2
The next class was two block periods long, English/History/Social Studies combination. Duo followed Trowa and Cat, feeling a bit like a third wheel, not that he really wanted an arm around his waist. All the tables in the classroom were round. Where Trowa and Cat sat down there was already a boy sitting in a chair at the table, Duo took the only empty seat left at the table. Their teacher was a woman this time. She had a kindly smile but there seemed to be a dangerous edge to her, like thinly veiled ice. There were a pair of glasses on her desk, but she didn't wear them and her hair was down to her mid back.
"That's Lady Une." Cat whispered.
"Lady?" Duo was a bit incredulous.
"Instead of Mrs." Trowa explained.
"Oh, thanks." Duo nodded, keeping his eyes forward on the front of the room.
Lady Une took a quick roll and began class. She seemed to like class participation and she kept asking question after question about the war they were currently studying. Most of the questions were purely ethical and personal opinion, but she never criticized the answers.
"Be critical thinkers!" she shouted at them, as if just to make sure they were paying attention. There was no need. This was a class you couldn't sleep through. Duo found himself enjoying it, but as they filed out he had to ask.
"I thought this was an English class, not just Social Studies, and that wasn't really History either."
"It's called "Section". We discuss the previous lecture. That's what today was about, and go over material. She goes in swings on how she teaches" Cat explained, "She does a few weeks of one thing and then does a more Social Studies approach. Based on what our discussions are like she assigns some essay on the ethical topic of choice and we get our grammar and stuff through correcting them. It's not hard, and it's fun. Although sometimes she goes into 'super teacher' mode and she's really strict. She destroyed this guy in C class' paper. He left crying. But usually she's great." Duo gulped and nodded, teachers could be very strange.
"What's next?" he asked. He was really hungry and Cat's answer of "lunch" was appreciated.
Duo dashed back to his locker. Hilde's locker was next to his. When she opened it, the inside looked like a warehouse. Duo grinned, grabbing his lunch box and asking for directions to the lunch room.
"It's that way. Wait a sec and I'll come with you." She waved for him to wait from her position halfway inside her locker, riffling through her junk for her lunch box.
"Did you loose it in there; it's like a black hole of stuff."
"I'm a salvager; I can't bear to let something useful go to waste so I keep it till I can do something with it. I'm very clean really, organized. Unlike you." she pointed out.
Duo raised a brow, "How do you know I'm not organized?"
"You don't act like it, plus your stuff isn't organized in you locker and you haven't even set up shop yet." She nodded to affirm herself. Duo sighed and rolled his eyes as she found her lunch box and hauled it out. They walked towards the lunch room, passing the other boy who had been sitting at his table during English, or History, or whatever that was.
"Who's that?" Duo asked. He hooked a thumb over his shoulder as the boy walked up to the locker next to Duo's and palmed the lock.
"That? That's Heero." Hilde shrugged. "Don't know him well, he's a quiet sort. By himself a lot, but he does hang with Trowa a bit. Quiet folks stick together I guess. It's them and Wufei and that little blond thing. They're his group, and Sally since she's basically Wu's girlfriend. By the way don't call Wufei that. He's proud of his heritage. That name offends his sensibilities, so we all call him that. Well, I guess you can call him that, just annoys him is all." Hilde had an evil glint in her eye. Remind me not to get on her bad side, Duo thought. She really was a little imp.
They sat down at a lunch table; all the students ate together at the same time, but the tended to divide up by grade and group. Duo sat down with Trowa and Cat, Hilde sat with him. Catherine joined them and her girl friends, Dorothy and Relena, followed. Wufei and Sally tagged behind them. Heero appeared a little later and took a seat. This seemed to be the typical crowd, a bit bigger then the crowd Duo and hung with at his previous school, but then again the school was smaller so people must get to know each other better. There was only about that much room at the table so when the seniors Noin and her boyfriend Zechs who was Relena's brother, showed up they had to pull up chairs at the end of the table.
People chatted lightly over their meals. Quatre explained that the lunch room would reopen in a few weeks, the remodel was almost done. Then there would be food provided again. Of course they could always sign off campus and go to the pizza place or café up the street. Duo nodded, one ear on Cat's explanations the other on Wufei, Sally, Noin and Zechs' heated conversation about politics in the background. Hilde was good naturedly bickering with Trowa's sister Catherine, bringing in Dorothy and Relena to prove one point or another. Only Heero was staying silent, watching everything as he ate. Duo thought he'd never meet another person who could eat as fast as he could, but Heero ate quickly, tucking food away so methodically not a crumb was left. Duo watched in fascination for a bit before letting his eyes wander again.
After lunch was a free period. There was a big common room and most people seemed to hang out there. There was a piano and a few guitars and drums. The latter nobody played since teachers would invariable tell the student to be quiet, but Cat sat down at the piano to play and boy was he good. Duo stood leaning against the wall watching everyone and listening to Cat play. Trowa walked over from his locker where he'd put away his lunch box and sat down next to his boyfriend. He joined seamlessly into the song. It was a beautiful duet. Duo closed his eyes and listened.
He felt something, like someone watching and slowly opened his eyes. Cat and Trowa were still playing. Wufei was using one of the pipes that hung from the ceiling for chin-ups it seemed he and Sally were having a competition on who could do the most. Hilde was reading something and there were several other people scattered around the room but none seemed to be watching Duo. Duo carefully looked around, trying to seem as if he wasn't searching for a pair of eyes. He eventually found them, looking back at him over a lap top. It was the silent boy. When Duo caught his eye he simply stared back, almost accusatory. Duo looked at him. Heero had messy short dark brown hair and eyes Duo would have said were Asian with their slanting shape, except they were a deep cobalt blue. They were knowing, scrutinizing eyes that missed nothing. Duo tried a smile, pushing off from the wall and walking over to the other boy. Those eyes got a bit more distant and almost a little put off. They dropped back to the laptop.
