Chapter 2: Can You Have Friends, Shinji?

"Hey! Shinji!"

Shinji turned to see Alois sitting at one of the dining hall's and waving at him wildly. There were green and blue paint splatters in his hair. Shinji didn't really want to sit next to him; it wouldn't do any good to be looped in with the weirdos and losers on his first day. He pretended to look around with a confused expression, and then, satisfied, found a small empty table to sit at. The warm food was welcome and he started to drift off into a daydream when motion startled. him. Alois and another boy he didn't recognize plopped their trays down next to him. "Jeez..." Alois murmured, shaking his head, "Are you blind or something? Deaf? We weren't exactly being subtle over there. Anyway, what's up?"

Shinji felt slightly guilty. "Oh. Um. Nothing, really." He looked away. "Er. I got my uniform."

"That's just a little obvious."

"Sorry."

Alois sighed and stretched back on his chair, making it lean on the back two legs. "Oh." He sat back up and gestured to the boy next to him. "This is my friend Drake."

"Hey," said Drake, giving Shinji a little half-hearted wave. Drake was dark-skinned with cropped, curly back hair and dark brown eyes. There was a stack of American comic books lying next to him; Shinji recognized the reversed printing. "So you're the new music guy?"

"Yeah. I play the cello."

Alois sensed his friend's conversation growing dull. "And it's a good thing too! After Adrian and Albert vanished, we're short a cello. There are still only four basses though, so you may have to play their part some of the time-"

"Wait," cut in Shinji, "What do you mean they 'vanished?'"

Alois shifted uncombortably. "Well, I say 'vanished' but I pretty sure their parents just took them out of school. Didn't know either of 'em too well; they just left."

"Oh." So nothing to do with the 'angels' or whatever?"

The boys laughed. "Nah. That's just an old joke. Where'd you hear it anyway?" asked Alois.

"Well... just from some guy." It's true that the teacher he met said it in a funny way, but the boy from earlier had a tone to his voice that seemed like a warning. He wanted to ask more, but didn't want to seem foolish.

Drake, however, seemed to read his mind. "It's from those creepy angel statues on the roof of the main hall. Did you see them?"

"No..."

"Well, no one ever looks up. Check them out later, though. It's sort of the school joke that every time your work or book goes missing, the angel's stole it. Not sure how it started." He pause for a second, thinking. "Guess it's sort of like our weird version of the 'dog ate my homework' excuse," he laughed.

Shinji tried to show a smile. "Where I'm from, the expression's 'spirited away.'"

Both boys jumps as Alois practically jumped on the table, and grabbed and turned both their heads to the western window. "Their she is!" He shouted.

Shinji ducked his head out the the grip. "Who?"

Drake just sighed, exasperated. "Dude... you have a girlfriend. Don't think about it. And let go and get off; people are staring."

"Oops." Alois leaned towards Shinji and began to whisper. "See that girl, walking by the window?" Shinji looked out through the corner of his eye.

"Pale girl?" he asked.

"Yeah her. That's Rei Ayanami- head girl in the dance department..." He chuckled to himself. "Man, is she hot stuff..."

The girl disappeared in the direction of the dorms. "Isn't she going to eat?" wondered Shinji.

"Nah. Not her," Alois sighed, "She's too good to eat with common mortals. And I don't mean that sarcastically."

Drake grabbed his friends shoulder and pulled him away from Shinji. "Okay, you creeper. She's a babe, but you don't know anything about her. It's been getting ridiculous lately."

"Do I seriously need to?"

Drake buried his face in his hands. "You have a hot girlfriend!" Shinji agreed with Drake, even though he didn't know the details of the conversation. he wouldn't mind a girlfriend, but doubted anyone at Zweite-Einschlag would be interested in the dorky new guy.

Alois playfully boxed Drake in the shoulder. "But you gotta admit, she barely comes close compared to Rei."

"Hm."

"And she's not by any stretch of the imagination the shy, girly type like a ballerina would be," he continued.

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty certain, at this point. And besides, Rei's always in those little ballet dresses, and she definitely had the body for it."

"But don't you think Mari would too?"

Alois shook his head. "Not as well. Besides, Mari is-" He stopped. "She's right behind me, isn't she?"

"Why, you cheese-eating surrender monkey!" shouted a furious brown-haired girl. Shinji decided it was time to leave. "I am The Illustrious Mari, and I will not tolerate such talk behind myback!" She gripped the blond boy in a chokehold.

"Shinji! Help me!"

