"Ray Kon...6th November 1987...alright where are your transcripts?"
The neko-jin stepped out of the principal's office apprehensively. The nervousness had struck him as soon as he entered the school. It was like the wild – people hollering and pouncing on eachother with girls and boys making out with eachother in different corners. The weaker ones were being preyed on with their souls possibly being eaten out.
Fortunately, Ray and Lee ended up in the same class. The entire class caught the duo's eye, glaring them down as though they were an outcast. Ray and Lee had changed their outfits in accordance of the trends the countries followed. They loved their tradition, but you gotta take some big steps for a whole new society.
"Well students, these are the new students from China – Ray Kon and Lee Wong," the teacher said, pointing at the two. Ray awkwardly waved his hand, but backed it off the second no one retorted. "Please take your seats."
There were two empty desks on either side of the classroom. Ray and Lee began to walk towards the same direction and when they realized they had been doing so, they changed directions at the same time, once again walking on the same path.
The subdued classroom finally let a mocking giggle, completely embarrassing the two of them.
"Alright, so...," the teacher had begun her introduction. Ray's hearing was interrupted by the guy sitting right next to him.
"Hey." It was more of call out than a greeting. The guy leaned against the back of his chair comfortably with his legs stretching all the to the front of his desk. His hangs were dangling at the back of his chair.
"Hey...," Ray felt heavy and grounded. The feeling was nearly palpable.
"You can't sit here tomorrow," said the guy. "My friend and partner is going to present, so if you don't want to get beaten into pulp, get yourself a new seat after this class."
Wow. Now that was some greeting on the first day of high school.
"Well there isn't any other table so..."
"Get an extra one," the guy stated the obvious.
"Michael, if you're going to keep talking then I might have to get an extra desk in the corner of this class for you to sit!" The teacher hollered.
The guy turned his head towards Ray with a smirk. "I got the work done."
"Kai, get your legs off the table!" Ray followed the teacher's eye contact. He craned and turned himself around spotting the guy who was sitting in the back corner of the classroom. He was wearing a black Nirvana top with grey pants. What caught Ray's attention was his build.
The guy's shirt accentuated with his biceps. He had slate hair and a stoic expression. Heck, Ray couldn't get his eyes off him. He was just fine.
"Hmph. That asshole," Michael deadpanned, once again turning Ray's attention to him.
"Asshole?" Ray asked, bewildered. The negative remark slightly disappointed him.
"He thinks he's too cool," said Michael incredulously. "Captain of his team, unafraid to crush someone's spirit right into the ground, dominates the school along with his Russian friends-"
"He's Russian?"
"Can't you tell?"
"Not really...," Ray paused for a moment. "So...how long has he been here for?"
Michael squinted his eyes at him. "Why are you so invested?"
"Michael!" The teacher hollered across the room, interrupting their conversion.
The first class got over with introductions and Ray didn't pay attention to half of it. He wished for a comfortable environment with Lee and for the time-being, Mariah as well. Well, he had to wait till lunch for that.
Johnny and Oliver ended up in the same class, leaving Enrique out completely. Not that any of them had a problem being alone either.
In Europe, the five of them were quite famous. They were known as the Majestics – a team filled with top-class bladers. They all came from different places of the continent: Robert was German, Enrique was Italian, Johnny was Scottish and Oliver was French. Descended from nobility, they all could afford the best of everything.
The Majestics were well aware of the hype that followed around beyblading in the premises and neither of them could wait to show their skills off to the school, especially Johnny. He was itching for the attention.
Enrique hastened along the hallways hunting for his classroom, aware of the fact that he was already late. While clutching and examining the map in his hand, he met with a tiny accident which ended up in him collapsing to the ground.
"Sorry! Are you okay?" Enrique looked up and saw a blonde with blue eyes, which was probably the most American thing he had seen all day.
"I'm good," he retorted, rubbing his head. "Do you mind telling me where this classroom is?" Enrique pointed his index finger on the map.
"You're in luck, it's on the way to mine," said the boy with a smile. "Follow me."
The blonde and Enrique hastened along the hallways when a curious thought arose in his mind.
"Erm...aren't you late as well?"
The blonde faced him. His smile still hadn't wiped off. "Well yeah. My friend made me late for school."
Enrique examined his surroundings for a few seconds before turning back to the boy. "So...where is he?"
For a thick-headed guy like Enrique, it was sure a good question.
"At the lavatory." The sentence concluded with the duo reaching Enrique's classroom. "First day?"
"Yeah.."
"Good luck. What's your name?"
"Enrique. What's yours?"
"I'm Max," he retorted, pointing his thumb at his chest. "See ya around!"
After hurrying along the hallways, Max broke into his classroom, exchanging awkward looks with his classmates. The first thing Max noticed was a heavy facepalm by his friend Kenny.
"You're late, Mr. Tate,"
Max dropped a sweat and scratched his head with a sheepish grin. "Sorry Miss Jones!"
His seat was right next to Kenny's at the back of the class. Not that it was his choice to sit in the corner – it's always the idea of his best friend and partner.
Max never failed to show up without his white, cerulean blue and navy blue varsity jacket. His mother, Judy, was a scientist at a research lab known as Project Power Beyblade (PPB). A certain number of recruited beybladers from that lab represented New York and Max was one of them.
"Max, where is Tyson?" Kenny whimpered. He was never prone to stress, panic and frustration. In fact, he would handle all three elements on behalf of his friends.
"He went to the bathroom five minutes ago! He asked me to wait for him but I left within a minute."
Max and Tyson stayed in the same apartment which was rented by Max's dad.
"Did he make you late again?!"
