A/N: And now the story goes to third person point of view. Something tells me I'm forgetting an important detail in this chapter. By the way, growing up sucks...
Just A Day In The Life…
Day 2 (Part 2)
(Company Has Arrived)
"Dude! What the hell are you guys doing here?" Takuya shouted ecstatically more than ever. Here he was miles away from home, and his friends were standing right before him. The odds of such an occasion were immense like a thousand to one.
"Takuya!" the guys ran up to him to give him a group hug, everyone except Kouji.
"Takuya. We didn't expect to get roomed with you," Kouichi said. "Wow what are the odds?"
"I'll say there is a 3,000th of a chance counting the rectitude of-"
"JP, he was just speaking as a figure of speech." Kouji interrupted JP and his calculations.
"Yeah… I know…" JP snorted back.
Takuya intervened between the small feud. "Never mind that! I'm SO glad you guys are here!"
The guys gawked towards Takuya. "Why? Is it that bad here?"
"YES!"
The guys chuckled at Takuya's response. They could tell he was in dire need of his friends company. It felt wonderful being there in the same room together ridiculing one another like old times.
"So where's the others, Tommy and Zoe?" Takuya wondered.
"There here somewhere. Tommy is with the junior high classmen and Zoe is in her room at the girl's dorm.
"That lucky girl has a room all to herself!" JP moaned, tears welling up in his eyes.
The rest of the guys ignored his remark.
"But lets get out of here already, or else we'll be late for class." Kouichi suggested, given the fact there was only five minutes to class started.
"Crap! That's right! I'm going to be late!" Takuya suddenly grabbed his backpack and sprinted out the door without the others.
"I see he's still being late to class as usual." Kouji muttered before a smirk crept on his face.
-xxx-
"OK class. It looks like we've received three more foreign students." Ms. Avery announced to her homeroom class.
Next to her stood: Izumi Orimoto, Kouji Minamoto, and Kouichi Kimura. Kouichi and Kouji had on a black military style gakuran like Takuya's. Kouji's was a tighter fit than his brothers. Zoe wore a buttoned white sailor type blouse, and a burnt orange blazer that clung to her figure. On the bottom half she had a mini black plaid skirt and black thigh high socks with brown penny loafers.
"Everyone say hi!" Ms. Avery repeated.
"Hi Kouji. Hi Kouichi. HI IZUMI!" The whole class raved over the three more than they did for Takuya when he first arrived. This made Takuya twitch with envy.
All three of the students took a seat, surrounding Takuya; Kouji right next to him, Izumi behind Kouji and, Kouichi behind Takuya.
"Hey Takuya! I haven't seen you in ages" Zoe spoke in a low voice as she acknowledged her old friend.
The brunette silently smiled back.
"So does anyone have a question for our new students?" Ms. Avery asked the student body. One gutsy kid had the balls to stand to his feet. It was the same wimpy kid Takuya met the other day that informed him about Kyle.
"I-I do Ms. Avery!" the kid stammered. He was sweating buckets, and his fists were clenched tightly. "This one's for the girl." He said with his finger pointed at Zoe, while his voice quivered.
With a deep breath he finally let it out, "ZOE WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME!"
The class fell silent due to shock value of the situation. Even Takuya's eyes went wide as a raccoon. Zoe's cheeks blushed a slight pink given the proposal the kid offered. It was her first day and she was already getting requests as one's girlfriend.
"Oh, Jimmy… that's quite… blunt…" Ms. Avery replied.
The whole class burst into laughter while Jimmy slowly slumped back into his seat.
Kouji watched the kid while carrying his head in his palm. " What an idiot."
"Poor guy," said Kouichi as he turned his head towards Zoe to see her reaction.
"Alright class settle down. Enough already." Ms. Avery did her best to tranquil her classroom
As the chatter subsided the loud speakers bellowed an annoying beep before a gruff voice took its place.
"Alright students of West Legacy Academy, it's about that time of year again for the New Year Orientation."
The classrooms across the building rose in commotion. This was the one time of the year where the student body could get away from the classrooms and spend an entire two hours listening to the principal talk about academics and expectations.
