Disclaimer: Check out XxSanitariumxX and his stories, because this story (and this chapter, specifically) is based off of Exchange Student. As such, I own nothing and no one but the first-person.
Question: Did anyone catch the not-so-subtle irony in the last chapter? There's a hint at the end of this chapter, if you're having trouble.
I updated Dragons' Legacy a couple days ago, with a triple-length update. And now that I have Super Meat Boy, I may slow down in my writing...but I won't stop, that I promise. I now know of two consistent readers (Comrade, the random guy), which is cool.
The clock never went slower than it did that period. Every other class was interesting somehow, but first period was math, and the only person I knew in the whole class was Eli. Not that it mattered; the teacher was strict about silence. It would've been more interesting had Pete been in the class, so I could mess with him about Miyu. Even if it got me put into another locker, I figured it'd be worth it, to get out of the class.
Still, the class eventually ended, and I was one of the first out the door when it did. The teacher was still saying something about homework, but I ignored it. Not like I need a good grade, anyway. After a bathroom break, I managed to get into Ms. Kensington's class without a problem. When I got there, I found that the door was open, but no one was inside but the teacher. I weighed my options for a whole two seconds before deciding to wait in the hallways and risk more drama rather than spending even a minute alone with Ms. Kensington.
But the drama never came. The wait was actually pretty boring, until Relics showed up. He was still carrying the guitar and amp, which earned him quite a few looks as he passed others in the hallway. I nodded toward him, before entering the classroom just ahead of him.
"Oh, hello," the teacher said. "...Ditto, was it?"
"Yeah," I replied, before making my way to my seat. As soon as she spied Relics and his guitar, she forgot about me anyway.
"Hello, Relics!" she exclaimed, standing. "Is that the...guitar?"
"Well, this is," relics said, holding up the guitar case and setting the amplifier down.
"It's so strange," she said, looking closer.
"You've never seen one before?" I asked. She turned to me and shook her head.
"Is it something you tap, like a drum?" she asked, turning to the guitar case again. I saw the look on Relics' face, and almost busted out laughing. I don't need Krystal to know what he's thinking. Something about "tapping" the school's easiest teacher, I'll bet.
"N-no," Relics said, coming back to reality, "not at all." He set the case down on a nearby desk and opened it, pulling out the red electric guitar. I let out a low whistle; I wasn't all that impressed, but it was very shiny. Ignoring the thoughts that told me I was simple, I took in the design, which somehow reminded me of the Star Fox emblem; it was a winged fox. Ms. Kensington, fortunately, was interested in the guitar for a different reason.
"Wow," she whispered. "It's amazing. Do you mind if I...?"
"Go ahead," Relics said with a smile, handing it to her. She took the guitar and held it like you'd expect, even though she'd never seen one before. Rather than strumming it, she was running her fingers up and down it, almost reverently.
"What are these things?" she asked, stroking one of the strings.
"Those are the strings," he said, and I resisted the urge to comment on the obvious statement. Insult me for being distracted by the shine, but at least I know a string when I see one. Relics continued, "You're supposed to strum them, like this." He plucked a string, but the bell rang, drowning out the sound.
"Dude!" Bill shouted from behind Relics. He visibly jumped, and I didn't bother trying not to laugh. "What is that?" Bill asked.
"It's a guitar," Relics said, putting a hand over his heart. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Few minutes now," an orange feline said, startling Relics again. I laughed more, but nobody noticed.
"Alright, everyone, take your seats," Ms. Kensington said, handing Relics his guitar again. "Except you, Relics." I saw his head hang slightly, and I couldn't help but smile. His frustration, after all, was funny. The teacher only continued once everyone was seated. "Now, Relics agreed to play us something on his...guitar..." she began, still having trouble with the word. Relics' head snapped toward her in surprise. "...yesterday." Relics' head hung again as he mentally kicked himself. She continued. "And if I hear so much as one remark, I'll give you the longest wall sit of your life! And we'll use you as target practice," she warned, glaring at Bill and Falco. She turned toward Relics again with an avian smile. "Whenever you're ready, Relics."
He nodded and set his guitar in the open case, which clearly confused the swan. "I just have to set it up real quick," he explained, before moving to the amplifier. Without plugging it into anything, he messed around with it for a bit before taking the guitar back out of its case and plugging it in.
