My Tourniquet
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Capital City, Orb, CE 70: Fall
"Lacus!" Athrun shouted over all the chattering and shouting. The pink haired girl shifted to and fro trying to look at him through the crowd of students. Finally, her bright eyes found him by the first bank of pale gray lockers and she waved with a smile. She pushed her way through reunited friends and laughing teens until she was at his side.
"Sorry I'm so late. There was an awful traffic accident on the way here," Lacus apologized. "I guess the others went ahead to class?"
Athrun nodded and said, "They did, but they said when lunch comes around to meet up again."
"That sounds good," Lacus blushed.
"With that settled, shall we hurry to class?" Athrun pointed to the digital clock. "First hour starts in ten minutes and I haven't the slightest idea where to go yet."
Lacus giggled and held up her schedule, not worrying about displaying her ID or locker combination. "Same here. I have Ms. Ramius for Writing Composition this year."
"Second hour?"
"Yes," Lacus smiled. "So we do have classes together."
Athrun nodded. He continued looking through the mass of students before looking down at his watch. "Well, class now starts in eight minutes. The south wing is this way."
Lacus looked and saw that the commons split into the south, west, and central wings of the academy. She allowed Athrun to lead her through the thinning hallways, scanning the doors for their room number. The search took them across the main hall to the south hall. The plastic plate outside the door read S-213, Lita Gnary, Orb History. A few of their old classmates from Artemis Junior Prep were there already.
"Good morning, Miriallia," Lacus said. The auburn haired girl looked up from her Photography magazine and smiled.
"Hey, Lacus. How was your summer?" She set the magazine down on her desk.
Lacus sat down beside Miriallia's desk. "It was wonderful. I brought some gifts back for everyone."
"Yay!" Miriallia exclaimed. "You better show me every picture you took, too!"
Athrun took a seat behind Lacus, dropping his binder on the desktop. "How was that summer class you and Tolle took?"
Miriallia sighed. "They canceled the class last minute. So we just hung out with the others all summer. Oh, and watch out: Yzak officially owes Shiho 100 bucks."
"What'd they do now?" Athrun rolled his eyes, completely unsurprised by his friend's rash actions.
"We were at the Marshall Beach a month ago," Miriallia explained, "and Shiho and Yzak bet the other on who could learn to surf and stay up the longest. Shiho won hands down."
The other two laughed at their silver-haired friend's expense for a minute. Finally, the bell rang. The three friends sat down and faced the front as class began. Ms. Gnary stood from her desk and began their lesson with a crisp, "Good morning, class."
The bell chimed. It was far louder and irritating than the one at Artemis. The students had waited until the last fifteen minutes to get their schedules for the semester. Everyone was pushing and talking loudly. Music played over the intercom system. There was no school map in the main area, so finding his first class turned out to be more challenging than it should have been. It took a couple of minutes of random walking before he found the room numbers closest to his. Finally, he found room W-121, Language Arts II, Ruben Hall.
None paid him any mind as he chose a seat in the front. The teacher's desk was empty, save for a computer, some folders for the class, and the teacher's still steaming coffee cup. They kept chatting until the teacher walked in. He was a tall, scraggly man, dressed in blue denim pants and button up white shirt. The class didn't bother quieting down until he shouted, "Morning people!"
They sighed or rolled eyes before facing forward completely. He continued, "I see only a few familiar faces. That's good. I'm Mr. Hall, for those new to my classes. Here's what is lined up for this semester…"
Kira barely listened. He wondered how Lacus and Athrun were doing. He hadn't heard from them all summer, with the exception being an email from Lacus that could have been two pages long. It seemed like everyone had been busy bees this past season.
A sudden wave of giggles and snickers rang through the room as the teacher tried to erase the white board. The bright red marker wouldn't come off. It was quite entertaining to watch him scrub at the marks while he checked the marker over and over. It said 'dry erase' on the marker but the marks proved otherwise. Slowly, Mr. Hall nodded thoughtfully looking back at the laughing class.
