Simply Indescribable
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry people, school is a little bit occupying but I haven't forgotten about this. I feel really rotten about posting this up with such a delay, but I've made it extra long. Thank you to all the people who read this fic and cheers to their patience.
For a moment there was silence, everyone was so shocked. The background noises of the mall had become secondary, petty. This newly received information was like a punch in the stomach, a knock on the head, a sudden, sharp intense impact. Then the thoughts of "It can't be true" and "That's preposterous" floated into our minds.
"Shut up Hotaru." I said sternly. "You're getting us worked up."
"Then what else can it be smartarse?" she replied scathingly.
I hesitated, her hypothesis was definitely reasonable, but we just started school, if students in the older years had no obvious reaction to this, then surely unexperienced newies like us would definitely be wrong. "Look, whether or not this Academy is crazy and the heads of this place are run by descendants of Hitler, is really not important right now. I mean Natsume is in hospital, shouldn't we care more about what's happening right now? And also, who else can prove what you said?"
"Since when did you care so much about Natsume? Anyways, if we don't see the traps ahead, we would be standing in one and not knowing how we got there."
"Well, it's not completely fool-proof until we have more information, is it? After all, the seniors don't seem to care about it much, and we're only juniors." Nonoko said meekly.
"What you're saying is right, but think about it, why on earth would this school exist if it were not for war?" Hotaru replied.
"Well maybe it's really what it says in the profile. It's a school for highly gifted individuals that will become the future leaders of society."
"Bullcrap Mikan. As if it is. The former students only become leaders because this academy has a suspiciously close relationship with the government. And for the record, I lost a brother to this."
I closed my mouth, unable to argue further, Hotaru had triumphed. I shot her a dirty look and pretended to sip some coke.
Anna chose this moment to say, "Hey why don't we leave this for the moment. And –uh- actually eat the stuff we ordered. The food's getting stone cold."
We nodded and started eating, but my throat seemed unable to swallow and my brain was too preoccupied to command my throat to do so. Millions of questions raced through my head and my inner conscience was having a field day. I wished, wished what Hotaru said wasn't true, but it seemed too reasonable, too logical to be false.
Ruka cleared his throat and we immediately averted our eyes to him.
"Hey, who wants to go visit Natsume? We might find more about the academy."
The silence and tension loosened with that simple question. Anna and Nonoko both agreed instantly, and Hotaru with a little encouragement did so too. I however refused to give in.
"Mikan, come on, don't be a wet blanket. Join us." Ruka whined.
"It's alright, I-uh-have-uh-some stuff to do."
"Last time I checked Mikan." Hotaru said. "You were dancing for joy in my dorm when you very belatedly reported that you were new and therefore had no homework."
"That's great Mikan! Then you have no excuse to stay behind." Anna said cheekily.
I grimaced but gave in, reluctantly trudging behind the rest of the group, not desiring to meet Natsume at all.
I mean, I am usually very open to things, but when someone closes the door of acceptance, there's no way I'll be the sucker. Natsume was a jerk and even though I only talked to him once, I get this feeling that he not going to be a pleasant person to be with. I fail to understand why such a sweet and gentle boy like Ruka enjoys the company of that arrogant and insufferable person.
I shook my head. What was I thinking, it was very un-Mikan of me to be so negative and hate a person so much at first sight. What did grandpa always say? Every person deserves three chances: one because they may be influenced by a drug when you first meet them, two because they might still be affected by the drug they took last time and three because people should be nice to each other.
I wasn't sure if Natsume was influenced by a drug when I first met him but Grandpa was always one for laughs and sometimes you can't take him seriously.
Suddenly the green blur of trees had been replaced by a blinding white. White... We must have reached the hospital already. I didn't even realise where I was going! After we delegated Ruka the horrible task of waiting in line to speak to the receptionist, the rest of us discussed our newly discovered information. While most of us had doubts, some more severe than others, Hotaru was as stubborn as red wine on carpet about it.
