Instead of arriving at the administration’s office like they expected, the twins found themselves in the teacher’s office.

“You’re my new transfer students, aren’t you?” A female teacher walked up to them, a smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes. “All your forms are in, we just need the final transfer documents. You have them with you?”

“Yeah,” Parker pulled open the messenger bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out the folder containing the rest of the forms.

“Here are your locker assignments and your schedules,” She told them, trading their papers for the one’s she held in her hand. “Your first class is with me, and I noticed you didn’t have any clubs that you wanted to join listed on your electives preference sheets.”

“We’re not really ‘joiners’,” Parker informed her.

“We don’t really stay at one school long enough to contribute anything of value.” Piper added.

“I see,” the teacher gave the same small smile. “Class will be starting soon; make sure you’re on time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the twins nodded, turning and making their way out of the teacher’s office and to their classroom.

They made a short pit stop to see where their lockers would be, and the musical chimes told them that class would be starting soon.

“Well, at least it’s better than the dismissal bells at our old school,” Parker mused as he and his sister went to their first class.

They were mildly surprised to see some familiar faces in the room. The two male students from earlier were there – Piper naming them Eyebrows and Hair in her mind, not knowing their names. The students stared the twins down, the twins answering with cold glares of their own. The moment was interrupted, though, when their teacher walked in, Cha Eun Sang steps behind her. She motioned for the twins to stand beside Eun Sang at the front of the class.

“These are the transfer students whom you’ll be studying with, starting today.” The teacher introduced them. “Greet them.”

“Hello, I’m Parker McPherson,” he introduced himself, giving a mocking two- salute to the class instead of bowing.

“Piper McPherson,” she jutted a thumb up to her brother. “His twin sister.”

“Younger twin,” Parker smirked.

“I hate you,” she muttered.

“Our father’s Pádraic McPherson,” Parker continued, noting the sparse reaction from the rest of the class, causing him to clarify. “He’s an astrophysicist.”

“A lot of the girls might know our mother, Pearl.” Piper interjected. “She’s the founder, owner, and chief designer of the fashion line Posy and Pearl.”

That earned them a better reaction, excited whispers coming from many of the girls in the classroom. With the twins’ introductions done, all eyes turned to Eun Sang, who was shifting nervously on her feet.

She bowed, “Hello, I’m…” she trailed off, realizing she had begun to use honorifics. Many of the students began to snicker at her mistake. Eun Sang drew in a deep breath and shook off the embarrassment, continuing in a casual tone. “I’m Cha Eun Sang. I am ordinary and mundane, from every aspect. I’m someone who can do well anywhere, so I refuse any attention. Receiving help would be burdensome. Nice to meet you.”

Piper threw a victorious smirk at her brother as the students ‘ooh’-ed at Eun Sang’s final remarks. Her new friend had some fire in her, and it was something about which Piper was glad to prove Parker wrong.

“Find empty seats and sit.” The teacher instructed. “Let’s start the lesson.”

“I have a question for the transfer student.” A male student interrupted, lowering the hand he had raised to get the teacher’s attention. He looked to Eun Sang. “How did you manage to get in here?”

“Are you speaking to us?” Piper interjected impudently, knowing full well he wasn’t.

“No,” the student pointed to Eun Sang. “Her. How did she get in this school?”

There was an uncomfortable silence as they awaited Eun Sang’s answer. Eun Sang could only stare nervously at her classmates, hesitant to answer.

“There is another new student here as well.” Hair spoke up, raising his hand.

“Is there a student who doesn’t know Tan at our school?” The teacher questioned.

“Still, I should say my greetings.” He answered smoothly, getting out of his seat to walk to the front of the classroom. He stood in front of Eun Sang, hands casually in his pockets. “Can you move? It is my turn.”

Though his words were directed only at Eun Sang, with Hair standing up to give his greetings there was no reason for Parker and Piper to remain at the front of the classroom. The three made their way to the empty chairs, each separate from the other. Piper found herself sitting in front of one of the students from earlier that day – the one she had mentally nicknamed Eyebrows – the smirk on his face telling her immediately that he was a troublemaker. As they sat, Hair turned and addressed the class.

“I am Kim Tan,” he introduced, also opting out of bowing. “The school I used to attend...even if I tell you, you guys won’t know. It hasn’t been long since I’ve returned from America. I, too, want to enjoy an ordinary and mundane school life. Please cooperate.”

///

During one of the breaks in the day, Piper wandered the halls looking for the broadcasting room. Her penchant for being distracted had flared up during class, and she had surreptitiously begun fiddling with a recording she had made of her brother playing his guitar on her tablet. However, she wanted to fine tune it before the ideas had vanished from her mind.

She finally tracked down the broadcasting room, knocking lightly on the door and opening it slightly.

“Excuse me,” Piper stuck her head through the partially opened doorway, her eyes immediately landing on the audio equipment. “Oh thank god, you do have a soundboard.”

