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Adventures in Transdimentia
by Shala-chan
Part Five
After she settled in the Ronins, Shala set her alarm clock for earlier than usual, finished her homework, and went to sleep. A loud beeping noise woke her.
Oh, man, she thought. It's already five-thirty. And I usually wake up at six . . . She got herself up, took a shower, got dressed, and ate breakfast. Then she did her usual morning toilette. By that time it was six-fifteen. Time to wake the sleepers. She started with the two downstairs first, then woke Ryo. Sai was in and out of the shower by the time she finally woke Rowen up. Ryo was next to go in, then Rowen. Kento had a humongous breakfast, then he too was for the bathroom. Sage was last, because of his hair.
Shala finally, somehow, had everyone ready to leave by 7:05. Rowen was falling asleep on his feet. The other four were half-asleep. For that matter, so was Shala, but she was used to it.
"Everyone have their lunch?" she asked, shouldering her heavy bag.
"Yes," they chorused.
"Okay," she said, "we're gone. The bus is coming in about ten minutes, but I need to brief you before then. BYE MOM! BYE DAD!" she yelled, closing the door behind her and the others.
"Do you do that every morning?" Ryo asked.
"Yeah, but generally I'm in more of a hurry, running to catch the bus as it comes to the stop."
"Oh," he said. They all crossed the street to Shala's bus stop.
"Okay guys, to reiterate what I said yesterday: NO ARMOR!"
"Okay," Ryo said. "Got that, guys?" They all nodded.
"Next, Kento, you may not eat at any other time during the day except from eleven to eleven-ten, and twelve twenty-five to twelve fifty. Sorry, but it's rules. Got that?" He looked glum, but nodded. "Okay, no answering questions during class, please, no responses to anyone teasing me, and I mean that, unless I tell you it's okay, and please, if I tell you to do something . . ." she paused, then looked at them with pleading eyes and continued. "Please do it. We don't want to get into any trouble. Thank you and have a nice day."
"In other words," Sage said, "we have to follow you around all day."
"Basically," Shala said cheerfully. "Unless you have to go to the bathroom, but you need to get a pass from the teacher to do that."
"Is that why you said it was dangerous?" Kento asked. "That, and the food, I mean."
"Among other reasons, yes."
Two girls walked towards the bus stop. Shala checked her watch. Yes, it was about time. "Morning," she said, as the girls stopped and stood waiting. They nodded at her. "One more thing," Shala whispered to the guys, "no flirting!"
Another girl walked to the bus stop, one Shala had been waiting for. She waved. The girl continued, and stopped when she got to the stop. She stared for a second at the boys. She was quite clearly older than Shala, being taller and more mature-looking. She had short brownish hair, and about seven layers of clothing. She lifted an eyebrow at Shala, who nodded. She shrugged.
"Morning, Kat," Shala said.
"Morning. These five coming to school with you?" Shala nodded. "Let me see . . . Ryo, Sage, Rowen, Sai, and Kento. Right?" Shala nodded again. "Have fun in hell," Kat said, smiling.
"Um, thank you," Sage said.
"No problem," Kat replied.
The rumbling sound heard close by made the boys jump, but the girls were used to it. The bus. It stopped and picked up kids at the stop down the road from them, then came towards the group. Shala motioned the boys to get on after her. There were a few stares, but mostly because nobody had seen them before. Ever.
By some miracle, the bus wasn't as crowded as usual. Shala attributed it to the flu, which was going around. Annoyingly, Shala's friend, who hardly ever got sick, had it, and she had to sit with another kid she was friendly with. At any rate, they all found seats.
When the bus stopped at the high school, the boys thankfully followed Shala's lead and didn't get off. The second stop the bus made was the middle school, where they did get off, and the guys stuck to Shala like glue. They pushed through the usual morning crowd to the office, where Shala presented all the papers, and the guys got visitor I.D. cards. Shala led them upstairs to her locker. She immediately dumped half her books in it and slammed it shut.
"Come on guys," she said, "let's visit Laila." She led them to a room almost directly across the hallway from her locker. "This is where I have social studies," she said.
Laila was sitting at a desk, talking to a tall girl with orangey-red short hair and lots of ear piercings. She looked up.
"Hi guys!" Laila exclaimed. The other girl looked at them.
"Um, Shala, who's that?" she asked.
