Author's Note: I'm sorry! I meant to post this a VERY long time ago, but stuff happened... (Basically, I went back to school) So far, in the first three weeks back, I've had two essays, three projects, four tests (Including quizzes), and a final exam in Geometry. Not fun, I tell you. Not fun. But I tried to write more this time!
Disclaimer: Since I forgot to put this in the first chapter, I do not own Black Butler, Kuroshitsuji, or whatever you want to call it. Yana Toboso came up with the Original plot, and characters. If I owned Black Butler... Well, I'd own it. And Ciel would do his "THE PHOENIX!" thing more often. I gotta say, I laughed SO HARD at that scene. (From the Manga, not the Anime.)
Anyway, enjoy!
When I had climbed into that sleek, shiny thing, I had never expected it to be an automobile. It was much too quiet, not to mention, it was not bumpy at all. It even had a wireless radio, and a few odd little compartments, a few circular, and two rectangular; one of them had a thin, circular object sticking out of it.
Mother turned on the 'radio', and to my surprise, clear sound came out, as if there were a concert right next to me. Mother turned around in her seat to look back at me.
"You probably don't want to listen to classical, do you? Here," She turned back to the front and pressed a little button. Immediately, the music changed; it turned into something loud, upbeat, and so obviously fake.
I grimaced at the sound. "No, that's quite all right. Please, turn it back."
She gave me an odd look, but complied. When the radio station was restored, she laughed. "Okay, two guesses."
I tilt my head. "Two guesses for what?" I inquired, not understanding what she was asking of me.
"Two guesses to get the song, silly! What's it from?" I stared at the back of her head; how was I supposed to know what it was from? I barely knew how that strange contraption, apparently called a seat belt, worked.
"I'm afraid I don't know, Mother. Care to enlighten me?"
"Come on, Ciel?" She was incredulous. "You don't remember the Main Theme to Star Wars? I mean- come on, it's only one of the most recognizable pieces ever."
Blast; if I don't know something well-known and they know that this Ciel does know it, then I'll be in trouble. How to cover...
A thought occurred to me, and I slowly started my response. "That's right," I chuckled. "Silly me, it was on the tip of my tongue, but I simply couldn't grasp it." I broke off into another bout of forced laughter. My mother gave me another odd look, and the rest of the ride continued in silence.
Mother finally took the automobile to the side of the road, in front of a large set of open gates, bearing a split, intricate crest.
"Don't forget, Ciel, I have a late meeting tonight, so Angie's coming over to make dinner; your father is hopeless in the kitchen." She gave the last part a little roll of the eyes. "She's bringing Grell, so don't do anything... Inappropriate for your age. Okay?"
Grell? That gender-confused moron is everywhere!
"Of course, Mother," I managed through gritted teeth, the mere thought of him already raising my irritation at an unreasonable rate.
Mother smirked; "Exactly what I mean. Just play nice, and don't leave any marks. Sound good? Nothing visible. Now, have a good day at school!" She pressed something, and a loud click resonated in the closed area. "Bye!"
With that, I am quickly ushered out of the automobile, and into the biting spring winds. Almost as soon as I was out, the machine sped down the street and disappeared around a corner.
Gripping my bag tightly, I looked up at the large gates. Then, ever so slowly, I began to drag myself inside.
The school was called Weston Academy of Higher Learning; when I heard this (Or read, I should say), I assumed some natural things about any Academy: A grand campus, with Nation-wide known professors, and it would be all boys, of course, unless there was a separate building for the ladies. Unfortunately, this "Academy of Higher Learning" Lacked all of that.
It was a simple school, with a large, well-kept lawn out in front, four wings, and what I assumed was a theatre. Next to that was another building, matching in height, but with a sign over the entrance, reading 'GYM,' whatever that was.
In front of each wing was a table with a lengthy line leading out from each; students of all ages, races, and genders were waiting. Every so often, the lines would move forward, and few students would break away from the front of it, holding little slips of colored paper.
I was jolted out of my observing trance when two people, a tall Indian boy, and a blond, curly-haired girl, dash past me, giggling. The boy is chasing the girl, who has a wide grin on her face. She scampers past, gracefully, giving me a wide berth. The boy however, slams right into me, knocking me to the ground.
"Ow..." I groaned from my spot on the ground. I started to slowly sit up; "Watch where you're going, would you?" I growl.
