two small-town life

☆

FIRST DAYS WERE ALWAYS THE WORST, ESPECIALLY WHEN SCHOOL WAS ALREADY IN SESSION AND YOU JUST TRANSFERRED. There were stares, whispers, exchanging stories and soon everyone knew that the new girl Evanora Hathaway had a dead mother and no father and now she's in Hilltown. It was great; just the impression she wanted from her new peers.

         Because while her old school had given her pity looks, at least they already knew her. Or, at least, some of them did, so she wasn't just the new girl with a sob story and a fresh start. She was Evanora the runner, Evanora the lead prosecutor for mock trial, Evanora who went to every football game and cheered even though she wasn't a cheerleader – though Jane tried to convince her. They already knew her, but to these kids, she was just Evanora Hathaway the new girl with a sob story.

         And she hated it.

         The school wasn't terribly large, just about the size of her old one, but she didn't know the hallways or the doors or any of the teachers. There was no one who could tell her about Miss Hawthorne or Coach Jones or whoever else and she couldn't pass down her knowledge to anyone else about Mr. Peterson or Dean Godbee because she didn't know the dean was or any of the teachers. She knew nothing; completely helpless and a senior, to make matters worse.

         She was almost done with her four years with Jane, had painted it on the back of her car and everything, and now she had to start everything over again because her mother was murdered and instead of finding out who killed her, the Council just moved her away. And Colleen wondered why she disliked the Elders so much.

         She looked at her schedule, which had the same classes she had already been taking, but with different periods for them and different teachers. Different students, different setting, different everything. And even though she told Marisol that she did not need Maggie to show her around – she could do it all herself, thank you very much – she found herself overwhelmed as Bridget Thimble, the school president, smiled at her with pearly whites all on display as she held out her hand.

         "Hi, I'm Bridget and welcome to Hilltown High," she greeted, an overly cheery voice hurting Evanora's ears, "I think we're gonna be great friends. Do you need any help getting to classes."

         Yes, but not from you, Evanora wanted to say, but she knew that would only make Colleen yell at her later and she had already been through enough of that. "I think I can figure it out myself," she smiled at the girl, showing that she didn't mean any harm – even though she did – and walked away before allowing the girl to say anything else.

         H103. That's all she had to find for English. Just H103 and then she would be able to sit down and not think about getting lost for a whole forty-five minutes before the next class. She could manage that...right?

         Evanora hadn't even been paying attention to where she was walking, just staring at the room numbers as she passed from door to door, until she found herself colliding heads with someone else. "Ow," she muttered, bringing her hand to her head before looking to see who she hit.

         "My bad," she heard as she looked up, seeing Maggie. At least there was one familiar face. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm so sorry."

         "It's fine," Evanora assured the girl, even though she was sure that if that had happened before she would have sneered and complained to Jane about it later, "I wasn't paying attention either."

         "Hey, you're Evanora, right? You were, uh, talking with my mom a couple days ago?" Maggie questioned, staring at her face.

         She felt uncomfortable with the attention, even if it came from seeing her before and not just having her name spread around and her face new and shiny. "Um, yep," she nodded in confirmation, "And you're Maggie?"

         "Yeah," the girl beamed, happy that Evanora remembered her, "Do you need any help getting to class? I just have Gym first so it's alright if I'm a little late."

         She thought about saying no, keeping her pride and refusing help and being helplessly loss but not having to admit that she did need a guide like Marisol had suggested, as she had told Bridget earlier. However, Maggie looked so genuine and sweet, wide eyes looking to Evanora and she couldn't help it – she was always a sucker to a cute girl – and she nodded.

         "That'd be great actually," Evanora laughed, "I thought I'd be able to find everything on my own, but guess I can't."

         Maggie smiled at her and giggled, causing her heart to flutter at the sound, "Come on. What do you have first?"

         "Um," she looked down at the sheet again, "English with Mrs. Pearson?"

         Maggie nodded and started to walk so Evanora followed her. "Do you wanna sit with me at lunch? My friends won't mind or anything," Maggie asked her.

         Without thinking, Evanora nodded. "Yeah, thanks," she said in appreciation, now knowing she won't be alone.

         "Here," Maggie said after a moment, "I'll see you later, yeah?"

         "Yeah," she agreed, watching as Maggie walked off before walking into the classroom just as the bell rang. She looked around the room, not knowing exactly where to sit, before going to Mrs. Pearson's desk.

         "Um, hi. I'm Evanora Hathaway. I'm in your class now," she supplied as the teacher looked up at her.

