Sk8 the Infinity; Young Days

One: Meeting

"Rin Hikari."

The teacher turned to the girl at the front of the class. "Is that it?"

"I am the daughter of a half Italian, half Japanese man and a Japanese woman. I have just moved here a couple of days ago. That's all I have to say."

"Okay, you can take your seat Miss Hikari ."

She was instantly looked at by a few different people. She hated the attention, and just scoffed at it, hiding herself behind her hood. She sat alone until lunch. The girl sitting next to her turned to her.

"I'm Kira Rozuka. You know, you need to be careful. There's this skateboarding gang here. Okinawa isn't as nice as it used to be."

"I think it's still nice here. The weather is beautiful and the people seem nice enough. Much like Italia, but I've only visited there. Different beauties, but beautiful nonetheless."

"Well, just be careful. Some of our classmates aren't that good. Kojiro Nanjo is a womanizer and Kaoru Sakurayashiki is a punk."

"Oh, that's great..."

"Don't worry, they won't do anything as long as you don't bother them. They're not too bothersome."

"That's great."

Everyone was speaking of their field trip coming up, after lunch. The field trip was only a week away and they were spending overnight in Tokyo. Rin thought it was funny, how she just got to the school and she was already going to go on a trip elsewhere. She was pretty excited about going to Tokyo. It would be her first time going.

The next day, the teacher was going to be choosing the 'teams' everyone would be put in. Rin was surprised to hear she was with both Sakurayashiki and Nanjo. She felt as if she'd just been stabbed. Not only was she told these people are dangerous, but also one girl with two boys. But there was something about that that made her feel safer. A punk and a womanizer. By the looks of it, Nanjo was strong and would do anything for a cute girl, and Sakurayashiki was small and skinny, yet was good fighter, meaning he must be smart about the way he fights. If those two were with her during this exertion, she'd be safe with them.

After school, Nanjo walked over to her. "Looks like we're going to be together for the buddy system. You're not bad looking."

"Don't be talking to her like that, you Gorilla. There's something about her that feels dangerous."

"I could say the same about you."

"Interesting. I guess Kojiro and I will be babysitting you."

"You can leave me out of your plans. There's better things I'd like to be doing. If we're going on a trip, you can do your messed up shit, and I'll be probably spending my time with Rizuka."

"That's just fine with me." Sakurayashiki told me.

"Great."

Nanjo sighed. "Can't we all get along here? We were put in the same group for a reason. Kaoru, we should be protecting her on this trip, not ditching her."

"If she thinks she can catch up with us, that's fine, but I'm not going out of my way for her."

Sakurayashiki walked away after that. Nanjo sighed. "I'm so sorry for him. He's a little in a mood. He really doesn't want to go on this trip. We're leaving some people behind from another school."

"I'll be fine. I'm assuming you two will be mostly going out with your little gang."

"You heard about that?"

"I've heard quite a few things about you two. I'm not stupid, so I'm not going to be taken advantage of. I don't need some boy protecting me on a school trip. We're literally leaving a tourist destination to see more of the cultural side of Japan. Don't think I'll be sucked into your little web that easily. I can see right through you, Nanjo. You're looking for a date out of me. Sadly for you, that's not going to happen. I know how your type works."

He put his hands up. "Hey, I was just trying to help. I'll back off. Despite what you think, Kaoru actually really loves Ancient Japanese culture and he's really looking forward to this trip. I'm looking forward to the food and not doing school work. We'll see you at the trip."

We were able to choose who we were going to share a hotel room with. Of course I chose Rozuka. She and I were already becoming good friends. She was telling me all about one trip she went on with her parents. How she slept through a fire alarm. We were planning things to pack, making a list for ourselves in what we'd need. She mostly wrote clothing items and it turned into a list of things she wanted to buy while on the trip. For me, it was more like I was planning to backpack across Europe. I wanted to make sure I was safe and comfortable. Good walking shoes, tee shirts, shorts and jeans, pepper spray. All things a teenage girl would need while on a trip. I wrote down a few things I wanted to do, like visit a shrine and eat at a nice restaurant. It would be my first time going on a trip without family.

"Hey, Hikari, look down there. It's the skate gang. You can see exactly how insane those boys are."

I looked down from our classroom to see a group of four skateboarding. I saw a bit of a crowd of girls start to form, and then more came around to watch them. There was a circle around the group, and they started doing tricks like it were a dance circle. It was impressive. I noticed that Sakurayashiki and Nanjo stood out the most. They were on a whole other level of skating than the other two. Nanjo was doing things more with brute force, while Sakurayashiki actually was doing things in calculation. It left chills going down my spine.

"Is that really the two boys from our class?"

"It's hard to believe, isn't it? But they're really not as good as you think. Like I told you, Sakurayashiki is violent and Nanjo is just a ladies man. He likes to have at least two ladies on him at all times when outside of school. They act a bit different in school. Sakurayashiki has the best grades in the school, and Nanjo is actually pretty cool. He does all his classroom chores and helps others when they need the help. But don't let that fool you. They've both been caught up with the police multiple times before. They can be really scary when they want to be."

I looked down at them. "To me, it just looks like two teenage boys having fun. At least, that's what it looks like from here."

"Please, Hikari, don't be fooled by them. I'm really worried about you, being in their group."

"Hey, Rozuka, could we go down there and watch too? I want to see it from more of a ground level."

She sighed, but agreed. There wasn't a lot of time until we were to leave, and I wanted to see exactly what these boys were trying to do. I trust Rozuka, but somethings things aren't what they seem. We walked down and watched from a little further away. "Those boys are so barbaric. So much testosterone in one place."

Nanjo held a flower up. He looked around for a bit, before jumping over the crowd of people, rail sliding down a small set of stairs and dropping in front of Rozuka and I. He handed me the flower. "Here. For you."

"Thanks."

He smiled at me. "I'm really looking forward to being in your group for the field trip. I want to know all about you."

"The only thing you're going to learn, is about japan's history."

"Wow, you're really hard to please."

"I was taught well. But I do admit, it was a very gentlemanly thing to bring me this flower. It's beautiful."

He smiled, then skated off. I put the flower behind my ear. "You're being too nice to him."

"What? He gave me a flower, you think I'm going to get mad at him for that? It was thoughtful. i'm going to have to tolerate him for the trip at least. The last thing I want to do is get in an argument with one of my school partners."

"I guess you're right. Just be careful with those two. I don't trust them."

I smiled. "Duly noted."