AN: Hmm, I was focusing on Eiri last two chapters . . . so I'm probably going to stay more around Shane for awhile. Plot reasons . . . Don't worry. There will be plenty of angel Eiri action. XD Double entendre!
And Hiro fans, he will arrive soon, so don't worry about him . . . ::bows to Hiro::
Thank you everyone who's been reviewing, keep them coming and maybe that means faster updates. :) Well ... just more incentive to update anyway ...
I worked very very very hard on this chapter. ::nod:: The writing's alot different, but to me; alot better than the last two chapters. My beta is a godsend by the way . . . she is my second muse . . .
Maiko Shindou- (13) Maggie Shoeman
Shuichi Shindou - (16) Shane Shoeman
Ryuichi Sakuma - (17) Ryan Satterfield
Hiroshi Nakano- (17) Hilary (Hi) Nathan
Tatsuha Uesugi- (?? looks 16) Thaddeus (Tad) Understold
Eiri Uesugi - (?? looks 22) Eric Hueman
Tohma Seguchi - (??) Tohma Seguchi
Mika Seguchi- (--) Mira Sears
Suguru Fujisaki - (15) Sullivan Fulk
Taki Aizawa - (18) Taylor Ainsworth
Ma-kun - (--) Mark Kurt
Ken-chan - (--)
Ken Chandler
Noriko Ukai - (18) Nova Upton
Claude K Winchester - (--)
Sakano - (--) Mr. Sakner
Yuki Kitazawa - (--) Yale Kitterman
Ayaka Usami - (--) Ayla Usher
The Second
Days can always be categorized by their position in the week. Wednesday is usually an alright day, after all it is in the middle of the school week; then, the tiredness of Monday and Tuesday really hit you. Thursday is your friend: It's very close to Friday, only one day off, but no one really appreciates Thursday because she is inferior to Friday. So, like Tuesday, Thursday is a work day. Of course, everyone loves Friday: you can stay up all night and not be chastised for it. The same goes for Saturday, only one would have to be careful of Sunday. One might piss people off if they have a hangover at church. Hence, rarely a person looks forward to Sunday.
Then there's Monday: good old Monday. No one likes Monday; Monday has a habit of sneaking up on you when you least want it and never fails to present the rest of the week's problems. Monday likes to trick people into false security.
Shane awoke hating Monday, knowing for sure that this week's routine would be nothing special and the normal drama would occur.
On cue at 6:25 AM, Maggie's voice pierced at him, and he reflexively threw his alarm clock at his closed door. At 6:31 Ryan called to bother him into waking and to not forget to pick him up. 6:51 was 'stare-blankly-at-the-wall-while-eating-a-bowl-of-cereal-time.' By 7:09 Shane had his backpack over his shoulder and was trudging begrudgingly to his beaten up car that looked disturbingly like a silver taped together shoe box. At 7:16 he was trying to remember which way was 'left'.
After making several right-hand turns, he found his way to Ryan's house and proceeded to slam his palm on the horn to get the lazy child outside. After a whole two minutes of a steady honk, Ryan ran out the front door with his middle finger up and a deadly glare on his face.
7:36 involved much speeding and running a couple of red lights in order to make it in time for school at 7:47 AM.
7:48; Ryan and Shane said their goodbyes and dashed off to their respective classes while the school intercom fizzled with the principle's voice happily announcing the fact today was the beginning of another week.
"Good morning students of Toadstone High. Today is another wonderful Monday that I'm sure you are all looking forward to."
Shane walked into the classroom appearing slightly disheveled but managing a sarcastic 'Wee! Monday!' as he sat and lay his head down.
"There are some announcements today that apply to everyone and not just the jocks . . ."
"You're late mister Shoeman." A dry voice commented from his desk. All that one could see of the teacher was the top of his brown hair as he scribbled in a planner notebook. Shane smiled,
"So is Ryan, Mister Swartz." He responded. Mr. Swartz chuckled, turning his chair to face the computer, clicking around on his screen.
