Authors Note: A few quick notes you need to read before you read this:

1. - This is set in the UK (my home country, yayyyyy!) because I have more experience with my own culture, social issues and politics.

2. -If I use temperatures, it'll be in Celsius

3. -Rayla's dialect is very Scottish and I've only included a few types of abbreviations so you can still read it xD

4. -I will be using British slang, terminology and phrasing so if you have any questions just ask me (or Urban Dictionary-it ya know)

5. -I've made Rayla, Callum, Claudia, Soren all the same ages so they're in the same year (Year 11 (or Sophomore year in America))

6. -Ezran is in Year 7 (6th Grade but in England, he'd be in the first year of High School)

7. -Because 'The Dragon Prince' doesn't have many teenage characters, I'm going to include other characters from different fandoms as SIDE ONES so you can still read this if you don't know who they are.

8. -The main ship is Rayllum but there WILL be some Callum/Claudia for at least a little bit. (It's all necessary my friends)

9. -There will be NO SMUT OF ANY KIND but there will be frequent use of sexual jokes, hints and tendencies and could have the protentional to get a bit wild in theory (not practice)

10. -Runaan and Rayla are brother and sister in this so I've taken his age down to his early twenties so he's of legal age to take care of Rayla.

But other than that, please enjoy Chapter One!

Chapter One – Crisp, Green Blazers

A pine coloured blazer and crisp, black trousers. A white shirt creased at the seams and a basil tie diagonally striped in thin, butter-coloured lines. New, dark leather shoes laced up tight around her feet, not a scuff, not a scratch, not even a splat of mud on the underneath.

And it all felt too new.

Even her fading, white hair was pulled up in a ponytail a little too perfectly, no bumps along the top and nothing fraying from the bottom. Any other day, she'd have been glad to have it so easily done but she looked too pristine.

Rayla hated it.

She bent over in a sigh and pulled out the bobble running her hands through the new knots over and over again. She looked back in the mirror. She took a good stare.

"Ugh! It still looks like shet!" She collapsed onto bed and hid her face in the sheets, groaning in frustration again.

"You know, just because you swear in an accent doesn't mean you can still be excused?"

Rayla raised her face from the sheets and shot daggers at her brother. "Feck off."

Runaan rolled his eyes while stepping over to the bed and yanking the sheets from beneath her.

"Ow! Careful, ye'll crease me' uniform." She smirked.

"Careful, ye'll break me' floor."

"Rude."

"Anyway, it seems like you've already done a good job in messing up your uniform."

"Not my fault it's a shet uniform."

"Rayla."

She rolled her eyes, picking herself off the floor and walking over towards her rucksack, "look, I'm sorry. It's just all really strange. And unfair."

"You had the choice of staying back home."

"I… I know. Just sucks that I couldn't have a good house and a good school."

"I know it may not be as good as your old school, but it's also not the worst, Rae. Anyway, if we're trying to find the silver lining here- at least you have me." He walked over to her and ruffled up her hair even more.

"Oh, for god sake, Runaan! I wish I bloody-well didn't! It's already as messy as it is." She turned towards the mirror silently wishing she'd just stuck with the ponytail, "and greasy."

Runaan walked behind her, picking up all the sheets and dirty clothes whilst Rayla tried to take the wild beast on her head. He scoured the room with the wash basket mumbling under his breath about how much easier it would be if she'd just keep everything together. If Rayla heard, she didn't show it.

Once he'd made it to the corner, he noticed a bag stuffed behind her wardrobe. A black plastic bag with pink handles and the companies brand Uniform Direct printed across the front. And it wasn't empty.

"Hey, Rae?"

"Mmm?"

"Why don't you wear a skirt for once?"

Rayla turned around mid-plait and cocked her eyebrow, "what?"

He pulled out the contents of the bag, a murky green, tartan, uniform skirt.

Rayla looked down and back to the mirror, "I don't have any tights."

Runaan scoffed, "as if you need tights. It's, like, twenty degrees out there!"

She stayed silent.

"Why're you so bothered about your hair?"

She paused questioningly, "…I don't know. Guess I want to try something different."

"Then why not wear a skirt? That'd be a change."

Rayla sighed tying off the plait's end and dropping the hair, "too late now. We'd be late."

"Fin. But at least take some respect to hang them up."

"Yeah, whatever. I'll do it after school, I promise."

