Enter! New boy in town.
A/N: AAAARGJHJFFKKL! Finally!
Students entering school for the first time after months of vacation have two sides. Those who are looking forward to the coming year, to spend time with friends, learn new things; have something to do with their time at long last. Then there are the ones who dread the whole experience, don't want to wake up in the morning, don't really want to do anything about anything, but still do it because they spent money on it or know that they have to. There is no middle ground.
Student, Monkey D. Luffy was in the latter category. Even if he was looking forward to seeing his friends again after the summer break, he just didn't have it in him to be waking up in the morning to go to classes he didn't even want to go to.
The first morning of school, the weather was a beautiful autumn morning, the colours of the trees on campus turning red and yellow, the weather was not too cold and not too hot. Students were pouring from the dormitories, where they had spent the entire day before settling down once again, into the school building. One group in particular was meeting up after months of being apart.
On the front steps of the main building, four people had gathered and were waiting for more to come. Two young women were standing side by side, one with dark short hair, her name is Robin; wearing a dark tight woollen sweater and an infinity scarf. The other was Nami with bright orange hair, a dark red coat and a green hoody underneath. The two of them were deep in conversation about their time during the summer. Next to them was a young man with dark coloured skin; Usopp, in a light yellow hoody, had his headphones in and his long nose deep in his smart-phone. Half talking to a tall, blond man in a dark blue suit, smoking a cigarette, name is Sanji. Sometimes he forgot he was talking to Usopp and doted on the girls, forgetting time and place, telling them how beautiful they looked in the morning light.
"You think he'll be late?" the boy with the long nose asked into the conversation between the girls.
"Idiot! Don't disturb the ladies while they're talking!" the blond one yelled at him.
"Yeah, I don't think his brother will allow him to sleep in for the first day." Nami said and made a face of disbelief. Both of the brothers were extreme slackers, they had their own room in the east side of the dorm rooms. "Ever since their friend went away they've had the hardest time getting their shit together."
It was almost time, they had to get going inside soon. Robin looked at her watch, the two brothers would most likely not show until the last minute so they could get going inside.
"We should get inside; we should hurry up they are grown boys they can get here on their own."
"Anything you say miss Robin~" Sanji said and opened the door for her. Smiling bright and large for the two ladies walking in, he half-heartedly closed the door on Usopp's nose.
As they walked the long halls to their designated introduction room, Nami got a mighty need. "So Robin, what will you be doing this year as student body president?" she asked.
Robin glanced over her shoulder and smiled big, "i will be a history tutor for the ones that lag behind. Then Im getting to teach a course on archaeology, as a test run" she paused for a moment, as if to remember what she had to do. "Aah and I'll be taking care of a few new students that are joining us. Helping them get up to date."
"Oh that's sweet." Nami said, already thinking what kind of classes she would like to join as extra credit.
"Aren't you finishing your doctored?" Usopp asked from the back of the group.
"Yes indeed, i only have two courses this semester; I'll be writing my final report now."
"Oh robin, you are so smart, you shouldn't even have to be in school. You should be teaching us!" Sanji swooned, dancing from side to side.
"Well if you don't pay attention in history class i may have to" She said and smiled softly. They were heading to the lecture halls, where the presentations would be held regarding the coming semester. It was the same stuff every year, Nami could recite the speech backwards if she wanted to. then they would get introduced to new teachers, get up-to-date on who is dead and who ran away.
They kept on walking down the halls, after a few moments then they were joined by two more people. One short and one large, Franky and Chopper. They were going into the same wing of the school, the ones that relied on physical work. Though on the opposite sides. Franky in the mechanical side and chopper in the medicine side. Franky was dressed in simple hoody and khaki pants, and that was it. You could see his naked chest under the hoody.
Chopper was like the polar opposite of Franky. Dressed in a thick; light tan fur coat, with a large pink hat. He had brown curls that poked out from under the hat. They had rooms next to each other and were used to walking together. Even if they didn't have a lot of things in common, and Franky being so much older then Chopper. When Chopper had a hard time getting up in the mornings then the very large man would often carry him down to the school buildings. By the time they got there Chopper was usually awake.
