"Oh, wait, before that, let me take attendance! Alright, seems that all ten of you are here!"
"T-ten?" Jude asked, glancing at the other eight.
I leaned forward and poked him on the back. The boy jumped as much as Huo had done earlier.
"You hadn't noticed her, did you?" Huo asked.
He shook his head.
I frowned. Was I really that lacking in presence?
"She's the one who gave me the snack bar," Enkai said, pointing at his empty wrapper.
"Oh, I was wondering where you had gotten that," Mira said.
Were Eni and Huo the only ones who noticed me?
"Oh, right. Does anyone have any questions before I pass out the quiz?"
I raised my hand.
"Yes, Tamara?" Mira's sister asked.
'Can the stars be used to help starcrossed lovers?' I signed.
She stared at me for a while.
"Can you understand her?" Mira asked. "She taught us some of those signs during homeroom, so I can make a bit of a guess."
Enkai stared at his hands and tried making some of the signs I had just made. He frowned as he got his fingers crossed.
Mira's sister smiled and held out a hand. 'Not sure how to answer. Star-crossed lovers are said to meet misfortune due to the stars themselves, hence the term.'
I frowned. Why did the system set me up with Robbie if our stars were mismatched? Did it really only want us to produce powerful kids? But I loved him too. If fate was against us, our relationship could be an uphill battle.
"What did she ask?" Ver asked.
Meika smiled. "I think it's a rather personal question." She sighed. "One I wish I knew the answer to... Given my parents were in a similar situation..."
"Now I am curious," Mira said. "Say, how did you learn how to sign?"
"I took it as my foreign language in university. I love books and words, but not all of them come in the form of letters."
I smiled. So, she was like me.
"So, no further questions?" she asked.
Orion and I shook our heads while the rest just stared.
"Okay. In that case, I'll begin." She stepped forward with a small pile of papers. Slowly, she placed three paper-clipped papers down on Nate's desk, then Hikaru, Orion, Mira, Jude, Vermeil, Kanja, Enkai, and finally me.
My eyes peered at the paper. The first question was about my birthday. The answer to that was easy! Jenu seventh!
The next question was what of the twelve-month zodiac signs represented my birthdate. That was also easy, the tragic horsemen twins- Alis and En. Despite being twins, some legends claimed the two were half brothers. With En being part diety. It was for this that En was unnaturally tall, for the spawns of the divine and the mortal were said to be tall! Alis, on the other hand, was the same height as a regular man. One day, Alis got badly wounded while fighting back the desert tribes to the north of their country. En pleaded for the salvation of his brother, even suggesting to give up half of his life for him. A man in a black cloak was then said to appear with a crystal ball in hand, a servant of the death goddess, Nami. The man asked the young En if he truly wished to share half of his life with Alis. En did not hesitate. As a result, the man transformed the pair into stars, for eternity cannot be divided in half. However, they could spend eternity together in the sky above.
I could still recall crying when Benny told me that story the first time. Ten years later, I still cried whenever I heard it. Ugh, simply thinking about it caused me to get my paper wet!
The next question involved identifying where our constellation was in the star chart provided. It was admittingly difficult, but I'd managed to do it. Or at least I thought I had.
The last question was about our time of birth. It was likely to determine what hour sign we belonged to out of twelve Xianian signs. I was born at five-thirty in the morning, so I got the Rabbit.
Seemed that apart from the third question, this quiz was actually a survey. Well, the others were probably glad by its simplicity.
I stood up and noticed that Huo was biting his lip. Did he not know one of the answers?
Kanja stared at hers and scratched her head. Jude kept writing and erasing as if uncertain about one of his responses. Nate stared at his quiz blankly as if he had no idea how to respond. My guess was they were stuck on questions three and four. Four as not everyone knew what hour they were born. Most parents didn't tell their kids. I only knew as Dia wanted to check her birth certificate out to find out after reading about astrology. Hers was the 'dragon hour', while Benny got the 'tiger hour'.
I froze up. Oh, no! 'The Twins' was my sign in the system we used back home! Tozan Hoshi mostly employed the Xianian system! Ugh, was that why Huo, Kanja, Nate, and Jude were struggling?
My teacher smiled and took the paper from me before I could run back to fix it.
"Interesting. The twins are usually used outside of this continent." Meika smiled. "Are you from the continent of Trono?"
I nodded reluctantly. Would've felt better if Cart were here. He and I were both from Trono.
"I see! There's a lot that I would love to ask you about your system! Especially as it's more widespread these days than the Xianian Zodiac."
I smiled. 'I would love to,' I signed.
Meika smiled. 'Yay! Well, for now, you can sit in your chair while the others finish. We can talk there while we wait.'
I nodded. Good thing Meika turned out to be as nice as her little sister. To think that they had grandparents who were willing to throw a grandchild to the streets simply for being stuck to a body of armor. They probably got it from their paternal grandparents. Based on what Mira said, they seemed to be caring and understanding.
Meika and I talked for a good ten minutes until the others finally decided to turn in their papers.
