Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Deadly Beautiful ❯ Welcome to Clearwater Academy ( Chapter 18 )

Disclaimer: The grass is green, the sky is blue. I don't own Gundam Wing, and neither do you. (.)

Deadly Beautiful - Chapter 18

By danse

Heero gazed sleepily out the window at the large, stately trees streaking by. It had rained earlier that morning, and everything was still wet. The sky was a dull gray, and the wet leaves on the trees nearly glowed green against the almost black trunks. It looked beautiful, he had to admit.

Blinking hard to get the drowsiness out of his eyes, he shifted his gaze away from the window and looked around him instead. He was sitting in the plush, black backseat of a limousine, with a suitcase on the spacious floor beside him, and he was wearing a uniform consisting of black pants, shiny black dress shoes, a long, black tie, and a red jacket. The quiet chauffeur in the front was driving him to Clearwater Academy, which was a thirty-minute drive outside of New York City. If Heero sat up from his semi-slouch, he could see the ornate, wrought-iron gates of the school grounds looming in front of them.

After a minute, the car stopped to wait for the gates to open. A security guard nodded at them as they turned and drove up the long, sinuous driveway, which was lined with more giant trees. This place is incredibly rich, Heero thought as they pulled up to the front of the school, where there was a large concrete plaza for dropping people off.

The chauffeur got out of the car and came around to open the door for Heero. Heero got out and let the driver take out his suitcase for him, as J had instructed him to allow. He had to give the impression that he was the child of a rich ambassador.

Heero turned to look at the school, and his eyes widened a little. It was monstrous. This was merely the front administrative building, but it was very, very big, and very stately. The front doors were ten feet tall and made of carved wood, with brass door handles that were each big enough for two hands. The building was fronted entirely by gray stone blocks that were each about a foot high and a foot and a half wide. Plate glass windows all over it reflected the cloudy sky and the dancing green leaves of the closest trees. The front steps were many and deep. Heero peered up at the apex of the roof, and was sure that he saw a gargoyle. This was an incredibly old building.

Heero turned to the driver, who also worked for J, playing many different parts, including the chauffeur facade. He hadn't batted an eye at the building, and calmly waited for Heero to assume his role. The boy mentally shook himself, and instantly became calm and unshakable. He reached out and took his suitcase from the driver, who smiled and said, "Good luck," before getting into the car and turning it around to leave.

Heero walked up the front steps and through the door without looking back.

He found the main office quickly, as he was already partially familiar with the layout of the school. He walked up to the secretary's desk and said, "My name is Hikaru Midorikawa. I'm a new student here."

The secretary smiled at him and stood up. "We've been expecting you, Mr. Midorikawa. Let me get your tour guide for you." She disappeared into a back office, and Heero took the precious moments he had to memorize the layout of the office.

Two minutes later, the secretary walked back into the room with the vice principal, Mrs. Landry, in tow. Mrs. Landry came forward and extended her hand to Heero, which he shook deferentially. She had a firm handshake that promised a no-nonsense demeanour, and her appearance was very prim and proper: her graying hair was in a tight bun from which no stray wisps escaped, and her navy blue women's suit made her look elegant. She could have been anywhere between 50 and 60 years old.

''Nice to meet you, Mr. Midorikawa," Mrs. Landry said in a calm alto. "I'm sure you'll be a great asset to our school. Shall we?" She gestured to the door, and they began their tour of the school grounds.

The grounds of Clearwater Academy held six large buildings, arranged vaguely in a star shape with the administrative building at the apex, and the largest building in the centre of the star. Directly behind the administrative building, in the centre, was the four-story General Academic Building, known as 'GenAc' to the students, where English, History, Geography, and other similar classes were held. The school library dominated the top two floors. To its right was the Science Building, complete with full labs, where science, math, and computer courses were conducted. To the left of GenAc was the Electives Building, which housed the cafeteria, gym, theatre, home economics lab, and shop class. Heero saw an oval running track just behind it, as well as a glimpse of a soccer goalpost.

The back two buildings on the property were the dormitories. Heero carried his suitcase as he and Mrs. Landry maneuvered along the web of paths between the buildings, working their way toward the dorms. The grounds were green and covered in trees, bushes, and flowers, which Heero thought was nice. It could provide a lot of hiding places.

They walked up the steps of the dorm on the left, and Mrs. Landry pushed open one of the enormous, wooden doors. "This is the boys' dorm," she said as they walked down the hallway to the stairs. "The other one is the girls' dorm. We have strict rules about the interactions of the two. Lights out is at eleven on school nights, twelve-thirty on weekends. At that time, we expect that everyone be back in their own rooms, getting ready for bed."

Her high heels clicked loudly on the stairs as they marched up to the second floor and walked down the hallway. "There will be no noise in the hallways and no loud music between lights out and seven AM, every day. No exceptions. There are caretakers in each dormitory building who patrol the floors after bedtime, making sure that no one is misbehaving. They can also be found at any time during the day and night if you have a problem related to the residences."

