Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Mai-Hime series aren't mine. If they were, they would have Natsuki and Shizuru as the principal characters.

You'll have to excuse me. I'm not so good at English. If I commit any mistakes, correct them. And if you like the fic or not, tell me please. It's my first one.

Chapter one: First Day of School.

"DAMN! My first day and already late for class!" A girl was running fast on the hallways; her black skirt doing a frufru movement against the wind letting toned pale legs be seen. Before she knew what was happening, she felt herself collide with someone. "Hey, you, watch it!" she yelled.

"Look what we have here. You must be the new student, right? I'm Midori, your new homeroom teacher." A redheaded woman said with an amused smile. She looked at the astonished girl. So this is THE girl. Not bad. "Anyway, come in at once. We've been expecting you." The teacher entered the classroom first. The girl, now calmer, stood behind the door, motionless.

"Everybody, I'd like you to meet someone!" The teacher said with her characteristic excitement. She waved the girl in. "Alright, you rascals, this is the new student. Even though she transferred a little late, treat her nicely." Just then, the new student appeared at the door, cladded in the school black and white uniform. Every soul inside the classroom held their breath. In front of them was one of the most beautiful girls ever seen. She had long midnight hair cascading down her back, and if it was seen from another angle, it could have been mistaken by cobalt. Athletic figure, snow-white skin and emerald eyes only contributed in making her seem more beautiful. "Come on, introduce yourself!" Midori

The green eyed beauty took a step forward. Cold orbs met curious eyes. She suddenly felt like a rare animal in exhibition, trapped only for the amusement of others. She casted away the odd feeling and spoke with her husky voice.

"Natsuki Kruger." Her voice cold as ice and the if-looks-could-kill-you-would-be-dead glare were enough to chase away any hope of befriending her in the future. Natsuki went ahead and sat down on one of the empty desks, next to one of the windows. She still could feel the not so discreet looks of her classmates, but she didn't mind. It was just like all the other schools she had attended. Though it did get in her nerves when she was being constantly watched. They would learn not to bother her.

Midori, sensing the tense atmosphere, decided to proceed with her teaching. Meanwhile, Natsuki was looking out of the window, trying to busy her mind with other stuff. Great, first day in school and already bored out of my mind. I wonder what Nao is doing? She could at least have told me where her classroom is. Argh, stupid spider! She didn't even give me directions to find the principal's office! I'll just have to ask this teacher here... Man, she looks like she is on crack, jumping all over the place. How the hell did she get a job here? She kept on thinking until the bell rang. Unfortunately, she couldn't reach her teacher as a girl with glasses approached her.

"Hello there." She said. "I suppose you won't mind if I ask you some questions?" Natsuki opened her mouth to contradict the short haired girl, but was promptly interrupted. "She won't stop pestering you until you answer, Kruger-san." A voice from behind them spoke. Natsuki turned around to find an orange haired girl. Natsuki looked at them for a few seconds. The one with glasses had an annoying smile plastered on her face, black, almost dark grey hair, brown eyes and was a few inches shorter than her. The other one was also shorter than her, had orange hair, lilac eyes and a motherly voice. Yet, what surprised her the most of the orange-haired was... Are those real? If someone got stuck inside them, we would need a tow truck to get them out of there! She schooled her features so as not to let them know what was going through her mind.

"My name is Mai Tokiha, nice to meet you!" The orange-haired girl introduced herself cheerfully.

"And my name is Chie Harada, but you..." She eyed Natsuki up and down. "You can call me anything, gorgeous." She shot the blunette a charming smile. Natsuki grimaced internally.

"Smile at me like that once more and you'll find yourself soon coughing out your teeth." She warned her.

"O..okay, understood." The girl backed down, sensing the threat as a real one. "Ehem, anyway, I'd like to ask you some questions about yourself. Nothing too personal, I promise. It's for the school's newspaper."

Natsuki sighed in defeat. "I don't have all day so make it quick." These girls seemed normal compared to her previous school, so she decided to give it a try. Maybe she was judging them wrong from the start.

The girl gave a small squeal before taking out some paper and a pen from her school bag. Even Natsuki had to smile at her eagerness. She seemed passionate about what she did.

The interview was relatively short. But then they reached the subject of her nationality.

"I was born here, but due to certain circumstances I was raised in Germany." Talking to the two girls was pretty easy, but what she wasn't fond of was sharing her personal data, so it was getting pretty tiring.

"Whoaaa, really? Say something in German!"

"Umm,... Your little chat is getting on my nerves." Natsuki pronounced in perfect German. The girls that were around went crazy because of her accent, not even knowing what had been said. A foreigner always attracted a lot of people. Natsuki sighed heavily.

"That is awesome!" Chie bit her lower lip as she scribbled something down on her paper.

