Leah Ross/OC/Sunnydale AU

[innermuses]

Y'know what sucks worse than having to uproot to California before the ink on the adoption papers is even dry, because of the old man's coughcough "business interests?" Having to enrol in Freshman year despite bing old enough to be a... what do the Merkins call second year? Sophomore

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[nothinglikea]

She was here. He can smell it. Maybe she's still here. Maybe.

The boy is skinny and shifty-looking; it's hard to tell with teenagers, but he's hard up against "scruffy" and edging into "homeless."
(Leah might be better suited than many to recognize it.) He has a backpack, though, which means he must belong in here, right?

He grins at her, brightly, his eyes lost behind sunglasses that are far too big for his face and totally unnecessary at the moment. "Hey, have you seen Alice?"

(They wouldn't take her name away right oh God what if they took her name?!) The grin widens.

[notricksyet]

"Alice?"

She's already saying it to herself as she turns around, glancing at him for the briefest of seconds before her gaze flicks to his backpack and back to him. She does that a lot, hardly aware that they won't keep still.

But there's a wicked wicked grin because she knows she's not going to be able to prevent herself saying it, even if she wanted to. So she might as well ride it out.

"Who the fuck is Alice?"

[nothinglikea]

The accent throws him; it's Alice's accent.

And she's blonde.

He would know what Alice looks like, wouldn't he? It's been a long time.

Oh God.

His own grins spreads, manicker and manicker, and he lounges against the wall, impossibly boneless and gracelessly graceful. "She's a student here." Maybe. "Blonde? Foster kid? You don't know her?"

[notricksyet]

"I'm new, man," Leah says. Her grin doesn't spread to her eyes - in fact, it hardly makes it to her upper lip, making the expression itself a sarcastic one. She hitches the edge of her Liverpool shirt over her wrist in order to dig her hand casually into the pocket of her combat trousers - her keyring is a heavy metal ball and she's getting into the habit of turning it over in her fingers when she feels the need for a security blanket.

"I don't know anyone from anyone. Honest."

[mm_anathomical]

There was Another Skinny New Girl walking down the hall. It might not have been entirely obvious that she was new except for the way she seemed to be glaring at everyone as if daring them to say something so she'd have an excuse to hit them, which, given how small she was, was kind of an amusing proposition.

One might mistake her for a local bully, but she didn't have anyone else with her, so that would be rather unusual.

Makita wasn't happy about being shipped halfway around the world. At all. As she neared Leah she shot the other girl a glare. Whether she deserved it or not.

[notricksyet]

See, and here Leah was all prepared to be the moody scratchy New Girl with Issues. She'd even seen the expectation in Principal Wood when he told her he'd booked her an appointment with the Guidance Counsellor.

She hadn't gone.

Still, if the rols of scratchy new girl is already taken, she'll just have to deal with it. Which is the private joke she's smirking at when she winks insteda of returning the glare.

[mm_anathomical]

That smirk and wink bring the stomping footsteps (why wear massive boots if you're not going to stomp with them?) to a halt and the green-eyed glare doubles in intensity as Makita scowls.

"Do I amuse you?" she demanded harshly, her accent thick, definitely marking her as a foreigner. Eastern European of some sort.

[notricksyet]

In answer, Leah shifts her shouklder in a movement that had the potential to be a shrug, if it could be arsed.

"Not really. But your coat is fucking amazing."

[ofsmokeandblood]

Hannibal passes by, glances at the noticeboard, and retraces his steps to examine a flyer.

Archery. Intriguing. A useful skill, in these parts.

He ignores Leah automatically, in the way that he ignores everyone when possible.

[notricksyet]

Just because he's ignoring her, doesn't mean he's being ignored.

Leah is facing the noticeboard when he notices his approach, and she turns her head to glance at him, then watches him out of the corner of her eye as he stops, retraces, and examines the flyer.

He's got maybe half her attention, at most. But somehow she misses nothing.

[ofsmokeandblood]

After about four seconds of this observation, Hannibal looks up at her, his expression too blank to be called curious.

[notricksyet]

She flashes him a smirk. It's dry and not particularly friendly, but that's only because she doesn't like him (yet), not out of a desire to be rude.

"Gonna try out?"