*slight spoilers for The Great Gatsby, i'll mark where it begins if you haven't read it (:
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Monday August 27, 1983

Aurora Kentucky walked into fourth period biology somewhat hesitantly. It wasn't that biology was scary or anything, she'd been walking into all her classes with a worried look that day. It was part of the price you had to pay when keeping a secret, especially a secret as big as this. Rory found her designated seat in the back of the classroom next to Amelia Clementine. Amelia was already there, leaning back in her chair and looking extremely calm.

"Ya know, now that something interesting is happening in my life, school feels especially mundane." Amelia announced just loud enough that Rory could hear. The quiet girl giggled and gave her friend a light smile, tucking her short hair behind her ear.

Somewhere across the room, Amayah Wynn sat next to Vincent Weslon, who was currently seething about the "discussion" he'd had with his old man that morning. Amayah knew Vinny, and she was well aware that he didn't want to talk about the argument in biology class, even if this was his second time taking the class due to being held back.

Two rows behind the duo, Matthew Mackintire sat with his head on his hand, watching the brunette in a totally not creepy way.

"It's rude to stare, you know." Matt flinched and turned to the girl sitting next to him, nose in a book. Natalia Avery had been his new seat partner since last Wednesday, when she'd officially started at Boro High School. He'd offered to be her partner like the friendly guy that he is, but had yet to speak more than a few sentences to her. Natalia had turned out to be a lot more intimidating than he'd originally expected.

"I'm not staring." he argued meekly, knowing that he had absolutely been doing just that. Matt fell back into his seat, embarrassed that he'd been spotted.

The bell rung, signifying the start of class and a spritely young woman entered the room. "Alright kids, before we start todays lesson I have a few announcements. Starting tomorrow I will be handing out permission slips for our Biology field trip! We'll be visiting our own sandy beaches in order to observe the natural wildlife, and get a better idea of the sand that makes up our ecosystems."

She continued to ramble on about the field trip, but Rory was long gone. She completely forgotten about the annual field trip. Biology did it every year, and of course it would be happening after she'd developed the ability to become a mermaid whenever she touched water. Beside her, Amelia sat back up in her chair. "This'll be fun." she mumbled.

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"Did anyone have a different take on Daisy's character?" Jackson Soel raised his hand quickly. Mrs. Trevens, his older-than-dirt English teacher turned to him and nodded.

spoilers ahead, whoops

"Personally, I found her to be obnoxious. She never takes responsibility for anything. She ran over Myrtle, and didn't even go to Gatsby's funeral! I mean, the man took the fall for her murder!" Jackson rambled, throwing his hands up into the air. When he realized how eccentric he'd become, he fell back into his seat. "I dunno, I just think she shouldn't be so romanticized, you know?"

spoilers over

Mrs. Trevens face didn't change throughout his whole speech. "mhmm." she replied blankly, looking to Jessie, who sat next to Jackson. "Do you agree?" she asked just as emotionlessly.

"Um." Jessie looked up at her teacher, brain frozen. Okay, so maybe she hadn't finished the book like they were supposed to. Scratch that, maybe she hadn't even started it, but she'd certainly not expected it to contain murder! Maybe if she'd known that she would've actually read it.

"yeah, definitely." She finally responded, smiling awkwardly at her teacher, who was not fooled.

"Now that you've all finished the novel." Mrs. Trevens gave a pointed look to Jessie, who shrunk in her seat. "I'm going to assign partners for the end of unit project. There was a chorus of groans around the room. Sure, they known about the group project for ages, but they'd all assumed Mrs. Trevens would be gracious enough to at least let them pick their groups. How wrong they'd all been.

"I'm going to give everyone a number, and you need to find the person who has the same number as you." Mrs. Trevens continued, walking around and giving kids slips of paper. "There will be no trading." she added, sliding Ginny a piece of paper with the number 4 on it. The ginger looked up excitedly, biting her lip a bit.

Next to her, Annabel received her own slip with the number 7 on it. The girls looked at each others papers, slightly disappointed that they didn't match. Annabel stared at her other classmates, meeting eyes with Jackson.

