This is going to be my first multi-chapter story. Updates won't be regular, but there will be updates.

So... behold chapter 1.

Enjoy.

'Allen! Are you getting up?' Mana called.

I opened my eyes, feeling that morning grogginess as usual. What day is it today, I wondered. Right, first day of High School. Perfect.

'Yeah, Mana… I'm up. Just give me a sec…' I uttered. Mind is awake; body still tired. Come on, Allen. Get up. I strained to lift myself up, and sat at the edge of my bed. I stretched my body out as I stood up, only to fall back again from the head rush. I heard Mana opening my door.

'Heheh, still trying get up, eh?' he laughed. He placed a box beside me.

'Trying.' I started. 'And failing.'

He chuckled once more. 'I brought your uniform up. You should try it on to see if it fits.' he said. Mana walked out and closed the door before I could reply.

I stood up again and opened the box. Inside was a white collared shirt, a navy blue blazer, black slacks, a red tie and black dress shoes. I threw off my nightclothes and tried my new uniform on. It fit rather nicely, except the shoes were a little on the big side. I examined the shield-shaped crest on my blazer, which clearly read "Blackwood High School". A small rose cross was engraved in the centre of it.

'Allen! There's only a half hour left until school starts!' I heard Mana holler. Crap, should pick up the pace.

I darted through my bedroom door, attempting to tie up my tie as I bounded down the stairs. I waltzed into to the kitchen where Mana was, only to have him turn around and stare at me a bit like I was an alien.

'Nice tie.' he told me with sarcasm clearly in his voice. I looked down at my poorly done up tie. Ha ha, very funny, Dad. I must've forgot to laugh at that one.

I sighed as I sat down at the table and corrected my tie. Mana placed a few pieces of toast with raspberry jam in front of me and sat down.

'You nervous, kiddo?' he asked, giving me that loving parental look.

I had to admit, going to actual school for the first time was more like cardiac arrest to me rather than just nervousness. How many 15-year-olds do you know have pure white hair, an odd scar on their face, and to top it off; a red and disfigured left arm? I didn't really feel saying all of that to my Dad, though.

'That's a bit of an understatement, Mana.' I told him, continuing to eat my toast.

'I can see that.' he smirked. 'I talked with your principal though about what's going on. If you feel that you're too uncomfortable at school, just tell him and he'll call me to come pick you up. I'm sure you'll be fine though.'

'Don't be surprised if I call you right away.' I said.

'Oh come now. You've dealt with crowds at the circus worse than 500 rowdy teenagers.'

I swallowed my last bit of toast. 'You're just saying that.' I said, standing up. And exaggerating quite a bit, I thought afterwards.

Mana stood up as well and picked up the car keys. 'Well, you don't know what it's going to be like unless you go find out for yourself. Right?'

'I guess…' I still bet you anything that I'm going to be avoided like the plague. 'Oh, where's my glove?' I remembered.

Mana took a white leather glove out of his pocket and handed it to me. I quickly pulled it over my left hand.

I followed Mana outside and stepped into the car. He turned the keys, backed out of our driveway and began driving in the direction of the school. As we drove, I looked out my window and watched the world pass by. I quickly noticed that we were going into a part of town we never really go to. There were a lot of kids in the district, and of course the number of teenagers that go to Blackwood.

'You starting to see some other students?' Mana asked, stopping at a red light.

I nodded. At one point I saw a tall young man with a teenage girl who was wearing the Blackwood uniform. She had really long black hair tied back into two pigtails. I wondered if she had ever cut her hair before. Then I turned my attention to the young man who was with her.

'Huh?' I blurted suddenly.

Mana turned to me, looking curious. 'What is it?'

'That man who's with that girl… he's wearing slippers.' I mentioned; sounding a bit dumbfounded.

'Ahaha,' he laughed. 'I figured you might say that when you saw your principal.'

I turned back to Mana. 'That's our principal?' I exclaimed.

'Principal Komui Lee.' he stated. 'He's a nice guy.'

'What about that girl who's with him?'

Mana quickly glimpsed at the girl who was with him before driving off again. 'I'm not quite sure. But I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for her relationship with him.' he said.