"Now, I might still have a bit of a hangover from last night," Relics began, sitting on a stool in the front of the room.
"You're welcome!" Bill shouted. I turned to him with a smirk.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. Relics didn't even pay attention to Bill, still talking to the rest of the class.
"I made him meet Lana," Bill said. "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have gone on that date."
"And he wouldn't have been attacked by Wolf," I reminded him. "Or have a hangover right now."
"Oh, just go and ruin everything, why don't you?" he asked, crossing his arms.
"...song called 'Hotel California'," Relics said, "by a band that lived over seven hundred years ago called the Eagles."
"Seven hundred years?!" I asked, clutching my chest like I was having a heart attack. I knew it was a long time in the future, but to hear just how much still came as a surprise. Like everyone else who said something in that moment, I went ignored. Relics nervously positioned his hands to play the first note.
"You got this!" I cheered. Relics chuckled, but Ms. Kensington stared daggers at me. I shut my mouth and looked down guiltily.
Relics took a deep breath to steady himself, and the first notes exploded from the amp. I recognized it after the first few notes, once my ears got used to the volume, and I started bobbing my head to the beat. His fingers glided across the strings like someone who knew what they were doing, and while he didn't do anything over-the-top or with flair, he didn't miss a single note. For almost a minute, I sat with my eyes closed, nodding to the music. I heard the first verse coming up, and took a breath to sing along quietly, but right as I mouthed the first word, the music stopped abruptly. My eyes flashed open, and I saw Relics standing at the front of the room like he'd been caught robbing a bank.
His face went from pale, to pink, to red, and his leg started to shake, as if it had a mind of its own. I looked around the class, and noticed that everyone else's jaw was hanging. Good grief, I thought. It's not like he just performed sorcery; he just played a guitar. Of course, I had to admit that I couldn't play any instrument half that well, but I shrugged that thought off.
"That was...awesome!" Bill finally shouted. Relics shied away like he'd been insulted, until it dawned on him that he'd been complimented.
"I-I...th-thanks, Bill..." Relics managed.
"No, man, thank you. I've never heard anything like that!"
"The radio?" I asked sarcastically. A pen suddenly hit me square between the eyes.
"That's enough, Ditto," Ms. Kensington said. She turned to Relics. "That was quite uplifting, Relics. Please, if you would play for us some more?"
"Alright, alright," he said, smiling broadly. Apparently his nervousness had disappeared completely. "This one is a riff from a song called 'Dream On', written around the same time as the last one by a band named Aerosmith. Now, how did it go again...? Oh, yeah," he said, before jumping right into the song. He played it through perfectly again, not missing a single note. But once he got to the part with the words, he abruptly stopped again. At least nobody else seemed to notice the lack of singing, and frankly, that was fine with me. I knew how nervous singing made him, after all.
"Dude! Dude!" Bill exclaimed. He was apparently one of the only ones who could overcome his amazement to say anything. "More, man! And turn it up!"
"Okay, Bill. Just calm down. Now, this one is a riff from –" he began, when the orange feline from the beginning of class raised a hand. "Yes?" he said, pointing to her.
"Um...sorry...I was just wondering...do any of the songs have lyrics?" she asked shyly. Relics let out a frustrated sigh, but nobody else seemed to notice.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Both of the riffs I played have more to them, and lyrics."
"Well..." she began, laying her ears back and scratching her desk idly, "could you maybe...I mean, you don't have to, of course. But...uh..."
"You want me to sing one?" Relics asked. The feline nodded happily, and the smile Relics plastered onto his face couldn't fool a drunken porcupine. "Well, I could, but –"
"Do it!" Bill shouted suddenly.
"Okay, Bill, I'll –" Relics began, before realizing what he was saying. "Wait, I don't have a very good singing voice. And I'd hate to ruin any songs or –"
"We're not going to laugh, Relics. Ms. Kensington will spay, neuter, or castrate anyone who even snickers. Even her favorite student," Bill said, pointing a thumb toward himself. Half the class snickered, and Ms. Kensington herself muttered something under her breath.
"Still...I really don't –" Relics began, before seeing Bill, who was staring with the best semblance of puppy eyes he could. The whole scene made me struggle to cover up a laugh. Relics sighed deeply. "Alright, fine, Bill. One song!"
