"New Kid" "Excuse me, Ms. Torvald?" "Oh, right! Excuse me." Andeira turned from her class and walked outside the door to greet her new student, the recently-transferred girl who had signed up for her class, among many others. A woman accustomed to smiling, Andeira gave a warm one and extended her hand. "Good to meet you, Miss Nanahara." "Yeah, yeah." The girl took Torvald's hand limply, not even bothering to squeeze. Andeira noticed how glum she was and inquired Marbel. "Here," said the Headmistress, handing the foreign languages teacher a thick folder. "You might want to brush up on this, Ms. Torvald. And do keep an eye on her; she's a bit of a rogue." "Whatever," grumbled the girl. Marbel shrugged. "I leave her to your care, Andeira. Make sure she feels comfortable." "Small chance o' that happenin'," muttered the girl, crossing her arms. Marbel bade a quiet farewell and returned to her office, leaving Andeira to turn a ghastly pale color as she looked at the first-year student's record. Nearly all of it consisted of discipline problems, rebellious nature, insubordination, inability to work with some people, and general mayhem. The school had enough troublemakers already, what with the likes of Alexis Walker, Zane Klein, Ivory Tran, Alexandra Blair, and Ana Lu around, but this was adding fuel to the flame. She took a deep breath and cursed the Headmistress quietly. "I'm ready whenever you are, uh... Miss what's-your-name," said the girl limply. Torvald got a look at her name and smiled. Hawaiian, definitely—finally a chance for her to brush up on her tropical languages! It had been so long! "I'm Ms. Torvald, as the Headmistress surely told you." "Right, right, sorry. Cute name." "Thank you. And yours is very pretty." "Yeah?" The girl grinned and gave a cocky thanks. Torvald escorted her into her room, where the smile escaped and the arms crossed in defense. She was already humiliated enough, but did those girls have to stare so much? She snorted and stared dead into their eyes, daring them to smirk or make a cute comment. "Ladies," said Torvald clearly, "we have a new student who recently transferred here all the way from Hawaii. Her name is Kula Nanahara, and I want you all to make her feel welcome." More than a few eyes bulged at the sight of young miss Kula and her cute tough-girl appearance. Her tropical upbringing gave her an exotic look, naturally tan and petite with hints of Japanese blood in her veins. Her hair was the color of buckeyes, twirling into two braided pigtails, completing the girlish look—yet she smelled like a tomboy, and dressed like one too, having ripped shorts, a board-shirt, and a bikini top underneath it in spite of the weather. She had been wearing skateboarding equipment up until entering the school, where she stowed it in a locker. "Oh God, hold me back, cuz' I wanna ravish her right now!" X Walker hissed lustfully to Ivory, who concurred with a muffled laugh. Kula was naturally hot, and cute at the same time; even the meek girls in the class found themselves staring at her. Kula's face turned dark after the lame hello and introduction, and tried hiding herself as she stepped through the classroom and found an empty seat. Nomi Nakatori gave her girlfriend Alisha a pitiable stare. "Oh, poor girl. She looks so lonely and scared. I think we should talk to her after class, Fox." "Yeah, uh, class." Alisha was staring hard and nearly drooling, so Nomi had to clear her throat and slap her hand lightly. She just grinned, apologized, and went back to peeking at the new girl. Torvald picked up where she left off, going over the fundamentals of the German language, but only a few really paid attention. Kula sighed, obviously lost and careless, and rested her head on the desk, her arm supporting her. Blah, blah, blah... Avelina looked over at her and frowned. The words "transfer student" usually meant "uprooted from her home", and she above all people knew how that felt. She had already made something of a friend earlier on at the audition for school musical, and figured it would be nice to go two-for-two and open up to poor Kula before she felt overwhelmed by her surroundings. She smiled to herself and reasoned Ethan would be proud. A few other friendly girls made mental notes to become acquaintances with the new student, and help her along so she felt welcomed. Kula was unaware of their plans; she