A/N: Here's chapter seven, wonderful spectacular seven. I mentioned last chapter that the Kanto tournament would be starting. The battles won't be starting but Brooke, Aya, Jacques, and Aimee will get registered. The battles will start in the next chapter or so, yay finally!
In chp.6 I said that the newspaper sent out an issue once a month, and in this chapter I say it says out two issues per month. It's two issues so you don't get confused.
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Brooke's alarm clock rang from across the room. Someday she was going to build a stand next to her bed so she could turn off the alarm without having to get out of bed. As she walked across the room, she was glad her floor had carpeting. A wooden floor would have been cold and very unpleasant. Her floor in her old room had no carpeting and it was terrible in the winter.
As she searched for clothes to wear, it took her forever to realize that she had to wear her uniform. Her next thought stopped her dead in her tracks. Today was her first day at a new school in a new country and continent. Brooke began to shake with nerves as she closed the dresser door and took her uniform out from her closet. It took her forever to change and after Brooke placed Kura in her new school bad she went downstairs for breakfast.
Her mother had just finished putting breakfast down on the table when Brooke walked in. Brooke's mom had made chocolate chip waffles with maple syrup, crisp toast with lemon curd, bacon and eggs, and had opened a new bottle of orange juice.
"Good morning Brooke. Wow, don't you look good." Mrs. Miyoko complimented. Brooke sat down and began to eat. She knew her dad had left earlier, and Cobey was still sleeping.
"Where's Aimee?" Brooke asked as she helped herself to some waffles, bacon, and a tall glass of juice.
"Right here." Aimee replied, sitting down next to Brooke. They said their "Good mornings" and chatted about what the school would be like. The girls had also gotten maps of the school, so getting lost wouldn't be a problem for them.
"I just hope I'm in the same classes as Aya and Jacques. It'll be hard if I don't."
"At least you know some people. I don't know anybody." Aimee complained.
"She's right." Brooke though. At least she had a few couple friends, which was a comforting thought. Aimee was in a much harder position.
"Don't worry Aimee. You're a very social person, you'll make friends in no time at all.
"I hope you're right." Aimee sighed doubtfully, biting into some bacon.
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The wind felt calm and cool as it brushed against Brooke's face. The school was close enough to ride to, and it saved money on gas for Aimee's car. She had to mess with her skirt a little so it wouldn't fly up, it was a little uncomfortable but not noticeable. Aimee rode along side her, her face flushed and she gave nervous glances to Brooke. Brooke knew Aimee would be okay so they continued to ride in silence.
They had to chain their bikes up before going into the school. Brooke froze t her spot as she entered. Now that Nayoko was filled with students it looked much more terrifying. Luckily Mrs. Uotoni was waiting for them, and she signaled them over to her. She took them back to the office and left them for a second.
"These are your schedules. On the right side there are two columns marked Sem. And Qrt. In the Sem. Column a 1 means that you have that class for the first semester. 2 for the second semester, and1/2 for both. Same goes for the Qrt. Column. A 1 means you have it first quarter of that semester, s for second, and ½ for both quarters. There are ten periods in a day. Each is about 43 minutes, with a 3 minute break between classes. You don't switch classes, but it's just a break to rest or go to the restroom. You each have a study hall-that's in the cafeteria. Do you both know how to use locks?" she finished, asking them. They both nodded yes, their last school had lockers with locks also.
"Okay, I'll show you to your lockers. Follow me." She led them out of the office and down a couple of hallways. The school seemed so much bigger now that it wasn't on a map. They stopped at Aimee's locket first, it being closer. Mrs. Uotoni showed her how to put on the lock and open the cubby above the lockers. She helped Aimee get all of her things together and figure out what she needed. At that time a bell rang and the last of the students shuffled away. Brooke was worried now, she was already late for her first class.
"Don't worry about it. I'll just take you to you classes, Aimee-san you have study hall first. The cafeteria is right across the hall. The teacher already knows you're with me so just go in and he'll get you situated." Aimee hesitantly walked forward, giving Brooke a "Help me" look, but Brooke only waved her forward. Slowly she disappeared through the door and was gone.
"Let's see now. Brooke Miyoko locker 55, homeroom newspaper." She started to walk again and Brooke followed. They went up a floor and turned to the right. Brooke's locker ended up being right at he end of the row, and right next to the newspaper classroom.
