A/N: Yay, another story! And another Joshua/Neku one, at that! WHEEEEEE! *runs in circles from her sugar rush* Neku's a new kid in a high school, continuing his junior year during second semester with his closest friend, Night. Night's not a student, though; he's there because he's Neku's guardian dragon. Even though it's normally guardian angel, just please go with it for the sake of the story, please! Enjoy~
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and Night.
The New Kid
Chapter 1
Neku Sakuraba and I made our way through the empty hallways, being escorted by one of the receptionists to our first class, art. As Neku walked, I perched on his shoulder, hearing a faint bit of music coming through the purple headphones he always wore. I recognized the song; Twister. I silently tapped his shoulder with one of my claws as the receptionist began to slow down near a classroom, causing Neku to turn his music down and pull his headphones down to hang around his neck.
"Here's your first class, Mr. Sakuraba," she said in a voice way too cheerful for 8 in the morning. I wanted to cover my ears to block it out.
Neku merely nodded in thanks before she knocked, and then opened the door and led us inside. I remained silent on my friend's shoulder as he walked in. Fortunately, humans here believe dragons represent good luck, so I wouldn't be looked at as a freak here, and hence, I didn't hear any gasps of horror when we entered. There were only looks of awe, and a couple looks of surprise.
"Sorry to interrupt, Sanae," she apologized politely to the dark haired art teacher at the front of the room.
"It's no big deal," Sanae replied.
"Well, I just came to introduce our newest student here, Neku Sakuraba, and his dragon, Night," she said cheerfully, and I noticed a couple of students wince from her overly cheery voice. I snickered mentally at that, but I did have to agree with them; she was definitely too cheery for the morning.
"Hey, boss, welcome to the school! Just call me Mr. H," Sanae greeted, seeming mildly happy about having a new student. Neku merely nodded in greeting before asking the usual question we would ask all the new teachers we had.
"Where do we sit?" he asked quietly.
"You can sit…next to Yoshiya, in the back," Mr. H answered, pointing to a silverette boy in the back row, almost in the corner at the window, but the empty seat next to him had the window view. Neku nodded, and we felt a few stares on us as we made our way to the window seat. Probably because of me, as usual…I thought to myself. Once settled in the seat, Neku pulled out his sketchpad that he had gotten just for this class and began to draw in it.
"Oh…and Neku?" Mr. H added, making us look up at him. "Yoshiya will be your escort to all your classes this week, seeing as he has the same classes as you." The ginger nodded with a small hum of acknowledgement. Once that was settled, the silverette sitting to our right began to try and chat with us as everyone began their work.
"So, you're the newbies, then? My name is Yoshiya, but call me Joshua," he said, and I rolled my pure silver eyes, not that anyone could tell. Neku sighed, but responded.
"Yeah," he mumbled. I knew this Joshua kid would either keep on pestering us until Neku snapped, or just give up. I hoped for the latter in this case.
"Where'd you come from?" Joshua inquired.
"…Do we really need to answer that? We just transferred schools, that's it…" Neku muttered.
"Which school?" the silverette pressed.
"Either way, it's still a bitch to be here, so what's the difference?" my friend grumbled. The next question I didn't expect and it pissed me off.
"…Does Night even talk?"
I growled, the sound rumbling deep and low in my chest, and snapped quietly, "Yes, I do, get that through your thick-ass head!" The silverette looked taken aback for a moment, but then he smirked. Ooooohhhh, this isn't good…My instincts told me. They were right.
"Oh, trying to protect your friend, who seems to be trying to hide his gay feelings for me?" he giggled, and I swear to god, both of our jaws dropped to the floor. I bristled angrily, but Neku, once he recovered, had a murderous glare aimed at Joshua. If looks could kill, Joshua would be a bloody heap in a ditch right now. I recognized that look, though. It was Neku's, "I'm gonna fuck you up, right here, right now, no matter the consequences" look.
"Neku, don't!" I hissed, trying to get him to regain his composure, and he calmed down quickly, but we ignored the annoying-as-shit silverette for the rest of the hour. When the bell rang, though, I could literally feel the urge Neku had to facepalm when we remembered; we had that jerk as our personal escort for the fucking week! He resisted any and all temptation to cause himself any self-harm, though, as the giggling pansy led us to second period, gym. Neku hates that class with a passion.
Now I remember why Neku hates this class: people pick on him. Fortunately, though, since it was the first day back for the second semester, no one would see his scars while in the changing room, keeping him safe for the day. Basically, we were let out early, and when we were free to go, the giggling demon followed us as we wandered around to find a private place for our free period. We had about an hour and a half to kill until fourth period.
Suddenly, an idea came to me, and I whispered in Neku's ear to see if I could see his schedule, which he passed to me with a bit of confusion. I had mentally mapped out the school before we came here, which would now come in handy. Looking at Neku's schedule, I saw fourth period, math, was down the hall past several turns and empty rooms. Perfect.
Silently, I communicated my plan to Neku, who understood perfectly, and then we set it in motion. Without giving Joshua any sort of warning, we bolted away from him, down the hall, and banged a door to an empty room closed as we passed it, and then darted into another empty room close to our fourth period classroom, hiding in the supply closet inside the room.
Using my sensitive hearing, I tracked Joshua into the room we had banged the door to, and then I heard him searching around in there. Signaling to Neku, we dashed out of the room we were in and ran to our classroom, knowing Joshua wouldn't see us.
