Chapter Summary: An undergoes her first day at Hyoutei, where she meets up with both new and familiar faces.
Pairings this Chapter: AtobeAn
Notes: I've seen the names in PoT spelled various ways (Ann vs An, Fudomine vs Fudoumine), and for consistency I've decided to use the spellings found on the Fruity Explosion Translation page. They're my favorite English PoT site, and are very authoritative sources for the manga. Also, I just want to say that Sonoda Keiko and Wakiya Aiko are not products of my own creativity; they are originally from Utena, and have deigned to make a guest appearance.
Thanks to every one who reviewed!
Chapter One
It figured that the first people she would run into at Hyoutei were members of the tennis team. She hadn't even made it to school yet; instead, she was walking from the bus stop towards the campus, pulling on the stiff folds of her new uniform. A snide voice interrupted her from her solitude.
"Hey, don't we know that bitch?"
An looked up and found herself glaring at a rather effeminate redhead. She remembered him from the Tokyo Prefectural Tournament, and those times she had run into Atobe and his minions at the public tennis courts.
"It's that Fudoumine girl," Mukahi Gakuto sneered. "Tachibana's little sister. The one that Atobe likes."
An looked behind Mukahi to see his doubles partner, who had shrugged noncommittally at the statement.
"Why it's nice to see you too, Gaku-chan, Oshitaru-san."
Mukahi bristled at the disrespectful nickname. It's true that's what Oshitaru called him when they were alone, but no one else had to know about that. To think that this Fudoumine girl would address him in such familiar terms was atrocious. Instead of dignifying her with an answer, he turned on his heel and stomped away, making sure to kick up some dirt behind him at the younger girl. He turned back just enough to see that he had gotten her new uniform sufficiently dirtied, a satisfied smirk spreading on his face.
"Let's go, Oshitaru. There's no use in talking to lower-class trash."
Oshitaru shot an apologetic look at An, his fingers moving to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose, before he left to join his friend. An frowned, brushing the dirt off her uniform, and was completely unprepared for the exclamations of sympathy that she heard from behind her.
"Oh, you poor thing!" A girl with large light brown pigtails, bangs forming two curly lines on her forehead, rushed up to An, her hands reaching out with a handkerchief to help brush the dirt off. "Don't let Mukahi bother you, he's just in a bad mood because he thought Oshitaru was flirting with that redhead from Seigaku the other day. I'm Sonoda Keiko by the way. And this is my friend Akiya Aiko."
Keiko gestured to another girl, one with shoulder length black hair that curled out and up and back around at the ends. She smiled at An and waved. "It's not every day we get a new student. We overheard your conversation with Mukahi. So you're from Fudoumine? You guys played really great against us at the Prefectural."
An could only blink through Keiko and Aiko's cheerful conversation. She had never, ever, in a million years guessed that any one at Hyoutei would give her a warm greeting. Maybe she had misjudged the students here.
"So what's your name?"
An was startled out of her reverie by the innocent question. She smiled beatifically at the two girls. "An. Tachibana An."
"Come on, An, let us show you around the school."
An had to admit, after being led around the campus by her two new friends, that Hyoutei was very impressive. The Fudoumine campus, a simple brick building, paled in comparison. Hyoutei was all stone and pillars, arches lining the unnecessarily wide hallways. Windows covered the walls, stretching from the floor to the ceiling, and extravagant staircases wrapped around and within the building. What impressed An most, though, were the gym facilities. Not only did the school boast three Olympic-sized pools, one of which was outdoors, the most up-to-date equipment, and various courts and fields... the school had no less than twenty tennis courts, all in pristine condition. An supposed they needed that many, with the supposed two hundred plus members in their tennis club. An was ogling her locker, which was practically the size of her closet at home, when she heard a shuffle behind her. The three girls turned to see what was going on.
On the floor, cowering, was a Hyoutei student. A friend was bent down beside him, in the process of helping him stand. An was not surprised to see that the person was cowering from Atobe Kiego. Atobe stood above the pair, arms crossed and head held high, a serene smile on his face. He was flanked by his constant companion Kabaji Munehiro, and the other doubles pair, Ootori Choutarou and Shisido Ryou. Coming up behind them was a blonde boy with droopy eyelids that An recognized as Akutagawa Jirou.
"Ne," An whispered to Keiko, who was busy shoujo sparkling at Atobe in adoration, "why aren't they wearing uniforms?"
Keiko looked back at her in annoyance, then went back to her Atobe worship. "Atobe, Ootori, Shisido, and Akutagawa are the four richest boys in school. If they don't want to wear uniforms every now and then, no one's going to stop them."
An looked at Aiko, who was in a similar state of fawning over the tennis captain.
"He's so gorgeous!"
An cringed. Gorgeous was not the word she would use to describe him. More like arrogant and pigheaded. And at the moment, he was picking on some innocent boy.
"Please, Atobe-sempai," said the boy's friend, "he didn't mean to bump into you. It was an accident. He's sorry!"
Atobe smiled down at the two boys. "An accident, perhaps. An accident that needs to be punished. Maybe after Kabaji teaches you a lesson you won't "accidentally" bump into the great Atobe again."
An cringed at the use of third person, and ran up to stand in front of the boy as Kabaji walked forward menacingly.
"What do you think you're doing?" she reprimanded Atobe. "He already apologized!"
