Chapter 003:
Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis/Tennis no Oujisama does not belong to me. Sadly.
Bold is English. Regular is Japanese.
"I'm guessing you're one of the new students from America?"
The woman standing before me was slightly older than what I was expecting, her chestnut brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail, leaving only two strands of hair as bangs. And she was wearing a pink sweat suit. Strange, strange sight.
"Uh… Yes."
"I'm Ryuzaki-sensei. I'm the Math teacher for the 3rd years."
"Nice to meet you," I bowed.
"Introduce yourself to the class," She motioned towards the people in front of me.
I smiled and waved shortly. "Konnichiwa minna! My name is Darcel, Kaydence. Please call me Kayde! I hope we can get along." I bowed once again.
Ryuzaki-sensei grinned big at me. "Go sit down to Tezuka Kunimitsu-san. Please raise your hand, Tezuka-san."
My eye twitched.
This guy didn't look like a junior high scholar. He looked like a teacher.
A scary teacher.
"H-hai…"
I walked hesitantly towards my seat.
"Ohayo, Tezuka-san."
"Hn."
Okay. Scared feeling gone. Not gonna be scared by some guy who doesn't know how to greet someone properly. Didn't even look at me. How rude.
"Turn to page 32 in your Algebra II book."
Ugh. Frack my life.
We were on the last Academic class of the morning, and that's English. Luckily, English is a breeze for me, so I decided to take a nap.
Until a book slammed against my desk, forcing me to bolt up in my seat. "YES? Make I take your order?"
The whole class stared at me like I was insane.
Man, people really need to stop waking me up so abruptly.
I rubbed my eyes and looked up at Takeshi-sensei, who was looming over me with his death glare.
He raised an eyebrow at me. "Care to read a page from the English book you decided to drool all over?"
The class laughed. I sunk back into my seat.
"We're on page 24."
I flipped quickly to the page and began reading.
"'If youth, throughout all history, had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn't constantly run across folks today who claim that "a child don't know anything." A child's brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult's act, and figuring out its purport.'" (A/N: This is the first paragraph of Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright. I never had the pleasure of reading the novel itself, although I have heard of it.)
I looked back up at Takeshi-sensei. He was nearly speechless. "I said page 24. Not page 34. That's for later on in the year."
"Oh."
But Takeshi-sensei regained his composure and smirked. "I do have a question though. What is strange about this story?"
"It's Gadsby, right?" I questioned. "By Ernest Vincent Wright?" But before Takeshi-sensei could reply, I added, "The whole novel is written without the letter, 'e,' which is the most common letter in the English language, if I'm not mistaken."
Almost everyone's mouths dropped within the classroom. I sweatdropped and laughed sheepishly. "I have a knack for riddles."
"Ah, yes. Well. Good job." Takeshi-sensei muttered, walking back towards the front. "Please pay attention next time." And resumed teaching.
I sighed in relief.
"Wow, so you basically owned your English teacher?"
I put my hands up in defense. "I didn't mean to!"
Miyuu laughed. "Ah, c'mon, I'm just kidding." She leaned back against one of the trees. "Man. An hour of free time, that's pretty cool, isn't it?"
"It's lunch, not lazy hour." Kuni said matter-of-factly, pointing her chopsticks directly at her. "I'm surprised you're not still eating."
Miyuu frowned. "I ran out of food. I had to sneak some between classes 'cause I can't stand to not snack." (A/N: My friend really does do this. And so do I. In class, we just eat. Because our teachers love us. ^_^)
I laughed. "It's gonna get harder. You should really learn to wait for lunchtime to eat. So that you don't get in trouble."
Miyuu scrunched her nose up. "But I get bored. When I get bored, I eat. Boredum goes away, I can focus in class."
"Where's Giselle?" Kuni interrupted.
"She's probably checking out the Archery range."
"They have Archery here?" Miyuu and Kuni yelled in unison.
"Yeesh!" Miyuu scratched the back of her neck. "So much more fancier than what we got. I mean, it was only in high school that we even had a pool. Now, they have one on here on a junior high campus? I mean, tennis courts, I understand. But this? This place is pretty cool."
Kuni added. "The student body also seems a lot smaller. I mean, I remember that the school that Kayde-chan was supposed to go to, there was 1,400 Freshmen alone." (A/N: That is true. I am in a class of 1,400 people. The school's population is almost at 4,000. It's insane. And annoying.)
"Yeah, more room here!" I stretched out my limbs. A question popped into my head. "Hey, whattaya guys doing for your two elective courses?"
"We're supposed to have one that's for us, and one that's P.E. related, right?" Miyuu asked. I nodded. "I asked the school if we could just walk around and see what they have before deciding."