"So without further or do, may I ask all teachers to dismiss there fellow students to the auditorium for a 'brief' discussion."
At the drop of a hat all the students dispersed from their chairs and into the hallways towards the auditorium.
"I wonder what they'll be talking about?" Zoe muttered as she paced beside her fellow male friends.
"Well it's an orientation. So they're probably going to bore us to death about silly stuff like rules and stuff," Takuya replied, trying to sound informative.
Zoe gave him one of here disbelieving looks she was known for.
-xxx-
After the freshmen student body found their seats in the auditorium, a young man wearing a dark slender suit with an orange dress shirt underneath came from behind the curtains. He dramatically adjusted his black framed glasses and straightened his tie. He approached the podium and cleared his throat before he spoke into the mic. It was Mr. Hitoyoshi.
"Hello fellow freshmen and welcome to Western Legacy Academy!" the man spoke with such drama and swagger as his hand waved in the air.
The crowd up roared with cheers and whistles as if they were at a football game.
"Whats Mr. hitoyoshi doing up there?" Takuya wondered.
"My name is Mr. Hitoyoshi and I'm your assistant principal at this school. And without further or do let's get on with the presentation."
With a snap of his fingers, a large white screen came down from behind him. The lights went pitch black and the screen lit up with huge letters accompanied by loud motivational classic music. With the man standing to the side, one could tell that Mr. Hitoyoshi was proud of his work.
"Here at West Legacy Acaemy, you can learn and home your gifts and talents." He raised his defiant finger in the air with his other hand across his chest as if he was posing for Men's Magazine. "You will learn what it's like to be in one of the top schools of the Legacy Academy District and be the best you can be."
There were silent "Ooos" and "Aws" resonating in the crowd.
"Here at West Legacy Academy, we have all the tools you need. All you need to do is use them to the best of your abilities and come out on top!"
By now the students were starting clap and cheer as if the man was motivational speaker.
"And remember for I am with you and TOGETHER WE CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING!"
After that motivational speech, the student body was going bonkers, cheering on just about every word that passed by the screen accompanied by an epic voice.
"LEADERSHIP!"
"EXCELLENCE!"
"GRATITUDE!"
"ACADEMIC!"
"CREATIVITY!"
"YEARNING!"
While the screen blared out these random words, Kouji looked over to his friends to see their reaction. It was mutual.
"What the hell is this?"
-xxx-
After the moving and motivation presentation, the students went back to class pumped up for the school year. Lunchtime was just around the corner and the gang was starving.
"Man I can't wait till lunch. Takuya do you know what they serve here?" Kouichi moaned.
"Just about everything…"
Zoe, Kouji, and Kouichi's mouthes salivated.
"Really?"
"Yeah… pretty much everything."
The lunch bell rang and it was time to eat.
-xxx-
(During the lunch break…)
The sound of peoples' conversation and spoons clanking plates echoed throughout the lunch room cafeteria as students wandered to their seats.
Takuya had already found a spot to eat and was waiting for the rest of the gang to show up at his table. At least this time he wouldn't be alone.
Man, I really can't believe all my friends are here. It's still hard to believe sometimes Takuya pondered to himself while he stirred the pasta around in his plate. Now that there here I wont have to feel alone anymore. He looked at the surrounding tables before his eyes met his fellow comrades.
"So this is where you're sitting?" JP wondered. He was behind Kouji and Kouichi and was ready to sit down and eat.
"Yeah… and what are you doing here, JP?" Takuya answered his question with a question.
"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to find a place to eat." With that, JP finally sat down along with the twins. His uniform was different from the Takuya's. He wore a burnt orange blazer over a white dress shirt with a black tie around his neck. He also had black slacks on and brown penny loafers.
Takuya processed the information JP gave him, "Yeah, but I thought since you' were a grade higher than us you would be in class instead of lunch."
"Well apparently I'm on lunch break. By the way did you guys know that they serve a bunch of different styles of food up here? They even have BBQ ribbed steak?"
