Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Girls ❯ Part 3: School Daze ( Chapter 4 )

Gundam Girls

Part 3: School Daze

Vincent Lowe-Garret, dean of Violet Lillian Garret's School for Girls, stood staring out his office window, watching students arrive with luggage, families, and even moving vans. The ensuing chaotic ballet was one he was all too familiar with. People scampering about, vehicles vying for choice spaces, tempers flaring, and voices rising . . . it all signaled the start of a new year for Vince. He smiled as he recognized familiar faces and, in some cases, familiar actions.

"Dad?" Vince turned around to see his fifteen year-old daughter, Karen Marie, peeking through his door. She was already wearing her uniform, red-pleated skirt, white blouse, and blue blazer all pressed and clean. His own blue suit was already rumbled and wrinkled in some places. A mess in comparison. How she managed to keep her clothes looking so nice and pristine longer than five minutes after putting them on was beyond him.

"Yes, pumpkin?" He motioned her in.

"I need the new student rooming list. Some of the new girls are here already."

"Oh, that's right! Let me just . . ." he riffled through the papers that littered his desk, ". . . now where is . . . ah, here it is! Eh, it's not finished."

"Oh, Father, really! What have you been doing all this time?" Karen scolded. "Well, hurry up and finish it! We've got people waiting!"

"Here, why don't you finish it? There's only a few left and you'd get to pick who your new roommate will be." Vince shoved the papers to Karen with a pen, a cheerful yet apologetic smile on his face. Karen took the papers and pen, shaking her head in mock disappointment.

"You, sir, are a bad influence. I'll only do it because it will be faster this way."

"Thanks, Sweets. I owe you one."

"That makes seven now that you owe me, buster! One of these days I'm gonna make you pay up!" Karen waved the papers in his face, smiling.

"Hey, don't you have work to do? People are waiting, you know!" Vince teased, receiving a raspberry from his one and only child, to which he promptly returned fire.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt, but I was told to come here and take the tour,"a young man, with long lavender tresses and clad in tight blue jeans and simple white t-shirt, said through the now open door. "They said they'd call-"

"Oh, that's right! You're Nick, aren't you?" Vince motioned him in.

"Yes, sir, that's right. Here are my papers."

Karen Marie couldn't help but smile as she watched the lovely piece of eye-candy that walked into her father's office. So enthralled was she in this god-like creature that she nearly missed her name being spoken.

"Uh, yes?" she asked as she tore her eyes away from Nick's shapely denim-clad ass.

"Take Nick here with you for the tour. It seems he is taking 90% of his classes here."

"Okay." Karen squealed inwardly at the prospect of seeing this gorgeous stud nearly every day. "Oh! But the tour won't be for another three hours yet!"

"Hmm, that does present a problem. Well, Mr. Treize, how would you like to help some of these lovely young ladies move in? It would help pass the time and I'm sure some of them could use the help of a nice strong man like yourself." Vince smiled knowing full and well that many of those "lovely young ladies" would gladly fight tooth and nail over him.

Nick smiled back. "Why, I would be happy to lend hand."

"Great! Karen-"

"I'll handle it. Come on, Nick. I'm sure some of those with scholarships could use your help."

Vince watched as the two left, recognizing all too well the look in Karen's eyes. He had seen the same look in her mother's eyes when they had first met, oh so long ago. It was going to be an interesting year.

"Very interesting, indeed."

*~*~*

"Excuse me, Duet Maxwell?"

"Yo!" Duo slid off the box he was sitting on, pulled his short blue skirt back down over his green tights-covered legs, adjusted his "Princess" baby-t, and walked over to the curly-haired girl with the clipboard and purple-haired boy, smiling cheerfully . That's a new one . . . I didn't know you could get hair that color! Duo thought. He had been watching people and taking note of the different hair styles and colors to pass the time. He would have just talked with one of the others, but Heero made a point of them not suppose to even have met before today, so no go. He would have struck up a conversation with one of the other girls stranded on the lawn in front of the dorms, but he couldn't leave his stuff and no one, besides Helen, was close enough.

"Hi, I'm Karen Marie Lowe-Garret-"

"Hey! Like the school!" Duo interrupted. He really shouldn't have had those Sugar Blasted Sugar Puffs for breakfast.

"Yes, well . . ." Karen blushed. She wasn't use to that particular observation stated so . . . enthusiastically.