Rayla turned to the door with her bag in hand, when she felt Runaan touch her shoulder, "Rayla? You know, it's not a crime to admit you care about how you look?"

She smiled, "yeah, I know."

Rayla had visited her new school once before. She was there for at least three hours but she never remembered anything. Well, that was a lie. She remembered where the reception door was after walking into it twice. But that was it.

It wouldn't matter anyway. She'd convinced herself that the town of Katolis would never be like Xadia. Same with Katolis Academy. I mean, they couldn't even come up with an interesting name for the place! At least Primal Academy had a different name to its town.

But Runaan was right, she did have the choice to stay with her parents. But she knew it'd be torture if he wasn't there. It was selfish, but she did attempt to get him to stay. However, Katolis had things to offer that Xadia didn't. Like, the town was a lot wealthier but cheaper rent and living prices. The scenery wasn't even that bad if she was honest. But Xadia's was better. It always would be.

Yet, despite all of this, no matter how bad things went, she knew that the choice of staying with her brother was the right one to make.

Rita Ora's 'Let You Love Me' rang through the car's speakers and Rayla could see Runaan's fingers tapping to the beat and she chuckled into her hand resting against the window.

Yeah, she thought, I made the right choice.

They got a bit further down the road when they hit another set of traffic lights and the car stopped. Runaan was still tapping as the song came to a close and his eyes roamed around the steel box but he frowned once he rested on his sister's wrist.

"Ray-"

"Go!" She called back as the lights turned green.

Runaan cleared his throat, a little red in the cheeks, as he released the break but shook off the mild embarrassment, "Rayla, where's your splint?"

"At home." She looked down and hid her hand in her purposefully-oversized sleeve.

"Rayla."

"Look, don't worry ye' wee noggin." She tried to joke it off but the look on Runaan's face didn't move. "It doesn't even hurt that bad today. I've got me' cream anyways."

"Mmm." He hummed in disapproval and Rayla looked down.

He let the whir of the engine press on the silence for a bit until Rayla cracked unwillingly, "I… I just don't want the other kids' attention just yet. Especially if they realise I wear it for weeks at a time then not at all."

"It's just arthritis, Rae. It's not like-"

"But it's not, is it?!" She yelled.

Runaan took a deep breath, "don't shout. I'm only trying to help."

"I- I know I… I'm sorry. It's just… there was no reason to bring that up or play it off."

Runaan turned into the school yard finding a space amongst the ever-growing sea of green blazers and school bags. He pulled on the break and the radio shut off.

They waited. For the other to move? For someone to speak? For something, anything to happen?

"Can…" Ranaan started, "can you just trust that people won't be monsters for at least once? Some of them want to help, and not all will push you away."

Rayla stayed silent and was the first to jump out of the car.

It happened. She was about to walk into another life-chapter. Just after a fight with her brother though… she didn't like the omens that came with that.

The car locked and Runaan stood next to her, resting a hand on her back and giving her a slight push forward.

He smiled lightly, "it's okay ye' wee scaredy."

She chuckled under her breath and threw her arms around him tightly. Not the best first impression on her future classmates to see her hugging, what they must have thought was, her dad- but screw it. She didn't just need this, but so did Runaan.

When she finally let go, the siblings shared a look and waltzed through the gates.

The whispers were already happening. Some excited, some curious, some confused, some knowing- knowing that she was the new girl somebody knew about because they heard from someone else, who knew someone else who knew someone else that told someone else. Ugh. She could already feel the popular girls' eyes on her, just waiting to grasp hold of a new member to their posse. Ugh.

This time, she actually rolled her eyes and pulled her bag back onto her shoulders strutting faster. Runaan cocked an amused brow. He knows he just told her to not think of everyone as monsters, but it was amusing how Rayla reacted to the bullshit school had to offer already.

And just like that, he knew she'd be just fine in the end. A warmth flooded his chest.

Rayla entered the reception first (managing not to walk into the door this time) already removing her bag and blazer because of the immensity of the heat. Runaan sauntered over to the desk answering a few basic questions to the plump woman in the blue swivel chair.

Rayla scanned the walls strung with decades of trophies, certificates and recent photos of teachers, principals and other staff members. She inspected the principle, Mr. V. Mage. Rayla decided he was a dick and moved onto the next picture.

