Monday came all too soon for the Ronins, but it didn't come soon enough for Alvina. She woke up early as usual so she could get her morning walk in and make breakfast for the guys. The night before she insisted that she do it, but Cye kept denying it and saying that she was the guest. She finally got him to be quiet about it by doing something similar to him like she did with Sage Saturday morning.
"Oh, come on Cye," Sage said while laughing at Cye's sulking. "It can't be that bad."
Cye only glared at him from across the table.
"So what are they gonna do to me?" Alvina asked the group.
"First, they're gonna give you a bunch of papers to fill out then they're gonna put you in front of the entire school."
"Kento," Rowan said. "I don't think she heard what you said with all that food in your mouth."
"I heard him," Alvina said. "Are they really that nosey about my personal life?"
"Yes," Ryo said. "But don't worry. Standing front of the entire school isn't that bad either."
"Yeah," Sage said. "It's only seven hundred or so students."
"That makes me feel so much better."
Cye was in a much better mood by the time they walked through the schools doors. While Cye, Ryo, Kento and Sage made their way to their homerooms, Rowan stayed with Alvina to help her with the papers and to give her a tour of the school since he was the only one with a first period study hall. He sat next to Alvina in the main office as she filled out the information papers, scratching her information down in Japanese.
"They are nosey," she commented as she flipped the papers to the fifth page. Rowan laughed and got hit with Alvina's pen as a result.
About a few minutes prior to the bell sounding the end of first period, Alvina handed the completed paper work. She smiled and pointed to the opened door to the Headmaster's office. Rowan followed Alvina into the office and they both stood in front of the "big boned" man. He was quickly writing something down on a sheet of paper. When he was done, he placed his pen down and stood to greet Alvina.
"Welcome to Han A' High Miss Hoppkins," he said. "Now come with me so we could set you up to meet the rest of the school."
He went over to the receptionist and mumbled something into her ear. She nodded and made an announcement over the PA system saying that all students and staff are to gather in the auditorium for a special greeting of a new foreign exchange student. After waving to Rowan, she was pulled away by the Headmaster. The bell rang and he made his way to the auditorium in the sea of students.
Walking into the large room, he searched out his friends and found them sitting in the center of the front row. He walked over to them and sat down Ryo and Cye. When almost of the seats were filled, Cye looked back at the rest of the students. But his gaze stuck on a group of three boys. Darres and his two creeps were sitting up in the balcony, a dangerous and evil look smacked on his face.
"He's planning something," Cye said. The other four boys looked up to look at Darres as well. Seeing the look on his face made them all shiver.
"You're right," Sage said. "We should keep an eye on him."
"But let's not worry about him right now," Kento said facing the stage. The Headmaster had taken the stage and was rapidly quieting the rest of the audience.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," he announced. "It is my pleasure to introduce a very talented young lady new to our school from Cardiff England. Now, let's all give her a very nice Han A' High welcome to Miss Alvina Hoppkins."
As Alvina walked on stage and up to the microphone, the entire room cheered and boomed with applause. Some of the boys whistled out to her which made her blush a little. The five boys in the front row were the loudest and Alvina smiled at them. When the audience settled, the Headmaster explained what would happen.
"Usually, we would just have our guests tell a little about themselves, but we decided that we should have a small question and answer type of thing. After, I will let you to the students so you can answer some of their questions."
Alvina nodded her consent and the questioning began.
"What's your full name?"
"Alvina Gladys Sakora Hoppkins."
"What is your culture?"
"English from my Mother's side, Japanese from my Father's."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen. Seventeen in January."
"What do you do in your free time?"
"Different activities of my choosing."
"What do they include?"
"Well, the first thing I do is I try to get into the community pool or I go surfing. Swimming always comes first. If that's not an option, I'm usually stuck in the house where I would practice my singing, read, or draw to keep myself busy. Other than that, my activities include one of my many language lessons."
"What languages?"
