@EurmalEye@AnyAlex@akirashadow

She smiled at Tyler, although it was a bit strained as she took in his clothes compared to hers, which were definitely not as expensive. She had also made sure they were flexible enough to dance in if she didn’t feel like changing when the urge struck and the casuality of it compared to a suit jacket made her feel something like painfully conscious. Although she did put in some effort to be sure she was up to the irritatingly stuffy dress code, the clothes weren’t the nicest. She hadn’t paid much mind to it before, but at that moment it took a not insignificant effort to keep from picking at the hem of her shirt even though everyone else for the most part matched her level of dress.

She turned back to Eric and cocked her head thoughtfully. It felt odd to come to the school and see students she had deemed as spoiled off the bat in passing only to have the first she had really talked to seem friendly. She couldn’t help but wonder whether he and Quinn were the rules, the exception, or only playing nice for good impressions. Any way it went, she decided to take what she got for now and hope for the best.

”Sure, I just have more to take in than I was ready for. I’m not used to places like this and I definitely wouldn’t be here without my scholarship. I hope it’ll all be worth it, at least. She huffed a small laugh. ”And what about you? Has today been up to your standards?”

Interacting with:@akirashadow@snickerdoodly@anyalex

Erik looked up at Alana and returned the laugh. As he did, he crunched the data in his head. Given that he had already interacted with Tyler, though it did not seem particularly successful given his own curiosity and Tyler's odd reticence to engage someone like himself in more active discussion. Erik guessed it was simply the lack of time spent together. He did not want to say anything that could offend the serious teen. At the same time, here was another opportunity to bond with another potential friend and contact down the line. He needed to walk the tight rope of social grace and friendliness carefully. "It is the same for me as well. Without getting one of the scholarships, I definitely would not have been able to come here. A little beyond my school of residence after all/" Erik gave a playful wink as he cracked the joke. "I do think it will be worth it. With this school on our applications, I think that we can get into any university we choose. And with that, have a real chance at accomplishing our dreams." Erik finished his response with a wide grin. He figured that he would make a suitable impression with that response and continued to give the Barley scratches.

"The first day definitely did not hit my standards! I was certain that there would be a red carpet rolled out for our first period class! Erik took the opportunity to flash a grin which emphasized his incredibly handsome face. "Honestly, I was a bit taken off guard at how normal things are. Just standard new school stuff, classes, homework and making new friends out on the grass. Meeting Barley was a great bonus too! The only odd thing was that last announcement. What do you suppose they are doing in there?" If that is where the meetings where the leaders of the school met, it was definitely where someone like himself belonged.

Interactions: @snickerdoodly (Alana) @EurmalEye (Erik) & @AnyAlex (Quinn)

Tyler was trying to relax as much as his particular seated position allowed him too. "Well maybe I'll take a less formal approach moving forward." Jake stated as he reached at his neck and loosened the tie even more until it drooped with a large noose. He had no doubt that his near corporate attire may have given of the wrong vibe throughout the day. He took the time Quinn was contemplating her response to start cross analysing his English notes against the ones Erik had shared to identify the areas of most relevance. Literature was not exactly his strongest subject matter, Tyler had a preference for numbers and application, or at least that was where he better excelled.

When Quinn agreed to help he looks across to her with a smile. He was fairly certain that she was joking, but regardless responded with."I'm sure that we can reach an agreement on a suitable means of compensation." He chuckled softly before continuing. "So should something come up that you need help with, just let me know." He noticed that Quinn had stopped working on her homework, so he goes through his notes to those from French class. This was not likely to go well, as such he reads over his notes a couple of times before sighing. His gaze shifts to Quinn with a nervous laugh. "Uh..." Tyler cleared his throat briefly. "B-Bonjour Quinn... uh.. je map... je m'appelle Tyler Cross." His accent somewhat contorted itself as he tried to get the pronounciation of words correct, though he had some training in class much more would likely be needed before he got that nailed down. "J'ai... Cinq ans?" He seemed unconvinced as he looks at his notes. "Apparently I just said I'm five... j'ai... quinze?" The pronunciation was completely off, sounded oout more as though it was a English word than how it'd be pronounced in french. "So, need to be able to do that with confidence for next week. Getting my head round all these languages isn't going to be fun."

@EurmalEye@akirashadow@snickerdoodly

Quinn was sure she would end up asking for help anyhow this year so she was more than satisfied with the deal. She chuckled: '' That certainly sounds acceptable. Beware, you might end up doing something strange if the drama classes became less theory-based.''.