"We will be getting three transfer students this week. Two from England and one just moving in from California, so please wel . . ."
Mr. Swartz looked at the boy pointedly, "One more tardy and I'll have to give you detention for three days." Shane shrugged, earning a couple of giggles from the girls beside him.
"Actually I should have had detention five tardys ago." The pink-haired boy said with a grin.
" . . . Nathan and Sullivan Fulk are in different . . ."
The teacher smirked and began to comment before pausing at the next announcement.
"We will also be getting a new teacher today. We all know of Mr. Hongry's unfortunate accident a month ago. We finally received news he will not be returning for a long while and formally resigned due to medical reasons. His replacement will be Mr Winchester . . . huh?"
Everyone's attention was caught as a thump was heard over the intercom followed by obvious protests in the background. Scratching and shifting became audible in what could only be assumed to be the microphone being picked up. Nearly the whole school flinched as noisy vocals thundered in comparison to the principle's.
"GOOD MORNING STUDENTS!! I'll be Mr Hongry's replacement in World History for Freshmen and Froshomores! Now ignore the name Mr Sakner just gave you, if you don't call me K you'll receive an automatic F for the year!"
Shane could not stop gaping as an insane laugh followed K's statement. Of course he had the new wacko teacher today, he thought wearily. Monday was defiantly against him.
"I'm sure I'll get to know each and every one of you impressionable young students by the end of the month! Just look for the tallest man in the school with gorgeous blonde hair and you'll know exactly who I am so . . . oh come on Sakner, don't . . ."
More thumping, more distant arguing followed by an earsplitting gunshot.
Gunshot?
Mr Swartz was out of the room in seconds. The hallways could be heard with confused chatter as several other teachers left their rooms, running and talking over each other.
An amused laugh made itself heard.
" . . . don't worry people! No one is hurt! I use rubber bullets! So everyone have a nice day and learn something!"
The second bell went off, signaling everyone to leave their 'warm up' period and begin the school day for real. Not one moved for a moment before shrugging everything off as normal behavior, despite the obvious eccentricity of the newest teacher. Shane was not the only one wondering if the rest of this day would be this eventful...
"Alright class, since Wednesday will be the test we won't be doing any hard core cooking today. We're just gonna make a tuna casserole . . ."
With a murderous expression, Nova leaned over her counter to face Ryan who stood directly across from her. "What do you mean you didn't get the amps Saturday?" She hissed. Ryan smiled nervously, looking to Shane for help.
Pink hair faced purple as Shane turned and covered his mouth to avoid being heard, "He forgot the money again, but don't worry, we're going to the store right after school." Nova glared at Ryan for conformation, and the boy nodded violently in return. The girl sighed reluctantly, "You'd better have them by tomorrow . . ."
A quiet click of a doorknob followed by a knock was heard, capturing a few student's attention. The teacher paused in her directions, shuffling over to open the classroom door.
"Oh! Mr. Sakner!"
The easily flustered, black haired principle walked in with a noticeable bruise on his forehead.
"What the heck happened?" A boy asked from his table. Sakner looked at him, smiling weakly,
"Oh nothing, just a little mishap this morning..." He went on to ramble about blonde psychos to the cooking teacher, temporarily forgetting why he came in the first place.
Shane did not fail to notice a shadow slip after Mr Sakner. The shadow stood patiently behind the bruised principle with his arms neatly folded across his chest, looking around his new surroundings with apparently mild interest. His brown eyes took in every detail of the room then shifted to his new fellow peers, not excluding Shane with their brief, scrutinizing gaze.
The poor teacher let out a fake laugh before seeing the shadow oh-so-patiently waiting.
"And who is this?" She asked quickly. Mr. Sakner straitened his posture that had steadily turned into a depressed slump and pushed his thick glasses back on his nose. "Oh I'm sorry." He turned to the shadow, "This is Sullivan Fulk, the first exchange student from England I mentioned this morning."
