Chapter I

A young Puerto Rican man with a trimmed haircut, was about 5'11, and was wearing, glasses, a plain red t-shirt and a blue and gray plaid long sleeve shirt over it. He was on a plane to Tokyo, Japan for reasons that not even he understood and good thing after all Japan has good education, but he didn't believe that. It's only for a year and he will meet new people and it's a new country so he'll be able to explore new places and a new culture. He'll miss his school and the biggest thing of all: his friends. But he is excited for the trip despite the reasons. To help escape from his dark depressed section of his mind he opened up his 3DS and on it was his favorite game of all time: Pokèmon. Next to him was a pretty girl with long curly hair and glasses with a yellow tank top and a black jacket. Her eyes were closed as she listened to her music playing in her earphones. She stretches her arms and legs and opens her eyes to see the guy playing his 3DS.

"Louie!" she says as she closes his 3DS on his thumbs.

"What Sam?" said Louis as he signed and was already annoyed?

"You're not supposed to play games on the plane while it's flying" she said scolding him and taking out her earphones.

"Sam that crap isn't even true if anything it will only cause some static or fidgeting, plus I'm not using any WiFi or any connection at all." Louis pointed out as he pushed his classes up.

Sam looked at Louis and he could tell that she was not happy with him getting all smart with her.

"Ya know Sam we may be brother and sister but I'd rather pretend that we are just roommates that don't talk to each other".

"Whatever, if that's how you want to deal with all this than go ahead" she replied and leaned back in her seat as she placed her earphones back in.

Louis opened back up his 3DS to continue playing. Louis heard a voice on the PA, he didn't listen to it but he gathered enough to tell that the plain was landing soon. After landing he got his stuff and waited by the exit for his guardian and his sister. Louis was able to speak some Japanese. He knew enough to get around a little and get the point across. They eventually got to the house it's late at night and snowing there so he decided to sleep. He noticed that his sister was already getting stared at but he didn't care much. He was more worried about his new school he was going to. He received the school uniform early from his guardian so he can go straight to school. Sam got acquainted with some of the kids that are still up, the best she could at least. Louis thought about everything so far and even though it's all new for him he might enjoy the opportunities. At least that's what he was thinking to end the night the best way he could.

The next morning Louis was awakened by his sister. She was about half way done getting dressed. She put on the sailor fuku winter design. The main color was black and the stripes were red, the ribbon that was tied around the blouse was also red and stretched to the end of her chest. She was also wearing the skirt that was also black and went just passed the knees. There was also the black long socks and shoes.

"Come on Louie hurry and get your lazy self-up and ready if you want Kobayashi-san to give us a ride" she said as she was adjusting her…everything.

Louis signed and got up and saw his black Gakuran with red buttons uniform all wrapped up in plastic covering. Louis took off the plastic and began to get ready, he decided to skip breakfast. He wasn't hungry nor was he a breakfast eater anyways. He didn't like the fact that he had to wear a uniform he preferred the "wear whatever" dress code, however it was very comfortable and looked nice. He ran out of the house to the minivan. He opened the door and apologized for being late and thanked Kobayashi-san for the ride the best he could in Japanese, though he mixed it up the two, and Kobayashi replied to him in English to his slight surprise.

"It's ok Louis-Kun, I do appreciate your attempt at Japanese but if you want to talk to me in English you are more than welcome too" Kobayashi said.

Louis sat in the back next to two Japanese kids they didn't seem to like him but didn't think bad of him either. They drove out Sam seemed to have already made a friend with a Japanese girl. When they got to the school Louis's eyes widen. He saw a big gate in front of the school it also had five floors. The middle of the building was brown while the rest was white. The backyard had a baseball, track, basketball, and a tennis court. They even were able to fit some beautiful Sakura trees on the side of the fence. They got inside and got to their assigned classrooms for homeroom. Louis was thankful that he didn't get any classes with his sisters. He looked around the class room and he was expecting a little more crazy stuff happening, but instead everyone was having a good level conversation and everyone was with their own group of friends. Louis attempted to not draw a lot of attention to himself so he grabbed a seat in the back away from most people as he can get. He continued to look around the room to see faces and get adjusted to it. He noticed two things one boy in the front was black.

"Not many of those here" Louis thought to himself.

And the second thing was a boy with a black bowlish style haircut and wearing a black hoodie jacket over his uniform he was in the very back as well and was farther away from people than Louis was. The boy seemed to have studied everything he could in the room and probably remembers faces well. He also seemed to be a foreign student. Time passed and a woman came into the classroom she had long hair he right side of her hair came down and covered half her eye. She was wearing a long sleeved buttoned down white dress shirt and a black skirt. She was obviously the teacher and got situated quickly. She began speaking to the class in Japanese Louis could tell what she was saying.

