TOXO'S POV
I didn't plan to be lonely on my first day of school. I thought everyone would run up to me and want to be my friend and I would do the same to others. I adjusted the tie on my uniform and I walked forward. A few people glanced over at me from their little friend groups and I just smiled back. As I turned the corner, walking away from the main entrance and over to a large field with bleachers on each side and multiple little stands with different people standing behind them. My eyes widened in amazement as I looked down the self made street of clubs to sign up for. Before Clementine and I came here, I did my research about different clubs that I would LOVE to be a part of, so I started strolling my way down the path, squeezing through tons of people. I saw different stands with names such as "The Photography Club", "The Baking Club", and "The Dungeons and Dragons Club." The more I walked down the path I realized they did not have the club I wanted to join, The Pebble Collecting Club. I've always had an obsession with collecting pebbles and I thought there would be other people who would share the same interest! Clementine gave me a website about the club, a very poorly made website might I add, and it did call pebble collectors idiots and- oh… Clementine probably made that website to get me excited for nothing, thanks. Once I reached a certain point in the field I walked upon more stands but they were a lot nicer and more well made. I read the signs as they said "The Volleyball Team", "The Football Team", and… "The Baseball Cult?" I stared at the Baseball Cult sign for almost a minute to then realize that it actually said The Baseball Team but someone crossed out Team and wrote Cult. What? Was that supposed to be a prank or… I don't know. I lowered my view from the sign to then see that a few of the boys behind the stand were staring at me as I stood a few feet away from them. They were wearing the same uniform as me but they had different colored jackets on, it was like mine but red with gold embroidering and two digit numbers on the shoulders.
"What the fuck do you want." Asked one of the males. He had almost a death glare expression on. He was extremely tall for a Japanese man, maybe 6'1… Actually all of them were super tall, what the hell. He had neatly brushed black hair with an excessive amount of gel in it, making him look very proper. He glanced down at me and awaited my responses but before I could answer another one of the guys glared over at him.
"Kan, be nice, he's new! You can tell he's a bit nervous." The other male said. He was a bit shorter than the other guy, probably 5'10, and had light brown tinted skin. He looked as if he was a mixture of African and Japanese. He had short black hair and a huge smile that he gave me. I gave him a smile back as he then faced the other guy. "And maybe he wants to join the team?"
This caused the other three guys at the stand to break out in laughter. One of the guys, a tall blonde guy ended up falling on the grass behind the stand from laughing too hard. The last guy, an insanely tall guy with red hair, was wheezing as he kneeled down to help the other male up. What the hell? What was so funny? I just stood there and watched them awkwardly. The guy who was actually super nice moved his hand pointing at me and making a hand gesture to come closer to him. As I approached him he leaned down and rested his elbows on the table of the stand. He whispered a bit loudly so I could hear him.
"Sorry about them mate, but seriously, do you want to sign up for the baseball team? Tryouts are tomorrow night and I'll be there to help you out if you'd like that, if I'm not there then just ask the coach to see Ezra." He shot me with another huge smile, blinding me with his extremely white teeth. I just stood there, processing all that he said, collecting the information that I lost from my short attention span. Okay so, I had no interest in playing a sport. You could get easily hurt and people can be mean, and I don't like getting competitive.
"Oh um I'm not really interested in playing a sport, I never have played one and I don't think I would be good at it. And it's nice to meet you Ezra, my name is Toxo." I gave him a smile as his face went blank.
"You've never played a sport? Not even in Junior High School? Not even with your siblings?" He asked. I then just shook my head and he stood up straight again and put his hands on his hips as he thought. "Hmph, well that's okay! You do need experience to join the team though, so I guess that's a lost cause. Anywho, it's nice to meet you as well Toco." He said as I paused.
"It's Toxo sir." I corrected him and then gave him a smile so there's no hard feelings between us.
"Toxo? Is that french? It sounds very… how do I put this… unique?" He looked down at me.
"Oh, no it's greek. I'm actually a transfer student from Greece, I'm here with my sister, sir." That was our cover up. We weren't Toxodorius and Clementine Morningstar anymore, we were Toxodorius and Clementine Andrianakis, transfer students from Heraklion, Greece.
"Oh greece? Fun! I'm from Australia and I moved here four years ago. And please don't call me sir, I'm not old enough for that yet." He chuckled and then smiled again. Now that he said that I could totally hear the Australian accent in his raspy voice. Before I could answer, the three other boys had stopped laughing and the tall bright red haired male leaned against Ezra and snickered.
"Who's your friend Ez?" The tall one asked. He shot me with an evil looking grin but it slightly felt friendly. Ezra sighed loudly.