Sullivan smiled politely at the teacher, who smiled in return, "Well hopefully you like cooking." She chirped cheerfully. The boy chuckled quietly, "Not especially but perhaps you'll change that."
Their voices faded as Shane quickly lost interest in their conversation, focusing his attention to Ryan who was playing with Teddy by the ears.
"Did you get your new sticks yet?" Shane asked. Ryan nodded absent mindedly, turning the stuffed bunny to engage in speech, "Teddy says these won't break so easily."
Nova rolled her eyes, playfully reaching over to poke Teddy in the nose, "Well hopefully maybe this time you won't use them as swords while fighting against the refrigerator." She said accusingly.
Ryan pouted at her, "Maybe this time Teddy will want to play drums on your keyboard. . ."
Nova scowled, "Even set a finger on my $900 keyboard and I'll show you pain in places you didn't know you had." Ryan released an indignant cry, grabbing Shane's arm with one hand and pointing at Nova with Teddy in the other, "She thinks just because she's a senior she's better than us and can threaten us!!" Shane began to reply only to be interrupted by a mock-evil laugh, "I am better than you because I'm a senior, 18 an a legal adult." She cackled.
Ryan stuck his tongue at her. Nova returned the gesture.
"Excuse me."
Shane nearly jumped from of his skin when he heard the quiet voice uncomfortably close to his ear. Nova smiled at the shock-inducing voice, "Oh, she sent you to our group?" Sullivan nodded, moving to the side of the square shaped counter that was not taken, "She said the class was uneven so yours was the only group made of three."
The teacher's voice rang throughout the room.
"Okay, with that out of the way, everyone, go get eggs! You should know how to make a tuna casserole by now so I'm trusting you to do this by yourselves."
The class immediately began talking and moving. Nova immediately began barking out orders.
"Shane, don't you even touch the food, you get the pots, strainer and that egg cutter thing. Ryan, don't touch the eggs but get the tuna and spaghetti. I'll go get the eggs." She turned to Sullivan, who seemed a bit taken aback at the female's dominance. Nova smiled. "You don't have to do anything since she probably won't make you take the test anyway."
Sullivan nodded deftly, watching as his new companions advanced to their respective jobs.
Eiri maintained the opinion yawning could be considered a hobby at the moment. Watching his charge during the school day was not the most exciting thing he could think of to do. Granted there had been brief excitement before saving Shane's feet from certain pain when precarious knives decided to jump from their cabinets; a few nudges had been in order to achieve the saving. Other than those eight occurrences, nothing was more dull.
He hovered above the boy cross legged, scribbling in his notebook, occasionally glancing down to make sure nothing sharp was going in Shane's general direction. At the moment the boy was placing a pot of water on the gas stove in the center of their counter, Ryan busied himself with opening the tuna cans and Nova watched them both with eagle eyes.
"Boring, isn't it?"
Eiri nearly yelped at the new voice. He looked beside himself to see a certain black haired angel floating along with him. Thaddeus' expression held just as much enthusiasm as the blonde's did.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Eiri hissed, unable to keep the surprise from his voice. Thaddeus glanced at him from the corner of his eye, amusement evident in his tone, "Oh, it's lunch time for my class so I slipped out to check on Ryan."
Eiri vaguely recalled that Thaddeus posed as a student at this very school. Substantially, he was dressed in 'normal' cloths at the moment; a white t-shirt and loose jeans. The only thing that marked him as an angel was the yellow hoop of a halo hanging above him.
Thaddeus raised an eyebrow, his gaze downward, an inquisitive noise coming from his throat, "Who's that kid just standing there?" Eiri looked at new boy, who was asking Nova if there was anything he could help with.
Nova laughed from below the two unknown beings, "Oh don't bother Sullivan, we have it."
