Hello, FourEyes here. I'm personally not a huge fan of long author's notes, but since this is the first chapter of my first fanfiction, bear with me here for just a mo'.
HUGE DISCLAIMER: these are supposed to be fictional characters – just taking large inspiration and leaps of imagination from real-life people. Hence, I try to never portray them uncomfortably or unrealistically (I've seen too many of those types of stories, I'm afraid). If you see me doing anything that seems inappropriate or disrespectful to the LPers, please inform me.
Also, the setting is not Japan. Imagine it being in a middle of a new dimension or something. Having experienced both Asian and American schools, I tried to combine different aspects to form my own school system of a sort. I won't use senpais or anything like that, haha (Sorry, fellow Anime fans).
New chapter coming probably on Saturday or Sunday.
All criticism and comments will be highly appreciated. Please enjoy this attempt at writing! _
She was feeling quite a bit nauseous.
Perhaps it was the strong scent of hyacinths along the street, but Masae was confident that the reason had to do with her lack of confidence on this beautiful day.
It was the first day of school.
The phrase sounded unnatural in her head. She had been forever used to each school "year" bleeding into each other – though MomAnela was adamant in keeping a stricter schedule, her homeschool was far more nebulous than it should have been.
Even so, she couldn't believe that her MomAnela would send her to a private school when there were only two years left until college. Her parents held long and zealous discussions about "the importance of social skills to get ready for the real world". Despite her protests, MomAnela was the boss – and here she stood, in front of the gates of LP Academy, not at all ready.
She straightened her pleated skirts and fixed up her name tag anxiously. She saw a mob of students around the left outside wall of the three-story school, and shuffled along. She barely squeezed past shouting ("Which class?" "C, Jake!" "Great!" "Aw, man…") mass of people towards the front. Her eyes immediately went up to long pieces of paper attached to the framed cork boards. She skimmed through swarms of tiny, but neatly printed black lines, desperate to find her name before being smothered to death. Class A – Anela, Anela… Nope. B – Anderman and… found it. She was in Class B, up on the second floor. Relieved to finally have a destination, she spun around, narrowly avoided crashing into an upperclassman, and ran into the school.
##########
Maybe I should have hung around more.
Masae was thoroughly regretting coming in so early. She was worried that being late would attract attention, but now, she had to sit through 7 more minutes in silence. Frick. She aggressively poked with her innocent phone, while others greeted their new classmates with slaps on the back. She swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling her throat go dry.
Finally, the bell rang and a gruff man with a large stature sauntered in, scratching his hair. The students, chatting and horsing around just seconds ago, dashed to their seats. The man took up a chalk and scratched his name on the board: Mr. Sawyer.
"Nice to meet y'all. Actually, that was a lie." Mr. Sawyer yawned. "My name's," he pointed to the blackboard with his thumb, "Mr. Sawyer. I teach second-grade Literature. I see you in the morn' and noon, take roll, pass out flyers, you guys know the drill."
She didn't. Regardless, he handed out thick slabs of flyers to students that explained the dress code, school fees, and extraneous information. She shakily accepted it from the hands of the petite girl sitting in front of her, who smiled kindly when she saw Masae's deer-in-the-headlight expression.
For rest of the period, her eyes stayed focused on the paper and occasionally on the long wavy locks in front of her.
##########
"Dude, our teacher is so chill!" Masae heard one of the students exclaim as she picked up her bag.
"More like he doesn't give a fuck." The glassed boy next to him scoffed.
"My point, man. He didn't even bother to take attendance, think he forgot? I've been meaning to go to that sweet new arcade place and it's always super crowded afterschool – you think I can skip?" Masae didn't feel the necessity to mention how she saw the teacher quickly count the number of student heads as he was leaving.
"Not unless you wanna get your ass whooped by the Student Dean at the front gate. Have you seen her muscles?" The glasses shuddered. "She has more muscles than three of us combined."
"Hey, I have muscles!" The third boy who looked on with an amused expression until then cried out defiantly.
She heard the first boy mutter, "Muscles don't jiggle, man…" as they slammed the door behind them.
After most students left just as noisily, Masae finally plucked up the courage to venture home herself. She hadn't expected the school to end so early – the first period was only an hour, and she was told by her mom that school usually got out around lunch time on the first day. It was not even remotely close to noon. Was she missing something?
As if on cue, as she slid open the wooden door, she was met with a bountiful mass of curly red hair. The owner of said hair waved her hand. "Hi, you must be Masae, right?"
Masae stood speechless for a second, then slowly replied with a stammered, "Y, yeah. And you are….?" The red-haired girl was wearing a blue cardigan, meaning she was a third grader.