As soon as she saw that Tyler had his notes out, she began to listen attentively and although she wasn't great at languages, his nervousness seemed to suggest that whatever he was saying wasn't supposed to sound that way. Luckily she managed to stop herself from cringing- it was probably better than what she would've been able to do. Trying to relive Tyler's nervousness with humour, she responded: '' If you say that you're five in the actual homework you can always say that you were trying to play the role of a child. You might get some points for creativity.''. Sure her joke wasn't too great but it was the first thing that came to mind. Taking a moment to take the situation in, she continued, more seriously this time: '' I have to agree- confidence seems to be a problem. You are anxious and struggling because it's a language you seemingly never learned. Do you know what you should do in my opinion? Pretend you're a native french speaker- act like you know what you're saying. '' That usually worked for her- not that she was sure that it would work for Tyler. It wasn't always easy to pretend to be someone you're not and she did struggle with it when she was younger and starting to put herself out there in the acting and social media scenes. Nonetheless, she hoped it would help the boy at least a little bit.

@EurmalEye@akirashadow@AnyAlex
Alana grinned back, relaxing as her earlier wariness finally drained away. It was most definitely a nice surprise to have found a potential friend who was a scholarship student too. Judging by his goals for university, she could guess that he had the academic scholarship. Along with the fact that he had already given the notes on the first day, it wasn't a stretch to say that he could also help her later, something that wouldn't hurt to appreciate.

"Yeah, aside from that announcement it's been pretty run of the mill. Your guess is as good as mine though. They're probably just planning out the year but considering it's my first day, I could be completely wrong." She shrugged. "Do you think something else is going on?"

Interacting with:@akirashadow@snickerdoodly@anyalex

"Maybe the conspiracy theories are true and they are planning which students they can make disappear!" Erik said playfully with a small chuckle. "You are probably right though, I suppose the show is over." Erik gave Barley a couple more scratches behind the ear and then pulled his hand gently, and somewhat reluctantly, back.

"I have yet to get started on the other assignments and I have a feeling this place is not gonna hold back when it comes to grading. Quinn, Tyler, quand vous avez fini de pratiquer le français, voulez-vous étudier ensemble? Alana, shall we work together and finish this homework together? At least our shared classes anyway." Erik kept a casual smile on, trying to keep his body language relaxed and casual. During their shared work assignments he would shine and absolutely be the focus. Inside, he could already feel their sense of admiration towards him growing. He wished he had the numbers for Angie and Alex to have them join, but he would have to mention it to them the next time he saw them.

Interactions: @snickerdoodly (Alana) @EurmalEye (Erik) & @AnyAlex (Quinn)

So long as those 'strange' things didn't wind up on the public domain there was no real reason for Tyler to be concerned about the potential need to tag along as Quinn's extra in some scene. Though giving it more thought, drama was definitely likely to have more out there assignments for the students to perform. Tyler shook the idea from his mind, in truth he should just embrace the opportunity to try something different if it came along.

"Ha, yeah if only that would be taken into consideration, I'd certainly get through with flying colours." He grinned trying to keep positive about the ordeal that was before him. No doubt his parents would be keen to check in on his progress by the time the weekend would roll back around. He considered Quinn's feedback and advice, perhaps he didn't quite follow the idea completely at this stage as he responded with. "But wouldn't showing confidence, whilst being wrong just make me look worse in the grand scheme?... But I suppose it'd be wrong to knock an idea completely off the plate before trying it." Almost as though having a Eureka moment, he brightened up. "I know someone who owes me some favors that can help too. Next time there will be more competence."

When Erik initially spoke, what he only assumed was French, Tyler just glanced over in near confusion. Though he quickly regained his composure as he assumed that it was related to the question he immediately after asked to Alana. "A group of four would be fairly close to optimal. As the assignments get more challenging all of us pitching in could ease the load considerably." As far as he was concerned if they were going to study together it may as well be a continuous effort.

@akirashadow@EurmalEye@AnyAlex

Alana nodded in agreement with Tyler. She expected that the school would make assignments progressively more difficult over the course of the next few weeks and although she preferred to work alone, she couldn't deny that it would be a bad idea to turn down the offer, especially considering the fact that Erik was the academic scholar and the school, after all, had to be prestigious for good reason.

"Sure, why not. I'm sure if we work together we can get the homework done faster and probably better too." She rifled through her bag for a moment, then stopped to look around at the group, her gaze landing on Tyler. At least for his sake, maybe they should leave the threat of grass stains behind. "Would you all rather stay here or go to one of the common rooms? I don't mind either way, but it can't hurt to ask, right?"

