The bright light slithered in slightly through the crack in my blinds. Then SHE came in.
"Good morning, Sleepyhead!" Crowed my dear friend, Hana.
"Go away. It's too early to be up..." I tried to cover my face, but she kept pulling the covers back. "You should seriously be slapped for being this energetic in the morning." I grumbled as I sat up. After rubbing my eyes and lightly slapping my cheeks, I proceeded to glare at the bright-eyed blond girl. "Well, what's so important that you have to wake me up at..." I glanced at my clock, and gaped. "8 in the morning?" I screamed the last part.
"Well, the Captain Commander of the 13 Court Guard Squads made an announcement for all of the top 5 students of each 6th year class to come to the courtyard." She looked excited, while I started muttering some very rude comments about morning people and blood and gore. "I get it." I yawned and slipped into my uniform, then quickly brushed my hair.
"Well then, let's go." I really didn't want to know what was going on.
"Hey, Itami, maybe they're going to pick for squad members!" Hana squealed, then pulled out a magazine. "Which squad do you want to be in?" I flipped through the pages with pictures and small descriptions of the captains and lieutenants of the different squads.
"Hey, why is Squad 10 missing?"
"Well, my brother told me that they couldn't get pictures of them. The captain completely refused." I nodded, remembering that her brother helped run the Sereitei Bulleten, which was how she managed to get a copy of the latest issue.
"Well, then probably Squad 3..." I was a bit hesitant, after all, I really couldn't care any less about what squad I was in. As long as it wasn't Squad 11, because they never listened to anyone's story, and fight just for sport.
"So then you must have your eye on Captain Ichimaru or Lieutenant Izuru! Both seem like good choices." I stared at her, completely confused. "As in, like a romance?"
"Nah, I chose the Squad 3 because their flower is the marigold, which symbolizes sadness. I thought that it fit with my name."
"Seriously? I want to be in either 6th, 5th or 13th Squad!" Hana grinned. "Because Captain Kuchiki-"
"Okay, I really don't need to hear your explanation pertaining to love, beauty or whatever." I was a bit irritable because I was woken up too early. "Anyway, we're here." We walked through the tall arches and into the courtyard.
There were 13 of people there, almost all wearing captain haoris and the shortest one at least a half a foot taller than me (9 inches taller, to be more exact. Thats because you're also shorter than Toushiro[who isn't with the other captains] by 4 inches.). "Great. This just about completely crushes my ego." I muttered, and Hana giggled. "Baka!" I hissed at her and lightly smacked her on the back of her head, which was quite hard, considering the fact that she was at least a foot taller than me. Then I noticed that the captains were watching us, so I refrained from anymore abuse, and the other 38 top students walked in behind us.
"Thank you for coming so quickly and so early in the morning." We heard Captain-Commander Yamamoto's loud voice boom around us. "I have gathered you all here to be picked for open spots in the 13 Court Guard Squads by the captains themselves! This is a great honor for all of you, whether or not you are picked, to be acknowledged by the captains of the Squads!" I scanned the captains, immediately recognizing from the pictures the captains of Squads 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13, but I didn't recognize the orange haired woman, who I would have assumed was the captain of Squad 10, but she wasn't wearing a captain haori, which didn't make sense. I was so intrigued that I completely missed the rest of the Captain-Commander's speech.
"Hey, Itami, pay attention!" I jumped a little when I felt Hana jab me in the side with her elbow. Thank goodness she did, or I would have completely embarrassed myself.
"First, I will introduce the top student out of all of these excellent students: Itami Ichinose, who has the top grades in kido, zanjutsu, hakuda and hohou." I bowed slightly when he finished speaking. Then he continued with the other students. 39 more times.
"Hey, Itami-chan, are you here?" I snapped out of my daze. I just had to stand here and answer when I was asked if I wanted to join a squad, if I was any good at fighting, if I could heal people, if I felt like I had what it takes to be a member of 2nd Company, if I liked drinking, if I was willing to be a human test subject, if I was willing to abandon all self-interest for peace, ect., so I started to daze off, which I was startled out of by the captain not wearing a haori.
"Ah, yes, Captain?" I bowed apologetically.
"Oh, I'm just here as a stand-in for my captain, whose busy. Anyway, I was wondering if you were okay with a short captain." My eyes lit up slightly as I nodded quickly. Then I turned to Hana, who agreed to join 13th Company, and we grinned at each other. I couldn't wait to see how much taller I was than my captain.