just tried keeping up with the meine freundin and the Auf Wiedersehen. "Now girls," said Torvald after allowing them time to make notes, "I want to ask all of you a question, and please raise your hand for the answer: Sie sprechen Deutsch? Who says eleven?" A few girls tentatively raised their hands, but Zane, Lilian, and Alexis stifled laughter (Lilian not so much). "And who says five?" Other hands rose shyly. "And which among you, besides Miss Nachtheim, knows what I just asked, and why everyone who raised their hand was wrong?" "Ooh! I do!" yelped Walker. Torvald gave her a patient look. "Besides you and Zane, Alexis." Nobody raised their hand for awhile, so Torvald rolled her eyes and grumbled, "Very well. Take it away, Miss Krishnan." And then, one voice spoke up in the room, high and strong and wise, clear as the sky and confident as a stone. It sounded like sandpaper to Kula, who cringed to herself as the girl answered. "You asked us all, 'You speak German?', for which of course much of the class replied in very silly ways. I would then have to reply that the majority would say nein, but I may confidently say ja, and so of course may the three women you mentioned." "Correct as usual, Usha," groaned Torvald, who had obviously gotten her fair share of right answers from the young woman. Kula sneered and spoke up. "What the hell's this? You gotta let the teacher's pet talk? What, does she always answer like this? Why don't she be the teacher instead? Seems to me the little know-it-all's just an attention hog." "Excuse me?!" Usha bolted up immediately (thankfully, neither Mira nor Blake were in the class) and turned to stare down Kula, who stayed slumped in her seat and unimpressed. "I'll have you know," continued Usha angrily, "I study day and night to master these languages, all for the sake of diplomacy!" "Oh!" wailed Kula, waving her hands in the air mockingly. "Well! Excuse me, Miss President of Punctuality! I think I'll just get down on my knees and worship you while I'm at it, O Diplomatic Bitch!" "What!!" "That's enough," grumbled Torvald, nursing a headache. She didn't sound angry or impatient, just tired. "You two settle down or I'll put you out of the class. Usha, you know better than to debate over every little thing. Kula, you're new, so I'll excuse you this one time, but please, in the future, mind your tongue." "Yes ma'am," grunted the new girl. She flipped Usha the bird as soon as Torvald's back was turned (earning a quiet giggle from Ivory). Usha saw it, and drove daggers into Kula's eyes with her stare, but was only rewarded with a laugh, an outstretched tongue, and another bird. Needless to say, Kula's reputation changed that day. Alexis Walker wanted to ravish her even more. ......... Kula Nanahara had a very hard time adjusting to... basically everything. No waves, no warm waters, no beaches. No familiar sights, no promising career, no friends. She had nothing except her idiotic parents, and now a reputation for a rogue that would doubtless spread like the wind blew. It was a strange situation that people oftentimes liked being thought of as wickeder than they really were, and in this case, Kula just figured Why Not? No doubt every girl in the whole godforsaken school already thought bad of her (miserable punks, she grumbled), so why not act the part? She sneered again and wandered her way to the next class. As it turned out, the woman she would soon grow to hate with every action, every pulse, every breath and every thought of her mind would also be the woman that shared half her classes, and was currently president of the junior class, among other things. Kula hated "mainland surfers", despised punk rock skaters, loathed ravers, abhorred druggies, detested posers, and had nothing but contempt for goody two-shoes—so several people were already in trouble. Latin class would've been very enjoyable if Usha Krishnan wasn't there. Kula liked the corpulent and silly O'Brien instantly, and laughed politely as she became distracted with her work. Ayanna and Avelina shared her language class as well, as did Alisha Fox's sister Erica, all of whom Kula liked. She warmed up fairly easily to Victoria Grissom and June Tramble, who were by that point annoying people with their combined cuteness, and being around Olivia Johnson somehow made her better, because the dark-skinned girl was so real, so