@EurmalEye@akirashadow@snickerdoodly

''I suppose that's correct. It does work on those who don't know what you're talking about, or those that think that you're more knowledgeable than them so it's still useful in some cases'' responded Quinn after a moment of consideration. She never had to bother too much with academics, so she mostly ended up using that technique in social settings that didn't require too much technical knowledge. Although, she was glad that Tyler would be able to figure out something for the next time. In her opinion, any solution was better than none.

Quinn was confused, not able to understand any part of what Erik said in whatever language he used, but was quick to pick up on the context, based on Alana's and Tyler's responses. It would be nice to work in a group and exchange ideas on how to do certain tasks. Besides some of the subjects, the school offered clearly would require group work in the long run so it would be a good idea to make connections with people who could assist in those tasks. Smiling at Erik, she answered: ''Sounds great! Maybe we should exchange numbers so we can all contact each other?'', pausing for a brief second, she thought about which location would be better to study in. Both seemed good in theory to her. Glancing at Alana, she said: ''I'm fine with either. I wonder though if the school has a library anywhere. It would be useful for sure''

Interacting with:@akirashadow@snickerdoodly@anyalex

Erik nodded at Quinn's suggested and airdropped his contact information to everyone in the group. He made a quick mental note to Angie and Alex's information as well the next time he saw him. "The library sounds a great place to go, excellent point Quinn. They probably have some study rooms that we can sign out to work in which would be a great place for it. If you guys are alright with it, I would like to invite two other students to join us next time." Erik was very pleased to set up a solid group to form his base friendships here at Pine Hill, a solid mix of big names and unknown to show he had status and could relate to the common people. Most importantly, the big names in their group would lend him enough social importance to talk to some of the more important students at the school, furthering his connections.

"Shall we head on over there? I think it is by the Newton dorm and cafeteria."

Interactions: [@dnivkerdoodly](Alana) @EurmalEye (Erik) @AnyAlex (Quinn)

Tyler got up to his feet as the conversation led to the group considering relocation. He carefully checked over his attire. "The library would offer a more ideal working environment. Plus the additional sources of information it would provide couldn't hurt." He picked his bag up off the floor and gently dusted loose grass off from the underside of it with the back of his hand. He glanced to Erik as he slid his suit jacket back on. "I have no issue with additional people joining us, so long as everyone is willing to pull their weight. Though the larger the group gets the greater risk we run of that happening." Despite what he'd said Tyler had no real reason to believe anyone attending the academy was like to be 'dead weight' though it wasn't guaranteed to be avoidable.

Tyler began to make his way back over to what he considered more solid ground, his desire to leave may not have been so obvious was he in less valuable attire. He stops himself from heading off ahead of the others, deciding instead to wait at the edge of grass. He brought his bag back over his shoulder as he fetched his phone and replied his contact details back to Erik and awaited the chance to share his to Alana and Quinn. In hindsight doing that before walking away may have been the wiser choice. At the same time if the group decided to remain this could just wind up making him look rather foolish.

@EurmalEye@akirashadow@snickerdoodly

Saving Erik's phone number onto her phone, Quinn smiled at the suggestion: '' The more the merrier!''. Quickly airdropping her number to others, she packed away her English textbook into her bag and shook off any grass that stuck to her trousers. They got slightly creased but apart from that not too much damage was done, at least nothing that couldn't be washed away with some water. Adjusting her bag's shoulder strap, she hummed quietly. Going to the library would at least help them figure out where everything was and when the opening times were. She couldn't deny that she itched to find out if the library had any play scripts or at least any movies that students could rent out. It's not like the school was against them having fun or indulging in their interests. '' I would be happy to go now.''

Giggling at Tyler's quick departure, Quinn waited for Alana's response. While the majority seemed to want to leave, it would be unfair not to hear out everyone's opinion on the matter. Holding out her hand towards the girl, in case she wanted to go, she asked:'' What do you think?''

@AnyAlex@akirashadow@EurmalEye
Alana raised her eyebrows amusedly as Tyler left, unsuccessfully stifling the laugh that made its way out. She saved the contacts and followed suit, airdropping her own contacts. She returned her science homework and her glasses to her backpack before slinging it over her shoulders. She took Quinn’s hand, although a bit tentatively.

