Arcene closed the classroom door behind her as she left Room 101 for the day. The hallways were crowded with students getting ready to either leave for the day or head out onto the school lawn for the activity fair¹. She adjusted her books before once more looking at the room number next to the door.

It really was strange. The room number started with a one yet was on the second floor. In addition to that, the sign had a star as decoration on it, something that none of the other rooms in the school had².

Normally details like that wouldn’t really bother Arcene but it seemed to compliment her new class a little too well. The sign seemed to match just how out of place most of her classmates seemed to be. Hardly any of them seemed to belong in Bertram’s Academy. In fact, the more she thought about it, the harder it was to believe that some of the kids even got accepted into the Academy.

Arcene began her walk to her locker deep in thought. Those who got into this school were either gifted, had a sibling in this school who was gifted, or had a family wealthy enough to pay the high tuition fees. Arcene fell into the second category. As for her classmates…

Primrose had a butler and bodyguards so she definitely had a family that was rich, but that also brought up the question as to why she was here. There were better “rich kid” schools she could have gone to. Charmant gave off a princely air but that didn’t necessarily mean that he came from a wealthy family.

As for whether or not her classmates were “gifted” or had siblings who were, that wasn’t really something she could determine from her limited interactions with her classmates or from her observation of them. It was impossible for one person to keep track of nineteen people after all.

Arcene shut her locker door and shouldered her grey backpack.

‘Maybe they’re here because they’re so strange..’ Arcene thought as she made her way out of the building.

But that didn’t quite make sense either. Oddly enough, no one really seemed to comment on her classmates’ strange appearances outside of the classmates themselves with the exception of the more “mundane” traits. You’d think others would notice a girl with green skin or a boy who was see-through.

Arcene stepped out of the building and was immediately hit with a wave of noise. She cringed at the sudden increase in sound. She had forgotten that the Activity Fair was today.

Lined along the paths leading off the campus were booths for the school’s sports teams, its clubs, and outside volunteer opportunities. Some were manned by upperclassmen who had been in the club the previous year while others were manned by lone teachers/adults, eager to accept new applicants. The cobblestone paths were were filled with people both looking at the booths and handing out fliers.

Arcene contemplated cutting through the grass to avoid the crowd and she was about to do it too, but thought better of it. If she went home now she’d be all alone. Both Oralie³ and Callista were hanging out with friends that day and her parents were working late as per usual, not that any of them being home would really make a difference. As soon as they got home they usually went about their own business until dinner time.

So Arcene had two options, brave the crowd and face light, easy to handle social interaction that would kill time for an hour or so or go home and try to find a way to entertain herself.

Arcene plunged into the crowd and looked around. Many of the fall sports had already started from August so most of the booths for sports were for preseason for the winter and spring sports. The cheerleading, swimming, basketball, baseball/softball, bowling, tennis, wrestling, and hockey teams were handing out flyers and athletic forms. 

The cheerleaders were going the extra mile to get new recruits. They were doing a whole routine and drawing quite a bit of the crowd. With beaming smiles and loud cheers the girls made a tower out of themselves with who Arcene assumed to be the cheer captain at the very top with one leg up behind her head.

Arcene stared up at the feat in awe, but was quick to avoid the ones handing out flyers. She was sure she spotted Azlyn somewhere amongst the crowd. She was about to walk away when she was met with a surprising sight. Beside the cheerleading booth stood Marcella, chatting animatedly with one of the cheerleaders. She was smiling and holding a flyer in her hand.

Arcene was a bit surprised. She didn’t expect a girl that usually had a knife strapped to her thigh and such fierce eyes to be interested in cheerleading. In her mind, she had pictured Marcella a no-nonsense hardcore badass and cheerleaders were well…cute, popular, and full of school spirit.⁴

For a moment Arcene couldn’t really wrap her head around what she was seeing so she decided to think on it as she continued walking.

‘Well, it’s not like I really know her that well,’ she thought. ‘It’s not like she has to like the things I expect her to. Hm, I wonder what clubs my other classmates would go for….’

She was curious now. She no longer walked about aimlessly but with a goal in mind.

