Shaman King Fan Fiction ❯ Hoshi ga Hoshii desu ❯ cram school ( Chapter 6 )

H o s h i - g a - h o s h i i - d e s u

"I want the stars"

by Lucathia

A/N: Gasp! Someone from the regular Mankin cast appears!

-----chapter 6: cram school-----

Hoshi opened his closet and stared at his clothes. Hm...what should he wear today? He was supposed to go to that cram school that Sora said would help him decide his grade level. He wondered what normal Japanese people wore to school.

For some reason, Tsuki's deceased older brother had a lot of green pants. They were the kind with brown spots on them...for camouflaging purposes probably. Hoshi either had the choice of jeans or those camouflaging green pants. He preferred his own red pants a whole lot more, but those were stashed at the bottom of his closet. They were part of his old life that he couldn't remember anymore. Since he couldn't remember anything even after one whole year, there was no point in wearing his old pants again. His tattered cloak and his earrings were at the bottom of the closet with his pants.

Tsuki's brother also had a lot of button up shirts. Hoshi thought they were okay, but he didn't like the buttons much. He preferred t-shirts a lot more, especially the shirt with a star on it.

But no matter how much he liked or disliked the other Hoshi's clothes, the clothes weren't his. He probably should go out and buy some clothes of his own, but he didn't have any money. Maybe he should get a job or something.

He continued staring at the long row of green-spotted pants and frayed jeans. He then stared at the button up shirts and the t-shirts. Hoshi sighed and reached for the green-spotted pants and the button up shirts. He might as well wear some of the less frequently worn clothes. After all, those jeans were becoming terribly frayed and worn out.

He put on the clothes and went to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. He pursed his lips upon seeing his buttoned-up shirt. It was way too formal. He unbuttoned his shirt.

Much better.

When he walked out of the bathroom, Tsuki bounded over.

"Hoshi-niichan, are you going to that school thing today?"

Hoshi nodded.

"Then you should cut your hair or else they'll think you're a girl!"

Hoshi scowled. Tsuki just continued beaming at him with such an INNOCENT expression. He shook his head, unable to say anything as a retort to Tsuki's comment. There was no way he'd cut his hair, so he did the next best thing. He tied his hair back.

"Better?"

Tsuki tilted his head to the side with a slight smile.

"I guess."

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Hoshi walked slowly towards the boxy, white building. He was right that Japan wasn't like the countryside that he, Sora, and Tsuki lived in for the past year. For one, there weren't any open fields where he could lay down and enjoy the cool breezes and watch the twinkling stars. Japan was so crowded, so void of nature.

Everything was so boxy too. Every building was a box. The house they lived in was a box. The building he headed towards was a box, covered with white plaster. He grudgingly entered the boxy building and headed towards the office.

When he entered the office, a middle-aged woman glanced at him over a big pile of paper.

"You are?" asked the woman.

"Hoshi desu."

The woman searched through her list and highlighted Hoshi's name. She pursed her lips. "Hoshi what?"

He repeated his words.

"Hoshi desu."

The woman gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm asking you for your first name and your family name."

Hoshi stared blankly at her.

"I don't have a family name."

The woman stared incredulously at the boy. "Don't lie to me, kid. Who doesn't have a family name? Everyone has one!"

Hoshi continued staring at her unwaveringly.

"Not if I don't have a family." His words weren't entirely true, nor were they entirely false.

There was a long silence and the woman finally averted her eyes from Hoshi's unwavering gaze.

"Fine, Hoshi then. I told Ichi-sensei that he will be getting a new student today. He covers a lot of subjects in his reviews, so you should be able to find out your level in each of the subjects.

Hoshi nodded and headed out of the office. Thank goodness he figured out how to tune out people's thoughts. If not, he would have been subjected to that woman's annoying thoughts about him.

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He paused outside of Ichi-sensei's classroom, listening to the murmuring beyond the door. As he opened the door, the quiet murmur became audible speech.

"We will be reviewing over the basics of Algebra today..." The tall man paused upon hearing the door open. His eyes landed on Hoshi.

"Ah, that must be the new student."

Hoshi paused at the threshold of the door.

The tall man continued. "Don't stand there all day. Come to the front of the class and introduce yourself."

Hoshi immediately disliked the man's tone, but he obliged nonetheless. He slowly walked towards the front of the class, his gaze wandering over the countless faces of all the strangers in the classroom.

An extremely short boy, even shorter than Tsuki who was only six years old, suddenly stood up. His chair toppled over as he slammed his hands on his desk. His eyes were wide open, almost bulging out of his face.

"Yoh-kun?"

Hoshi blinked, wondering why the boy in the white-collared shirt said "Yoh-kun." Wait...could that mean that the short boy knew who he was?

The teacher glanced at the short boy and then back at Hoshi.

"Do you know Oyamada?"

Hoshi shook his head.

Ichi-sensei rose his eyebrows but commented no further on the matter. "Well, introduce yourself to the class."

Hoshi nodded and turned towards the class, his face emotionless. He then gave the class a small nod of acknowledgement. "Hoshi desu. Yoroshiku."

The short boy, whom Hoshi now knew was called "Oyamada," had a look of pure confusion on his face.

Ichi-sensei turned towards Hoshi. "No other comments about yourself? Okay then. For now, you can take the empty seat at the back of the room." The teacher nodded his head in the direction of the only empty seat in the classroom.

The teacher didn't even give him any time to answer his question. Oh well. It didn't matter anyway.

As the teacher continued with his lesson, Hoshi walked down the aisle towards his seat. He avoided looking towards Oyamada, because the short boy's gaze was a little piercing. Instead, he concentrated on reaching his seat. When he walked past the short boy's seat, he could still feel the other's eyes glued on to his back.

Again, Hoshi wondered if that Oyamada knew him.

But, as Hoshi sat down, he wondered if he really wanted to find out.

-----to be continued-----

A/N: This is my version of cram school, since I've never been to one. Anyway, the cram school that Hoshi is attending is NOT regular school. Cram school is not mandatory, but Hoshi is going there to try to figure out what grade level he should be in before normal school starts. (My weird reasoning.)

Next chapter: exams

pleasereview! :)