"Look, can we not worry about it for a minute? I know you lost your brother to this, but surely by now Julian Assange would have posted it on wiki leaks or some annoying hacker would have found out." I proposed.
"Ignorance is bliss is it not Hotaru?" Nonoko said.
"You guys don't get it do you, it will be hard for anyone to hack into government files. A resident could be caught, an outsider might not be discovered as quickly but in the end they will be caught too. Think about it, the world is getting lazier each day, who on earth is bothered enough to risk their lives for a bunch of young brats like us?" Hotaru said.
"Well, some people. Like your guardians, parents and friends." Anna said softly.
"They haven't done anything yet have they?" Hotaru replied.
"What are you planning to do huh? We're 14 year olds who just moved into a new school and already there's talk about saving the world. We can't save the world, god I couldn't even save the brownies I made on my 11th birthday."
"Don't you think it's a little heavy, for you know, the holidays? We haven't even started school yet." Anna said.
"You're right, let's talk about how the weather is and bore ourselves to death before the school can kill us."
"Don't be so patronising Hotaru, and by the way is Ruka done yet, he's certainly taking his time."
"Oooh Hotaru, maybe he has his eye on the receptionist." Anna teased.
"The receptionist he's dealing with is a guy stupid. And I know him well enough to say that he is not gay."
We all shot amused looks at Hotaru, who looked so solemn in the face of something so hilarious.
"Alright, we can go up now." Ruka said.
There was a chorus of okay and a solo of "do we have to?"
"Oh, but there is one catch, only four people are allowed in at one time." He said sadly. Why is he sad, I thought, I for one was extremely happy.
"BOOYA! Does that mean I don't need to go? Oh thank you Jupiter!"
"No, you are with us. I convinced the receptionist to let us all go!" inducing a groan from me. "He said that we can all stay as long as nobody notices, but don't worry he's almost cured, the doctors only come when he presses the buzzer. Isn't it exciting?" He sounded so happy; I couldn't bear to ruin his mood. I guess he really wanted to show Natsume that Hotaru had friends. I mean with a cold and stoic attitude and a highly antisocial personality, it would take a lot of convincing for someone to believe that Hotaru was truly an eligible girlfriend.
"Alright, but you owe me an ice-cream now." I said, smiling.
"No problem, c'mon lets go, the visiting hours are finishing in an hour." Ruka said excitedly.
As we all ran up the stairs following him, I decided that visiting wasn't such a bad idea. I could treat it like an adventure, although one with lots of snakes and landslides.
We went into the room and on the clean white bed lay the illustrious Natsume Hyuuga. Although, I couldn't see his face, I could sense that there was a much softer, calmer aura about him, something so different to the attitude he usually displayed. It was actually... kinda cute.
"Err…Do we wake him up?" I whispered.
"Don't worry he will wake up. He doesn't sleep very often and even then very little." Ruka whispered back.
"Because that's good for your body." Anna said quietly.
"I believe the term for not being able to sleep a lot is insomnia, Anna." Hotaru said in an annoyingly superior tone.
2 minutes later…
"People, this is stupid, I feel like a pervert." I announced.
"Not much longer now…" Ruka said with a mysterious tone.
"Not much longer till what, the hospital closes?" Nonoko said.
Suddenly, the door opened. A ray of bright white light cascaded into the dim room. Was it a doctor? If it is, then there's an open window and someone's gonna have to use it.
"HOLA NATSUME!" screamed a high-pitched voice. Do doctors usually have high-pitched squeaky voices?
As if a bucket of icy water was thrown on his face, Natsume shot up on the bed.
"Oh Natsume darling you're awake." She cooed.
"No I'm not." He mumbled as he plopped down on the bed again.
"Oh, no need to be shy." She said in a sickly sweet voice.
"Hi Natsume." Ruka said happily.
Natsume propped himself up again.
"Hi Ruka, I see you've brought your friends, oh and your girlfriend, delighted as always." Natsume mumbled sleepily.