"Think I did well," Orion said, smiling as he walked back to his seat.
Hikaru laughed weakly as he trailed him. "It wasn't really much of a test apart from identifying the stars."
"True, but I think I got them all!"
"I don't think I got a thing other than the first and last ones," Nate mumbled.
"Really?" Kanja asked, eyes wide.
He glared at her. "Yeah, you can rub it in if you want. It won't bother me."
"Uh, based on your reaction, I think it would." She crossed her arms and scoffed as she sat down. "Lucky for you, I am not that type of person!"
He narrowed his eyes and hummed.
"Come on, Nate. Kanja's not a bully," Mira said.
I nodded. Kanja had an attitude, but she wasn't one to pick on people for their failures. If anything, she criticized herself more than others.
Kanja sighed. "It's fine. I've already accepted that he won't ever see me in a good light."
Nate frowned.
What could he have been thinking?
"Hmm, seems that most of you have some decent star knowledge," Meika said. She stared at Nate and gave him a nervous smile.
He turned away. "Like I said, suck at this."
"No, I'm just surprised that you identified Elephantus." She bent the paper so only the star chart showed. Nate had played connect the dots with the stars to make a cute elephant head!
"Aww, cute!" Kanja said, smiling.
Nate blushed. "S-see?"
She sighed. "I mean it. It's adorable."
"That said, how did you know about Elephantus? Is it your favorite constellation?" Meika asked.
Nate lowered his head. "It is, but I only know about it as I looked it up during homeroom. I thought, since I don't know much about the stars of this world, that I would look them up. And that's the first one I came across."
So, that's what he was doing while I taught the others sign language.
"Ahh, so you're from another world! That explains a lot," our teacher said, grinning.
Enkai leaned back. "Wow, a real alien!"
Nate chuckled. "I guess you can say that. Cart had a similar reaction."
I got up and wiggled two fingers behind his head.
"Hey, I'm not a demon!" Nate said.
I blinked. They were supposed to be alien antennae... I wiggled them again in the hopes that he would get it.
"Huh? Demon horns don't wiggle. Wait, are you saying I'm a bug?"
Kanja facepalmed. "No, she's doing alien antennae."
I smiled and nodded.
"Oh. Surprised I missed that."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, so did I," Huo said. "I thought they were bunny ears."
Aww. Huo must've had a cute imagination too!
"Well, now I can finally start teaching. We'll begin with the stars of the southern hemisphere! Since we live in it," Meika said.
"Oh, that explains the flipped seasons," Nate said.
"Is your world different from ours?" Enkai asked.
He smiled slightly. "Well, I'm used to this time of year being late summer, not winter."
"Oh, are its seasons in synch with our world?" Meika asked.
"Yeah, in the southern hemisphere, it's winter at this time of year like it is here. But, since I live in the north, it trips me up."
Our teacher smiled. "I bet. Now, please don't interrupt any further, Mr. Nate."
"Mr. Nate?" Enkai asked. "Are you Nate Nate?"
He laughed. "No, I'm not."
"Uh, what is his surname?" Kanja asked, glancing at our teacher.
Meika stared at the attendance sheet at her desk. "I'm afraid that's a secret."
Kanja stared at him. "And you call me fishy."
Nate flushed. "I have my reasons."
She scoffed. "Okay, not that I asked."
He gritted his teeth.
Mira's sister sighed.
"Uh, what's your name?" Orion asked, raising his hand. "I mean, surname. Or can we call you Meika?"
She smiled. "You may if you wish, but you can also call me Ms. Watanabe."
Nate gasped. "Watanabe?"
Enkai nodded. "Yup, that's definitely a name one would expect from one from the nation of angels and dragons."
"Wait, are your ancestors from Kasai no Ki?" Nate asked, staring at her and Mira.
"Yeah. How do you know that, though?" Mira asked.
He stared at his desk. "I have an uncle-in-law who belongs to that family."
So, Nate has family living in Zionia? Or could it be... he himself is from Zionia? Ahh! That must be why he's so anxious when it comes to the topic of where he's from! He's not Xelerian like us!
"Ahem. Anyway, let's finally get back on track," Ms. Watanabe said, turning toward the star map.
"Yes, ma'am," all of the others said, and I signed.
The class went by faster than I had expected after we finally got back on track. It was probably for the best to keep quiet about my theory on Nat. Plus, he wasn't the only one hiding his surname. I hadn't provided one to the school when I enrolled. It was pretty surprising that no one had come to ask me to fill it in. Not that I minded giving it. Not providing it was Robbie's idea, not mine.
I raised my head up as I made my way to third period with the others. Light shined through one of the windows, creating a faint rainbow on the wall. Hadn't even thought it to be possible. Usually, one only got clear light on the other side of window glass. Could it have been made out of quartz? No wonder they had money issues, indulging in such frivolous spending.
I smiled. Still, it was nice to see one. It reminded me of my boyfriend. Robbie. Hope he's not getting yelled at too much for failing to accompany me here...
**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the episode ^^. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions?**