Snippet #2047938

"Are you that Mashiro Yuki?"

That had been the first, and expected question. She had asked for some clarification, and, when asked more specifically if she was heiress to the famed family in charge of MEE, she had demurely confirmed this, leading to an awed outburst from the classroom as a whole. Well, this was excusable, she supposed. It wasn't every day you met someone widely regarded as famous, although it was somewhat irritating regardless.

"Sensei said you transferred from the Kita AAI. That must mean you're a genius!"

"Not exactly a question, but yes, I did transfer here from there. I don't consider myself a genius, but thank you for the compliment," She said, a twinkle of sarcastic amusement flashing for a moment in her amber eyes, a slight smile playing upon her lips.

"Why transfer here? The AAI is a fast-track to an overseas scholarship at big-name colleges. Did you get expelled or something?"

"I have my reasons. Long story short, I got tired of it," She answered simply, leading to some confused murmurings amongst the class. There were quickly disrupted, however, by a loud exclamation, and before the boy had even finished talking, Yuki already knew what he was going to say. It was the question she had worried most about, and was most annoyed to see that her fears had not been baseless.

"Are you single?" The boy asked. Yuki sighed somewhat irritably, gritted her teeth, and tried to bite back the tirade of sarcastic jabs that sprang to her tongue. Fortunately for her, someone else dealt with the nuisance before she had to, and the boy fell flat on his face, much to the laughter and amusement of his classmates.

Fortunately, there were no more questions, which meant she could get to her desk in peace. Introductions were always the main nuisance about a transfer, and now that they were out of the way, she would at least get a brief respite before the interrogation started again.

"Thank you, Takahashi-sensei," Yuki said with a kindness that she couldn't help but feel didn't suit her, giving a bow and quickly striding across the room to her desk. Placing her book bag on the desk, she dusted off the seat and sat gently down, brushing her hair back out of her eyes.

"Alright. Now that that's through, there are a few other minor announcements. Firstly, since the year is now underway, the school would like to remind everyone that clubs are now open and accepting applications, and that they are holding an open house event after school on Friday. If you're interested, classes will be ending early that day, so you'll have plenty of time to investigate and hopefully find a club activity that suits you. Secondly..." Yuki lost her will to concentrate at this point, and lapsed briefly into her own thoughts, trying her best to ignore the furtive glances being shot at her from all around the room, and the quiet whispers that still continued unnoticed.

"...for cleaning duty, I'd like someone to walk Mashiro-san through the basics. Show her where everything is and help her get used to her after-school duties. Floros-san, it's your turn in the rotation, so please take care of this." Masao wrote up two names on the board as he spoke under a small section labeled "Cleaning Crew." Once "Mashiro Yuki" had been lined up alongside some unintelligible foreign name which, if she recalled correctly, meant "Black Flower," although she'd long since forgotten her Greek (if that was actually what it was) - probably that of the person sitting next to her, who she greatly pitied for his obvious lack of parental affection, made evident by his quite frankly absurd name - Masao concluded the announcements.

"That should be everything. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves now, but don't disrupt those who want to use this time to study. If you'll excuse me, I need a coffee." With that candid statement, Masao turned and bowed out of the room, heading off - probably toward the break room down the hall.

And, it seemed her period of respite had just about ended, since students were already getting up and heading toward her. Oh dear.

"Hey, hey, Yuki-san!" One of them exclaimed. She toned out the longwinded introduction that followed, but managed to pay enough attention - which wasn't hard, considering she knew they had come to bother her with more questions anyway - to realize they wanted to ask about various trivial facts.

"What sorts of things do you like?" One of them asked.

"Mystery novels, classical music, and cats," she answered curtly, although her concise method of speaking would probably be attributed to a desire to answer things quickly for the sake of time rather than annoyance.

"Do you have any pets?"

"One cat, as well as a few others who live on the grounds of my house."

"What's your favorite saying?"

"Too many of us aren't living our dreams because we're busy living our nightmares." Yuki couldn't help but feel a sense of hilarious irony in that statement. Its original meaning was something cliche about perseverance and fearlessly hoping for the future, but little did the people around her know that when she said it, she meant just the opposite. She had no dreams that weren't veritable terrors, and in a world where she could not trust anyone or anything, one long nightmare was all life ever could be. She knew that to be true, and had willingly chosen not to pursue dreams. And yet, who, having seen the things she had seen, could interpret that saying the way it was originally meant to be understood? Give up your fears and follow your dreams? What sort of happy-go-lucky lie was that? Dreams were just that: unattainable fancies that could always be looked at, but never reached. To assume that you could "live your dreams" was nothing but self-delusion. Several loud exclamations of approval for her optimistic outlook were heard, but she didn't pay any attention to them. As the storm of questions continued, she answered as best she could, always remaining polite and cordial, but never once stepping out of her comfort zone. Let them bother her, she thought. It would end soon enough, and they would go away. They always did, once they realized that even amongst a crowd such as themselves, she was still distant and alone.