Knowing Normal Ch. 7

After they finished up in the library Babs showed Emma the cafeteria, and the many different wings of the school.


“Finally, here we are back at the main entrance to the school.” Babs said as the two girls finished up their tour. Unlike before however, the main entrance was now full of students chatting in groups or heading to their lockers.


“So, did you get your locker number yet? I could show you where that is if you’d like?” Babs asked curiously.


Emma hesitated, she remembered where her locker was from the tour, but she was reluctant to leave Babs’ cheerful company. The crowds of people were making her nervous, and she most certainly did not want to wander around the massive private school on her own. “Yeah if you don’t mi-“



“There you are Babs! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Man do I have the most chalant story to tell you or what.” Interrupted a tall, lanky, dark-haired boy who looked vaguely familiar to Emma.


“Goodness Dick! Don’t you have any manners! I’m sorry about that Emma; this is Dick Grayson a good friend of mine. Dick this is Emma she’s a new student who just enrolled today.” Babs explained, rolling her eyes at Dick’s antics.



“Well hello there, it’s nice to meet you. So where did you move to Gotham from?” Dick asked curiously.


Emma started slightly at his exuberance not exactly sure how to respond, “Well I’ve lived in Gotham pretty much my whole life. My parents have homeschooled me up until now.”




“Wow, so this is all pretty new to you huh? Why did your parents decide to stop homeschooling you now?” Dick asked Emma.


Emma hesitated slightly, “Well, my parents are both scientists and they’ve gotten really busy in recent years so they couldn’t keep up with my schooling and decided to enroll me here.” There, that sounds like a reasonable enough explanation. Emma thought to herself.


Dick nodded, “I see.” I wonder what the real reason is? And if it has anything to do with what I witnessed at the fair… He thought to himself absentmindedly.


“Well now that the question and answer portion of the tour is over why don’t we head to your locker? We both have Mrs. Wilson for Geometry first period so I can show you the way.” Babs suggested to Emma with a friendly smile.


“Sure that sounds great.” Emma replied Whew, that’s a relief. At least I won’t be completely alone for my first day. She’s actually pretty friendly, maybe this whole high school thing won’t be so bad. She thought to herself relieved.


“Hey you goofball, you should stop standing there and get to class. You’re going to be late again at this rate.” Babs said poking her dark-haired friend, and breaking him out of his reverie.


“Huh…What? Oh crap you’re right; I need to get to my locker. Mr. Taylor is so not going to be whelmed if I’m late for class again. It was nice to meet you Emma, see you around!” The lanky teen called as he disappeared down the hall.



Babs shook her head, chuckling to herself. “Let’s go, Mrs. Wilson is nice as far as Geometry teachers go, but she still isn’t going to like it if we’re late.”


“Okay, thanks for all your help. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I had had to wander around this big school all by myself.” Emma said shyly, ducking her head in embarrassment.


“Don’t worry about it! I always enjoy meeting new people, and I understand that it can be pretty overwhelming to start at a school as big as this all by yourself.” Babs responded reassuringly.


The two girls stopped at their lockers to grab supplies, Babs, or put things away, Emma, and then made their way to Mrs. Wilson’s room.


“So this is it huh?” Emma asked as she hesitated outside the classroom. Even with the door closed the noise from inside was nearly deafening. It seemed as if the whole class was trying to talk over one another all at once.


“Yup, this is Mrs. Wilson’s room. You ready? Everyone at this school is really nice, so you have nothing to worry about.” Babs asked, giving Emma a reassuring smile.



“As I’ll ever be.” The auburn-haired girl responded with a hopeful smile. I certainly hope so. She thought to herself as the two stepped into the classroom.


Emma glanced curiously around the classroom as she followed Babs looking over all the different groups of students.


“Well, who do we have here?” Mrs. Wilson asked, looking over Emma as the two girls approached her desk.

                                                                             

“This is Emma, Mrs. Wilson. She just enrolled here today.” Babs explained cheerfully.


“Ahh okay, well you can help her find a seat somewhere. I have some other things to do.” Mrs. Wilson explained while waving her hand vaguely in the direction of some empty desks.



“Don’t worry about her, she’s always like that.” Babs murmured to Emma as they walked away, and sat down in a pair of empty desks towards the middle of the classroom.


Emma nodded and took her seat next to Babs looking around the classroom, and trying to stay calm. Okay, just stay calm. Today’s going to go fine just remain calm, and try not to make a spectacle of yourself. It’s only high school; that shouldn’t be that hard right?’


Babs looked over at her new friend who was sitting there slightly hunched over her desk as if she expected to be attacked. “Hey there silly, relax alright. Everything’s going to be just fine; high school really isn’t as bad as everyone says it is. Just stick with me, and I’ll take care of you.” She said calmly giving Emma a friendly smile.
Soon after Babs, and Emma sat down Mrs. Wilson got up and began her lecture about the different kinds of angles. Between Mrs. Wilson’s disinterested, monotone voice, and Emma’s own intense dislike of math she soon found herself zoning out. Even with the occasional, hurried ‘psst’ from Babs; Emma still found herself unable to give Mrs. Wilson her full attention.