It didn’t take her long to find one of her other classmates.He was easy to identify with his tall stature and red cape. Currently, Chase was being swarmed by players from five of the school’s sports teams and their coaches. Even from where she stood, Arcene could tell that he was seriously uncomfortable. Flyers were being shoved in his face left and right and all the players around him were talking at once, trying to get him to try out or join them for preseason while he couldn’t even put a word in to stop them. All the while the coaches were scrutinizing him, walking around to get a better view of his muscles, which were prominent with the short sleeved uniform shirt he was wearing.⁵

Arcene felt a little bad for him. If she was in his position, she wouldn’t know what to do either but at the moment, there really wasn’t anything she could do about it, so she continued walking.

It wasn’t long before she came across Damien Cross⁶. He was the kid with the eyepatch. He was standing in front of a booth for one of the three religious organizations on campus. Since there wasn’t really anything interesting about what he was doing, she carried on.

As Arcene walked, she was drawn to the sound of barking. When she came to the source of the barking, she was delighted to see three dogs happily wagging their tails as students came by the Animal Shelter booth to pet them. The volunteers at the booth took these opportunities to talk to the students about volunteering. While they were busy, Arcene took the opportunity to move closer to the booth. While the dogs were currently occupied, they were far from the only animals that the volunteers had brought. On the ground was a pen with three fat guinea pig resting within it and on the table was a bird cage with a cockatoo chatting away within it. Arcene knelt next to the pen and gently stroked one of the guinea pigs’ fur and smiled as she felt its softness.

She could have stayed there and pet it forever had the rodent and its companions not suddenly gotten up and raced to one side of the pen. She looked up to see the cause for this, only to see that they weren’t the only animals to react that way. The dogs had forgotten those who were petting them and were pulling on their leashes to reach someone else.

“Look, Aerith! Dogs!”

Charmant eagerly ran up to the dogs with Aerith trailing behind him . Arcene didn’t think a dog’s tail could wag that much. As soon as he came within range they leapt onto him and  began licking his face vigorously. Charmant erupted into joyful laughter as he hugged and petted the happy dogs.

“Look, Aerith! This one looks like a smaller Finnegan!⁷” he exclaimed, showing her the large off-white Newfoundland.

“You’re right,” she replied. Her watchful eyes glanced at the female volunteers and students that were now staring at him and whispering before kneeling down to pet the dogs with him. Arcene watched them from a distance. While Charmant was focussed on the dogs, petting them, calling them good boy/girl, Aerith primarily kept her eyes on him, only occasionally looking to the female volunteers and students who had quickly been taken with her companion. Her humorless expression melted into one of utter affection as she watched Charmant enjoying himself.⁸

‘I ship it,’ she thought.

“Aerith they have a bird and guinea pigs too!”

‘That’s my que to leave.’

Arcene got up and disappeared back into the crowd. It wasn’t long before she came across another one of her classmates.

It was Kaage, the kid who saw her outside the music room. He was by a booth surrounded by potted plants and decorated with paper flowers. Arcene looked up at the sign above the booth. It was the Gardening Club. Arcene tilted her head to the side. Kaage really stood out amongst the people who were in front of the booth. It wasn’t just because of his long silver hair. Nobody really noticed that. What made him stand out was that he was the only guy that seemed interested in the club.

Arcene continued through the crowd. The next person she came across was Lyra, who like Chase was being mobbed by people from different clubs. From what Arcene could tell she was receiving appeals from the glee club, dance team, drama club, marching band, cheerleading team, and some other miscellaneous clubs. Unlike Chase, she was handling it quite well. No matter how pushy the people were, she kept a calm and pleasant smile as she took their flyers before walking off.

Arcene followed her for a little while longer to see if anything else interesting would happen. She had only followed her for five minutes when she decided to turn her attention elsewhere. Lyra had already doubled her amount of flyers without any effort on her part. Male club members were coming out of the woodwork to try and recruit her.⁸ She handled them with ease, giving them a charming smile and a thank you. The way they continued to watch her in awe as she walked away was enviable.

Arcene continued walking, peering left and right at the people standing by the stalls. Searching for the out of place outfit or hair color that would denote one of her classmates. She wasn’t disappointed. Her eyes caught  Zupilee’s neon pink hair. She was standing in front of the Fashion Design Club. And she wasn’t alone either, next to her was Henry⁹ who was chatting with one of the girls at the booth while he surveyed the dress that the mannequin next to her was wearing.

Feeling that there was no reason to draw nearer, Arcene continued walking. She was near the gates now. She was about to make her way out when she accidentally strayed too close to one of the people handing out flyers.

