Chapter 2

Welcome To The Club

It's an interesting experience waking up in a new location that you were forced into against your will. For a brief moment my head attempted to convince me that I was at Tyson's house, which was strange because my dorm room was significantly more clean. There were noises coming from outside of my door and the distinct use of a particular cuss word caught my interest.

I glanced at the direction of the small black alarm clock that sat on the dresser and looked like it was probably manufactured sometime in the 1970's.

Why would anyone be awake on a Sunday morning at 7:30am?

Throwing on a pair of sweatpants I rolled myself out of bed, brushing my bangs out of my eyes and debating if I should gel my hair back before getting up. Believe it or not, I was a tad obsessive about my hair. I walked barefoot through my small room and opened the door.

"What are you doing?" I asked Wyatt, the likely American brunette boy, who was doing something to my door.

He blushed. Did this kid really have a thing for me? I wasn't exactly comfortable with that idea…

"Hi." He said, awkwardly throwing one hand behind his back and using the other to wave like some sort of socially awkward dimwit. "Um… I figured that I would check and see if you were awake for breakfast. I know it's your first morning here so I thought you might not know."

"I'm not hungry."

"You could get in trouble for not going down. You don't need to actually eat if you don't want, but the housemasters take attendance in the morning and we're required to be there.

"It's Sunday," I stated. "We don't have any classes. Besides, I was told that breakfast isn't served until 8:00."

"I know, but it's still mandatory in order to get attendance. People like to try and sneak out at night sometimes and even on weekends the housemasters are in charge of us unless we're staying with a parent. A lot of people here are foreigners and live here even on weekends and holidays."

I could have picked up on that by myself just based on the fact that it was a weekend and I was currently here, but I had to admit that I'd wondered what was going to happen to me during the seasonal breaks.

I briefly took a moment to fully eye my surroundings, noticing Wyatt's hand still hiding behind his back.

"What do you have?" I asked him after a brief silence. An awkward tension filled the air and his already pink cheeks filled out with more color.

"Nothing." He said, clearly aware that I wasn't going to buy that. He looked at my raised eyebrows and bit his lower lip. "Someone tied a condom you your door handle. I was just taking it off." He admitted.

"That's just pathetic..." I stated, now more bewildered than cautious.

"It's a tradition around here. Some of the guys like hazing new students. Actually you got off pretty easily." He chuckled slightly. "That's what she said."

"I don't think you're supposed to say that regarding your own joke."

"Sorry, sorry," He continued, "I just mean that it was just a plain opened condom, usually they fill it with mayonnaise or glue or anything else that might look like cum. If they really don't like you they'll sometimes actually fill it with cum."

Seriously? I had assumed Haru was joking when he said that. What was wrong with these people?

"Anyway I thought since I accidentally woke you up that I could at least double check that you knew about breakfast attendance. It should be in your handbook."

"Are you sure you aren't just stalking me?"

Wyatt began to fidget slightly.

"You know, the guys were only kidding about all of that stuff last night. I don't actually have a crush on you or anything. I'm just a really big fan." He paused. "I mean, of your team. You guys are a big deal in Japan, and it's so cool that you're so diverse. Most bladers stick to their home countries, since I'm not from around here it's really awesome to see a team made up of so many different cultures."

"Wouldn't Max be your primary interest then?" I asked. "You're American, aren't you?"

"How could you tell?"

"You have the same accent as his mom and her team."

Being raised bilingual, Max never had any sort of accent that I noticed, but some of the other Americans were sometimes difficult to understand when they spoke too quickly. Michael was the worst, he barely spoke any Japanese at all.

"I'm from California, but after studying abroad my family and I decided that it would be best for me to continue my studies here. This is one of the best academies in the entire country, that's why we have a lot of celebrities kids," He smirked, "and celebrities of course."

"I'm not even close to famous." I reminded him. "The juvenile league isn't really anything note worthy."

"You're joking right?"

He almost appeared offended that I didn't view myself as a celebrity. We weren't eligible for ad revenue (something that irritated Tyson to his core) and we were really only asked for autographs during tournaments. I wasn't even sure if I was good enough to make it into an adult league.