"Italian, Spanish and French. Also known as the Romance languages."
As the questioning continued, Ryo leaned over to Cye.
"Aren't you trying to learn Italian?" he asked. Cye nodded his head a bit.
"But I'm nowhere close to understanding how to make the correct accents. I'm about to give it up."
"Maybe Alvina can help you," Sage said. "She's a natural."
"How do you know?" Cye asked.
"Because she's gonna recite a poem in Italian."
They guys looked up to Alvina who took a few deep breaths before she began.
"Il senso un corvo Ha agitato giù su meLa polvere di neve
Da un albero del hemlock
Ha dato il mio cuore
Un cambiamento dell'umore
E risparmiato una certa parte
Di un giorno che ho avuto rued."
"The way a crowShook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued."
Cye listened to the fluency of the Italian coming form Alvina's voice. They way she spoke was enlightening as she recited a Robert Frost poem. The way she spoke, the language seemed to be second nature to her, like she spoke it all her life. Cye couldn't understand where this goddess came from. She seemed to have appeared the Aphrodite did, out of the foam from the sea, perfect in every way possible.
Before he had time to think any more, the show was over and everyone was on their way to their fourth period classes since the gathering took two periods. Cye looked back up at the balcony to see Darres in more of a bad mood than when Cye first looked up there. He really was planning something, and that made Cye shiver in fear for some strange reason.
Alvina hopped down from the three-foot stage and joined the guys. They all gave her hugs and compliments on the show she put on. She thanked them all and smiled from ear to ear.
"That wasn't so bad," she said. "I actually had fun." Alvina looked at her folded schedule and tiptoed over to Cye who was still thinking about Darres. She hopped into his back playfully and sent them both to the ground. The others laughed and Alvina helped him up.
"You are so serious and quiet," she said. "I had to do something to get your mood up. Besides, you have to show me where the pool is. I have swimming next."
"Yeah," he said, rubbing his butt where he fell on it. "I do to. The Headmaster fixed your schedule to follow one of us around the entire day. After swimming, you have art with Sage."
"Well, lets get a move on!"
Cye and Alvina made their way down the stairs to the ground floor. They stumbled across Sam who also had Swimming that period. Alvina followed Sam into the girls' locker room where she frantically searched the different boxes for a new school suit that would fit Alvina. After finding her size, Alvina squeezed into the light blue one-piece suit. With Sam's help, she zipped up the back of it and looked into the full body mirror.
The suit looked similar to a scuba outfit. The legs went halfway down her thighs and the arms went halfway down her upper arm. It had a high turtleneck that almost choked her. There was also a white cherry blossom pattern that wove around her body from her right pant leg that ended at her left shoulder.
"Hey, Sam?" she asked, not bothering to speak to her in Japanese. "What do the guys wear?" Sam looked at her. Alvina winked and the two girls started giggling.
"The bottom half," she said. "Except the pattern wraps around their waist like a belt, sort of. And they're really tight."
The two of them continued to giggle and joke as they walked up the metal stairs to the main room with the two pools. One side of the room had the diving section and the other has the swimming. Sam explained to Alvina how the class worked.
"Swimming the pride of the school," she said. "This class will take two periods. The first period, girls are on the diving boards and the boys are practicing laps. The bell rings and we switch so the boys to the diving boards and the girls swim laps. In-between the two periods is a break. We only get about ten minutes to chit-chat and the last half an hour we do 'Battle of the Sexes' and see who can out swim who."
Alvina looked at the large gathering of students. There were about twenty-five people, respectively, in both groups. Even though most of the boys looked the same, Alvina was able to pick out Cye easily. He looked up and saw her. Sam excused herself while she went to speak with the two coaches. Alvina made her way over to where Cye was standing.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey. How you feeling?"
"A little nervous," she answered. Cye gave her a strange look. Then he realized that there was something wrong.
"What's going on?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Did you ever feel like… I don't know… like you're gonna get hurt for being different or better than someone else?"
