The uniform fit perfectly when I put it on for the first time. I took a glance at the alarm clock in the hotel room and realized I was already running late the first day of school. So swiftly I stuffed my face with some pop tarts, grabbed my backpack and ran out the door. I met up with my instructor at the lobby all pumped up and ready for the long awaited day I was going to experience, my first day of school. But she looked at me disapprovingly at the first glance she took at me. She walked up and fixed my crooked ribbon, hair and sleeves. I giggled faintly to lighten the mood but I got a scowl instead from my instructor, when she finished she signaled me to the door. Outside there was a limousine and a guy standing next to the passenger's seat door, holding it open for us. With a gesture I said thank you and went in looking at every detail of the limousine, I mean it was my first time being in one.
-"Stop looking so out of place, that guise you have right now will make people not want to talk to you or will make them look down to you. Remember you are going to an upper class school, act like you have confidence but not too much…. Are you listening?" My instructor patted my shoulder with concern and sighed.
-"Perdón es que estoy nerviosa y – (Sorry it's that i'm nervous and-)
-"No Spanish! They can't listen to you speak in Spanish, you may talk in English but that's all." She warned with a grave expression, I knew I was making her very stressed so I decided to not talk back. Soon afterwards we drove up to an academy swarming with students chatting, studying on the sidewalk, laughing, flirting the way rich people do and getting escorted out of their luxurious cars. I too was escorted out of the limousine and instantly countless of their gazes turned towards me. Of course my face turned a bright red; I looked away and said goodbye to my instructor.
-"Look for the principal's son Tamaki Suoh after school because that's who you are going to stay with for the first week.'' Her expression softened and she smiled –"Hope this experience is a great one, life is huge adventure. Have fun during it." And with that she drove away. I took a big breath and headed in hoping for the best.
'Class 1-D, class 1-D, class 1-D' I kept thinking as I tried to look for my classroom. But it seemed hopeless… until I saw that there were signs at the corner of each hallway. So I quickly sprinted towards the first year's hallway, and to my luck I walked in my schoolroom before the bell rang. The teacher saw me enter in the corner of his eye and welcomed me.
-"Class, this is the new transfer student I was talking about a few days ago. Please make her feel welcome; she has come a long ways just to attend to our academy." It was sort of hard to catch up on his weird accent but I still caught on. I smiled and courteously bowed as I presented myself.
-"Nice to meet you. My name is Ro- … Tenorio Rosalie." In the middle of my introduction I remembered that I had messed up with Ritsu yesterday and corrected myself in mid-sentence. Luckily no one seemed to notice my slip-up.
-"There's an open seat at row number three, back two." The teacher advised, I nodded and paced over to the empty seat, I tried to hurry because the whole room was watching me. I could perceive them whispering about my hair and how I looked so different. Then the teacher started reviewing yesterday's lesson. Suddenly I felt someone tap my right shoulder and to my surprise Ritsu was sitting to my right. He gave me a quick hello and went back to paying attention.
-"Because all the first years are doing the same Geography project, all the teachers have decided that Class 1-D will be split in three and joined with the other three first year classes for bigger groups. Bigger groups means better efficacy and for you to meet some new people." Everybody in the room looked as if they were about to jump right out of their chairs in excitement. –"You will have three days to complete this assignment, depending to the classroom you are assigned the project will vary." The teacher continued as he walked to the side of his desk with a roster in hand. The class in reply grabbed their backpacks and stood up. The teacher cleared his throat before announcing the groups.
-"A-H goes to class 1-C, I-Q goes to class 1-B and R-Z goes to class 1-A. And to mix it up a little this will be with the letters of your first names, not your last like we always do. Please report to your corresponding classroom and try not to give the other teachers too much trouble. I do warn you I will be assessing your behavior." With that everybody raced out of the classroom and into their new assigned schoolroom. 'Great now I got to find class 1-A' I thought as I picked up my stuff, sluggishly. Suddenly when I looked up two girls were staring at me eagerly like they wanted to get some money out of me. Politely I smiled and asked how they were, in response they tittered at what I think was my thick accent.
-"I'm Abarai Reiko." A short, black haired girl blurted out and then hide her face within her books.
-"Name's Renge, wanna walk with us to class 1-A?" Another girl offered. She had shoulder length orange hair and brown eyes; she was a tad bit taller than the other shy girl. They seemed quite impelled about me being in their assigned classroom, so I didn't have the heart to let them down, plus I wanted to make friends as soon as possible.
