It's not very well-hidden. 

Hardly defensible at all, someone should tell the school board.

Would he like to speak to the bored receptionist? 

He would! "Hi there! I'm a new student, starting today, was told to report to the office for a guide?" Smile. "Tyler Ayers."

"Good morning. Are you here for your schedule?"

She hands him a piece of paper. 

"We'll have another student here in a minute to help you get around." 

He takes the piece of paper. "… Thanks."

If there is a nearby seat, he will go to it and sit down. Then he will have a look at his schedule while waiting for the other student.

There are the standard required courses. 

As a junior, he has calculus, chemistry, and world history, and everyone has English and gym.

There are his chosen electives, of course, and lunch. 

There's also his guide.

"Hey, you must the new student. I'm Danny."

"Hey!" he responds, smiling. "Tyler. Ayers."

"Okay, let's see...English first, alrght. Follow me." 

He does! "Do you know the teacher?"

"I know yours, yeah. I know your English teacher, your math teacher, gym and econ- same guy, also the lacrosse coach- and the French teacher- also the guidance counselor. On your right, you can see the cafeteria, where we eat and engage in teen drama. On the left you can see the front doors, through which you can escape at the end of the day."

They walk.

Tyler follows! "Are the teachers pretty good? I'm not all that sure how this place compares with my old school."

"English is as good as it is in most high schools. AP calculus isn't great, but the other kids will help you study for the test. Econ is...coach knows enough econ to teach high schoolers. French is pretty solid."

Soon enough, they arrive at the classroom.

"Normally, you would go to homeroom first. I'll show you that tomorrow, and I'll take you to the rest of your classes today, if you want."

"That'd be good, thanks." He smiles and goes into the English room.

Is Danny with him? Any seats look like they might be conveniently free?

Danny has his own classes to get to.

There's an open seat next to this girl, sitting in the front, with a clear view of the blackboard and the teacher's desk.

There's also the window seat in front of this young man, closer to the middle of the room.

He's welcome to sit in the back, next to this charming fellow.

English… He's not a super huge fan of English. He thinks he'll sit in the middle, next to the young man by the window.

"Hey," he says. "Mind if I sit here?"

"No, I don't mind. I'm Scott. Are you new?"

Tyler takes a seat. "Yeah, actually! Just moved." He smiles. "Tyler."

"Nice to meet you. Where are you from?"

"Portland! I'm guessing you're from around here?"

"Yeah, I'm local. What brings you to Beacon Hills?" 

"Dad got a new job down here."

"That makes sense. We're a pretty average school, but the town is nice. We've had a bit of a crime problem in the last few months, but Beacon Hills has always been a peaceful place."

"Crime problem? What sorts of things, do I need to watch out for pickpockets or something?"

"You should be fine. It's, uh, not that kind of thing so much, it's really pretty safe." 

Another student walks in, just before the bell rings.

Seeming displeased by the selection of seating, she takes the last empty seat, in front of Scott.

There is a sound of chiming as all of the students receive a text on their phones.

Including Tyler? His phone is on vibrate and he doesn't tend to check it in class.

So he thinks he'll just find out from someone else what the text says. Since, chiming.

He can find out right now!

The teacher enters the classroom, reading from her phone. Or memory; it's possible the phone is a visual aid.

"'The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky, seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.' 

This is the last line to the first book we are going to read. It's also the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone." 

Oh, he has to turn it off? Shame, that. He does it anyway, for at least the first class of the day.

Is it time to discuss Heart of Darkness?

Yes, it is.

Looks like this teacher is dispensing with the usual weeks of grammar in favor of literature. 

Scott receives a note from the girl in front of him. 

Wow, how exciting.

Tyler continues to at least look like he's paying attention. He probably even is paying attention!

A man interrupts the class, asking for Scott McCall.

Apparently, his mother needs him with her urgently. 

Scott packs up his things.

