Disclaimer: You know the drill.
Chapter 3: First Day Blues
She was onstage, at the same hall she was at nine years ago... except, this time, shewas the one about to go onstage to perform. She nervously fumbled with the sleeve of her blouse, knowing that her heart might pop out right at that very second. Nervously, she watched the Christmas lights blinks, as it it was to the rhythm of her solo.
"And now, for out final performance, Silent Night."
There was her cue. She carefully brought her cello onstage, and took a deep breath as she put her bow on the string. Then-
RING! RING! RING!
"No... just a few more minutes," Kairi moaned as she rubbed her eyes. She slowly sat up, feeling half dead, and wobbled to her bathroom.
"Ugh, my hair's a mess... I should've blow dried it last night when Mom reminded me to..."
After yanking a brush through her nest of a hair a few times, she walked over to where she laid her school uniform the night before. Slowly and groggily, she slipped it on, and headed back to the bathroom.
"Yup... the skirts are as short as ever..."
She lazily splashed some water on her face, and then brushed her teeth. After that, she walked over to her new backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She looked around her still-dark room.
"Now, where is my cello?" She have to return it to Mr. Leonhart today. As she looked around in the darkness, she triped over something.
"OWW!" She screeched, then sighed. "What a wonderful first day of high school. My hair's a mess, I trip over my own cello that I'm going have have to part with today and-" she paused to look at the clock. "SHOOT! I've dawdled too long... it's 7! AHH!"
Another figure entered her room. "My, do all teenagers scream like that in the morning?" she asked as she flipped on the lights in Kairi's room. Kairi's mother was obviously not happy to be woken up by screams. When Kairi's answer was to scream that she was blinded, her mother continued, "Nevermind, I'll make you breakfast."
Kairi followed her mother downstairs, embracing her cello. She ate breakfast quickly, and started walking towards the school to meet Yuffie and Selphie.
"KAI-RI!" the loud squeal in her ear made it obvious that it was Selphie. Yuffie was right next to her, trying to calm her down.
"I knew you shouldn't have added that sugar to your cappuccino this morning, don't you think those things are sweet enough?" Knowing that she wouldn't get an answer from the sugar-high girl, she continued, "C'mon, let's go."
They hurried off to school, meeting Namine on the way there. She was craddling her sketchpad in her arms. Selphie peeked over he shoulder to get a look a her newest piece of artwork, a medley of band instruments.
"WOW! You get better everyday, Namine... the art teacher is gonna LOVE YOU!" She danced circles around her shy friend.
"Thanks..." Namine said quietly, and turned her eyes toward the school.
"WHEEEE! I can't wait for Strolling Strings!" Selphie jumped up and down. Strolling Strings, or Strolling, as it was commonly called, was an extra orchestra class that was a bit like marching band, but not as well known.
"Selphie, calm down! We have to get our schedules first." Yuffie dragged her hyper friend down to the group of teachers with huge stacks of sky blue papers. They patiently waited in line as the teachers were swarmed with students. After two years of this process in Junior High, the four figured out that it was easier to wait than to join the others trying to get their schedules first. Soon enough, they recieved their schedules with a "Thank you for NOT half running us over" from the teachers.
"OOH! OOH! We have Math, English, and Science together! And then me and Yuffie and Kairi have orchestra together! And then me and Yuffie have Strolling! And me and Kairi have dance! And..." she stopped to peek over at everyone else's schedules. "Kairi and Namine have art! YAY!" Selphie squealed in delight. Last year, Yuffie had been separated by classes from them, and Selphie was sure to spazz out if it happened again this year.
Silence followed.
"Did I overdo it?" she asked.
"Uh... yeah." Yuffie answered. Namine and Kairi giggled.
DING! DING! DING! went the bell.
"YAY! Time for English."
"...great, I never brought my cello back." Kairi commented, looking at the instrument in her arms.
"C'mon! Let's hurry to the orchestra room so we can drop it off, quick!"
The four trudged through the crowded halls, and fround the orchestra room. Thankfully, the English class was close by, and then they entered.
When they got a glance at the teacher, all they could do was stare. Age scrawled accross the woman's face, with messy white hair sticking every which way. Her skin seemed to sag.
When the girls came in, she looked up from what she was doing, and seemed to moan, in a quiet voice, "Good Morning, ladies."
After the tardy bell had rung and people where seated in whichever desk they chose, she took roll. Then, she stood up to introduce herself.
"I am Mrs. Jonston. And I expect perfection! When we have district exams, I expect you guys to be the ones with the highest scores. My classes have been top-notch ever since I started teaching."
"And when was that?" A male voice popped out from the crowd of students.
"There will be no smart mouths in this class. And if there are-" she looked over at the boy who commented earlier- "they will be whipped by one of my infamous yardsticks." She pulled one out of a pile, and shook it at the boy. "It's been resting all summer, so they're just tingling to hit someone new."
Everyone was silent, including the boy who had commented earlier. The teacher had started to pass out papers, slightly glaring at all of the students.
