More than one student watches them curiously.

Only two of them can be described as helpful. 

They approach the new students.

"Hey. Are you the new students?"

Factual questions, she can handle. 

"Yes, we are. My name is Rowan..." 

"...and I'm Liam. We just moved here from across the pond," he finishes, smiling.

He extends a hand to the boy. "And you are...?" 

"Danny, and this is Allison Theron. We're your tour guides."

"Have you stopped by the office yet? We should make sure we get your schedules."

"Danny and Alison," Liam repeats, shaking Danny's hand and nodding at Alison. 

"We only just got here, actually, so it sounds like the office is our first stop. Lead the way!" He follows Danny and Alison, Rowan trailing behind him. 

Danny greets the secretary warmly.

She tells him about her daughter's recent struggles in school. 

He nods along, offering to tutor her. 

Soon enough, they have their schedules.

"Do you want help getting to your classes? Me and Allison can help you find your way around."

"Well, I wouldn't want to make you late for your own classes..." Especially since Liam and Rowan have very different schedules; Raven tested into all the AP classes, and Liam didn't try. 

It turns out, though, that Allison is in Liam's first class, English, so they can walk together. 

Danny seems amenable to being a bit late. Luckily, Rowan's student handbook contains a map. He circles the relevant classrooms, and leads her to her first class himself.

"I can lead you to your next class too, if you want. Otherwise I'll see you later?"

"Thank you for your help," Rowan tells Danny, inspecting the map carefully. "I think I will be able to find my way around now." 

She goes to her first class, AP Chemistry. Hopefully it will be new material, rather than repeating what she covered last year. If not, she can always use that hour for homework or something. 

Is she comfortable with stoichiometry? Redox reactions? Van der Waals forces? Calorimetry?

If so, she might want to get some homework done.

Some old, some new. Rowan takes careful notes on all of it, in handwriting that has evolved over the years to use as little space on the page as possible. 

It's strange not knowing anyone in this class. She's used to being in the same classes as Liam at least some of the time, but they won't have anything together at this school. Dad was very keen on the idea of her making new friends, though, so maybe that will happen. At least the people in AP classes are likely to be reasonably conscientious students.

Most of them seem fairly attentive and studious.

One of them send to be ignoring the teacher entirely, staring at a blank notebook page. 

There's always one. This one seems more blatant about it than most, though, which is interesting enough to get her attention. 

Rowan waits for a moment when the teacher is not talking, and therefore everyone else is taking the opportunity to chatter amongst themselves, to ask, "Did you cover this already, or something?"

Initiating conversation. Liam would be proud.

"Something."

He looks her up and down. 

He sits up straighter, turning slightly towards her.

"I don't recognize you. New student?" 

"Yes, my brother and I just moved here from England."

What else...? Oh, right, names. "I'm Rowan."

"Nice to meet you, Rowan. I'm David, from right here. It looks like you're jumping right in," he says, gesturing to the classroom.

"I enjoy learning," Rowan agrees. "This is mostly new material, but only mostly; I was on the science track at my old school." Well, science and maths and everything else she could cram into her timetable, but no need to mention that just yet.

"Do you have a favourite subject? I'm guessing it isn't Chemistry."

"Journalism isn't the worst, but mostly I'm looking forward to phys ed." 

"Not my thing. You might see my brother there, though; I think he signed up for the team sports class."

Rowan smirks slightly. "Personally, I was happy to find out our twelve years of mandatory physical education up to this point meant we could escape it for the next two."

"To each her own. I think I'd fall apart if I had to sit around all day. You should talk to Callie, she'll claim you as her new best friend." 

"Thank you for the advice." 

Rowan goes back to taking diligent notes. She's not sure if she wants to be 'claimed' as someone's best friend on her first day. Liam will know; she can ask him at lunch. 

He'll go back to staring, then. 

Meanwhile, Allison and Liam walk to English.

"What brought you two all this way? It's a big move to make."

"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!"

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. 

Which makes it time for lunch.

Danny and Allison are already seated.

Liam sits with them, since Danny was going to introduce him to someone. He has a smudge of blue paint on his cheek.

He waves to Rowan. "Hi, how was your morning?"

"It was alright. How was Art?"

"Art was good! We're working with watercolours this term, apparently."

Rowan joins their table, pointing out the paint smudge before even sitting down. He laughs and rubs at it half-heartedly. "Rowan! I haven't seen you for a whole three hours! Did you do anything interesting?"

Rowan gives the highlights of her morning. She's pretty happy with all her classes so far.

"I made some friends - they're called Scott and Erica. And there's a boy called David in AP Chem who's in your Phys Ed class." She doesn't think David counts as a friend yet, but Liam might want to make friends with him. 

She quizzes Liam in return, and concludes that, as she predicted, he ought to have taken AP English. The rest of his classes sound alright, though. 

When the siblings are done catching up, Danny jumps in.

"Liam, do you want me to introduce you to Matt? We can stop by his table."

"Sure," Liam agrees, getting up to follow Danny. "How do you know him, anyway?"

