The Players

"Let's play a game"

"Aria! We're going to be late! Get down here!"

"We're already late, Claude. School started nearly 10 minutes ago."

"What? My watch says it's only 7:30."

"Yes, and every other clock in the house has a different time."

"What? Did you… Why would you take the time to change every single clock in the house? You wanted to be late didn't you, Sebastian?!"

"I like being fashionably late. Irritating you by doing that is just a plus."

"Sebastian!"

"Claude!"

"Will the both of you shut the hell up? It's too early for this." I groaned, walking down the spiraling staircase.

"Well look who decided to finally grace us with her presence." Sebastian smiled, bowing sarcastically.

"Did you just wake up?" Claude asked, frowning.

I glared at him.

"Aria, it's the first day of school. " He chastised.

"Is that supposed to mean something?"

"Yes. It means that you should at least change into actual clothes and brush your hair."

"Why should I? It'd just give people the wrong idea."

"Aria." He snapped.

"Claude." I snapped back.

"Sebastian!" We both turned to the offending noise, disapproving glares on our faces. Sebastian was smiling carelessly as usual.

He shrugged at our glares.

"I felt left out. Anyways, Aria, you can at least brush your hair."

"I did brush my hair." They both looked at my hair doubtfully.

"It's in a bun." I defended.

"I tried, Claude..." Sebastian said laughing, holding his hands up in mock-surrender. Claude pushed his glasses up on his nose and huffed.

"Let's just go before we miss all of first period. Sebastian you're going to fix all of these clocks when we get back."

"No, I'm not." He retorted childishly.

"Do you wish to die before we even get to school?" Claude deadpanned.

"You're both so touchy in the mornings." Sebastian commented, walking to the front door.

Claude and I followed suit.

I honestly didn't understand why they made such a fuss about my appearance. I did brush my hair. With my fingers. And I changed out of my pajama pants and put on my favorite black jeans. I was still wearing the faded band t-shirt I slept in, but so what? I'd even bothered to put on a bit of eyeliner. That's as put together as I possibly could be before noon.

...

Apparently, Sebastian had lied about changing the time on every clock, evident by the fact that students were still loitering outside the school talking animatedly. It was all some elaborate plan he had put too much effort into just to irritate Claude. His efforts went unappreciated as I didn't find it that funny and Claude gave him a half-hearted lecture.

Dread settled deep within my stomach as I saw the amount of girls waiting in the parking lot. Some held signs with my brothers names on them others aimed for a different kind of attention wearing clothes that clearly violated the dress code.

My brothers were... popular… to say the least. Girls constantly threw themselves at them. Personally, I didn't see what all the fuss was about. They were both idiots.

And as for myself- I tried to go as unnoticed as possible. I wasn't one for attention; which might come as a surprise knowing my brothers. I hated when people stared at me and tripped over themselves for my attention. I preferred to keep my distance and hoped others would do the same.

Claude's recently purchased BMW was apparently a dead giveaway to the girls waiting for us, as they started cheering and screaming as soon as Claude turned into the parking lot.

Girls swarmed the car as soon as it was parked. Claude got out immediately, worried that the girls might damage the car if he stayed in it. Sebastian sent a wink my way before he got out of the car as well. He knew how uncomfortable this whole situation made me.

I sighed and grabbed my tote bag before stepping out of the car.

You would think my brothers were celebrities, they were signing so many autographs. Well Sebastian was. Claude was busy loading gifts into the car. I was surprised he didn't just dump them all in the dumpster.

"Sebby!" A shrill voice. A flash of red. I groaned. Loudly. It went unheard under the noise of the crowd.

Grell Sutcliffe was loud in every sense of the word. He wore red like it was the only color that existed, yet at the same time he wore the school uniform, which was not actually enforced, under a deep red coat. His long hair was dyed a red not found in nature, and red glasses sat above his impossibly yellow-green eyes which just had to be contacts. In short, I couldn't stand the sight of him and neither could Sebastian.

"Sebby!" He was clawing through the crowd of girls, pushing them out of his way to get closer.

Did I mention that Grell Sutcliffe was in love with Sebastian?

Sebastian scowled momentarily then plastered on a grin.

"And that's my cue to leave." He turned to me and planted a sloppy kiss on my forehead.

