The school room was rather loud, too loud for Hotaru to hear herself think. She looked around the room, glancing briefly at her usual spot and quickly searching for a new place to sit. The same girls she sat near everyday were so annoying it made her sick. Spotting an empty seat near the far window, Hotaru jumped at the opportunity.
Walking over there, she watched the girl who sat alone in the row, wondering what kind of neighbor she would be. The girl read quietly from a book, completely oblivious to the commotion around her. Hotaru picked up the pace, now thinking such a great spot might be taken soon.
"Could I sit here?" she asked the girl, who finally looked up from her book and noticed her environment. She smiled softly and stood up to let Hotaru pass. Hotaru sat down next to the window and sighed contentedly.
"Thank you" she said as she pulled the course text from her bag.
"No problem" the girl replied, putting away her book and taking out the text as well, since class was about to start. Hotaru flipped the book open and started reading happily from the abundance of sunlight leaking through the window.
"You're far ahead" the girl said, and Hotaru looked up at her, blushing slightly.
"Oh, yeah. I always read ahead" she said, and the girl smiled.
"I do sometimes, too, but not that far. You're almost a month's worth of reading ahead of the rest of the class"
"Probably more, since half of the students don't read the assignments" Hotaru said and the girl laughed.
"What's your name?" she asked, and Hotaru held out a hand.
"I'm Uchiumi Hotaru" she replied, and the girl shook her hand strongly.
"I'm Rukia" she said, and Hotaru must've shown her confusion on her face because the girl Rukia laughed and explained. "I don't have a last name. I'm from the 78th district of Rukongai, I didn't really have a blood family, just friends who acted like it" she said, and Hotaru smiled.
"That's good you had that" she said, although the girl got rather sad. Hotaru spoke up to lighten the mood again. "I'm from District 5 of Rukongai. I have two parents and two brothers. Or I had..."she said, and before Rukia could say 'I'm sorry' Hotaru caught her.
"They aren't dead, they just disowned me" she said, and Rukia frowned.
"Why would anyone do such a thing?"
"This is an odd topic of conversation for two people who just met" Hotaru said uncomfortably, but Rukia insisted.
"Please, you're one of the only people in the class who heard I was from the 78th district and didn't look down your nose at me" she said and Hotaru gasped.
"I hate when people do that. You know that girl over there, the brunette with the pink bows in her hair? She's from the 76th district, yet if you tell her you're in anything higher than 10th, she refuses to talk to you. Only one of her friends knows the truth...and me, because she talks so loudly that anyone at the table can hear" Rukia laughed heartily as she watched the brunette play with her hair.
"So tell me more about yourself. How did you find out you had the spirit energy required to become a Shinigami?" Hotaru thought carefully.
"I think it was 20 years ago. One of my brothers had taken a doll from me and wanted me to battle him to win it back. He thought because I was a girl, I wouldn't be able to beat him" Rukia looked on intently.
"So what happened?"
"He was in the hospital for a month afterwards. It was the kidou. I had been doing some research for fun on the various spells and I was kind of experimenting with a few of them. I had no idea my destructive spells could do so much damage, let alone any damage at all" Rukia's eyes were wide.
"That's amazing. I was playing around with kidou as well before I got here. I decided to enter the academy with a friend of mine, one of the only friends left from Rukongai. His kidou is not as strong, but he tries hard, and he is very powerful"
"I'm sorry that you lost so many of your friends. I can only imagine how hard things must have been on you"
"I don't worry about it too much. They are at peace, and I still manage to meet wonderful people" Rukia said happily. Hotaru smiled warmly at her, feeling happy herself that she met someone in class she actually liked. Before she could say much else, the teacher made his way to the front of the class and began speaking. Rukia rolled her eyes and Hotaru laughed silently before the two of them got absolved into the lecture.