"We're both on the lacrosse team together. He's more into photography and theater, but he knows a lot about what all those artistic types of industries are like around here. Comes from living in Southern California."

They arrive at a round table, large enough to seat eight.

It currently seats four.

One of them looks up at the intruders visitors skeptically. 

"Hey, Danny. Who's this?"

"Hi! I'm Liam, the new kid." He smiles brightly, undeterred by the lukewarm reception. 

"I've been informed that I should talk to a 'Matt' about what the animation industry's like on this side of the pond."

"That would be me. Sit next to me, I'll protect you from them."

"I think we're very welcoming."

"I'm sorry about them. Just talk about animation and you'll be fine." 

"I wasn't worried. Can I get everyone's names? I don't think I've met any of you yet."

He takes a seat next to Matt, turning it so he can keep half an eye on the rest of the room. 

"Stiles Stilinski. My dad is the sheriff, so if you're going to do anything illegal, make sure I'm there to help."

"Stiles is short for Stilinski. If you want to distract him, try to get his birth name from him. I'm Callie Martin, and these are David Ledford and Matt Lyman."

He waves, ignoring the conversation.

That's fine. He files away the titbit about Stiles, commits the new names to memory, and reasons that if this is the David who's going to be in his next class, they can talk at that point. He's here to talk to Matt.

"So, Danny thinks I'm a good enough artist to consider becoming a professional animator, and suggested that you could give me an idea of what to expect?"

Matt is happy to talk about that. 

He discusses how to break into animation with Hollywood so nearby. 

"I haven't done this myself, but it's something I had to look into when I was thinking about my plans after high school."

"Lucky for me." Liam listens attentively, asking the occasional question if there's something he doesn't understand, or wants more information on. 

"What about you, then? You're not going to be an animator, but I think Danny said you're into photography?"

"Photography, filmmaking, writing...I keep busy."

"Sounds like it! Are you an actor as well, or do you prefer to be behind the camera?"

Liam's spent the entire morning being politely friendly to everyone who came within ten feet of him. Most people might not notice the difference - he's good at 'politely friendly' - but with Matt, he's genuinely enthusiastic.

"I'm not really built for the spotlight."

"Very photosensitive," Stiles interrupts.

"My theory is vampire."

"I don't photograph well."

"Oh, I doubt that. What about live theatre, then? I hear there's a drama club; are you involved in that at all?" His tone suggests that he would very much like the answer to be 'yes'. 

"Stage crew. Are you thinking of auditioning for the fall musical?"

"Oh, absolutely," Liam confirms. "Which reminds me, I need to find out when auditions open."

He grins. "I've been practising my American accent, too. 'I don't photograph well'," he quotes in a passable imitation of Matt's accent.

"Not bad. You don't really need to. Most people will find it charming."

"Most Americans find British accents attractive. I wouldn't give up that advantage."

"So I've heard. But versatility is an actor's best friend, don't you know." This in the most proper Queen's English he can manage, and he just about manages to get through it with a straight face. 

"Just theater? You could branch out."

"I've signed up for choir as well," Liam admits. He's not sure of the choir's reputation at this school yet, but he's pretty sure of at least one ally at the table. 

Is that the bell? "I've got Dual and Team next, anyone walking that way?"

"See if you can keep up."

He stands, walking briskly, with barely a goodbye to his friends.

Liam follows, waving goodbye to Rowan as he goes. "Bye, Matt, Danny."

He has to jog a little to catch up initially, but then keeps up without too much trouble. "David, right?"

"Yeah. What sports are you into?"

"Tennis and cricket, mostly, back home. I'll probably pick up baseball, I guess, but I've never played it. Maybe basketball, as well."

This is faster than he'd choose to walk, but at least it's a decent warm-up. It's not so fast that he doesn't have breath for talking, either. 

"That's cool." 

They arrive. 

The gym teacher has already begun to organize the students into two teams for dodgeball. 

"Ledford, glad you finally made it! On the left. You, other one, on the right."

There are only a few people on each side so far.

David goes where he's told.

As does Liam. The coach will have plenty of time to learn his name. 

He didn't think they were late, though, especially given how fast they were walking. Maybe it's just one of this school's unwritten rules that you arrive at gym early?

It might be this teacher. 

He seems to have a different insult for every student. 

The students who continue to filter in receive less intense insults, though. He ignores some of them entirely. 

Players take their positions. David seems to be focusing his throws on Liam.

Is he now. What a pity Liam is good at dodging, then.

He starts aiming for David in retaliation, why not. 

This does not seem to discourage him.

He throws more aggressively!

Oh, it's on. 

Liam's dodging start getting a little fancier, showing off for the audience. At the same time, he switches to targeting David exclusively, throws increasingly accurate as he gets used to the ball. 

He doesn't think he's done anything to make David hate him already, especially given that they were having a perfectly civil conversation right before class, so this is probably some peculiar method of testing his worthiness for friendship, or some such - whoops, getting distracted there, Pender. 

David is in fact pretty easy to hit when he gets really into it. 

Another player takes advantage of Liam's distraction to hit him.

