From City to Country

[Matreania]

"Taylor." he heard his name called and turned around, with his nice smile. He was well known for being the guy to talk to about everything, he wasn't the popular kid, that was an honor that his best friend, Michael had, but he was pretty close to being the guy everyone knew. He usually stayed on his toes, at an time a girl might notice him in a way he might actually encourage. But he didn't want attention just to have it, he was a nice guy and that was what made him the guy to talk to.


"Hey, Seth, what's up?" he asked, turning back to his locker, assuming that Seth had something important to say, but knowing he probably didn't.


"Did you finish that project? You know, the plant one?"


Taylor nodded, "Yeah, just turned it in, science is in like an hour, I'm not carrying that thing all around school." he chuckled, putting everything in his backpack in his locker and taking a book out.


"Well, mind if I say we were partners, I forgot mine at home this weekend and it died."


Taylor chuckled, of course he left it to die, Seth was not responsible for anything, Taylor nodded, "Whatever, but you owe me." he smirked, as he started down the hall.


Seth called out "Thanks, your the best." he said, before heading the other way. Taylor just laughed, shaking his head.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine stared in dismay at the open locker in front of her, sighing. She had been in the same class as most of her friends since she started preschool. And she had certainly never switched classes in the middle of a school year, much less switching schools entirely. Yet here she was, in a small town school, starting half-way through the school year. Even worse, she was the city girl moving to a small town. Her sky blue skirt and shiny silver top and black leather jacket and combat boots had been earning her odd looks since she first got out of her uncle's beat up pickup truck several minutes earlier. It definitely stood out here. Plus, these kids probably all knew each other, and she was new. But the worst of all was her class schedule. She had been half way through her fourth year of french classes. Instead she had been thrown into an introductory Spanish class half way through the year. Which was a language she had barely ever even heard before. And there was no equivalent to her advanced math and science classes, so she would be years behind. This could very well ruin her chances to get a good scholarship. She frowned, then grabbed her math book and class schedule, then slammed her locker shut. She needed to find her classroom before class started. The last thing she needed was to be the new girl and late.

 

[Matreania]

Taylor sighed, looking down, as he moved through the hall, he had been through this hall the last four years, it was almost like he could walk it blind. Passing people as they went through was the easy part, knowing when people didn't was not as easy. He heard the locker, but didn't think the girl would still be near it. Sure enough he bumped into someone, looking up from his book, he was a little surprised, "Sorry." he said, looking at her for a moment. She was pretty, but he knew every girl in school, mostly because they came to know him as the guy that would help, in most ways. He tried to place her, but it was like looking at a whole new face, "Are you new here?" he asked, he had a slight accent, being from Texas, it was something barely noticeable, but sometimes with words like yall it came out stronger then he would think.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine blinked as the other boy collided with her. She managed to keep a hold of her books, although just barely. She frowned disapprovingly at him. He really should be more careful where he was going. "Yes, I'm new," she finally replied. As if he didn't know that already. But she wasn't going to be rude. It didn't matter that she was only planning on staying here until she graduated high school, then go to college back in New York. She had enough to deal with already. The last thing she needed was to antagonize the locals. In a small town like this, they could make her life miserable for it. So instead, she simply said, "If you don't mind, I should be getting to class." Se stepped around him, heading in the direction she thought her class was in.

 

[Matreania]

Taylor nodded, "Yeah." he chuckled, "Watch out for those pesky kids with their nose in a book. They have the worse navigational skills, if you know what I mean." he chuckled a bit more, before passing her by. He looked back down at the book, bumping into her was probably because he wasn't used to her. He was curious about where she came from, but he wasn't going to go through 20 questions with her. He had to get to class and Spanish wasn't going to learn itself. He made his way through the halls without any problems after that, class was pretty simple, Science would be right before lunch and then he would have his last two classes off campus. he's have to work on getting to figure out the new girl at one point, just so he knows where he should stand when it came to her.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine stared at the door in front of her, steeling herself to go in. She wasn't sure what exactly to expect from a class simply called 'science.' She was pretty sure it would be nothing like the advanced chemistry class she had been in a few weeks earlier, if her earlier pre-calculus class had been any indication. She had spent the entire class doodling in her notebook as the teacher went over the unit circle. As if she hadn't learned about that in ninth grade. She supposed things were a lot different down here. Then again, she supposed that for all she knew, New York public schools might be the same way. But having been in a series of expensive private schools designed to prepare the students for college from a young age, she knew nothing about public schools. She sighed, pushing the door open. She may as well get the staring over with. She just had this one class before lunch, and her beginner's Spanish after. Her aunt had managed to get her early release after that, and her uncle would be coming to pick her up. She walked in. Thankfully few people were there yet, and she chose a seat in the corner and in the very back row, hoping to avoid as much attention as possible.