“Arcene-chan!”

Arcene stopped and turned. It took her a few moments to realized who had called her name because for a bit she was sure it was a stranger that was in front of her. Standing in front of her was a woman with her face painted white and dark eye makeup and red lips with a black wig piled high up with pins sticking out of it. She was dressed in in a red kimono and sandals.

Arcene gave her a confused look. “Um…” she shifted uncomfortably.

“It’s me Babe-Sensei!” the woman exclaimed.

“Oh.” Arcene relaxed a bit.

“Have you decided on what clubs you’re going to join yet?” asked Babe-Sensei.

Arcene shook her head.

“Then why don’t you consider…” Babe-Sensei grabbed Arcene’s hand and pulled her toward the booth behind her,” the Japanese Culture Club!”¹⁰

Arcene looked at the booth. It was decorated with an oriental screen, a hanging kimono and paper fans, paper cherry blossoms, a strange bamboo sword, and various pictures of cartoon characters.

“Konnichiwa, Grey-san!”

From behind the oriental screen came Tanaka-Sensei, Arcene’s Japanese teacher.

“Ko-nni-chi-wa,” she replied, giving a slight bow. The greeting felt weird to her but Tanaka-Sensei had instructed her that this was a respectful way to greet someone in Japan. “S-so what is t-this club about?” She mentally cursed her nervous stuttering.

Tanaka-Sensei smiled and handed her a flyer.

Arcene focused her eyes on it as he explained.

“The Japanese Culture Club is simply a club celebrating Japanese culture. We’ll explore the language and traditions as well as both the traditional and modern culture. We’ll watch anime and even have a trip to Ie Teien. Care to join?” He asked.

“I’ll…think about it,” said Arcene. “I have to go.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow, Grey-san.”

“Ja ne!”¹¹ waved Babe-Sensei as Arcene walked away.

Arcene headed towards the school gates. She thought about the flyer in her hand.

‘Maybe I should join a club this year. It would give me something to do after school…’ she thought.

She looked at the flyer ‘Japanese culture club only runs on Mondays and Fridays, maybe I should join another one…’

Arcene stopped and looked around. There were still plenty of booths nearby. Arcene checked the days posted at the booths and mustered up enough courage to talk to the club members. She left the school premises satisfied.

On Wednesdays she would go to book club and when Friday came she would check out the Japanese Culture club¹².

It had been quite awhile since Arcene had participated in extracurriculars. Last time had been when she tried to join the track team in 7th grade. Before that had been the basketball team, softball, gymnastics, chest team, robotics, ballet, piano, clarinet…¹³

Arcene stopped walking. She felt something welling up within her, something she didn’t want to deal with right now. She gulped down a few deep breaths and put the feeling back where it belonged. It was too big for her to handle so she forced it back down deep inside of her.

She hurried her pace. She needed Netflix.

           ………………..

Babe-Sensei and Tanaka-Sensei entered Babe-Sensei’s main classroom. Though Babe-Sensei was primarily an English teacher, during her break from teaching she managed to make herself at least somewhat qualified to teach math, science, and history. Not that that would’ve mattered to Dinari, either way he would have found a way for her to be the kids’ primary teacher anyway.

Babe-Sensei plopped down at her desk and Tanaka-Sensei sat down at one of the student’s desks. It was 4 in the afternoon, an hour before parents would be showing up for Parent-Teacher Night.

The two opened their Chinese food and pulled apart their chopsticks.

“So, how many parents are you expecting?” asked Babe-Sensei.

“I have 125 students. I’m expecting at least 100 parents,” he replied before picking up his General Tsao chicken and eating it.

“Whoa, that’s going to be rough. You’re going to be very busy,” she said, in between slurps of her ramen.

“Yes, I am probably going to be talking to parents the whole two hours.You are lucky to have only 20 students.”

“Lucky? Are you kidding? It’s so much fun meeting all the students’ parents! Today I’d be lucky to get 10!” Babe-Sensei exclaimed.

“Why is that?”

Babe-Sensei’s mouth shut and she thought carefully about her response. “A lot of my students….Are from the school’s foreign exchange program, or are boarding nearby.”

“Oh, like Sakuramura-san.”

“Yeah!” She nodded and internally sighed in relief. She couldn’t tell him that some of her students didn’t even come from this dimension.

