Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this every time? I own nothing below, besides the first-person. If XxSanitariumxX doesn't claim it, then the StarFox people do. If neither of them do, then it's free reign.
First day of school, I thought as Joanne dropped all three of us off in front of the school. Because I loved this day the first time. Joanne gave each of her children a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and even though I tried to worm out of it (again, no pun intended), she included me in the display. I wasn't even a foster child; I was an anomaly, as far as she should've known. But I guess Isaac only told her that I needed a home, and she now considered me one of hers. And even I consider that weird.
The scaly, lizard like girl I hadn't yet met, Katherine, left us to go find her friends from last year without a word, and I turned to Michael.
"Let's do this," I said, trying to sound at least a little cool. He rolled his eyes and trudged into the building without me. "Or not," I finished.
"Hey, Ditto!" someone called. I turned around, surprised to find a friend of Colin's.
"Hey, Eli," I said, high-fiving him. The smallish brown hawk was about my age, but why he hung out with Colin, I didn't know. The feathers on the back of his head were always pointing back, which made it look like he had spiked hair, and his outfit matched his mottled brown feathers pretty well.
"I shoulda known you'd be here," he said.
"Yeah," I agreed. It wasn't exactly a secret that the humans were both going to this school. He'd have to be oblivious to both the news and his own friends to not know.
"So, you nervous?" he asked. I tried to hide a laugh.
"No, no I'm not."
"How come?" he asked when I started toward the school.
"What could go wrong?" I asked. I wasn't about to tell him that this was my second "first day" of high school. Not to mention, all of the other students were looking at me like I was about to bite off their heads.
"Well, a senior could catch you and bully you. Or you could get trash-canned."
"I doubt that," I replied. On my first time doing this, I'd been concerned about those things, but when nothing had gone wrong, I stopped worrying. I was only wondering how to get around the school, so I was approaching a bulletin board near the front of the building, where other students were gathered. I'd assumed that I'd find my schedule on it, and if not, maybe a map.
"I don't know," Eli said, ruffling his feathers uncertainly. "My brother went here, and he said –"
"Your brother deserved everything he got," I told him, recalling everything that he'd told me. "He was an idiot to bully the bullies."
"Hey, it wasn't that bad of a plan. You show the school who's the top dog, and nobody messes with you."
"Except that he wasn't," I countered. I was tempted to comment about his "top dog" statement, but I decided not to when I finally reached the bulletin board. It hadn't been too difficult, what with everyone treating me like I had some kind of disease, but a few of the students were stubborn. "Great, it's all in Cornerian."
"Of course it is," he replied, coming up beside me. While trying to get my translator to bring up its window, he placed his against a curved metal plate near the bottom of the board. After a few seconds of a slight humming sound, he brought it back, and after pushing a few buttons, brought up a holographic map of the school. I saw three separate buildings, each of a different size, but I couldn't read the labels on any of them.
"Oh," I said, before doing what he'd done with my translator. For some reason, it didn't even ask for a name. Even though it was borrowed, I found my name in greenish holographic letters staring at me once I brought up my schedule. He looked over my schedule, too, but he couldn't figure out much from the English symbols. Fortunately, I had the exact classes I'd asked for a week ago when I'd appeared I this universe. They were all simple, and it wouldn't be a problem to get through them. Except maybe third period Biology, I thought. Do they even teach about human biology?
"Hey, guys, quit it!" I heard from nearby. I know that voice, I thought. I turned toward it, and saw a green frog being harassed by a pair of bullies. Slippy Toad, I thought, watching the short frog trying to get back a small device, which the other two were tossing back and forth. It was a game of monkey-in-the-middle, which I thought was somewhat ironic, seeing as how one of the bullies was a monkey.
"Come on, cut it out!" Slippy said. He tried to jump up and catch it, but the monkey pushed him back down by the head before tossing the device to his ally, an average-sized white bird. I took a step toward them to help him, but Eli saw where I was headed and stepped in my way.
"That's exactly the kind of stuff we avoid," he told me. I was about to push him aside and continue when a blue-feathered bird showed up.
"So what's going on here?" he asked, cracking his neck. And there's Falco Lombardi.
"You," the white bird said, scowling.
"Oops," the monkey said, tossing the communicator to the white bird before high-tailing it out of there. Slippy jumped up and grabbed it out of the air, putting it back on his arm.
"This was getting boring anyway," the bird said, shrugging and walking away. Slippy tried to give Falco a high-five, but he just stared at him with his arms folded.
"I'm always gettin' you out of trouble, aren't I?" he asked. I pushed Eli out of the way and approached him, despite Eli's warnings.
