Soon enough news and rumours of the newbie was floating in the air. About a week she'd been given the task, every single teacher had brought out the news and announced it in the beginning of class.

"There will be a new student transferring to the school. Now I want you all to welcome them with open arms. Now as for the exact date they will be arriving, we haven't been given, but your teachers have been told around next month. The student is a she, however we haven't received a name yet. Anyways, back to class..." And that's pretty much how it went on that day. There was so much bickering and gossiping after the announcements, she almost felt bad for the student... who hasn't even arrived yet. It surprised her to see the amount of preparation the school had in honor of the student. In her honesty, she wasn't too excited as the rest of the school for the new student.

The dreaded day she feared for the most came sooner than she anticipated. Lapis now sat in her regular seat in her first period biology. She wasn't a big fan of changes; worst of all she didn't know whether the new student would be smart like her or reckless and a troublemaker? Or maybe she'd be ditzy and clumsy as much as she was? Would she cooperative or downright stubborn?

There were so many questions swarming and buzzing around her head that it kind of made her dizzy. Normally, she'd ignore anything that didn't concern her, but she had a feeling this student would be different from the rest.

Forcing herself to stop thinking about the new student, Lapis looked down at her notes and reviewed them again for the fifth time.

Just as she was about to actually forget about her, the first bell rang and indicated that the school day was about to begin in five minutes. One by one her peers flooded into the classroom and into their seats. She felt herself scowl when everyone in her class had arrived and the second bell rang.

Her focus and gaze automatically turned to the front of the room out of pure habit, but was surprised to find that instead of the teacher standing, it was the principal himself.

"Good morning class," his stern voice cut through the chitter chatter of the students and earned their attention.

"Good morning, Principal Dewey," the class said in unison.

"As you may know from your teachers at some point last month, there would be a new student joining our beloved school. Now first and foremost I would like you all to know that she prefers to be called 'Peri-'" he was interrupted by the outbreak of whispers amongst themselves. Lapis sat patiently in her seat and waited for the class to settle along with the principal.

"Class please quiet down." Slowly but surely the whispers soon turned to silence. Principal Dewey continued. "Anyways, I want you all to treat her with respect and kindness, as you would want yourself to be treated. Please do know that this is a stressful time for her. Changing schools and moving homes is extremely difficult," he turned his attention to the door and called out to her.

"Peri? Won't you come in?" A pretty girl of short messy green hair stepped into the classroom. She had her bangs clipped back to reveal her forehead, a black leather jacket that almost covered her green shirt and skinny blue jeans. Everyone's gaze was locked onto her and Lapis could tell she was extremely anxious and nervous, but did a great job of hiding it behind her stoic expression.

"Everyone, this is Peri," the principal introduced them to her.

"Hello, Peri," the class murmured, dazed at her.

"From this day forth she will be part of the Mountain Goats Family!" the class clapped.

He turned to the teacher. "Ms. Quartz, I trust you'll carry on?"

"I certainly can," she said with a smile.

"Perfect!" Principal Dewey clasped his hands together. "Have a nice day class!" and with that he waved goodbye and left.

Ms. Quartz stepped forward and put a gentle hand on Peri's shoulder.

"Welcome to my classroom. Do you see that empty desk next to Lapis?" she pointed to it and the student turned to where she was pointing at, "That will be your seat. She'll be your partner for the rest of the year and if you have question please do not be afraid to ask either one of us alright?" the teacher gave her a cheerful smiled.

Lapis watched the girl thank the teacher and proceeded towards her way. She noticed the girl look rather... peculiar. As if she and her personality didn't belong in those clothes. Peri's glasses didn't exactly match the style she was going for. Her green eyes twitched left to right, as if she was scanning her environment for any threat. But what troubled Lapis the most was the feeling, her aura, surrounding her. She felt that she couldn't quite understand who or what she was like. It felt like everything was a mess around her. But nonetheless Lapis felt Peri could be respected.

But one thing the gave Lapis some trouble was that the girl had carried nothing with her to school. No backpack, no binder, no paper, not even a pencil.

