"Mizuki, if you don't leave now, you're going to be late for school!"

Mizuki Hajime frowned at his reflection in his standing mirror. He held up a skirt to his waist before tossing it onto his bed, which he had impeccably made after waking up that morning.

"Did you hear me?" He could hear his mother coming up the stairs outside which only cuased him to freak out about what skirt to wear even more. His mother knocked on his door. "You'll be late."

Mizuki was perfectly aware of his imminent tardiness. He couldn't STOP thinking about it, so buzz off, mom. However, if being late meant that he would show up in the perfect outfit, then he would let that awful first impression slide.

Today was the day he began a new school life at Rydell Gakuen. His family had recently moved to town and, with the move, Mizuki had transferred schools. He had never done something like that before, so suddenly being plunged into a brand new environment filled with brand new people caused him to freak out a little bit.

His mother entered the room finally, giving Mizuki a chastising look. Mizuki pointedly didn't look at her, and muttered, "I can't decide which skirt to wear."

"They're all very pretty," she said, voice aloof. She obviously didn't care that much about Mizuki's fashion woes. "If you don't get out of this house in five seconds, you're going to be in a lot of trouble, Hajime."

Well. He threw away one of the two skirts he was wearing dramatically. He felt upset with his choice almost immediately as he slid the blue fabric up past his legs. He picked up his bag for school in a huff, brushing past his mother without even looking at her. He was being silly, but he was massively stressing out! What if how he and his friends dressed at home was completely different to how everyone dressed here? The thought of being deemed an outcast on his first day was haunting.

He slid on his shoes by the door and exited without even saying goodbye to his mother. Might as well get this over with.

As Mizuki walked down the street, following the directions to the school that he had listed in his to-do book, he noticed just how big this town was compared to his old one. It made him feel homesick – the immense size difference was enough to intimidate him. He was checking out a particularly large building when the roar of an engine startled him. Not just the roar of one engine – the roar of many engines. He had almost walked into the street without looking where he was going, much to his embarrassment. He quickly hopped back onto the sidewalk and a group of around ten motorcyclists whipped past him, leaving him shocked.

Motorcycles? He felt a little shaky. Back at home, nobody had motorcycles. They were loud and dangerous, which were two things that Mizuki didn't like very much. He wondered why his parents would want to move to a place where things like motorcycles were allowed.

What was even more horrifying was that, as he approached his destination of Rydell Gakuen, he noticed that several of those motorcycles had been heading there as well.

Oh no, Mizuki thought, nervously walking towards the school gates. What kind of school WAS this? He and his parents had met with the principal, an older woman named Ms. Ryuzaki, and she had assured him that this school was perfectly safe. She had LIED to him! What a frickin' JERK.

What was worse, Mizuki had no idea where he was going once he had entered through the school gates. He was alone in a potentially dangerous place. He couldn't help but pause on the main pathway and look around to assess his surroundings. He noticed that the school yard was buzzing with activity, as it appeared that his mother had sent him off too early, not expecting him to get there so quickly. There were groups of people just sitting around talking and a few doing homework or reading in the grass. There was even a boy eating, right there in the grass! How revolting.

Mizuki shifted the strap of his bag on his shoulder, feeling as if though everybody's eyes were on him. He quickly got off of the main path to the school and stood to the side, pulling anxiously at one of the curls of his hair. He awkwardly shuffled over to a shady spot under a large tree and carefully knelt down in order to blend in with the other students. At least hopefully.

From there he was able to hear the conversation of the boys sharing the same shade as him, and though he didn't really want to listen, he found himself eavesdropping anyway.

"…and then I crashed my bike! Crashed it right into the car in front of me, all because of that stupid mamushi…"

"You're an idiot, Momo-senpai."

"He antagonized me! I should have just stopped and beat the crap out of him – at least then my bike wouldn't be in the shop getting repaired. And drop the senpai, Echizen, how many times do I have to tell you-"

Mizuki was horrified. What kind of hooligan school had he been enrolled in? First motorcycles, now a SENPAI of all things talking so casually about beating another person up? Why, he'd never…

"Hey, you!"

Mizuki froze and looked over at the boys he had just been listening in on. The smaller one had a disinterested look on his face as the taller one, with the stupid almost mullet haircut, smiled at Mizuki.

