The walk to Namimori Middle School was silent and uncomfortable. Alex seemed wrapped up in dark, brooding thoughts, and Cammie was at a loss on how to help. None of the interaction she'd had with fully fledged spies had prepared her for this. It was probably because he was still a kid, but Alex didn't seem to be dealing well with the stress that a spy's life presented. It made Cammie nervous, especially considering he'd shown little sign of it before they'd reached Japan. She supposed she could only hope that he would show the same skill at burying his anxiety while they were actually working and not screw up the mission.
In an effort to forget about Alex for the time being Cammie turned her attention to the world around her. They were walking through a quiet, residential district. The houses were small but neat, the yards were tidy- everything was still, nobody awake enough yet to really make much noise. She thought she heard the sounds of a small dog, as well as a faint shriek carried over the still air, but they were gone before she'd really registered them.
The closer they got to the school, the more people they met, most of them fellow students dressed in various uniforms. They received a few curious looks, it was obvious that they didn't fit in, but mostly people left them alone. "This is so weird," Cammie whispered, leaning close to Alex and forgetting for the moment that he was angry with her. "Everyone looks so, similar, here."
"What did you expect?" There wasn't a trace of his former ire in Alex's voice, instead replaced by amusement. "We're in Japan."
"I know." She did her best to hide the victorious feeling that Alex's amusement had brought on. "I'm just used to variety. You know, blondes, brunettes, redheads. Blacks, whites, etc. My friends and I have that much variation between the four of us. It's just, very different."
"The middle east is a lot like this," Alex said absentmindedly, tracking a group of boys with his eyes. "Everyone looks the same. But they're a lot poorer there."
"You've been to the middle east?" Cammie struggled to keep the conversation going. She felt very exposed, not liking the feeling of not blending in. She was used to being Cammie the Chameleon, the pavement artist. To knowing that all she had to do was browse the wares of a street vendor and she would be invisible. This feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb was worse than knowing she was being followed. At least then she was able to try to ditch her pursuers. She smiled faintly, mind going back to her first attempt to lose a tail. Perhaps it wasn't any better.
"What is it?" Alex asked, noticing her smile.
"Oh, nothing. Just remembering." Remembering Zach and his annoying self-congratulating smile when he showed her up. Zach and his teasing nickname of "Gallagher Girl"- something she had no chance of hearing here. Zach and the little note she'd found the moment before she left that simply said "Be safe. Z."
Her hand drifted to the pocket of her skirt where the note now sat. It probably wasn't the wisest thing to carry around, but it's not like it could give anything away about her, and it would be easy enough to get rid of if it came to it. For now, it was nice to simply have a piece of home with her, like the little cross on a chain around her neck, useless as a coms device because it was out of range but still a comfort in its way.
Alex kept quiet as he saw the nostalgic look cross Cammie's face. He had the sneaky suspicion that next few months were going to be a lot harder than anticipated. He should probably let her enjoy herself for as long as possible.
It didn't take them much longer to reach the school, a large stone building that probably could have eaten Brooklands for breakfast. Taking a few deep breaths before putting his 'I don't have a care in the world' face on and followed his "older sister" into the school. Looking around at the sea of dark hair and white shirts it was quickly evident that they had no idea where to go.
"Excuse me." Cammie stopped a cute girl with short brown hair. Her friend, a scowling girl who's long black hair hung straight down her back, stopped with her. "My brother and I are new here. Could you tell us where we're supposed to go?"
The girl smiled brightly at them. "Of course..." she paused and Cammie realized she was waiting for their names. "Oh, I'm Walker Emma." Alex was slightly impressed that she remembered to say her last name first. It wasn't something he would have thought of. "And this is my brother, Walker Adam."
"Pleased to meet you." The girl's smile grew, if possible, even bigger. "I'm Sasagawa Kyoko and this is Kurokawa Hana."
The girls started walking and after a short hesitation the "siblings" followed. As she walked Kyoko pointed out places of interest, indicating several classrooms, the audiovisual room as well as the reception room. Through a large window she identified the large building that housed the gymnasium. Finally they reached the main office.
"Well, here we are." She said cheerfully. "First you'll speak to the principal, Suzuki-sensei, and then you'll probably be shown to your classes. What years are you?"
Cammie thought for a minute, doing the math in her head. "I'm a third year and Adam-kun is a second year."
"Aneki," Alex groaned, playing the role of disgruntled younger brother.
Cammie simply smirked at him as Kyoko's grin widened. "How fun. Hana-chan and I are second years too, and my brother, Sasagawa Ryohei, is a third year."
A bell sounded and the two girls jumped. "We should get going," said Kyoko. "We'll see you soon."
Alex and Cammie watched the girls leave, Hana leaning over to whisper something to Kyoko.
"Well," said Cammie, turning back to Alex. "Ready for this?"
Alex shrugged, and in answer, pushed open the office door.
"Class, this is Walker Adam. He is an American transfer student and will be joining you for the remainder of the year."
Whispers filled the room and Alex took the opportunity to scan class 2-A. Right in the center of the room sat Sawada Tsunayoshi. Even though he was almost a head shorter than all the other guys in the room his wild brown hair made him easily noticeable. To his right sat Hayato Gokudera, the fourteen year old hitman and only other foreign student in the room. He was leaning across Sawada's desk, yelling at another boy who was simply smiling and saying "Now, now," seemingly unfazed by the other boy's anger. Also in the class were Sasagawa Kyoko and Kurokawa Hana, sitting close to each other, the former smiling brightly at him, while her friend was still scowling.