"You're a world champion!" He yelled, arms in the air, the condom he still hadn't disposed of waving like some sort of really perverted flag.

"Maybe you should throw that away."

Stopping dead in his tracks Wyatt took notice of exactly what I was referring to and proceeded to burst into hysterical laughter.

"Oh my gosh, you must think I'm completely insane." He giggled. "I swear I really am just a big fan, I'm not a stalker, but hey it's not every day you end up in school with one of your idols, you can't blame me for being excited."

In a way he had a point, though I was still rather confident that I wasn't anyone special. I was no Tyson Granger, that was for sure… giving a brief sigh, I walked out of my room, brushing my hair back out of my face again. I really should have fixed my hair first…

"We just need to be there for attendance, right?" I asked, "I can leave after that?"

"Absolutely." He followed behind me like a lost puppy, "So how did you end up here? Do you spend the school year in Japan usually?"

"I've lived in Japan since I was nine. I went back to Russia to play in the championship, but it's not like I had much of a choice."

Talking about my past was complicated. I spoke Russian perfectly and could read and write fluently, much better than I could read and write in Japanese, but I had no actual attachment to the country. I had blocked all of that out as a kid and I wasn't interested in remembering in. Going back made me uncomfortable and it was hard to focus on the tournament. I had nightmares but couldn't remember them when I woke up and there were areas we had gone that had made me extremely uncomfortable for reasons I was never able to figure out.

"I had wanted to go to Japan since I was young." Wyatt explained, ignoring the fact that I most definitely didn't ask. "They've given us some of the best beybladers on the planet, in the adult leagues too! I mean, I also grew up watching a lot of Sailor Moon as a kid and I wanted to learn the language so that I could watch the original production, English dubs of anime are always terrible. That was probably what first got me interested in the country, then I learned everything else when I got older and when the sport took off."

Okay, for real, who was this guy? Who shows up at the dorm door of someone they don't know, rants about how big of a fan they were, then starts talking about Sailor Moon? You cannot tell me that I'm supposed to feel like this is a normal conversation.

I opened the door to the stairwell, but froze when Wyatt yelled at me.

"I would take the elevator if I were you." He stated.

"I would do that because?" I asked, immediately regretting that decision. It didn't take me more than a few hours to realize that asking questions was not a good idea around here. It was best to just keep my mouth shut and accept the strange antics.

"The stairwell has… kind of a reputation. There are only a few reasons that people go in there and if someone sees you coming out downstairs they're gonna talk."

Please do not explain this further… I thought to myself.

"You see," Here we go… "Some of the queer kids hang out down there." He started to blush, his hands fidgeting and his eyes now averted. "Not all of us, don't get me wrong."

So he was gay. I had wondered about that.

"But sometimes guys are willing to perform… certain services in exchange for things. Almost no one uses the stairs so security never goes in there."

I let the door close.

"Please stop explaining this to me." I said, going back to the elevator. It would have been nice to know that last night before I walked back upstairs, but better late than never I suppose.

"I also wanted to know your class schedule." He continued, thankfully changing the topic. "The Academy can be a bit of a maze if you don't know your way around and I figured that you could use some help figuring out where to go. Some of the teachers will give you a free pass since you're new here but a lot of them don't take any excuses and it would be unfortunate for you to end up in detention on your first day. Although you'll probably end up in detention eventually, most of us do. The rules here can be crazy. I got two days for wearing the wrong colored socks once after the water heater broke. The washing machine wasn't working and I was out of white socks but apparently that was my problem. Emile once got a week for not ironing his pants, but Haru got a warning and a note sent home for smuggling alcohol in a water bottle."

I don't think he stopped and took a single breath during that entire unwarranted speech, and I was thankful when the elevator finally opened.

Wyatt got on behind me, pressing the button before I had a chance.

"I have Mathematics and Japanese in the morning before study break," I explained. It actually would be helpful having someone around who could show me where to go, "after my lunch period I have Asian History, English, and Japanese Literature, then another study break."

"You'll have Japanese with me then." He smiled, "I could also help you out during study hours if you want. I help Emile with English sometimes. You know some English, don't you? I know you've spent time with Max's mom's team in New York and if I remember correctly they don't all speak Japanese."

