Several weeks later…

Sena trudged through the campus of his new school. It was a boarding school, figures, so Sena's mom had packed all of the belongings she could fit into Sena's newly acquired suitcase.

It was a dark green and had Sena's name embroidered in curvy gold handwriting in the bottom right hand corner. And inside, was everything Sena owned, clothes wise that is, which caused the pack to be a bulging hindrance to Sena. Especially considering that he could only use one hand; the other was busy holding Pitt's case.

Despite his parents wanting to buy him a new case, Sena had decided to keep the same one. Beat up and old as it was, it had character. Well, that, and it could stand fire, below zero temperatures, incredible pressure, and high humidity (or lack of it). Some kids had thrown Sena's case (with Pitt inside) out of the fourth floor in elementary school as a prank. Pitt came out with not even chip, the case only acquiring a scratch. His dad almost sued the kids, and Sena's mom wrote an article about bullies, and that was the last time that ever happened. So yeah, character and almost total indestructibility.

The school, apparently, didn't have a school uniform, which both surprised Sena and worried him. He didn't like doing laundry. And he was scared he would run out of clothes. Like underwear. And he always found shopping for underwear embarrassing. Because the check out guys always gave him weird looks and he liked that even less.

The sidewalk glowed brightly underneath Sena's well-loved tennis shoes. It was stunning shade of white that hurt if stared at too long and was disrupted by giant trees with thick branches that spotted the campus every couple of meters. Around the sidewalk was lush green grass that thickly carpeted the ground. Not a dry spot to be seen. Not even around the roots of the trees. Around the buildings, which were several stories high, bushes were flush against the sides, colored flowers blooming on them.

So far, Sena liked the school.

He hadn't seen many students yet because he was a week early, but he couldn't wait to meet up with other musicians. And the students he had seen where always too far away to try to talk to. Normally, Sena wouldn't approach a stranger and start talking to them, but if the person went to this school, it meant that they at least had one thing to talk about. Ukuleles, the instrument of the gods.

After a while of searching, he finally found his dorm building. It was one of four, at the south end, and was a couple stories high with large windows.

Sena walked in to the cool air, really feeling the difference between outside and inside. The tiles were a glossy light blue and cream color, forming an interesting pattern. The ceiling tall, and pale. The walls a dark blue and Sena wondered whether that was the theme.

A very young woman was balancing a pencil on her lip at a nearby glossy desk. Like a pencil mustache that Sena was also guilty of doing whenever he was bored. She had short, styled hair, a yellow v-neck blouse, and long white gloves.

Sena was vaguely reminded of the 70's. He was also reminded that he was thirsty when he saw a drinking fountain nearby, but thought he would save the drink for later.

"U-um," Sena stuttered.

The lady looked up, her blue colored eyes widening with embarrassment as she put away the pencil.

"Ahem, may I help you?" she asked amiably, looking Sena up and down.

"Yea, um, my dorm is here, so could I have the, um, key please?" Sena asked sort of tumbling over to the black granite desk. A gold plaque stated that the woman's name was Juri. He sat his suitcase down but held onto Pitt with both hands.

"Uh, yea. You can call me Julie by the way. Name?" She asked without even looking up from the computer, typing furiously and clicking away.

"Kobayakawa Sena."

A bit more typing and then Julie's eyes lit up. "Ah-hah, found you," she grinned at him. She turned around, apparently thanks to a swirly chair. She went to the wall behind her that was lined completely by maroon filing cabinets with grey handles. Julie kneeled by one of the cabinets, opened a drawer and started rummaging through files in big manila envelopes.

"K…k…" she murmured to herself. Her giant earrings jangled as she moved her head. "Got it!" She turned and revealed some heavily scripted papers and a pen. "Sign here, here, here, and here," she instructed pointing to miscellaneous lines with X on them.

Sena vaguely wondered if he should ask to read the packet, but he was tired and sweaty and not really in the mood for reading.

He grabbed the pen, scrawled his name on several places, was handed a slip of paper, and then he was ushered to a side.

"Ok, well usually there a lot more people here, but most don't come so early. Anyway, lemme show you to your room," she winked at him happily. She took a ring of keys off the wall and whistled, looking every once in a while back at Sena to make sure he was following her. She supposed that she should have helped him with all the luggage that Sena was toting. He had such a slender build but every time she asked if he needed help, he said he was fine. Male ego she concluded and eventually stopped asking.

Because she didn't like carrying heavy stuff either.

There was a set of stairs that Sena hoped they weren't climbing, but as they rounded a corner, he noticed an elevator standing none descript by itself, and thanked the god's of kindness.

