forum I Went To The Woods Because I Wished To Live Deliberately || Brookestone Academy || Fem DPS || Closed

Started January 10, 2023 by @emilyevewrites group

tune

Juniper smiled at Gayle's compliment.
"Thank you. I tried to incorporate myself into this uniform. I have to show a little bit of personality. As for the teacher, I hope she'll be good. Looking around the classroom, and looking for the teacher, from what I can gather she's probably not contemporary. This should be interesting indeed."

Gayle frowned slightly in thought, trying to parse out what little she did know about the new teacher. Her old teacher was not exactly what could be called contemporary either, reading straight from the book and assigning them super old readings from boring, long poems that weren't really relevant to this day and age. Maybe the new one would be more interesting, though she doubted it. At least English was reliably boring and easy to answer as long as one studied. Just like every subject here. She was glad it wasn't subjective–having a concrete right and wrong answer made it easy to study. She was great at memorization.

"I get that," she agreed, glancing at her own uniform briefly. She tried to do the same thing. Uniforms were boring, but she could make small alterations or additions to make it her own and show off her style. For someone so shy, she really loved showing her personality and style through her accessories and outfits. "And if she's anything like the last one, we'll basically just be reading from the book. It's not too difficult as long as you study."

Juniper groaned.
"Oh I can hardly stand classes like that. But at least that's easy. Studying isn't my strong suit, but I can do it when the time is necessary."
She looked around the class at all the other girls coming in and sitting down. She thought to herself.
Maybe some of these girls can teach me new things. Or at the very least, would want to be my friend…

Gayle shrugged slightly. She liked classes like that. They required zero critical thought and were easy to memorize the information so she could focus on what was important: getting ready for med school. Ever since she could remember, her parents urged her to get a stable, well-paying job, and doctor was just one of a few examples they had given her. It was straight-forward enough, and the least odious of the choices she'd been given. Left to her own devices, Gayle had no clue what she would have pursued, though it wasn't a topic she often thought about. Her parents wanted her to get paid well, and so she would get a high-paying job. It was for her own good, after all.

Besides, being a pediatrician wouldn't be so bad. She had always liked kids, though she didn't particularly care for the constant babysitting she did for her siblings. But at the very least those long hours had helped her get very good with children, and that job likely wouldn't involve any easy-to-mess-up surgeries or gore.

Her life was fixed, just like the security of the classes at this school. Honestly, Gayle couldn't imagine what having an English class where they would have to create their own work or do much besides copy from the textbook and memorize things. Like every other class, it was pretty black and white. Easy to study and clear when she got something right.

"I can always help you if need it," Gayle offered. "I've gotten pretty good at studying myself, and they say that once you know something well enough to teach it, it means you've really got it down." She also just enjoyed helping people, so it would be a win for them both.

Juniper smiled at that statement.
"Yeah. If you can teach it, you really know it. That's a pretty good thing to go by there Gayle. I would really appreciate it if you helped me study when I really needed to. Now I have a question. Do you know any of these other girls besides me? I have no clue who any of them are, and I would eventually like to get to know them a little bit since I have other classes with them."

Gayle blinked, glancing around the room at the arriving girls. She didn't all of them, but she at least recognized the majority from previous years. It would be hard to not know anyone at all, considering that she had been going to this school for several years, and many of the others had too. It was more that she was intimidated by some of them, and others she had just never really had the chance to talk to since she often spent time in her room or under the shade of a tree outside by herself. So she probably wouldn't feel comfortable introducing Juniper to many people soon, but she could at least point out who was who and which girls that Juniper might want to be friends with or to avoid.

"I know most of them," she responded, looking back at Juniper before glancing around the room again. "Although, I'll admit I don't know all of them super well. I can at least tell you most of their names though, since we've had classes together before."

Juniper seemed outgoing enough to be able to make friends and introduce herself to these girls without help from Gayle, but Gayle might as well try to help anyway since it seemed Juniper was sort of asking her to. She didn't mind doing what she could, but many of these people just weren't really friends with Gayle, due to no shortcoming of their own. Maybe if she were more social she would be better at this.

Juniper clasped her hand together.
"That's alright. We'll get to know them better. Tell me their names. They all have different stories to tell. It will be nice to get to know them. We can ask them if they would like to hang out with us! That worked all the time back home. However for here, we might just need to make it something more along the lines of would you like to study with us. That would probably work better."

Gayle blinked, a bit surprised at Juniper's outgoing behavior. She hadn't really thought of it that way, though she did enjoy slowly getting to know people that she was already friends with. Maybe getting to know an acquaintance wouldn't be so different…right? She certainly hoped so.

"That could work," she agreed, ducking her head a little. "I've never really gone up to people like that, though. So you'll have to do all the talking at first." It wasn't that she was against making new friends, but the concept of reaching out to others scared her. Maybe Juniper was her ticket to actually having more friends in this place. Though she didn't like the idea of having too many, or she would feel obligated to spend time with all of them and that would be too much. She didn't have the energy for that.

Since Juniper did ask for the other girls' names, Gayle pointed them out as they arrived, giving their names and a bit of information she knew about them (which was admittedly not much). Hopefully things would all work out. It was already beginning to stress Gayle out a bit.