You start to, but you're interrupted and the watch is set to Affinity

The Janitor (Groundskeeper? Village Idiot?) lead the way through the front grounds of Blackwell, thankfully his earlier talkativeness was seemingly forgotten. I admired the stone fountain that acted as a centerpiece for the grounds as we walked to the school entrance, and managed to take my second spill of the day. I started apologizing almost before I hit the ground, it was clearly my distraction. But unexpectedly a willowy voice responded.

"No! No, oh my gosh. That was totally my fault, I'm so sorry!" I brushed my hair out of my eyes and looked at the other person sprawled on the stone path. It was a girl. An extremely cute girl, specifically. Truly no better word was there to describe her than purely, utterly, _cute. _She was still on the ground, but had propped herself up to get a better look at me too. Her hair was a light brown, set in a messy bob that it seemed like she could probably roll out of bed with, but still framed her face well and didn't look unkempt. Her eyes were a light blue with a sort of kindly inquisitive quality to them, I liked that. A smattering of light freckles were speckled across her cheeks and a small blush was rising to her cheeks as I took my time looking at her.

Which, in hindsight, is an incredibly creepy and awkward thing to do, but I guess at this point it didn't really matter.

Her voice jolted me out of my reverie . "A-Are you okay?"

"Oh! Uhhh. Ya I-I'm fine, and you are?" Oh god that's not how you talk, you dumbass, ask her if she's alright, not who she is.

Despite the awkwardness though, she giggled a little and looked away. "I'm Max Caulfield, I'm a Senior here. I haven't bumped into you before-" she paused to giggle. Cute. "-who are you?"

"I'm Jake Tims, I'm gonna be starting here as a Senior this coming term." She had gotten to her feet at this point and looked down at me with an eyebrow raised.

I gestured towards my prosthetic. "Could you uh... give me a hand?"

Her eyes widened as she followed my movement and quickly maneuvered herself under my arm to help me up. "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!! Of course, here!"

A little bit of an.... unorthodox way of helping, but after a year locked up in a hospital I wasn't gonna complain about a cute girl getting a little handsy with me. "Thanks Max, sorry again for bumping into you."

"No, no! It was entirely my fault, please don't feel bad!" I grimaced a little, the unnecessary pity making itself shown, ah well.

I stretched my arms out and looked at Samuel. "Well, I think I need to get to the office but it was good to run into you-" we both laughed at that "I hope I'll catch you later."

"Ya... me too." Did she just blush even more? Man, this girl is way too easy to read.

"Come, come. Such diversions are pleasant, but only delay your proper processing ever more further." Samuel's weird, raspy voice got me back on the move, I waved to Max as I continued on into the school, only noticing the nice vintage camera around her neck a bit too late to comment on it. I guessed that meant we had something in common! We started walking through the main school halls as I thought about that, imagining a dozen scenarios where we'd get to talking about cameras and our favourite photographers, then grow closer, start sitting next to each other in class, maybe think about confe-
And I was interrupted by my unprecedented third, count'em, third fall of the day!

"Oh come on!" I blurted as I crashed onto my front, barely saving my nose by thrusting my arms out. I groaned as I lay on the ground, when you've only got one knee, it's much easier to feel like it's killing you. That said, a pleasant perfume smell quickly lifted me out of my fall induced fugue. I rolled myself over to see who the culprit was this time.

Features that looked like they came from French aristocracy, a dignified air even with a brand new rip in her very nice tights, a semi-permanent domineering sneer, and a blonde haircut directly off of a soccer mom looked back at me. We held each other's eyes for a moment before she looked away and spoke.

"Aren't you gonna ask if I'm alright?" Well, a fair question. She could have said it a little nicer though.

I frowned slightly. "You don't look like the one with the prosthetic leg."

"Ah." And, nothing. That's it? We're just gonna sit here now, huh? That last chick was adorable but this girl just feels like she should be unloading a barrage of condescension at me. And yet here we sit, silent.

Sighing, I broke the ice. "Uh. Are you okay, then?" She seemed like a Queen Bee type, and I knew all too well that if she was, getting on her bad side would end poorly. She suddenly smiled sweetly at me.

"I am!! Thank you for asking!" She jumped into action, getting herself up and leaning down at me as she continued to speak, "I wish my tights hadn't ripped but for someone as cute as you I guess some forgiveness is in order," she was more tan than the Max girl was, but I still saw the blush start creeping up her cheeks, "say, you're new here right?

I nodded in assent. "Ya, just starting this comi-"

"Awesome! Take this." She shoved some kind of poster into my hands. "We could always use new talent at the Vortex Club and you seem like you'd fit right in!" After that announcement she smiled at me expectantly.