Sullivan frowned, shifting with the discomfort of not being occupied. "Okay then . . ." He mumbled reluctantly. He watched while Ryan broke the dry spaghetti and stacked it as they waited for the water to boil. Sullivan ran his hand along the back of his neck, "So...excuse me if I'm wrong, but I thought I heard you talking about instruments when I was coming over."
Shane nodded from his place on a stool, "Yeah, we have a band. We're painfully local but I think we could make it." Ryan finished his task and pulled up his own seat, "We're still looking for a guitar player, can't have drums without a guitar player..." He nodded, as if prompting the other two for agreement.
Nova chuckled, "I make up for that, we really don't even need your drums." Ryan pouted at her, clutching his stuffed rabbit closer. Sullivan listened, eyes expressing interest, "Would you guys mind if I listened sometime?"
Shane's face immediately lit up at the prospect of an audience, "Yeah, we rehearse at least every Tuesday, if you wanted to come tomorrow."
Eiri frowned from above, "Do they at least sound good?" His eyebrows raised at Thaddeus' hesitant nod. "They're good . . . not the best but good." Thaddeus thought for a moment, "Let's put it this way, they won't break your eardrums while you listen." An exasperated huff of air left the blonde.
Suddenly a high pitched shriek of a beep wailed from inside his robes.
"Dammit." Eiri cursed. His white garments turned grey and shrunk into a generic looking work uniform. Thaddeus studied him for a moment then snickered with amusement, "You got the janitor job didn't you?"
Eiri scowled, demonstrating his middle finger before disappearing with a faint 'pop!'.
Thaddeus pulled his hand to his mouth and giggled to himself, thinking of ways to harass the other angel later for his misfortune in manual labor; a howl of pain quickly caught his attention. Tears streaming down his face in excessive amounts, Shane danced around his counter frantically clutching his hand, yowling like a banshee.
"I told you not to touch anything!!" Nova screamed as she chased the terrified pink haired boy around the counter. Shane cringed and released a whimper, "I was trying to help..."
"AND YOU STEAMED YOURSELF IN THE PROCESS!"
The teacher raced over, grabbing Shane's arm to check his hand. She released an exasperated breath at the boy's slight over-reaction. "You're fine, just go to the bathroom and run it under some cold water."
Shane nodded, tears finally ceasing in their turbulent decent.
K laughed out loud from the position on his empty desk, at the student's panic-stricken expressions. They all sat rigid in their seats, hands folded neatly on their desk tops, girls with their ankles crossed and boys with their feet flat on the ground. He had just finished a lecture on gun safety, showing everyone what and what not to do with safety catches on various pistols and submachine guns.
"Next I'm gonna show you how to clean a Civil War rifle!" The blonde substitute crowed.
A boy near the center of the room timidly raised his arm. K casually pointed the old rifle n his hands at the hapless child, "Question?"
The boy swallowed nervously, "Umm..well..I..I...thought y..you should kn..know w...we were the..wo..Women..Women's R-right's Movement...
Those sitting around him either nodded frantically in agreement or scooted as far away as possible.
K lowered his rifle, placing a thoughtful finger upon his chin, "Hm, did it in anyway involve guns, explosions, violence, swords, death, destruction, giant robots, murder, suicide, injustice of people's general right to be human, torture, a really cool major battle scene, pandas, computers, a real development in history being important yet extremely boring, and or pain?"
The boy considered this for a moment, "Well besides being important but boring, no." K clapped his hands, swinging his legs from his desk, "THEN WE'RE NOT STUDYING IT!" He cheered happily.
K moved around his desk, grasping a piece of chalk and began an attempt to draw his rifle. "Now if there's one thing you never do with an old gun like this is . . ."
The class looked on with curiosity when he stopped in mid-sentence, their teacher becoming visibly tense as his fingers tightened around the chalk, his head turning toward the exit with a strained expression.
He glanced over his shoulder with a fraudulent smile, "Excuse me class, for a moment, I just remembered something." K set the chalk down with a quiet 'clink' and nearly jogged from the room.
