Buelle High (multi-musical HS au)

Chapter 1- I am a song of endless wonder

Carrie White POV

With trembling hands, I opened the door to my new school. It's much bigger than Ewen, that's for sure. I walked into the commons, brushing my hair over my face. I felt someone bump into me. I fell face-first onto the floor, spilling the contents of my bag all over.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" The person said. They extended their hand to me. When I looked up, it was a boy with shaggy brown hair with gentle curls. He had a soft smile on his face.

I took his hand. He lifted me off the floor. He was just very gentle, inside and out. I looked down, embarrassed. The boy got down on his knees and scooped up my books, going behind me and putting them back in my bag.

"Thank you," I mumbled. He chuckled softly.

"No problem!" He exclaimed, "I'm Henry, by the way. Henry Jekyll."

"Carrie White," I said, warming up to him. Henry seemed very kind, which was a nice change.

A girl came up to him and kissed him on the cheek. I assumed it was his girlfriend and stepped away. Henry looked back to me, his brow furrowing. The girl standing next to him looked at him, then at me. Henry walked over to me.

"Hey! Carrie, where are you going?" Henry asked. I looked down, looking for an answer.

"Oh, I just assumed- well," I stuttered, "that maybe you'd want to be alone and-" Henry cut me off, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, I don't bite!" The girl said jokingly, "I'm Emma. Emma Carew."

Emma, Henry, and I chatted for a little bit until the bell rang. My first period was history, which they weren't in. Emma was in my second period, art. So I had that to look forward to. I clutched my schedule and walked to the history class. Room 223 with Mr. Washington.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a tall, tan, kind-faced older man. He stuck out his hand to me.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Washington. And you are?" He said.

"Carrie White," I said. He nodded and directed me to a seat near the back.

I walked over to said seat and sat down, looping my bag over the chair. I waited around for a bit until a heavy bag was thrown next to the desk to my right. It was a black bag with lots of pins on it. I recognized a few, like the BLM symbol and lesbian flag. I looked up at who was sitting next to me. It was a girl with green skin and long, black hair tied back in a loose braid. She noticed me and made eye contact.

"What do you want?" She said. I got flustered and looked down, stuttering for an answer.

"I uh, I like your pins," I said, pointing to her bag. She smiled and stuck out her hand.

"I'm Elphaba. You?" Elphaba said. I shook her hand.

"I'm Carrie," I said. Elphaba tilted her head a bit and smiled.

"I always thought the name Carrie was really pretty," Elphaba said. She let out a small laugh.

Mr. Washington stood at the front of the classroom in front of the whiteboard. He clapped his hands together and the class quieted down. He smiled at us, clearly excited.

"Alright, class, today is the first day of school. As you know, I am Mr. Washington. I will be your American history teacher," Mr. Washington said, "Today, and throughout the week, we will be doing icebreakers. We will go over classroom rules, where to find things, and what we will be covering this year. So the first thing we're going to do is go over the classroom rules and where to find everything."

He went over this fairly quickly and we moved on to icebreakers. We had to fill out this bingo sheet with the person sitting next to us. Elphaba and I were paired together.

"This is so childish, don't you think?" Elphaba said. I shrugged.

"At least it's better than writing an essay about Gettysburg, am I right?" I said. Elphaba laughed.

"Yeah, you're right. This is still just as boring, though!" Elphaba joked. We filled out the sheet and turned it in.

The bell rang shortly after and I headed to the art room. It was a little ways away, so I sped up my pace a bit. When I walked in, Emma waved me over to her table. She was sitting with two other girls and a guy. 

"Hey, Emma!"  I said, sitting at the only empty seat. I plopped my bag down next to me.

"Well, hi guys! I'm Christine!" The girl across from me said. We all waved to her. She had long, curly brown hair tied back in a half ponytail.

"Hey, I'm Twoey," The guy said. He was very alternative in fashion, which was cool.

"Is that a nickname or something?" The other girl asked, "Oh, by the way, I'm Galinda! With a 'gah'!"

"Yeah, It's a nickname," Twoey said, "Just a play on my deadname. I'm actually genderfluid, by the way, so I'm cool with any pronouns."

"Cool! Anyways, I'm Emma, and this is Carrie!" Emma said, motioning to me. I waved back at them as they waved to me.

"Hey, Twoey, are you cool with neopronouns? Just wondering," Christine asked. Twoey nodded.

Our attention was directed to the front of the class with the teacher,  Mrs. Church. She was darksinned with curly hair pulled back in a tight bun. She wore a 50's style salmon-colored dress. She smiled at all of us. She began to walk around the classroom as she spoke.

"Alright, everyone.  I am Mrs. Church. Today we're just gonna start by drawing small portraits of yourselves in your own way. You can use any of the materials on the shelves." The teacher said.

We all pulled out our sketchbooks and got to work. It was more fun than doing icebreakers. It was nice to just draw and chat. The period went by quite fast, but I learned a lot about who I was sitting with. For example, Christine was a ballet dancer who also trained in opera. Galinda was friends with Elphaba. Twoey got his nickname from his childhood friend who was named Audrey, which was his deadname. She called him 'Audrey 2' as a joke, but it morphed into the name he has now.

When the bell rang, I walked out with Twoey. He was in my next class, science. I could get used to actually having friends!