“Sounds like a solid plan to me.” Alana hoped the maybe after they were done she would still have some time to browse the shelves. Even if it was a school library, there had to be something interesting to pick up from there. She tugged on Quinn’s hand slightly as she pulled herself up, giving the other girl a sincere but slightly flustered smile. She brushed the grass off of her pants, inspecting them briefly. Luckily, for the most part she had sat on the tree’s roots and there wasn’t much to fix. She bent back down and picked up Barley’s leash before upright. “I’m honestly not very confident in my directional skills yet so if anyone else is, feel free to lead the way.”

-Evening Summary-

After studying with the others in the library Tyler headed back to his dorm. He hadn't completed final drafts of either of his written assignments and had spent most of his time in the library gathering references for the English assignment. He knelt down beside his bed on his bag and pulled the case he'd put under there out, placing it beside his bed. He then sat at his desk and began to write up his English and Science homework. The end quality was very much middle of the road for students of their calibre, though would likely be enough to get him through these initial pieces.

Having finished the homework Tyler turned his attention back to the case beside his bed. He lifts the case up on top of the bed before opening it up and removing the violin and bow that lay snugly within. A grimace and sigh accompanied the untuned tone that echo'd out as the bow stroked the strings. As much had been expected, though it was worse than he had thought it might be. Getting an initial tuning completed a day early was seeming a better idea by the minute. Each bow stroke was followed by a pause and adjustment of tuning, this routine continued for a couple of minutes until Tyler was satisfied. Perhaps he would have the chance to play tomorrow and if not he could at least spend some time practicing.

The time spent at the library was enjoyable, although Quinn didn't do much work apart from drafting the English assignment and finishing the drama homework ( which was quite easy due to the fact she had to memorise all of the terms when she began acting). After that, she lost all her drive to study and instead she walked off to survey the books the school had to offer. There seemed to be a large range of book genres and topics, including a decent amount of books surrounding the arts. While looking around, she found a rather thin book about Bram Stoker which she borrowed for reference. In the end, she didn't work as hard as others but had fun talking to her new study group and exploring the library.

Once she returned to the dorm, she rewrote the English assignment until she felt like it would give her a passing grade. During her research, she found musicals based on Stoker's works and decided to listen to the soundtrack later. It could make the topic more interesting if she could listen to the topic in a song form. Learning by reading was never her thing and while she sometimes read books for pleasure, she was never able to memorise much. By the time she finished, it was close to midnight but she didn't feel too tired. Since it was too late to wander around the campus, Quinn took out a small box containing what looked to be yarn and knitting needles. Her parents didn't let bring more things to craft with, so she settled on the yarn. Sitting on her bed, she began to knit at a moderate pace, eventually falling asleep.

Evening Summary: Erik worked hard in the library finishing his own assignments quickly and efficiently, so that he could spend enough time assisting the other students with their tasks as needed. The work was as simple as he predicted for the first day. Compared to his intellect, this challenge was absolutely laughable. Overall, he enjoyed his time with the study group and was excited for admiration for the following day as he brought in the other two he had in mind for the group. While it was difficult to make out his current position with Tyler, Eric reasoned that given that Tyler had followed along after him and agreed to enjoy his study group, it must be fairly high. Barley was quite an excellent dog as well and well-trained to boot! In the evening, Erik attended to his beauty routine and research some of the information that he may need for the next day.

The Sun had gone down by the time Angelica had finished he dinner at the cafeteria. She made it back to her dormitory room ten minutes before curfew, and took a moment to appreciate the starry night sky prior to shutting the window. She took her time washing up and making preparations for the next day, and then spent the last hour before bed uploading the photos she had taken earlier to her laptop and sorting them out. Her photography work was one of several things that she took pride in, and from her personal experience, only a few shots out of a couple of hours of shooting would be portfolio worthy. She was sufficiently focused on the task to nearly lose track of time, causing her to go to sleep at a time that was a little later than ideal, but she doubted that it would be much of an issue. It was probably too early in the term to be falling asleep during classes.

---

The following day seemed to be slightly better than the day before. The mandatory classes were surprisingly interesting and not too strenuous, though, she knew that she could not expect to get through them with such ease once things started to pick up, likely when the next week came around. She also got to see the people she had already personally spoken with in yesterday's classes and got acquainted with new ones. All of her classmates seemed friendly or at least polite, which was a good thing. She would not want to make enemies for no good reason. That would be especially unfavorable for anyone if the workload got to a point where they all needed one another's help.

She got to see Alex and Erik again in art class, and took the opportunity to request for their contacts. She was rather surprised to see the latter. She imagined that he would have chosen another additional class after what he had told her when they had first met at the cafe. She said nothing about it, however, and welcomed his company as always. As expected, the material delivered for the first art lesson was rather basic, and having studied the content before, Angelica was bored nearly to the point of frustration, but she was satisfied knowing that this was one of the classes that she would do exceptionally well in. Needless to say, her naturally-phlegmatic demeanor kept such feelings a secret from nearly everyone present, even as she amused herself with the thought of simply submitting one of her past works as her homework assignment since she was almost always working on art.