Shane sighed, crumpling the brown paper towel in his hands throwing it into the garbage next to him. His left hand was still red and tingling after letting it hover too long over the pot of boiling water with the full intention of dropping spaghetti in it; consequently the rising steam had effectively burned him. At least the noodles had made it in.
He sighed again, studying his reflection in the water speckled Boy's Bathroom mirror. The image was slightly distorted, wavy in some places, abnormally horizontal in others and cracked along the edges. The mirror had certainly seen better days when it was still new; not subjected to carelessly splattered water and handfuls of wet toilet paper. Shane wondered absentmindedly what this mirror had seen, how many people had passed it without a second thought of the glass reflection's well-being or that this immobile object was perhaps watching everything that went on.
Maybe it laughed to itself watching petty fights that were important for that week, maybe it mourned for the distressed teenager that was going to hurt himself that night. Then maybe it simply sat there, staring at the wall across from it, wishing it had a more interesting job than looking at smug little boys with no idea how the real world worked.
Oh well, this mirror was condemned to stay in its place until somebody careless accidentally throws something and shatters the poor thing that had done nothing but sit there for at least ten years.
Shane frowned at the image of himself. His eyes were weird: they were supposed to be brown but were most defiantly a dark shade of purple. Not violet, but purple. Violet implied a light shade of blue, white and red. His eyes were obnoxiously purple that only looked brown in the right light. Unfortunately Shane did not control what angle the light streamed at his eyes and therefore most were taken by surprise by that annoying hue of purple.
Purple! Of all colors. At least he could claim albinism with pink.
He jumped as he heard the door open from outside and at the footsteps that followed.
Shane huffed, disappointed he would have to make it look like he was finished and leave after stalling for fifteen minutes. He nodded to let other know he was acknowledged in passing, quietly slipping from the bathroom.
The sudden waft of semi-fresh air from the school hallways reminded Shane how badly the bathrooms really smelled.
Walking in the direction of his classroom, Shane looked down at his burnt hand and ran his thumb over the palm, testing for sensitivity. He flinched. Being steamed with hot water was just as painful as being burnt with fire. It really hurt when it had finally registered that his hand was dangerously close to the saucepan!
He pouted, well aware of the teasing to come from Nova for the little incident, along with taking almost a half an hour to turn on a faucet, stick his hand under it and dry himself. Not that he really minded her teasing, it was all in good humor.
For the most part.
Sometimes Shane sensed honest irritation caused by his antics; which led him to wonder if Nova was just waiting for a chance to chew him out. It had occurred to Shane on more than one occasion that Nova finding his flaws was a pretense for her to separate him and Ryan. The other two had been close friends long before Shane had ever arrived. While Ryan accepted him without question, (the way Ryan accepted most things) Nova was not so quick to give the honor of her friendship.
After casually commenting on this little fact, Ryan merely laughed it off as 'tough love'; however, Shane had noticed a dramatic change in the way Nova presented herself around him not even a week later. The friendliness was not false though, and after having known them both for over three years, Shane felt he could go to her if he really needed to; he trusted Nova just as much as he trusted Ryan.
In the midst of his musing Shane failed to notice an obstacle that had not been in the hallway his first trip through. The obstacle's presence had been dully noted while Shane's eyes remained glued to the ground, watching his feet move and his heels scuff against the floor. The obstacle, on the contrary, had been very aware of a pink haired boy heading in its direction. It wondered if he was going to look up and sway from his path, watching warily as the boy's thoughtful expression became deeper with each step. The obstacle was understandably more than irritated when Shane walked right into it.
A surprised cry from Shane and the shattering of glass marked the obstacle's collapse.
"Damn brat. Watch where you're going!"
