Happy New Years guys! So this is what I spent all of my 2015 writing... I know right who dedicates a year of their life to Beyblade fanfiction? Apparently I do. This is what would have happened if I had been allowed to write it from the beginning: replacing spinning tops with musical theatre, Tyson would not be the main character because he's an annoying bastard and a totally cannon secret relationship would actually be a thing! Anyway I hope you enjoy this, I'll be highlighting the music I use in this so if you want to check any of it out I would totally say go for it because it's all brilliant and not super well known. Anyway enough from me, enjoy the story.
Full Summary: Scholarship student Max Tate is having trouble adjusting to life at Benjamin Britten Academy of Performing Arts. That may have something to do with the fact that everyone is fascinated with him because of the scholarship, or that he's not prepared in the slightest for the high standards of his teachers, or that his room-mate talks to his laptop (and it talks back!), or it might have something to do with the fact that he's face to face with his ex again. Let's not over think this and just go with the laptop thing...
"Benjamin Britton Academy," the taxi driver said as he pulled up outside the huge building. "this is where you wanted, right kid?"
"Yeah thanks." I grinned leaning forward and wrapping my arms around the passenger side headrest. I turned to look up in awe and excitement at the massive front-face of my new school. I was so thrilled to be here: it was a brand new school for me and I couldn't wait to throw myself into a brand new challenge. My old school had just been one huge cock up after another and I was so glad it was all behind me now.
"That'll be thirty pounds kid." the taxi driver said breaking me out of my daydream.
"Sure thing." I chuckled shaking myself back to reality and pulled my wallet out of my back pocket. I handed him the notes my dad had given me specifically for the taxi fair. I thanked him and got out of the car. I grabbed my bags out of the boot and thanked him again. He gave me an encouraging nod and a thumbs up before driving away.
I turned to stare up at the huge building in front of me and grinned; I was finally here! Months and months of hard work had finally paid off and I had gotten in to Benjamin Britton Academy of Performing Arts; the number one performing arts school in pretty much the entire world. People come from all over the world to go here and only the absolute elite can get a place. The fees are astronomical and they give out one scholarship maybe every two years and this year I was lucky enough to get that scholarship.
It wasn't easy. I pretty much worked my butt off for a year and a half BEFORE the first audition and continued slogging at it until they finally gave me the scholarship. I've always been very determined and this was one thing I wasn't going to give up on even though my mother and stepfather had practically forced me to go to College when I finished High School. They wanted me to go to College, I wanted to audition for BBA so we compromised: I went to a University in London and only told them that I had auditioned for a place at BBA when I got the scholarship and dropped out of my other University.
So here I am: hauling two huge suitcases and two backpacks worth of my stuff around the halls of what is basically a castle on the coast of Swansea, Wales, about to start what I know will be the best year of my life. Just as soon as I managed to find my room…
This place is literally like a maze! Finally (after wondering around for forty-five minutes) I stopped and asked someone for directions. The guy who stopped to help me was a huge, thickset giant with a thick Russian accent and a face that looked like he'd been hit with a frying pan. He grumpily gave me directions before turning his attention back to his phone. I took the directions he gave me and eventually I found my room.
Unlike when I was in halls in London here I was going to have a roommate. I was okay with this if it wasn't for the fact that I had had absolutely no contact with the person I was about to spend the next year or so with – I didn't even know his name or whether he was in my year. Due to this fact I decided to knock on the door rather than use the key I'd been sent. After about half a minute the door opened and a short (incredibly short considering his presumed age) guy with huge glasses and a mop of shaggy brown hair appeared.
"Hi," I began beaming at him and extending my hand. "I'm…"
"Max Mizuhara." he chimed in, shaking it before I could finish introducing myself. I blinked at him in surprise.
"Um yeah." I replied, not really sure how else to respond to that.
"You also go by the surname 'Tate' since your parents divorced and your mother remarried." he continued still shaking my hand. "You were attending Goldsmiths University in London, doing a joint BA in English Language and Literature, before transferring here after receiving a scholarship. You turned twenty six months ago and you put mustard on pretty much everything you eat." I stared at him, dumbfounded, for a moment before I managed to find my voice again.
"How… do you know all of this?" I asked, not without a hint of fear in my voice. I was too stunned to even let go of his hand. He beamed and began to drag me into the room and over to his desk.
"I have a complete data base on every single student at this school, complete with medical records, dietary requirements and everything from what films they like to their sexual preferences." he told me letting go of my hand as he sat down and proceeded to pull up the file he had for me. I stared in amazement and mild terror; he really did have everything about me, ever a short paragraph about my last boyfriend, Brooklyn.
"Where did you get all of this?" I asked, confused and still decidedly freaked out.
"The school's firewalls aren't as secure as you might hope." he grinned.
"And you might want to privatise your Facebook page too." a female voice said from out of nowhere. I looked around the room, searching for the source of the voice until it spoke again. "Down here, Bright Eyes." I looked down, to where I thought the voice was coming from but all I saw was the computer.