"Um, Hanna, I've told you about them before." The girl looked blankly at Shala.
"Wait a sec. Is that what you meant by 'they're coming'?"
"Yeah."
"I'm going to talk to Ryka. This is way too weird."
"This from a girl in a rock band," Shala muttered. She pulled up a chair, and the Ronins followed her example. They started talking. Shala was so absorbed in the conversation that a light tap on her shoulder a few minutes later startled her. She turned her head. "Hi sweetie," she said absently, "pull up a chair. He did so.
"So who're these guys?" he asked.
"Remember, I sent you a pic of them a little while ago?"
"They do look a little familiar," Shala's boyfriend said. "It's the hair."
"Ryo, Kento, Rowen, Sai, and Sage," Shala said.
"Oh!" The warning bell rang. "I should go," he said softly. She hugged him.
"That was your boyfriend?" Sage said when he'd gone.
"Yeah, why?"
"Tie-dye?" Sage said skeptically.
"He has redeeming qualities," Shala said. "We should go too. My home room." She led the guys through a door which connected Laila's home room to hers. The people in her home room didn't really notice. She did that every morning. What she didn't do every morning was lead five rather attractive young men who were certainly older than her through the door as well.
Shala was generally not very fond of home room. Today she was, however, because today she had friends to talk to. Excluding Mondays, this rarely happened. (Normally she had one or two friends in her home room, but they had other people to talk to and she got bored.) So today Shala talked quietly with her friends.
"Is this how people are gonna look at us all day?" Ryo asked.
"Maybe," Shala said, "depending. But it's because you obviously don't belong here, not because Rowen has blue hair. Other people have come to school with various shades of hair. Although it's not natural . . . but they don't know yours is , Ro."
"Why are we so obviously out of place?" Kento asked.
"Well, a) you're talkin' to me. Plus, nobody your age is ever here. I mean, nobody among the students is over 15. And you have that newbie look of people who don't know their way around yet."
"Um, sure," said Sage. He self-consciously smoothed his hair. "Does Cole go to school here?"
"Nope. He goes to an all-boys private school."
"That bites," Sage said.
"Is Penina here?" Sai asked.
"I don't have any classes with her. Shush."
The teacher was reading the morning announcements. The science club was meeting later that day. There was a bake sale after school in the lobby. Kento perked up. Shala shook her head. Drama Club would be meeting the next Tuesday. Chinese Club would be Monday. All home room teachers were to get the yearbook ballots in by the next day. Announcements were done. Shala remembered that she had PE next and frowned. Then she smiled as she remembered who she had with her. A few minutes later, the bell rang.
"Time for gym!" Shala said perkily to the guys. She led them out of the room and down the steps. They took a sharp turn and went past the office. They went through several sets of doors, then up another flight of stairs. Shala waved to her drama teacher as they passed, and said hello to her woodshop teacher.
Shala led the guys into the gym, where Jing was standing with two other people. "Stay with Jing," Shala said to the guys. "I need to change."
Jing's only warning was the eyes of one of her companions widening in surprise. She turned around.
"Hi guys!" she said. "Get ready for living hell." This, naturally, did not reassure the guys one bit.
Shala was meanwhile in the locker room. She hung her backpack up in one of the lockers, changed her shirt, and left.
Shala strode swiftly into the gym, where the Ronins were casually chatting with Jing, Hanna, and one of Shala's friends, Ami. Ami had no problem with the guys. Shala had taken her on various cross-dimensional trips. In fact, she was the Ranma fan Shala had talked about.
"Torture," Sage was saying as Shala walked up, "is not fun. Whatever you may believe. In fact, pain is a bad thing."
"I'm not so sure about the pain part," Hanna said.
"I am," said Kento. "Having lightening bolts and stuff hit you hurts, even if you have a hard head." Shala sighed.
"The teacher's coming out," she said. They all went to check in. Shala checked in Rowen, Sai, Sage, Kento, and Ryo. They showed their cards.
"So do your pals have a better attitude than you do?" the teacher asked.
"Depends." Shala smiled thinly. "What are we playing today?"
"You'll see."
"I hate that man," Shala muttered as they all went to sit on the floor.
"Boats of eight!" the other gym teacher called. Shala, her friends, and the Ronins stuck together. Nine.
