Welcome to Gaia! ::

A brunette walked down the hall, looking around with an adorably confused expression on her face. For some reason, she didn’t see anyone who wasn’t already rushing to class, and didn’t want to hold them back for such a trivial problem. It only made her feel more helpless over time. Oh dear, I’m gonna be late that class, and I have no idea where I am going. Serves me well for not asking earlier.
Her whole being just screamed “hi I’m new”.

Suddenly, a sight relieved Alessa from almost all her worry. First, lockers down the hall. So that’s where they are. Secondly, someone who wasn’t running and might be about her age (though it’s hard to judge from behind).
She walked quickly behind her, with fast and light steps. “Excuse me, what year are you in? Could you help me with something?”, asked the brunette with a smile. Once she reached her level, however, she looked down to see a pile of folders, rather heavy-looking, even for this time of the year. Instinctively, she immediately asked something else completely different: “Do you need help with that?”

A sigh of relief immediately followed Louisa’s answer. “Oh greaaat… yes, we’re in the same year, then, and probably in the same class, too. Well, I’m new here”, explained Alessa calmly, but with a bit of embarrassment, “And I don’t have the slightest idea where is the classroom I’m supposed to head to.”

She nodded. “Of course”, she said softly, who had first moved her arm to shake hands with the other student, before realizing it was a bit silly in that situation. She raised her other arm to take the folds, pretending it had been her attention all along. “And I’m Alessa. Nice to meet you, Louisa!”

Alessa’s dark eyes drifted above her glasses, looking at nothing in particular, to think briefly. It took her a few seconds to attempt an answer: “I think I have geography now. I’ve reread my schedule enough, I’m pretty sure my very first class is geography.” She looked back at the folders that disappeared one by on in the place they belonged.
“That would be awesome, actually! Meadowview is nothing like my old school. We didn’t have uniforms, either.” The brunette didn’t seem to mind that fact, surprisingly: the warm colors of the uniform wasn’t as depressing as the typical greys or dull shades she’d seen everywhere else.

Following Louisa like a lost sheep relied entirely on its shepherd, Alessa expressed her concerns again, though more lightly now that she had a guide and her more urgent problem was solved. “Is the geography teacher… you know… cool? Is there any teacher I should be warned about in particular?” Every school had at least one of these, and the girl with glasses had bad memories of Miss Pempton. Though she had humiliated several students in front of the whole class, herself was completely unable to point which countries exactly were part of the USSR, and other aberrations.
Which brought Alessa to the other point…
“… I guess I wasn’t exactly in the best high school”, admitted the girl with a slight embarrassed blush. “Now I think about it, my school’s standards weren’t very high in general, that must explain the lack of uniform. But those are cool.” She took her skirt’s border in her hand. “Fashion victims and the lowly populace – like me, she added mischievously – all the same, in warm and happy shades of orange! It could get bad where I come from.”
She released her skirt, and gave an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, just tell me if I talk too much. It’s just that you’re one of the first student I’m talking to on my first day!” Absorbed by her conversation, she hadn’t looked where they were going, and probably could not find her way back later.

Still, with the short answer, Alessa felt like she was being much too talkative in comparison. That’d certainly get better if she learnt to know her classmates; for the time being, she was little more than a stranger. Starting anew had such drawbacks, after all. She slowed down her flow of words and focused on a topic at a time. “So… what kind of clubs is there here? What club are you in? I like sci-fi and action movies, personally.”
The brown-eyed girl too was trying maybe a bit too hard too to make friends with everyone.

For a short instant, Alessa showed a hint of disappointment. “Oh?” She however forgot about it very quickly. “I’ll just look around myself, then. Do you-“Her tripping was accompanied by a sudden interruption in her speech. Fortunately, she didn’t fall down, and just leant on the wall to look down.
And she kneeled down with a faint, embarrassed laugh. “Sorry, I’ll be done in an instant, let me tie these shoelaces.”

Alessa giggled back, more frankly. “That kind of thing always happens to me! You should have been there when I dropped a dictionary on my foot… in retrospect, it was painful but funny, ‘cause it opened right on the definition for “foot”. Thanks, but I knew what it was already!”
Once her shoelaces were properly tied again, she stood up to see, a few meters away, growing groups of students rushing into two classrooms. “Which one is it? Or are we not there yet?” she asked.