Yup, here's the second chapter. Which I was miraculously able to get out before a month passed. Thank you everyone who sent in OCs, and to that reviewer who pointed out the problem with accepting them, I assure you that this story will not be half-assed. Thanks!
Luca felt a small tingling of excitement going through his body as he stuffed the last of his belongings haphazardly into a large, blue suitcase. When he finished struggling with the last of the zippers he wiped his forehead with his left hand and let a grin form on his face. He had spent the past week preparing to move back into his old dorm. He spent hours deciding which clothes he'd bring, what snacks he'd eat on the trip, and which of his pokemon he'd take with him.
He glanced over his smaller bags one more time for a quick double-check and nodded to himself. Gathering all his bags and luggage, Luca slowly made his way to William's house while trying not to fall over. The distance between their houses was short, only a short trip through the backyard. However, under the strain of carrying so much weight, it took Luca nearly twice the amount of time it would usually take.
As soon as the brunet stepped out of the door he felt a cool autumn breeze travel through his hair and enter his house. He took careful, small steps down the stairs of his porch and let out a relieved sigh when both his feet touched the ground. The sound of crackling leaves filled Luca's ear with each footstep he took. A few minutes of walking later, Luca was on William's porch. He set down his luggage on the ground and knocked on his friend's door.
Seconds passed, and then a full minute. Luca sighed and knocked again, this time louder. He waited another minute, and when his friend didn't come for the second time, he grew agitated and shouted.
"William, I know you're in there! Now wake-up!" A loud thump was heard inside the house, followed by quick, heavy footsteps. In a few seconds, a bleary-eyed William was standing in front of Luca, still in his T-shirt and pajama bottoms. He gave a loud yawn and rubbed his eyes before greeting Luca with a tired hello.
"Why aren't you ready yet!? Our train leaves in an hour!" Luca shouted. William shrugged and Luca swore he felt a vein pop in his head. With a loud groan he shoved the black-haired boy back inside his house while muttering swears under his breath. While William was making himself presentable, Luca dug through the boy's closet and grabbed anything that caught his eye. After creating a pile of undergarments, shirts, and pants; Luca began stuffing them into the largest piece of luggage that he could find. As he pulled the last zipper all the way, William stepped out from his bedroom wearing a black T-shirt and jeans.
"Okay, I'm ready." William yawned, he messed up his wet hair and pushed up his glasses. When he finished fixing himself, he saw the over-sized luggage that Luca had prepared for him and sent him a smile. William grabbed his belongings before walking out the door.
"Next time, I'm leaving you and taking the train myself." Luca grumbled. They were now ten minutes behind schedule and running to the nearest train station. As the two sprinted they received several odd looks from housewives doing their grocery shopping, each one probably wondering why the boys were carrying ten pounds of luggage with them.
Luca heard the sound of rumbling beneath him just as he got to the train station. After they swiped in, he and William boarded the train just before the doors closed. Out of breath and sweating, Luca let out a sigh of relief once the cold air of the air-conditioned cart hit him and collapsed into an empty seat.
"I am NEVER waiting for you again."
"I think you already said something to that effect a few minutes ago." William chuckled. He set down his luggage before sitting down across from Luca.
"Well, I mean it this time. What kind of dorm heads would we be if we arrived later than the students?" Luca said with a groan. He wiped his forehead before looking out the window, the scenery of his hometown was gone and the train was passing through a green meadow.
"I can't believe I graduated from school, just to go back there." William sighed. He plucked a pokeball from his belt and began spinning it on his index finger. "I mean, yeah it's a job, but I never thought I'd be going back there."
Luca didn't answer, he was too busy looking at the familiar landscape he traveled through in his school-years. William gave his friend a smile, he reached in his pockets and pulled out a pair of headphones. He moved to his favorite playlist on his mp3 and put his headphones on, in a matter of minutes his eyes were closed and he was sound-asleep.
"Hey, William, wake-up." Someone was tapping on his shoulder. He pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes before opening them. Luca had moved from his seat across from him and was now sitting beside him. "We're almost there."
Sure enough, the meadow had disappeared and they were now riding through a city. The train rumbled on the tracks as it quickly made it's way past the tall, grey buildings. William pulled out his headphones and stopped his mp3 while getting up. He gave a loud groan as he stretched, he swore he heard the click of bones as he rotated his neck and sound was clearly heard when he stretched to grab his luggage from the holding place above. How it had gotten up there, William didn't know, but he suspected it was Luca.
"We are now arriving at Stelmens Station, please exit to your right." The conductor's voice crackled over the speakers. Luca grabbed his belongings as well, and the two exited the train as soon as the doors opened. The smell of gasoline entered William's nostrils even before he took his first step outside the train station. The city was bustling with the high-notes of car honks, and low-notes of rumbling buses. It was far livelier than he remembered it to be, and even though he had a natural distaste for noise of any sort, William couldn't help but smile at the feeling of nostalgia that washed over him.
