April 7th 2009

I woke up bright and early for school, as per my usual style. A soft knock came at the door.

"It's Yukari. Are you awake?"

"Door's open!" I called.

I saw Yukari let herself in.

"Good morning," said Yukari. "Did you sleep okay? Mitsuru asked me to take you and John to school. Are you ready to go?"

"Totally!" I said.

"Okay, I'll make sure John is up and then, we'll go."

"See ya downstairs." I said.

The New City passenger train Anehaszuru was on time this morning, much to my quiet delight.

"We have to take the monorail to get there," said Yukari. "Bet your last school wasn't like that, huh? This is my favourite part, when it feels like you're gliding over the sea. Our stop is Port Island Station at the end of the line. From there, we walk. Have you ever heard of Tatsumi Port Island? It's a man made island. They built our school right in the middle."

Yukari let out a tiny gasp and pointed to the horizon, "Oh, look, you can see it now!"

We both looked out the window. We got to the school.

"Morning." said a female student.

"Morning," said Yukari. "Well, here we are. Welcome to Gekkoukan High! You're gonna love it here!"

We stepped inside the building.

"You're okay from here, right? You should go see your homeroom teacher first. The faculty office is right there to the left." Yukari pointed to a hallway, branching off the main area. "And that concludes the tour. Do you have any questions before I go?"

"Where's my classroom?" I asked.

"I think they're posted on the bulletin board but I haven't checked yet either. Hey, about last night, don't tell anyone what you saw, okay?"

We both nodded.

Yukari smiled at us, "See ya later."

There were many people standing in front of the bulletin board. We immediately set off on our journey to the faculty office. When we reached the office, I let myself in with John following behind. A female teacher saw us from her desk and waved us inside. Her brown hair was fluffed out and winged out at both sides.

"Oh, you are two the new students?"

I returned the smile and approached her.

"Indeed ma'am! We're looking for our teacher. My name is Jane Doe!" I chirped then motioning to my brother who was still lingering behind me, "and this is my twin brother John."

John gave a little wave.

"Hi." he said.

The teacher flipped through pages in a file.

"Wow, you've lived in a lot of different places. Let's see, in 1999... That was ten years ago? Your parents..." the teacher gasped as her face dropped. "I'm sorry, I've been so busy, I didn't have time to read this beforehand."

I took a deep breath, throwing on my best poker face.

"Don't worry, ma'am," I said prompt. "We're used to it at this point. Besides everyone makes mistakes so don't worry yourself to ****."

I didn't want her to know I was uncomfortable and there was no need to worry over the past.

"I'm Ms. Toriumi. I teach composition. Welcome to our school."

"Nice to meet you!" I said.

"Such enthusiasm! We could use more go-getters like you. Have you seen the classroom assignments? You're both in 3-F, that's my class."

I felt a little less wound up so I let myself relax and nodded.

"...but first we need to go to the auditorium. The welcoming ceremony will be starting soon. Follow me."

I followed the two out of the office and we went to the auditorium.

"As you begin the new school year, I'd like each of you to remember the proverb, 'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well'," said the principal. "When applied to student life, the means..."

I sat quietly, doing my best to stay still during the principal's speech. Just as I suspected, the speech was horrible, the usual "another great year" and "strive for success".

I wondered if John was just as bored with the ceremony as I was. After all, we had both sat through the same speeches before. I couldn't help but yawn. I could hear the students around me whispering about something.

"I heard we got two transfer students."

"Yep, I've seen them too. They came to school with Yukari."

"I hear talking," said a teacher from another class. "I believe it's someone in Ms. Toriumi's class."

"Shhh!" said Ms. Toriumi. "Be quiet! You're going to get me in trouble!"

It didn't seem like the rumours would stop anytime soon. The end of the day came. A lot faster than I expected. After homeroom was over, most of the students had sprinted put the door to meet up with friends or head straight home. A few stragglers remained behind to catch up and chat with their fellow classmates. John and I were approached by a much taller student. He wore a baseball cap and a smirk that spoke of fake confidence. He was like me.

"'Sup, dude!?" he said, laughing.

"Who are you?" John asked.

Junpei ignored him and turned to me.

"You look like a deer in the headlights." he said.

Strike that, he was a male carbon copy of me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Oh, come on. Let me introduce myself at least. I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya. I transferred here when I was in 8th grade. I know how tough it is being the new kid. So I thought I'd check up on you, make sure you weren't freaking out on your first day."

"Jane Doe, thanks." I said.

Yukari sighed, "At it again, huh? Honestly, is there any girl you wouldn't hit on? Did you ever think you might be bothering someone?"

"What? But I was just being friendly." Junpei said.

"If you say so. Anyway, some coincidence that we'd be in the same homeroom, huh?"

"It took me by surprise." I said.

Yukari laughed, "You too?"

"It's a coincidence." John said.

"I know but still, I was a little surprised." Yukari said.

"Um, hello?" said Junpei. "Are you forgetting that I'm in this class too? C'mon, lemme in on this fun! By the way, do you guys know each other. I heard you two came to school together this morning. A couple of cuties like you, walking side by side. The class was buzzing about you."

"Ugh, could you just cut it out? I hate dealing with rumours like that. I mean, I'm used to it but she just got here, you know? Don't you feel bad spreading rumours like that? Well, I gotta go take care of some archery team stuff. Don't try anything funny, you got that, Jenpei?"

Yukari walked off.

"What is she, your nanny? She's so paranoid but hey! It's your first day here and people are already talking about you! Believe it or not, she's actually pretty popular. You da man!" Junpei said to John, before back to me. "Well, just to clear something up, I seriously didn't come over here to hit on you or anything. If you ever have a problem, you can tell your old pal Junpei about it!"

"You kidding, right?" I asked.

"Ouch! Yuka-tan's rubbing off on you already, huh? Well, I'll be seeing your around then."

Junpei caught up to us in the halls and persuaded us into letting him walk them back to the dorm.

"Whoa, check out the jocks on their run," said Junpei. "Hey, did anyone tell you about the school clubs yet? Girls can join too, so why not do it if you're interested? You'd be joining as a new member though, so you won't be able to apply for a little while."

I made small talk with Junpei while walking back. I got back home and there was a sign in sheet on the counter.

"Welcome back." said Mitsuru.

I felt tired so I decided to get some rest.