Chap. 3: The First Day In He- I Mean School.

The next day proved to be interesting.

I was thankful that there weren't many people in the area, because I had no idea where to put everyone. At most, I just dragged them all back onto the sidewalk, and then sat waiting for them to wake up. Though I was completely tired, and felt washed out, I couldn't manage to fall asleep.

Plus, we had to go to school.

I scowled at the thought of this. None of us were looking forward to going to school. Too many bad experiences from the last time.

Around midmorning, I heard a grown from Max.

Looking over in her direction, I said, "'Bout time you got up."

"Wha…? God, why does my head hurt so much."

"Could have something to do with last night."

"Ugh… Really shouldn't have tried that sake. Why did I even think about it?"

I almost laughed. So she thought we were drinking sake? Well, that certainly did seem like a good reason for headaches.

"Nah, you just can't hold down your alcohol." I said.

"Oh, shut up." She said and then began waking the others up.

I was glad to find that they all thought along the same story or our party night with sake. They even came to the conclusion of them being on the street instead of inside was because of their being drunk.

"How you managed to stay awake, I have no clue." Gazzy said.

I chuckled. "Like I told Max, you guys just can't hold down your alcohol."

"Whatever." Max grumbled. "Come on, we gotta get to this damn school before they think we've gone missing." Collective groans of annoyance were her only reply.

Once we were all as ready as we could be for school- we didn't have our uniforms, but we managed to get ourselves cleaned up well enough- we headed out.

We had to walk around for a bit until we finally decided to just fly and find the school that way.

Once we did find it we landed and went in.

Immediately, we all went on guard and looked for exits. Or well, they looked, while I listened around for things. Sigh, guess I was back to the blind birdie.

We found the principle office and he let us in.

"Ah, there you are. We were wondering when you guys would show up."

"Yeah, we just got in. Sorry for the delay." Max said smoothly.

"No problem. Just make sure it doesn't happen too often- or again for that matter. If it does, then you'll need a good excuse."

I dully wondered if a good excuse could be "We were attacked by some freak." Or, as everyone else thought, "We spent the night partying with sake."

"Anyway," the principle continued, "Let's get you to class… Oh, and I'll be needing your measurements for your uniforms."

Once our measurements were taken, the principle led us around. We first went to the elementary part of the school, so we could drop Gazzy and Angle off. Then it was to the middle school for Nudge. We didn't like the splitting up, but had to trust that the younger ones knew what to do if something bad were to happen. There were plenty of windows to escape through, so it wasn't like they were completely trapped.

After that, we headed back to the high school.

I was put in the same classes with Fang, two of which had Max in it.

By the time the tour was over, we were sent off to lunch and told to go to whatever classes we were to have afterwards.

We decided to eat up on the roof. It was here that I was suddenly able to see.

Ichigo grumbled. The day wasn't going well. He'd been ten minutes late for first period and like all teachers do, they chew you out for it.

But that was only the beginning. He was also really distracted, the thought of those kids clouding up his thoughts so he wasn't paying attention in any of his classes. So, once again like all teachers, they chew you out for it. Or, if their really cruel, they sweetly ask if you can read this paragraph, or work this equation, or tell them why this person did what they did for what reason, as if you'd been paying close attention. Then they'd chew you out for not paying attention.

Thank god it was lunch time.

The bell rang and he was up in an instant. Walking with his friends to the roof top, he tried to pay attention to their conversation. Apparently there were some new students.

"I hear that the girl is really hot, nice and tanned, with goldish blond hair and blue eyes." Said Kaito, ever the one to focus on girls.

But it did strike a cord in Ichigo. It reminded him of one of the bird kids last night.

He didn't have time to think about how funny it would be if it were them that were the new kids. Because, just as they walked out onto the roof, they were right there.

Blinking in astonishment, I looked around to see… well... anything.

And that's when I caught sight of the bright orange hair.

He appeared to have just come out of the exit to the roof, and looked quite surprised to see me.

The group he was with didn't really seem to notice us, and walked off. Ichigo- I remembered his name now- Looked back at them and then back to us. Shrugging his shoulders, he made his way over to us.

"Hey." He called out to me, but the others looked too, and I could feel them getting ready for a fight.

"Hi…" I said, trying to act like I'd never seen him before. Then, I got an idea, and smirked. "That was some night last night, huh?"

He looked a bit confused, but nodded. "Uh… yeah, it was."

"You don't look too bad, I'm guessing you held in your sake…?"

A look of understanding came over his face and he managed to look sheepish. "Yeah, I've had a bit of practice, you could say. Plenty of nights spent partying."

"Iggy, who is this guy?" Max whispered.

"Oh, sorry. Guys, this is one of the people that decided to party with us last night. He managed to keep his sake in, and so he was my only sorce of conversation for me. His name's Ichigo."

Max nodded her head, but still looked skeptical.

"Uh, nice to meet you all, you know, without you being out like a light and all… haha…"

"Ichigo! Get your butt over here, and quite flitting with the new girl!"

Ichigo's face fell into a scowle as he glanced without turning at the group he'd come with. "Huh, well, it was nice seein' you again. Talk to ya some other time?"

"Yeah, sure. See ya." Iggy said. He closed his eyes and sighed. Well that was interesting.

