Chapter 2: Welcome to Seigaku

Sunday October 12th

It was 7:00 on Sunday evening and the Writer family was exhausted. Between the packing, traveling, time change, and jetlag, Ryan and Lexy were dead on their feet. Being used to not getting a lot of sleep, Jennifer was handing the exhaustion slightly better. Besides, she had so many questions and concerns spinning around in her head she doubted sleep would come even if she were given a comfortable bed.

Currently the family was sitting at the kitchen table eating the pizza Mitch had delivered. Their dishes were still in the process of being shipped, so they were eating off of the paper plates Jennifer had picked up at a convenient store earlier that afternoon. Mitch had handed her some bills, and asked that she pick up the family some necessities to get them through the next couple of days. This made Jennifer very happy because it meant no dishes tonight. Not to mention she was getting dinner! Sure her dad restricted her to just one slice, but she was shocked at getting fed at all today since the airplane provided meals on the flight.

"God, I'm tired." Ryan said stifling a yawn.

"I know right." Lexy agreed with a yawn of her own. "I was bummed when I first found out that most of our stuff won't be here for another couple of days, but now I'm kind of glad. I can't even imagine unpacking right now."

"Tell me about it. I'm just glad our pillows and blankets are here, and that the four bedrooms upstairs already have mattresses in them. Speaking of rooms, Dad did you decide which rooms we each get?" Ryan asked in his most innocent sounding voice.

Jennifer immediately knew where he was going with this, but just bit her lip and stared at the crust of her pizza. Ryan brought up that there were four bedrooms in hopes that one of them would be given to his older sister. Jennifer appreciated the effort, but knew not to get here hopes up. They may be in a new country, but it was still their same father.

"The one with the bathroom is mine. You and your sister can decide from the remaining three which ones you want. Whatever is left over will be the guest room."

"But what about…" Ryan paused when he saw his father's face change.

"What about what?" Mitch challenged.

Jennifer panicked. She could see that their dad was very close to his snapping point, and the last thing she wanted was his anger to be directed at Ryan, so she jumped in before Ryan could answer.

"What about me sir?"

It worked. Mitch was no longer looking at Ryan. Instead he was now glaring at Jennifer. Ryan had this horrible look on his face that was torn between fear and guilt. Lexy had her eyes fixed in her peperoni as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"You, you ungrateful …" But all of a sudden Mitch face changed. It went from anger to what seemed like excitement, followed by relaxation. "You can meet me upstairs in my room in five minutes." Then he shoved the last of his pizza in his mouth and headed upstairs.

Once he was out of earshot, Lexy hissed at her brother. "Way to go moron."

"Hey at least I tried to get Jenny a room, while you just sat there like your usual useless self."

"Well at least my useless self didn't cause Jenny to get in get in trouble Rye."

Anger shot through Ryan's face, which Jennifer assumed was largely due to being called Rye.

"You know what Alexia? You want to go there? FINE let's…"

"Shut Up!" Jennifer hissed cutting Ryan off mid sentence. She was whispering to make sure her father didn't hear her, but the tone was enough to grab both her siblings' attention. "Both of you need to knock it off. Start calling each other by the names you would each prefer, and STOP blaming one another for me. Okay? I'm fine. I know you each try to help in your own way, and I'm grateful for that. But seriously Rye, the last thing I want is for either of you to get hurt. And trust me, when I'm here I'll never let that happen, but you two are going to be homeschooled until you pick up enough Japanese. So promise me you won't do anything to provoke Dad while I'm at school?"

"But."

"No buts. I need you to promise me that you both won't provoke dad."

"…Fine" Ryan sighed in defeat.

"Lexy?"

"Yeah Jenny I promise too. It's not like I'm the one you need to worry about."

"Would you stop provoking Ryan? I mean it guys, part of this not provoking dad means getting along with each other. We're all we have."

"Guess you're right. Seeing as we've been ripped away from all our friends again."