"See you later, Aria! Have a good day at school! Ooh, Claude! Queen Bitch at 3 o'clock!" I glared at him as he sprinted away and wiped his slobber from my face.

"Claude." An icy voice stated behind me. I turned and saw Alexandrina Victoria, commonly known as Victoria, walk up to my brother. The crowd of girls had parted for her and the crowd had gone completely silent. Victoria was the queen of the school. Cross her and she would ruin your life, your parents life, your children's and your grandchildren's lives. Her white-blonde hair shined in the light, her pale skin was flawless and her icy blue eyes screamed power.

For some absurd reason Victoria thought that I told Claude not to date her because I didn't like her, as if he would listen to me. So, naturally, she hated me. Among other reasons I'm sure. Not that she would always show it. Most of the time she would completely ignore my existence. Like now, for example.

"Victoria." Claude said back just as icily, turning to face her. Victoria had the best grades in the school and the money to back it. She was probably accepted into Yale and Harvard in kindergarten. Though he would never admit it, Claude resented her for being on the same level if not higher than him. Their relationship was… complicated… to say the least.

Victoria had a permanent scowl to her beautiful face but a smile teased her mouth as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. Soon they were making out in front of an entire crowd without a care in the world and it disgusted me twice as much as it irritated me so I turned on my heel and walked into the school building. My locker was in the same place it was last year so I went to go put my books away before first period started.

"Hannah, shut the fuck up. I didn't ask for your opinion."

"Alois, do you have to talk to her like that?"

"Yes, I do. Hannah doesn't care anyways. Isn't that right Hannah?"

"Anyways, back to what I was saying. Ciel, you have to come with us to the Back to School party next Saturday. I'll drag you there if I have to."

A group of idiots were talking and the blonde one was leaning against my locker.

Great, I sighed, confrontation.

I walked up to them.

"I don't care that Sebastian and Claude are going. I'm not gay, Alois, I don't think they're all that attractive."

There were 4 of them. A blonde girl, a blonde boy, a boy whose hair was obviously dyed a blackish-blue, and a girl with hair dyed grey. I think I've seen some of them before but I don't pay enough attention to learn anyone's names.

"Not attractive?!" The blonde cried, incredulously.

"You're talking about the very sex gods that bless us with their presence every day! And ugh, Claude, the things that man could do with those fingers and I bet he's got the biggest-"

"Excuse me." I interrupted, not wanting to hear speculation on my brother's penis size. I'd already heard it too many times before.

The blonde and his friends looked over to me in mild interest but their eyes widened as they realized who I was.

"You're leaning on my locker." I said, pointing to the black locker behind the blonde.

He looked both flustered and confused and had to look behind him to see what I was talking about.

"Oh! Oh...um- yeah...sorry." He stuttered, his face turning crimson.

"Let's- um- let's go find where Mey-rin and the others are." He said to his friends and they quickly walked away.

I began to put in my combination to my locker. I could still hear their loud whispering conversation as they walked down the hall.

"Alois! Oh my god! That was Claude's little sister!"

"Don't you think I know that, Elizabeth!?"

"Oh my god! I bet she heard you what you said about Claude!"

"Ow! Why the fuck did you hit me?! It's not my fault! I didn't know she was standing there!"

"The point is that you shouldn't have been talking about something so indecent in the first place."

"Oh shut it, Ciel!"

I sighed, placing my books in my locker. It was times like this where I hated my inhuman hearing.

I shut the locker and looked for my class schedule in my tote bag. My fingers brushed against a crumpled piece of paper and I pulled it out, attempting to straighten it enough to read.

I groaned loudly when I realized that not only did I have math first period but also the strictest teacher in the entire school. Mr. Spears. I heard that last year he gave a kid a suspension for breathing too noisily.

A hand suddenly rested against the locker above mine and I felt the warmth of another body far too close to mine. I knew who it was just by the smell of his expensive cologne. Amazing start to my day, I thought bitterly.

"Why hello there, my loveliest dove." I rolled my eyes and ducked under his arm, heading towards my classroom, though I'd already forgotten which room it was. My direction didn't really matter as long as I got away from him.

"My dearest robin, I don't know why you always insist that I chase after you. I know that you enjoy playing hard to get with me but your behavior's a little childish, don't you agree?"

