EPICLY IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE 0405 CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT INCLUDED IN ANY OF THE STORIES ABOUT THEM MOSTLY DUE TO THE FACT THAT THESE EPICLY IMPORTANT MOMENTS HAPPENED IN THE STORY LINE BEFORE THE EVENTS IN THE 2004 STORY TOOK PLACE OR WERE NOT FULLY DEVELOPED DUE TO THE FACT THAT IN THE 04 STORY I DIDN’T GO INTO GREAT DETAIL OF HOW THE CHARACTERS WERE THINKING.

ALEC - YEAR TWO:

Alec kicked the ball against the wall and scowled. It was his turn to pick, and no one looked decent enough to be on his team. “Fine. You,” he said, finally picking one of the boys lined up. The other boy made his pick, and they alternated back and forth.

“Hey, no fair. They’ve got more than us,” whined a dark skinned girl (the only girl who had wanted to play) who Alec had picked second to last.

“Don’t worry, I’ll more than make up for it,” Alec bragged. But the other four on his team complained. “Fine, we’ll get someone else to play.” He looked around the great hall, hoping that someone close to their age would have not yet started playing another game. There were a couple kids who looked like year fives, at least, just sitting around- but they probably wouldn’t want to play with some year ones and twos, and Alec didn’t really want to get near them. Then he spotted a little pale skinny boy sitting against the wall by himself. Probably a new first year, since Alec didn’t recognize him. “Come play football with us,” he demanded.

“No,” the other boy mumbled.

“Come on, we need one more person to make the teams even.”

“I said, no.”

“Don’t be cold, guy.”

“Go away.”

“What are you, scared or something? Quit being a chicken and come play with us.” Alec grabbed the boy by the arm and started to pull on him. Suddenly before Alec even could tell what happened, the other boy had sprung up to his feet and punched Alec in the nose. Alec yelled a little and impulsively punched back. Then it was a full blown fight that lasted for about ten seconds before teachers rushed over and pulled the two apart, their arms and legs still flailing around.

As the two boys were taken off to the school’s office for punishment, the other kids waiting to play football just reorganized the teams and started playing.

“Alec, it’s only the second day of the school year. You couldn’t hold off on starting a fight until maybe at least a few more days?”

Alec didn’t say anything.

“And you, Hideaki. Is this really how you want to start your years here at RSA?”

“No, sir,” the pale boy responded.

“I understand you’ve had a difficult time in the past,” the principal continued while looking at a file in front of him. “And I am sympathetic to that, but you must be sure to behave and get along with the other children. We mustn’t let our pasts affect our futures.”

“Yes, sir,” he repeated. This boy was way too polite, and Alec suddenly felt bad for harassing him.

“Now, you two- since it’s early in the year, I’m just going to let you off with a warning. But I don’t want to see either of you in her the rest of the year. Got it?”

“Yeah,” Alec mumbled as the other boy repeated “Yes, sir,” for the third time.

Once they left the office, Alec decided to apologize sincerely, as opposed to the forced one that they had made as the teachers walked the two of them down to the principal’s office.

“What’s your name?”

“Hideaki.”

“Hid-achey.”

“Close enough.”

“I’m Alec. I really am sorry for picking on you like I did.”

“Okay.” Hideaki started walking back towards the great hall.

“Uh- wait!” Alec went after him.

“Did you want me to apologize too?” Hideaki asked, not turning to look at Alec at all. “Because I am not going to.”

“No, it’s okay. I was being mean.”

“I accept your apology.”

“Awesome.” Alec grinned. “Do you wanna be my friend?”

“No.”

“Fine then.” Alec grumbled and stopped walking.

From then on, Alec used every available opportunity to annoy Hideaki. At first it was just mispronouncing his name- saying it more like “Hiddy” than anything else- and then it eventually became shooting spitballs across the cafeteria or kicking footballs at his head during physical fitness time in the great hall or trying to trip him in the hallways. And Hideaki never reacted to anything. The worse that he did was glare at Alec scornfully. This annoyed Alec greatly and only caused him to pick on the other boy even more. But it all stopped one day when a tiny little brown-skinned first year girl kicked Alec in the shins and told him to stop picking on Hideaki. The next day, the weather was warm enough for swimming, and out in the artificial lake behind the school, Alec and Hideaki were suddenly best friends as if they had always been that way.

(I’m just writing this bit for my own understanding: What had happened that Alec was fully aware of was that Chanda, who had made friends with Hideaki, was at first going to just punch Alec in the nose or something, but once Hideaki had told her that Alec started picking on him after he rejected his offer of friendship, she knew what to do. She just had to get Alec to stop being mean, and get Hideaki to stop rejecting every one around him, and once those two things happened, both of them would be happier.)