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x[/color][img]https://i.imgur.com/6a3QPjM.png[/img][/cell][/row][/table][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=BAB86C][b]Interacting With:[/b][/color] Ashlyn [@TGM] [color=white] — [/color] [color=BAB86C][b]Location:[/b][/color] Delbrook School Grounds[/right][hr][/sub][/color][/indent]
[indent][indent]The ride to school was a quiet trip. 

Only the slight hum of the 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer's engine could be heard alongside the occasional "yah", "o' fer sure", or some other variation of "I'm not feeling too talkative but I'm still sorta kinda not really listening". Not that Scout didn't have much to say, in fact there was a lot she could've been asking her cousin, Ashlyn, right now, but nonetheless she felt disinterested in talking. Or, rather, Scout found it hard to talk. Although she wasn't much of a talker to begin with, Scout had begun to feel her cousin had a certain "air", as if she'd rip your face off if you rubbed her the wrong way.

Thankfully, though, they had made it to school in one piece and without any "face ripping". Grabbing her pack from the Lancer's floorboard, Scout slung it over her shoulder and followed Ash into the campus. 

For the first time in some days, Scout was glad; that her and her cousin happened to have the same homeroom. Knowing her own difficulties with directions, she figured she would've probably been lost all day just trying to figure out where she needed to go even if she had a school map in her hands to go off of. It wasn't exactly something Scout wanted to be known for at Delbrook High; she already looked the part of a clueless, lost freshman, she didn't need her teachers and fellow upperclassmen believing she actually was one (or, really, by bothering her over being "directionally challenged" in general).

As the two of them entered the hallway to their assigned homeroom, Scout watched as Ms. Goldman, their homeroom teacher, pull aside some students back into the hallway. Had it not been for Mr. Hubbard, a former teacher she had back home in Fargo, Scout might've figured her classmates had somehow already wound up on the wrong side of their teacher. It wasn't too likely for that to be the case; high school students weren't exactly known to be saints or the respectful, studious types. 

Regardless of what was happening, though, Scout had a feeling she knew what Ms. Goldman was waiting for—and she'd be right on the money with her prediction.

[color=BAB86C]"Hey thair, Ms. Goldman,"[/color] Scout replied, her very obvious North Dakotan accent slipping through as she walked past the confused onlookers and into class as Ms. Goldman let her inside. However, as soon as she sat down in her assigned seat, Scout was quickly horrified, realizing what she had just said.

Well, [i]shit[/i]. There went any chance she had of hiding her [i]Nort-a-kotuh[/i] accent. Sure, Scout believed she didn't have it as strong as they made the accent out to be in the movies, and that her accent was bound to slip eventually. But couldn't it have been anymore obvious that she wasn't from around here? Or, rather, why did it have to happen [i]now[/i], right before the first day of school had even started? Scout didn't worry too much about letting her accent slip around her folks, but at school it was bound to draw unwanted attention. At least, it would've back home where your entire state's population is considerably less than New York, New York. Any stranger with an odd accent or way of speaking there would've gotten some questionable looks in the same way someone having the gall to call a hotdish a "casserole" would've gotten.

[color=BAB86C][i]Just play it cool, like nothing ever happened.[/i][/color] Scout told herself, idly waiting for school to start with a few taps of her fingers across her desk. She glanced at her cousin, and then to the rest of her classmates, both those already here as well those that were still arriving. [color=BAB86C][i]Hopefully no one even noticed. Hopefully.[/i][/color]

When school finally began, it seemed to be the usual standard fare one would expect at each start of the school day. That said, Scout struggled to put a finger as to what Ms. Goldman meant that Delbrook did differently—everything that had happened so far seemed normal and average. Homeroom was no different than any other homeroom, as expected. They even recited the Pledge of Allegiance, as well had an introductory assembly for the new year. Was she referring to the gold, blue and green days? It was her best guess, given it was something her school didn't do back home. 

Little did Scout know, however, as the class walked out of the auditorium and to the lacrosse field, that her idea of "average" would be quickly blown out of the water.

[color=BAB86C][i]Oh, geez.[/i][/color] 

Stepping onto the lacrosse field, her eyes met one festival booth after another. Now, [i]this[/i] was certainly different from her prior North Dakotan schooling. Truthfully, the carnival was a little [i]grand[/i] for her liking, being not quite sure of what to make of it. But when life gives you lemons, you don't let them rot away, so, with a shrug of her shoulders, Scout threw her hands in her pockets and turned to her cousin, wondering if she had anything in mind to do. At least then she wouldn't be trapped alone in an awkward conversation with one of her new classmates trying to rope her into whatever shenanigans were to be had here.[/indent][/indent]