AN: Ahahaha, woops...Didn't mean to go and start a new story when I have others that need to be updated, but I really like the plot I planned for this one and I think it'll be my best yet. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the storyline and all so it shouldn't be as messy as the others. It won't be as fluffy as "Love Happens" or as interesting as "Love, Hate, and other cliches" but I am actually really excited for this story and I hope you guys like it. Also I tried to put a little more effort into this chapter than normal but I still think it could be better. Oh well. LenxNeru, RinxNero, maybe some KaitoxMeiko and GakupoxLuka. T for language. And maybe health class (oh the horror). If I includes things about health class, can I still rank it as T? Teens should have already learned this stuff, I think it's fine. Also the longest chapter I've ever written is 1,804 words, let's see if I can beat it.

Warning, this is a very cisnormative story and may be offensive/triggering to non-binary/trans people. (Gender expectations/gender roles/gender determination from presentation)

Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid or any of the characters involved in this story.

Neru Akita waited impatiently behind her window in her modest house, pacing back and forth. It was supposed to arrive today. Yes, today was the day that she'd be receiving the letter that would tell whether or not she'd been accepted to the Yamaha Academy, the number one music school in the country. Only the absolute best of the best are admitted. It had been her dream to go to school there, for she'd always aspired to be a famous singer and Yamaha Academy is said to produce some of the most popular idols of all time. This school is her only opportunity to being the star that she'd always dreamed of, so she prayed that she'd be accepted. Her brother had bothered to take the test too, after great insistance from her mother, but was indifferent towards the idea. He didn't care very much for music, and his exam had been turned in two days past the due date. There was no way he got in.

Her eyes lit up as she saw the mail truck pull up and stop in front of her yard. A short and portly man stumbled out of the door, carrying various envelopes with him in his gloved hands. It took Neru all of her strength not to run out of the door and snatch the letters out of his hands. She pushed her face against the window and endured every agonizing moment waiting for the chubby man to put the mail in the mailbox. 'Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up God dammit!' Neru silently screamed inside her head. Her patience was wearing very thin as her foot tapped to the floor rapidly. Why won't he just hurry up?

Neru's heart leapt when she saw him finally deposit the envelopes in the mailbox after what seemed like hours of waiting. She didn't even bother waiting for the man to leave as she burst through the front door and immediately opened the closed lid. The mailman stared at her crudely as he muttered something impolite and stumbled back to his truck. Neru shuffled through all the assorted letters. Bill, bill, bill, magazine subscription, bill, Nero's manga, bill...and that's it.

"What the hell...where is it? It should be here by now!" Neru declared angrily. "Even if I didn't make it, there still should've been, like, a note or something!" She shuffled through the mail again, still not finding the letter she was looking for. The mail man reached out of the window of his truck, tossing a large box at her feet and muttering something again as he drove away. Neru's eyes wandered to cardboard box and held it up to her face so she could see it properly. There was a rectangular sticker with some black text printed onto its white surface.

'To the Akitas'

"Oh my god..." Neru gasped lowly. "This is it. This has to be it." She cautiously stripped the box of its tape and looked inside as she peeled opened the folds. There was an embroidered envelope on top of some wrapped packages. The blonde carefully opened it and withdrew the document it held. Neru's eyes widened as she read the header printed boldly in blue and gold.

Yamaha Academy

Letter of Acceptance

"OH MY GOD! I'M IN! I'M IN! I'M IN I'M IN I'M IN! MOM LOOK! I GOT IN!" Neru squealed in extreme delight and jubilance. She dashed back into her house excitedly to show the letter to her mother. "MOOOM! LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK! I GOT IN!" Neru shot into her mother's room and pounced onto her bed, awakening the sleeping thirty-seven year old woman. "Ughh..." She yawned. "What are you shouting about now? I was sleeping."

"Then wake up! Look!" Neru shoved he paper in her mother's face. "I got in!"

"Got in what?"

"Yamaha Academy! Look! Read it!"

