Chapter Text
‘New school. New city. New country. New you.’
Delphine looks at herself in her full-length mirror. Her blonde hair resting on her shoulder, the light from her bedroom window catching the edges of her curls and cascading down, following the messy yet neat spirals of her curls. Her hands nervously pushing down bumps and ridges that most people would not notice. But she does. She wants to look perfect today. She wants to look confident and assured because she sure as hell doesn’t know how to act it.
The dress she has chosen is simple, plain. It is a thick, cottony, material in pastel blue that shows off her thin waist, but stops just above the knee so that the long limbs that she hates so much do not seem so long. She slips a necklace on so that the chain is hidden under the white peter-pan collar of her dress, but so the small, golden nautilus shell is visible.
The necklace was a gift from her father when she turned 13. She remembers opening up the small, midnight blue, leather box and upon seeing the nautilus beaming back at her, looking up at her father in both appreciation and confusment. She remembers him laughing as he looked down at her. ‘Il montre la proportion dorée’ he said between light chuckles, ‘Et il s'agit d'un modèle mathématique qui se répète tout simplement dans la nature.’ He continued as Delphine looked up at him, eyes brimming with wonder and astonishment. ‘Dans pétales de fleurs et les abeilles, et les étoiles dans la galaxie, et dans chaque molécule de notre DNA’.
It was that revelation and that gift that made Delphine pursue science. Never, before that day, had Delphine wanted to follow her parent’s career in biology. She had never thought of her future at all. She was too shy and too nervous to try anything new, so in the end, had tried nothing. But as soon as she had started to read about biology, she realised that she had found her calling. She wanted to help change the world. Although, finding her passion did nothing for her confidence or self-esteem, and the social aspects of school continued to be tough.
Remembering her father brought tears to her eyes, which she quickly wiped away and with the shake of her head she tried to focus on the day ahead of her. ‘Stay strong Delphine, for Papa’. With those last words of self encouragement, she threw her cream backpack on and headed down the stairs, readying herself to brave San Francisco.
_
After figuring out the map in her planner, and walking into god-knows how many people, Delphine found her home room. Most of the seats had already been filled due to her getting lost multiple times and there were only three available options. One was at the back, next to a small-ish boy with a pale face and jet black hair. He was wearing a long, dark grey coat and underneath that a vest top with a large scoop neck. Delphine found his fashion sense puzzling, as the two seemed to contrast each other largely. The look of complete boredom and disdain on his face made her mind up for her, and she glanced at the two remaining empty seats.
The seat closest to the door was next to a chubby boy, with a blue and white plaid shirt, deep in conversation with two other boys. He had thin-rimmed glasses but the lenses were large and seemed to take up most of his face. A face, Delphine noticed, which was covered in small, but noticeable, spots and she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. He noticed her looked at the seat and smiled politely, a small wave accompanying it. He seemed to blush a little as Delphine lifted her hand to acknowledge him, but he then quickly turned around to continue his discussion.
Finally, Delphine turned her attention to the last seat and in doing so felt a pang of nervousness hit her in the stomach. She could tell that the students around the final seat, which was just to the left of the center of the classroom, nearer to the windows, were the ‘popular kids’. Sitting just behind the seat was a tall, blonde, buff boy with a chiseled jaw and biceps that made his red, Ralph Lauren polo shirt seem like it was a size too small. He had perfectly white teeth and the way he leaned back in his seat, arms crossed triumphantly across his chest gave off a vibe of superiority and self-confidence.
Next to him was a small, petite girl with brown hair and sharp bangs that stopped perfectly at the bottom of her eye-brows. She was wearing a tight fitting, plain white t-shirt with a small jewel neckline. It showed off her slim figure well, whilst still holding a level of sophistication. She was sat up straight, her posture so perfect Delphine knew it must be intentionally, consciously. Like Scott, this girl must have noticed Delphine paying attention to her and looked towards the doorway to meet her gaze. The girl nodded at her flashed her a reassuring and welcoming smile. Delphine knew that the old her would have sat next to the boy with the plaid shirt, that is her comfort zone, she looked at the boy and felt safe. But she had promised herself this morning that that Delphine Cormier was gone. This was a new start and a chance to reinvent herself.
