Welcome to Gaia! ::

The summer had initially looked to be so promising and Arian had been looking forward to not doing a lot of anything. Well okay maybe hitting up the couple of bead shops whose websites he’d stumbled upon online when looking up Destiny City during last Winter’s Half Term break and there was the Summer Camp break thingy that his cousin Saffy had told him that she’d booked him on... What he’d not been expecting to do was to end up what was increasing looking likely to be most of the Summer break studying.

Apparently moving to a whole new country wasn’t a good enough excuse to skip out of doing GCSE exams. Arian still wasn’t sure how it had all happened, but somehow the school had convinced the family that completing his General Certificate of Secondary Education (better known to most as simply GCSEs) would stand him good stead in any future educational prospects – especially should he decide in future to head on to university – and Meadowview, his new school had been (to Arian’s opinion anyway) surprisingly obliging in letting him sit said exams. That had been enough to convince Saffy and somehow he had ended up having to note candidate and centre reference numbers, in between filling out paperwork for his family visa and making sure his passport was up-to-date.

Personally however, Arian still wasn’t totally convinced as to all the benefits of sitting the exams, considering the fact that sitting the GCSE exams was not going to be the end of studying. Despite the fact that sitting GCSEs would have meant a place in a 6th Form College to do A-levels and then maybe University in the UK, it turned out schooling in Destiny City, USA was not going to work that way. After getting back the results of the tests that Meadowview had sent him to complete, it had turned out that despite being ahead in English Language and Literature and about the same in Geography, he was somewhat behind in Science and woefully behind in History. Which had somehow led to ending up being signed up to extra classes over the summer – all in the name of being all caught up when school started back up in the Autumn term... No semester – they called it semester here.

Maybe it was just as well Arian actually liked libraries.

It had taken a good 40 minutes or so for Arian to become focused enough to study. It had been his first time stepping through the doors of the Destiny City library, it had probably not helped that the first section of books that the raven-haired boy had stumbled across while trying to find the American history section had been the home-baking section and Arian had let himself let himself be distracted over recipes for chocolate chip coffee cake and something called a ‘blackout’ cake. It was about that point that Arian somewhat sheepishly realised that he’d yet to read a single history book and the cookbook was carefully, if regretfully slotted back on the shelf he’d gotten it from.

Eventually the American history section had been located and Arian had become aware of problem number 2 – which book? There seemed so many to choose from and he honestly didn’t know where would be the best place to start. The ‘Through the Ages’ books looked to be slightly more interesting than the other choices, however going for the ‘Complete History book’ looked to be perhaps the better choice – after complete meant that that would have everything in right? Right? Or if not then at least it would be detailed. With his mind made up, Arian snagged a Through the ages, then moved to the side to where he’d seen the Complete History in question. There was a girl nearby, but she seemed engrossed in looking through the books and Arian didn’t want to disturb her.

The book was on one of the higher shelves – just out of reach and Arian wished (not for the first time) – that he’d been born be just a few inches taller. Finally however, after some awkward stretching on tiptoes, his questing fingers were able to snag the edge of the book and eventually add it to the Complete History book. He was just about to step back and find a desk or something to read at when someone bumped into his side with enough force to cause him to almost drop the books. Almost automatically, he turned to look, eyes registering the girl he’d stepped round earlier. “It’s fine” he told her in response to her apology as he held the two books carefully. “How about you? Are you all right Miss? ”

“Honestly it’s fine” Arian tried to wave off the apology, his voice matter-of-fact. “Accidents happen.” At least he was pretty sure she hadn’t done it on purpose since he doubted that people who did that sort of thing would apologise for doing so. “Good to know that you’re okay too Miss.”

“Fun?” He blinked confused at the girl from behind his glasses at the question. Just for fun what? It took a moment for him to realise that the girl was looking at the books he was carrying and thus maybe referring to them. “If you mean these” he shifted the books slightly. “Then no, not really to be honest.” He wrinkled his nose slightly at the thought. “American History’s one of my extra classes for school.” He added “I’m at Meadowview – or will be properly when classes start again after the Summer.”

“Well most of it, I had a choice of extra classes over the summer or catch-up classes when school starts up again after the summer and well” Arian shifted the books again. “Doing catch-up classes in school would probably be even less fun than summer classes to be honest and they’re also letting me finish off my GCSEs.” He had a couple more exams left for those and then he’d have to wait until August to see if he’d done well in them. He smiled when the other girl mentioned that she was also at Meadowview

“That’s a coincidence! Yes it’s my first year, well it will be. I’ve not really been in Destiny City that long.”

At the girl’s mention of her name, he looked momentarily flustered “Ah sorry, I’ve forgotten my manners. I’m Arian – Arian Laith. Pleased to meet you Gigi.” He offered a hand for her to shake. At the mention of history homework he added. “You’re doing American history by any chance.” He didn’t really expect an answer in the positive – that would be probably too much of a coincidence.

“Thank you, people have been pretty nice so far.” Or at least the few that Arian had been introduced to had come across that way. “From the UK. I used to live in the south west near the Welsh border, but I’m living with my cousin now.”

In response to Gigi’s question, he nodded in the affirmative “Yes I am – we did British and some European history at school – it’s not studied at GCSE level so I’m behind in all the topics.” He wasn’t sure about the class thing – despite having Saffron explain things he still wasn’t quite sure how the classes worked in America, but Gigi looked around his age so at last he said. “We might be – I think that I have about two years at Meadowview and then I can go onto” he tried to recall what Saffy had told him “Prep college I think.”

Arian smiled ruefully at Gigi’s comment of having things all planned out. “Not really” he admitted. “My cousin’s sorted things out mostly – she’s the one who suggested Meadowview as a school and sorted out the paperwork, I’m still trying to get my head round things – it all seems so different from back in the UK.”

At the offer to help him study, Arian hesitated briefly. Help would be good – really good, but wasn’t Gigi studying herself? He didn’t want to end up pulling her from her own work, just to help him muddle through American History, but help definitely would be nice. “If it’s not too much trouble” he said eventually. “I’d really like the help thank you, but not if it’s going to put you to any trouble.”

Arian shook his head at Gigi’s question “No. After taking GCSEs you can either stay on at school and take A-levels, go to college and take A-levels or leave school and get a job. If you want to go to university you have to take A-levels.” His teachers and the school career adviser had been pretty sure on that point.

He blinked as Gigi suddenly switched topics back to history, “Um, Miss” he gave the name of the woman who had assigned him the history catch-up work. “Gave me a list of subject areas.” They’d been jotted down in a notepad. “He found a nearby table and placed his two books down and pulled a nearby chair over so that they’d both have one. It’s in my bag.” Noticing that that Gigi was pulling down books he moved to help, either by moving some to the table or to help with getting together some books to look at.