Then suddenly the bell rang and startled Emma out of her bored reverie. She stood up and gathered her things together before following Babs out of the classroom. “Well, that was delightfully boring. I hate math.” Emma muttered softly.


“Yeah, sorry about that Mrs. Wilson isn’t one of our more enthusiastic teachers. So, what class do you have next?” Babs asked.


“Hmm, that’s an excellent question. Let’s see…Next is Biology with Mr. Wolcott.” Emma answered.


“Ahh okay, his class is right over here. I think you’ll like him, he’s strict but he really knows his stuff.” Babs said cheerfully. ‘I have my AP composition class this period, but you should be fine without me. Like I said before everyone at this school is pretty friendly and if anyone gives you any trouble you just let me or Dick know okay?”


By this time the two girls had arrived at Mr. Wolcott’s classroom, “Okay, well thanks for all your help.” Emma responded with a small smile.


Babs’ was true to her word while Emma wasn’t exactly comfortable in the strange classroom by herself; Mr. Wolcott was an animated teacher whose love of science was quite apparent. Her next class period was Sophomore English with Ms. Davies; an older woman, whose overly large glasses and beaded shawls meant that most of her students failed to take her seriously. However, in spite of her almost grandmotherly looks Ms. Davies had no compunctions about failing kids who didn’t work hard enough.


After sitting through two class periods with complete strangers and not having anyone to talk to Emma was starting to stress out. The fact that her lunch period was coming up wasn’t helping either, as she realized that she didn’t have anyone to eat with. She wondered to herself if she could find her way back to the library and maybe eat in there. Just as she stumbled across a hallway the she was pretty sure led right to the library a loud, male voice interrupted her “Hey! Emma!” she turned and there was the dark-haired boy Babs had introduced her too earlier. “The cafeteria’s this way, you lost?” he asked, before leading her down the hallway towards a pair of double doors. Before Emma could voice her displeasure with his actions Dick had brought them both into the cacophony of sounds that was the cafeteria. Emma shrunk back slightly, the noise being exactly what she was trying to avoid by eating in the library, Dick however seemed to take no notice of her discomfort and tugged her towards a long table to the right of the doors. To Emma’s dismay she couldn’t find Babs among the seated teens. Dick misinterpreting her hesitation began introducing her to the seated kids in rapid fire fashion. As Dick seated himself with the group of boys towards the end of the table a blonde-haired blue eyed girl gestured to Emma, “Hi, my name’s Bette. You can go ahead and sit here. Sorry about Dick, he gets a little too excited some times.” She confessed with a grin.


Emma grinned back, relieved, “I noticed.” The rest of her lunch period was spent answering the various questions her new classmates peppered her with. After lunch Babs caught up with her again and the two of them made their way to the school’s gym for P.E. After a sweaty, thirty minutes Babs and Emma had to split up again; Babs to go to her AP French II class, Emma to her Italian II.


“Here you are. This is Signore Russo’s room, have fun!” Babs called as she headed towards her own class. Emma enjoyed this class in spite of her nerves, as Signore Russo was a lively, dark-haired woman who spent the class period using little games to get everyone to know one another. Babs rejoined her for her last class of the day, “The day’s almost over, and thankfully our last class is Art with Mr. Myers. I think you’ll like him.” Babs explained with a grin.


Emma and Babs headed into a classroom at the end of one of the less used hallways in the school. As soon as she entered the classroom she realized why, the smells of different paints, stains and glues all assaulted her nose at once. The walls and sides of the room were practically covered in different projects in various stages of completeness. In the middle of it all a tall, dark-haired man stood behind a group of students who were working on easels that stood in the middle of the room. He glanced up as Emma and Babs entered the room, “Well hello there you two! Babs it’s good to see you again, who’s your new friend?” he asked cheerfully.


“Hey there Mr. Myers; this is Emma she’s a new student this year.” Babs explained.


“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” Emma said shyly.


“It’s a pleasure meeting you.” Mr. Myers said with a dramatic bow. “Mrs. Reynolds sent over some of your older works and they’re quite impressive. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create here.”


Emma blushed and nodded, not quite sure what to say. “T-thanks.”


The rest of the class period seemed to fly by. Once everyone else had filtered in and taken their seats in the desk scattered about the room Mr. Myers gave them their assignment, to paint a scene from something they’d done over the summer, while he roamed around and gave advice. When the bell rang Emma looked up from her partially completed painting of the festival she had attended the other day. “You can just leave it here, and you’ll pick up where you left off tomorrow.” Mr. Myers said over her shoulder.


Emma jumped slightly at his sudden appearance and nodded, “O-okay, thanks.” She then gathered her things together and left with Babs. The two then grabbed their belongings from their lockers and headed out towards the front of the school.


“Thank you so much for all your help today Babs. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.” Emma admitted sheepishly.


“Don’t worry about it, I was happy to help! See you tomorrow!” Babs called as she saw her dad pull up.


“See ya!” Emma called back smiling.


“So, how was your day today honey?” Her mom asked as she climbed into the car.


“It was good, I made some friends and I started working on a really nice painting in my Art class. Maybe high school won’t be so bad after all.” Emma said softly, staring out the window.