"Um, Shala, there's nine of us," Rowen pointed out. Shala shrugged.
"They've tried separating us," she said. "It usually doesn't turn out too well. Just sit."
They all sat in their little line, as did everybody else, while the teachers directed people to different parts of the gymnasium. Shala and her friends took in the details. They were near baskets, balls were coming out, and the wall was closing. Sideline basketball. She cursed.
"Well, this sucks," muttered Ami.
"How good are you guys at basketball?" Hanna asked the Ronin Warriors.
"I like it!" Sai said.
"I'm okay, I guess," said Rowen.
"I'm good," said Kento. Ryo elbowed him. Shala eyed the people they were playing. People they knew. They didn't go to extremes. I can handle this, she thought. As long as nobody passes to me. Or expects me to actively participate.
They broke the group into two, to have an even amount of players from each team playing and being sidelines. To make sure someone was keeping an eye on the guys at all times, Shala broke it so that Jing and Ami were with Kento and Sai, and she and Hanna were with Ryo, Rowen, and Sage. They each snagged someone on the opposite team to guard. When they began playing, Shala closed off her misery and pretended to enjoy the class. This was something she did periodically.
Rowen passed to Sage. Sage passed to Shala. Shala shrieked and threw the ball as far away from her as possible, where Ryo caught it. He passed to Hanna, or at least attempted to, as the ball went right past her and the people on the sidelines scrabbled for it.
"Earth to Hanna?" Shala said.
"Oh! Sorry!"
They scored a few points when the whistle blew and they switched active players with inactive players. Ryo elected to stay in so they'd still have five. Shala went over to the bleachers to talk up to a boy who was sitting there miserably.
"They wouldn't let you play again?"
"Yeah . . . will you sit out with me?"
"Can't, short boy, I have to participate. My grade is way down."
"Will you at least talk to me?"
"You wanna jump down and be totally inactive with us?"
"They noticed last time."
"Eh, who cares about the teachers? They made that stupid rule, they can live with the results. C'mon." The boy jumped down and walked over to lean against the wall with them.
"Nice hair," Sage said to the boy. "Goes with your outfit."
"You think so?" the boy asked. "That's what I was going for."
"Oh, yeah," said Rowen.
"What did you use to get that blue?" asked the boy curiously. "Oh, by the way, I'm Brian."
"It's natural," Rowen said. "I'm Rowen, and this is Sage." Shala whispered something in Brian's ear. Understanding lighted in his eyes.
"Oh. Okay. These guys are older than me," Brian said conversationally, "but my girl friends and Shala and these guys are way cooler than the boys."
"Pigs," Shala muttered. "Nice shot, Ami!" she called as her friend made a basket.
The whistle blew again. The groups rotated, and Brian trotted after them. Shala looked at the team they were playing next, and her eyes narrowed. Normally, Shala was on okay terms with most of these guys. But in the gym, she mostly hated them, as in the gym they mostly liked to torment her. One of the boys smirked and she started to growl.
"What's wrong with her?" Kento asked Jing. Jing pointed to a few of the guys on the other team. He nodded understandingly.
They started playing. Shala was starting to (sort of) get the hang of it, or at least have a bit of fun, when she felt a sharp tug on her hair. She didn't need to look. She knew who it was.
"Stop," she said calmly, coming to a halt. The people in her immediate vicinity stopped, as did the other people in her game. Shala started talking in a soft, dangerous voice. One that said the bitch was back. "*, I have had it with you. Do you know who these nice people are?" she said, gesturing to the Ronins. He smirked.
"No."
"Take a good look," she said softly. He did. On closer inspection, he paled, then backed off.
Shala had been counting on this. This particular boy, one who annoyed her to no end at times, also watched anime. She smiled. "Continue," she said quietly. They proceeded with the game.
When they were inactive, Sage asked Shala who the boy was.
"My stand partner," she replied casually.
"Your what?" asked Sage.
"That's the person you sit with in orchestra, right?" asked Rowen. Shala nodded.
"You wouldn't believe it," she said, "but sometimes we're actually civil towards each other." Rowen raised and eyebrow, and Hanna started singing Korn lyrics under her breath.
"I don't like *," Brian commented.
"You probably shouldn't insult him like that," Shala pointed out.
"What did -" Sage started.
"You don't wanna know," Shala said quickly.
