☁ fill these spaces up with days

[forksextras]

Who | Claire Bennet Butler (autophoenix ), Jessica Stanley (yournewbff ), Various Forksians (forksextras ), Lyle Bennet Butler (itsnotlarry ), and Edward Cullen (likealocalgod )
What | The first day of Claire's new life at Forks High.
Where | Forks High School;  Unnamed Twilight/Heroes verse
When | Post S1-Heroes
How | An amorphous road of prose, commentspam, and action-spam, winding merrily from one to

Comments

[itsnotlarry]

Lyle's wet sneakers squeaked across the floors as he felt himself suddenly yanked backwards by his sister's iron grip on his backpack. He turned a fixedly annoyed look back on her, prepared to be reamed out for who knew what. Exasperation didn't quite cover it.

And there she went, off on an entitled tirade, about what she needed, like she just expected everyone to fall all over themselves backwards to give it to her if she added in a pretty please at the end.

His annoyance morphed into a glare, as he jerked her off even as she began to move her hand from him, and took a step back.

"You mean you need to make sure I can cover your butt?" he shot back. He couldn't believe her : acting like he was incapable of maintaining this stupid simple cover. It was just like Claire to assume that everybody else in the world was an idiot. Took one to know one.

"Relax, I'm not the one who's going to do something weird and get us kicked out of here." It was a daring thing to say in the middle of school, and the look he gave her told her he knew it, and he was holding it over her. No one seemed to pay attention to what they were saying anyways - most of them were covering their heads as they headed out the doors to find whatever tiny building their classes were in. He'd never seen such a stupid campus before - instead of one big building, there were a series of crappily constructed little brick ones, that probably leaked, or got infested with bugs with all the trees around, or who knew what else.

"You're gonna be late," he said, turning pointedly away from her and heading back down the hall. His first class was in this building; he was hoping Claire's wasn't. The sooner he could put some distance from him and her, the better a chance he had at any kind of reputation at this school that wasn't tainted with weird.

And he wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of the promise she was attempting to extract.

[autophoenix]

Of course he was going to turn it into her being selfish again. Everything was going back to that lately even though this whole stupid mess wasn't even her fault. She didn't even do anything. The situation sucked, sure, but that didn't mean Lyle needed to demonize Claire over it. She scowled bitterly as he responded, remaining quiet as she could so that he didn't think she was trying to steamroll him or something.

Unfortunately, remaining quiet could only last for so long before he took it too far with his mutters of butt-covering and weirdness. Okay. There was only so much of that she could stand for. Being discreet meant Lyle wasn't allowed to dangle that over her like it were a threat he could actually follow through. Noah would never stand for Lyle actually pretending he'd say something too forthcoming if he knew, and at this rate, Claire had half mind to tell him.

"Would you keep it down? I'd like to make it through a week of school before you turn me into a social pariah, you little brat." She reached out and pinched him hard. When he chastised her saying she'd be late, he'd taken it too far, but all she could do was flounder uselessly as he wandered away, stuffing the slip for his teachers to sign into the water bottle holder on his backpack before he could get too far away.

"I'm going to kill you when you get home!" She shouted through gritted teeth, ignoring the stares it earned her. It was the freshman hall, anyway. With one last scowl, she turned and headed out of the building and back into the bitter cold.

Screw. This.

It felt like death, hate and winter got in a battle in Forks and no one thought to clean up afterward. Wasn't it supposed to be nearing spring? She was longing uselessly for the 75 degree weather she knew Odessa was enjoying. Why couldn't they move somewhere nice like California? Right. Under the radar.

Claire hated under the radar. Mentally, she counted back through her father's instructions. Don't try out for teams, don't join clubs, don't raise your hand in class, don't stop to ask the teacher questions after class, don't be late, don't get detention, don't draw attention to yourself in any way … She groaned. Was there anything that ended in making a single friend that she could do? High school was going to be hell.

[autophoenix]

First class. Fighting with her pocket to convince it to free her schedule, Claire found she was due in U.S. History. Yay. On the bright side, at least that had to be the same from state to state, right? Right. Focus on the positives, Claire.