When the teacher excused him to go sit down he was extremely tempted by an empty chair not far from Kyoko, but when he noticed the chair behind Sawada was open as well he made for that one instead. He probably shouldn't waist this opportunity to spy on Sawada, even if it seemed unlikely that he would talk about anything mafia related while in school.
As he neared the smaller boy Gokudera, glared fiercely at him. With his white blond hair and delinquent appearance the look was undeniably intimidating, but it had nothing on other dirty looks Alex had received. So instead of cowering like Gokudera obviously expected Alex smiled back. He took his seat in silence and pretended to turn his attention to the teacher. He watched the boy out of the corner of his eye, satisfied when his scowl eased and he slumped into his seat in irritation. The trick to dealing with any bully, be he an English school boy or an Italian mafioso, was to show that you weren't afraid of them.
Looking forward again the boy on Sawada's left caught his attention. For all appearances he was just another school boy. Good looking and taller than average, he was fit and apparently easy going. There wasn't anything exceptional about him, at least on the surface. But Alex wasn't alive because he relied on appearance. There was something about the boy that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He didn't know what it was, but he couldn't shake the feeling that, in his own way, this boy was at least as dangerous as Hurricane Bomb Hayato.
For Alex the day seemed to drag on. Except for a few arguments between Gokudera and the other boy, who he quickly learned was named Yamamoto, not much had happened, though he did manage to learn a few things during the first couple hours. For one thing, Gokudera, as well as being a mafioso prodigy, was extremely intelligent. For another he didn't seem to care anything about school. Though 100 was the most prevalent score on his tests he took no pride in them, scoffing at other's low scores, though not Sawada's for some strange reason, and acting like it was the easiest thing in the world. Sawada was the opposite. While he seemed to care about his scores, or at least he cared what others thought of them, they consistently hovered in the twenty to thirty range. Whether he lacked the motivation to study, or was simply dim, Alex didn't know, but there was one thing he was sure of. Whatever it was about Sawada Tsunayoshi, called Loser Tsuna by his classmates, that interested Reborn, it wasn't his grades. Alex also suspected, watching the boy in front of him, that he was very interested in Sasagawa Kyoko.
As the class wore on Alex developed a splitting headache. He'd learned early on that his Japanese was worse than he thought. He only fully understood about half of what was going on, and it was wreaking havoc on his concentration. Added to that was the staring. Everywhere he looked there seemed to be another girl staring at him and it was driving him mad. He understood the intrigue caused by a new student, and it would only be compounded by the fact that he was a foreigner, but it was getting truly annoying. By the time the bell rang for lunch Alex just wanted to run from the room. But he had a job to do, and the sooner he learned what Sawada had to do with the mafia the sooner he could go back to merry old London.
He'd spent the morning, when he wasn't analyzing Sawada and his friends, devising different tactics to get close to the other boy. What he hadn't counted on was the flock of girls that immediately swarmed his desk the instant they were freed from class. Their voices were high and hard to distinguish from each other (he thought he heard a few offers to share lunch and a few more questions about where he came from) but Alex had a hard time keeping up with their rapid Japanese. He was unexpectedly saved by the calm, slow, voice of Yamamoto asking, "So, Adam, do you play baseball?"
Alex turned to him in relief, happy with a topic that was so familiar, and so universal- sports. "Not much. In America the sport is football. I played on a Little League team when I was little, but when I got into Junior High I decided to focus on football, though I do play soccer in the spring."
"You should join the baseball team," said Yamamoto, seemingly undeterred. "We don't have a football or soccer team here, but the baseball team could certainly use you."
Alex smiled and started talking sports with Yamamoto. The boys grabbed their bentos and followed Sawada and Gokudera out onto the roof. It wasn't until Alex went to open the bento that Mr. Walker had packed for him that he remembered his mission, and Emma, his partner.
He was torn for a moment between staying with Sawada and his friends and hoping he learned something useful, or going to find Emma. The longer he listened the more apparent it was that they probably weren't going to start spouting mafia secrets, if Sawada even knew any, and it seemed unlikely that a hitman as renowned as Reborn was going to show up on the school roof in the middle of the day. Sighing, he really had enjoyed speaking with Yamamoto, Alex picked up his unopened bento, and stood up. The other boys looked at him and he reluctantly explained about his older sister and how he should probably go check on her and make sure she was fitting in. They nodded agreeably and gave him directions to class 3-C. Alex turned and left the roof, reflecting that, for a group of kids that probably had ties with the mafia they sure were a pleasant lot. As the door shut behind him a small, dark figure detached itself from the shadows and approached the three boys.
"Ciao-su," he said, leaping onto Tsuna's head.
The boy squealed in surprise. "Ah, Reborn!" he scolded. "What are you doing here?"
The miniature hitman glared down at the boy, his black eyes gleaming. "The new students interest me. I want to know what they're doing here."
"Reborn!" Tsuna scolded again. "Adam-san is an American transfer student. He doesn't have anything to do with the mafia. Leave him alone."
Reborn's eyes glinted but he stayed silent. Tsuna was grateful for that. Perhaps it was his Vongola intuition, or maybe it was just having spent too much time around Reborn, but he was sure his tutor was up to something. He didn't want to know what it was until he absolutely had to. Reborn's schemes always seemed to end with someone getting hurt, and it was usually him.
