Mackenzie had to resist chuckling at how obviously nervous Larry, the sophomore tasked with showing her to her new homeroom, was as he led her through the halls of Lakeview. She'd had to stop by the principal's office to finalize a bit of her enrollment paperwork, since she was transferring from not only another school but another country, and Headmistress Lafayette had asked Larry, who had been passing in the hallway, to "show Ms. Choi to her homeroom." The stocky freckle faced boy had blushed when he saw her and hadn't said anything more than stammers as he showed her to her homeroom. Okay, maybe part of that was Mackenzie's fault for winking at him, but it was just too tempting not to tease him a little.
'Hell, a pretty girl showing a little interest will probably give him a boost all day,' she rationalized as they turned on the hall for Ms.Finley's classroom. It looked like she wouldn't be sharing a homeroom with Karyn anymore, but that was probably for the best; she'd miss her friend, but Kenzie didn't want to fall back into bad habits due to her Jon memories, and she was happy her schedule was pretty different from what it had been before. Some of that was due to the fact that Jon had been in a mix of honors and on level courses, while Mackenzie was going to be taking a mixture of honors and AP. Due to how the curriculum lined up between the two countries, she was actually a bit ahead in some places and was generally an excellent student anyway. The other big difference though was her electives, taking Chorus (Jon couldn't sing a note), and Psychology instead of Woodworking and Auto Shop. The latter was particularly ironic since Mackenzie was probably more competent working on engines than Jon had been, due to servicing her bike, but her former identity had chosen courses pretty much based on how easy they would be.
"Thanks for showing the way, Larry," Mackenzie drawled before stepping away from the boy to enter homeroom. It was the usual cross section of students you could find in any of the homerooms throughout the school, a mixture of every social group, but Mackenzie's attention was drawn towards the right side of the room. She clocked Vivian Wright and Elizabeth Callahan chatting to one another as they waited for the bell to ring. Jon hadn't known either girl except by reputation, but from what little her old memories told her about them, Mackenzie thought these might be her type of people, at least reasonably cool and up for a good time, people she could party with. Elizabeth, a leggy brunette, was wearing a white sweater dress with a brown belt cinched around the middle, black tights, and suede heeled boots. Mackenzie knew she was the captain of the girl's swim team, and like Mackenzie, a foreigner, originally from England. Vivian meanwhile was head of the debate team, the daughter of lawyers and very keen on following in their footsteps. She was a svelte girl, even shorter than Mackenzie by a few inches, with one dyed blue stripe in her shoulder length straight brown hair. Today she was wearing a knee length green dress with a surplice neckline, along with some exquisite looking white 4 inch heels with gold detailing.
With a confidence now instinctual to her new self, Mackenzie walked up and dropped her bag on the desk beside Vivian, "Ya probably hear this all the time, but I love those shoes, where did you get them?"
"Oh these are Choos I got these on Rodeo this summer," Vivian responded, smiling at the compliment. "I'm Vivian, and this is Elizabeth."
"Mackenzie Choi," Mackenzie replied with a grin, "and before you ask, I am from down under."
"Ohmygosh, I was gonna say but I didn't want to be rude. I LOVE your accent," a voice said from behind her. Mackenzie looked around to see Melissa Smith, a member of the cheer squad, taking the seat behind her and next to Elizabeth.
"Thanks, I worked really hard on it," Mackenzie joked, eliciting laughter from the three girls she was hoping would be her new friends.
"You should be careful, Mackenzie," Elizabeth said teasingly, "she spent the first half of last year just making me say random sentences." Elizabeth had her own crisp English accent.
"I did not!" Melissa protested.
"Sure, I believe you," Mackenzie said with a wink towards Elizabeth. God, was making friends always this easy? She wasn't sure if it had been Jon's reticence holding him back from reaching out, or if his lack of social skills kept people from reaching back, but either way things had changed. She turned back towards Melissa, "That said, if you're willing to show an Aussie what ya yanks do for fun around here, I'll say whatever you want me to." It seemed even though Roger tried to reign it in a little, Mackenzie was destined to be a pretty massive flirt.