"Okay, clever," he said, albeit cynically, "but very annoying. Who're the instigators? Come on, fess up!"
Students just kept snickered. Mr. Hall eyed each student carefully as he picked up his coffee mug. He scowled, taking a gulp, only to spit it out. The snickers morphed into thunderous laughter. Judging by the extremely nauseous look on his face, whatever was in his cup, it was awful.
"Who put…soy sauce in my coffee? Who!?" he gagged. "Confess or the whole class has detention!"
In an instant, most of the grimacing students were pointing to a smirking teen with a scar across his brow and a few at his smug partner, a guy with a shaven head and small goatee.
"Rats," the first sighed. A girl sitting next to him with black make-up caked on held up both her hands.
"Not me," she said, her countenance only slightly alarmed.
"Well, well, Davison Norman and Paul Day," Mr. Hall said bitterly. "Your reputations precede you. Why don't you two drop by detention after school today?"
"Yes, sir," they both replied, giving him the Hitler salute.
Mr. Hall took a moment to clean up before he continued on with the lesson, the bitter look never leaving his face.
The cafeteria was rather crowded compared to Artemis. It had taken Athrun a few minutes to get to where Lacus was sitting. Surprisingly enough, she wasn't the only girl in their new school with pink hair. He noted a girl who looked similar to her. Thankfully, she was hanging close to Flay, so it was easy to tell that she wasn't Lacus. But the new uniforms made it harder to find people.
Already at the table was Miriallia with Tolle draped around her as always, Yzak and Dearka bickering over something stupid, Shiho glaring at the two males, Nicol and then Lacus. At the far end, Sai sat working through his workbook quietly. They were a crazy bunch, but that's what he loved about them. He waited for Yzak to get in the last word with Dearka before saying something.
"How was your trip?" Nicol asked Athrun as he sat down with them. "Any fun?"
"With my father?" Athrun sarcastically retorted. "I wish. It wasn't that bad, but I was stuck listening to all these dull meetings half the day. We managed to spend some time in Shanghai during a festival."
"That's cool," Nicol replied, smiling. "At least you got to travel around a little bit. I was stuck listening to Yzak pick fights."
"Can it!" interjected an angry retort from the newly named topic.
"Be nice, Yzak!" half the table shot back.
Shiho sighed, "Are you really sure about letting him run for president?"
"Not interested this year," Athrun replied. "I heard the competition is stiff this semester."
Yzak shook his head. "I'm not sure. The guy who is running against me is new. I heard he just moved from England." He gestured to where a young man with wavy blonde hair and a rather charming face was leaning over the red head, flirting shamelessly. Flay was soaking it all in just as shamelessly, thrilled at the jealously rising from her friends and admirers.
"He's got lousy taste if that's what he's into," Miriallia scoffed.
Athrun smirked. "On the bright side, at least Flay will not go bothering any of us if she's got a sucker to cling to." The group giggled. Athrun added, "Besides, Yzak has the temper to take on that new guy."
Yzak glared at him while Shiho nodded. "He's going to be a smooth talker. Lacus and I already met his mother, Mrs. Anna Wilson. She's quite the charmer herself, already in the inner circles."
When Shiho said inner circles, she meant the social gatherings, such as the high society level bridge meetings and tea parties. Only the wealthy and influential could ever hope to get in.
"Yippee," Athrun sighed, finally picking at his sandwich.
They sat in silence for a moment before Lacus asked, "Has anyone seen Kira yet?"
Suddenly the entire table froze. Athrun nearly choked as the thought struck him.
"No –cough– I haven't," Athrun gasped for air as Nicol patted his back. "I honestly almost forget about him." Then he realized that wasn't a smart thing to have said as they all suddenly glared coldly at him. "I said almost, guys."
"Who talked to him last?" Tolle asked. "I'll be honest myself and say I haven't heard or seen him all summer."
"That's strange," Lacus spoke. "The last time I saw him was at the school gates when we were leaving. I emailed him all summer and got nothing. I thought he was just busy, since some of the teachers wanted his help over summer break with some projects."
