Kurama finished his sketch quickly and turned his attention to his sketch
book. He flipped to the first blank page and started to tap it with the
eraser end of his pencil. After a moment he looked around the room for some
creative inspiration. Sadly, there was none to be found. His eyes fell to
the floor where he saw that the shadow of something formed an X shape. He
slowly started to draw that shape. Soon it became the cloth x of Jin's
shirt during the dark tournament. He was moving onto the hair, having done
a rough sketch of Jin's body floating in mid air complete with a cloud
behind him, when he noticed that there was a shadow over his paper. He
looked up and saw Ms. Raydel standing over him.
"And what are you doing?" she asked as though she had no idea what someone would do with a paper and pencil.
"I'm working on a sketch for a friend of mine" Kurama said as though it were nothing new. "I already finished my work for you and I have a good deal of free time."
"That's nice" Ms. Raydel grabbed a corner of his book and took it off of his desk. "There will be no drawing outside of my assignments."
"Yes Ms. Raydel." Kurama said as softly as he could, being sure to look down. He was not truly embarrassed or ashamed. He was actually extremely mad and remembered what Youko Kurama had told him about trying to come through when he was angry. He did not want anyone to see him if his eyes were gold or hear a change in his voice.
Once the oppressive teacher left, Upton put a hand on Kurama's shoulder. "Don't worry about her. She acts like this to everyone. Anyone different or from another school must be an ax murderer or rapist and should be treated cruelly until they leave. At least that is what she thinks. I couldn't care less. I don't have enough friends to be picky and I really couldn't care less if you were an ax murderer."
Kurama could not help but laugh at his new found friend.
"I suppose I should tell you how things work around here, huh? Well over there in the right hand corner are the prissy girls." Upton motioned over to where Miny was sitting with her friend. "You know the type, cant hold a normal conversation with them because they don't know anything about anything unless it has to do with hair or makeup. In front of us are the popular. They know about other stuff but they just refuse to talk to anyone about it because they are far too cool to talk to anyone but the god of coolness himself, Roger. Right up by the teacher's desk is her little pet, dumb dumb. I don't know what his name is but it doesn't matter. And there is one last little group, the weirdos who somehow manage to be so low that no one will talk to them but still way above me. They are a mixture of the odds and ends. Little cliques who are different from one another don't have enough people to survive on their own so they feed off of others. They are the Goths and hippies and a couple other little groups." Upton stopped talking for a moment and glanced at the clock. A bell rang and he grabbed his backpack. "And that would be the bell. Thank you, you have been a wonderful audience, I'll be here all week!"
Kurama walked out of the classroom laughing his head off. He had decided that he really only needed one friend to be happy here, and Upton was that friend.
Kurama's new found happiness was crushed when he returned home. Suiichi was sitting on the couch watching some show that was guaranteed to lower the watcher's IQ by twenty points. Kurama asked him if he could watch a different show but was met with only evil comments about how it was Suiichi's house. He tried to pull the whole "I'm older than you" ploy but he found that it held little to no effect on the younger Suiichi.
"Fine!" Kurama growled. He became quite worried when he realized that he actually had growled. He ran up to his room to calm down. "I hope that no one notices that I have a tail!" he muttered as he closed his door.
His first order of business was to quickly remove his pants because they pinched his tail. Tail freed, he ran his fingers through his hair, searching for lumps of ears or long silver strands. As he searched, he looked in the mirror.
"Good, green eyes, red hair, and no ears! Well, no fox ears anyway. Now, how do I get rid of this tail?"
Kurama sad on his bed and relaxed, trying to think of any way to lose his tail. Many thoughts passed through his mind such as chopping it off but such ideas were far too bloody to be done in his room. After some time of relaxing, he found that the tail had disappeared.
"so that is the key" he said out loud "I just have to relax"
He spent the rest of the night in his room, coming out only for supper. During that short time, he discovered that he truly despised Dr. Tar
"Suiichi, big Suiichi that is." The annoying doctor began. "Your mother informed me that you work very well with gardens. I lack the time and the skills for such things but if you want to grow plants back there you are more than welcome."
