Chapter Two: The New School
Satoshi placed the last box down inside the small one person apartment that now he and Saki would be sharing. After saying goodbye to their parents, the siblings gave each others excited looks. It was odd being officially on their own. They could do anything, even if the only thing they felt like doing was responsibly unpacking. Saki walked pass Satoshi and ruffled his hair, then headed for the kitchen ware.
"I really hate my haircut, by the way." Satoshi started a conversation as he started placing clothes into his drawer.
"It's the latest style, so stop complaining." Saki commented. "You don't look like an Otaku anymore."
"Whatever." Satoshi rolled his eyes, pulling out his new uniform. He had had his fitting a few days before they had officially moved.
"Hey, you should wear your uniform loosely." Nee-chan said from the kitchen, eyeing the uniform. "You don't want to look like a bookworm."
"So you're going to dress me too?"
"I'm going to make you cool, Sato-chan." Saki winked. "Don't forget, at our old school I was pretty popular. So you should take my advice. If you button up that jacket, you'll look ordinary or like a tool."
"It's against school rules, Nee-chan." Satoshi grumbled.
"And that's the point. Besides, Matsukameya High School isn't as strict with the dress code. I saw some of their students at a swim meat." Saki explained. "You definitely could go for the rogue look."
"Fine, like it matters." Satoshi said.
It was amazing the transformation that had occurred with Satoshi's body over the past three months. It was nonstop exercise and Aikido practice. He was forced to eat Saki's horrible diet foods. As a result he was pretty lean and muscular. To top it all off, Saki insisted he wear contacts at school and even forced him into a make-over with all her friends the last few days they were in their old town. Satoshi would have complained more if he hadn't personally benefited from his new training. The last day of school, Satoshi took great pleasure in beating Akira Takashima into a wall.
"I wonder what will campus life be like. I know you have more freedom at University, but I'm still nervous." Saki continued making idle conversation.
"You're nervous?" Satoshi laughed. His first day would be more nerve racking than any of the worst days that could possibly happen to Saki. "You always were pretty and popular so it shouldn't be any different now."
"Yes, but at least I always went in with at least one friend. I won't know any one." Saki finished placing the flatware away, then moved on to her own clothes.
"Join the club. I never had friends and I got by."
Saki gave him a comical look. "If you count getting beat to a pulp getting by. Still, you shouldn't have to worry about that this year. Just remember that attitude can take you along way. If you at least appear you're confident in yourself, people will think you are, and will respect you."
"Shouldn't you take your own advise for your University classes?"
"I'll be fine, but I still am nervous."
Matsukameya High School was much bigger than his older school, but having visited before for uniform fittings (Saki had insisted that he get his jacket a size longer), he had the general lay of the land. The first task was finding his homeroom, which was on a communal board in the lobby. As he stood there looking for his name with a crowd of girls, he heard conversations of wishing they could be with other classmates they knew. He didn't have this problem. He wouldn't know anyone. After looking for a while he saw that he was listed as being in 2-B. Hanging his school bag over his shoulder, he followed the same group of girls up the stairs.
The class room was also bigger than his previous school, and it had a nice view of the school yard from the windows. Knowing that assigned seating would be placed later it didn't matter where he sat now. So he took a window seat in the back. It seemed a large majority of them knew each other and they were already in social groups. He, and a few others, were in the minority of being friendless, thus being the only people seated not talking to anyone.
Something soft brushed his elbow, which was sitting on laying on the desk, She looked up and saw a girl stepping forward rubbing her behind. Satoshi felt his face go slightly warmer, but before he could apologize she turned and gave him a small laugh.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's fine." Satoshi tried to sound more confident than he felt. The girl was absolutely stunning. Even better was that she was talking politely to him, which was a vast improvement over being beaten with school bags.
"You're new here, aren't you?" She continued to speak kindly to him, her hands still behind her back.
Satoshi thought it was painfully obvious that he was new, but didn't see any reason to be rude to her. "Yep. I've only moved here days ago."
"That's nice. I hope you'll enjoy it here." She smiled at him. Satoshi nodded and she walked off.
It just felt odd. She genuinely was treating him kindly, it wasn't sarcasm. He waited for a moment for her to join some friends and start giggling and pointing in his direction. But it didn't happen. She did joins some friends, but from what he could gather, they were talking about a CD they both liked, and the other girl was from another class. Later Satoshi found that this seemed to be the consistence with anyone walking near him. A polite hello, some asking where he was from, and the like. And what was even more amazing was that a number of girls were also asking him as well. He still kept his guard up, in case someone would pour toilet water over him.
