All eyes were on Coraline Jones as it was announced, the school play.
Narrowing her eyes, determination appeared. She needed to get that part, she had to direct that play.
Her best friend Wybie turned to her, speaking up, "Hey, Coraline? Did you hear the rumors?"
"About what...!?"
"That new boy - apparently he's from Japan and he's got a weird guitar."
"Duh; course I have. I attend here too you know."
"So? What do you think about it?"
Just as the bell rang for the assembly to end, Coraline jumped slightly out of her seat and just before exiting the hall, she replied, "I'll know when I see him,"
Stepping out, Coraline passed the bathrooms, hearing footsteps inside, a troublemaker nicknamed Eggs entered the boys bathroom, only to hear somebody talking.
"Yeah...I know, it keeps happening; every day. Not surprised, I guess..."
Eggs raised his eyebrows, but he had curiousity rather than scorn. He looked over at the cubicle, only to jump as the door opened, making him knock himself into the sinks behind him, banging his elbows. The male in the cubicle, known as Norman Babcock, barely seemed to react as physically as Eggs did, instead he seemed to glance to his sides, almost seeming nervous.
Eggs didn't think much of it, "Who were you talking to?" he asked, rather interested.
"I..." Norman began, before letting out a sigh. "I was talking to a friend."
"Oh~..." said Eggs, nodding a bit. "Sounds...kind of interesting."
"So you haven't heard what people have said?"
"No; I have. But I don't get it."
"So...you don't think I'm..."
"Immediate answer, no!"
Norman went silent for a moment, looking down. However, he gave him a glance with a small smile on his face, "Thanks." he said. "So...are you that kid who's good at fixing stuff, Eggs, right?"
"Yep..!" Eggs replied. Norman had managed to touch on one of the things Eggs was proud of. His eyes looked at Norman's pocket, seeing a broken game console.
"You can probably guess who did that." Norman murmured - Alvin being the person in question.
Eggs looked back up at Norman, before speaking once again, "Hey, Norman? I can fix that for you...!"
"You could?" Norman responded, seeming a bit pessimistic when it came to that.
"Uh-huh! I could. I've fixed people's stuff before, just leave it to me." Eggs put his hand out, clearly asking if they had a deal.
Norman stared at Eggs' hand for a moment. He had met Eggs before, and Eggs was one of the few who wouldn't gawk at him. "Alright." the boy shook Eggs' hand, slowly taking out the game console and putting it in Eggs' free hand. He looked at him. "You'll bring it back, right?"
Eggs nodded. "Of course; look. If you're not sure, you can sit by me the whole time to make sure."
"Fine; that's what I'll do." Norman said. "So you don't forget," he added soon after.
The two boys exited the boys' bathroom together, a boy rushing past and upstairs to the music classes, a girl with her hair dyed blue following soon after.
"Who was that?" Eggs asked, glancing back and forth from the stairs back to Norman, who simply shrugged.
What had caused the blue-haired girl to follow? That sound.
Like a strumming which was accompanied by a strange silhouette. Coraline briefly hid in a broom closet, hoping that Janitor Snatcher didn't happen to be there. She pressed herself against the wall - silence. Good.
No lectures.
After at least a minute, she peeked out the keyhole and sneaked behind the door, peeking into an empty music class. And there he was.
A boy sat in one of the seats near a piano and at first, he seemed to be holding a guitar.
"No; way too thin to be a guitar...but if it's not that then what is it?" Coraline wondered to herself.
But that wasn't even the strangest part. No, the strangest part was the papers on the teacher's desk. They were floating in the air, spinning around the room, only to turn into figures. They seemed pretty well-made, like someone who was skilled at origami.
But nobody had touched it at all. The boy had just sat down, started playing and now it was floating in the air. One piece seemed to form a man, red in colour, another, yellow and white, forming a woman holding each other in an embrace. Coraline wasn't able to see the boy's face at this time however.
"Woah...what the..." muttered Coraline, only to fall straight onto the door, causing the boy to jump out of the chair, only to see her, grab his instrument and run out the room.
"Wait!" Coraline shouted, almost feeling anger sink in at being unable to see who this boy was.
The Japanese boy slammed the door shut, the papers dropping to the ground, a few onto Coraline's dyed blue hair. She seemed to stand in place. "I am NOT getting blamed for this." she grumbled, leaving it as it was before exiting the room and leaving down the stairs before a teacher found it.
As she made her way to the gym hall for the play, Coraline groaned a bit to herself. So the rumours WERE true. Strangely enough, Coraline was almost curious about him. Sitting down in the line of blue chairs, she tapped her foot as she folded her arms and leaned back. She saw a bunch of students saying what they'd be good at as the director. Coraline waited impatiently, only for the teachers to stand up as the bell rang, the sounds vibrating through the air.
"Auditions continue at lunch and interval as well as after school!"
Coraline sighed as she walked out, mumbling, "Great..." in a sarcastic manner. She returned to class, only something seemed off. There was an extra seat at their table.
"Now hello class; welcome back and as you all know, you are now in Grade 6!" squealed the voice of their overly optimistic and loud teacher, Miss Geal. "Now, due to...past incidents," (here she glanced directly at Norman Babcock as well as some other students who were snickering) "There will be new seats; and...we have a new student with us this year!" she added.
"That Japanese kid..."
"The one with the weird guitar..."
The boy, known as Kubo, walked up to stand beside the other students. Some were almost curious now by one certain feature - an eyepatch.
"Does he only have one eye?" a girl asked out loud, looking over. The eyepatch, while mostly covered by the boy's bangs, was still there and let's just say it left people glancing at each other before back at him. Kubo glanced away, almost wondering why they were just staring at him.
The four sat down together.
And that, my friends, was where it all began.