*Knock, knock, knock*
"… Hello?"
Atticus' slumber was ended by a knock at his door and a feminine voice ringing from the other side of it.
"Just a minute." He called out to whoever was knocking.
Pulling on his shoes and his new school jacket to not look as disheveled, he quickly made his way over to his door. Opening it, it revealed Yukari, one of the girls from the other night.
"Oh, hey there." Atticus said with a small smile and as friendly of a voice as he could muster with his grogginess.
"Hey." Yukari said, apparently going through the same motions of trying be polite and combating sleepiness. "Mitsuru-senpai wanted me to show you were are school was. You ready to go?"
"Oh, yeah, just a sec." Atticus said while backtracking to his desk, picking up and draping his headphones over his neck.
"No chance in hell I'm forgetting these." He said with a small smirk.
This statement was received by Yukari with a very similar upward flick of her lips before saying:
"Are you sure they'll allow those in school?"
"Eh, I'm sure they can make exceptions of extensions of my body. Which these very much are."
Yukari gave a small chuckle. 'C'mon, let's go." She said whilst walking down the hall.
Atticus followed suit, and eventually both the students were out of the door and nearing the monorail station they needed to take to get to school.
Several minutes into their ride, both Yukari and Atticus had been in silence, very similarly to hoe their walk to the station went. Atticus didn't have a problem with them in being quiet, but Yukari must've considered it awkward as soon she started conversation with:
"So… I hear you're an exchange student. Where're you from?"
"Oh, I'm from the U.S.. San Francisco to be exact."
"I see." Yukari said with a polite smile. "Well, are you liking Japan so far?"
"I am. I've always found Japan such an interesting place with really fascinating culture. Granted, I find most cultures fascinating, but that's beside the point."
"I see. A very worldly person, are we?" Yukari inquired somewhat jokingly.
"You're not very far from the truth. When I was really little my family and I had a decent amount of money to burn, so we often went on trips around the globe."
"Aha. So, what would you say your favorite place that you visited was?"
Atticus face morphed into an even mixture of euphoria and nostalgia.
"Italy." He said.
"Oh. Really?" Yukari questioned.
"Of course. The food, the art, the music, the views, the people. It all just blends together into something magical."
"Interesting. I just might have to go there one of these days." Said Yukari, smiling at Atticus' almost childlike happiness.
"You really should at least once in your life. It's pretty pricy, though, so be warned."
"Duly noted. Oh! There's the school." Yukari said.
"Really?" Asked Atticus, peering through the window he and Yukari were standing near as the monorail came to a stop.
"Yep. Why don't we head out? You wouldn't want to be late on your first day of school, would you?"
"No, I most certainly wouldn't."
Well, the school certainly wasn't a letdown in the visual department.
With white marble columns, a shimmering exterior do to the abundance of reflective windows and cherry blossom trees lining the front walkway, Gekkoukan was most definitely a sight to see.
Yukari and Atticus walked through the main entrance of the school, standing next to the foot lockers. Seeing such a compartment was new to Atticus, and he reminded himself that he would have to get used to using it.
"Well, here we are!" Said Yukari with a smile. "You'll need to head to the faculty office since you're an exchange student." Yukari pointed down the hall to the left of her and Atticus. "It's a couple doors down that hall. I take it you won't need help finding it?"
"Nope, I'll be just fine. Hey, thank you so much for showing me the school."
"No problem."
Atticus was about to walk towards the faculty office, but was soon stopped by Yukari saying:
"Hey, before you go…" She stopped what she was about to say to look at the floor awkwardly. "… If you could keep hushed about, you know… last night, I'd really appreciate it."
Atticus connected the dots to what she was saying, mainly involving the small metallic elephant in the room that Yukari almost pulled on him last night.
"Don't worry. My lips are sealed."
Yukari smiled appreciatively at Atticus.
"Thanks."
With that, the two students set off for their separate ways.
Walking down the hall Yukari had pointed towards, Atticus came across the item of his search: A door labeled "faculty office'. Walking into said room, Atticus could see mountains of paperwork strewn over several desks. His eyes were mainly drawn to the tall woman with brown hair sifting through one of said paper mountains, however. Walking further into the office, the woman (Atticus presumed to be a teacher) looked up from her work to address him.
"Can I help you?" She asked
"Yes, hello, I'm an exchange student and I was instructed to come here when I got to the school." Atticus explained.
"Oh, I've been waiting for you." The woman said, walking towards Atticus. "Yes, I've got you're class assignment right here. I'm Ms. Toriumi, by the way."
"Atticus Slater." The young man addressed himself. "Though, considering you've been waiting for me, I take it you already knew that."
"You're very right." Ms. Toriumi said, not looking from the pile of papers she was holding. "Alright, let's see here… Ah! Here we are. You're assigned to classroom 2… A? Huh. That's strange."
"What's strange about it?" Atticus inquired.