Runaan took a piece of paper from the woman on the desk and signed his name at the bottom of some sheets.

"Rayla?" She came up to the desk giving a cheeky wave at the receptionist, "yeah?"

Runaan handed her a timetable and the woman at the desk spoke some conformation to her brother. Rayla scanned the sheet but something wasn't quite right.

I'm not called Callum-

"Excuse me! Sorry, excuse me-", she leaned around the desk to peer at the woman's nametag, "Mrs. Spanner- Spencer! Er, I've got the wrong timetable."

Mrs. Spencer ushered her to pass it over and moved the glasses back up her nose, "ah, yes. Sorry, I think we've sent yours off to Callum's tutor. You could pop into his class to get it from him before the bell if you want."

Of course.

Rayla sighed, painting on a smile, "yeah, sure."

Runaan placed the pen back down on the desk and turned to his sister, placing his hands on her shoulders, bending down to her level, "you're gonna be fine, don't worry."

"I sure hope so."

"You will be. It's only six or so hours anyway."

"I guess." She smiled and wrapped her arms around him again.

He patted her on the back and the two parted, "go get 'em tiger."

Runaan turned away towards door but something stopped him going over the threshold, "just…", he spoke with a practiced caution, "don't get them too hard."

All she did was wink.

Rayla watched Runaan walk all the way to his car and still couldn't tear her eyes away until he was completely out of sight, around the corner, not to be seen for the rest of her day. Her vision defocused from the stream of cars wearily pushing into the school, to the collection of students huddled into little groups around the yard. Then to the new Year 7's. She'd forgotten about them. They'd be much more nervous than she was- but mind you, she wasn't nervous. More fed-up.

She just needed to make some friends who weren't complete and utter knob-heads and focus on her school work… well, the work that mattered to her. She couldn't be bothered with lessons like IT, R.S and the stuff in PE she wasn't any good at. She knew it was a bad headset but whenever she thought that, the common phrase, 'fuck it!', came to mind.

Someone had entered the office behind her, speaking something to Mrs. Spencer. Rayla didn't pay much attention though. Some girls in the playground looked at her curiously, whispering to each other and giggling and suddenly she realised she'd been staring.

Shit.

"Rayla?" It was Mrs. Spencer.

Rayla turned to the sound of her name and noticed a boy stood there. Taller than her, with kind of messy brown hair. He carried a satchel instead of a rucksack with a blazer filled with badges, the reflection the sun almost blinded her. He was handsome. She'd give him that. But she'd also give him that he probably had a girlfriend who was a bitch.

That was just the vibe she got from this guy.

Probably because that's the vibe she got from every pretty boy she came across but that's irrelevant.

"This is Callum. The one you had the timetable mishap with."

He gave a small wave with the hand he held a piece of paper with and extended it towards her, "I think this is yours." He smiled. And, again, Rayla would give it to him, he also had a good smile.

"Cheers. Miss. Madison over there has yers' so I apologise that I can't return the gift personally."

He laughed, "that's one hell of an accent you've got there."

"Bet yer wee noddle on 'tat h'one." She winked, milking the Scottish drawl as far as she could. "Well, t'was nice meeting ye', Callum but that," she pointed to the bell on the wall, "is the sound of jail time calling, me' friend. And to the devil, I shall answer."

"Alright then." He laughed a little nervously, turned on his heel with a wave and disappeared through the door.

Rayla rolled her eyes at the encounter and looked at her sheet for her tutor roo- wait.

"Hey!" She stomped, "I'm not Riley Moore!"

After around an hour of trying to sort out timetables, Rayla finally got one with her name printed finely on the dotted line. For the first three periods, everyone stayed in their tutors because the Year 7's need touring around the school. Which wouldn't have really have been that bad… if Rayla had someone to talk to. The teacher, Mr. Ahling, made her introduce herself to the group and some of the girls attempted to start conversation. But Rayla soon realised the type of girls they were. She could smell their perfume and see the Ted Baker bags and hear the bitchiness before they approached her.

The three introduced themselves as Chloe, Lyla and Sabrina. They began touching her hair and asking how she kept her teeth so white. So, of course, Rayla replied with, the only way to get white teeth was to eat the heart of ten wolves for breakfast.

"Err… really?" Chloe asked with a twitch in her left eye.

Rayla laughed, "no! Of course not."

The three shared a sigh.

