Billy spoke briefly before Hopie approached.  "Esperanza Glass, sir.  Don't know for sure."  He answered the librarian's questions.

---

He shook his head regarding History and nodded in concurrence with Gym.  "Hard pass on all the cartwheels for me, thanks.  I'll just carry my groceries in a box if I have to."  He commented drily.

---

"Fortunately, at our age it's easier to get that weight back off, huh, coach?"  Billy asked Keel, half serious, but entirely ribbing him.

"You want a hand with that, Esperanza?"  He offered as the young lady looked rather dazed.

Hope jumped when Billy, spoke to her. "Perdon? Uh oh, you'd make a great ninja, William sabe?  I'm fine gracias. Just lost in thought. Besides, this bag is not even heavy."

Pan the camera low to the ground.  A car pulls up to the curb at Sunnydale High. The passenger door opens.  A pair of feet touch the ground wearing brand new expensive sneakers.

You hear the voice of a teenage girl say "Bye mom!"

The car drives off and the camera pans up from the shoes revealing  designer pants, a designer top and finally the stunningly beautiful face of a girl with brown eyes and raven black hair. As the camera pans out to reveal her full height you see that she's tall for a girl.  5 foot 10 inches to be precise.

She is Brittany Foster, the newest student at Sunnydale High.  It's obvious she's new.  She looks around with a look of confusion on her face.  Up until now Brittany has attended private school her whole life.  This is her first venture into public school.  She's a stranger in a strange land.

Time to get down to business.  She'll ask somebody for help finding her first class.  Brittany looks around the crowd then observes a boy offering to help a girl carry a large duffel bag, but she politely declines.
Well, he seems like the helpful type.Brittany thinks to herself.

The girl walks off carrying the bag following a man with another duffel bag.  Brittany approaches the boy.

Brittany is now standing directly in front of Billy Thomson.

"Hi I'm Brittany.  I'm new here.  This is my first day.  Can you show me where room 215 is?"

Liam's face fell at the thought of running 10 laps.  He hadn't put on any weight!  His friend's faces fell as well.

"Ugh.  Think he's trying to kill us."
"Nah, he can't torture us if we are dead."

Liam sighed.  At least they could talk about the new module as they followed behind the rest of the class.

Another car drove up and the three stared slack jawed at the movie star entrance.  She was quickly ruled out as WAY out of their league.

Liam sighed again.  "These new semesters are rough.  Dangle a bit of hope in your face only to watch it vanish in a few days."
"Yea, but at least we have each other."
"No offense, but I don't know you guys if she talks to me."
"Dream on."  "You wish."  They replied simultaneously.

"I, uh, sure... happy to.  I'm Billy."  Billy stammered and recovered.  He led the way into the school and toward the stairs up.

"What brought you to Sunnydale, and where did you come from?" He asked politely as he pointed things out as they went through the school.

Brittany follows Billy into the school and pays attention to his tour notes.

"I'm from San Diego.  We moved here because of my dad's job.  I left my friends and my boyfriend behind.  My boyfriend and I are going to try to do the long distance thing, but that thing doesn't exactly have a good track record.  I was on the cheerleading team at my old school.  Sunnydale High is  having mid-year cheerleading try-outs later this week.  If I can make the team here, that will definitely pep me up about this whole moving thing."

She pauses to take a closer look around the school before continuing. The building looks new.  Must not be that old.

"Do you belong to any clubs or teams?"she says to Billy.

Brittany takes a closer look at her class schedule.  "Maybe we have some classes together." Brittany begins reading off her schedule to Billy.  Her first five classes are totally different than his schedule.

Then she gets to the last class of the day. "Sixth period: Gym with Coach Keel. You in any of those classes?"

Billy shrugged.  "Sports and clubs were never really my speed.  I've got a kid sister to watch and I'm not that great at anything to begin with.  I sometimes haunt the library when I have a bit of time, though.  If you're wanting to cheer and not have your highschool years be the stuff they base combat-zone movies on, you're probably going to need to decide that you want to convert to the church of Malvina.  Services are held daily here at school, morning through afternoon,"  He concluded with a smirk.

When she talked about her schedule, he let her know about their match.  "I'm in none of those classes except gym.  Keel's a bit tough, but not quite so bad as to drive anyone to do anything drastic."

