Luffy sighed as he walked around the park. He had followed a funny looking cat for a while before he realized that he didn't know how to get to the academy from where he was. It was his first day and he was already going to be late. With another sigh he shrugged off the worry. If he wasn't going to make it he wasn't going to make it, although someone could probably point him in the right direction.

Luffy looked around a bit before seeing a women on the bench. "Hey do you know where the marine's academy is?"

The women looked up curiously "Yes, it's not far from here" she replied "I actually teach there, I was just taking a walk since I have a bit of time. Do you want me to walk you there or will directions do?"

"Uhh, can you take me there. Directions are confusing sometimes" Luffy replied laughing and scratching the back of his head.

"Yes, they definitely can be" the woman muttered more to herself than Luffy.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing, I'm Robin by the way"

"I'm Luffy" he replied shortly.

"So what class do you need to get to, I'm new, but I've got a good idea of where everything is"

"Uh" Luffy paused and pulled his schedule from his pocket "Let's see. My first class is math, World Languages, and then History" Luffy looked a little closer at his schedule "Hey are you my history teacher?"

Robin looked over and smiled "I guess I am"

Luffy grinned "My friends are in your class to"

"Oh, well what are they like" Robin asked. Since the classes weren't all that big, she would be learning all of their names and personalities anyways.

"Well the one I've known the longest is Zoro, but he'll probably sleep through most of the class or argue" Luffy told her. Robin frowned, that didn't seem like a great start. "Then there is Sanji who likes to cook and will probably act all funny around you, and he's the one that Zoro will argue with"

"What do you mean act funny?" Robin asked. She was rather hoping it wouldn't be too painful.

"Well you're pretty and he always does stuff for pretty girls, Zoro calls it pathetic, but I think it's funny" Luffy said giggling a bit as he thought about the fights that Zoro and Sanji would get into. "Then there is Usopp. He brings his slingshot everywhere and he tells good stories and he lies a lot"

Robin sighed. Luffy seemed cheerful enough so he'd probably be fun to have in the class, but the three he mentioned seemed to be a bit of a pain. One who slept through class and fights with the other one. Then one who would fight with the first one and swoon over any pretty girl, although depending on how he swooned it could prove beneficial or annoying. And the last one lies and has a slingshot on him, which she could only assume was used for pranks.

"Then there's Chopper, but he's kinda shy and acts funny if you compliment him, the women who's taking care of him is helping him train as a doctor though" Luffy told her. Robin smiled, that friend actually sounded pleasant. "And the last one is Nami. She likes money, tangerines, and drawing maps"

"Are there any features I can recognize them by, I'd like to be prepared"

"Well Sanji calls Zoro marimo, Sanji has funny eyebrows, Usopp has a long nose, Chopper always wears a hat with antlers on it, and Nami has orange hair and her eyes go all funny if she see's money"

Robin giggled a bit. It seemed all of Luffy's friends had something quite odd about them. That being said Luffy seemed a bit odd to her as well. He was wearing shorts, a cloth vest, and sandals. Mostly what made it odd was it was almost thirty degrees out (Fahrenheit if you couldn't guess). He didn't seem to bright, but a first impression could be wrong, besides if he was happy what did it matter. She wished that she could have his demeanor.

Robin and Luffy walked for a few more minutes in comfortable silence before arriving at the academy. Robin made sure Luffy knew where his math and World Language class were and walked him by both of them.

"You have a few minutes before your class starts, do you want to accompany me to my classroom as well?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, this place is too big"

Robin giggled. The academy wasn't all that big, but finding your way around could be a little difficult. But there was something about Luffy that made her feel a bit happier, which was the first time that someone else had been able to make her happy. She normally felt happiest studying history, although her main dream was on hold for now.

"So Luffy, what do you want to do after all this?"

Luffy shrugged "I was thinking about becoming a pirate"

Robin blinked a few times. Pirates had recently become popular with everything that happened with Gol D. Roger. Most people thought of chasing the treasure as a fool's errand, but people did it anyways.

"So why are you here then, the academy isn't exactly a prerequisite of being a pirate" Robin asked, slightly puzzled by the boy in front of her.

"My grandpa wants me to go, he's paying for it and he's scary, so I figured a few years of waiting won't do any harm"

"Are you leaving by yourself?"

"Nah, my friends are coming with me. Zoro wants to be a better swordsman, Sanji wants to explore different food stuff, Nami wants to map stuff and find money, Usopp is in it for the adventure, and Chopper just doesn't wanna be left behind"

"Well in that case can you take me with you?" Robin asked.

Luffy tilted his head "Why? You're a teacher for a marine academy."

"I was pursuing my own dream before I came here, but I was going to leave in a few years anyways" Robin explained. Honestly she didn't quite know why she asked him. All of what she said was true, but she had been planning on bumming a ride from someone else. Robin was good at hiding, but she still liked to move every five or so years to prevent anyone from catching up with her.

"Sure, you seem like a good person. Can you fight?"