"You eat twelve hearts of orphaned children for lunch!"

Needless to say, they backed away by that point.

There were a few lads in her year joking at the back of the class but when she listened in closely, they were talking about and sharing porn under the desks.

So, really? Rayla had no chance. For the first two hours, she seated herself in front of Mr. Ahling listening to a Spotify playlist she'd made with her friends in Xadia. A while later, she found herself looking at photos of them too.

She missed them a lot. And it wasn't until then that she realised how much she really did. She was in a new school, all alone, no friends and surrounded by bitches and their bachelors. And for some reason, she kind of expected it to stay like that.

Her hand hovered over the tab to the old group chat they had made years ago. It was on mute. Of course it was. She didn't have the guts to leave them behind entirely. She just couldn't bring herself to click the Leave Conversation at the bottom of the profile list. She swore that she wouldn't speak to them again after she'd left because she just wanted to get over Xadia as quickly as possible. And god was she stubborn when it came to that: keeping her word. But it was just so hard.

Her knuckles were white with how hard she gripped the phone in her hand and she blinked back the tears into nothing.

"Rayla?" She looked up to Mr. Ahling staring at her in concern. He seemed like a good guy, but she had to remember this was only the first day of the year, and that he could easily just be putting on a façade. "Are you alright?"

She cleared her throat and nodded, "yeah, yeah I'm fine."

"Missing your old school?"

What? I just said I was fine!

"Nope. Just… just wondering what's for lunch!" She lied but it seemed to fool him.

Mr. Ahling's eyebrow quirked up, "oh? I can check on the system if you'd like?"

"Yeah, that'd be great thanks."

They shared a smile and Ahling looked back to his computer, typing in something. Rayla looked back to her phone. The background was still of her friends and the same heavy feeling weighed in her chest again.

She needed a new background. That'd be the first step.

She tried a picture of her and Runaan but the sizing was wrong, then a picture of her old dog but that would have been just as sad.

Guess a random pattern will do-

"Roast beef and custard and sponge. Or pasta if you're vegetarian." Ahling called up.

Rayla smiled, "thanks."

The next thing she did was search up was, 'custard and sponge pudding'. Took the picture of one with a face, and apply it to her Home Screen.

Yeah. Thanks, Sir.

Break came all too slowly. Or, too fast if you thought about it. It wasn't any better than tutor and she still had an hour of that left to go.

She sighed and stepped outside into the scolding summer heat, leaving her blazer and bag back in the classroom. She didn't have anywhere to go at this free period, that much she'd established. She looked around and even the Year 7's had friends and places to go to.

Well, of course they did. Their friends came with them. She mentally rolled her eyes.

After another song finished in the playlist she decided to just look for her English room and the PE block since they were the next lessons after tutor.

The school's aesthetic wasn't too bad really. Colours were nice. It wasn't completely brick and mortar either, there were many naturalistic aspects of the place. There were random trees grown from sections of the pavement and flower beds on the sides of buildings. As she travelled through the school, from west to east, the buildings got newer. It was kind of like walking through time. Kind of peaceful. Well, as peaceful as it could get with the screaming children around her and giggles from the girls and slurs from the guys.

She found the PE block quite quickly but finding English took a bit of time. It wasn't as obvious as the huge gym was. She really should have brought her bag with her. That had the map of the school in it.

Goddammit.

"Hey, new girl."

A voice. Behind her. She cringed. She hated that name already-

"New girl!" It called again.

"Ye' know," Rayla turned around to face the blonde voice, "I actually have a name?"

"Well, duh. But I don't know it yet, do I?"

Rayla hated her already.

"Well, it's Rayla. For yer' information."

"Ooh! I love your accent! Say something!"

"… I just did?"

"Hah! Oh my god! That's amazing!"

Rayla couldn't resist the eyeroll.

"So, aren't you gonna ask my name?"

"…no?"

"Err… rude."

"Why're ye' talking to me?"

"Err… maybe because I want to help you fit in?"

"Err… maybe I don't want yer' help?"

She gasped, "well, you're a bitch."

Rayla sighed exaggeratedly, "not as much as yous I can assure ye'!"

And with that, she turned on her heel and stormed away from the princess gasping and spluttering, questioning as to what just happened.

There were gasps around the grounds, giggles and also whispering as she strutted past them all. Rayla wasn't in the mood to deal with (like she was ever) the plastic niceness that came with being a girl.