"Hey, are you new? I don't remember seeing you before."

"Y-yes," Mizuki said, trying to keep up appearances by straightening his back and nodding briskly at them. "Today's my first day."

"Wow!" the bigger one whistled, looking at the smaller one. "You got here pretty late, didn't you? I'm surprised. Aren't you surprised, Echizen?"

"No," the boy called Echizen deadpanned.

Mizuki wasn't sure how to react. He fidgeted with his skirt as the tall boy introduced himself as Momoshiro, but Mizuki could call him Momo-chan, and the shorter boy as Echizen Ryouma, which was a name Mizuki was vaguely familiar with.

"Are you the tennis player Echizen Ryouma?" Mizuki asked, interrupting Momo's spiel about how Ryouma was unreliable, so if Mizuki ever needed help with something he should go to Momo. Ryouma looked up from the magazine he had been flipping through throughout the entire conversation with raised eyebrows. He set his drink, the best drink in all the world, Ponta, to the side in the grass.

"Yeah, I guess," he said.

"Wow," Mizuki breathed. Mizuki liked to follow tennis news, and meeting someone like Echizen Ryouma was really exciting for him. But how could a tennis prodigy like Echizen Ryouma go to a school like this? He should have been in America, training extra hard for his upcoming matches! He leaned forward, smiling at Ryouma. "That's amazing. I read a lot about you in all those tennis magazines. It's amazing that you won all those competitions-"

"Yeah," Ryouma interrupted, picking up his drink and returning his attention to his magazine. "Whatever."

Mizuki drew back, his excited expression fading. Momo looked annoyed, but not surprised by Ryouma's comment. "Echizen, you don't have to be so rude…"

Rude indeed! Mizuki sniffed loudly, pushing himself up. "Sorry for bothering you," he said in a clipped tone. Momo looked aghast as Mizuki turned and walked away. Where to, he wasn't sure, but he noticed that people were finally starting to enter the school, so he decided on doing that. He might as well get accustomed to the busy hallways early. He felt a little shaken after being brushed off so coolly by not just some kid, but Echizen Ryouma. The absolute nerve!

Though there were still a lot of students on the yard outside, there was a good amount of people inside already. Mizuki really had underestimated just how BIG this school was. His old school had barely been one hundred kids a class, and now it seemed like there were at least a thousand kids on campus. Crazy! Mizuki felt a little less nervous about making friends now, because with those odds it was very unlikely that he would end up with no friends.

He dug his little notebook out of his bag and flipped through it to the page where he had marked down his locker number and combination. He squinted at the locker numbers as he passed them, looking for his own. He nearly ran into a few people as he did so, much to his embarrassment. Why were there so many god damn kids?

When he found his locker, number 517, he was surprised to find a group of people hovering around it already in deep conversation with one another. They looked approachable enough, but Mizuki still didn't want to ask them to move so he could get to his locker… He tapped the friendliest looking one on the shoulder.

The boy had large eyes and Mizuki had previously thought he was a girl because of his pretty face and the billowy skirt he wore. Then again Mizuki was wearing a skirt too because listen, boys wear skirts in this universe sometimes, okay? Please do not question me. This is my fic and I do what I want. He was shorter than Mizuki by a lot, too, adding to his girly appearance. The boy had a green headband holding his hair away from his face.

"Can I get to my locker?" Mizuki asked.

The boy's eyes widened and he quickly stepped back, smiling brightly despite being suddenly cut off from his friends by Mizuki. "Sorry!" he said. "I'm Dan Taichi. Are you new?"

"Yes," Mizuki said. If this conversation was going to go anything like the last one had, Mizuki wasn't sure he wanted to have it. Dan seemed a little better than the rude ass tennis player and that Momo kid, though. "Today is my first day. I'm Mizuki Hajime."

"Wow!" Dan said, voice full of wonder. "There hasn't been a new kid in a long time! Plus you're so pretty, everyone will be talking about you."

Mizuki found himself blushing at his kind words. "Oh, thank you…"

"I can help show you around, if you want! I'm very helpful," Dan said, looking proud. Mizuki wasn't sure – the boy was nice and all but he sure seemed ditzy. He was suddenly all up in Mizuki's grill, looking at the schedule Mizuki had noted in his notebook. "Is that your schedule?"

