"Oh crap, I'm gonna be late!" I held the alarm clock in my hand while jumping out of bed. It read 7:45am. It was my first day of high school attending Tōō Academy which happened to be 7 minutes away... that meant I'd really have to buck it if I wanted to be on time. While sprinting towards the bathroom, I slipped on the dirty laundry scattered around my floor. Quickly I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and put on my schools uniform. After that the adrenaline had me practically teleporting downstairs to where my Mother was cooking breakfast and humming a tune carefree as a bird...
"Mom!! Why didn't you wake me up?" I complained as I jumped the flight of stairs to the first level.
My Mother glanced at me, then towards the clock hanging above the sink. "Oh wow, it's that time already." She replied in a half shocked tone, "Well hurry up, you don't want to be late to your first day of school." her tone was annoyingly sarcastic as she chuckled.
"Yeah, gee thanks." I rolled my eyes and put on my shoes. My nerves were threatening to overflow, but after taking a deep sigh I grabbed my backpack and walked out the door without a second thought, not bothering to say goodbye.
'Today is the first day of my high school life and to be honest, it's not going all that well..'
I thought to myself.
The constant sprint had me completely winded, not to mention my school being uphill, that was a real tragedy for me... So, why did I decide to go to Tōō? Well, it was the closest school to my house, I had no ulterior motives, no need for clubs, sports, or activities, it just wanted a quiet peaceful highschool life.
As soon as I got into the lobby, I located my locker and stuffed my shoes in. Since it was the first day the entrance ceremony was taking place at this very moment, luckily I had memorized where it was while touring the school. Running through the hallway probably wasn't the best move socially, more judgmental eyes stung the nape of my neck than I would've liked to admit, but ya girl was on a mission and she refused to be late on her first day.
At last, the doors of the gym came into view, relief flooded my soul as the tension left my body. A stupidly obnoxious smile entered my face as I ran towards the entry, not a single thought was processed through my clogged brain in that moment. With the might of Thor I managed to shove open the heavy metal doors, suddenly a miscalculated error revealed itself. To my surprise, they decided to creek eerily loud, the sound echoed throughout the room for an uncomfortable amount of time. Then principal who was giving a speech, stopped and stared at me with a look of disbelief, the entire student body and staff followed his gaze.
With all the eyes on me I panicked and blurted out,
"Wow, you have really got to get some WD-40 on those hinges." the room was silent. "No? Haha... okay." I let out a choked laugh and slowly started walking to stand next to my class, alas the day comes when shame befalls me to the point of no recovery... keep your head up Sōdai.
After the ceremony, I dejected to my first period. Most of the seats were still empty, so I decided to sit by the window since the breeze felt so nice. I totally deserved this seat after what I went through. The classroom was pretty high up, so far up that you could see the west wings rooftop, interesting design.
"Heyyy, aren't you that girl who stormed into the ceremony?" A pretty girl walked up to me with her friends following close behind.
I looked up at them and laughed nervously.
"Yeahhh, unfortunately yes."
"Wow! That was so funny! That ceremony was super boring. I was surprised when someone made a ruckus like that, you really livened it up." She pointed out, while sitting down next to me.
"Oh thanks, then I'm glad I could help."
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In a far corner of the room, unbeknownst to Sōdai, another group of teenagers were talking about her.
"Wow do you see that girl, she's gorgeous!" A man with glasses said to his friend as they stared at Sōdai.
"You're right, hey do you have any intel on that one?" He asked the boy sitting in front of them, the boy took out a book and flipped through the pages filled with their classmates information, until he got to a picture of Sōdai taken from the middle school.
"Her name is Sōdai Kessaku, that's "Sō" as in magnificent and "Dai" as in big, great, or shining, and yes, that's "Kessaku" as in "masterpiece" the student body from her middle school describes her as "cheerful". She has long black hair and coal black eyes, her height is the average height of Japanese women coming to 155cm(about 5'1 and a half) it is said that she was the reigning queen of her middle school (even though she was unaware of it) and that many boys had a crush on her but were all too shy to admit it, most say it was because of her brother. Oh and her family owns a bakery." He finished, shutting his notebook loudly.
"Wow, what a name to live up to." Said glasses.
"Yeah, but she sure lives up to it."
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"Hey, so... eat lunch with us?" Said the girl sitting next to me, her name was Aika Sato, a common name for Japanese people, so she told me just to call her Aika, which I was fine with.
"Yeah that'd be great!" I gave her a cheerful smile.
As class started, I zoned out thinking about how relieved I was that I wouldn't be eating alone.
When lunch period rolled around, I got up to stretch, finally being able to get all the tension of school off my shoulders. I hadn't eaten all day so I was starving and my stomach was growling, I sighed and smiled to myself, excited about meeting new friends.
I walked out of the class into the hallway humming the tune to, "never gonna give up on you"
Realizing my shoe was untied, I bent down, unexpectedly somebody bumped into me making me fall flat on my butt. I yelped in surprise and looked up at the person responsible. He was tall, tan, and larger than life. His whole uniform was a mess, untucked and only halfway buttoned, and he has a certain unique smell to him, like the way the ground smelt right after it rained. He was looking at me with an annoyed and tired expression.
That pissed me off. 'who is this tool?' I thought to myself.
