also even though this is discontinued, someone is more than welcome to take what was being started in this story and expand upon it! you can just credit that I started it or that the idea was from me or something even tho high school AUs run rampant...

however this storyline is technically my idea and all

anyway...

{I truly do feel bad about not being able to finish this story bc I always try to see all of my stories through to the end but this one... I just lost my grip on and I really can't pick it back up for some reason...}

Day 2: Learning the Norms

Apparently it was a daily occurrence for those three girls to fight over Jack.

That explained why no one bothered to pry them apart. No one in the cafeteria did anything else but watch them with blank expressions. When the Headmaster came in, he looked tired, doing one swift motion, causing them to break apart.

"Ah, there's a new face," he said, spotting Aki staring in confusion. "You're the new student, correct? I am Professor Godwin, the headmaster of the school. Sorry I cannot greet you properly." He motioned to Carly, Mikage, and Stephanie. "Come, you three." He shook his head and herded the three girls out of the cafeteria.

Once they were gone, the nose level rose again.

"You should be more appreciative of your fangirls, Jack," Kalin commented, creating snickers all around. "Really, though. They're always fighting for your affection."

"Too bad ze garçon haz none to speare! {Too bad the boy has none to spare!}" Sherry shook her head, tutting. "Eou do not have any izea of how love wurks. Eou aure lucky zat zhey aure too buzy fighting with each othere to notize eour cold indifferance. {You do not have any idea of how love works. You are lucky that they are too busy fighting with each other to notice your cold indifference.}"

Yusei, who was sitting next to Sherry, glanced over at Aki. "I'm sorry you and Sherry have to share a room with two of them. Just ignore them and you should be fine. It's better when they're apart."

She nodded, knowing that for a fact. Carly had seemed like such a sweet, gentle, friendly girl, until she was up against the other two. Then she became ferocious.

Now if only she could do that, instead of being vicious all the time.

But that was nigh impossible.

When lunch was ending, Aki realized that she didn't know where the rest of her classes were, and Carly was with the headmaster. She pulled out her schedule and frowned. None of these classes were in any of the buildings that she'd already been to.

No simple way around this for her.

"Aki, aren't you going?" Crow asked, since he hadn't left yet.

She scowled and reluctantly muttered, "I don't know where I'm supposed to be going." He came over and looked at her schedule, frowning when he saw that he didn't have any classes with her.

But he knew someone who did.

"Yusei!" He called out to the crab head, who was chatting with Sherry as they were walking out of the cafeteria.

"Hm?" He looked over at the two of them curiously, telling Sherry to hold on a moment before walking up to them.

"Aki's guide was Carly, so she doesn't know where she's going anymore. You have the last four classes with her, so do you think you could take her?"

He nodded and motioned for her to follow him. Sherry look rather pleased as well, waiting on the two of them to catch up.

Once they reached an intersection on the sidewalk, Sherry bid them farewell. Now that Aki was alone with Yusei, it was unnervingly quiet.

He cleared his throat and folded his hands behind his head while she contemplated her navel.

"So how are you enjoying the school so far?"

"It's nice."

More silence.

"I heard you've already got a name. 'Black Rose Witch', was it? This school is really good at that." He chuckled and looked her way. "It's funny. They call you that and say that you're cold, but you don't act like that at all. Just shy and uncomfortable."

She looked up and raised an eyebrow at his analysis, startled at how well he was able to read her.

But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of being right.

"If you're trying to make friends with me, it's not going to work. Friends aren't necessary to get an education, therefore, I'm not looking to make any."

Well, her goal just went to shit.

She just said that because she felt vulnerable. It was her automatic defense measure of hers that she had no control over.

And it had gotten her into many sticky situations before.

"I do agree that you're pretty feisty, though. Rumors aren't completely wrong. The truth is just bent a little." He chuckled.

This guy was wiser than he looked.

Once they got to their class, he let her go through the door first, earning stares from the students who were already in there.

'I can hear the things they'll say now. 'Whore'. 'Skank'. 'Slut'.' He was the second guy she's been seen with today.

"I would sit next to you, but we already have assigned seats. Well, more like seats we've been sitting in all year and it would be strange to change them now. Just stand here until everyone comes in and choose a seat afterward." Yusei gave her a slight smile before he went to his own seat.

As she waited, each person that came in was given a shock upon seeing her standing there at the front of the room.

'The witch is in my class.'

'Why is shehere?'

'Is she here to hex us all?'

Aki could feel the disdain and the dirty looks she got cut her just a little deeper each time.