"Yes…"

"Wow! We have the same homeroom!" Dan looked excitedly at him. "That's great! What's your favorite subject, Mizuki?"

"Um…I like language classes I guess," Mizuki said, feeling a little embarrassed, since he never really spoke of his favorite classes, and the question had come so randomly.

"Like foreign languages?!" Dan looked astounded. "Wow! That's so cool, Mizuki." The bell rang, and Mizuki rushed to put the things he didn't need to carry all day into his locker. "C'mon, let's go to homeroom together," Dan said, grabbing Mizuki by the hand and leading him away towards their classroom.

Mizuki felt overwhelmed by Dan's friendliness, but was glad to have at least someone looking out for him, even if it was a pipsqueak like him. Maybe not everyone in this school is terrible, he thought as Dan led him into a classroom already filling with students.

The room instantly went silent after Mizuki's presence was detected and everyone looked at him with questioning eyes. Mizuki tugged his hand away from Dan in embarrassment, wishing everyone would stop looking at him.

Conversation eventually started up again and Mizuki was relieved. Now he just had to wait for the teacher to show up so he could introduce himself and then he'd be set. There didn't appear to be a teacher there yet, though, so Mizuki was a little lost as to what to do.

Dan had started talking to someone else, so Mizuki was standing by the door all by himself. He nervously held up his books to his chest and twirled at his hair, wishing the teacher would just show up already so he could just sit down without being a total awkward weirdo.

Mizuki looked up excitedly when the door opened, but a teacher wasn't the one who walked in. It was a tall boy with dark hair and a muscly body underneath his sweater. Mizuki could tell – he was very knowledgeable about the muscles. He also had a very handsome face that was also very scary, and it grew even scarier when he turned and bumped into Mizuki, sending Mizuki's books scattering to the floor.

The class started to laugh as Mizuki fell to his knees and began to gather up his books, embarrassed out of his mind. How did these things keep happening? His luck was just at zero out of ten today. The tall boy reached down and picked up Mizuki's notebook for him. He had a stern face, like one a father would have when scolding a child.

"Be more careful," he said.

Mizuki made a face. It was his fault that his books fell, not Mizuki's, but he decided to hold his tongue. This guy had just helped him, after all. "Thanks."

"Sanada," a voice came from behind the tall boy. Mizuki hadn't even realized someone was following him. "Are you finished?"

When the owner of the voice entered the classroom, Mizuki was awed by the person's beauty. They had bluish hair that fell to their chin and a delicately featured face. At first, Mizuki couldn't even tell if the person was a girl or a boy. It didn't help that they were wearing a skirt slightly shorter than everyone elses, so Mizuki could get an eyeful of their slender legs. Whoa mama, am I right ladies?

They smiled at Mizuki when their eyes met. "Oh, hello. Did Sanada bother you?"

"I ran into him," Sanada said, looking grumpily at the other boy. He paused before adding, "On accident."

"I knew football would make you more violent," the person sniffed, playfully whacking the taller boy's shoulder. "You should have kept to tennis and kendo instead of football and kendo, like I told you to." Mizuki watched them interact in silence. They looked like they would make a pretty good couple, imo (in Mizuki's opinion). Mizuki had an eye for beautiful things, and together they definitely were just that.

Mizuki was startled out of his admiration of the duo when he realized that the pretty boy was speaking to him. "Sorry?"

The boy didn't seem to mind repeating himself, though the taller boy seemed a little annoyed about it. "I'm sorry about that. Would you like to come sit with us? You're new, right? I'm sure it'd be fine with the teacher once she comes."

Mizuki couldn't believe it! Neither could the class, it seemed. Everyone had gone quiet as they watched the exchange. Mizuki felt hot udner their gazes. Was somethin' up, dudes? Idk. Mizuki nodded, and followed the duo to the back of the classroom, where a few other students already sat.

Mizuki slid into a seat and looked at the people around him. There was a boy with tawny hair who was smiling kindly at him, but it kind of creeped him out. There was a boy sleeping on his desk behind him. The pretty boy took the seat behind Mizuki and smiled at him warmly.

"I'm Yukimura Seiichi," he said. He pointed to the boy who had run into Mizuki. "That's Sanada Genichirou. The sleeping one is Jirou Akutugawa, and that's Fuji Syusuke."

