Chapter One
The school loomed over the two sisters who stood outside the front entrance. Their mother stood stiffly behind them looking over the exterior of the building and the excellent garden out front; she seemed to approve.
"Welcome!" the headmaster, Sarutobi, greeted them. He was an old man dressed in a formal brown suit and was supported by an expensive looking cane. The girls greeted him by smiling and bowing.
"Hello," their mother didn't seem pleased with the headmaster yet; she was a woman with high, nearly impossible, standards. Her daughters amazing musical talents seemed to just barely please her and they'd been practicing and perfecting their talents for years.
"I'm glad to see you made it alright; would you like Gai to park your car?" The headmaster gestured towards an expensive looking red car. Gai, hearing his name, rushed into the main entrance of the school and stood next to the headmaster.
"No," the sister's mother shook her head as she looked Gai over, "that won't be necessary, thank you."
"She won't be staying long," The shorter of the two girls spoke up. She had long, curly auburn colored hair and big, brown eyes. She stood about 4'11" and although her sister was taller, but barely, she seemed the older of the two. She held a suitcase in one hand, a bass case was swung over her shoulder, and another suitcase occupied her hand.
"I see," the headmaster nodded slowly, "I will make the tour and such quick then."
"I have taken a virtual tour on the flight over here." The mother shrugged, "I just wanted to talk to you about some matters; in private."
"Oh, I see," Sarutobi spoke slowly but gestured for the mother to accompany him to his office, which, was just inside the large oak doors, "Gai, take the girls' suitcases."
"Thank you," The taller of the two girls stood at about 5'0" and had short, chin-length curly hair the color of her sister's and big blue eyes. She had three large pink suitcases and many small bags cluttered around her opposed to her sister's minimalistic packing. The younger of the two bounced around from foot to foot as Gai left to get a suitcase dolly. Once he had it loaded the girls followed him to the elevator, which was next to the big, oak staircase, and up to their dorm. Their dorm was on the third floor, where all the girls' dorms were, and it was the furthest room down.
"It's so big!" The older girl, Naiaria, spoke as Gai opened the door. The main room looked like a miniature living room and kitchen squished into one and three doors lead into two bedrooms and a bathroom. The main room was decorated with colorful band posters and lyrics were painted on the walls.
"I like the lyrics," the younger girl, Lore, pointed out the calligraphy, "These people have great style."
"The survey you took online before enrolling gave us an idea of what type of music you like and who you'd make good roommates with." Gai spoke as he set their luggage on the ground, "We already had the girls who shared the room before move into the one on the left."
"Thank you," Lore smiled and picked up several of her bags, nearly falling over in the process. The girls lugged their bags into their room and stared at their new room. The walls were painted a purple color, which both were okay with, and two beds were pushed into both corners. Dressers sat across from them and a closet was next to the door. A large window sat next to the bed and Naiaria claimed it before her sister could.
They unpacked and listened to Lore's iPod as they did so. Lore's music tastes varied from the top forty music to alternative to reggae. Her sister also liked most of the same music and didn't complain when her sister plugged in her hot pink iPod.
"Naia, where are our roommates?" Lore flopped onto her bed, she'd just finished unpacking unlike her sister who'd finished a while ago. Because Lore had packed so much she'd taken the closet to hang her many skirts, dresses, and anything else that didn't fit into her dresser. Naia had easily fit everything into the four drawers of her dresser.
"In class," Naia shrugged as she pulled her bass out of its case. Her bass was five strings and classic black and white, but had a red heart painted in nail polish.
"Why aren't we in class?" Lore asked as she started to go through what she wanted to wear for the rest of the week. The clean floor was soon littered with skirts, dresses, pants, and shirts that didn't meet her standards at the moment.
"We don't start until tomorrow," Naia explained to her little sister as she started to pluck at the strings on her bass, tuning it.
"Oh," Lore grumbled as she picked out a black mini skirt and a black tank top with a silver swirly design on it for tomorrow, "I'm glad we don't have uniforms."
"Me, too," Naia sighed and put on her giant, oversized headphones. She skimmed through her songs and selected "Tear Away" by Drowning Pool, then started to play along. Lore hummed even though she couldn't hear any words, knowing the song right away. Lore had an amazing voice and when she opened her mouth to sing the room, no matter how loud, became quite in an instant and despite her soft, peppy talking voice her singing voice was loud and powerful.
Time seemed to fly and every time Naia would start strumming to a new song Lore was humming right with her. The next thing they knew their dorm room door was slamming shut and they heard two girls talking as they walked in.
"Let's go meet our new roommates!" Lore bounced happily as she smoothed down her curls and made sure her outfit looked all right. Lore wore bright colors and many layers, making her look unique and intense. For example today she wore hot pink leggings, a black mini skirt, a white t-shirt under a tank top that matched her legginings and to top it off a lot of jewelry. Her sister on the other hand stuck to earth tones like greens, tans, and browns; making her look more mature and not as obvious. She wore tan cargo pants and a green wife beater.
"Alright," Naia got up and plugged her iPod in to charge; she had used it the whole journey here, to block out her mother's ramblings, and it was near dead now. Lore led the way and her sister followed as they walked into the main room to see two girls sitting on the couch watching music videos on their TV.
"Hello," Lore went and plopped down on the couch next to the girls. The girls jumped about ten feet in the air and fell off the couch. The taller of the two girls gained her composure faster and hoped up and stared at the girls. The other looked slightly younger and wore a dark, long skirt and a long sleeve black shirt; though both seemed dark she seemed the darker of the two.