"Aww Lexy you'll make new friends soon. " Jennifer said sympathetically.

"Yeah because it is soooo easy making friends when you're stuck at home with your brother and a private tutor everyday."

"Lexy you'll be at school before you know it. Now I got to get upstairs, before Dad kills me."

When Jennifer entered her father's room he had a bunch of papers sprawled across the bed. Jenifer took this as a good sign. If he was busy with business, he probably wasn't planning a long 'punishment'. Still she treaded with caution.

"You wa… wanted to see me … sir?"

Mitch looked up from his papers and waved for her to come closer. Jennifer swallowed, but did not hesitate as she stepped further into the room.

"Look Jennifer. This move could be a fresh start for all of us."

"Sir?" Jennifer knew she had to have missed something. Surly he wasn't including her in this statement.

"What I mean is. I really think it's time we work on our relationship. This move is going to have a big impact on all our lives, and I think we will all be much better off. I'm going to be at work more, so I'm really going to need you to step up and take care of your brother and sister. If you think you can handle that, maybe I won't be forced to punish you as much."

Jennifer couldn't believe it. Of course she didn't miss the part about how according to her father Jennifer forced her dad to hit her, but she didn't care."

"You mean it sir?"

"Jennifer we're family. It's time we start acting like it. Speaking of which, I'm thinking you could also step up and start participating more in the 'family' business."

There it was. The catch. Jennifer wanted nothing to do with her father's business, but she was desperate to not get punished anymore. If Jennifer was being honest she knew it was more than just that. There was still part of her that desperately wanted her father's approval. Despite everything that he had done to her, she still loved him. It had been years since he acknowledged she was his family, and she didn't want the feeling to go away.

"What would you want me to do?" She asked hesitantly.

"Don't worry about that just yet. Right now I just want to focus on school, and taking care of things here. I talked to my boss, and he recommended this school called Seigaku, so you will start there tomorrow.

Jennifer walked up to Seigaku with butterflies in her stomach. This was a chance for her to have a fresh start. Nobody knew her here, which meant nobody hated her yet. That included the teachers. Maybe that meant she had a chance to even get a letter of recommendation for college from one of them. Not that she would ever ask. While it had always been a secret dream for Jennifer to go to college, she knew it would never happen. There was no way her father would give her any money, which meant she needed a full ride. This was one concern, but not the biggest one. The real reason Jennifer never planned on pursuing her dream was it would mean leaving Ryan and Lexy behind. Without being there to protect them, who knows what her father would do.

Two schoolgirls running past Jennifer suddenly shifted her thought. 'Why are they wearing the same outfit?' That's when she looked up and saw three guys by the door all wearing the same black shirts and pants. 'Of course! Blend in Dad says. Don't stand out he says. Because that's so easy for a new student from America. But it's freaking impossible when the rest of the school wears a uniform and you don't have one!' "THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!"

"What's unbelievable?" A male voice asked in Japanese.

'Crap I totally said that last part out loud. Wait I'm supposed to answer now hurry before he thinks you're a freak.'

"Um how big the school is. My last school couldn't hold a candle to this place, and I guess my excitement caught me by surprise." Jennifer smiled as the lie slid easily off her tongue in fluent Japanese. If there was one thing she had to give her father credit for, it was the ability to lie.

"I know it is quite big! I remember my freshman year I kept getting lost, but now I got this place down." The very tall boy with raven spiky hair and violet eyes expressed with enthusiasm.

"Well maybe you can help me then. It's my first day, and I have to find the office to get my schedule." Jennifer asked hopefully. After all, the guy seemed nice enough.

"Sure! It's right though these doors." He answered as he started walking. I'm Momoshiro by the way. But you can call me Momo."

"Nice to meet you Momo, I'm Jennifer but my friends call me Jenny." Jennifer internally winced at that lie. She didn't have any friends. But Ryan and Lexy called her Jenny, and her father told her to fit in. Normal people have friends.