"What are you doing?" Duo asked, pointing to the laptop. The boy ignored him. Duo didn't mind. He sat down propping his back up against the wall next to Heero, arms above his head as if he was about to go to sleep.
"Work." The voice came eventually. Heero had an even voice, a little low and maybe a bit rough, like sand paper, but it was pleasant.
"What work?" Duo asked with his eyes still closed. There was no answer this time. "Sorry if I'm disturbing you." Duo stood up and walked away from the silent boy and to the piano. He still had that feeling of unsettling eyes boring into his back.
After their free period they all headed to gym. Gym was lead by a younger man, in his early twenties, a student teacher in his last year of college. He had them stretch out to make sure they wouldn't injure themselves. Then he took them out to the playfield behind the school. Today they would be running. They paired up into running partners. Duo watched as people paired off with their friends. It seemed almost everybody had a running buddy. Duo looked to Hilde but she and Sally were already partnered together. Finally it was himself, Relena, Dorothy and Heero left partner-less. They all stood at odds, drifting between each other. Duo didn't really know any of them and they seemed to be waiting for his decision. The teacher came over to them and fixed the dispute by pairing them himself. Duo ended up with Heero. Even though Heero never spoke he didn't really mind. Hilde and Sally ran at about their pace, and were near by. Duo chatted with Hilde and Sally, watching Heero running along beside him from the corner of his eye. Heero was really well built. He was slim and compact, it almost seemed every once of weight and muscle in his body was purposeful and in top shape. Duo was admiring the way those muscles rippled with every step when Hilde bumped his arm gently.
"Hey, Duo, you in there?" she had a smile and eyebrow quirked at him when he turned his head back to her.
"Uh, yeah, I'm here." He shook his head slightly as if to dispel something. Then, looking out right at Heero asked,
"Do you usually run at this speed? It seems as if you might be one to go faster." Heero looked over at Duo, expression blank.
"Yes," came the answer. Heero's voice betrayed no preference either way.
"Well, if you want you could stretch out into a faster pace. If I can't keep up I'll tell you to reign in." Duo smiled friendlily.
"Hn." Was Heero's answer, but he picked up the pace. Duo grinned to Hilde and Sally, loped after Heero.
The PE teacher watched the kids running around the track. Usually Heero lead the pack, but now he was hanging back with the new boy. The teacher was almost regretful of putting them together. He liked when kids could go at the pace that suited them. But then he saw Heero suddenly moved into higher gear, his usual pace. The new boy waved to his friends and caught up. The teacher raised and eyebrow. Not many people could run as fast as Heero for long distances. But the new kid seemed to be keeping up, just a step behind. They rounded the track, Duo smiled and nodded and said a passing word to all those he ran by while Heero just moved forward, power in motion. They were polar opposites almost, running at almost equal pace. He definitely had to get the new guy to join the track team. He'd be great for the relay.
After PE came art. Duo had never had a specific class for art at his old school and was eager to see what it might be like. They had two hours for this class. There were five courses you could take: portraiture, photography, drama, dance, and pottery. Duo had signed up for photography for the first term. Helen had given him a good camera for his last birthday and he wanted to learn how to use it. He walked to the room where the photography class was being held. There were a few people in it, some of them in higher grades, a few from his. The teacher was a woman in casual dress, jeans and a beat up blouse, rolled up to the elbows, camera in hand. She beckoned for everyone to crowd around the round table in the center of the room. Duo drifted over towards the others in his year, the Chinese boy who had been at lunch with him was here, as was the girl who had been Relena's running partner, Dorothy.
"This is the beginners photography class so we're going to cover everything whether you think you know it or not." The teacher announced once her class had gathered. Duo felt relief at that; he didn't want to be the only one not knowing what to do.
"Today we're going to just go over the parts of your camera and the logistics of how a picture is taken." Duo leaned in to make sure he heard every word. For some the class might have been boring, but Duo loved it.
Art was the final class of the day. Afterwards the students made their way back to their home rooms and cleaned. Their teacher called it "beautification". It seemed to Duo that they were just too cheap to get an actual janitor. It was then time to go home. Duo pulled his junk from his locker and followed the rest of the students out side to where the busses were waiting. He hadn't signed up for any sports yet, but maybe he would. There certainly weren't as many people on the bus ride home. Duo sat with Quatre on the way home.
"Trowa's on the soccer team, I tried out but I don't enjoy it as much, I join track in the spring. I just can't seem to like soccer very much, I do band instead, but our practices don't start for a while." Quatre explained.
"I was thinking of trying out for the cross country, but maybe I should do soccer, I have absolutely no musical talent." Duo confided.
"That's what Trowa said, but now he's first flute, so you never know what might happen. Why don't you try out for both teams? They practice different days. Wufei's on soccer and Heero's on cross country. Hilde's on girls' soccer I think, as is Sally and Dorothy."
"Thanks Cat. It's nice to know someone who knows the lay of the land."
"You're welcome; I remember what it was like for me first coming here. My sister Iria insisted I go here since she did. She enrolled me. I went on a tour day and I met Wufei and he was friends with Trowa. I liked them enough to agree to going. Then I started coming here and things happened, and now I'm one of the gang." Cat grinned and Duo offered one back.
"Passing along the karma, then?" Duo teased.
"Uh-huh. Now when the next new guy comes you have to be nice to them." Cat nodded with mock severity. They laughed companionably as the bus bounced along and Duo couldn't help but feel blessed to have such light come from a bad situation. He wondered if all the kids at his school were so nice, he doubted it but he wanted to get to know them. Their stories, some how he felt this was no bad thing.