Mao Academy
Volume One
Chapter One
"Mother… Please No… Come on… I don't wanna go!" I yelled.
So this is me, Sora; a brown haired, blue eyed Japanese kid. I'm 11, and not what you'd call 'clever'. I was born here and schooled here for um… since 1st grade! But now… I was told that I have to go to England, and attend this weird Japanese academy place with my sister, Setsuna.
We walked along a thin path, lined with weeds and moss until we came to a brand new, just completed house, with solar panels on the roof and a wind turbine. It was June 11 2025, when a new law that renewable energy must be used or something was passed. That is where we have to live, next to the school grounds.
All we've come with is some clothes each, some books each, and a laptop and PDA each, Not forgetting a massive sum of money to start us off (We've got part time jobs! I deliver mail and Setsuna works as the secretary of the school's assistant, which is mainly why she's come here… she's 16!)
I walked across the hallway in Mao Academy (I'll just call it Mao) and up to my locker… uh… can't reach it. Ur… who can I ask to help me… … … All these people are weird… they're speaking some foreign language… Anybody know Japanese? Any girl even? Come on! It's a Japanese school yet no-one knows the lingo?
I rolled my eyes and got on top of all my books, and finally grabbed my locker. I opened it and grabbed the side and pulled myself up. The bunch of books fell down and a teacher came up to me.
"Excuse me, would you happen to know where a pupil called Sora is?" She asked.
"You're looking at him, sensei." I told her.
"Oh, lucky I found you... someone who claims to be your sister is at the office. Said you forgot your laptop." Sensei told me.
What's Setsuna doing at the office?
"O.K, sensei, I'll get my laptop and get to class… Please could you tell me where class 6A is?" I asked.
"Down, the hall to the right… and show some respect… to your new teacher, see you there!" She said, winking at me then walking away.
I quickly ran down the corridor, skidded down the corridor, fell and slid half the way, got up and ran to the office. Setsuna seemed to have just arrived. She ran up to me, shoved the laptop into my hands, and ran off… she seemed to be late.
WAIT… IF SHE'S LATE, I AM TOO!
I ran back down the corridor, down the hall and took a right. Finally in class. I sat down, at the back of the classroom as the lesson began.
"So sorry sensei…" I got up, bowed then sat down.
"So, if you could turn to page 255 in your textbooks, make a couple of notes…and that's about it." she explained.
I read through the page, grabbed my pen, quickly wrote reams and reams, and speedily finished. I had like four pages of notes in my notebook. I just sat there, as sensei carried on reading at her desk. She looked up, saw I wasn't working and had finished, and called me over. She told me to research on the net, but noticing my t-shirt, which read 'Love sushi!' she stopped.
"Are you from Japan?"
"Yep, I am… I came here just yesterday."
"Interesting… Did you come alone?"
"Nope, I came with my friend, who works in the secretary's office."
"Oh… would you be interested in forming a club which teaches more Japanese? If you can speak, read and understand it."
"Umm…I'm not sure…"
So next period was art, manga…
I can do lots of stuff… everything but manga. But this time it was simple, I drew an amazing Ash Ketchum.
The rest of the day flew by, and still by the end of the day… no new friends.
Setsuna and I walked home, trudging slowly though the snow towards our house, where all we had to do till tomorrow was to eat and sleep. But there was a catch… we only had one single bed (The house was made for 1).
"Oh, crap" Setsuna yelled.
"We could tip and tale…"
"But…wait…!"
"Whatever, we'll sort that out when the time comes."
We both took showers, and then sat down at the table, doing our homework.
At the end of the day, we didn't care about anything apart from sleep. We wouldn't while we were here in England, but today we were both exhausted. We both got in bed and fell asleep faster you could say 'Mao Academy ROCKS MY SOX OFF!'
"Uhh…Ah…Setsuna-san! Save me! Oni-Chan!" I yelled. I was having a nightmare. She came up to me, realised I was still asleep, and checked me for a fever… no fever; just an ordinary nightmare.
"Argh!" I yelled, immediately getting up and sitting on my bed.
Setsuna looked at me, and was in uniform already, placing her sword case next to the wall, and walking off.
I quickly got outta bed; took a shower, got changed, and walked up to Oni-Chan's sword, in its case. I looked at it then walked off.