"Forget the summer," Dearka replied. "I bet he's just keeping low so Allster doesn't get to him. It would make sense that we haven't seen him yet."
"Somehow I doubt Kira would miss us just to avoid Flay," Nicol reasoned. "Between all of us, what are the chances we haven't run into him yet?"
"There's always that odd chance he ended up at East Star," Miriallia thoughtfully added.
"I doubt it," Athrun sighed. "I find it more likely he's been kidnapped by the teachers for some technical projects."
"Still," Miriallia slowly said, "I find it too odd that we're still not seeing even a glimpse of him. I don't even remember him saying if he really was enrolling here for sure."
"The office should be settled down by now. So let's hurry and go see if they'll pull Kira's schedule for us," Lacus suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Athrun agreed. He turned his attention to eating his lunch so they could do just that. The rest seemed to catch on and spent more energy on eating. After a few minutes, they were standing up, ready to leave. Then the topic from earlier walked up to their table. He cast a charismatic grin and stood tall, casually. His attention seemed to be on Yzak.
"My name's DeAnderick Wilson," he began. "I understand you're my rival candidate for student government?"
Yzak smirked and stood before the newcomer. "Yzak Joule. Quite a gutsy move, running for student government at a new school."
He shrugged, not overly worried. "I won all the previous elections at my old academies. It'll be a cinch here."
Athrun quickly put in a word, "Well, good luck to the both of you. Just so you know Yzak can run a mean campaign. See you later."
Lacus, Miriallia, Tolle and Athrun left the candidates to their business and began dodging traffic towards the office. Thankfully, only a couple of students were waiting there. The three ladies staffing the front desk were pushing papers around and making calls to various people. Lacus stepped up to the desk and waited patiently. Finally the oldest of the three hung up the phone.
"May I help you?" she asked with a touch of exasperation.
"Um…we're looking for a friend of ours," Lacus explained. "But we're not finding him. Can we get his schedule or lunch period?"
The woman looked ready to say no, but changed her mind. "Let's see…what's the name?"
"Yamato, Kira."
"Kira Yamato?" another voice asked. The four friends turned to see a blonde girl standing behind them, holding a folder in her hands. The expression on her face was of hopeful curiosity.
"Yeah," Athrun said. "He's a friend of ours since elementary school. Do you know him?"
"Does he have…brown hair with violet eyes?" she asked.
They nodded. "That's him."
"That's probably my brother," she exclaimed.
Silence. Miriallia blinked and looked over her again. "Your…brother? Are you sure?"
The girl scowled and plopped the folder on the front desk. Reaching into her bag, she then withdrew a wallet and opened it to reveal a picture of two kids. One was blonde – her – and the other was a familiar boy.
"That's Kira," Athrun said firmly. "We met him in about second or third grade."
"That's when he changed schools," she said, shoving the wallet back into her bag. "Our parents weren't getting along so his move him to another school."
Lacus's eyes brightened. "Oh! Kira mentioned you many times since we met. You're…Cagalli, right?"
"Yup!"
"So have you seen him today?" Tolle interjected.
To their disappointment, she shook her head. "No. I don't think so. But it would be nice to see him again."
The woman frowned and pecked at the keyboard again. Then a second later she did it again. "Is it Y-A-M-A-T-O K-I-R-A?"
"Yes ma'am," Lacus replied. The woman pecked into the computer again.
"I'm sorry," she began, "but we have no one by the last name 'Yamato' registered in our school. Or by the first name 'Kira' for that matter."
"What?!" the five exclaimed.
The secretary smiled sadly. "I also searched within the school district, just in case he enrolled with East Star. No luck either. I'm sorry."
The impatient ringing of the lunch time bell snapped the students' attention from the lesson. As the cranky old teacher was shouting off the homework assignment, the class began leaving the room. Kira slowly searched the halls for his locker again, now that he had time to look for it. He finally found the locker in the East wing. Many lockers were marked with stickers or flyers. Down the hall he heard people shouting over something. It was that same guy from class with a shaved head picking on some scrawny freshman.
