Light seeped through the gaps of the curtains, shining on Eyre's face. Opening her eyes to the bright light, she quickly closed them and rolled over on her bed, facing her bedside table. Taking her arm out of the comfort of her warm blanket, she reached for her phone, its cold screen freezing her like an ice pack on her chest. Banging her fingers on the side of the phone trying to turn it on, she finally activated the device, the phone emitting a blinding light that forced her to turn her face away for it to adjust to the new luminosity. Squinting her eyes so she could process the light from the screen, she looked at the time on her phone. 8:37am, it read. Taking the phone away from her face, she rolled over to stare at the ceiling. The weekend had gone by so quickly.

Suddenly, her train of thought stopped. Shit! It's a Monday and I'm late for school! Jumping up from her bed, she raced to her closet half dressed and ripped out her school uniform from it, quickly putting on her shirt, skirt, stockings and jumper before racing to the door, ignoring the kitchen and electing to go without breakfast. Only when she swung the door open so hard that the hinges nearly snapped and saw the empty streets did she remember. It was the spring holidays. Relieved, she went back inside and began to change out of her hastily worn uniform into something, anything comfortable, choosing a blue shirt and grey pants, before taking out a hoodie. Eyre was extremely excited for the holidays. Not only was it a break from classes, it had been announced to the entire schoolship that it was making a week-long visit to Australia to transport cargo from Japan. It had been years since she had visited Australia, and the first time without her parents.

Having changed, she entered the kitchenette and began to make her breakfast, a simple buttered toast as she was feeling too lazy to fire up the stove. As she ate, she continued to browse her phone. If the local news she was reading was right, then the ship was already sitting outside of Melbourne and beginning to offload cargo. While eating, she began to plan her holidays. She had organised to become a temporary foreign student during her stay at a certain high school weeks prior and began to map out the city and the route to the school. Realising that she had forgotten to pack her things, she quickly gobbled down the piece of toast and chucked the plate into the sink, before rushing to her room to begin packing. Even though she was told that she could wear casual clothes at the school, she packed her school clothes from Koala Forest just to make sure, as well as enough casual wear and underwear to last the week. As she put her toiletries into her suitcase, her phone buzzed. Zipping up the suitcase, she grabbed her phone to check what it was.

'Are you ready? - Gibson' the message read. Eyre quickly typed a response before zipping up her suitcase, grabbing her purse, and headed for the front door, taking the suitcase out and locking the door. She had completely forgotten that Gibson, Simpson, and Yarra had decided to become foreign students at the same school as well, at the request of herself. Walking down the streets of the schoolship, she eventually found the other girls waiting by a bus stop they had agreed to meet.

"Ohayo, you all ready for Australia?" Eyre asked enthusiastically.

"It's colder than I thought," Gibson replied. "I thought Australia was supposed to be steaming hot."

"Not in winter," Eyre responded.

"Can't wait to try some Australian foods, like fish and chips, or Milo," Simpson replied.

"Milo?" Yarra asked. "At least there's something to look forward to, I don't like what I hear about the bugs and snakes."

"You're afraid of bugs?" Eyre asked in response, eliciting a nod from Yarra. "It's gonna be alright, it's winter so most of the bugs are gone."

"That's a relief," Yarra replied. A silence blanketed the quartet, until it was broken by the engine of a bus. With the bus arriving, the four took out their travel passes and touched on, before heading towards the back. Even if it was a large schoolship, the trip to the central terminal was never long and before any of them realised, they had already arrived at the central transportation terminal.

Getting off the bus, the four walked into the massive terminal building. Despite leaving the schoolship on multiple occasions, the sight of the terminal building was still a unique one for the girls, akin to the terminal stations of the Shinkansen, except that each schoolship's terminal was unique.

Walking in, Eyre could see people everywhere hurrying about heading to their destinations. At the front of the building were rows and rows of metal detectors and scanners similar to those found at airports, as Eyre and the others briefly surrendered their baggage to be scanned and for themselves to be scanned for any metallic items. With the procedure over quickly returning no results as usual, they grabbed their belongings and headed deeper into the building, finding their way up to a check in desk.

"ID and visa?" the woman at the desk asked.

"Visa?" Eyre asked in return, a bit confused.

"If you are leaving the ship, then you will be heading into Australian territory, so we need to have your visa checked."

"Ah, of course," Eyre said in an awkward tone as she grabbed her ID out of her wallet and her visa out of her purse. Hearing what the lady said, the other girls pulled out their IDs and visas in preparation. With both her visa and ID checked by the lady, Eyre was given a ferry ticket and was allowed to continue on her way. Sitting on top of her luggage, she waited for Yarra, Gibson, and Simpson to finish having their IDs and visas checked.

All went smoothly as the four looked around for where to go. Despite having gone through the process of leaving the ship on multiple occasions, they always managed to get lost in the terminal. Walking around for several minutes, the four finally found the gate they were supposed to enter to leave the ship, arriving as soon as it was opened. Patiently queuing, the line moved slowly as the elevators filled up and went down before coming back up. Eventually, Eyre reached the front of the line. Another nice lady asked for her ticket, to which she complied and handed it over. The lady behind the counter stamped it and handed it back to her before allowing her to enter the elevator. Waiting for her friends to finish, the elevator eventually filled up and closed with the four girls inside. Automatically, it began to descend lower into the schoolship, almost for an entire minute, before a bell rang. The elevator stopped and the door opened, revealing a bright blue ocean ahead of them with land in sight. The smell of the ocean salt instantly struck Eyre and she recoiled slightly before heading out the elevator. There she was, at the docking platform of the schoolship, with a large ferry docked beside the ship ready to take on passengers. Guided by terminal staff, Eyre and her friends made their way into the ferry, before finding their seats and placing their baggage away. The ferry began to fill until every seat was occupied.