"I'm Reese, Reese Dressler. I'm the co-president of the school. I'm here to give you a brief tour of our club activities." They quickly shook hands. "Here, follow me to the third floor." The upperclassman linked her arm to Masae's and nearly dragged her down the hallway. While she had million questions, Masae decided to ask the most basic questions first.
"How did you know it was me?" Reese smiled and said, "Only first-graders and transfer students would wear their uniforms so perfectly clean." Masae blushed slightly and folded up the sleeves for the first time that day.
"Yo, no need to feel embarrassed! I wasn't judging or anything. The uniform looks really cute on you, girl." Masae let out a small thank you. They almost ran up the staircase and entered the third floor.
Masae felt that she was quickly losing her manliness points and decided to be more responsive.
"So, what's the club activities like here? I haven't heard too much about it." They had slowed to a walk and were approaching the first classroom on their left.
"Glad you asked. So the scho-"
"Reeeeeeesssssssseee!"
CRASH.
Masae watched in awe as a huge figure headbutted Reese's vulnerable back. Poor Reese flopped to the ground while the wrecking ball of a boy stood up, grinning from ear to ear.
Reese slowly got up, and punched the boy right in the gut.
"Fuck, Emile, I told you to wait by the Chess Club! I can fucking revoke your afterschool privileges any time I wish! Or I'm gonna rip out my goddamn almost-fractured spine and beat your shitty ass right back to preschool where you belong!" Reese looked outright murderous at the moment and Masae decided to never anger the woman.
"Sorry, I just got really bored 'cause you weren't returning for nearly fifteen minutes when you said it would only take, like, five minutes." The Emile person didn't look sorry at all.
"What, you want me to forcibly drag our precious new student up those fucking stairs? Is that what you want?" Masae almost quipped that she already had, but she definitely valued her life way more than the person in front of her.
Emile at that moment noticed Masae standing there awkwardly, watching the scene play out. He extended his hand out abruptly and said "Hi, my name is Emile. You are," He glanced at her name tag. "Masae?" Masae nodded and extended her hand, too, and nearly felt her shoulder sockets pop when Emile shook her hands enthusiastically.
Reese calmed down enough to talk at a normal decibel level. "Sorry, Masae. Anyhow, before getting interrupted by this idiot, I was explaining to you what our club system was like." Reese began to walk down the hallway and the two underclassmen took her right and left, trailing slightly behind her.
"The third floor is reserved entirely for clubs. It's listed alphabetically. We have over 40 different clubs, including sports. All second graders are required to take at least one club, while first and third graders can be exempted for studying and testing reasons. You see here, African Society, Android Web Development, etc. I saw your information sheet. You said you were interested in Art Club?" Reese suddenly stopped in front of a door.
"Yeah, I'm intending on continuing on with art-related fields later."
"Fabulous. Maybe you can join Art Club, then. I'm also a member. I'm so excited to see you draw! Uh, do you play any sports or instruments?"
"I do archery. I've been doing it seen I was nine years-old. I also sing a bit"
"Me, too!" Emile quipped in. Reese groaned.
"Don't listen to him. And I mean that literally. Don't occupy the same space-time when he starts singing."
"Wow, harsh." Masae joked.
"Not harsh enough." Reese mumbled. "Alright, then let's stop by Archery Club first. We actually have one. It's relatively small, since it's not been as popular since few years ago but it's still pretty well equipped." Reese opened the door she was standing in front of.
Masae stepped in, followed by Emile. The room was more spacious than it looked from outside. Long rather than wide, she saw five targets at different distances. She saw bows neatly organized on the two stone walls, as well as bins in front of the old blackboard divided into different arrow types. There was also a large cabinet by the left of the board, yellowed stickers with faded sharpie writing stuck to each cabinet. They seemed to store gloves and spare strings.
She only saw two people practicing, and one person sweeping the floor. Masae enjoyed the satisfying and familiar thud of the arrow hitting its target. The sweeper looked up at the sound of the door opening and greeted them.
"Hey, Reese! New recruits?" The short-haired girl asked.
"Nah, just one. Emile here is just tagging along. Masae, on the other hand, has been doing archery for nearly a decade."
The short-haired girl dropped her broom and pushed Masae toward the walls excitedly. "A veteran! Here, I know this is sudden but do you want to practice for a bit?"
Masae was surprised but not unpleasantly so. She looked at the wall and tested different bows until she found one with the right tension and length. She picked out few arrows and stood at the second-to-last target. She aimed carefully, aware of the various gazes behind her, and shot her first arrow. It hit the 7-point mark, and Masae loaded her second arrow with a better focus now. After a couple more shots, Masae began hitting bullseye more frequently.