Upon reaching the classroom, I flicked the light switch off, and we hid in the dark of the room. Quietly, I jumped off from Neku's shoulder and shut the door without being noticed, and once we heard Joshua pass and leave out of earshot, we started laughing. As we laughed, Neku managed to speak somehow.
"Oh my god, Night!" he cackled. "That was one of your best ideas yet!"
"I know!" I chuckled as we began to sober up. "That giggling pansy didn't see that one coming!" Once we had sobered up completely, though, we decided to just stay in the room and turn the lights back on so Neku could draw. I clicked the light back on, and we sat in the back by the window, just like before.
Neku turned his music on, and I listened to the faint music of Calling through the headphones as he drew. It was an intricate drawing of a dragon, and it reminded me almost of my father. He had plated armor instead of scales, and instead of leathery skin covering his chest and belly, he had scales covering them for protection.
About an hour and fifteen minutes passed before Joshua finally found us, looking relieved beyond belief to find us. The relief soon vanished, though, to be replaced by a scowl. Rolling my eyes, I nudged Neku's shoulder while his pencil wasn't touching the paper, and he turned his music off, sighing as he pulled his headphones down to hang around his neck, and then looked up at Joshua.
"Where the hell have you two been?" he snapped. "I looked everywhere for you!"
Quirking a brow, Neku replied, "We've been in here the whole time."
"That's a lie! I looked in here already earlier, right after you guys ran off!" he accused.
"Did you try looking here twice, or even bother with the lights?" I asked cheekily, and he stared at me, surprised. I couldn't help it; I started laughing again. The silverette glared at me as I tried to recover, and when I did, I sat back on my haunches, curling my tail over my hands and feet.
"If you were more observant, Joshua, then maybe you would've been able to tell we were hiding in the darkness of the room," Neku chuckled softly. Joshua seemed to give up at that, and just settled for glaring at the wall as he sat next to us. I swear, it looked like he was trying to burn a hole in the damn thing.
Not even a minute after the argument ended, the other students started to flood into the room, chatting about meaningless shit until the bell rang. I noticed Neku's hands twitch for his headphones, and I touched my tail tip to his shoulder gently, calming him again. He gave me the slightest of nods, so I pulled my tail away and jumped down to the floor, lying down by his messenger bag.
Mr. Minamimoto droned on and on too enthusiastically about math for the next hour, and then the bell rang, cutting him off before we could be assigned homework. Neku hooked his bag and slung it onto his shoulder before allowing the silver-haired prick lead us to lunch.
At lunch, Neku and I quickly took a seat in the back corner of the cafeteria, pulling out our lunches from the messenger bag. Joshua trailed after us, and I'm telling you, every single student in that cafeteria watched him like a damn hawk.
The murmuring started as soon as Joshua sat down across from us, and I was feeling pissed off already. Grumbling under my breath, I pulled out my sandwich and bit into it, glaring at those who were daring to stare. When they realized they were caught, they quickly looked away, muttering rude things that I didn't care about.
Neku simply played his music as he ate, and I caught the faint sound of Long Dream flowing out of his headphones. Joshua, surprisingly enough, didn't say anything as the hour progressed; he merely ate his own lunch and glanced at Neku every few seconds.
The lunch hour soon ended, and when it did, we packed up and allowed Joshua to lead us to psychology. Our psychology teacher, Mr. Kitaniji, kinda creeped me out. This was because he wore sunglasses the whole time, resulting in the class calling him "Shades" as a nickname. He also kept casting this weird-ass look to Neku and me, giving me chills each time.
Next, we had literature, which was nice. Neku and I both enjoyed writing, seeing as we could go into our own little worlds while doing so. Mr. Kariya was our teacher for that class, and he seemed decent enough. Joshua still seemed to be sulking about the whole "ditching him" thing earlier, but we didn't care. We just ignored him as we wrote notes down for the class.
Sixth period was creative writing, which was even better than literature, seeing as we were guaranteed fun writing in that class, and maybe even some drawing, too. Ms. Konishi was pretty nice as well, assuring us that we would all pass unless we didn't do the work.
Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class and as everyone began to leave either for home or their seventh period class, Joshua still didn't say anything to us. Neku nudged me and I sighed, but began to scan him using my telepathy.
Reading his mind, I heard him think, Nobody's ever ignored me like this before…I'm trying to ignore them, but it's them giving me the cold shoulder, not the other way around…Usually new kids are quick to try and get into my good graces, but why not them? Is it me…? And why would they ditch me earlier like that, too? Am I really that bad?
I closed the connection and nodded minutely to my friend, letting him know I got something, and then jumped on his shoulder and we left for home. Joshua didn't follow, and I had to admit to myself, this really was eating at him. Well, news flash, pal: Not everyone's as lovable as you think you are!
As we walked home, I shared with Neku what I had learned, but he didn't seem too surprised, which didn't bother me. He was pretty perceptive, but I guess the only reason he wanted me to scan Joshua was to get the exact thoughts running through the silverette's head.
When we got home, it was as empty as it had been for the past 3 years. "First day back in junior year started, and I already want it to be over," Neku sighed, sitting down on the old, creaky couch. I nodded silently, and curled up across from him on the opposite end.
That night, we just made some instant ramen, and went to bed right afterwards, exhausted from the day. As Neku curled up in his blankets and I curled up in my makeshift nest, burrowing under the blanket, I thought to myself, This is gonna be just like before…
A/N: Well, I hope you liked this! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! R&R, peeps!