Heavy rain splattered against the concrete deafening Toshiro and the students around him, in fact it had almost drowned out the bell, but trained students as they were could sense it had rang. The rain became muted as he walked inside the school still able to hear it pounding on the roof. Toshiro closed his eye's and sighed to himself, he wouldn't admit it but he loved the rain, the smell of it, the whole idea of it made him feel content.
He walked down the hall shuffling along with the other students and made his way to Biology. Today was the first day of school and for Toshiro it was his first day and his first time in this school, He had recently moved from a small town 4 hours away. Since his Grandmother had passed away he decided it would be best. She was his only guardian since he never had a mother or father. Toshiro very well could've stayed at his home town he was old enough to live on his own but it reminded him too much of Granny, it wasn't like he was leaving friends behind or anything, he he may have been somewhat popular there but he chose never to interact with the people around him, none of them seemed to care much about anything but themselves anyway.
Toshiro walked in to class unsure of where to sit, his eye scanned the chalkboard a the front of the room, on it it had a diagram of the class and names written in boxes representing the desks. Toshiro found his name and sat at the according table, Toshiro was happy with where he sat. His table was right beside the window the best spot to get. Secretly he was grateful he came before whoever his desk mate was because it meant he got the good seat. The bell rang and students filed in awkwardly finding their places some happy with their seating arrangement others clearly dissatisfied. Five minutes had past cuing the second bell to ring. The professor stood up. He was an frail old looking man with long white hair, he spoke softly at first, when the chatter hadn't died down He cleared his voice causing the students to calm down. "Hello class, my name is Ukitake I am the professor." 'Thanks Captain obvious.' Toshiro thought but couldn't help feeling a pang of second hand embarrassment from the old man, he seemed out of his element as if this was his first time publicly speaking. "I hope you're all happy with your desk partner because the seating arrangement will not change through out this entire course." The white haired professor continued receiving groans and complaints from the students. At this remark Toshiro eyed the seat beside him, still empty. That was fine Toshiro figured he'd be doing all the work anyway so what did it matter if he had a lab partner or not?
"Quiet down everyone!" Professor Ukitake raised his voice if only a few decibels, he was still fairly quiet even when he tried to shout it was as if his voice was being held back by something.
"Now to begin this unit we will do a short review of last years content and then we will dive into to all the systems of the body." Ukitake paused coughing harshly before continuing "If you have any questions before I begin I suggest you ask them now." The students stared at him blankly "Alright lets begi-" Ukitake was cut off when a short brown haired girl ran into the doorway "S-sorry I'm late I woke up late, please forgive me." She bowed "That's quite alright Hinamori please take your seat, your desk partner can bring you up to speed." "Thank you Ukitake!" she hurriedly rushed to her seat beside Toshiro. Toshiro looked at her from the corner of his eye, she was taller than him but not by much,her long brown hair was tied up in a seemingly perfect bun. The girl sat down quickly wiping the sweat away from her brow. Her brown eye's were wide and alert despite the slight appearance of bags under her eyes she seemed to be awake.
"Hi, I'm Momo." She greeted nodded her head at her new lab partner. "Toshiro" The white hair boy replied nodding back. "What have I missed?" she asked tentatively as if he might yell at her for something she had done wrong. Toshiro raised an eyebrow at this but answered her question "Nothing, really he just introduced himself "He gestured to Ukitake. "And said we'd be reviewing last years topics."
"Oh I see." She replied her eyes seemed lost in thought. 'Great I'm partners with a daydreamer, this should be fun." Toshiro scratched the back of his head and sighed to himself.
The rest of the day seemed to sail by and before he knew it Toshiro was in History. Toshiro took his seat according to the seating plan and waited for the teacher to begin her lecture, the teacher Nanao was just beginning when she was interrupted by a student arriving late, Once again it was Momo and once again she was assigned to sit beside him. Momo noticed this and flushed bright red. It was one thing to arrive late, but when someone knows you've done it twice it just gets embarrassing.
