"Now disembarking in Tokyo, Japan! At this time, you may unfasten your seatbelts and leave the plane." Alelei awoke to the sound of the nauseatingly happy voice on the speaker announcing their arrival in Tokyo, and the attendant shaking her awake. She stood up and swiftly took her bags out of the overhead compartment. As she was disembarking the plane, she noticed how all the attendants stared at her. "What's their problem?" she thought. "Never seen a 5'3" 16 year old?" She gave a short laugh at this thought, which made the attendants stare at her even more closely, if possible. She quickly collected the rest of her bags, hailed a taxi and told the driver to take her to the school.
*****
Hayzil Banton waited nervously at Heathrow International Airport in her hometown of London. Next to her was her French cousin, Nathalie Avignon, who tried to hide a small giggle at her British cousin's nervousness. She had never seen Hayzil nervous before, which made it so funny that Hayzil was skittish about finally seeing her American pen pal, Melyssa Rhinebeck, after 3 years of writing and e-mailing. Nathalie thought it odd that during three years they hadn't exchanged pictures, but that was their decision, not hers. And since they were all going to the same school, some prestigious boarding school in Tokyo, Japan, they had arranged to meet at the London airport, so they could make the last portion of the flight together. She also thought it unusual that half the people in the terminal were fixated on herself and Hayzil. Nathalie was disturbed from her musings, though, by a shrill whisper from Hayzil. "Nathalie! I think that's her! Look over there! Do you think it is? What should I do? Oh help!" Hayzil pointed a shaky finger at the girl walking off the plane that just landed. Nathalie had a strange feeling that Hayzil was right, and her hunch was reinforced by the fact that the other half of the terminal was staring at the red-headed girl. She wore a shirt that said "NYC 4EVA" on it, and was looking right and left as if she had lost something. Hayzil finally got up the courage to shout, "Oi, Melyssa!" and the girl turned and looked at Hayzil with a big grin on her face. "Hey, I'm Melyssa. Are you Hayzil Banton?" Hayzil smiled back, and they started chatting for what seemed to Nathalie a good hour before one of them got the sense to say, "You think we should get our bags ready for the next flight?" With that they all headed over in the direction of the next terminal to wait for the plane to Japan.
*****
Rumi Moto and her closest friend, Kana Nishiguchi, were killing time in the arcade before the train to Tokyo took them to their new boarding school. The Japanese teens loved the motocross arcade races. The best part was playing a cute guy and watching the look on his face when he lost. They lived in Yokohama, a close town to Tokyo, but far enough away that they needed to take a train. Rumi and Kana hung out in the arcade, waiting for 2:00 to roll around. Much sooner than they expected, they were rushed from their game of air hockey to the train station by Rumi's older brother, Hokuma. "Kana, I'm surprised you didn't watch the time more carefully," said Hokuma. "I thought you girls wanted to go to this school." Kana blushed furiously in the back seat, having adored Hokuma since the third grade. "I-I'm sorry, Hokuma," she stammered. "I guess i just wasn't paying attention." "Well, at least I remembered, or you guys would have been dead meat," Hokuma said with a smile. "I heard your headmistress is one HELL of a tightwad. My ex-girlfriend said she had her mouth taped shut for a week for speaking without being spoken to." Sensing the girls' uneasiness at this statement, he continued hastily. "But of course you'll do fine!" They giggled nervously as Hokuma pulled the car to a stop outside of the station. "Have fun!" he called as Rumi and Kana hopped on to the train just as it started to pull away.
*****
As Alelei entered the school, she was surprised to see many girls milling about the grounds. Being rather anti-social, she didn't take this as a good sign, but that was just her. She walked up to the registration booth. "Name, please?" said the very good-looking boy behind the booth. "Kahana comma Alelei!" she announced flirtatiously. She wasn't anti-social around boys, and she had learned many successful flirting tactics from Legally Blonde and other chick flicks. "Looks like that one works universally," she thought, as the boy looked a little intimidated. He handed her a packet with her name on it. "You will be in room 4, dorm 126. You will be sharing a common room with the five other girls in your dorm. Follow the signs in the building to get to your dorm. You have the rest of the day to get unpacked and familiarize yourself with the campus. Classes start at 8:30 am sharp. Your class schedule, campus map, and events calendar are in the packet. Enjoy the rest of the afternoon." Alelei flashed him her winning smile and headed off to her dorm, rather unnerved at the way he was staring at her as she walked the concrete path to the building.
***** Hayzil, Nathalie, and Melyssa got out of the taxi they had taken from the airport and stood in awe. "Damn that's a huge campus!" Nathalie found herself thinking out loud. It was huge. Easily twice the size of her former campus, and that was just the building. The rest of the campus looked like it could hold five American football fields. Not to mention the hundreds of other girls, already in their uniforms, walking around the outlandishly large lawn. If she was correct, this building was constructed around the turn of the 18th century. Nathalie snapped out of her stricken gaze when she realized that Hayzil and Melyssa were already at the registration booth. They were rather obviously not registering, but instead, chatting up the rather handsome young man standing behind it. As she walked over, she heard snippets of conversation, such as "Friday night, want to come?" and "Ooh, what cologne are you wearing?" Nathalie was surprised at how alike Melyssa and Hayzil were. Hayzil's motto had been "Gorgeous, outrageous, flirtatious" since she was thirteen. It seemed that Melyssa had a philosophy somewhere along those lines, too. Nathalie approached her two friends. "You weren't planning to leave me out of the fun, were you?" she said with a grin. She joined in teasing the boy for about 5 minutes until they heard a voice behind them. "Are you actually going to get your packets or just stand there and torment the poor boy forever?" They turned to see two Japanese girls of their own age looking impatiently at them. Nathalie and her friends just stood there with blank looks on their faces. Then all five of them burst out laughing. "You sound just like my mum when you do that!" said Hayzil, a huge smile spreading over her face. "Hello, I'm Hayzil Banton. This is my cousin, Nathalie Avignon, and my overseas friend, Melyssa Rhinebeck. What're your names?" The shorter of the two Japanese girls extended her hand. "My name is Rumi Moto. This is my best friend, Kana Nishiguchi. And," she said, pausing to look down at her packet, "If I'm not mistaken, we're to share a dorm with you." The registration boy was completely flustered. He thrust Nathalie's packet in her face and rushed off. "Wonder what that's all about," she thought as she took out her packet, along with Hayzil and Melyssa. "I don't believe your mistaken," she heard Melyssa say. "I've got room five, dorm 126." "Neither do I," said Hayzil. "I've got room three." Kana and Rumi had rooms one and two, and Nathalie had room six. "I imagine whoever has room four is already there, considering how late we are," said Nathalie. "Let's go check it out."