The twins along with Takuya looked at JP with deadbeat expressions as they both replied, "Yeah" at the same time.
"Yeah, well I didn't till now… so yeah." to shut them up, he took a big bite of his steak.
"Hey guys!" Tomoki showed up next to the table in his little white dress shirt and black tie, with black slacks. Without his notorious brown puffy hat, he looked like a different kid.
"Hey Tommy!" the rest of the guys welcomed him to the table.
"Looks like everyone ones here." Tommy observed.
"Yeah… everyone except Zoe."
"Where the heck is that girl anyways?" JP mumbled with food in his mouth.
(Instant Background Music: She's Like the Wind, by Patrick Swayze)
On cue, the girl was making her way over to their table as she waved them down. The guys all waved back simultaneously as if she was one of the guys.
But with every step she took, heads were turning… especially young men with raging hormones.
"Hey! What's your name?"
"Can I have yo number? Can I have it?"
With all the cat calls and whistles being flung at her, Zoe was beginning to blush. She had never had this much attention drawn towards her before.
"Geez, I swear these guys up here act as if they've never seen a new girl before."
"Face it. She's fresh meat to these hyenas." Kouji quipped.
Zoe finally made it over to the guys in one piece. Her face was still slightly flushed.
"Hey guys."
"Hey Zoe!" everyone replied as she took a sea between Takuya and JP.
It was official. The gang had finally reunited. But even though, there was still an awkward silence between all of them.
"Ahem, I guess since we're all here we should go over our schedule." Kouichi suggested with a subtle cough.
"Well I'll say... I have some the worst teachers." JP complained before he took a huge sip from his jug of Coke.
"Really?"
"Yeah like my homeroom teacher is some old guy who hardly speaks to the class, yet he expects us to understand the stuff he's teaching. He even gave us a project that's due next week."
"Sorry to here that JP." Takuya remarked with sarcasm.
"Whatever. You could care less. Who's your homeroom teacher?" JP snapped.
"Oh… her names Ms. Avery."
"Ms-Ms. Avery? Y...You mean you have a female teacher?"
"Yeah and she's hot too!" Kouichi added while he twitched his eyebrows.
"You mean you guys all got the same class together and the teacher's hot?"
The four of them (Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, and Zoe) nodded.
"Damn my luck!"
"Anybody wants to hear how my day went?" Tommy said, hoping to get their attention considering he was always the overlooked one in any given situation.
"Sure…"
"Shoot."
"Well not much happened really. I like my teacher though." Tommy said, informing his friends, never to be heard from again.
"That's great Tommy." Takuya replied, just for the sake of speaking.
Before anything else happened, Zoe looked at her tray and realized she didn't have her most basic necessity: a napkin.
"Hey, can I borrow your napkin, Takuya?" she asked nicely as she waited for his response.
The brunette paused for a second before he answered. "uh… sure."
Zoe then took the napkin and folded it onto her lap.
Takuya in the meant time watched her almost as if he was admiring her. He remembered that "intimate" moment they shared a while back behind the alley in Shibuya. It was just the two of them. They might as well have confessed their love to each other he thought, yet, here she was acting as if none of it ever happened or was she just pretending it never happened. Takuya caught himself starring long enough until the others noticed.
"Dude... why are you starring at her like that?" Kouichi inquisitively asked.
Takuya instantly snapped back to earth. He glanced at the others and blush a crimson red.
"Oh heh-heh nothing. I was just… making sure she didn't… drop the napkin…"
Awkward silence commenced while JP starred the goggle-less boy with jealous dagger eyes. He quickly diverted the attention away from Takuya."Oh Zoe… would you like some of my food?"
"What's this JP? You? Sharing food?" Kouji outburst.
"My eyes deceive me!" Kouichi added.
"This cannot be!" Tommy said, adding to the hilarity of random outbursts.
"What? Is it wrong that I every so often feel generous enough to offer my food to others? Is it?"
The others were not buying it.
"That's ok JP. I have enough on my plate." Zoe said. She politely turned down JP's offer.
"I see…" JP felt slightly hurt.