Brian happily said what he called *. Rowen and Sage laughed.
"We've gotta tell Ryo that one!" Rowen exclaimed.
"It's better than 'your mother wears army boots'," Shala said.
At the end of P.E., Shala once more left the boys with her friends and went to change. The girls around her in the locker room realized they had math next. A collective groan issued. Typical Thursday morning reaction. Shala strode confidently back through the gym, where everyone was waiting to be dismissed.
"Math next," Ami said grimly.
"Oh, great," said Hanna, "at least I can nap."
"I'm not so sure," Shala said.
"Aren't we supposed to review for the test on Monday?" Jing said. The four girls grimaced.
"What's wrong with math?" Rowen asked innocently.
"Everything," Kento retorted.
"You haven't met our teacher," Jing said, by way of explanation.
"Mean?" said Ryo.
"Insane," said Hanna.
"Not clinically, anyway," said Shala, "but we think she is. You'll see."
"She likes teaching," Jing said glumly. "Any teacher who likes teaching is unnatural."
"Or at least totally nuts," Ami said. She glanced at the clock. "Time to go."
Shala stopped at her locker to toss her gym shirt in, then they proceeded to the math room. There wasn't enough room at the desks for the guys; they had a big class. So they were seated at the one table in the room, and watched the class. Rowen observed everything intently. Kento and Ryo were exchanging doodles. Sai was looking for signs that the teacher really was insane. Sage stared blankly into space and thought about girls. That done, he began to contemplate the nature of life. That making him bored, he willed himself into a trance-like state. Without really seeing, he saw Shala sigh in exasperation, dig into her backpack, take out silly putty, and give some to her math partner while playing with the rest herself. The boy was one of the guys who had been on the opposing gym team, and the silly putty seemed to shut him up from his constant stream of talking. He saw Rowen nod when he agreed with something the teacher said.
Hey, Shala? Sage sent. He saw her eyes widen.
Yeah, what, Sage? Her mental voice was weak.
I'm bored.
Well, so am I, but I have to pay attention.
Why?
We have a test coming up. Her tests are hard. Talk to Rowen!
Ro?
What, Sage?
I'm bored.
You're acting like Kento. A short mental squabble ensued, at the end of which Sage began to envision himself fighting and beating the crud out of Dynasty goons wearing only sub-armor. He felt a mental kick.
I told you not to think about it, Shala sent quickly. Sage frowned. We can talk in about another hour, Shala said, don't ask. He didn't.
At ten after ten, everyone gathered up their things and left the math room. Shala was looking at several papers she needed to correct. She grimaced.
"Social studies," she said, without looking. She knew the guys were following her. At least, she thought so. Rowen was still in the math room having a spirited discussion with her math teacher. Shala backtracked, apologized to the teacher, and pulled him away. "Social studies," she repeated.
"But -"
"Social studies." She dragged him into the room, and they all sat down. Shala doodled almost the whole period. Rowen used her book and took notes. He hadn't studied much of the early American industrial happenings. Shala didn't see what the big deal was about a few steamboats. Kento didn't either, and he almost said so.
Sage's main point of interest (as was Sai's) was the cold animosity between Ami and another girl in Ami's group. Shala later explained that they hated each other for some reason. Sage thought it was interesting. Sai was horrified. After all, he was a naturally friendly person . . . When social studies was over, Shala was delighted, because they had a long computer class next. Kento was overjoyed because they had a ten minute snack period.
"We can talk now," Shala said to Sage. "Computer is pretty loose. And it's gonna be like an hour and a half. Of course, that means we won't have science today . . ."
"No science?" Rowen asked, hurt.
"I'll introduce you to my teacher later. He's pretty cool." They walked into the computer room, where several kids were already beginning to be seated. Shala and the boys waved to Ami, who was across the room, and found some extra chairs. Shala kept one chair open. It soon became apparent why, as a boy came in and took the seat next to her.
"This is my computer partner, Ian," Shala said to the boys. She turned to Ian. "Is it your day to type, or mine?"
"Mine," he said, "you wouldn't let me for the last three classes. It's definitely my turn." She stuck out her tongue at him.
"You're just making sure I can't push you out of your chair again," she said. He shrugged. Then he finally noticed the guys.