Well, it had to happen at some point. He wasn't expecting to win, not on his first day. He managed to last longer than David, though, and that's something.

He retires gracefully, going to sit near David if that's allowed. If not, he'll find someone on his own team to make friends with. 

No one moves to stop him.

"Hey," David says, smiling thoughtfully. 

"That was impressive. I don't think I even got close to hitting you." 

"Thanks." Liam seems appropriately pleased with himself, but is careful to avoid 'smug'. 

"You did get impressively close, actually, although I guess it might not have looked like it. The other kid only hit me because I was distracted by managing to get you."

"There's probably an important life lesson in there, but I think learning that would make you a less interesting person. Might as well skip it. Have you thought about lacrosse?"

"I have not! Tell me about lacrosse?" he invites. "Assume I know nothing; we never played it at my last school."

David happily describes how lacrosse works.

Full contact, two teams, stick with mesh to catch and throw the small rubber ball from player to player as they alternate between trying to score on the other team's goalie and stick checking their opponents to keep them from winning.

"Sounds a little like hockey, I think. Both of them are seen as girls' sports in England, for some reason, so I've never played either."

He's paying enough attention to the dodgeball game, now down to the last few players, to move out of the way of the occasional stray ball, but is mostly listening to David. "Do you play lacrosse, then?"

"Me, Stiles, and Matt. It's sort of our thing." 

"Cool, maybe you could teach me sometime." 

And it looks like dodgeball has concluded. Liam doesn't particularly care which team won, since David's the only person in this class he's properly spoken to.

Liam's team won, possibly due to the way he drew David's attention so completely. They were the most compete ever players. Some of the other students are giving him confused glares. 

The gym teacher, on the other hand, claps him on the shoulder.

"Nice hustle. What's your name?"

Oh well. If any of them confront him, he can make up some explanation about having identified David as one of the more dangerous opponents or something.

"Thanks, sir. I'm Liam Pender." 

"I want to see you at tryouts. Are you a baseball or lacrosse guy? Who cares. Go to both."

He heads off, and everyone goes to the locker room to change.

...Alright then. He'll have to look up the rules of baseball, or ask David. And find out when tryouts are happening. 

He hopes tryouts and team practice times don't clash with theatre. That's the problem with extracurriculars; you can't always do all of them. 

While some students enjoy hitting each other with balls, others partake in the tradition of classic literature.

Rowan among them. She probably shouldn't sit next to Danny again...

How about that guy? Liam was talking to him at lunch, and they seemed to be getting on. That probably means he's friendly, right?

"Hi, I'm Rowan. I think you met Liam earlier? I'm his sister."

"Hey. I'm Matt. How are you liking it here so far?" 

The teacher begins passing out printed packets, apparently containing an excerpt of Walden. 

"Better than I expected, I think," Rowan replies thoughtfully. "AP classes seem to be difficult enough to be interesting, without being so hard that I can't keep up."

She takes a handout and starts reading, because that's just what you do when someone is offering you new reading material. 

"I didn't see you in any of my classes this morning; is English your only AP class?"

"That's pretty much the goal. Some people might go to college with just what they're expected to have, but some of us want more than that."

The excerpt is, as any excerpt from Walden would be, about escaping civilization and living in nature to find yourself. The teacher tells them that their job is to examine the use of imagery to support the author's central thesis. She reminds them of what imagery is, in case they've forgotten, and waits for them to be finished. It's only a few pages, so they're given five minutes.

Rowan checks whether they're allowed to annotate the extract, and makes notes using a different colour for each theme.

"The idea of just taking classes to fill a minimum requirement seems really strange to me. School is supposed to prepare us for the world, not just for college."

"Advanced classes aren't bad, but not every subject has them, and only AP classes are really stimulating." 

The teacher invites discussion. Does anyone have something to say?

Rowan does! She makes some intelligent points and seems to have a pretty good idea of what the author is doing, despite never having encountered his work before. (British schools: not so good on the American literature.) She's a little nervous, not wanting to dominate the discussion on her first day, but participates more in this class than she has all morning.

A few of the other students join in, Matt included. The teacher congratulates them all for the attempt, but seems most pleased with Rowan's analysis. 

For homework, they're to begin reading Hamlet.

That's nice. Rowan read it last year. She might go back and re-read the first act, though, just to make sure she remembers everything. 

Her next class is...Computer Science, apparently. 

Danny appears to be in that class as well. They can walk together.

"It looked like you and Matt were enjoying English."

"It's one of my favourite subjects," Rowan agrees. 

"So, what should I expect from Comp Sci?"

"The first few days will be basic stuff to make sure everyone knows how to use computers, but after that we'll dive into programming." 

They get to the computer lab early. Danny takes a seat in the front.

Rowan sits near Danny but not next to him.

Is there anyone else in this class she recognises? 

Just Danny.

The teacher would like to make sure everyone knows how to type. They go over that for the entire class.

Rowan can touch-type, yes. She taught herself when she was ten. 

She breezes through the exercises with about half her concentration. When she finishes them, she'll start typing out a summary of the first act of Hamlet from memory, unless she notices anyone obviously struggling. 