Let's just hope it's not the weird kind of relationship, I said to myself. Several minutes passed by before I saw the school. My jaw dropped at the enormous size of the building. Big school equals hundreds of kids who are inevitably going to stop and stare once they see me. I must've groaned loudly because Mana started to laugh.

'Just be you, Allen.' he told me. How many times have I heard that quote from those parents on TV? 'I'll come pick you up after school.'

I hesitated to even touch the car door handle. Mana offered to come in with me, but I refused, seeing as he also had work. I finally opened the door and swung it closed. My Dad waved to me and drove off the property.

'Breathe…' I muttered. I took a deep breath and exhaled, which only worked to some extent. Now my only problem was: where's the office?

I began walking towards the first entrance I saw. A school bus pulled into the bus circle, and dozens of teenagers began to step out. For some reason, I was fixed on a boy with rather long red hair bunched up in a bandana, and an eye patch covering his right eye. Then another boy stepped out, with the longest black hair I have ever seen on a human male. He had it tied back in a high ponytail, and looked pretty… intimidating. They started walking together towards one of the doors.

Suddenly the red-haired boy stopped and looked in my direction, and I quickly turned my head away in response. Great. The weird new kid was staring at him like a freak. I looked back in his direction, but he and his friend were gone. Damn it.

'Are you lost?' I heard a voice behind me say.

My body jolted from the surprise, and I spun around. It was that girl with the principal.

'Er, no- I mean, uh, somewhat?' Well, we're off to a great start. Real smooth, Allen.

To my surprise, she just giggled. 'You must be the new boy my brother Komui was talking about.' she said.

Wait. Komui? As in principal Komui Lee? 'You're the principal's sister?' I assumed.

'Yep. My name's Lenalee Lee. I'm a second year student here.' She shook my hand with a comforting smile. 'What's your name?' she asked.

'Uh, Allen. Allen Walker.' I replied, feeling extremely tense. It was pretty rare for me to meet someone so pleasant to me at first. And it's a girl, too.

'Do you want me to guide you through the school?'

Whoa. 'A-are you sure? I mean, I'm a bit different and all…'

'I don't mind, Allen.' Lenalee beamed. 'There are a lot of different characters in the school. But it's what makes people unique.'

Double whoa. 'Well, okay, if you're okay with it.' I told her.

I followed Lenalee through a pair of black doors, and already we were in the front office. I walked up to the secretary's desk, who of which was sleeping quite soundly. I read the name plaque sitting on the desk's surface. Reever Wenham.

'Mr. Wenham?' said Lenalee. He didn't budge. 'Mr. Wenham!'

Mr. Wenham then opened his eyes and yawned. 'Oh… Lenalee… who's this?' he asked.

'This is Allen. He's new here.' she informed him.

'Ah, I see.' he said, yawning again. 'I trust you have your schedule for the semester?'

'Actually, no, I don't…' I replied nervously. 'Is that a bad thing?'

'It kind of is, Allen. You need your schedule to know which classes you have and where they are.' Lenalee explained.

Well, I never received it, I thought. 'I guess it'll be pretty important for me, seeing as I'm not good with directions.' I laughed.

Mr. Wenham searched his computer for the file containing all the students' schedules, opened the file with mine, and printed it off. The paper slowly came out of the printer, and landed on the tray.

'Here you are.' Mr. Wenham handed me my schedule. 'Hope your first day goes well.'

'Thank you.' I said as I left the office with Lenalee.

The door shut behind us with a clank. I lifted my schedule up and examined it. Lenalee peered over my shoulder to look.

I pointed to some numbers in a column. 'So these numbers here tell me which classroom the course is located, right?' I asked her.

She nodded in response. 'Looks like you have history first in room 124.' she told me. 'Just so you know, any room that starts with a 1 is on the first floor, and ones with a 2 are on the second floor.'

'Alright, I'll keep that in mind.' I said, folding my schedule and putting it in my pocket. Seemed simple enough to follow.

'Now come on, we're going to be late for the first day assembly!'

'Wait, wha-'

Lenalee grabbed my wrist and dragged me quickly to the school auditorium. And obviously enough, the whole school was there. I could feel myself clamming up when I saw people near the entrance noticing me. Let the fun begin, I thought sarcastically.

