"Second Place"-Asher

Second Place is worthless. That was the one thing on my mind as I adjusted my tie and combed my hair in front of the mirror. Most people are happy when they finish in second, saying something along the lines of, "So close", or, "I was just off by a little," or "I'll get it next time." But those were the very same things that made me despise the notion of finishing in second place. No matter how many people look up too you it doesn't change the fact that you made a mistake, that you failed at something, and that there was someone who did the job better than you did. Someone who will look down on you.

And if there one thing I hate, then its being looked down on.

I set down the comb and exited the bathroom re-entering the interior of the well furnished dorm room that I was staying in. It came with a small bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a small table set in the center of it all. Not to mention that everything was extremely well furnished. The bed was full sized, and the room boasted a desk with a computer, and a book shelf with tons of bestselling titles like, Gone With the Wind, 1984, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The walls and ceiling of the entire dorm were painted a nice sky blue and there were paintings hung on the wall of all kinds of famous figures of the world. Philosophers like, John Locke, artist like Frieda Kahlua, and musicians like Elvis Presley. It was a nice dorm and a nice school in general, not to mention that the school was on a private Island off the coast of Japan. It would have been the perfect school.

If it wasn't a school intended for orphans.

That's right. Ishigaki Government Institution for orphans was the school that I was attending. It was a special government funded high school which explains some of the ridiculous nice perks, but not all of it. Even for a government funded institution this seems a bit much. I slung my book bag over my shoulder and exited my dorm. I stepped into the sunlight and was instantly awe struck by the amazing view. The side of the dorm room that I stayed on faced the ocean instead of the school and it was absolutely beautiful.

Two huge jagged rock structures made of red rock stood on either side of the view, like the frames of the picture. It helped me take in the view of the rising sun, and the shimmering ocean, and everything looked amazing. "Beautiful right?" A voice next to me said. I looked to my right and standing next to me was a light skin girl with black hair. She wore a black blazer and skirt. She had great posture and bright purple eye's that glittered like the night sky when she smiled.

"Yeah, it's really something. I kind of find it hard to believe a place like this even exists in real life." I replied, examining her from head to toe. She turned around to face me, her smile only growing wider.

"I know right. I was sure that places like this only existed in those photo's that companies stick on their travel brochures or tour guides. So seeing one in real life makes me excited." It wasn't just her smile but her whole entire figure that seemed to be radiating life and happiness. "By the way, my name is Hikaru Mei. yours?"

"Shining life. That's a beautiful and unique name." I said, having now choice but to return the gesture. Her smile was contagious.

"Thank you so much, my mom was a botanist who was obsessed with plants, while my dad was a loud and proud environmentalist. Her and my dad had a field day naming me."

I turned around, walking in the direction of the staircase. I raised a hand to wave goodbye. "Well it was nice meeting with you Hikaru, see you later."

"But wait!" She shouted after me, but I had already began descending the stairs. "You didn't answer my question."

***

For the second time in one day I was absolutely awestruck. I stood outside of the front doors of the massive silver building in front of me. It was so tall that I blocked out the sun, and when I looked up I could barley even see the whole thing when I looked up. The school was super high-tech and it even had a hologram in the center of the building reading, "Welcoming to Ishigaki Gov institution, top rated school in Japan." I stood in the center of a flood of students as they shuffled to class. I took this time as a chance to analyze the rest of the students. All the students wore the same school uniform, so the only real way to tell them apart was there posture and hair color. I could tell the lazy students from the hard working students, from the simple students. I was just about to walk into the school when I noticed a flash of color in my peripheral vision. I turned around and what I saw could only be described as, 'exotic.'

He was tall, around six foot 3, and it only served to make him stand out even more, as he towered above all the other students. Instead of the regular school uniform-a black dress suit for boys, and a black blazer and skirt for girls-he wore a bright red shirt and pants lined with gold designs and, jewelry hung from every part of his body, head to toe. He wore a large red overcoat and a huge gold hat with giant bird feathers sticking out of it. His posture and his gait all emanated one thing. Arrogance. All the students around him stepped to the side and gave him a good few feet of distance, essentially giving him a walkway to the front entrance, like he was on the red carpet or something. One look at him told me that he was eating all of this up. He was the type that probably loved attention, and got it no matter where he went. I sighed.

Why couldn't all the students of this school just be normal kids. I thought to myself, starting to walk forward, Though, I am entering a school specifically made for orphans to attend, so I guess I should be grateful that there aren't more nut jobs like him. I was completely absorbed in analyzing my surroundings that I didn't notice the girl in front of me, until i collided straight into her. She stumbled forward nearly falling and dropping her bag on the floor. She spun around as quick as a sports player pivoting. She was a few inches shorter than me, but that didn't change the chill that went through my body when I looked into her eye's.

"Are you blind or just some kind of pervert." She said, here voice loud and carrying. All of the students that were walking into the building stopped to gape at the situation going down. "Uhh, I-I-I-I apologize, I wasn't paying attention." I tripped over my words, starting to get nervous from all the attention, and the girls piercing gaze.

