AN: Hello again, everyone. If you've made it this far and plan to continue reading, I might as well tell you a bit more background of this story.
First of all, the only FE games I've played are Path of Radiance and Shadow Dragon. Admittedly, I did find out who Marth and Ike are from SSBB, but I was interested in them enough to find out what FE is. I care more about the characters than the setting and gameplay itself, so I don't really know that much about FE as a whole.
Second of all, I will probably write Marth and Ike out of character because their personalities are difficult for me to grasp. Especially Ike, because I find his personality to be somewhat inconsistent. If you have suggestions on how to write them more in character, I would love to hear them.
Also, Shiida will be in this story later, and she is purposefully ooc. I'll explain more when we cross that bridge.
Reading the signs on the walls which pointed me in the direction I assumed was correct, I eventually found room 112, with only a few minutes to spare. Trying not to feel overly self-conscious, I walked in as casually as I could and sat down at the nearest empty desk I could find. To my right was a girl absorbed in reading a book I didn't recognize. She was probably the kind of girl who was constantly reading and read obscure books no normal teenager would even consider picking up for a second. In front of me was a small group of friends or acquaintances sitting on top of their desks, talking about how excited they were to see each other again after the long summer break. Not that I could agree that the summer break had been long. Break was never long enough.
And finally, to my left was a very large crowd of people making a large amount of noise causing me to be largely irritated. I craned my neck to see what the big deal was, but it was just an average sized boy standing in the middle of the circle. Well…there was one odd thing about him. He had blue hair. Blue hair! As much as I loved blue, I had to admit it was a strange color to dye your hair. Especially if it was light blue, like Hatsune Miku. Anyway, it seemed to me as though most of the people causing the unnecessary commotion were girls, probably fawning over his "good looks". He had a smile on his face and was responding very politely to everyone asking him a billion questions per minute, but I could tell he was slightly overwhelmed and was just putting on an act to please his classmates.
"Hey," I said, turning to the book girl next to me. "What's up with him?"
Without looking up, she simply said "New guy."
My eye twitched in annoyance. How did this new guy get so popular so quickly? The first day of school really hadn't even started yet! I swiveled my neck back around and peered at the guy once again. This time, there was an unconscious glare on my face.
Very much unexpectedly, the boy must've seen me out of the corner of his eye, because he turned his head and looked straight at me with a puzzled, curious, and strangely innocent expression. I looked away quickly, possibly blushing due to the fact he'd caught me staring. More specifically, he'd caught me glaring, and I said a prayer in my heart that I hadn't made an enemy already. Even less assuring was that if this guy became me enemy, all his fan girls would be my enemy and I would have no place at this school. I'd become a target for bullying, which was fortunately not something I'd ever experienced. Still, I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for being rude. At least, I thought it was guilt that I was feeling. I couldn't quite tell.
Feeling self-conscious for definite, I fiddled with the zippers on my binder awkwardly and waited for class to start. The bell saved the day a moment later, and everyone hustled to find their seat as the teacher, Ms. Bradley, made her way to the front of the room.
"Hello class," she smiled at us. "It's nice to see you all again." Then she blabbed on and on about the rules and especially punctuality and how great her summer was and eventually she turned, looked directly at me, and announced we had a few new students this year, and we were very lucky to have them both in our homeroom class.
"Would you like to introduce yourselves?" she asked kindly.
With a sigh, of course, I stood up and said "Um, hello everybody. I'm Mattiah Baker, and I have apparent exceptional writing skills. I like various languages and cultures and such. I like cats and am a real grim reaper. Other than that, I'm an extremely boring person. Thank you for your time." I shrugged and sat down, with a few people giving me strange looks. That was alright with me. Strange was different, and different made an impression.
Briefly I looked around to try and locate the blue-haired boy I'd glared at earlier, wondering if he'd thought my introduction was strange as well. I couldn't see him anywhere, but I did hear the person behind me stand up, and my heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be! Of all the seats in the classroom? No way…
But it was. The boy I wanted to avoid was sitting directly behind me, introducing his ever-so-popular-self to the class.
"Hajimemashite, minna-san. Marusu Roeru to imasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
My jaw dropped ever so slightly. I wasn't the only one in the class who was impressed; looking around, I could see people with their eyebrows raised and amused smiles. A few people even golf clapped.
Let's get something straight- the reason I was impressed wasn't because he knew at least some bit of Japanese, but rather because he had the guts to introduce himself in a language most of us, if any, knew. Maybe this was something most people didn't think was that daring or outlandish. But I'd never be able to do something like that.
Marusu…Arutia? That's a strange name… Marusu is Mars? Marth? It's probably Marth, because there is no 'z' sound and what the heck kind of name would 'Mars' be anyway? A dumb one, that's for sure. And Roeru would be...something like Lowell… Whatever, it doesn't matter. Not even moderately. It's not as if I actually need to know his name. He's obviously not actually Japanese, he just speaks it. He's probably just another peer who falls under the idiot category.
However, I soon forgot to remember the whole ordeal and the first three periods of the day passed rather quickly. The one problem I had was… I didn't make any new friends. I know, such a surprise, right? Therefore, when lunch rolled around, I immediately sought out Senpai (another astounding surprise), but she was with some guy I'd never seen in my life. They were talking and laughing as I approached them, so I eyed this suspicious guy suspiciously. Why hadn't Senpai told me about this person if they were so close? For some reason, I felt rather indignant and vaguely left out.
"Uh… hi…" I interrupted them awkwardly. "How are you both?"
Senpai finally noticed me and grinned when she did. "Hey Mattiah! I'm good, and this is my also good friend, Ike."