Kurama smiled and easily translated it from polite talk to truth. It came out like this "hey, you, ya, you. Your mom said that you like to garden. I don't care enough to make time and I frankly don't care about what my land looks like if I have to do it. Now that you are here, I would like you to make my yard look good."
"I'll remember that" Kurama's thoughts wandered to his memories of the back yard. There were places for flowers but the only plant life consisted of a lopsided bush and a tree right out of How the Grinch Stole Christmas which was being supported by a stick that was smaller than it. He did not want to cave in to Dr. Tar but he also did not want his mother to know his much he hated him. Although he had known the doctor for only a short period of time, he could tell many things about his personality. He was clearly very narrow minded and did not want a son who did anything out of the ordinary. Kurama knew that he could never please this man. Almost everything about him was out of the ordinary. Dr. Tar's idea of a son would be one who was extremely successful in school though he clearly wanted that for Suiichi and not Kurama. Suiichi had to be better than any son. Kurama smiled slightly, knowing that he would be the perfect son, cutting away at any chance for him to brag about Suiichi. Kurama had forgotten about Youko.
After the first day, school became more bearable. He would suffer through most of it, eating lunch far from any other students, and wait patently for art class. Once there, he would tell Upton all of his woes and Upton would laugh at them and then spin them around so that the poplars were things that they clearly were not. Upton started referring to groups as other things. The people who were above anyone else were the noble gases because, just like the real noble gases, they would not interact with anyone and could raise quite a stench when they wanted to. Their perfumes were so strong that sometime they themselves would sit a little farther away from each other. The glamour girls which all the guys wanted dates with were actually aliens sent here to learn about human culture but were failing miserably. Whenever one would suddenly burst into tears, which they did frequently whenever they felt that they were not in the limelight, a humors story about how she had to report to her leader would pass through the two friends.
The Goths, hippies, etc. became Freaks Inc. and were the best place to rent freaks in the neighborhood. If one of them looked particularly sour then it was clear that they had not gotten a job lately. The jocks, none of whom were in art class because it was below them, were actually government experiments to determine if it was possible for a body to function normally without a brain being present. The experiment was a failure because although they could function, everyone could tell that they lacked a brain.
Despite how bleak their outlook on society seemed to the casual observer, they were happy with it. Their invisibility in the social world allowed them to listen in on conversations with the greatest of ease. They knew when to appear in a hallway to watch a dramatic cat fight between a popular and a glamour girl, when to go to the bathroom and efficiently ruin a romantic moment by walking down the hall at just the right time, and when to tell a principal about people smoking in the bathroom to get their worst enemy. Roger was the only exception to this. They could not find one black speck on his perfect record. Red pens avoided his permanent record the way that peopled avoided lepers when they still existed. They knew that personally from a brief visit to the file cabinet in the office.
Kurama was about to officially give up on the search for the gossip that would spark the downfall of the king when Upton bounded into art class with a particularly happy look on his face. "I've found it! The weak link in the chain, his Achilles heel, the needle in the haystack!" he announced, hardly containing his excitement. "regicide is in the works!"
"Well, what is it?"
"Never fear, even those as lowly as us shall learn of it via grapevine! That is just how big this is"
"Well, how did you start it?"
"I left a note on the floor under Miny's chair in third period. I heard her talking about it at lunch. When in doubt, get someone stupid to do it"
Kurama just smiled and took his chair. Upton sat next to him, smiling so widely that he was worried about it knocking something over. The teacher clearly hated them for being happy. She picked at every single thing that either of them did wrong and even when they did not do something wrong.
As Kurama walked down the halls on his way to his locker he realized that Upton had been telling the truth. As Roger passed groups of minions they looked at them and the exploded in gossip the moment that he passed. Kurama strained his ears to try to hear what they said but it was indistinguishable from the other noise. He took his books out of his locker and walked to his car. Again, people were gossiping. He could not wait to hear what Roger had done.
