<div class="floatleft">(http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk137/HaibaneR/Karada%20Tamashi/Kanbaru%20Tsukihi/ShibuyaRinCinderellaGirls26.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Kanbaru Tsukihi<br/><strong>Location:</strong>In homeroom. Last lesson before lunch, then lunch break.<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>No-one directly. Miyazaki Satomi and Erica Weaver mentioned.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>Three or four weeks into the term. Still no-one here I can really get into. Same old people. I guess this school is like any other after all. What did they say? New design, special layout, socially interactive spaces. What a lot of</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Kanbaru."</em></strong><br/><br/><em>complete lies. Just like my old school. Same stuffy teachers. Same people who are 'in'. Same people who are</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Kanbaru?"</em></strong><br/><br/><em>'out'. Same crazies, same bullies. Who organised the selection here? Idiots. Losers and winners, just as always. What was that line from that English rock song? 'Welcome to the new boss, same as the old~</em><br/><br/><strong><em>"Kanbaru Tsukihi! Hello? Planet earth calling Kanbaru! Come in Kanbaru!"</em></strong><br/><br/><em>Hn? Ah, shimatta!</em><br/><br/><strong>"Hai, sensei!"</strong>I looked up from my desk, from my daydream. I was in class, more than that, so was everyone else. My face burned a little.<br/><br/><strong><em>"This equation, by what criteria do we define it as a quadratic? Please enlighten us. If you're awake."</em></strong><br/><br/>There were more titters of amusement. The schadenfreude was palpable.<em>"I'm not suffering Morita-sensei's sarcasm, someone else is." That's what they are thinking, I can actually hear them.</em><br/><br/>I stood up and cast a cold glare around the room, my eyes sweeping the sea of white faces like the searchlight of a warship. The titters died away.<em>Kanbaru's pissed</em>the dying titters announced.<em>Too right. Kanbaru's pissed. At you and at this sarcastic idiot who should behave like a teacher and not a grinning game show TV host, playing his audience. So I daydreamed, so what? I'm a teenager. I'm allowed to. Are you telling me you never let your attention wander when you were seventeen, sensei?</em><br/><br/><strong>"Hai, sensei,"</strong>I intoned flatly.<strong>"A quadratic equation involves only one unknown, it is called "univariate". The quadratic equation only contains powers of x that are non-negative integers, and therefore it is a polynomial equation, and in particular it is a second degree polynomial equation since the greatest power is two…"</strong>I led sensei through the rote answer like he was a child – a title he had just bestowed on himself from his behaviour towards me.<em>I learned this stuff in my autumn term of last year. Why are you taking us through this again? Is it all you know or are you just testing us?</em><br/><br/>I concluded my explanation and sat down.<br/><br/><strong><em>"Good, Kanbaru. Arigato. You <span class="bbc_u">were</span> awake after all. Please try to look like you are listening in future. Now, who can explain to us the main variables of the quadratic and their function? Kawahara?"</em></strong><br/><br/>Maths went on until it stopped going on and it ended. The lunch bell chimed, the familiar Westminster chimes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMfyndwARQ) bonging through the school.<em>Funny how such a hi-tech design still uses a bell tone like schools have since the war. I suppose this one is a digital file played on a computer through the PA system but still – couldn't they think up something more modern?</em><br/><br/>As my somewhat grumpy thoughts rumbled on the class exploded around me into chatter, scraping chairs, swinging bags and tables being turned to face each other as buddies ate lunch together. I pulled my bento from my bag. Lunch alone again. When was a big-breasted and wasp-waisted babe going to breeze by and declare "Hey gorgeous, lonely? Don't be, I'll be your friend." Then we'd talk about rock and blues guitar, Hendrix, Blackmore, Santana and Clapton, swimming, maths, Olympic cyclists and she'd declare she lived in a vast mansion and this weekend her parents were away and she had the family pool to herself and why didn't I join her because skinny dipping was no fun on your own…<br/><br/>I sighed and chewed an omelette roll.<br/><br/>This school was no different from the other. Life was so dull. When would something exciting happen?<br/><br/>Miyazaki-san came back into homeroom with a lunch she'd got from the cafeteria. She was hardly a big-breasted babe but she was definitely very pleasing to look at. Just so<em>shy</em>. Terminally so. I liked her but preferred someone more talkative. Mind you, those glasses. Mm. The nerd look had something going for it.<br/><br/>My gaze caught the American's eye. Weaver Erica. I gave her a non-committal nod but with a slight blush looked away, concentrating on loading my mouth with rice. Big-breasted babes…<em>Wonder if she has a pool and if her parents are away?</em>She was no shy wallflower but she loved the attention from the boys too much. No luck there.