'Um, Lenalee? Can we skip this?' I asked her, almost begging her.

She looked at me with concern. 'What's wrong?' she wondered quietly. 'Are you feeling a bit nervous?'

I nodded in response. She glanced at the stage, then back at me, and sighed. 'Well, we can sit near the back, if you want.' she offered.

'W-well, if it's okay with you! I just…'

'Don't worry about it.' she smiled. She led me a few rows forward, then to a couple of empty seats near the edge. I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes all focused on my grotesque image.

'Who's that? Is he an old man?'

'No, he looks younger than us, if you look close enough. Plus he's wearing the uniform. But you'd have to wonder why he has white hair…'

'And what's with that scar on his face? It's all weird-like…'

'Do you think it's domestic violence?'

Mr. Lee, to my relief, began to speak into the microphone, which shut the students up about me. 'Well, I hope you've all had a wonderful summer vacation, because today is the start of a brand new school year!' I could hear some students groaning from having to be reminded of what today was.

He continued after the moaning died down. 'First of all, I would like to welcome the new first year students and any other new students that have joined our school this year, and I would also like to say "welcome back" to all the returning third year students.'

As Mr. Lee went on about something related to school sports, I attempted to mull over everything that has happened. The image of those two boys came to mind. I figured I'd probably want to stay away from the black-haired one, but the redhead seemed a lot nicer. He'd probably be someone I'd like to get to know better.

'And that concludes today's assembly. An announcement before you leave: first and third year students will go straight to the library to be assigned their senior or junior student. Second year students will go to their period one classes.' Mr. Lee announced. 'You are dismissed.'

The students began to stand up and head out the doors. Before Lenalee left for class, she gave me the directions to the school library. She waved goodbye and left me standing in the middle of the foyer. Quickly after, I followed her directions to the library. There were two lines: one for first years and one for the third years. I stood in the first year line and waited patiently until I was called up. I approached the woman at the desk; she was young, although the black circles around her eyes concealed that essence. She also had brown, loose wavy hair tied back into a ponytail.

'Hello.' I uttered.

'Well, hello, Herr Walker.' she replied, looking a bit surprised but cheerful at the same time. I assumed she said "Mr. Walker" in another language. 'So let's see…' She began scanning the list in front of her. 'Ah, here it is. Your senior for this year will be Lavi.

'Um, if I may ask, what is this junior-senior thing all about?' I questioned.

'Certainly. The thing is; we believe that first year students, or juniors, would like a bit of help understanding what goes on in our school and in high school, in general. So we assign one or two junior students to a third year student, or senior. So for the whole year, your senior will be your guide as to what happens around Blackwood and where everything is.' she explained.

'Oh, okay. That makes sense.' I said. 'So… where is he? My senior, that is.'

The woman pointed to a familiar face. It was the redhead from this morning at the bus circle.

Crap.

The minute the bell rang to end second period, I picked up my things and hastily went outside to eat lunch alone. The door I went through led straight to the back parking lot and the sports field, which was just across from where I stood. The school's soccer team was having their first meet, and was practicing shooting at the time. I sat on the bleachers under some trees, hoping I wouldn't be easy to spot.

I looked up at the sky through the branches above me. It was a beautiful sunny day with only a few clouds. I felt relatively better seeing at how great of an afternoon it was. It almost took my mind away from all the awkwardness that has happened so far at school.

'I was wondering where I would find you.' someone suddenly said.

I turned my head around to find Lavi, walking up to the bleachers. He hopped up from the back and onto the highest seat beside me. 'So you're Allen.' he stated.

'Um, yeah… that's me…' I answered hesitantly. I kept beating myself in my head for not being more outgoing.

Lavi smirked innocently at me while I maintained no eye contact with him. 'What's the matter?' he asked, now looking more concerned.

I didn't really say anything in response; I only shrugged. It's not like I'm going to talk about something to someone I've only known for a couple of hours.

'I didn't get the chance to meet you before class started.' Lavi recalled. 'You just up and left without saying anything to me. Is something wrong?'

'No! No…' I told him, shaking my head. 'I'm just… not so used to being around so many people. I'm often afraid to go to a public place because of my appearance. So… if you think I look weird or old, just say it now. Please.'

