The room it's self was mainly made of dilapidated wood and metal, it was very old. It was also considerably colder than the rest of the school building due to the magnitude of the room. The atmosphere was quite unsteady, the tumultuous chatter of the many other hundreds of students' conversations were magnified by the echoes of themselves in the large hall.
"Try find seats near the front" said Light louder than he normally would, it was necessary to be heard and Nash nodded. After finding two vacant seats adjacent to one another, the duo patiently waited for the convention to commence whilst also ignoring the occasional points from fellow students. Light ignored them, Nash was oblivious to them. After a few more minutes everyone had funnelled through the double doors and taken their seats. The entire school year was waiting apprehensively for someone to address them and after a few more minutes of waiting, a very skinny but official looking man with thick black-rimmed spectacles took centre stage and started to speak.
"It's an honour to see you all again after this fine month has passed us by, as you know we are all here to monitor your progress but more importantly, to inspire you to surpass targets and strive to be greater…." "Strive to be grater, how do you propose I go about doing that then?" Light thought to himself with a slight sardonic smirk sneaking onto his faced but being replaced in the blink of an eye by his stoic yet proud expression the situation demanded it. Given the circumstances he had to be professional, he was Light Yagami, the freshman representative.
"For goodness sake get a move on." thought Light getting rather agitated now as the man chuckled about the importance of hope. Light sensed he wasn't the only one who was getting agitated now as Nash's fidgeting and the subtle sighs of his peers all around him were growing progressively worse and more frequent. The man's speech was verbatim to last months and the month before.
"Ridiculous" Light thought to himself bitterly, what a complete waste of time. Slowly giving up on hope that the man would ever stop talking he said something that in a heartbeat had caught Light Yagami's undivided attention; this month, there would be two freshman representatives. "TWO?" Light thought, his brain now racing. He felt his eyes widening, and then remembered the situation, he was Light Yagami and he couldn't be seen as alarmed in any way, which would be an unacceptable outcome. Light listened intently to the man.
"As you know, the student who scores highest on these tests is the pupil that traditionally gives the speech to us all however, this month, two of our freshmen students both received perfect marks on their tests and so it is only just, they both give the speech to us this month." The man chuckled a little more. Light's brain was racing more intently than it had done in months, maybe even years he wasn't sure and he didn't even care. The fact was, Light Yagami's place at No. 1 was seemingly in jeopardy. The fact that was bothering him was that they both scored perfect and in the past no one even held a candle to him intellectually yet here he was with a rival seemingly on par with himself could it really be? "I need to remain calm, this isn't goo–"
"And now for our first representative: Light Yagami". After a friendly encouraging pat on the back from Nash, Light rose from his chair and with excellent composure made his way to the stairs that led to the stage where he greeted the irritating man he wanted to punch with a handshake and a fake smile. "And last but not least our final representative, L. Lawliet." The man bellowed happily whilst Light's stomach lurched. "L. Lawliet" those last words haunted light's ears. It was a similar effect to being stood next to church bells and having them ring immediately besides your head. Light felt sick yet miraculously he was still holding his stoic posture but he had never being in a predicament such as this, he was under immense pressure "This is the most humiliating experience of my life" he mentally cried. Lights eyes were darting around the hall hoping to get a glimpse of this – this L character but no one was rising from their chair. "Where the hell was he?" Light wondered with a rising anger threatening to surface from inside of him.
After a few moments "Oh, I think that might actually be me" said a monotone voice from one of the front rows. Light couldn't be certain from which body the voice protruded from however he didn't need to. Light didn't think it possible to feel sicker than he already did, but he was proven wrong.
A young man was crouching on his chair devoid of shoes on his feet which were placed in front of him, wriggling his toes happily, a vacant expression etched upon his face. Awkwardly he ceased crouching, sat then carelessly put on his worn down tennis shoes without tying them but instead placing his hands in his worn down denim jean pockets, he made for the stage. His appearance was horrific – he looked as though he'd slept in his clothes and awoken just a minute ago; if it wasn't for the horrific dark circles under his eyes Light might actually have thought this to be the case. His untidy black raven hair only added to this effect.