Me, Sora walked out of the house, closely followed by Setsuna-Chan, who grabbed her bag, swung it onto her shoulder and ran off, making me sprint after her, then realising I left my bag at the doorstep, ran back to get it, then ran all the way to Mao.
I rose as Sensei approached, then bowed as she entered the room, then sat down, waiting for her to tell us the timetable.
"Sora-kun…For all of today, you have IT, and I believe Ruukashu-kun will be joining you." she spoke to me and Lucas.
We walked along the corridor together then stopped as we saw sparks flying out of the class we were meant to go to.
"Hello Sora-kun, Ruukashu-kun" said the teacher. We bowed, and then sat down at a desk… we were the only ones here.
"O.K, for this lesson, all you have to do is use a couple of circuit boards and scrap metal to make a robot; you also may also use the internet from your laptops to help you. You will have to first design your robot together, and later in the lesson, make it." He said, before getting out some welding torches and manuals.
Me and Lucas (Ruukashu is what the Japanese would call Lucas, as the letter L is not used) nodded and got to work. He took out his laptop and got AutoCAD™ up. From then, I tell him what the design is on paper and verbally, and he recreates it on the PC.
In the end, it was a very human like complex design, with the project code-named PHEONIX.
At the end of the day, shining with a platinum plated coat, was Phoenix, our robot, and a new friendship between me and Lucas.
The teacher walked up to us, and took out his clipboard, and asked for its name, as it was so human-like.
"Phoenix-san" We replied together.
He wrote away on his clipboard, then handed me Phoenix, with orders to boot him from our system's configuration plans. We loaded the file on the laptop, but just as we were going to boot up Phoenix, Oni-Chan walked by, and stepped in the room.
"Sorry, but I need to deliver a message to Sora-kun." She spoke respectively to the teacher.
"Sora, I need to tell you, our mother mailed us today saying she was buying some more furniture as were would be staying here until June after the coming one. I'll talk to you about it on the way home" Setsuna-san told me, bowed to the teacher, and walked out.
As we walked home, Setsuna was reading her e-mail on her new Nokia 3200, which she had bought with her wages.
"O.K, I'll read out the message to you." She told me.
"Dear Setsuna and Sora,
By order by your father, I have to inform you that you will have to stay in the United Kingdom until past July 12 2027 because your education in England will teach you English, which you are currently failing.
After hearing about the state of your new house, I have decided to buy extra items for your house, as well as building an entire new hot spring in your back garden until you come home.
From…" She recited.
"Uh, stupid mobile's outta credit!" She exclaimed, shoving her cell phone into her pocket.
We ran up to the front porch of our house, which had several packages.
"Yes! A new bed! Mine!" Setsuna yelled, pushing me away as she grabbed it.
Oh yeah! A new rock!- wait… she got Setsuna a bed… and got me a rock?!
"Hey, you got a bed and I get a rock?!" I yelled
"It's for the spring… you don't catch on quick do you?" She replied.
About an hour later, the spring location people had done their job and installed the spring and I was having a float in… you get it, a lie-in is when you're in bed, a float in is what you're like on a floaty!
"Whoa!" I shouted as I fell in.
Then Oni-Chan came outside, and yelled at me to gettout!
After homework, we assembled the new furnishings, then went to bed at 12'o'clock.
Uh…What time is it…?
"Phoenix Time Checker… Eight Fifty Nine." Phoenix told me.
"WHAA!" I yelled, jumping outta bed, grabbing me uniform, a white polo shirt, black trousers and a blazer embroidered with the Mao emblem and sprinting into the shower.
I was barely in there a minute, and ran out, totally forgetting my PDA.
I ran down the hill, skidded the turn and along the path, across the road and up a set of stairs, then ran though the field and into Mao.
I shoved everything into my locker and looked in, SCRAP! I'd left my PDA at home… I grabbed my notepad and sneaked in… that was no use… sensei wasn't there.
I sat down in my normal place, next to Ruukashu-! I called him Ruukashu, not Lucas.
We rose as our sensei approached, bowed, then sat down.
"Ruukashu, Sora, There's a very happy teacher outside, who wishes to congratulate you two for some reason or another…" She told us, and we stood up and walked out of the room, then got congratulated for Phoenix. When we walked out, and I was told to go to English (In a Japanese school… weird right?) so I walked along the corridors, and snuck into the office, with my PDA stuffed into my face, Se-Chan looked furious.