Lavi chuckled lightly. 'That's it? Allen, Allen, Allen…' He ruffled my hair a bit with his hand. 'Have you looked at some of the students of Blackwood? Compared to them, you look absolutely normal to me.'

'So… you've seen people with hair that's more different-looking than mine?'

'Yup.'

'What about a scar as crazy as mine?'

'Well, I can't say I've seen scars as crazy as yours, but I think I can consider some other things to be more or equally as crazy.'

I felt rather relieved hearing him say that, and I finally smiled. 'Thank you Lavi. I really appreciate it.' I told him.

All of the sudden a soccer ball came rolling towards us. It bumped into one of the legs of the bleachers and stopped about a foot in front of it. One of the team members came running to retrieve it, but he halted the second he saw us sitting there.

'Hey, can one of you two pass the ball over here?' he asked.

I nodded, got up and stepped down onto the ground. I positioned my foot, lifted my leg up behind me and then swung it forward, propelling the ball towards the player. Except I hit it too hard.

The ball ricocheted off the player's head, knocking him backwards. Then the ball flew across the field and right into the goal. Lavi nearly busted a gut from laughing so hard. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Great job knocking out the guy, Allen! Now what are they going to think of you? I quickly ran towards the half-conscious player, and Lavi followed behind.

'I'm so sorry!' I apologized. 'Are you alright?'

The player sat up, and just laughed. 'Wow, I haven't felt a ball hit me that hard since first year of high school.' He stood up, brushing the dirt off his uniform and his odd-looking hat. 'And what a kick that was! Went straight into the goal!'

'Did he knock the brains outta you, Daisya?' Lavi joked.

'Ha ha, nah. This your junior, Lavi?' he asked. 'I'm telling ya, this kid's got some pretty solid soccer skill. You gonna join the team this year?'

I liked the idea, but I quickly remembered my arm, seeing as they were wearing short-sleeved jerseys. I had nothing to cover up the rest of my arm. At least, not yet.

'I think I'll sleep on it.' I replied.

'Well, think about it. We could really use someone like you on the team.' he said, walking back to the rest of the team. They stared past Daisya and at me, with somewhat stunned looks in their eyes. I could feel myself clamming up with anxiety.

'C'mon, let's go, Allen.' said Lavi, placing a hand on my shoulder.

As we marched back to the bleachers, I watched as the team stopped looking at me and proceeded with their practice.

'So what class do you have after lunch?' Lavi wondered.

'Umm…' I pulled out my schedule from my pocket and unfolded it. 'I have gym…' Well, seems that my day just keeps on getting better and better.

'Really? Let me see.' He looked past my shoulder at the piece of paper. 'Well, what do you know!'

'What?'

'You have gym at the same time and place as me! I guess they decided to merge the two classes this year.' he told me.

Just as he said that, the bell rang. I looked at my watch. 'Wow, time flies, huh?' I said.

'Yeah. I wish time would go a little slower sometimes. But it is what it is, I suppose.' He threw his bag over his shoulder and sighed. Lavi and I went to class together, but by the time we reached the change rooms, I told him I had to speak with someone really quickly. I took off for the gym office, and knocked on the door when I got there.

A voice called out from behind. 'Yes?'

I opened the door slightly, then all the way. 'Are you Mr. Chan? The gym teacher?' I inquired.

The man sitting in front of the computer swiveled his chair around to face me. 'I am.' he answered. He had blondish hair, tied up into a small ponytail. And… I don't know what it was, but it was something like a hat on top of his head.

I closed the door behind me. 'Um, I'm one of your students in your first year gym class for period 4.' I informed him, feeling a bit nervous. 'I'm-'

'Allen Walker? Yes, I heard about you.' he interrupted. 'Come sit.'

Mr. Chan gestured me to sit in the big chair next to him. He turned off the power on his computer as I sat down. 'So, would it be okay if I asked you to show me your arm? Your left one?' he requested. 'But if you don't want to, it's completely fine.'

'N-no. Not at all.' I rolled up the sleeve and showed him my red and disfigured arm. 'It ends at my shoulder.' I informed him, shaking a little.

Mr. Chan examined my arm closely, placing a hand upon his chin in deep thought. I began to wonder if he was going to say something unpleasant.