"Iggy, are you sure this guy is safe…?" Max asked.

I turned back and was about to look at her when an image of the short girl popped into him head, and her words echoed to me:

"Well, that should do it. Now, there won't be a memory lapse. Actually, their memories will be filled in by something else, but there is no telling what it is. But, you have to be careful. If you let slip certain events that happened, then they could end up remembering everything, though it may not happen fast, but it could."

If you let slip certain events that happened, then they could end up remembering everything.

I wasn't all too sure if them seeing that I could see would trigger something, but it just might, and I didn't want to take the risk that it wouldn't. So, keeping my eyes closed and as relaxed as I could get them- I'd had them closed plenty of times before, so it didn't look that out of place- I turned back.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"But you were drunk at the time and so was he, how could you tell?"

"I wasn't that drunk. And he wasn't either."

"But still. Just a little intoxicated, you could act differently and see differently."

I refrained from mentioning that- as far as they knew at least- I couldn't see. That'd not be helping me here.

"Look, just trust me, okay? If I'm wrong, then you can lock me up in the school."

"If you're wrong, then there may be no need to lock you up. We could all be dead."

I was growing inpatient. "Huh…. He's not bad. Please, just trust me on this."

Through a crack in my eyes, I could see that she didn't really look all too happy about it, but she consented anyway.

"Huh… fine."

The rest of our lunch passed by with little to no talk. Having this being our first day of school, and not having had any classes yet, we had nothing to talk about. And then there was the fact that none of us really felt like talking after our little argument. Well… Fang never talked, so that was really only Max and I, but still.

Lunch ended and Ichigo noted that the three bird kids held back, waiting for everyone else on the roof to clear off before they headed off.

He half wished that Rukia had decided to eat with them instead of the girls, but realized that there really wouldn't be much need. It was just the urge to have someone else that knew about them to be around him.

This also brought him to wondering if he should tell the others. He grimaced at the thought of Odahima hearing about it, knowing she'd get all hyper- more then she already is- and go off to try and meet them. He had a feeling she might be tackled if she tired. They didn't seem like the kind of kids that took to random strangers very well.

Fore now, he decided, he'd just keep it to him and Rukia. And maybe- if Rukia planned on doing some research on how a blink guy could see spirits- Mr. Hat and Clogs.

He found his next class to have the girl from the group, but she seemed to just ignore him. At least she looked to be ignoring him, when she was really watching him closely, observing his actions and behaviors, all the while keeping an eye out for other dangers.

By the end of the class, Max rounded him out to be an average teenage boy that seemed to be a bit of a scatterbrain, but had some pretty good reflexes- he'd dropped his eraser and swiped it out of the air before it could even get an inch passed the desk top. He also seemed to be friendly enough, although a bit blunt and gruff. He also seemed to always have a bit of a scowl on his face when concentrating.

She guessed she could deal with him. Not trust- not yet- but at least deal with.

Next period went by uneventfully, and with none of the three bird kids. But he had the two others in his 5th period class.

Iggy ended up sitting next to him, and Fang behind Iggy.

He noted that Iggy was keeping his eyes closed and frowned at this. The teachers whould think he was sleeping or something.

But the teachers took no notice. Introductions were made for the new kids and Ichigo's frown grew when Iggy said that he was blind.

'That can't be right. He was just fine on the roof earlier, and the same for last night. Sure, he had said that he was blind, but… he really hadn't looked like it. There was no cloudy look that Ichigo had seen plenty of times with some of his dad's patients.

Sighing in frustration at the mystery these kids were surrounded in, he turned back to his work.

And that was when it went off.

God he hated that thing so much sometimes.

"HOLLOW! HOLLOW! HOLLOW!" went the soul reapers badge in his pocket.

He jumped and so did Iggy.

The teacher looked over and frowned at Ichigo. "I assume you need to use the bathroom again, Mr. Kuderugi?"

"Ah… yeah... sorry teach', hope you don't mind…" Ichigo stammered, all the while hastily making his way to the door, and then out.

I almost took flight at the sudden screeching sound that was coming from Ichigo's pocket.

I watched in confusion as Ichigo and the teacher exchanged words, while Ichigo made his way out the door.

I looked around the class and noted that- although they seemed to have been startled- they had not heard even a single bit of whatever that sound was. Fang only proved it to be so, as he hadn't even moved. He was on edge a bit, but that was due to me having jumped, and when the blind guy that has amazing hearing jumps, you normally wand to get ready for action. Other than that, he just sat still, and watched me for any more signals.

Shaking my head, I sat back and whispered, "Just kinda freaked when he jumped." From the slit of my eyes, I could see that Fang didn't quite believe this, yet he didn't have any reason not to believe it.

Sighing, and looked forward and with looked out the window through the slits, and saw something. Opening my eyes just a bit more, I saw a black figure with a bright spot of orange.

I didn't get to make anything else out, because everything went black again.

Damn. I was back to being blind. Well, today was just great…

AN: AT LONG LAST! I managed to get some creative juses flowing for this one! ^_^About freaken' time, too. Well, hopped it was to your liking. No promises as to when the next chap. might come up, but here's hoping it's soon. :D