"Max usually translates for the most part, but I can understand enough to get by and I speak it a little." I didn't pause as the elevator opened onto the ground floor, the smell of tea and coffee filling the entrance of the cafeteria. "I do know the roman alphabet though, so I can write my name and if I have a dictionary I can translate."

This place didn't look like school cafeterias in movies and on television did. There were small and medium sized tables covering the ground floor and there was a small stairway to a half story area that contained the larger tables. Each corner had a large plant concealing garbage cans, which I assume they must not have liked the look of. A garbage can in a cafeteria? How dare they. There was a circular counter containing three large rice makers surrounded by bowls and chopsticks along with some generic silverware, a vegetable station surrounded one wall and another had a warming rack housing animal products and some different sides such as gyoza, oniguri and natto.

For some reason my body decided beyond my control to follow Wyatt to a small table where Emile and Henri sat having what appeared to be a contest regarding who could make the best looking male genitals out of a bowl of rice. A blond Caucasian boy sat with them and seemed to be the judge of said competition.

"Wyatt, you missed it!" He yelled, "Henri found a double sugar doughnut and it looked exactly like a pair of tits! It had little nipples and everything!"

Wyatt sat down and I debated going to find a different table.

"Kai, this is Avery." He said, gesturing to the blond who was continuing to talk about boob doughnuts, hardly acknowledging my presence.

"They looked just like tea shop girls titties, if he hadn't have pulled them apart to eat them I would be rubbing my face in them right now!"

"Do you and the doughnut station need some time alone?" Emile asked, putting the finishing touches on his rice dong.

Wyatt nudged me with his shoulder.

"There's this girl who works at the tea shop downtown who he desperately wants to bang. He even knows her entire schedule by heart."

"That's disturbing." I stated.

He either ignored or didn't hear me, a look of excitement suddenly filling his face.

"We can take Kai out today!" He said, shooting me a rapturous look. "You haven't been downtown yet!" He grabbed a piece of paper than a boy I had seen yesterday handed him on a clip board.

Of course I haven't been downtown yet. I just got here.

Wyatt handed me the clipboard.

"Just find your name and sign the line next to it, then we can go back upstairs."

I looked at the paper. This was how they took attendance? Do they not realize how simple this would be to forge? Wyatt's signature had a section he had badly scribbled out before he had signed it. Cock Sucker, someone had written. Henri and Emile had the same statement written by their names as well. I looked at him uncomfortably, trying to figure out if he was upset by it or not. He appeared completely unphased.

I took the time to cross the words out for Henri and Emile before giving them the paper.

"I have things to do today." I lied.

"Come on," Wyatt insisted, putting a hand on my shoulder. "There's a really nice battle dish site in town. A lot of people practice there, you could take a look at some of your upcoming competition before the inner city tournament."

The offer sounded tempting, ignoring that I didn't typically participate in small town tournaments. I was well past amateur level battles. It might be something to check out on my own once these four idiots went about their day, though.

"I don't see why I would need company for that." I said.

"You're only fifteen, aren't you?" He asked. I felt a light heat fill my cheeks. What does he mean only fifteen? I'm not some little kid. "You can't leave the school grounds without being in a group of at least one sixteen year old peer. If you don't want to be in a group setting then you'll need to find an upperclassmen because you need to be seventeen for that."

"What exactly stops a group from splitting up and going their separate ways once we leave school ground?" I asked.

"I didn't come up with the rules." He shrugged his shoulders. "I also never claimed they weren't stupid. If you wanted I'm sure Haru and the Ito Twins would be willing to go with you." A proud chuckle escaped him and he looked at me like he had just one a week long game of Risk. I rolled my eyes.

"Those guys are assholes." I said. "I just got here and I only came downstairs because you told me I had to. I have shit to unpack."

I left the table. They all thought I was a jerk anyway, me being forward with them shouldn't hurt their feelings…

Besides,

I wasn't here to make friends.

I sat down on my bed and began unpacking my bag, putting things clumsily in drawers and on the desk. I still wasn't sure where I should put my blade… all of the doors have locks, sure, but I still didn't really trust it to be safe, especially with everyone here fully aware who I was. The top of the dresser would need to suffice for the time being, but I might want to look into getting a safe or something. You know, with all the money I couldn't actually touch until I turned eighteen. Lovely.

