~oOoOo~
At long last, five o'clock came and everyone gathered in the Performing Arts Theatre for the official orientation.
The room was large and circular, with navy blue curtains shrouding a mahogany stage at the front and several fold-out tables erected in the back.
The principal stood at the front of the room, but not on the stage, holding a microphone and watching as the students filed in. He wore an amicable smile, but Kamio and Shinji knew not to be deceived by appearance.
Finally, after the P.A.T. was mostly full, he gestured for the teachers stationed at the doors to shut them. The teachers obeyed immediately, slamming the doors shut in the faces of a few astonished students who had arrived late.
The principal waited until the curious buzz had died down before speaking.
"Another year…begun!" he proclaimed.
A few students sniggered at the thinly veiled Harry Potter reference. Or maybe they were sniggering at his tie, which Kamio noted, had not been changed from that morning.
"Can I talk without this?" The principal suddenly asked, pointing at the microphone. "There's really nothing that I hate more than listening to my own voice magnified." Seeing a few nods of assent, he turned off the microphone and put it on the stage. He started to pace the front of the room.
"Before I begin, I would like to address the event that probably made deep impressions on the young lives of many of you. I'm sure that several students in this room have been changed forever."
Everyone leaned forward, excited.
"There was an earthquake this afternoon."
There was silence.
"…that was your big reveal?" Kirihara asked finally.
The principal frowned. "Maybe some people didn't notice." He said defensively.
"Who doesn't notice ground shaking?"
"You are grating my credibility. Please do not speak while I do."
Kirihara shrugged and reclined in his seat.
The principal looked annoyed. "Like I was saying, there was an earthquake earlier this afternoon. Can't be helped. School was not even in session yet, so I didn't expect you younglings to know what to do. It's a shame that it happened before we got to the earthquake drill lecture, which occurs later in the year."
Many people audibly groaned and began making plans to get out of it.
"Nevertheless, there have been no injuries either to students or to the campus, other than some debris. The Suzuki Daiichi uses the most modern architecture and thus I'm sure you will all feel very safe while on this campus. Not a single one of our buildings was damaged! That's why we decided to proceed with this afternoon's introduction!" The principal spoke as if this were some sort of personal accomplishment on his part.
"Now, I'm sure that many of you were very frightened, but as you see, there has been no serious or lasting damage. Please try to contain your nerves."
Several boys began to nod off.
The principal seemed to notice this, and decided to drop the subject.
"On a brighter note," he began, "this year's entering class is one of the biggest in the history of this school."
"That isn't really saying much if you consider that this school has only been open two years." Shinji muttered.
The principal went on. "I know that the reputation of Suzuki Daiichi has spread quickly in the region, which is probably why so many of you sit here today: students who transferred as second or third years. Your family wanted you to get the best education possible. And they were absolutely right!"
He smiled genially. "Suzuki Daiichi is known for it's excellence in both academics and athletics. The staff have been carefully chosen and trained to maximize the learning experience. The environment is safe, focused, and positive. In other words, you're going to love it here whether you like it or not. If you ever have any problems that you can't sort out with other students, the staff, your family, or hell, even with yourself, feel free to contact me or any of the three counselors that are here to help." He gestured to three ferocious looking women who were standing near the exits and who looked like they would disembowel the first student who asked for help.
"Is he allowed to say 'hell'?" Aoi whispered to Kaidoh.
"I don't think there's any need for me to go into the speech about safety on the campus." The principal continued. "Any trouble makers will be…dealt with. Anyhow, the safe schools speech is so overused, I'm sure you all know it by heart without me telling you. You would rather I skipped the part about not bringing guns and such and got to the good parts."
"Hear, hear!" Hooted Momoshiro.
The principal looked momentarily pleased. "A few last things to go over. There will be no problems with the dress code, I think, since you are all used to uniforms. Essentially, the rules are all common sense. Try as hard as you can in all of your classes. Don't act up. Don't attempt to handle the facilities that you don't understand. Treat other students and your teachers with respect."
He paused and then gestured to the tables set up at the back of the P.A.T.
"You have all been sorted into dorms. Each table represents a dorm, and there is a list of the students in it above each table. Check to see which dorm you are in, and then at the tables you will see the breakdown of roommates, if you haven't already. There are teachers at each table, so feel free to ask any questions that you felt too awkward to ask in front of everybody else."
The principal got up, walked over to the tables and sat down at one of them that didn't already have a teacher monitoring it. He stared at the students for a few moments.
"Oh—you can go!" He said, realizing why no one was moving.
There was an instant stampede as a couple hundred boys rushed to the back of the room.
Kamio had his toes stepped on several times, got elbowed in the face, and thought he might have felt someone make a grab at his ass as he made his way to the back. He instantly spotted the table with his name listed above it. It was the one the principal had seated himself at.
In surprise, he noted that he recognized many of the other names on the list. In fact, it seemed that nearly everyone that he had been in tennis that he knew from last year was in the dorm. Groups of old students from Fudomine, St. Rudolph, Seigaku, Rokkaku, Yamabuki, and Hyoutei loped into the general vicinity.
Kamio felt arms encircling his neck and considerable weight on his back.
"I'm glad we're together, Kamio-kun."
He should have known it was Kirihara.
"Get—off!" He hissed, struggling to breath.
"Hey, you're in here too?" David had arrived.
"Apparently." Said Kamio and Kirihara at the same time. Then they both waited.
"…what? Do I have to make a pun out of everything?"
At that point, Shinji showed up to greet his friends also, though it may have partially just been in an effort to put some distance between himself and the principal. "I stayed away from you the whole afternoon." He reminded Kamio. "Did it have the desired effect?"
"I'm proud as hell, but no."