"You were in math, weren't you?" he said to them. They all nodded affirmation. He faced Shala. "I know these people, don't I? These are -"
"Ian," Shala said proudly, "these are my friends, the Ronin Warriors." Ian grinned.
"Pleased to meet ya."
"He knows Cole, sort of," Shala said to the guys. Sage looked at Ian with interest.
"We've talked online a few times. Shala introduced us. So what can we do to procrastinate today?"
"We can't," Shala pointed out, "we've got Sim City." they opened up the game, noted down all the information in different programs, and let it run. "We're playing Sim City for a science project," Shala explained. "But we have to keep track of all the data . . ."
"How do you know about us?" Ryo asked Ian.
"I watch."
Um, Sage thought at Shala.
What?
This is kinda weird.
So are you. So is this way of talking.
I was wondering how you got this? I mean, the whole telepathic thing came with our armors, so I was wondering about you.
Trans-dimensional portal again. I went to one of my favorite book series', and tested out as a T-12, sending and receiving
What's that?
I can send and receive, and I'm a twelve out of fifteen, one being the best. But there's like nobody to talk to anyway. It bites.
"I can see where it might," Sage said aloud. They all looked at him. He tapped his head. They didn't get it.
"Yeah, it does," Shala said. Kento looked at the computer screen. He chuckled and poked Sai. Sai started to laugh.
"Hey Ro," he said, "it looks like you've got a city named after you." Rowen looked startled.
"Huh?" Sai and Kento simultaneously pointed to the computer screen, where the name of the city was displayed. Shala blushed.
"It was this close to being Torrent Town," she said crisply, "that or maybe Ryoville. But I figured neither of those really fit a city. Then there was the Kento Town idea but I realized there wouldn't be enough food. Halo City came pretty close . . ."
"In other words," Rowen said, "it could have been named after any of us, but that one just fit better?" Shala nodded.
Of course, she shot to Sage, I haven't showed anyone the cities I use to just play with. They have various names . . . Sage raised an eyebrow.
"I'll show you if Ian'll let me log onto my account." Ian nodded and logged out. "We've got two copies of the city," Shala explained, "one on either account." She logged onto the network. "Let's see . . . hmm . . . okay." She started up Sim City, opened up a saved file, and . . .
"Hey Ryo," said Kento, "she's even got a volcano for you."
"It's the only natural disaster besides fire that she'll trigger," Ian said. "Half the time the city is covered with lava, and the other half of the time it's burning."
"The people sure complain a lot," Ryo said. Yet another protest banner and request to send in the National Guard popped up. Shala O.K.'d the protest, declined the National Guard, and refused to build a fire station. Then she saved, and opened Torrent Town. It was mostly underwater. It was basically a lot of little groups of archipelagos. There was little actual land. Sai said he liked it.
They were looking at Kento Town, which had a landmark called "Kento Rock", after observing the peace and quiet of Halo City (with hospitals and forests galore!), when Ami brought over a chair and sat down.
"I'm bored," she sighed. "Let's surf the 'Net."
"Yeah!" Ian said.
"Um, we aren't supposed to," Shala pointed out.
"What's the Net?" Rowen asked. The other guys looked puzzled as well.
"The Internet," Shala explained. Blank looks. "Ian, you explain, you're supposed to be the computer person." Ian launched into a short description of the Internet.
"Cool!" Kento exclaimed.
"I think Mia said something about that," Sai said, "but she said not many people use it."
"This is our dimension," Shala said. "And I hate to break it to you guys, but we're about seven to ten years later than you. So we've been using it longer."
Sage nodded sagely.
"And how would you know?" Ryo asked him. He shrugged. Ami looked at the clock.
"Fifteen minutes left, guys."
"I suppose we could . . ." Shala said reluctantly. "I could show you when we get back to my house, though."
"Now!" Kento said. She sighed, minimized the game, and opened Netscape Communicator.
"Tass?" Ami said hopefully.
"Not in front of them," Shala said. "How about something fun . . . what about the campaign?" Ami and Ian both grinned. Shala typed in the address for the Ryo 2000 campaign.
"I didn't know I was running for president," Ryo said.
"It's a gag site," Shala said. "How about something non-anime?"
"Darwin Awards!" Ami exclaimed.
"Bored.com," Ian said. Shala opened a new window, and went to both sites.
"That's weird," Rowen said, after a pause.