Looking around he saw all the new faces. Each student was so different from the people he knew in Artemis. There was no uniform; everyone worn what they wanted. Honestly, this was the first time he had seen so many clashing people together in clichés. Some were obviously empty headed girls with no interest in anything but boys ad sex. Others were jocks flirting with cheerleaders, nerds wearing glasses, geeks working on some laptop, a couple possible drug addicts and gothic teens hanging around. Scattered here and there were groups of a bit of everything. And then there were people like that bully in the hall who seemed to be in a group all of his own.
Kira found a seat away from most of the people, not sure where to fit in. In turn, everyone left him alone. He watched the new crowd go about their usual routines. Most of them probably knew each other from junior high and even elementary school.
The bully entered the cafeteria and sauntered over to a loud raven haired girl, trying to appear charming. She didn't look amused by his advance. In fact, she gave more than just the impression that she was annoyed. When he moved a hand towards her, she slapped him hard and stormed away. A couple onlookers laughed and retreated from the humiliated guy.
Nishi Public Academy would definitely prove to be an interesting place.
"Anyway of knowing where his transcript got forwarded to from Artemis?" Athrun suggested.
The lady pecked again and shook her head. "Well, looking at that old file, it doesn't show the transcript being forwarded to any school. I'm guessing they took the records from the school them selves. I'm sorry I can't help you."
"Thank you," Lacus said softly. The disappointed students stepped out of the office and stood quietly. Lacus wrapped her arms around her body.
"Athrun…I'm worried," she whispered. "Why isn't he here? He said he was coming here, right. Where is he?"
Athrun rested a hand on her shoulder, knowing it would do little to comfort his friend. "Let's check by his house after class. We'll take it from there. Okay?" Tolle and the girls nodded.
After class had finished for the day, Athrun and Lacus met Cagalli at the front doors. The three waited another a minute before a fuming Miriallia stormed up to them.
"Tolle's not coming now!" she raved. In the distance, Athrun noted a sheepish Tolle and sighed. He said nothing, however, against his friend. Instead, he led the girls out the school gates. As they walked in the last summer sun rays, Lacus and Mir held an animated conversation with Cagalli. She struck Athrun as the complete opposite of Kira. But not at all unpleasant.
He stopped. Lacus noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"
He pointed to the cream house that Kira lived in. The changes were subtle but there. The flower beds were filled with lush rose bushes, rather than the bright pansies and tall white tulips Mrs. Yamato loved. New stepping stones created a path across the green yard. Even the parked car was different. Lacus stared. "Mrs. Yamato never wanted roses before."
"They might have redone stuff around the house. Let's check it out." Athrun was the first one to the front door. He knocked. A dog barked, making three of the four exchange strange faces. What sent petrifying surprise into everyone's features was when an older, blonde haired woman answered the door.
"May I help you?" she asked.
"Uh, we're looking for the Yamatos?" Athrun awkwardly asked.
"We just moved in this past June," she shook her head. "I didn't really meet the previous family."
"Wait," Lacus gasped. "Did they just move? Is there another address?"
She shook her head again. "I'm sorry. They left no forwarding address. The place was empty when we moved in. The realtor said it was sort of abrupt, saying the house was on the market since early May."
"Thank you." She nodded kindly and shut her door. The four teens began wandering back towards Lacus's home.
"Why didn't he say anything?" Athrun yelled furiously. "He never said anything about moving!"
"Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Yamato didn't tell him," Lacus suggested, eyeing the concrete under her feet
"No," Athrun retorted, clenching his fists. "He knew. Even before we left, I knew he was hiding something." He waited for Lacus to add something. "Oh, come on, Lacus. He was acting weird."
"But it doesn't make sense," Lacus trailed off. Miriallia looked away, feeling just as hurt.
"I know," Athrun said.
Cagalli sighed. So close and now so far away.