True Harmony

Chapter 1

Leaving home to go somewhere completely different is something I never could quite get used to. Sure, I did tons of traveling with my music career, but I always felt like a bit of an outsider when I got there. It felt even weirder when I was chosen for the school's foreign exchange program to go to a totally different school in America. It wasn't like I was unprepared or anything. I had everything ready to go, and I had my English language program all set up so I'd be able to speak to the people around me fluently without a strong Japanese accent showing through. This sounds weird now that I'm saying it, and I haven't even told you who I am yet. My name is Miku Hatsune. This story is all about my time in America, and the one boy who changed my life forever.

I won't bore you with the details of my settling in since it isn't all that interesting. Instead, I'll skip ahead to my first day at Northern High. The school was quite a strange atmosphere. There seemed to be a hefty amount of animosity toward one another in this school, almost as if no one really cared or understood what people went through. As I walked through the hallway with the guidance counselor to help me find my predetermined locker, I heard a lot of chatter behind me. Some of it seemed as if they were making fun of me, or else the guys were making me out to be some tramp. I'm not like that at all, just so you know.

We arrived at my locker, and the counselor gave me the combination to open it. Without even telling me how to open it at all, she walked away, leaving me on my own. I felt quite alone at that point. No one was there to help me out, or to even try to be a friend to me. Everyone just ignored me or giggled at me like I was some kind of idiot. It hurt thinking that I was all alone in the school, and it felt like I was going to remain that way for a while. I began to think about my dear friends that I left back at home. They're all like a family to me at this point, and I always felt stronger when I had them by my side. Now that I had no one, I began to miss them dearly, and I wished I could be back home in Japan where I belong.

I began to place things inside my locker and attempt to make some sort of sense of the list of classes that I was given on my first day. I knew I would have problems with sorting all of this out, but I could honestly not make any sense of it at all. Perhaps all of the information on the paper was hiding what I needed to know. I then decided to take a peek in my backpack to make sure I had everything all set for the day.

Suddenly, I had the strangest sensation that someone was watching me. Perhaps I was just being a bit paranoid being somewhere I wasn't familiar with, but I just felt like there were some people just watching me; staring at me while I do what I needed to do. It was almost as if I was doing something wrong. I probably was, but I wanted to stay calm about everything. One thing I remember hearing from someone was that people tend to exploit weaknesses in others and use them to their advantage. If someone noticed my nerves and all of this, someone could end up taking advantage of me and make me feel like a terrible person or whatever. Somehow I felt that the ones who were looking at me, however, were not trying to do anything wrong. Perhaps they were shocked at my appearance. I suppose I understand this. Everyone here just seemed so bland when it came to their fashion, at least compared to what I was used to. I suddenly show up with my usual outfit of a button-down shirt with detatched sleeves, a necktie, a skirt (that I got the okay from the office to wear, since they sent me down to make sure that it was to fingertip length for some reason) and my thigh high boots; and before you know it, the fashion world in the school is thrown for a loop. Soon I heard a muffled voice of a couple of guys talking. I picked up on it because I could make out one thing that one of the guys had said.

"DUDE!" One simple word kind of made me tune into the conversation. I couldn't tell exactly what they were saying, but something tells me that they were talking about me, and that these guys were the same people that I thought were looking at me. It could've just been a coincidence, but I still felt like there was something going on. I also heard one of them mention "Vocaloids" so that essentially cleared that mystery up for me. I decided to let them be and enjoy their time. I didn't really know if they wanted to talk to me yet. Suddenly, one of them came up to me.

"Um… hi." He said. I turned to look at him, hoping to get a conversation going, and what I saw was surprising. He seemed different from anyone else that I had seen; in the school or in my life in general. He had a completely round head, four fingered hands, a really thin body, and long blonde hair that my friend, Rin Kagamine wishes she could have. What was more shocking to me was that as soon as I looked at him, he began to flush, which seemed dangerous, since he was already white as a bone. "Oh... wow..." He said, and before I could respond with a greeting of my own, he fell backwards and passed out. I was quite afraid of what happened to this person. I hoped that I didn't do anything that could've hurt him. Soon another guy came up to me and the young man on the floor, and he seemed to be laughing at him.

"You were saying something about being smooth as sandpaper, Rick?" He said with a chuckle in his voice. He knelt down to help out his friend, and then he looked at me with a smile. "Sorry about him. His heart is incredibly frail, and he gets excited really easily. Just do the math." I could tell by his smile that he was only joking, so I couldn't help but laugh at his little joke. If anything, I wanted to help my first impression be a good one. I then decided to take the direct approach.