She brushed past the young man already in the room, who called after her and asked to know what she thought she was doing. However, Piper ignored him, sitting in front of the soundboard and connecting her tablet to the soundboard, attaching her full size headphones into the audio jack before beginning to work on the mix.

The student in the room walked over to her, pulling the headphones off her head, the unedited music pouring quietly from them.

“Hey!” Piper snapped, her eyebrows knitting together as she looked up at him.

“I asked what you were doing here,” the student repeated calmly.

Piper backed off, knowing she was in the wrong. “Sorry, I should have asked. I just didn’t want to lose the music before I got it into the file. It’s just a few tweaks and I’ll be gone, I promise.”

The student, clearly easy-going, nodded in assent and handed her the headphones he had confiscated. “You’re one of the new students, right? I’m Lee Hyo Shin.”

“Piper McPherson,” she greeted, taking her headphones back. “Thanks.”

Hyo Shin left her in silence to finish her mix, and as promised she was done in mere minutes.

Pulling the cords of the soundboard out of her tablet, Piper turned to Hyo Shin and flashed a bashful smile.

“Thanks again for letting me barge in,” she said as she packed up her things. “I can finish the rest at home; there were just some bass lines and harmonies I had to get in.”

“You write music?” Hyo Shin asked, the question on his mind since the girl had walked in.

Piper shook her head, “Not really. I mean, I can do arrangements, and I can mix voices and instruments together pretty well, but songwriting’s not really my forte.”

“I heard your dad’s an astrophysicist,” Hyo Shin went on. “You don’t want to do that to?”

“Oh god no, I don’t have the head for that.” She chuckled. “I think I want to be a music producer. I don’t really know; I still have some time to think about it. What about you?”

Hyo Shin paused, his expression tightening slightly. “My parents want me to go to law school.”

Piper studied him closer, “That wasn’t what I asked.”

He tensed up; unsure of how to phrase his answer to someone he didn’t know.

“Are they pressuring you?” She asked gently, Hyo Shin answering only by shifting uncomfortably. “Is it bad?”

He cleared his throat and straightened his perfectly placed tie. Piper could see her line of questioning was making him uncomfortable, and began connecting the dots between his answer and his non-answer.

“Hey, I know this is kind of weird - especially coming from a total stranger and all – but,” Piper paused, pulling out a scrap of paper and scribbling her address on it, “if it gets to be too much and you need somewhere to stay and want to avoid the normal friend questions like ‘what happened’, or ‘how are you feeling’…if you need a place to stay, no questions asked, then our door’s open.”

Hyo Shin took the scrap tentatively, not voicing any kind of response. Recognizing that as her cue to leave, Piper slipped past him and made her way out into the hallway. As she was exiting the broadcast room, a tall figure stopped her in her tracks. Piper looked up to see Eyebrows standing there, his handsome face marred by a smirk.

“Three in one day,” he continued smirking. “I certainly am lucky.”

“Are you the welcome wagon or something?” Piper wondered aloud, unsure how high her sass dial should be turned.

“Better. I’m Choi Young Do, and you’re mine.”

Piper slapped a hand over her heart and feigned indignation, “And you haven’t even asked me on a date yet. Manners.”

She stepped around him to continue on her way down the hall. Young Do stuck out a foot to trip her, but the girl deftly skipped over his outstretched foot. As she cleared the obstacle, she turned around and flashed him a sweet smile heavy with sarcasm.

“Let me guess, you were going to trip me and then catch me to show me how much control you think you have over me,” she surmised. “Sorry….don’t even remember what your name is…but somebody beat you to that little stunt three schools ago.” The smile dropped, her expression mimicking the smirk that he had worn earlier. “You think you can intimidate me? Try to come up with better material.”

Her smirk deepened, and she her heel so quickly her auburn curls fanned out behind her. Young Do watched as she walked away, a scowl set deep into his mouth.

“You want to see what I can do?” He muttered, annoyance bubbling in his chest. “Don’t worry new girl; I’ll make sure you remember my name.”

///

When lunchtime rolled around, Parker and Piper ate outside – it was an integral part of their first-day plan, to eat away from the other students and create ‘mystery’ and ‘intrigue’. Really, it was just so their absence would be noticed and talked about, therefore creating more conversation opportunities. They had already deviated from their plan enough already; they couldn’t stray from their comfort zone any further.

“This school is really weird.” Parker mused, munching on the lunch that Nan had packed for them.

“Yeah, it is.” Piper agreed. “And what’s up with that Hair guy?”

“Kim Tan?” Parker asked, consistently better at remembering names than Piper was.

“Yeah, what’s his deal? I mean, he comes back from abroad and there’s already all this tension. And what is up between him and Eyebrows?”

“Eyebrows?” Parker grinned widely.

“Yeah,” Piper giggled. “I mean, did you see them? Those are some distinctive eyebrows. And bee-tee-dubs,” Piper chirped, her brother throwing her a disparaging look for the abbreviation of ‘by the way’, “he is so crossed off our ‘insult then befriend’ list. I mean, major -hat.”