"That was smooth," I said. Falco and Slippy both turned toward me uncertainly.
"And who are you?" Falco asked without uncrossing his arms.
"Impressed," I said, offering a hand for him to shake. He didn't budge. "I'm Ditto," I added before the situation got awkward.
"And what do you want?" he asked, finally letting his arms fall to his sides. I did the same.
"I was going to help Slippy back there," I said.
"Don't worry about it. I've got his back," Falco replied. He finally stopped looking at me like I was the enemy. It's a start, I thought.
"I've been wanting to meet someone," I said.
"Really? Who?" Slippy asked. I realized once more just how short he was.
"I was told you could introduce me to a certain...Fox."
"And just why would we do that?" Falco asked, leaning against the side of the building.
"That..." I began. I couldn't think of a reason. "...is a good question."
"What, are you a fan of his dad's? You think you can get an autograph or something?" Falco asked.
"No. I just wanted to meet him, is all."
"Alright," Slippy said, "he'll be here soon. You can wait with us." I could see Falco resist the urge to slap his forehead.
"Thanks," I said, watching Falco. Whenever I'd played the games, which already seemed like so long ago, I'd always played as him when possible. He was hands-down the best in the air, and for some reason, I liked the fact that he was the cockiest one there. He was probably my favorite character on the team, if you didn't count Krystal.
Krystal, I thought. She would probably be on her home planet right now (wherever that was), and it would be years before anything bad happened on Sauria to bring her there. Of course, I didn't know much about her or her home planet, but that wasn't as important to me. I knew in the back of my mind that meeting her would be impossible, but I still couldn't help but to want to.
Yeah, I knew that according to most people, including me, she was fox's girl. I mean, it wasn't exactly canonical, but the games I'd played had hinted at it more than once. And I'd heard that in Command, you can have a romantic ending between those two. But I'd never played the game, and even if its events would eventually happen in this universe, it wouldn't be for quite a few years.
My imaginings were interrupted by a slight commotion behind me. I turned around, and saw him. Fox "Relics" McCloud. White hair, pale white skin, and a collar around his neck that he hoped to disguise as a fashion statement. The only other human on the planet, probably in the whole system. And instead of approaching him, I ducked behind the bulletin board.
"What's up?" Falco asked.
"As much as I'm sure he would appreciate seeing another human," I said, gesturing toward him with my head, "I don't really want to break the universe."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Falco asked.
"I can hear you, you know?" the kid asked. Crap. Super-hearing. I forgot, I thought, before stepping out from my poor hiding place. What kind of repercussions will this have on the story? Will I change him? Will I affect everyone else?
"What're you doing here?" he asked, continuing into the school. I hurried to catch up, assuming he wanted to talk.
"That's a great question."
"I didn't know Earth was sending other humans here," he said. He didn't really seem like the type to talk that much, judging by the way he tried to keep his eyes down.
"Me neither," I said. He couldn't have known what I was talking about, so I tried to make more sense. "I came here on my own. Call me a...freelancer."
"Hmm...let me tell you, it's good to see another human. It's weird walking around with all of these...things."
"I don't know. I don't mind them that much. I mean, it's not like they bite."
"Not you," he scoffed. I knew exactly what he meant, but I figured pursuing the topic would be less suspicious.
"What do you –"
"Ditto!" someone shouted. I stopped and looked toward the commotion. Eli was being shoved into a locker by some kids much bigger than I was, a goat and a bull. I stole a glance down my sleeve at my wrist and the glowing mark there, before approaching the troublemakers.
"Is there something wrong?" I asked. The two bullies stopped what they were doing and turned toward me. Eli thankfully used that opportunity to scramble away.
"You ought to mind your business," one of the two said, stepping toward me threateningly. Now, I'm not the kind of person to start fights. Normally, I'm smart enough to avoid them. But where that fails, I take the coward's way out. By the time the bullies started chasing me, I was already rounding a corner.
The only thing going through my mind other than Get away, get away, get away, was a string of obscenities. As I said, I can't fight. And since they started chasing me, they were apparently mad enough to actually hurt me. I heard my inner voice laughing at me for running away from kids who were probably not even my age, but I ignored it. Okay, Relics left. Fox isn't here yet. Falco could care less about me. Slippy and Eli are wimps. I'm on my own.
I edited the story heavily on 3/13/2013, removing many details about dream-points or self-insertion. For now, assume that the first-person is NOT actually me. Just because he may or may not do what I would do in that circumstance, he can grow and change in ways that I wouldn't be able to. Like becoming more athletic, or gaining a morbid fear of spiders.