"Mr. McCall? Uh, I'm sure it's an emergency if your mom needs you to leave school, but I'm gonna give you a warning in the nicest possible way. I am well aware of your attendance record. I don't want to see you slip back into old habits."

"I won't. It's gonna be different this year." 

"Resolutions are only good if you stick with them, Scott." 

"I will. I promise it won't be ephemeral." 

Class continues. 

Weird! If there's a gap where he can ask someone nearby about that attendance record that'd be nice.

English, woo.

He could ask this kid, while he's not sidling over to another student's desk to talk about deer.

Or the girl he's talking to, who seems to think discussing deer and her pet dog during English class is productive.

She stares out the window as they talk.

… So long as the teacher isn't lecturing anyone and it seems like it's somewhat acceptable to talk in low voices, he will in fact ask someone!

Probably the girl, once the guy has gone. She seems like she probably pays more attention in class and is less likely to draw the wrath of the teacher.

The guy does not go, because while's she's staring at the window, there's a loud crash. 

A bird has splattered itself against the window, leaving a smear of blood and feathers. 

Well that's kinda gruesome.

Tyler blinks at it a bit.

"Get down, everyone! Get down, down. Get down! Get down!"

A large flock of birds careens towards the window, and she gets down. 

Tyler does that!

Tyler is extremely confused and would like to know what the fuck!

Other students are confused! They also get down.

Not all the students could be called confused exactly.

A few of them in particular seem less than surprised. 

They all watch as the birds smash themselves against the glass, some less confused than others.

Tyler notices this!

The classroom gets birded on the first day of the school year and there are the mysterious however-many being all mysterious. What the fuck.

And with class thoroughly interrupted, the teacher shouts something about how the police will be here soon. 

A few students begin to stand, hugging each other and crying.

A few start cracking jokes, but they're not well-received.

The boy and girl he overheard talking about animals are standing together now.

They are joined by another suspicious individual.

The three whisper quietly.

Tyler thinks he will just stand somewhat quietly near his seat.

He'll look outside the window to assess what sort of damage has been done.

It is not, in fact, possible to see through the viscera. 

The police do arrive, as expected. 

The Sheriff talks quietly to the students who look worst off, but not before announcing that they can all go home.

It's the first day, so there won't be much to make up.

"Ms. Blake? You okay?"

"Uh, sorry. Just...that." 

Students begin to go their separate ways. 

Well. First day of class and his day gets canceled halfway through. Off to a dramatic start.

He will comment, "Well that was a little weird," to anyone who seems like they might be listening. Because um. What.

"Beacon Hills is a little weird," she says, and stops walking. 

"Have we met?" 

Snort. 

Scott's friend (?) leaves fairly quickly. 

"Not today, at least? I'm new." Smile. "Tyler."

"Lydia Martin. New to the school, the town...? I hope we haven't scared you off already."

"School and town, actually! And the birds were kinda creepy, gotta say."

"We're all shocked, this kind of thing doesn't happen a lot."

"If it happened more I'd expect you'd have a protocol other than 'cancel the day', yeah."

"I think I'm grateful we don't have mass avian suicide on a weekly basis. Do you have any plans for your day off? A few of us are probably getting together." 

"I have not in fact made plans in the, like, three minutes! I haven't explored all of town yet, though, and it'd be fun to get together and meet people if that was an invite."

"It was an invite. Did you drive to school? You can follow me, or I can give you a ride." 

"Decided to walk today – a ride would be nice, thanks."

He can follow her to her car, then.

"Do you care what we do? If you have suggestions, I'll take them under advisement." 

He does in fact follow!

"I don't really know what's around, actually! Could get, like, a coffee or milkshake or something, if there's a place that does those?"

"Coffee it is."

She leads him to her car, and they drive.

"What was the reason for the move?"

"Dad got a new job locally."

"Just him?" 

"Uh, yeah," he responds, a little awkwardly.

"I'm sorry. I hope things work out for you here." 

They ride quietly.

Quietly-ish.