“Well, he apparently runs this school,” Parker mused, the remark causing Piper to groan lightly. “Which reminds me, did you know this school has a caste system?”

“A what? I thought this was South Korea, not ancient India.” She scoffed.

“No, but seriously,” he continued. “There are four groups that everyone falls into. The top tier is the business heir group; the students who are not only heirs to large fortunes, but also to large companies, which they will be expected to take over someday.”

“Well, that’s not us,” Piper admitted.

“The second tier is the stock heir group. They won’t actually run their parents’ companies, but they’re already major shareholders and are usually very aware of what’s going on in the company.”

“Is that us?” She wondered. “I mean, we have stocks in mom’s company and dad bought us stocks in various astrophysics corporations.”

“Yeah, we’re probably second tier.” Parker agreed. “But it goes on. Third tier are the Honor heirs, the ones who have to uphold the family honor instead of the family business. And, finally, there’s the social welfare group. The scholarship kids. They’re not here because of their parents; they’re here because someone rich owes their parents a favor. Apparently Yoon Chan Young is one of them.”

“Really?” Piper asked, surprised. “I guess that’s why he’s so nice.”

“I just can’t believe these kids,” Parker shook his head. “I mean, where do they get off lording over others with money they didn’t even earn themselves?”

“It’s just high school,” Piper placated. “We just have to tough it out until dad moves us again.”

“And when will that be?”

She was silent, as much at a loss as her brother was.

///

“Hey, America!” Eyebrows caught her after school as she was making her way to the parking lot.

“Are you calling me?” Piper asked him, indignant as she stared him down. “What makes you think I’m from America? Because of my skin color?” She scoffed, “An expensive education and you’re this ignorant? How ‘bout we get your facts straight, hmm? I was born in Ireland, raised in England for my formative years and then shipped to five other countries before coming here. One of those countries happened to be America, but I’m not American.” She informed him, a bite to her tone. “Now that we’ve got that settled, what do you want?”

“Just to inform you that, despite your claims, my material is not worn out,” he sniped. “I just tripped and caught the other new girl and she didn’t see it coming at all. You were just a fluke. Next time you won’t get away so easily.”

“And that’s supposed to mean something?” Piper wondered. “Because you successfully harassed one of the new girls I’m – what – supposed to be impressed? Scared of you? What…what is it that you’re going for?”

“I’ve already told you: you’re mine,” he told her, bending down towards her level and lowering his voice. “I may not have been able to demonstrate it properly, but it’s still a fact. You just seem to not have come to terms with it.”

“Again, not sure what you’re going for,” Piper repeated, slowing her words in hopes of conveying her message better. “Because I’m pretty sure I’m not your property. Those outdated gender roles are just that: outdated. So, like I said earlier when you clearly weren’t listening: if you want to impress me, or intimidate me, or whatever it is that you want to do, get better material. Because this,” Piper gestured wildly along the length of his body, “is really sad.”

He scoffed, looking at her with a mixture of curiosity and fascination, “You have no idea who I am, do you? What I can do to you?”

“You have no idea how little I care,” Piper replied, throwing another sarcastic smile on her face as her brother walked up beside her.

“What’s going on here?” Parker asked, looking between his sister and the older student. “Piper, why are you taking so long?”

“I was just having a little talk with your sister,” the older student smiled coldly. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. Choi Young Do, and that reminds me: I think there’s something we need to talk about as well.”

“Save it,” Parker bit back. “I know your kind; hell, I’ve been that kind. You have money, meaning you have power, meaning you think you can do whatever the hell you want. And, in high-school context, that translates to being a bully. Leave my sister and me out of whatever machinations you have. We’re not pawns, and if you attempt to use us as such have no doubt that we’ll fight back. And if it’s two against one, you will lose.”

Instead of looking taken-aback or as if he had been put in his place, Young Do merely smiled gleefully. “This is going to be more fun than I thought.”

He walked off, leaving the twins in muted bewilderment as they watched him go.

“What an ,” Piper hissed.

“Forget about him,” Parker swung an arm around his sister’s shoulder, guiding her towards their car. “There’s not actually anything he can do to us that hasn’t been done before.”

“He tried to do trip-catch with me earlier,” Piper conceded.

“See, my point exactly.”

///

When they arrived home, the three McPherson children were immediately bombarded with questions from their mother and Nan.

“How was school?”

“Did you make any friends?”

“Are the teachers nice?”

“And the students, were they friendly?”

“It was fine,” the children answered, each grabbing a snack from the kitchen before going to their respective rooms.

Pearl and Nan exchanged knowing looks. While ‘fine’ was the only answer the usually received, it more often than not meant the first day of school was a success. In no time the children would start complaining. The uniforms , the school food wasn’t as good as Nan’s, so-and-so is an . As long as those comments weren’t made on the first say, Pearl and Nan could be assured that the children would do just fine at their new school.