-"Sure! I'd be delighted to accompany you to the classroom." I responded trying to sound as well-bred as I could, I hear Japanese can get really offended if you're not careful… Both of the girls giggled and told me I didn't need to be that polite as they ran out of the classroom. Somehow I felt like I was missing something as I tried to catch up to them, for some reason their giggles over power me yelling them to wait up. So eventually I gave up and traced my steps to see if maybe I had dropped something on my way. Few moments later I saw that I had dropped locket that had the pictures of my friends that were back at Mexico. Rapidly I picked it up and sprinted towards class 1-A, but I wasn't looking up because I was trying to put on my locket. And bumped into somebody's sturdy, fairly muscular back.
-"I'm really sorry! I wasn't paying attention and-" I paused as I saw that the person I had bounced off of was actually Ritsu. He glanced back at me with the furthermost menacing appearance I had ever seen in my life. But noticing it was me, his look softened and his scowl became a small curb around his lips.
-"Don't you have the tendency of bumping into people." He teased as he fully turned towards me.
-"Heh, yeah… Hey! What classroom did you get?" I questioned trying to change the subject as we started walking again.
-"Same as you, both of our names start with R." I felt like an idiot when he stated the obvious with his patronizing tone. Smiling and laughing faintly I tried to think of something different to talk about, but the moment I opened my mouth I heard my name being shrieked.
-"There you are! Haha we were looking all over for you Rosa-chan. Come on we don't want to be late!" Before I knew it I was being dragged along the hallway, into the classroom by Renge and Reiko.
-"You're new and obviously don't know this, but you should stay away from Kasanoda. He's the son of the biggest gangster in Japan; we both are concerned for your well-being so please refrain from interacting with him. Unless one day you want to wake up with a bullet in your chest." Renge's bluntness surprised me but obviously she was being absolutely serious and this wasn't a joke. I smiled faintly and was kind of getting freaked out by her remark. But he seemed like a good guy in my point of view, so I just brushed it off. So I tried to change the subject which proved effective, these girls were quite nice but in a way in their own world… if that makes sense. Our conversation was interrupted by the teacher asking us to quiet down so she could give us our instructions. I quietly stood there and listened to all the guidelines the teacher had to point out.
-"Now please listen carefully for the teams." The teacher went so fast I barely caught up when she was having trouble pronouncing my name. –"Ro-Rosa- Rosalie Tenorio, Hikaru Hitachiin, Kaoru Hitachiin, Haruhi Fujiouka and Ritsu Kasanoda will be team 5." After that I got lost completely again, but I was happy that I had someone in my team that I knew. When the teacher finished listing the teams she explained that when the teams got together, she would come and hand us the paper with the assignment. I desperately tried to find Ritsu in all the mob of people, but had no luck. Instead I unexpectedly got pulled and sat in a chair.
-"Guess who's in your team?!" The Hitachiin brothers exclaimed proudly as they sat down next to a familiar face.
-"Hey! It's awesome how you got to be in our team." Haruhi said in an easy-going tone, she smiled and tried to make me feel welcome. I glanced at the Hitachiin twins just to see them gazing into my eyes, I looked away but could feel their gaze piercing me.
-"Take a picture, it'll last longer." I mumbled under my breath in English hoping they wouldn't understand.
-"Hey she's right! Kaoru get your camera, hurry!" Hikaru called while he moved my head trying to look for the perfect pose for the picture. Haruhi started scolding them but they wouldn't listen, and out of nowhere I felt a sudden bloodlust coming from behind me. I dared not to see was causing such feeling, but by the expressions of the twins it was someone they knew.
-"What are you doing? Don't pick on the new kid." I heard Ritsu warn them in such way a shiver went up my spine.
-"No, no it's ok. They were just joking-" I turned to the Hikaru and Kaoru who were nodding and smiling nervously. –"Hey! You're in our team, that's great!" I stammered as I opened a seat next to me for him to sit. I thought about what Renge told me not a few moments ago, but I wanted to give him a chance before I could judge him. The teacher approached us and stared at our group, in a … well not a nice way.
-"Ahem well here's your paper, please follow directions to the letter." She glared at the twins –"And please don't cause trouble, no fights, no mischievous actions and please treat our new student with respect." This time she scowled at Ritsu too, then fake smiled at me. I could tell she had a stressful life having to babysit the Hitachiin brothers.
-"Hey! This is perfect for you Rosalie, we basically have to make a map of the whole school and have a census for every room we visit. You'll get a tour while we do our project." Haruhi said cheerfully, showing me the paper. In response I joyfully nodded and started thinking of some ideas how to decorate and in the process the twins gave some ideas also.
-"Well let's go do this building today and the other two buildings tomorrow and-
-"The day after that!" Both brothers yelled as they sprinted out of the classroom, Haruhi and I chuckled as we grabbed some school supplies. We had started sprinting after them but I stopped remembering Ritsu was still in the classroom. I turned around, signaled him to follow and ran out.
