Oz stared up at the large, almost intimidating building.

"So, this is Pandora Academy" He muttered to himself.

He was a little nervous, he'd never liked being alone before, and no one was ever more alone than on the first day at a new school. Oz took a deep breath and walked past the gates.

I hope I'll at least meet someone…

The bell suddenly rang loudly in his ears, Oz checked his watch, it had taken him longer than he'd thought to get here. Oz tried to think of which homeroom he'd been assigned to.

Crap! I can't remember which room the letter said I was in!

"Crap, crap, crap! I'm late! I'm late!" A voice cried.

Oz turned to see a man running towards him, he had on a white polo shirt and dark blue pants, he lifted his gaze from his watch too late to realize he was going to crash into Oz. Oz realized he was too late to get out of the way and he was sent crashing to the ground. The first thing he could register after that was the back of his head felt like someone had hit him with a house and the second thing he realized was that the man who had crashed into him was now hovering over him. The man seemed to be recovering from the impact as well, he opened his eyes and looked down at Oz.

Oz took in the man's features, the most striking thing was his eyes, they were a brilliant gold. The next was his hair, it was messy and as dark as a raven's feathers, it was a rather contrasting combination.

"Oh shit! S-sorry, I didn't see you there!" The man stuttered as he climbed off of Oz.

Oz sat up, still rubbing the back of his head. He looked up to see the man offering him his hand, which he took.

"Again, really sorry for crashing into you there, you're not hurt anywhere are you?" He asked while pulling Oz to his feet.

Oz shook his head and laughed it off.

"Nah, I'm alright. I'm actually a lot tougher than I look" He said with a smile.

The man seemed relieved, he apologised again before turning and running. Oz watched him go curiously, and then he realized he still had no idea which homeroom he was in.

Crap!

-XXX-

Oz sighed, he'd finally found out which room he was in after checking at the administrative office. This was not the kind of start he'd been looking for, but he wasn't really complaining that much. He wondered abut that man from earlier, he had most striking features, Oz hoped he'd see him again.

"Ah, 2B, this is the place" Oz said as he stopped outside the door.

He swallowed, being late on his first day wasn't a hospitable start to the year. He opened the door and bowed his head low.

"Sorry I'm late!" He said.

"That's alright, you haven't missed anything important, just take your seat and you might want to take down these notes" He was told.

Oz nodded and raised his head, he swore he almost had a heart attack.

It's that guy from earlier! He's the teacher!

Oz quickly hid his surprise and sat in the first seat he could get to, the seat closest to the door at the front of the room. He quickly took out a piece of paper and began writing down the notes on the chalkboard. Every now and then his eyes would stray away from the notes to the man writing them.

What's wrong with me?! He's just the teacher…

When he finally seemed finished writing, the teacher put down the chalk and turned around to face the class.

"Okay, my name is Gilbert Nightray and I will be your homeroom teacher for this year, I may also be your maths and social studies teacher depending on your class arrangements" He said as he picked up a clipboard from his desk. "I'm going to read out the roll and all you have to do, is say that you're here and put your hand in the air, no sass or stupidity, simple"

Oz couldn't help but admire the way he handled himself in front of a whole group of people, teenagers no less. Ignoring the whispers some passed between themselves.

"Oz Bezarius?"

Oz's reverie was broken at the sound of his name.

"H-here Gilbert-sensei" He stuttered, sticking his hand up.

The teacher's eyes wandered to him and Oz saw the flash of recognition and surprise in his eyes, but it was buried almost right away. Oz watched while he called out the rest of the names on the roll, a curious thought passed through his head, he wondered how old Gilbert-sensei was, he looked too young to be a teacher. Every teacher Oz had ever had was usually middle aged if not going on elderly, it was odd to see someone so young as a teacher.

"Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to hand out your class timetables, these will stick until halfway through the year and then depending on your grades, class choices, etc you may be moved into different classes, but that's too far off for you guys to think about right now" He said as he picked up the stack of papers off his desk and walked around the classroom.

"And here's yours" The man said as he stopped in front of Oz's desk.

He held out the paper and when Oz took it, his fingertips accidentally brushed against Gilbert's and both teacher and student felt an almost electric shock from the contact, but neither gave any indication.

Gilbert walked away, continuing to hand out the remaining timetables. His mind, however, was racing, as was his heart.

What was happening to him? What was it about that boy?

Meanwhile Oz was having similar thoughts. He stared at his hand, trying to figure out what exactly that was? That had never happened before.

Gilbert cleared his throat, to draw the class away from their moaning and complaints about, to put it politely, classes they would prefer to go without. He looked at his watch and, as if on cue, the bell rang loud and clear.

The air was suddenly ablaze with noise, the screeching of chairs as people stood and there was suddenly so much talking that one would think they'd waited an eternity to speak with one another.

Oz did not talk, he had no one to talk to. He waited until everyone else was gone before he rose and began to walk out the door, he hadn't wanted to get swept into the crowd, unintentionally listening in on conversations he wasn't a part of.

"Oz-kun?" he heard Gilbert-sensei call to him.

He stopped and turned around, puzzled. The man walked up and placed a hand on Oz's shoulder.

