Classes start! Oh joy...
I decided that since I was a new student I could use the excuse of not being able to find the classroom, and hence read a book in bed for five more minutes. Turned out, I was indeed unable to find my classroom. Why was this place so goddamn confusing? Granted, I had never been to a school before, but this did not resemble a school, more a maze. Luckily the teacher wasn't being stupid about it.
'Oh, hello, you must be Kai the new student. Welcome here. I'm Miss McKenzie. I teach Biology. Just grab a random chair, they're all free.'
I scanned the classroom aka carpeted meeting room with a long dinner table and a whiteboard. My first though was 'wow, biology doesn't seem to be very popular'. There was a total of nine students in the classroom (including me). Weren't there always 30, or something like that, students in a class? In movies the classrooms were always stuffed.
But as I soon found out, movies are not a very adequate representation of posh boarding schools.
'Kai, Kai. Come sit here.'
Oh no, I knew that voice. It was Wyatt again. I hadn't initially seen him in that crowd of equally dressed dorks that called themselves my classmates (Guess what, I was one of them too now, oh joy!). I pulled up a chair from the back of the room, since there were no empty ones left around the table, and then randomly sat down next to the person that was sitting the closest to the wall. Which turned out to be some Japanese guy.
'I wouldn't sit there if I were you.' Pavel whispered to me in Russian.
'Why not?' I asked (in English, since it felt silly for me to speak a different language in a British School).
Pavel (not very discretely) pointed at the Japanese guys next to me. He might as well have shouted it from a roof top. It was quite obvious to everyone in the room, what he was referring to. So there was that host-country-grudge thing. Something so childish! Why should I bother to put up with that? So I shrugged and decided to stay seated. I was Japanese after all, I might not look it, but after having grown up here that's how I viewed myself.'
But apparently that wasn't how my fellow landsmen viewed me.
'Piss off man, this is Extern territory.'
As if I would jump at that. Who did they think I was? Some sissy, little Momma's boy. No offense to Max, he was cool.
'Hn.' I grumbled. That was the only commentary they'd be getting from me, they better live it and love it.
'Eh, eh, ey man. Don't be some stuck up. After all, it's you invading our territory.'
Oh wasn't that an amazing territory, the Western half of a dining table. Good on them!
'Heh, wait, isn't that Kai Hiwatari? The Beyblading Champion.'
Oh finally someone who appreciated me enough to refer to me as Champion. I was so sick of only Takao getting that title. Max, Ray and me, we were on the team too after all.
My neighbour poked me.
'Are you Kai Hiwatari?'
'Yes.' Hopefully that would shut them up.
The guy next to me was just about to reply something when he got interrupted by our teacher.
'Toshi, don't you dare! Same for everyone else, be quiet now, we have class.'
-x-x-x-
Biology class passed fairly quickly (which might have had something to do with the fact that I had been fifteen minutes late). Right after Biology, we had Maths. I decided to simply stalk my fellow classmates to avoid being late once more. However I regretted that decision as soon as we left the classroom.
'Mrs McKenzie, oh she's fit!' Bram stated.
'No man, Miss McKenzie. She got divorced over the holidays.' Pavel corrected him
'Oi, even better man, I might actually stand a chance.'
Well, I surely hoped he didn't. Imagining my mid-thirty Biology teacher hooking up with my teenage classmate was surely disturbing.
'Well your hand would certainly be glad about that; it must be hella sore from the all wanking you do.' Someone else commented. I couldn't quite remember his name.
Anyway, Bram didn't seem too pleased about that comment and ended up chasing after the guy to wrestle him to the ground. Which he did succeed in doing, however it did resemble more of a scene from a lewd movie rather than a tough battle.
'Oh guys, get a room.' Someone said. (Not me)
'Come one, we all know you secretly love it.' Bram yelled back.
Oh geez, these guys were more immature than Takao and Maxie combined. And I would have to bear with this for another year and a half… I got the shivers just thinking about it. Well, there were people who had completed their full A-levels in one year, maybe I could try that. That sounded like quite a good plan actually, I should suggest it to the principal.
'So what do you think, Miss McKenzie is fit, wouldn't you agree?'
