A/N: Hello, this is me again! I'll be updating more slowly because my mom's going to carry her laptop with her to Italy by the end of the month... and unfortunately, this laptop is where I do most of the uploading. Anyways, I'll try to write more chapters as fast as I can. Hey, doesn't anyone want to go to Italy too? Feliciano!

学園 フェスタ
Gakuen Festa

Day 4. Thursday.

Time: 8:24 am.

Um, there were two days between my last entry and this one, so it must be Thursday. My second-period Intermediate Algebra started over twenty minutes before, and I was stuck at watching the teacher write numbers and letters that weren't passing through my mind. I had my face turned to the window, eyes glued to the sky beyond the glass. It's Friday tomorrow, so the guys will goof around outside tomorrow night. I tried not to think about anything and began dreaming about the wind outside caressing my cheek...

Thursday's third period is Biology. We were discussing about microscopes, and today the teacher decided to teach us how to use one.

After the discussion, the teacher had the class group in pairs. My laboratory partner is an ultra-nervous (I totally mean it), brown-haired guy by the name of Toris Laurinaitis. It was easy - I had it done successfully ten minutes after starting without my partner's help (he was wandering off to our neighbors' table), but some of my other classmates weren't as successful. For example, Feliks Łukasiewicz (whose table was the one where Toris was wandering off) was still complaining about seeing blurred dark shadows (I expect that was the onion skin that we were supposed to examine under the microscope).

"It's, like, dark blurry things that I can't, like, describe. I, like, thought that they're supposed to be, like, really veiny..."

His loud comments were silenced by the teacher who told him strictly to continue his work. Feliks pouted and fell silent, to my immense relief.

When the bell rang, I all but rushed outside to the hallway and bumped into a sour-looking girl with long platinum-blonde hair, presumably a freshman. She looked at me as if I was a really disgusting cockroach. Did I already mention how afraid I was of cockroaches?

"Is my brother here?" she asked me coldly, not at all regarding my presence. I wasn't sure if she was talking to me, but she looked at me suddenly. No, that's not it. What she gave me was a death stare.

"Er - your brother?" I sputtered. "I-I..."

She glared daggers at me. I gulped nervously, but suddenly an arm stretched out of nowhere and took mine, steering me to safety (I thought). The newcomer told the girl heartily, "Dear me, Natalia, Ivan is in the boys' lavatory on the third floor. Check him there, won't you? He looks like he's hiding from someone. And this student here is just a sophomore, so leave his poor head alone."

When we had rounded the corner, I then thought to look at my "savior's" face. To my utter shock, it was the "dandy" of the third year students, Francis Bonnefoy. He noticed me staring at him and chuckled.

"Dear me, what a cute little Asian we have here!" Francis cooed, putting his free hand under my chin and turning my head upwards for him to see my face more closely. "Pardon, I seem to find Orientals like you so unique! Am I annoying you now?"

"N-no," I stammered in reply. The truth was, I was so afraid that he'll jump on me or something that I had no time to be annoyed by his chatter.

"Oi, Bonnefoy!"

The shout made Francis turn around. Thankfully, I saw that it came from Arthur.

"Don't go messing with our underclassmen, now, or I'll have you reported to the prefect of discipline!" he snarled, shaking a finger at Francis. That was when I remembered with relief that Arthur is the student council president, and that he holds the highest position in the student body. Francis, who was ironically Arthur's vice president, dropped my arm with a growl.

"What! You can't do that to me, bastard!" he cried dramatically, dropping my arm as he prepared for combat. I gratefully dashed off to the canteen for snacks, leaving them to settle their dispute.

The next period was World History. This year, it'll be about the Greek and Roman civilizations to the Renaissance. And yeah, I can picture Feliciano somehow topping this class for the first time once we tackle the Roman civilization. He is Italian, after all.

Anyways, the teacher talked about the Greek culture and how the Athenians developed the concept of democracy. I was getting really interested about other countries' governments. How do they shape their people's lives? I smiled and made a mental note to ask Heracles to talk to me about Greece, since he's Greek. It's what makes studying in an international school so fun, that's what I think. You meet lots of people from different cultures.