         When she finished, Mrs. Pearson smiled at her. "There's an open desk right there. Take a seat and we'll talk later to get you caught up with the rest of the class."

         Evanora nodded and took her seat where the teacher had pointed. She looked at the other students in the class, who were all glancing at her before looking away quickly as to not look as though they were talking about her and she sighed.

         This was going to be such a long day.

☆

         LUNCHTIME CAN AROUND AND EVANORA FOUND HER WAY INTO THE LUNCHROOM, THOUGH SHE WAS LOST FROM THERE. She looked around aimlessly for Maggie, not knowing who else to try and find since Maggie hadn't given any names of the friends she sits with and she hadn't seen the girl since that morning. Still, with all the hustle and bustle, she couldn't find the girl at all.

         She didn't want to get in line just yet and she didn't know where to sit and she felt her magic itching inside her. Her hands started to meld together and mess with each other as she bit her lip slightly, stepping on her tippy-toes as to try and find Maggie but with no such luck.

         "Evanora!" she heard someone else and her head snapped into that direction. There, she saw the Vera girl with a bright smile as she waved to get her attention and bring her over there.

         She felt her shoulders relax and her hands break away, her magic settling as she walked over to where Maggie was sitting with another boy and girl.

         "Evanora, hi," Maggie greeted her warmly, "How's your classes been?"

         "Overwhelming, but it's fine," Evanora answered but waved it off as Maggie nodded.

         "Well, this is Tommy," the boy waved his wand, "and this is Diana," the Asian girl smiled at her.

         "Hey, so you're Evanora the new girl?" Diana asked, leaning in like she was trying to get a better look at her. Evanora shuffled uncomfortably.

         "Diana!" Maggie hissed at her friend, "Don't say that!"

         "What?" Diana asked innocently, her eyes portraying that but her mouth in a grin as she knew what she had done yet didn't care.

         "It's fine. Yeah, I'm Evanora but you can just call me Nora. Everyone else does," she said. Diana nodded in response.

         "Hey, babe," Evanora heard and watching as someone wrapped their arms around Maggie and gave her a kiss, causing the girl to brighten. When he let go, he looked at her. "Who's this?"

         "Nora," Diana answered, "The new girl, obviously. Maggie invited her to sit with us."

         "Cool," the guy nodded, sending her a welcoming smile, "I'm Brian."

         "My boyfriend," Maggie supplied, interlocking hands with him as if to prove the statement.

         Evanora felt her heart drop for a moment, knowing that Maggie was straight and uninterested, and the bright smiles and giggles were strictly platonic and nothing more. Yeah, like Maggie would've even liked her if she was gay, but now there was no hope.

         "I'm gonna go get food," Tommy stood up, straightening out his shirt as he did.

         Diana nodded, "I'll join you in a minute. I've gotta confirm some details about face paint with Penny," and then she left the table.

         Evanora placed down her bag in one of the chairs before joining Tommy to stand in line. "When did you meet Maggie?" he asked her as they got in line.

         "Our moms were friends and then when my aunt brought me in, we moved here," she lied, though she was sure that Juliana and Marisol were friends. She couldn't confirm it, what with her mother being six feet underground and the fact that Juliana never mentioned the names of the Elders unless she was bitching about them, but by the way Marisol was attempting to look out for her, it seemed as though they were friends. Maybe, anyway.

         "Cool," Tommy said, "Saw the way you were looking at Maggie earlier."

         Evanora was startled and her face showed it as she looked at Tommy. "What?" she asked.

         He gave her an unimpressed look. "I saw the way you were looking at her. You think she's hot. I mean, you're not the only one, everyone's had a crush on her at one point, but Brian's the only one who's ever dated her."

         "Oh," Evanora couldn't keep the disappointment out of her voice.

         "But they're more on-and-off again," Tommy said, sending her a sly smile, "Brian's been mad about Maggie since, like, elementary school but Maggie only got with him last year and it's been rocky. I never told you this, but I'm pretty sure Maggie's planning another break up soon. Bet it'll only last a week unless someone can change her mind..."

         "Brian ever break up with her?" she asked, her heart racing as Tommy gave her a knowing look as he trailed off before.

         He shook his head. "Nah, he's too gone for her to do that. Always sends like ten texts in the groupchat when Maggie takes him back. I think he's just settled with her and hasn't looked anywhere else."

         "Oh," Evanora repeated, "Why are you telling me this?"

         "You seem cool," Tommy shrugged, "And Brian only ever hangs out when anyone when he's not with Maggie, so there's a shared interest. Any time they're together, he forgets about his friends unless Maggie's there, and even then all he does is pay attention to her. It's kinda annoying and I'm always left with it."