misplaced, so wise beyond her years, yet humble. It wasn't as if Kula hated smart people, she just hated them being immodest, or worse, expressing false modesty. If anything, Usha's head was enormous. The woman's beauty and knowledge made things worse, and at times she almost seemed narcissistic. Kula wouldn't even have to go to Stanton for a week before she learned Krishnan had two girlfriends (she was okay with the whole "lesbian thing", but never imagined a place where it ran so rampantly, at least so far away from the west coast), but even on that first day, she did not like Usha. In class, the students were asked to recite Latin phrases they had learned, so naturally, Usha stole the spotlight. "Ex nihilo nihil fit: from nothing, nothing is produced. Amor vincit omnia: love conquers all things. In omnia paratus: ready for all things." "Lusus naturae." Kula grinned as Usha turned to glare at her. O'Brien intervened before a fight could break out. "Now now, settle down girls, I don't want any name calling. Remember I'm fluent in Latin, so please keep to topic. Thank you." Kula sneered at Usha, who was still fuming. She dismissed herself and let somebody else recite. Victoria frowned and leaned over to whisper to her girlfriend. "What did she say?" June Tramble shook her head uneasily. "Lusus naturae—freak of nature." ......... Kula had a blissful hour away from Usha when she walked into her music class. Sarah Johansson greeted her merrily and introduced her to the class, and in order to break the ice, she forced Kula to work with the group of May Tramble, Rai Zanders, and Corona Marcos. Kula slumped down with them, her defenses up, and stayed quiet. Avelina, who shared yet another class with her, now badly wanted to make friends with the new girl, even though she had seen a fraction of her spiteful attitude. It was probably just the whole shock and ordeal of being a new girl. Well, that, and very few people outside the junior class really liked Usha to begin with. But she was caught in her own group, so she forced herself to wait, and read. May, Rai, and Corona would have to break through her shell, but Zanders was the kind to keep to herself, and had her face planted in a music book even in the intimacy of the group. Corona kept staring at the board, and May was fingering her flute. Kula gave a jagged sigh. "So what're we doing?" she grumbled. Corona turned around and smiled. "Oh, sorry. Umm, do you play?" "A little. Mostly drums." "Cool. May's on flute, Rai is going to be the next great piano player, and I'm just good at reading notes. I've even composed a few tunes that Miss Jo likes. As for the others..." She turned her head around, pointing to girls in clockwise order around the room as she introduced them: "June Tramble over there is on violin and flute, Amina is researching the marriage between art and music, Farrah's in an improv band—she plays a mean handsaw—Nomi is on guitar and does duets with Rai, Alisha likes pretty much every form of music, Lilian does research into musician's lives, Katt plays the oboe to help her lungs, and Avelina is a singer." "Ah." Kula blanched at the long list of names and skills. "We could all start our own orchestra." "That's what Miss Jo plans on doing." "Miss Jo?" "Miss Johansson, but she lets us call her Miss Jo. Don't worry, she's cool. Most of the teachers here are, though some can be a pain in the ass. Who do you have?" "Uhh..." Kula rounded off their names with her fingers, "Torvald and O'Brien for languages, Dr. Keeping for psychology, this place, and Miss Katajisto for the good stuff." "You can call her Leena if you like," said Rai Zanders from out of nowhere. She continued to read, never looking up, not even to say hello. Kula snorted at her rude behavior, but she would have little to hate: Rai was more of a geek than anything else, though she didn't look like it. "You'll have to get used to her," said Corona. Kula frowned but nodded her head. "So like, when do we get to use instruments?" "Miss Jo has a certain schedule she likes to follow every day. Right now, most of us are just reading, but soon we'll begin to play. You have any favorite artists?" "Yeah, does uh... Miss Jo let us play Bob Marley, or are we stuck with dickheads like Beethoven and Bach?" May snorted out a laughter, losing her place in her book, and so did a few nearby people. Rai gave an insulted