"Now besides study hall, lunch, FCS, and gym this is the only other class you'll switch from. Your classroom is down that hall we just came from and to your left is room 206. I forgot to tell you sister but you can either bring a bento lunch or buy one from the cafeteria. If the weather is nice enough you can eat outside. Tell Aimee-san if you see her, alright?" Brooke nodded and Mrs. Uotoni told her the same thing about the locker she told Aimee. Finally after Brooke had the right things Mrs. Uotoni took her inside the newspaper classroom. Brooke felt as small as an ant because the teacher stopped talking and everyone was looking at her. She could feel her face turning red from embarrassment. The teacher walked over and shook her hand vigorously.
"Welcome Brooke-san. Mr. Snyder from America, great old U.S.A. Newspaper and 10th grade English teacher." When he stopped Brooke heard a click and found Mrs. Uotoni had left her.
"C'mon. c'mon. Sit down anywhere, lots of open seats." Brooke panicked, trying to find a seat next to a friendly looking person.
"Brooke-chan." She heard someone whisper her name. Her frantic eyes found Jacques waving quietly at her. She instantly crossed the room and sat down next to him.
"Thanks." She whispered.
"Anytime." He whispered back. Mr. Snyder began to talk again.
"Don't worry Brooke-san. Just finished saying that first we have to decide what we want to be, Do you want to find the stories, write them, have your own kind of column, do a short story, cartoon, etc., etc." he took a pause and then continued, "To decided I'm going to give you each a piece of paper. You write what you want to do, then bring it up to me. I'll figure out who gets to do what by that and announce what you get." Mr. Snyder started down the first row, handing each student a little square of paper. Brooke knew she wanted to do something with entertainment, but didn't know what. She just wrote down the best and funnest idea she had.
"Brooke Miyoko- write columns about popular future movies and give out the most accurate information about them." When she finished Brooke folded the piece of paper and put it on Mr. Snyder's desk. Jacques followed her they both sat down together.
"What'd you put down?" Brooke asked Jacques.
"Comic." He whispered. Jacques didn't ask what she had put down, but took out a piece of paper and began to doodle on it. Brooke just noticed how cute his accent was. It was harder to tell since he spoke Japanese, but she could still hear that bit of French.
The last person put their paper on the desk and then Mr. Snyder began to open the papers and figure them out. A soft talk began to fill the room and Jacques stopped drawing. He held the paper out at arms length and admired his work.
"Can I see?" Brooke asked.
"Sure go right ahead." He gave the paper to Brooke and let her study it before he explained what it was, "It's a female fox demon. Since the 'Aurora' runs off two versions a month and the comic has to be at east 10 pages long, I figure I could get a good storyline with her in"
"That's really cool Jacques-kun, but it sounds like a lot of hard work."
"Not really. I draw fast and overall pretty darn good so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Well that's if I get the comic position."
"You will Jacques-kun. The fox-demon is very cute. Have you chosen a name for her yet?"
"I like the names Haruka, Mine, and Serilda. The last one means 'maiden of war', powerful name anyway."
"Hey, I forgot to ask. What's you main classroom and locker number." Brooke asked. Jacques went through his stuff and found his schedule.
"Let's see. I have classroom 206, and my locker number 704."
"That means we have the same classes, but what about Aya? I haven't seen her at all."
"I'm not sure about her either. I saw her in the hall, but I lost sight of her before I could catch up to her."
"I really hope she is, although it's nice to know we'll be in classes together." Mr. Snyder stood up before anymore could be said. The chattering died down and all eyes were on him.
"Congratulations to all. Everyone has gotten what they wanted, mostly. We have too many people wanting to do an advice column. Those people must write a sample article and hand it into me by Friday. The best one will get the position, and the others will become reporters." The class waited while he shifted through some papers before he continues, "Right. I'm going to hand out your laptops. Mind you unless you're going to take newspaper again it's best not to put anything permanent on it." he rolled out a huge box and opened it.
"We get laptops?" Brooke asked Jacques, her eyes shinning.
"Apparently so." Jacques shrugged.
"Yeah only this class gets them." A Senior girl in front of Brooke and Jacques interrupted, "They're mostly for working on your articles, but if you have time they can go on the internet. The only thing you can't do is look up obscene stuff."
"Who would do that?" Jacques asked.
"Some really stupid people would. The first year newspaper gave out laptops this one girl went to all these adult sites. One of them had a dating service on it and the girl met this really perverted dude. They were caught in a hotel, obviously you know what that means, and the girl got expelled."
"Really?" Brooke asked.
"No."
"Then why'd you say that?" Jacques questioned her, a tad angry.
"Just to show you what could happen Freshman."
"You're acting like that's what we're going to do." Brooke accused her.
"Maybe, but you shouldn't assume. I'm sure boys are going to be all over you, and you'll have all sorts of fun little Freshy." By this time Brook's blood was boiling, but luckily Mr. Snyder came over.
