"Hey man." Andrew called him. Fred was following just behind him.

They bumped fists. "Hi guys." Ethan Said. "How's it going?"

"Cool...You don't look too happy." Andrew said, arching his brows. "Something in your mind?" he said, merrily.

Ethan growled. "leave it." He said. They always met in front of the gates for the school. There was a very big plaza with a fountain in its entrance, where the students spent their time while waiting for the classes to start. Not many people liked to stay in the classroom before absolutely needed.

"There is history class today, isn't it?" asked Ethan. Trying to remember if he brought his history book.

"Yep." Andrew answered, before belching loudly "The old mummy will tell us another tale of her times..." He said. "Damn it, I wanted to stay at home watching anime...Now I will have to live through the most boring class ever...I guess I will just leave earlier then." He stretched and yawned.

Andrew was probably the only person in the class who was shorter than him. It kind of boosted what remained of his self confidence. He also wasn't as good at school as Ethan, but he got better parents in the life roulette. He could be lazy as much as he liked, his parents didn't seem to bother him about it.

"Andrew, man." said Fred. He was the tallest of them, but skinny like a stick "Have you watched one-punk? It's damn amazing."

"It's great, right?" Andrew said. "I've watched it last week."

Fred sighed "It's a shame no one in the physics department knows the wonders of the Japanese culture." he said.

Fred was different from Andrew and Ethan. While the both of them were regular students of rich families, Fred was a genius who entered the college through a full scholarship. He was from New Orleans, his family run a small family restaurant there. Ethan had even visited it in one vacation some time ago.

His house was pretty cool, it had a small Steinberg piano in a corner where his father would play jazz during the night to entertain the guests. When Fred wasn't in the campus he would join his family in taking care of the restaurant. He himself was quite skilled in the sax.

When he was twelve, his teachers started to take notice of him. At fifteen he was two times champion in the nationals of physics. His head worked weirdly with numbers...

Not only with numbers...he was just really weird.

"Are you still pissed with you loss in the E-Sports, Ethan?" Andrew asked. Ethan sighed. "Honestly, I think you should let it go." he said. "shit happens, you know. It wasn't the first time you fucked up anyway, you are quite skilled at it."

Ethan looked at him angrily "What?" he said "don't you remember that time when..."

"Okay, I get it, just stop" said Ethan. "I just can't stop blaming myself, you know...We practiced for months before the competition. Kori, the team leader, practically funded the whole thing, even though he isn't in the richest of us...so, yeah, I feel like shit."

"Are you still playing until dawn?" This time it was Fred who asked. Ethan had to look up to see him. "You know, you could always stop playing MOBAs and start playing Single Player RPGs. MOBAs and MMOs are highly addictive. The competitional element works in a way where the strongest is always the one with no life. You are basically trading you time for strength in the game."

Ethan groaned again. "What about you and your animes? Don't talk to me about wasting my life away, you weeab..."

Fred smirked. "Animes are different" he said. "they are the greatest expression of the Japanese culture. They are like books, they teach. An anime has philosophical, technical and cultural aspects that..."

Ethan tuned him out. Fred and Andrew were anime freaks...Well, at least Fred was, Andrew always kept some distance from everything, one couldn't say he was obsessed or even interested in anything. It was kind of weird in its own way. Ethan had his own experience with anime, but it didn't really appeal to him as his games did.

At that moment, the talks in the plaza stopped as a black limousine stopped right in front of the school.

"Jesus great" said Andrew, uninterested. "Coming to the school in a limousine...who in this day and age uses limousine? This is so cliché I can't even laugh. Feels like a bad nineties movie."

"It's the Suga siblings." Ethan answered. He, then arched his browns and asked Fred, with a sly smile "Do you still hate Yashiro, Fred?"

Fred was almost burning a hole through Yashiro, who was leaving the car in a well groomed suit, followed by his sister. "He dated Aiki-chan" said Fred, jealously burning in his eyes. "I will never forgive him."

Yashiro was a Japanese, son of the owner of the Suga conglomerate. The guy was rich. Like, really really rich. Ethan hated to admit it, but he was also very good looking, with that sharp Japanese features. That basically made him a very big catch for the women. Even for the rich, famous and really powerful women, Like Fred's Aiki-chan. She is a very big idol in Japan...or at least was, her fame has gone down a lot when it was found out that she was having a affair.

With Suga Yashiro...

That was enough to anger her male and female fans alike...She was still a very big hit out there, but nothing compared to before. Her most fanatic fans persisted though, like Fred.

Yashiro was soon surrounded by some girls and he smoothly interacted with them, the guy wasn't really good in school, but he was a social genius. He was probably taught since he was young the skills he would need to lead his father's conglomerate. Ethan's father tried something similar with him, but it didn't work out. Ethan always blamed his father's approach for this failure though.

Yashiro's sister passed though the commotion almost unnoticed and Yashiro hastily waved goodbyes to the girls and followed her. The gates were open and it was almost time for the classes to start. Ethan, Fred and Andrew left for what would be their last class in this world.

...