'Well… the best solution I can think of is to wrap it up with gauze. If anyone asks, we'll just say that you had surgery on your whole left arm, and it needs to stay wrapped until the doctor has to take it off.' he told me.

'What if they ask me what caused the need for surgery?' I asked.

'Say that you can't remember how it happened because you got knocked out and lost your memory because of it.'

Nice. They'll buy that one, I thought sarcastically. Mr. Chan took out a large roll of gauze from a cabinet and began wrapping it around my arm. It took over 5 minutes to get my whole arm covered with gauze. He cut the end, stood up, and stretched from having to bend over, putting the gauze away afterwards. 'Can you flex your arm?' he wondered.

I bent my arm up and down and rotated it. The gauze didn't slip or rip from the movement. 'Yeah.' I answered.

'Good. Because if you couldn't, you'd probably have miss this class until you found a better solution.' he told me, heading for the door. I'd actually prefer that if the course wasn't mandatory for first years.

I left through the door I came in and went into the boys' change room. Everyone had already gotten ready and went to the gym, leaving the room completely empty. I sighed with relief and got changed into my uniform with haste. I jogged through the door once I was finished and found myself in the gym. Everyone was doing their own thing at the moment; I found Mr. Chan watching all the boys and making sure there was no foul play happening before class even started.

Mr. Chan turned his head and noticed me at the door. I came up to him, thanking him for his help.

'Don't thank me just yet, Allen. If that gauze holds up until the end of class, then you can thank me.' he said. And with that, he blew the whistle around his neck, calling all the first and third year boys. I noticed Lavi in the pack, and waved to him. He waved back.

I stood with the group together in front of Mr. Chan, beside Lavi. I began to tense up again when I heard some guys whispering behind me. Lavi nudged me with an arm lightly.

'Don't listen to them.' he mouthed. 'Hey, what happened to your arm?'

I remembered what Mr. Chan had told me what to say if this question popped up. 'Surgery. Gotta keep my arm wrapped up until the doctor removes it.'

'Oh, I see. But why did you need surgery?'

I wondered at this point if Mr Chan could predict the future. 'It was in an accident. I don't remember how it happened though; I was out cold.'

Mr. Chan cleared his voice, thus ending our conversation. 'Welcome to gym class, boys. Seeing as today is our first day, we will begin with an assessment to see where you all stand with your physical fitness.' he announced. 'Now for a warm-up, I want 5 laps around the gym, then drop and give me 20 push-ups.'

He blew the whistle, and everyone began running. It wasn't until a minute after we started that I noticed the black-haired guy from this morning running in front of the whole class. I decided to run a bit faster; I was now second in front of everyone. He looked behind me, giving me a dirty look, and ran faster. Now normally, I would back off when someone gave me a look like that, but something about that guy made me feel angry, like he was challenging me. I decided to run faster, trying to catch up to him.

I realized that it had been 5 laps already, so I stopped and began the 20 push-ups. The black-haired guy and I finished at about the same time.

'Well done Walker, Kanda.' Mr. Chan praised, grinning proudly. 'I know you're good when it comes to gym, Kanda. But you, Walker, have amazing potential as well.'

'Thank you, sir.' I replied. I glanced at Kanda, who only glared at me in response.

The rest of the boys finished a couple of minutes later. Lavi came up beside me and doubled over to catch his breath. 'Geez, Allen!' he panted heavily. 'What was that all about? You were right beside me, then it looked like you were racing Yu!'

'Yu?' I repeated.

'That mean-looking guy over there.' Lavi pointed to Kanda. 'He hates it when people call him Yu, though. He'll beat you if you do.'

'Then why do you call him Yu?' I asked with skepticism.

Lavi smirked slyly as he stood up straight. 'I just like to push his buttons.' he replied. 'Watch this,'

I turned to Kanda while Lavi called out, 'Fast as always, Yu! Great job!'

Kanda glowered menacingly at him. 'Fuck off, retard.' he growled.

Lavi tried hard to hold in laughter at his foul-mouthed reply. I looked back at him curiously. He stood back up again. 'Ha ha… he probably would've said that even if I didn't call him Yu.' he told me.

'Is Kanda really that unpleasant, or is he having a bad day?' I wondered.

