carpe noctem// rick and morty

hold your horses

truth be told, aster was quite overwhelmed. after parting with jasper, she had gone to the principal to submit her enrollment form (which had gone ~smooth like butter~).

the real chaos began when she exited the office, her hands filled with papers, one of which had her locker number, combination, the school's code etc written on them.

she had been walking the halls, trying to find the locker when a swarm of people surrounded her, all asking questions and offering help. she had declined the offer for help (she knew better than to accept, she just didnt want people up in her business tbh) and stared down some rando that made a weird comment about her outfit, that also kind of resembled a threat? she hadn't drunk nearly enough coffee to deal with a bunch of screaming "children", so she just ignored it.

after finding her locker and getting rid of the massive pile of books, she started to walk around the school, to learn the layout. she had been the centre of attention for sure, and many came to talk to her, so she'd been busy for a while.

among the many she saw, she recognised the "popular" kids, between them was Jessica also. she had tried her best to talk with everyone and get to know them, but her mind was focused on finding a way out of there, her introverted nature screaming for some peace and quiet.

it took a while, but she'd managed to shake off the prying people (after she made sure to talk to all the reappearing background characters ofc) so now the next thing was to find her class.

first class was math, and when she had finally found her class she was surprised to see that all the students there were older than her. (guess that was the result of all those assessment tests the principal had given her)

on the bright side, summer was in the same class as her, so that made her goal seem a heck of a lot more achievable.

she chose to sit at the desk right in the middle of the row furthest from the classroom door, right by the window. it was the perfect seat, in asters opinion not too close or too far from the teacher, and also not in their immediate eye scope.

... that and summer smith sat at the seat right behind her. aster was content with this arrangement, seeing as both her "target" and her chosen seat were hers (well not really, but you get the point)

the teacher came into the class after a couple of minutes, and asters education in america had officially started.

_________

class had been disappointing, to say the least. aster had been far from being a nerd of any kind, but that didn't mean shed not hoped, even for a little bit, to have a mentally stimulating class.

as someone who appreciated intelligence and intellectual, aster liked figuring out difficult problems using logic. it gave her a sense of accomplishment, academic validation if you will.

she'd prided herself in needing minimal studying to keep up with the rest of her class, yet the math class she had just attended had been way below her standards.

this was elementary-grade math, and yet it was the most advanced math they taught? aster was beginning to see a problem in the american education system.

if she really wanted to keep positive, she could've just said that if all the classes were of that low calibre, she could easily graduate an honours student without even trying.

as she was contemplating her future in the school, summer approached her, going unnoticed by aster.

"heyy there aster, my name is summer smith, we have math together." aster was pulled out of her little trance, leaving the girl to stare at summer as her brain tried to process what she heard.

summer looked.... nervous? aster couldn't understand why, the summer she'd met through the show had only ever been nervous in front of trashy but somehow still popular guys and the popular group at school.... oh.

aster may have been a little socially awkward, with the quarantine and all, but she sure as hell could connect some dots.

the only question she had was, how the eff did she end up in the same group as a bunch of backstabbing, gossiping, iq lower than that of a childs assholes whose only selling point was that they were a bit above average in the looks department?

she decided to not look too much into it, since she was still the new kid, so people could easily confuse the type of person she was.

"oh yeah, you sit behind me, right?" aster replied, trying to appear as kind as possible. she'd had been told she looked mean when she talked to new people, so she tried to avoid looking like that with summer. (in her defence, that was only because she was awkward as a person)

"yeah! i mean, yeah you are right haha. soo, what class do you have next? i could help you find it." summer seemed to relax, now talking a bit more comfortably.

"uhm, i think i have... english? it says to go to classroom 304 but to be honest i have no idea how the numbering works here, usually the teachers would move classes where im from. your help would be appreciated haha"

aster was aware she was making excuses, a bad habit she'd been trying to fix.

"really? that sounds so different, i wish we could do that here haha. where are you from?" the older girl was intrigued

"im from europe, i came here this summer for a summer program and kinda stayed. everything here is very different than in europe, i still can't wrap my head around the whole tipping thing."

"wait, you dont tip in europe? how do the employees get paid then?"

"well i mean, we do tip, but it's usually like one to two euros max. we have livable minimum wages to make up for it, isn't that how it should be?" the duo had left the classroom by now, chatting as they made their way through the halls.

"you are SO right! ive been saying that for so long, to think that this kind of thing existed already"

aster was not one for small talk, but if it meant getting closer to summer she was willing to do it.

they arrived at the classroom, and they bid goodbye to eachother, promising to meet up at lunch.