"I just wanted to say sorry again for bowling into you earlier" He said with a sincere smile.

Oz smiled back.

"Really Gilbert-sensei, it's alright, it's not like it was the first time I've ever been pushed down before" Oz laughed.

The smile slowly dropped from Gilbert's face when he heard this, there was something about the way the blonde boy had said those words that unnerved him. As if sensing his change in mood, Oz clumsily tried to correct himself.

"Um, I just mean I'm used to it, tha-" Oz stopped cold, realizing with horror that he'd said too much.

His smile now completely gone, Gilbert removed his hand from Oz's shoulder, allowing it to drop slowly back to his side. He opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly Oz turned and ran from the room. He reached out as if to stop him, but it was too late, the boy was gone.

-XXX-

Oz clutched his bag to his chest, mentally cursing himself. Why had he just done that?

I'm so stupid!

He stopped when he realized his legs were carrying him to the school gates, he couldn't leave, he couldn't go home. His father would-

Oz stopped his train of thought there, he allowed himself a minute to catch his breath. He wondered why the school yard was so deserted.

Idiot! Because everyone's already gone to their first classes!

Oz dug his timetable out of his bag where he put it and gave it a quick look over. He was supposed to be in Science right now, he cursed himself again and took off. Thankful he'd thoroughly studied the map of the school that had come in the mail, he wouldn't have any problems finding the room.

-XXX-

It turned out he was lucky, the last of the class was just entering the room when he arrived, so he was able to quietly slip in behind the others. This room, instead of desks, had 5 long parallel benches. He decided he would sit at the back of the room, he hoped to avoid any unnecessary attention that way.

He sat down beside a girl with long dark brown hair and a very sour expression on her face. She seemed to be glaring quite passionately at the man, who Oz assumed to be the teacher, that stood at the front of the room. He was wearing a long white coat with what looked like a purple shirt underneath and dark three-quarter pants. His hair was white and it covered his left eye, and the eye that was visible, was a deep red. He also had a strange looking doll perched on his shoulder.

"Well, isn't it just lovely to see so many familiar faces again this year?" The man laughed.

The girl beside Oz scoffed loudly, a few people in front of them turned back to glance at her, but were just as quickly deterred by a sharp look on her part. The teacher seemed quite amused by this.

"Ah, and it's so~ nice to see you again too, Alice-kun" He said with a small, almost teasing wave in her direction.

The girl called Alice visibly shivered with what he guessed was disgust and Oz was surprised that with all the hatred in her gaze, the man did not simply burst into flames.

"You just keep your distance, Clown!" She snapped.

Oz could've fallen out of his seat at the way this girl spoke to their teacher, but what surprised him even more was that the teacher actually seemed to be enjoying the exchange.

"I missed you too, Alice-kun"

Alice narrowed her eyes further, if it was even possible. The curious man laughed and walked around the room, his eye scanning the rows of faces. Until he finally came to rest on Oz, who stiffened when he realized the teacher was looking at him with something he couldn't quite identify in that single red eye. Seemingly satisfied, he returned to the front of the room.

"I'm your teacher for however long is up to you, Xerxes Break" He introduced himself with a small bow.

Oz had a feeling this was going to be an interesting year, but something still bothered him about the way Break had looked at him.

All of a sudden he clapped everyone looked up.

"Okay, we should get started, I'll give you your textbooks and you can copy out the notes on page 10 starting from line six, and don't think you can get away with sleeping or slacking in my class, it wouldn't look very good on my part if you all failed now, would it?"

Then he turned around and picked up a piece of chalk, with his sleeve, and draw a large 10/6 on the blackboard and underlined it. He then turned his head and gave everyone a rather dark sideways smile, a simultaneous shiver passed through the room and everyone obediently stood and retrieved a textbook from the shelves that lined one side of the room. All except Alice, she snorted and leaned back in her chair, propping her feet up on the bench.

Oz had to admit, this girl was gutsy, she obviously had some kind of history with the teacher. He decided he would try and be friendly, something in the back of his mind said he wanted to stay on her good side. He collected a book for himself and one for Alice before making his way back to his seat. He took a deep breath before turning and offering the book to Alice.

"Here, I got you a book so you don't get in trouble with the teacher" He said with a smile.

Alice looked from him to the book and back again, something akin to distrust in her eyes.

"Why would you do this? What are you after?" She asked sharply.

Oz supposed that must be just her normal way of speaking to people.

"I…uh…was just trying to be nice, I d-don't want anything" He said, becoming slightly uncomfortable under her intense gaze.

She seemed to give him somewhat of a once-over before snatching the book from his hand and putting her head down. Oz couldn't decide if his attempt had been successful or not, but at least she had taken the book, he turned back to his own book and began to write down the notes as per instruction.

"Hey, what's your name?"

Oz was surprised when Alice spoke to him, she was looking at him from the corner of her eye, her gaze not as intense as before.

"My name's Oz. Oz Bezarius" He said, his smile once again in place.

Alice regarded him for a moment before lowering her head, her face now obscured by her hair.

"Yeah…well, thanks…Oz" She uttered quietly.

Oz smiled to himself, maybe he had succeeded after all.

"You're welcome…Alice"