The boy lying next to me laughs, and rolls over to face me. "Sorry, about that- Oh! Hello, Ciel!"
"Do I know-" I started, but stopped when I realized that it would be stupid to ask. "Of course it would be you." I mutter.
He stood up, still smiling, and offered me his hand, which I grip tightly, using it to hoist myself up, off the ground. "Sorry about that, Ciel, Lizzie and I were—"
"Oh, my God! Soma! Ciel! Are you alright?" The girl came back over, breathless. "Soma, you idiot! You could've hurt him!"
Soma laughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I know. I didn't see him."
My fiancée—sorry, former fiancée—placed her hands on her hips and frowned, rolling her eyes. "Idiot," She mutters.
While she and the former prince were bickering, I took in the general appearance of my modern acquaintances.
Soma looked as he always did, minus the overload on expensive (yet tacky looking) jewelry; his hair was down to his shoulders, with the back tied in a messy knot. He too, was wearing a uniform, even if the way he was wearing it was rather… Untidy. His shirt was un-tucked, and his tie was loose under his blazer. Although, he wasn't completely different from his past self. His ever-present grin was still there, along with a single bangle, and a little golden band around his index finger.
Elizabeth—Lizzie's hair, instead of being in her familiar pigtails, was in two long braids hanging down her back, with her bangs held back by a tied, red ribbon. Although her uniform was slightly different, she kept the same jacket and tie, with the plaid slacks replaced with a plaid skirt, hanging down to her knees. Upon noticing the tiny sliver of skin between her skirt and her stockings, I blushed.
"Just apologize to him, Soma! It isn't that hard!" Lizzie pouted, and poked Soma on the arm.
"But I already did! Twice! Come on, Ciel, vouch for me!"
Both turned to look at me. "What? Oh. Um—yes, he did. Thank you, for your concern, though, Elizabeth, but I'm perfectly fine."
"See?" Soma stuck out his tongue at Elizabeth, to which, she responded with a tongue of her own.
I had always thought that the two would get along due to their similar personalities, and even though their words to each other, the tone remained playful, but Elizabeth seemed slightly different... More so, than the others, including Sebastian, and my late parents. More rough, perhaps? No, that wasn't the right word... Ah, well, many things seemed different in this modern-day. I decided to sort things out later.
I reached down to retrieve my fallen bag, and winced when a little when a sliver of pain laced up my arm. Upon further inspection, neither the jacket nor sleeve of my shirt were torn. But when I rolled it up, I was able to see the faint beginnings of bruises on my elbow and wrist. After snatching up the satchel with my other hand, I straightened up.
"But as for you," I glared at the former prince and growled. "Watch yourself, in the future. I may not be badly hurt, but that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt at all. Now leave me alone," I turned away and continued my observations of the children. "I have other things to do. Like figure out what the bloody hell I'm intended to be doing in a school…" The last part I said to myself, but it didn't go unheard by my two companions "Come on, Ciel, I told you I was sorry! Besides, we have to get our schedules!"
I turned back to them. "Is that what we're supposed to be doing? Oh. So where do we do that?" I had no idea, after all; I figured that these two could be my guides for the day.
"Oh, yeah!" Soma laughs. "You didn't do schedule changes in Middle School, did you? When the semester ends, we change out our schedules, and get new teachers and class arrangements. That reminds me…" He held up a finger and looked skyward, in thought, his attitude sobering. "Did you bring my music? I was trying to practice over the weekend, but I left it at your house on Friday."
"That was yours? The Violin scores?"
"Well, you certainly don't play it." Then Soma smirked. "Remind me to never let you touch my Violin, again; I don't need to replace more strings than I already have. You owe me seventeen dollars, by the way."
I scowled angrily at my self-proclaimed "Friend."
"I don't owe you a thing, you twit. Just tell me what to do, so I can get a move on."
"Oho!" Soma's eyebrows raised as an amused grin spread across his face, and he poked my cheek repeatedly. "Having to resort to other dialects to find insults for me, eh? You're going to run out, one day. And when you're out of those, you'll have to go to other languages! See? I am helping your education! I will inspire your cultural awareness!" I angrily swatted his hand away.
"My cultural awareness is actually quite large, thank you very much! Now, I would appreciate it, if you told me what to do, like I asked."
