Choose Your Character

“Morning!”

“Good morning!”

As I approached the entrance gates of Calderon High, the bustling excitement of entering a new chapter of life filled the school. Old friends were catching up and chatting amongst themselves, nervous introverted students were checking where their classroom was and the faculty were smiling welcomingly.

I approached the notice board trying to find my name.

Rens… Rens…

“Hey Lix! What’s good man!”

A giant force pushed down on my hair and ruffled it around. I pushed it off and stared blankly at my attacker. He was quite tall and spoke loudly. He had slick-backed brown hair and hazel eyes, burning with passion. His smile reminded me of an ecstatic golden retriever.

I watched as his smile quickly turned into terror. He had mistaken me for someone else.

“Oh my god I’m so sorry dude. I’ll… I’ll take my leave now… I’m sorry!”

He scurried off into the hallway. I could hear the distant shouts of the teachers telling him to stop running.

I wasn’t even mad at him… I was just confused at the sudden burst of energy.

Though it was understandable that he thought I was mad at him. My resting face always seemed either mad or gloomy. Sometimes my long hair would cover my eyes and as my sister has said it “made me look like I was an edgy, mysterious assassin.” Maybe I should try smiling more often.

The school was much bigger than my junior high. It was one of the biggest campuses in the nation and boasted a variety of facilities. The magnitude of how many people attended this school was highlighted during the entrance ceremony.

“Welcome students to a new year at Calderon high. Whether old or new, I, as an educator, proudly wish you the best as you embark on another step of your lives. Now a word from the school president, Rimura Natsuki…”

I wasn’t listening to his speech at all. Rather I was more focused on someone else.

In the corner of my eye, I had spotted the face of someone I knew.

It wasn’t hard to be drawn to someone like her. Her black hair that absorbed every particle of light, the way her eyes, blue like glaciers, naturally had a sparkle and her skin milky and full of life, everything about her made her seem completely different than all of us. She was beautiful.

And she was Rei Sakasa.

The exact girl who had acted as one of my characters in my script years ago. Not much had changed since I had seen her for the first time on the big screens. She had appeared in countless films, advertisements, music videos and other media.

To think that we would end up in the same school… Was it destiny?

Yeah as if. I laughed to myself. She and I were way too different.

“Shh.”

The advisor signaled for me to be quiet and listen. I quickly apologized and sat up.

After a few more grueling speeches it was finally time to meet my class. I walked in and made my way to the seat 2nd from the back, next to the window.

It may not look like anything, but choosing your seat is part of the first impressions when put into a new class. It can tell you a bit about the person.

For example, everyone knows that people who sit at the back are slackers, delinquents or just want to go home.

The window seat is one of the best, because it’s in the teacher’s peripheral vision. They won’t be on my case as much as the others.

I prepared all my belongings and looked around. Most people were all bunched up talking to someone.

“Do you want to add my Line?”

“How about I show you around later?”

“Uh, maybe some other time…?”

The person receiving all this attention smiled sheepishly, trying to ignore all the attention she was getting. This was, of course, Rei.

Same school and same class? Maybe there is a bit of destiny somehow… The crowd kept on growing. I felt bad for her. She seemed troubled. The celebrity life was definitely not for me.

Luckily someone had helped her. He quickly dispersed the crowd and told everyone to give her some space.

“Yeah, you tell them Walker!”

“Let’s go Mr Childhood Friend!”

“Shut up, you two…”

The hair ruffler, Walker, along with a girl who had streaks of pink in her hair and a guy who wore a beanie and headphones walked in. Rei seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief and was happily talking to the 3 of them. They seemed to be a tight-knit group.

The first bell rang and our homeroom teacher walked in. He was a male, who appeared to be in his early 40s. He had a sharp mullet and wore glasses. He wore a sports jumper and tracksuits.

“Good morning everyone!”

The class was silent. There were a few small “mornings.”

“Come on guys, why aren’t you excited? It’s your first day of senior high. The start of some real shit. Let’s try it again. Good morning everyone!”

“Good morning…”

The class was a little more enthusiastic but I could see the imaginary arrows piercing the teacher’s heart.

“It’s alright, we’ll work on it later…” he said, coughing deliberately to ease the awkwardness. Now anyways let me introduce myself. I’m your homeroom teacher. You guys can call me Mr Baito, sir, mister, it doesn’t matter. Just know that I want to be talking to each of you guys, because I’m here to assist you on your journey. Now enough about me. I’m sure there’s lots of people here who you haven’t met. So why don’t you guys introduce yourselves. Let’s start with you…”

Class introductions. One of the many things that people dread. There isn’t really a wrong answer, but it requires lots of thinking.

Should I say something normal? But that’d be boring. Something unique? That would seem like I’m trying too hard. I could just lie and make something up…

“Hello everyone my name is Rei Sakasa. I came from Villa High. My interests are music and movies. I look forward to getting to know everyone.”

There was a round of applause. Everyone already knew who she was way before her introduction.

“Yo, my name is Walker and I also came from Villa High. I intend to become Calderon’s basketball ace. Good to meet you guys.”

It was very uncanny that he was a basketball player. He was continuing to follow every sterotype I had of him perfectly.

Before long, it was my turn. I stood up and felt the gaze of everyone around me.

“My name is Rens. I came from D.M.A high and…”

I briefly paused because I hadn’t prepared anything else to say.

“... Novels. I like reading.”

Wait, that makes me sound like some nerd. My sister kept pestering me that I didn’t follow that path.

“And I like… ghost hunting.”

There was a long pause after I had sat back down. I could hear the person behind me laughing to himself. Even Rei seemed to have found it funny, as she quickly turned away to hide her laughter. How embarrassing…

“Okay, that’s quite interesting! I like it. I’ll trust you if we ever get trapped in a haunted house. Okay, next, you at the back?”

The laughter behind me stopped and they stood up. I turned around expecting to see the most rough-headed delinquent with a mohawk.

It was the complete opposite of what I envisioned. They had midnight blue hair and wore dark jade glasses. He had a mole below his left eye and was quite neat.

“Hey, I’m Ivey. I came from the countryside so I’m pretty new here. I enjoy visiting coffee shops. Please take care of me. Thank you.”

He received an applause and that wrapped up our icebreaker.

“Hey Hey…”

Ivey tapped me on the shoulder and smiled.

“So ghostbuster, why’d you give me that funny look when you saw me?”

He smiled deviously, and for a moment I couldn’t tell if he was a human or vampire. He had sharp canines.

“I don’t know but why don’t you get me a cup o’ tea innit?” I sarcastically replied in a terrible British accent.

“I didn’t say tea, I said coffee genius.”

“Well it should’ve been tea. It’s so much better.”

“Don’t even begin this conversation with me. No way you believe that…”