"Hi," the taller one bowed as did the other, a few seconds later, "Sorry, we didn't expect you to be here until later."
"Whatever," Naia shrugged, "I'm Naiaria but people call me Naia. This is my little sister, Lore."
"I'm Mai and this is my older sister Amara." The darker of the two girls smiled. Naia figured they'd all get along well but according to the other girls' faces she thought she'd have to convince them that Lore and herself, especially Lore, were interested in, probably, the same things they were.
"Nice to meet you," Lore said in her perky voice, "What are you guys good at? I can sing and Naia is an amazing Bassist. She really is, you'll have to listen to her sometime!"
"Yeah," Mai sighed, confirming Naia belief she'd have a hard time convincing them her sister was just as hard-core as they were, "I play guitar."
"She's really good we actually used to be in a band together. I play drums by the way. Yeah, we should hear you play. Go get your bass." Amara smiled at Naia.
"I don't know," Naia was glaring at Lore for bringing it up.
"Why aren't you guys in a band anymore?" Lore asked changing the subject and momentarily saving her sister from playing around people.
"Well Amara likes this Neji guy that goes here and so did our old synth player," Mai explained.
"I did not! It was you who was crushing on Sasuke and our old singer and keyboard player both liked him! You knew it too!" Amara was quick to deny any crush on Neji.
"That's terrible!" Lore protested.
"Yeah," Mai agreed.
"We could start a band," Lore sounded excited.
"We haven't even heard each other play yet. I expect our styles aren't the same either." Mai explained.
"Wanna bet?" Naia laughed, "Twenty bucks says your iPod and mine have at least twenty of the same bands on them. A buck for each band. And then I'll add another fifty saying that Lore's has twenty or more bands in common with you to and the best voice you've ever heard."
"I kind of doubt that." Mai sighed, "but fine. Amara, do you have seventy dollars? Just in case."
"Use your own damn money," Amara grumbled. Naia guessed that Amara was smart enough to realize that if she was betting that much money she was probably pretty sure she was right. Mai on the other hand seemed to have no clue about how broke she was going to be in the next fifteen minutes.
The girls all went and retrieved their iPods and Naia's bass. After three minutes of comparing iPods Mai handed over twenty dollars in sorrowful defeat but was still positive that Lore's iPod was nothing like hers. Five minutes later she sheepishly pulled out a wad of cash, "I want to hear her sing first."
Lore looked a little shy at first but stood up and took a deep breath. Selecting "Cold, Cold Heart" by Norah Jones from her iPod she put in her headphones and started to sing. Amara and Mai's jaws dropped simultaneously and Mai handed over the wad of cash to Naia. Lore stopped singing and went back by Naia muttering something to her about wanting half of that.
"Lets hear you play," Mai said a little angrily considering she'd just lost seventy dollars in ten minutes. Naia pulled out her bass and started to play "Pain of Separation" by As I Lay Dying. Amara mumbled to Mai something that neither girl caught but Lore was positive she said 'damn' or a word that sounded like it and damn is a good way to describe Naia's bass playing.
"We should start a band," Mai said after Naia started to put her bass away. Lore looked at her hot pink nails and sighed.
"We haven't even heard you guys play yet? How do we know you're any good?" Lore sounded perfectly innocent saying that but Naia knew she meant it as an insult.
"We'll show you," Mai got up and stormed off to get her guitar; determined to prove her greatness at it. After she got back and situated herself the sound of SOAD's "BYOB" filled the room. Naia nodded in approval but Lore wanted more proof, mostly because she was hurt that they thought she looked like she had bad music taste and couldn't sing. After Mai finished they all went into Amara and Mai's room and listened at Amara played the drums for a bit.
"You're okay," Lore nodded, "I guess you'll do. Just don't drown me out or anything."
"Is she always such a bitch?" Mai asked Naia as Lore walked off to watch TV.
"Truthfully? Yeah when you first meet her. After she warms up to you she stops acting like one. Actually, she usually makes good first impressions and never is such a bitch to anyone's face but you pissed her off." Naia smiled at her new roommate.
"What did I do?" Mai asked honestly confused.
"You doubted her singing abilities." Naia pointed out and walked back over to the couch where her bass sat. Lore had very high self-esteem about her singing abilities and anyone doubting them upset her greatly, mostly because she always proved to them she was amazing so it gave her an excuse to bitch.
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. The girls talked about names while they ate pizza on the couch for dinner and Mai and Amara filled the girls in on the upcoming battle of the bands competition at the end of the year that every student needed to participate in. Mai then filled them in on the 'house rules' (i.e. which shelves were hers in the bathroom, etc.). Then Lore went and showered and afterwards had replaced all Mai's stuff with hers – hey, she had severely doubted her voice and her style, she practically asked for this to happen.
"You shouldn't have done that," Naia said as the girls talked in bed that night.
"I'll start being nice next week," Lore laughed, "I like to keep people on their toes."
"I know," Naia grumbled, "but still. Why couldn't you have done something more subtle?"
"When have you know me to be subtle in anything I do? Besides, she was practically daring me when she looked at me and told me she got the three shelves and we only each got one."
"She said that we only each got one until she and Amara could clear off one of theirs for us."
"I don't want her hand me down shelf! Gross." Lore joked but Naia didn't find it very funny.
"Just relax, okay? We are in a band with them now and you better be okay with that. You have to be nice. Just because you have an amazing voice doesn't mean you can treat people like that all the time."
"I said I'd start being nice next week." Lore sighed, "good night. I need to sleep. I start school tomorrow."
"You're the one who keeps talking," Naia said and they both fell silent.