"Anyway," Cassie laughed. "Suffice it to say, at the time, my feelings about Gwen were confusing."
"What about you, Gwen?" Mariah asked.
"Well, at that time, everything was confusing to me," Gwen said. "After all, I was still trying to get a handle on the concept of 'days of the week.'" To a smiling Cassie and Miranda, she added, "Say nothing."
---------------
Buckingham High School, Willow Creek, 2000
I managed to pick up my classes fairly easily, actually. Art and Music, I was comfortable with. Language and Literature came fairly easily too. My mother had frequently brought home books from her 'vacations' in the mortal world for me to read.
Surprisingly, Math and Science were not that difficult. Math is math, after all... and it seems to me that the principal difference between science and magic is that, in magic, one can argue with the laws of physics. I struggled with Social Studies. I could barely remember what day it was, much less the day or, worse, year of some past event.
So, the abstract things I could manage.
It was waking up every morning in a strange place, so far from everything and everyone I knew, that was hard. I was surrounded by constant noise, the cars and trains moving outside, the buzz of electricity in the walls, the relentless hum of machinery all around. The smell, the bitter, metallic tang in the air, was inescapable. Worst of all was that pull, the sense of falling that came with the turning of days. It was all so strange and frightening.
At times I just felt so lost and so alone.
Then, there she would be. Cassandra. My friend.
I remember, those first days we mostly talked about music. The violin was something we had in common, and it gave us a place to start. (I'd already figured out, from talking to Doug and his wife Lilian, that discussing my thoughts about the mortal world was more likely to result in strange looks than a meaningful conversation.)
Conversations with Cas (she wouldn't go by 'Cassie' until later) inevitably led to conversations with Molly and Carmilla as well. I found those a little less comfortable. Carmilla and I didn't really get along at first, and Molly hung on Carmilla's every word.
My new friend's fascination with vampires did make me nervous, but it quickly became obvious (sorry, love) that they didn't know much about real vampires. I was reasonably confident I hadn't fallen in with agents of the Dark Court.
Honestly, I probably should have been more paranoid. I was in hiding, after all. However, I longed for a friend, and I felt a real connection to Cas right from the start.
I also needed her help. There are some things an endless summer spent learning magic, art, music and literature absolutely cannot prepare one for...
... and a high school cafeteria is definitely one of those things. I mean, I'd never even seen a hot dog before, and the whole concept of 'sloppy joes' is still bizarre to me.
I somehow managed to explain my ignorance away as cultural differences. I had been mostly home schooled, after all. I could also honestly say (and Miranda will support me on this) that Brookside Academy has a kitchen, not a cafeteria, and to my knowledge had never served hot dogs or sloppy joes.
Without Cas I never would have learned how to navigate the lunch menu. Taco Tuesdays are difficult enough when you've never had a taco before and even worse when you don't really understand the concept of Tuesday. 
One thing about school that I didn't need to learn about from Cas was mean girls. At Brookside, when I was there, there had been a young witch named Scarlet who delighted in petty cruelty and minor curses. At Buckingham, the mantle was taken up by Elly, a cheerleader who enjoyed the same petty cruelty and seemed to be equally capable of making life unpleasant.
Most of the time, we avoided her (a distinct virtue Buckingham had over the much smaller Brookside), but the occasional cafeteria confrontation was inevitable. Oddly, I took some comfort that some things appeared to be universal, no matter what Realm you're from.
To my great surprise, I was quickly finding a kind of balance.
I doubt anyone who knew me then would believe it, but I was trying very hard to fit in. Alright, maybe not fit in but, at least, I was trying to hide and not give too much away about my past. I was afraid. Afraid that, if anyone found out who and what I really was, the Dark Court would find me.
I was still lost, in a world that was loud and smelly and strange...
... but I didn't feel quite so alone.