"So, is – uh, that guy from the back in English – part of the group meeting up?"

"You mean Stiles? No, we're not really friends. Allison will be there, maybe you saw her with me." 

"Possibly? Was she the one with long hair, brown?"

"That's the one. You can meet everyone at once, should be fun." 

They arrive, and Lydia leads him inside. 

It's rather crowded, and a bit loud. 

How big a space is it? He seems pretty happy to be here, and he's looking around at all the small details.

It's reasonably large, for a local coffee shop. The colors are mostly warm red and yellows, with wooden tables and chairs. It smells, predictably, like fresh coffee. 

Lydia walks to their table, which is already full.

"Everyone, this is the new kid. Try to make a good first impression." 

"Tyler," he introduces himself. "Shorter than 'the new kid', might be easier to remember."

"I call dibs."

"We've actually already met. I'm his guide." 

"I'm Allison. Don't mind them, they're always like this." 

"I think I probably get first call on dibs anyway," says Tyler. Then he smirks a bit.

"Who says any of you are his type? Relax, man, they're just shameless flirts." 

"Anyway, I'm probably gonna go get a drink?" he says, nodding in the direction of the counter.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Don't worry about paying, I have us all covered."

"If you're sure?" says Tyler. "Thanks."

He's welcome to order whatever he likes.

He gets a pretty simple coffee. Gets milk in it, goes back over to the table with Lydia.

"...And it's crazy, there was this squirrel just throwing itself at her car. I thought they were like, prey animals, or something. Pretty intense."

"Can we talk about something else?"

"… Something up with all the animals in this town?"

"Seems like it, the past two days."

"We had those animal attacks, too, back in the spring."

"Huh," says Tyler, then he looks at Lydia and – "So anyway, being new and all I don't know if the school has a swim team? I'm probably gonna try out if they do."

"We don't really have much of one now, since the swim coach died. Quality has gone down." 

"Ah," he says. "Oh well. Might be another club in the area?"

"Track is starting soon, if you're interested in that. If you meant something in the water, it's pretty much just what's left of swimming." 

"Mainly meant stuff in water, yeah, but track could be good."

"We have an archery club."

"I actually haven't done much archery! Could be fun."

"We have something for everyone. Fencing, debate, cooking...there's an anime club."

"Fencing sounds like it could be fun, debate probably not so much, cooking maybe but again probably not and anime not really."

"There's more. I'm in Amnesty International, we do charity stuff. I used to be in photography club, but I kind of lost interest."

"Lacrosse starts back up in the spring, if you're into that."

"Haven't really played it?" he says. "I've mostly been into water-stuff, actually, but running and soccer are pretty good too."

"I'll tell coach you're interested, you'll be running in no time." 

"Yeah? Sounds good, I think."

"What else do you like to do, Tyler?" 

"I spend a lot of time doing research? Sometimes watch TV, sometimes read books – a lot of things, really?"

"What are you researching? School just started."

"Some people actually have some curiosity.  Try picking some up next time you're getting protein shakes." 

"What kind of research?" 

"Nothing serious, just – like, if something's mentioned on a TV show I might be curious about it, like some medicine stuff." Shrug. "Plus I do Mandarin in my spare time."

"I should teach you Latin next, so we have three in common." 

"Why do you know Mandarin?" 

"Why not?" 

"Mom did it with me as a kid, mainly." He smiles. "I find it easier to do subtitles and a movie than memorizing vocab lists, so it was fun."

"Are you fluent? I've always wanted to practice with someone, but you can't just ask people if they speak Mandarin." 

"Might be a little weird," he says, in Mandarin.

"I speak little Mandarin. Please don't tell."

"You're pretty good! The tones are hard to get down."

"Languages I like learning less than other material. Good to speak, glad I can practice." 

"That's impressive, could you guys have an entire conversation like that?" 

"I'm basically fluent in it, yeah," says Tyler. "Other languages less so, but I think I'm pretty good at French."