         "Not Diana?"

         "Nah," he told her, "It's usually after games when he get together and she's all high and with her cheerleader friends which means I stay with Maggie until Brian comes around all sweaty from playing all night and steals her way. God, he smells disgusting. I don't know how she can stand him."

         Evanora stifled a laugh as they got up to get their food and their conversation died out until they got back to the table where Maggie and Brian were cozying up to each other. Tommy mimed throwing up to her, causing her to grin. The couple didn't notice them.

         "So, Maggie," Tommy spoke up, breaking the couple out of their bubble, "What's the theme for the game this weekend?"

         "Pink," she answered, "For breast cancer awareness. You taking more pictures?"

         Tommy nodded at the question and stuffed his face with food. Evanora frowned at of confusion but Maggie seemed to notice and explained, "Tommy's in Photography class right now and they have a theme. His is the simple, American life for teenagers."

         "Yeah," he agreed, "I take pictures of all the games, it's really just about Hilltown."

         "The small-town life?" Evanora questioned and he nodded, "Nice. I like it."

         Tommy beamed at that, grinning from ear to ear at the little praise. "Thanks. It's not really interesting – I mean every game is similar – but I did get some pictures once of some kids racing in shopping carts outside of Wal-Mart once. That's probably the only interesting photo. Mrs. Jenkins thinks it's dumb and I don't get really high grades for my work, but I like it."

         "Yeah, but Mrs. Jenkins also has a stick up her ass about everything," Diana rejoined the table, setting down her tray before sitting down next to Tommy and across from the couple. "Izzy's in her AP Art class and she gives a look – like, a look look – to everything she works on. Ugh, God I hate that woman."

         "She's not bad all the time," Tommy defended her, though somewhat weakly as he then added, "But she has a terrible case of favoritism."

         "Don't I know it," Maggie grumbled, "When I took art freshman year she practically bowed down to Bridget Thimble – ugh!"

         "Come on, babe, it wasn't that bad," Brian disagreed, with an easy smile on his face as he laughed at the annoyed expression on Maggie's face.

         "I'm sorry, were we taking the same class? Because from what I remember, Bridget dropped a clay project and Mrs. Jenkins made her a new one and then gave her a 100! On something she didn't even create!" Maggie ranted.

         Evanora smiled at how worked up Maggie had gotten. "This is why I took Chorus instead of art," Diana broke in, "I think I'd have bashed in her head if she was my teacher."

         "I wish I took Chorus," Maggie grumbled, pouting now which Brian cooed at and brought her face up to peck her on the lips again.

         "Ew, get a room guys," Diana teased, though not really caring about the PDA. Tommy sent another look to Evanora, which she agreed with. She didn't think she could stand them constantly kissing in front of her, but that was for a whole different reason.

         "You're just jealous you don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend," Brian said, causing Diana to throw a tater tot at him. Sadly, he caught it and ate it theatrically, really showing it off to Diana.

         "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Diana waved them off before turning to Evanora, "So, what do you do?"

         Evanora frowned, "What?"

         "Like, do you cheerlead? Sing? Dance? Play sports?" Diana clarified, listing off different activities.

         "No, not really," Evanora shook her head, "I used to take dance but I stopped and I used to run but I'm not sure if I'll do it this spring..."

         "Yeah, our track team is actual shit," Diana informed her, "Like, our coaches never schedule practices and then no one shows up and we're always last place but oh well. It's not like anyone cares."

         "Then I definitely won't," Evanora decided and Diana nodded at her decision.

         "Brian goes running every morning," Maggie said, "I'm sure he'd be fine if you joined him, right?"

         Brian gave Maggie a look before she elbowed him and he cleared his throat. "Yeah, that'd be fun," he obviously lied, "We could, uh, get to know each other and everything..."

         He trailed off awkwardly and it was clear to everyone that he didn't want that, no matter what Maggie said. So, to save him (and because she didn't want to spend more time with him anyway), she shook her head but smiled at the offer. "Thanks, but I'm good," she told him, "I'll probably just run with my, uh, my aunt."

         As if. Colleen was far from being her aunt or anything related to her, but it was easier to lie and say that than explain that oh my mom died so then this Council of Elders gave me someone who could train me and be my guardian now. That would not go over well at all. So, she lied, as she always had to do when things involved her mom.

         Brian nodded and didn't push it further, just going back to whatever conversation he and Maggie were whispering to each other. Evanora picked up her fork and brought the corn to her mouth, chewing on it as Diana started to spew something about the pep rally on Friday and she found herself relaxed.