I went back into the hallway, retracing my steps to where I had passed a door that was labeled as a shower room. As tired as I was there was no point in going back to sleep. I located the room easily and was glad to see that it was actually a shower room and not some kind of old school bathhouse or something like that. I could see this place having a fancy bathhouse.

There was a large open shower space and three enclosed areas where you were able to hide behind a curtain, but all of them were taken, and since I didn't recognize the two boys showering out in the open I at least wasn't too bothered undressing in front of them. I was glad Wyatt wasn't here… I didn't have anything against gay guys but the idea of showering with one who had made it very clear that he was a big fan of mine was, well, different.

The other two showerers didn't pay any mind to me as I washed and I was very much okay with that. It seemed that there actually was a possibility that some of the boys here were normal. At this point I felt more like I was a main character in an anime than just someone starting a new school, although since I hadn't been to a public school before I suppose I didn't really know what was and wasn't typical behavior.

I finished quickly, turning that water off and grabbing a towel off of a large shelf and drying myself while I silently cursed at the fact that I had forgot to grab a shirt, although I had seen other boys shirtless in the hallways since getting here. Drying myself off, I proceeded to at least get my bottom half dressed, opting to just wear a pair of black sweat pants. It was Sunday, after all.

I threw the towel down the laundry shoot and left, walking barefoot down the hallway back to my dorm room. It wasn't even 9:30 and I was already running out of things to do.

Maybe going with Wyatt and his group wouldn't have been a bad idea after all, at least I could have practiced a little bit, even if I would have had him talking my ear off the entire time.

I took the welcome pamphlet off of my desk and opened it to the first page. Why was so much of it written in kanji? I absolutely hated kanji.

Another knock came from the outside of my door. It had been two hours this time since someone had come to bother me, which was better than the expected every twenty minutes that I was starting to grow used to.

"Go away." I called out, getting up from the desk chair.

"It's Wyatt."

Shocking. I stepped closer to the door so I wouldn't need to talk as loudly.

"I'm not sure why you think that makes a difference." I continued before remembering that I was just complaining about being bored. I unlocked and opened the door.

He was showered and dressed now and I briefly wondered if he was one of the people using the shower curtain stalls, which made me blush slightly over the thought that he may have been looking at me in the shower. His brown sweater was significantly too big for him and he wore a fanny pack across his shoulder like how I saw in clothing ads.

"I was going to show you your classrooms before Monday, remember?" He said.

Actually I had forgotten about that.

I opened the door fully and allowed him inside, quickly grabbing a gray hooded shirt and throwing it on and slipping my still bare feet into ankle tie sandals.

"You know," Wyatt continued. "It's gonna take me awhile to get used to seeing you without paint on your face."

He had a point, I still hadn't done my hair or face paint since getting here and I was quite confident it wouldn't be allowed during the school day.

"Congratulations." I answered sardonically.

"I do know a few guys who sneak into the showers to dye their hair in the middle of the night, though, so you'll probably be able to keep up your hair routine while you're here."

I paused.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. I was just planning on doing my hair when I got up in the morning. Why would I style my hair in the middle of the goddamned night? What would the point of that even be?

"You're hair." He answered, "You aren't technically supposed to dye your hair but I don't think the staff really cares. We aren't supposed to be out in the halls at night but no one ever gets caught and I've never met anyone who's actually been room checked. They just say that to scare us."

"I don't dye my hair." I said raising an eyebrow. "It's a pigment disorder, it's genetic, half my head has been gray since I was eight."

Wyatt blushed.

"I didn't know that." He said.

Yeah no duh. Waardenberg syndrome ran strongly in my family. My grandfather had it, my father had it, and I had it. It didn't draw much attention, though, as it only seemed to affect the color of my hair.

"What color was your hair when you were a kid?" He asked, walking out of my room with me. He leaned against the wall while I locked the door, arms crossed over his chest and smirking that weird fangirl grin he kept doing.

"Dark blue, but you might as well just call it black."

We walked to the elevator, going down to the first floor without anymore awkward conversations. Why do people call silence awkward? If anythings awkward it's people talking nonstop just because they think silence is awkward.

