Chapter Two
Brighten
Yuki knocked on the door of the main offie. His mind was trying to word his speech to Lopez delicately. The last thing that Yuki wanted was to start a fight like his cousins. After no answer came on the first knock, Yuki knocked once again. He waited a while and tried on last time. He was about to leave when suddenly the principle opened the door. That surprised Yuki since it would normally be a student assistant.
"I was wondering if I could speak with Lopez," Yuki started, "that was my cousin he was fighting."
The principle was silent for a moment, "well I'm speaking with him and his parents now, come on," he said letting Yuki into the office and taking the lead to where Lopez was. The boy was sitting between a rather young looking female and a large cloaked figure. The figure was covered from head to toe with a hood that had a hat on top, a rather large hat.
Before going over to the three, the principle stopped and watched. It seemed he was trying to spy on their private coversation.
"Another fight, Lei!" the girl exclaimed at Lopez. Apparently his name was Lei Lopez. Or at least that was part of it.
"How about for once you try making friends?" the girl continued.
Lei made a sound, a "pfft" sound and the male began to speak.
"What's the matter, you're scared?" he asked in a soft yet storng tone.
"Only of your lameness," Lei struck back at the man, "you know I'm sensitive about my ability to make friends, you didn't have to go there."
"You know I'm sensitive about my walking, you didn't have to go there," the male replied.
"Theres a diffrence," Lei shouted, "a good friend is hard to come by, but they got a proper walking stick on damn near every corner of my house you pass!"
The principle cleared his throat and the three turned around quickly, they were clearly surprised. Yuki could see that the male was wearing a rather large mask over his face, not halloween, one made of cloth. If Yuki was seeing clear enough, the male's entire head was rather large, quite large. The male was the first to turn back around and then the female. Lei however continued to stare at Yuki, he must have remembered him from earlier with Kyo.
"I see that I haven't got the parents like I thought," the principle said clearly.
"Oh well you see, what had happened was," the female started, "see they busy, so I came, me and him," she added pointing to the male, "I'm Leinard's big sister, Maria Radhiya Ulu Esteban Lopez."
"REALLY did not need the full name," Lei said shaking his head in utter embarassment.
"Yes well, I would have perfered the parents but I suppose this will be alright," the principle said taking a seat in front of the three, "and this is Yuki Sohma, the cousin of the boy Leinard faught."
Yuki walked over beside the principle and bowed respectfully to the family.
"Now we know of Leinard's situation," the principle said, "and we here, want only the best and to help him stay in the school system."
"Liars," Lei mummbled out of slightly parted lips.
Yuki heard Lei, unlike the principle, he concentrated on Lei's facial appearance which seemed dead, no doublt from years of anger management. Perhaps Ms. Honda could help him as she had helped his family. Of course this was an idea that would stay with Yuki.
All throughout the meeting, Lei seemed to slip into short naps until nudged by the male. Yuki, in his mind, had declared the male to be Lei's brother since the female had already established herself as his sister. The two guardians of Lei left the school with a handshake to the principle and a bow to Yuki. Yuki had kept more quiet than he would have liked but learning about Lei was actually kind of interesting. Apparently Lei used to try and kill his younger siblings by throwing them out windows and down stairs or getting kitchen knives chasing after them. This was more than enough to have him sent to the Brighten school. There he would take classes with only five other students and one teacher in control of the entire room, perhaps the sudden change in quantity had taken its toll on the boy. If Lei was used to small groups, a large public school setting would indeed cause him to go into a fit. Not to mention, now that Yuki thought back to it, Kyo had opened his mouth at a rather embarrassing time, demanding in front of the entire class that Lei got out of his seat.
Lei left out the office at the same time as Yuki but neither even looked at the other. Lei seemed more angry than before, perhaps he didn't expect his sister to come. He seemed to have wanted his parents to show. Yuki felt like he was suppose to say something, apologize even, for his family. Yuki remained silent though.
Kyo watched out Yuki's office door window and saw Lei pass by. He glared at the boy but nearly fell backward when the door opened and hit him. Haru snickered and went back to his relaxed expression at Yuki's appearance.
"How did it go, Yuki?" Tohru asked sounding quite concerned.
Yuki smiled at Tohru's voice and turned to her, "it went fine," he said, "I met Lei's sister."