He paused at a door.  "This is 215.  If you're going to be popular the easy way, you probably don't want to spend too much time around me - I live strictly in middling territory.  I'll keep a seat open for you at lunch, though, so you have a branch to grab before falling to the LARPing pariahs if things go over a cliff."

Meanwhile in the gym:

Coach Keel walks into his office and drops his bag.  It lands with an audible thud.

"Hopie, you can drop your bag right next to mine."

Hopie drops her bag and it also lands with an audible thud.  The coach then unzips both bags revealing both are filled with assorted sports equipment.

The bell rings.

"There's the bell.  Hang on Hopie, I'll write you a hall pass.  Have you been working out over the break?  You lifted that bag like it was full of pillows and you're not breathing heavy at all."

The coach hands Hopie her hall pass.  "Have a good day. I'll see at gym class later."

In the school, and out on the lawn:

Everyone hears the bell ring.

Time to get to get to your first class.



OCC:We're about to wrap up this first scene.  Make one last character post that ends with you heading off to your first class of the day.

Brittany hears the bell ring.

"Here we are right on time.  Church of Malvina eh?  I'm guessing she's the Queen Bee of our class.  We'll see about that." Brittany says cryptically.

"I'll probably spend lunch alone this week.  I'm going to find a quiet spot and catch up on my texting each day.  All my friends will want to know how things are going here.  And the first thing I'll tell them is about the nice guy who helped me find my first class, otherwise I might have been wandering the halls all day."

Brittany smiles at Billy.  Her smile is sincere, although not flirtatious.  More of a friendly/sisterly smile.

"I'll see you later in gym."Brittany says as she goes in room 215.

There is little need for Coach Keel to write Hopie a note but she takes it anyway.  She's hardly late at all but on the first day of school, Ms Clarkson can be a total b****.  "No Coach", she says, "I just woke up this morning feeling in much finer fettle than usual."

"I'll see you later Coach", she says and with a hop, a skip and a jump, followed by a spinning on her heel, she is gone from the gym and on the way to her first class of the day.

"Good luck."  He commented sincerely at the thought of anyone re... no, dis-placing Malvina.

Genuinely smiling back, Billy replied, "You're very welcome.  Have a great day."

He then went quickly to his own first period, shocked at how differently this term had started than any other.  It was a nice change.

“There’s the bell.  See you later Jimmy.  See you later Harry.”  Liam turned to head to first period.  Gone were the days of grade school where they might share every class.  At least something would overlap and homework could be done together.  Besides they could always meet in the library to study.

The new semester was about to start.  Liam didn’t expect it to be much different from the last one.  Only time would tell.

First day, and late!

Tori hurtled into view, pedaling hard, and skidded as she came through the gates, barely avoiding a crash. She jumped off as she slammed her bike into the rack, stumbled for a moment, then ran to the doors, her book bag bouncing.

There'd be time to catch up with the others later. And time to kill her brother - again.

As the students settle into their first class, the morning announcements are read.

Items of interest:

Weather today:  Warm and sunny with a temperature high in the mid sixties.

Taco day in the cafeteria.

Mid season cheerleader try-outs will be held Thursday afternoon.

Reminder that the sophomore class president and vice president tragically died before Christmas. Special elections to be held to fill the two vacant offices.  Any sophomore that wishes to run for the offices must sign up by Friday.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Most of the day proceeds normally.

It's now sixth period.  Time for Coach Keel's gym class.

Students enter the boys and girls locker rooms and exit in their gym clothes.

OCC: Gym class time!  Your character should be exiting the locker room in their gym clothes, waiting for class to begin.

Tori was one of the first to get changed. Being of the better athletes in her year, she enjoyed gym class.

While waiting for the others, she began doing a few stretches to loosen up.

The remainder to run for student council hardly registered on Liam.  Sure, he knew off he girls that had died, but that was about it.  They didn’t interact with his world and he had no interest in the council.  Tacos had been his big takeaway from the updates.

If school ended now, Liam would have called the first day back a good day.  History class provided a new topic he could sink his teeth into.  The other classes held some promise.  Unfortunately neither of his friends were in the same gym class.  So he had to navigate the unknown on his own.