Thankfully Wyatt walked me out the door and toward the school grounds so I didn't need to stop and ask which way I was supposed to turn, I didn't want to have to ask him two questions in a row as I relaxed my social anxiety enough to ask him just one.

"How well can you read kanji?" I asked shamefully, gaze drawn to the ground. "I'm supposed to read the guidebook and I can only make out maybe half of it..."

He smirked at me.

"How well can you read hiragana?" He asked.

"More or less fluently. Katakana I mess up from time to time but overall I do fine with both. I can't read kanji to save my life."

"I couldn't either when I first came here. I would talk to your Japanese teacher, you can get some minor translating help since Japanese isn't your first language, you could also get a tutor." We walked together through the school building, which was mostly empty for the weekend. "You could even try and find a private tutor if you wanted to." He winked and nudged me playfully on the shoulder. I averted my gaze and tried to just ignore him. "You're blushing." He giggled.

"I am not." I lied. "I don't like it when you talk like that. It's immature."

He walked ahead of me, now facing backwards with his hands in his pockets.

"You should really just get used to it Mr. Home School." He said. "You're attending an academy of hormonal teenage boys who lack an adequate amount of adult supervision. We're all dirty little perverts. Just wait until you walk in on your first masturbation session, that will be an experience."

I ignored him, not wanting to know if he was joking or not. To be frank I was starting to really dislike this kid... which was unfortunate as it seemed as though he was content on forcing himself into my life.

"Maybe I should just try and find my classes myself." I stated.

"I'm sure you could." He giggled. "Japanese, English and Literature are all nearly right next to each other and Study Break is always in the Sophomore Library."

I stopped walking and looked at him, an obnoxious grin covered his face.

"Then why the hell did you tell me the school was a maze?" I asked.

He laughed.

"Would you have come down here with me if I didn't?"

Who the hell did this kid think he was? I opened my mouth to answer but apparently he didn't want to hear what I had to say, taking me by the hand and pulling me down the hallway and to a staircase.

"Relax," He said as I tried to get my hand back. "I'm just going to the roof, it's a tradition and today is officially your first day. I'm not gonna hurt you or scar you for life."

He pulled me up the stairs without remorse, assuring me once again that I was going to be completely fine. This wasn't like, a hazing ritual was it?

I pulled my hand away but reluctantly continued to follow him to the top of the building. There was a large rock being used as a door stopper and I could only assume this was where he was taking me.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" I asked.

Wyatt pulled the door open, a difficult task as the high winds were attempting to prevent it, and grabbed me again in an attempt to pull me outside. I pulled away quickly.

"Please stop doing that." I stated.

"Just come on."

We walked through the door to the roof. It really was windy out. I probably should have worn something heavier.

My eyes adjusted to the brightness of the roof and fell upon a large brick wall which seemed to exist as some kind of faux chimney. Black spray paint made out the words "The Lost Causes Club", under which everyone had signed their name and the date, going back roughly 10 years.

I had two different options here: I could leave right now and go back to my dorm and continue trying to get Wyatt and his crew to learn to take a hint and finally leave me alone, or I could admit something I really didn't want to: This was kind of cool…

"Who made this?" I asked, running my hand along it. Wyatt smiled at me, glancing nostalgically at his own name even though we were sophomores and it couldn't have been up there for more than a year.

"A bunch of nameless losers." He said with a shrug. "Well, not technically… after all their names are up there, but here's the thing about Boarding School: Everyone is a big jerk with an even bigger ego to match. It's a dog eat dog world and at the end of the day no one is going to help you, care about you, or remember you. When you don't belong anywhere, you find the other misfits and you don't belong anywhere together. That's why this was started. Every name you see on this wall is from someone else who feels the way we do. So even if it's only in spirit, we can still be there for each other. Avery took Henri and Emile and me up here last year to sign our names and the tradition goes that I'm supposed to find someone else to bring here and do the same."

He handed me a permanent marker. "Welcome to the club." He said.

My cheeks grew warm, but either way I took the marker, trying to hide the small smirk trying to take over my normal resting bitch face.

Giving a brief nod of my head, I signed.

Welcome to the club.