Rowan, AP Chem having finished an hour ago, has been in AP US History while Liam was in Chem. 

She's relieved to find that Allison is in this class as well, which saves her from another attempt at making friends.

"Is it OK if I sit with you? I don't really know anyone else yet."

"Sure, I don't mind. It must be hard, moving around so much." 

"Hmm? Oh, you talked to Liam. We don't move that often," Rowan clarifies. "The last time was four years ago, and we're not likely to move again before we graduate, at the earliest. I'm just bad at making friends."

And what does US History have in store for them today? She did some background reading over the summer, as soon as she found out where they were moving, but she hasn't had time to cover anything in much depth, and the history taught at her last few schools was too Anglocentric to be any help here.

US History remains US history; the AP class covers more material, but there are just over 300 years to work with. Rowan can keep up, if she has a head for names and dates. 

She has a head for information in general, and has researched several ways to trick her brain into retaining individually uninteresting facts such as dates. Three hundred years of history isn't especially daunting to someone from a country with over a thousand. 

Still, keeping up with the class occupies enough of her attention that she has relatively little to spare for conversation. 

That's fine with Allison, who spends the class flipping between the textbook and her notebook in some frustration. 

"Normally I'd offer to help," Rowan remarks, "but I'm not sure I'll be able to in this instance." She did, after all, only just move to this country. She's not an expert on its history yet.

"Don't worry. I'll figure it out eventually."

They begin to delve into the founding of the country, and after class they go their separate ways.

Rowan has Spanish next. She's better at French, having just taken three years of it, but decided it would be more useful to have a solid grasp of two languages than to be excellent at a single one. Besides, Spanish will be more useful in the US than French, since it's the second most spoken language after English.

She looks around for an empty seat or a friendly-looking person.

One of the students offers her a friendly wave.

The seat to his right is empty. There are other empty seats scattered throughout the room, though, as she has arrived on time.

"Um, hi. Is this seat taken?" she asks Potentially Friendly Guy.

He might be saving it for a friend; that is a thing people do when they have friends. She's made that mistake before. 

"It's free. I'm Scott, this is Erica."

The girl on his left waves.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Rowan," she offers, taking the seat next to - Scott, okay, she can remember that. One more name to add to the list piling up in her head: Allison, Danny, David, Scott, Erica. She hasn't had to learn this many new names all at once since last time they moved.

Time to learn some Spanish. This is one of the few non-AP classes on her schedule, but that doesn't mean she can get away with not paying attention. 

Luckily, all they're doing today is conjugating ser and estar. They get to practice that until the teacher is confident they understand what conjugation is, and have these particular verbs down. 

Scott seems reasonably attentive, though his comfort level suggests that he might not need the class.

Yeah, this is pretty simple stuff. Rowan has no trouble digging out what she remembers from her one year of Spanish a few years back. It'll probably get harder from here, though; it's only the first class.

"Are you the one to ask for homework help in this class, then?" she asks Scott.

"Um, I guess? I probably speak more Spanish than you do right now, but you'll probably pass me by the end of the year."

"Maybe," Rowan hedges. "I do tend to learn fast, but I'm not especially skilled at languages in particular."

She considers the evidence. "Do you speak Spanish at home or something?"

"My mom does, but we spoke English a lot growing up, so I'm out of practice."

"Still, it's cool that you got to grow up learning two languages. I didn't start French until I was nine, and all the studies say earlier is better when it comes to language-learning."

Yes, Rowan has researched this, why do you ask?

"I guess. I am probably better at- usage things then if I'd never gotten exposed to it before. I still need to work on vocabulary."

"He's still a lot better than some of us. My dad barely spoke any Spanish by the time he had me, so I never really heard it growing up. My grandma is still mad at him for it."

Rowan nods. "Languages are important." 

Speaking of which, she should probably be paying more attention to her work. 

The work is there to be focused on, and by the end of class, the teacher is satisfied that everyone has understood the material as well as they ever will.