"Wow, I forgot what it's like to be in a city after living in the suburbs for so long." Luca laughed. He pulled out a familiar looking paper, William leaned over and saw that it was the same green-blue Raira pamphlet they had received a few years back.
"Let's see, according to this map, the campus should be... that way." The brunet pointed to the west and quickly folded up the pamphlet before stuffing it in his pockets. William nodded and picked up his luggage as he followed his friend. They had trouble moving through the busy city with all their bags. More than once, Luca and William were still in the middle of the street when the light changed, which caused them to be on the receiving end of a long string of curses from angry drivers.
"Well the same to you!" Luca shouted to a passing car as they just finished crossing the street. William stifled a laugh as he watched his friend mutter under his breath. They were now near the out skirts of the city and William smiled when he saw the gates of the Academy coming into view.
At the gates, the two presented their working papers, the guard nodded and opened the gates. A slight creaking sound followed the gates as they moved and William winced at the sound and shot the security guard a look, as if he was the one to blame for the noise.
"Ah, there you two are!" A woman wearing a gray suit and pencil skirt walked up to them, judging by her tone of voice. William could tell she wasn't very happy.
"Mr. Mikhail and Mr. Ikarus, I presume? I'm Ms. Nelhart. You two are very late, the opening ceremony is just about to start!" She said with irritation in her voice. She stuffed a set of keys into each of their hands before giving out a sigh. "Hurry and put your belongings away and make your way to the auditorium afterwards."
She shot them a glare before leaving them. William shrugged and left Luca to go to the west, where the Corvus dorm was. Luca sighed to himself before heading to his own dorm. It was only a fifteen minute walk before he reached his home for the next nine months. The dorms was two stories and quite wide, Luca smiled at the sight of it took a few minutes too look at it before he unlocked and opened the front door.
The smell of a freshly cleaned room greeted him and his smile grew even wider when he saw that the lounge had barely changed since he was here. The flooring was still a dark green floor carpet-tiling, there were two couches and an armchair positioned so that they all faced the TV, and from the corner of his left eye, Luca saw that the old kitchen and dining room were still there.
He went to his room, which was the room farthest down the hallway to the right of the entrance. His room was simple, with only a chair, desk, bed, dresser, and closet. Luca knew that he was already late but took a minute to move the chair over to the desk and open the curtains on the window. Once he finished that, he left the room and began a sprint to the auditorium.
Luca arrived just as the headmaster began his speech, and quietly inched to the side so that he could reach the stage without drawing much attention.
"As we begin a new school year, I'd like to start off with a quote. 'Those who search for themselves... are no-one as long as the search continues. It isn't emptiness, but limitless potential... It means the seeker can be anything he or she wishes.' This means, that you students, who's futures are undetermined have the potential to be anything you set your minds to."
"Luca over here!" A voice hissed, he turned and saw William signalling him from a door to the side of the stage. The brunet quickly shuffled over and entered the door, closing it as quietly as he could. Backstage with them was a girl with spiky brown hair, and glasses covering her brown eyes. Next to her was a tall male with black hair, and amber eyes.
"Now, I'd like to introduce our new dorm-heads for the Cygnus, Corvus, and Columba dorms. Ah, Luca Mikhail, William Ikarus, Maize Tyreen, and Axel Eberhart." The headmaster motioned for the four to come on stage and Luca froze for a minute. William walked up first, with the boy, who Luca assumed was Axel following behind him. Maize raised an eye brow at Luca, obviously expecting him to go before her.
"Oh, sorry." Luca cried out, he rushed onto stage with Maize after him. From the stage, Luca saw a large amount of students sitting in the auditorium. None of them were in uniform, so there were a variety of colors forming the sea of people.
"Mr. Ikarus here will be dorm head of the Corvus dorm, Mr. Mikhail will be heading the Cygnus dorm, last but not least Mr. Eberhart and Ms. Tyreen will be co-heads of the Columba dorm." The headmaster looked at the four with a smile and Luca felt his nervousness fade a bit.
"Yes, now, if you'll all head towards your respective dorms. Those in the Cygnus, Corvus, and Columba dorms please stay here." After most of the students filed out, there were only fifteen students left with us. Luca's eyes traveled through the group of the students, his heart was ramming against his chest as he tried to figure out which five students he would be in charge of.
"Nick Freezer, Olivia Rawthrin, Timo Hadewell, Kaetic Hexen, and Jason Ervek. Mr. Ikarus will bring you to your dorm." The headmaster said in his hoarse voice. William nodded and he leapt off the stage. He stretched a bit and scratched his head before leading his students outside.