"Well, I can take care of myself. I've actually traveled quite a bit"

Luffy shrugged "It doesn't really matter cause you're probably the smartest person out of me and my friends so I'm sure you'll be useful"

Luffy and Robin stopped as they reached her classroom. "I'll see you later today" Robin said waving to Luffy as she entered her classroom.

Luffy started walking towards his math class. All he had to do was make it through a few years of the academy and he could set off on his journey with his friends. If Garp found out that he missed even a single day of school, Luffy knew that his grandpa would come after him. If that happened he wouldn't get anywhere.

"Hey Luffy" Chopper called out.

"Oh hey Chopper, you know where everyone else is?"

"I saw Nami walking through the cafeteria, although she wasn't eating or buying anything" Chopper said. Luffy grinned at that. She was most likely pickpocketing anyone who looked rich and snobby. Even as a thief she had principles, although Zoro and himself have had to bail her out of trouble before.

"Usopp was also in the cafeteria taking hot sauce packets, and Sanji said he was going to bring Zoro to class before he walks into the wrong school" Chopper said bouncing happily. Out of all of them, Luffy and Zoro were the only ones who really didn't want to be here.

While Luffy was being made to go by his grandpa, Zoro was going because of Kuina's dad Koshiro. Zoro's rival in swordsmanship had been Kuina. After she died, Koshiro told Zoro that he would only give Kuina's sword to Zoro if Zoro did some type of academic schooling, something about being a well rounded person not just a swordsman and earning it that way.

"Actually I'm kind of surprised that you're the first person here" Chopper commented.

"Yeah I left early cause I wanted to make sure I got here on time" Luffy started. Chopper sweat-dropped. Luffy's grandpa was scary enough to make even Luffy want to be a good student. "I almost got lost, but I ran into the person who's going to be our history teacher and she brought me here from the park"

"Was she nice?" Chopper asked pausing for a moment as something dawned on him "Luffy, there's no park between here and your house"

Luffy blinked a few times and then shrugged. "But she was nice. She even showed me where all my classes were"

"Luffy, it's a ten minute walk from your house. How early did you leave?"

Luffy glanced to the side "I don't know, like two hours early"

Chopper sweat-dropped. Luffy wasn't quite as bad as Zoro, but he was still pretty bad at finding his way around. At least Luffy was walking around the school, Chopper was pretty sure if Sanji didn't walk with Zoro and Zoro would end up somewhere completely different.

⍭⍭⍭⍭⍭Skipping past Math and World Languages, cause I mean really⍭⍭⍭⍭⍭

Luffy, while he liked Robin, couldn't say that he was particularly excited to be going to History. Math and World Languages were already so boring, not to mention he didn't get half of what the teachers were talking about.

As Luffy and his friends walked into the class, Robin greeted them by name. With everyone else, she just smiled. As the class started, Robin had everyone introduce themselves. The class was only about twenty people, and they would all probably work with each other at one point.

As for the class, Nami, Chopper, and Usopp were paying attention to what Robin was talking about. Zoro was asleep, although he'd probably just get Usopp or Chopper to help him later. Sanji was paying attention to Robin, just not really anything that she was teaching. Luffy was actually interested. It sounded like the class didn't have any particularly hard things in it, and the history she was going to be covering later on was about the world government and their encounters with pirates, although Luffy did doze off a few times when Robin started talking about some of the more boring stuff.

As the class started coming to an end, Robin had come to find some things about each member of the class. Luffy's friends were about exactly what he told her. Luffy however was still a bit of a mystery. He didn't seem to be particularly smart, and anything that didn't make sense to him he called a mystery. However from what Robin could tell, he seemed to be instinctively smart. Being a marine academy much of the history had to do with battles, and what happened. Luffy was able determine the mistakes of each side without much thought, although his reason for those mistakes was just because. He also didn't particularly like anything where someone got left behind, or on the other hand he thought the people that stayed behind to save everyone else were cool.

As the class ended, everyone started to leave. A few said goodbye, but called Robin by her first at her request. "Luffy can you come here" Robin called out. A few people snickered, although Robin's tone didn't indicate any type of problem.

"Yeah?" Luffy asked.

"Well I kind of wanted to know, how did you and your friends get into this school, it's not exactly easy to get into. At least you, Zoro, and Sanji don't seem particularly interested in this"

"Oh my grandpa got us all in" Luffy replied giving off a big grin.

"Getting six people into this academy isn't exactly easy" Robin commented.

"Well he's kind of scary, I'm not surprised"

"What's his name?" Robin asked. A lot of people who wanted to be higher ranking marines worked extremely hard to get into this academy, getting six people in that easily wasn't easy unless you had quite a few connections.

"Garp" Luffy replied shortly.

Robin gaped a bit "The vice-admiral?"

"Yeah"

Robin's mind blanked out a bit as she forgot what else she was going to ask "U-um, that's kind of an odd that you want to be a pirate then isn't it?"

"Well being a pirate sounds more fun, you can do whatever you want as a pirate"

"Ah, um anyways I'll see you tomorrow" Robin said. She was a bit worried that someone that high profile would recognize her. Most people only knew her by name, but she went by a different surname since and kept Robin since it wasn't all that uncommon as a name.