"Welcome to your orientation, girls." The blonde-haired young woman at the front of the classroom said cheerfully, "You may refer to me as Miss Katherine, I'll be the teacher you'll be spending most of your time with this year at the Opium Institution." She looked down at a list in her hand, then back up to the group of girls seated haphazardly across the floor. "We will begin with roll call, then the selection of partners, and then have declarations for any second-years who failed to declare at the end of the previous school year or over the break." Without pausing she shot immediately into the names, "Aislin, Lexi. Aker, Sharp. Alexi, Calliope." Lexi jumped, forgetting she was first, "Here!" She called out quickly. She let the roll call fade out of her mind once Miss Katherine was through all three girls who's last name was Alexi. She turned her head around, scanning the room and catching a glare from Natalie Opium. Lexi hadn't even been at the school a day, but that was all it had taken for her to doll out a pair of practical jokes. Unfortunately, one of those had landed her on the bad side of the leader of the local mean girls ring, which had unsurprisingly taken less than an hour after arrivals to form. In fact, Lexi wouldn't be surprised if most of the group had been preplanned. She'd have to be careful, they'd probably start camping the bathrooms within an hour after orientation. Lexi wasn't too worried though, she had a plan to get the bathrooms freed up two days earlier than usual. Of course she always had some plan like that, usually she ended up just staying quiet and pretending to not need to pee until things blew over. Finally tugging her mind off the bathroom and back into reality, Lexi turned to her best friend, Riley Callan. "Psst, Riley." She said, poking the navy blue-haired girl, "What have you heard about me?" Riley was the master of gossip, she knew any rumor and every rumor there was to know about just about anyone in the school. Or at least she would once she'd been there a couple days. But she still ought to know what rumors Natty McRichRich was spreading. Riley rolled her eyes, "Just as much as I did when you asked ten minutes ago. You're just the brat who switch Natalie's lipstick with glue. Give the rumors some time to spread." "But I don't want them to spread." Lexi replied indignantly. "Well sorry sis, but rumors spread like rabbits." Riley called Lexi sis because the two may as well have been twins. Their mothers were best friends from third stage school, and the two of them had been born within a couple hours of each other (Riley was older). They grew up seeing each other nearly every day, and had gotten into more than a few sisterly tussles across the years. Still, they kept each other's backs and there was no doubt in Lexi's mind who her partner for the year would be. "Zenith, Eleanor." Miss Katherine rang out, dictating the end of roll call. She held off continuing for just a moment, giving Eleanor time to yell out a timid "here" and everyone else a chance to look around. "Alright, now for partners. I have a bit of a twist this year. We won't actually be choosing partners at orientation, instead I'll be giving you until tomorrow morning's lessons to choose a partner. We'll declare our partners officially tomorrow. There's one rule though: Your partner has to be at least six months older or younger than you." Lexi's jaw dropped in shock. That meant she couldn't partner with Riley. But she'd always partnered with Riley. She looked around frantically, she didn't know what to do now. She wasn't an outgoing person, she only had the one friend. She looked at Riley, her eyes wide with surprise and fear. "Oh cut the drama, sis." Riley said, rolling her eyes once more, "You'll be fine, just hang around and talk to people, they'd all have to be crazy to not pick you as their partner." "Now, I can see we have two second-years who have yet to declare." Miss Katherine said, snapping Lexi back to attention, "Lilith and Sharp, please come forward." Two girls strode forward. One was a small girl with jet-black hair and piercing yellow eyes, and who's clothing was probably barely within the dress code. Lexi couldn't decide whether she was cute, creepy, or just needed to put a shirt on. The other was equally small, but somehow seemed larger. Her hair certainly matched her name, it jutted up in a bunch of short dirty blonde spikes. She wore yellow-rimmed glasses over her narrow red eyes and wore a single, long crimson dress with golden dragon-designs on it. "Well she lives up to her name." Lexi whispered to Riley, who stifled a laugh. "Sharp, you first, what Line will you be following?" Miss Katherine asked. "Nayrist." Sharp said calmly. "A logical choice." Miss Katherine said, giggling slightly at her own joke, "And you Lilith?" "Laylite." Came the almost sneered reply. There was a collective gasp across the room. Laylites always declared over winter break, never at the beginning or end of the school year. This practice, among other things, had led some to believe that Laylites were more of a secret cult than a fourth Line, and Lexi couldn't help but note they had a sound argument. "Well that's, certainly confidence you have there." Miss Katherine said, clearly taken aback. Lilith did nothing but smile and walk back to her spot on the floor. Lexi couldn't be certain, but she felt like Lilith's confidence was mostly faked, or at least the fact that her black nails were bitten back to what looked like painful lengths and crusted with dried blood seemed to indicate so. "Alright then, you have another half hour to get to know each other before we head out to lunch." Miss Katherine said, breaking the awkward silence that had formed, "I'll be right here at my desk, so don't try to sneak out on me. And if you need to use the bathroom, I recommend you do so now before some group starts camping them." The whole room chuckled, and Lexi couldn't help but think she liked her teacher. Though, she wasn't looking forward to partnering with someone new. She nervously tossed her gaze about, wondering if anyone would approach her.