Fangirl School (Percy Jackson)

Exchange Student

"This is Eloise Fernsby, everyone," said Mrs. Golde. She ushered a shy-looking red-haired green-eyed very freckly girl into the classroom. "Everyone be nice, okay? Eloise is only here for a month. Eloise, pick a seat, dear, and sit down.

"So, for those of you who don't know, Children's Week just ended and we're in November," Mrs. Golde said after Eloise had taken a seat in the back. "There's a Christmas show you had to sign up for at the beginning of the year. It's not available for Lightning Thief years this year, but who knows, it might be next year. Anyway, if you want to take part in the singing performance, you can speak to Mr. Epperson, the music teacher. You guys don't take music this year, but you can still talk to him, get to know him before next year. He's a really nice guy. Anyway, now we take attendance. Eloise, you're in my Fanfiction Writing, the Advanced, as you were in your school in London. Find someone to show you around and tell you the schedule, alright sweetie? This is class My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting."

As Mrs. Golde took the attendance, Fiona whispered to me, "I wonder who got sent to London."

I did a quick scan of the room and said, "It's not someone from our class. Maybe we'll find out at lunch or FW."

Fiona shrugged. "Wonder how they're dealing with all the British. Can you imagine if it was Janet?"

I pretended to shudder at the thought, and Fiona laughed.

Delphine caught up with us after homeroom. "We should make friends with the exchange student. Imagine going to a different country for a solid month, seeing your school run in a different way, and not knowing anyone," she said before we'd even opened our mouths to reply.

"Delphine, we never complained," Fiona said.

"Good," Delphine said, "because if there's one feeling I know, it's the feeling of being new."

Having known Delphine for a short amount of time, and not being as close to her as I was to Fiona, I wasn't quite sure what she meant, and it left me at a loss for words, so I was glad when we arrived at our first class for the day, which was Character Life.

We were doing trivia questions on minor characters today, and Eloise answered about half of them. In Digital Design she presented her version of Percabeth's kids, which were absolutely flawless. In Shipping, she said she loved all characters equally and didn't have a favorite character or ship. She was acting perfect in every way that by lunchtime Fiona was gritting her teeth in anger, frustration, and what I thought was jealousy. Fiona, as everyone knew, was top student. Now Eloise was topping her.

"She's just so perfect!" Fiona said on our way to lunch. "'I don't have a favorite character, or a favorite ship, they all deserve to be together and it's not our place to say whether they're good or not, they love each other, fictional or not', ugh!"

"I think she's all right," Delphine said.

"Yeah, right, because you're guaranteed to pass with flying colors if you befriend her!" Fiona snapped.

I didn't want to get in Fiona's way when she was angry, but I said, "Chill out, okay? Eloise is new. Maybe she's just saying that so people can like her."

"Some way to get people to like you," Fiona scoffed. "She still hasn't made any friends."

"It's only been a few hours, cut her some slack," I said.

Fiona didn't seem to have a retort. She couldn't say I wanted to befriend her to have a guaranteed pass, because my grades were pretty good. Delphine, in the other hand, not so much.

We reached the lunch table just then. There was the usual chit-chat at the table when Giovanni said, "So, how about that exchange student?"

"What exchange student?" Jeveskia asked. The table went quiet.

"Eloise Fernsby," Delphine said. "She's from London. Apparently they sent someone to London and brought her here."

"That would be Maya Platten," Brandon said happily. Brandon and Jeveskia were both in different homeroom classes, and the trio (Xavier, Antonio, and Janet) were in a class together.

Fiona smirked. "I wonder how she's doing in London." Apparently, she'd heard a lot about Maya Platten from Brandon. Maya was apparently this really annoying girl who thought she was better than everyone else.

The rest of the day went without another mention of Eloise Fernsby, even though Fiona still gritted her teeth in anger whenever Eloise was being a good student.

Then, that night, I got a text from an unknown number.

??

Hi

Y/N

Sorry, who r u?

??

I'm Eloise Fernsby, from school

Y/N

Oh

Hi Eloise

Eloise

You can call me Elsie. My friends do.

Y/N

Not to be rude, but where did u get my number??

Eloise

Delphine gave it to me. She was talking to me after school.

Y/N

Oh

Thats Delphine for you

Eloise

Yeah

Y/N

So, Elsie, how do u like America so far

Eloise

Its alright, I guess. The people are okay.

It's kind of hard to explain over text.

Y/N

Do u want to call me?

Eloise

That would be great. Do you have Zoom on your laptop?

Y/N

Yup

Eloise

Okay, here's the call code

*Insert Zoom code here*

I started up my laptop and entered the code into Zoom. Thirty seconds later Eloise Fernsby was on the screen.

"Hi," she said.

"Hey. So what did you want to talk about?"

"Oh, yeah. The school."

At first she vented about how she missed her friends and how she hoped she'd make new ones here, starting with me. I assured her I'd be her friend.

I didn't even realize we'd been calling for almost four hours until my mom shouted from downstairs that it was time for bed. I got to know Eloise a little, and she was really nice. My theory proved true, she was trying to get people to like her by acting perfect, but it seemed like barely anyone noticed.

But as I talked to her, I realized she was actually really sweet. She was really smart, too. Which meant one thing.

I had to introduce her to Fiona. They were simply meant to be friends. It had to happen.

I went to bed after promising myself Elsie wouldn't go back without Fiona's number saved in her contacts as a friend.