"So, what's your name?" I asked the other guy, who seemed more human compared to the first guy, so that was a nice change. He sort of jumped when I asked him to introduce himself. I was prepared to apologize about my lack of manners, but he came back pretty quickly.

"I'm Peyton, but people call me GC." What a peculiar name for someone to be called when his real name has none of those letters.

"Why do they call you that?" I couldn't help but ask him.

"I... don't really remember." He said with another chuckle, almost like he was embarrassed to have forgotten why he has his nickname. "I just think it sounds cooler." I suppose that sounds like a viable reason. "And you already saw the fainting wonder here." He pointed at his friend that had thankfully regained his composure. "His name is Rick." A bit of a contrast between these two names, but they didn't seem to mind.

"Well, it's very nice to meet both of you." I replied politely with a quick head bow. I didn't expect them to return the favor, but I decided to be the respectful one.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name." GC said to me. I felt so foolish to forget something so common. Better late then never, I guess.

"Oh right, my name is Miku Hatsune." I introduced myself. Suddenly, I saw GC's face look like he was about to go into shock. I think he knew it was me, since he was talking about me earlier, but he doubted it, since he most likely saw tons of girls in costume that looked quite a bit like me. He shook it off pretty quickly though. Thank God that was the case. I didn't wanna make two guys faint on my first day here.

"Wow, pleased to meet you." He said finally. "So, you're the new girl around here, huh?"

"Yup, I'm glad to be here," I felt like he didn't need to know how afraid I was to start coming here, since I didn't want to make our first conversation seem awkward, "but it's a little tough finding my way around." I sheepishly admitted to it. GC looked surprised at this fact.

"Wait, you don't have anyone showing you around?" He asked me.

"Someone helped me find my locker, and that was it." I explained, once again cutting a lot of the details.

"Well that sucks." He said, trying to sound empathetic about it. "I could help you find your way to your homeroom if you want. Maybe by then someone will be there to help you out." I was surprised at his offer. I didn't think anyone was going to help me here.

"Okay, that sounds good, I guess. I don't wanna trouble you." GC was really putting himself out there to help me, and I didn't know how difficult this would end up being on him. I don't like making people go out of their way when it seems too difficult. He didn't seem to mind it, however.

"No trouble at all. We have some time, so I'd be happy to show you to your class." He was really insistent on helping me. "Besides, do you honestly think it would bother me if I offered?" He made a good point, but his smile showed me that he was joking once again, so I laughed. I decided to show him the piece of paper with my schedule on it.

"Here you go." I said as I handed it to him. As he scanned the page, his eyes began to light up.

"Well now, ain't this a small world?" He said. "This is our homeroom!"

"Are you serious, dude?" GC's friend, Rick suddenly said. I honestly had forgotten that he was there, as he was very quiet. He looked at the schedule and was just as surprised as GC was. I was quite shocked as well.

"That sounds incredibly convenient!" I said happily. If anything, this made it a lot easier for them to take me to the class, since they were headed that way as well. After gathering my stuff back into my backpack (GC and Rick told me that I could carry it with me to make carrying my things easier,) we all began walking up the stairs together.

As I was walking beside the two, I couldn't help but look at GC a little bit more, mostly because he was human, as opposed to whatever Rick was, since he clearly wasn't human, sporting a red Tshirt and a gray button-down shirt on the outside, and a head of brown hair that almost went all over the place on his head, so clearly he was a human. Then again, I'm an android, but whatever. Anyway, I did feel very grateful that I had someone helping me out today, if only for a little bit. The fact that someone in this school was willing to help someone new was amazing to me, since I was convinced that no one really cared about anyone else. These two were obviously different.

We arrived at our destination on the second floor of the school, and I was prepared to enter the classroom for the first time. GC and Rick had other plans, however. "Aren't you guys coming?" I asked them.

"You go on ahead, Miku." GC replied. "We'll hang out here and talk for a bit, just me and Rick. We'll be inside soon."

"Yeah, especially considering the bell's about to ring in a few minutes." Rick added. I then walked into the room, introduced myself to the teacher, and he told me to wait for a while, as he wanted to introduce me to the class, and it would make it easier for him to decide on my seat for the class as well. As I waited for the bell to ring, I couldn't help but continue to think about those two guys who helped me.

"Well, they seem like nice boys." I said to myself. "Something tells me that we'll be great friends later on." I smiled at this thought, and soon I heard a buzz over the intercom, which is essentially the bell in the school.

I was very glad to see that my new acquaintances had arrived. I needed their support.