The homeroom teacher came into the room. Everyone found a seat to stand near, until he told them it was okay for them to sit down. "I'm Kaito Takahashi, but all you cute girls can call me Taka-chan!" There was a awkward laugher as no one knew if this was a joke or not. "but lets get to some assigned seating, shall we. Everyone at the back of the class. When I call your name, please come to the front and introduce yourselves, then go to your correct seat. If there are any problems with the seating arrangement, we can solve that problem later. First up Abe, Kano.
After everyone shuffled to the back, Kano stomped his way to the front and embarrassingly told everyone he liked Super Sentai and Karaoke. This sort of thing went on for everyone called. Satoshi barely was listening to them, as everyone else was doing, until someone he found interesting looking came up and talked. However the person he was most interested in was the same pretty girl who he had elbowed in the butt.
"Kitamura, Yukiko". Takahashi-sensei announced after Ando Kawano.
She walked up to the front of the class, seemingly with more grace in each step than anyone who had before her. Through Satoshi thought maybe he was romanticizing her a bit. She was short, but not the shortest girl in the class, and had a very cute stylish short haircut. He thought she might have really perfect skin, and she looked so composed it was hard not to admire her. With every step, her hair bounced slightly and Satoshi felt that he could get lost just watching her hair sway to and fro.
"Hello, everyone, I'm Yuriko Kitamura. My interests are history books, cats, and tennis. And I like funny people." She smiled softly, then looked at Takahashi-sensei as if wondering if that was enough. He was busy looking at her legs. Her face pinken slightly and she bowed. "May I take my seat now, Sensei?"
"Of course. Next Koboyashi, Jun."
Satoshi couldn't remember anything Jun Koboyashi said, as he was busy watching the back of the head of Yuriko Kitamura. She seemed perfect to him… even if he didn't like history books or tennis. Just the way she sat in her desk seemed as if she were the most perfect thing in existence… at least to Satoshi anyway. He was still looking at her when Murasaki Natsume was called.
With this girl Satoshi was forced to look away from the lovely vision that was his new obsession, Yuriko, Natsume was obviously part westerner, and it was strange that he didn't notice her before. She had vivid hazel-green eyes and blondish hair. She still looked very much Japanese, but whatever western parent she had really had some influence in her exotic look.
"Yo. I'm Natsume, but at my old school people took to calling me Natsu-chan, so you can call me that also, if you want. Before you ask, yes my Father was Dutch, and yes my hair color is real. Now that we got that out of the way, I like sports, video games, and manga. I just moved here, so I hope everyone takes good care of me!"
Her personality was as loud as her appearance. She definitely stood out, and if Satoshi hadn't be staring at Yuriko most of the morning he would have no doubt noticed her. She too was extremely pretty, although he wasn't sure if he was drawn to her by her exotic look or her perfect figure. In some ways she reminded him of Saki, the way she acted at least. As she walked toward her seat, she glanced at Satoshi, then gave a very playful grin.
The grin took him back a bit, until he realized that his name was next. Great, so he would be sitting behind that weird girl. Shaking away all the awkwardness he felt, he took his sisters advise and pretended to feel confident. When he turned around and faced the class he noticed nearly everyone was staring at him, as if he was as interesting as that brash Natsume chick. Hiding his feelings he spoke.
"I'm Satoshi Okada, also transferring here. My sister is attending University near by so I decided to come to school here to be closer to her. I practice Aikido and am interested in…" he tried to think of something cool that he would be interested in, even though he hadn't planned on saying he practiced Aikido. "…art." The pause was too long that it attracted attention. He chose art because his sister forbidden him to say he liked Anime and Manga. Art was the closest thing he could think of to say. He continued. "I hope I won't be a burden the first few days here, while I'm getting to know the school… Thanks."
With that he started to his seat. He heard one of the girls in the back murmur something, but he didn't catch it. The girl next to her giggled. He didn't know what he did wrong but already two people were laughing at him. We he glanced in their direction, they were both looking at him with smiles on their faces, not even attempting to hide the gleeful expressions. Taking a seat behind Natsume, he slumped over in his desk, leaned his cheek against his raised palm and sighed.
Natsume turned around after rubbing the back of her neck and looked at him. "You blew on me."
"I didn't mean to, I apologize."
"It's okay." Natsume looked from him behind at the gossiping girls Satoshi had noticed before. "Better watch out, Okada-san, those girls are after you."
"Yeah, I noticed." Satoshi muttered with an annoyed tone.
"No reason to be mad. You can just tell them no." Natsume winked and turned back around. Satoshi had no clue what that meant.