Tommy quickly seized the opportunity, "Hey, can I have some of your dessert, JP?"
"Buzz off!"
-xxx-
After the dismal bell from lunch rang, the hall ways grew rowdy again with students roaming around to their next class. Shoes shuffled across the the clean tiled floors and students banged their innocent lockers shut, as if they were punishing the stupid thing for holding books for them.
"So what class do you have next?" Kouichi asked JP who was following alongside.
"I have Chemistry next… a boring class I might add-"
While JP vented about his next class, Takuya strolled beside Zoe starring at her, hoping she would make eye contact. For the most part she was facing the ground as if she were analyzing every single tile she stepped on for cracks.
Here they both were and not much as a single sentence has transpired between them except for earlier at the cafeteria.
"Are you ok?"
"Huh?" Zoe was almost started, "Oh… yeah. I'm fine."
"Well you haven't said much since you got here. You haven't said much to me."
Zoe's cheeks slightly blushed, "Well it has been quite a day, adjusting to this place and all."
She was right. Ever since she and the others got there, they never had much time to adjust from the lack of sleep and jet lag.
"Zoe… back then…" Takuya paused for a second, "Back at that alley… I meant to tell you something…"
He suddenly had Zoe attention now as her ears perked. It was her turn to be facing Takuya while he faced the floor. She slowly remembered the alley he was referring to on that fateful day.
"Hey what you guys talking about?" JP rudely interrupted, "You guys having your own conversation or something?"
"Actually, yes we were!" Takuya snapped.
"Oh really! Please share!"
Takuya was getting agitated. "It's not like I have to tell you or anything."
Suddenly, a young male approached Zoe.
"Soooo… what do they call you?"
"Huh?" Zoe was taken by surprise
"Oh I'm sorry. My names Erik. Please to meet you."
"Oh hahaha. Please to meet you." Zoe laughed nervously.
"Please. The pleasure is all mine." He fell to one knee and gently wrapped his hand around her arm. He then gently kissed the back of her soft hand.
In the meant time, both Takuya and JP were anger twitching.
"BUZZ OFF KID!"
The guy quickly walked off.
"Thanks guys." Zoe thanked her male friends in relief. She wasn't sure what was going on.
"No problem." Takuya and JP bragged, rolling their sleeves back down.
Down the hall, a there was a ruckus as students scampered to their lockers making room for what seemed to be a gang of mean girls. And not just any mean girls. These were the girls that would be deemed as the top of the food chain in a high school social status.
There were three of them, one walking in front and two walking side by side right behind the leader.
One of the girls walking on the side had had black flowing hair, piercing blue eyes, and tan white skin. The other girl next to the leader had gorgeous light brown hair, and hazel eyes with white skin that has seen the sun on regular bases. The lead girl who seemed to be the most prominent had curly blond hair and sea blue eyes with fair skin. They all walked with a commanding yet graceful pace while everyone marveled at their beauty and prowess
Two couples managed to stand in the way of the oncoming triple threat. The lead girl got in between them and pushed them aside with ease as if they were in her way. The girls on the sides aided her.
"Who are they?" Kouichi was the first to speak, holding his breath.
"Well...obviously... they must be the most popular girls in school." Kouji answered, with his infinite social wisdom.
"Oh crap, she's coming our way." JP said as he quickly held his hands up and stroke an award pose.
The gang stepped aside while the girls approached their direction.
The lead girl crudely eyed them, especially Zoe. She eyed Zoe one last time with an evil eye before she snapped her attention in front of her with a soundly "Hmmph!"
"What was that all about?" Zoe muttered, while the group of mean girls walked off. She was slightly worried for her sake.
"Yeah, it was like as if they were giving Zoe a dirty look with that death glare." Kouichi said, acknowledging the obvious.
JP stopped posing like a clown and resumed his composure, "Don't worry Zoe. There just jealous… and hot!"
The gang face palmed due to JP's remark. He was always a complete pervert.
The halls went back to normal and the school bell rang for next period.
"Man those girls show know how to make and entrance and exit" one random kid mumbled to his friend as they passed by Zoe and the gang.
