11

Memory

"Make good memories! You deserve to have at least two years of fun, honey." Jane's mother said out the open window of the car.

Jane stood up straight and did a half-hearted salute, and even if she didn't want it to, it still looked fairly formal. It wasn't helped by the olive green shirt and cargo pants, but she had one thing in her closet right now, and that were her military academy clothes.

"I'll pick you up here at three-thirty. Oh, have a good day honey!" her mother twittered as she drove the car out of the parking lot.

Jane waved from where her mother had left her in the parking lot. When her mother was out of eyesight, the hand balled into a fist as Jane tried not to get angry at her mother. Her mother had her reasons for the military school. Jane tried to rationalize it away, pushing forth the control she'd learned at the military school, Jane literally marched inside.

It was early, but a few students milled around the lobby as they talked in their small groups or went over their schedules again for the first day of classes. Jane felt the way she'd felt her first day of military school, like she was out of place and unwelcome. She took comfort in the fact that at least the teachers couldn't order students to do pushups on a whim.

"Hello, are you new as well?" A robotic voice asked from behind Jane.

Jane swiveled to see a girl with some kind of tablet in her hands standing there. Jane didn't want to answer her, but opted to out of societal expectations. "Yes. I transferred from Alliance Academy."

The girl typed on her tablet for a moment before the voice said, "that is a military school? You don't look like the type to be there. My name is Elizabeth, but people tend to call me Eddie."

'Eddie' was a fairly average sized indian girl with her hair in a bowl cut and rectangular glasses that nearly stretched beyond her face. She held the tablet in the crooked of her elbows, keeping it close enough to her chest that she could let go with one arm and it wouldn't fall forward. No hand was extended, however. Jane almost felt bad, but then again being as tall as she was she tended to tower over people, and the military attitude she had probably didn't help.

"Mother's choice, not mine. It was necessary, however. I'm Jane. Jane Shepard. I could help you find your classes since we're early, Miss Elizabeth."

"But you are new as well. We would only get more lost."

"We're more than thirty minutes early. The teachers aren't even in yet. I think we have time to find our classes."

"If you insist, Miss Shepard."

"We are lost."

"No, it should be easy to-" Shepard insisted. "Look, we've got up to one-fifty, right? So if we keep going down the hall then we'll reach 200."

"Shepard, that is not how school room numbering works." Eddie replied, looking up before typing once again into her tablet. "Typically, 200 number classes are on the second floor."

"Fine, you're probably right. But we managed to find... some of your classes?"

"One. Computer Application. We share that, and homeroom."

"Wait. Homeroom? Is that like study hall?"

"Yes, and no. It is easier to explain when you experience it."

"Oh. Also, 'Computer Application'?" Jane asked.

"An antiquated class on how to use a computer. The school has yet to decommission it from my understanding. It is a requirement."

"For juniors?"

"For people who transfer in without a credit that applies, yes."

"Hey, losers. You lost?" a new voice chimed in.

Eddie attempted to type something in, but Jane spoke before the shorter woman could. "Yes. Could you point us to-"

"Not my fucking problem, dumbass." The delinquent wore a dark t-shirt that barely obeyed the school uniform requirements. Her cargo pants also were torn off at the knee for one leg and simply frayed at the bottom for the other. A tattoo laced its way down her bare leg and a shaved head revealed a tattoo around the woman's head, like a halo made of barcodes and strange symbols. "Go somewhere else, Army Brat, before someone figures out my smoking place."

True to her word, she flicked a recently finished butt across the hallway into the trashcan.

"Look I don't-"

"And I don't care. Look, I've got to find my classes, dumbass. You done wasting my time?"

"We are. We apologize and will try to minimize contact with you in the future." It was now Eddie's turn to butt in, stopping Jane from rebutting to the insult.

"Whatever. You two know a Professor Anderson? I got transferred into his homeroom for this semester." Jack said, keeping her relaxed lean on the wall.

"It seems we all share a homeroom," Eddie said. "We found it not all that long ago. Perhaps in exchange we can get help finding-"

"Lead the way, Domo Arigato." Jack said as she pushed herself off the wall.

"That means th-" Eddie tried to correct Jack.

"I know what it means, I don't care." Jack replied offhandedly.

"She's... certainly memorable, isn't she?" Jane said as she started to walk with Eddie to Mister Anderson's class. "Also what's this professor crap?"

"She probably assumes that is the correct way to refer to a teacher," Eddie offered in response.

"She assumes that with all the teaching certificates and degrees, that he'd prefer professor, assholes." Jack said from where she was trailing behind the rest of the group.

"Well, if she would kindly give us her name, we wouldn't have to call her 'she'." Jane said, turning to look at the tattooed teen behind her.

"Jack, Jack Nought. Any more stupid questions?"

"We're here."

"Good. I hope I never see you idiots again."

Jane didn't have enough time to tell Jack that they shared a homeroom, and thus they were going to be seeing a lot of each other in the future.

A/N:

What's this? A High School AU? Yessir, we're covering a new AU or universe in general every ten chapters or so. So at chapter 21 we're moving on from this High School AU to explore another idea. I started this to give myself more room to play around with this couple and AUs, and thus keep my ideas fresh and new and basically I don't have to scrounge for ideas in the canon universe. Which leads to more Jack and Jane in the future.