She bit her lip, taking a second to give herself the inner confidence and went to walk forward.
A small girl skipped out from behind her, lightly knocking her hip against the top of Delphine’s thigh. The girl spun around and dragged her eyes up Delphine’s body to meet her eyes, mouth slightly open in slight shock. ‘I am so sorry dude,’ she apologized, palms out facing Delphine. As she stepped back slightly to get a better look of the smaller girl, Delphine was mesmerized. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into neat, tight, dreadlocks, tied together in a ponytail, but at the top of her forehead she still had little tufts of soft, small baby hair. She had black, thick-rimmed glasses which sas comfortably on the bridge of her nose, and magnified her soft, comforting and beautiful brown eyes. She wore a tight, figure hugging peplum dress in a deep burgundy colour. She was obviously very confident with her body, and she had every right to be.
‘Um, are you okay?’ The shorter girl enquired.
‘Oui,’ Delphine replied instinctively. ‘Um, yes, and it was my fault, erm, before. I was stood in the way’. She couldn’t get the words out fast enough and she motioned behind herself to the doorway to help the girl understand what she was saying.
‘I’m Cosima,’ The girl smiled at Delphine, flashing her perfectly white teeth.
‘Delphine’ She replied, smiling and blushing slightly.
‘So, you dont sound local’ Cosima stated, never breaking eye contact with Delphine, whose slight blush had grown so rapidly she could swear she could see it herself.
‘No, I moved here from France. Paris, actually. It is my first day here. I was looking for a seat that’s why I was stood in the doorway’ She pointed back to the door so that Cosima would take her eyes off of her for a second, hopefully relieving the nervousness spreading through her body.
‘Paris, cool.’ Cosima looked behind herself at the empty seat Delphine had hoped to procure, then back to Delphine. ‘I would invite you to come and sit with me, Alison and Paul but there’s only one seat left’. She then looked towards the empty seat next to the boy with the plaid shirt. ‘You could sit by Scott though, he’s a really nice guy. Bit of a nerd’.
Delphine could tell by the way that Cosima said it that she wasn’t being mean about Scott. She simply said it as a fact. As if he himself knew he was a nerd and didn't care. But something also told Delphine that Cosima was trying to distance herself away from that, as if to let Delphine know that she was not.
‘Anyway, I’ll see you around, Delphine.’ With that she turned around, full of energy and life and headed towards Alison and Paul. She greeted Alison with a hug, who did not seem overly pleased by it, and she slapped Paul on the arm.
Delphine watched her walk away before she headed over to Scott and sat down. After she introduced herself to Scott they shared a quick chat. She found out that he shared many of her classes and he offered to show her around, which she gratefully accepted but all throughout their conversation, Delphine couldn’t stop herself from catching glances at Cosima. The way Cosima threw her head back when she laughed and steadied herself by holding on to Paul’s arm made Delphine feel warm, she felt like she was sharing in on the joke and a smile started to creep its way on to her face.
As someone who was deeply interested in science and biology, Delphine knew that sexuality was a spectrum, and that it was only society that co-defined attraction, but she had never really thought about bisexuality for herself. She recognized that she had found girls attractive, but before had merely put it down to appreciating their beauty. Yet here was this girl, this Cosima, with her tight dreadlocks and gorgeous figure, whose laugh filled Delphine with warmth whose smile made her feel safe. Delphine knew that this was more than an appreciation of beauty. She knew that there was more to what she was feeling for this girl than a budding friendship.
_
After Scott had shown her to her first class, Delphine slipped into the room. This time, instead of worrying over what seat to choose, she simply took the first empty one she saw. It was on the right hand side of the room, three rows back and two columns across. As she took out her notebook and placed it on the table, she looked around at the classmates who were around her.