"I should have known. Listening to you is like watching an Indian drama. It all seems logical at the time, but then in the end it's completely stupid and pointless." Shinji sighed, and addressed everyone. "Did you guys at least have a good afternoon?"
"No." They chorused. The only good thing that had happened to any of them since the morning was that Syuusuke had finally gotten bored around four o'clock and left the campus.
"Well, were your entrances good?"
"No, mine sucked." Yuuta said moodily. "It was a double with my brother!"
"At least you had one!" Kirihara said. "I practically just came out of nowhere."
"Will you all quit whining?" David asked. "Don't laugh, but I just got here!"
Everyone laughed at him.
"It's not funny! I'm off puns until I get some retribution!"
"Fat chance." Kamio ran a hand through his hair, his mood somewhat lightened. "Hey...you two!" He suddenly said in shock, noticing Momoshiro and Kaidoh, who had sauntered over.
"Yeah, we're stuck here too." Said Momoshiro. "No one was left unscathed. Not even the Prince of Tennis."
"Where is Echizen?" Kirihara asked, looking around.
Momoshiro shrugged. "Dunno. We arrived together this morning, but I haven't seen him since he went to the bathroom three hours ago."
"Don't you care what happened to him?" Shinji asked incredulously.
"Well, he should have been more careful." Grumbled Kaidoh. "Especially knowing how he is with directions. But the only thing bigger than Echizen's idiocy is his ego."
David looked shocked.
"Eh, he'll be fine." Momoshiro assured. "Even if it takes all night, he'll find his own way back rather than ask for directions. Because the only thing bigger than his ego is his pride."
"'Ego' and 'pride' mean the same thing, dumbass." Kaidoh hissed.
"All here?" The principal neatly interrupted, calling to the group in front of his table. "You kids sure are noisy."
"Your tie is noisy." Said somehow hidden in a knot of boys. Several others expressed agreement.
"Is this how you were taught to treat your elders?"
"Sorry, but he did get you there, sir." Choutarou said in a tremulous voice.
"I can't believe I'm listening to this." The principal sighed. Shinji and Kamio could see his former nature reappearing.
"We're just going to get this over with. Check out this listing for your roommates."
He dropped a paper on the table and a few boys leaned over to check it out.
"Kawamura Sushi now serves—" Shinji began to read.
"Give me that!" exclaimed the principal, snatching back the paper, fumbling around in his briefcase, and finding another sheet.
"For anyone that is actually interested, here is the real list of the roommates. You may meet up and proceed up to your rooms and settle in if you haven't already." He flourished the list out at them, sliding it across the table where all the boys crowded around to read it.
Roommates: Naruto Building
What's with the name of our dorm? asked Yuuta.
"Ah, yes." The principal smiled. "Each of our dorm buildings is named after an anime, and then we sort students into each building depending on what the anime they come from most resembles."
"Does that mean that most of the people in our building will be from Prince of Tennis?" Choutarou ventured.
"You bet."
"I thought the point of a new school was to mix up students so that we have a variety of friends." Hiyoshi complained.
"That's your problem, son." Said the principal cheerfully. "I thought it would be more funny if we segregated athletes, intellectuals, magicians, warriors, ninja, and random people with no identifying characteristics, so that's the way it's going to be. It's up to you to make friends. In each of the roommate pairings we did try to at least mix up the schools though."
Realizing there was no point arguing with him, the students sighed and looked down to read the roommate listings.
1. Kamio[Fudomine]-Ibu[Fudomine]
"Oh yeah. Way to mix up the schools." Said Ishida.
"That's the only one!" the principal shouted. "And you know what?" he suddenly aimed at Ishida. "Just for that, you're out of this story."
"What? You can't kick me out!"
"Leave."
"This is ridiculous! I paid for this school!"
"I paid for this tie! Doesn't mean someone can't take it away from me! You get out this instant. Not only are you out of this school, but I will be having a little conversation with your parents."
"But—"
"Security."
Two huge men came and grabbed Ishida, dragging him out of the entrance hall as easily as if he were a paper doll. No one saw him again.
"Any other comments?" the principal asked.
No one said a word.
"Excellent. It's really too bad for him, but as you can see, we have a code of conduct here at Suzuki. For a more detailed articulation of what is and what is not acceptable, feel free to check the list I have attached with scotch tape to the notice board in the mess hall."
The students gulped and returned to the roommate listings.
2. Kirihara[Rikkaidai]-Fuji[St. Rudolph]
3. Amane[Rokkaku]-Wakato[N/A]
4. Kabaji[Hyoutei]-Aoi[Rokkaku]
Everyone found this one amusing.
5. Echizen[Seigaku]-Ichiuma[Yamabuki]
6. Katsuo[Seigaku]-Uchimura[Fudomine]
7. Touji[Yamabuki]-Ichirou[St. Rudolph]
8. Hiyoshi[Hyoutei]-Horio[Seigaku]
In the back of their minds, Kachiro and Katsuo knew they should feel deeply sorry for Hiyoshi, but they just couldn't bring themselves to. Hiyoshi deserved it and everybody knew it.
9. Choutarou[Hyoutei]-Momoshiro[Seigaku]
…And that's all we care about, folks!
"What the hell?" Said Sakurai of Fudomine blankly, scanning the list for his name. "I'm not even on it!"
"You may be seeing more than one reference to the last comment on this paper," said the principal, tapping the roommate-listing sheet and ignoring Sakurai completely, "so make sure to read it. If your name isn't on the list, just pick whatever rooms you want, because it has already been decided that you are a relatively unimportant supporting character and therefore will not be receiving much screen, or in this case, page time."
A few of the boys gaped disbelievingly at the principal, but he seemed not to notice and got heavily to his feet.
"Other than that, I think you will find your stay here both enriching and lively. Welcome to Suzuki Daiichi Junior High."
oOoOo