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Duo's first class was not really a class at all, home room. He was familiar with that. He stuffed his lunch box in his locker and walked into the class room. A paper airplane flew past his head, hitting a white board by the door and falling into the waste basket beneath. Obviously this teacher didn't care what the students did during their first twenty minutes any more then the teacher did at his last school. He surveyed the students as he walked towards the teacher's desk. A few had looked up at his entrance, but most were content to ignore him. The girls and boys were equal in number, and over all there weren't as many people as he had expected. There were only seven in the classroom. Then again this was a private school. There was a girl with spiky black hair tinkering with some sort of mechanical device, taking it apart and categorizing parts, there were two girls playing chess, a boy watching them idly while another was studiously reading and taking notes. There was a girl reading a book, and another boy tucked in a corner with a thick volume balanced on his knees blocking his face.

Duo walked over to the teacher, and handed over his note. The teacher looked up at him over his glasses, nodded and stood up. Rapping a ruler on his desk he called for attention.

"Class!" heads snapped up. The chess players turned in their chairs and the studier glared over the rims of his glasses.

"We have a new student; please welcome Duo Maxwell to our school. I know you won't pay any attention if I ask you to be kind and show him around, but please help him out. Don't kill him just 'cause he's new here. If he asks a question, try to answer. If you want to be a pain in the behind, like some of you seem to be, don't cause trouble. That's all." The teacher sat down. Duo stared at him a moment, then looked at the class, a few of whom were still looking at him. The spiky haired girl grinned and beckoned to him. Duo walked over to the little table strewn with small bits of metal.

"Hey new guy, name's Hilde." She held out a hand and he took it, grinning his wide smile right back at her. She had a twinkle in her eye and he felt they'd get along almost immediately. He pulled up a chair and sat down. It was almost as if that was a signal. The remainder of the class that had been watching him went back to what they were doing.

"This is quite a project you've got going here." He pointed at the organized mess on the table.

"I salvaged it from the trash. Dad just doesn't understand that I can fix things, and if I can't I'll still use parts for scrap. So sad. He doesn't believe women should be mechanics and engineers." She glared at her hands a moment, and then beamed, "Loss for him, I don't care. That's my lifelong goal in a nutshell. You like working with junk?" Hilde waved in a sweeping motion to indicate the mess on the table in front of her.

Duo nodded, "My last foster parent's neighbor had a lot of stuff he had collected in his attic and meant to fix but never got around too. One of his daughters and I would excavate and work on things when we were bored. Solo, my brother, absolutely hated it. He couldn't keep still that long, funny you would think that he could and I couldn't. I guess you can just get really involved in that sort of work can't you?"

"That's for sure; look at how fast the time's gone now. We have to go to first class in a few minutes." Hilde said looking at the clock. Duo glanced up as well time had gone by quickly.

"We pair up into eight home rooms, eight people each, and four classes of sixteen. We're group B, we pair with group A. You go to classes with them for the day. We all have lunch at the same time, but typically you stick to your clan, if you know what I mean." Hilde rattled off as they followed the knot of people from group B to their first class which was math.

The math teacher was an older man with a moustache and goatee, gray hair somewhat long and slicked back along his head, Duo realized with a little bit of shock and unease that one of his hands was missing. Duo just decided to ignore it. He liked math so no matter how strange the teacher he would probably do well. They were divided into tables, four each. Duo was assigned to the one group of three; there was the mime from that morning, and the mime's friend, a small boy well dressed with platinum blond hair, and one of the girls who had been playing chess in home room that morning. Now that he looked at her next to the mime he realized how similar they looked.

The math teacher cleared his throat and the soft buzz of noise died. They all turned to the assigned page and began working on the problem numbers written on the board.

"Welcome to the team." said the chess girl when the noise level had reasserted itself. "I'm Catherine, this is my brother" she pointed at the mime, confirming Duo's question.

"Trowa" the mime introduced himself.

"And I'm Quatre" said the blond boy with a friendly smile. Duo smiled back. Quatre…that was a unique name and a very familiar one too. He studied Quatre intently. The blond hair was the same. He opened his mouth to ask but Catherine cut him off.

"Are you any good at math?"

"Well...sorta. Some stuff I really get, but some stuff it takes forever." Duo admitted, his attention swayed.

"Good, I have someone to commiserate with, those two" she glared across the table, "Never seem to have problems with much of anything. So," she turned back to Duo, "how would you go about this first problem." They were off.

After math they went straight to science. Science was another class taught by an old man, this one had hair that made his head look like a mushroom and though this was unsettling Duo liked him more then he had the past fellow. Again he sat at the table with only three people, himself being the fourth. Quatre was with him again but the other two he hadn't met yet. One was named Rick, a geeky sort of guy with glasses and a wide grin, and the other was Sally. She seemed to know a lot. She took him under her wing immediately, taking charge of their table as well, and explained that they were in the middle of doing a "lab" to understand gravity and meteorites. They were dropping various sized projectiles into pans of flour covered in coco powder. It was a lot of fun and Duo smiled and laughed along with the other kids as they trooped out-side with rulers and pans and various marbles and ping pong balls. It wasn't like anything he had ever experienced in a science class before, but this was a "hands on school" and he learned a lot from the experiment. This would probably stick with him more then anything else from a text book ever would.

