Hotaru was floating around clouds and crepes in a strange, but satisfying dream. Her mother walked in the room to see a girl sleeping half off of her bed and drooling. She shook her head and sighed. "Hotaru! Wake up!" She began shaking the girl who resisted waking up. Her mother left the room and came back a minute later with a glass of water. Without hesitating, she splashed the water on Hotaru's face only to be disappointed that she was still deep in sleep. "This girl..." Her mother sighed and left the room.

Hotaru's eyes slowly fluttered open and a small water droplet from her lashes dripped. "Owow," she immediately shut her eye and sat up, noticing her pillow was wet. Remembering that today was her first day of high school, she quickly ignored it and flew off her bed. After getting ready and putting on her uniform, she stared at herself in the mirror. "Starting from today... I, Takano Hotaru, am a high school student!" Hotaru spoke to herself like some cliche anime girl with her eyes practically sparkling. Suddenly she noticed the time. Without any delay, she bolted out of the room and skipped almost half of the steps on her steep staircase. "Okaasaaan! You didn't wake me up!!" She was practically screaming while frantically gathering up her breakfast in her arms to eat on the way there.

"I tried," her mother laughed and continued watching the television. Hotaru dashed out the door and began running to school while eating her toast on the way. By the time she arrived, the opening ceremony was over and people were beginning to head to their homeroom classes. "Agh, too late." She seemed a bit disappointed but sucked it up and began marching toward the school entrance.

Daichi rolled out of bed slowly. "Damn another year at high school!" He showered and gelled his hair. As put on his school trousers as he trudged down stairs. "Breakfast!" His mother yelled. He slowly eat his cereal and sipped his juice. He glared at his father and jogged to school. "Another term at crap academy!" trudged past the school gates.

Sakaki sat quietly on a desk in the corner of her empty homeroom, furtively sketching with a mechanical pencil on a piece of notepaper, deep in thought. She cocked her head to the side upon hearing a faint sound, then shrugged and went back to her drawing...

...for about five seconds, at which point the door slid open and a group of 3rd years threw open the door and barged in. She quickly tossed the sheet of paper into her bag, the slightest hint of a minute trace of pink appearing on her face as she yanked out a novel and set about reading.

"Too noisy..." She murmured.

Daichi noticed a girl at the gates he bumped into her "shift punk!" He snarled and trudged off hoping this could start a fight.

*Beep Beep Beep*
*SLAP!*

Axyl hit the alarm clock so hard that it nearly fell off of the nightstand. He loved the whole "early to bed, early to rise" philosophy, but the truth is that "early to rise" is never easy, even if you went to bed at 8pm...which he didn't. He walked into the kitchen and boiled water to put in his french press. After starting the stove he took a shower and and get his clothe on. By this time the water was almost boiling over.

He took a deep breathe of coffee. "High School..." he thought, "Just two more years."

He loved high school, but the fact was that he was ready to get on with his life. He opened a book and started reading it at the table. He set an alarm on his phone for 20 minutes after school started. There was no point in being on time, they would call us all to the gym and give us the same opening ceremony speech they had for the past 2000 years. He then connected his phone to the bluetooth speakers that were scattered throughout his house and played instrumental piano music through them. He went to his front porch and got the news paper and began reading it. Hours past as he read the paper and drank his coffee. He then made breakfast and just as he was eating the last bite of his egg white omelette his alarm went off.

He threw his messenger bag over his shoulder and tucked the paper beneath his arm. He walked down the street to school and gave the paper to a homeless man each morning, along with the leftovers from his breakfast, this morning that was an apple and two pieces of toast.

"Sorry Tomohisa, no meat today." he said with a smile.
"Big day! First day of school Axyl" the man replied, taking the paper
"It's not nearly as big third time around." Axyl replied as he walked away never missing a step.

Hotaru was in high spirits until she felt someone bump into her from behind. She turned around to see a scary looking person. A delinquent?! She quickly turned around and continued walking almost double her normal speed to the school entrance, ignoring him. Was that a mistake..? Is he gonna kill me?" She stopped in her steps. "You know what... I'm gonna stand up for myself!" Hotaru gripped her hand and held it up while being awkwardly stared at by students passing by. She turned around and stomped back to the boy.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLIN' A PUNK, PUNK?" She bravely stood her ground and held her fists against her waist, glaring at Daichi.