"Good morning class, hope everyone slept well" the teacher said "well we have three foreign exchange students. Would you three stand up and introduce yourself".

Louis stood up and walked to the front as well as the other foreign students he noticed around the class room. They wrote their names on the board and faced the class.

"Can you please introduce yourselves" the teacher asked as she touched our shoulders.

"Hey everyone what's up my name is Neville, I'm sure you'll remember me for the obvious reasons." Neville was going in and out of Japanese and English, he was also speaking informally. Neville looked around and can tell that they weren't amused by him. "…and I hope we all get along".

"O.K. Thank you. And this is Rouis. Correct?" asked the teacher mispronouncing his name.

Louis didn't want to waste time, his name was written on the board everyone knew what it was and he knew that "L" can't be pronounced correctly.

"Hai" he replied as he nodded in agreement.

The teacher then switched back to Japanese as she went to the last student.

"You're name is Joshua. Right?" she asked

"So da" Joshua said as he bowed "Please be good to me".

Since it was the first day of school there was no classes it was just a short day hanging in homeroom. Some Japanese kids came up to Louis and Josh and they asked some questions but not as much as Louis thought they would get. After some time he decided to go and talk to Joshua since he seemed to be in a similar situation as he was.

"Hey there. I assume you can speak English fluently?" Louis asked.

"Uhm yea, what's up…Rouis." Josh chuckled.

Louis laughed "Good one"

"So do you like it here?"

"Like what specifically?"

"Whatever you are willing to share" Josh smiled and folded his hands as Louis smiled and took his seat

They began talking for a while and then the lonely Neville came over to us.

"Hey what's up guys I hope we can get along here" Neville said in improper Japanese.

"Dude" Josh said "do we look like we only have Japanese language in common. You can speak English here".

"OH THANK GOD" he said as he took a seat in front of them.

Josh signed and looked away a little bit and tried to pretend that he wasn't there.

After a long conversation between Louis and Neville the teacher called up Neville and had a conversation with the teacher.

"Thank god I hope he stays away for a while" Josh said in relief.

Louis looked at him in question.

"Dude Josh why?" Louis asked "he seems very cool and all-" Louis said but was interrupted.

"Oh I don't doubt it he does seem cool and all but the way things work around here is if you're Japanese you're fine. If you're not then you'll have some trouble. Right now it's all about the level of knowledge you have about their language, culture, and respect you give. He gave no respect in his presentation, and was improper." Joshua stated.

"Well what about me then?"

"You were fine, it could have done better but they can overlook a few things in time"

"So you did everything perfect then"

"Me. No, I also could have done better but I did the best and soon if I keep it all up I'll blend in and be able to do…more things than I can now".

A little while later the day ended. The teacher told Neville to learn more proper and formal Japanese for the future. Everyone went home for the rest of the day as far as he knew. Louis waited outside for Kobayashi to pick him up in front of the school building.

"Hey louie" said a familiar voice.

Louis turned around to see his sister galloping on the side walk to him holding a book in her hand.

"How was your first day" she asked

"It was fine" he replied "how come you're so…Skippy"

"Because my day was good and I made FWENDS" she said as her arms went into the air like a little kid.

Louis shook his head and signed "I'm sure Josh would have gotten a kick out of that" he thought to himself.

"Did you make any friends?"

Louis paused for a moment and thought about what happened today.

"you know…I'm…not sure"

They heard the honking of a horn and a minivan pulled up. It was Kobayashi of course, he asked about their first day and if they like it so far. Though one thing he said that even he found strange was the amount of foreign exchange students in one school. Louis shrugged and took it as a "once in a life time" event. They got back to the house and everyone did their own thing. Louis, however just didn't know what much to do around here so he decided to lay back and play his 3DS. Some of the kids there challenged him to Pokèmon, but being Japanese didn't help them against Louis's near "no life" knowledge on the game, needless to say, as he thought to himself "beat them at their own game!". Everyone had a good time playing.

It got late and Louis fell asleep after a while in his dream world Louis found himself in a strange room. Louis turned his head and saw two people sitting on the other side of the room. There was an old man with a long nose and bulging eyes, and his hands folded together to make a rest for it. He was wearing gloves and a gray and white suit. His elbows were resting on a white table with a deck of weird cards. Just adjacent from him was a pretty girl with blond long hair that curls at the end. She wore a blue jacket, blue pants, and blue boots. On her lap was a big brown book what it really was is a mystery to him. Louis stood up still feeling like a dream to him but at the same time: Real.

"Welcome, To the Velvet Room".