kotlc ~ human au

<chapter two>

Monday, September 7th
A whole class dedicated to social media
8:30 am

Bounding in, crowds parted when they saw her and Fitz walking in. She hated the spotlight, although she knew she wasn't the cause of it. Everybody's eyes were staring down at their intertwined hands and Sophie wasn't sure about how she felt about it. She didn't want people to think they were dating. Because they weren't.
Sophie turned to Fitz and whispered "I think the girls are gone. You don't have to hold my hand anymore."
Fitz gave her one of his movie star worthy grins and held up their hands. "I know." Her face heated up quickly as he gave a high five to a passing classmate. She used her other hand to feel her burning face, why was this happening to her? Sophie had never been interested in guys. And she wasn't interested in being interested in them.
They stopped at a blue locker, similar to the others, with the number 55 taped onto it. Fitz let go of her hand and reached to peel it off. She looked at him with a curious face and he quickly replied. "My jersey number." He said as if that explained it. Sophie was still confused as he carried on. "Every season, when they name a new MVP on the varsity football team, they fill the players locker with junk. I'm super excited to open this." Fitz cringed.
"Got any other traditions you hate?"She asked. Sophie was getting a little worried about the time. Glancing at a clock, it was 8:38, they still had seven minutes to get to class.
"Too many to name right now." Fitz noticed her look at the clock and waved at his locker. "Y'know I'll just open this mess after school, let's go find your locker." He suggested. Sophie nodded and they walked across the hallway where she assumed her locker was. "Well, here it is."  Fitz grinned.
"Right across from you? That'll be easy enough to find." She commented. And she had a nice view of his piercing teal eyes from across the hall. Sophie sighed looking into them again but she quickly averted her eyes when he stared back. "Uh..um. Do you know the combination?"
Fitz grabbed her lock and twisted it left, right, then left again. "It's your birthdate. Not too safe of a lock but Foxfire doesn't have many thieves." He opened the locker door and inside were all of her four books for her classes. "Foxfire also supplies all the materials you'll need for classes. Down here are your textbooks." He said pointing down to the first level. "Second shelf has your pencil pouch, and the top is for personal storage."
Sophie looked around and no one seemed to be wearing their backpacks like kids did at her old school. "How do you carry your stuff around if no one uses their backpacks?" She motioned to the other students.
"Usually you leave your bag in your locker since you have enough time between periods to grab what you need for each class, which shouldn't be much." Fitz responded.
"Oh shoot."
"What?" Sophie asked.
"We forgot to pick up your laptop." He grumbled. Fitz swung his backpack around, deciding to carry it around to avoid the disaster in his locker, and pulled out his computer. "Here. Take mine for the day." Fitz offered.
Sophie shook her hands and head. No way she could accept his offer. "No no no. It's fine I'll just pick it up during lunch."
"Please Soph. You'd be doing me a favor. I'd be failing my duty if you didn't take it." He pleaded.
She smiled at the nickname he called her after only minutes of knowing her. Sophie rolled her eyes, not being able to resist when he begged. "Fine. But I'm giving it back to you during lunch."
Fitz agreed and handed over his computer. "I printed out your schedule for you." Pulling another item out of his bag and giving it to her. She scanned and returned it. Statistics, French, Art/Health, and Chemistry. "Don't you want to keep it?"
"I have a photographic memory." She said pointing to her head. "No need to waste any more paper."
"But I already used it."
"Recycle it then." Sophie suggested.
Fitz tossed it in a blue bin besides the water fountain near her locker while she went over the schedule in her mind. Statistics was first so she stuffed her bag in her locker and pulled out what she needed, the standard pencil pouch and her statistics book. How she hated statistics. Fitz came back right as the first bell rang indicating they had to get to class. "Here, I'll walk you to class. Statistics with Mr. Douglas, right?"
Sophie nodded, had Fitz memorized her schedule too? She smiled at the thought as they passed several hallways until they reached room 163. Fitz waved her goodbye and said he'd walk her to her next class. Even though he was obligated to show her around on the first day she still felt butterflies whenever he offered to walk with her.
Walking into the classroom, Sophie headed to the only open seat. Which of course was right in the front. She had gotten to class early but apparently not early enough. The desks were organized in pairs and luckily the open spot was next to a girl. Hopefully she was nice. Sophie put her stuff down next to the blond haired girl and sat down. "Hi" Sophie said when she turned to her.
The petit girl didn't seem unfamiliar with Sophie and immidietly stuck out her hand. "Sophie Foster, right? I'm Marella. Not Mare. Not Ella. Marella. Nicknames are not appreciated." Marella said, making it very clear that she wasn't a fan of nicknames.
Sophie furrowed her brows but shook her hand in return. "How do you know my name?"