"I wish I knew any, my family is from there, and we have so many old books and things...some are in Latin, so Lydia can help me with those, but the rest are a mystery." 

"Hey Tyler, where are you from? L.A, the Bay, or out of state?" 

"Portland! In Oregon."

"Sorry to disappoint, it's kind of weird coming here from a real city. Not as much to do." 

"It's a little weird, yeah, being out in the middle of nowhere, but it seems like it could be okay?"

"It's nice here. The people are friendly, the weather is nice. High school is still high school, but it's a good place to spend it." 

"High school isn't all that bad," he comments, smirking a little. "Lots of free time."

"I'm sure we'll be able to keep you busy."

"Between the two of us, yeah."

"Sounds like fun."

"I promise we're not all like that." 

"Lydia and Danny are just looking to replace their last boyfriend." 

"They had a boyfriend together? Wow, didn't know you all did triads down here."

"We don't. He was trying to tell a bad joke."

"Jackson might have gone for it, but no. Just him and me." 

He smirks a bit. "Yeah, I guessed it was a joke."

"Lydia, what's going on with your party? You are throwing one, right?" 

"I have better things to do nowadays. Let Heather celebrate her birthday in style, I shouldn't take away from that." 

"Yeah, Lydia is kind of too busy to host. We can all do something this weekend." 

"Tyler, you're welcome to join us, if we actually come up with a plan. I might skip it if it sounds boring." 

"Hey new kid, you in for vague plans?" 

"Probably?" he shrugs. "Sounds like it could be fun, if less vague."

"We have ice skating, we have bowling, we have movies. You can decide, you're the one who needs to get comfortable here." 

"Ooh, I am nnot sure about the ice skating and movies sounds like it could be fun but quiet, so probably bowling?"

"Bowling can be fun. Are you any good?" 

"I think so? Haven't done it very recently though."

"This isn't going to be another couples' thing, is it?"

"Since I am unfortunately as sad and alone as you this week, it won't be. I'm sure by next week I'll be back to normal." 

"I don't have another half to go with anyway?"

"Like I said, we're all sad and alone right now." 

"You mean single. There's already a word for that." 

"Unattached. Sounds much better, especially if you're a Buddhist." 

"I enjoy earthly attachments. A lot, actually. You can all stay single if you like, but this time next week, I'll have someone." 

"But, since all of us are single, no one has to worry about this being a couples-only sort of thing, especially those of us who just moved here." 

"Would be a bit of a lonely event, yeah," he smiles. Then he turns to Lydia and asks, in Mandarin, "Feeling a bit mercenary?"

"My boyfriend of two years dumped me twice and moved to London. I'm looking for something fun and easy." 

"Makes sense."

"Anyway, me and Allison have boys to meet. See you all at school tomorrow. Nice meeting you, Tyler." 

"You too," he responds. "See you around!"

"I might as well go too. It was nice catching up, Ryan." 

"Yeah...nice seeing you again, Danny." 

And he and Tyler are left alone.

"I guess we should probably go home." 

"Probably. I've finished my coffee anyway."

So, unless Brian has further to add, Tyler will get up and leave.

Tyler has the run of the town.

And he's back at school the next day, hopefully to fewer bird incidents.

Anybody around in the courtyard?

There are plenty of students lingering by the front steps before school.

He'll go up to any who don't look extremely unwelcoming and (if applicable) introduce himself or (if not) just say hi!

...Most look pretty unwelcoming, really.

One of them recognizes him, though.

"Hey, are you the new student?"

"Yeah! I'm Tyler. You're… Scott, from English?"

"Yeah, I'm Scott, from English. How was your first day? Besides the birds."

"I went out with some people to a café in town, actually! So it was pretty good, minus the birds."

"That's good, you're already settling in. Have you thought about joining a team, maybe a club?"

"I heard you don't have much of a swim team anymore? So I was thinking of trying track, maybe looking at some archery or lacrosse?"