Selphie let out a depressed sign as the four walked to the courtyard for lunch. "I can't believe they're giving homework on the first day..." she whined.
"It's high school, they're supposed to do that..." Kairi added, but, in her mind, she felt like whining, too. "I'm so glad we all have fourth hour lunch, I'd be so mad if we were separated!"
Kairi and Namine sat down at a table as Selphie and Yuffie went in line to buy lunch. The two at the table always brought lunch because Kairi prefered knowing the ingredients of her food, and Namine was diabetic.
A few minutes later, Selphie and Yuffie returned to the table with plates of food.
"Eww, I thought the food was actually supposed to be GOOD in high school... dammit, I was looking foreward to that!" Yuffie poked around the "orange chicken."
"Heh, told you, Yuff." Kairi giggled as her friend, wincing, tried a bite of the chicken.
Out of nowhere, Selphie started to laugh and wouldn't stop. Her face started to turn pink as she continued to giggle and roll around in her chair.
"Um, Selphie? You okay?" Namine asked, with a worried look on her face. Selphie usually didn't laugh this hard; now her face was turning red and tears were running down her cheeks.
"HEHE! The-hehe-look-hehe-on your-hehe-face-" and then she continued to crack up and choke on the taco that she just took a bite of.
Namine patted Selphie's back. "Calm down, Selphie... people are staring..." she looked around nervously.
"Cough-o-gag-k!" She calmed down, and hacked down the bite of food. Then, she smiled sweetly. To change the subject, she said, "Hey, let's go look for Namine's French class."
"Okay, I am so totally done with this chicken." Yuffie said as she threw it out. "And I am NOT buying lunch for the rest of the year."
"I'm done with my lunch," Namine added.
"Yeah, me too..." Kairi said.
"OKIE DOKIE THEN! LET'S GO!"
Selphie had completely underestimated the size of the elective building. They had been wandering around for at LEAST ten minutes, possibly more. At last, Namine pointed to a door with the number she was looking for, 1352.
"...Okay... here goes," Her hand trembled as she took the handle of the door.
"C'mon, Namine, you can do it! You're so good at French, don't be so shy." Kairi assuringly put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"...I don't know... this is the only class I have by myself... meaning without you guys..." Namine was extremely shy, and was, well, unsure of herself.
"Hey, Namine, don't worry, you'll make new friends, and plus, it's only 50 minutes out of your day." Yuffie gave her a smile.
"Okay... I can do this." She took a deep breath, turned the handle, and went inside.
The three friends peeked through the door to see Namine speaking with the teacher. "I hope she'll be okay..." Selphie said. "Ohmygod, it's almost time for orchestra! And after there's Science! And then there's strolling! COOL! We go to orchestra and then go BACK! Let's go, guys!" They would have sprinted through the halls if a teacher didn't stop them. Even so, they walked as fast as possible and were completely out of breath once they reached the orchestra room.
Selphie pushed open the door, panting. "We're here!" She screamed, and then gasped for breath. She was answered by silence and four pairs of eyes on her. Those eyes belonging to Sora, Kairi, Yuffie, and Mr. Leonhart. "Ah... nevermind," she said, walking over to the seating chart on the left side of the room. Kairi followed, and looked at the piece of paper as if it had been written in Yiddish.
"How in the heck-"
"I'LL SHOW YOU, KAIRI! See, there's Mr. Leonhart's stand, so you cound how many rows back you are from him and number of seats in!"
Kairi continued to gawk at the little square boxed, then at Selphie. "You honestly expect me to read that?"
"Ha, Kairi, don't worry about that; I'm guess you'll only have to read it about 16 times through high school." Yuffie added. "Your seat is right there." She pointed to a chair far in the back, about four rows back from where Sora was sitting.
"Girls, don't worry about your actual chair. Tests are today, so you probably won't be where you are on the chart." Mr. Leonhart popped out of his office.
"I better not be where I am on this chart! I'm like, fifth chair!" Selphie exclaimed.
"Who knows, Selph... we don't know how well the kids from the other Junior Highs play." Yuffie realistically tried to calm her spastic friend down.
"B-b-but-" Selphe's protests were cut short by the bell. A flood of kids past through the hall, and more and more came into the orchestra room.
Kairi unpacked quickly, hoping to get a bit more practice in. Although Mrs. Leonhart excused her from chair tests, she wanted to show the rest of the freshmen orchestra that she most definately did NOT suck.
Soon, all of the chairs in the orchestra room were filled, and Mr. Leonhart took his place at the conductor's stand.
"Okat, as you guys SHOULD know, we have chair tests today. So don't get too aquainted with your seat. If you wimp out, then you get last chair."
Selphie giggled as she saw the girl in first chair form a complete look of horror on her face. Heh, heh, yeah, don't get too aquainted... she giggled and thought to herself.