"Can I go now? I don't like the attention I'm receiving right now." She whispered through gritted teeth, low enough for Chie and Mai to hear.

Chie glanced around them. "Oops, sorry about that. Last few questions. Do you speak any other language?" She was completely intrigued by the blunette.

"I do. I can speak Spanish and English,"

"Cool. I think this is it for the moment. Now all I need is your number, should I need to ask more questions." Natsuki rolled her eyes, but wrote down her number on a piece of paper anyway.

"Well, well. Breaking hearts again I see." A startled Natsuki turned around.

"NAO!"

"Mutt, I know its good to see me, but could you not scream my name like that? I'm not deaf ya know"

In her rage Natsuki started talking part in German part in Japanese.

"You damn spider! Where were you! You were supposed to help me find my way around this school. It's your fault I got here so late in the first place!"

Nao bend down, holding her stomach from so much laughter. "It's good to see you again, Nat. Oh God, how I missed the way you talk when you get angry!" It never failed to amuse the redhead. Every single time the blunette got this frustrated she would mess up her speech and mix two languages or more.

Natsuki got up, fists clenched at her sides. She slowly walked at Nao who couldn't notice her with her eyes shut.

With a fierce push, Nao Yuuki went flying towards a wall. Surprisingly for everyone, except Natsuki, she easily balanced her body before the impact. People around them gaped.

"Seriously mutt, ya have to stop doing that. If you suddenly decided to kick me for real, you could cause me brain damage."

"I don't think I could ever cause something that is already there. Tell you what... maybe if I punch you on the head enough you could get back the neurons you lost when you fell off your cradle."

"Well, maybe if I kick you enough inyour headyou would stop being such an asshole!" By then, they were losing their patience and their voices were getting louder. Natsuki quickly got tired of it so she called a truce. Nao, not so willingly, accepted.

"So... anything we should know?" Chie said from behind. Natsuki and NAo shrugged.

"Cousins." They said at the same time. Low pitched growls were heard, strangely enough, from both cousins. They looked at each other before turning their heads to the opposite side, annoyed at the other. Chie and Mai couldn't help but thing Okay, that was kind of cute. Not many people can growl and sound cute at the same time.

"Kruger-"Chie started, but got cut off by the blunette.

"Just Natsuki. Anyway, can someone tell me where the principal's office is?" she titled her head at a side, looking kind like a lost puppy.

"We will get you there." Chie and Mai offered.

"I'll go with you." Nao pitched in.

The way to the principal office was unexpectedly long for Natsuki. Chie took the opportunity and asked her more questions. The only thing that succeeded in distracting her was the landscape. She immediately noticed that the school wasn't anything short of magnificent. The gardens were spacious and well taken care of; full of flowers and all kinds of herbal plants, which she assumed were headed to the infirmary in case of need. Her sightseeing was cut short when they arrived at the headmistress' office.

"Is this it?" Natsuki asked and immediately smacked herself inwardly. Of course this is it, you moron! What else could have made them stop in front of a door?.

"Yep, this is it" Mai said, not minding Natsuki's obvious question.

Natsuki knocked the door a few times before they heard a voice telling them to come in. The voice was sweet yet had an underlying firmness. It sounded familiar. Where have I heard it? She went in. Once they were in she immediately recognized the smell that was lodging there. She allowed herself to do a warm smile, only directed to the person in front of her. There was a young looking woman with a doll face and a warm smile. She had lilac hair and light green eyes, they looked like crystals. Mischievous crystals. She smiled mysteriously at them from behind the big desk.

"Thank you for coming." She motioned them to sit down on the couches in front of her desk. "It is good to see you together." She smirked at the cousins.

"It's good to see you too, aunt Mashiro." Nao didn't bother in hiding her lopsided smile. "The mutt here got lost and didn't make in time for class. Why didn't you send her a map?" She snickered.

"I would have been in time if someone hadn't hung up on me when I needed her!" Natsuki was ticked off.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to hang up if you just-!" If Mashiro hadn't cut in the argument they could have gone on and on.

"Do not start, girls. You've been like this since childhood. Always screaming always fighting. I don't even know how you two are going to live toge…" The expression on the cousins was priceless. "I see that you weren't informed," Natsuki and Nao were dumbfounded and speechless. "Close your mouths, you will catch flies."

"Whoa there! Live together? Aunty, we are going to kill each other in record time!" It was Nao who started talking, since Natsuki was still in the same frozen state.

"I second that. From the looks of it, and as far as we've seen, they don't get along that well." Chie spoke up, absentminded. When the course started, she was sure this would be a boring year. Until certain dark-haired girl appeared and brought chaos with her. Not to mention that she knew the infamous redhead. She remembered when Nao first came to school. It was a complete disaster. Two teaches quitted that week because they pushed her too far for her liking, and one of them couldn't stop stuttering every word he spoke. She recalled him pointing at Nao and screaming an incoherency before running out of the classroom and never coming back. Later it was found that he was going to a psychiatrist every week. Since then they decided to not interfere in Nao Yuuki's life.