“Since a lot of the kids are boarding, I’m not expecting a lot of their guardians to show up,” she continued. “Less of an obligation and all that.”

Tanaka-Sensei nodded before giving her a thoughtful look. “It’s weird though. You are the only special education teacher who teaches the same group of kids for so many subjects. Most of the other special education teachers have their kids in regular classes for the most part.”

“Well, my students are a rather…unique bunch. Some of them function better with one constant presence that a constantly changing roster of teachers. At least that’s what the person who assigned me to them said,” she added, murmuring the last part to herself.

“I take it you have your work cut out for you.”

Babe-Sensei thought back to the broken windows, weapons, and varied personalities. “Yes, yes I do…But no need to worry! I got this!” She declared, mimicking the iconic “We Can Do It!” pose.¹⁴

“I bet you do,” he said with a smile. Tanaka-Sensei glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to go get ready.” He packed up his food and went to the door. But before he left he looked over his shoulder at his coworker. “Gannbatte!(Good luck!)”
I
“Same to you!” She said with a wave.

She watched him as he left before sighing and leaning back in her seat. Tanaka-Sensei was her closest friend she had in the school. It was tough being a new teacher at such a large school. It was easy to get lost and very few teachers really spoke to those who were outside of their department. Sure the teachers that she had already met were nice but her connection to Hideaki was something spiritual. Honestly, the two of them probably would have never met if Babe-Sensei hadn’t wandered into one of the teacher lounges in search for the copy machine connected to her computer.

He and some other teachers were chatting at the water cooler. Two of the teachers were making jokes about their seniors being into cartoons. Babe-Sensei wasn’t really listening, until they started mentioning the names.

“One of them were watching some show called…what was it? Berserk. That was it. And then a whole bunch of them started gathering around and talking about all these other cartoons. Attack on Titan, Fist of the North Star, something called Shiki…I didn’t think people their age would still be into that kiddy stuff.”

At that moment Babe-Sensei dropped what she was doing and gave the man a look. The man balding and probably twenty years her senior didn’t see her but she was OFFENDED.

And Babe-Sensei wasn’t the only one. Tanaka-Sensei looked like the man had just offended his ancestors.

“Kareha shinkokuna desu ka?(Is he serious?)” murmured Babe-Sensei incredulously.

Tanaka-Sensei turned to look at her. She slapped her hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. She hurriedly turned her back to him and pretended that she was examining the copy machine. She kept this up until she heard some of the teachers say goodbye and leave the lounge. She let out a sigh of relief. She straightened some papers in her hand before she felt the hairs at the back of her neck prick up.

She turned around. Still standing by the cooler was the Asian teacher, staring at her with a thoughtful look in his eye. She studied his features and grimaced. She had been hoping that he was Chinese or Korean or some other East Asian nationality but his features were more akin to someone who was Japanese¹⁵. Most non-Asian people wouldn’t have noticed a difference, but after spending so much time in Japan, Babe-Sensei could easily tell the difference. She hoped for the off chance that he hadn’t understood her. Her love for the 2-D hadn’t been considered something to be proud of growing up¹⁶.

“Anata  no hokori  wo motte  boku no  otaku  no  imouto  no  taitoru  wo  futan  shi  masu. (Bear your title with pride, my otaku sister.)” He said, before walking out of the room.

Babe-Sensei was stunned, but after that she saw him everywhere. They didn’t really talk much though…until she ran into him at her local anime retailer and got into a fight over a teacher dating sim. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship¹⁷. 

Babe-Sensei finished her food and threw away her trash. She looked around the room and straightened the desks and picked up any loose trash she found. After giving the room another look over, she sat in her desk.

Dun dun dun…

“Parent-Teacher Night will now begin,” said the woman on the speaker.

Babe-Sensei hurriedly smoothed her skirt and made sure her shirt was buttoned all the way. She took out a makeup compact and checked her hair before popping a Tic-Tac in her mouth and practiced putting on her brightest smile.

It wasn’t long until her student’s guardians slowly began to stream in. She got up from her seat to greet her first visitor, a Middle Eastern man with a neatly trimmed beard.

“Hello, I am Aiko Babe. My student’s call me Babe-Sensei,” she said, offering her hand.

“Chakir Choudry, I am Mesi’s guardian. Nice to meet you,” he said in a thick accent.

