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Childe yawned and rubbed his eyes. He heard a strange buzzing, the sound was disorienting, his bed felt different to when he fell asleep in it. The sun hit his face, Childe turned his head away and opened his eyes, when suddenly.
"What the fuck?" Childe yelped, sitting up and staring around the unfamiliar room. He clasped his hand over his own mouth. If he was being kidnapped, he didn't want anyone to know he was awake.
"Ajax are you ok?" Childe heard a woman yelling from another room. Childe froze, staring at the door with confusion. Who the hell just called him, and by his actual name. "What?" He muttered, slowly climbing out of the bed. "Whats going on?" He sighed, staring at the source of the buzzing.
A strange, rectangular device was vibrating, sitting on the bed side table, Childe picked it up and turned it over, staring at it. "Wake up for school?" He read out loud.
He touched the smooth surface of the device, there was a button with the word "dismiss"
"Finally, now that that thing is quite, lets try and find a diary, that'll help." Childe said to himself, wondering if there even was one. He opened the drawer on the bedside table and there it was, a small, brown book was sitting alone in the drawer.
"Hm, this person is terrible at hiding things." Childe observed, taking out the book and skimming through the pages, occasionally stopping to read anything that seemed important. He stopped as the pages became empty, and flicked back a bit to see what had been written most recently. Something about a transfer student named Zhongli, it was odd, Zhongli was the name of someone from his memory, a tall, sophisticated man, a walking encyclopaedia.
Suddenly he heard a knocking on the door and swiftly put the diary away, turning around to see a woman peaking her head into the room. "Ajax its almost time for school, hurry up and get ready!" She exclaimed.
"Okay then." Childe replied, getting up and walking over to the closet and opening the door, he grabbed a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt, staring at the clothes he had picked, it wasn't much.
After changing, he picked up the bag in the corner of his room, picking up the strange, rectangular device, it seemed important. He walked downstairs, nodding to who he could only assume was his mother, a short ginger woman with curly hair and bright blue eyes. "Goodbye dear, have fun!" She waved in farewell as Childe exited the house that wasn't his, looking around and noticing a strange area, there where other people who seemed to be waiting for something. Childe decided to check it out.
"Hey Tartaglia!" Someone yelled out behind him. Childe turned to see someone running towards him. The boy stopped and stared up at him, grinning. "Are ya taking the bus again? That new kids gonna be there!" He questioned. Childe could only agree and go with this boy, at least everyone didn't call him Ajax. "Sure, lets go." Childe agreed, looking down at the boy, he was short with dark hair and a red bucket hat. "So, has Zhongli texted the group chat at all? He hasn't responded to me at all, almost like he can't use a phone." The boy asked, Childe remembered, there where strange messages appearing on the screen of the strange device, which Childe assumed was called a phone.
"Nope, I wonder why." Childe replied, pretending to know what he was talking about. "Well he does seem pretty odd, acting all smart, its kinda creepy.." The shorter boy muttered.
"Hey Scara! How's the weather down there, hope its shit." Someone at the waiting area shouted. "Oh, its him." He hissed, Childe could tell Scara didn't like this guy. "Its Scaramouch to you." He hissed, sitting down on a bench. Childe tried to ignore how he'd recognised the name and sat next to him, trying to ignore the stranger. "Thats odd, normally you would've beaten his ass by now." Scaramouch pointed out. "I'm just tired, had a bad sleep." Childe replied, glancing around. "People from other schools are the worst! Always picking on me for being short! It's so annoying." He groaned
Childe thought about how he used to tease Scaramouch for being short. "Well, you are-" "shut up you fuckin prick!" Scaramouch interrupted, his tone playful, but mildly offended.
A large, yellow thing rolled across the ground, it had wheels, but it was huge, and loud. A door on the side opened and kids started walking up into it, Childe shivered, who would go near that thing. Yet he got up and acted casual, copying Scaramouch, who looked like he did this every day.
They walked down the hall and got into two empty seats, Scaramouch sat next to a window and Childe sat in the middle seat, the seat next to the isle was empty.
He was fiddling with the straps on his bad when something touched his shoulder. "Hey, Tartaglia was it? May I sit here?" He heard, glancing over, he saw a tall boy, his brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail, his golden eyes resting on him. "Sure." Childe muttered, Scaramouch looked over at him.
"Hey! You're the new kid right? So you're taking the bus now?" He smirked, picking up his bag and taking out a note pad. "Yes, my name is Zhongli, and you must be Scaramouch, and Childe, I believe we have some of the same classes." Zhongli smiled, but Childe noticed him hesitate on the word "classes", was he just as confused as he was?
"Hm? I didn't notice!" Childe replied, Scaramouch wrote something down and threw it, the three watched it fly, a tall boy with long, messy white hair caught it and unwrapped it, laughing and glancing behind him. Nodding at Scaramouch and turning back to talk to someone.
"What did it say?" Childe asked, genuinely curious. "Wanna prank Raiden, she'll kick our ass but it'll be worth it." Scaramouch replied, chuckling.
"Raiden? You mean one of the school councillors?" Zhongli replied. "Yeah! She's the worst!" Scaramouch groaned, leaning back in his chair.
Suddenly the bus stopped, Scaramouch and Zhongli got up, Childe picked up his bag and followed them. Stepping off the bus and looking around, a large building stood infront of him, kids where going inside and standing around the front. He followed the two inside the building, there was a long hallway, lockers lined the walls.
Childe turned a corner and saw one with his name on it, Scaramouch had walked off, probably to get to his own, Childe opened the locker and dropped his bag inside, rummaging through it. "Yes, a schedule!" He said to himself, looking through it.
English was first, he took a look at the map of the school that hung on the back of his locker. "Okay then, it should be just around the corner." He muttered, closing his locker and walking to class.
He sat down at the back, the bell rang, startling him. "Oi Tartaglia, you good?" A short girl with black pigtails turned to him. "Yeah, just didn't get much sleep." Childe replied, scratching the back of his head. The teacher walked in and the girl took out a book, doodling and paying no attention to him, kicking her feet and humming.
"Miss Hu, put that book away and focus." The teacher said in a stern voice, the girl stopped, sighing and putting her doodles away. Childe was examining the room and not paying attention to the class. An hour had felt like a million years as he sat there, thinking about his current situation. Suddenly, something pulled him away from his head, a voice. "Hello! Earth to Tartaglia?" The short girl was waving her hand in front of his face and giggling. "Boo! Finally awake?" She smiled, Childe realised that kids where leaving the class, the bell rang. "Oh! Sorry Hu!" Childe muttered. "Its Hu Tao! I hate when the teachers call me Hu, its sounds weird!" Hu Tao complained, picking her books up from her desk. "Oh! By the way Tartaglia! I'm throwing a party tonight! Everyones gonna be there, it'll be awesome!" She grinned, mischief laced her words. "Do you wanna come?"
Childe thought, this would be a good way to meet new people, maybe that new kid would be there. "Sure, I'll be there tonight." He smiled, picking up his schedule and skimming through it. Today was gonna be boring.