When Jenny stepped out from her home that morning, she had to turn around and grab her scarf, hat, and mittens. October was turning bitter, but when her mother asked if she could drive Jenny to school, she refused. "The air still feels fresh. I can't wake up well without my walk," she replied, giving Mum a kiss and attempting to leave the house again, this time with success. 

    The three-mile trek always seemed to fly by, but this morning, Jenny made certain to stop and smell the roses... literally. A few streets before reaching school, she sniffed a bed of roses at the corner of Bates and Wilmington, and took a moment to admire their mature blooms. An older woman stared at her from behind her window, and wouldn't blink until the girl moved away. Jenny gave a nervous wave before resuming the walk.

    Before long, she arrived at the front of the school. Students were parking their cars, hanging out in the lots, discussing homework or smoking cigarettes. A couple jocks were passing a frisbee back and forth. Jenny curled some hair behind her ear before maneuvering between the parked cars and avoiding getting hit in the head by the disc. At one point, a car zoomed past, and she was so startled that she backed into another car and faintly scraped the paint with her belt. Jenny froze and swallowed nervously as she turned around to see whose car it was, then felt her stomach drop. Stardust.

Ziggy had arrived at school rather early. He wanted nothing more than to get out of his house, and stay out of his house as long as he possibly could. He had dropped his baby sister off at her school easily and then moved to park his car in the student lot. As always there were a number of cars already there, and an uncomfortable amount of idiots roaming around.

Ziggy rolled his eyes at the jocks who were throwing a frisbee, recognizing one of them as the linebacker who he had gotten into a fight with the previous week. The idiot was trying to talk a big game and it was honestly pissing Ziggy off to no end, so he had punched him directly in the nose, breaking it cleanly. A few days suspension and he was back, and just as bad as ever.

He had decided to sit on the trunk of his car and smoke while he waited for class to start. About halfway into his second cigarette when a car zoomed past where his was parked, and he heard a faint scrape from his left. He took a deep breath and turned to see what had made the noise, his eyes slightly narrowing when he saw the girl near his car. "What do you think you're doing?"

Jenny blinked a few times as he addressed her, and she swallowed. One of the school's tough guys and a mysterious loner, Ziggy Stardust was the epitome of teenage angst and rebellion. Ever since starting school in September, Jenny made certain to give the guy a wide berth and never give him the wrong glance. Now, it seemed she had no choice but to interact with him, and she silently prayed that he wouldn't make Chop Suey out of her.

"I'm not doing anything," she said. "It was an accident. You saw, didn't you??"

Ziggy sighed and hopped down. He didn't recognize her, which meant that she was either a freshman or a sophomore. He took a long drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke in her direction before moving to inspect his car. She was lucky, whatever was on her person that had scraped against his car hadn't left a mark. "I didn't see anything." He muttered, straightening up to look at her once more.

It was her turn to narrow her eyes. She could have sworn she'd left some type of mark... but praise the heavens, she had been spared. "A car, it flew by, and I was in its way... I'm sorry, of course I didn't mean to back into yours." The girl swallowed and averted her eyes, bring a hand up to clutch at her elbow. Her lashes fluttered as a cool breeze came along. "Um, I'm gonna be late for class, so..."

Ziggy smirked slightly. She seemed to be absolutely terrified of him. Good, the less people that wanted to be his friend the better. That way he didn't have to explain himself over and over again. "Should I walk you? That way you aren't hit by any other supposed cars?"

Her red lips twitched, and she glanced at the school's entrance before looking back up at him. "Y-you're not mocking me, are you?" Why would he even bother? Didn't he have some badassery to take part in? Jenny curled some hair behind her ear. "'Cuz you really... you can just."

He leaned against his car and propped one of his booted feet against one of the wheels. "Why would I mock you? Your an underclassman who I've never seen before. There is literally nothing that you can give me." His eyes travelled over her form. "Actually I suppose there is one thing that you could offer." He chuckled and finished off his cigarette before flicking it on the ground. "I can just what?"

Her freckled nose crinkled at his distasteful comment before she crossed her arms. "You can just. Let me go in peace and not give me trouble," she replied softly, her small chin sticking out. "But if you insist upon walking me to class, I will not stop you." Jenny took a breath and her eyes widened slightly. Was that his cologne...? It was amazing...

Ziggy chuckled. "I'll walk you to class, it'll give you protection. If you're that scared of a little car I don't know how you walk down the hallways without being afraid of everything." He moved to grab his backpack out of the trunk and he slung it over his shoulder before giving her a wink. He shut the trunk and placed his hands in his jacket pockets.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head before leading the way, feeling her heart pound wildly. Jenny had hardly talked to a boy the entire one-and-a-half-months of being in high school, and she most certainly had not been prepared to start this morning. "I'm not afraid of everything," she sighed, adjusting the straps of her backpack. "I just. This is my first semester of school... I was homeschooled before this." Jenny cringed, waiting for him to make fun of her... everyone did.

He cocked a brow as they continued to walk. "You were homeschooled?" He couldn't have handled it. His father would just use it as an excuse to beat him senseless on a more regular basis than he already did. "Why are you going to school now then?" He looked her over. He half wondered if she was really a freshman, or if her mother had decided to finish her school experience with public school. "And I feel as though I have to warn you. High School is shite."

Her lips gave a wan smile. "I just felt it was time for me to matriculate into normal society. I know it sucks here, I've seen enough of it already. But it's giving me a lot of good experience and information. And the biology classes are stellar," she broke out into a gentle smile. "I can't believe you guys have advanced anatomy for a class. I'm hoping to get into it next year instead of waiting until senior year."

Ziggy rolled his eyes. Great, she was a science dweeb. "Eh, science isn't my thing. Too much memorization involved and strange sounding parts and bits that you have to remember and if you forget one you're fucked for the rest of the semester. I would rather memorize Shakespearian sonnets than biology. I'm retaking intro bio for the fifth time this year."

Jenny raised her eyebrows. Holy crap, how -dumb- could he be?? "The fifth time?? You're exaggerating, right?" The girl stared at him in confusion. "How is that even allowed?? Is the intro teacher just ridiculously terrible at teaching?"