The whole time we were joking around, getting shushed by either the teachers or Haruhi, played some pranks along the way but did our work correctly… Well partly because Haruhi and Ritsu had this scowling face when we tried to hurry. When I mean 'we', I mean the twins and I. Mostly though, Haruhi does have a sense of humor but she's a whole heap more mature than us. And Ritsu, well he would have his moments but he was more standoff-ish.
-"Come on guys just one more classroom for the day." Haruhi rebuked showing the last classroom at floor number two. See we did the first year's floor first and then went to the cafeteria and everything that was around. Later somehow we thought it was easier to do the third year's floor before the second years. But to our dismay it was wrong, climbing all those stairs was horrid. But we did have a nice chat with Honey-sempai and Mori-sempai, I had forgotten they were first years and well that they went to this school too….
-"Excuse us; we are first years that are doing a survey and mapping classrooms around the school for our geography project. Please pardon our interruption; it'll only take a few minutes." It was my turn to apologize and introduce us; it was so the teachers didn't get mad at us. The teacher beamed and welcomed us to the classroom.
-"Call the drawing!" Hikaru and Kaoru exclaimed quickly before anyone else could take the easiest job.
-"Fine, I'll take the questionnaire to the teacher. Ritsu and Rosalie you do the census." Haruhi sighed as she walked up to in a courteous way. I friend 'punched' Ritsu on the arm and smiled.
-"Come on we have to hurry, the twins are drawing this time and you know that doesn't take long." I joked trying to get a smile out of Ritsu but failed. He grabbed a paper, a writing utensil and went his way. Shrugging I made my way around the students to find what corner was easier to count all the students. But it was really hard when they girls were squealing because people from the host club had arrived and this blonde guy was charming half of them. Also with the twins playing pranks while 'doing' their work was making some people uneasy.
-"Kyoya look! It's our little exotic beauty is also in the group!" I heard a familiar voice cry out in the middle of the crowd. 'Oh crap' was my first thought, quickly I was looking for Ritsu so he could scare them away. But I stopped myself because that was mean, well to Ritsu anyways. So I braced myself for the upcoming wave of annoying and humiliation.
-"Do you remember me? It's me Tamaki Suoh, but you can call me Tamaki-sempai or Tama-chan or Tama-kun. What do you think?" Tamaki boasted as he grabbed my hand and drew me closer. I smiled nervously and looked towards the window so I wouldn't see his face so close to mine.
-"I… um, well how about just Tamaki?" I stammered and gave a 'help me' signal to the twins but they just laughed in my face.
-"Perfect! It's so simple but just wonderfully, amazing. It has a nice touch doesn't it?" He finally let go of my hand and started dancing around the classroom on his own. Since practically everybody was in a circle around me I took the opportunity to count them as fast I could.
-"Yeah, yeah amazing. Hey Tamaki I have a question for you. Where should I meet up with you after school?" Why not ask him now? I mean I didn't want to have to look for him in such a humungous school after classes had ended.
-"Well I'll be at the Host club of course! Buuut you don't remember where it is, do you?" He stared pacing around the room, thinking of what to do as if it were complicated. A guy that I hadn't notice was sitting peacefully reading his book, stood up with a sigh, and walked over to where Tamaki was.
-"I'll go fetch her after class; you'll be in room 1-D I assume?" Kyoya asked me as if were such an aggravation to help a newcomer. I snorted and said I didn't need help.
-"I'll just ask Ritsu to take me if it's such a bother to help out." I don't know how he could get on my nerves so quickly, I mean I never get mad at someone and much less hate them. But I think he would be my first. The whole classroom turned to stare at Kyoya as if this were a duel.
-"Now, now don't go presuming things. You can't go around throwing things out there without knowing the persons schedule. And I never said it was a bother to go fetch you, I think it would be quite an honor to pass some time with you. As little it can be it is still an honor." He was good at comebacks so I just shrugged.
-"Hmph. Well yeah sorry, I'll ask next time. And about presuming I wasn't, I could tell you're annoyed by the slight changes in your voice. Other people can't tell but remember that in your little stalker essay it stated that I can tell some things other people can't." Kyoya was about to open his mouth but Haruhi seeing how things were getting all tensed, announced that our research was done and we had to take our leave.
-"Don't forget to wait for my arrival after classes end." Kyoya uttered with a fake smile as he opened the door for us.
-"Wouldn't dream of it." I mocked as I stuck my tongue out at him and to my surprise he gave me this creepy smile in response. I didn't like that guy, not one bit. Ritsu was ten times less scary than him in my opinion.