Author Notes: This is my first storyreally my third if you count scrapping it and totally rewriting. Any please read it and all reviews welcome. When you see a line of ----- it means a change in character, setting, or time. Also it'll all be first person, so that means sort of trivial things will be thought pretty often, and the main character will be one I made myself, but don't worry Naoto, Ninamori, and the others will be here and still and play major roles. I may also add a few surprises later. But enough of my notes the story's what you want so here it is. This is an after thought but the chapter doesn't really advance the story just sets the background, or lays the foundation. Well maybe that's the point of first chapters. Oh well.

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of FLCL and won't make any money off this.

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Chapter 1: New House, New School

BAM " Wake up Zac" BAM, BAM

My mom finally woke me up. I sat up as a sign for her to stop. I looked around my room groggily wiping my eyes.

"So it had really happened," I thought. Without even thinking I got up and head for the shower, but got lost on the way there. " Oh yeah, right turn down the hall" I made a mental note. The bathroom wasn't much to look at, but then again it wouldn't be even when we unpacked. There was the shower with a tacky sort of tanish-peach tile in it not that we'd replace it. The toilet sort of wobbled as I flushed it, which told me it, was going to break in a couple of months. The sink I amazed to find wasn't in bad shape at all in fact it looked new. As I stepped in the shower I found, after getting hit straight in the face, that the showerhead only went up to my nose. "Great the whole place is screwed up," I thought. After the shower I found that were no towels, not that I was surprised after just moving in last night. So I stuck my heads out the door and yelled "Mom I need a towel!"

"What?"

"I need a towel"

About a minute later she handed me the towel through a crack in the door." That took awhile" I thought " but then again all the boxes were in the living room, except our clothes."

I went back to my room to get my clothes on. It wasn't a big room in fact I'd say only about 18 by 16. The walls were completely white they were intimidating in a way, it seemed like they were staring relentlessly at me." Great I'm going crazy," I was thinking as I opened my box of clothes. I put on the first clothes I saw, just a blue t-shirt and some khaki pants. No one to impress after all.

I got lost again looking for the kitchen then remembered it was downstairs. I made another mental note just so I didn't look stupid, but just who I'd look stupid to I couldn't tell. I grabbed a pop tart it was all we had after all we had just moved. I sat there and wondered if they'd have pop tarts in Japan.

" Hey Zach you need to sign up for school" my mom yelled.

"Aren't you supposed to do that?"

" Well if you'd rather unpack then I'll go for you."

" No I'm good. By the way did you know that the electronics still work?"

" Really how'd you find that out?"

" What? O h I plugged in the blender to check."

"Oh, ok. Any way the school should be open by now and I left a map on the table."

" Thanks." And with that I left to sign up for school. As I walked down the street I noticed there was a bread shop just down the street. What had really caught my attention about the place was the robot working there. It was a greenish color, and it was wearing an apron. It's arms were sort of human shaped but fatter, same with legs. And the most interesting thing was that it had a TV for a head. All I could think about on the way to the school was the robot; millions of questions were popping into my head. Like how'd it get there? Who owned it? Why? What did it do? My flurry of questions was cut short by my arrival at the school.

" Mabase High what a fine center of education" I said to myself quite sarcastically. The building itself was a drab gray with a line of green around the top edge. It was two stories, or it looked that way because of the second line of windows above the first. There was a building closer to the fields that looked like a gym. One thing was bugging me though it looked like there was no football field. There were baseball fields, a track around what looked to be a soccer field, and a tarp on what I could only guess was a pool. "Wow real exciting" I thought to myself " oh well at least there's a pool."

I walked in the schools front door and asked where the office was. I was surprised when the person only gawked at me for a few seconds. I probably looked really weird to them. A six-foot tall kid, who was obviously foreign, and speaking pretty good Japanese asking for the office. It only took them a few seconds longer to respond. I guess I better get used to this.

" This is the office for Mabase High"

" Oh cool, um I need to sign up for school here."

" Um… ok please fill out this form then head to the office aide whose that lady sitting in the desk that way." She pointed a little to her right and I could see a lady madly typing on a computer. I guess they translated aide here to work slave or something. I filled the forms after some difficulty. I could speak Japanese pretty well but the symbols where just so different from English I had trouble reading and writing it." Oh well that's what schools for" I told myself.

