Sho Akiyama's Story

"No! Mizuki! C-come back here!"

The shiba inu was already halfway down the block before Sho even had the chance to pick up his other shoe. The youth groaned loudly in frustration as he plopped down onto one of the lower stairs and yanked the other shoe onto his foot. Now he was probably going to be late, and on his first day too!

He pushed himself to his feet and tapped the toe of his left shoe twice on the pavement before he took off after the adventurous dog, who thankfully; hadn't made it as far as Sho had expected. "Mizuki! Sit!"

On command.. Mizuki turned and faced her tiny master and barked. She wasn't really the best trained dog in the world. Sho clipped her lead onto the red leather collar with a semi amused, semi frustrated sigh before he led his best friend back home. He ducked down the side of the building to the backyard and let her off the lead, rolling it up in one hand. "Now, I'll be back later today. Try not to be too annoying, okay?" He crouched down and wrapped his arms around her, the nerves in his stomach fluttering as he realised just how nerve-wracking this day would be.

After a few moments, Mizuki decided to go roll on the lawn; lawn was far more interesting than holding still! The Asian youth stood up again and set the lead onto a table on the back porch and hefted the bag on his shoulder up a little.

"Okay, school. Yeah. You can do this." Talking to yourself. Good start.

At least the school was within walking distance, and it was a nice day. Right?

It took him a little over fifteen minutes of walking before the school building was in sight, and his pace slowed a little as his chocolate gaze darted from student to student. Most of them were in pretty fashionable clothes, that looked pretty expensive. His own clothing looked... lived in. Faded, old, a few tears in the jeans. Perhaps he should have done some extra work to get some new clothes to wear on his first day.

Oh well, too late now. They'll see you and judge you, and you'll be alone at lunch time.

That nagging voice in his head was really annoying sometimes. Not to mention he was fine with being alone at lunch, alone meant no crowds and no one being nosy about him. Yeah. Take that stupid worrying voice thing.

How long had he been just standing here staring? Too long, he guessed.

"Now or never." He said softly to... well, himself.

Taking a deep (albeit shaky) breath, he headed onto the school grounds and made his way inside. Too bad he was late, he'd have to find his locker later - for now he had to get to his first class... Wherever that was. Great, now he'd gone from standing around looking nervous, to looking lost.

Good going, Sho. This is going to be a great first day...

Cassandra sat with her eyes closed for a while until the door open and she thought the class was about to start but in came a pretty red head who looked new. She hadn't seen her the other years she'd been in this school. She smiled as a greeting towards the girl before looking down at her books again. Was the teacher late? Mr. Wilson usually wasn't this late for his classes. He's a pretty strict teacher.

She tapped her fingers softly at her books for a while before opening her notebook to read through her latest notes, that's when she discovered the letter which it stood that there wouldn't be any classes due to the Halloween Bash. She groaned and slapped her notebook closed before packing everything. How could she forget that? Oh well, no classes and you would get extra credit if you volunteered so there's nothing really bad about the whole thing. But should she really volunteer? She bit her bottom lip thoughtful a she threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed her helmet and went to the door. She stopped when she remembered the new girl.

It took some shuffling through her backpack to fish out the note about the Halloween Bask and folded it twice. She walked to the new girl with a smile. "Hey there, uh. I noticed that you might be new, well obviously you are. But, um.. The c-classes are cancelled due to an event we call Halloween Bash. Anyway, here. Th-th-this will give you the details about it." She said as she handed the note to give it to the girl. "I hope you'll have a good time here." She gave her a last smile before heading out from there.

As soon as she came out from the class room, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. That went well, the girl maybe didn't even notice her stuttering. Took it maybe as a bit of nervousness. No harm done so far, oh who was she kidding? There's no way the girl didn't notice. Okay, no. Positive thinking, positive thinking.

So, time to decide if she would volunteer or not, if she did volunteer she'd get extra credit for the whole thing but she also would need to talk to a lot of people. Children wouldn't really make fun of her stuttering, she hoped. Or did they? She sighed deeply and then moved to her locker, she needed to put her leather jacket away and then secure her helmet at her bike which she had forgot that she usually did, until right now actually. Wow, out in the blue much?

She moved through the flow of people with ease and was almost at the door when she noticed a lost boy standing in the middle of the hall. She slowed her steps to see if he was just looking around or if he was fully new. He looked like someone who just started this year. Should she walk to him and help him or not? He seemed harmless. She approached him carefully and smiled friendly at him. "New here?" She asked, holding her right hand on the strap of her bag and the left one she held her helmet.

Sho was still off in his little world. In fact, he'd reached the part where his mind started making up countless scenarios that might happen on his first day of school here. He was getting close to walking right back out of that door.

"New here?"

The question snapped the tiny Japanese teen from his confusion and he turned his head to face the pretty blonde, a smile gracing his lips. "Uh, I guess it's obvious huh?" He shuffled his left foot against the ground, then jutted his hand out towards her. "I'm Sho, nice to meet you."

Cassandra couldn't help but giggle. "Yeah it was. You looked pretty lost there." She said with a smile and when he held out his hand to her, she hesitated a second before letting go of the strap to her bag and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Sho, my names is C-c.." Her smile faltered a bit but she cleared her throat, taking a breath. "Cassandra." She let go of his hand a took a little step backwards.

"There's no um.. Classes today or for the next three days due to the Halloween Bash." She said a bit slow as if she thought them through before she said them. She really didn't want to start stutter again, it was so close and she could feel that it would happen again, right there on the tip of her tongue but she couldn't just leave him now without explaining where everything stands and so on. It wouldn't be polite at all. "Everything stands on the Bulletin Board. Just, d-d-down the hall." She grabbed the strap again and clenched her hand, then turned to point with her helmet. "D-down there and you'll see the b-b.." She drew a frustrated breath and cleared her throat. "Board on the left side." She paused for a half second between every word.

She just wanted to go out from here now. God how she hated it, the anxiety over her stuttering grew and she knew it wouldn't help her at all. Positive thinking. Positive thinking. She turned to him again and gave him a somewhat forced smile. "I hope you'll have a g-g-good time here. I.. Um.. Need to go." She said without meeting his eyes and walked past him to get out from the school. She headed to her motorcycle to take a deep breath, to calm down a bit. She chained her helmet to her bike and then sat there on her heels, her hands on her motorcycle and closed her eyes.

"Positive thinking will help with the stuttering, talk slower and don't stress yourself." She whispered to herself and then sighed. Of course most people didn't really care that she stuttered but she still grew anxious every time her stuttering went from okay to worse. Her morning had been fine but now she wasn't so certain that the day would be good at all.