growl. "Beethoven and Bach were geniuses. Kindly show them more respect." "Huh? What's that? You say something? What? Huh?" Rai gave Kula a calm stare. "I'm just saying. You wouldn't want me to insult something you liked—say I called Bob Marley a... what was the word you used so eloquently? A 'dickhead'?" Kula snorted, her nose flaring wildly, her fists balling up. Rai saw her become angry and made a cool gesture. "There, you see? Not so good coming from the other side, is it? I'll gladly apologize if you will." "Okay," she snarled, "I'm sorry. Beethoven and Bach aren't dickheads, you happy?" Rai gave her a dusky smile and returned to her book all casual like. "Hmm. I'm sorry too. I actually like Bob Marley; I just needed a good example." "Hm. Okay." Kula shrugged and, feeling a fierce conflict had been avoided, Corona loosened and let out the breath she had been holding. "Say Rohani," said Nomi, who had observed the goings-on nearby, "do you really want her as your friend? I mean, really? She looks like she has a mean streak." "It's because she's new," insisted the older girl, her voice airy and nonchalant. She rubbed her eyes and peered at her lessons again, glad that her optical disease left her the ability to read at least. Kula had psychology afterwards; Avelina went on to something else. Before she made a beeline to class, she paused and waited for Kula to come out. She gave the tan girl a meek wave, and walked with her to the water fountain. Still not very trusting of other people, the transfer student kept her tongue until her curiosity won over. "Whaddyou want?" "I'm Avelina, we share a lot of classes together." "Yeah, so?" "You're new here, so I thought you might want a friend." "No thanks." "You transferred from Hawaii, right? I know what that feels like." "What, you an islander too, gel?" Gel was her way of saying girl; Avelina shrugged. She had been mistaken for one before, but being born and raised abroad, living an itinerate existence most of her life, one could hardly think otherwise. She parted her hair out of habit, since it had gone uncombed again. "No, but I've been around. I was born in Brazil, and raised in Portugal till' I was ten. My family moved to the states and kept moving until just recently, about a year or so ago. I understand what it's like, uh, Kula." "Do you." Avelina nodded, completely unintimidated. Kula was smallish and cute-looking, though ferocious on the inside, like a badger or a raccoon, but she looked normal through Rohani's faulty eyes. "Yes." "What class you got next, gel?" "Health and Medicine." "Gyehh," she growled, "I got psychology." "Oh really? I hear Miss Keeping is very nice. You'll like her." "Y'think?" Avelina nodded, and Kula managed to smile at last. "Well, then I guess I better go. Take care of yourself, Avelina. Seeya soon, gel." "Oh. Wait, Kula. Um... I'm no good at this, so excuse me if it doesn't sound right. Can you and I be friends?" She gave the older girl a casual shrug. "Hmph, I guess. Catch ya later, gel." Kula opened up a grin and glided away, as if she were on skates. Avelina smiled and waved at her. "Bye." And then yelped as the tardy bell rang. ......... Even though Avelina was right about Miss Keeping being nice, most of the class seemed dominated by the kind of people Kula didn't like. Example: Alexis Walker, who probably started the whole punk rock skater fad; Hero Love, the gay raver; and of course, Usha Krishnan, and even one of her two girlfriends, Mira van Dijk. Kula tried her best to distance herself from them, but they either talked too much, or made spectacles of themselves. Corona, Victoria, and Erica, who shared several classes with her, sat around her and kept her company during the long hours. "Screw that bitch," she muttered under her breath as Usha sat down after reciting from Jung. "Screw them all. Why can't they go to a prep school, or some trash bin and leave us normal girls alone?" "There's nary a one of us who's normal in this school," said Erica. Kula rolled her eyes. "So I figured. Hey, Victoria—" "Just Vicki is fine." "Right, Vicki. I been noticin' somethin' in this place: ain't most of the girls here a little... uh, whaddya call it... well ain't they all lesbians?" "Not all of them," she corrected quietly, "but yes, most of the girls here are gay, or bisexual. My friend Janine is straight, and so is my girlfriend's