Daichi turned round and sucker punched the girl and kicked her in the shins. "Watch it," he grined menacingly "punk!" Tackled her and walked away. He was rather proud of her she had some spunk some Gaul and oh boy did she have some nerve.

A Thousand and One Ways To Ignore the Problems of Other People

Well, that was a strange title for a strange book, But considering who was reading said book, it made utter and complete sense. At least, in context it did. Tanaka sat quietly in the 2nd year classroom, flipping through the pages, completely immersed in the book's contents. To him, it was the holy grail of all things an introvert like himself could possibly use. The room was empty, save for himself of course. When the opening ceremony had ended, Tanaka decided to head straight for class. That way, he could at least acquire some peace and quiet for the day.

It wasn't that he hated other people. In fact, he cherished the bonds he he made with the others in his first year here. It's just that. . .these kind of things were always so damn exhausting. Yes, that was the right word for it. Exhausting.

"Why are other people so draining these days?"

Heavy footsteps were heard outside the classroom and Tanaka closed his book. No doubt they belonged to the other 2nd years or at the very least their teacher. Awaiting their arrival and the interaction he'd no doubt be forced to partake in, Tanaka mentally prepared himself for the first day of another year in high school.

Axyl walks past the gate and sees a scuffle between a young girl and the 2nd year bully Daichi. He stopped and argued with himself...

"Best not get involved."
"You are bigger than him"
"Beating up on a 2nd year has no glory"
"She is a little girl"
"ugh...fine"

Axyl takes the young girl by the wrist and pulls her behind him
"Ah, Daichi, beating up little girls again? Did your mother not give you lunch money so you had to find someone your size to take it from?"

Seeing a motion outside, Sakaki turned towards the window and witnessed a boy beat on what looked to be a first year girl. Sighing tiredly, she stood up and dashed out of the room, whipping through the hallways and bursting through the door in time to see the boy walking off. "Not even going in the building, are you...?" She mused. Instantly slowing down to a quick but quiet walk, she snuck up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, speaking softly in a monotonic voice.

"Why did you attack that girl?"

Unseen under her uniform, she tensed her muscles and prepared to move aside in case a punch or kick came her way.

"I would very much think over your response if you wish to escape from this uninjured."

Hotaru's cheek was red and throbbing and she fell to the ground after getting kicked. A few tears rolled from her eyes, but she quickly wiped them and picked herself up. "Is that all you got!?" Hotaru got into a defensive, fighting-stance. She was shocked to see the boy just walking away. This kid..!! He has some nerve! To punch a girl and then walk away!! I'll show him..!! She was about to chase after him, but an older looking student came and pushed her behind him. Before Hotaru could say anything, another older looking student burst through the doors and then contradicted herself by walking calmly to the boy. "E-eh..." Hotaru gave a nervous look and waited to see what would happen.

Ok, so the sound of footsteps wasn't the teacher or other students. On that note, where was everybody? In any case, the footsteps ended up belonging to a tall girl with dark hair who ran outside to stop a bullying incident that was apparently going on. No doubt she was a third year. Seeing the scuffle outside-it wasn't hard considering the windows were open-Tanaka sighed in annoyance to see the resident bully picking on someone lower than him. Someone that also happened to be female, and from the looks of it, a first year as well.

"Well, well Daichi. Didn't know you were sexist too."

Tanaka leaned on his hands and watched the confrontation carefully. Not even lunch time and already the bone head was causing trouble. The introvert silently rooted for the third year and fellow second year Axyl. Meanwhile, all sorts of ideas for punishment crept through his brain. He had a right to imagine, right?

"Hmm. . .maybe we should sew his mouth together. That way he can't insult us. . .or we could cut off his arms. Then he can't push people. Or how about we just rip his legs off so he can't walk? No, too much effort. . .too messy too. . .

Others would call this trail of thinking disturbing and creepy. Tanaka called it free expression.