"Watch where you're going." He said in a deep uninterested voice, while rubbing the back of his head.
My eye started twitching, as it usually does when I get pissed off, "You bumped into me remember?" I scoffed at him and rolled my eyes.
I got up from the floor and dusted the dirt off of my bum while cursing him silently. He looked like he was going to say something else, but I just clicked my tongue and left, not sparing him a glance. Of course, my stomach was growling throughout the whole interaction.. Was I embarrassed? No, why should I be? after all being hungry was natural.
Since I didn't have time to pack my own lunch today, I decided to buy a burger and strawberry juice from the cafeteria. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't all that big of a fan of barbecued or grilled meats, but burgers were an exception. There are few things better in this world than the juicy, tender, soft, yet crunchy, angelic first bite into a freshly made hamburger. I sat down beside Aika and her friends and prayed to Ukemochi, Aika just stared happily at me, as she was Christian.
While taking my first huge bite out of the burger, one of Aika's friends asked me, "So Kessaku, you must be real popular with the boys." in a curious, yet pretentious tone.
I choked on my food and chugged my milk so I didn't die, "What do you mean by that?" I said while breathing heavily and coughing.
"What, you can't be serious?! I mean look at you, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen! And that's no exaggeration." She feigned enthusiasm.
"Huh? You really think so? No ones ever told me that before." I blushed.
"They were probably just too nervous to talk to you, I've never been so jealous yet so inspired by a person in my life!" a girl with green hair tied in braids said.
"Oh my goodness..." My face was heating up to the point that I resembled a tomato. "Stop, like really.. hah."
"It's true Kessaku, I mean it's even in your name, "magnificent masterpiece" I don't think I've ever heard such a bold name in my life" Aika said while staring at her dumpling intensely, "I have to admit I'm a little jealous too, your hair is so long and beautiful... I almost want to cut it." she said laughing, the whole table laughed with her, but something about her comment left a pit in my stomach.
—
As school got out, I slowly walked to my locker and put on my outside shoes, I sighed and reflected on the day, not sure if I made the right choice in friends.
"Hey Sōdai! Wanna come and do karaoke with us?" Aika yelled at me from across the yard.
"Sorry! I can't, I have to go to work." I shouted back.
She and her posse walked towards me smiling,
"Oh come on, just for a bit." she took my hand and practically dragged me down the hill, her friends followed behind laughing and making it seem like nothing was wrong, but something was definitely wrong. She finally pulled me into an alleyway, and with all her might, slammed my back against the brick wall.
"Crap, I knew I shouldn't have become friends with you." I was hurt more by the betrayal then the sting in my neck.
"Shut up. You think you're so hot, nobody would like you if I scarred up your face." She pulled out a pair of scissors and smirked.
I stared at her in awe, "What do you think you're doing?" I said in a threatening manner. "Come on, this isn't middle school, let's be grown ups here."
Her smile disappeared and she grabbed a hold of my hair, cutting off a big chunk on the side and back.
"Are you fucking crazy?" I asked as I pushed myself off the wall, I walked towards her, she laughed at me, not knowing what I'd do next.
Without missing a beat I punched her in the nose and then went in for an uppercut. She screamed while backing up, the poor thing had nearly bitten her tongue off. I laughed, bending down to grab the scissors that she dropped, I started swinging them in the direction of her and her friends, they all yelled and ran away.
"Humph, scaredy cats." I said, flipping my hair out of my face. I may not be a master of martial arts, but I was certainly capable of giving the average person a beating.
I sighed and walked towards the nearest public restroom to see my damage, looking in the mirror, I saw that she took a large cut off of the hair framing my face and one in the back that ended a little below my shoulders.
"Not bad Aika, but you could do better" I smiled and held up the scissors, without hesitation I started chopping off my hair. It wasn't like I was attached to it or anything, it's more like I never bothered with getting it cut. By the end of my hair session I came out with a short Hime cut, which is all I could manage, given the way she cut my hair. I stared at myself, realizing that I had a small cut on my cheek.
"Oh crap, I didn't notice that." I sighed, looking more closely at my new hair. "The haircut fit for a royal princess, now they're really gonna have something to talk about at Tōō."
As I walked back to my house I zoned out, thinking of ways to get back at Aika. Maybe she's had enough though. Without warning I bumped into someone.
"Oh sorry," I said looking up, "hey you look kinda familiar." I stared intensely, trying to remember where I had seen their face. "Oh, you're the douche that ran into me earlier!" I said pointing my finger at the tall man in front of me.
"Excuse me.?" He took offense to my words, "I think I would've remembered if I saw someone like-" his words were cut short as he took a better look at me, he squinted his eyes trying to remember. "Oh hey it's you, the girl with the attitude. What the hell happened to your hair." He replied bluntly.
I stopped to think of a logical excuse but couldn't find one in time, "I-pshh I cut it.. duh." I said nervously.
He didn't seem convinced. "School got out ten minutes ago."
"My barber is really fast."
"The nearest barber is twenty minutes away."
"I'm my own barber."
He looked dumbfounded, but quickly snapped out of it when he noticed the cut on my cheek. Before I could react, he had his hands on my face, examining the cut closer. I was at loss for words.
"Who did this?"