He dressed quickly.  Locked his locker and made his way into the gym.  He had his glasses on anticipating a jog, but would remove them if needed.  Unfortunately, he was near sighted so it could leave him pretty blind for his nemesis- dodge ball.

The others must have heard the coach and we’re dragging their feet regarding a run.  Liam never was the first one out.  Luckily he had his glasses.  Tori was warming up.  He was sure half the boys had a crush on her.  Maybe half was an understatement.  He waved to be nice with the understanding that would be the extent of their relationship.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:33, Tue 19 Apr 2022.

Hopie was not quite the last to arrive, but neither was she first or near first.  She had cobbled together gym gear from lost property at the beginning of last term but by now, she had made the whole ensemble uniquely her own.  It was not exactly the outfit of the most fashionably first ranked of superstars but for Tia Rita's most toothsome ward, it would do.

She stood and waited to see what Coach Keel would have her do.

Brittany exited the girls locker room in her gym clothes.  Her outfit looked pretty standard issue with gold shirt and maroon shorts, the Sunnydale High colors.  Her new sneakers were ready for action.  Her hair was down this morning, but now pulled back in a pony tail.

She looked around and didn't see anyone she knew.  No sign of Billy who she met this morning, but boys were still coming out of the locker room.

A girl she didn't recognize was doing some warm up stretches.

Good idea.

Brittany began to raise her right leg, and while staying perfectly balanced on her left leg, kept her right leg perfectly straight as she raised it until her ankle was a few inches away from her face, as if she were posing for a photo of a perfect cheerleader high kick.

Billy went out pretty squarely in the middle of the guys.  He was as fastidious in avoiding being first as last.

As he came out, he saw (and for a moment gawked at) Brittany stretching.  He - barely - kept himself from going over to greet her.  This was clearly a moment for her to get some attention and make first impressions with people who hadn't met her yet, and he had no interest in being attached to any of those impressions.

Instead, he began stretching near some of the other guys.  As he did so, he visited his mind palace and began making references for himself to important things that happened during classes that day and filing away the less important details in more obscure spots.  He finished that quickly and then began considering who might best fill the student council spots.

Tori wasn't a fool - well, not a complete one - and knew her stretches would attract attention. She grinned at Liam when she caught him looking. At least he didn't seem creepy, unlike some of the other guys. She nodded to Esperanza when she appeared, wondering just how the other girl gave such a mix-and-match outfit a sense of style.

Brittany's arrival invoked a flash of jealousy. Maybe it was because she wore the same outfit, but wore it better. Determined not to be outdone, and wanting to show off the flexibility she'd gained from her taekwondo lessons, Tori copied her move. Just as Billy came out.

The students' chatter and warm-up routines were interupted by the blow of a whistle.

Coach Keel is here.

"Welcome back kids.  Happy new year!  Bet you all put on some weight over the holday season.  Well don't worry, the coach has got you covered.  We usually do five laps around the inside of the gym to start class.  Today we're doing ten laps!"

Audible groan from the class.

The coach continues; "But first we have a new addition to the class.  Brittany Foster.  This is her first day at Sunnydale High.  Brittany, why don't you introduce yourself to the class and tell us about yourself."

Often when a teacher asks a new kid to stand in front of the class and talk about themselves, it's the new kid's worst nightmare.

Not for Brittany.

She dashes a few steps up in the bleachers, now appearing as she were on a stage in front of the class.

"Hi, I'm Brittany Foster from San Diego.  I just moved here with my mom and dad.  I'm an only child.  I was on the cheerleading team at my old school and plan on trying out for this team later this week. So....if you're on the cheeleading team, we may soon be teammates!"

Brittany then slowly climbs down the bleachers as if she were regally descending a spiral staircase while wearing the perfect prom dress.

She smiled at me!  So that single moment made his day.  This goddess of a woman had looked at him!  The guys would certainly be jealous.

Liam cringed at the worst nightmare scenario.  Brittany weathered it like a champ.  He was impressed, but glad it was her and not him.

When the run started, Liam hung near the back of the boys group.  He wasn't the slowest, but this was likely his kind of people and he certainly wasn't going to be able to keep up with the jocks.

When the run started, Hopie just ran, not really paying attention to what anyone else was doing.  She just wanted to get this ten laps over with so she could sit down again and chill, or maybe get back to studying so she could get the best grades she could so she could move to Spain.