Wednesday, January 15, 2014, Braithwaite Residence, Early Morning
Chihiro was woken up by the sound of her phone's alarm clock playing a sequenced, looping rendition of one of her favorite songs. It would've been more enjoyable if it wasn't for the fact that the volume was distorting it, turning what would be a nice little morning surprise into the most annoying thing in the world.
She flipped her phone open and turned off the alarm. She sat there in an annoyed, drowsy state for a couple of minutes before working up the will to stand up and do her morning routine. One quick shower and some mouthwash later, she was feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. She got dressed, threw on her favorite black jacket, and went downstairs. To her surprise, Amy was waiting.
"Morning, Chihiro! You're lookin' pretty sharp," Amy told her, her voice taking a perky, melodic tone. Chihiro noticed some freshly brewed coffee and poured herself a cup. "I thought you had to leave early today," she asked. "Huh? Oh, yeah! I was supposed to help the student council with something, but they told me it would be more important to go to school with you!"
Chihiro smiled. "That's nice of them to let you do that. So, are we going to drive or take the bus?" Amy put her purse over her shoulder. "I was thinking we could take the bus today! They finally finished construction on a brand-new route just for bus rides to the school! It's been under construction since I was in middle school, so I want to check it out. That alright with you?" Chihiro nodded, and after making sure they had absolutely everything, they headed for the bus stop.
On The Bus, Early Morning
Amy and Chihiro had taken a seat around the middle of the clean, modern bus, surrounded by students who were either chatting away, listening to music, playing games, or trying to get a little more sleep.
"So, last night, I had this weird dream, right?" Amy started. "I was watching this really raunchy cartoon, and for some reason the kids in it were all running around with guinea pigs in their hands, like it was some kind of fad! Poor things didn't know what was going on…" Chihiro giggled. "So, did you have a dream last night?" Amy asked her.
Chihiro recalled the Velvet Room and scratched her head. "Well… I guess I had a weird one." She explained the general gist of the 'dream' to her, from Igor to the thing with the tea leaves. Amy looked rather puzzled after she finished her explanation.
"Well, I think that one blows my dream out of the water in the weirdness department… shockingly coherent, too." Chihiro looked down and twiddled her fingers. "That tea reading concerned me, though…" Amy put her hand on her shoulder, comforting her. "Come on, it was just a dream! I wouldn't worry about it at all."
Suddenly, Amy gasped and directed Chihiro's attention out the window. "Wow, look at that view," she said in awe as every student on the bus piled around the windows to see a shimmering, uninhabited bay below them. "Man, the last route has nothing on this…" one student murmured. "I'll take this over boring city road just going up any day!" another said.
"Oh, wow!" Amy said, her heart fluttering. "That's Godoy Bay; it's a private bay near the beach! I've never been able to see it like this before; there's no way to get into it from the beach, and the school's not close enough to it for it to really be visible." She then blushed. "S-sorry… I probably sound like a tour guide right now."
Beaumont Institute, Early Morning
The bus soon arrived at its destination; A sprawling, almost futuristic-looking building flanked by a couple of smaller buildings. Chihiro was absolutely stunned. "Welcome to Beaumont, one of the best schools in the state!" Amy told her. She suddenly grabbed her hand and started pulling her. "You can gawk at it later, we need to get going!"
As they ran for the auditorium, Amy gave a quick breakdown of various things about the school, mostly that their classes would be on the second floor of the west wing. They took a hard turn right and ducked into the auditorium, quickly taking a pair of seats.
Behind the podium on the stage was a tall, chubby man in his late fifties. His brown hair seemed to be on the way to going gray, although the light above him disguised this fact. He pressed something on the mic and began speaking.
"Welcome, everyone, to a brand-new year at the Beaumont Institute. To our returning students, we hope you enjoyed your Christmas break. And for our new students, we are honored to welcome you to this school, one of the crowning achievements this state, perhaps even this country, has to offer."
As he went on about "new challenges" and "individual student excellence," a deep, somewhat sleazy voice began whispering to Chihiro. "Hey, new girl. Don't let Principal Beaumont fool you; he's all appearances." Amy suddenly pulled her mouth into an annoyed frown. "Don't you think it could wait until the end of the ceremony, Fred?"
Fred was a little older than either of them, and he had lightly sun-tanned skin and rose-brown hair that was about neck length. Although a bit unkempt, he seemed nice enough.
"Come on, Ames; Only the freshmen are staying quiet. Just look," he said, gesturing to several students that were not-so-secretly whispering to each other. Amy sighed. "Doesn't mean they should. And, you're a junior! You should have a little more decorum!"
"Hey, I'm just trying to be friendly to Ms. Fresh-Face over here," he said sweetly, addressing Chihiro. Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well 'Ms. Fresh-Face' is my cousin, so you better not try to get fresh with her or you'll be 'Mr. Statistic' before the day's through." Chihiro stifled a giggle.
"Ouch! Implying I'm a floozy and threatening to kill me? That doesn't sound very 'fit-for-2014,' Amy. Just because I'm a dude doesn't mean I'm a slut. Get with the times!" he chastised jokingly. Amy smirked and rolled her eyes. "You are a total wannabe Cassanova, though…"
He extended his hand to shake Chihiro's. "Fred Sandoval, Junior student, and a close friend of Amy's." Chihiro looked at it and hesitantly shook it. "Chihiro Iten, Sophomore. Sorry, I'm not really used to shaking hands," she said softly. "Ohh, you're that Japanese girl Amy told me about! Well, welcome to America, vous femme incroyable!" Amy made a throwing-up gesture at this.
Beaumont Institute, After School
Students poured out of both entrances to the school, discussing the speech. Consensus was that it was more-or-less the same speech as last year's. As Amy and Chihiro left, Fred tailed them.
"I don't know what all those students are saying, Orson's speech this year was TOTALLY different! This time he called the school a 'crowning achievement.' Last year, it was a 'best achievement.' He's finally learning new adjectives," he said, pretending to wipe a proud, emotional tear.
Amy snickered. "Come on, give the guy a break. He works so hard, he doesn't have time to write new speeches." Fred smirked. "Yeah, he's such a brave soldier sitting in his office all day doing nothing." "Oh, now I heard he does do something!" Amy exclaimed. Fred frowned. "Amy, that's not nice. The local single mom that's just a mile away is a someone, not a something." Amy bust out into a full-blown laughter. "Fred, that's foul!" she squawked, clasping at her stomach.
This weird dynamic they had didn't fully make sense to Chihiro, but they seemed to enjoy each other's company and were getting along, so she figured what they had works for them.
Fred then seemed to remember something and pulled out his wallet. "Oh yeah, I got a bonus from my job for working through the Christmas rush, sooooo… I was thinking I could treat you ladies to a meal! Nothing too crazy, but still something substantial!" "Oooh," Amy started, "That sounds dee-lish. Hey, we should take Chihiro to Daffodil!"
"Daff…odil?" Chihiro asked. "Yeah! It's like, one of the best Chinese places around! Their sweet-and-sour chicken is to die for. You ever have sweet-and-sour before?" Fred asked. She shook her head. "The Chinese restaurants where I lived never really served anything like that…" "Oh-hoh-hoh, then that settles it! Ladies, we're going to Daffodil!"