Chapter 1
Genji
I checked the timer on my phone. I didn’t have long, 7 seconds maybe. I felt the wind in my face as I turned the corner.
6 seconds…
I could see the door at the other side of the hall. I started to sprint. Heart pumping in my chest
5 seconds… can I make it? Yes! I have to make it, there’s no other choice!
4 seconds…
3…
2…
1…
I burst through the door slamming my books on my desk as the final alarm rang for the start of class. Mr. Wilhelm didn’t even turn around- mission accomplish!
I heard a familiar laugh from the seat next to me
“Damn Genji, that’s gotta be a record even for you” laughed Jesse McCree, to my right
“Well, y’know, I have to keep everyone on their toes around here now don’t i?”
Jesse had been my best friend since my family moved here a few years ago. Him and I shared everything and tend to get into a bit of trouble while doing it, but he’s always had my back and I’ve always had his. Right now we’re in the final year of school together along with our friends and I couldn’t be happier. Of course I missed Tokyo academy but the people here are better friends than any of the people over there ever were.
“Jesus,” Jesse sighed, pointing at Mr Wilhelm “does he even stop to take a breath? He hasn’t stopped talkin’ in like, 5 minutes
Mr Wilhelm was our Biology teacher. To be fair he was one of the nicer teachers at the school but once he started talking, he would never stop. Jesse, Lena and I had a game we would play where when he started talking we would count how many minutes it took for him to stop. The current record was a full 28 minutes of self-conversation. Lena wasn’t in this class right now which means she was probably on the track again.
Lena was studying at our school but she wasn’t really a regular student, she mostly just used the sports equipment to train. Every now and then she’d help me teach the younger kids in gymnastics and sometimes she’d walk into our biology classes but that’s about all anyone saw of her during the weekdays.
She and Jesse were probably my two closest friends since I arrived here. Lena doesn’t really hide much, she acts happy around just about everyone and when you look into her background she hasn’t really had many problems. She has dreams, she works for them and her family and friends support her. She’s an open book. Jesse McCree on the other hand, is much more of a mystery. He was the first one to introduce himself once I moved. I also learned very quickly not to ask a lot of Jesse’s past. From what I can tell he’s been in and out of foster homes for the last 5 years and the family his living with now, the Amaris, are his favourite so far. They seem like a nice family but I haven’t met his foster mother yet, she hasn’t been home a lot recently because of work. He won’t tell me much about his life before the foster homes but apparently it wasn’t pretty. I’ve seen the scars on his back when we go swimming, everyone has, but no one dares to ask how he got them.
“Hey, Genji? You’re doing that thing again.”
“What?” I said, snapping back into reality “Oh, sorry. Got lost in my thoughts again.”
Jesse chuckled “Don’t worry about. Happens to the best of us.”
“Whatever you say, cowboy.”
“You goin’ to Lena’s party tonight at Winston’s bar?”
“Yeah.” I told him. Lena’s uncle owned a bar and he lets us rent out the place for special events, this time its Lena’s birthday and he’s letting us all over for drinks. He’s possibly the nicest guy in the world, if you stay on his good side that is. If you met him you wouldn’t guess he’s the type of person to go to anger management classes. “I’m going to try and get a lift there from one of my dad’s employees”
“I can give ya’ a lift if you want? I just got the bike outta Mako’s place.”
“Yeah sure, thanks man.” I just hoped he didn’t ask me to help name is bike again. Yes. He’s that type of guy.
“Oh by the way, you know if Amélie is gonna be there?”
“Probably, she’s her girlfriend, why wouldn’t she be at Lena’s birthday?”
“I dunno, I was just wonderin’.” Jesse looked visibly uncomfortable at the thought of Amélie
“Wait, you’re not still afraid of her are you?!” Amélie is Lena’s girlfriend and she’s the polar opposite of Lena. Amélie is quite, brooding and scary. No-body knows anything about her. “She’s harmless. Do you trust Lena?”
“Of course I do!”
“Then trust her choice in people.”
“Mr. Shimada, would you like to add something to the lesson?!” interrupted Mr Wilhelm as heads turned around to face me and Jesse.
Among people’s faces I saw mixed expressions. Some of the newer kids looked at me with fear or concern in their eyes; a few even looked to have distain for me interrupting their educational ritual. However a select few had smirks hidden behind hands, amused by the whole situation.
I opened my mouth to answer him but, yet again, I was interrupted. This time however by a much more graceful voice.
“I think Mr. Shimada was just trying to explain the difference between mitosis and meiosis since the diagrams in these books really aren’t up to scratch, right Genji?” Angela turned around from the front row gave me a look to play along and follow her lead.
“urmm… no Angela they’re not, it’s disgraceful really.” Angela Ziegler had been my girlfriend for 7 months and she’s probably gotten me out of trouble more than I can count. She’s also a bit of a teacher’s pet so Mr. Wilhelm will believe anything that comes out of her mouth, which has come in handy a few times.
Wilhelm eyed me up for a few seconds before deciding Angela has no reason to lie to him and carrying on with the lesson. A few minutes later I get a note passed to me from the guy in the seat ahead of me. On the front it’s been labelled: Genji S xx
I unfold the message
You’re welcome, baka :p
P.S. We going to Lena’s thing tonight?
I showed Jesse next to me and he chuckled I rolled my eyes. Baka (moron) was the one only Japanese she ever seems to remember and she used it against me as often as she can.
I added my response to the bottom of the note
Thanks trottel (you’re not the only tri-lingual :p)
And yeah Jesse’s giving me a lift there tonight.
After quickly double checking my Swiss-German I passed the note back down to the guy in front of me who then passed it along to Angela. She turned around and gave me a look and gesture to tell me she understood and then quickly got back to her work.
The rest of the lessons went smoothly with me and Jesse having a few laughs and generally just trying to avoid doing work. After what felt like a decade the bell for the break rang and most of the students left to the common room. Some of the kids, like Angela, stayed behind for extra credit so the common room was fairly empty.
As I sat down on one of the couches and starting playing some music from my phone I got a message on my phone.
- Message from: Hana Song
[Hai green machine how’s school? >:3]
Hana had a habit of ‘getting sick’ whenever new games come out so right now she was at home playing some new shooter, streaming probably. I still can’t believe she makes money streaming videogames. She’s got sponsors and everything!
I type up a quick response
[You know you’re supposed to be in school right?]
[Cant. I’m sick x_x]
[So you’re skipping school today?]
[Since when have u been Mr Don’t-Break-The-Rules XD???]
[Fair point XD is Lucio there with you?]
This time 5 minutes past without a response. I was about to text her again when she replied.
[He’s been looking after me, yeah]
Something was up about that message. There was no emoji’s, no rabbit face and no exclamation points. It was written so carefully, so calmly, so… unlike Hana. I decided not to ask about it, she’s probably live right now and I didn’t want to annoy her too much.
[You going to Lena’s things tonight Hana?]
[Naw I’m doing a longer stream tonight while I enjoy the n00b harvest]
[Well don’t go too hard on them, they’re just trying to have some fun XD]
[No promises :P]
After that I closed the messenger app and put in some earphones. I figured I should probably get some rest while I have some free time. If Lena’s party turns out anything like her gatherings usually do, it’s going to be a long night.