Meeting 3-D

I stared down at the large group of eager guys looking up at me.

"You just have to graduate. You just have to graduate," I mumbled to myself as I stood up on the auditorium stage. My hands were clenched into fists against the sides of my skirt, which served to both steel my nerves but also keep prying eyes from looking underneath.

"I'm Nakajima Kana," I said with a bow. "Please take care of me."

The auditorium was suddenly full of applause and excited chatter. It would have been better had there been other girls in the crowd but currently, the ratio was about 200 male students to…well, me.

The principal, the short, nearly bald older man who had decided for whatever reason to accept me into his school, cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Nakajima-san will be in Class 3-D."

For a moment, the auditorium fell eerily silent and I almost stepped back in alarm. Then almost immediately after, the silence was broken by disappointed groans and shouts of protest. Their reaction was not very different than the teachers' reactions when I had requested to be in Class 3-D

"Quiet!" the Vice-Principal, Sawatari, roared. His beaky eyes glared at the students behind oversized glasses. "She doesn't know what Class 3-D is like. More than likely, she will end up changing classes." He smiled at me, flashing me a toothy grin. It was rather creepy and I involuntarily shuddered.

But really, what was so wrong with this Class 3-D?

Suddenly, a bunch of rowdy boys burst into the auditorium. When they saw me on the stage, they began to whistle and catcall. I took in their appearance with interest. Their uniforms were disheveled compared to the rest of the students, and as if to match the state of their uniforms, they did not seem to care for the proper lines that the other classes stood in and rushed toward the front of the stage in a disorderly fashion.

"Ah...speaking of the devils. Class 3-D, you're late as usual," Sawatari muttered with a glare.

"Nakajima-san is your new classmate. Treat her well," the principal said to the group. They stared back at him.

"CLASSMATE?!"

Apparently, many of the teachers had doubts about this as they exchanged uncertain glances with each other, and then nodded. And me? I just wanted to get off the stage already. I glanced at the guys in 3-D as they stared at me, grins slowly spreading on their faces. They completely ignored the glares that the guys from the other classes gave them. This was going to be interesting.

"What's your name?"
"Why are you at this school?"
"Do you have a boyfriend?"

I rolled my eyes as I was bombarded with questions.

"I'm Nakajima Kana. I got expelled from an all girls' school a little while ago, and supposedly I'm the only girl that showed up for the co-ed transition program at this school. My relationship status is none of your business," I answered.

Sawatari glanced at me. "It's hard to believe that someone like you got expelled," he remarked.

I didn't blame him for not believing the records, considering how hard I was trying to impress the teachers here. I was wearing the school uniform from my previous school, white collared shirt with a navy blue blazer and mini-skirt and white knee high socks, and I was actually wearing them properly. I looked, as much as I wanted to gag, like a perfect school girl.

But I had to impress them, at least for now. I had to graduate. Getting expelled again would mean I never would and I had to keep my promise.

Sawatari led me to my homeroom class, 3-D. I had chosen to join this particular class only because it was the number of the homeroom class I was in previously. I could already tell that I was going to like it here. One, because it was in the corner of the school, and two, because everyone seemed to think I wouldn't fit in here. Well, we would see about that.

When we walked in, there was an empty seat smack in the center of the room and all the boys were fighting for a seat next to mine.

"Where's the teacher?!" Sawatari shouted. He then turned to me. "Here's the uniform for our school. Tell me any time if you don't like this class. I'll switch you out immediately. Now I have to go find the homeroom teacher. Wait here."

He walked out, searching for a certain Yamaguchi Kumiko. It was such an old-school name. She was probably old...and mean.

I glanced at the guys, who grinned back at me.

"Where's the girls' bathroom?" I asked the guys.

They looked at each other confusedly. "There...is none?"

Oh right. Up until now, this was an all boys' school.

"Oh! But I heard they made a new one on the second floor next to ours!" one guy said. His pinned back longish blond hair certainly made an impression. "I'm Uchiyama Haruhiko but you can call me Uchi. I can take you there!"

Immediately, several other guys challenged him to be the one to take me to the bathroom and I could sense that a fight was about to break out.

Seriously?

I rolled my eyes and said, "Uchi, please take me to the bathroom now."

He gave the others a triumphant smirk and led me up the stairs at the back of the classroom.

We walked down the hallway before we came to a stop in front of a door.

"This is the new girls' bathroom. The one down the hallways is the guys, so don't get them mixed up!" he said with a cheeky grin. I glanced at the door down the hall. It was completely covered with crude graffiti. The girls' bathroom door was yet to be touched and I could even faintly smell the new paint.

"I think I'll be okay, thanks," I said before pushing open the door and walking in.