"What?"
"Hi." the computer said brightly. I blanched – this was all starting to get a little bit too weird for me. I had half a mind to grab my bags, go find the accommodation office and ask for a new room.
"This is Dizzara," my roommate said. "my girlfriend." I stared at him, still incredibly confused, before my brain kicked into gear: he was talking to his girlfriend on Skype! That made so much more sense! I breathed a sigh of relief – I thought I was going crazy for a minute.
"I prefer Dizzi, thank you." she replied waspishly. Okay, I noted, don't get on wrong side of her.
"Sure thing." I replied feeling much more relieved now I knew that I was talking to an actual person. I glanced at the computer screen (just to see if I had somehow missed the WebCam icon) but I couldn't see anything. I couldn't even see the icon to say that he had Skype never mind that it was open.
"The school's internet isn't much to go by," he said suddenly. "but I can just about make it work."
"The Skype connection seemed pretty good." I observed. He chuckled and so did Dizzi.
"I don't use Skype." he stated. Say what? I'm not sure if he's implying what I think he's implying; that I'm talking to this guys computer, the computer is talking back and my brain can't process this right now.
"So you know all this stuff about me," I said changing the subject to something my brain could just about handle. "but I know nothing about you."
"Sorry, sorry," he said shaking his head as if he'd only just realised that we'd been talking for ten minutes and he hadn't even told me his name. "I'm Kenny; Kenny Saien, most people call me 'The Chief' though," he told me.
"Any particular reason why?" I asked.
"Because he's the best technician in the whole damn school." Dizzi stated and I could hear the pride in her voice. Kenny's cheeks reddened.
"Dizzi stop." he half whined in embarrassment.
"What?" she protested. "It's true and you know it." Kenny's blush deepened and he mumbled something to himself that I didn't quite catch but I think was something along the lines of 'not in front of Max'. I chose to gloss over this and save him before his head exploded.
"Well it sure is great to meet you both." I beamed.
"Likewise." Kenny smiled. "So when is your first class?" I looked at my watch.
"In about an hour." I told him. "I'm going to try and get as much of my stuff unpacked as possible before I go."
"Sounds sensible." he replied. "Do you know who any of your teachers are yet?"
"No clue." I said shrugging. "I don't really know anything about the other people in my classes either."
"They'll certainly be fascinated by you, Mr Scholarship Student." Dizzi teased loudly as I went to retrieve my suitcases from the hallway.
"Excuse me, did you say scholarship student?" a girl's voice asked. I looked up, standing in front of my suitcases were two girls – one had shoulder length ginger hair and large glasses and the other dressed entirely in pink with long pink hair tied back into a high ponytail (no prises for guessing her favourite colour).
"Um yeah…" I replied slowly. The pink one squealed excitedly.
"Oh wow! I can't believe it's actually you!" she exclaimed jumping on the spot delightedly. "Everyone's been talking about you and we actually get to meet you! What's your name? What year are you in? Where are you from?" She momentarily paused for breath and I took this as my cue to answer.
"Hi I'm Max; first year student, originally from America but lived in the UK for the past two years."
"Ah a fellow American!" the ginger girl exclaimed and, sure enough the accent was there. "Our population is increasing."
"Really?" I asked. "I wouldn't have thought there was that big an American population in Swansea."
"Oh don't be fooled," she chuckled waving me off. "we're all BBA students. I'm Emily by the way." She extended her hand and I shook it.
"Hi." I smiled before turning to the other girl.
"Mariah." she said also shaking my hand.
"Nice to meet you. So are you both first years?" I asked.
"Yeah," Emily replied. "we're roommates."
"You're rooming with 'The Chief' aren't you?" Mariah asked.
"Yeah." I replied. "Going to unpack as much of my stuff before class as I can and then head down."
"What class do you have first?" Emily asked. I pulled my timetable out of the back pocket of my shorts and unfolded it.
"Intro To Performance." I read the tiny print in the top left hand corner.
"Me too!" Mariah cried excitedly. "We can sit together!"
"Sure that would be great." I said. I still didn't really know anyone and having Mariah with me might deter people from singling me out as the scholarship student, plus both she and Emily seemed like a lot of fun.
"Awesome!" Mariah beamed. "Well we'll let you get on with your unpacking we just wanted to come and invite you and 'The Chief' to a party we're having on our floor tonight."
"It's a Fresher's Welcome Party." Emily stated.
"I thought Fresher's Week was last week?" I asked. I had missed out on the Fresher's Week here due to various reasons (both of my parents wanting to see me before I went to Wales being the main one).
"It was," Emily replied. "but there's always a party on the fifth floor after the first day of lessons. It's a tradition we intend to uphold."
"So will you come?" Mariah asked hopefully.
