Hiya~~ So I'm back with the first chapter of 'Welcome to Hell, Darling'! ;) Natsume-kun's POV for the entire story, unless I say so. ;P I don't like writing in the present tense... I always write past tense and then have to go back and correct it... T_T So sorry if there's any random past-tense paragraph in the middle of this. ^_^;
It's so short, isn't it? T_T I promise I'll update quickly to make up for it!
Oh, and by the way, I like using Japanese honorifics and terms, so for people who don't know, a couple of translation notes:
"Nani, Mikan?" - What, Mikan?
"Hai!" - Yes, sir!
"Nee, Natsume." - 'Hey', used to attract his attention.
"Sensei?" - Used to address a teacher, doctor, mangaka etc.
"Natsume-kun!" - '-kun' is the honorific used for boys, and is relatively informal.
"Mikan-chan!" - '-chan' is the honorific used for girls, and is relatively informal.
"Ruka-(blank)." - Using the first name with no honorific often signifies a close relationship, but if it's used when you don't know someone, it's quite rude.
Anyway, random fact about this chapter: It actually changed title names quite a few times! There was "Hell", "The World" and "My Secret" before I decided on "Fairytale"! :O
*Gets burned by Natsume-kun's fire*
"No one cares! Get on with the story, moron!"
"H-hai..."
"Welcome, my beautiful class! The fine, shining morning is a true reflection of the excitement we are feeling from the very depth of our souls at the thought of a new school year!"
"Um... Sensei? It's raining."
The entire class bursts out in raucous laughter. I mean, what their teacher said was true. Just not in the way he'd imagined.
Well, I say their... But it's my class too. I'm just not a part of it. I, personally, prefer to just sit at the back, sleeping peacefully. Relaxing my life away. Peacefully.
"Wow!"
"Look, isn't that Natsume Hyuuga?"
"I can't believe he's in my class!"
"Do you think he'll say yes if I ask him out?"
"No, stupid! He'd kill you before you even tried!"
Every year, it's the same thing. I can't help my reputation - once a rumour starts, it spreads like wildfire. The same damn thing happens every damn year.
"Do you think he can really do... that?"
That. The basis of my perpetually tiring lifestyle. The reason why half the school are afraid to come within twenty metres of me. My secret. Well, you can hardly call it a 'secret' if the entire school and most of the neighbourhood knows about it, can you?
"Oh! My dear Natsume-kun! I see you're in my class again this year!" Narumi L. Anju. My teacher since I came to this school three years ago. Or is it four now? I don't care. But he's even more annoying than all those girls whispering, "Hot!" and all those boys whispering, "Cold!".
"I'll look forward to teaching you!" he sings, prancing around the room in an odd combination of hoodie and tutu, his shoulder-length blond hair bouncing with his movement.
"Ugh... Don't remind me..." I grumble, but I guess a small part of me is somehow glad he's my teacher, rather than someone else who doesn't know me very well. A very, very small part.
"Natsume-kuuuuuuuun! We're in the same class again!" I lithely dodge the pouncing cat coming my way.
"Natsume-kun! That wasn't very nice!" Sumire Shouda. A classmate for the past two years that won't shut up and is madly infatuated with me. She has strange green hair that often reminds me of seaweed. Her shampoo smells like it, too.
"WHY THE HELL IS THIS PERVERT IN MY CLASS AGAIN?" Mikan Sakura. Practically the only girl on campus who seems unaffected by my good looks. She's annoying, but has a kind heart and is fun to tease. She wears her hair in pigtails, which is far too childish for a fifteen-year-old, and the smallest thing sends her into a spiral of anger/misery/joy. My partner since I transferred. You could almost say were friends. Almost.
"Stop shouting; you're making my ears hurt." That stoic voice could only belong to one person - Hotaru Imai. Otherwise known as the Ice Queen, the Witch, the Inventor and Mikan's Best Friend. She rarely shows any emotion, hence the name 'Ice Queen'. She gets fantastic grades and is usually second-to-top of the class, if not top. She invents various things in her free time. She's probably most famous for her 'Baka Gun', a gun that shoots idiots automatically with a large force of air, therefore never running out of bullets. In a way, I guess we're kind of similar.
"Oh, Natsume-kun!"
"We're in the same class again!"
"How-"
"-Strange!" The twins, Anna Umenomiya and Nonoko Ogasawara. Well, they're not really twins, but they act like it. We've been in the same class since I transferred, so they know me well enough to avoid touchy subjects and not annoy me. I don't mind them, as they don't fawn over me or constantly ask for my signature.
"Mikan-chan! We're in the same class for the first time!" Yuu Tobita, the class president. Iinchou. Fell head-over-heels for Mikan as soon as he saw her, apparently. He must be ecstatic to be in the same class as her. He's nice, I guess, but too shy and annoyingly scared of most things. Even me.
"Here we are again, I guess." Ruka smiles. I show him a small smile of my own. Ruka Nogi, my best friend. The sweet, princely animal lover. We've been friends since we were six. He transferred to Alice Academy at the same time as me, and we've been in the same class ever since. Our personalities are so contrasting; I guess we balance each other out. He has light blond hair, always neat without looking geeky, and sea-blue eyes that every girl loves. He always carries around Usagi, his pet bunny, and has a mad crush on Hotaru Imai, for some reason unfathomable to me.
"Yeah. We've been lucky to be in the same class every year, haven't we?" I murmur.
"Mm." He sits down in the empty seat to my right. The seats directly either side of me are always empty because people are too scared to sit next to me, partly because of my personality, but mainly because of that.