Gracelessly, the boy climbed the stairs with his hands in his pockets and an awkward slouch that showed his spine through his baggy white shirt. He tripped into the wall from what Light could only have assumed was due to his untied shoe laces. After only a moment he balanced himself once more and with a crack of his neck, made to greet Light Yagami and the bespectacled man.
The awkward tension in the room presently was so thick it could almost be sliced with a knife. The official looking man clearly sensed this and in an attempt to defuse the predicament he edged forward to greet L whom was now more stoic than Light, however contrasting to Light's proud aloof expression, L was wearing an inherent bored look with striking black orbs for eyes.
"H– How? Could it really be that my 'rival' was this – this freak. This is so bloody humiliating; I mean what must people be thinking? Wait, just stay calm, it'll all be over soon." Light mused. He was Light Yagami, Japan's most brilliant student and he would be damned if he was going to let this fool show him up in front of all these people "What should I do now?" he thought to himself.
"Hi I'm Light Yagami it's a pleasure to meet you L." said Light nonchalantly holding out his right hand to L accompanied by one of his complementary hollow smiles. L tilted his head to the left and smirked and after a moment took Light's hand and shook it "It's a pleasure." Muttered L now sounding very bored, his voice was devoid of any change in tone but still wearing the smirk.
The two shook hands but Light couldn't help but notice it lasted a moment or two longer than necessary and despite L's apparent social ineptness he had a sneaking suspicion this was no accident on L's part. Despite the situation Light was physically oozing confidence to keep up appearances and was quite the artist when it came to any social interaction. This was a good thing to because he was becoming more nauseated by the minute. "Just keep calm, play along and it'll all be over soon." Light was thinking still smiling hollowly at L whose smirk only widened. "H –He's obviously a complete social freak so, why do I feel like he knows exactly what I'm thinking?" L then tilted his head to the lift and smirked even more "Is there a Problem 'Light Yagami'?" muttered L. That was the first time he had used tone in his voice but it wasn't a tone of even remote concern, it was a tone of derision. "The bastard! He's making me a laughing stock." Light screamed mentally. "Not at all L, I was just thinking how nice it was to meet someone who takes education as serious as I do." Light said coolly.
"Alas, you two fine young gentlemen must now give us the speech we've all being waiting for, and of course you should both be very proud of yourselves." He chuckled clearly unmindful of the subliminal situation now subsiding due to him which Light couldn't help but privately thank him for as the pressure he was under was immeasurable. The man then enthusiastically handed the pair of them a piece of paper bearing a script of the speech to be given, not that Light needed it as he'd read it many times before.
Ten minutes had passed now and he and L had addressed the audience with their 'inspiring' speeches. Light once again explained pleasantries with the man and, L. As quickly as he could he calmly descended from the stage where he was greeted by his classmate Nash once more along with Kiyomi Takada. Takada was a very attractive and intelligent woman who was known at ToHo high school as Miss Todai which she quite convincingly pretended to hate – After all, she was known for her sophistication. "I believe congratulations are in order Light." She said casually but not looking away from Light for a millisecond.
"Yeah thanks Yiyomi umm, do you guys want to go grab a bite to eat at the canteen I'm feeling kind of hungry?" Said Light to Nash and Takada still managing to be calm and collected despite the debacle just a few moments ago.
"Well we do have thirty-five minutes until our History lecture." Said Nash slowly as they all had the same monthly timetable. And so the three of them made for the canteen pushing their way through the congregated groups of students.
Light wasn't hungry at all, he needed to think. So many things had just occurred in such little time and he was still a furious at his humiliation. He wasn't even that fond of Kiyomi Takada, he found her very annoying and self-absorbed at times. That being said Takada adored Light and was always dropping hints to reiterate this however Light would pretend to not notice them. Light had an image to think about though and Miss Todai was very good for that image so he often just played along with her. Simply being seen together was a great way to expand on the impeccable reputation he had gained.