"We'll start with the cellos. you come insdie my office, one by one, and if you're next, you're standing outside my office. Everybody else, you're outside PRACTICING. I don't want to hear a WORD. You're in high school now, you should NOT be reminded of this the way Miss Heartilly did last year and the year before."
Kairi frowned as Mr. Leonhart walked into his office with Sora following. Mr. Leonhart wasn't like this over the summer... she thought. He always smiled, and was never this grouchy. Maybe he just had a bad day?
"Hey, you, newbie." Someone poked her with their bow. She turned to look, it was some blonde guy. So this must be Tidus...
"Wh-ho said I was a newbie?"
"I can see it in your eyes... you're scared, aren't you?"
Kairi, angry at his teasing, frowned, and put her most confident face on. "I most certainly am NOT."
Tidus took the chance to change the subject. "Hey, can I change the music? And you better practice, or you're gonna stay right where you are..." he smirked.
After this warning, Kairi started to practice like crazy. Even though she thought she was doing okay, she felt Tidus's eyes on her.
"...You're really bad at shifting, you know that?" His taunts were now getting to her head.
She gave him a glare, and kicked him. HARD. Then, she smiled innocently, and continued to play the piece in front of her. As Tidus was moaning about his "poor leg," a girl tapped him on the shoulder and told him he was next. He then smirked, and hobbled over to Mr. Leonhart's office, trying to ignore the pain in his right leg. What DID Selphie see in that idiot anyway? Kairi wondered.
She saw Tidus walked into Mr. Leonhart's office and walked up to the door. I'm gonna give this a try anyway, she thought, determined. Tidus came out, immaturely stuck his tongue out at her as she went inside.
"Kairi, I'm surprized. I thought you weren't going to test."
"Well, I wanted to give it a try, and there's nothing to lose, right?"
"Guess so."
It turned out that Mr. Leonhart had chose the spots with the most complicated fingerings and the highest shifts. Kairi hadn't been too good at those yet, and she winced as the squeaky notes passed by.
"Thanks, Kairi, would you like to tell Yuffie that the violas are next?"
Kairi walked out the door, and tapped Yuffie on the shoulder. She confidently walked in as Kairi sat down in her seat.
Soon, all of the orchestra members had auditioned, and there were about 10 more minutes left of class. Mr. Leonhart walked up to the stand, once again, along with 5 sheets of paper.
"Okay, you guys did good today. I'm glad that no one was talking from what I could see; and I didn't have to give you guys a talking-to the way that I had to for the Junior Orchestra today."
The whole orchestra's eyes seemed to be on the papers in front of him, not absorbing what he had just said a for the past minute.
"You guys are just DYING to know your seats, aren't you?"
Everyone nodded.
"Okay, let's start with violins. 18th is Stephanie..." he droned on, until he got to 2nd and first. "2nd is Yuna, and our Concert Mistress is Selphie."
"YAY!" Selphie jumped out of her seat and did a victory dance.
The teacher continued on for the 2nd violins, and then the violas. Yuffie had gotten first chair, once again.
Finally, it was time for the cellos. "16th... Kairi."
Just hearing that alone was a huge dissapointemtnt to her. She hung her head over her cello hopelessly. But... didn't she say that she didn't care which chair that she got? Remembering that, she attempted to calm herself down, and told herself to do better next time. This method, as it does with many people, failed to work on her self-esteem.
"2nd... Tidus... Principal... Sora, as usual." Mr. Leonhart silently set down the papers in front of him. This caused the orchestra to stir up and chat about their chairs.
Next to her, Tidus groaned. "DAMMIT, I wanted to beat that bastard for once!"
Kairi was holding back giggles at that comment. At least Sora beat that egotistical blonde...
Mr. Leonhart inturrupted the chatting. "Tommorow... for those of you who are bad at counting chairs, I will have a seating chart on the board, same place it was today. Pack up, you guys were good, and we have festival in a month. Keep working on that music. No one's got it good enough- yet. "
After class was over, Selphie ran over to Tidus. "I'm so happy for you!" She glomped him.
Underneath Selphie, Tidus was fuming. "Get... off... me... wench."
She was offended by the word wench; Tidus must have been mad, he'd never used that term to describe her before. He'd use pest, annoyance, brat, and sometimes bitch, but never... wench.
"Geez, why didn't you tell me it was your time of the month?" Selphie giggled and they left the orchestra room.
Science was next, so they headed off towards the Science labs to meet Namine.
"How was it?" Kairi asked.
Namine looked down. "The class was okay... but there was this one boy that kept on making fun of me..."
"WHO WAS HE?" Yuffie was fuming; she knew that Namine was an easy target for teasing, but why'd it start on the first day?
"I don't know... he was that one kid that made that comment today in English..."
"I'LL KILL HIM!"
"Um, Yuffie, I really don't think that's nessicary." This time, Selphie was the one calming Yuffie down.
YUffie growled and they headed into the Science lab.
Kairi moaned as she flung her backpack onto the floor of her room.
"Homework is no fun..." she groaned as she pulled out the many sheets that needed to be filled out.
