We're quite alright

Chapter 5

Tessa

She didn't want to admit it to herself but Chris seemed to be growing on her. It was a welcome change talking to somebody as loud and cheerful as him to oppose the quiet of her bedroom. She could never guess what he could be upto. One moment, he was helping her around the new school, the other he was leaking important test papers. 

"Hey, look at this meme!" He exclaimed as he showed her a picture on his phone. It was of a distressed cat and a caption underneath it. 'Princi when bag checks find the weebs instead of druggies.'

"They do bag inspections here?" Tessa asked in confusion, "What for? we're in eight grade."

"You'd be surprised." Chris shrugged ominously. She never thought shrugging could be done in that fashion. He then broke out into a grin. "Chill, this is actually from one of the 9th graders, bet." That did not comfort her in the slightest. 

"Anyway, I snagged the answer sheet so we do not need to solve this. I also made an anonymous account to leak this." He looked a bit too happy to be doing criminal activities. But she was too curious to see the results to care.

"You doing it for money?" 

"Nah, you crazy? I can't be carrying all that cash around. I'm doing this for favor points."

"Favor points?" She seemed to be learning new things every minute about public school.

"Yeah, I save screenshots of dms and then I can use these people later!" 

"I'm concerned but I also want you to teach me your ways." 

"Good thing you're with a pro." He pretended to flip his imaginary hair back. 

"Hey!" A new voice cut in. Chris screamed a little while she jumped, mostly because of the boy. A curly haired girl peeked at their location behind the bleachers. 

"Oh my gosh, An, you scared me." He placed a hand on his chest and sighed. "What's up?" Tessa let her guard down at the mention of the boy knowing this person.

"Oh nothing, I locked the coach in the washroom by accident so now we have a free class!" She giggled, showing her dimples. 

"Wait shouldn't you go unlock them by now?!" She gasped at the girl but Chris's reaction was quite the opposite. He patted her on the back with a "Congrats, sis."

"Well, the latch is kinda too high for me." She shrugged as response. "So, did you both skip class or something?"

"You're partly right. The princi called her up cuz she's a new kid. Since I was showing her around, she let me skip class too. Anyway, I need to talk to you." He placed a hand over the other girl's shoulders and dragged her to the other end of the bleachers. "Wait right there, Tess."

That gave her a moment to look through the bleachers towards the ground. The large space of lawn was mostly empty except for a few kids sitting in the shade and talking. Her anxiety rose, looking at all those faces. She was not exactly off to a good start in the new school. All her life she had been homeschooled. And she did quite well, with grades her main focus. 

Now social life would take up more of her main focus. She already worked with questionable company, she judged by the reactions of many of the teachers faces when they see her companion. That should have stressed her out but she couldn't stop herself from getting tangled up in his shenanigans. 

She looked back to see Chris and the other girl engaged in conversation over his phone. She decided that maybe she could explore somebody else's company for awhile. 

"Hey, I'll be walking around, kay?" She called out to which he barely looked up but nodded. She walked out into the open, feeling a little cautious of the eyes that could be on her because she was new. Luckily, nobody noticed her as they were engaged in their own little groups. She observed a guy doing a cartwheel on the grass. 

She decided to find the washroom. Maybe the coach was still locked in and she could help. 

She took off towards the backdoor into the building. Just as she placed a hand on the handle, the door swung open. Behind it revealed a teacher glaring at her. She froze.

"Did you lock the washroom door?" She barked at her. Tessa shook her head quickly. 

"Do you know who did?" She crossed her arms over her chest. 

"No ma'am." She meekly informed, which was true. She didn't really know the girl's name.

"Alright, get back to class!" She growled and marched off. Tessa scuttled to the side, out of her path. 

"Calm down, you're not even in trouble." A boy's voice broke in. She turned back to find a boy at the door, in the wake of the teacher. 

"Still worried." She muttered, glancing back at the raging woman.

"Hey, you skipped class or something?" He tilted his head and ruffled his dark hair. "How are you not caught yet?"

"I got a pass from princi, there's like five minutes of class left anyway." She informed. "What are you doing out of class?"

"Alright, you got me." He playfully raised his forearms. "I was in the sickroom because of dehydration. Anyway, are you new? I didn't see you before."

"Yeah, I'm Tessa. It's my first time in public school."

"Neat, I'm Dorian. Who gave you the tour? Kiran?"

"Chris." That changed his expression. She wondered if it was a good choice letting that info slip. He looked worried.

"Was that a bad answer?" she wondered aloud. 

"Well, It's not good news, I can tell you." He gave her the pitying expression. "That boy is sweet, I guess, but he's not exactly a great influence."

"I've seen it all by now and it's been just six hours." She fiddled with her fingers. She hoped she was closer to making another friend. One who could be a good influence. 

"How about I hang with ya'll, to be the voice of reason?" 

"Sure." She smiled back at him. 

"Speaking of bad influence, where is he?"

"Talking with another girl under the bleachers." Tessa pointed in the general direction of the bleachers. Her eyes landed on a different scene on the other end of the ground. The teacher from earlier was yelling at the curly haired girl with Chris standing beside her. 

"Actually, that's her." She pointed. 

"Shit, I forgot this was Anna's class." Dorian groaned.

A/N

Boo!