𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 & 𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄 ━ girl meets world²

10│LIVE YOUR TRUTH

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❛ ʟᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ & ʟᴀᴄᴇ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐓𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʟɪᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛʀᴜᴛʜ ꒱


❝ MY MOM CHOSE ME.
YOUR PARENTS ARE
STUCK WITH YOU ❞

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Three months ago

First days are always hard. Getting used to new classes, meeting new people, remembering the names of new teachers. It's a lot for anyone— even more so when that particular person has spent their whole life in another country. Miya and school had very rarely gotten along. This was supposed to be a fresh start, a way to make things better; to not have to deal with anything more pressing than trying to work with her Dyslexia instead of against it. The key word? Supposed to.

Every school has bullies. They might have different motives or intimidating tactics, but they are always present. Unfortunately, Miya knew this all too well. She was not the most confident person when it came to defending herself, so the girls— 'triple A' (because the trio's names all started with As) as she and Jonah called them— thought her an easy target. Luckily, she had her best friend to fight for her when she couldn't speak up for herself.

In this new school, she also only had one friend, Farkle. However, unlike Jonah, he had a bunch of other friends to hang out with, too. She was hopeful that they would become her friends as well, but it was only her first day. She hadn't spent enough time around them to know if they would like her— though from the little she had seen (and a lot she'd heard), it seemed like it would work out. Still, she didn't feel comfortable enough to ask them for help beyond getting her from class to class.

So, despite her new status as having a relatively big group of friends, she still felt rather alone. That, perhaps, was what the other girls of her class saw when they surprised her in the bathroom during lunch.

Miya had been enough situations with 'triple A' to notice the signs: girls lingering over the sink without actually doing anything, waiting for everyone else to clear out, standing by the door in case she tried to bolt. She tried not to appear rattled by this behavior, instead choosing to calmly wash her hands and then dry them with a paper towel. It was as she threw away her trash that one of the girls— a brunette wearing dark-rimmed glasses— spoke first. "So, you're the new girl, huh? Melissa, was it?"

"Miya," she corrected her softly.

"Whatever," the brunette scoffed. "Listen, we've got a proposition for you. Since you're new, you don't know the ins and outs of this school. The people to avoid, the politics, the lame-o teachers. We can help you out with that. How does that sound?"

Miya knew better than to agree right away. Her fingers tightened on the straps of her backpack as her gaze flicked to the other two girls— why were these cliques always in threes?— to assess the situation. They seemed like her backup and the brunette was the leader; the blonde hovered by the entrance to the bathroom while the other brunette leaned against the openings of the stall doorways.

"I. . . don't even know your name," the Asian girl decided was the safest response.

"Oh, of course. I'm Sarah, that's Darby and that's Clarissa." She pointed to the blonde and brunette respectively. "We're in your history class, not that you would ever notice since we're not allowed to talk."

Her brows furrowed slightly in confusion. "What?"

"That's right, you wouldn't know," Sarah commented derisively, tossing her curly brown hair in an indignant fashion. "The history teacher, Mr. Matthews? Well, according to him, the only students' lives who matter are his daughter and her friends. He's one of the worst teachers we have; I'm not even sure he has a lesson plan— it's just based on the whims of his airhead daughter."