rural town, strange happenings, you've heard this story before - oxo - closed

Mister Radley begins class with a sigh and unspoken instruction to get out their math notebooks. The graphing stamp sits in its usual spot on the rickety table in the back of the classroom. Occasionally, students would look back to Dean or take a change to gaggle at the newbie. Jessica, a sophomore with frizzy brown hair and wide brown eyes, turns to her friend Kelly with a red face and giggles in her voice, her poorly veiled hand pointing to the new kid in the center of the class.

Ash's head is titled back, blond hair hanging off the back of his chair into the desk behind him. His arms are crossed over his chest. He could be fast asleep for what anybody could tell. Mister Radley calls on him once for an answer, but Ash only shrugged before turning back to his relaxed position. Jessica and Kelly study him thoroughly.

Geometry passes with little to no significance–well, save for when Mister Radley's chalk turned to dust in the blackboard trey. The old man just furrowed his brow and poked at the powder before shrugging and slowly sauntering back to his desk to retrieve a new stick. They have a test next Thursday. Mister Radley claims they should all be more than ready.

When the bell rings to dismiss them, Ash takes his sweet time packing up his zero belongings. His hand finds his jacket pocket. Through the fabric, it's clear to see his long fingers curl around a box of cigarettes. With everybody–save for Kelly and Jessica, who are currently glued to Ash's side–gone from the classroom, Ash searches the room from behind his sunglasses, eventually his stare landing on Dean in the back. The two girls on his arm are babbling about this and that and Barry's party on Saturday night. Ash doesn't seem to even hear them.

Rising from his seat and shrugging off the girls on his arm, Ash takes a slow few steps towards the other students. "Find me interesting?" He asks, a small smile itching at the corners of his lips as he tilts his head up. Through his sunglasses, he stares at Dean from above his nose. "Can't stop lookin', can ya'?" Finally getting the memo that Ash won't pay them any attention, Kelly and Jessica huff and scuttle off to whatever class they have next.

"Also-" He nods his head towards the floor. "Don't forget your pencil." The pencil Dean had just put away in his backpack is sitting on the ground, right beside a crumpled piece of paper and a gum wrapper.

Ash pulls a cigarette from the pocket of his coat and sticks it between his teeth. He smiles around the cylinder before nodding his head and walking out of the room. Somewhere between the door and the hall, Ash pulls it from his lips and blows out a plume of smoke, a lighter nowhere in sight.

Scrawled on the crumpled piece of paper in green ink reads be aware of who you watch. As soon as the words are read, the lights flicker and a girl in the hallway screeches. Mister Radley doesn't look up from his desk as the new period of students file in.

The next three periods go by without any sort of significance. Ash wanders from class to class, a cigarette between his lips as he sits in the back of each of the classrooms. He gets side-eyed and ogled at and flirted with, but it all just rolls right off of his leather-clad back. None of this seems to have any sort of effect on the teen.

When lunch rolls around, Ash fully disappears from the eyes of most of the student body. Boys desperate to get him on the basketball team slump and girls eager to get his number huff. The new boy with sunglasses that smelled like smoke is gone. Well–not really gone. Ash lurks in the back of the chemistry classroom, checking vials and chemicals left out on the lab counters in the back of the room. The teacher is out to lunch with her teacher friends in the lounge, not even noticing as the new kid snuck in through the back door.

Ash looks up from the vials, raising an eyebrow over his sunglasses. In front of him are a various array of chemicals, some of them open and mixed into a smaller beaker beneath a bunsen burner. He smiles, a sharkish sort of thing, as he slowly wanders closer to the other kid. Daryl? Darin? Something like that. "You'd be right," Ash responds. There's a vial between his fingers–the same one that was on the burner only a few seconds prior. The liquid is clear but the smell is potent. "Wasn't expecting anybody to be in the lab."

Ash gets nearly too close as he leans into the other boy, almost close enough for him to see through Ash's sunglasses–but then the blond leans away and in one quick motion, brings the vial to his lips and downs the entire tonic. He takes a step back, setting the empty vial down on the counter.

(alksdjfa i was not expecting to see a response from this when i checked my notifs)

"Small school." Ash points to Dean with a lopsided grin. "Small town. Everyone's bound to meet everyone somehow." And it's just Ash's luck that he constantly runs into the guy that's not eager for him to join the football team or go out with some random cheerleader. Ash couldn't care about any of that. He's just here, well, because he has to be. Because it's where he was sent. 

He runs his tongue over the top of his teeth, savoring the sharp, stinging taste that the chemicals left in his mouth.  "I'm from Nevada," Ash says, because keeping everyone entirely in the dark isn't much fun. "My dad wanted me to move up here for a change of scenery." It's not exactly a lie, but oh boy, is it so far from the truth. He drums his fingers on the countertop behind him. "I wasn't expecting to become such a phenomenon so quickly." Behind his reflected sunglasses, his eyes darken. His smile grows. "I'll only be here until I graduate, so don't get yourself all worked up, Dallin." He steps away from the counter, checking his shoulder against Dean's as he leaves. He would hardly be surprised if Dean decided to follow.