"Huh? Yamaha Academy..." Her mother's voice trailed off as she looked to the paper in her face and grabbed it. She reached to her dark oak side table and turned on her lamp so that she could skim over it.

"Wow...Congratulations Neru! This is amazing! I knew you studied hard but I never thought you'd actually pass the exam!"

"Uh."

"Oooh, I'll cook some sekihan(1) tonight! And maybe I'll slice up some pineapples-ohhh I know how much you love pineapples and-" Neru didn't get to hear the rest of her mom's rambling as she silently turned to the door to exit. She walked down a hall, up a staircase and advanced to her room. As soon as she opened the door, she collapsed onto her mattress.

"Ahh..." was all she could say as her eyes rolled up to the cloud white ceiling. She felt...happy. Content. Cheerful. Her brain was swimming in an ocean of pleasant emotions. Neru sat up and steered to her square mirror on her dresser. She had the goofiest grin on her face. Ew. That looks terrible. She attempted to push the corners downwards to her regular grimace, though in vain, for they shot right back up into their previous position. "Ugh." Neru groaned frustratedly."They won't stay down." She sat back down onto her bed and thought. About things. About where her life was going, about how great it was going to become, just from receiving one letter. Happy was an understatement. Neru was elated, even if she wasn't really showing it on the outside.

"Neru-neeeee!" A high-pitched voice barged into her room, interrupting her pleasant thoughts. The younger blonde glared at his older sister, annoyed, arms crossed and brows furrowed. "Mom has been calling you for like ten minutes! Food's ready, and she won't let me eat until you're there!" He flailed angrily. Neru sat up again, confused. Ten minutes? Had she really been thinking that long? It had felt just a few seconds. "Come ooooon! I'm gonna starve to death if you don't get up!" Nero grabbed his sister by the wrist with both of his hands and pulled as hard as he could. Through his efforts, he eventually managed to get Neru out of her room. She went down the stairs herself.

When the siblings got to the kitchen, their Mother was pouring some water for each of them into a glass. When she saw them arrive, she grinned and gestured for them to sit down at the table. When Nero saw the sekihan, he asked: "What's the occasion?" The mother reached into her pocket and withdrew the letter proudly and exuberantly. "Well, I'll just read the letter and tell you." She readjusted her glasses so that she could read the tiny cursive print. "Ahem." She cleared her throat.

"Dear Akita Nero...well that's funny, for some reason, it's addressed to Nero. It's probably just a misprint." The mother continued. "Congratulations, you have been accepted into Yamaha Academy." Neru took a moment to snidely smirk at Nero in a snobbish way. He stuck out his tongue. "Your uniform came in the package this letter arrived in. You will be required to wear this for the whole school day with few exceptions. Students must have their I.D with them at all times and need a signed pass from a Yamaha Academy authority if they are out of class during school hours. The curfew is 8 pm. You have been pre-assigned a dormitory with another male student...Oh my." The mother gasped. She checked over the sentence again and again to be sure that she had read it correctly. "That's so...indecent. How could they bunk a girl with a boy? I can't let you sleep in the same room as a male!" Her mother convicted.

"Oh, come ooooooon, Mom." Neru droned. "What do you think is gonna happen, I'll have a baby with him or something?" Nero winced at just the thought. Gross.

"No, but-"

"BUT, what? I know your gonna let me go anyway so just keep reading." Neru remarked with a flick of her hand, telling her mother to go on. She wished Neru would stop talking so disrespectfully, else she'd be kicked out of Yamaha within a week. Nonetheless, her mother averted her eyes back to the letter.

"Well...The rest is mostly praise for the school and such. I don't think we need to go into it. Let's look at the uniform." She suggested eagerly. Neru held up the wrapped clothing for everyone to see as impatiently tore off the plastic covering. The shirt was a long-sleeved navy blue cardigan that buttoned up to the middle of the stomach. Folded underneath it is a thin gray undershirt. The bottoms were shorts, lengthened slightly below the knee, also dark blue. The socks were a much lighter shade of grayish azure, contrasted by fancy black shoes with no laces.

"This...is not a girl uniform." Her mother said slowly. Puzzle pieces started to form in her head.

