The American Student

A/N: This idea just popped into my mind and I knew I had to turn it into a fic. I know where this is going for the most part (Well actually no, I don't). I'm warning you that this fic will entirely ignore the facts that Ichigo, Chad and Renji are training right now and that Orihime was kidnapped. Let's all pretend that they have another year to go until Aizen attacks. I repeat, just pretend it. Well let's get on with the story. Also, I'm aware that they don't have school right now, pretend they do.

Disclaimer: I don't own bleach.

"Normal"- Japanese "Italics"- English Italics out of quotes- thoughts.

Chapter One: News of the American Transfer Student

Ichigo sat down at his desk in class and stared out the window. Rukia and him had only stopped arguing moments before about whether or not people would ask Hitsugaya if he skipped grades again today like they did last week. It was a usual Monday morning, otherwise. As their teacher came in the class settled into their seats. The teacher did their usual role call and then she said something interesting.

"Well, I have something to announce." The teacher said. The class shut up and they listened. She sounded unsure of how they would react to what she was about to say but she continued on. "Tomorrow we are getting a new student, an American student." There were a few murmurs of interest among the students.

"Does the new student know Japanese?" Mizuiro asked.

"Yes, I was told that she is fluent in Japanese."

"So it's a girl?" another student asked.

"Yes."

"What's her name?"

"Bard Claire. Now no more questions, I need to tell all of you something important about her." The teacher took a deep breath and then spoke, "She's only thirteen years old." She finished hurriedly so that her words were almost slurred together. The class was silent for a moment and then she got the reaction she was expecting.

"WHAT?!?" about half the class yelled at once.

"How will she keep up with our class if she's still in middle school?"

"You're kidding us right?"

"There is no way a thirteen year old will keep up, she won't know half the stuff!"

"Oh, I bet she's short like Hitsugaya!" One of the girls squealed.

"Who are you calling short?" Hitsugaya said in a warning voice.

"Hey, Taicho. Now you'll have someone besides Rukia who's your height!"

"Shut up, Matsumoto."

"I wonder what she's like?"

"I bet she's blond since she's American."

"Who says all Americans are blond?" Finally the teacher couldn't take it any more.

"Shut up and listen!" She yelled over all the other voices and the class silenced. "This is basically happening because the Americans are trying to prove that their schooling is as good as ours. They want to prove that an eighth grader can keep up with a class of tenth graders. Now I expect none of you to treat her badly because she's younger or different, got it?" the class nodded and they got on with their day.

Throughout the day the murmurs and guesses about the new student were everywhere. Even as Ichigo, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki, Matsumoto, Hitsugaya, Renji, Ikkaku, and Yumichika left the school at the end of the day people were talking about it. Finally Orihime brought it up as Tatsuki left the group and headed for karate practice.

"So really, what do you think she is going to be like? She has to be smart if she is going to keep up with us but that's all we really know besides her name and age." Orihime said.

"Well, her last name sounds English or German so she is probably of European descent." Ishida reasoned. "Also I'm guessing about a five feet, three inches tall cause Americans tend to be taller than Asians."

"Ishida, I don't even want to know how you know that sort of stuff." Ichigo said. "But I think that it doesn't matter what we think because we'll find out tomorrow whether we know anything about her or not."

"True." Everyone else said and eventually they all went their separate ways and went home.

Meanwhile the new student was on an airplane to Japan. Claire couldn't say that she wasn't happy she was going to Japan; she love anime, manga, their foods, and had always wanted to go there. Also, Claire thought hopefully, anything that might get me away from hollows is entirely welcome. She touched the mark on the lower left side of the back of her neck that she knew had a flower (1) in the middle surrounded by three little Japanese symbols; two of them said ten and the other said eleven, they were changing numbers that represented what seal she was on. Currently she was on the tenth seal but when the final number turned eleven she would be on a new seal.

The plain was almost there and an attendant came to tell her that a man named Nakamoto-san was going to be the one waiting at the airport for her. Claire said thanks to her and the attendant left Claire to her thoughts of the hollows, shinigami, and normal souls that she saw every day.

"We have now reached the Japanese International Airport near Karakura, Japan. Please wait till we land to move and have an enjoyable stay in Japan." A cheerful voice said over the airplane's speakers.

After Claire got off the airplane and had gotten a large cart for all her luggage, knowing even more of it had been shipped ahead of time to Nakamoto-san for him to put in her new apartment where she'd be living alone until the American Education People said she could come back, Claire found Nakamoto-san and he led her to a large van to put all her stuff in. She was going to spend a night at a hotel before she went to school and then she would go to her apartment after her first day at school.

"So are you nervous about school at all?" Nakamoto-san said as he looked back at Claire who was fiddling with her necklace.

"Not really. Just because I'm younger doesn't mean I'm dumber than them. Also it's not like I'm here to make friends so who cares if they like me or not." Claire said as she looked down at her necklace; it was an old one that her great-grandpa gave her when she was five and she couldn't take it off unless she wanted to cut the black cord that it held it around her neck. The charm on it was a skull with a bright blue flame behind it (2).

Nakamoto-san was somewhat worried about her. He had seen her act naturally around people of her age or younger and act fine around her teachers when he visited America to discuss her arrangements and to see how she would do with other kids. They hit a slight snag when she was placed in a class of tenth graders to observe how she would act. The problem was she became somewhat shy and hardly spoke to any of them and she didn't look any of them in the eye when she did speak, otherwise it went fine; she got perfect grades and could easily be in her last year of high school with the brains she has. Also she excelled at forms of defense such as martial arts. He just was worried that older kids might pick on her.

They arrived at the hotel and checked in, they would be staying in separate rooms for the night and then Nakamoto-san would drive Claire to her new school. Then he would drop off the rest of her luggage at her apartment along with some addresses of stores and other things she might need to visit.

When Claire got into her room she changed into her sleep wear and went to brush her teeth. When she pulled her head back up after spitting out the toothpaste she noticed that currently one eye was a light brown and the other was a medium green. She laughed to herself a bit about her eyes that often changed colors; her friend had once even said Claire's eyes turned a shocking red when she was angry. Of course this was coming from her friend that somehow also had the strange ability to see shinigami, hollows, and normal souls so she figured that the red had been the color of her reiatsu at the time which often affected her eye color besides the normal color-changing.

As she walked back into the bed area of the hotel room she pulled her reddish-brown hair- which now was almost more red than brown from all the time she had spent outside recently- out of its ponytail and flopped onto the cushy bed to get a good nights sleep for tomorrow, not even bothering to turn off the lights.

A/N: So how did you like it? I want to know so please read and review. Also, does anyone know the name of Ichigo's teacher? Well now here are the footnotes:

(1) The flower on her marks flower is the same as the flower of the tenth squad's symbol. Like the one that shows up black on Matsumoto and Hitsugaya when they have their limiters released, it's the same picture.

(2) The symbol on Claire's necklace is the same one as the one that's on the bottom of Urahara's cane and the one on Rukia's glove thing that she uses to drag Ichigo out of his body.

Also I'm telling you now that for those who haven't realized (which I'm sure most of you did) I already flipped Claire's name so if she was in America her name would be said Claire Bard. Next I'm saying that I recently discovered that Ichigo is only 5 feet 8 inches tall (that amused me cause he seems taller, but like I said Asians tend to be smaller).