"Oh! I know very well what they can or cannot do together. Now, let's get to the point" Inher eyes there was something that the girls didn't like at all. "You two will share a room with other girls. And, before you protest, things are already settled. So no, you cannot escape from this," Her voice was still gentle but there was something behind it that left no room for contradictions. "Are we clear?" She just received nods from the obviously angry cousins. Oh well, they'll get over it... some day. I hope.

"Harada Chie and Tokiha Mai," She called. The two girls looked expectantly at the headmistress. "Thank you very much for coming all the way here with these two hardheads," she gave wrote them a note. "Give this to Midori-sensei. It will excuse you from her History class. You can go now," Nao stood up. "I said NOW not NAO, Nao."

"Sheez, don't get mad. It isn't my fault that my stupid name sounds like that."

"You and Natsuki will stay here; we have to discuss some things." Mai and Chie excused themselves and walked out of the office.

"You two will share room number eighteen. Second floor. First building. You can't lose it; it's the one nearest to the school. Nao, I know you've been living outside the campus, but it has to stop. You are spending too much money with your lifestyle. My dear sister, meaning your mother, already complained about the money... in freaking Chinese! For God's sake! Do you have any idea of how annoying it is to have your older sister shouting her lungs out at you in Chinese?" And there she goes. The cousins couldn't stop themselves from rolling their eyes. For a twenty-five year old woman she sure could be childish. And she had the nerve to scold them for fighting so much.

"Now, Natsuki, "Natsuki groaned in embarrassment. Her aunt had that serious busyness-tone that she knew all too well.

"I've talked to your teachers about your... impediment. The nurse knows about your condition, and so does the student council. Do not worry, they will be discreet, or else they will be dismissed from this school." Natsuki was listening quietly. So a lot of people knew about her condition. Well, not a lot but too much for her liking. Great, just what she needed, more attention. "This year it was decided that the girls are going to do gym in pants during the winter and shorts in summer. You take the shower in your room. And when you are...not feeling well... you have absolute permission to not practice sports."

"So, in other words, if Kruger gets a boner, she can just skip?" Natsuki couldn't stop from going tomato red at this. Leave Nao to be the delicate one.

"Yes, if you want to put it that way, yes." Her aunt looked slightly pink herself. "Nao, I'm warning you. Do not try to do anything to Natsuki in front of a person that doesn't know about her condition. It would expose her and YOU will be severely punished." The redhead cousin just pouted.

"However, Natsuki, you are obligated to practice one sport, but if you want to do something else I can't stop you. You know the drill already. No sports like gymnastics and so, because they use really tight clothes. If you know what sports you want to do right now, tell me and I'll inscribe you so you don't have to bother"

"Well..., maybe football."

"Very well then, I will inform the coach. Something else?"

Nao just couldn't contain herself any more, she had to say something. She loved to tease her cousin.

"Why don't you try baseball?"

"Baseball?" Natsuki asked, would Nao suggest baseball of all the sports in school? Mashiro knew why, but before she could stop her niece from her kamikaze actions, Nao opened her mouth. Too late.

"Ya know, where you only need a long and thick bat and some balls," she said while wiggling her eyebrows and accentuating her words with a lewd movement of hips. Before she knew it, she found herself being tackled to the floor. She looked up to a really pissed cousin with a sadistic smile plastered on her face. Now I've done it.

"I'll kill you, spider!"

"AUNTY HELP!"

"Sorry Nao, but you asked for it. This time Natsuki has my permission to beat the lights out of you."

"But, you are the principal! You can't just let students beat other people like this!"

"Right now, I'm your aunt, not the principal. And as an aunt, I can consent or not things like this when your parents are not around."

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Deciding she had had enough, Natsuki punched Nao hard enough to leave her unconscious.

"Well, that was interesting." Mashiro commented, amused.

"Thanks for not stopping me."

"She deserves it, but you do know that you are going to carry her to the rooms, right?"

"Ya, but she isn't that heavy." With that, she picked up Nao and threw her over her right shoulder, smiling warmly at her aunt.

"I guess that is all, see you aunty."

"Oh yeah, and Natsuki..." The dark haired girl was at the door. She turned to see her aunt smirking mischievously at her. "Welcome to Garderobe Academy."

Updated and enhanced on July 15 – 2014

From now on, when I write in italics (E.g. Natsuki) it's either a thought or a dialogue in a foreigner language. Please remember that they speak in Japanese, so Natsuki knowing English is accurate. You will notice it's a dialogue when you see this "".