Next period was my terror subject - Physical Education class! I joined my male classmates in the locker room and changed into our uniform for PE class - a t-shirt, blue jogging pants, and sneakers. I tied the laces of my shoes with a double knot to ensure that it would not come undone later and trip me up. I assure you, I am so useless when it comes to sports like basketball. Especially basketball, since I was easily one of the shortest boys in class. Even Alfred made fun of me one time because of my short stature. But then, it wasn't my fault if I am born to be short. And I could crush them in karate, aikido and kendo single-handedly any time of the day. Just don't wave western sports at my face. They're simply not for me, I guess. I mean, I'm not that sports-minded, anyway.

Our teacher made us run twenty laps around the gym. I didn't mind this at all since I already tied my shoelaces with the double knot, and being slight in build did help me a lot. Feliciano was faring worse than me, at least. The latter was running at a very uninterested manner. At least, that's what it looked like to me.

As I was running my fifteenth lap, Alfred passed me easily with a grin and a "Good luck!" directed at me. It was the second time he'd passed me, so that would make him already in his seventeenth lap since he was originally in front of me when we started. I sighed and tried to run faster, but it was all I could do to keep up with the guy beside me, Tino Väinämöinen.

"All right, Kiku?" he asked me sympathetically. I merely nodded for an answer (since I was a little short of breath now) and ran on beside him. Tino chuckled and kept his pace, keeping me company for the rest of the exercise. He really was a good sort.

After PE, all of the guys showered together. I kept checking if my towel was still on the spot where I left it since it was a common prank among the boys of our batch (I dunno about the other batches) to swipe other people's things in from the shower or locker rooms while everybody was busy and place them in different places. At the most, I had it done to me a couple times last year. It wouldn't do to have it done to me again.

I dried myself off afterward and changed into my uniform, but I opted to wear just my polo shirt and pants and stave off wearing my sweater vest and necktie for the meantime at least. The guys also seemed to think it would be better to completely dry off in their white shirts, so we trooped off to our lunch break looking like that.

My actual lunch time was short since I had to run to the library and borrow some materials for my English research. I fetched my vest and necktie in the locker rooms by the gym and wore them before proceeding, however.

As I pushed the library door open, I immediately saw two other senpai, Antonio Fernández Carriedo and Feliciano's older brother Lovino, by the librarian's desk. I greeted Lovino with a slight nod. He returned the gesture.

I gathered my materials and accomplished all the paperwork I have to do before borrowing them (I won't enumerate the steps anymore since every high school student must have memorized it by now). Anyways, I examined the things I had borrowed, namely two volumes of Asian literary works, one about the ancient aspect and the other about the modern aspect. Well, I should have this known by heart already, except that I didn't. It's just that I preferred reading manga over Chinese folk tales. Meh. I'm still a regular high school student, after all.

I should skip mention of my other class periods except for one notable lesson in Arts, wherein we were asked to try drawing anything about our countries. I hadn't anything special in mind, though. So I just drew the sun in the middle of my paper. Everyone told me that the big red circle I drew didn't look like a sun at all.

But it sure looked like a sun to me... Didn't they get it...

All in all, I walked back to my dorm in a dog-tired state and tried to study, but before I could get my mind concentrated on any homework-doing, I found myself drifting off to sleep. I guess Heracles's sleeping habits rubbed off on me sometime after being his roommate.

I was startled from my drowsy state by a series of knocks that sounded like hammer blows on the door.

"Heracles? Are you there?" I noticed that it was a girl's voice.

I immediately went to the door to open it and saw Elizabeta Héderváry, a senpai on the graduating year, still in her uniform. The girls' summer uniform was almost the same as the boys' when you compare the tops, but for the girls, the skirt was red rather than blue like the boys' pants.

"Oh, are you Heracles's roommate?" she asked with a rather haughty air, tossing her wavy hair over her shoulder. "Is he there?"

"Um, I'm sorry, he's not," I said nervously. I'm intimidated when it comes to talking with upperclassmen. I'm not sure if this is natural or what.