"Yeah. The swim coach died in the spring. They hired a new one but the team hasn't recovered." 

"I heard about that," nods Tyler. "Might see if there are other swim teams in the area, some club at a sports center or something, but track could be fun anyway."

"I'll probably be doing it this year, so I guess I'll see you there. Ready for your first full day of classes?"

"Think so," he shrugs. "I was ready yesterday so I'm probably okay today. Fingers crossed for no more birds."

"It's not a big problem here, we've just had some animals acting weird the past few days."

"I've seen some dogs act weirdly from time to time but not usually whole flocks of birds."

"Yeah, it's pretty weird. My boss is a vet, I usually ask him when anything like this happens. I'll tell you what I find out."

"Cool, thanks."

"We should probably head inside, homeroom starts soon."

"Uh – yeah, good idea."

Inside they go. Presumably to English.

To English!

If he's been looking forward to a young woman shaking while describing the savage depiction of nature in Conrad's book...

Well, he has that. 

Oh.

Fun.

Something like that.

His new friends are whispering to each other.

Any chance he can hear what they're talking about? So he can pay more attention to that and less to the dramatic reenactment?

"...in the vault? Has he said anything else about who she is? Why now, after..."

Her voice hitches as she continues.

"...completely insane! They were out of control, and whatever these alphas want...."

The teacher pauses.

She puts the book on the table in front of her, leaning on it for support.

Is she hyperventilating?

"– Are you okay, miss?" asks Tyler. He hopes this isn't just part of the scene.

(He is rather confused by the conversation. … Maybe it's about a game.)

She is not okay! She is collapsing onto the ground.

"Stiles?"

"On it."

He calls 911.

"You, new kid, help me support her head."

He does! He gets up and goes and does that and: "Is she breathing? – Might need the recovery position."

"I think it's a panic attack, but it could be allergies or asthma, we don't know her situation."

He places a hand on her shoulder, steadying her.

"Miss?" he asks, trying to get her attention.

She looks at him, but continues rocking in place.

Well at least she's responsive! Okay, that's good.

"Miss, we're calling for help," he says, trying to sound reassuring.

"No, no, no. I'm fine, let's just-you, girl in the red, read a passage."

She stands, composing herself, and heads back to her desk. 

"We called for help, if anything else happens we can deal with it." 

Scott returns to his seat, putting away the...first aid kit he apparently pulled out. 

"– Did someone go tell the office? I mean, it's… probably a good idea, that someone know."

"The police and the ambulence are still on their way, but I can go tell the nurse, I guess."

"Actually, Mr. McCall, I think you shouldn't rack up any more absences. If everyone's really worried about this, I'll just call down and tell them what happened while I watch you read the book quietly." 

Some of the other students still look worried, but most seem to have concluded it was a minor episode. 

"… That might be a good idea," says Tyler.

So she makes a call. 

Hopefully that reassures him. 

And they can continue with class!

...Not for long, though. There goes the bell.

Now he has calc. He grabs his bag and says bye to whoever nearby he's met in this class and who isn't in his next one.

His classmates wave goodbye, and then he has calc.

Danny is there to walk him on over.

"How was your first full class?" 

"Dramatic."

"We have a bit of that, yeah. More weird animal stuff, or did Lydia do something?" 

"Teacher started acting – kinda weird, class got a bit interrupted."

"Sorry. You kind of caught us at a weird time. Lots of crazy nature stuff, I think everyone is a bit freaked."

He shrugs. "I've dealt with crazy nature stuff before."

"Beacon Hills is a little crazier than average."

Here's calculus. Danny takes his seat. 

Tyler is welcome to sit next to him, or not, as he pleases. 

Anybody else he knows in the room?

No one looks familiar.

In that case, he decides to sit next to Danny, assuming he's not on the back row in the corner furthest from the teacher's desk.

He likes calc. He doesn't want to seem too much like a slacker.

Does he understand limits? He'll be good for the first week.

… What is he, a junior? – Oh, yes, actually, he is.

