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Chapter 1
"Nicole...?" A tall first-year college girl with long black hair who was peering around the college hallways reached up to catch hold of her friend's backpack and held on lightly as they walked.
"Yes, Heather?" Nicole was only slightly shorter and had chin-length blond hair.
"Are you sure this is where we're supposed to be?" Heather kept looking around.
"Yep. It should be on this floor somewhere, look for room 213," Nicole sighed as she looked for a room number. "Why are you hanging on to my backpack?"
"Um... Because I don't know where I'm going and it's big and empty and scary here..." Heather grinned.
"Wuss," Nicole shook her head. "You're too big for any of the spiders here to bother trying to eat you."
"So, that doesn't mean anything. Maybe they'll swarm me," Heather laughed and let go of the bag.
"And maybe you should just step on them, baka," Nicole raised an eyebrow at Heather.
"But, but I don't like killing things..." Heather looked at the floor and smiled sheepishly until they rounded a corner and she noticed a pair of black boots a little ways ahead of her. "Pretty boots..." She whispered to herself as she looked up to find an Asian redhead glaring at her.
"Is this room 213?" Nicole asked the mean-looking man who simply nodded and then turned to stare out the window at the end of the hall.
"I guess this is where we're supposed to be then..." Heather unconsciously reached up to hold onto Nicole's backpack again.
"What are you doing?" Nicole turned to look at Heather.
"Um.... Dunno?" Heather looked at Nicole then back at the man and leaned over to whisper. "He looks very familiar for some reason... but I know I've never seen him in my life."
"He almost looks like..." Nicole glanced over at him and thought for a moment then shook her head, "No. Not a chance."
"Who?" Heather was curious now.
"Made some new friends, Aya?" A tall blond man with wavy hair down to his chin walked out of a nearby stairwell and slung an arm over the redhead's shoulders. "Care to introduce me?" The redhead visibly stiffened and glared at the blond, what had the blond called him? Aya...?
"Youji! Leave Aya alone," A younger boy with short dirty-blond hair and another with brown hair came out of the stairwell and smiled at her and Nicole. Heather blinked and stared in shock for a few brief moments as she tried to absorb the information her brain was throwing at her far to fast to process.
"Hi, I'm Omi Tsukiyono. Are you here for the biology course, too?" He had a big and genuine-looking grin.
"Um, yeah. We decided to take it for extra credit over the summer," Nicole was not saying anything yet so Heather forced her whirling mind to spit out an answer. "I'm Heather and this is Nicole," She smiled and nudged Nicole slightly in a silent plea for help.
"Hello, I'm Ken Hidaka," The brown-haired one gave them both a friendly grin.
"Hi," Nicole sounded a little dazed as she mechanically replied to Ken's greeting.
"Youji Kudou," The blond sauntered over and gave them a brilliant smile as he moved his sunglasses down his nose to look at them. "I feel flattered to have such lovely classmates."
"Um, thank you..." Heather blushed slightly and held onto Nicole's pack more tightly.
"Omi?" Nicole spoke around Youji as if he wasn't there. "We missed the first class because of our final exams. What did you do?"
"Oh, you were the two on the attendance list he told us would not be here this week!" Omi moved around Youji who went back to pestering a glowering Aya. "We were given the course outlines and he explained a little of what we are going to do. This week is just a refresher Biology course for those of us who have not taken any science courses recently."
"Why are you here today?" Ken gave them both a curious look.
"Nicole came with me to hand out résumés today and we wanted to check and make sure we were not missing anything important," Heather sighed slightly. "This seemed like a good break from smiling and saying 'thank you very much, I'll be sure to check back soon'."
"Ah, Nicole and Heather! I did not think you would be joining us this week," An older man with short grey hair and an energetic smile stepped off the elevator.
"Mr. Manning, hi," Heather smiled in relief.
"We just stopped by to see what you were doing this week and see if there was anything we needed to pick up," Nicole smiled slightly.
"Not really, I am just doing a review for these four this week. Next week is when we'll start working on our projects," Mr. Manning unlocked the door and opened it. "How did your exams go?"
"Fairly well, our marks weren't spectacular but I guess they're alright," Heather noticed Youji waving and waved back a little out of habit as the guys walked into the room.
"Right now it's job hunting for Heather until we start working on this course," Nicole smiled back at Omi and Ken.
"Good luck then, you'll need it around here," Mr. Manning walked into the room. "I'll see you again on Monday then."
"Bye!" Both girls called before walking out of the building and to Heather's car.
"Um... So..." Heather realized she was still holding onto Nicole's pack and got her keys out.
"So...?" Nicole raised an eyebrow at Heather.
"That was Weiß?" Heather asked as she unlocked the car.
"Apparently," Nicole got into the vehicle
"Lemme see that," Heather grabbed Nicole's CD booklet and started flipping through it.
"Hey!" Nicole protested as the booklet was shoved in her face.
"Is that who we saw??" Heather pointed to a picture of Weiß in the booklet.
"Looks like them, doesn't it?" Nicole reclaimed her CD booklet and tucked it safely away in her backpack.
"Oh dear... And we're in a class with them..." Taking a deep breath Heather started the car and began to drive. "We're in shit, aren't we?"
"Not necessarily," Nicole's only sign of stress was the whitening of her knuckles as she gripped her pack tightly. "As long as we stay out of their way we'll be fine."
"Nicole, this is me. I tend to be very cursed, remember?" Heather carefully guided the car onto the highway and up towards Fruitvale.
"That doesn't mean we can't try and keep our distance," Nicole stated firmly.
"Yeah, I guess not. Aya really doesn't seem to like me though... Being in class with him may be hard," Heather sighed then glanced over to Nicole's still open bag. "You might want to leave that at home, too," She grinned.
"What?" Nicole looked down and spotted her scheduler and it's cover coated in pictures from the Weiß Kreuz anime. "No shit. If they ever found out we knew who they are and what they do we'd be dead."
"No kidding," Heather frowned slightly. "That is, if they even are the same... It might just be a really freaky coincidence of names and looks?"
"You could be right," Nicole sighed, "but either way we'll just have to deal with it." Heather nodded in agreement.
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