☁ 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

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[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?

[autophoenix]

[ She's visibly flustered by the corner she's backed herself into. ] I don't know, I mean, they probably wouldn't even let me this late into the year, and I ... I think I should probably get ... settled in first. Or something.

[forksextras]

Actually the squad's a little short this year. They might still let someone try out.

You should think about it.

[autophoenix]

Right. Of course they're short. [ sigh. ] Well, I guess I'll have to ... give it some thought, then. [ Oh, the bell rings, thank God. Salvation. Claire starts packing her things up. ] Thanks for, uh, letting me know, I guess. Oh, um. I don't think I got your name.