Mizuki nodded, taking mental note of their names. "I'm Mizuki Hajime."

"What a cute name," Yukimura said, resting his chin in his hand. "It suits you."

"Oh," was all Mizuki had to say.

The one named Fuji was still smiling at Mizuki. "Your skirt is very nice. Where did you get it?"

Mizuki self-consciously reached down and touched the fabric of his skirt. Fuji seemed like a pretty fashionable guy, with a slightly shorter skirt similar to Yukimura's and he had his hair styled nicely and everything. Mizuki hadn't even thought to do anything with his hair, how embarrassing. He smiled at Fuji, thankful that his skirt didn't look too bad if someone like him was complimenting him. "Thank you…I don't really remember where I got it…I've had it for a long time. It might have been a gift."

Fuji's smile didn't fade. "How nice," Fuji said. Something about Fuji was really….well, weird. It made Mizuki a little uncomfortable, and he finally broke eye contact with him after like two straight minutes of looking at each other. It made Mizuki a little mad. What was the dude's prob? Mizuki let Fuji's weird behavior slide as the teacher walked in and called for Mizuki to walk up to the front of the class.

Mizuki somehow made it through his first day of school without really ruffling anyone's feathers. He felt exhausted after his last period of the day. There were just so many people compared to his old home, it was a little much.

As he made his way back to his locker to gather his belongings, he noticed that the boy from the morning, Dan, was standing there again, looking excited as he hopped from one foot to the other.

When he caught sight of Mizuki, he burst into a large grin and waved him over. Mizuki was a little happy to see him after his long day.

"Hello," he tried to greet him, but the other boy was already talking.

"Mizuki-san! You're very very lucky," he said. Mizuki noticed that he was holding a piece of paper in his hand, and it was currently getting smashed up as Dan balled his hands into fists. "Even luckier than Sengoku-senpai!"

"I am?" Mizuki had no idea who 'Sengoku-senpai' was but he didn't feel like questioning it. He wasn't quite sure what this was all about, but Mizuki had enough sense to guess that it had to do with the piece of paper crumpled up in Dan's hand.

"You are!" As predicted, Dan unfurled his fist and frowned at the piece of paper. "Oh, I crumpled it."

"What is it?" Mizuki asked, plucking it out of Dan's outstretched hand. He attempted to smooth it out the best he could against the door of his locker. In neat, tiny handwriting, there was an invitation for Mizuki.

"Mizuki, we would absolutely love to see you tonight at the diner, at 7 pm. Please do not be tardy.

-Yukimura Seiichi"

"At the diner?" Mizuki said, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean. Weren't there multiple ones?

Dan looked amazed. "I'm so surprised you got invited so fast! They must really like you, Mizuki-san. I saw you sitting with them in homeroom – that's really amazing!"

Mizuki wasn't sure what this all meant. Maybe they were just really friendly? Somehow that seemed wrong. "Do you go to these, Dan?"

The other boy looked amused. "It's a thing they do a lot – if you can go, you go, but it's not like you have to!" He tapped the paper in Mizuki's hand. "But if you get invited, then you have to go! That means they really want to meet you!"

Mizuki wasn't too sure. It seemed a little fast, didn't it? Maybe people at Rydell Gakuen were just friendlier than the normal person would be. It made sense – that Yukimura guy did seem pretty nice, even though his skirt was a little short! "Do you know what uh…what this 'diner' is?"

Dan looked confused for a moment before realizing – "That's right! You just moved here! Yukimura-san and Fuji-san are so silly, they probably didn't even remember that you just moved here! Don't worry, I'll show you." He looked so excited he might pop. "If you let me walk you home, I can show you on the way!"

Mizuki didn't mind – he still wasn't too familiar with the town, anyway, so it'd be nice to have some sort of guide. "Sure."

"Yay," Dan exclaimed. Though his over excited attitude annoyed Mizuki a little, Mizuki couldn't help but be grateful to have someone so willing to help him out. After he shut his locker, Dan latched onto his arm. "Let's go!" Dan began babbling on about the town and how ~excited~ he was that Mizuki was there, and Mizuki looked back at the invitation from Yukimura with a small smile.

Maybe this was the start of a beautiful friendship. Between beautiful boys (imo [im Mizuki's opinion]).