Most of the students seem comfortable. 

Class passes uneventfully. 

And next she has Orchestra!

Rowan has been learning violin for nine years, since she was seven. She's not exceptionally talented, but she's put in a fair amount of work over those years, and doesn't want it to go to waste.

Where does the teacher want her?

The teacher is happy to have her on violin. It's preferred that she bring her own, but they have some she can use if necessary.

One of Liam's new friends is there as well.

She came prepared, and brought her own violin - transported carefully from England when they moved. 

"Hi. Are you friends with Danny and Matt? I think I saw you sitting with them at lunch. I'm Rowan, Liam's sister."

"Me and Danny aren't friends. He's too good for us. How long have you played?"

Liam would know what to make of that comment; Rowan instead elects to ignore it. 

"Nine years, I started when I was seven. You?"

"Since I was ten."

They begin. Unlike her other classes, the teacher doesn't seem to think they need to be eased into the material.

That makes a nice change. 

Rowan's sight-reading skills get a workout, but she manages to keep up. It helps that the music is mostly new to everyone else as well. 

"I don't think I caught your name, sorry."

"Call me Callie. Everyone does."

The teacher keeps a watchful eye on certain students, including Rowan.

"She's looking for potential solos," Callie whispers when her gaze isn't on them. 

"Thanks for the warning," Rowan whispers back.

She continues playing to the best of her ability. She can always turn down an offer of a solo if it comes up. 

Not on the first day, it seems.

The teacher mostly leaves everyone to practice, and class ends soon enough. 

Danny appears to be in this class as well. 

It looks like they'll begin with a review of algebra before moving on to actual calculus. Here's a packet of algebraic concepts and problems to solve by the end of the week. 

Review over, they move into a definition of limits.

Appropriately, they seem to have hit the limit of Rowan's mathematical knowledge. This is all new information, and she's only just keeping up. 

She spends AP Calc working hard, and even has to raise her hand occasionally to ask for clarification. 

Clarification is given. The importance of the review packet is repeatedly stressed; it should help with any knowledge gaps, at least early on. 

And after calculus, Rowan is free to explore whatever extracurricular actions she chooses (school-sponsored or otherwise). 

After gym, Liam has US History. Delightful, a subject he knows almost nothing about. 

Hmm, which lucky person will he sit next to in this class?

There's a quiet young man sitting in the back corner, but Liam probably wants a less isolated seat. 

He'll say hi, but will leave the other kid alone if he wants to be left alone. 

"Hey, is it alright if I sit here? I'm Liam."

"Okay."

"And you are...?" he prompts gently when it seems no return introduction is forthcoming. 

"Isaac."

The teacher begins their discussion by asking the class about the motivations behind the Revolutionary War. 

Liam listens, having not studied this before.

He tries not to look too blatantly British while they discuss the injustices wrought by Britain against its colonies. It helps that he's at the back, actually - people would have to turn around to give him meaningful glares. 

Sitting in the back appears to be a winning strategy indeed.

The bell rings, indicating that it's time to shuffle to the next educational experience. 

Allison and Danny appear to be in his French class.

"Hi again!"

"Hey! How is your first day going?"

"Pretty well, thanks. I managed to get David out in dodgeball, that was cool."

And now they should probably start talking French instead of English.

Woo, conjugation!

Liam is actually pretty good at languages. Unfortunately, the part he's good at is the speaking and understanding, not the formal rules like conjugation and verb tenses. Not that he's bad at this part, he just doesn't have any particular advantage at it. 

It doesn't help that his French is rusty, since he's been studying Spanish for the last few years and hasn't touched French in that time. Still, he manages reasonably well. 

The teacher is impressed, as is Allison, but neither comment on it.

And then he has Choir.

Choir is fun. Liam is out of practice with this as well, though. He's kept singing casually, but hasn't been in a choir since he was twelve. He dropped out when his voice broke. 

Apparently he's a tenor now. That's nice. 

Liam's first day of school ends, just in time for after school activities. Is he interested in any of those?

He is! Today is the Human Rights club, according to the schedule he picked up.

He talks Rowan into coming with him instead of sitting in the library to start on homework.

The meeting has already begun, but it's not much of a meeting. The girl who greats them explains that this week is just for everyone to introduce themselves and get to know each other. 

There is one familiar face.

argh why are names so hard to remember - oh right that was it -

"Hi, Scott." Rowan leads Liam over to sit near the one person she recognises.

"I met Scott in Spanish, he's really good at it," she explains for Liam's benefit.

"Hi. I'm Scott. You know that, she just said that. It's nice to meet you?"

Liam chuckles. "Nice to meet you too, Scott." He has a way of saying 'nice to meet you' that somehow sounds like he genuinely means it, rather than just being polite. It took him months to perfect, back when he was twelve.

"I'm Liam, Rowan's brother," he introduces himself in return, since Rowan forgot to do that part.

"Are you guys liking Half Moon Bay? I hope it wasn't hard to adjust."

"We like it okay so far," Liam answers for both of them.