The question threw Cye off balance. He wasn't expecting her to ask him something like that. But he knew what she was talking about. He knew all too well. Sage, Ryo, Kento and Rowan knew as well. They had to go through the same thing when they first got their Armor Orbs. They had to get used to it, and they did get hurt for being different. But he couldn't say that.
"Yeah," was all he could come up with. "The others too. We all got hurt one way or another for being different or good in something. It's sort of called jealousy. But don't worry about it. The only person likely to be jealous here is Darres. He as an ego the size of Jupiter."
Alvina smiled and made her way over to the diving side of the room. She also had diving back in Cardiff, but even there she didn't like it. It wasn't a factor of heights, she didn't mind that, she just doesn't like diving from high above the water. She's fine with the starting dive in doing laps, but she could never keep her body straight enough to make the smallest splash. It just didn't work.
When she went through her third and worst dive, she went over to the boys' section and watched as they practiced. She was amazed at how fluent Cye was in the water. It was like he, too, was a part of it.
She's been thinking about him ever since she met him. She noticed all of the hints Ryo and Sage were pointing at him. They were trying to get Cye to make some kind of move to her. She wished he would. She liked him, a lot. And she hoped he liked her the same way. Except, she's afraid to bring it up.
This was a first for her. She was never afraid of anything in her life. She wasn't afraid of boys, of heights, all these psychological things, she was never afraid of. But that didn't mean she didn't have any fears. She just always denied them. Unless a stranger pointed a gun at her, well, she would believe it then. But being afraid of Cye and his feelings shouldn't shake her. She had her share of the male race. She had experience though it wasn't of the best kind. Of course, she almost regretted that time, but that is now beside the point.
Alvina's thoughts were disrupted as the whistle blew signaling the switching of the sides. Alvina smiled at Cye as she passed him and took a spot on one of the starting altars. When the whistle blew she dived and started swimming. She just let herself go, allowing the water to move her. She allowed the rhythm of her steady heartbeat guide her arms and legs. She made it to the other side and turned, going back the other way.
She could do this forever. She didn't need to breathe, she wasn't getting tired. The same beating of her heart went on and on, guiding her arms and legs in a steady movement. There was no problem about it, except that she forgot about the people around her and that she had done ten laps in less than seven minutes.
She stopped midway in the pool and looked at all of the faces staring at her from the side. Even the boys climbed onto the ladders and decks of the diving boards to get a good look at her.
Oh shit. This wasn't supposed to happen. Alvina swam to the closest edge of the pool and pulled herself out. Her heart was pounding faster now, not the steady beat as was earlier. As she made her way over to where she left her towel, she turned and ran from the room.
"Did you see that?" a boy said next to Cye. "Ten laps under seven minutes! That's even better than you."
"Shut up Monte," Cye said throwing him a look.
Cye and the boys made their way to the locker room, the whole time conversing on what they saw Alvina do. Cye on the other hand, couldn't believe his eyes. As he watched, he felt a strange tingling feeling in his gut that he hadn't felt in three years. The feeling came from his armor. His armor sensed power from Alvina when she was swimming.
"Mouri!" Cye jumped and turned to see Darres coming at him.
"What's the deal with her?" he asked, throwing him against a locker. Everyone went quiet. "Well? You know more about her. Spill, what the hell was that we all just saw?"
"Alvina, swimming. Doing what she does the best. What's the matter? Pissed that Alvina can do ten laps in the amount of time it takes you to do four?"
There was a loud intake in oxygen as the other boys moved out of the way. What Cye just said would have gotten someone else killed at that moment. Darres looked down on the auburn hair boy with raging black eyes. He raised a hand in a fist and brought it down hard.
Darres dropped Cye and he backed out of the way. Darres turned to him and pointed his red fist at him.
"You had better warn her about what she just did to my rep," he said. "Otherwise, she will look ten times worse than that locker."