Chapter 2 "Blue Ocean High School"

Chapter 2
Blue Ocean High School

“What the fuck, Tezuka? I’m going to school?” Katuo thumps his fist on the table.

“Yes, you start tomorrow,” Tezuka says cheerfully, as he takes a bite of broccoli. “You’ve done nothing but sitting on the couch and watching television all day.”

“You know I can take the standard exams and then graduate high school by the end of the day tomorrow,” Katuo snaps at him.

“Honey,” Akane sighs at Katuo’s stubbornness. “You were supposed to graduate two years ago. You refused to work anywhere… even though some of the best universities offered you a job. So…”

Perra grins widely, as she puts on her earbuds.

“Katuo Kejinto! You have to go to the fucking school tomorrow and pass the fucking classes!” Akane yells loud enough to shake the glasses on the table. Then, she calms down and drinks her water. “But no, you didn’t because you were expelled from all of the schools in the D.C. area instead. You have to go to school somewhere. You’re lucky enough that they allowed you to enroll.”

Katuo crosses his arms, scowling at his parents. “Fine. I will try not to get in any trouble and pass the classes at the end of the day.”

Perra cannot help but to burst out into loud laughter. Sadly for her, Akane shushes at her angrily.

“So, what school did you enroll me into?” Katuo takes a bite of the delicious steak. “Somewhere close? Like Yorktown High School in Arlington?”

“Actually no.” Tezuka plays with his wine glass, causing the red wine to swirl a little. “You are going to Blue Ocean High School with Siko!”

“What?! That’s like more than 30 minutes away from here!” Katuo gets up from the table quickly. “Is it even legal?!”

“Anything goes as I say…” Tezuka makes a sharp glance at his son. “I am the President, after all.”

“Fuck off.” Katuo looks away from Tezuka. “So, what time does school start?”

“At 7:30 am. I hope you get up early tomorrow,” Akane says.

<3<3<3

“Do I have to take the subway?” Katuo groans loudly. He is not in a very, very good mood in the morning. He hates getting up in the mornings.

“Well, since you have the driver’s license, you can borrow one of my cars.” Tezuka takes a sip of coffee and smiles at him.

“Really? No fucking with me?” Katuo widens his eyes in hope.

“I would never do that to you. Follow me!”

Katuo follows his idiotic father into the large garage, which can hold about one hundred cars.

“Pick any one!” Tezuka says cheerfully, opening his arms widely.

“Hmm… I like this one.” Katuo spots a nice black Mustang car. What’s even better is that it is a flying car. Flying cars equals no traffic.

“…No, you can’t use that car.” Tezuka frowns, causing his hard-headed son to freak out.

“What the fuck, Tezuka?! You said I could pick any I want!” Katuo yells angrily.

“That’s true… but I support green. That car reeks of pollution that can destroy the beautiful nature of Earth!”

“Why the hell did you buy – Never mind. The school starts in 45 minutes. Can’t you just narrow down to the cars I can use?” Katuo asks.

“Oh wow. Since when did you decide to care about school?” Tezuka laughs lightheartedly at his son.

“It’s none of your business!” Katuo snaps at him. “Just pick a car for me!”

“Ok!” Tezuka almost… almost skips toward one of the cars. Oh, he is so going to enjoy watching his own son suffer. “This car.”

“You can’t be serious!” Katuo yells at him.

“What? It’s got a great engine, turbo speed, and – even better – solar energy! It really helps the environment a lot! On the plus side, it’s exactly the same as the black flying car you picked.”

“It’s fucking white!” Katuo shouts again. “I don’t want anything white!”

“Aw, get over it.” Tezuka laughs once again. “That car is the only one that does not use gas or oil. Take it or take the subway. Your choice.”

“You are really enjoying this one.” Katuo growls at him. “Fine. Just for one day. Then, I will graduate tomorrow. And then, you will pay back!”

“Well, good luck!” Tezuka happily hands the car key over to Katuo.

<3<3<3

“Katuo? I didn’t know that you were coming to my school!” Siko blinks in surprise when he spots his best friend getting out of the beautiful white car.

“Ah, Siko. Thank goodness I caught up with you.” Katuo walks across the street to Siko. “It’s my father’s fault. He enrolled me into this school.”