Kyo seemed to laugh at the idea of Lei having siblings, "what about his parents?"
"They didn't come," Yuki said plainly.
The room kept silent for a moment and then the school bell rung, time for everyone to head for class. The third block class was shared by Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, Uo, and Hanajima. Kyo, Yuki, and Tohru headed for that class and Haru made his way to his own class that he shared with Momiji.
The two elder Sohmas and Tohru got to their class on time and took their seats. The teacher wasn't in yet.
"So what happened with the hispanic boy?" Uo asked.
"Mixed," a voice said and caused everyone to jump. Tohru looked behind her and saw Lei sitting there, staring straight ahead at the front of the room.
"You're in this class?" Kyo moaned in disapointment.
"Must be terrible to share a class with two people who kicked your butt," Uo snickered at Kyo.
"Mixed?" Tohru questioned Lei, she really did not want to hear a fight.
Lei didn't even bother to look at Tohru, "I'm sorry," he said.
"For what?" Tohru asked surprised. Uo and Yuki looked at one another in confusion but Kyo just kept his mind set on the boy being completely mental. Hanajima, however, kept silent and just looked at Lei.
"Earlier," Lei said in almost a whisper.
"About time you apologized," Kyo exclaimed, "I've been waiting."
Lei's head snapped in Kyo's direction in an almost automatc fashion. A growled escaped his lips and he bared his teeth, "not apologizing to you," he said between the clenched teeth, "I'm doing so to the brunette."
"What did you do to her?" Kyo almost shouted.
"I apologize for bumping into you and not helping you to collect your things," Lei said looking at Tohru through the corner of his eyes.
Tohru began to shake her hands in front of her rapidly, "oh no, thats alright," she said nervously. Lei was rather charming in a mysterious way, almost Yuki like.
"So it was you who did it," Uo said crossing her arms as she took a dominant posistion, "I guess I can forgive you since you did beat ol' carrot top over here."
Lei's eyes didn't leave Tohru when he said, "I did not ask for your forgiveness," he then looked
back up at the front of the class room.
Tohru watched Lei for a moment, he had a rather calm exterior at the moment, but at the same time it wasn't like Haru's. Lei's exterior still read that he was violent, even when he was calm. She decided to try another hand at making peace with the boy, "may I ask what you are mixed with?"
"My mother is African, she comes from Africa, Kenya to be specific," Lei said still staring up at the class room's front, "my father is Mexican, he comes from Mexico."
"Oh wow, have you ever been to either of those places?" Tohru asked starting to have fun getting to know Lei.
"Yes, I have family in both countries of course," Lei said, "aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents."
"I hear Africa is a lovely place," Hanajima said in her rather dead tone.
"If you don't mind the genocide behavior," Lei said with a shrug, "then sure."
"Whatever," Kyo chimmed in.
"You don't even know what genocide means, do you?" Yuki questioned.
"Shut up," Kyo snapped at the rat boy.
The teacher finally entered the room with a clip board and some papers in hand. He was studying them hard before he got to his desk and took a seat.
"It appears we have a new student," the teacher said happily.
"As long as he was gone, we all know we have a new student," Uo whispered to everyone around her.
A light went off in her mind scolding her for not asking Lei about Brighten. It was the one thing about the boy that interested her and she had completely forgot to ask about it. Now it was too late but she was sure she would get another chance.
Lei was silent all through class, he even made the teacher introduce him. Tohru smiled sweetly to Lei every once and a while but after the fourth time she looked back Lei rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Tohru eventually got the point and stopped. She could only assume that the boy wanted to intake as much knowledge as he could on his first day. He certainly seemed smart, the way he spoke was rather intelligent. He had an accent but Tohru couldn't make out where it was from. Her only conclusion was that it was a mixture of his African and Mexican background. Of course, he could only be born in one place.
As the class continued, everyone was even more amazed at how fast Lei could answer questions. He worked out math problems faster than the smartest students, without the assistance of a calculator. He knew all his formulas from past maths and used them to solve equations and get the answer right each time. Twenty seconds after the problems were given, Lei was half way done. Tohru couldn't help but wonder if he was this quick in his other subjects. Yuki, however was thinking back to Lei's files, the boy had been home schooled a good portion of his life and then he went to Brighten which was almost the same thing.