She just wanted to find English. That's all.

But that was obviously too great of a wish for another stopped her in her path.

She shot up her gaze from the floor to this girl's green eyes. But… wow. They weren't just green, they were practically emeralds fastened to her eye sockets. But that wasn't the only stark shade in her colour pallet. Jet black hair reaching down past her waste was well cut and had an extremely healthy demeanour.

Isn't wasn't very often Rayla felt dominated but, for only a split second, this girl's beauty was enough to do so.

"Can I help ye'?" Rayla took a step back and folded her arms across her chest.

Before the raven girl could talk, another boy stood next to her, much taller, well-built and one of those stereotypically, stupidly, good looking, guys. Just the standard sports fanatic, really. The casual face of every douchebag know to the secondary school race.

"Can I help ye', both?" She repeated.

"Look, I don't know why you're so defensive. We only came over to say hi." The girl cocked an eyebrow, almost amused. This confused Rayla. Were… were they making fun of her?

"Why ye' look so amused?"

She cracked a smile, "it's just that accent. It suits you."

Rayla broke for just a second, no one'd ever really complimented her voice before. More like admired it but it was always like they were talking about another object and not her. She was shocked but recovered and came back just as hard.

"Ye' poking fun?"

Her face split like she'd just told the Queen to kill herself, "w-what? N-no! Generally, you look really tough and Scottish people just… sound that way I guess!"

Rayla shouldn't have enjoyed this, but she did. Way. Too. Much. So, she decided to and pushed a few more buttons to see what would happen, "what are ye' suggesting? That all the haggis made us violent, aggressive monsters?"

"W-what?! That's not what I said at all! Being tough is a compliment!"

"She's just messing with you, Claudia." The douche-look-alike put his hand on her shoulder almost like he was holding her back from something.

"Yer' boyfriend's right, lassie."

Their faces both paled whiter than snow, it almost turned green. Both of their eyes sunk to pinheads and it seemed like they'd both dislocated their jaws with how wide they were hanging.

Have I said something wrong?

"H-he's my brother!" Claudia screeched and instantly, Rayla's face turned brighter than a ripe tomato.

Yep. Definitely said something wrong.

"O-oh! It just- I just- Ye' both look so different, ye' know?! I-I thought-"

Rayla held her hands up in surrender, almost afraid the guy would hit her. He looked furious. Which made no sense since this was all just a misunderstanding, but Claudia looked amused again. Except, this time, with almost a devil's fire kindling the emerald pools of her eyes.

"So, you're saying you support incest?"

Rayla's heart dropped like a boulder to her stomach, her stomach rising to her throat, "n-no! You and I both know that's not what's going on here!"

"The haggis made you an inbred too?"

Rayla didn't answer this time and looked just as angry as the jerk-face towering over them.

"What do you think, Soren-"

Soren.

"-think that Scotland's not just the 'laaand of t'e free, hoome of t'e braave' but also the land of… of really, really close families- if you know what I mean…"

Rayla charged forward to close in on Claudia's face. She spoke in a low, hungry growl, "say that again, I dare ye'."

"You heard me." She sung back, "Brother fucker."

Rayla would have hit her right then and there had she not ducked out of the way just as the bell shattered through the playground chatter. She stood there. Completely immobilized by fury.

Claudia and Soren waltzed off in the sea of people until the raven head called behind her, "I didn't catch your name!"

"I didn't throw it!"

Author's Note: Oof. Look, before y'all yell at me, I know I've turned our beloved siblings into bullies this chapter, but it's all necessary! And, to be fair, if someone bites Claudia, let's face it, she'll bite back twice as hard ;) And Rayla was being a little shit this chapter sooo… kinda had it coming.

There wasn't too much Rayllum (or many interactions) this chapter but this is a slow burn. I promise there will be interactions in Chapter 3 (coz chapter 2 is more of a build-up and introducing a head canon that I've come up with for Rayla).

But tell me what you think about this idea! It's not original, I know. But I've never written a High School Romance before so this is all new to me (I also noticed that almost no one has made a proper high school AU story (not one-shot) on Ao3 or which shocked me).

But, yeah.

Thank you so much for reading!

P.S: I love reading through this and yelling Rayla's accent across the house so much xD

-L.E-Rae _x_