Giving rousing speeches wasn't quite Naoki's forte, but he had managed that bit of the opening ceremony quite nicely, if he said so himself. Truly, the words of those great men and women contained within the Weekly Shounen Jump held in the nook of his elbow were rubbing off on him, even if only slightly. Today was the start of his second year at this fine establishment, and while that was significant for other, boring reasons, Naoki had read enough manga to know that all the cool events usually begin to happen to protagonists of anime and manga when they're in their second year of high school. It made sense after all - the cast would be expanded with both 'senpai' and 'kouhai'-type characters, there were no 'getting used to high-school' nor 'getting ready for graduation' interfering with the plot.

Not that Naoki was one of those 'chuunibyou' sufferers. In fact, he was rather grounded in reality. Or at least, grounded enough to not run around calling himself the 'Dark Flame Master' or something.

Having finished tidying up the Student Council office, a room populated by him and himself alone despite the two other tables and four seats suggesting otherwise. He looked out the window behind the President's desk and took in the sight of the school grounds before noticing what seemed to be an altercation taking place between a guy and a girl. Naoki watched for a moment, hand to his chin and thought before snapping his fingers and cheerfully declaring: "Not my problem!"

And with that, he exited the room and headed on towards his second year classroom.

"10 Minutes until school starts, around that time the ceremony opening speech should be over... more than enough time.." Yumiko thought as she looked at clock hanging at the shops wall. She kneeled down before the shops entrance and as soon as the clock's second hand hit the 12, she ran off. Yumiko ran in the store, grabbed the manga she was waiting for, paid it at the cash desk, put it in her bag and continued her run in order to get to school in time.

Only moments later she stoped in front of the school's entrance "Hah, made it in time, still got 3 minutes left, no one will even notice that I was gone~" she thought before she moved on. Then she stoped once more for a few moments as she noticed Daichi who was picking a fight again. Yumiko already wanted to throw a stone at him, so he would stop but someone else was faster to help out, so she dropped the stone and made her way to the classroom still being a bit proud of having no one noticing her absence so far.

The seconds ticked by as Sakaki waited patiently for the boy to respond, and she began to analyze his face, noting his spiked-up blonde hair and scarred lip, but more importantly, the look in his green eyes. Sakaki instantly knew that this was not a boy who was happy with his lot in life. In the corner of her mind, she wondered what had happened to him. Strange how people choose different paths as they beat through adversity... Her mind cast back to the few faint memories she had of the time before her father died, of bright colours, happy laughs, and long, coppery hair.

Suddenly, a strong wind kicked up, blowing her own hair out of her forehead and exposing the long, jagged scar that ran from her temple to her eyebrow. Staring intently at the boy's eyes, her own icy-blue ones glinted with rage. However, her face and, when she spoke, her voice, betrayed no sign of it. "I can see that you've been through troubles. Get over it. You're not the only one whose life isn't perfect."

Groaning Maverick slowly rolled out of bed. (Yes literally rolled) His bed was simply a mattress on the floor seeing as in his last fit of violence he had managed to break one of the legs of his bed. He had managed to keep himself under control for about a week since then but he was worried today. It was the first day of his third year and every year, without fail, something made him snap.

Maverick got dressed in his school clothes and sighed. He had never bothered with breakfast and he always woke up late. He walked into the kitchen where his mom was busy making his father's breakfast. "Good morning mom." He said lazily, she simply smiled and nodded at him. His mother never spoke much. His father came down the stairs from his room and grunted. "Morning dad." Maverick said with a respectful nod, we should get going soon so we both aren't late. Maverick had gotten his overall personality from his father, the calm slow way they did things was to alike for it to have come from anybody else.

After his father ate they both got in the car and a short distance later Maverick was dropped off at the front of the school. Sighing Maverick began walking to his homeroom class. He had missed the opening ceremony which he cared little about, it was the same thing every year. He had arrived in time to see Hotaru get hit and despite the fact that he didn't know the girl he wanted to make sure that she was ok. He assumed she was a first year since he hadn't seen her around so she wouldn't be able to make fun of him for his disorder because she didn't know about it. He hopped he could keep it that way. He walked over to her with a lazy smile. "Are you alright, that looked like it hurt. I would go beat the crap out of the guy but I really don't want an insident on the first day." His voice had a clear Italian accent to it as he spoke, and he chuckled and paused for a moment. He wasn't to good with people but he sure could pretend. "I'm Maverick by the way." His lazy smile remained on his face as he extended his hand for the female to shake.