"I'll think about it." I replied. "I'll see if I get all my unpacking done and if I get any assignments and stuff."
"Oh come on, it's the first night of term!" Emily insisted.
"Yeah only a complete slave driver would give you an assignment on the first night!" Mariah agreed.
"I promise I'll think about it okay." I chuckled.
"Fine!" Emily relented. She turned to Mariah. "We should get going."
"Okay," she nodded. "I'll see you later Max and think about the party, yeah?"
"Sure thing." I grinned. They turned and continued off down the corridor. I looked at my watch; I had forty-five minutes to get as much of my stuff unpacked as possible. Better get started then…
The auditorium where my first class was held was huge! My guess is that they also use it for whole school assemblies and stuff. Our class covered only the first four rows with lots of gaps making it seem even larger. As we had been filing in I noticed someone (who I assumed was our teacher) sitting on the edge of the stage. He looked weirdly familiar, I thought, but I couldn't place where I might have met him before. It wasn't until he started to speak that I realised how I knew him.
"My name is Hiro Granger and I will be your Introduction To Performance teacher." he introduced himself. As soon as he had said it I recognised him immediately. When I was at Goldsmiths I only really made two friends: one was an American guy named Tyson and his British girlfriend, Hillary, and I recognised Hiro from one of Tyson's photographs. I remembered him telling me that the other guy in the photograph was his older brother and that he was a teacher at another University in the UK.
Damn it Tyson, why didn't you tell me he worked here!? I mean it's not as if he didn't have enough chances. I lost count of the amount of times I mentioned BBA and not once did he think to tell me that his older brother worked here. I know it's not that big of a deal but a heads up might have been nice!
I had zoned off into my own little world (mostly thinking about calling Tyson as soon as class was over to say something along the lines of 'dude what the fuck?') when the sound of my name caught my attention.
"Pardon?" I asked snapping back to reality. Hiro raised an eyebrow.
"I said I have two surnames down for you; is it Mizuhara or Tate?"
"It's Tate." I replied.
"Wonderful." Hiro replied flatly, as if he couldn't give a shit one way or the other, taking a pen out of his pocket, clicking it and crossing something out on the register he was holding. "Mr Tate you are a scholarship student so that makes you somewhat special as you managed to get into this school based on your talent and hard work alone."
"Thank you." I mumbled in embarrassment. I could practically feel every single pair of eyes in the class turning to stare at me and my face caught fire.
"However," Hiro continued. "that doesn't give you the luxury to not pay attention!" My face heated up even more.
"Sorry." I muttered. Beside me I could feel Mariah shaking with silent laughter. Hiro raised an eyebrow indifferently before turning his attention back to the rest of the class.
"Moving on…" he said and continued with his register. I let out the breath I had been holding thankful that the interrogation was over. Mariah nudged me gently in the ribs.
"You realise everybody in the entire school is going to know who you are by the end of the day?" she whispered.
"Shit, really?"
"Oh yeah." she grinned and I got the distinct impression that she was probably going to be the reason for that. I groaned softly and turned my attention back to Hiro who had dropped the register and had begun pacing the stage as he talked.
"The first thing you will learn in this class – and if nothing else let this be the only thing you learn – will be how to perform to your audience." he stated. I hastily pulled a notebook and pen out of my bag. This was going to be important and I didn't want to miss any of it. "Why is knowing how to do this properly important, Tate?" Figures I'd be the first one to get picked on to answer.
"Because if you can't perform well then you're not doing the best you can for your audience and there's not very much point in not." I stated. A small smirk tugged at the corner of Hiro's lips.
"Good answer." he replied. "Now to perform like a professional takes…" The rest of what he had been about to say was cut off by the back door of the auditorium crashing against the wall with a loud bang as it opened. Everyone turned to the source of the noise. From where I was sitting there were too many heads in the way for me to see who was coming in this late.
"Fuck, not him!" Mariah muttered next to me.
"Who?" I asked quietly.
"Mr Hiwatari," Hiro called up to the person, irritated. "you'd better make the explanation as to why you are late to one of my lectures phenomenally good."
"I got stuck in traffic." came the gruff, slightly sarcastic reply. I felt my heart stop – I would have recognised that voice anywhere.
"Not good enough." Hiro told him. "See me after class, now sit down."
Heads turned back to the front of the class as Hiro began to resume his lecture (stressing the importance of being on time) but I kept my eyes towards the back. I had to know if it was him or not. The person blocking my view finally moved and I was able to see; slate grey hair that faded to black at the back, broad shoulders and a tight muscular chest. Our eyes locked for a moment before I blushed and turned back to the front.
"Oh shit!" I muttered to myself.
"What?" Mariah asked quietly. "Do you know him?"
"That's Kai," I replied trying to keep my voice steady. "my ex-boyfriend."
"Oh!" Mariah exclaimed after a short pause. "Awkward…"
Chapter title lyrics taken from 'Camera One' by Josh Joplin