"Let's see here... Orion Phyre, Lucy Gray, Junpei Kirman, Dominic Cole, and Rein Yukimura; follow Mr. Mikhail, he will bring you to your dorms." The headmaster handed Luca his student's documents and gave him a smile. Luca gulped and waved good-bye at the last two dorm heads before getting off the stage and motioning for the students to follow him. Luca could feel nervous sweat rolling down his neck as he led the gaggle of students to their new dorm.
While he walked, he took time to look over the papers he was handed. The first one of the group was Dominic Cole. Luca picked his head up from the papers to look around for the male on the picture he was given. Pale, long brown hair, and lots of jewelry. Dominic was chatting near the front of the group with a girl who had her brown-hair tied in a bun. However, it seemed like Dominic was doing most of the talking, for the girl's eyes never seemed to settle on him. They wandered to stare at a particularly interesting cloud, then they moved on to an oddly shaped rock, and so forth.
Luca identified her as Lucy Gray, who's profile was placed under Dominic's for alphabetical purposes. Luca noted that for the medical portion of the document, it listed ADHD which explained her lack of attention and focus. As his attention drifted from the papers and back to his group, he suddenly became aware of two voices talking loud and excitedly with each other.
"Yeah, I took karate for a few years." A boy said. His blue-eyes gained a certain gleam as he began talking about his past experiences during his karate lessons.
"You know, I'm a bit of a fighter myself." The girl added, shadow-boxing a bit to emphasize her point. The two continued enthusiastically talking about their strengths and styles. Luca flipped through the papers and saw that both students, Junpei Kirman and Reinforce Yukimura, listed combat as a talent.
His last student, Orion Phyre, was a short male, with blond-silver hair. Instead of engaging others in conversation, he walked at the absolute back of the group, with a one-foot radius distance from everyone else. Luca wondered if any of the other students acknowledged his presence.
"Alright, we're here!" Luca announced, making a grand gesture at the dorm once he had stopped the group. Taking out the set of keys from before, he unlocked the front door and led his group inside. Some quiet 'oohs' and 'ahs' were exhaled when they took sight of the lounge and Luca beamed with pride, as if the lounge was his child earning praise from others.
"Alright, boys, you sleep in the rooms to the right. Girls, your rooms are upstairs." Luca directed, giving each student a key.
"Aw, that's no fun..." Rein pouted.
"Wait, are we allowed to decorate our rooms however we want?" Dominic asked. Luca looked at him funnily before checking the papers he was given.
"Uhh, as long as you can remove it. Posters are fine, and stuff." He answered. Dominic gave a nod, and left for his rooms. The other students took one last look around the lounge before picking up their bags and heading to their respective rooms. Luca was about to relax on the couch before he remembered something.
"Hey! After you're done unpacking, come back downstairs to introduce yourself!" Luca shouted.
William, in short, was not happy. After he had taken his group out of the auditorium and began to lead them to the Corvus dorm, Olivia had fallen asleep on him and William had to carry her all the way to the dorm. When he got to the dorm, he handed her off to to Nick Freezer, who voluntarily offered to hold her while William opened the door.
When he opened the door, set the auburn-haired girl down on a nearby couch. At exactly that moment, she woke up with a groan and when she found out that she had slept on a couch, she subsequently had an anxiety attack. Timo, who had secluded himself to the back of the group jumped into the at at the sudden outburst and Kaetic to burst into silent laughter as she tried to hide it in her hand.
"Why did you set me down on a couch? People sit on these things!" Olivia said, after recovering from her slight anxiety attack. Nick quickly apologized and let himself be instructed on the proper way to lay Olivia down, should she ever collapse again.
"If you guys don't be quiet, you're all sleeping outside." William threatened. The loud chatter had given him a migraine and he glared at all his students as they feel silent.
"Good, now, here are your keys." He yawned. Pulling five keys from his pocket, he tossed one to each of his students before giving a lazy hand waves to the rooms on the right.
"Wait, I thought girls slept at a different floor than guys." Nick chimed, pulling out a small campus rule book. He flipped a few pages before stopping and passing it around the group. They looked at William for further instructions, but during the time they spent looking over the rules, their dorm head had fallen asleep.
"Oh great, we get a lazy dorm head." Jason groaned, he gave a roll of his eyes to his dorm head before going to his room, Nick gave a small shrug before following after Jason and motioning for Timo to follow. Kaetic, cast a suspicious eye towards William, whom she swore had just lifted his eye a little. Discarding the thought as her imagination, she picked up her bags and ran up to the second floor to get the biggest room.
"Birds of a feather flock together." Olivia said in a sing-song voice. A wave of fatigue swept over her and she let out a yawn. Then, just like her fellow dorm mates, she decided to unpack her things and left the lounge, leaving William alone. When his students emptied the room, William opened one eye and smirked.
Yes, that's our short little chapter two. We get to do character introductions next, oh joy. Right, so since school's starting up soon, expect less frequent updates. Okay, thanks for reading!