PART TWO:
Disclaimers: Since this story is set about three hundred years after the Gundam characters existed, there isn't much here I don't own. Except maybe any characters I use in flashbacks or the actual names of the characters, which pop up a few times. Some OOC, but no yaoi.
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The next day was Monday. Via, for the first time since elementary school, arrived to school on time and entered the classroom as soon as the doors opened. Not even stopping by her first period class to drop off her book bag or talk to her friends, who gathered there every morning, she made her way to Mr. Aristo's history class. She threw open the door, shocking both Mr. Aristo himself and the single student who stood by his desk.
"Mr. Aristo! I need to ask you something!" Via said, pushing past the shocked boy standing there.
"Miss Via! One would think you would be more polite and wait your turn!" Mr. Aristo cried, glancing meaningfully at the boy. "But now that you are here, I would like to introduce you to Mister Grien, our new student. He will be joining our history class."
"Uh... hi. Great. Pleased to meet you. Now can I talk to you, Mr. Aristo?" Via said hurriedly, rushing through her introductions.
Mr. Aristo sighed. "Very well. Quickly, please." The new student coughed and gestured towards the door.
"Perhaps I should go outside…?"
"No, Mister Grien, that's quite all right. Miss Via will not take long."
"Mr. Aristo, how did the Gundam pilots die?"
"Excuse me?" Mr. Aristo stared at her in disbelief. "Does it not say how in your history book, Miss Via?"
"No. That's why I want to know. I saw a disk yesterday that really got under my skin and I want to know how they died. And when."
"Well, Miss Via, I don't know for sure. According to many historical documents and papers, the pilots died of old age. These documents were made by unknown sources, however, and may not be entirely accurate. After they reached thirty or so, the pilots just seemed to disappear. Does that answer your question, Miss Via?"
Via sighed and knitted her hands together in an exasperated manner. "Not really, but thanks. It was really getting to me." She glanced up to see that the Grien boy was still there, listening to their conversation. She frowned, trying to recall where she had heard this name before.
Mr. Aristo smiled at her. "Miss Via, if you would be so kind, will you be Mister Grien's guide? As a new student, it is my job to assign him a guide and you seem to be a likely candidate."
Via stared, but nodded. "Sure." She turned to the boy. "What do you have first period today?" she asked, leading him out of the room.
"Math," he replied in a hoarse voice that was almost familiar. He brushed his dark hair away from his blue eyes and smiled.
"Great, me too!" The first bell rang. "Well, shall we be going?" Still smiling, the two turned towards the math room.
After the final bell rang and all the students were seated at their assigned desks, the teacher, Mrs. Mosli, began to take roll. When she reached the Grien boy's name, she looked up. "Subduar Grien?"
"Chance, please. Just call me Chance," the dark haired boy replied with an angelic smile. He could really melt a few girls' hearts with a smile like that, if he wanted. One of the girls in the back must have agreed with her, because she gave a little squeal and stared with longing at him. Via hoped he never turned that smile on her. She had enough to worry about without moping over a broken heart.
The math lesson continued. Many of the girls in the class spent the entire time glancing bashfully Chance's way and blushing when he looked their way. Via was surprised to find that Chance seemed almost as embarrassed as they did, and looked tentatively at his desk whenever he caught someone's eye. Except hers. He glanced Via's way often, in an almost confused manner, as if trying to figure out where he had seen her before. She couldn't blame him; she was doing the same thing. He seemed so familiar...
It seemed as though hours had passed before the bell rang again, signaling the end of first period and the beginning of the school's twenty-minute break. Signaling to Chance, she led him to the front hall, where her friends were waiting for her.
Via was almost the leader of the group, and many of the other people tended to agree with any decisions she made with amazing consistency. But now, as she introduced Chance, many smiled warily his way, unsure that his presence here was a good thing. He smiled back cautiously, averting his eyes. He seemed relieved when the break was over and it was time to go to second period, which was Astronomy for both of them. Chance was very enthusiastic in this class, giving the right answer to many of the questions the teacher, Mr. Linaso, asked and always getting praise and surprised looks from the latter. He seemed to be an avid science whiz, and Via made a mental note to ask him to tutor her, as she was barely getting a passing mark. Her habit of falling asleep every time the instructor started to speak was only one reason.