Juggling permission slips and her schedule and her school planner and a notebook was harder than she'd expected and she nearly dropped it all in one of the mud puddles that stood between her and the back building where apparently, aside from torturing students, they occasionally held history class. The bell rang before she even got inside the building, and Claire was sure she was going to kill herself by the time the day was out.

Literally, maybe.

She ducked meekly around the door when she found the appropriate classroom, glad it was at least marginally warmer inside than it was outside, and her body slowly followed suit. Every eye in the room felt like it was on her, even the people in the back of the class who were supposed to be the idiot burnouts who couldn't care less about the new girl. Figures in a town this small, they didn't even have room for burnouts in their class roster.

The teacher appeared thrilled to have her in class, though, once he overcame his mild annoyance with her tardiness. Apparently, though, he didn't forgive her entirely for it, because he began to introduce her to the class, inviting her to stand at the center of it over by him. In the front.

Yeah. Suicide was looking like a pretty good option. Claire declined politely and ducked into the only empty seat off by the window.

"Why don't you introduce yourself?" The teacher invited. Apparently, he was impervious to the dull, bored glare that Claire sent his way. Damn. With a meager, half-hearted smile, she shrugged.

"I'm … Claire Butler. I guess. There's not really much to know, Mr. Matthews." She shrugged again, indicating that she was done with him and his questions, and settled more into her seat, getting out her materials. Luckily, her uninteresting response was enough to divert his attentiveness back to the scintillating subject of american history. Thank God.

[forksextras]

The lecture was over things that had already been covered at Claire's last school, which was promising for her prospective grade in the class, but far less promising for the concept of learning anything interesting while she was in it. Everyone else scribbled notes, or at least did a fair job of pretending to.

Mr. Matthews announced a quiz tomorrow, but made certain to specifically point out in front of everyone that Claire would be exempt from it, given she'd just arrived, which earned her a few begrudged stares. Seeing as how those were simply compounding the stares she was already getting, it was difficult to really notice the difference.

The teacher obviously wrapped up his lecture quicker than he intended, and to prevent mutiny allowed the students the last five minutes to "talk amongst themselves."

Across the aisle, three girls had their heads bent together before he even gave the okay to start the requisite gossiping, and they'd been casting surreptitious glances over at Claire the entire time. They seemed already primed for the attack when Mr. Matthews gave the go ahead, and one of them, a beautiful blonde girl who'd obviously spent enough time in the mirror in the morning to try and convince herself she didn't live in a two bit backwater town, flashed her a bright smile.

"So you're the new girl." It wasn't a question, really, and ended up sounding somewhat closer to an accusation, even though the smile remained plastered across her face. "What do you think of Forks so far, new girl?"

[autophoenix]

When Mr. Matthews announced five minutes of free time at the end, Claire's initial reaction was abject horror. Socializing. Just about the last thing she ever wanted to imagine doing right now. She'd come to school today prepared to sit in the ladies' room locked in a stall to eat her lunch to avoid just this kind of pressure. Between the fact that the entire class appeared fixated in that hokey, small-town way that she'd always thought that Odessa was bad about and the fact that she was at least sixty percent sure the girls to her right were talking about her, she was trying her best to disappear into her seat.

Invisibility sure would have been a great ability to have. Why did she have to have a lame power like healing? Where would that get her in the shark-infested waters of 11th grade? Nowhere. Just when she thought it couldn't get worse, the blonde beside her turned to address her. Apparently, 'new girl' was sufficient enough a name, and Mr. Matthews subjecting her to all that humiliation of introducing herself to the whole class was for naught. Claire turned her head slowly, awkward smile steadily growing on her features.

Hello, Jackie Wilcox.

Every school had one. Even dumpy, rainy corners of Hell in the Pacific Northwest, apparently. It took her a minute to get over her displeasure and actually format some kind of reply.

"Claire," she blurted. Right. Context. Explanation. Focus, Claire, use full sentences, she mentally chided. "My name. It's … actually Claire. Not new girl." Her smile flickered a little and she tried to make her correction sound a little more teasing than serious, regardless of how she'd meant it. "Don't worry, a lot of people make that mistake," okay, well, teasing was a lot easier in her head. Hopefully she didn't come across like as much of a social retard as she felt like she did.