Julie walked over to the wall by the elevator, and pressed a button. A thrum filled the air as the elevator came down.

"So… what are you doing here?" Julie asked as they stepped inside the elevator. It was darker inside, the carpet red and the walls dark brown.

"Majoring in the ukulele!" Sena said excitedly, gesturing to his ukulele.

"Huh… so that explains it…" she said absentmindedly.

She had thought Sena was visiting a brother, maybe helping said brother move in, but apparently…

"Anyway-" she looked at the papers in her hand again, making sure- "you'll be sleeping on floor two, dorm number 421. I think you're sharing with someone else, but don't worry, the dorms are pretty big." She let out a small smile, it was supposed to be apologetic but it passed right over Sena's head as he smiled back.

The kid's gonna get raped, she thought to herself sadly.

The elevator stopped with a ding and they stepped out into a small lobby that led to two hallways.

The hallways, Sena noticed, were narrower than he had expected. Not very uncomfortable, but more than two people would have an awkward time walking through.

Julie, used to the lack of personal space- no, no in that way, perverts!- was looking at the number plates, searching for the right number and whistling happily, typical attributes of an air head.

"Hey, Sena," she told him, "I hope you're paying attention so you don't get lost."

Which may cause you to get raped, she thought again as she looked at him.

"Um…"

"That's what I thought," Julie sighed, certain of the poor little boy's future. "But most people here are pretty…um …nice-" and here she used the term very loosely-"Maybe a little frustrated in a, you know, 'special' way, if ya know what I mean…"

She glanced at Sena's soft, doe eyes, a little confusion marring them.

"Er- maybe… maybe you don't… But they're nice none the less. Usually… Anyway! Here's your room," she told him, motioning behind her at a black door. She turned and unlocked the room with her key.

"We ask the students to leave their key inside the room when they graduate, you know? That way, we don't have to keep track of them, only this one," she said, showing him a gold tinted key when she was done unlocking the door.

"Is it like a skeleton key?" Sena asked, still in the corridor.

"Yup, it opens all doors, its real neat. Here's your dorm, your key should be somewhere in here, good luck Sena, and I'm off to lunch! Ta-ta!"

She waved cheerfully and left the exactly the way she had come, expertly maneuvering this way and that until she rounded a corner and was gone, only her whistling trailing behind her.

Then Sena realized that she had never told him where the bathrooms where.

Or given him any extra advice, like which hallways not to walk through because they always got crowded, or where the cafeteria was. Or where the gym was. Or when curfew was. Or where the bathrooms where!

Sena turned around and entered his room without really seeing it. He just wanted to put his bags down; his arms felt like jelly. And the good kind of jelly, either.

He threw his stuff on the ground and let out a sigh of relief. He walked over to a bed that had no sheets and lay down, relieved to rest his arms. It wasn't really that his legs were tired. He was used to more strenuous things than walking in the hot sun.

'Was' being the key term…

But he didn't really want to think about it.

Sena closed his eyes and noticed that the bed was really soft, but not squishy… it sort of formed to his body without losing its firmness. It was fairly wide, maybe two more people his size could fit on the bed, rather close and uncomfortable, but still fit.

He rolled on his side to look at the room for the first time.

It was pretty big. The walls were a light color, reminding Sena of the color pink- but not really because it was too red, but still light somehow- and it made the black door really stand out. And, there, he noticed, was his key, hanging on a string off a hook, next to another one.

That meant that his roommate was still not at the school, the possibility of his roommate being inside the room already didn't cross Sena's mind.

There was another bed opposite to his, and Sena noticed one dresser by each bed with a lamp on it, and a big window took up most of one wall. There was one other door too, colored the same soft color as the walls, and even though Sena's arms ached, he got up to go see where it led.

Because Sena was a curious little bugger and this was almost like an OCD thing for him.

He peeked inside the other room to find that it was actually a bathroom. (Yay! Privacy, he thought.) The bathroom didn't have a shower, but it did have a sink and toilet. The walls were painted a muted red color, not exactly pink, but almost, with gold trim, just like the actual dorm. Light bulbs hung over a framed mirror with a cover on them gave a really soft lighting… almost… romantic lighting

And who should Sena see shaving in front of said mirror?

A stranger, wearing only pajama pants, his built upper body exposed.

Said stranger turned, dark stoic eyes trained on Sena.

And for some strange reason, Sena flushed under the stranger's gaze.

"Seijuro Shin. I take it we will be sharing this room."