The two of them joined up in the conversations. While walking down to their classrooms.
Ten minutes.
"Luffy get moving!" Ace shouted behind himself.
"I am moving!"
The two brothers ran over the campus grounds in the east dorm area, running at top speed.
Ace had intended on waking his brother up in time and making sure that both of them would make it to the first day of school on time and make things at least start out smoothly for his little brother. But then his girlfriend overslept and therefore Ace didn't get a call. Ace was cursing under his breath as he was trying to get his clothes on and brushing his teeth and trying to wake Luffy up all at the same time.
Now they were trying to get their shit together, getting their ass over to the school building.
The two of them ran past a group of boys on their way to the mechanical building. "Oi, oversleep?" called one of the boys to Luffy, red spiky hair and a dark burgundy coloured hoody, he was surrounded by his colourful group of friends.
Luffy laughed. "Yeah!"
Ace gritted his teeth and shouted back. "Shut up! You're late too!" he screamed back and grabbed a hold of Luffy's collar and sprinted as fast as he could. He started to jump up and over hedges, nearly gliding over to the main building. 'why the hell is this place so huge!?' ace yelled at himself. As he did every year.
"Five minutes!" Luffy called from behind his brother. Running after.
Their heart was starting to race and their lack of exercise during the summer was getting to them. Just a few more steps!
"Were gonna make it!" Luffy shouted right before he took a last step, he managed to hook his shoe on his pants cuff effectively falling on his face.
"I'm going ahead!" Ace shouted and jumped inside. How like his brother to leave him. He didn't do it often, but when he did it was mostly at times like this. This was the first day of the whole semester and during this time everyone was in the lecture halls listening to the same boring speech. Even if this was the first day, the teachers were very strict on attendance. Even if you had a very great excuse(which Luffy always has) it was no use.
While Luffy laid face first on the concrete, mustering up the will to care about being late he blew a leaf out of his face and sighed. He didn't care about this kind of stuff. Not now. Not ever. But it was a way to meet friends and keep busy. But it was just so boring. He was learning stuff he didn't even care about.
Granted he didn't even know what he wanted to learn.
Since he started the school he had never had any particular interest in most of anything this school had to offer. Apart from the people he got to meet. He changed his interests more often then he changed his underwear.
He didn't move for what felt like hours. Perfectly content with just laying here until everything was over and winter break started. Or thanksgiving or whatever holiday would come first. Then he suddenly heard footsteps coming closer.
"Oi, you okay?" a deep voice asked from above. Luffy didn't feel like getting in a conversation with anybody. Most of the people in the school knew that no matter what he did, there was always a reason for it, it was never normal and you should probably not get involved.
Luffy raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up.
"Are you sure?" the guy asked again.
"Yup" he answered simply. Who was this guy?
"You're just laying there... on the ground." The mystery stranger didn't seem to grasp the concept. Luffy had done stranger things in school before.
"Yup."
"Alright then..." he listened to the man walk away. He wondered who this person was. Clearly it was someone who didn't know him to begin with. And that was a very select few in the school. He knew practically everyone.
Slowly he lifted his head up and caught a glimpse of the boy as he entered the school. Just like he thought, he didn't know him. He wore green hoody and black pants. Luffy could make out some unusual green hair. The stranger looked back just for a moment and luffy caught a glimpse of those dark eyes and tan skin...
"nope, i don't know him!" He mumbled and got up faster than a cricket jumping into the air, and ran after the stranger; he quickly fixed his binder that was slipping uncomfortably to the left. Even if he ran as fast as he could up the stairs and through the door, the stranger was still gone by the time he made it into the school.
Pouting he walked his destination walk through the never ending halls he had spent the last two years in and would continue spending two more.
The day went by seamlessly. There had been a presentation for about three hours for all the classes and courses you could take. Congratulating the ones on their final year and finally letting them know what could be changed. Luffy had shown up eventually and hung out in the back with the others who were late. Most of them were boys and girls who didn't care about school.
Now he was sitting with his friends in the cafeteria, pouting.