"Detention Kayome-san, now stop torturing the Freshman. Go sit in the back." Kayome popped her gum and stomped to the back with her books.
"Just ignore her, it will get rid of her. She has one of the worst attitude problems I've seen in a while. It compares to student o mine back in the states. I don't know how Anthony's parents handled him." he handed Brooke a purple laptop and Jacques a pink one before continuing on his way. Brooke noticed that he skipped some students, ones who still had their laptops from the previous years.
"That girl was a freak." Brooke said opening her laptop. It looked brand new, which it probably was because it still had the protective sheet over the screen. Jacques opened his too, not seeming to care what color it was. Brooke looked at the clock and then the schedule Mrs. Uotoni gave her and saw they had about 15 minutes left of the period. Mr. Snyder had finished passing out the rest of the laptops and walked back to the front of them room.
"All new newspaper students and Freshman listen up. I'll go over the rules and enter in your computer data. Older students can listen if they want, or you can daydream, but NO talking." He gave a side glance over to Kayome who ignored him.
He went onto talk about the basic classroom rules, the newspaper rules, and how they were going to enter their information into my computer. He handed out strips of white sticky paper with each person's name on it. Mr. Snyder then collected their laptops to enter in their serial number and to make sure all data was legit.
"Tomorrow we will learn how to use the computers and how to make the article column on Word. Students who have already had newspaper can start working on what article they're doing. Jacques-san please come up here, everyone else wait for the bell." Brooke felt lonely as Jacques left her, everyone else around her was older, all Juniors and Seniors. She saw only a couple people who were small enough to be Freshman.
Three semi-long high-pitched "bings" came out from a speaker above Mr. Snyder's desk. Everyone stood up sp Brooke assumed it was the bell. Mrs. Uotoni told her what she needed to have for the rest of her classes, and Brooke already had what she needed. Room 206, Brooke turned onto a different hallway and looked for it on the left.
She found a bunch of students around her age piling into a room, and it had 206 over the door. The crowd of students slowly dripped into the room, and Brooke kept an eye out for Jacques and Aya. Jacques appeared a minute later saying that Mr. Snyder had told him about what he was supposed to do with his computer. They got seats next to each other and Brooke prayed for Aya to walk in the door. The girl with the black hair and dragon angel walked in at the last second. She spotted Jacques and Brooke and stole the desk on the other side of Brooke before another girl took it.
"Thank goodness! I thought we weren't going to be in the same classes together." Brooke sighed in relief.
"I feel the same way. I was walking madly earlier trying to find one of you."
"I know." Jacques replied, "I found you, but you were walking so fast I couldn't catch up. You didn't even hear when I called out your name Aya-chan."
"Sorry Jacques-kun. I thought I heard my name but I figured I was just hearing things." The bell sounded out again and a female teacher walked in. The class grew silent as she wrote her name on the board.
"Hello, I Ms. Satori."
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The final bell of the day rang. Classes had gone well for Brooke, except when she had gotten reprimanded for talking to Aya when she wasn't supposed to be talking. Most of her teachers were nice, only her Spanish seemed a bit out of it. Aya walked with her to her bike and they chatted about the day. Aimee caught up with them, talking nonstop about all her new friends and her fun classes.
Aya got on the pegs (1) of Brooke's bike and they left the school with Aimee still carrying on about school. Brooke and Aya had found out that Aya's road was along Brooke's route home. They wouldn't go all the way down to Aya's house, but they would just drop her off at the beginning of her street. Brooke and Aimee had also worked out with their mom that she would drive their second car, a pick up, down the road to get them so they wouldn't have to walk all the way up.
"Hey Brooke-chan?" Aya asked, shifting her footing so her feet wouldn't hurt.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you could come over to my house for a while?"
"I should be able to. Aimee could you tell mom I'm at Aya-chan's house?"
"Sure, no prob. Not sure if she'll pick you up though."
"That's okay, we'll take her home. I need to show her something important."
"What is it?" Brooke questioned curiously. She wondered if it was a present, or something fun they could do together.
"Not going to tell Brooke-chan."
"Puh-lease Aya-chan?" she begged.
"No." Aya said simply, her lips tightening.
"Fine then." Brooke did a back wheelie and Aya squealed as she practically choked Brooke to death. Aimee laughed madly, going slower since there was a chance Brooke could lose balance and run into her. Brooke held the wheelie as long as she could, trying to force the answer out of her. She was forced to stop because she was losing balance and Aya was strangling her.
"That was horrible!" Aya laughed. Her grips on Brooke loosened up by a lot and she relaxed immensely. Aimee caught back up to them.
