"Eyes… Rutherford?" The woman of the attendance office read aloud rather stupidly. Her dark old eyes, that seemed to have been drained of patience by the years of disrespectful teenagers, drifted from the page within her grasp and over to the said boy.
Aizu stared blankly out the window, admiring birds that chased one another just outside the window.
'Twitterpated' He mused silently to himself, remembering the movie 'Bambi', which he had watched only two nights before.
"Eyes Rutherford." The woman called a second time impatiently.
Eyes, who was really Aizu, finally diverted his attention to the woman. He was of course only fifteen, but already his face and the face of the woman, whom was at least over fifty, shared the same facial expression; blank and rather emotionless. However while the woman looked grumpy and loosing the patience she never seemed to have to begin with, Aizu looked just plain annoyed.
His mind for the moment at least drew back from the magical world of Walt Disney, and reverted once again to the scruffy, colorless room of the attendance office. The walls were plastered with utter nonsense, at least to Aizu.
Class photos of students that came from years before.
Top sports athletes of the school; namely for Blitzball.
And of course a bulletin filled with stupid school announcements and student affairs.
"Aizu."
"Excuse me?"
"I prefer Aizu." He corrected.
Aizu glanced casually towards the woman's name that sat neatly on the desk near by.
'Miss Kobayashi,' He made a mental note of the name, knowing that most likely it would be of some use in the near future.
Miss Kobayashi was unimpressed with Aizu's cocky attitude.
"Eyes," She said satisfied with the twitch of annoyance that came from Aizu and the small glare that followed.
"You'll need your parents-"
"I don't have any parents." He interrupted in half a cold glare.
"My legal guardian signed all of the needed paperwork, if you would just check."
Miss Kobayashi went back through the neat stack of paperwork, shuffling here and there, turning random sheets until finally spotting the name she had been looking for. It was rare to find a student, an exchange student no less that had no parents, and so young at that; although for some reason or another she seemed unaffected by the news, nor did she look apologetic upon her mentioning of parents. It was as if to her all children, no matter the tragedy deserved what they got and nothing would convince her otherwise. Nevertheless, reader, it did not matter to Aizu. He looked on toward the woman as she had found the name.
"Kanone Hilbert?"
It was now Aizu who was growing more and more impatient with the woman's consistency of questioning every little thing.
"That was the name stated, yes?"
Miss Kobayashi scoffed than turned back to return to her desk.
"I'll get you you're schedule."
"Thank you."
' Good, you do that.' Aizu thought to himself bitterly. His attention drifted back outside to see that the birds had gone. It was the door abruptly opening that had once again stolen his concentration. A boy, younger than him it looked like, with short blond hair, highlights it seemed like, bright blue eyes, real no less, walked in holding a blitzball under one arm.
Miss Kobayashi, who was busy in pulling up data from an old computer, did not even bother in lifting her head at the new arrival, whom Aizu thought was quite the interesting looking character.
Instead of quietly placing his neat stack of paperwork on the front desk and taking a seat, waiting; this boy marched right up to the woman, slapped down an untidy-looking pile of papers on the desk and said:
"My name is Tidus Valentine, this is my first day." He had a silly looking grin on his face. Strangely enough and much to Aizu's surprise reader, Miss Kobayashi was less rude to him than she was to Aizu.
"Tidus?" She said.
"Let me see here…" She forgot and dropped what she had been doing before and glanced onto another piece of paper that sat near her.
"Ah, yes…Tidus from Zanarkand?"
"That's me." That smile never seemed to leave his face, as if it was a permanent feature that you just could not shut off; he reminded Aizu of Rio, just the seemingly optimistic part of his nature of course. If he had to guess, it was most likely the blitzball Tidus had under his arm that granted him to be a gold star in Miss Kobayashi's book. There was something about this school and blitzball apparently.
"I'll file these papers for you right away." She smiled for him. Aizu was not jealous, he did not get jealous of anything; he was just annoyed. Perhaps if he had slapped on a goofy smile and walked in through the door all stars and sunshine's than would he have been treated with a little more respect. Ha, yeah right. Him? Smile? Aizu almost wanted to choke in silent laughter at the thought of him doing something like that. He had not smiled, not once since his mother's death, and that was the truth reader.