"Sorry. I'm a bit hyper today." Duo apologized, trying to remain calm. He had, of course, already known about Karen Marie, but Duet hadn't. Still, his jubilant outburst was more than he'd planned for.

"It's okay. Many people make that connection," Karen smiled. "I'm the dean's daughter and I get to help new students get settled in. Now let's see, where should we put you . . ." Duo watched as she consulted the papers on her clipboard. "You can be on the second floor . . . in suite 21 . . . in room A. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good." Duo smiled.

"Hm, there's room for one more in room B of the same suite . . ."Karen looked around and spotted Heero, sitting on a nearby bench with book in hand, white oxford shirt completely buttoned up and maroon skirt down to his ankles, as if the heat didn't bother him one bit. "Excuse me, Miss?" Heero looked up. He had been listening to the whole exchange, but had been pretending to be engrossed in a computer programming book that he had been reading until Karen had shown up.

"Yes?" Heero asked as he closed his book around his finger and took off his fake reading glasses.

"Are you-"

"Helen Young. What do you want?" Heero interrupted, not giving her the chance to guess.

Karen was getting tired of getting cut off. "I'm Karen Marie-"

"I heard."

Karen's grip tightened on her clipboard. It was going to be a long day . . . "Then you already know you're going to be in room B, then." Karen quickly jotted down names down in the selected places. "I'll be right back with your keys. Nick, please wait here." Before Nick could give an affirmative, she was gone.

"Damn, girl! I think you ticked her off!" Nick briefly wondered if Karen got interrupted all the time, or if this was a special case.

"No kidding! At least I apologized for interrupting her and didn't do it again. Sheesh!" Duo shook his head in wonderment.

"She was wasting time. I didn't want her trying to guess my name and I already knew what she was going to say after that." Heero interjected.

"She didn't know that and if you already knew what she was going to say, why did you ask what she wanted?" Nick argued.

". . . that's beside the point. She was wasting time."

"But that's the WHOLE POINT!!" Nick threw up his arms, surprised at this girl's illogic. Duo, meanwhile, was laughing while trying to keep a semblance of . . . of not looking like a . . . Hell, he was trying not to guffaw like a teenage boy! "You can't ARGUE with that!" Nick continued.

"I believe I just did." Heero stated impassively. He hoped he was portraying a female adequately enough. His research indicated that some women, though not all, would rather be thought irrational than admit an error in judgement, particularly to a male, as they could always blame it on their catamenial cycle if necessary. Those that do, however, are often capable of arguing their albeit asinine point enough to make the other person question their own logic. Heero wasn't sure if he was capable of this feat (yet), but he was going to try whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Nick, however, wasn't cooperating. He laughed. "Yeah, I guess you did!" Was this a success? He did agree to what Heero had just said, but it was not in a way he had quite expected. Duo was no help, as he was too busy trying to contain his own laughter by covering his mouth and holding his heaving abdomen, his loose braid swinging about from his efforts. Time to change tactics.

"Why are you here, Nick?" Heero asked point-blank.

Nick took a few deep breaths to calm down. "I'm, heh, I'm here for the tour of the grounds."

Heero raised an eyebrow. "You're a boy."

"Yes, thank you for noticing. A lot of people seem to have trouble grasping that concept. I'm actually enrolled at the boy's school, but they have so many students, some have to take classes here. Most of my classes are here, so they thought it would be best for me to take the tour. I already know how to get to the two classes I'm taking at the boy's school, as well as the administration offices. If I need to go anywhere else there, I can just fudge my way around. Here, though, I'd better know what door leads to where, if ya get my meaning." he winked.

"Oh." Heero felt his cheeks burn slightly. Not so much from embarrassment, not so much from the wink, and not so much from the heat, but . . . Hormones. Heero reasoned. Blushing is one of the expected side effects.

"Ooh, did I miss something?" Duo chirped, noticing Heero's blush.

"NO." Heero said pointedly, giving Duo a warning glare, which Duo chose to ignore.

"WoOOoo! Looks like little miss bookworm has a CRUSH!" Duo teased. Heero's blush grew to encompass most of his face. Heero decided to just ignore him and return his attentions to his book.

"You're not even going to deny it?!?" Duo gasped dramatically. "It-it-it must be TRUE then!"