"Which one?" Sage asked.
"The whole thing . . . my head hurts."
"Never thought I'd hear you say that," said Kento. "That's like, like . . ."
"You not eating?" Sai said.
"Exactly!"
"I wish Mia was here . . ." Ryo said. The others looked at him. "I think she'd like this place.
"I guess Mia grows on you," Shala said. "I suppose I should be nicer to her." She opened a new window, went to the Top 25 Ronin Warriors sites, and clicked on one of the Mia and Anubis shrines. As it loaded, Ryo turned pale. The others started laughing helplessly. "Shush!" Shala said apprehensively. "Don't disturb the other people in class!" She glanced at the clock. "Five minutes. Okay, power down." She closed the three windows, shut down Sim City, and closed all programs and logged on as a different user. Out of habit, she erased her user name to leave the cursor in the right place for the next person. "Alright, we've got four minutes to lunch. You should go back to your station, Ami."
Shala noticed a familiar face pop into the classroom window. She discreetly stuck her tongue out at it. It smiled and waved. "It's not fair," Shala muttered.
"What's not?" Sai said. She sighed.
"He has a whole unsupervised study hall until lunch and I was stuck here with you . . ."
"Hey!" (Collective exclamation.)
"Just kidding."
"He really does have unsupervised study hall," Ian put in, "because he has that advanced math class at a weird time."
One minute to lunch. Shala stood up and grabbed her backpack, slinging it over a shoulder. The teacher let them go about thirty seconds later, and they went to Shala's locker for their lunches. Then she led the Ronins down the stairs, out across the lobby, went through two sets of doors, walked through a forming crowd, and entered the lunchroom.
"Watch your step," Shala said, leading them towards a table in the back. "You wouldn't believe what people drop in here."
"Like what?" Ryo asked suspiciously.
"You don't even wanna know," Shala said emphatically. Some of the girls at the back table waved her and the boys over. She grinned, and they swiftly closed the distance between themselves and the table.
"Get some extra chairs from those tables," Laila said, indicating some empty tables with her head. They pulled over the extra chairs, and Kento started eating as soon as he sat down. Sai just looked at him and shook his head hopelessly. There were already a few other people at the table. Shala looked around. She was waiting for everyone. A second later, Ami and Jing both sat down with their lunch trays.
"There's only two people here you guys don't know," Shala said. "This is Sara," a brown-haired girl looked up from her book for an instant to say hello, then went back to it, "and this is Ryka," indicating the girl who was talking to Hanna. "Guys, these boys are Ryo, Kento, Sai, Sage, and Rowen."
Nobody noticed her. They had already started conversations. Three more girls converged on the table and sat down.
"So Zoe, who're these guys?" asked one.
"I can't believe you didn't introduce us!" said another. The other girl just looked.
"Who's Zoe?" Rowen asked.
"Me," Shala said absently. "This is Liz, Laci, and Krystal." Liz looked inquisitively at Kento.
"Does he ever stop eating?"
"I doubt even your mashed potato trick could distract Kento from food," Shala said dryly, "and that's not an invitation to do it."
"The 'tatoes this year aren't firm enough," Liz said sadly in reply. The boys introduced themselves, with the exception of Kento, who was chowing down.
"Where's Ryan?" Shala said suddenly.
"Office," said Liz and Ryka. Shala shrugged. It was no unusual occurrence, although it hadn't happened for awhile.
Then the interesting conversation really began. Shala's table was unpredictable, just as likely to have members burst into tears as explode in peals of laughter, and more than one item was tossed around in the short course of lunch. (Less than 25 minutes by the time everyone got to the cafeteria.) Once or twice teachers even came over to quiet them down. The table next to theirs didn't seem to mind much, as it was comprised mostly of boys who were on friendly terms with the girls. Some were in Shala's classes, one or two were on her bus, and another happened to be her boyfriend. One of the tables near them did seem to mind, and glared over frequently, but everybody ignored them.
"I love being a social outcast," Shala commented cheerfully, "there's so many more interesting people to socialize with."
Everyone started leaving the cafeteria about a minute or so before lunch ended. The table rose in a flock, and left chattering in small groups of mostly two's and three's, except for Shala and the guys.
"So those were your friends?" Sage asked.
"A good chunk of 'em, yeah," said Shala.
"I like that Liz girl," Kento said.