"Hey, do you think Suiichi knows?" Kurama heard Miny asking one of her friends. Her friend answered that he had probably not, she bounced, literally bounced, over to him. "Hey, Suiichi."
AH! Behold! I have the power to leave you hanging. You have the power to continue the stories. Send me your reviews! And I shall leave it up to you to decide what the rumor was because I don't know! Wait, wasn't supposed to say that!
"And what are you doing?" she asked as though she had no idea what someone would do with a paper and pencil.
"I'm working on a sketch for a friend of mine" Kurama said as though it were nothing new. "I already finished my work for you and I have a good deal of free time."
"That's nice" Ms. Raydel grabbed a corner of his book and took it off of his desk. "There will be no drawing outside of my assignments."
"Yes Ms. Raydel." Kurama said as softly as he could, being sure to look down. He was not truly embarrassed or ashamed. He was actually extremely mad and remembered what Youko Kurama had told him about trying to come through when he was angry. He did not want anyone to see him if his eyes were gold or hear a change in his voice.
Once the oppressive teacher left, Upton put a hand on Kurama's shoulder. "Don't worry about her. She acts like this to everyone. Anyone different or from another school must be an ax murderer or rapist and should be treated cruelly until they leave. At least that is what she thinks. I couldn't care less. I don't have enough friends to be picky and I really couldn't care less if you were an ax murderer."
Kurama could not help but laugh at his new found friend.
"I suppose I should tell you how things work around here, huh? Well over there in the right hand corner are the prissy girls." Upton motioned over to where Miny was sitting with her friend. "You know the type, cant hold a normal conversation with them because they don't know anything about anything unless it has to do with hair or makeup. In front of us are the popular. They know about other stuff but they just refuse to talk to anyone about it because they are far too cool to talk to anyone but the god of coolness himself, Roger. Right up by the teacher's desk is her little pet, dumb dumb. I don't know what his name is but it doesn't matter. And there is one last little group, the weirdos who somehow manage to be so low that no one will talk to them but still way above me. They are a mixture of the odds and ends. Little cliques who are different from one another don't have enough people to survive on their own so they feed off of others. They are the Goths and hippies and a couple other little groups." Upton stopped talking for a moment and glanced at the clock. A bell rang and he grabbed his backpack. "And that would be the bell. Thank you, you have been a wonderful audience, I'll be here all week!"
Kurama walked out of the classroom laughing his head off. He had decided that he really only needed one friend to be happy here, and Upton was that friend.
Kurama's new found happiness was crushed when he returned home. Suiichi was sitting on the couch watching some show that was guaranteed to lower the watcher's IQ by twenty points. Kurama asked him if he could watch a different show but was met with only evil comments about how it was Suiichi's house. He tried to pull the whole "I'm older than you" ploy but he found that it held little to no effect on the younger Suiichi.
"Fine!" Kurama growled. He became quite worried when he realized that he actually had growled. He ran up to his room to calm down. "I hope that no one notices that I have a tail!" he muttered as he closed his door.
His first order of business was to quickly remove his pants because they pinched his tail. Tail freed, he ran his fingers through his hair, searching for lumps of ears or long silver strands. As he searched, he looked in the mirror.
"Good, green eyes, red hair, and no ears! Well, no fox ears anyway. Now, how do I get rid of this tail?"
Kurama sad on his bed and relaxed, trying to think of any way to lose his tail. Many thoughts passed through his mind such as chopping it off but such ideas were far too bloody to be done in his room. After some time of relaxing, he found that the tail had disappeared.
"so that is the key" he said out loud "I just have to relax"
He spent the rest of the night in his room, coming out only for supper. During that short time, he discovered that he truly despised Dr. Tar
"Suiichi, big Suiichi that is." The annoying doctor began. "Your mother informed me that you work very well with gardens. I lack the time and the skills for such things but if you want to grow plants back there you are more than welcome."
Kurama smiled and easily translated it from polite talk to truth. It came out like this "hey, you, ya, you. Your mom said that you like to garden. I don't care enough to make time and I frankly don't care about what my land looks like if I have to do it. Now that you are here, I would like you to make my yard look good."