"Fuck yeah!" Bill shouted at the top of his lungs. Both Ms. Kensington and I shot a glare at him, which made him try to calm down. "Crank it up, Relics."
Here we go, I thought as Relics' hand went to the volume control. It ticked up twice, from five to seven, and he plucked a single string. The note shot out from the amplifier and filled the room, and probably a few of the surrounding rooms.
"Louder!" Falco shouted.
"Alright, if you want louder..." Relics said, turning it up yet again.
"We won't be able to hear his voice," I commented. I was completely ignored, but at least no more pens were thrown my way. Relics looked over the class proudly, taking in the sight of a classroom full of eager students.
"Okay, this is 'Coming Undone', by a band called Korn. Once again, they lived over seven hundred years ago."
Relics put his fingers in place to play the first notes, and then looked over the class once more. He swallowed hard, and then looked back at his guitar. Without warning, he struck the first note, sending some of the class back in surprise at the sudden noise. Bill shot to his feet and started cheering like someone at a concert. As Relics played, he managed not to miss a single note yet again, and I found myself actually getting into the music. He didn't take his eyes off of the guitar the whole time, so engrossed in making the song as perfect as possible.
And then the singing started. Rather than stopping abruptly like he had the first two times, he continued playing, and his voice rang out with surprising clarity, considering how loud the amp was. His voice wasn't bad, by any means, and while he probably wouldn't be able to make money doing it, he definitely didn't ruin the song. I wasn't all too concerned about his skill anyway; I'd never heard the song before, so I was more concerned with listening to the lyrics, and trying to understand the meaning behind them. Call it a weakness, I thought with a chuckle.
"Keep holding on, while my brains ticking like a bomb, guess the black dots have come again to get me," Relics sang, appeasing the class. As he prepared for the next line, Bill started clapping to the rhythm, and before long, most of the class had joined. I continued to sit calmly in my own desk, but I found myself bobbing my head again.
"Sweet little words, unlike nothing I have heard, sing along mockingbird, you don't affect me," Relics continued. By the time he finished the line, the entire class, save me, was on their feet clapping to the beat. I noticed a few students in the hallway watching, too, and some students were very obviously recording the whole thing. If he wasn't a celebrity before, he is now, I thought.
Relics continued to sing the song, getting into it more and more as he continued to go. The nervousness left his voice by the middle of the song, and after that, even I had to admit, he was pretty good. Pretty soon entire classrooms were standing in the hallway, their teachers disrupted by the miniature concert but too interested to demand its finish.
"That's right! Deliver it to my heart! Please strike! Be deliberate..." he sang, holding the last note until it dwindled almost to nothing. A few students leaned forward in anticipation. Before I could wonder why the song ended so early, he blasted another chord from the amp, sending those who had leaned forward to the back of their seats. Relics broke into the chorus, and he finally stopped caring about anything but the song. About time, I thought. At least he wasn't cowering up front like a lost puppy anymore. The change didn't affect the music much, since he'd already missed a total of zero notes, but now that he was taking the song seriously, it was easier for anyone else to. And since I was the only one who hadn't been completely caught up in the song, it only really affected me. So, not two beats later, I started to clap, too.
Relics continued to play through the song, leaning back and forth to the beat like he was barely resisting the urge to bang his head. Most of the rest of the class wasn't resisting that urge, and even I started rocking side to side like someone who just had to dance but didn't know how. Thankfully, nobody got out of their seats to turn it into a dancing competition. At some point, Relics stood up, the energy in the room getting to him, too. Even in his own excitement, his skill and rhythm didn't change at all. When he finally got to the end of the song, he dramatically played every one of the last notes, banging his head at each strum across the guitar's strings. And I banged my head at the same time he did.
He hit the last note without even a slight error, and held the note until the room became completely silent. I finally noticed that I was the last one clapping, and let my hands fall to my sides. He had played through the entire song without missing a note or a word, and it had blown away the rest of the class. After a few moments, he glanced up and looked around at the awestruck crowd. The rock star that had played a few moments ago had been replaced with the trembling kitten again, and he abruptly looked out the door like he was about to be sick.