But she would not show weakness. Not while she was here.

Once she figured enough people were in the class by now, she chose a seat at random.

"Uhm, excuse me. You're in my seat."

Aki looked around and saw no one.

"Down here!"

Looking down, she saw a girl with teal hair in pigtails, looking rather cross.

"Are you… you're a student here?" She didn't think this girl was near her age. She looked like she was ten, maybe younger than that.

"Yes. My name is Luna. And before you ask, I'm eleven."

The rose got out of the seat and let Luna get her desk back.

The bell rang and the teacher walked in, gazing across the class. "Oh, are you the new student?" They asked, waving her over. "Please introduce yourself."

She muttered swears under her breath as she got up from her new seat and dragged herself back to the front of the classroom.

"I'm Aki Izayoi." 'Not like most of you are going to bother to remember my real name.' She bowed slightly before returning to her desk.

"Short, but I guess that works." The teacher shrugged and started to scribble on the whiteboard.

As she was writing notes on the lecture the teacher was giving, copying the diagrams, the girl in front of her turned around, a nasty look on her face. "So you're the new girl, huh?"

"Yes…" She didn't even bother look up from her paper, having gone through this kind of response before.

"Well, Witch, learn your place."

Aki glanced up then, giving the girl a peculiar stare. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me loud and clear, girly. Learn your place. You just got here. What makes you think that you can just suddenly start hanging out with Yusei's group on your first day here?"

She glanced over the girl's shoulder, seeing the name on the paper. "Well, Misty, I didn't realize you were the boss of who gets to be in what clique."

Another girl sitting next to Misty turned around, glaring daggers at the burgundy-haired girl. "Don't you dare talk to Misty like that. Don't cause trouble on your first day here. You're already walking on eggshells after you sat with them at lunch."

Was there some kind of unwritten rule she should know about?

"Stay away from that group and we'll be fine," Misty said, turning around and brushing her hair over her shoulder.

As if she was going to listen to her.

"Sorry, princess, but they welcomed me into their group. If they want me around, there's nothing I can do about that." She paused. "Aw, is the widdle bitch jeawous becawse she wasn't accepted?" She smirked in triumph.

She was promptly slapped by the stuck-up girl.

Aki had a fistful of her hair in her hand, holding it as tightly and painfully as she could, when both their names were called.

"Misty! Aki! Do you both need a referral? And on your first day, Izayoi?"

Her parents definitely didn't need to hear about this.

She let go of the gray-eyed girl's hair and leaned back in her desk, looking down at her desktop.

All eyes in the classroom were on them. She didn't want to meet any of their stares.

Misty huffed and fixed her hair, giving the teacher a fake smile. "That won't be necessary, sir."

The teacher looked at them skeptically before going back to the lesson.

. . . - . . .

"Aki, what was that earlier?" Yusei jogged after her, sine she fast-walked out of the classroom the minute the bell rang.

He grabbed her arm to stop her and she faced him, quite unhappy at the moment.

"Apparently I'm not supposed to be hanging out with you and your friends. I didn't know that your group was so exclusive. I didn't even want to make friends here anyhow. Wherever I go, I can't get along with anyone."

She yanked her arm away from him and huffed, going on her way.

He sighed and put a hand on his forehead, retrieving her before she could escape. "You don't know where your next class is. At least let me take you to the rest of your classes. You don't have to talk to me while we're walking."

"Fine." Aki folded her arms under her chest and looked at him expectantly.

"One second, I'm waiting for a friend of mine." A few seconds later, the little teal-haired girl from earlier showed up, out of breath. "Why didn't you wait for me?"

"I had to go get her." He motioned to the cold rose, who was closing herself off from them. "So why weren't you at lunch today, Luna?"

"I had to help Leo with his homework. He doesn't like doing it until the last minute." She shook her head, disapproving over her brother's nature. "Anyway, does she sit with us now? I've heard about the name they gave her. I didn't think grow-ups become so rude." She shook her head again.

"No, I don't," she answered harshly. "Now can we please get to class," she hissed, eyebrow arched in annoyance.

Yusei and Luna exchanged a look before he shrugged, leading them to their next class.

The next class was Gym.

"The girls' locker room is further down the hall," he told her, pointing in the direction she should follow.

Luna followed behind Aki. When they walked in, the room was filled with the sound of lockers opening and closing, girly gossip, and girls switching out into the appropriate clothing.

"You should probably go to the office. They'll give you something to change into and give you a locker." She pointed to the window not too far away, showing the female gym teachers talking with each other.