Siko laughs sweetly. “That’s so him. Well, you will love this school! The teachers are very kind! And, um…”

Katuo sweatdrops when Siko is trying to think of something good about school besides lectures and homework. “Eh, you don’t have to impress me. Just lead me to the office. I need to get my new schedule.”

“Ok! Hehe!” Siko giggles. He guides Katuo to the main office near the entrance of Blue Ocean High School.

On the way, Katuo’s shoulder barely bumps into a weird-looking mascot. “What the hell?”

“Oh! Sorry!” Siko laughs and pulls Katuo a little. He does not want any fight to break out just because someone bumped into the son of the President.

“Yo! You look familiar, you know?” The mascot takes a closer look at Katuo’s face.

“Um, I apologize for what he did!” Siko bows his head quickly and pulls Katuo’s hand again. He finally drags him into the office.

“Ok, what was that?” Katuo asks.

“That was William Lawrence. Everybody calls him Will for short.” Siko scratches the back of his head nervously. “He is involved with one of the local gangs here. I don’t know how he got the mascot position though.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Katuo rolls his eyes. “I mean, what the hell was he wearing?”

“Oh! Well… heheh! I guess the school didn’t do a good job on the mascot costume, eh? It is supposed to be the shark.”

“Well, the eyes are all wrong. One is looking one way and the other eye is looking another. Why is the shark costume blue? It should be gray!”

Rrrriinnng!

“Oh! The bell!” Siko smiles. “I have to go to class. You can go ahead and ask Mrs. Marshall for your new schedule. I will see you later, ok?”

Katuo sighs as he watches Siko leaving the office quickly. He turns to the blonde-haired secretary, who wears too much make-up. She is way too old to wear make-ups! What is she? 75?

“Um, excuse me, Mrs. Marshall?” Katuo comes up to the secretary’s desk. “I am new here.”

“Oh yes. What is your name?” Mrs. Marshall does not even bother looking up at the new student when she starts looking through the file cabinet.

“Katuo Kejinto.”

“Oh my god!” Mrs. Marshall stops quickly and turns to Katuo. She narrows her eyes before she recognizes him right away. “I thought you looked familiar! You are Tezuka-sama’s son!”

Katuo sweatdrops. “Eh, Tezuka-sama?”

“Oh, of course yes!” Mrs. Marshall giggles. “He is the most handsome President I’ve ever seen!”

“Aren’t you married?” Katuo stares at her in disbelief. Even though Tezuka is the President, the fangirls, old or not, tend to crush on his son.

“Keep it a secret for me, ok?” Mrs. Marshall smiles brightly and goes back to the file cabinet. “Ok, it’s in the K folder… Ah! I found it! Kejinto!”

“Thank you.” Katuo takes his new schedule from Mrs. Marshall.

“Oh! Here is your pass to the first class! Have a wonderful day!” Mrs. Marshall says cheerfully and hands the slip to him.

Katuo nods his head yes. He finally leaves the office and takes a look at his new schedule. “Ok, so the first class is… Algebra II.”

He goes to the second floor. It takes him another few minutes before he finds the classroom. “Ok, this is it.”

As soon as he swings the door open and spots a very familiar person, he closes the door quickly.

“Katuo Kejinto, I know you are out there. Come back inside, please,” the voice says.

Katuo grumbles at himself and opens the door again. The students glance at the son of the President.

“Ryu, I didn’t know you were teaching this class.” Katuo crosses his arms. Ryu is the last person on his list whom he would ever want to do anything with.

“That’s Mr. Mitsukai to you. Tezuka put you in my class on purpose.” Ryu sighs lightly. “Please remind me to kill him later.”

“Finally, that’s something we agree on.” Katuo rolls his eyes. “So, where do I sit?”

“May I see the pass first?” Ryu takes a look at Katuo’s slip. “Ok, please introduce yourself to the class.”

Katuo stares at the class with a stoic face. “Yo. My name is Katuo Kejinto.”

“Isn’t that the son of the President?!” one of the girls exclaims. “It’s no wonder he is a hunk!”

The rest of the girls in the classroom sigh dreamily.

“Here is your syllabus.” Ryu hands the syllabus and the laptop to Katuo. “And, new laptop. You can take it anywhere you want. You can even do your homework on it. Remember, it’s only for educational purposes.”

