, sorry. Who's your cousin?"
"Conner Kent, maybe you know him?" Avery was glad for the subject change, even if she still had to keep the lies rolling.
"My sister was in the same year as him when they went here. I never met him though." David changed the subject without warning and flicked the Bat symbol hanging off of Avery's backpack. "Superhero fan?"
"Kinda; they are cool." Avery in turn pointed to the Flash symbol on her tour guide's shirt, "Are you?"
"Not really, but I like the Flash. I heard he got a new sidekick recently too, Impulse. He seems pretty cool, I liked Kid Flash better though," David looked around at the room numbers until he pointed at one. "There's your first class."
Avery resisted the urge to snicker at his first comment. She was so telling Bart that later.
The tour continued until the bell rang. They didn't get to look at the sixth period room, but David just told Avery to wait at her fifth period and he would show her from there. There was also an invitation to sit with him and his group of friends at lunch. Avery accepted purely out of kindness; that and David just wouldn't shut up.
A/N: Just a note, but all these characters in Avery's classes and such are based on people I've met in real life. So, yes, I have a friend like David, pretty-boy and all. It's annoying actually. He's also kinda a tramp, so that will be noted by another character in later chapters. Other note, my friend doodled on my hand today and it looks like a Sharpie exploded. I fell asleep a little bit ago for a quick nap, but when I woke up, the doodle had transfered to my face. I feel like Mike Tyson, because of the positioning...and that it won't come off. Well, have a nice day everyone.
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