My eyes shifted from Senpai, to Ike, to Senpai, and finally back to Ike, getting a closer look than before. He had messy blue hair (Blue hair again? Seriously, people were weird those days), deep blue eyes, was fairly tall and extremely muscular, and basically appeared like he could be the captain of the football team.
"Err… nice to meet you!" I gulped nervously and forced a smile. This guy looked like he could snap me in half if he was angry. Or even if he wasn't angry. He just looked dangerously strong. Ike nodded and offered his hand. I took it- cautiously, mind you- and while firm, he didn't yank my arm out of its socket so I thought this guy might be alright. No more, no less.
"I'm Ike Greil, a senior, and was accepted here for my athletic abilities. It's nice to meet you, too." He smiled slightly, but it wasn't an obvious smile, which made me wonder if perhaps he just wasn't a smiler. But that was alright, I wasn't a smiler either. Rather, I was a frowner. Yeah, that sounds about right.
"So… did you guys bring lunch?" I asked. Senpai nodded while Ike shook his head.
"I buy lunch every day," Ike explained. "…since I don't go home."
I was confused for a moment, until I remembered this was a boarding school and most kids didn't go home every night. "Oh, is your house far away?" I asked.
Ike's expression darkened slightly. "No… I just prefer it here." I figured he didn't want to talk about it, and decided not to push the matter any further.
"Well, what about you, Senpai? I thought you were going to stay at the boarding academy all week as well…" I squinted with confusion.
Senpai nodded affirmation. "That's right. But since I'm going home on weekends, I'm going to bring lunch food that will last the whole week. I mean, lunch room food is nasty, even at boarding schools." She said the last part pointedly at Ike, who simply shrugged and they both laughed.
Ugh, I'm like the third wheel here, I thought. I need to find someone to join us so I don't feel so awkward and… third wheelish.
"Mattiah, did you bring a lunch?" Senpai asked me.
I nodded. "But I'll eventually stop bringing them because it takes too much effort to make them." I may have mentioned before that I'm pretty lazy. One of the ways it manifested itself was in my reluctance to prepare food for the next day. Although, part of it was the fact there wasn't much food at my house I wanted to take for lunch. I wasn't a particularly picky eater aside from my extreme aversion to vegetables, but most of the food in my house WAS vegetables or leftovers that would have to be warmed up if I wanted it to taste even remotely good. Then I'd have to wait in line for the microwave, and I'm not that patient.
After that, we headed to a lunch table and Ike got in line for a spicy chicken sandwich. Oh how I loved the cafeteria. Loud noise, questionable odors, and weird food.
"Hey guys, what's up?" came the voice of another person with whom I was familiar, as we pulled out our chairs and sat down.
"Hey Dezi!" I exclaimed happily, now that I'd have someone to talk to while Ike and Senpai were… doing whatever. Dezi was the younger sister of Senpai, and they looked fairly similar. People often got them confused with each other, but that never truly made sense to me because Dezi was shorter than both Senpai and I. I wasn't as close to her as I was to Senpai, but we were still good friends, and for that I was grateful because I wouldn't be alone anymore. Until I realized she had a person with her as well.
The guy standing next to Dezi had messy blonde hair- similar to Ike's, but Ike's was naturally messy… this guy's hair just needed combed or something-, electric blue eyes, unusually elfish ears, and was wearing vans, basketball shorts, and a hoodie. He was short for a guy, but still taller than Senpai. And worst of all… he had a huge, dorky grin on his face.
"Hey!" the boy said cheerfully. "The name's Link. What's yours?" he stuck out his hand for a handshake, never dropping his creepy smile. Admittedly, it wasn't intended to be creepy, but it was certainly creepy to me. You know, like the way clowns are creepy to a lot of people because they're just so ridiculous looking? Thus, I hesitated to extend my hand, which he apparently sensed, because he reached over and grabbed it, shaking vigorously and endlessly, like those super oblivious characters in movies do.
"I'm… Mattiah." I nodded curtly, yanking my hand away. I figured I felt like Haymitch did when Katniss said she wanted "Nuts and Bolts" on her team in Catching Fire. Which is to say, exasperatingly incredulous.
Link nodded enthusiastically. "Dezi told me about you! She said you like to joke about death a lot."
"Uh… I suppose so…" Okay, he said that way too cheerfully… I thought. What if he's one of those psychos who acts really nice but ends up murdering everyone?! What if he's a yandere?
Yeah, I was a bit paranoid. Only slightly.
Link turned to Senpai. "You must be Dezi's older sister, Corinne! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Senpai shook his hand and smiled, until Link said something that must have struck a nerve. "Can I call you Corn? I'm going to call you Corn." He laughed and took a seat at the table while Senpai steeled her jaw. Indeed, Senpai did not look amused.
"Now we just need Ike to call Senpai something really lovey-dovey like 'honey' and then we'll all have a nickname for her," I joked. Except, Senpai still blushed indiscreetly, so it suddenly dawned on me that maybe the term 'best friends' didn't suit them as well as the term 'special friends' did. As the spiteful person I was, I smiled mischievously at this realization, but Ike returned with his spicy chicken at that moment so I decided not to make a big deal over nothing. Well, not nothing, but nothing that mattered. Still, I couldn't help but smile to myself when Ike sat down next to Senpai. Luckily, Ike seemed far more interested in his food than anything else at the moment, so anything romantic between the two quickly faded from existence.
AN: If you object to Marth's last name being Altea, please tell me. I can easily change it to Lowell; Altea is simply my preference.
EDIT: I have decided to change Marth's last name to Lowell. For...reasons XD