Author's Notes
The beginning is a bit slow, admittedly, but thankfully, due to short chapter size, it's not too long of a trek, or so I would hope.
I also hope that the casual first person narration doesn't get too annoying, because it's only going to get thicker from here on out.
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Chapter 1
The Beginning
After my 'uneventful' walk, I had reached the dormitory. It didn't seem to be particularly new; in fact, it seemed to radiate what was best described as crusty age.
The interior fit the exterior perfectly. The walls were a drab shade of cream, with various stripes of faded green wallpaper, which was actually peeling at some spots. There were lamps spaced regularly along the wall. The floor looked no better; it was a bit dusty in spots, and was essentially aged dark wood strips in some spots, and old beige Berber carpet in others.
Ahead of me, there was a long hallway with many doors, at the end of which was a large staircase. To the right of me, there was a counter made of wood similar in age and appearance to the floor. To the left of me, there was what was best described as an open lounge, with a carpeted floor. There were 2 3 seat couches, and 2 seats around a low long wooden table. The couches, were, thankfully, nowhere near as old as the rest of the building, and almost seemed out of place. In the corner of the lounge, a somewhat aged TV sat. The TV was of a decent brand, was about 30 inches or so, and was rear projection. It was on, showing a game show.
"Ah, you're here." A voice had jarred me from my moment of absorbing the lacklustre accommodations. "I was expecting you a little later in the night." He turned off the television.
A boy, a bit older than me, was sitting in one of the couches, watching television, lazily flipping through channels. He had short black hair, kept very neat, and looked fairly calm. He was wearing the school uniform, despite it being late at night.
"Anyways, you already did the paperwork before you came, right? I've already looked over everything—well, the adminstration did—and your stuff should already have been moved into your room. I've taken the liberty to place two school uniforms on your bed. Do well this year, OK?" He walked up to me, and handed me a small key. "Lose this at your peril."
I looked at him blankly, still sleepy. I took a look at the clock, which said it was only about 8 P.M. Why was I so tired?
*
Getting up in the morning has always been difficult for me, and today was even worse. I managed to somehow get dressed, eat breakfast, and then reach the train station a few minutes before it arrived. I managed to get to school OK.
It turns out I had already filled out most of the paperwork for transferring, so it was simply took a few minutes to pop into the office and finalize everything. There was a morning assembly, probably owing to the first day of school. All in all, a pretty uneventful day.
It turned out that the kids here were fairly nice—or at least wanted to make a good impression in case I actually got popular or something. Several people—way more than I can count on two hands—came up to me throughout the day for my name, where I came from, et cetera. I don't mind the attention (after all, it really is a pain to be the new kid), but still, be damned if it wasn't annoying.
*
It's been about a week now, and I have to say it's been fairly interesting. Firstly, my homeroom teacher seems to be a hardass, and he teaches Composition. I elected to take English, and he teaches it too. The math teacher seems like he's high or something, because he talks in a misty and strange voice, and seems to be oddly absent minded ("so, we can simplify it to f=ls+h... hey, that looks like "fish" in English!") The rest I don't really remember that well; they're quite bland and uninteresting.
Now, as for the students I've met, it's a strange cast of characters.
Firstly, the guy that gave me my key in the dorm's apparently a senior, Ajibana Tadashi. From what I've heard, he's the captain of the Kendo Team, and fairly popular (though it's worth noting the Kendo Team here hasn't gotten into any position of note in the regional meet for the last 9 years.) He's generally cool to me, we've chatted a bit.
Next, a guy in my own class approached me the other day and, to simplify it, offered to be my friend, Hosoto Toshiro. He seemed like a pretty cool guy (seems a bit dumb, though), and runs sprint on the track team (worth noting that the track team also sucks.) Basically, to describe him, he has fairly messy short black hair, seems to be cheery, but seems to scowl a bit. While I want to say he doesn't try in school, I think he just can't handle the academic part of school. I don't really have much choice with my friends right now, do I?
*
I remember describing in detail a week or so ago about the strange "hallucination" I had. Today (or rather, yesterday), I think I finally got something to follow up on that.
It was a late Saturday night, and I was hitting the b—OK, who am I kidding, I was drinking a can of pop and watching movies in my room, and I had decided to hit the sack a bit late (I think like 11:30 or something.) I fell asleep surprisingly fast (the sugar didn't seem to affect me at all, creepy), and had the strangest dream.
I was standing in the middle of that field from a week ago, except, well, I actually stayed there (I also had a can of pop in my hand, weird.) Trees sprang up, and buildings as well. It seemed like a small rural village a millenia or so ago, looking like a freak blend between Japanese and European towns, reminding me a lot of RPGs like Final Fantasy. I walked around for a little bit, before discovering a blacksmith's, which I entered. However, the dream ends there, as my alarm sounded.
I'll be looking forward to trying to return to this dream.