Once inside, I let out a sigh. It wasn't like I needed other girls here. In fact, it was a breath of fresh air from the hell that had been the all girls' school. But I knew my peers were expecting a cute, flirty but wide-eyed and innocent schoolgirl who would need a strong man to protect her. And they would fight over that position every day. I was a little tempted to play with that and be pampered, but I realized that this behavior was what I hated the most about some of the girls that had been in my previous class. By batting their eyelashes and acting dumb and cute, they managed to get guys from other schools to do whatever they wanted.

I was here for one reason and one reason only – to graduate. I wanted to do it without creating any unnecessary drama.

I changed quickly out of my old uniform and stuffed it in my schoolbag. Sawatari had given me a black skirt to match the guys' school uniform, which consisted of a white button down shirt, black pants, and a black blazer, but I had come prepared. I slipped on a pair of black leggings under the skirt. After smoothing down the skirt, I stepped out of the stall to check my appearance in the mirror. I decided to pin back my bangs but couldn't decide what to do with the rest of my long black hair so I left it. I looked devoid of all color, which meant I would fit in perfectly here. Maybe I should dye my hair too, I thought with a smirk before leaving the bathroom, only to come face to face with the majority of my class.

"Awwww," was the collective disappointed response to my leggings.

"Perverts," I muttered and shoved past them.

When I returned to class, I saw that there was a desk in the back that no one had been sitting in earlier.

As I reached for the chair, Uchi said, "You can't sit there."

I looked up at him in surprise as he and the rest of the class trickled back into the classroom.

"Sorry Kana-chan, but that seat's taken by a friend of ours," the orange-haired guy next to Uchi said. "But you can sit next to me!"

"Hey, then what about me?!" the short brown-haired guy with multiple ear piercings protested, before I could respond.

"You can just scoot over!" the orange-haired guy retorted, already moving my desk. "Here, Kana-chan. Sit down! I'm Minami Youichi. If anyone bothers you at all, you can tell me!" With that, he threw a look at everyone else in the class, who seemed to begrudgingly accept that this was now my new seat.

"Thanks," I said eventually, putting my stuff down in my new seat. "But one thing. Call me Kana-chan one more time and I'll kill you. It's Kana or Nakajima."

The class laughed nervously, as if not sure if I was joking or not. I certainly was not.

"Sorry for taking your seat," I said to the guy who had moved over for me.

He beamed at me. "It's okay! We're all still together and that's what matters!"

"We?" I asked.

"My group of friends. There's me, Minami, Uchi, that big guy Kuma behind me and Sawada Shin but he's not here yet. I'm Noda Takeshi by the way. Call me Noda!"

Ah. They seemed to be quite the power group in this class.

"So what happened to the other girls?" I asked them. At the time that I had applied, the principal assured me that there would be at least 10 other girls in my grade. When I actually showed up, however, the principal was straightforward about the fact that this was no longer the case and that he understood if I wanted to withdraw my enrollment because of this. At this point, I was desperate and probably crazy enough to stay.

"They dropped out one by one in the first week," Kuma said between mouthfuls of what I assumed to be custard bread. "I think I scared them."

I began to laugh. I could see why. Kuma, whose full name was Kumai Teruo, was huge and sported a blond buzz cut. But it couldn't have been just him. The majority of the guys had dyed hair, jewelry and overall disheveled and menacing appearances. Now I knew why the principal and vice-principal had seemed willing to do anything to make me stay. If I were to leave the school as well, it would mean that their co-ed transition program had completely failed.

"So…Kana…where were you last week?" Uchi asked me. "You missed the first week of school."

The rest of the class turned to look at me to hear my answer.

I took a breath and decided that I would drop the perfect schoolgirl act once and for all, at least in front of them. "I got into a fight and was at the hospital."

"Did someone attack you? Who was it?" Minami demanded. "I'll crush them for you!"

"…I started it," I answered slowly.

"Eh?!" the class gasped.

Before I could elaborate, the classroom door slammed open. In walked the most extraordinary teacher I would ever meet in my life.

But I didn't know that. Yet.

Author's Note: Hi everyone, I'm Reisa. I posted this story at winglin a while back, but now that winglin is completely down, I thought I'd post it here. I've begun the tedious process of re-editing and reuploading the story, so please be patient with me!

The story will follow the drama rather closely, with a few of my own original characters as you can probably tell and pretty much all of the original cast. Gokusen is one of my favorite dramas, so I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing this.

I apologize for the corny title. I wrote this back in middle school and my imagination was a little limited back then when it came to titles. However, I decided not to change it because my readers at winglin are familiar with this title and hopefully will be able to find my story here. I have added some changes to the original story I wrote, so I hope old fans and new readers will find some new perspectives to enjoy.

For those of you confused about the seating arrangement, I made a chart (I linked it in my author profile because it won't let me link anything in the story chapters). Of course this only shows the desks of the main characters but there are other students sitting around them as well. I also doubt that the desks are as neatly arranged as they are on this chart ;)

Thank you so much for reading! Please comment and tell me what you think. It's really helpful! Also, let me know how you got into Gokusen in the first place!