“The pleasure is all mine,” she replied as they shook hands.

“That is a rather…odd name you have,” he said.

“Yes, it doesn’t really fit what you’d expect. I was actually born in Japan you see.”

He nodded his head. “I see.”

“Please take a seat anywhere you like,” she said, gesturing towards the many empty desks.

The next adult that entered was a bespectacled woman with short curly hair dressed in a fashionable pink dress and short boots.

“Hello, I’m Anna, Anna Belise. Henry Prasanth is my ward,” she said.

“Aiko Babe, his teacher, nice to meet you.” The two shook hands and the woman took a seat.

The next people to walk in were an older couple, the wife, a blonde with a face well made up and clothing worth than Babe-Sensei’s entire wardrobe was arguing with her husband, a glasses wearing middle aged gentleman just beginning to gray who was unperturbed by his wife and responded to her calmly.

“Darling! Don’t you think our daughter is more deserving of a more prestigious school like Richmond Private or Diamond Prep? Of all places why did we have to send her here?! And what if she relapses?!” said the blonde worriedly as they walked in.

The man stopped her and cupped her face in his hands. “Dear, our rose is well for once, if she relapses, we can always take her out of school and bring back the tutor. Plus, she wanted to come here; how often does she ask anything of us? Can’t we let her have this while she still can?”

The woman looked away and fell silent. The man turned to Babe-Sensei and offered his hand.

“Sorry about that. I am Grayson Fairfield and this is my wife, Kirsten Jepsen-Fairfield. We are Primrose’s parents as well as Charmant and Aerith’s guardians. Ms. Babe I presume?”

“It’s a pleasure,” she replied, taking his hand.

After this, the rest of the guardians signed in and sat down. Babe-Sensei noted that not all of the guardians for all of her students were accounted for. There was a shaky old woman by the name of Mabel who was housing Allen, a young African-American couple who was housing Damien, a bald, rough looking, tattooed woman claiming to be in charge of Marcella(Babe-Sensei resolved to ask Marcella about it later), a middle aged Japanese woman who had Kaage boarding with her, a Caucasian couple, both stockily built and in overalls who were taking care of Annabelle, and Lyra’s parents and 8 year old younger brother(who they couldn’t leave at home alone), all of them lively redheads like Lyra. But nobody had come for Raphael, Kol, Chase, Azlyn, or any of the others¹⁸. She was especially disappointed to see that Arcene’s parents were absent. This would have have been a great opportunity to learn a bit more about her.

When everyone was seated, Babe-Sensei got started. “Hello everyone. My name is Aiko Babe, but your children call me Babe-Sensei. I am their Special education teacher and will be guiding them in English, Math, History, Science, and one marking period of Sex Ed.”

Babe-Sensei then proceeded to explain all of the standard teaching stuff like grading policies, retakes and interventions, discipline, and all that other stuff.

“…I am also fluent in three languages: English, Japanese, and Spanish so for students that have difficulty understanding or speaking English, I am able to accomodate them and help them attain English literacy. Finally, to end my speech, I would like to inform you that I will be having home visits for the students every month or so. Though you may find this intrusive, I consider it a necessity. I care a lot about the students and with their unique circumstances, I would like to ensure that they are thriving in their new environments. Any questions? Any more individual questions or important information can be said in private after the presentation.”

Nobody raised their hand but the majority of the adults stayed afterwards to speak with her, forcing Babe-Sensei to arrange a line outside her classroom to allow for privacy.

The Fairfields were first.

“As you may have realized Ms. Babe, our daughter is of rather fragile health. While she is healthy now, there’s always the risk that her health will fail her. If such a thing happens, please leave her in the hands of her guards or Mr. Jenkins. They have her medicines and know what to do if she were to collapse or grow sick. Though they may not be obvious at first, her guards are never too far away from her. If she is absent, Jenkins will come for her work. As for Charmant and Aerith….Aerith hasn’t showcased any odd behavior has she?”

Then came the middle aged Japanese woman, Ito,Hanae.

“Sakuramura-san does not speak English well. He understands the more common words but has difficulty writing and making his sentences grammatically correct. He has some odd tendencies but he spoken well of you. Otsukaresama desu (Thank you for your efforts)….Have you noticed that cherry blossoms tend to appear around him sometimes?”

And so on and so forth.

Babe-Sensei just hoped that her students were being treated well.