"Tell you what to do?" Soma repeated. "Okay! Simon says, 'jump on one foot while singing as loud as you can!'" Elizabeth stifled a snort.
"What?" Why on earth would I do something as unbecoming as that? "Why? And who the bloody hell is Simon?"
"So you didn't want to play 'Simon Says?' What a shame." The Indian boy hangs his head sadly. "It's the only time I get to order you around." When he raised his head again, his eyes were wide, and his lower lip was stuck out dramatically.
While Elizabeth giggled into her palm, Soma made little whimpering noises, like a dog would. "What sort of pathetic creature are you supposed to be mimicking?" I inquired coolly.
Soma looks offended. "Oh, Ciel!" He cried dramatically. "How could you be so ignorant! It's my puppy eyes!"
"And you are a dog, since... When, exactly?"
Lizzie burst into full on laughter. "You two are so such idiots!" She gasped out.
I frowned. "That is offensive, I hope you know. Not to mention, I've done nothing that deserves that term."
"It's not that! Remember my brother? Eddie? He's been reading some new manga, lately, so I borrowed them. And - weird coincidence, I know- it seems like you guys are exactly like two of the characters! The friendly Indian Prince, and the dark Earl Phantomhive."
Upon hearing my former title, I started. Recalling that morning, I cleared my throat and tentatively spoke. "That man-gaa," I struggled over the foreign word. "Wouldn't happen to be called something like, 'Black Butler,' would it?'
Elizabeth looked surprised. "Yeah. It's really good, actually. I'm already on the sixth volume."
"Is the Earl's name 'Ciel?'" I asked her.
She nodded while twirling a strand of stray hair around her finger.
"Have you heard of it? It wouldn't surprise me; you do share a name with the main character, after all!"
"No, I haven't heard of it before." I sighed. "Just this morning. Look, can we talk about this after classes? I would like to discuss this in great length, but right now, I don't believe we have the time."
Soma shook his sleeve away from his wrist to check a little black box. A watch, perhaps? None I had ever seen. He scowled and muttered something unintelligible under his breath; something foul, most likely.
"We only have five more minutes, and we still need to get our schedules, and figure out where we're supposed to go. Damn. Come on, guys, the lines are still pretty long..." He hefted his bag higher up on his shoulder, and turned away; Elizabeth followed suit.
After walking a few feet away, I understood that I was supposed to follow them, and the three of us made our way over to one of the wings.
What I first thought was a single line, was, in actuality, three. Of course, they were blended together, so you couldn't really tell; but there were three different tables at the fronts of the lines, with signs reading 'A-I,' 'J-R,' and 'S-Z.' Elizabeth headed towards the first, but Soma dragged me towards the second.
"It's by last name," He explained.
Waiting in the line took a large amount of time, but perhaps it was simply the waiting that made it feel long. That does seem to happen, doesn't it? When you're not doing anything, it seems like time passes slowly; when you're doing something you don't like, it feels like a moment takes forever, but when you're doing something enjoyable, a day passes in the blink of an eye. But it felt long, to me, and I don't like waiting.
When we finally got to the front, there were three people sitting at a small table, among stacks of boxes, full and empty. The three were all older than the students, and dressed in a different manner; the dull uniform replaced with an equally dull, but different, at least, wardrobe. The two men wore button down shirts, one blue, one white, and ties, while the woman wore a blouse and sweater; all of them had a cord hanging around their necks with little square cards and keys hanging off the ends.
"Last name?" One of the men said, looking up at Soma.
"Kadar," Was the former prince's quick response.
The man at the table reached down and looked over all the boxes. After finding the one he wanted, he pulled it up, and began rifling through the contents. He selected a small piece of colored paper and drew it out of the box, handing it to Soma. He crossed something out on a list, and turned to me.
"Last name?" He rose an eyebrow expectantly.
"Phant- I mean- um..." I scoured my memories of that morning, trying to remember what name my parents had given me, that morning. McLanding? No, that wasn't it... Mc... McSomething-or-Other. McLancer? Close... McLencia! That's it! "McLencia," I finally respond.
The man repeats the process with a different box, and hands me an identical slip of paper. "Thank you, sir. Good day." I walked away and rejoined Soma who was examining his slip.
"Who do you have for this semester? Or did your classes just reorder?" Soma inquired. Rather than saying anything, I simply handed the scrap to him. When he had finished his brief examination, a wide grin spread across his face.
