Ch. 3 – Adventure of the directionally challenged.
One year later.
March 26th
I took in a deep breath of air as I stepped out the taxi and stared at what would be my new home for three years. Ouran Academy.
The acceptance letter had me frozen for hours in a happy kind of shock. After I got past the first sentence however, I realized that my family would still have to purchase the uniform… a three thousand dollar uniform. We worked out a deal with the school that as long as I was dressed in formal attire then I wouldn't have to purchase the clothes. The downside of this would be that I'd stick out like a sore thumb.
The 'formal attire' we ended up purchasing was a light greenish blue dress with navy thigh high socks and navy Mary-Jane shoes. I had a sweater to wear over the dress in colder weather and although it wasn't the most fashionable, it was formal, affordable, and comfortable.
My first day as part of Class 1-A wouldn't start until April 1st, I came early so I could settle into my new room and I wanted to memorize how to get to all my classes. The school was so huge I didn't want to end up getting lost on the first day… or the entire first week…
I tended to be… well.. directionally challenged. I frequently got lost and made wrong turns, sometimes even in familiar settings. I didn't want that to happen here so I planned on memorizing my way to my classes.
Speaking of classes I still needed to get my schedule form the office. I should probably stop there first, as much as I hated the idea of lugging my luggage there, I didn't know where my dorm room was, let alone have a way to even get in there.
So the main office was my first stop.
The school felt more like a palace with the elegant architecture and extravagant paintings every which way you looked. I still got the chills just looking at it from the outside. It was hard to believe that I'd be attending school here.
The main office was designed no differently then the rest of the school, it was just as gorgeous and I kept getting lost in all of the detail. One of the women at the desk found my file and handed me my schedule and room number (I started to feel more like I was in a hotel). Each room had a code to get in that you would insert on the keypad on its respective door. I thanked her and then attempted using the map attached to my schedule to find my way around…
Remember how I said I was directionally challenged? Well then you should already know that my hunt was not a success.
It had started out so optimistic. 'I can do this!' I thought to myself. 'no problem, just kicking off a start in my new Japanese-school life!'
It quickly turned into me trying to calm myself down. 'Its no big deal… I'm sure It's just around this corner! … I meant this one!'
Three ours into my search my feet were killing me and my arms were aching from dragging my luggage, I was collapsed on my hands and knees , dramatized tears streaming down my face.
'I'm going to die here…' I though miserably to myself. 'I'm lost… and alone, no one is going to find me until school starts! I'm going to die in this labyrinth.'
I assumed any of the kids that boarded here had gone home for the spring holiday so I was trapped all alone in this huge building.
'I knew I was way in over my head…'
Just when I was about to give up all hope and curl up in a ball to accept my fate, I was tapped on the shoulder.
"Death… is that you?" I asked miserably turning to see the face of a living human being and instantly feeling like an utter idiot. I contemplated sitting there and acting casual or standing up and pretending I had never been on the ground in the first place. I went with the later, picking myself up like it was no big deal and coughing lightly into my shoulder.
"Oh uh… hi." I tried to play it off cool and already knew it was an epic fail.
"Hi… why were you on the ground?" The boy asked.
"On the ground? Pshhhhh! What are – what are you talking about, I was just… tying my shoe." I swayed back and forth as I talked and didn't look him in the eyes. I knew by the sound of my voice that this was the absolute opposite of casual and I was totally giving myself away.
"You're shoes don't have laces." He pointed out flatly.
"Or do they?" was my lame comeback… and also the first thought to come into my head.
"Alright then crazy…" He spun on his heel to leave.
"Wait!" I called out. "Look… I'm just… I'm looking for the girls dorm room…do you know where it is."
"The… girls dorm?" I swear he was laughing at me on the inside. He must have somehow known I was lost for some time now. "That's on the complete other side of the school, this is over by the boys dorm."
I felt like falling over in humiliation! How badly could one person misread a map?
"Look if you want me to take you there, I have nothing better to do. I was just chilling in my dorm room when I heard some loud footsteps passing back and forth and got curious."
"Thank – wait did you say loud footsteps?" I glared. He just smirked at me and began walking in the direction I assume was the girls' dorms.
"Hope you haven't been wandering around for hours or anything, cause it'll take a lot of time before we get there." Yup. He knew, he so knew I had been passing aimlessly for hours.
"Alright smart ass…" I muttered.
"what was that?"
"Nothing!" I chirped.
So around twenty minutes of walking through that ginormous school I found out this kids name was Chi Kirito, Kirito being his first name. He was going into class 2-A in April and he was one of the few that decided to stay here rather then go home over the break.
"Servants are the only people there anyway and who wants to be around that."
"Yeah… right." A lot of his personality made him seem like a major ass. He acted like people were all below him and to be honest it was kind of suffocating to be around. Although there seemed to be rays of hope here and there.
When we finally made it to the girls' dorms I said I should be able to find my way from here and we went our separate ways.
From there on I settled in and decided that getting lost once was enough for one day. Besides, I didn't really want to run the risk of bumping into Kirito again.