"Excuse me, do I hear sarcasm?" Hotaru said sternly.
"What are you guys doing here?" Luna interrupted angrily.
"We're visiting and by the way you're not allowed here, 5 people only." I said, annoyed.
"Well, Natsume likes me better, so leave, ALL OF YOU, except for Ruka of course." Luna said.
"How about no." Hotaru said coldly.
"We ain't leavin' besides we got here first." Anna said defensively.
"That's juvenile." Luna sneered and continued in a squeaky voice, mocking Anna. "We got here first."
"Be quiet people." Natsume said, annoyed.
"See you guys are annoying him." Luna scoffed.
I opened my mouth to retort when I realised it was probably not worth the effort, I mean I didn't even like Natsume that much, why was I defending my place in his hospital room. I came here unwillingly after all. Without further ado, I picked up my bags and walked out the door. Better to leave and succumb to defeat than stay and endure an hour of Luna and Natsume. Anna, Nonoko and Hotaru seemed to have the same idea and left promptly after I did. This left only Ruka to bear an hour of cooing, flirting and disgusting behaviour. Boy, did I feel sorry for him.
Later in Hotaru's dorm...
"Anna, your cooking smells absolutely fab!" I shouted.
"Thanks Mikan, I cooked a lot at home and this school has everything!"
"Yeah, the market's pretty big isn't it? And just to double check, I'm having the chicken and mushroom pie." I said.
"Caesar salad's mine." Nonoko announced.
"Udon for me tonight." Hotaru stated.
"So I get the spag bol, perfect!" Anna said as she put the finishing touched on her dishes.
As she lay the dinner in front of us, I felt like the kid at the sweetshop, bristling with anticipation and awe. I never knew pies could look so pretty. To me they were always doughy at the bottom, crispy at the top and filled with some suspicious meat mince that contained who knew what. Pies where always fast food to me, a perfect fire blanket for raging hunger, certainly not something that I would make at home. I took a bite and the savoury taste exploded in my mouth. This was pie, but never as I knew it.
"WOW ANNA, this is absolutely delicious!" I exclaimed. And the rest of the table nodded in agreement.
Anna blushed before saying happily, "Thanks guys, I only learnt how to cook because the food my parents cooked was always inedible. So we started a routine, they bought the stuff I told to buy and I cooked."
"Well, I'm glad you're so good at cooking, no matter how you became to be so." I praised.
"Here, here!" the others chanted.
After we finished the delicious meal, we all helped wash up and Anna and Nonoko returned to their dorm. It was only 9 o' clock but I needed to sleep, all the excitement from the day had transformed into exhaustion. I bid Hotaru good night before stumbling to my makeshift bed and fell asleep instantly.
The Next Morning
Bright sunlight seeped into the dorm from the small cracks in the blinds. In the distance I could hear the familiar twittering of birds and the more foreign rumble of machinery. I slowly heaved myself up and went into the bathroom. The clock said it was only 5:30. My first instinct was to go back to sleep, but I realised we had school today. It was my first day of school and the beginning of Hotaru's 2nd term. I sluggishly stripped out of yesterday's clothes and jumped into the shower. I randomly punched some buttons and was greeted with jets of alternating warm and icy cold water. I jumped up and down before rubbing my eyes and turning the showerhead off immediately. I looked at the "control panel" of the shower. Oh... God... Technology... I carefully adjusted the settings so I could have a normal warm shower infused the fragrance of tangerines. I looked at shampoo section and after much consideration, settled on a mango scented deep clean one. Then came the soaps. Should I get the classic moisturising one, or should opt for one of the fancy soaps that I never tried before. All in all, I spent around half an hour in the shower, longer than I've ever been and emerged smelling like a mango eating a lychee in an orange grove. It was probably due to the lengthy amount of time I took, but I felt so much cleaner than I would have after a shower at home. Where I used to live, we had no fancy machinery in the bathroom. It was the basic hot and cold mixer with shampoos and soaps on a separate rack.
