#also why can't I hear George's accent in my head? makes it harder to write for him

[wellamarke]

first day

humans challenge, week 2, day 2: high school/college au

“You’ll look out for her at school, won’t you, Odi?” his father asked, in a low voice, on the first day of term.

Odi looked up from his apricot jam and toast, his expression uneasy. “I’ll try,” he said. “I don’t know if she’ll want me following her around.”

Niska was going into the class two years above him, because she was older, even though she hadn’t ever been to school before. Odi wasn’t an expert in popularity, but he was fully prepared for the possibility that his new foster sister wouldn’t want some younger kid trailing her everywhere, while she was trying to make friends of her own.

“I’m not saying you’ve got to shadow her,” George said, with a chuckle. “But I think you’ll find she’s more nervous than she’s letting on. Just show her around a bit, at first. Let her know she can come and find you if she needs to.”

“Okay. I will.”

It wasn’t that Odi didn’t want to help. He’d come to love her as a sister, just as much as his father loved her as a daughter, but Odi was constantly aware that Niska had three real brothers, proper ones, legally adopted brothers she’d had ever since she was born. She’d never said, out loud, that Odi was surplus to requirements - she was never cruel with her words like that - but he knew she would rather have her real brothers and sister with her, if anyone. She missed them, it was only natural. She was the only sister Odi had ever had, but the same just wasn’t true in reverse, and he had accepted it.

He just wasn’t sure how to apply it in a school setting. How did people with older sisters usually act? Odi’s friend Mattie was often complaining about her younger siblings messing with her stuff, or getting her into trouble. Odi definitely didn’t want to irritate Niska like that. Mattie would always love Toby and Sophie no matter what, but it was early days in the Millican household - Niska had only been living with them since June. Odi couldn’t be sure if that was long enough for her to put up with him unconditionally.

“You’d better get going,” George said, eyeing the clock on the wall. Odi agreed, scraping his plate and putting it in the sink. He went to get his bag from the hallway, and found Niska there, checking that all the folders she’d put in order last night were still alphabetised. How, exactly, they would have got out of order while sitting empty in her bag, Odi wasn’t sure, but Niska liked to have things just so.

“Ready?” he asked her, and she nodded. George had come out into the hall too, to wave them off.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said, smiling. “And no detention until at least next week, if you can help it.”

This was a joke George made on the first day of every new term, which he thought was particularly hilarious, because Odi had never got a detention in his life. Odi laughed, more out of duty than amusement, although it was nice to have a tradition, he reflected. Niska didn’t have any of those yet. They would have to make new ones that included all three of them.

Odi and Niska started the walk to school, which wasn’t very long, but once they got started, Odi realised that his father had been right - Niska was nervous, which wasn’t something you saw often. She was staring straight ahead, and her arms were very straight and stiff at her sides, hands curled in fists. Her mouth was set in a firm line, as if confident, but her eyes betrayed her on that. She was clearly unsure about something.

Odi remembered what his father had said. He gave a small cough. “Um, we can meet up at break if you want to,” he said. “I don’t want to cramp your style or anything. It’s fine if you don’t want me. But just text me where you are if you do.”

Niska looked at him, though her expression didn’t really change. “Thanks,” she said.

“You don’t have to be nervous,” Odi continued. Then, hastily, he added, “I’m not saying you are, I don’t know if you are or not.” Actually, he was pretty sure, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to make her admit it. “I’m just trying to say… school is basically fine. I don’t know what you expect really if you’ve never been before, but I think you’ll like it. We have some really good teachers. And people are friendly. And there’s a library, I can show you where it is.”

He was aware he was babbling a bit, but with Niska he often found himself saying as many different things as he could, hoping that one of them would help her. She wasn’t always easy to read, although his father seemed to do better at understanding what she needed to hear. Odi went by trial and error a lot of the time.

To his surprise, Niska was smiling when he next looked at her. “The library sounds good,” she said. Then, after a pause, “Is it that obvious that I’m nervous?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Odi said. “I mean, no, are you? I didn’t know if you were or not.”

Niska laughed properly at that. “You’re a terrible liar, Odi.”

He looked bashfully at her. “I know. Sorry. But I think it’s probably normal to be nervous, even if you’d been to a school before. Coming in when everyone else already knows each other.” He racked his brain, trying to think if he actually knew anyone in Niska’s year. He couldn’t remember anyone in particular. “I’m sure there’ll be lots of nice people, though.”

Niska hummed. “I think that’s the thing. Nice people don’t seem to like me very much.”

Odi was surprised. “What? Of course they do.”

“Not really. My sister was always telling me to try and be nicer, but I’m not very good at it.”

“But you are nice,” Odi said, genuinely perplexed. “You’re nice to me.”

“Am I?”

“Yes,” he insisted. He might be slightly overlooking a few occasions, for the sake of making her feel better, but really for the most part, she was nice. She got angry with the world sometimes, and it could feel like she was angry with him too, then, but Odi knew she didn’t really mean it. Niska had been through a lot of things before George had taken her in. Odi didn’t need every detail to be able to cut her a bit of slack - she was a lot nicer than her life might have made her, that much he was certain of.

“Sometimes I don’t know why you put up with me. Or your dad.”

Odi wasn’t prepared for her to say anything like that. For a second he wondered what to say, but really, there was only one thing that made sense.

“Because you’re Niska,” he said. Then he added, “And you’re ours, for as long as you want to be. If you can put up with me talking a bit of rubbish every now and then, and dad making his…joke-things and only ever buying one kind of jam…then it’s the same thing.”

Niska smiled. It was a different smile from before - she seemed a little less nervous, unless it was just Odi’s imagination. “Thanks, Odi.”

“It’s OK. It’s just the truth, though.”

The school was visible now, at the top of the hill. “I think I probably will find you at break,” Niska said. “Not sure I’ve got any style for you to cramp, yet.”

He grinned. “I’ll enjoy that while it lasts, then.”