Moving In

... It was a beautiful day... no... not good... uhm... it was the end of the summer break...? ... no that's even worse! ... ... ... it was a beautiful day at the end of summer br- ... argh! Forget it... let's just start from the beginning, shall we?

Hi, my name is Benjamin, or BJ for short. I'm currently sixteen years old and I'm the youngest son of my parents. That's right, no tragic past of some sort in which my parents died and I got stuck in a criminal band or anything. Although I suppose I'm not all that ordinary either. You see, my two older siblings, my sis and bro, have already moved out of the family house, kind of leaving me with my starting-to-get-old parents, who demand my help every single minute of the day, never regarding whether I'm busy with school or something. I'm sure they mean well alright... but... you know... I was turning into a kind of a rebel because of all that, so in the end, my parents realised they'd not have enough control over me anymore soon to raise me properly. And therefore, they gave me the choice; either I'd move into some youth centre kind of thing or I'd go to a boarding school. Now, to be perfectly honest, I didn't like the sound of being stuck with other problematic kids in some centre at all, so boarding school it was. And I knew just which school.

Cross Academy... the building was stationed just outside a village not too far from where I lived, and was surrounded by woods and calm and stuff. I heard from various people that it was an amazing academy to go to and that all its students were grown-up clever youth with a lot of wits. Sounded perfect to me really. I got a tour around the place just before summer break and I was mesmerized; and so I signed up for the next school year. And, yeah... that's kinda how I ended up there. Neat isn't it?

So to get back to where I started off, today really was a beautiful day, the kind of mid-summer day which makes a perfect start for some fictive novel. Or something... ah I suck at this... never mind... so, today is the last day I'll be spending at home. Tomorrow, Monday, I'll be moving into my room at Cross Academy. My classmates had probably spent much more time at that school than me, I wasn't even sure if there would be any newcomers to my year except for me, so I was kind of nervous. But nonetheless, I was totally looking forward to going. I had already packed all my stuff, I had spent the past few weeks wearing my school uniform just to get myself used to it and I had received all my books and school stuff that I needed. My mum had already arranged for my replacement; a young girl who would come and help out at home every other day. Well... kind of glad I wouldn't have to do all those chores anymore...

The next day, I got onto the train heading out to my new school. Most of my bags were taken there by car, so I carried only a small backpack along with me. My trip went fine, nothing special happened really, I've been playing a few games, walked a bit to get to the Cross Academy building and had settled into my room by the end of the day. I shared my room with some boy named Steve; he was kind of a midget compared to me, but he seemed to be nice.

That evening, we had our first dinner together with all the other students. I tried to make myself at home there and just eat, but somehow I couldn't seem to put my mind at ease. Steve was talking to me big time about the school and the teachers and such, but I was only half listening. Something felt off. I carefully let my eyes wander around; there were girls laughing together, guys trying to act all high and mighty and a few teachers hanging about talking to one another, and...

I froze in place. Eyes... icy-cold, hard eyes were staring straight into mine. They belonged to a silver-haired guy, a little older than me maybe, at least he wasn't in my class. My eyes flashed down to his uniform; he wore a white-and-red band around his left arm, a prefect. Although a little hesitant, I stared back at him. Those eyes, his gaze piercing me, he scared me. Not someone I wanted to mess with, I knew that for sure. But why was he looking at me like that? Had he noticed I was new? Was he gonna pick on me? No, a prefect wouldn't do that, would he? Perhaps he was just trying to show me my place... I couldn't hold it any longer and looked away from him, focussing fully on Steve's chatter. I was probably starting to see ghosts or something, I shouldn't worry so much. After dinner, Steve pointed at the girls giggling, leaving to go outside and explained that the "Night Class was coming in". Apparently the Day Class girls – the girls in, say, my class – were all over them. I wondered what was so special about them, but I figured it didn't matter to me. Though a Night Class was a bit weird... what was up with those people? Did they have a kind of sun allergy or something? A messed-up biorhythm? I wouldn't know... Actually I didn't want to know.

Time passed by quickly at Cross Academy. Right before I knew it, it was halfway September and I had grown all used to the daily routines, to going to classes and all the like. One thing, though, kept troubling me; that guy, that prefect, Zero Kiryuu I believe was his name, he still stared at me, always, wherever I went! As if he was my personal policeman, spying on me or something! I swear, that guy hated me or something... what had I ever done to him to deserve that though? Man, it got me confused, seriously..! The other prefect though, uhm... Yuuki... she was pretty nice actually. She helped me out a few times when I got lost... hehe... Anyhow, yeah I did bump into a few difficulties which would in the end lead to even more. Actually they became apparent in the first week already...

I had a lot of trouble keeping up with history and literature. I suppose I'm more into maths and such stuff, so those subjects were a total pain. The teachers had to explain everything to me a hundred times, until we all got fed up with it and we decided to find me help. At first, I tried asking Steve for help, but he couldn't explain things right to me, so I ended up getting even more confused. All tutors willing to teach me outside school were too expensive, so that wouldn't do either. In the end, I went to see headmaster Cross and asked if he could mean anything to me at all. He promised he'd try and arrange something for me. Perhaps a student from a higher year could teach me. And that's actually when the trouble really started...

At the end of September, I was asked to come to the headmaster's office. I went there straight after classes, kind of eager to find out what he had come up with. I remember how I knocked on the door with a slight smile on my face, unaware of what I had brought upon myself.

"Come in, please." I opened the door and walked in. The office was rather small, much smaller than I had expected, and a whole lot messier too. Headmaster Cross was casually leaning back in his chair across the room. I couldn't help myself but to think that perhaps this man was slightly lost in his own mind.

"Ahh, Benjamin," he said with a broad grin. "Good of you to come. I've found you a tutor."

"Really?" I was happily surprised.

"Yeah, they were rather hard to come by, actually," said headmaster Cross. "Most students are too busy to spare some time. I was surprised by whom offered to tutor you, actually, seeing as he is a busy young man."

"Who is it?"

"Ahh, he could be here any minute now."

And just about a second after he had spoken the sentence, there was a single, harsh knock on the door before it opened without waiting for the headmaster to tell them to come in. I glanced over my shoulder, my face turning pale in an instant. Eyes... cold and hard eyes, piercing me... and silver-white hair...

Damn it, my tutor was that Zero guy...! ~