After drying my hair, I walked out of the bathroom, feeling wonderful. I saw that Hotaru had already changed into her clothes; she must have had a shower at night.
"Good morning Hotaru." I said cheerfully.
"Good morning." She replied while shoving some books in her bag. "How was last night, I see you enjoyed the showers, definitely took your time."
"Yeah the showers are great aren't they; I never knew you could have so many options for shampoo alone. Where I used to live, there was no fancy stuff in the shower."
She smiled and chucked some more books into her bag.
"What are you going to wear to class Mikan? You can't go in a bathrobe you know, we're having Jinno first, and he's a bitch about appropriate apparel."
"Um... I'll probably just throw on a t-shirt and some sweats. We don't have to dress that properly do we? I mean you're not wearing a white button-up blouse are you?"
"But t-shirt and sweats are too casual. Why don't you wear the things we bought yesterday?"
"Sure! I haven't tried them on yet but class starts at 8:30 and it's only... 6:15 now, AWESOME we've got plenty of time!"
After almost an hour of trying on things and abandoning them and then trying them on again when they looked like they'll match, Hotaru finally settled on an outfit. It was a red and blue country-style plaid blouse with skinny jeans and a pair of beautiful black sneakers that she lent me.
"You look beautiful." Hotaru said admiring her handiwork.
I blushed slightly and shot a flirty comment at her which made us both dissolve into endless laughter.
I packed my bag and we headed down into the cafeteria, I surprised to find it already packed with people. In my old school, the cafeteria was only packed during lunch because that was when we had the choice of starving or eating whatever was put in front of you. No one was bothered enough to wake up that early, and although the school did provide breakfast it only started at about 8 o' clock.
"First day of classes, most likely nerves or catching up with the friend that went overseas." Hotaru said as if she had read my mind.
"Oh... Hey look its Anna and Nonoko!" I said as I waved at the two.
Hotaru and I walked up to the table they were seated at and exchanged cheerful greetings.
"Aren't you excited Mikan?" Anna asked.
"More nervous than excited." I replied
"Why are you nervous? We've all been to new schools before and in this one you actually have friends before you start classes. Doesn't that take the pressure off?" she said.
"Yeah, but I mean this school is filled with smart kids. I just worry... That I can't keep up. Everyone seems like a genius."
"You are too Mikan, If you weren't you wouldn't be here in the first place."
"That's true but really I'm not that smart."
Hotaru rolled her eyes and said sternly, "You are smart; Mikan and I doubt you would have any trouble here. In essence Alice Academy is just another school. By the way, I'm hungry, let's order some stuff."
"Did someone say food?" Ruka said silkily as he sauntered up.
"No one did, but I implied it." Hotaru said plainly as she slowly flicked through the menu.
"Hi Ruka." The rest of us chorused.
"Hey guys, oh Mikan it's your first day here isn't it, you must be-"
"I'd like the blueberry bagel, thanks." Hotaru interjected.
"Oh Hotaru, that wasn't very nice." I said.
Ruka pouted and said playfully, "Yeah Hotaru your always such a meanie."
Hotaru rolled her eyes and said softly, "But you know you still love me."
"Oooooh, you are SO whipped Ruka." Anna said.
He blushed sheepishly and then muttered something about croissants.
After we ordered our food, everyone tried to give me tips about first days at Alice academy.
"You're kinda unlucky, getting Jinno first-"
"-Yeah he's a bitch-"
"-But Narumi's nice; we get him in the third period-"
"-He's gay though-"
"-And dramatic as hell-"
I could only nod and somehow assimilate all the information people were throwing at me. After they finished about how I should never bring purple hair bands into Jinno's classes I nodded one last time and out ordered food arrived on the table. I was prepared for my first day, better than I have ever been, and as I licked the last bits of oatmeal from my spoon I basked in the happiness of having friends like these. Anna was right, not having to endure the awkward first conversations with classmates really took the pressure off.
Thank you guys again for your patience.