“Whatever.” Katuo shrugs and takes the seat in the middle of the classroom.

“Oh! One more thing.” Ryu gives Katuo a hard stare. “The participation is worth 40% of your grade. You can’t say that I didn’t warn you, ok?”

Katuo nearly breaks the laptop by just holding it too hard. “Fine, Ryu.” 

“Ahem!”

“I mean, Mr. Mitsukai.” Katuo rolls his eyes as Ryu continues his usual lecture.

<3<3<3

“Katuo.” Ryu decides to call him first after half an hour. He frowns when he does not get any response, so he says a little louder, “Katuo.”

“Huh, what?” Katuo snaps his head up from his Algebra textbook. He has been reading it for the whole time so he can catch up with the rest of class. After all, he was enrolled into this school a little late. It’s October.

“Please put the textbook down. I want you to solve this equation for us.” Ryu crosses his arms.

Katuo glances at the whiteboard to find a simple and easy equation on it. “Whatever.”

He gets up from his desk and walks over to the whiteboard. He picks up a blue marker and puts the answer below the equation. “There. The answer is 4.”

“That’s correct.” Ryu sighs. “But, I want you to show the work so the rest of the class knows how you found the answer in the first place.”

Katuo shrugs his shoulders and turns back to the whiteboard. He erases his answer and replaces it with the work along with the same answer at the below. “Done. The answer is still 4.”

“Please explain.”

Katuo almost snaps at Ryu but calms himself down quickly. “Mr. Mitsukai, you can’t be serious. This is ridiculous. I just want to get back to the textbook.”

“Please remember your grade. This counts as participation.” Ryu warns him.

I am SO going to kill Tezuka when I get home. Katuo almost rolls his eyes but does not. He turns to the class and starts explaining how he did the work.

<3<3<3

Ketsu yawns loudly before he gets back to writing his lab report for one of his classes. His universal physics class finished thirty minutes earlier, so he had plenty of time to walk from one building to another. The American Sign Language class starts at noon, which is about fifteen minutes away.

He decides to get his small lunch from a cafeteria near the studying area. After all, his classes will not end until 4:00 pm. He hates it when he does not have much time to eat lunch. Ugh.

He packs his bag and is on the way to the cafeteria. He notices that half of the people at the cafeteria are chatting by using American Sign Language or also known as ASL.

He learned the language when he was only a baby. His mother died when he was born. It took years after that before his father finally realized that he was in love with this wonderful man. That guy is deaf. His name is Logy Oib.

Even though there are more than a thousand of deaf or hard of hearing people on the campus, Ketsu has never spoken with any of them before. He is way too shy to start a conversation with any of them.

He decides to grab a simple Italian sub. After paying, as soon as he turns from the cashier, he accidentally bumps into a short man, who falls backward with the result of dropping his sub. Thankfully, his sub is already wrapped. Well, it is not the thing Ketsu cares about.

“Ack! I’m so sorry! Are you ok?!” Ketsu reaches out his hand. “Here, let me help you.”

The black-haired man does not seem to hear him as he pouts angrily. Instead of taking Ketsu’s hand, he gets up from the floor by himself. He wipes his jeans and fixes his buttoned white shirt.

Ketsu tenses up when he notices that this person is wearing hearing aids. Oh fuck. It is no wonder why he didn’t understand me.

Instead of apologizing in ASL, he raises up his hands a little nervously. He then picks up his lunch and smiles awkwardly at the deaf blue-eyed guy.

“Excuse me, sir. You are holding the line,” the cashier says with a bored tone.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ketsu moves to get out of the line. He turns to the deaf guy again. It’s now or never. “Hi, my name is Ketsu,” he says in ASL.

The man blinks in surprise when Ketsu uses his language. “I had no idea you could sign. I’ve never seen you before. Are you in the first year?”

“Um, no. I’m in the third year.” Ketsu blushes lightly. “I am on the way to ASL –“ Then, he starts shouting instead of using ASL, “Oh shit! I’m sooo late!”

He makes four fast steps before he stops completely. He turns to the deaf man again. “What is your name?”

“Akari.”

“Thank you so much! I have to go to class!” Ketsu tries to sign language as fast as he can. He waves his hand shortly and starts running for his class.