"Now class, please take out paper and a writing utensil, we will be starting a new chapter today. Ecology. Let's break that down, shall we? Eco, write this down this will be a test question, meaning environmental and -logy, the study of. Put both together and you get the study of organisms and their interactions with their environment..." Ms Quartz started to teach.

The good student she is, Lapis scribbled down every single breath of word the teacher spoke. "... and so the picture on the left is an example of primary while the picture one the right is secondary..."

Lapis glanced at the new girl next to her, to see if she was in need of any help.

She just sat there for the rest of the class period not even paying attention to the lesson, which is a huge pet peeve of Lapis. She didn't seem to even be ready to be in school. No backpack, no binder, not even a single pencil was brought in.

First impressions aren't always for everybody, she sighed. But nonetheless, she was tasked to help out the student get comfortable and catch up.

Lapis dug through her bag to find another pen and ripped out the last page of her notebook (which she really did not want to do considering she had a plan to use all 100 pages for notes). She placed them on Peri's desk and spoke quietly.

"Here. Take some notes, there will be a quiz on Thursday about the lesson in class today," she whispered. The student merely scoffed.

How rude, Lapis scrunched up her nose and proceeded to go back to note taking. Maybe second impressions aren't the best either..

It had been two weeks since Peri had arrived and out of those ten days of school, Lapis had only seen her pick up a pencil ONCE, and that was to only poorly draw a flower with a smiling face. And that was in math class.

Apparently, Peri almost had all of her classes with Lapis except for one. While Peri had band, Lapis had independent study hall. But even in that period Lapis wasn't spared at all. Peri would ditch her band class and "hang out" with Lapis. Hanging out was sitting next to Lapis, who was studying, and snoring her hours away.

In their other classes, their teachers had either seated them next to each other or close. Lapis couldn't help but feel burdened by her trusted advisors to babysit an irresponsible student. She didn't mind the company, but Lapis had hoped that Peri would one day perk up and start doing her work.

"Let's review Ecology. Please study for your Unit exam class! It doesn't hurt to study. Lapis, which has more plant diversity, land with rich soil or land with poor soil?" Ms. Quartz asked.

Such an easy question.., Lapis thought quietly.

"Well, I would have to say that the land with rich soil has the most plant diversity," she answers, clear and confident.

"Care to explain why?"

"Well, it's only common sense in this class that plants need nutrients to grow. So logically, the rich soil would have more plant divers-"

"You're wrong," Lapis was cut off surprisingly by Peri, who sat with her arms crossed.

"Excuse me?" Lapis was taken aback by the sudden attitude.

"I said you're wrong," Peri repeated again. There was a tense silence in the class that followed soon after.

"I can assure you that I am not wrong," Lapis firmly said.

"And I can assure you that you are indeed wrong," Peri turned to look at the teacher, "Miss, the poor soil would have the most plant diversity."

"O-oh? Please explain," Ms. Quartz, too, was just as shocked as the rest of the class.

"Well for starters, I will acknowledge what Lapis said and agree that plants do need nutrients to grow. However that is the flaw of having a rich soil environment. Trees in a rich soil environment have a huge advantage. Why? Because with the abundant amount of nutrients, the trees are allowed to grow up taller and much faster than their fellow plants below. And with many trees in the area, that means that there will be more shade and more shade equals less sun for the smaller plants below. And when there isn't sunlight the smaller plants, they cannot do photosynthesis and will thus die. And all that will be left are the plants who actually have access to the sun, the bigger and larger plants usually. So to conclude my statement, my answer is that poor soil would have the most diversity," Peri turned to the teacher, "Am I correct?"

There was a heavy silence and the only sound that could be heard was from Pearl's pencil, which was writing everything down.

Before Ms. Quartz could speak, Lapis spoke up. "Yes, you are correct," she announced and then gave her a forced smile, "Well done, Peri."

It was silent once more. Pearl had accidentally broken her pencil with a small "Oh darn!"

Author's Note:

Note that the first two chapters are kinda the boring ones, tbh. I was gonna originally have Peridot in her usual nerd role and Lapis as the new student, but decided against it. Much too cliche' I suppose? But hey, at least Peri was a nerd in this chapter. Anyways, comments and suggestions are welcome. Cheers!