At last, with the ferry filled, the last moorings were released and the ship detached from the schoolship, beginning to slowly make its way through the rough waters into Port Phillip Bay. Looking out the window, Eyre could see the massive mountains that made up the Mornington Peninsula on the right side of the boat, which was travelling through the water at a modest speed. Glints of sunlight reflected into the cabin as everyone caught sight of the skylines of Melbourne, the iconic Eureka Tower with its golden exterior highlighting it out of the rest of the city. While the rest of her friends were at the window looking out towards the city like many on the ship, Eyre sat at her seat relaxed, reading a map and looking at her phone.

"Eyre," Gibson said. "Come take a look, maybe take a picture as well."

"I'm fine, Gibson," she replied. "I've already taken a picture of Melbourne's skyline before. It's nothing special, it's way smaller than Tokyo."

"Well, that's Tokyo," Gibson answered. "It's still massive compared to Tottori."

"What are you doing anyways?" asked Yarra.

"Planning our next move once we get to land," Eyre replied.

"Ooh, what school are we going to again?" Simpson asked.

"One called Williams High School," Eyre responded. "It's maybe an hour's walk from the ferry docks, but according to the map there's a bus that should take us there in ten minutes."

"Awesome," Simpson replied. "Can't wait."

Eyre stopped for a moment, before she put her map down. "That does remind me," she started. "We're gonna need some special travel cards if we want to use the bus."

"Like IC cards?" Yarra asked.

"Yeah, kinda like that," Eyre answered. "They call it myki. Do any of you have any converted money?"

All three girls shook their heads, as Eyre grabbed her wallet. She took out three red notes from the wallet and handed Yarra, Gibson, and Simpson one each. "This is a 5 dollar note, it should be enough to get you a travel pass and some money to put in it. I think you should get your money converted first once we arrive."

"Wow, you seem to know what you're doing." Simpson said, impressed.

"I've been here a few times, it's something I've learnt to do."

As she finished speaking, the loudspeaker on the ship blared to life. "We will be arriving at Melbourne Terminal in 10 minutes, please take a seat and keep hold of any belongings. Thank you." The loudspeaker continued to repeat the message in English before shutting off, with Gibson, Yarra, and Simpson heading back to their seats.

The view of the city became the only thing visible as the ship slowly closed in on the docks. Guided by a single tugboat, the ferry docked and anchored itself, using ropes attached to the pier to prevent it from drifting away. Getting up from her seat, Eyre grabbed her luggage before wiggling her way to one of the aisles, waiting as the line slowly moved forward before she was off the ship and onto land. The feeling of solid ground was a strange one to Eyre, as she spent a few moments adjusting, like most other passengers of the ferry. Waiting for her friends, the four eventually reunited as Eyre began to guide them out and towards the ferry terminal. Approaching one of the ticket booths, Eyre realised that none of her friends could speak English, so she asked for the money she gave back and asked them to exchange their Japanese yen for Australian dollars, before walking up to the man at the booth. Breathing in heavily as she began to think, she began to speak the English she had learnt and remembered.

"Four myki please, with one dollar." she said to the best of her ability. The man understood her request as he took the money and grabbed out four myki cards, processing them all before handing them to her. Eyre thanked him before heading back to her friends, all of whom were fiddling with their wallets. "Here's your IC only has a dollar on it but it should be enough for one trip."

Eyre led the girls to the bus stop on her phone map, as the four waited in silence, before Simpson spoke up.

"Which bus are we waiting for?"

"According to my map, it's bus number 109," Eyre responded, as the sound of an engine of a bus began to close in. Eyre turned to look at the bus, before turning around again. "That's our one right there. Our school is at the ninth stop."

Following Eyre, the four boarded the bus and found a seat near the middle, Gibson and Yarra sitting behind Eyre and Simpson. As the bus drove along its route, the four began to chat about different things. About home, and their new school, and Australia. Before long, the bus doors opened for the ninth time, as Eyre and the girls got up to get off. Getting off, they were greeted by a large brick building obscuring much of the light. Eyre walked down the sidewalk and rounded the corner, followed closely by her friends, who had only Eyre as a familiar face in this foreign land. Eventually, the four found the entrance to the complex, with a sign greeting them saying 'Williams Co-Ed High School, all are welcome.' Eyre translated the words for her friends as they entered the reception. Taking out her ID and given the ID of her friends, she approached the front desk.

"Konnichiwa," she said to the receptionist, grabbing her attention.

"How could I help you dear?" the receptionist replied.

Eyre stopped to think for a second. "I'm short term foreign student from Japan, so is my friends. We like to check in."

"Of course, could I see your ID and paperwork?"

Understanding the lady, Eyre grabbed out the temporary enrollment papers and gave them and the ID to the nice lady. Looking at it for a minute, the lady looked back up to Eyre before handing the papers and ID back. She handed Eyre four lanyards with a card on each and a key, as well as four maps for her and her friends.

"This card will show you are a temporary overseas student," the woman said. "This is the key to your dorm and here is a map of the school if you get lost."

"Arigato," Eyre thanked the receptionist before bowing her head, the lady thanking her, before she turned around to ask another question.

"Can you tell me class schedule of one student please?"

"Someone you know?" she asked, Eyre nodding as an answer. "What is the name?"

Eyre leaned forward to tell the receptionist without anyone hearing, before the receptionist returned the gesture. Now satisfied, Eyre went back to her friends waiting and explained the key, card, and gave them their schedules and a map. Each of them understood perfectly before Eyre turned around and grabbed Simpson's hand, as she exited the reception and into the main campus of the school.

Author's notes

Thank you to CrabbyUnderARock and Salocin101 for proofreading this chapter. This chapter is going to be the first in a new story arc, so stay tuned for more in the future.