"You're late." Toshiro stated the obvious as she took her seat beside him. she sighed in response "I just got caught up that's all." 'Caught up? with what?' Toshiro shook his head disapprovingly "Hey don't look at me like that!" She pouted "I'm not looking at you like anything." His turquoise eyes locked with hers. Momo rolled her eyes in response" Whatever." Toshiro studied her face as she wrote excessively fast in her notebook trying to make up for her late arrival, her eyes seemed to be puffy as if she had been crying. Toshiro shook off the thought it was probably nothing anyway.
Momo couldn't stop fidgeting her anxiety was building up inside her, oh how she wished she could just run a lap around the school. She felt the exercise would calm her down, unfortunately she didn't take P.E. as a course figuring it be all Beefed up pig headed guys which Momo didn't find particularly enjoyable to be around. She hadn't heard her alarm clock that morning due to her nightmares she didn't get much sleep and ended up sleeping in once she had finally fallen asleep at about four that morning, and of course her anxiety clung to her hard since it was the first day of school causing her to break down in the bathroom and cry for the first fifteen minutes of History class. Today was not a good day. Is that wasn't enough she felt this pressure to be friends with the boy beside her, She didn't have friends and she was perfectly fine in her solitude and reading books but for some reason she wanted a reason to talk to the peculiar white haired boy. She could tell he was very smart almost a genius In biology she had watched him answer the review questions effortlessly as if the circulatory system had been something he'd known since birth. She found this frustrating, she knew she was smart but she felt challenged and maybe even insecure about her intelligence now.
She had only met the guy but she couldn't stop thinking about him, something about him made her curious. 'No Momo don't get attached again it's not worth the pain.' Momo shook her head, trusting people didn't come easy to her, she had often trusted people to quickly only to get tossed in made it part of resolve to keep her guard up. She had moved to the town half a year ago after the thought of him knowing where she lived made her skin crawl, she had practically moved across the country but the nightmares didn't stop. She knew her dad couldn't get to her even if he wanted to but it didn't ease her mind.
When the bell rang she had practically bolted out the classroom, she felt so confined she couldn't wait to walk home, that was when she remembered that it was raining and she was careless enough to forget her jacket and umbrella during this morning rush to get to school. Momo's shoulders sagged 'Guess I'll have to suffer through it' she rubbed her forehead cursing herself for being so forgetful.
She began on her way home trying not to shiver, she wanted to keep the illusion that it was her choice to be walking in the pouring rain with nothing but her uniform on. After about a block her hair had become weighed down by the rain forcing her to take out her bun, her now sopping wet hair clung to her neck. 'Well at least my neck feels warmer now, what an optimist I am.' She sighed .Usually she'd be playing music on her way home but her earphones much like her jacket were currently warm and dry at her house. Noticing her lack of music she realized she could hear footsteps behind her. 'Relax Momo it's just someone walking home.' She felt her heart beat faster and took a deep breath trying to regulate her breathing. 'In. Out . '
"What the hell are you doing?" a low voice asked "WAH!" Momo shot around to find Toshiro standing behind her with a bright blue umbrella shielding his gelled hair. "Don't do that! you almost gave me a heart attack!" "I didn't do anything you're the one who suddenly stopped walking." Toshiro countered "Well you could've just walked around!" Momo pouted. Toshiro shrugged "I guess but I'd rather not go swimming." Momo looked down at the ground other than the side walk everywhere else was half flooded. "Oh, I see." She felt embarrassed she couldn't believe she hadn't noticed her shifted awkwardly in place her wet socks squishing as she shifted her weight. Finally she turned around and began to walk again.
The two began to fall instep with each other neither of them saying anything. Toshiro instinctively shared the umbrella with Momo, he felt a sense of concern for her well being.
"You're going to get sick walking in the rain with no jacket, then you'll never show up for class"Toshiro teased. Momo just laughed "Yeah I guess you're right,"
"So, you're Momo correct?" Toshiro asked what he already knew.
"Yeah, you're Toshiro right?" Toshiro nodded. "It seems were walking the same way where do you live?" Momo questioned chewing her nails. "Not far from the music shop I guess, where all the apartments are." Momo nodded at this and seemed to think about it for a bit. "I live across from there up the street a bit." Momo's brown eyes caught Toshiro's turquoise orbs. "Were practically neighbors then." He smiled softly at her, he hadn't smiled since grandma died it felt stretched and abnormal. "Yeah I guess so." Momo smiled back feeling grateful for some company for once.