Yes, he understands his limits.

After his lesson on limits, he can test his physical limits in gym.

Lydia waves to him as class begins.

He waves back but then gets dragged into a group for dodgeball.

It's boys against girls. 

Lydia and a few girls decide to target his group. 

Oh dear.

Too bad he's pretty good at dodging, almost as if he has a sixth sense for it.

Gym class passes without incident.

Next up, he has Chemistry.

He might recognize

one or two students.

People!

How welcoming does the guy he didn't sit next to in English look, the one with short hair? (Did he learn that guy's name? He – yep, Stiles.) Tyler will sit by him if he looks like he won't object, otherwise by the – one who left early from English yesterday – Scott?

He doesn't look very welcoming. 

Scott it is!

"Hey," says Tyler, sitting down nearby. "Scott, right?"

"Yeah. You're Tyler?"

"Yeah," he smiles.

"So are we going to see you at practice today? I can tell coach you're interested." 

"Yeah, that'd be good! So this is track, right?"

"Cross country. More running, less hurdles."

"Sounds good."

"Are you in the market for a lab partner?"

"I am! Do you know anyone?"

"You can work with Stiles or Isaac, and I'll take the other one; I can't leave them alone together, they'll destroy the lab." 

"I think Stiles was glaring earlier! So I'll try Isaac."

Scott points him out. 

"Thanks. See you later," he says, and off he goes to sit by Isaac.

"Hey. You my new lab partner?" 

"Yeah, Scott's with Stiles." He takes a seat. "I'm Tyler."

"Right. I'm Isaac, and I'm sorry about this. I'm not great at chem."

"I'm pretty good at it! Should be able to get by, I can watch to make sure we do things right."

Thanks to Tyler, they do in fact turn in their lab report without glaring errors. 

Maybe he'll rub off on Isaac.

Now for: lunch! Conveniently there are probably some people he can sit with.

There are some familiar faces. 

Lydia is with her friends. 

Scott is with his.

Over to Lydia, then!

"Hey, mind if I sit?"

"No, go ahead, sit."

She makes room. 

"Hey. Liking it here so far?" 

He sits!

"Sorta?" he responds. "The bird attack was a bit weird, a teacher had a panic attack…"

"The English sub? She seems sweet, but kind of...sensitive." 

"Yeah, she was kind of having a breakdown. I hope we won't start a rotation of substitute teachers, this is our junior year, I don't need that kind of inconsistency." 

"Agreed."

"She seems to be doing better now. I think it's just kind of traumatic, she'll be fine soon enough. How did you like your other classes?" 

"Chem was pretty good, calc wasn't too bad, gym was fun."

"Do you like chemistry?"

"It's not my favorite but as classes go it's above average?"

"What is your favorite?" 

"As something to learn about, calc is – kinda fun – and languages are good when I actually get to speak to natives. At school… econ was pretty good at my old school?"

"Well, you'll be disappointed in our Econ classes, but the Calculus curriculum is fairly good- which doesn't help as much if you're actually interested, but it's still nice to have." 

"Yeah," he agrees. "Do you know how French is? And History?"

"The French teacher knows what she's doing. History isn't the worst I've had." 

"Cool."

"You know, I think I should talk to him." 

Allison follows her gaze.

"Oh, no. Lydia, we talked about this. He's way too young for you." 

Tyler tries to get a look at who.

He's not really familiar. 

Neither is his brother.

"Allison, spare us the dramatics. There's nothing wrong with knowing what I like. Besides, Danny wants one too."

"I was thinking about it. The one of the right is gay, right? That's not just me?"

"You can ask him. I'm pretty sure, though. You can always tell with the new kids, they check everyone out before they do anything else." 

"They're freshman! They're probably two years younger than us!"

"I'm going to get to know mine. Danny, you can take his brother while I'm working, if you want." 

"I'm looking for something more serious. Give me a couple of weeks to get him there." 

"Suit yourself. Tyler, you don't want to try, do you?" 