The blond boy, who had only recently been handed his slip, made eye contact with Annabel and held up a 3 with his fingers. Annabel scrunched her nose up, putting up both her hands to tell him she had a 7. Next to Jackson however, Jessie perked up, mimicking Annabel's hands before showing her own slip, which also read 7. Annabel smiled, and sat back in her seat, pleased that she'd been paired with a friend rather than say, Donald Orval.

Speaking of whom, Don looked at his slip and immediately turned to his friends, showing off the number written on it.

"You may now go search for your partners," Mrs. Trevens announced, sitting back down at her desk. Some kids rushed to stand up, searching for their partners with hope in their eyes. Ginny found herself somewhat amongst this crowd. She knew from observing Annabel's interactions that she wouldn't be paired with Jessie or Jackson. Still, English class consisted of some bearable people. Ginny looked around before her eyes landed on Tony and Danny, the new kid from the diner. Never one to sit around and wait, Ginny headed their way.

"Ginny!" Tony exclaimed, ever-present smile on his face. He immediately turned his slip toward her, and Ginny pouted at the 10 written on it. "I've got 4." She declared, showing it to him anyway. "No way, me too." Ginny looked a bit to the right to see Danny beaming and showing off his slip that did indeed read, '4'.

"Awesome." she replied casually, not wanting to seem too excited.

Across the room, Jackson was searching for the person with the identical number 3 on their paper. He was about to approach a girl when he heard the obnoxious voice of Donald Orval cut through the room. "Who's got the other 3?" he sounded bored, and Jackson couldn't help but feel disappointed. Sure he'd never had a real interaction with Don, but the guy was just kind of known amongst his friends as a nuisance. Slowly, the blond turned around and made his way to Don's desk.

"Hi." he introduced shortly, showing his paper to the kid. Don immediately wrinkled his nose. "I don't want to work with you, I don't even know you." Jackson was taken aback. Jessie had told him how awful the kid could be, but to his face? really? Before he could reply, Aaron Amerson waltzed up and cut him off.

"Good thing he doesn't want to work with you either then." The unnatural redhead looked Don up and down. He held out his slip with the number 6 on it. "It's all yours dweeb, I'll trade with you."

Jackson glanced back at Mrs. Trevens, who seemed not to notice that, despite her request, deals were being made. Donald snorted, but immediately took Aaron's slip, handing the number 3 over to the boy. "Have fun." He spoke snottily, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jackson turned to Aaron to see the boy making a face at Don, before turning to smile at him. Jackson smiled back, walking back to his seat with Aaron close behind.

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Lunch time was the only thing that kept Daniel Johnson going these days. Most people here in Boro had been nice, and lunch was the perfect time during the school day to just enjoy the company, and not worry about all the odd teachers.

Danny plopped his tray down next to Matt, sliding in next to him on the booth. "Who'd you get paired with for Treven's project?" he asked, taking a sip from his water bottle. Matt was in the same English, but a later period.

"Rory Kentucky." he nodded. Matt and Rory weren't close at all, but they were friendly. "You?"

"Ginny Austin."

Across the cafeteria, Amayah was chewing on some mixed fruit she'd brought from home. "Maybe we just, shouldn't go?" she suggested, though her statement sounded more like a question.

"No way, everyone goes on this field trip. We'd be attracting more attention if we stayed here." Annabel rebutted. "Besides, Iv'e been waiting for this thing since we first found out about it. Missing a day of school for the beach? yes please."

Rory sighed and rested her chin on her fists. "We'll just have to be careful." Amelia shrugged, pushing her backpack below the table and under her feet.

Ginny moved to grab her drink, reaching just a bit too far. Everything seemed to go into slow motion as she hit Rory's open water bottle, and it began to tip. Ginny's heart was racing as she recoiled from the bottle.

The girls held their breath, waiting for the bottle to completely fall over and spill everywhere, when like magic, it sat back up. They were silent for a while, staring at the bottle to confirm that what it had done was real.

Just a table away, Natalia Avery let out a sigh of relief and turned back to her book. The young witch rolled her eyes at the girls once again. They be dead meat without her, and they didn't even know it.

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I think this is shorter than usual, so sorry y'all
Next chapter is outside of school, and centered around some weekend jobs ooooo