Adapting, Adjusting, and Avoiding||Chapter 2- Awkward Trivia and a Mercedes


Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plot, my OCs, and bad hair


September 10th, 7:31am

The teacher walked in, a young man with brown combed hair, a hot pink tie, and a suit. It was an odd combination, to say the least, but Jack figured maybe it was normal for Burgess. He wasn't in Alaska anymore, after all.

The teacher set down his briefcase in the dear and stood in front of the class. "Hello, class."

"Hello, Professor Walters," the class said in a monotone, most clearly bored.

"Alright," the teacher said, scanning the room for familiar faces. "It appears everyone here had me last year- oh, wait! We have a new student! Come up here and introduce yourself."

Jack looked around for a moment before realizing the teacher was talking about him. "Oh. Oh, yeah." He stood, his stuff still in his backpack, not trusting the girls back there. They were like piranhas in Prada. He walked towards the front of the class and stood there, unsure of what to do. "Um, my name is Jack." He stopped.

The female population of the class, which was a good eighty percent, started whispering to each other. He couldn't hear what they said.

The teacher cleared his throat, then raised his voice above the noises. "Settle down! Some of you may find the name Jack to be hot, and others may find this particular Jack hot-" Jack's ears started heating up, and he shoved his hands in his pockets. The teacher continued, oblivious, "-but you will still show him respect. Let the man speak."

Jack again didn't realize he was talking about him. All of his teachers, friends, anyone older than him had simply referred to him as 'boy'. Occasionally 'that blasted hooligan', but that was not as common as the former. Professor Walters was treating him like an equal. "Oh, um, that's really it."

"You told us your first name," Walters drawled. "And only your first name."

Jack's eyes darted around nervously. "I'm not good at introducing myself. My name is Jack. Am I done here?" He was already anxious to be starting in a new school senior year, this was seriously not helping.

Unexpectedly, the class laughed at his response. The girls giggled in creepily high voices, but he heard some deep chuckles too, probably from some of the guys.

Jack pulled his pen from his pocket and started twirling it over his fingers as Walters spoke. "So, prompts?" Jack nodded. "What did you do this summer?"
"Um, packed, fooled around with my friends, said goodbye to everyone. I moved into my house here yesterday."

"Where did you move from?"

"Alaska." His response was short, clipped.

"Why did you move here?" a girl in the class asked. She blended in with all the others.

"Personal reasons." He gritted his teeth, thinking of his old teacher.

"Do you play any sports?" a jock in the class called out skeptically.

Jack didn't look like much; he was stick skinny with a narrow frame, but he had beefed up a little in high school, getting pretty well-defined muscles without much effort that he hid under baggy sweatshirts. He had some previous... issues that drove him to use the energy in a positive way, and he didn't like the attention. "Unless snowball fights count, then no. There aren't many contact sports played in Alaska. Plus my old school was too small to form a team and there was no other towns close enough to play against."

That shocked them into a short silence, though he didn't know why.

"Do you have any siblings?" the teacher asked to keep the ball rolling.

"Yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not particularly." Jack shrugged, getting a few small laughs.

"Please explain a little more. We're just trying to get to know you."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Fine. A little brother, an older brother."

"How old?" a girl asked, probably hoping they were an age where she could date them.

"Five and twenty four."

"Um, opinions on Burgess?" A boy in the back asked.

"It's a nice little town. It's not Alaska, but it's nice. I have no idea how I'm going to survive the summer; I feel like I'm the wicked witch of the west and someone dumped a bucket of water on me." A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he waited for someone to get the reference.

That someone was Cassie, sitting in the back, by the windows. She laughed a little, then explained to the people that turned to look at her. "He means he feels like he's melting."

There was a collective chorus of 'oh's from the class.

"Haven't you seen the Wizard of Oz?" Jack asked, now grinning at Cassie as he almost dropped his pen.

Another small round of 'oh's.

"What's your family like?"