 

[Matreania]

Taylor sighed, finally he made it to science, just as it was about to start, "Sorry." he said, passing the teacher a slip and taking his seat near the front of the class.


Michael turned to him, with a smirked, "Couldn't tear her off?" he teased.


Taylor smirked, "Kelly just want to take about Carl."


"Dude, you really need to work on your moving in technic."


Taylor shook his head, "Pay attention." he motioned, as the teacher started class. Taylor paid close attention to the instruction, checking his watch a few time. Science was an easy topic, when you don't really need to worry about it. He had two science classes and was finishing up a mathematics course in a few weeks, when the Flex quarter was over. Two more classes and he would graduate with then associate's in Bio-metrics research, well something like that.He sighed, as he wrote down the notes and started the equations that the teacher was testing them on. It was all really basic, since he had been taking courses by quarters since sophomore year. He would be able to get his bachelor's within a year and master's within two. But he still needed his high school credits to actually graduate college and high school this year. That was his many focus now.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine tried her best to look as if she was actually taking notes from her seat in the corner. Really she was just drawing more. She had always loved drawing. It had been her break from her harsh class schedules and hours a night of homework assignments. She had even told her parents in eighth grade that shse wanted to go to an art institute instead of a regular university. That had been a mistake. She had learned since then to never mention art and school in the same sentence again. Her parents had met at Harvard, and they had expected her to go there as well. Her mother had wanted to go into law like she had. Her father had suggested that with her strength in science she ought to go into medicine. Not that that was likely to happen now. Even if her acceptance to the university stood, she would never be ble to afford the exhorbitant tuition now. She sighed. Art school was looking more and more likely. At least a career in some type of graphic design wouldn't be too bad. And she would hopefully be able to go back to New York and never have to even think about this place again.

 

[Matreania]

When class was over, Taylor got his things together as the class started out. He smirked at the evaluation sheet for his project, the year was half way done and he was sure that his grades would put him on the top ten list. He got his things, before the teacher called him over. It wasn’t something he was used to, teachers didn’t call him to talk after class, mostly because there wasn’t really anything to talk about.


But he did as he was told and spoke with the teacher, before all the students could leave, the teacher stopped and called out, “Miss Mattea, can you come here for a moment.” She asked, Taylor looked around to see who she was talking to. He recognized the girl he bumped into. He was a little surprised that they had the same class and even more so that he hadn’t noticed her. This morning she didn’t seem too happy though, so maybe it was that fact that he just didn’t catch on.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine sighed to herself when the teacher called her over. She had been looking forward to slipping out of the classroom without being noticed. It looked like that wasn't going to happen. She snapped her notebook shut so her doodling wasn't visible and slipped it into her bag before walking to the front of the room. "Yes ma'am?" she asked, forcing herself to remain calm and collected, even though she was feeling flustered at being called out. Especially since some of the students who hadn't left the classroom yet were looking at her now, obviously curious as to what the teacher was going to say. It was sad, she thought, that she still got this uncomfortable around groups of people. She had given presentations in front of much bigger groups of people, but it never seemed to get easier for her, and she felt her face starting to get red as she waited to hear what the teacher wanted. Hopefully with her makeup the redness wouldn't be too visible.

 

[Matreania]

The teacher smirked at her and then motioned to Taylor, "This is Taylor, I couldn't help but notice .." She paused looking around, "I dismissed all of you." She started and the class emptied out before she looked back to Jessamine, "I noticed you were busy with your drawings." She smiled at her, "I think you and Mister Michaels should work together. He should have dinner free time after lunch before heading to the college. You can get the details from him at lunch." She turned to Taylor, "Am I correct about that?"


Taylor nodded, "Yes, ma'am, I'll make sure to do that." He smiled to Jessamine, "Guess we should figure out our schedule." He shrugged.

 

[Nightecho]

Jessamine was tempted to swear under her breath when the teacher called her out for drawing during class, but she forced herself not to react. Damn, the woman was more observant than most teachers. She would likely have to actually pay attention during class, even though she already knew the material they had been covering. Or get sneakier about drawing. She sighed. "Yes, ma'am," she murmured, turning to leave. She could talk to the boy when they reached the cafeteria. Not that she needed to work with him on anything, really. The stuff from class was pretty basic. But she supposed she ought to at least play along. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself. Well, more attention, anyway.

 

[Matreania]

Taylor sighed as he started out of the class, walking beside her, “You know, our project isn’t going to be too easy.” He started not sure if she was actually someone that was into art or just one of those that didn’t like school. She didn’t seem to like being here and he was getting the idea that he might as well just do the project himself. He looked at his watch, in a few hours he was really going to need this night out. It was planned a few days ago and he had said that he would think about it, but of course he didn’t think that was an option now. He figured she might be annoyed that he bumped into her and now they were science partners. She probably wouldn’t like to find out what their project was going to be.