Somebody had interrupted my stream of thoughts, how dare he? I shifted my head to the left, which was where the sound had come from. Wyatt was walking next to me and timidly smiling in my direction.
'Hn.'
'What is that supposed to mean? Yes or no?'
Hn means neither yes nor no. Hn almost directly translates into "I'm not going to dignify this question with an answer". It is one of the greatest abbreviations known to mankind.
Lucky for me, one of the so-called Alpine Country guys said something to Wyatt in German, which made him blush and distracted him from his question.
I had no idea how I was supposed to survive in a boarding school with constant social interaction for much longer. Back at the mansion the only human contact I had was when I called the servants to make me food.
I was a brat, I realised. I should work on that...
'So what did you think of your first lesson so far?'
...Though maybe not today.
Wyatt was back on track. Oh joy. I 'Hn'-ed his question in response.
'Oh come one, you gotta say more than 'Hn' all the time.'
I do not! And 'Hn' is a perfectly fine and fitting answer; thank you very much!
-x-x-x-
After spending another two school lessons with those dorks, I was done with any social contact for the day. But unfortunately the day had just started. And the worst of all was still to come. The worst of all sent an evil messenger to prepare me for it's arrival. This evil messenger is called 'lunch' and pretty much involves the entire school assembled in a tiny eating hall, with everyone sitting at their assigned seats in segregated room division. In my case that was at the South American table. The deputy principal himself had assigned me there. He had told me that all the other seats were taken. Personally I didn't really mind. The guys at my table were all having a conversation with each other in their native language so nobody bothered talking to me. I had my peace, which was nice. However, I got bored after a while and started skimming my eyes over the room. The table division was mostly based on origin or language, apart from the graduate table of course which was full of twats with badass superiority complexes, lead by none other than -the amazingly tough Sergio McBrennan-. Yep, that's how cool they were! There was the Russian table, the French table, a couple of Japanese tables where, in my best guess, all the externs were sitting, then there was a general Asian table, the English table and finally a table, at which I could spot Wyatt, the two alpine douchebags and to my surprise the other Russian guy. Anyway, the latter looked as bored as I felt as he kept on poking a fork in his potatoes. He had probably been a late transfer student, like me.
Halfway throughout lunch the principal decided to make me undergo public humiliation by calling me up front to introduce me to the entire school.
'Good afternoon everyone, we have a new student. This is Kai Hiwatari, he used to live just a couple of miles away in Bakuten but he is now a boardering student at our school. So I hope you all welcome him as a new member of our family and make him feel at home.'
Family? Home? Welcome?
Who actually wanted to be here? I doubt that anyone really did. Seemed to me like most were just here because their parents didn't have time or they had been behaving badly at home.
After lunch, I had another three hours of classes. How could normal kids do this? This was so tedious and boring. Getting home schooled was so much better. Class after class with the same annoying people. This was exhausting! I had barely finished for the day when I dropped down onto my bed and fell asleep. I needed to regain some energy for the next day after all.
However my sleep was short lived. Only about an hour into wonderfully relaxing slumber, I felt someone shaking me.
'Wake up Kai, wake up.'
Urgh, that voice again. I didn't need to open my eyes to tell it was Wyatt.
'Leave me alone.'
But he continued on shaking me, completely ignoring what I had just said.
'Kai, you're late for Study Hour.'
I slowly started opening my eyes and blinked.
'Late for what?'
'Study Hour.' he repeated. 'That's where you sit down in a classroom and spend two hours studying and doing your homework.'
I raised myself and yawned. No point in trying to get back asleep, he had ruined the moment.
'I don't feel like doing my homework now. I'll do it later. Now leave me alone.'
He gave me a slightly lost look and then insisted.
'No, you need to go now. It's compulsory.'
Compulsory? What kind of bullshit was that? I was tired and wanted to sleep. I just had a six hour school day for crying out loud!
'What happens if I don't go?'
'Oi.' Wyatt gasped. 'Then you're in deep shit. Skipping Study Hour is a worse crime than skipping class and lunch COMBINED.'
Now where was the logic in that?
