Even the name was intimidating. It was true, too. Everything was so much bigger, somehow; in the crowd that raucously surged through the front doors, he barely made it up to his neighbors' shoulders. He was an anomaly, a castaway boy in a sea of men and women, and whether it was because he was obviously terrified or simply because he was a freshman, they left him alone. He wasn't sure if he could have responded if anyone had tried speaking to him, anyway.
Classes pass in a blur. Every teacher repeats the same mantra. "You are not children anymore. We are not here to coddle you. You will learn more in a year than you have in the last six and you should expect to have at least three hours of homework every night. Cry yourself to sleep if you have to, but get the work done." By midmorning, he was feeling just the slightest bit nauseous.
He was supposed to go to the cafeteria for a break. He ends up lost in a foreign wing instead, hallways covered with posters and paintings, air filled with the screeching sounds of a tortured soprano... and something else. For a moment, he pauses. Then his feet override his common sense and he finds himself wandering deeper down the hallway, listening keenly as the music grows and grows and grows. And how it is that he has the nerve to push the auditorium doors open is beyond him, but he does, and he stares.
They don't notice at first. Who is they? The first one he sees is the girl with the blue hair, brimming with vitality as she jumps and sings and dances, pounding away at the guitar. Her smile is brilliant. There are others, too -- a blonde at the keyboard, an older boy at the drums -- but he hardly has time to register them before a stray glance from the vocalist falls upon him.
They make eye contact.
He runs.
The remainder of the morning classes are equally miserable. The English teacher, a dour-looking white-haired woman, informs them that any use of personal pronouns in their essays would result in an automatic D. He wonders if this means a blank paper with the word 'I' written on would receive a D instead of an F but decides against raising his hand. US History is equally terrifying, with the announcement that they would, actually, get past WWI this year and they'd better be prepared to go twice as fast as they had in the past.
By lunchtime, he has decided that moving up north was the worst decision his father had ever made in his life. The entree is White Goop in a Mash of Yellow and Red Speckles with a side of green mush that had probably once been peas. Somehow, the pack of seniors he managed to accidentally insert himself into get slices of real pizza. He doesn't ask. And when it's time to pick a seat, he slowly heads towards the table far, far away in the corner, keeping his head down.
His first spoonful is halfway to his mouth when he hears it.
"Hey! Kid!"
His head half-lifts for a second. But it is loud, and there are many kids in the cafeteria.
"Yeah, you!"
...
"Hey..." And he finally turns around to stare straight into the face of the smiling girl with blue hair. "Didn't you hear me?"
"..." He stares. Her smile is still brilliant. He shakes his head.
Lucas/Miku | High School AU | AU Meme 1/16/11
Even the name was intimidating. It was true, too. Everything was so much bigger, somehow; in the crowd that raucously surged through the front doors, he barely made it up to his neighbors' shoulders. He was an anomaly, a castaway boy in a sea of men and women, and whether it was because he was obviously terrified or simply because he was a freshman, they left him alone. He wasn't sure if he could have responded if anyone had tried speaking to him, anyway.
Classes pass in a blur. Every teacher repeats the same mantra. "You are not children anymore. We are not here to coddle you. You will learn more in a year than you have in the last six and you should expect to have at least three hours of homework every night. Cry yourself to sleep if you have to, but get the work done." By midmorning, he was feeling just the slightest bit nauseous.
He was supposed to go to the cafeteria for a break. He ends up lost in a foreign wing instead, hallways covered with posters and paintings, air filled with the screeching sounds of a tortured soprano... and something else. For a moment, he pauses. Then his feet override his common sense and he finds himself wandering deeper down the hallway, listening keenly as the music grows and grows and grows. And how it is that he has the nerve to push the auditorium doors open is beyond him, but he does, and he stares.
They don't notice at first. Who is they? The first one he sees is the girl with the blue hair, brimming with vitality as she jumps and sings and dances, pounding away at the guitar. Her smile is brilliant. There are others, too -- a blonde at the keyboard, an older boy at the drums -- but he hardly has time to register them before a stray glance from the vocalist falls upon him.
They make eye contact.
He runs.
The remainder of the morning classes are equally miserable. The English teacher, a dour-looking white-haired woman, informs them that any use of personal pronouns in their essays would result in an automatic D. He wonders if this means a blank paper with the word 'I' written on would receive a D instead of an F but decides against raising his hand. US History is equally terrifying, with the announcement that they would, actually, get past WWI this year and they'd better be prepared to go twice as fast as they had in the past.
By lunchtime, he has decided that moving up north was the worst decision his father had ever made in his life. The entree is White Goop in a Mash of Yellow and Red Speckles with a side of green mush that had probably once been peas. Somehow, the pack of seniors he managed to accidentally insert himself into get slices of real pizza. He doesn't ask. And when it's time to pick a seat, he slowly heads towards the table far, far away in the corner, keeping his head down.
His first spoonful is halfway to his mouth when he hears it.
"Hey! Kid!"
His head half-lifts for a second. But it is loud, and there are many kids in the cafeteria.
"Yeah, you!"
...
"Hey..." And he finally turns around to stare straight into the face of the smiling girl with blue hair. "Didn't you hear me?"
"..." He stares. Her smile is still brilliant. He shakes his head.
"Do you want to sit with us, kid?"
...
...
...
He nods.