"Well, Rowan doesn't form judgements about things on this little evidence - " he goes to ruffle her hair; she dodges " - but we haven't had any problems settling in."

He turns a charming grin on Scott. "What about you? Have you always lived here, like everyone else I've asked so far?"

"I was born here, but me and mom moved back when I was around ten. I like it better than the East Coast."

"Oh? Why, what's wrong with the east coast?" Liam asks, only half-serious. 

"I like the sun, and I don't miss the rain. No offense."

The president reminds everyone that next week they'll begin writing letters in earnest.

And what issues will they be writing letters about?

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to defend British weather. Complaining about it is practically the national pastime! I won't miss the rain either."

They'll be writing to their representatives to urge them to abolish the death penalty.

"You're probably going to miss some things. I hope you guys settle in okay."

"Thank you," Liam responds, social niceties as instinctive as breathing by now.

"...you know," he remarks carefully, "I might miss being in a country that sees the death penalty as barbaric and outdated." Rowan nods agreement.

No argument from the human rights club, or Scott.

People begin filtering out.

And the Pender siblings head home.

"Well, we survived," Rowan says once they're on the bus. She slumps in her seat, staring blindly out of the window.

Liam squeezes her hand, knowing she wouldn't accept a hug in such a public setting. "We did," he agrees.

Allison returns home, mildly enthusiastic about the new students. She steadies herself.

"Alli, how was school? Are you making any new friends?" 

"There were some new kids today. They just came from England."

"I hope you're not feeling lonely."

"It's fine, mom."

"I know things have been difficult for you-"

"It's fine."

"We're here if you need anything."

The next day, Danny and Allison sit on the front steps as the other students walk past them.

She looks like she may have been crying. 

Danny looks like he's got this, but it doesn't hurt to say hello.

"Morning!" Liam says as they reach the steps. He goes for 'neutral' rather than being obnoxiously cheerful or sympathetic, leaving Allison the option of how she wants to play this. 

Crying? Who was crying? Not this girl.

She bites her lip, and wipes her face with her sleeve.

"Hi. How was your night?"

"Oh, pretty quiet," he answers, sticking with the casual tone. 

"Rowan did all her homework, I did most of mine, Dad snapped at Rowan, Rowan's mum yelled at me..." 

"If it gets too bad, you're free to come over to my house. My parents won't bother us." 

"Thanks, but it's pretty much background noise at this point. I did say 'quiet'," he points out wryly. 

Liam isn't entirely comfortable talking about this, but at least it seems to be distracting Allison from her own problems. 

"I might take you up on that at some point." He gives her a grateful smile. "Now, we should probably get to class...?"

They probably should, and indeed, they do.

Allison looks much calmer, at least. 

And English class proceeds to happen, much as it did yesterday.

At the end of English, he's out of his seat promptly and catches up with Stiles on his way out of the room. "Hey, can I walk with you? Seems silly not to, if we're going to the same place."

"Sure. Liam Pendleton, right?"

"Close!" He laughs, in a friendly way rather than a mocking one. It's only his second day, he's mildly impressed Stiles got that level of accuracy.

"It's Pender. And you're...Stiles?" Liam hardly ever forgets names, but he fakes uncertainty anyway. Some people find it unnerving if you know their name and not vice versa. 

"Well done, you got it. What's your next trick?"

Stiles walks at a quick pace. They arrive at the chemistry classroom early. 

Maybe he just has a thing about being early to class? Liam can't remember if he did the same thing at the end of Chem yesterday; he'll have to pay more attention.

"Well, I'd offer to guess your birth name, but I'm not actually a dick."

The chemistry teacher looks like he's trying to find something to criticize, but ignores them.

"You're not? Too bad, they're my favorite."

He takes out his notebook and sits down in his usual seat, a few tables behind Liam's.

...He feels like he should probably be offended.

Also, that was a pretty clear dismissal; he takes the hint and doesn't bother Stiles again for the rest of class. He does watch what happens at the end of the hour, though: is the rushing off to be early a Chem thing or a general Stiles thing?

He's generally a twitchy sort of fellow, but he doesn't rush nearly as much on his way out. 

Interesting. Something about Chem, then. Can't be his lab partner; Harley didn't get there until just before class started, so there'd be no point in being early...

Liam gives up on the mystery for now, filing it under 'unanswered questions about Stiles' along with the birth name he genuinely hasn't made any attempt to find out. There's a reason Stiles doesn't use it, and he doesn't need to know the reason to respect the choice. 

He goes to his next class, and focuses all his attention on art.

Meanwhile, Scott greets Rowan in Spanish.

"Hi. How are you doing?"

"Um..." OK she can do this they went over this yesterday -

"Good. And you?"

"Good. We speak Spanish, we can speak."

He gets his textbook out, flipping to the section on modal verbs.

Rowan's Spanish isn't really at conversational level yet, but she manages. She combines the use of the textbook, dictionary, and her notes from yesterday, plus her experience with French and the tiny amount of self-study she's made of Latin, to scrape together responses to Scott's much more confident usage. 