"They seemed pretty nice," said Sai. Shala stifled a giggle.
They went back the way they had come, stopping at Shala's locker to pick up her Chinese binder and English books. They headed for the math room.
"Why are we going back here?" asked Ryo.
"It's also the Chinese II room," Shala explained, pointing to a sign by the door. They walked in, and Shala found empty seats for her friends before sitting down at a desk, where a blonde girl sat next to her.
Sage? Shala sent. Try to keep them quiet.
I'll try. The Ronins all got looks of concentration on their faces for a moment, which turned to looks of disappointment and wistful glances in Shala's direction.
She didn't notice, because the teacher started class at that moment. Shala was soon busy concentrating on the new characters they had to learn. Shala inwardly knew that it wouldn't matter too much if the boys joked around a bit, but she didn't tell them that. The boys in her class could get bad enough, and she didn't think the teacher wanted too many interruptions.
Chinese dragged on. As the last minute approached, everyone started packing up. Shala stopped and thought a second. English. Last. Books. Journal. She made a face, then led them into the hallway.
"Guys?" Shala asked. "You wanna meet my science teacher before we go to English? We'd only have like two minutes, but . . ."
"Why not?" Sai asked. Shala led them two doors down from the English room, where her science teacher was standing outside waiting for students.
"Mr. *? I brought some of my friends for a visit, and they wanted to meet all my teachers . . ." She introduced the Ronins. Her teacher greeted them nicely, and did the usual spiel. He also asked if any of them liked science. They all pointed at Rowen.
"My dad's a scientist," he explained. Shala glanced at her watch, and widened her eyes.
"We've got to get to English!" She grabbed the guys and sprinted into the English room.
They sat down at a table at the far end of the room, where there was one person sitting at a cluster of four desks. Shala quietly introduced him as her reading group.
"We're the only people reading this book," he said.
"What book?" Rowen asked curiously.
"A Choice of Weapons," Shala sighed.
"I think I read that . . ." Rowen said.
"There's almost nothing you haven't read," said Kento.
"Wrong," said Sai.
"Next to nothing, not almost nothing," Sage corrected.
The assignment was some questions about the chapters they were supposed to have read.
"Do I care what positive experiences Gordon has had so far?" Shala grumbled.
"I don't," said her partner.
"Me either," said Ryo, "but it is kinda your work . . ."
"This dude sounds interesting," Kento said.
Rowen started telling the guys all about Gordon Parks while the two students did their assignment. Shala's partner held up a sheet of paper.
"Character list?"
"We'd better," Shala said, "we're a few chapters behind on it, I think . . ." They flipped open their books and racked their brains as to whom the people could be.
"That Charlie guy is a crack head," her partner said.
"And a dealer," Shala added as they wrote it down. A few minutes later, they had absolutely no idea who the next person on the list was. "I think that's probably as far as we got . . ." Shala trailed. She checked her watch, and saw that there were only ten minutes left to the period. She closed the book and started shoving papers into her binder.
"I'll take the journals up," her partner offered.
"Thanks," Shala said weakly.
"When are we going home?" Kento asked.
"Back to your home, or back to my home?" Shala asked in response.
"Your home."
"I'd say we'll be there in maybe, oh, about forty minutes. Dismissal is in about ten."
"When are we going home home?" asked Sai.
"Whenever you want to, once we get back to my place."
"We probably shouldn't stay too long," Sage said.
"White Blaze'll be missing me," said Ryo.
"Bet that's not the only thing," Rowen said. Ryo glared.
Th bell rang after a few minutes of staring contest between Ryo and Rowen. Shala did a small jig of victory before picking up her bag, putting the chair up, and dragging the Ronins out of the room with her.
"Now that wasn't so bad, as it?" Shala said as she opened her locker.
"If you don't count continually being either bored or confused, yeah," Sage said. Shala started putting what she needed in her backpack.
"Well," she said, jamming a book in, "that about describes most of my school days, so I'd say you had a pretty normal day." She slammed the door shut, and picked up her bag with a wince. It was heavy. "Where's Rowen?" she asked, looking at them.
"Over there," Sai said, pointing to where Rowen was conversing with Shala's science teacher. She hurried over.
"Hate to disturb you Ro, but if we don't get a move on, we'll miss the bus." Rowen looked disappointed, but came with her.
