Our Shot (LAMS school au)

Chapter 9: Breaking the Ice

Adding this pic cuz Daveed Diggs, AMIRITE? ^^^^^

Alex's POV
My first day of school had been... interesting. I had been surprised to find that as I read the syllabi, even for my more advanced classes, the material all seemed old news. I had notified my teachers of this, but they claimed that since I had no prior education before high school, I would not be allowed to skip anything.

It was my last class of the day; Advanced Placement American History. I understood it was difficult and especially boring for many of my peers, but I found it riveting.

My teacher however, Mister Burling, seemed to be the only one who didn't hand out a syllabus first thing, or even write his name on the board. He decided instead that his class, numbering about 21 of us, should start the semester getting to know each other. He called it 'ice breaking' although it being early September I couldn't think of how there would be any ice around.

It made much more sense when he continued to explain that he would divide us into seven groups of three; we would simply talk, or 'break the ice'. I wasn't against it, per say, it might help me make friends, but I had never exactly been renowned for my 'people skills'. I wished I had one of my roommates in this class.

I had sat myself in the back; no one had sat directly next to me in the row. I also didn't recognize a single soul; I was relieved when Mr. Burling explained he would be picking groups for us. He picked us, one by one, numbering us off by 7s.

"3," he pointed to me briefly before moving on, and I gulped.

When he finished counting all of it off, he waved a dismissive hand. "Match up," he said, and left the room.

I fiddled with my hands, looking around once in a while. If no group wished to claim me, I would survive the first day of class without an 'ice breaker'. It was then when my fears were put to rest; a pale, light hand was set lightly on my shoulder. "It seems as though we're a pair," the cheerful voice belonging to it said.

My turned slowly around, and looked up at the girl who had spoken. She was taller than I was, then again 80% of the human population was, but it's still worth mentioning in her initial character description.

She had long, black hair, with dark eyes.

"I-I'm sorry?" I stuttered, forgetting what she had said to me.

"You're a three, right?" She inquired again, holding up three fingers, and I managed a nod.

She quickly slid into the seat next to me. "Aaron!" she called across the classroom, "I found him!"

I whipped around, looking for whoever she had called out, until my eyes met with a familiar face.

"Burr?"

To my surprise, he met my greeting with a smile and sat on the other side of me.

"Hey Alex," he said, resting his elbow on the desk and setting his hand against his cheek.

"H-hey Aaron," I managed, "I didn't even notice you in here."

"That seems to be a special skill of mine, doesn't it," he replied blandly.

"I'm Eliza," the girl sitting on my other side declared politely, and put out her hand to shake mine, "Eliza Schuyler."

"Alexander Hamilton," I said, smiling, "but call me Alex, please."

Aaron rested a heavy hand on my shoulder, startling me a bit. "He's the new scholarship student I told you about," he told Eliza.

She looked impressed, meanwhile I turned to face Burr with a slightly flabbergasted expression. "How'd you know that?"

"You told us yesterday."

"Oh, right."

I cringed a bit at the mention of yesterday. "You're not mad about that, are you?" I asked, surprised.

Aaron looked confused for a second, but then scoffed. "If I held grudges against every poor sud who got into a fight with Tom Jefferson, I would be a lonely, lonely dude. But seriously, it's not that big of a deal."

"Thank goodness," I breathed a sigh of relief; maybe I could keep from making any enemies on the first day of school after all.

"Oh don't get me wrong, the guy's still fuming over it. You should totally watch your back."

Never mind.

"Actually," Aaron continued thoughtfully, "He was more upset when you left than when you were telling him off."

"He literally told me not to come back."

Now he chuckled, but stopped when he saw my deadpan expression. "He's a cool guy when you get to know him," he began to explain, "he just doesn't know how to... never mind."

I frowned slightly. "I don't think I'll have that chance to get to 'know him'," I told him, "I'm in a different dorm now."

Aaron furrowed his brows. "I was curious as to where you had gone," he admitted, "We all just thought you'd sulked back to the dorm room."

I rolled my eyes, but before I could respond Eliza interrupted. "Am I missing something?"

"No," Aaron and I replied together.

(A/N This was a badly written chapter, haha, sorry about that, but I wanted to get one out here cuz it's been a while. Thanks for reading, love ya all!

- Daryn 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