CHAPTER 14

The three of them, under the direction of the Vice Principal, were led to their first class together, English, where they all took the three empty provided seats at the end of the class.

"Class, these are our new students, Allison Argent, Malia Tate and Tristan Hayes. Please do your best to make them feel welcomed." He gave a brief introduction to the class about the new intakes before giving the teacher back his class and making his way back to his office. 

Tristan sat in the middle of the two girls, right behind the guy who was most likely a werewolf, probably a recently turned one at that with how he twitched and winced at every high pitched sound. He shrugged after he was through with his observations of the boy and focused on the class, or at least tried to, an action perfectly mirrored by Malia with the only one focusing on class being the new girl, Allison. 

He tuned out the beta and the entire class and just blankly stared until time passed and the bell rang, jolting him from the meditative trance he had put himself in. 

He and Malia followed the herd of students and located their lockers with Allison following them as it seemed their lockers were located in the same row. 

"So um, do you guys have any idea what people do around here?" Allison asked Malia after she placed her books inside her locker. "This is literally my first day in Beacon Hills, so I'm still not up to… stuff." Her voice became low and awkward as she got to the end of her sentence. She knew how hard it was being the new student, and not just that but also being the new girl in town. 

Tristan, off to the side, remained quiet and left Malia to answer the troubled new girl. 

"Well, the-" Unfortunately before she could complete her sentence, she was interrupted as another girl shoved her way into their conversation. 

"Hi, I'm Lydia and that jacket is absolutely killer." She said and rested her body against the locker, blocking Allison's view of Malia and making the girl not knowing how to react as she was torn between calling this Lydia out on her rudeness or responding to her compliment, ultimately deciding on the latter and try to smooth out any sparks before it blew up. 

"Oh, my mom is a buyer of –" 

"Who the fuck is this bitch?"

The clattering immediately paused and the hallway immediately became quiet as they were entertained with the rarest scene of the new girl ripping Lydia Martin a fresh one on her first day. 

Even Allison was stumped on how to respond to the sudden escalation and found her eyes moving to the boy at her side who couldn't look more fed up with the current progression. 

"Heh, excuse me?" Lydia finally turned around and asked with uncertainty as she looked at the girl that had just insulted her in her presence. 

"Well, you're excused, so scram." And Malia who couldn't give two damns about who this Lydia girl was didn't hesitate to put her in her place. 

Lydia wanted to retort but they were interrupted with the presence of a boy who immediately made his way to Lydia's side as soon as he saw a commotion forming around his girlfriend. 

"Can I know what's happening here?" He asked nobody in particular but expected an answer nonetheless. 

"Oh nothing, just whoever this tramp is not knowing when to barge into someone's conversation." Malia said those words in a tone that suggested that Lydia was dumb enough not to know basic etiquette that even a forest person would know. 

"She is my girlfriend, so watch it." Jackson Whittemore, Captain of the Beacon Hills Cyclones and swim team felt a bit triggered on seeing a girl he hadn't seen before making a scene out of Lydia but was conflicted on how to act since any of his actions would directly affect his reputation in school and among his teammates as well. 

"Just leave her be, Malia. I swear to God you'll give me an aneurysm one of these days." Tristan finally rediscovered his voice and wasted no time in dousing Malia's rising temper with it. It was bad enough that they were not only late but also made a scene on their first day and he didn't want Malia pushing it to the point that the Lydia girl broke down in tears because Malia was definitely capable of that. "Let's check out their lacrosse practice to pass time."

He pulled her away from the frozen Lydia and the confused Allison who hadn't been given the proper chance to accurately react as the situation took a steep dive downhill only for his arms to be grabbed by the Lydia's boyfriend as he made his way past them. 

"Hold up, I'm not done with you yet." High school was a place where a lot of importance was placed on reputation and merit and being the person with the most reputation in school, there was a certain height of prestige and respect that Jackson carried himself to and if he couldn't take his anger out on the girl, the least he could do was take it out on the guy with her. 

For the nth time since he knew her, Tristan was once again tempted to shout her name in frustration at the top of his voice. Stopping in his tracks, he contemplated what to say to get this guy off his back but was thankfully saved by the new girl who got in between them as everyone could tell the situation was getting out of hand. 

"I'm sorry. Malia didn't mean it that way, it was just a misunderstanding." Allison said, hoping that the two of them would just let it go as she was getting concerned at the huge crowd that was already forming in the hallway which would undoubtedly attract a teacher's attention, and what a day it would be if she got scolded by her teacher on her very first day. It probably won't be anything compared what she'd hear from her mother if that happened. 

