"Oh, it's for our dad's work," Liam explains. "He lost his job back home, but got offered a better paying one out here. We got dragged along for the ride!"

He laughs. "Although honestly, I think Rowan's mum was more upset than we were."

"Oh. That's nice, what does he do? I've never left this town in my life, I can't imagine crossing the ocean." 

"Don't ask me what his job's called," Liam snorts. "Dad never tells me anything.

"He never tells Rowan anything either, to be fair," he adds, "but she finds out anyway. I'll ask her...at lunch, probably, it's the only time we'll see each other all day."

"No, I get it. My dad doesn't talk about what he does, either. Government stuff. I think he's with the Department of Defense, but it's not really a major topic with us."

They arrive, and Allison takes a seat. The seat next to her is free, but Liam is free to sit where he likes.

Sure, he'll sit next to Allison unless someone else looks particularly welcoming. 

Anyone friendly sitting nearby? Maybe Allison has some friends she'd like to introduce him to. 

"Oh, um, I'm sure there are some nice people here? I don't really know anyone that well."

That's fine, Liam will introduce himself to the people around him and see if any of them want to make friends with the new guy. 

"Hi, my name's Liam, I'm new."

Some of the other students greet him politely.

Hello, how are you, where are you from?

He is Liam, he just moved here with his family; yes he's British, hence the accent. He has a sister; she's a junior too but they aren't in any of the same classes, since she mostly took AP everything. 

He learns everyone's names, repeating them back to the person so he'll remember them. He can't remember where he learned that trick but it works.

Looks like class is starting. What's on the agenda for today?

Not all of his classmates introduce themselves, but he'll hear their names during role call.

Today they're focusing on grammar. Does Liam know what nouns are?

He does indeed, and will participate in class a reasonable amount.

He tries not to raise his hand too often, on the assumption that such behaviour is no more cool than it would be back home. The good opinion of other students is more important than impressing the teachers; it doesn't take Rowan's maths skills to work out that there are at least twenty times more students than teachers at any given school, and that's a larger majority than you'll find in most democracies. 

Still, it doesn't do to alienate the ones on top. He completes the work with relative ease, and wonders vaguely if he shouldn't have gone for AP English after all. 

The bell rings, and out runs one of his more reticent classmates; the teacher called him Stilinski.

That's fine, he doesn't have to make friends with everyone just yet.

Is anyone else in this class going to...Chem? 

Stiles seems to be going the same way, though he doesn't wait for Liam to catch up.

He's probably just really enthusiastic about Chem and wants to be on time?

Anyway, Liam has no problem finding someone willing to show him the way. He makes it to Chem with plenty of time to spare. Any familiar faces, other than still-don't-know-his-first-name-Stilinski? If not, he'll pick an empty seat at random and make some new friends. 

He might be distracted from this project when the chemistry teacher demands they choose partners, but he does recognize Danny, who will happily take him as a lab partner.

Sure, that works. 

"Hi, Danny. Did Rowan get to her first class okay?"

Let the learning commence! Hopefully Chemistry is more interesting than English.

"Yeah. She seems like she can handle herself."

Today they will be memorizing the periodic table.

Liam, unlike Rowan, does not actually have it memorised already. He shares a few tricks he's picked up for remembering strings of information, and applies them somewhat creatively to the task. 

This occasionally involves little doodles of cartoon elements in his notes. Hopefully this teacher isn't one of the ones who objects to that?

The teacher doesn't object, and neither does Danny.

"You're an artist?"

"Bit of one, yeah. This is just scribbles, really."

He seems a little embarrassed. "They are kinda cute, though, aren't they?"

"Have you thought about going into animation?"

There will be a quiz on the table next week. 

"No, not really. I signed up for regular art class - I've got it next, actually - but I might look into picking up animation next term."

Liam makes a note (a physical one, because Rowan's been trying to get him into the habit) to finish memorising the periodic table by next week.

"It's probably worth it. You have a lot of potential. I can introduce you to Matt, if you want to know more about the industry."

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks. Maybe at lunch?"

And speaking of art, Liam has to get to his next class now.

"See you later!"