They stopped in front of a dark, wooden door marked '217,' and Mrs. Landry turned a key in the lock, swinging the door open to reveal a clean, uninhabited room. "I'm afraid that you'll be on your own for the time being," she said as he walked inside. She pointed to the left, at a door. "You have a bathroom through that door, there. If there's anything I've forgotten to tell you, I'm sure that your classmates will fill you in. You might not see many of them today, though, since it's Sunday. They all go off to their own devices, or go home for the weekend. You'll meet them all tomorrow. I'll leave you to your unpacking now, Mr. Midorikawa." She shut the door behind her, and the click of her shoes echoed down the hall behind her. When it faded to nothing, Heero looked around his new home, thankful that he was living alone. It would make things much easier for him.

First, he peeked into the bathroom. It was small and utilitarian, with blue and white tiles. There was a sink, a toilet, and a tub with a shower head that hid behind a mirrored, sliding door. He used the toilet, then looked at the main room. There were two beds, one on each side. He chose the one next to the bathroom, because it had an excellent view of the door, so that he could see people as soon as they opened it, and fatally wound them with his gun from the bed, if necessary.

There was a large closet on the right, which was obscured by the main door, when it was open. He slid the closet door open and saw that it was partitioned down the middle, with hangers on each side that were designed not to come off of the bar.

Between the door and the bathroom, there was a large dresser with a wide mirror over it. It had six drawers, three to a side, split down the middle.

At the head of the beds, there was a nightstand on each side with a small lamp. The window was large and took up most of that wall, and could be covered by gauzy curtains that blocked most of the light. There were also a few shelves on the side walls over each of the beds, and a small metal locker at the foot of each.

The vice principal had left his room keys on the dresser before she left; he grabbed them and found that as well as his room key, there was a small key that fit the padlock on the little metal box. He inspected the padlock thoroughly; it was a piece of crap, and could be broken with a blunt object, if you hit it hard enough. Child's play. Luckily, he had a small metal safe with him that would probably fit in this thing, and it had a lock that was strong and hard to pick. He'd tried it himself already, just to see, and it had taken him nearly ten minutes to open without the key.

Satisfied with the residence, and satisfied with the fact that he'd locked the door for privacy, Heero opened his suitcase and removed his little safe, setting it on the bed for the moment. He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a short chain with a key on the end of it. Not bothering to take it off of his neck, he leaned over and unlocked his safe, and then tucked the key away quickly. He opened the safe and took out a small, black, handheld bug sniffer, extending the antenna as he turned it on. Quickly, he swept every square inch of the bedroom and bathroom with it, and, finding nothing, got to work with unpacking.

First, he put away his shirts, ties, socks, pajamas, and underwear in his side of the dresser, and hung up his other two pairs of uniform black slacks and his other red jacket. Then he hung up his jeans, put in a pair of sneakers, and shut the closet door. After putting away his toothbrush and so on in the bathroom, he picked up the little safe, which was actually quite heavy for its size, and stowed it in the locker with as quiet of a clunk as he could manage. In it, he put the bug sniffer, his laptop, his extra ammunition, an encased hunting knife with a wicked blade, a set of lock picks, a pouch containing five deadly shuriken, and some important papers that he'd needed to bring with him. After a moment of thought, he reached under the back of his jacket and pulled his gun out of the waistband of his pants. He turned it over in his hands for a minute, frowning, and then decided that he wouldn't need it right now. Making sure that the safety was on, he put it in the safe and then closed both it and the locker, locking both.

Now he'd finished unpacking, and he gave the bed a longing look. The alarm clock beside it was five minutes fast, but his watch said that it was nearly 2:00 in the afternoon. He'd been up for nearly twenty-four hours straight, preparing until the last minute for the surprise mission, and then getting on an overnight flight across the Atlantic Ocean and not sleeping a wink, despite his trying. At 9:30, he'd arrived at the motel where he was meeting the chauffeur agent, eaten quickly, changed into his uniform, and once again not managed to sleep at all during the two-hour drive to the school. After arriving, he'd had to endure a long tour of buildings he was already acquainted with, carrying a suitcase that contained a heavy safe, while trying not to look anywhere near as tired as he felt.

Needless to say, Heero Yuy was ready for a nap.

He pulled the empty suitcase off of the bed and stuffed it in the closet, took off his jacket, tie, and shoes, half-unbuttoned his shirt, collapsed dramatically onto the warm, red bedspread, and slept for hours.

Around six, he woke up, looked at the clock, groaned sleepily, and got up to go and get something to eat in the cafeteria. It was nearly empty; he supposed he'd missed the dinner rush. That didn't disappoint him.

He walked back to his dorm slowly, enjoying the breeze that was tickling the trees. The ground had finally dried out since the rain that morning, but the sky was still overcast. He kept an eye out for his target, the reason why he was here, but he never saw her and didn't really expect to. He'd have plenty of time to look for her tomorrow, when his classes started.

Not necessarily happy, but at least content, Heero wandered back to his room, changed into his pajamas, brushed his teeth, and went to bed. His leg ached a little as he climbed under the sheets, but he was getting used to the pain from the bullet wound, which was fading anyway.

He yawned loudly, and soon drifted off to sleep.