Fumbling her way through like this is excruciating for someone who dislikes being wrong as much as Rowan does, but she perseveres, and is noticeably more confident by the end of the hour.

"Thank you," she tells Scott. "Talking is - " brief pause to check the word " - helpful."

"Talking is good! I talk, you talk, we talk. Helpful for us."

Luckily, they're headed the same way.

They are! And they meet up with Liam as well, because lunch is the only time of day the siblings can see each other and they might as well take advantage of it. 

"I see you had fun in Art again," she teases when she notices the paint stain on Liam's sleeve. He follows her gaze, spots it, and swears. 

Are they sitting with Scott? 

Scott seems vaguely disconcerted.

They might as well, unless it seems like he doesn't want that.

Rowan doesn't notice Scott's mood, but Liam does.

"Sorry, is it the swearing? I can stop if it bothers you."

"No, it's just, it might not be a good idea to sit with me. It looked like you were making friends with Callie's friends and with Danny."

His friend arrives, pausing in front of the table. 

She looks unsure about where to sit.

"Well, yes. But I don't see why I shouldn't be friends with you as well," Liam replies. He is well aware, having experienced a day and a half's worth of the social hierarchy of this school, that Callie and friends are the popular crowd, while Scott is very much an outsider. He simply chooses not to let that dictate his choice of friends.

Rowan, of course, simply opts not to interact with such unwritten rules in the first place, and neither knows nor wishes to know what the fuss is about. 

Liam looks up. "Oh, hi...Erica, was it? Have we taken your seat?"

"No, it's fine."

She sits across from Liam.

"It looks like you're having fun in art."

 Liam gasps in mock horror, falling back in his seat as if stabbed.

"Oh no! You have guessed my terrible secret!" He puts a hand to his head.

"It's true, I confess it. I am...an artist! I can never sit with the popular kids again! Ah, woe is me!"

Rowan giggles.

"Guess you're stuck with us. You can still hang out with Danny, he likes everyone."

"Especially artists."

"What about your other classes? Anything good?"

"US History is interesting, especially since I've never studied it before; it's a new perspective on the world." Rowan nods in agreement.

"I had fun in Phys Ed yesterday as well, although I understand that one's more variable." Still, he's smiling at the memory of beating David in dodgeball. 

"I'm enjoying AP English," Rowan contributes, "and AP Chem and Calc are both sufficiently challenging to be interesting." 

Liam pokes her. "That's high praise, from Rowan," he translates.

"He's an athlete," she says, apparently to Scott. 

"I'm glad you're settling in okay. Have you thought about joining any other clubs?" 

"Animation club looks good, Rowan's trying out Debate next Monday, and we'd be going to the GSA meeting today except I promised to be at baseball tryouts and Rowan doesn't want to go without me."

Tone carefully casual, not making a big thing of it, just a thing people do. 

"That sounds cool. You're into animation?"

Oh good, we're ignoring the thing, that's nice.

"I hadn't considered it until we moved here, but someone noticed me doodling in my notes and suggested it as a potential direction." No need to mention Danny by name when it's clear they don't really get on. 

"What about you?"

"I'm not really in any other clubs. I work at the local vet's office, so I don't always have weekdays free."

"That's cool," Rowan says shyly.

"Do you get many weird animals in there?"

"Nothing exotic. We had a badger once, and a buzzard, but mostly it's local species."

Yes! Rowan made a friend. Liam's work here is done. 

"Erica, how about you? Not a sporty person, I take it?"

"I'm a liability. I might have a seizure on the field." 

"My condolences," Liam replies. He goes for sincere but not overly sympathetic, since they only just met.

"So what do you do with all the free time you spend not playing sports?" If the answer is 'nothing' or 'not much' he will be disappointed but not particularly surprised, and add it to his list of projects. 

"I mostly judge people."

"She's pretty good at it. I'm waiting for them to add it to the Summer Olympics."

"I look forward to it." He remembers that he's supposed to be eating, and does that.

"Might I ask how you would judge me?"

"Too friendly. You're over-compensating for something. Maybe you're a serial killer and you make hats out of people, maybe you're really horny all the time and don't want to make anyone feel used, maybe you're trying to make up for your sister; you two seem pretty close and she's not nearly as good at talking..."

...Well, he did ask.

"Or maybe my tragic backstory has left me with a looming anxiety about being liked, driving me to ensure I have as many friends as possible in case some of them abandon me," he responds cheerfully, giving no hint that he would suddenly rather be anywhere other than sitting here talking to this horribly perceptive person. 

"Thank you, that was very enlightening." It tells him that Erica has some trust issues, that he should probably tone down the friendliness a little, and that he's hovering over Rowan too much, most of which he could have guessed already. 

"We're keeping them."

"Ignore Erica, she's badly socialized. We're working on it."

The siblings have a silent conversation, conducted entirely through exaggerated facial expressions and rather quieter body language. 

Rowan hugs Liam.

"I like you," she says to Erica. "Please don't do that again, though, or Liam won't."

"The guessing what's in his head or the insulting him? Or saying it out loud."

"The..." - why are words so hard - "analysing him, out loud. You can think what you like," and her tone suggests this is so obvious it barely needs to be stated.