Miss Kobayashi returned to her work once more while Tidus glanced around the room, looking at the photos of the athletes on the walls. He read the labels underneath them with little interest; not even a single minute had passed since Miss Kobayashi had started her typing and already he was bored, waiting was not one of his favorite things to do. Vivid blue eyes met with dark sapphire, and for the first time Aizu and Tidus stared at one another. Tidus smiled politely as usual, and Aizu looked away, back out the window, as usual.
'Was it something I did?' he thought to himself, blinking confused at Aizu's passiveness. He glanced down to his outfit. Was he dressed inappropriately? Well, sure; some of his chest may have been showing, and all right so his right pant leg was shorter than the left one, and so what if he was missing one gauntlet. Was it a crime? The zippers were a little too much… fine, and the color choices… eh, Yellow and Black was stylish right?
Tidus opened his mouth but his voice had been replaced with Miss Kobayashi's.
"Here you are, Tidus."
The blond turned to see the woman standing over the front desk holding his new class schedule. Aizu's gaze switched from the window and back on Miss Kobayashi as she handed Tidus his schedule.
"And mine?" He asked.
"Oh yes. " She replied, as if she had forgotten Aizu was even there. The sudden urge to shout a form of protest rang out through his mind at the injustice, but he was not that type of person; so he remained quiet. Aizu simply had to remind himself that he was just unlucky and that god hated him… that was all. He snatched the paper away from the woman, who looked insulted, though he did not care, and read the agenda silently to himself as Tidus read his own silently.
For Aizu; it was Ceramics, Then PE-Blitzball… Just what was it about this school and Blitzball anyways? Than came Lunch… and then Piano, Ha, as if he really needed that class; Aizu had been playing the piano since the age of five, and then some; last but certainly least, Biology.
For Tidus; Life science with some teacher named Izumi. Oh god what a bore… it looks like he was going to get some extra sleep these days afterall. PE-Blitzball, Yes! Finally a class worthwhile in going; which was followed By Art, and ended with English. Tidus sighed. If he already knew how to speak English… then why did he have to go anyways?
"The bell for lunch will wing in a few minutes," said Miss Kobayashi, once again returning to her desk. Tidus and Aizu both glanced to the oversized clock hanging above them simultaneously. A quarter passed eleven, it read.
"The time when lunch ends is on your schedules, then you must report to your 3rd block classes." She added right before the said bell rung right on cue.
Tidus exited the office first, followed by Aizu. Just as soon as the blond had opened the door did a mass swarm of students carry him off. Aizu was carried in the opposite direction. Public school s was new and strange for the both of them. Was everyone this rude? Tidus glanced over his shoulder to see if he could spot Aizu, but he could not, and stopping was a sin in the hallways apparently.
Tidus was pushed and shoved all the way out… which was exactly when his prized blitzball escaped from his grasp.
"Oh no!" He cried as he quickly ran after it. That blitzball was the only thing he had left from his father… and no matter what the mad had done to him; he was not going to let it get away.
Tidus followed the ball down the corridor of students, doing his own pushing and shoving until the ball had suddenly come to an abrupt halt under the foot of someone. It had taken all of the blond's might to stop himself from actually running into this stranger, who picked up his ball.
In the meantime, reader, Aizu had made it passed all of the hoards of students desperate for fresh air, and came upon a much quieter setting of the school. This part was actually quite lovely and almost beautiful in a sense. If it did not hurt so much to smile, he probably would have done so right about then.
"Rooftop Garden…" He read aloud at the sign placed at the foot of a seemingly long stairway. Curiosity always took the better of him and before he knew it he was climbing the stairway to the rooftop garden.
It was a long and tireless journey of five minutes, there had been many stairs, yet nevertheless he had made it. Aizu wiggled the doorknob open and was taken into a vast greenhouse of colors. It was a jungle of beauty and yet again the urge to smile arose… but he did not.
Aizu walked about ten paces into the garden before suddenly stopping. There was… someone there. Hen was not alone on this rooftop.
There, not twenty feet from him, sat another boy, on a bench eating his lunch. A boy… whom looked exactly like him.
AN: 8D Gasp! Who could it be Tune in Next time