Hana Lane
The first day of school was a day that had excited Hana for the past twelve years. In the days leading up to many of them, her mother would scrounge together enough money for Hana to buy a new backpack and outfit for the first day. She would wake up hours before she needed to and her mother would have to remind her that she couldn't go wait at the bus stop for a school bus that was still an hour away from arriving. School was an enjoyable place for her when she was a child, and became a safe haven when her mother was imprisoned. She was a good student and liked many of the people she had classes with, so she was comfortable there. She fit in at school, but now, as she sat at the kitchen table in one of the finest homes in Manhattan, she was dreading school starting.
It was her first day at Constance Billard and Hana knew that this was the last place she belonged in. Sure, she was smart enough to excel at the exclusive academy, but socially, she would be a fish out of water. One might imagine that Hana would actually be in a good spot. She was practically Katherine Quinn's step-sister, and because Katherine was popular, it might be expected that Katherine could ease into her friend group. Maybe in a normal world, that would happen, or, maybe it even could be possible in the elite upper east side if Katherine was a normal person. Hana cringed as she heard Katherine's whiny voice growing louder, and eventually loud enough for her to realize that she had also entered the kitchen. Instead of greeting her housemate, or even looking up to acknowledge her presence, Hana kept her eyes focused on her iPhone screen. No one was actually texting her, but Katherine didn't need to know that. Besides, it wasn't like Katherine was making an effort to be nice to Hana either. In fact, it was Katherine would have declared that the girls' relationship would be nothing short of volatile. Hana didn't want it to be that way, but she wasn't going to kiss Katherine's ass either.
Although Katherine had just come downstairs for the first time that morning, Hana had been ready to leave for a good hour. She had just finished the BLT that one of the housekeepers had prepared for her, and carefully sat the plate in the sink, offering the woman an appreciative smile as she passed. Normally, Hana was very friendly towards the staff that Alexandre hired to care for his home, but this woman was one of the new ones that had been hired recently, and Hana couldn't quite remember her name. Although her sister and Alexandre insisted that they had just hired new help because the old staff were slacking off, Hana was sure that it had something to do with Katherine's demanding and bratty ways. Dealing with someone like her wasn't worth the measly salary that her billionaire father paid them.
She wasn't in a hurry to get to Constance, but when she realized that it was nearing 8:10, she knew that she and Katherine would need to leave sooner than later. Alexandre had offered to have his driver pick the girls up and drop them at school, but it really was only two blocks away and when Katherine insisted that they would walk, Hana agreed that that was fine. "Are you ready to go?" she said, barely looking in Katherine's direction as she grabbed her backpack and slipped it over her shoulder. She didn't need any notebooks or pencils today, but decided to bring the school bag to carry her textbooks in on the way back. Plus, she had slipped her half-read copy of Yes Please in, too. She didn't expect to have many people to socialize with and worst comes to worst, she would find an empty corner of the auditorium to sit in and read while she waited for the painful assembly to be over.