"Not necessarily. A clear denial would only convince you the opposite was true, even if it isn't. By saying nothing, either could be assumed. Like they say, it's better to remain quiet and let people think what they will anyway, then to speak and remove all doubt. Or something to that affect." Nick conjectured.

"Or she's ignoring me."

"That's also a possibility." Nick smiled. Duo then felt his own cheeks burn.

"Now who has the crush?" Heero ribbed.

"Shut up!" Duo covered his face in embarrassment.

Nick laughed. "Don't worry about it. I've been told that my smile could make old men blush! I've actually seen it happen. To be honest, though, he probably thought I was a girl at the time." His own cheeks reddened at the memory and his laugh became tinged with embarrassment. "Oh, hey! There's Karen!"

Sure enough, Karen trotted up to the trio, keys jangling. "Hey, sorry it took so long. I grabbed the keys for the others to save time." Heero, Duo, and Nick exchanged looks, then started laughing.

"What? Did I miss something?" Karen was puzzled.

"S-sorry! Inside joke." Nick managed as he started to regain his breath. "You were saying?"

Karen watched Heero and Duo as they calmed themselves. "Well . . . if you're all done laughing now, I can give you your keys. But first . . ." she handed Heero and Duo each a piece of paper. ". . . signs these. They're basic contracts, kinda like the ones you signed for the rooms, only these are just for the keys."

"A $50 fine for just losing a key?!?" Duo exclaimed.

"It used to be more, but now all we have to do is deactivate the code of the lost key and make a new one, instead of changing the locks and supplying new keys to everyone. Still, these coded keys aren't cheap." she supplied, holding up the key-ring.

"Coded keys?" Heero queried.

"Yup. They're like a cross between old fashioned keys and key cards. These will work on the front door as well as suite door. Each key has it's own code, so don't lend your key to anyone. The front door is always locked and the security computer keeps a log of what key is used and when. This is done for security reasons, but it does little good if you share your key with someone. You can let someone in, but you have to use the key yourself. These key can't be replicated, either."

Nick whistled. "Wow! You sure are lucky to get such security! We at the town house only get a regular key and a sign-in sheet!"

"Oh, that's because you boys can take care of yourselves. Besides, you don't have to protect against panty raids!" Karen quipped.

"Maybe not, but we did have clothing thieves at my last school. I remember waking up one morning and not only was everyone naked, but all the clothes in the entire compound was missing! The security guards were the only ones with clothes and only what they were wearing. I still think they'd been bribed by the thieves so they could pull off that stunt. The clothes were found around noon in the pool. Everything was soaked! But we did get out of classes that day." Nick laughed.

"Man, everyone? Even the teachers?!?" Duo asked, surprised at the lengths it would have taken to pull of such a prank. Impressed, even.

"Yup, everyone who lives at the school and many of the teachers did since it's cheaper that way."

They stood there in silence for a while, absorbing the rather interesting tale. Then Heero brought up a very good question.

"Are you going to give us our keys now?"

*~*~*

"Well, that's two." Karen mused to herself as she crossed Duet Maxwell and Helen Young off the list. Just moments before she had left Nick to help Heero and Duo move their things up to their respective rooms. "Now for the other nineteen . . ."

Two hours later, Karen found herself with one last name on the list . . . and no more rooms. "Damn, now what? Oh wait, now I remember! I'm suppose to share my room this year. Well, there's only one girl left. I certainly hope she's nicer than some of those other girls . . . and less perturbed. Now, Wanda Chan, where are you?"

*~*~*

Wufei was mortified. Not only did he have to squash his masculinity in order to pretend to be a girl for the sake of a mission, but he had to suffer stereotyping on top of that! There he was, wearing a white "traditional" style Chinese dress (one more befitting a waitress than a teenage girl on her first day of school and just barely long enough to be decent), white thigh-length stockings, and hair in buns on both sides of his head with white ribbons. Never mind the lingerie. He tried telling the others that white was a color of mourning and therefore inappropriate for the first day of school. He relented, however, when it was pointed out that considering his cover story, white was all too appropriate. After all, she was sent away from her family against her wishes, a disgrace to her father. She was all but disowned. Why was never decided. Wufei would have to come up with something if it came to that.

Right now, he sat on a bench with his luggage nearby, and watched over by two "bodyguards." They were actually undercover agents there to help promote Wufei's cover story. Others were used for Quatre's, acting as servants of a large, wealthy family. The agents were only there long enough for them to get settled in, and none were from the area.