<3<3<3

“Hiya, Katuo!” Siko waves his hand, as he jogs toward Katuo outside the school building.

Katuo is sitting on the grassy ground with a large tree shading over him. “Siko? You have lunch too?”

“Yup! Lucky for us! Hehe!” Siko sits down next to Katuo. “So, how was your first day?”

“It sucked ass.” Katuo shrugs his shoulders, as he glances back to his Japanese textbook.

During his first year – only at the age of 12 – at high school, he passed all of his classes in the first semester. His counselor and principal agreed that Katuo should jump to the tenth grade level.

By the end of the second semester, he passed all again. Then, during the second year, due to so many high expectations from different people, Katuo is fed up with everything. It’s even worse when his idiotic father became the President of Planet Earth. He got into so many fights with not only students, but also teachers, counselors, principals. As a result, he was expelled from all of the schools in the D.C. area in just one year.

His parents gave up since most schools refused to allow him to enroll, so they allowed Katuo to stay home for about one more year. Tezuka, who graduated at the age of 16 from high school, could teach him at home, but he was way too busy with the so-called President stuff.

“My father told me that you are in his class,” Siko says. “He said that you may be smart, but you should be participating a little more.”

“He hates me. He’s doing it on purpose,” Katuo snaps at him. “Well, I just want to get over this school stuff.”

“He doesn’t hate you.” Siko narrows his eyes. “He… just… He’s worried about me. That’s all.”

“Hey, you! This is our spot!” One of the boys yells angrily when the gang comes up to Katuo and Siko.

“So? I was here first.” Katuo turns back to his textbook.

“You don’t want to mess with him. I’m being serious.” Siko gives them a cold stare.

“Well, well, you must be the military boy we’ve always heard about. Your father teaches math here, but he is also the General of the First Division, correct?” The 12th-grader chuckles softly. “Show me what you got!”

“You don’t want to mess with him either,” Katuo says without looking up from the textbook.

The gang laughs out loud. “You can’t be serious!”

“Now, please get off our spot.” The 11th-grader crosses his arms. “Or else we will be putting you guys in the lockers for the rest of the year!”

“Try.” Siko gets up from the ground. “Show me what you got.”

“Fine,” the leader, also in 12th grade, says, as he cracks his knuckles. “Don’t run off and cry to your military father!”

“I thought you didn’t like fighting?” Katuo finally looks up from the textbook. “What changed your mind?”

“I’m trying to protect you from getting expelled again!” Siko pouts cutely at Katuo. Without any warning, he feels a sudden pain in his stomach.

“Ha, got you!” The leader laughs, his fist still on Siko’s stomach. “You shouldn’t have let your guard down!”

A big grin appears on Siko’s face. “This hurts a little. You’ve been working out, haven’t you?”

“W…what?” The leader jerks his fist away from him. “You are supposed to be on the ground!”

Siko blinks in surprise. “Oh? Ok, then.” He lies down on the ground and pretends to groan in pain.

Katuo smacks himself in his forehead. “Siko, this isn’t even funny! You are hurting his pride!”

“They were right! You are a freak!” The leader makes a couple of back steps. “We are out of here!”

“Great.” Katuo watches them running back into the school building. “You scared them away. We may have high pain tolerance, but it is not normal. Not even our doctors know why.”

“My bad.” Siko laughs nervously. “I can’t just fight back. The school rules say no fighting.”

“No wonder they called you a military brat.”

“Hey, they called me a military boy, not brat!”

Katuo shrugs one of his shoulders lazily. “We’ve never been normal, anyway.”

“That’s true.” Siko nods his head in agreement. He opens his lunch box. “Well, time to eat!”

<3<3<3

Later that day, Katuo gets detention from the principal instead of Siko. “What the hell? You can’t be serious!”

“We gave Siko and the rest of the boys a warning.” The principal adjusts his blue tie a little bit. He is wearing black suit and glasses. “But, you should know better than this. You were expelled from the schools in D.C. because of the fighting. You should be grateful that we gave you the detention instead of kicking you out.”

“I didn’t even do anything, Mr. Howard!”

“It’s five boys’ story against yours and Siko’s,” Mr. Howard says. “Please go back to your class.”

“Whatever.” Katuo turns away from the principal and walks out of the office. He hopes that his mother is not going to find out and kill him when he gets home.