"And the only reason I can't fit into those stupid little tutus-" She began, as she pulled her struggling boyfriend away from the dinner table, "-is because by breasts are too big!"

"I'm sorry! I love you, Mari! I'm sorry!"

Her glasses flashed white, obscuring her green eyes. "Are you now?"

Alois sighed and slumped to the floor. "Yeah. I am."

"Excellent!" she yipped, galloping over to Shinji. "And who are you?"

Shinji shrunk away from the strange girl, stuttering. "I-I'm-um-" It was hard to concentrate where their noses were practically touching.

"This is my new best friend Shinji!" shouted Alois, pouncing on the vulnerable Japanese boy and knocking him off his chair. Drake pouted and stuck out his tongue indignantly.

If people were not staring before, Shinji knew they certainly were now. "Alois... c-can you get off?"

"I don't wanna."

They both yelped as camera-girl Asuka appeared again, the flash once again blocking all other vision. "Oh man..." she muttered, the eagerness dripping from her voice, "This is excellent."

"Hey hey, Princess," cautioned Drake, "You don't hang out with us. You don't like us. No pictures."

Asuka snapped another picture as Mari helped Shinji and Alois up out of their awkward position. "Well I'm the one who takes photography and Daddy runs the school," she huffed, "I can dowhatever I want!"

Shinji rubbed the blue after-flash from his eyes. He did not like girls like that. He also sort of wanted to impress the boys he guessed were his 'friends' by default now. "Look, Asuka" he began, and suddenly began to regret it when he saw a look on her face that he had, until that point, only seen on demon parrot Alistair.

"Yeah, new boy?" she sneered.

"W-well," the tiny burst of courage was gone.

"Hmph. Not worth the time." She turned to strut away, swinging her hips back and forth for extra punctuation.

"Don't you tell me... don't you dare tell me that I'm 'not worth the time.'"

Alois was surprised by his friend's dramatic change of tone. Shinji was standing straight, eyes downcast and fists clenched hard enough to turn his knuckles white. He took a deep breath and ran up to Asuka, sharply grabbing her shoulder. She cried out and whipped her head to face her assailant. She sneered. "What do you want?"

"I'm Shinji Ikari."

"I already know that!"

"I've been through a lot."

She glowered at him.

"I worked so hard to get into this school, and to get away from my father's influence," he continued.

"So? Everyone works they're asses off to get into Zweite-Einschlag."

"From what I hear and what I've seen, you didn't."

"Jealous?" she teased, a smirk turning up the corner of her mouth.

"I wish..." Shinji felt the calm strength that had taken over him slip away. "I- I wish-" Asuka smiled. Shinji sunk to his knees, trying to regain his anger, his power. "I- I..." Asuka laughed mockingly and strutted out of the dining hall.

For a while, Shinji was still.

For a while, everyone was still.

Shinji felt a hand on his shoulder. Alois gave him a quick, reassuring squeeze and bent down to Shinji's ear. "It's okay," he whispered. "Let's go back to our room." Shinji faintly nodded his agreement. He let Alois help him up, and the two of them followed in the direction Asuka left just before.

The two boys were greeted by deafening screeching as they opened the door to their shared dorm. "Cease fire, Alistair!" shouted Alois. The calls stopped, but continued to ring in their ears. "I promise she'll warm up to you," he assured Shinji. Alois was met with a very skeptical look. The French boy sighed and fell on his bed, folding his arms behind his head and staring at the ceiling. "I'm serious, though. Sh just gets bored and throws a tantrum from time to time. Most people just ignore her."
Shinji sat himself next to his friend.
"Really," continued Alois, "I think I've only ever seen her hand out with that other photography girl, Hikari. She and Dean Ryoji seem to have some sort of connection, though. Wonder what's going on there."
Shinji just nodded.
"Do you want to hear me play?" asked Alois.
The other boy just looked confused.
"My viola, I mean. You haven't heard me play." A grin spread across his face. "I'm first chair in the section for a reason you know."
Shinji shrugged. "Sure."
"Excellent!" With a newfound energy he bounded off the bed and unclicked the nearest case. After a quick application of rosin on the bow and the snap of a shoulder rest, he turned to Shinji. "Do you know much of Mendelssohn's work?"
"A little."

Alois smiled. "Good! We're playing Die erste Walpurgisnacht with the choir. Now I know it isn't my job, but I memorized the cello melody, too. Get yours out and I'll show you some easier fingering I figured out for the seventh-position section..."