Chapter Text
“Do you want me to drive you, or do you want to take the bus?” Ziyal’s mom had asked the night before the first day of high school. Months after officially being adopted, Ziyal still hadn’t decided what to call her mom. Miss Kira was too distant, but Mom was too much, even though they loved each other, so Nerys? Ziyal thought of her as Nerys, but didn't say it out loud yet. Nerys had assured Ziyal that anything was fine. She had already given Ziyal a tour of the school, walked the routes between her classes, so Ziyal opted for the bus for the first day. She spent the entire ride in the window seat, backpack on her lap, smiling at kids as they got on. Nobody sat with her, they already knew friends from the neighborhood and sat with them.
Ziyal didn’t have anyone to talk to in the halls, but didn’t want to get to her homeroom half an hour before she had to be there, so she headed to the library.
“Morning.” A brown haired woman smiled from behind the desk. “I’m Miss Dax, the librarian. I haven’t seen you here before. Freshman?” She asked, Ziyal nodded. “Looking for anything in particular?”
“Not really.” Ziyal shrugged. “Art books?”
“Sure.” Miss Dax led her through the nonfiction stacks to books so tall they didn’t fit on the shelves properly and had to be shelved spine-up, or even laying on their backs.
“Thanks.” Ziyal smiled.
“Happy to help.”
“There’s a warning bell before homeroom, right?” Ziyal checked.
“Yup, you’ll have 5 minutes after that bell.” Miss Dax confirmed. Ziyal started looking at the books and Miss Dax left.
The warning bell rang and Ziyal took the 3 books she’d set aside to the desk.
“Is it too early to check these out?” She asked Miss Dax.
“Not at all, but are you sure you want to carry them around all day? They won’t fit in a locker or under a chair.” Miss Dax pointed out. Ziyal frowned, the librarian had a point. “I guarantee no one else is going to want to check those books out today, you could stop in after your classes.” She suggested.
“I don’t want to miss my bus.” Ziyal explained.
“I’ll write you a pass for afternoon homeroom.” Miss Dax smiled.
“That would be great.” Ziyal grinned.
“Just need your name.”
“Ziyal, um, Kira.” Ziyal slid her school ID over the desk. Miss Dax smiled knowingly, but didn’t say anything as she filled in the blank lines on a blue slip of paper. How many of the faculty knew that the Vice Principal had adopted a teenage daughter over the summer?
“Trade you.” Miss Dax smiled, holding out the paper.
“Thank you.” Ziyal put her books down and took the paper, walking quickly to her homeroom.
“You’re supposed to be in homeroom A-132 with Miss Leeta, right?” The woman asked, Ziyal nodded. Most of the seats were taken, Miss Leeta pointed her to one that only had a planner on the desk with the school’s mascot emblazoned on the front. Ziyal noticed that everyone had the same planner. A minute later the bell rang and Miss Leeta shut the door.
“Alright, welcome to homeroom, I’m Miss Leeta, the French teacher. If you’re taking another language, I promise I won’t hold it against you.” A few weak chuckles from the class. “I have to take attendance, just let me know if I mess up your name or you want to be called something else.” Ziyal checked her library pass while waiting. It had her name, the date, where she wanted to go (the library), the reason (to check out books), and Miss Dax’s signature.
“Kira, Ziyal?” Miss Leeta said.
“Here.” Ziyal replied, a little proud that she had answered promptly and confidently. Until every kid in homeroom turned to look at her.
“Kira like Miss Kira, the Vice Principal?” The guy beside her asked.
"Yeah, that's my mom." Ziyal nodded.
“I didn’t even know she had a kid.” The guy replied. Ziyal shrugged and pretended to be very interested in her new planner. Miss Leeta clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.
“I know you’re excited to meet new people and make friends, but unfortunately I need to finish attendance.”
Ziyal got the same reaction in every class. Everyone was curious about the daughter of the VP, but nobody actually wanted to get to know her. Ziyal found out through various boring ‘getting to know you’ exercises that her new mom was even stricter at school than at home. If you got called to her office, you were In For It. Ziyal could barely believe these kids were bad enough to get Nerys that mad. Though you had to do something pretty bad to have to talk to the VP.
Ziyal showed her afternoon homeroom pass to Miss Leeta, who marked her on the attendance chart and told her to have a good time. Ziyal spent the time cross-legged on the floor in the stacks, and ended up finding 2 more art books to check out. Miss Dax laughed and jokingly warned her she’d end up with nothing left to read by the end of the year when she checked out the 5 large books. On the bus home a girl sat in the seat next to her, but just asked if the seat was taken, then turned her back to Ziyal to talk to her own friends.
“Hey Ziyal.” Nerys called as she opened the front door.
“Hey.” Ziyal went to sit on the couch and talk to her mom.
“So, how was it?” Nerys put her stuff down and sat next to her. Ziyal shrugged.
“I met Miss Dax, I like her. I checked out 5 books from the library.”
“I thought you’d like her.” Nerys smiled.
“None of the teachers mentioned me being your daughter, but the kids did.”
“Did they tell you I’m a terrible monster?” Nerys chuckled.
“Pretty much.” Ziyal leaned over to rest her head on her mom’s shoulder. “My day was boring, how was your day?”
“Also boring. Lots of meetings about what’s changed from last year to this year, introducing new staff, that sort of thing.”
“Ew.” Ziyal commented.
“Yeah. But then I got to sit at my desk and look at that picture of us in the courthouse-”
“Noooo it’s on your desk?” Ziyal gasped, her mom laughed.
“It’s a very nice picture of us, and no students are going to see it.” She assured.
“We have so many better selfies!” Ziyal protested. Pictures where they weren’t posed and awkward.
“Oh, I can put those on my desk too?” Nerys grinned.
“You’re awful.” Ziyal couldn’t keep the smile from her face.
“Yup, I’m your awful mom. How do you feel about tacos tonight?”
“Sure.”
“Got any homework?”
“It’s all super easy.” Ziyal dismissed.
“Then you can get it over with super quickly.” Nerys replied, Ziyal groaned and shuffled back to her room.