And then everybody started clapping again. It wasn't something uncertain, where one person starts it, and everyone else joins slowly; it was a wave of applause that took both me and Relics by complete surprise. Relics looked around, getting redder and redder and quietly thanking his audience, while I joined in the applause after some hesitation. The students and even teachers in the hallway were applauding as well, and it took Ms. Kensington a full five minutes just to get it quiet enough to restore order. During that time, I wondered why she didn't throw more pens with her uncanny aim, but I didn't think she had enough to waste on the students. They were good pens, too; I decided to keep the one she'd thrown at me.
"Well," she sighed once she finally quieted the classroom down and shut the door, "thank you, Relics. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say, I've never hear anything so amazing in my life."
"Fuck yeah, you do!" Bill shouted. Similar exclamations were being made all over the room.
Y'all some lyin' little punks, I thought with a snicker. It certainly hadn't been bad, but the best she'd ever heard? I very seriously doubted that.
"Well...I'm glad you all enjoyed..." Relics began, distracted by the people just outside the room. He waved at them nervously without finishing his statement.
"I suppose we should move on to the lesson at hand," Ms. Kensington said, and Relics sighed. He started to turn everything off and put it all away, while the teacher continued talking. "Feel free to bring it in anytime, Relics." Before he could finish packing up and get back to his seat, she leaned toward him and whispered something right into his ear, and by Relics' wide-eyed reaction, I knew what sort of thing she'd said.
No wonder everyone knows she's the easiest teacher, I thought as Relics made his way to an empty seat without paying attention to anything. Suddenly, I was struck by an odd thought. What if Ms. Kensington, Melina, and Melissa were all going for the same guy? I wondered, snickering again. I had to stop my snicker from growing when I realized that, in fact, they were.
"Dude," I said once Relics sat down, "you looked like you were about to piss yourself."
"I didn't?" he asked with a laugh.
"Nah, but I think you came pretty close. If nobody was in the halls, you'd have dipped."
"Dipped?" he asked, apparently humored.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, "make fun of my words some other day."
"So, it really wasn't bad?" he asked. The nervousness was leaving, but slowly. And Ms. Kensington hadn't helped.
"Calm down. You handled it really well, considering how little warning you had. And it's a good thing; I bet half of Corneria already knows about it."
"What?" he asked. "They recorded it?"
"Of course they did. 'The human did something, we must make it known'," I mocked in my best robot-voice. Of course, the voice didn't really fit the situation, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
"Excuse me," Ms. Kensington asked when she finally noticing us speaking, "would you like to share your conversation with the class?"
"Response: Negative," I said, continuing the robot voice. I got one or two soft laughs, but the teacher didn't find it funny in the slightest. "Sorry," I said quickly, hiding my smirk.
"That's two," she warned, holding up two fingers (or feathers, I didn't know which). Many of the other students, including Bill, let out an "Ooh," like I'd gotten in serious trouble. I blanched and folded my hands, staring nervously at her. She continued teaching, and I let out a breath that I hadn't remembered holding. Only I could piss off the most "friendly" teacher in the school on the second day, I thought.
A/N: Well, I finished this a couple of days ago, so here it is. That makes fourteen chapters. I'm encountering what seems to be a plot hole: in Exchange Student, it says that lunch is between 2nd and 3rd period on Mondays only, but Relics goes to lunch before P.E. on the second day (they play dodgeball). I'll just assume that it's the normal schedule, as opposed to Mondays only.
That being said, Fox and Krystal will meet in the next chapter, for lunch. Will Ditto play the part of a jealous boyfriend, despite their relationship being exaggerated to everyone but themselves? Will Fox even give her a second glance? Or will Miyu suddenly be unfriendly toward Krystal when she sees how Fox acts toward her? I really have no clue how I'll handle it, so stick around for a bit.
Question Hint: Chapter 13's title is related to it.
Also, shout out to XxSanitariumxX, should he be reading this himself. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Comrade: Well, Miranda may or may not still be following him. I mean, she does still have missions to do. But Ditto is a wild card, so I can't be sure Sharp will continue to leave him alone. And here's an interesting thought: that thing that happens to Lana (you know if you need to), happens tonight. Ditto will have to move the arwing, or risk the "bad guys" finding it first. And that would be very bad. It could affect what happens to everyone, and Relics might not succeed.