He shrugged. He lost track of who asked what question anymore. "It's okay. My grandpa is cool. If you see a seven foot tall man with a huge white beard, you either saw him or Santa. My aunt is a dentist. She's nice. My older brother works for some big company, I don't really know what exactly. My little brother is kinda cute. He's about this tall." Jack held his hand out at about knee height, maybe a little higher, and several girls 'aww'd.

"What about your parents?" a girl asked, leaning forward on her elbows. He noticed her more than anyone else. She was wearing all black, but she didn't seem goth. Her blonde hair fell messily to her shoulders from under her black beanie, streaked with black and red, and her eyes were startlingly gray.

Jack felt like his throat was closing. "That's none of your business," he snapped, immediately feeling bad for being so harsh, but the girl seemed fine with it.

"Okay Jack, sit down," Walters instructed.

Jack made his way to a different seat, one near Cassie, and pulled out his notebook again, avoiding the first page.

"Here is the materials list for this year..." the teacher said, writing on the chalkboard, and Jack dutifully scribbled what he wrote down, then snapped his book shut with a bang when the bell rang, out of the room and heading towards room 127 before anyone even realized he was gone.


September 10th, 8:11am

"My, you're here early," a female teacher said in surprise.

Jack just nodded and took a seat in the back again, towards the windows this time.

Cassie came in the door and spotted him right away. She came over and sat in the seat next to him. She reached across the aisle and rested her hand on his forearm, but he pulled away. "Jack, you know- well, I want to be your friend. Consider it. Please?"

He managed a faint smile. "Sure. Friends." His head was throbbing, one of his killer headaches again, both from memories and holding back so many tears this early in the morning, but he was determined not to show it. "Sorry, it's just a little weird. It's my first time in a new school."

"Don't worry, I can get the same way sometimes."

He smiled a bit more, their whispered conversation nice, better than most he'd ever had in Alaska. It was the conversation of two people who had shared a similar grief. "Thanks Cassie."

Then the pack of piranha girls stampeded in.

The settled around him, in the seats radiating out from him like rays of the sun with their leader clearly intending to sit where Cassie was. Her long fingernails clacked on the desk as she tapped her fingers, an obvious signal that she was losing patience with Cassie not moving out of the way for her.


September 10th, 8:12am

Cassie purposely started up a conversation, about something they wouldn't know about. Maybe skateboarding? He could ride a board. "Hey Jack, do you skateboard?"

He shook his head, that odd white hair swinging in front of his eyes. "Not enough smooth sidewalk in Alaska. It seemed cool though. If I ever thought I was going to move away, I had wished I could learn." His skin, only a shade pinker that his hair, turned slightly darker. "Sorry, that sounded nerdy, or bumpkin-y."

"Not at all. Do you play any sports? I know they asked in the other class-"

"I play hockey." A hint of his teeth showed in his mouth, and thinking back, she couldn't remember that he had any missing teeth or even gaps. "My aunt doesn't like it, but I played anyway. She actually went to games and cheered me on a lot, as long as I promised I would never get a tooth knocked out. She's a dentist," he explained. "And also sort of like a mom."

Cassie hesitated, knowing how prying and rude her next question would be; she recalled how it felt like someone punched you in the solar plexus and knocked the wind out of you, and closed her mouth before she could ask, even though she was burning with curiosity.

"Move." The head popular girl, Mercedes, had apparently run out of patience and was opting for the direct route.

"No thanks, I'm good here. Go sit with your posse over there, I think I'm about to choke from the perfume." She clutched at her throat and made gagging sounds.

Jack covered his mouth, hiding a smile and a laugh.

Mercedes pouted. "That wasn't very nice."

"Uh, yeah, that was the kind of the point."

Mercedes looked over at Jack and fluttered her false eyelashes. "Jackie, sweetie, Cassie was being mean to me. You don't want to sit near her, do you?" she muttered under her breath, "Gutter rat."

Jack didn't look at her for a moment, then looked around. "Oh, me? My name is Jack. No 'ee' sound at the end."

Mercedes looked a little flustered. "Oh, well, I figured I'd give you a nickname. Do you like it?" She leaned almost on Cassie's desk, showing off her chest.