Nod.

Nom nom nom.

"Sorry," mumbles Scott, although it isn't clear who to.

"It's fine." He's only half lying. 

They continue eating in silence until it's time for everyone to go to class. 

That sure is a thing they're doing.

Class! And after class, there are after-school activities for those who wish to take part.

Liam shows up for baseball tryouts as instructed.

He looked up the rules last night, but doesn't think he'll be very good at it having never played before. Might as well find out, though.

Is he feeling competitive?

Tryouts begin. David is pitching first.

Not especially, but he'll give it his best shot. 

Turns out some of the relevant skills transfer across from cricket, but so do a lot of bad habits. He can hit the ball alright most of the time, but has to spend too much time thinking about where to run, since that's the part that's the most different. And he was never outstanding at cricket anyway, at least not the batting side.

David is a good pitcher, so it doesn't matter that much. 

Eventually, it's Liam's turn to pitch.

Here, he does slightly better. There's only so much variation you can get in 'throw the ball at the thing'.

There are still a few habits from cricket to unlearn, and his style is probably very different to what the Americans are used to, but after a couple of false starts he's actually a pretty decent pitcher. Probably not the best, or even in the top few, but far from the worst.

The coach seems to approve! 

After practice, they can each apply to three positions (preferably one they performed well in, but it's up to them.)

Liam will apply for pitcher, why not.

He doesn't think he'll make the team, though, even if David was his only competition.

And now he can stop playing strange American sports, drag his sister out of the library, and go home, right? 

Certainly! Nothing strange or unpleasant happens to him on his way home.

That makes a nice contrast to what happens when they get home. 

"You're late. Again." 

"Sorry, dad. I was trying out for the baseball team, and it overran." 

It didn't, not noticeably; he spent the extra time extracting Rowan from the library, and then waiting for the next bus because they missed the one he intended to catch. But it's an excuse that their father will believe, and that isn't something obviously and entirely his fault. That's more important than it being true. 

Sports are an Approved Activity, which scores him a few points. Even if it's a strange American sport.

"Did you get in, then?" his dad asks in a hopeful tone. 

There's an undercurrent of I would much rather you took an interest in this than anything else you've shown interest in.

"I don't know yet; the coach hasn't decided."

That was the wrong answer, but the right one would have been 'yes, of course', which, if false, could easily have spiralled into a conspiracy of fake baseball practices, matches...sometimes lying isn't worth it.  

He goes upstairs to get started on homework. Rowan, of course, already finished hers.

School proceeds. 

Stiles is punctual for chemistry, Scott and Erica demonstrate vaguely hostile bafflement that Liam and Rowan talk to them, and classes vary from mind-numbing to slightly challenging. 

After school is the first meeting of the animation club. 

Liam goes, having told his dad the club finishes half an hour later than it actually will. If it overruns, he'll leave on time anyway.

Rowan is doing homework in the library again, and has promised to leave promptly when he comes to get her.

Anyone he recognises in this club?

There's Matt, who waves at him. 

The club's activities are apparently fairly vague; there is as much study and practice of techniques as there is analysis; they will be watching animation and discussing it, and he can offer suggestions on content. Today is mostly for watching Fantasia and discussing that, apparently, 

Matt is talking quietly with Isaac.

Matt was somewhat expected; Isaac was not, but that's mostly because Liam doesn't know anything about him beyond his name. 

"Hi, Matt. Hi, Isaac. Mind if I sit here?"

"Sure, that's fine."

"Great!"

He sits next to Matt rather than Isaac, since he knows Matt a little better. 

"So, have either of you seen Fantasia before? I haven't; all I know is it's Disney."

"We watched it in school. It's- charming, I guess."

"Well, that sounds promising."

He smiles, and settles in to watch. He does not shift his chair any closer to Matt, why would he do that. 

Matt doesn't comment on any shifting that doesn't happen.

The movie is sort of charming. Dancing brooms and dying dinosaurs, all set to classical music.

Rowan would probably take notes. Liam finds himself too distracted by trying to recognise the music, or by the stories, or the pretty animation.

Each segment seems to have a slightly different art style, which is interesting, as are the (slightly psychedelic in places) colour schemes.

He'll be utterly absorbed for the entire time, unless anyone tries to get his attention.

Does Matt's whispered conversation with Isaac count?

Nope! 

Apparently the only way to distract Liam from paying attention to every single person around him is to give him fictional people to pay attention to instead. 

The movie will eventually be over. After two hours.

Students begin to filter out before then.

Liam stays to the end, checking his watch to make sure he's not going over the time he's supposed to leave. (He's not.)

At some point he started idly considering how he might have done that part differently, or something else that could have fit better with this segment...

Matt sticks around to the end.

Liam blinks, transferring his attention back to reality.

"That was fascinating."

He refrains from babbling about it before getting any indication that babbling would be welcome.

"Any ideas? What do you want to make?"

"Oh, I don't know..."

He thinks about it. 

"The one with the dinosaurs was fun, but something like that would mean learning to draw a bunch of different animals..."