"Who you callin' a bra--"
Shane found himself unable to form words as he raised his face to meet a fierce pair of eyes that met his own glare with just as much, if not more, intensity. Instant infatuation; Shane moved his gaze from the stranger's eyes to study the face before him. Every gentle curve, every narrow angle was mapped to perfection. Even though flaws of the body were visible, there was certainly no other being who's flesh flowed so gracefully within itself.
There's no way this guy's a janitor . . .
The man stood with an annoyed grunt, frowning at the dumbfounded face below.
"See something you like brat?"
Beautiful but ugly . . .
The insult snapped Shane from his stupor, and he stood quickly, mouth more than ready to retort with some snide remark when loud crunching and a 'chinkling' sound caught his attention. He looked down to see the remnants of a light bulb that lay scattered hazardously along floor, as well as with a toppled step stool.
Shane sheepishly looked back at the scowling beauty. "Oh . . . I'm really sorry about this...I...uh..."
The man snorted before turning to retrieve something from a grey cart that sat off to the right, covered with various cleaning supplies; mostly involving buckets, bottles of undoubtedly toxic liquids, mops, rags and brooms.
Shane blinked when the taller man shoved a broom and dust pan into his hands. He dumbly looked from one item to the other before registering what he was expected to do.
"Hey..." He mumbled, trying to think of an excuse to leave, "I need to get back to class like...five minutes ago..."
Shane only received an irritated glare, "You make a mess you clean it brat. Same rules that apply in the lunch room." The man tossed some rogue strands of blonde hair from his eyes, leaning against the wall with a distracted gesture to the debris on the floor.
Knowing the other was in the right, Shane merely pouted as he swept up the mess. The moment that he was about to dump the waste into the trashbag that hung from the grey cart's handle loud, spaced footsteps that demanded attention made him look down the hallway.
A tall man with long blonde hair pulled into a pony tail that sat high on his head marched through the hallway with an insanely large smile plastered to his face. He hummed noisily to himself as he walked, occasionally glancing to the side to peer at the display cases students had set up.
With such a man cheerfully making his way through, Shane found himself pausing to see what he would do - if anything - once he passed. Predictably, the man stopped when he was about to walk by. The teacher ran a hand through bangs that refused to stay in the pony tail, quietly considering the situation as Shane remained frozen and the Janitor arched an eyebrow at this odd man's presence.
Finally the odd man laughed and faced the Janitor, amusement playing in his voice, "I didn't know delinquents were on clean up duty during school, eh..." The Teacher paused to look at the Janitor's name tag, "...Eric."
The Janitor now known as Eric frowned, "Only when the delinquent knocks me down and breaks glass on the floor."
The Teacher slapped Shane on the back with a light chuckle, "Breaking things huh? That's good enough reason to have him on clean up duty." He urged Shane toward the trashbag, "Well, while is nice we all have jobs so let's move along."
Shane nodded quickly, pouring shards into the trash before placing the dustpan back on the cart. The Teacher seemed insistent to make Shane leave, so with a final glance at the Janitor, he made his way back to his classroom.
Eric snorted, moving to gather the broom Shane had left against the wall and righting the ignored step stool. He glanced at the Teacher, who seemed to be pondering something.
"Can I help you?" He asked gruffly.
The Teacher blinked, focusing his gaze on Eric, "Oh, I was just think of how to say this." He stated absently, "I wouldn't have the students cleaning up messes during class time if I were you. Might get some parents bitching about it later."
Eric only offered a 'hmp', simply to let the other blonde know he had heard. The Teacher smiled, restarting his trek to wherever he was going. "Have a nice day."
"As nice a day as I can have."
Noisy laughter was his answer, footsteps fading in the distance.
Eric growled from his place back atop the step stool, "Damn klutz." He grumbled to himself as he screwed in a new light bulb, "Should have know he'd walk right into me." Eric pulled his hand back, "And that he'd manage to hurt himself when I wasn't around . . ." He resisted a chuckle, stepping down and resuming his undoubtedly boring day.
End Chapter Three