Cassie wrinkled her nose. "Subtle, much?" she said under her breath.

"It sounds like a girl's name. Are you sure you weren't talking to one of them?" He gestured to the sea of pink surrounding him.

Cassie snorted, then covered her mouth with her hand as Mercedes shot her one of her killer glares. "Get out of here," she hissed.


September 10th, 8:13am

Jack tugged on Cassie's sleeve and stood, moving away to the opposite side of the room and swinging his bag down on the desk next to him, smiling at Cassie and patting the seat. Mercedes took that as an invitation and sat next to him, pushing his books to the point of falling off the table before he snatched them away and held them to his chest. "I was saving that seat for Cassie," he grumbled, disliking the attention of the popular girl.

She rolled her eyes. "Puh-leeze, I'm much better company than her. Did you know that her dad is an alcoholic?" She said it as if it was some huge terrible secret, like it would change his opinion of the first nice person he had encountered in Burgess.

He put his hand up to his mouth and mimicked shock, opening his eyes wide. "OH EM GEE!" He said in a cracking falsetto, imitating her. Then he dropped his voice back to its usual pitch, lower than a baritone but slightly higher than a bass. "As if that would change my opinion of her." He leaned back in his chair, smirking at the look of complete and utter shock on her plastic face.

"Bu- wha-" she spluttered, her face slowly turning purple with rage.

Cassie grinned, and as if reading each other's minds, they both moved to the middle-back of the room, sitting right next to each other.


September 10th, 8:14am

Cassie played with her fingers, her smile wavering. "So what did she say about me?"

"Nothing." But he didn't seem sure.

"Please? If she's spreading rumors about me, I want to know them," she pressed.

Jack shrugged as if it was no big deal. "She said your dad was an alcoholic. I don't really care. It's no one else's business, and it's not like it would change my opinion of you if it was true. And with as fake a face as she has, I bet her words are the same." Cassie was grateful for his respect. He probably would look at her differently if he knew it was partially true. Her mom was the alcoholic, not her dad. Her dad was really nice, just meek, and he wouldn't stand up to his strong-willed wife, even for Cassie.

"Yeah. My dad is not an alcoholic." A flash of white-hot anger shot through her, but she pushed it down before it got the best of her. She didn't want to scare off another new friend.


September 10th, 8:14am

"And I wouldn't judge you if he was." Jack shrugged. "Let's forget her." The topic of parents could lead to the topic of his parents, somewhere he did not want to go.

"Yeah. Do you like to read?"

Jack thought. He never really sat down and read, he was always hanging out with his friends, but he did like reading privately. "Yeah, I guess so. I haven't read a lot though."

Cassie leaned forwards a bit eagerly. "Have you read The Fault in Our Stars? It broke my heart."

He thought. "Maybe. Um, with Hazel Waters and Augustus Grace?"

Cassie laughed. She had a cute laugh, complete with a tiny snort at the end. "I think you mean Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters. I literally cried. There are tear stains in my book, no joke."

"Oh. I think I read," he recalled a bit more and almost grimaced. "My ex-girlfriend's copy? The pages had teardrops on them."

"You didn't cry?"

Jack crossed his arms and sat up straighter. "Men don't cry over books." He looked around a bit. "But the preexisting marks helped," he added in a low voice.


September 10th, 8:15am

Cassie laughed again. Maybe Jack would be a good friend. They would have continued talking, but the teacher started writing on the chalkboard, making everyone wince internally.

Second period Spanish had officially begin. Joy.


A/N:
This chapter is the second longest in the story so far. I think 1,500 words will be the average, with only a few that are a lot longer or shorter.
A round of applause for LionsandTrolls, people! She's my totally awesome and my first reviewer! *hugs*
I might write another High school AU (or at least teenage/young adult!Guardians) with Rainbow Snowcone and Jack's little sister. I go with the headcanon that her name is Emma, it just seems to suit her; also, Jamie has a friend named Pippa and I wouldn't want the two names to be the same.
Cat Lunanoff, signing off! *mock salute*