"Oh. Where in the world can he have gone?" she asked me, her eyebrows drawing into a slight scowl. "Do you have any idea?"

"Er, he usually spends time outside in the school orchard when he's not here. I think he likes watching the gardener's cats while they try to catch birds."

"I'll try to look there, then." She gave me a quick thank-you smile and stalked off. I closed the door and tried to think.

I spent the next two hours studying, and by the time the dinner bell rang, I had done every inch of my assignments. I then threaded my way through the crowds of people gathering in the dinner hall. I ate quite a lot, since my mental state was rather over-working itself today and I was a little tired. I ate my way through the soup (a delightful seafood one with oysters) to the dessert (totally not diabetic-friendly, since it was a sweet creme-brûlée that had me in a sugar-induced trance). I must tell you that I took everything from tonight's European menu, but I did skip the strange-looking escargot. I think Feliciano took a lot of those, though.

"Hey, Kiku, may I join your table?" a voice asked me shyly from behind. I turned at the voice and saw Meimei, my younger sister.

"Of course! You can sit anywhere." She sat on the chair beside mine and started to eat slowly, sneaking a glance at my plate every now and then.

"You're eating European today," she commented shrewdly.

I just nodded, since I was a little full and drowsy. I watched her eat, my mind relaxing slowly.

"Anyways, didn't you say that tomorrow's going to be a special class day?" Meimei continued, taking a bite out of a piece of cabbage. "What's that mean?"

"Well, it just means that everyone of the same continent will have class together, regardless of year level." I leaned on the back of my chair and examined the lights overhead. "Are you studying well?"

"Are you seriously asking me that question, Kiku?" she snapped, shooting me a look. "Of course I'm trying to study as hard as I can." She finished up her water and held up the glass to me. "Get me some more, will you?"

I took her glass reluctantly and refilled it from the pitcher on the table where the utensils are, ducking a little to avoid being hit as I saw Elizabeta throw a fork at Gilbert that missed him and almost cut my ear off. When I returned it to Meimei, she thanked me as prettily as she could and ate some more.

"So that's where I'll get to wear my Asian class uniform?" she asked with interest, picking up our conversation again. I nodded, tipping back my chair slightly.

She made a face when she finished her meal. "That Basch guy from your batch really freaks me out. His sister Lili seemed okay, though."

"Don't worry, I feel the same way," I said reassuringly, as we watched the said Basch maneuver the said Lili to an empty table. I noticed that my older brother Yao was engaging in a food fight with one of my younger brothers, Yong Soo.

Meimei stood up with her bowl and patted me on the head. Doesn't she know how irritated I am when someone does that to me? "Grow some backbone, Kiku. Don't go about agreeing with everybody. And also don't go about disagreeing with everybody. You get me?"

"I'll try my best," I replied dryly.

Meimei glared at me suspiciously. I think she got what I meant by that.

Well, that's all for today, at the very least. As Meimei and I have discussed, the special class day is tomorrow, Friday. I'll try to see if I can describe accurately how the Asian class members go about in this particular day.

Time: 9:14 pm.

Am I excited about tomorrow?

Um, I'll think about it. (And I'm sure you don't have to figure out what that means, Mei.)

And I also think that I'll have to try to think of a way to bear with Yong Soo tomorrow. "Ganbatte, Kiku Honda, you're going to die tomorrow," was what my fortune cookie read. No, I'm just making it up. Sorry, bad joke.

Lights off before ten, so I'll just wish you a nice "oyasumi nasai."

-Kiku out

P.S. Feliciano told me that today's dinner was almost like a festa since it was so rowdy. Ah, is a festa something like a festival? I tried asking Antonio... All I received as an answer is, "Fiesta? When?" Is fiesta like festa? What? I'm confused. Lovino, after a somewhat nasty look at Antonio, answered me, "Yeah. It's the same." Ahh, now I understand. Not?

-Kiku out once again (ahh, my hands hurt from all this writing!)

A/N2: And don't forget to vote in the poll on my profile! I'll use the poll as basis for my story!