Chapter 1 – Mitsui

Mitsui searched for his ID in his bag. He toppled the contents over the bench in the south gate. His cellphone vibrated and he pressed unlock and then *.

1 message received.

Hisashi, you left your ID at home--mom

Mitsui cursed loudly. He had been in a hurry to go to school that day because he still had to copy homework from his classmates and he, unfortunately, woke up late. He put his things back in his bag and went up to the desk and smiled sheepishly at the lady behind it.

"Um, Miss? I left my ID at home, I--"

"First time?" she interrupted, glaring at him with her waist-long hair flying in several directions because of the the huge electric fan behind her.

"Yes--"

"Call the DO" she cut in rudely, pointing to the phone on top of the counter. She quickly told him a number and proceeded to ignore him to look at her manicured nails.

Mitsui glared at the woman, picked up the phone and dialed.

"Good morning, Discipline Office," the person on the other line greeted.

"Ah,good morning, sir, I left my ID and I'm almost late for class."

"First time?"

"Yes, and I'm almost late for class."

"Where did you leave your ID?"

"At home, sir. Um, I'm almost late for class."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Bakit mo naman iniwan sa bahay? (Why did you leave it at home?)"

He silently fumed and held the phone away from him as if to throw it. It wasn't as if he did it on purpose. He put the phone back against his ear and said, "Sorry, I really won't do it again. I'm almost late for class."

The person on the other line gave him 3-minute lecture while Mitsui tapped his foot loudly, waiting for the person to stop yakking. He silently groaned to himself when he saw the time displayed on the clock right in front of him.

Finally, the person took his ID number and name and after 10 minutes, he was able to get his gate pass. He glared at the lady one last time, swearing to himself that he would never leave his ID, if only to not see the lady behind the counter. He then went to the guard and presented his gate pass. Just as he was about to pass, the guard said, "bag, please."

Mitsui muttered, "what for? It's not as if you actually check the bags.." The people behind him snickered at his comment.

The guard glared at him and he opened his bag while other students passed by without their bags getting checked. When Mitsui unzipped his bag, the guard inserted a wooden stick, peered for about thirty seconds, while surreptitiously glancing at Mitsui every three seconds, as if he suspected that Mitsui was carrying dangerous weapons.

Mitsui, late for his litera2 class, ran up the stairs to the third floor of LS building, room 330.

He entered the room just as the prof called out his name.

"Present, miss!" he shouted, succeeding in waking Rukawa (which was no easy feat...)

**********************

Danes smothered a yawn. She was seated in the middle seat of the front row and was trying her best to listen to the reporter's babble. She wasn't able to get any sleep last night because she had to study for the trantax (transfer taxes) exam.

"Class," the teacher interrupted the reporter for the 14th time.

"What does that mean? Why did the author put it there?" she questioned for the 9th time. As expected, everybody just stared at the teacher and silence reigned. Until Rukawa let out a loud snore, that is. The whole class was laughed – which then inflamed their teacher's anger.

So she said, and with an evil smile too, "Everyone, bring out a piece of paper. 1/4. We're having a quiz."

The class groaned in unison. They tried to reason with their prof, but it was very much a futile attempt. Rukawa, disturbed by the noisy whining, woke up.

"er?" he muttered. Mitsui whispered to him, "Kaede, we're having a quiz, get a ¼ piece of paper."

And he did just that. He wrote down his name, then stared at it while waiting for the teacher to say the questions. After a minute of waiting, he slumped on his desk drooling. He was soooooo sleepy...

Lynn, who was sitting beside Rukawa, started to laugh, motioning to SJ why she was laughing. Soon, SJ and Lynn were both laughing.

Danes didn't really know why but because of SJ's infectious laughter, she found herself also laughing - until she looked up and saw the teacher glaring at her. She offered an apologetic smile and that somehow seemed to pacify the teacher.

"What are you laughing at?" Danes whispered to SJ, who was seated behind her. She looked back and saw SJ pointing to Rukawa, whose paper was completely wet with drool. His name was unreadable because the ink had spread because of his drool.

"SJ!" the teacher shouted.

SJ instantly sobered up and said seriously, "yes, ma'am?"

"Is there something funny? Why are you laughing?"

Oh no. the teacher had "the look" - the you're-going-down-look.

Goodbye SJ, Danes thought silently. Beside her, Mitsui was grinning like the chesire cat, quietly anticipating SJ's downfall.

****************

"Oh God, that was probably the worst quiz I've ever had," Danes told Mitsui after she had passed her paper.

"Oh, I think I did rather well," Mitsui said nonchalantly.

Danes' eyes narrowed. "Hah! I bet you couldn't even answer a single question."

Mitsui smiled mischievously, signifying the truth of her remark. "Hey Danes, wanna play in Netopia?"

Danes shook her head. "And subject my ears to incessant yelling and shouting of 'pakshet! (fuck-shit) ta**ina, ba't mo ko pinatay? ("son of a bitch, why'd you kill me?)' Thanks, but I'd rather have a root canal."

"You sure? I'll even pay for your computer fee," Mitsui cajoled.

She paused, imagining this time, more shouts of, "fuck you man!" and "I'm gonna kill you dude!"

"Make that several root canals. I think I'll go join the girls today."

A/N:

obviously, there seems to be no plot yet. i'm still mulling over several ideas, so I just decided to start easy with a simple chapter to just play with the characters. :D

--mskitsune--