She went up to the door and knocked, waiting for them to open it. "New girl, right? Do you need a gym uniform?"

Honestly, why was hardly anyone bothering to remember her name? "Yes and yes. I'm Aki Izayoi."

"Yep, you're the one we were expecting. Here you go." She was handed one dark gray shirt and black basketball shorts. "If you want spare uniforms, you can buy them at the school store."

She nodded. "And what about a locker?"

"Oh, yes…" The teacher went over to a book of records, flipping through it. "We don't have any empty lockers… but Luna doesn't use hers. Her locker number is 2500. Here's the combination." She wrote it down on a sticky pad and handed it to Aki.

"Thank you."

"The class is thirty minutes long. After those thirty minutes, you come back to the locker rooms. You have ten minutes to dress out when you get here and fifteen minutes to change into your uniform when you get back. Fail to dress out and you lose participation points, which affect your grade drastically."

She nodded. "Got it. Thanks." She left the office and went to go find the locker. When she did, she saw Luna sitting on the bench in front of it, not dressed out. She gave the little girl a curious look.

"I'm too young and small to participate in any of the sports. They think I'll get hurt." She shrugged. "Instead of doing activities, I do worksheets and packets about physical education. I like it better this way."

"Interesting," Aki muttered, starting to open the locker. "I'm sharing this with you from now on, by the way."

She was dressed out within two minutes, so she had to wait an extra five until a whistle was blown. "Alright girls, time's up! Time to get out. Your location today is the gymnasium."

They were herded out of the locker room. Luna and Aki were one of the last few to step out.

As all the girls were walking to the gym, they met up with the boys. Instantly, everyone went around finding each other, forming their cliques.

Yusei spotted the two of them and waved them over. Luna squeezed through the crowd to get to him.

Aki, on the other hand, stayed right where she was, following the exodus out of the hall and into the adjoining gym.

He realized that she was doing that "loner" thing again. Instead of joining the class, he waited until just a few people were entering the gym now, Aki being one of them.

"What took you so long? We were waiting for a while."

"Then don't wait for me. You should have gone." She scowled and stepped through the doorway.

Her scowl was soon replaced with a look of amazement. The gym looked pristine and it was absolutely enormous. Several types of games could go on at once in it without one game interfering the other.

At least, that was the impression she got from it.

"Today, we're playing volleyball," one of the male teachers announced, surveying the group. "We need twelve to a group." There were sixty-one students in the class. "Make your own group. Any extra people, find a group that will take you."

"You come near me and I will hurt you," Aki hissed when she saw Yusei approaching her.

He sighed and shook his head, leaving her alone for now.

There we now five groups of twelve, ready to start their games. But, because she had stayed away from everyone and no one dared to approach her, Aki was the only one not in a group.

Some people looked at her with annoyance, muttering about how they didn't want her on their team because she might jinx their chances at winning or how she was holding up everyone by purposely outcasting herself.

One of the teachers sighed, looking at the new girl, then all the groups that were made. "Seems one team is going to have an extra." He waved at Aki, pointing at a group he chose at random.

Well, at least she wasn't with Yusei. She didn't need any more harassment from others today.

But she knew she was going to get some anyway. It was inevitable.

A few of the people in the group that she was assigned to grimaced and wrinkled their nose when she approached, but for the most part, they didn't say anything.

And that was fine by her.

A whistle was blown again to call everyone to attention. "Alright, listen up! This is going to play out like a tournament. Winning teams get to continue on until we have a champion team. One team is going to have to play the first losing team. If that team loses against the losing team, they're out of the tournament. Win, and that team gets to go on."

The teachers then set up the teams going against each other.

Yusei's team was the one that had to sit out and wait.

"So what are you doing trying to help out the Black Rose Witch?" one of the guys on his team asked, elbowing him and jerking his chin at Aki.

"Carly was supposed to be her guide for the whole day, but she got into a scuffle with Mikage and Stephanie again over Jack. And Aki has the same second half classes with me, so I figured I could help her out."

"Who's Ak—wait, you know her name?" The male student looked at him strangely. "You're not actually friends with her, are you?"

"Not definitely, no. She keeps pushing me away." He frowned slightly.

"I got it!" Aki said aloud as the ball was served over the net. She was running to meet it when another girl pushed her away.

"No, I've got it." The girl completely missed the ball when she tried to bump it.

"You shouldn't have been in the way, Witch," she sneered, shooting Aki a dirty look.

Is that how she wanted to play at it? Fine. Bitch was going down.