"I'll remember that" Kurama's thoughts wandered to his memories of the back yard. There were places for flowers but the only plant life consisted of a lopsided bush and a tree right out of How the Grinch Stole Christmas which was being supported by a stick that was smaller than it. He did not want to cave in to Dr. Tar but he also did not want his mother to know his much he hated him. Although he had known the doctor for only a short period of time, he could tell many things about his personality. He was clearly very narrow minded and did not want a son who did anything out of the ordinary. Kurama knew that he could never please this man. Almost everything about him was out of the ordinary. Dr. Tar's idea of a son would be one who was extremely successful in school though he clearly wanted that for Suiichi and not Kurama. Suiichi had to be better than any son. Kurama smiled slightly, knowing that he would be the perfect son, cutting away at any chance for him to brag about Suiichi. Kurama had forgotten about Youko.
After the first day, school became more bearable. He would suffer through most of it, eating lunch far from any other students, and wait patently for art class. Once there, he would tell Upton all of his woes and Upton would laugh at them and then spin them around so that the poplars were things that they clearly were not. Upton started referring to groups as other things. The people who were above anyone else were the noble gases because, just like the real noble gases, they would not interact with anyone and could raise quite a stench when they wanted to. Their perfumes were so strong that sometime they themselves would sit a little farther away from each other. The glamour girls which all the guys wanted dates with were actually aliens sent here to learn about human culture but were failing miserably. Whenever one would suddenly burst into tears, which they did frequently whenever they felt that they were not in the limelight, a humors story about how she had to report to her leader would pass through the two friends.
The Goths, hippies, etc. became Freaks Inc. and were the best place to rent freaks in the neighborhood. If one of them looked particularly sour then it was clear that they had not gotten a job lately. The jocks, none of whom were in art class because it was below them, were actually government experiments to determine if it was possible for a body to function normally without a brain being present. The experiment was a failure because although they could function, everyone could tell that they lacked a brain.
Despite how bleak their outlook on society seemed to the casual observer, they were happy with it. Their invisibility in the social world allowed them to listen in on conversations with the greatest of ease. They knew when to appear in a hallway to watch a dramatic cat fight between a popular and a glamour girl, when to go to the bathroom and efficiently ruin a romantic moment by walking down the hall at just the right time, and when to tell a principal about people smoking in the bathroom to get their worst enemy. Roger was the only exception to this. They could not find one black speck on his perfect record. Red pens avoided his permanent record the way that peopled avoided lepers when they still existed. They knew that personally from a brief visit to the file cabinet in the office.
Kurama was about to officially give up on the search for the gossip that would spark the downfall of the king when Upton bounded into art class with a particularly happy look on his face. "I've found it! The weak link in the chain, his Achilles heel, the needle in the haystack!" he announced, hardly containing his excitement. "regicide is in the works!"
"Well, what is it?"
"Never fear, even those as lowly as us shall learn of it via grapevine! That is just how big this is"
"Well, how did you start it?"
"I left a note on the floor under Miny's chair in third period. I heard her talking about it at lunch. When in doubt, get someone stupid to do it"
Kurama just smiled and took his chair. Upton sat next to him, smiling so widely that he was worried about it knocking something over. The teacher clearly hated them for being happy. She picked at every single thing that either of them did wrong and even when they did not do something wrong.
As Kurama walked down the halls on his way to his locker he realized that Upton had been telling the truth. As Roger passed groups of minions they looked at them and the exploded in gossip the moment that he passed. Kurama strained his ears to try to hear what they said but it was indistinguishable from the other noise. He took his books out of his locker and walked to his car. Again, people were gossiping. He could not wait to hear what Roger had done.
"Hey, do you think Suiichi knows?" Kurama heard Miny asking one of her friends. Her friend answered that he had probably not, she bounced, literally bounced, over to him. "Hey, Suiichi."
AH! Behold! I have the power to leave you hanging. You have the power to continue the stories. Send me your reviews! And I shall leave it up to you to decide what the rumor was because I don't know! Wait, wasn't supposed to say that!