Hailey looks around warily as she steps onto Galileo High's campus. So far her gambit's worked. She was enrolled as a girl. All it took was enduring a year and a half of doubled beatings and refusing to reveal a single damned thing about where she was keeping her hormones or how she was paying for them or who she was getting them from.

Chump change compared to getting to be herself. S'not like there's a no beatings option, yeah?

Now all she has to do is pass. Let no one figure out she's actually trans. Or at least no one who'll tell Uncle Carter. She has yet to meet anyone trustworthy and doesn't expect that to change.

Starting her hormones before she turned thirteen will help.

At least Byron didn't have the grades for Galileo, so she doesn't have to keep hers below his anymore.

There are some upsides here, at least. 

She has a list of classes in her hand but she'll have to get her schedule in homeroom. She's supposed to go to room 103 in the math building. Her homeroom teacher is apparently Mr. Franklin. Part of the introductory materials included a map. She also has a locker in the same building if she wants to use it.

She'll use it for her textbooks, at least. Nothing personal, though. And not until she's gotten her schedule, no point in making an extra trip.

She heads for homeroom, picks a seat at random, sinks down into it, backpack thumping down beside her. She's wearing a black t-shirt printed with a ribcage in white, black jeans, and army surplus boots.

Elemi makes her own way into the homeroom. She has a bright red turtleneck shirt paired with a light blue skirt long enough to cover the top of her rainbow crew socks. She doesn't have any reason to pick a particular seat but they're both on the early side so she'll sit next to Hailey, maybe she can make firends. "Hello."

Oh damn someone's trying to befriend her? She probably should've expected this, but nobody's tried since Byron beat the inclination out of everyone in elementary school. Forgive her for being surprised.

"...Hi," she manages after a moment. There, she greeted someone. After a delay. With a suspicious and anxious look on her face. She's amazing at this.

She has no idea how to make friends or if she should even try.

Elemi's mother trained her to recognize emotions even without her powers so she catches both of the undercurrents. A bit of uncertainty graces her own face. Neither of those emotions is a reason to stop trying to reach out though. "I'm Elemi, what's your name?"

"Hailey."

Fuck. What does she say? 

"What classes do you have?"

Oh good, "I've got Stars and Planets with Mrs. Galacia, Intro to Proofs with Mr. Franklin, Honors composition with Mr. Parker, Pre-Modern History with Ms. Diggle, Myriad Visual Arts with Mr. Branch, Accounting with Mr. Row, Drama with Ms. Schwartz and of course Exercise, that one doesn't have a teacher listed so I think they must rotate or have multiple teachers."

She looks at her own paper. "Looks like I've got the same teachers for Stars and Planets, Proofs, and History. No clue on gym until we get our schedules, of course."

Oh that'll be fun. Hopefully she can change in the bathroom?

"Other than those, I've got Mr. Jones for Composition, Ms. Michaels for Art, Ms. Williams for Shop, and Mr. Kennedy for Python."

"Oh cool, hopefully we have those together. Do you already speak some French or are you starting fresh?"

More kids are starting to trickle in but since Hailey and Elemi are already talking the others give them space. A few people are walking in with friends but others seem alone. Occasionally someone will enter spot someone they know and go to sit next to them.

"I speak a little. Had it in middle school."

Wow this girl is actually trying to fucking befriend her? Weird. No accounting for taste, she guesses.

"Where'd you go before this?"

"I speak fluently. If you need help, you need but ask." She says in French.

"I was homeschooled," she says a bit shyly. "I'm really looking forward to meeting so many people and making friends."

"Thank you," she manages in reply. "I hope making friends works out for you. So far my experience has been that people suck, but maybe high school will be better."

She looks a bit shocked and then a little sad at Hailey's declaration. For just a moment her control slips. She finds Hailey's eyes and in the split second before she gets back control Hailey can sense those emotions and the tiniest moment of chagrin and panic. It's easy enough to dismiss as just seeing the emotions on her face, because they are there too. Elemi blushes for a second though which might be a clue to something different.

"I hope your experience of people gets better." Elemi forcibly clears the blush from her cheeks and tries to pretend nothing happened.

For that moment of connection, Hailey's mind bubbles with bitterness, resignation, and old hurts, before a brief spark of surprise.

That... is clearer than people's emotions normally are for her, and she pays a lot of attention to people's emotions (it's the best way to know when someone's about to take a swing at her, you see). Huh.

It's probably nothing though.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Maybe I'll get lucky. You seem nice, at least."

Left unsaid is her immense doubt that this possibly-good luck will continue. It never does.

She smiles genuinely at being called nice. "You seem nice too. I wish the world was better for you."

Calling Hailey nice earns a skeptical look. "Me? Nice? Sure you don't have me mixed up with someone else?"

"You're trying your best even though you're not used to this. And you're doing that for someone you just met."

"Heaping pile of ulterior motives." Yeah, making sure her scheme to get her name change and attend as herself doesn't fall apart.

She probably shouldn't be arguing this. This is dumb. But her competitive streak doesn't exactly listen. Besides, the sooner Elemi figures out she's an awful bitch, the sooner she can find friends that are actually nice.

"You could have just ignored me, and I'm pretty sure you don't have any reason to think I'm more important than any other classmate."

"I could have. Maybe I have some shred of hope left in me after all." She arches an eyebrow. "Are you?"

"I might be," she says mysteriously. She's enrolled as Elemi Brooks instead of under her name but she doesn't know how long that will hold up.

She sighs hard and shakes her head.

Then something that might be a wry smile stretches across her lips.

"Ugh, stars, a mystery. Now I've got to figure you out."

There's a short moment of real alarm on her face... she didn't really think this through. But then she steadies herself, it's at least partially a joke. "I wish you the best of luck with that."