Lydia looked a bit miffed but did nothing except click her tongue and stomped away while Jackson followed after since there was nothing more he could do which prompted the gathering crowd to disperse as the drama was apparently over. 

"I'm so sorry about that. I had no idea it would escalate that quickly. You guys want to get out of here?" Allison faced the two of them and apologized since she had a feeling it was her fault that the previous incident had almost devolved into a fight which wouldn't have been a good thing to either parties involved and proposed for a change of scene since they were still getting looks for the surrounding students. 

"It's okay. Like I said, we are going to check out their lacrosse practice." For the first time since they met, this was the first time Tristan had talked to her which kinda took her a little bit by surprise but she nevertheless nodded in appreciation. They were the only people she knew and to her initial judgment, they weren't that bad. 

As they made their way towards the open space the Cyclones used for practice, Allison started up the conversation. "So, lacrosse?..."

This time it was the less irritated Malia that answered her. "Yeah, it's like the next big thing in Beacon Hills. Lacrosse here, is the main sports played, different from the usual high school football and basketball you've probably grown used to." She explained. 

Allison had a look of understanding as she heard Malia's words and inquired further. "I see. Are we any good?"

"If winning states championship a couple times in a row consequently matches your definition of good, then I think they are quite good."

"'They'?" She asked at the wording Malia used only for the girl to shrug as of she could be more bothered. 

"It's not like I care for their little stick game. I'm only here because he wanted to check it out." Malia pointed at Tristan which once again reminded Allison of his presence. 

"Oh, I see. So, uhm, what's his deal? I noticed he doesn't talk that much and I doubt it's something as stupid as being awkward around people." Allison glanced at Tristan who didn't even show any reaction towards her blatantly pointing him out. 

"…"  

Instead of answering like she had been doing, Malia turned towards Tristan with an expression that looked as if Allison's question was something she too had been worrying about. 

Under the two inquisitive stares of the girls, Tristan knew that though he could just ignore her, it wasn't a question that made him think too much for an answer since it was something a lot of people had asked him and his answer was always the same thing, sometimes in different contexts 

"You guys looked very immersed in your conversation so I decided not to speak." A half lie that no one could point out, maybe except Malia and based on the looks she was giving him, even Allison too. 

"I know a deflective lie when I see one. You don't look socially awkward and you're pretty fit depicting your athletic strength, so it's got to be something else. Come on, tell me." Allison prodded him further. She didn't know why but she was very natural when she was talking with them since none of them made it an effort put on any mask when talking. 

From the limited time and observations she had done, even during class, the only thing she could tell was that Malia was very blunt in the way she talked. It was as if consideration was never a part of her speech so she was naturally curious about Tristan's tick. Call her intruding but she felt that he two of them were quite the interesting people pair, and that only meant one thing – gossip. 

Tristan looked at her as they made their way up the bleachers and thought of whether she'll finally let it rest if he answered her. 

"It's nothing really. It's just that conversations can sometimes be a bore to indulge in if you're not interested in it or you are talking to a stranger. And no, I'm not alluding to being a loner or any such tendencies." He tried to keep his words as articulate as possible not to create an misunderstanding. 

In a different column of the bleachers, the girl they met earlier saw them coming in and scowled in irritation and forcefully turned her head to focus of the opening warm up game of the year. 

Back to Tristan's circle, Allison almost pumped her hand in a way that would have made her seem quirky due to Tristan's response. 

Her initial fears about moving to a new place and one so far way from the city was that she was afraid of the questions and the talks behind her back should she fail to fit in and being able to meet a pair of free minded people like those two was a pure stroke of luck. 

"Oh? So our conversation was boring?" She asked.

"No."

"And?" She knew she was being pushy since she'd only known them for a few hours but she had a feeling that neither would hesitate to call her out if she ever got on their nerves. 

"Your were talking to Malia." Tristan's answer made her pause as she realized that she had indeed only being talking to Malia since they first met but that wasn't a deterrent for not joining a conversation if you wanted to. 

"You guys are weird." She let that out unintentionally and immediately covered her mouth as she registered how rude the words she said sounded. 

"Well you're not entirely wrong about that." They both regarded it with nonchalance as if that was least offensive word she could have said. 

"Your guys aren't offended?" She asked just to be sure. 

"That's the least worst thing you could have said. And you're not supposed to call someone weird when you have a weird name like Argent. What language is that anyway? Italian?" Malia asked. 

"It's my family name and it's French." So far, the first day of school had been quite different than what any of them expected but they just rolled with it. 

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