Max nodded. "Yet again. But he should be here soo-"
He was interjected by a loud and painful 'bam'. Speak of the devil. It was the navy-haired and brown-eyed Japanese – Tyson Granger. His entrance made the entire class gasp collectively.
He got up on his feet from the ground, rubbing his pants. His black-hooded sports jacket was dangling down his left shoulder. He was wearing a dark red top underneath with black jeans.
"Explain yourself, Mr. Granger," Miss Jones taunted.
"Sorry...uh...gramps gave me a call this morning...he lost track of the time difference between Tokyo and-"
"Just take a seat," Tyson raised an eyebrow. Teacher's were sure bizarre. If she wanted an explanation, then why did she interrupt him?
Tyson sighed as he approached his seat. Before he could even sit on it, a panic-stricken Kenny started with his regular dose of questions.
"Where were you?"
"Dude, I slept in! Max didn't wake me up!" Tyson whispered in exasperation.
"Except I did. You threw the alarm clock at me!"
"Whatever," the blunette rolled his eyes and glanced around the classroom. "Where's Hilary?"
"Different class," said Max. "Did you know that she and Kenny took 12th grade calculus?"
"I'm not surprised. This is Kenny and Hilary we're talking about. But you know, if there's anything I do not want today, it's lunch."
"YOU don't want lunch? Now that's some new flash." It was common knowledge that Tyson would ditch anyone or anything to guzzle in tons of food.
"Well it's not what you think." Max and Kenny exchanged perplexed looks with Tyson at that statement. "You know that kid, Daichi, mine and Max's neighbour?"
"The one that keeps pestering you to battle him?"
"Right, because I am one of the top ranked players after all," Tyson said that statement with full pride, making both Kenny and Max roll their eyes. "Do you remember how he spoilt my the cap my brother lent to me, dropped my lunch thrice last year AND told all the people in his grade that I'm an ungrateful jerk-ass junkie – all this because I didn't battle him?"
"I don't know about the last part, but there were rumours for sure," said a sceptical Kenny.
"And he never stops knocking at our door either," Max piped in. "We complained to his mom like ten times already."
"Well what about it?" Asked Kenny.
Tyson brought an aggressive tone. "What about it?! My entire reputation has gone down the tube because of that little kid!" After a small pause, he continued, "That's it – during lunch time, I'm going to accept his petty challenge."
Max shook his head aggressively. "Tyson...he's a little kid..."
"Yeah so what? He'll never mess with me once I beat him to pulp."
"Your reputation will go six feet underground,"
Tyson constituted to one of them main trouble-makers and hot-headed jocks in the entirety of high school. Born in Japan, he excelled in his culture's martial art – kendo. Apart from that, he excelled beyblading and basketball. In both fields, his biggest rival was none other Kai Hiwatari.
When it came to beyblading, the school competition could be played in either ways: solo or tag-team. Tyson has won the competition thrice and Kai has won it once. However, this turns tables when it comes to tag-team – Tyson and his partner, Max, have only won once. Kai and his partner, Tala, have won thrice. One winning solo and the other winning tag-team had become a manoeuvre.
Mariah seemed to be doing perfectly fine. The colour pink defined her looks. She adjusted her pink hair for the last time and had a good look at her outfit – a pink tank top and blue jeans.
"You guys should head back to the ground before you get caught. Mariah, we'll show you around the school later," came the voice a brunette with ruby eyes. She too had a last look herself – a bright pink top coated with a black waist-level hooded jacket along with blue jeans.
"Thank you so much guys! It's nice to have a supportive group of girls from day one!" Mariah beamed. "What are your names again?"
"I'm Hilary," said the ruby eyed girl. "She's Julia and that's Emily. You'll get introduced to a lot of new people during lunch."
An uncomfortable Oliver continuously nudged his maroon-headed friend. He wasn't sure of what to say; This was not his home town, so he had absolutely no idea how to react. Once again, the atmosphere was tangible.
"Quit nudging me," said an irked Johnny. "Don't be a wuss. You're a member of the Majestic."
"I'm not a wuss," Oliver whispered. "You can't even beat Enrique,"
"That's your judgment. And hence no one heeds to it," said Johnny, now completely facing Oliver.
The attention was diverted when a Mariam, a girl with long blue hair and green eyes, turned her head around to meet their gazes.
"Can you guys shut up?" She lengthened the syllables of 'guys', followed by a sharp and discrete 'shut up'.
"You don't know who you're talking to," snapped Johnny.
Mariam shook her head leisurely. "I wouldn't care even if you were the principal's son." Johnny gritted his teeth and shot back an intense glare. "You're new here, right?"
"New and noble,"
"You're gonna be tossed around," she furrowed her eyebrows and put on a malicious smirk. "Nobility doesn't matter here, Johnny."
Johnny and Oliver widened their eyes in unison. "I'm quite known and respected in my continent but how do you know me? Are you a blader?"
Mariam shut her eyes. "So it is you. Well I'm one of the highest ranked beybladers in all of high school," she said. "I saw you in one of your transcripts in the principal's office. I thought I mistook you for someone else but here we are."
"Who's the top ranked blader?" Johnny asked with both curiosity and annoyance.
"Tyson Granger. Our batch, different class."
"Well he's already found a replacement for himself because I'm here now," Johnny jabbered. "When and where can I see him?"
"Don't bounce off the balls boy," said Mariam, maintaining her smirk. "The top thirty bladers of high school are not just for title or namesake. There are over a hundred participants and the ranks change every year. More importantly, only the top ten bladers make it to the school team."
"That doesn't answer my question at all,"
As the bell rang, calling for the class to end, Mariam got up from her seat and pressed her palms against Johnny's table, causing him to slightly part his lips with confusion. "Lunch time – the most important time of the day. You'll witness unconventional cliques."