BOND

2.

Her voice might not have been as excited as she had hoped it would be because Taylor punched her shoulder too hard for that early in the morning. "Way to be enthused for your first day of school."

Elena yawned, pumping up her hand towards the car roof in an attempt to be thrilled. "You're happy enough for the both of us."

"I am actually and you are not going to dampen my mood," Taylor said, still smiling too hard.

Elena was more than glad to be going to school with Taylor, but her overwhelmingly cheery mood was too much for her caffeine parched current self. Mainly to shift the focus away from her, she said, "Tell me about the school."

Taylor started into her characteristic monologue, "Pretty okay. There are jocks, theater kids, cheerleaders, normal people, and a billion others. Most of them are quite nice which is great. Some of the teachers could be better but they're tolerable. "

By that time they were pulling into the school parking lot, right on time because everybody was heading inside. Taylor quickly led Elena to the principal's office and went off to her own class.

Elena steeled herself for the unfamiliar setting and knocked just below the nameplate, Argus Flitwick, before she could psyche herself out.

"Elena!" the man almost shouted in her face and she stumbled back a couple of steps.

"Um, hi," she gave him her best over practiced polite smile. "Sir."

He closed his office door behind him and walked her down the corridor, "We are absolutely thrilled to have you here at Croswell."

Elena tugged the straps of her backpack across her shoulders, already done with the whole over the top welcome. "I'm excited to..." she stopped, not sure what exactly she was excited about. "Finally go to school."

She paid as much attention as she could while taking in the building itself. Along the way to homeroom the principal handed her the class schedule and a hundred different papers that she carefully shoved into her bag.

Finally they reached a door to which he pointed at and said, "This is your homeroom. If you need anything don't hesitate to approach any of the faculty or the students who would be more than happy to help you out."

Elena smiled, somewhat forced, "Thank you, sir." Also thanks for implying that people will be helping me because I'm me, much appreciated.

He offered to walk her in but she declined. She could hear faint noises from inside the classroom, the teacher was obviously not in there, and getting the principal to introduce her was probably not the best way to start school.

Joey handed over his class schedule to Ben who had his desk already full with everybody else's, without any complaints whatsoever because they would be useless anyway.

He was half listening as Ben ranted off which classes who had in common with whom, when the door opened and everybody quietened down expecting the teacher.

However what they got was a dark haired girl, in a red hoodie and white skirt, most definitely not their teacher, and yet nobody started talking. Through the longest minute of awkward silence Joey had ever been in the middle of, he sent a silent thank you to Ben who got up and walked to the new girl who he, from his vantage point, could only see the top of her head.

Elena quickly glanced over the whole room, debating between saying something and taking the seat closest to her. She wasn't very uncomfortable in front of crowds, having played in the midst of a lot more number of people on an almost daily basis for the major part of her life, but this was out of her element.