On the Trail with Tracer

First Day Blues

 You can tell a lot about a school by its administrative offices. Sure, on the surface they all look similar with the same beige walls and outdated technology, but if you looked deeper you could see them as a reflection on the school at large. For example, it's pretty easy to judge the strictness of the staff by the number of students in the office area that didn't look happy to be there or, if you listened to what the aids and secretaries were talking about you could get a pretty good feel for what was going on in the school. After all, if anyone was going to know something in a school, it would be the ones who sat just outside the bigshot offices and answered all the phones.

It was with this in mind and an appraising eye that Emily approached the secretaries desk. While the secretaries prepared her class schedule and relevant information, she let her eyes roam over the office, which was much more decorated than it probably needed to be. There were a number of national flags hanging from the walls including the UK, Brazil, Russia, China, and many, many more. There were also numerous shelves lined with trophies and awards from both academic and athletic events and photographs of what Emily assumed were the teams that won them.

The sound of yelling pulled Emily from her observations as her head snapped in the direction of the sound. It was coming muffled through a closed office door, though through the glass she could make out a girl with spiky hair sitting ramrod straight with her eyes cast downward. It was clear enough to Emily that she wasn't used to the situation and thus probably not a delinquent, but the level of harshness the principal was yelling with was interesting. Some golden child being scared off the wrong path perhaps? It was hard to make out everything through the closed door and from so far away, but Emily managed to pick up little bits and pieces.

"Reflects on the school... funding for your team... this early into the season... I know he was your friend but..." Whatever came next must have struck a nerve with the girl, because she quickly shot to her feet, any thoughts she had of weathering the lecture like a storm clearly gone from her mind. Emily noted with no small amount of respect that the little girl was giving as good as she got, firing off her argument like a pistol and startling the principal enough to make him take a step back before regaining his composure. With the shouting match having turned against him, the principal offered his final words on the subject which Emily couldn't make out before waving her off.

"Lena, could you come over here for a moment?" As the girl, Lena, walked out of the office the secretary who had been putting together Emily's papers while pretending to not be listening in on the shouting match waved her down. Now that Emily could finally get a good look at Lena, she noticed her right eye was slightly swollen and there was a bit of discoloration that appeared to be partially covered up with a hasty application of concealer. The slight frown on Lena's face blossomed into an easy smirk. Easy enough that Emily couldn't help but wonder how genuine it was.

"Lena here is our liaison for newer students," the secretary explained for Emily's benefit, "She'll help walk you through your schedule and get you situated. Lena, this is Emily, she's a new transfer from... Emily, where did you say you were from dear?"

"Indiana originally, but New York most recently," Emily thought back to her previous homes, "and plenty of places in between." That was an understatement. Her dad was constantly being shuffled from base to outpost and back again. She'd spent time on the east coast, the west coast, in Europe, even a couple of months in South Korea.

"Well you'll fit right in here then," Lena chirped, she had a delightful British accent and a musical cadence to her voice that Emily found pulling her attention back to the moment, "With the foreign exchange program and MacNeal being so close by we have people from all over. Come on, I'll show you to your locker and you can stash your stuff. Not much point standing about here." Students were already in the full swing of their morning routines by the time Lena and Emily made their way to the common area. Lena walked quickly, leading Emily to a line of lockers against a far wall, stopping occasionally to wave or say hello to other students she recognized.