Her eyelids were getting heavier, just about to close and let her into deep slumber, when Billy poked her in the square of her back. She gave a little squeak and received a glare from Mr. Linaso, who went back to his explanation on star clusters in deep space. Billy tossed a folded up sheet of paper onto her desk and went back to taking his diligent notes. Quietly unfolding the note, she read with great interest. Billy's infrequent notes offered everything from humor to disconsolation and Via always awaited more. This one posed a different topic.
"What's up? Why didn't you come to the pit with us?" he wrote. "Has your uncle been beating up on you again?"
Via smiled at his concern and replied, writing in her tiny cursive underneath Billy's scrawling letters. "No. Just looking at Duo's disks. Some disturbing stuff in there. I guess it got to me. Sorry. And don't talk about my uncle like that." She tossed the note back and received it again a moment later.
"Alright, if you say so. Only you've looked at those disks millions of times! What's so different about them now? Oh, and while I'm on the subject of oddities, what is with you and this Chance guy? You like him?"
"Chance is nice, I guess. I just get the feeling I've seen him before. It's weird."
"I'll say. He looks a lot like Heero's picture in the text book, except he smiles," Billy wrote. When Via read this last part she gasped. That was it! Grien was the last name of Heero's lover! Chance was a descendant of Heero Yuy!
Mr. Linaso looked at her in surprise. "Miss Via, is something wrong?" There was true concern in his face, and Via almost felt bad that she had slept in this class so often. He really was nice, for a teacher.
"Uh... no sir. Just a cramp. Sorry."
Mr. Linaso nodded. "Very well. If you wish, you may go to the nurse and get medication. But please do not disrupt this class."
"Yes, sir. I'll be going now." Via, her cheeks red, stepped out to the hallway. When the door closed behind her, she looked down the hall to check for approaching teachers before letting out a loud cheer. When this was done, she made her way to the nurse for an aspirin.
After her brief encounter with the nurse, and after getting her stomach back in order after taking an aspirin on an empty stomach, she sat back down in Mr. Linaso's astronomy class. Billy laughed silently as she walked back in, staggering due to her badly taken aspirin. Chance smiled at her, and she could tell he was still wondering why he seemed to know her.
Soon after her arrival, the bell rang again, and the students ran to their next class. Chance waited patiently for Via to gather together her things and stand up without setting off her stomach again. They walked silently to their next class, English. This was one of the few classes Via excelled at, and Chance seemed to be a fairly good English student as well. After an hour of nouns, sentence structure, and verbs, Via felt enough like herself to call out and make funny remarks, all of which received admiring laughter from multiple students, and often from the teacher, Ms. Roberi, as well.
Via found it unusual that Chance had all the same classes as she did, and wasn't at all surprised when the bell rang and the two set off for the gym. Glad that her stomach wasn't bothering her anymore, Via was anxious to start their new unit, which consisted of playing basketball every day. Probably, in Via's opinion, the best sport in existence. She was very good at it, with fantastic hand-eye coordination and an element of speed that couldn't be beat. Her friends often joked around that she had inherited these skills from her Gundam-flying ancestor. Sometimes she wondered if they were right and his looks were not all she had inherited.
She changed into her gym uniform just in time to hear the whistle blow. Mrs. Torres, who was a new coach this year, glanced Via's way, smiling. Via was a well-known basketball star, and Mrs. Torres was anxious to see her in action. Four person teams were picked. Though it was common for girls to have only girls on their team and guys to have strictly guys, all the girls seemed to flock around Chance, and the guys around Via. Mrs. Torres smiled again, knowing that attraction of the opposite sex played a large part in this. This was true. Via was very beautiful, in an exotic way, and Chance was extremely handsome, though in an almost subtle and prodigious manner.