The seat to her left, right next to the large window that overlooked the school yard, was a tall, heavy set boy. He had short brown hair, just a bit longer than a buzz-cut and dark brown eyes. Delphine noticed that he was quite smartly dressed, a light blue shirt with a tie underneath a dark blue sweater, and navy blue slacks. There was a girl with long brown hair who was leaning over his shoulder, and moving his pens around the desk every time he managed to get them in some sort of order. Delphine could tell she was not bullying the boy, and that is was friendly banter. She could see the twinkle in the girls eyes and her beaming grin and how the boy simply sighed and continued to organize his desk.
‘This isn't funny Beth.’ The boy stated as he moved his pens back into the top right hand corner of his desk.
‘You are so easy to wind up!’ Beth squealed, rubbing the top of the boys head with her knuckles.
‘Dipshit’ He laughed as Beth retreated to the seat behind him. She leaned down into her seat so that her short legs could reach the back of his chair and started to push. The boy reacted quickly, catching her foot in his right hand and started pulling her towards him.
‘No, Art, stop now’ She pleaded quickly in between laughs, ‘C’mon man, I’m gonna fall!’ He gave her leg one last tug and her hands clung to the wooden desk in front of her, but she managed to stay seated.
Delphine smiled. She wished she could have a friendship like this. The way they joked with each other and knew exactly how to wind the other one up without going over the boundaries was something special. She could tell that they both loved each other very much, but it seemed platonic. They flirted like crazy, but there didn’t seem to be any romantic feelings there.
‘Hey,’ The girl said, grabbing Delphine’s attention. ‘I’m Beth, this is Art,’ she continued, pointing at the boy in front of her, ‘You new?’
‘Yes, today is my first day.’ Delphine hated her accent. She really hated the way it made people ask her more questions about where she was from. Not that she minded people knowing where she was from, it is just that everyone always asks the same questions and they are always sort of impressed that she is from France. Delphine always found this odd. It was just her luck- or bad luck- that she had been born there. It did not make her special or exotic, and the way she stumbled upon certain words because of it made her nervous and that is exactly the opposite of what she wanted.
‘You need someone to show you around?’ Beth asked, leaning forward on her desk, tucking a loose hair behind her ear.
‘Keep it in your pants Childs.’ Art said, tipping his head back to catch Beth’s glare, who smacked him playfully on the head.
‘Thank you, but a boy from my, um, home room, Scott Smith?’ Delphine questioned, seeing if either of them knew him. Beth seemed to nod in understanding. ‘He has already offered to show me around, but thank you, again’.
‘Sure, no problem’ Beth smiled apologetically, and retreated back into her seat. Kicking Art’s chair again for good measure. Delphine knew that although she had already accepted Scott’s offer, she wanted to make friends. ‘But, I don’t know where to go for lunch or break.’ She states, looking back over towards Beth, whose smile widened into a broad, cocky grin,
‘Yeah, you can come and chill with us. We’ll be in the canteen. Have you met anyone else? Other than Scott and us I mean.’
‘Non. There’s this girl in my home room I spoke to called Cosima,’ Delphine paused slightly after her name, remembering the way Cosima’s tongue is slightly visible when she smiles, ‘and she said something about a Paul and an Alison? But I haven’t spoken to anyone’.
‘Oh yeah, I know Alison’ Beth gulped and she looked down at her hands, as if the name hurt her, or as if she was trying to hold something back. ‘That group, they’re all very popular,’ She adds, starting to play with her fingers, but then she looked back to Delphine, ‘Cheerleaders and Jocks’ she finishes with a shrug as if that proved a point she was trying to make.
It was at that moment that their teacher walked in. A tall woman with a pale face and striking blue eyes. Her brown hair was long and wavy, and the sun that radiated in gave it a slightly ginger glow. She was wearing tight black trousers with leather boots, a white, button up shirt and a blue silk scarf. She lifted a bag up on to the desk and pulled out a laptop and a hard-back book.
‘Right then,’ She said looking up to address the whole class, ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau.’