"I'm… probably alright for now, thanks."

"You probably have a month before Danny gets anywhere, anyway. I'll see you all later."

"Bye," he responds, smiling.

Allison, meanwhile, has taken the opportunity to stare forlornly.

Tyler notices and follows her gaze.

She seems transfixed by the goofy kid from his English class. The one who carries first aid kits to school.

Scott! … First aid kits are weird, yep.

"So, Danny, I don't actually know much about here – not many other gay guys?"

"Pretty much just me, yeah." 

"No bi guys either? Seems a shame."

"Nobody who's out, at least. Sorry." 

"I'm not really looking for anyone," comments Tyler. "Just wondering."

And so they eat lunch, all variously occupied. 

After which he can walk with Danny to Econ!

The disappointing class! Sounds exciting.

Anyone in here who seems like they might be fun to talk to?

He recognizes Danny, Scott, and Stiles. 

… Tyler thinks he will go sit with Scott!

"Hey. What's up?" 

"Not much! You?"

"Looking forward to a new year. My grades sort of slipped last spring, so I'm hoping this time, things go better." 

Nod. "I'm kinda curious, actually – do you work as a lifeguard or something?"

"No, why?" 

The teacher starts talking about trade policy or something. It's not actually very clear.

"First-aid kit."

"My mom's a nurse. I work for a vet. I like being prepared." 

"I guess that makes sense?"

"Yeah. I'm hoping to go into medicine, one day. You?"

"I'm actually not all that sure! Biology sounds like a potential candidate – sounds like you could do a lot of good there – but I'm pretty good at math and sort-of kinda languages, too."

"Translators are pretty in demand, but only for diplomacy and war, I think. I haven't really looked into it; languages aren't my thing." 

"Grammar's not much my thing – I like it, when I can get my head around it, but it makes more sense to hear it in examples – so I wouldn't go into linguistics or anything." He shrugs. "Translation could be fun."

"What about math? I think there aren't that many people that are good at it, and there definitely aren't a lot who like it."

"It could be good, yeah, like translation, but I'm not sure I'm cut out for doing really high-level stuff."

"McCall, can you explain comparative advantage?" 

"If one country is better at something than another country, they specialize in it?" 

"Good God, I'm surprised you can tie your own shoes. You, Ayers, what is it?" 

"– Where one group, like an organization, is able to produce some type of goods at a lower opportunity cost – how much they lose by producing this as opposed to something else – in comparison to another group, so they produce and export more of that, proportionally."

"Sounds good to me. You should help McCall out, he needs it." 

Class continues.

Tyler takes legible notes where applicable. Tries not to seem like a show-off.

After class, Scott seems to want to talk to him. 

"Hey, what's up?"

"Are you good at Econ? I probably could use some help." 

"I am pretty good at Econ but I'm not sure how much better I'd be than a textbook? I'd be happy to help, though."

"Thanks. How much do you charge?" 

"I don't usually tutor people so I don't have a handy number, actually," he says. "Uh, get back to you on that one?"

"Sure. Thanks for your help." 

And Tyler must engage in further edification. 

After which there is presumably track practice! Or cross country, rather.

Indeed. If he'd like to find out where they practice, he might want to ask before it starts. 

… If it's hard to just find, presumably someone around knows? Like, it's 'cross country', but is it not just running on the field?

Does he want to just find Scott and follow him?

He might want to do that.

Yes, he will in fact do that if Scott is conveniently available.

...Nope.

He can try asking a random student.

Gosh, he should have planned this better, instead of trying to find them last minute.

… He got some people's numbers the day before; he'll just ask them to get him Scott's number and where the cross country's going on.

Lydia strongly suspects the attractive young men will be running along the trail; running around a field isn't really good practice for long-distance running. 

She texts him as much.

He thanks her and gets changed then goes to the indicated location!

They've already started without him, so he'll have to run quickly to catch up.

Luckily, he's faster than most people.