After science there was break. He followed Quatre, the blond. He had yet to be able to ask Quatre if he was who he thought he was. It really irked Duo. By now he was almost positive that Quatre had been one of his best friends and next door neighbors before Helen had moved to live with Father Maxwell. It had been one of Quatre's older sisters who had helped him fix things. Quatre and Solo had always tried to help and eventually given up and watched instead. The memory of his childhood friend and this Quatre were very similar. Cat, as people called him now, was very friendly. Duo decided it was worth asking.

"Hey. Did you ever live next to a Helen Maxwell?" He asked. Quatre paused, and then beamed.

"It is you. I wasn't sure, not that many people are named Duo. But you're hairs different. I remember it was long, but not nearly that long."

"Hair grows. I can't believe we're at the same school I never thought I'd see you again. Why didn't you write? How have you been?"

"I lost your address." Cat explained sheepishly. "Things have been well." They were deep in conversation, reminiscing and laughing at their mutually regained friendship by the time they walked down the hall to Cat's locker so he could get something for the next class, which would be English. They hit it off just as well the second time as the first.

They chatted as Cat fussed with his combination and popped open his locker, each student had their own here, something Duo greatly appreciated. Cat's locker was pretty plain, with a few pictures of the dessert, a couple of an older girl with platinum blond hair, Duo remembered her as being Cat's oldest sister Ira. There were also a few pictures of the mime, Trowa. Cat leaned in to get something, still talking about a band he and Duo had both seen in concert, when a pair of arms wrapped around his waist from the back. Cat started a little, Duo was surprised as well, usually he was aware of everyone around him, but he had not seen this coming. Cat turned and mock glared at the boy behind him.

"Trowa, don't you know better then to sneak up behind people and grab them, it's rude. One of these days I'm going to deck you and we wouldn't want that now would we?" Duo felt his lips tug upwards.

Trowa spoke, echoing Duo's thoughts. "You? Deck anyone?" Cat simply let his face go completely blank and raised one slow, almost icy eyebrow. The creepy little smile Cat wore was a warning Duo recognized. Usually Cat was well-behaved, but Duo remembered a few times, whether in a game of monopoly or a snowball fight when that expression had appeared. It meant it was time to run and cover. Duo looked between the two.

"Care to try me?" Cat challenged. Trowa was unfazed. He began massaging Cat's shoulders. Cat sighed, and the expression was gone in an instant as he leaned back into Trowa.

"No, I don't think I will. I am quite attached to myself thank you very much and I'd like to keep my life and limb." Trowa stated fondly. The taller boy rested his head on Cat's and glanced toward Duo.

"New friend?" Trowa asked, "We've been introduced, but not very well. I'm Trowa and it seems you've met Kitty here." Cat gave a pointed glared to Trowa. Trowa smiled endearingly and tickled Cat behind the ears. Despite his disgruntled expression, Duo would not have been surprised if Cat started purring.

"Ignore this lug. He knows that name drives me nuts. He only does it cause I'll kill anybody else who says it. Take note." Cat's eyes promised death if Duo even thought of using the name. "But, I can't very well rain fiery death upon him. Sometimes I don't know why I put up with him." Cat's voice was fond, and though he was talking to Duo, he was looking at Trowa.

"Because you love me and I'm the most wonderful person in the world?"

"Hmmm….Because your self-centered and vain and…what else."

"Gorgeous and funny and your boyfriend?"

"Yeah that too I guess."

Duo watched all this with slightly amused alarm. At any of his old schools this sort of display would not have been allowed. The teachers wouldn't step in, but it was a death warrant with the other students. Maybe all liberal arts schools were more open, he wondered. Apparently this sort of thing was okay, at least here. Cat and Trowa clearly weren't worried that they'd be ostracized. Duo thought of a pair of boys who'd been his friends at an old school. One had wound up in the hospital and the both had transferred away. His disgust at thoughts of his previous school must have shown a bit on his face because Cat looked a bit startled and moved away slightly.

"You don't mind do you….I'm really sorry if we're offending your religion or something we'll stop and go away if you like. I know some people can't stand public displays of affection when…"

"Not a problem, I was just wondering, aren't you guys worried about…I dunno. I guess you're, er, out, but won't other people….well…I mean. Everybody can't be so…at my old school…" Cat saw Duo's confusion and worry and began to chuckle.

"Yeah there are a couple of stick-in-the-mud types here, but most people don't care. For some reason this school seems to attract a whole bunch of Kinsey types. We all know that we're not necessarily one thing or the other so why say no to love when it comes up and bites you on the…nose?" Trowa snickered at his partner and Duo began to smile. He was really getting to like this school.