When the ball was served again, the same girl tried to go for it again.

It was obvious that she was just trying to keep her away from it instead of actually caring about the game itself.

It seemed that, whenever Aki was involved, no one wanted to make it seem like there was anything good about her.

If that was a challenge that they were throwing down, she would be sure to accept it.

Aki promptly shoved the girl out of the way, executing a perfect bump. "That's how you pass the ball back," she told the girl, looking at her with narrow eyes.

The girl had fallen to the floor in a needlessly dramatic fashion, pretending that she was hurt.

"Ow! Ow!" she cried, crocodile tears in her eyes. She held the arm that she had fallen on, cradling it as if it were tender and it pained her to touch it.

Everyone on the opposing team and their team crowded around her in concern.

Oh please. They were really going to fall for that?

Apparently they were because they even got one of the teachers to go out of her way to check on the bimbo.

"Alright, what happened here?" She asked tiredly, a hand on her hip.

"I was," sniffle, "trying to get the ball and," another sniffle, "the new girl over there tackled me to get it instead."

God, this was ridiculous.

"Izayoi, is this true?" The gym teacher looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Err, well, I do admit I moved her out of the way, but I didn't tackle her…"

None of the students were on her side.

"She definitely did it on purpose…"

"She's out to get us all!"

"We can't trust her. May didn't even do anything and she just hurt her like that…"

"Quiet down, everyone," the teacher sighed. "Izayoi, you can just sit out for the remainder of the class. Everyone else, get back to the game. Anyone want to take May to the clinic?"

To further pretend that she was hurt, when someone tried to help her up, May cried out in pain, tears rolling down her cheeks.

If she had to deal with this kind of thing for the rest of the year, Aki didn't know how long she was going to last.

. . . - . . .

Aki stayed in her dorm after the school day was over, even past dinner, for fear of "doing the wrong thing."

People already hated her enough. She didn't want to give them more incentive.

When the curfew for each student to be in their dorms at 9:30pm came around, she looked out the window, seeing the mass of students parting, waiving good buy to each other and going to their appropriate dorm.

When Sherry came in, Aki glanced up, expecting to see Stephanie and Mikage right behind her.

"Zoze two aure at ze garçons' dorm, trying to get Jacque's attenzion, az alvayz. {Those two are at the boys' dorm, trying to get Jack's attention, as always.}" The French maiden shook her head. "Zhey do zhiz every night, so expect zhem to be coming in late. {They do this every night, so expect them to be coming in late.}" She went over to her bunk, climbing to the top and sitting down.

"So I heard zhat eou had quite ze eventful day. {So I heard that you had quite the eventful day.}" She raised an eyebrow at the rose.

"Sorry, but I won't be sitting with you guys at lunch all the time like you probably expected. Apparently you guys are an exclusive group and I can't just waltz my way into it."

"Oh, nonzenze! Don' lizen to ze studun body. I zink eou fet in quite nizely. Ze otherez zink so too. Except Jacque. He iz stell sore about wat eou said at lunch today. {Oh, nonsense! Don't listen to the student body. I think you fit in quite nicely. The others think so too. Except Jack. He is still sore about what you said at lunch today.}" She chuckled a little.

Aki kept herself from smiling. She gave up on her resolve already and she wasn't about to start it up again just like that.

She was about to reply when they heard something hit the window. They exchanged a look. Aki shrugged. They both ignored it.

Until they heard it again.

And again.

And again.

"I'll see who it is. It's probably some assholes coming to pick on me some more." She rolled her honey eyes before she got up and went over to the window.

She just barely caught the pebble that was flying towards her face. "Hey, asshole, that almost—!" She cut herself off and raised an eyebrow down at the orange-haired boy looking up at her.

What was his name again? Some kind of bird?

"Isn't it curfew?" She asked, looking back at Sherry exasperatedly. The blond one nodded, then shrugged.

"Why weren't you at dinner?" he shouted up at her.

"I wasn't hungry." Which was a total lie. "Now go away!"

"Yusei was asking for you, you know!"

Was he really?

… Not that she cared or anything.

"Good night," she grumbled, closing the window without bothering to listen to what he was saying now.

"Looks like ma amie haz zomewone zat haz taken an interest in her. {Looks like my friend has someone that has taken an interest in her.}" Sherry smiled.

Aki's lip curled. "I think I like it better when people express their hate for me."

She shook her head and flopped onto her bed.

"'Night."

"Bonne nuit, ma amie. {Good night, my friend.}"