Ethan arrived at the class. It was already filling. Ryan and his group were at the center of the room discussing something about some soccer game. He made wide gestures to illustrate. The guy behaved a lot like his brother Carl, always bathing in the spotlight. At least he was less irritating. Jose was just by his side, laughing over his antics.

Ryan was the class representative. He was quite a cool guy. He was always followed by Jose, a bulky Latino guy. Jose was the vice-representative. Some guys made fun of them saying they were a gay couple, but the two of them had girlfriends. Another hit in Ethan's self esteem.

Ethan sat with Fred and Andrew by the windows. According to Fred, the seats by the window were sacred and "event starters". Ethan never quite understood his friend's otaku logic, but he complied anyway. He liked to stay away from the center of attention, the windows worked well enough for him.

He trying to follow a discussion between Fred and Andrew about some anime, when someone closed his eyes with their hands from behind him. He jumped, startled. "Guess who?". A merry voice greeted him.

He breathed out in relief. "Kathy, do you want to scare me to death?" he asked, while turning back and looking at his classmate, an idiot smile adorning his face. Yes, he always felt like an idiot when talking to her. She was beautiful and her smile brightened his day. It didn't help that she had similar interests. Kathy had her own YouTube channel where she posted her playthroughs, normally of single player console games. She had some millions of followers. 90% of them were males. As someone once said, there's nothing quite as sexy as a girl playing video game.

"You say that, but I know you like when I do it." she said, crossing her arms and arching her eyebrows, her eyes shined with mischief.

"At least don't do it while I am in deep concentration trying to decode Fred's language." he said, smiling at his friend. "What is the meaning of 'waifu?' anyway? I had never heard that word before."

Fred closed his eyes and shook his head condescendingly. "Young Padawan...you are too early to understand the deepness in that word...this knowledge will destroy your mind..."

"It's way too weeabooish for your pure young mind" said Andrew, laughing loud.

Kathy looked at him in surprise "You really don't know what it means?"

What the hell?

"Even you? Kathy!" Ethan said, mocking outrage. "You are becoming one of them?! It is a weeaboo apocalypse..."

They laughed together. Kathy's laughter sounded like the sound of a celesta in his ears. Gods, he was an idiot. Probably the worst case of lovestruck teenager in the world. He should die in a pit.

"Heh. I needed that." said Ethan. The discussion with his family earlier today was weighting in his mind. The memory of his mother's sad face still appeared in his mind. He should probably apologize when he arrived back home. He didn't really care about how his father felt, but it bothered him that he had made his mother sad.

"You look better already..." Andrew said. "You look less like an emo" He smiled knowingly. "And more like an idiot...but that is your standard expression anyway..."

Ethan sighed, while stealing a glance at Kathy. Andrew liked to poke him about his crush, good thing he could be discreet if he wanted. Only If he wanted though, which was quite rare.

"Hey nerd, what are you playing today." he heard behind him.

"Give it back!" another voce answered. A short boy, a little in the plump side was vainly trying to snatch a Nintendo switch that had been taken by a bigger one. Two other students were laughing while watching the scene.

"You know." said Andrew, lazily supporting his head with his arms. "We were very lucky to be in the same class as Brantley, otherwise we would be Jack's most probable victim."

"It bothers me." Fred said "I still think we should try approaching him. I heard he did a cool cosplay last year."

"It would be a social suicide." said Kathy. "Jack wouldn't stop bullying you for the rest of your school life and, honestly, Brantley is kind of disgusting..."

"Why?" said Ethan, bothered by her reaction. He didn't see anything wrong with Brantley, He might even make a good friend, but he completely agreed with Andrew. He wasn't too excited with the idea of having Jack after him, his social life wasn't that bad and his father was already breathing down his neck...

Someone like Jack could completely wreak it.

"He has a the air of a loser." she said. It bothered him. Did she think the same of him?

"How so?" This time was Andrew who asked. He seemed weirdly interested.

"Well...like a person who hides himself from reality in his own fantasy." she said, crossing her arms. "The coward kind."

At that moment the teacher entered. The first period of the day would be filled by a long and boring two hour math class. Teacher "Robocop.", as the students called him, entered the class with his impassive, hard-as-stone face and blurted out his catchphrase, with unchanging tunes.

"Sit down. The class will start."

There's really no need to explain how he got his nickname. Teens are a creative bunch.

"Well, I'll be off, guys." said Kathy while waving and leaving for her seat. She liked to sit at the center of the room, next to Ryan. It was no surprise she was a youtuber, she had absolutely no fear of being the center of attention. It kind of humbled Ethan.

"Eek" Ethan heard a shriek, followed by the sound of books falling.

"Ehhh...Sorry." said Kathy as she hurried away. Ethan looked down at the girl, who probably stumbled upon Kathy while going for her seat. If he wasn't wrong, her name was Chloe, she was also a scholarship student like Fred. He didn't took much notice of her since she mostly kept to herself, reading in her desk. He squatted and helped her gather her things.

"T-Thank you." she said, hastily scurrying away. Ethan stood there puzzled but just shrugged off and sat in his chair.