Atobe had an expression of mild surprise for half a moment before it faded into a familiar expression. It was a combination of a grin and a smirk, and was perhaps the most arrogant expression An had ever seen. And, unfortunately, she had seen it several times it the past. "An-chan, I'm happy to see that the rumors that you were coming to Hyoutei were true. I suppose you came here to be near me... I knew you couldn't resist for long."
"Don't act so full of yourself, you jerk!" An could feel the stares of every one in the hallway on her. The girls were glaring, just realizing that their darling Atobe was actually flirting with her. The boys were staring in shock, surprised that any one would talk to Atobe Kiego this way.
"Spirited, as always." Atobe reached out a hand, clearly expecting An to just give him hers. "Now, shall I walk you to your class?"
An slapped his hand away. "I'd rather have Mizuki from St. Rudolph's walk me to class than you."
Atobe frowned at that, remembering the creepy, flamboyant boy. The last time he had seen him he had been wearing a purple shirt with pink roses on it. Ootori and Shisido snickered and chuckled behind him. Kabaji was, as always, being Kabaji, simply standing at Atobe's side. Jirou was no longer there... he had most certainly gotten bored during the proceedings and had gone ahead to class by himself, where he could at least get some moments of rest at his desk before school started.
"Have it your way, then," Atobe replied in a calm voice. "I'll see you later, An-chan. You can be certain of that."
Atobe gestured at his friends, and An watched as the four tennis players walked away. She turned towards her new friends, who had inexplicably looked away as soon as she made eye contact with them. She raced over to them, putting a smile on her face. "Are you guys ready for class?"
Morning classes passed by rather uneventfully, and An was happy with that. No one made an effort to talk with her, well, aside from Keiko and Aiko, but she hadn't expected them to. Some sent her sharp glances, and she heard mumblings of "low class trash", "Fudomine", and "Atobe" among the whispers that were directed against her. Still, no one outright did anything to her, and for that she was grateful.
An walked through the cafeteria, which was more like the dining area of a very large restaurant than any cafeteria she had been in, grinning when she caught sight of her friends.
"An!" Keiko called. "Come sit next to us!"
An ran to the table, about to sit in one of the empty seats when Aiko shooed her towards another one.
"No, that chair's still wet. Sit here."
An sat down, taking out her lunch when she realized her two friends were just sitting there. Smiling. And staring. At her. She was about to ask what was going on when Keiko's smile grew wider, and it reminded An of Fuji Syusuke when he was about to do something particularly sadistic.
"An-chan," Keiko said, "Hyoutei doesn't take well to people like you. We prefer people with more class... more breeding... you understand..."
An frowned, wondering at the discrepancy between this Keiko and the one that had befriended her. Keiko pointed upwards and grinned. An looked up just in time to see a large pot that had been secured to the rafters flip over, and a torrent of red fluid was coming down and spilling all over her. Every one in the cafeteria was staring at her by then, and were convulsing with laughter. After she was covered with the stuff she realized, from its texture and odor, that it was tomato sauce.
"That will show you how much your kind is welcome in Hyoutei!" Keiko said loudly, getting out of her seat.
"By the way," Aiko said, getting up to join her team, "Hyoutei would never have lost to Fudoumine if we had been playing with our normal regulars. And winning with a technique as crude as stacking... Fudoumine is full of underhanded idiots. Especially their captain, ne, An?"
The comments just spurred another round of laughter. An got up, glaring at the girls, more angry at the immature prank and barb against her brother than embarrassed. She turned on her heel and made her way to the bathroom, perfectly aware that she was dripping sauce all over the floor and every one was pointing and laughing at her.
The second half of the day was, needless to say, worse than the first half. Murmurs of "tomato sauce" and "fool" could be heard every where she went. She had failed to get out all the tomato sauce. Her uniform, as it was, was stained a light red, and sometimes would squish uncomfortably against her skin. She was looking forward to getting home and waiting for her brother's tennis practice to end. Maybe he would take her to see a movie, or get some ice cream, out of sympathy and brotherly affection. Or maybe she could work off some anger at the public tennis courts.
These were the thoughts that occupied her as she walked to the bus stops, but she was not so far gone that she didn't notice Atobe standing against a wall on her way there. She assumed he had been waiting for her, but was surprised to see that he was for once alone. She turned her head up, determined to walk right on past him, but his hand shot out to grab her wrist.
"Let go." An stated the words through clenched teeth and narrowed her eyes at the tennis player. She tried to yank her hand out of Atobe's grasp, but to no avail.
"An-chan, I really must apologize for today's turn of events."
So apparently every one in the school had heard about the cafeteria incident. "Do you expect me to believe you? You're probably the one that put them up to it!"
At least Atobe had the decency to look affronted at that statement. "I would never! Those two are friends with Mukahi, they were probably planning it all day."
An felt Atobe's grasp on her wrist loosen, and she jerked it away from him. She had no reason not to believe Atobe. She wasn't so naïve as to think that the girls befriended her for any other reason than to play their prank.
"You know, the students are just going to get worse. They never like scholarship beneficiaries, and they absolutely hate you because you're from Fudoumine. At least if you were going out with me, they'd be too afraid to do anything and leave you alone."
"There's no chance I'd ever date you." Even as she said it, An had to wonder at Atobe's statements. He actually sounded decent for once. He didn't even seem arrogant. He was, however, currently bristling at the insult.
"Fine, then! This is certainly the last time I'll condescend to try and date a commoner. But don't come running to me when the students intensify their torture techniques."
And now he was back to arrogant. An watched as Atobe walked away, turning to head to the bus before she missed the next one.