April 7th 2009

I woke up the next morning to Yukari pounding away on my door like crazy.

"It's Yukari. Are you awake?"

I ignored her.

"Hello! Please answer the door or I'll get in trouble!

I decided I better not ignore her and let her in.

"Good morning," she said. "Did you sleep okay? Mitsuru asked me to take you to school. It's getting late so... Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." I said.

"Okay, then, let's go. We have to take the monorail to get there." Yukari explained. "Bet your last school wasn't like that, huh?"

That was true. In fact this was my first timer riding a monorail.

"This is my favourite part, when it feels like you're gliding over the sea," Yukari said. "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. Oh, look, you can see it now!"

We got to the school.

"We're here," Yukari said. "Welcome to Gekkoukan High School. Hope you like it."

We stepped inside the building.

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

"Which class are you in?" I asked.

I figured it would be nice to have someone I sat least kinda knew in my class.

"Me? I dunno. I haven't looked at the classroom assignments yet. Hey, about last night, don't tell anyone what you saw, okay? See ya later."

There were many people standing in front of the bulletin board. I looked around a bit and headed for the faculty office.

"Oh, you are the new student?" a teacher asked. "John Doe, correct?"

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, what, ten years ago? Your parents..." the teacher gasped.

What a bitch, I really wish she hadn't brought that up. I don't even like to think about it. Are all the teachers gonna be like this?

"I'm sorry, I've been so busy, I didn't have time to read this beforehand. I'm Ms. Toriumi. I teach composition. Welcome to our school."

"Oh thanks." I said.

"Have you seen the classroom assignments? You're in 3-F, that's my class, but first we need to go to the auditorium. The welcoming ceremony will be starting soon. Follow me."

So I did 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". When applied to student life, that means..." the principal gave his boring speech about trying your best or something.

Give me a break.

"Psst, hey," a classmate behind me was trying to get my attention. "You came to school with Yukari this morning, right? I saw you two walking together. Hey, I have a question. Do you know if she has a boyfriend?"

How the fuck was I supposed to know? Geez, I just got here. I decided to be nice about it so score one for level thinking.

"I don't know." I said.

"I see. I thought you might know but I guess not. So, how well do you know her?"

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

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

I was actually kinda thankful this teacher came along and bitched us out, since it made that guy stop interrogating me about a chick I just met. Unfortunately, I heard lots more people talking.

Anyway, school was school, in other words boring as hell but more stuff happened afterwards. That's when this guy came up to me and started acting like he was my best buddy in the world.

"'Sup, dude!? How's it going?"

What the hell? I had no idea who he was.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Me? I'm Junpei Iori. Nice to meet ya."

So yeah, this is Junpei. He seemed pretty dopey but I guess he was alright.

"I transferred here when I was in 8th grade. I know how tough it is being the new kid. So I wanted to say, 'hey'. See what I nice guy I am? Hey, it's Yuka-tan! I didn't think we'd be in the same class again."

Yukari sighed, "At it again, huh? I swear, you'll talk to anyone if they'll listen. Did you ever think you might be bothering someone?"

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

"If you say so. Anyway, looks like we're in the same homeroom."

"It's just a coincidence." I said.

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

"Um, hello? Are you forgetting that I'm in this class too?" Junpei asked. "By the way, I heard you two came to school together this morning."

Ugh, not this again.

"What's up with that? C'mon, gimme the dirt!"

"What are you talking about!? We live in the same dorm. There's nothing going on, okay? Why are people even talking about it!? Now you have me worried." Yukari said.

Am I really that bad?

"Hey, you didn't say anything to anyone about you know what, did you?" Yukari asked me.

I still had no idea why she was worried about it and it was really just making me more suspicious.

"Uh uh." I said.

"Okay, good. Seriously, don't say anything about last night, alright?" Yukari told me again.

Junpei raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Yukari asked.

"Last night?" Junpei asked.

"Wait a minute! Don't get the wrong idea! Listen! I just met him yesterday and there's absolutely nothing between us!" Yukari exclaimed. "Geez, I've gotta go. I've got something to take care of for the archery team but you better not start any rumours!"

She took off and left me feeling like shit. I don't see why it's such a big deal.

"Ah, who cares? No one takes rumours serious anyway." Junpei said.

I guess Jenpei's not that bad though.

"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!" laughed Junpei.

I'm "da man"? Well, whatever.

"This is gonna be a fun year. I can feel it!" Junpei told me.

I decided to go home with Junpei.

"Whoa, check out the jocks on their run," he said. "Say, you thinking about joining a club. You'd be joining as a new member though, so you won't be able to apply for a little while."

The gentle spring sunlight was warm. I got back home and there was a sigh in sheet on the counter.

"Welcome back." said Mitsuru.

I felt tired so "da man" went to bed.