"You have a cool science teacher," Rowen said as they all went down the stairs. Shala grinned.
"I know! You should have met the TA we had for awhile. Pretty much a miniature copy of him. Quite amusing." She stopped for a second to say hi to Hanna, Ryka, Jing, and a few others, then kept going and stopped again rather abruptly outside one of the buses. The person inside opened the window.
"Hi Penina!" said Sai.
"Hi guys . . ." The buses started to rumble. "See you online?" Shala yelled back a "yeah" as they dashed to the next bus and got on.
Shala sat with Rowen, Sage sat alone in front of them , Kento and Sai sat together, and Ryo sat with the boy Shala had been sitting with that morning. The boy pulled out a book and started reading.
A minute later, the buses were exiting the school lot and going towards the high school. Students got on the bus. Kat came towards them, shooed Sage in, and sat with him. He seemed surprised.
"Hey Sage," Kat said. She turned her head around. "Hey Shala, hey Rowen." She smiled at the other guys. "So how was your day?" she asked no one of them in particular.
"Pretty cool," said Kento. Sai nodded agreement.
"It was interesting . . ." Ryo said.
"And I was bored out of my mind," Sage said.
"Shala has a cool science teacher. And her math teacher isn't really insane," Rowen put in.
"In other words," Shala said, "aside from having five teenage anime characters with me, it was a pretty normal day."
"That's good . . . I think," said Kat. Then something happened that was entirely in the ordinary. The boy sitting with Ryo closed his book, leaned forward, and said,
"Hey Shala?"
"What?"
"Book question. Gwena just said 'Sav- Sayvil' while she was talking to Elspeth." Shala smiled happily. That was one of her favorite parts of the book.
"It means just what I think you think it means," Shala said cheerfully, knowing full well that this would a) confuse him, and b) gave away a major piece of the plot in one of the later trilogies. But she just wanted to satisfy his curiosity. The boy's eyes widened.
"Cool!" he said. "Thanks," and went back to reading.
"What book is that?" Rowen asked Shala curiously.
"Winds of - oh, for the life of me I can't remember whether it's Winds of Fate or Winds of Change. I know it's not Winds of Fury. I think." Rowen looked confused. Sage actually looked a bit interested. "I'll have to send the series through to you sometime. Most of it was written in this decade, and I don't think you'd be able to get it. Although you might be able to find some of them . . ." For a few minutes they were completely silent.
After the first stop, however, they resumed normal chattiness, mostly talking to their seatmates. Shala was busy explaining to Rowen about the book series the book question had come from. Kat and Sage talked casually about everyday things.
"You have green armor, right?"
"Huh?"
"Armor. That stuff you change into? Big and clanky stuff medieval knights used to wear to fight with?"
"I heard you, I just didn't -" He kept talking. Kento and Sai were deep in discussion, discussing . . . food . . .
"I'm not cooking today, Hardhead."
"But what am I supposed to eat then, Waterbrain?"
Ryo just sat thinking about Yuli and Mia and White Blaze. Well, not so much Yuli as the other two, and not so much White Blaze as Mia . . . His seatmate kept reading.
"He's hopeless," Shala said to Rowen, indicating Ryo.
"I know," the blue-haired archer sighed, "and he just won't do nothin' about it." Shala shrugged. It was an "oh well, who cares right now?" shrug. They kept talking of books.
A few minutes later, they were two stops off from Shala's.
"Ryo, get up," Shala said.
"Huh?"
"Book boy has to get off here." Ryo got up, and took a step back to let the boy out.
"Bye Shala."
"Ciao." He got off. Ryo sat back down. "Okay boys, stop after next is ours. Ready yourselves!"
"Armor of -"
"NOT LIKE THAT!" Shala said, hitting Ryo in the arm. "Boy are you out of it."
"Yeah Ryo," Kat said. He looked at her.
"Cat got your tongue?" Sage asked. Ryo glowered.
"Our stop!" Shala said cheerfully as they reached it. The bus came to a stomach-lurching halt, then the door opened. They filed off the bus, and parted ways with Kat when they reached the other side of the street. They stopped. Shala got the mail. Then they went down the driveway and up the porch steps. Max was there. "Hi kitty!" Shala said. She handed the mail to Sai, then took off her backpack and began fishing. For her keys.