Chapter 2: Welcome to Gekkoukan High

Chris groaned himself awake after being woken up by the familiar and rather obnoxious beeping from an alarm clock. Chris reached over to the bedside table and hit to off button rather hard, climbing out of bed and sighing. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at the desk where he had hung his uniform on the back of the chair last night. Chris got up out of bed and changed into his uniform, and walked over to the sink to brush his teeth. After finishing that, he walked back over to the desk where his schoolbooks had already been stacked up for him. He unzipped his backpack and emptied it's contents, replacing them with the school materials, then looking over one of the items he had taken out of his backpack. It was his father's marpat-patterned military jacket with a staff sergeant insignia on the shoulder and above that insignia was a black and yellow tab that read "RANGER". Chris laid it out on his lap and examined the name patch "VASH". He continued reminicing until his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hey, it's Yukari. Are you awake yet?" Yukari's muffled voice came from the door.

"Hang on, I'll be right there," Chris said, laying his dad's old uniform on the bed and walking over to the door, opening it and Yukari took a few steps inside.

"Good morning. Did you sleep okay?" she asked pleasently. "Yeah, I slept alright," Chris said. "What are you doing here?" he quickly added.

"Mitsuru-senpai asked me to take you to school," Yukari answered. "It's getting late, and my boyfriend's waiting downstairs, so are you ready to go?" she asked.

"Aw man, she already has a boyfriend...oh well," Chris thought and looked at Yukari. "Yeah, I'm ready," Chris said.

"Okay, then let's go," Yukari said with a smile and led Chris downstairs, where a blue-haired boy was waiting by the enterance. "So, he's the exchange student?" he asked as Yukari and Chris walked down the stairs to the enterance. "Yup, this is him," Yukari said as she and Chris approached the door. "Well, nice to meet you, I'm Minato Arisato," the blue-haired boy said with a bow. "Same here, I'm Chris Vash," Chris said as he, Minato and Yukari left the dorm.

The group was soon on a monorail car from the Iwotodai station. "We have to take the monorail to get to school," Yukari explained. "Bet your last school wasn't like that," she added jokingly. "It's my favorite part of the trip. It feels like you're just gliding over the sea," she said dreamily.

"Our stop is Port Island Station at the end of the line, and from there, we walk," Minato said. "You never heard of Tatsumi Port Island, have you? It's a man-made island, and our school was built in the middle of it," Minato explained, followed shortly by Yukari.

"Oh, look, you can see it now!" Yukari said pointing out the window. Chris followed the direction of her finger and sure enough, the was a large island that looked like a small city. "Whoa, check it out..." Chris said softly.

Shortly after disembarking from the tram, the group had gone a short ways from the station until they heard a creaking and whirring sound. Chris looked behind him to see a boy on a bike barrleing towards himself, Yukari and Minato. "Get outta the way!" the boy on the bike said in a panic. The group immediately sidestepped out of the way and the bike crashed into a pile of boxes. As Yukari, Minato and Chris walked by the crash, the boy was on the ground clutching his shin, hissing in pain.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Chris asked as he, Yukari and Minato passed the boy.

"If we do, we'll be late for school, and I doubt you'll want to be late on your first day," Minato said as the group kept walking.

"Well, this is it," Yukari said as the group came upon a large building with an obelisk in the courtyard. "Here we are! Welcome to Gekkoukahn High School, hope you like it!" Yukari said cheerfully.

"She said the same thing to me, when I first got here," Minato whispered to Chris as they entered the lobby, where there were rows of small locker-like cubbies in front of them.

"First, you need to drop you shoes off in your assigned locker..." Yukari said, digging through her bag, until she produced a small key and a pair of slippers. Your locker is the one next to Minato's easy enough to remember, right?" Yukari said as Chris put his sneakers in the locker and put the slippers Yukari handed him.

"Yeah, though back home, we had book lockers, not shoe lockers," Chris commented.

"You should be okay from here, the first place you'll want to go is the faculty office to find out what your homeroom is," Yukari advised. "The faculty office is down that hall on the left, it'll be the first door on your left," Yukari directed. "Any questions before I leave?" she finished.

"No, I'll be alright," Chris shrugged and started towards the left hallway, until Yukari stopped him.

"Listen, about last night... Don't tell anyone about what happened, okay?" Yukari said nervously. "Huh- what?" Chris said until Minato called out.

"Yukari, hurry up, or I'll leave you behind!" he said. "Okay! See ya later," Yukari said and went off in Minato's direction, leaving Chris slightly confused.

Chris just shrugged it off and went towards the faculty office. He slid the door open and stepped inside. "Hello?" he called out and a teacher in a beige suit answered.

"Oh, you must be the exchange student," she greeted Chris and approached him. "Christopher Vash, 11th grade, correct?" she said looking over a clipboard.

"Yeah, that's right," Chris said, nodding. The teacher continued flipping through the file on the clipboard.

"Wow, you've lived in a lot of different places...up until 2007, that was what, five years ago? Your father-," she gasped at the end and had a sympathetic look on her face. "I'm sorry, I've been so busy I didn't have time to read this beforehand..." she said sadly. "It's alright," Chris said assuringly.

"Well, that aside. I'm Ms. Toriumi, I teach junior composition," the teacher introduced herself. "Welcome to our school," she added with a smile. Chris smiled back "Thanks, it's nice to meet you, too," Chris replied.

"Wow, such enthusiasm," Ms. Toriumi said and looked back to the clipboard. "I have your classroom assignment right here. You're in... class 2-B," she said and grimaced. "Why him of all teachers? On your first day, too..." she sighed. "Anyway, class 2-B is on the second floor of the school, it shouldn't be too hard to spot," she explained and the bell rang. "Oh! There's the first bell, you don't want to be late, especially with the homeroom teacher you have," Ms. Toriumi said urgently.

"Okay, thanks. I'll find it," Chris said and left the faculty office.