"Alright class, that's enough talking now. Everyone get to their seats quickly so I can announce a free period and go watch a movie in the staff room!"
Everyone sighs at their teacher's amazing love of free periods and hurries to their seats. The quicker they sat down, the quicker their teacher would leave, so the quicker they could talk to their friends again. It's the same every single day with this teacher.
"Bye now! Have fun, and don't annoy Jinno-sensei!" Narumi laughs, and skips out of the room, his baggy sleeves trailing behind him.
Everyone is dead silent, listening to Narumi's singing getting quieter and quieter until it disappears altogether. The class takes that as a cue to do whatever they want - and by that I mean whatever they want. Some people are climbing on desks with megaphones desperately trying to catch the class's attention; others are playing tag around the desks.
I, however, am just sitting down in my seat, my feet up on my desk, my hands clasped behind my head and a manga covering my face, trying to catch a nap before Jinno's lesson. I don't usually get much sleep, so I'm constantly sleeping during class. Somehow, though, I manage to always get good grades, even when I refuse to write anything on a test (usually one of Narumi's - he sets crazy assignments).
"Natsume!" I tilt my head down so the manga slides off my face and turn to look tiredly at the auburn-haired girl standing next to me.
"Nani, Mikan?"
"Don't let this go to your already way-too-big head or anything," she huffs, a light blush decorating her pale face, "but... I missed you over the holiday." She looks at the floor.
For some reason, I don't notice the cold breeze blowing through the open window anymore.
"And your point is?" I ask, my infamous nonchalance showing through.
"Hey! You'll never get any friends if you're always that rude!" She stamps her foot. Probably in frustration.
"Shut up, Polka. What was your point?" I growl.
"Don't call me Polka! I have a name, you know!"
"I said, what was your point, Polka?"
"Argh!" she yells, obviously trying her best not to hit me. "My point was..." She stares me straight in the eye, something not many people are brave enough to do. "That... I g-got you a present!" She shoves a small white box into my left hand, whips around and stalks off towards Imai, who's angrily waving her Baka gun at her.
"Well... that was unexpected," I hear Ruka mumble beside me.
I don't say anything. I just stare at the small, white cubic box lying in the palm of my hand. It looks too small to be so heavy... It's almost as if it's made out of stone. I wonder what it is. Knowing her, it's probably a... a... I don't know. Something stupid. But... no matter what it is, it's the thought that counts, right?
I slowly reach towards the box with my right hand, and cover the lid with it. I almost pull the lid off, but quickly retract my hand. If it was Mikan, I'd be happy whatever she got me. I didn't need to know what she bought.
"You're not going to open it?" Ruka asks.
I shake my head.
He chuckles. "That's so like you, Natsume."
I smile slightly and tuck the cute box into my pocket. I decide to open it the next time I'm lonely and bored.
About thirty minutes of beautiful peace and quiet pass before Jinno finally storms into the room, sending all the out-of-place students hurtling back to their seats.
Jinno is the scariest teacher at Alice Academy, and everyone knows it - probably even the guy himself. Not even I get away with misbehaving in his class. It was originally him that decided Mikan should be a no-star in the first place, according to Mikan. She transferred in a year before I did, so I'm not quite sure, but I take her word for it.
"Class!" Jinno - or 'Jin-Jin', as the students call him behind his back - bellows.
A loud chorus of, "Hai!" is heard in response, Mikan's voice lingering slightly longer than the rest. Or maybe that was just my imagination.
"Nee, Natsume," Ruka mumbles from below me. "Do you think Jin-Jin will give us detention?"
"Why would he?" I sigh.
"Because we walked out of the classroom as soon as he mentioned algebra."
I reach for an unripe apple hanging over my face and yank it off its branch. I stare at it for a couple of seconds, testing its hardness and whether it would squish if I dropped it from the tree branch I was currently lying on. Deciding it probably wouldn't, I lazily chuck it at the top of Ruka's head.
"Ow! Natsume! What was that for?" he moans, turning around to look at me.
"Idiot. Jinno wouldn't give us detention unless we did something dangerous. In fact, he's probably glad we skipped so the girls would actually pay attention to his lesson."
"You think?"
"Mm."
After a few more minutes of silence, Ruka asks me another question. "Natsume..."
"Mm?"
"What would you do if... something really big happened?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" I mumble.
"I mean, you know, like in stories. If you suddenly found out you were supposed to be the main character or something, and there was really some evil bad guy with magic powers who was trying to massacre the entire world and you had to stop him with some magic spell or the world would be doomed. That kind of thing."
I raise an eyebrow.
"What? It could happen! Just be prepared for everything, that's all I'm saying."
"Like hell I'd need to be prepared for something as dumb as that. You want me to build a landing dock for alien spacecrafts in my backyard, too? Just to be prepared?" I ask, sarcasm flowing thick in the words.
"Yes!" Ruka sighs, exasperation evident in his voice, as if I was the one being stupid in this conversation.
I sigh, and take a second or two to contemplate the absurd idea. What if something like that really did happen? I mean, if that was possible, then surely something else along Ruka's lines was possible too, right? Obviously not as childish and as farfetched as Ruka's idea, but maybe...?
I shake my head, willing the absurd thoughts to leave my normally logical mind. I sigh, dismissing it as just Ruka being Ruka. "Idiot, things like that don't happen in real life..."
So, how was it? Tell me if you liked it in a review (since I have no idea whether people like it or not since it's the first chapter)! :D
See if you can guess what Mikan's present to Natsume is! ;P The next chapter will be dedicated the person(s) who get(s) it right! ;D
Ah, I love everyone who bothered to read this chapter~
But I'll love you even more if you review~