"Minato this is Toxo, Toxo this is Minato." Ezra said as he let out another long sigh, obviously annoyed by Minato. Minato then stopped leaning on Ezra and extended his extremely long slim but kinda muscular arm out to me, offering a handshake.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Toxo." Minato gave me a slightly less evil smile but I could still sense his mischief. I reached my hand forward and shook his hand with a wide smile.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too-" Before I could finish the sentence, Minato grabbed onto my hand very tightly and brought me closer to the stand before letting go and pushing his hand against my chest roughly as I fell to the ground, landing on the short sharp blades of grass. This caused Minato and the other two guys to erupt in laughter again. I just layed there and sighed, looking over at Ezra asking for help but he just shrugged and sat down, filling out some paperwork. After a few minutes of me laying on the ground and the three immature boys laughing their asses off, Minato came over and offered me his hand, still laughing a little bit. I just glared at his hand then back up at him, not trusting him anymore.
"Kid, I'm sorry, just having a bit of fun." He told me. Yeah, that was SO much fun. I grasped onto his hand after letting out another sign and giving him another glare. He pulled me up to my feet and brushed my back off with his hand, flicking off the dirt and the blades of grass that attached to my uniform. "Jesus, you're a tiny bud." He was easily a foot taller than me, 6'4 maybe 6'5. He gave me a pat on the head as if I were a kid, oh yeah he also called ME a kid earlier! Why didn't I correct him? This time he looked down at me and actually gave me a genuine smile, no mischief or evilness was shown this time when he curled his lips to form an actual smile that felt welcoming and enjoyable. "If you're not going to join the baseball team then you should come and watch, us four are going to be at every single one." He smiled again, HE WAS TALKING TO ME LIKE I WAS A CHILD. UGHHH. He grabbed my shoulders tightly and turned me so I was facing back at the stand. He pointed at the tall guy that I first talked to, "That's Kanji, he's a jackass." He then moved his finger to the other blonde guy, he was very pale and about 5'9, "And that's Haruki or Haru, he's an actual fucking idiot." Both Kanji and Haru glared at Minato before he turned me towards him again and said, "If you need any help in this gigantic ass school then just ask us, we're your upperclassmen so it's our job, okay kiddo?"
"Thanks but I'm not a kid, I'm sixteen." I gave him a blank expression, giving him a tiny glare. He froze.
"You're… sixteen? I thought you were like a thirteen year old from junior high that got here for being incredibly smart or some shit." He looked very surprised. I always have looked much younger than I am because of my size and chubby cheeks.
"Yes, I am sixteen. And thank you for saying I am smart! Because I am super smart." This was TRUE, I'm very smart.
"Yeah, smart for a thirteen year old." He chuckled as he let go of my shoulders and looked down at me. "Just a joke, don't get so offended or else no one is going to want to be your friend here, got that?" I nodded at what he said and then he ruffled my hair. "Good kid." He smirked again then walked back to the stand, leaning against the table next to Kanji, Haru, and Ezra. A few other boys passed me and walked up to the stand as they started to talk to the four guys. These guys actually looked like they could be in the baseball team, they were semi-fit and kind of tall, but you don't need to be tall for baseball, right?
I gave out a sigh then continued to walk down the path. Before I could make it out a girl with super long curly black hair and dark skin ran into me and knocked me over.
"WAY TO GO KENKA." I heard Haru yell from the stand not too far away. He quickly got up and grabbed me with eas as he set me on my feet. She was about two inches taller than me, around 5'7, and she also wore the 'athletic' school uniform with the number '14' sketched into the shoulders. She let go of me and shot a filthy glare in the direction of Haru, who seemed to shut up.
"Are you okay? No, you're fine, we're on grass HAHA. You don't have any bruises? You seem fragile. I GOTTA GO MOVE IT, MY NAME IS KENKA IF YOU NEED ANYTHING I'LL BE AT THE VOLLEYBALL STAND GOODBYE TINY MAN." She spoke so fast that it almost sounded like gibberish. She rushed past me and through the crowd to get to a stand. I could tell she was in a huge rush. She seemed like the type of person to be super chill but I think she got very worried about being late to something so her chill persona slipped away almost as fast as she ran.
After that incident, I walked out of the field area that looked basically like a festival and I walked into the actual main school building. The school was insanely large. It was about five stories high and almost took up half of the neighborhood. Dozens upon dozens of other people were inside the school lobby. Past the main lockers and the secretary office there was a large opening to the courtyard. A huge pink tree sat in the middle of the courtyard and casted a shadow on almost the entire area. I found a bench next to the opening and I sat down on it, letting out a loud sigh that I barely heard over the obnoxious talking of the other people inside the school and outside in the courtyard. I bit my tongue as I looked up at the tree. This isn't what I expected Earth to be like. I thought everyone would be nice, I thought everyone would be my friend, and I thought everything would work out perfectly. I mean, I guess I have some friends now, like Minato, Ezra, Kanji, and Haru. They seem cool. I'm not disappointed but I'm not satisfied with the way Earth is. But still,
This
Isn't
What
I
Was
Expecting.