She flicked her jet black hair to the side and turned around, shooting me one last withering glance. "Whatever, just make sure our paths don't cross again. I came to this school for a good education, not to get hit on." With that she turned around and walked away. I heard some snickers and whispers from the other students. I sighed again.

What a great start to my first day of school.

When I stepped into the school building the first thing I noticed was how large it was. Despite the hundreds of students roaming around the halls it didn't feel cramped or crowded, or busy in anyway. The second thing I noticed was the structure of the walls stairs, and halls. It all looked like some kind of futuristic version of a medieval castle. There were spiraling stair cases, crystal chandeliers, and lining the sides of both walls of the entryway were wax models of all the founders of the school. I read the name plates on some of them. Founder, Heath Salamander. That didn't sound pleasant I thought to myself as my eyes moved up to the wax figure. I scrutinized every last detail of it. It was tall-probably even taller than the rich dude- and it was dressed sharply in a white business suit and red tie. My eyes kept gravitating back to one thing. His face.

Even though it was a wax model it was still extremely detailed, so much so in fact that I could see every single wrinkle on his face, and even the cold glare in his eyes. I shivered slightly and moved on. There were other figures two. The head of security, Nagumo Matsumoto, General Affairs, Sanada Yukimura, who not only was named after samurai which was pretty cool, but she was also smoking hot. After walking for a short while, the everyone in the hallway came to a stop. I looked up and saw that in the center of the hallway which opened up into circular place that was surrounding by two spiraling staircases and split off into three other directions-forward left and right. In the center of the large circle there was what seemed like a tablet. It flashed on and a giant projection flashed into the air. It was a huge list of names and classes. Instantly I got a look into how the school was structured.

It was separated into 4 different years, first, second, third, and fourth years. Those years were than split up into 4 more subdivisions of of classes. It didn't go into any specifics beyond that so I just stood there and looked at the giant list of names, completely overwhelmed. That's when a female voice came over the loud speakers. "Welcome to Ishigaki Government Institution! From near and far all of you were selected to participate in this school for a few reasons, some of which may be a little too hard to speak about." A pause. Then the voice burst out into raucous laughter for nearly two minutes straight.

Whoever this girl was, she was very very drunk.

"OK, OK, OK, lets be serious now." She said when she finally calm down, even though she was the only one who wasn't being serious. "Right now the hologram on display right now is showing the name of all the students in the entire school and what classes they are divided into. But I'm sure that at the moment you can't see anything because of the sheer amount of names on the list." Another pause. "But don't fret!" Her voice began to crescendo, like an actor in a play. "As we have created something that will wash your troubles away like-" She made a terrible analogy somehow involving a toilet. I heard a snap and then the ground started to rumble.

Some people shouted out, and others looked down right scared. That's when a square hole exactly 9 by 8 feet opened up in front of me and a podium with a box on the top erected from the hole. I peered around curiously and saw that everyone else had a podium with a box of their own and all of them were indistinguishable from one another. "Are you ready! Go ahead and open the box in three, two, on-" The sound of tape and cardboard being torn filled the hallway. Inside the boxes were phones. They were all black, and the bore the schools logo on the back, a Jackal wearing a snake as a necklace.

At the same time, all of the telephones in the room turned on and displayed a message. My phone showed my name, and a room number, which I assumed was my class number. "Those phones will serve as your lifeline and guide in this school. They each have a number and email specific to each student in the school allowing you to contact anyone one of your peers at any time, as long as you know their number or email. Those phones also have the numbers of all the staff saved into them so don't hesitate to give any of us a call. Later!"

I took noticed of the fact that she said 'us' when referring to the school staff and my first thought was, is the school staff really that incompetent. But the thought was instantly washed away by the next thought that entered my head. assuming that a majority of the students where currently in the hallway and also assuming that each student received a phone that was theirs, and had the right name, number and email that would mean that the school would have to have a way to know exactly where every student was going to stand if this was a pre-planned occurrence. But that was impossible. Even if they knew the exact amount of students that would show up today it should be nearly impossible for them to now who was going to stand where and when. That would only be possible if… In the peripherals of my vision I noticed a camera swiveling around, as the next wave of students walked into the circular hallway.

It would only be possible if they were doing this in live time and had people watching the cameras and manual controlling all of the podiums. Still, it was extremely unlikely Depending on how you looked at it, it could be considered extremely impressive, or extremely suspicious. There was no ruling out the method of using a fingerprint scanner in someway, put just like all the other solutions I could think up, it was inconsistent. I looked back down at my class number but just when I had started to walk in the direction of where my class should be, I felt someone's eyes on me. I looked back slowing, trying to give no sign to the person staring at me that I had noticed them.

I locked eyes with a tall blonde boy with sea blue eyes. He was surrounded by girls and guys alike, and one look at his posture and smile told me that he was a very popular guy, and that he had amazing social schols. As soon as our eyes met I saw an expression I couldn't decipher flicker over his face. But the smile in his eyes was gone and it was replaced with a look that said, I've taken noticed of you. I turned around and began walking away.

Exactly what I needed. Another weirdo.