A quick topic change would definitely be in order around now. Oh, right, she had a question to answer.

"It's … really something," it was near impossible to even pretend she was enjoying it, but she'd try. "A lot colder than where I used to live -- uh, it's gonna get warmer soon, though, right?" She looked hopeful. Way to go, Claire, bring up the weather. That's a sure way to win friends. She chuckled awkwardly.

"And that was … totally lame. I'm sorry, it's just … jet lag." They hadn't even taken a plane, but it seemed like a good excuse. 'The uncle I never knew I had died when I barely got the chance to know him' lag was way too heavy for a first conversation.

[forksextras]

♪ [The girls behind the Alpha Blonde exchange glances and giggles, but she keeps up her smile, which seems to widen. Like a shark. Who... had its teeth whitened professionally.]

Don't worry, we see the sun a few days a year.

[autophoenix]

[ She'll take it at face value, because Claire's learned that that's the best way to handle these things. ]

That's the best news I've heard all day. I was beginning to doubt it. I mean, as soon as we got into town, it was ... pretty hard to believe. [ Awkward smile. ] So, I'm guessing you've lived here for a while.

[forksextras]

Actually, my family moved here from Seattle. [Do you hear that sense of entitlement in there? Obviously ~Seattle~ is one fucking ritzy place, the way she makes it sound.] But I've been here about five years.

What about you? Where'd you fly in from?

[autophoenix]

[ Not. Texas. She has no connection to Claire Bennet or Union Wells or any of that. Most unextraordinary state she could think of. ]

... Florida. It's not much better than here or Seattle, really, it's pretty much just ... crocodiles and old people. [ God, she wished she was in Florida. ]

We actually landed in Seattle. Our plane, I mean. Since you know. Forks is kind of ... sin airport. [ Right. Spanish probably wasn't as easy to come by here. ] Err ... lacking. In airports, I mean. But, you knew that already.

[forksextras]

[Lauren sees how you lumped here and Seattle together and she is not amused. Her smile slips a fraction. Especially when you throw in your random hoity toity Spanish.

You know a town is classy when Spanish is a hoity toity foreign language.]

But I mean they have a lot of beaches down there right? All kinds of hunks.

Did you have a boyfriend back in Florida, Claire? I bet you were pretty pissed off about moving here, huh?

[autophoenix]

Boyfriend? [ Well, she had boys she liked in Odessa. But neither of those worked out particularly well. After a hesitant pause, she shook her head slowly. ] No, not really.

Moving did kind of suck, though. [ Read: really suck. But, she's experienced in woman traps. ] Coming in halfway through the semester and losing all my friends? Not something I'd wish on my worst enemy. [ Okay, Sylar potentially deserved it, actually. ] But, you know, my whole family's pretty optimistic about it. I think we'll fit in okay if we just give it a chance.

[forksextras]

[Lauren sees your pause and files that one away.]

So why'd you move anyway? [Glittering eyes seek out any hint of scandal in your body language, Claire.]

[autophoenix]

[ She has practiced this lie so many times it hurts her heart. She just looks bored with the whole story, though. } My dad needed to move. For work. They needed more people for the Port Angeles branch or something stupid like that. You'd think we'd be lucky enough to stay in the city, but apparently that's no environment to raise children in or ... whatever.

[forksextras]

Sometimes they have muggings there and everything.

So what does your dad do, exactly?

[autophoenix]

[ This face. She just stares for a long time before forcing a smile and trying to look amused by this fact. Was she supposed to be excited about muggings? Why was this girl making it sound like a good thing? ]

... Awesome. [ Quick topic change. Away from awesome muggings. ] He works in paper. Yeah, it's totally boring, I know, but it was pretty helpful while I was in cheerleading. [ Shit. Way to go, Claire. NO CHEERLEADING. Rule number one.

Whatever, this school probably doesn't even have a spirit squad. ]

[forksextras]

Wait, you're a cheerleader?

No way. Are you going to try out for the squad?