Wufei was also bored. They'd been out there for hours waiting for someone to come around and show him his room. Or at least give him a key and a room number. Waiting is no fun, especially when you have an itch you can't scratch because it would be "unladylike." He couldn't even chat with "Jun" and "Lee" because "that sort of thing just isn't done" in her family and everyone else stayed clear because of them. All he could do was wait.

Then finally . . .

"Miss Chan?" Wufei looked up to see a somewhat frazzled, curly-haired girl holding a clipboard. "Jun" and "Lee" reached into their jackets simultaneously, as if reaching for a gun.

"Yes?"

"I'm Karen, the dean's daughter? I'm here to show you to your room." Karen eyed the two bodyguards wearily. The two men relaxed after she announced her identity.

"Oh, good! I've been waiting for so long, I thought I might have been forgotten!" Wufei joked as he stood, relief crossing his features.

"Yes, sorry about that. We had a bit of trouble getting everyone settled in." They shook hands. "I'm afraid, however, that there's a bit of a problem."

Wufei's heart sank. "What is it?"

"At this moment, all the dorms are full, so you'll have to share a room with me. The good news, though, is that you'll only have to share a bathroom with two other people." Karen smiled.

Wufei sighed with relief. "You had me worried there for a moment!"

Karen giggled. "What can I say? I'm like that." Karen winked.

Wufei smiled. "So, where is you-our room?"

"First floor, last door on the right as you go in. Before we go, I need you to sign this and-" Suddenly, "Jun" (or was it "Lee"?) snatched the paper from her hand. After a moment of scanning the paper, he handed it to Wufei with a slight nod. "What was that about?" Karen asked.

"Oh, he was just making sure it was safe to sign." Wufei stated, signing the paper after quickly reading it himself. "It's their job to protect me, even from myself, until I've moved in here. Then I'm on my own."

"Oh. Must be . . . different."

"Yes, well that's one way of putting it." Wufei smirked. "Difficult is more like it."

Karen giggled. "Oh! Damn, we gotta hurry! We've only got fifteen minutes 'til the tour starts and I'm leading it! Come on!"

*~*~*

"This-*huff*-this is it! Last door on the right." Karen fought for her breath as she fumbled with her key-ring while juggling some of Wufei's bags. She wasn't used to sprinting with fifty pounds worth of luggage. Geez, what's in there, weights?!? "Ah, here we go! Just put your stuff anywhere, for now."

Bags and suitcases were deposited on various pieces of furniture and on the floor, some none too gently. After unloading their burdens, "Jun" and "Lee" bowed briefly to Wufei and quickly took their leave, their job completed as far as they were concerned.

"Wow, such an emotional goodbye." Karen was surprised at their abrupt departure.

"Yeah, I thought they'd never leave." Wufei added, somewhat peeved at the rudeness displayed. Sure, they bowed, but it was very brief, barely more than a nod. Perfect . . .

"We have time for a brief tour, if you'd like." Wufei nodded. "As you can see, the living room, kitchen, and dining room are pretty much all crammed into one room. To your left is Dad's room, which is connected to the bathroom, and to your right is our room."

Wufei opened the door to her, now their, room. It was a fairly good sized room, smaller than what "Wanda" was used to, but definitely big enough for two people to share. There was just one "little" problem . . .

"There is only one bed. Where will I sleep?" Wufei asked, suddenly nervous.

"Oh, that. We ordered some furniture for you, but they haven't come in yet. Sorry about that. You'll just have to share with me until everything gets here." Karen rubbed the back of her neck, somewhat embarrassed about the situation.

"But where will I sleep?" Wufei asked, more insistently.

"With me, silly! The bed's big enough for two to share." Karen smiled cheerfully. "Oh, crap! The tour! Let's go!" Before Wufei could utter a word, Karen grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door in a mad rush.

A/N: Yeesh, what cruddy place to stop! And not even well done, at that. ^^;; Not to mention that Trowa and Quatre weren't even in this part. All five of 'em will be in the next part and I'll give Quatre and Trowa extra "screen time", too. (Hey, at least I'm working on it again!) In case you were wondering, catamenial basically means "monthly" and is synonymous with "menstrual". :P Anyway, the next part will pretty much pick up where this one left off.