Suddenly he grabbed my hand and dragged me off the bed. I wasn't exactly a big fan of contact in general but someone holding my hand beat it all. I flinched and pulled it back. What the hell, it's not like we were some sort of couple.
'Huh?'
Wyatt gave me a puzzled looked at our now separated hands.
'Too close for comfort?'
'You think?' I replied with a cynical undertone.
'Sorry.' he mumbled. And now he was starting to blush again. How could a person blush that often? That boy had no confidence whatsoever.
But he did have some quite stalkerish qualities. Like watching me getting dressed. Okay, so by getting dressed I mean putting on my tie and blazer but it's still disturbing.
So after I got ready we were walking to the classroom in which study hour took place. There we were welcomed by a maliciously smiling staffer.
'You're late.'
'I didn't know about Study Hour.' I replied coolly.
'It is written in the rule book.'
'I didn't have time to finish reading it.'
'You're punished today for half an hour after dinner.' he informed me.
I shrugged, whatever, not like I had anything better to do anyway.
'You too, Wyatt!' the staff suddenly decided.
'What? But I just went and got him. You even sent me to do so!' my stalker shrieked.
'Yes, but it took you ten minutes.'
Wyatt didn't reply to that one. He simply sunk his head and sighed.
I was about to open my mouth to protest when the staff guy addressed me. 'And don't you go and defend him or something, saying it's your fault. I know all your tricks kids. You guys probably went for a smoke.'
What a piece of shit. And what was up with everyone assuming I smoked? I decided to sit down to avoid further troubles. It seemed as if this guy was on a power trip.
Sorry I mouthed to Wyatt. I did feel responsible.
He shook his head and mouthed something back. I couldn't tell what he said but since he smiled at me kindly afterwards, I doubt that it was an insult.
-x-x-x-
Remember how I told you that the worst of all was still to come. Well in that case, let me introduce you to 'Study hour': two hours of pointless boredom in which you are supposed to study, but due to having to share the room with about twenty other students, whose aim it is to absolutely not study and keep on giggling, whispering and 'quietly' playing Counterstrike on their laptops, it is louder than at a Jonas Brothers concert (not that I would know). There's absolutely no way in hell anyone can concentrate. Why is it called study hour anyway, if really it's two hours? Probably because it makes it sound less shitty than it is. I spent about half an hour attempting to get some homework done but when I was tempted to stand up and order everyone in the room to 'shut the fuck up' I gave up on it, instead I spent the remainder of the time scraping the wood polish off my desk.
The most annoying thing though was that during my normal school day I had almost no free time. Let me summarize:
7:30 - 8:00 Breakfast (compulsory)
8:00 – 1:00 School
1:00 – 1:45 lunch at assigned tables (compulsory of course)
2:00 - 5:00 School
5:30 - 7:30 Study Hour
7:30 - 8:00 Dinner (you guessed it –compulsory)
9:00 everyone has to be on their floor
10:00 lights off
So all the free time I had available outside of my free periods included:
two sets of 15-minutes of recess,
the 15 minutes between lunch and school,
the half hour between school and study hour,
plus the one hour in the evening, which I didn't really count since we weren't even allowed outside of the building.
So in total it added up to 2 hours.
What a fun life!
Oh how I was looking forward to every day of the two years I would prospectively spend here.
-x-x-x-
During dinner I sat with the idiots from my floor. They were loud, obnoxious and as we had bananas for dessert they started a ridiculous contest as to who could carve the nicest penis out of their banana –using only their mouth. Right after dinner I was 'punished' -as the school called it. Although, all I needed to do was to repeatedly write 'I will not be late for Study Hour again' for twenty minutes. I didn't actually mind it too much since it was more entertaining than hanging out with the dorks from my floor. Plus no one was allowed to speak, so whenever Wyatt tried to make contact with me somehow, he got 'shush'-ed from the staff. Unfortunately he did try to approach me after 'Punishment', inviting me over to his room for some candy, but since I had never been the type that would follow a pedophile into a white van I declined with the excuse that I wanted to sleep, this way, nobody would get the random idea of bursting into my bedroom at some stage in the evening. Once I had reached my darling haven (aka my room), I threw myself on my bed and actually fell asleep again. But once again, -not for long.