"Brooke you're so mean." She joked. Brooke laughed and continued to peddle. Hearing a clap of thunder she looked up at the sky. It was off in the distance but the sky was turning gray and dark storm clouds were forming. As they got a little closer Brooke felt the humidity rise and the wind level increase.
"Brooke watch it! You have to turn!" Aya shouted at her. Brooke's gaze was brought back to Earth and she saw she was about to ride into the road of Aya's street. She lost her balance when she turned, the bike almost fell over on its side and neither Brooke nor Aya had helmets on. One of Aya's feet fell off the pegs and her shoes got a bit scratched but she managed to stay on.
"Oh, I so sorry!" Brooke apologized.
"It's alright. No real damage." Aya comforted.
"See you guys later." the two heard Aimee call out to them. They both waved without looking back. Brooke slowed down a bit because she didn't know which house was Aya's.
"Which side is it on?"
"This side. It's white with dark red shutters. We have a small fountain in front with a kneeling angel on top, it's just around this curve." Aya described. Brooke turned the handlebars and to make it around the sharp curve Brooke had to lean over to the side a little.
"Right there." Aya's house was the second house after the curve. The driveway looked newly paved and the grass freshly cut. The slowed when they got close to the house and Aya told Brooke to lean her bike against the side of the house. Brooke stiffened up as they entered the house. She was a little nervous about what Aya's parents would think of her, but no one seemed to be home except for a dog that came bounding up to Aya. The dog caught sight of Brooke and leaped up on her. Aya just took the dog's collar and pulled the dog off Brooke.
"Stay down Rie-chan." Aya commanded. Rie obeyed and left the two and lay down on a dog bed nearby. Aya grabbed Brooke's hand and pulled it slightly.
"C'mon, we have to go to my room. My parent's aren't home yet, I hope that's okay."
"No, that's no problem." They both walked through a living room, a kitchen, and entered a hallway. Brooke assumed when Aya opened a wooden door it would be her room, but instead it was some stairs leading up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was another door that Aya unlocked to finally get into her room.
"Weird house layout." Brooke stated.
"Yeah I guess, but you get used to it." Once Brooke walked in Aya closed the door and locked.
"Like your privacy huh?"
"Hmm." Aya mumbled, searching through a stack of papers.
"What are you looking for?" Brooke asked. Aya didn't respond, and pulled out a single piece of paper.
"Aah! Here it is!" She handed the paper over to Brooke who read it with excitement. She became breathless and with every word she read her heart pounded even more.
"Are you serious!" Brooke almost shouted, Aya smiled and nodded.
"Yes, it starts in a couple of weeks, you and Aimee can enter of course. And they're doing it a bit differently this year than normal."
"Huh, different? What's so different about it?"
"Just some of the stuff. The company said they're expecting more competitors than normal this year, so they're splitting them up. There will be two sides and instead of the winner and runner-up going onto the nationals the winners from both sides go on. And instead of the prelims they're going to choose people who qualified to secret standards the Angelic Layer team has set. I was able to snatch the qualifications and me, you, your sister, and Jacques meet all of them, so we're in! You think you're up to it rookie?" Aya teased.
"Of course I'm up to it, and Aimee will too!"
"Alright, then meet me in a week and a half with Aimee, and don't forget to wear your uniform and bring you angel card that I gave you."
"Do I have to wear my uniform? I'm still not keen to the idea of really wearing them out of school that much."
"Well, you don't have too. But the school wants us to, something about showing unity or something. If you're really object it that much you can wear whatever you want."
"Thanks so much Aya, this has made my day!" The door downstairs slammed and their heads popped up straight.
"That must be dad, mom doesn't come home till later. I'll introduce you two come on." Brooke hesitated. Aya rolled her eyes and pulled Brooke up by her hand.
"Oh come on Brooke-chan." She giggled.
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Brooke, Aya, Aimee, Jacques walked through the doors of the stadium. It was crowded with people, some heading in to get good seats, others registering. All four of them were competing and had spent all of the past week and a half using Aya's layer to practice on. Aya had slaughtered all of them but Brooke beat Jacques and Aimee many more times than they had beat her. It boosted Brooke's confidence, but she knew the Deus's here would be just as hard or even harder.
The four walked over to the line where people were registering and after a couple long minutes and getting all their cards scanned, the Kanto tournament was about to start!
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(1) Those little things on the back wheels of bikes that people can stand on. I wasn't sure if they were called pegs or not.
A/N: Yes I did have to change some of the stuff around to do the story like I wanted too. I've been watching all the AL episodes I haven't seen yet on (and that's all of them but four), and noticed my story is a little inaccurate. But it's a Fanfiction so I guess it can be to some extent. Next chapter, the start of the Kanto tournament!