"Jenny is a cute name!" Momo exclaimed excitedly. "Okay there is the office."

"Thanks Momo, maybe I'll see you around."

"Yes, yes! Bye Jenny." As he walked away Jennifer heard him say under his breath. "I love American girls. You get to call them by their first name."

Jennifer couldn't help but chuckle at this as she walked through the office door.

Leaving the office Jennifer was in high spirits. The lady in the office had been extremely nice, and didn't even mention that she wasn't in a uniform. Her schedule looked good too. She couldn't believe that she had English first period. Well she was definitely guaranteed to get an A in that class, as long as she could find it first. Her original plan was to just ask a student in the hall for directions, but the halls were remarkably empty considering class didn't start for another 5 minutes. Just when she was about to return to the office for help she heard voices.

Turning the corner in her direction were three boys. The tallest of the group had sandy hair, glasses and a stare so stern that Jennifer almost retreated to office anyway. Next to him was a slightly shorter, but much less intimidating raven. He had the strangest haircut Jennifer had ever seen, but his smile was so welcoming this she hardly noticed his hair. The third guy was the shorted of the group. He had flaming red hair and a personality to match it. He appeared to skip rather than walk, and his voice definitely carried the loudest through the halls.

"Excuse me" Jennifer called out, making eye contact with the raven. "It's my first day here and I seem to be a bit lost."

"Oi Oi! We will definitely help you won't we Oishi?" The redhead asked the raven excitedly, practically pulling his arm off in the process.

"Of course we will. I'm Oishi and these are my friends Tezuka and Eiji." He said gesturing to the to boys on either side of him.

"Thank you so much. I'm Jenny by the way."

"Well Jenny It's nice to meet you. What class do you have first?"

"English."

"Me too!" Eiji exclaimed. "I'll take it from here guys. See you at lunch." Without further ado Eiji grabbed Jennifer's arm and skipped down the hallway.

Jennifer had to concentrate on not wincing when Eiji grabbed her arm. While it was almost healed, it was still sore from the burn whenever someone touched it. The long sleeves hid away anything suspicious, but Jennifer started to worry what would happen when she got a uniform. It seemed all the girls here had to wear short sleeves and a skirt. Before Jennifer could ponder the idea some more Eiji interrupted her thoughts.

"This class is great because Fuji's in it even if we sit on opposite ends of the room. Well here we are!"

Before Jennifer could ask Eiji who Fuji was, he was already headed to his seat. Jennifer didn't really mind. After all, she was only going to ask about Fuji to be polite. It's not like the guy would have any effect on her life. Instead of following Eiji she approached the teacher. After a quick introduction he directed her to an empty table. Every table in the room could seat two people, and it seemed like hers was the only one that was empty. Perhaps this was a good thing, because Jenifer never had been a fan of small talk. Sure she was good enough at it, but it usually involved lying. Not to mention, everyone at her old school hated her. Soon enough people would hate her here too. If no one sat next to her it might prolong that effect. Just as Jennifer was about to relax someone did fill the seat. Before Jennifer got a good look the instructor began speaking.

"Alright class. We have a quiz tomorrow, so today we are going to a practice exercise. I'm going to give you a worksheet with twenty English sentences on it. I want you to circle the noun, underline the verb and box the preposition. You can work on this with your table partner, and to make it interesting the first group who gets every question right will get ten points on tomorrow's quiz."

Jennifer was elated. She didn't need the points for a quiz on her native language, but if she won them for her partner they would be grateful, and might not hate her. That's when she realized she still didn't know whom she was sitting next to.

Facing her partner she had to hold back a gasp. This had to be the best looking guy she had ever seen. He had silky brown hair that framed his face perfectly. His skin looked flawless, and his smile was addicting. Yet the most interesting part about him was that his eyes appeared to be closed. Despite this, Jennifer got the feeling he could see her. If possible his smile grew even wider, and he reached out his hand.

"I guess that makes us partners. My name is Fuji Shusuke. Nice to meet you."