Hotaru stood and up and shook the foreign boy's hand. "I'm Takano Hotaru! You can call me whatever." She smiled and introduced herself, but then suddenly remembered that it actually DID hurt a lot. She held her face where she got punched. "I should probably go to the nurse or something. huh?" Hotaru laughed nervously and turned to the other boy who came to defend her earlier. "Thank you too," she gave a slight bow and watched the girl from earlier. Hotaru's eyes widened a bit after the wind made her scar visible. I wasn't expecting that... She thought to herself and almost let her curiosity get the best of her, but the bell rang at that very moment. Teachers began rushing outside after hearing of the incident and began yelling at students to get to their classes.

"Well, I'll be going then," Hotaru tilted her head for a second and began following the spectators inside the school building. Before heading to the nurse, she went to the bathroom. Once inside, she stood in front of a sink and looked up. "AGH!" She let out an ugly scream after being frightened by her own reflection. "W-what. No one heard me, right?" Hotaru scanned the bathroom and sighed in relief at its emptiness. She looked back into the mirror and saw blood smeared over her face. Apparently her nose was bleeding without her noticing and it probably tickled her lip, which she then used her sleeve to wipe. "..." Hotaru quietly stared at her bloody sleeve and then glanced back at her bloody face. "AGH!" This time she yelled because she knew it was her. She immediately began washing the blood off. It managed to fade off of her face, but her sleeve was stained. So that's why people were staring and whispering... I just have the best luck, don't I? Hotaru thought to herself and peeked out into the hallway to make sure it was clear.

The bell rang a while ago so people should be in their classes. Hotaru slipped out of the bathroom and dashed to the nurse's office to make sure she wasn't spotted, not like it would make a difference after all of that.

"Why hello there Ninomiya-san!" Naoki called out, giving a wave with his free arm. It seemed that he was walking the opposite direction to the same class. The Student Council president stopped in place and looked up to the side in thought, hand to his chin in thought. "Hmm..." he began, tapping the opposite foot before stopping and dropping his arm. "I don't recall seeing you during the opening ceremony," he pointed out, tilting his head to the side curiously, "Were you running late or something?"

Those words weren't necessarily a reason to panic for the late Yumiko. After all, despite being in a position of authority, Naoki hardly took the job super seriously, nor was he excessively strict about the rules. Heck, the guy walked around with Shounen Jump issues instead of textbooks! If there was anyone who would let tardiness slide, it was definitely him. ...Plus she had a few minutes left on the clock, so technically she wasn't late.

Then the bell rang, funnily enough.

Either way, it wasn't as if Yumiko could get into without confronting Naoki, given he was basically standing in front of the door.

Shana blitzed into the school, running as fast as her legs will go. 'I'm late, I'm late. I cannot be late AGAIN.' She thought as she continued to run, dodging surprised students as she went.

Ever since her very first day she's struggled at keeping time, and was almost always late.
The heavy schoolbag she had bounced against her leg, inevitably making a bruise.

A misplaced foot tripped Shana and sent her stumbling forwards onto the ground. People all around stared and laughed at her as she picked up her scattered books and papers. A tear rolled down her cheek and she closed her eyes in embarrassment while readjusting her uniform.

It definitely wasn't the best way to start a day of school.

Minho sat up. Where was his alarm? He glanced over to the side and sighed. He woke up before it went off....again. He reset it anyway and got out of bed, putting on his uniform and grabbing his bag for school. He grabbed his glasses on the way out of his room. "Good morning mother" he said in Korean; the only language allowed in the presence of his mother. She smiled at him but other wise didn't respond, it was too early for her. Since he had the time he ate his breakfast at the table before his walk to school.
Upon arrival he skipped the ceremony and went straight to the library to pick out a new book to read to his little sister before bed time this week. Then he proceeded to the 2nd years class room. He opened the door to find Tanaka Sorata. A person he was rather fond of actually. He seemed to stay out of trouble and avoid the large social gatherings like he did. He bowed his head slightly "Good morning Sorata.." he took his seat and placed the library book in his bag. "Did you have a good summer?" he kept the topic light, in case it was still too early for Sarata too.