She guessed that physical education was the only class where students could do away with the business formal dress code. The first lesson involved some sort of running test, which was quite a bore as well, but she figured that it could not always be like that. It turned out that there was a wide range physical fitness levels among the students, with some being in top shape while others lagged behind. Angelica did not do too badly herself, though, she was far from the best. She foresaw this class being a good stress reliever when one would be needed. She headed to her locker after the workout, tugging at the scrunchie that held her hair in a messy bun to let her waves down as she took sips from her oddly-shaped neon bottle. Despite the exercise not being too enjoyable, she was grateful to have been able to do it before she started on the work she had planned for the afternoon.

At the library, Alana had gotten most of her work done. She hadn’t spoken much, instead opting to focus on her work and occaisionally chime into the conversation. She didn’t mind, though; she had never been the talkative type. Once she had finished, she returned the books she had taken to complete the Bram Stoker biography and began to browse the shelves. She drifted around the shelves, looking around at the books. She liked reading in theory, but not in practice, in which her eyes would start to complain from the strain of her glasses and squinting except for large print. It made her feel like an idiot, really. In the end, she decided she didn’t feel up to reading and left the library to take a walk around campus, Barley trotting cheerily beside her.

Afterwards, she went to her dorm and plucked her guitar from where the case stood at the foot of her bed. She had had to teach herself, but she was still decent enough. She strummed a few songs, singing softly to herself from her bed with Barley at her feet. Once she felt her eyes drooping with sleep, she put it back and let herself drift off.

Classes that morning hadn’t been too bad. Science had been a bit of a drag since she had picked up plenty in the lab and researching on her own, but she didn’t mind much. Luckily, her homework was in the classes that were easiest for her too which meant it wouldn’t take much time or effort, not that she was complaining. She fully expected the school to scale up the homework once they were adjusted.

Tyler had been in her Latin class and she found that she was slowly warming up to him. He seemed like he was friendly, if more than a little awkward which checked in with yesterday’s observation. Either way, she tried to reciprocate. The class itself was interesting too for an analytical mind like hers. She liked the sequences and patterns of history along with the questions that could be discussed for hours as it felt a bit like science. At any rate, it did her curiosity some good. She did want to get to actually learning the language, but she supposed it would only be a matter of time.

Music had been fine. Like science, she didn’t pay attention to closely because she knew most of what was happening. With the rest of her study group there, she found the class didn’t end up being too boring. She didn’t go out of her way to talk to them, mostly because she wasn’t very outgoing, but she had been friendly when she wasn’t zoning out of the lecture.

With the lack of any surprise tests, Quinn found the day less stressful although she could not deny that it was boring. The mandatory classes seemed to continue the things they started the last lesson and it looked like the science teacher would set homework every day. So much for having free periods. During her break and lunch, she walked around the study halls and examined the notice boards for any extra-curriculars she could partake in. So far, there was nothing but the sports' team sign-ups, most of which have been already filled out to a brim with names. Quinn looked at the sign-up sheet for the dance team with contempt. When did they all these students find time to sign up? It was only a day since school started. She could only hope that other clubs would start opening applications otherwise she would end up having to create her own. Walking away she pulled out her phone and posted a picture of the halls. It was a while since she updated her socials and editing the image could possibly cure her boredom.

Quinn found the music class surprisingly basic. Most of the terminology she used quite often so she just jotted down some simple notes while inspecting the selection of instruments the school had to offer. While she would be most comfortable with a piano, Quinn was considering branching out into other instruments but that would require her to sacrifice more time to get good. Pushing the thought out of her head, she began staring out of the window into the courtyard. There was no rush, when the time came to pick she would decide.

Finally, the time for physical education arrived and with it the pleasure of running. Sports was something that she always enjoyed and that her parents never had any objections about. The importance of being healthy and whatever else their doctor recommended was never questioned by them so she had at least one excuse to avoid them in the mornings. The test was simple in her opinion and she managed to be slightly behind the most athletic students, although she was never able to overtake them. Still, Quinn was more than happy with her performance and headed back to the locker room with a spring in her step.

After changing back into some casual clothes ( there was no point in changing back into her 'professional' clothing), she headed into the library to return the book she took out yesterday and began to look through the shelves to find something that would interest her.