The final result was to be expected. Nervous around all the admiring women, Chance had teamed up with the one girl who didn't seem to have a hopeless crush, Via, and her little collection of friends, including Siri and Billy, followed. There were a total of twenty teams, and each had to think up an original name. After much consideration, it was Chance who thought one up.
"How about the Reapers?"
Via laughed. "Another name for Shinigami, right? Sounds good. What do you guys think?"
Billy and Siri smiled. It was Siri who replied. "Appropriate. Very much so." She looked at Chance. "That's the American name for Shinigami. Are you American, Chance?"
Chance smiled his angel smile. "I suppose you could say that I grew up there. I'm actually of Japanese descent." That made sense, if Via was right about his ancestry.
"So the Reapers it is!" Via cried joyfully. Mrs. Torres looked their way and wrote down their team name. Then the game began. The first teams to play were the Reapers and the Warriors, a team of guys who had all been intent on "getting to know Via a little bit better." The whistle blew, and the game started. Via and a boy named Tyler checked off, putting the ball in Via's court. The game played well, and the Reapers were an easy win. Via, it seemed, was not the only good player on the team. Billy and Siri were both fair players, but Chance was nearly as good as Via. His aim and timing were impeccable, but he was a bit slow and had trouble trying to outrun the opposing team.
Sweating and tired, both teams were off the court when the whistle rang and retired to the showers. Cleaned up and redressed in their school clothes, they met back in the gym just in time for the bell. Chance and Via said their good-byes to Billy and Siri and went to their next class.
Four classes and a lunch period later, Via and Chance were ready for Mr. Aristo's history class. Via, prepared for yet another lecture about the Endless Waltz, was extremely unenthusiastic, and Chance was confused as to why. She tried to explain that this stuff was old news, but he only smiled his angelic smile and kept walking to class.
Via, wishing to whatever god was watching over her that she wouldn't fall for this guy, followed. Mr. Aristo smiled as they walked in, but said nothing. Sitting in her seat, Via prepared for another long hour of history.
To the surprise of both herself and everyone else, Via listened to the lecture with apt attention, trying to find a clue as to the death of the five Gundam pilots. Her only outburst occurred about twenty minutes before the end of class, when she began laughing at the textbook's description of Duo and Heero's first meeting.
"Is something funny, Miss Via?"
"Only this! To think that Heero cared about Relena is insane! And Duo, rescuing him from certain death? Absurd!"
"Perhaps you know more about it, Miss Via?"
"I do! And I'll explain it. Relena was being obsessive, as usual, and amazed that the pilot of Wing was just fifteen, the same age as her. She followed Heero to a dock where his latest mission was to take place and he gave her the usual death glare, sending her into shock, then pulled a gun on her, when Duo showed up. Surprised to see two people in the middle of nowhere, he was sure that Heero was some sort of villain and began shooting at him. Relena straightened him out, and he began talking about Wing, which he found at the bottom of the sea, and showed it to them. He shot at Heero, not saved him!"
Billy laughed. "Typical Via, rambling on until a subject makes no sense at all!"
Mr. Aristo smiled. "Miss Via, is this from the journals, or is this your own interpretation?"
Via smiled. "A bit of both. Duo isn't a great story teller."
Siri grinned and poked Via in the side. "Via Maxwell in action!"
Chance looked up from the doodles in his notebook, startled. "Maxwell? Via Maxwell?" He stared at her, obviously surprised, but seemed to be glad he had placed her. Via laughed inwardly at the relief that was so plain on his face, but wondered if she had been so transparent when she placed him. She hoped not. Mr. Aristo smiled at him.
"Yes, Mister Chance. Maxwell. Descendant of Duo Maxwell, whom she refers to as her own personal plague." The class roared at that. Via grinned, then stood up and took a bow. The students cheered her on, holding their sides with laughter.
By the time the bell rang, signaling the end of the day, no work had been done, as everyone, including Mr. Aristo, was laughing too hard to continue. Except Chance, who seemed thoughtful, and Via, who couldn't find the humor in this situation.
--to be continued--