"2-A's a senior classroom, but my file says that you're the age of a junior."
"Ah." Atticus said with a smile. "Don't worry, I can explain: Back at my old school I was put in this experimental fast track to test for higher functioning students. I did so well in the course that I was able to skip a grade."
"Oh." Ms. Toriumi said plainly. "Well, that explains it."
"So," Atticus began. "Is there any more you're needing me for, or can I head to my class?"
"I'm not needing you for anything. You may go."
"Thank you."
Atticus exited from the office, heading back to the main entrance/commons. He was about to head to 2-A when suddenly he heard a commotion brewing from the supplies stand in the middle of the room.
"C'mon, just this once? I promise I'll pay you back tomorrow!"
"Sorry, Junpei: No money, no sandwich."
Atticus looked towards the supply stand. There stood a male student and a female faculty worker arguing over what he could only assume were the two sandwiches between then. The male student (whom Atticus could only assume was the 'Junpei') wore the standard Gekkoukan High jacket over a purple dress shirt, with black slacks and dress shoes decorating the lower side of him. His face had a decent bit of stubble on his angular jaw, and he had a baseball cap placed over his dark hair.
"Isn't there any way I could just run and grab my wallet?" Junpei asked.
"You could do that, but then you'd be late for class." The faculty worker answered.
Junpei slumped over in defeat.
"I take it there's no way I can convince you otherwi-"
"How much for both the sandwiches?"
Both Junpei and the faculty worker looked to Atticus, who suddenly butt in on the conversation.
"Um, its 500 yen for each, so you do the math." Said the faculty worker.
"Okay." Atticus took out his wallet and fished out the needed currency to purchase the food and handed it over to the faculty worker. He was happy he converted his American currency into yen before he arrived at Iwatodai.
"Here you go." The woman said, handing him the two sandwiches.
"And here you go." Said Atticus, passing the sandwiches over to Junpei.
Said student looked absolutely flabbergasted at Atticus' show of kindness.
"Um… h-hey…" Junpei stuttered out.
"Don't worry about it, just… do something nice for somebody, okay?"
With that, Atticus headed off towards the nearby staircase. Not before Junpei called out, however:
"Hey man, I will! And thanks!"
And so, making his way to the second floor, Atticus found room 2-A. Sliding the door open, he could see several students chatting with friends, others writing down things in notebooks, and some just standing/sitting around. Atticus was about to look for a place to sit down, when a familiar regal voice rang out to address him.
"Ah, Slater. Are you needing something?"
Atticus looked to where the voice was emanating to see Mitsuru walking towards him.
"Nothing in particular, I'm just looking for a place to sit."
"A place to sit? Here?" Mitsuru asked, eyebrow arched.
"Well, this is the classroom I was assigned to."
Mitsuru looked surprised.
"Is that so? I could have sworn you were a junior."
"So did Mr. Toriumi, but" And then Atticus proceeded to explain to Mitsuru what he had to Ms. Toriumi.
"I see." Said Mitsuru, a smile playing at her lips. "I have to say, I'm pleased to see such initiative from you."
"Why, thank you." Atticus replied.
"Oh," Mitsuru began. "Wait here for just a moment, there's someone I want you to meet."
Mitsuru walked away towards a young man seated at his desk. He had silver hair and wore a red vest with black pants, thin leather gloves covering his hands. Mitsuru said a few words to the young man before he looked towards Atticus and walked over to him, Mitsuru at his side.
"So, I hear you're the new exchange student." The young man said with a friendly smile.
"That's correct." Atticus replied, afterwards the young man stuck his hand out in greeting.
"I'm Akihiko Sanada, I'm living in the same dorm as you and Mitsuru."
Atticus took Akihiko's hand in his, a smile on his face.
"Pleasure to meet you, Akihiko." Atticus said, at which point when he said it Akihiko chuckled slightly and said with a pat on Atticus' back:
"There's no need to be so formal, were dorm mates. I would imagine we could take a bit less regal around each other."
"Speak for yourself," Mitsuru began. "I find ones linguistics to be of the upmost importance."
"Make sure you get used to a lot of phrases like that." Akihiko said with another short laugh.
"Duly noted." Atticus said plainly.
As if the world were waiting for Atticus to say that, the school bell ringed directly afterwards.
"We had better get in our seats." Said Mitsuru. "Atticus, there's an open seat next to mine. You can use that one."
"Thank you."
Walking over and sitting in the seat specified by Mitsuru, Atticus took one last look around the classroom. All the students looked alert and at the ready. Feeling slightly intimidated by this sight, Atticus thought with a nervous internal laugh:
'Whether it's for better or for worse… this is sure going to be one hell of a school year.'
Good morrow, People of Fanfiction! Sorry that nothing too exciting happened during this chapter, but that'll most certainly change next time. With that siad, Please leave your reviews and tell me what you think/what I can improve!