sister, May. Avelina and Farrah have boyfriends, and some have sworn off both sexes. Um... may I ask about you?" "I don't fit into categories," she snorted defensively. Victoria apologized meekly, to which Kula grinned. "Oh, it's okay. I like you. Didn't mean to upset'cha. Ya look kinda punkish but you're really sweet, and humble. You've got a good level head. I envy your girlfriend, whatever her name is." "June," she murmured. "And thanks. I've never been called level-headed before..." "Until now." "Right." Kula grinned and tried her hardest to concentrate. She had no great interest in psychology, just like she had none for music, foreign languages, or really any subject, though her competitive nature drove her to excel. She really only liked physical education class, which was both her final for the day and happily Usha-free. ......... Gym class was okay—Leena was cool and so was most everyone there—but it came and went without event. Kula passed on Ancelin's kendo class and rode her skateboard home, equipped with all her safety gear. It made her look cooler and cuter than if it had not been on at all: functionality and sportiness were very important. She arrived home, ignored her parents, and bounded up to her room for supplies. As far as she knew, there were only three good things about moving away from her perfect life. One, nobody knew her and thus her reputation was clean. Two, most of her friends back home never bothered getting into a deeper relationship with her, so now was a good time to hunt for fresh blood; and three, because she was so new, she wouldn't have any homework. She raced back outside the house with a notebook and pen, and skated down to the nearest park, where she could at least pretend she was off somewhere else. She settled down on a bench and carefully thought of her new classmates. With her pencil and paper, she made a list of girls she already liked, girls she figured would be okay with a relationship with her. Ancelin, Ivory, Katt, Ayanna, Lilian, Rai, Corona, Olivia, Erica. She wanted to write in more, but most of the others she liked were spoken for or straight, such as Avelina, Victoria, and May. She had not been long at Stanton, so of course she didn't know who went with who just yet, but she would learn, and her list would shorten. Ancelin, Ivory, Ayanna, Lilian, and Rai would soon be scratched off the list due to their significant others (even though Rai almost didn't count), so that left a few to mull over. Kathlyn Parkin was a wounded young woman, needy and unpredictable, but cute all the same. Kula could see herself with her, provided she got her head and mood together. Corona Marcos had been kind to her in spite of weathering her temper—the woman somehow made her feel better, peaceful, more relaxed—so she was another possible road. Olivia seemed exactly her type, as did Erica, so she decided to go down those paths first, and see where things led. The day would've ended rather well, actually, if she had not spotted Usha Krishnan out on a date with her girlfriends. Blake and Mira were both weird and slightly unreliable, so it made sense (sort of) that they buddied up with Usha. Kula shivered as she imagined the disgusting trio being intimate together, and huffed away before she was forced to be in their proximity any more. ......... Ethan Nikholai kissed his girlfriend sweetly as she climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up. As he started the engine, he requested, "So... tell me what you did today." And Avelina gave him a smile to die for. "You'd be so proud," she announced. "I made another friend!" "That's great, Avi! See, what'd I tell you? You keep at it, and you'll be the most popular girl at school." "Yeah, for one year." "Avi." She giggled and kissed his cheek. "I'm kidding, lovely." "I know. What's her name?" "Kula. She's Hawaiian, and a transfer student." "Ah, that explains a bit." "Yeah... it's rough when you move to a new place. I have a feeling we'll get along great." She smiled warmly and played with his hair for awhile, her legs bouncing and fidgeting. A spark came to her dull gray eyes as she changed the subject and asked, "So... wanna stay over at my place?" "Uh..." The last time he had stayed at Avelina's house overnight, she had been a little too frisky. "I'll... think about it," he managed.
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