Chapter one- One Hundred Percent

The family car came to a stop with a slight jolt outside the elementary school, which appeared very taunting to the occupant in the passenger seat. Kuroko Tetsuya craned his neck to peer over the dash, catching a glimpse of the looming building. Despite only living a couple of streets away, his mother had insisted on driving him to his first day of school and meeting his teacher. Kuroko weakly protested, knowing it would make no difference when his mother set her mind on something.

The boy opened the car door diffidently and squirmed out of his seat, breathing in the pleasantly mild April air. His uniform felt stiff on his body, long socks uncomfortably resting below his knees.

"Tetsuya look! The cherry blossoms are in bloom!" His mother exclaimed, to which her son replied with a nod. His mother was right, the pink flowers covered the pathway like paint, a soft carpet being squashed by a hasty gaggle of parents and students.

Kuroko's mother tenderly gripped his hand and led him over to the classroom board. Locating her son's name too quickly for him to spy any familiar names… not that he was acquainted with many.

When the pair arrived, the classroom was humming with energy, filled with children his age clinging onto parent's legs, or happily giggling and loudly conversing with one another. His mother nudged him in the direction of a group of laughing boys and proceeded to chat with other parents and his teacher.

Kuroko gulped solidly before approaching the group, standing in a small gap between two of the boys. None of them had noticed him, yet Kuroko, not knowing whether to add into the conversation or stay silent, did not do anything better than to stand there and listen to their conversation.

"Mama said that this class scored the highest results in the entrance exams!" The boy on his left gossiped. "We could be geniuses—Wah!"

Suddenly the group jumped with fright, finally detecting the presence of a pale blue haired boy. They all bewilderedly peered down at Kuroko, being much taller than him.

There was a long silence, which Kuroko forced himself to break. "Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Kuroko Tetsuya, nice to meet you." the boy greeted with a bow.

"Kuroko Tetsuya? I didn't see your name on the class role?" one boy replied.

"You mean you studied the names!" his friend cried, elbowing his friend's stomach with a bark of laughter.

"Sorry for being rude," the third boy replied, scowling at his friends. "I'm Akio Kimura! And this is Isao Kobayashi and Manbu Nakamura." He said pointing at his two friends. Kuroko nodded his head at each of them. Another pause embedded itself into the interaction, where each boy awkwardly stared at him.

Eagar to keep the dying conversation flowing, Kimura gestured at Kuroko, "So, why did you come to this school Kuroko?"

"I live only a couple of streets away," Kuroko replied in a steady voice, wishing he had more to say on the topic.

"Oh."

The three boys found Kuroko emotionless voice and manner of speaking difficult to connect with in a light-hearted way and quickly reverted back to the previous conversation topic.

"So Kimura?" The boy Nakamura questioned, glancing at his brown-haired companion. "How did your 'mam know about this class being smart?"

"She works at the office at this school. You will probably see her around. Actually she is right there!" Kimura exclaimed pointing at a bespectacled woman conversing to their teacher.

"Did she tell 'ya who got the highest results?" Kobayashi asked curiously.

"No. But she left the document up on her computer while we had dinner, and I snuck a peek while I was coming back from peeing." His two friends snickered at this comment, but remained fixated on the story, their eyes wide with intrigue.

"...Well?" inquired the two boys, pressing their friend for information.

"It was a boy called Akashi Seijuro."

The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees, but no one understood why.

"Anyone know who he is?" asked Kobayashi. No one recognised anyone by that name, the boys even consulting Kuroko if he knew this boy. He did not.

"Maybe he doesn't live in the area?" one boy suggested.

"What score did he get?"

Kimura frowned slightly, "We all got around sixty percent…"

The three boys leaned in curiously.

"Akashi Seijuro got one hundred percent."