"I don't like school"
"You say that every year." Nami said and frowned at him. She enjoyed the slow pace of the first few weeks of school. Now everything was so relaxed and easy going, soon it would be utter hell. She always got so busy in the middle of the semester. So enjoy the time of slow movement while you got it. The table was half full, and the group consisted of Usopp, Nami, Robin, Sanji and Brook.
"But i do! There is nothing to do, and the food is horrible!"
"Well you could try and actually learn something?" Usopp said from inside his sketch book. Luffy just groaned in response.
"I don't wanna..." he groaned out and leaned back on his chair.
The cafeteria was filled with students and staff catching up. Luffy knew nearly all of them. The friend groups were pretty mixed in this school. The teachers ate at a separate table but often mingled with the rest of the students if they wanted to. Like the music and dance teacher would often stay with luffy on his table. Brook was a very good friend with all of them and they would hang out a lot, in school and out.
"But luffy, why don't you find something that you enjoy." Robin said from opposite sides of the tables. "Then maybe you wouldn't have to repeat the same things every semester." Pretty much everyone on the table knew that she was referring to maths.
"Mr. Luffy only seems to be interested in classes when there are people he likes in them too. Perhaps he is any one of your classes?" Brook asked the group from his cup of tea.
"He never pays attention anyways. I don't want him with me trying to disturb me." Nami said and gave a little huff. Robin laughed softly, covering her mouth elegantly.
"Perhaps I will teach you history; you need to catch up since last year."
Luffy groaned and leaned even further back. Looking around the cafeteria he saw some of his friends sitting on other tables catching up.
Camie was close to a door, with her pet next to her, a bright orange dog that never left her side. Next to her was the much taller Shirahoshi she used to call her big sister at times. They were similar in the fact that they both had to use wheelchairs.
Over on another table Trafalgar Law and his group were sitting and discussing things, all the while arguing with Eustass Kidd and his friends over at the table next to them. The two of them shared an equal amount of gloomy energy and Luffy always found it strange that they weren't best friends. Though Kidd's punk style and attitude was matched with Law's laid back attitude towards everything. The three of them were pretty good friends, Luffy thought so at least.
All over were faces he knew, faces he was friends with. No new face in sight.
Except for one.
A not so familiar green mess of hair poked out from the crowd, at first Luffy assumed it was just someone who had dyed it. But then the head the connected to it was equally as strange. He wore a green hoody and black pants, his skin was beautifully tan and he has sharp dark eyes.
He watched as the new guy walked around for a few moments. Shifting from one side of the cafeteria to the other. As if he was looking for something. Luffy sat up straight and shifted to robin, who was talking with Nami.
"Oi Robin? Whossat?" he asked and pointed to the unfamiliar face.
"You can't expect Robin to know everything, Luffy." Nami said, a little annoyed that he cut her off. Robin elegantly looked to where luffy pointed and immediately saw who he meant.
"oh him?"she said and chuckled softly. "i didn't think you would notice him." she said and leaned down into her bag; brought a small portfolio lined thickly with papers. Shuffling through them, she quickly found what she was looking for.
"Roronoa Zoro, he's a transfer student from Brazil." She read out from her papers, "he only moved here a few months ago and is staying in the east dorm-rooms; i don't know who his roommate is."
Luffy smiled; a smile his friends were all too familiar with. His mind was working, and that was never a good sign.
After Luffy gobbled up his lunch, with in his record time by the way, somehow the rest of the day went by a lot faster.
After the last class of the day he was floating back to his dorm room. Somewhere between his class room buildings and the dorms he saw his brother leaning against a door of a large black car, talking to whoever was in there.
"Oi! Yo Ace!" he shouted and started his way over to him.
"Luffy?" he answered, leaning back from the window giving Luffy a glimpse of who was sitting in the car.
The old man in the car was Ace's boss, Edward Newgate. He often liked to come to get his two sons when they were late for their work. And if he was here then that meant Marco was here somewhere too.
"Are you going home?" Luffy shouted at him.
"No i have to go to work..." he said and pointed awkwardly inside the car. Newgate smiled at the boy coming closer to him.
