Hello (but for Beth)
Hello: A drabble (main or AU) about our characters meeting for the first time.
They’re on separate sides of the sides of the first grade classroom, Deveraux and Worthington, but Tilly makes sure that she knows everybody’s name by the end of the first day. Her mother had warned her, she would be spending the next twelve years with these people - nobody left Northlake until college - and first impressions mattered. Her pink ribbons kept her brown curls from her face, tied back in symmetrical pigtails that bounced as she walked with purpose a six year old shouldn’t know. She made careful observations, already able to tell those who belonged in her neighbourhood, and effectively her social circle, and those who were from the south side of Northlake. She’d been told to avoid those. She kept to the friends that she knew, those she had been allowed to have playdates with before the school year had started, and made mental notes of who would be allowed to play with them the next day. She looked a little blonde girl up and down, a pretty dress with perfectly matching shoes, and similarly making observations. She would do.
And so, as they stood outside as parents - or in Tilly’s case a nanny - dropped off the children, she made her approach.
“I’m Matilda Worthington, but you can call me Tilly,” She stuck out her hand, like her daddy did when he met people. It was meant to be polite, and while she didn’t care much about politeness it could get the right people on your side.
The other girl seemed to understand this, her own hand clasping at Tilly’s lightly as she replied, “You can call me Beth.”