"We have five classes together!" He crowed. "The only ones we don't, are PE, and Music- and that's only because you don't play with school! This is awesome!" He continued his rant on the 'awesomeness.' However, I ignored him, as I always do, and focused on the slip of paper that was supposedly my schedule.
The layout was fairly simple: there were subjects listed on the left side, with the name of the professor instructing the class, and the order I was to go in. First, was English, followed by Mathematics, and the Sciences, after that. There was a break in the order where the word, 'LUNCH' was written. Succeeding the Lunch hour, was History, Physical Education, Drama, and French.
That was what they taught in schools? If that was so, then I would have no trouble at all, despite having missed much of the technological, scientific, and mathematical advances. The only trouble was history; I had missed how many years? I made a few quick calculations in my head. I had skipped over approximately one-hundred and twenty-three years of history. That may prove to be a setback.
I made a mental note to research what I had missed.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by a rough hand grabbing mine, and dragging me off in some random direction. "Come on, Ciel! Our first class is this way!" I wasn't familiar with the layout of the campus, so I let him drag me along.
As we made our way through the hallways, I peeked into various classrooms, and was met with many little tables arranged in varying manners. Some were in rows, and some were in larger tables. Some of the doors were decorated with vibrantly colored photographs, some had posters, stating names, and some simply had plain pieces of paper covering them. I couldn't tell what was inside; we went by too fast.
A loud buzzing sounded overhead, and Soma swore again.
"Come on, we're going to be late." He let go of my hand and broke into a loping jog. I quickly started after him, but even though I was running, I could barely keep up.
Damn my athletic inability.
"Git! Wait for me!"
"You did it again!" He called over his shoulder. "I'm helping you expand your cultural awareness!"
I glared at Soma, scowling. Breathing hard, I took a few sprinting leaps forward, and caught up to him, latching onto the strap of his bag. I had intended to let him drag me along, but just after I had done so, he slowed down to walk.
"We're in here; Mr. Hanclair, I think. Never had him, before, but I heard that he's really cool."
Still panting, I braced my hands on my knees caught my breath. Once I could breathe properly, again, I glanced up.
Standing by the door was a tall, blonde man. He looked as if he hadn't been to a barber in a few days, and there was a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.
"I should've known that he would show up, eventually." I stood up straight, and walked over. "Hello, Bard."
Clenching the cigarette between his teeth, he raised an eyebrow, and smirked. "That's 'Bardroy,' to you, kid. Actually, you're a student. That's 'Mr. Hanclair.'" But he smiled, and took the cigarette out of his mouth; although, it turned out to be a lollipop. He held out his right hand. "Nice to meet you, kid. I feel like we'll have fun, for the rest of the year."
Right. He didn't know me. But since when had Bardroy eaten lollipops? "Ciel McLencia, the pleasure is all mine." Of course, I knew Bard, so my voice was laced with sarcasm, but I managed to keep a pleasant smile.
He laughed, and ruffled my hair. "We will have fun times, you can count on it."
I give a large, sarcastic smile. "Of course, Sir."
"Go on in, and choose any seat you want; just make sure you'll be able to work"
I nod, and Soma joins me in entering the room. I took a seat at one of the various tables, hung my bag off the back of my chair, and started my school day.
Author's Note: Yay! All done! I tried to make this longer (Since I meant to post this a looooong time ago...) and it turned out to be almost a thousand words longer, including the current word count. I hope you like it! I had been intending to put Ciel's entire school day in this chapter... But that didn't really work out, and I wanted to introduce Lizzie and Soma. I love those two, but I love the fact that a lot of what they are is just a front... (If you've read the manga, at least. In the anime, they are who they are.) I just feel like they'd get along, so well! Also, a few notes: I've changed Lizzie's last name to Campbell, and Bard never really had a last name, so I named him Hanclair. If you can figure out how I got to those, Brownie Points! Also, special thanks to Seileach, who caught a regional (Is that what it would be called?) error I made in the first chapter. Thank you! Does anybody want to Beta this? I'm currently relying on my grammar freakishness, and spell check to edit this. If anybody is interested, let me know! If anyone knows French, too... I might need it for Ciel French lesson, as I (Unfortunately) don't speak French. If there's no one, I use a translator... Which I don't like. Thanks for reading! Reviews make me happy!
-L. Tsukicho M.