"Aah okay then. Will you be here to make dinner?"
"Yeah i don't know... i might be."
"Aaw Ace, you always make dinner, i get so hungry... maybe i could go to a restaurant"
"You can't afford that." Ace said and smiled. "There is food at home. I'll go shopping when i have money."
In the car Newgate laughed, "It's alright; I'll let you out to sooner to take care of your brother. Since he seems to need it."
"Yeah!" he shouted, lifting his hands up in triumph.
"Now get in the car." Newgate said firmly and the door opened. With that Ace disappeared into the car and it drove away. Luffy knew his brother was really proud to be working for Newgate. He didn't use to, like when he first got the job he wasn't really happy about it. He didn't trust them very much; everyone knew that Newgate was a very powerful, both in the legal and the illegal, pretty much every branch. There wasn't a single man who wanted to go against him, neither in a legal battle nor any other battle to be frank. Luffy wanted one day to be as great as him. Even greater. He could see himself in a car like that.
Walking on he found his way to the dorm rooms, where there were friend groups chatting and more people were catching up. In fact there were a few boys he knew very well were in the doorway of the boys dorms.
Eustass Kidd stood at the top of the stares, glaring at anyone who walked by him as he did at always. "Ooi~! Kidd!" Luffy shouted and walked over to him.
"Hmm? Oh, hey straw-hat." He mumbled half heartedly. "Came back huh?"
Luffy laughed "yeah Ace dragged me back."
"Oh yeah, i thought you flunked out."
"I though you did too." Luffy grinned big.
He always forgot how easy it was to get this guy angry. And the fact that he enjoyed fighting more than anything was a great part of it.
He took Luffy by the collar and slammed him against the wall. Smiling like a mad man. He usually wore some sort of make-up in his day to day life. Black eyeliner or whatever to make him more menacing. All fitting to his rather punk looking group.
"You wanna fight already?" Luffy asked and smiled excitedly.
"Don't flatter yourself. You could never beat me." Kidd growled. His friends made to attempt to pry him off luffy, pretty used to this by now.
"Let's see then!" luffy lifted his fist and prepared give the first punch. Only to be interrupted.
Kidd was suddenly pulled away from luffy and staggered away, for a moment then he thought a teacher had come to fix things. As it turns out there wasn't.
"Violent as ever, aren't you boys."
Luffy knew that voice anywhere. "Torao!" he shouted and threw himself at him, clinging onto him into an awkward hug. The lanky young man patted his back, smiled and then pushed him away. He wore a yellow hoody, and blue jeans. At his side was a large white dog.
"Don't you know better than to fight in the middle of the doorway?"
"We know but some day you better let us finish the fight!" Luffy said loudly, crouching down to greet his large white dog, who was begging for his attention. The large Siberian husky; named Bepo, was completely white, except the extremely dark lines around his mouth and extremely friendly, he loved to make Luffy pet him. He always scratched behind the ears.
"Maybe you should let us start the fight first, Trafalgar." Kidd growled angrily, glaring at him with the most menacing look he could muster up. Luffy stood up, holding the dog in his arms, cheering happily.
"Naah, it's too much fun to interrupt you two. Besides, we don't want to mess up that cute face of his." Law pinched Luffy's cheek. "Don't you think so?"
"Actually i would love to." Kidd said warningly, while smiling, again, like a mad man.
Luffy laughed loudly. "You guys are so funny!" he said and put the dog down. All the while Kidd's friends were sitting by and watching. This was almost an annual thing for the three of them now. They found the best way to deal with this kind of frustration in the punk boy was to just leave him be.
"You know with all that eyeliner I'm half expecting you to be wearing lipstick next. Isn't it a bit too high maintenance, all that make up?"
"Look who's talking?" Kidd shoved a finger into laws shoulder to attempt pissing him off. "Or maybe you just don't like to sleep?"
By this time then Luffy was rolling on the ground paying with the dog. Wrestling with it and laughing like he was his brother. Law had once said he was the strongest dog in the world. And Luffy was still sure of it.