The captain – presumably – clapped her hand together and bounced on her feet.
"Yes! After Sarah graduated last year, we were missing a varsity team member. I think you might be fit for the position. We are holding tryouts next week, so please come. We will explain more in detail when you join." Captain emphasized the word "when" as though Masae had already decided on which club to join.
"Haha, thanks but I still have a lot of clubs I haven't looked at…"
"If you're worried about space, a lot of students usually take two, or even sometimes three clubs. They have different meeting schedules so it works out at the end." Reese chimed in.
Thus, Masae talked a bit more about the club procedures with the Captain, when she noticed that Emile was gone. She swished her head back and forth, looking for a hint of the brunette's face. She spotted him at the last target, with the bow and arrows she had used just minutes before.
"Is it okay for him to try?" The Captain stopped talking and looked at Emile. "Yeah, it's fine. We hold various novice classes throughout the year. I don't think he's going to hurt himself. A slap or two on the wrist, maybe."
The three girls watched Emile struggle to put the arrow on the bow and his arms quivering with the tight string. Masae saw him making the beginner's mistake of putting his elbow toward the ground and was walking up to correct him when he released the string.
Thwack.
Bullseye.
She fricking couldn't believe it. Emile soon loaded another arrow, got into his awkward stance, and released it once again. Another bullseye.
Masae watched flabbergasted as Emile got five bullseyes in a row until he finally missed one entirely from the target. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder.
"Forgot to mention, he has some really stupid luck." Reese sighed.
##########
They finally left Archery Club (and the somehow infuriating memory of Emile's stupid luck) behind and headed to the class right next to it.
"Welcome to Art Club! Unlike Archery Club, it's not as tightly knit since we have a lot more members and most people do their own things. But we're friendly enough." Reese announced.
Masae saw easels, brushes, paint cans, and piles and piles of art supplies in different places, sometimes organized and other times not. Most were focused on their crafts, not even bothering to look up like the Archery Captain did. The room was wider and not as long; in the farthest corner she was surprised to see two computers with tablets in front of them.
"Wow, they even supply digital stuff?"
"Yep. Not the state-of-the-art ones, but decent."
Reese asked if Masae had any portfolios online. Masae went online to her art gallery and showed few of her pieces, mostly characters from different media.
Reese fawned over how clean and detailed Masae's style was ("Did you really draw all those individual feathers on the Ho-oh?") while Emile was silent, gazing at the art with intensity. Masae suddenly felt a little self-conscious and logged out. Emile let out a sound of disappointment and Masae felt a bit guilty. Maybe she could show it to him again at a later point if he was really that interested.
They visited few more rooms when Masae heard a beautiful voice coming from the Choir room. The trio went inside and Masae found the girl who sat in front of her first period singing what seemed to be an original song in a sweet and soft voice. When she finished the piece, the three all clapped.
The girl bowed and said, "Thank you, thank you. I'm Adriana. Call me Adri. You guys interested in choir? I'm the Vice Captain. Our Captain's out for today."
"No, your singing was really good and I just wanted to look around. We can leave soon if yo-"
"Wait, I'm interested!" Reese suddenly looked extremely horrified at Emile's sudden exclamation. She looked ready to bolt. Masae, who would've done the same, was genuinely curious about Emile's singing. Just how bad could it be?
Adri motioned to Emile. "If you don't mind, could you sing for me a little then? Anything, really."
"Okay!" The room tensed as Emile took an extremely long breath, puffing his chest.
Then, all hell broke loose.
It wasn't ear-shattering per se – just horribly out-of-tune. Masae decided to put ear plugs on the birthday gift list this year. Unable to bear anymore, she slapped her hand to Emile's mouth.
"-I knoooow yo- Oomph."
"Okay, I think that's good enough. Sorry for bothering you, Adri. I'll see you tomorrow in class?"
Adri just nodded, smiling but looking like she really needed to lie down for a long, three hour nap. Masae felt Emile struggling against her hand, but kept it firmly in place by wrapping her other arm around the neck until they were out of the door.
"-PAH! That wasn't necessary, Masae!"
"It definitely was. I don't want you go around killing my new classmate!" Masae said. "Why are you looking for clubs anyway? You're a junior." She pointed at his dark green cardigan.
Emile made the 'I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about'™ face, pouting and looking away from her.
"It's a long story, Masae. I'll explain in to you more on the way." Reese replied in his stead.
She could feel that it was going to be a long day.