I grinned. "Awesome. I'm actually curious to see what their music class is like. I'm kinda giddy right now."
"I heard they have a glee club."
"Ah, really?" I yelped in surprise. "That's awesome!"
"Yeah. I heard they try to sing popular English songs. But apparently, their pronunciation is horrible and the English teachers keep arguing with the Music teachers." Kuni sweatdropped. "And then the dance instructors are lazy."
Miyuu smirked at me. "Seems like your forte to fix, oka-san."
I pursed my lips. "Music, yeah. But… Dancing? I can only do a few things here and there. Nothing too extravagent though."
"But glee club is mostly about singing. Dancing? Not so much."
I groaned. "But that's what makes the performance so amazing."
"Wait," Kuni interjected. "Why are you worrying about your dancing skills? From what I remember, you were pretty awesome when our glee club back home performed. Miss Lead."
I shook my head. "Heck no. Adrenalin was rushing. That's it."
"Your version of 'Mercy,' was pretty banging." Miyuu threw in there, grabbing Kuni's soda and taking a sip of it.
Kuni nodded quickly. "You should definitely teach that to your class."
"My class?"
"What? Are you not doing glee club?"
"I don't know! Why don't I do photography or something?" I grumbled.
"Because photography is a club that meets every Wednesdays and Fridays after school, and sometimes, before school."
"Uh… Wait… So… Glee club isn't a club…?"
"No. It's a class."
I sighed in exasperation. "People don't know how to name classes. Why don't they just call it Chorus?"
"Ah, see! You're brilliant!"
"Shut up, Miyuu." I tapped my fingers against my leg. "How about… I do glee club if you guys do it too?"
"How about… you do glee club… And we watch?" Kuni grinned.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Whatever. At least that takes care of my Fine Arts credit."
"Actually, no." Miyuu smiled. "Apparently, glee club is PE credit."
I yelled out in sheer annoyance. "What the heck?"
"Well, I mean, back home, dance wasn't considered PE. It was considered a Fine Arts credit."
I muttered. "That's freaking stupid."
"At least you'll be able to join me for Orchestra, ne?" Miyuu grinned. "We'll be the violin/viola duo once again!"
"When were we ever that? You always made fun of my viola."
"Yeah, because violins are so much better!"
"Our director even said that the viola is the most beautiful sounding instrument out of the whole Orchestra if played correctly."
"Yeah, but only when it's played correctly!" Miyuu retorted snidely.
"Do I not play it correctly?"
"…Shut up."
"So, it's been decided then?"
I nodded. "Orchestra and glee."
"Orchestra and track."
"Art and archery."
"Uhm…"
I chortled. "Of course it'll be Kuni-chan who can't make a decision."
"Shut up!" Her face became a deep red. "I dunno! I'm scared to do anything sports-related. You know how uncoordinated I am!"
"Then just do glee club with me."
"What…?"
"Do. Glee. Club. With. Me." I flicked her forehead.
"N-no, I'm just gonna slow you down…"
I pinched her nose. "C'mon, dude. I need someone anyways. A teacher needs an assistant. Don't leave me hanging. Plus, I'll be there to help you out."
"O-okay… But I don't have anything for Fine Arts…"
"Just do art with me," Giselle answered.
"But… I'm not good at art."
"Yeah, well, neither am I." Giselle chuckled. "That's the reason why we take classes. So that we can become good, no?"
"Yeah, I guess…" Kuni trailed off.
"Then it's over! Mission: Choose Electives is a success!" Miyuu yelled.
A/N: Okay, so I'm noticing that people are reading my story, which, is surprising, considering how much work I've been putting into this. Which isn't a lot. Haha. This is a leisure story for me. But that doesn't mean I don't want it to be good. I know that I've had visitors that read it, and then just left. But… Guys, I wanna know why you guys left. I mean, I know that it's my story and I do what I want, and I'll do what I want, but I'd like input. I want to become a better writer, and that's not going to happen unless I get help.
I know my issues and maybe when I'm not so stressed out, I'll be able to write a good chapter. Well-written, and actually edited. But for now, this is what you guys get. And thankfully, I have people reading it.
The reason I've been giving such empty/filler chapters for this story is because I wanted you guys to have a taste of how the characters are and for you to decide whether or not they should be more developed and more in depth, or if they're fine the way they are. Should I get into more detail at once? Or should the details just pan out over the story? Are they too perfect?
But just because I'm asking for your opinion doesn't mean I'll completely coincide with your request. I'll do what I decide is best for me and easier for me. But if it's a small tweak here and there, then it's fine. Completely rewriting a character, that's something that I can't do. Introducing a new one? I can do that.
I'd just like some help here. Please?
SO PLEASE REVIEW!