A little overwhelmed, I decided I'd try and humour her. "Uhm. Thanks?"

"You're welcome! I'll see you around!" She started to power-walk away, but realized she forgot something and turned back. "I'm Victoria, by the way, Victoria Chase."

I smiled weakly, still on the ground. "I'm Jake Tims."

"Good to meet you, Timmy! See you around." And with a wink and twirl, she was gone. I sighed dramatically. I hate being called Timmy.

Samuel helped me up this time, the blonde girl having not bothered to do so. His hand was even sweatier than before. Yuck. My trip to the Principal's office was a real tour de femme so far, but it was only a few paces away, what more could possibly happen? Something clicked in my brain as I suddenly pivoted to the opposite side of the door to the office, just as the door flew open and two more gorgeous women stomped out. Guess this is my life now.
I smiled at them triumphantly, and they looked back, more perplexed than anything. The one who'd launched the door open and nearly sent me sprawling again was a real punk-looking type. A beanie loosely tucked over some sea-blue dyed hair, an open leather jacket clinging to her slender (but seemingly toned) frame, loose tank top with a skull on it, some ripped jeans, and a mouth asking me what my problem was. Oh. Right.

The fire in her eyes from whatever was beyond that door dimmed slightly as her brow furrowed in concern. "You okay dude?"

I took a step back and did my best to respond. "Uh. Yeah, totally. Du-dude? All good.... in the... hood.."

The awkward pause that followed was broken by the other girl who'd come out starting to absolutely lose her shit laughing. This one wasn't cute like Max, she wasn't dignified like Victoria, she wasn't dangerous looking like the chick with blue hair. No, the best word to describe her was unquestionably gorgeous. Her eyes alone could've launched the thousand ships, a friendly playfulness danced in them that made me feel warm, even with her arguably mocking laughter. Beyond her eyes she has a face like a wood nymph, all pleasing angles and just enough filled out. It was all framed by straight blonde hair and a feather earring that on anyone else would've seemed garish, but she just made work. I'd taken time looking at the others, but all these impressions and more flashed through my head in an instant as I laid eyes on her for the first time. As I tried to process them and she laughed I felt heat rise to my cheeks, and I let my eyes wander the rest of the (thankfully) empty hallway.

After about half a minute of us awkwardly standing there watching her laugh, she calmed down enough to say "Oh my God! That was fucking amazing! You're worse than Max, isn't he Chloe?" before bursting back into laughter.

The girl with the blue hair, Chloe, presumably, cracked a small smile as she looked at me, "Heh, I guess so."

I shrugged self-consciously and decided to make an effort to at least save some face here. "Yeah actually I uh, met Max earlier. Short brown hair right? Ya I'm Jake Tims, I'm new here."

The beautiful one paused her laughter for a second in astonishment(?) before doubling over even harder. "New here!? You don't say, oh my God he's golden Chloe!" I blushed even further and blinked a little to keep my eyes dry. Hey, a year in the hospital surrounded by very kind people constantly checking if you're okay is a far cry from the social stress of high school.

Chloe must have noticed though and she elbowed the blonde, who quickly calmed herself down and looked at the punk. "OW! Ah... too far Chloe?"

Chloe nodded to her and turned back to me. "Sorry about her, she's my best friend, but she's a brat." She smiled a small smile at me and held out her hand, "I'm Chloe Price, glad I can officially welcome you to Blackhell, home of shit and fuck."

My mouth worked up and down a few times as I tried to figure out how to respond to that and shook her hand. She was pushed to the side suddenly by the other girl.

"And I'm Rachel. Rachel Amber! Future L.A model!" She also held out her hand, but instead of shaking she grabbed mine as I held it out and turned it over to inspect my palm. "Chloe here may have had a rare moment of empathy, but don't be fooled, I'm the nice one!" She stuck her tongue out at Chloe at that, who flipped her the bird in response. She looked up into my eyes just as I realised just how close she had gotten to me in order to read my palm. "Anyway, I know a lotta people around here, if you need anything, or just wanna know where the good times are, you can shoot me a text." At that she reached into her pocket and shoved a business card from it into my still open palm before closing my fingers around it. She gestured to Chloe to go with her, "Seeya Jakey!"

Chloe looked at me with a rueful smile and shrugged as she began to follow. "Later Tims." She said as she went along with Rachel.

I looked at Samuel in the sudden silence, who looked back at me with a look like a cow who sees the light from a train speeding towards it, but is too fucking dumb to get out of the way. "Ready to go?" He rasped.

I sighed. "Ya Sam, ya I am, let's get in there."