"Yeah it is, it's just different from other schools." Neru argued in a nescient way. Nero twiddled his thumbs. He seemed to have realized it, too.

"Umm, Neru..." She wondered how to tell her. It would be so sad to let her down. "I...I don't think this is..."

"Is what?"

"Is...Neru, I'm sorry, but I think this is Nero's acceptance letter. Yours didn't come." The room was quiet for a few seconds.

"Pffffft," Neru snorted. "No way. Nero turned in his test after the deadline. It's late; allowing him would be against the rules."

"Nero scored-" Her mother began.

"I scored."

"An 'A' on the assesment. It is a very high score, maybe they have exceptions for late submissions if the grade is that good. I thought it was a stretch that a school with strict rules like this one would allow a boy and girl to sleep in the same room."

"Mom," Neru groaned.

"-because kids your age are too horny."

"MOM!" The siblings shouted in unison.

"And it's written to Nero. Neru, I-"

"You said it was probably a misprint!" Neru was getting defensive.

"Yes, yes, but doesn't seem like too big a coincidence? And Nero's score was very high, Neru. I know you studied hard, but I don't think-"

"Don't think what? That I'm not smart enough to score that high?!"

"Yes." Sometimes, her mother was too blunt with things.

"Well, I...I know it seems that way, but maybe it was a misprint! Maybe they accidentally sent me a male uniform! Maybe the school just trusts us enough to put boys and girls in the same room! Maybe I am smart enough to get an 'A'!" By the way she said all of it, you could tell she was in denial. Neru blinked back tears, but it was obvious. Eventually, they welled up and poured down her red cheeks. Immediately, Neru wiped them off with her sleeve.

"Ohhh, Neru..." Her mother sighed as she wrapped her arms around Neru and embraced her in an empathetic hug. Nero felt bad too, he didn't even want to go to that school. He doesn't like his singing voice and he can't play any instruments. The only reason he passed is because of his photographic memory. Music class is mandatory in his school. Nero's eyes lit up with an idea.

"Hey," He started. Neru looked up from her mother's hug. "Why don't you just take my spot?"

"Huh?" Neru asked, as if she hadn't heard him right.

"Yeah. Just take my spot in the school. I don't want to go. You're only a little taller than me, and we have the same hair and eye color. The school doesn't even know what I look like yet, and they already have my physical, so you won't need to take one."

"Nero, she can't do that!" The woman exclaimed. "She's a girl, you're a boy."

"She looks man enough to me." Nero muttered. Neru snarled.

"But she could be expelled from the school if they found out! That would go on her permanent record!"

"Then just don't get caught." He replied nonchalantly.

"You graduate from Yamaha Academy, and if you get discovered, that's it! She'll have to pretend to be a male for the rest of her career! Neru, speak up!" Her mother urged. Neru was deep in thought. She was thinking about it. You can only take the test three times and wait a year between each assesment, and she'd already taken it twice (and failed). Neru had never studied so hard, and when she did, she still didn't pass. What are the chances she'll get in next time?

"I'll do it." She decided in a determined way.

"Am I the only one who thinks this is utterly insane!?" The oldest blonde cried.

"Yes." Neru and Nero said simultaneously, again. She gave up, collapsing on the table.

"You kids..."

"Does that mean I can go? Because I will whether you say I can or not." Her mother waited a full minute before answering, hoping that giving Neru time to think would make her change her mind, but, in vain.

"Yes..." She sighed exhaustedly. Neru cheered and hugged the two others in the room. She stole the box and uniform from the table and happily skipped up the stairs to prepare for the next week when the semester began. Her mother couldn't help but smile at her. It was rare to see that expression on the young blond's face.

"Since that's all settled," Nero slammed his hands on the part of the table in front of his mother. "CAN I EAT NOW?!"

(1) Sekihan:

It's this kind of rice that's eaten for special occasions.

AN: Annnnd there it is. I got more then 1,804 words, hurray. Len will appear later in the story. Ahh, it's 1:07 am I need to go to bed. Good night.