'Hmm…' Lavi held his chin jokingly; obviously he was going to say something silly. 'I'd have to say both.'

'So… he can be nicer at times? If that's the right way to say it…'

'I wouldn't say nicer, but he can act more… civil, sometimes. Although he's just grumpy by nature.'

Mr. Chan blew his whistle once more, silencing the chatter in the gym. 'You've probably noticed the ropes hanging in the middle of the room.' said Mr. Chan, pointing the class to the ropes dangling from the suspension beams on the ceiling, about 20 feet in the air. I felt a little sick, imagining myself holding on to the rope for dear life so I wouldn't fall from such a high height. 'I want every first year to pair up with a third year and take turns trying to climb to the half-marker of the rope. The person who isn't climbing will spot the one who is climbing. If you cannot make it to the half-marker, try to remember where you stopped, and let me know.'

Well, half isn't so bad, I thought. Lavi and I almost immediately paired up together, and we were about to head to our rope until Mr. Chan stopped us.

'Can you two be a group of three with Kanda?' he asked. 'We don't have the same amount of people in the first year class as the third year class.'

'Yes, sir.' we both answered. Once we all got to our rope, we decided that Lavi would go first, and waited until Mr. Chan blew the whistle for us to start.

FWEEE!

And just like that, Lavi was pulling himself up the rope. I looked up and watched so he didn't fall. Kanda seemed to turn his attention to something else, most likely because he didn't feel the need to spot since I was here. Minutes later, Lavi had reached the half mark of the rope, and quickly made his way back down. The moment he reached the floor, he began waving his hands around.

'Rope burn.' he said. I examined his hands; they were red and warm from the friction of the rope.

'Can I go now?' Kanda questioned, sounding very impatient.

Lavi nodded. We watched as Kanda climbed up the rope; he was much quicker than the rest of the boys. He made it to the half-marker in no time at all and came back down in the same amount of time.

'Alright, your turn Allen!' said Lavi. He gave me a light pat on my shoulder.

I slowly approached the rope, glancing up at the beam it hung off of. The rope itself seemed all right, yet the condition of the beam was rather questionable. I couldn't tell how bad it was since it was so high up.

'C'mon, let's go, Allen!' Lavi encouraged. Kanda continued to look at me irritably.

I grabbed the rope with both hands, hooked my feet on top of the first knot and lifted myself upwards, hooking my feet onto the second knot. I continued to do that until I had gotten to the half mark.

'Way to go!' Lavi grinned, giving me the thumbs-up.

I began climbing down, but stopped when I felt the rope jolt. As the rope swayed lightly with me hanging onto it, I could hear a creaking noise coming from above. The beam had bent inwards slightly.

'Shit…'

Lavi stared up at me curiously, seeing as I stopped. 'What's wrong?' he called out.

My heart began to race; the beam was breaking. The beam was breaking. I kept telling myself that I had to get down quickly or something bad would happen.

'Lavi…'

'What?'

The beam continued to creak. 'I don't think I can move…' I told him. My arms were beginning to hurt from hanging on so tightly.

Kanda spoke up. 'How can you not move? You were able to climb down until you stopped right there, stupid bean sprout!' he yelled.

I twitched a bit. Bean sprout? What kind of name is that, I asked myself. 'That's not it…' I replied. 'The beam above… I think it's breaking when I move.'

Lavi took a step forward in order to get a better look. Kanda glanced up at it as well. 'Well… just try going slowly.' Lavi suggested.

I began climbing down once more at a more slower pace, but the rope continued to jolt. There was still a long way to go until I could reach the bottom. I clung onto the rope tighter, in fear that I would fall if I continued to move. Well, I suppose in this case, falling will probably be inevitable.

'I can't!' I told them. 'It's still breaking!'

Lavi turned to Kanda, telling him to get Mr. Chan. He took off to get the teacher as Lavi kept an eye on me so that I wouldn't fall. I felt the rope jolt again. Another jolt like this and it's gonna snap, I predicted. I looked down at Lavi, who seemed pretty worried now.

A loud clack filled the gym, and before I knew it, everything was dark and quiet.

Whew! And that ends chapter 1!

What happened to Allen? Find out when chapter 2 comes out!

Cheers - LMC