-xxx-
(After school...)
After school was over, everyone returned home to their dorms for another day spent inside brick walls and unrelenting lectures. The school was beginning to pick up and soon there would be activities swarming the campus area.
"I can't wait for the soccer season to start." Takuya said aloud to his friends with his hands behind his head. Kouji, Kouichi and Zoe walked beside him.
Kouji wiped a quick smirk from his face due to the insult he was about to come up with, "So you really think you'll make the team?"
"Of course I will… I got a scholarship for it." Takuya defended himself. He then realized his friends never explained their journey to the school, "By the way, you guys never mentioned how you got accepted at this school."
The twins and Zoe looked at each other then back at the brunette with the sudden question.
"How else do you think, stupid? We applied like you did." Kouji replied.
"And we were lucky" Kouichi added with his eyebrows rising up and down to add comic humor.
"Oh I see… that makes sense...well anyways…" the soccer bound boy stepped back and wrapped his hands around the twins, "I'm just glad you guys are here."
"Get your hands off… no one is allowed to touch me." Kouji released himself from Takuya's grip.
Zoe watched as the guys acted like jerks towards each other. "I feel left out," she joked.
the guys turned their attention towards the blond. "Aw Zoe, we didn't forget you." The guys proceed to give her a group hug with evil grins.
"That's ok…" Zoe laughed nervously as she stepped aside, "I got to go anyway. My dorm is right here."
They stopped in front of an open gate with girls walking to a prestigious building the size of a castle, just like the boys dorm.
She walked towards the gate and waved at the guys. "Bye guys! See you all tomorr-"she accidentally tripped over the small steps. When she realized her blunder, she quickly rose to her feet to dust herself off. She then turned around and gave the guys a thumbs up. "I'm ok!" She then walked down the road to the front door with her hands swinging back and forth in an elaborate fashion.
"Sometimes I worry about her." Kouji muttered, with folded arms. The other two sweat dropped.
"So do you still have a crush on her?" Kouichi asked, diverting the situation on Takuya. It was so sudden and unexpected that the boy began to babble and turn bright red in the cheeks.
"W-What? W-Why would say such a thing…huh."
"Oh don't play dumb with us, Takuya. We've known that you've had the hugest crush on her throughout middle school back at home." Kouji reminded him, waving a defiant finger at him.
"Well yeah, That was months ago, and it's not like I like her, like her. I mean she was... she is cute…"
"Ahaa! He admits it!" Kouichi outburst.
"W-What? No! All I said is she's OK to look at, and-" Takuya attempted to clean up his mess and fill the hole he was digging himself in.
"No, CORRECTION! You said she was 'CUTE'." Kouji corrected.
"Yeah, but… gah, there's no winning with you guys…"Takuya sulked, turning away in dismay.
-xxx-
(While the guys were arguing…)
I'm such a cluts sometimes, Zoe thought to herself tucking a strand of her blond hair behind her ear. She walked towards the front door to the dorm building, looking back one last time to see if Takuya and friends were still there. Apparently they still were and it looked like they were arguing over something. Perhaps it was guy stuff like who was more athletic or had the most peach fuzz.
She walked down the long hallway on the maroon carpet towards the golden elevator. Once she was inside she punched the second floor followed by elevator music.
As soon as the doors opened, the rowdy sounds of girls giggling, chatting, and running from room to room could be heard. Some girls watched her as she walked past them, as if they had never seen another human being before. She finally stood in front of the door to her room 224.
She walked in and closed the door behind her and took her burnt orange blazer jacket off and sat on the bed with her legs crossed. She gazed out the window towards the sky and the guy's dorm that was a few blocks away.
" *Sigh* I need some roommates."
(Ending Song: Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton)
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: It looks like Zoe is alone in her dorm room, but I plan to change that in the next chapter or so, and it looks like she already made herself an enemy (DUNH! DUNH!)
Also, Valentine's Day is around the corner. I usually dedicate a one shot for the occasion but I guess this time I'll just write a chapter instead. I have a lot of catching up to do.
Patrick Swayze - She's Like The Wind