"I'm sure you could do it if you wanted to. There's a zoo not too far from here, and we have a vet in town who does this animal rescue kind of thing. If you need the practice, you have options."

"Thanks for the tip," he says, giving Matt a broad smile. "I'll look into that."

Now Matt's mentioned it, he remembers Scott saying he volunteers at the vet clinic. He might be able to get away with taking the time for a trip if he can convince Rowan to come along, and pretend it's an outing with a friend rather than an extracurricular art project. One of those is much more likely to meet with parental approval than the other.

Speaking of which, he should probably collect Rowan and get home.

He probably should.

Matt says goodbye, and they go their separate ways. 

And the next day is Friday, which is when Coach said he'd post the results of the baseball tryouts. 

Liam isn't particularly expecting to have made the team, and actually mostly hoping he hasn't, because baseball practice clashes with GSA meetings. On the other hand, his dad would be pleased. 

For something he didn't really care about to begin with, it's surprisingly nerve-wracking to go and check the list. 

It's really lucky he doesn't care either way.

No pressure.

He made it. 

David made it too, of course. 

"So I guess we're teammates now."

"I guess, yeah." He grins ruefully.

"Wasn't really expecting that, to be honest. Oh, and congratulations, by the way. I'm not surprised you got in, you're much better than me."

"We do take praise, thanks. How do you want your change? I can probably get you some state secrets."

Liam bursts out laughing.

"You know, Rowan would take you up on that," he comments. "Personally, I'm not sure what I'd do with unspecified state secrets."

"I almost believe that innocent face. Ask Callie and Stiles what they'd do with state secrets, and you'll see why I can't just go spreading them." 

He considers what he knows about Callie and Stiles. 

"I think I can imagine, yes."

But they seem to be actually entertaining the question, so he attempts to figure out his own answer. "I think I'd take it straight to Rowan, because she'd never forgive me if she found out I knew a cool secret and didn't tell her. And then...it depends on the secret."

"That's almost sensible. I'll keep you in mind."

Liam has class, as usual.

And, as usual, Stiles wants to be early to Chem?

Liam catches up with him about halfway there. He's going for 'interesting', these days, when interacting with people he's not already friends with. Apparently 'friendly' is too obvious. 

"So, according to David, I should ask you what you'd do with state secrets."

"Blackmail, judicious leaks, and the threat of those. Why?"

"He was explaining why he wouldn't spread them around, if he knew any."

David might, actually, know some interesting secrets, judging by the way he was talking about it. It's still not likely, not in a school full of apparently normal teenagers, but David seems more likely than most of them.

"My answer merited an 'almost sensible', which from David I think might have been a compliment."

"Yeah. You're not getting anything better. He likes his pets more than people." 

The fact that David apparently has pets gets noted. Liam may not be on Rowan's level when it comes to remembering science-related information, but people-related he can do.

"What about you? Pets, friends, or both?" 

This conversation seems to be going better than their last, but it might not stay that way. His usual tactics don't work on Stiles, or maybe it's more a general cultural problem given that he failed with Erica as well...

"No pets, one to three friends depending on how you count." 

He starts to pick up the pace, finally noticing that he's slowed down to have this conversation. 

Liam matches his pace. It wouldn't do to be late for Chem. 

"Callie, Matt and David?" he guesses. "You guys seem like friends to me. I guess Callie's the 'one'?"

"We're the closest. I've known David the longest." 

It looks like they're actually on time today! Lucky them.

Lucky indeed. Liam doesn't want to think about what would happen if he got a detention.

Mr. Harris doesn't comment on their punctuality. 

One student is late, though.

She tries to apologize.

"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Harris, I was-" 

"I'll see you after school, Pratt. Take a seat."

She sits.

Chemistry eventually comes to an end.

Meanwhile, Rowan has Spanish with Scott and Erica. She has been growing a lot more confident in her spoken Spanish over the last few days of talking with Scott, but is still very aware that her vocabulary is limited. 

Still, she can manage a "Buenos días!" without feeling even slightly worried about getting it wrong and making a fool of herself. 

Scott seems to be impressed!

They're rather obviously ahead of the class now, and the teacher seems approving, but naturally focuses on the other students.

Scott wants to make sure they can express preferences and talk about time.

Rowan is good at memorising vocabulary and grammar rules, but less good at putting sentences together on the spot without referring to her notes. Still, she can have a go at constructing some sentences in past and future tense. 

She's confident enough in Scott and Erica now that she can try things even when she's not sure they're right, trusting that they'll help her correct it instead of laughing or making fun of her. With that security in place, she makes progress faster.

They don't laugh. 

Erica isn't much ahead of her, but she's supportive. 

And then they have lunch.

At lunch, Rowan waves Liam over to join them, remembering that he wanted to talk to Scott.

"Go on," she whispers. "Ask him. The worst that can happen is he'll say no."

Alright then. 

"Hey Scott, I was wondering..." he starts, once they're sat down.

"Could we come by the vet clinic and see you sometime? Maybe get a tour?"

He tries to make it sound like an idle thought, not a big deal either way.