'Kaaaaaai…'
'What is it now?' I yelled.
Wyatt bit his lip and blushed. 'Uhm, well, I…'
'Just bloody say it already, I want to go back to sleep.'
He held his Chemistry book in my direction. 'I need some help with the homework.'
'And who told you I was good at it?' I hissed. I might have been a bit harsh on the kid but in that moment I really wanted to sleep.
'Well, you seemed very smart…' he stuttered. 'And you used me today to go into town, so it's only fair if I take advantage of you now.'
Sneaky, sneaky. I actually kinda liked that side of him. I figured I did own him a favour. Which was why I confessed:
'You wouldn't want me to help you with that homework. I spaced out during class.'
It was the truth; I really hadn't understood anything of what the teacher had been talking about, so to me, there was no point in listening. The good news was, that comment of mine got Wyatt to leave the room, the bad news was, he made me tag along with him.
'Come, let's go ask Pavel, he'll explain it to us.' then he grabbed my arm and dragged me out with him. To make something clear to you, I could've easily freed myself, but it would indeed be useful to actually understand some Organic Chemistry. So I let it happen.
Pavel turned out to be an alright guy. Quite a talker who believed it to be necessary to tell me his entire life story, but he appeared pretty intelligent. He was a Senior but he was in the our Biology course because the University he wanted to attend required a basic course in it.
He did seem to realize that people on our floor (who were all a year below him) were mainly using him to do their homework for them. So he had limited his services for when he believed people genuinely needed his help. What I didn't quite understand was why he lived with younger people in the first place, but being quite the talker, he couldn't possibly spare me that detail:
'So, you're probably asking yourself why I live on this floor and not on the graduate floor. So the fact is, I used to room with Sergio, you know, the Italian guy, blonde, over inflated ego…'
That description actually sounded a lot like Enrique…
'…Well anyways, Sergio started to piss the hell out of me. So I demanded a room change and got with Tom, ya know, guy that says 'Fuck' all the time…'
Actually I didn't know, but I couldn't be bothered to tell him. To summarize the story, … blah, blah, blah…Fight… blah, blah, blah …another fight …blah, blah …making enemies with all the graduates …blah, blah, blah …moving to third floor!
Great, a life story I absolutely would not have been able to live without!
After all the talking he finally helped me and Wyatt with the homework. He managed to explain it well and I actually started understanding some of it. At 9:30 a staff guy came and compelled us to our rooms.
'Pavel is awesome isn't he?' Wyatt insisted.
'Hm.'
'He's really cool as well. He always hangs out with us, even though we're younger. All the other older guys treat us like losers.'
Well, that's because he obviously had no other choice, plus he was kind of the king of the losers now. I didn't bother replying and went to my room quietly, without even saying good-bye. I probably should have, since Wyatt misinterpreted it as an invitation to walk inside.
'It's 9:30, you're supposed to be in your own room.' I reminded him, hoping it would make him leave. No such luck!
'You really should cover the walls with something. It looks really bare like that.'
Pavel's room had looked like a comic book, every centimetre covered with some sort of poster or picture cut from a magazine. It would drive me nuts to spend longer durations of time in that place.
'Posters, photos, postcards …maybe wall stickers. I can help you if you want me to.'
I don't think so.
'No, I'm good.'
He seemed really disappointed about that. Who the hell gets disappointed over wall decor? That was plain ridiculous!
'You could move the two beds together, that way you'd have a nice double bed.'
That, for a change, was a good idea. More space = more room for my ego.
'Yeah.'
He got all enthusiastic about that. 'That's awesome! Let's move it now!'
'If that makes you leave so that I can sleep, fine with me!'
'Great!'
-x-x-x-
So yea, we spent five minutes moving around my furniture and another 30 having a 'conversation'. 'Conversation' meaning Wyatt was bullshitting and I was made to listen. Believe me, you don't want to hear the things he said. Surely I didn't. And I have to say, the story about him having stepped in dog poop at age seven was another piece of information that I would have never EVER been able to live without!
-x-x-x-
Basic Boarding School Fact 6: Study hour sucks!