"Maybe i don't." Law said simply, turning away from his frenemy. "Bepo lets go." He said firmly and the dog trotted along his side like a good dog. He could almost feel the Kidd's glare on his back and it amused him to no end.
"Come on." Kidd said and soon his entire group was shuffling into the dorms "next time we'll fight properly."
Luffy winked him and said simply "yeah."
He enjoyed this kind of interaction immensely. And was looking forward to the day they would have an actual proper fight, all three of them. The gods only knew they had been building up for it for nearly three years now.
"You know you say that every time." Kidd's best friend said as he walked up to him. "You two have never had a decent fight, for as long as you've been here."
"That's because that bitch keeps getting in the way."
"You really hate him, don't you?"
"Yes, yes i do." Kidd almost growled.
Luffy was still sitting on the ground. Most likely simply enjoying the day. When suddenly someone stepped up to him.
"Hey... are you okay?"
"yup." he said without looking up.
"That seemed pretty rough though, bad day?"
Luffy chuckled a bit and looked up. Then his stomach took a happy little jump. 'Oh no he's hot!'
It was that guy from the cafeteria. The one with the green hair. He stood a little bit away from him, looking down at him. He smiled big, "naah, we do this all the time."
The boy nodded and reached out a hand to him. Luffy took it and was pulled up with ease, although a little too hard, he nearly flew into the air. Luffy stumbled a bit and nearly fell over again, but ended on his feet with a little 'oomph' noise.
"Sorry, i thought you would be heavier." The guy said, and gave just the awkward smile "Yeah I'm pretty thin." Luffy said and scratched the back of his head. 'This is horrible!' he thought. He couldn't think of anything to say! He never had any issues talking to hot people. And there were hot people all around always. "So, what is your name?" he asked, almost shyly, which had him nearly kicking himself over.
"Roronoa Zoro. Im new here." He said, luffy did notice that his voice was pretty deep, but smooth and fruity. It was pleasant to listen to.
"Yeah i know, i know everyone in this school. But i don't know you."
"Yeah... that's true." Zoro said and turned to walk into the building.
'That was rude.' Luffy said smiling, nope that wouldn't due. He jumped into the building after him.
"So where are you from?" he asked, tracing his steps. Luffy had no idea where he was going to, he just followed. He already knew where his room was, and had been all set up. Just as he left it at the beginning of summer.
"Brazil..." Zoro answered absentmindedly. Still walking to a seemingly random direction.
"Whoa that's cool, so do you speak Spanish?"
"No, we speak Portuguese..."
"Oh well then that's cool!" Luffy jumped up to his side. Only then noticing the three earrings in his ear, 'shiny.' he thought.
"Yeah..."
"Hey where are you going?"
"I'm in room 304, I'm sure i saw it on my way here..."
"Hey that means you're sharing a room with my friend. His name is Chopper; he's going to be a doctor." He took a pause and looked back down the stairs. Then he mumbled "but his room is in the other direction..."
"I know where I'm going." Zoro said opened the door to the toilet. Luffy watched as the green haired man looked around. He seemed puzzled. "I'm sure it was here..."
"Dude, are you lost?" luffy asked, close to another fit of laughter.
"I'm not lost i just saw it," he said and walked out of the toilet. "I think we just walked past it..."
"You're totally lost!" he laughed a little bit. "You're with Chopper; Chopper is on the bottom floor."
"Aah! I knew it." Zoro said and scratched the back of his head.
"I'll take you there!" Luffy said and jumped on after him.
"No, no I'll find it..." and with that Zoro walked slowly in the opposite direction than to what luffy was pointing at. Whether or not he was avoiding him or was just that stupid was something luffy didn't know, but he was glad to have met him. New friends were always nice to have, even if this guy wasn't exactly friendly.
Luffy was left there, most happy. This had been a pretty good day for him. At least he had met all of his old friends and was now determined on making a new one this semester. He walked up to the third floor whistling. He hardly cared about anything else he had to do today, right now he just wanted to go to his room and eat everything he could find.
๐๐๐ ~(โกโฟโโฟ)