I walked up to the office aide and handed her the paper. She just gawked at me like the other lady did, and after a few seconds said" Ok I'll file this and just go talk to the principal his office is down the hall right there with the blue door." She faked a smile and when I turned my back I heard her grumble something about overworking and things like that. It took me a few minutes to find the principals office, mostly because all the doors were blue and I had to read all the tags by the doors. After I found it I knocked and was called in.

"Take a seat young…" He stopped as he saw me and realized I wasn't one of the usual troublemakers. He quickly changed his tone and started over.

" I'm sorry for that, I thought you were one of my students. So what can I do for you?"

" I'm a new student here the office aide told me to see you."

" Oh splendid, I'll get you situated then. It's sort of a tradition that new students get shown around by a leading student here. So they start off better socially and fit in better from the start. Personally I think the consular just likes to get credit for something but it's a tradition just the same you see. Any way all I'm supposed to do is get you comfortable with the rules." He pulled out a thin packet. It had all the normal stuff like don't run in halls and crap like that. One item caught my attention though.

" Um" I glanced at his desk quickly " Mr.Katabari are school uniforms really required?"

" Yes, they are, but you'll be excused for a week to allow you time to get the uniform."

"Crap" I nearly yelled but caught myself in time. Once at my old school they tried to get us to wear uniforms but we all refused. I doubt I'd have the same luck here because I looked out the window and saw probably about fifty kids walking to what I guessed was class out of the window. To my horror they all had uniforms on, everyone of them." Well there goes all the clothes I own" I thought, "This is just great." I just read the packet to hide my shock. It took me quite a while. He didn't seem to notice.

"Well just sign here we have it in a contract type setup so you can't say you didn't know the rules you see."

I signed, what else could I do? Besides the only one I'd have a hard time with is the uniform but nothing I could do about it. At least I'd have about a week to stay out of the uniform. A lot of good a week of freedom crushed by two years of oppression would do for me.

" Great glad you understand now you need to see the counselor to pick your classes." I just sat there for a few seconds until he realized his mistake.

" She's just down the hall in the room with the blue door."

"Great more blue doors" I thought. I found it faster this time though, because I had already read the tags on the doors once. I knocked and walked in and got a completely different reception.

"Hi, what can I help you with?"

"Um… I'm a new student here and I need to pick my classes." It was my turn to be surprised because she didn't gawk like the others. I guess she was a consular and she was trained to not cause odd moments when she didn't have to.

"Okay then here is a list of the classes. You need two years of science, three of math, three of Core language, and two of fine arts or foreign language to graduate. Once we get transcripts from your old school you'll have some credits you earned. So what grade are you in?"

"Um… I'm in tenth"

"Ok great here's the electives you have available, and what electives classes were you interested in?"

"Well in America I was in German and track but I'll have to do tryouts huh?"

"Don't worry about it. We haven't started track yet. It starts in a couple of weeks, any way I'd ask the class president about it."

" Um… ok I'll do that" Though chances are I'd forget. In my old school my friends reminded me about the track tryouts the day of.

"Any way we don't offer German there aren't many students interested in it. We offer French, Chinese, and English. So what'll be?" Perfect, I was an English-speaking master since after all I was American. It was the only language I'd really used till now. Ha it will be a breeze, just sit there and read sixth grade level English. I'd practically be able to teach the class.

"English. I'll take English." I said with a slight smirk on my face. This would be a cakewalk. Taking the language I had spoken for most of my life.

"Ok good" I don't think she realized what I said she was busy adding English to my schedule.

" You'll have Physics for science" Crap I hated physics it was really just algebra word problems.

"And algebra for math" Crap again. I just took that last year, like I wanted a repeat.

"Ok we're done here, and don't forget to meet your student leader tomorrow they'll wait for you here in my office." She gave a smile. The kind counselors always give.

"Ok I won't, Thanks." To tell the truth I was planning on ditching the student "leader".

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On the way back home I remembered to check on the bread shop with the robot. It was closed but there was still a kid in the store. He had black hair, totally unkempt, it looked like mine but shorter. He also had blue eyes, not just blue but deep blue. He also seemed tired, really bored too." I guess he works there" I thought and at the exact same moment realized how creepy it was to stare at him. I just walked home after that. I had nothing else to do except unpack.

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When I got back home my mom had unpacked almost everything, except my room. It didn't bother me I wanted to set it up myself any way. While I was putting my bed together I thought of ways to ditch the student "leader". I don't know why but I could think only bad would come of it. Oh well I'll find out tomorrow.