Marella pulled out her phone and shoved it in front of her face. She grabbed the phone shocked at what she was reading. It was an instagram post of her and Fitz holding hands in the hallway. The caption read: Golden boy, Fitz Vacker, and New Girl, Sophie foster? Her eyes widened and she put the phone right back down. "We're not dating." Sophie clarified.
Is that what people thought? "That's Foxfire's official insta gossip page." Marella explained. "Looks like people are just finding the post." When Sophie looked around the classroom everyone had their phones in their hands. Girls were glaring at her and guys were winking at her whenever she made eye contact with one of them.
This was not good. Why did she have to have the most popular boy in the school as her tour guide? "Hey you're not tagged in this. What's your username?"
She was still processing this information when Marella snatched her phone from her transparent pencil pouch. "Uh..No I don't have an instagram." Sophie admitted.
"Not for long." With a tap of a few buttons Marella had created a whole account for Sophie, including a photo that looked like it was taken a few seconds ago. Once she finally returned Sophie's phone, she took a closer look at her profile.
Her bio read: Foxfire '23 go add ~@ marellaredek . She already had a post. It was a picture of Sophie spacing out and Marella holding up the peace sign and taking a selfie of them. Sophie was definetly deleting this once she got home and using a different picture for her profile. "Why did you write to add you in bio?"
Marella sighed in disappointment. "You need a whole class dedicated to social media. When you tag someone in your bio they're usually your closest friends or a bae. It's a huge deal at our school."
At Sophie's old school no one really used social media so having Marella as a friend would be a benefit to her social status at Foxfire. The second bell rang, interrupting her thoughts, and everyone put their phones away into their pencil pouches. The teacher walked in to the front of the classroom and set down his coffee on his desk. People quieted down when he started writing on the chalkboard.
Mr. Douglas and Welcome to Statistics! we're written across the board. This was, by far, Sophie's least favorite class. The bonus was that she had made a friend already but the material bored her to sleep. Luckily it was the first day so they shouldn't be doing much. "Welcome to Statistics everyone. I hope we have a good start to our year." Mr. Douglas clasped his hands together and stared Sophie down.
She practically started sweating. What? Was she doing something wrong? He looked down to the desk in front of her and frowned. "Miss-" Mr. Douglas paused waiting for her to respond.
"Sophie. Foster."
"Well Miss Foster, here at Foxfire we have a very strict rule against phones in class. I hate to inform you that detention will be your punishment." Great. She could already tell she was not going to like this teacher. Sophie nodded her head and quickly took the detention note he passed to her. This was so embarrassing. She was not appreciating all this attention on her first day.
"I forgot to tell you to buy your own pencil pouch." Marella whispered to her as Mr. Douglas went on with class. "Everybody hides their phones in their pouches. That's why the school offers transparent ones."
And that's why nobody had the school issued pouch. At least Mr.Douglas forgot to actually take Sophie's phone so she could hide it in her locker before her next class. When Mr.Douglas passed out the syllabus he spent the next twenty minutes going over it. She was grateful they weren't doing any math but Sophie still found herself dozing off. Marella had to nudge her a few times to keep her from falling asleep.
The third bell of the day sounded and Sophie jumped out of her seat. Marella chuckled and together they left the classroom. "Where's your locker?" She asked.
"It's number 33." Sophie replied as Marella's jaw dropped to the floor. "What?"
"Locker number 33? How did you get so lucky?" She whined. "Your locker is in between 30 and 50. Only the popular kids have lockers in that hallway. I have Jolie Ruewen's old locker this year which is pretty much social suicide. People say it's haunted and I put in a request to switch lockers as soon as I got here." She noticed Marella was wearing her backpack on her shoulders. She must really not want to be seen around Jolie's locker.
"Who's Jolie?" And why does she have Grady and Edaline's last name? She wondered that last part in her head. Marella squished closer to her as they walked down the hallway.
"Jolie was a senior here a few years ago. She died in a fire at her boyfriends house before graduating and now no one wants to get stuck with the locker of a dead girl." She explained.
Was she just a replacement for Jolie? Sophie thought as she connected the dots from her foster parents to Jolie. Once they got to her locker Sophie switched out here statistics book for her french book and made sure to hide her phone in the back. "Do you mind if I leave my backpack here? I don't wanna look stupid on the first day." Marella asked.
"Yeah go ahead."
As Marella stuffed her backpack next to Sophie's, she turned to look across the hall for Fitz. He said he was going to walk her to her next class but he was no where in sight. "Is this a Hello Kitty backpack?!" Marella shrieked.
Sophie's eyes widened and she spun around to see Marella pointing to the hot pink bag. She had only bought that bag as a dare from her sister and now she couldn't bring herself to throw it out, even if it was social suicide. "God, Sophie. Free up your weekend. We're going shopping."
She felt a tap on her shoulder and a voice saying "Ready Soph?" The nickname had her smiling before she could turn around again.