Incessant, mind numbing, ignorant, idiotic, self righteous, arrogant… I chanted all of the words that could describe him angrily.

My strategy of looking as plain as possible sadly did not work on everyone. Some saw straight through my guise. It was almost as if they were even more enthralled with me than if I had been trying to get their attention. It was the exact behavior I hated and wanted to avoid. One case in particular was the boy following me through the halls right now. Star cross country runner and second in school hierarchy only to Victoria and Claude: Aleistor Chamber. He was in short an arrogant asshole.

He had convinced himself the moment that he saw me that I was in love with him instead of the other way around.

"My prettiest bird, you've dropped something. Your schedule?" My eyes widened in panic and shock as I realized my schedule was no longer in my hand. Now he would know every single class I had and when. Great.

I stopped walking, defeated, and turned to face him, my arms crossed over my chest as I scowled at him.

"We don't seem to have any classes together. I'll have to change that. I wouldn't want my darling raven to be all by her lonesome."

Looking at him he didn't seem at all the type to be into sports. I had always assumed it was something his parents wanted him to do, not that I care enough to actually ask. He came to school in cashmere cardigans over pressed shirts as if he were a walking contradiction. What jock wore cardigans and dress shoes every single day?

"How many times have I told you that I am not your 'bird' Aleistor? Or your dove or raven or whatever else you want to call me. Seriously, I want you to count." I snapped. To his credit it wasn't as if he was bad looking. His shoulder length blonde hair and cerulean eyes were working to his advantage, but he was repulsive. He constantly called me horrid pet names and I knew for a fact that he used to dote on Victoria like this before Claude came into the picture. Once, when I let my guard down around him he licked inside my ear and the sensation and sound nearly made me vomit.

"Ah, you're beautiful face. How I've missed it so! Why didn't you come see me over the summer? I'm sure you missed me." And once again he's completely ignoring the words coming out of my mouth. People paid us no mind as they walked around us, though we were standing in the middle of the hallway. I began to wish one of his track buddies would come over and take him away from me.

We stood in silence for long minutes, since I refused to answer him, until the bell announcing the start of school rang. Aleistor immediately placed his arm around my shoulder, turning me around and pushing me along with him.

"Since we have no classes together I'll be a proper gentleman and walk you to your classroom." I sighed heavily, once again admitting defeat as I was tired of fighting him. Actually I was tired in general, too bad I couldn't get away with sleeping in Mr. Spears class.

Aleistor walked me to my classroom, which I was silently slightly grateful for.

"Be sure to tell your dearest brothers hello for me. I'll see you later, my ravishing robin." He smirked at me before walking down the hallway off to his own class.

I rolled my eyes and walked into class, just before the late bell rung. Aleistor hated my brothers. He's never said why exactly, but I imagine it has to do with Claude stealing Victoria from him and Sebastian becoming far more popular than he's ever been.

Mr. Spears was worse than the rumors. He ridiculed me for my lazy appearance as soon as I walked into class. And as he lectured the class about how tardiness for any reason was unacceptable, a kid walked into the class. The same blonde that was leaning against my locker.

Getting the chance to see him again, I noticed what he was wearing for the first time. He had on purple coat over a green button-up and black shorts shorter than I've ever seen any boy wear. On top of that he was wearing extremely tall socks that might have been some type of stockings that peeked over his knee high combat boots. His whole outfit was bizarre but oddly seemed to not look that strange on him. To top the look off his blonde hair hung low on his face and hints of metal appeared on his lip and ears.

"Sorry I'm late, teach'." He said, flippantly tossing a crumpled pink TARDY pass onto Mr. Spears desk. A few kids in the room giggled.

Mr. Spears, however, was not laughing. He slowly adjusted his glasses on his face with the tip of his pen and exhaled a breath.

The blonde had begun to walk towards an empty seat in the front of the class.

"Stop." The kid stopped and lazily turned around to face Mr. Spears.

"You will not enter my classroom like that. If you were here on time you would know that tardiness is not permitted in my class. So take this trash off of my desk and leave before I decide to take unnecessary time out of my life and suspend you, Mr...Trancy." Tension in the room rose as the kid stared Mr. Spears down and vice versa in complete silence. After about a full minute of tense staring the kid sighed loudly and walked out of the classroom, slamming the door closed behind him.

Mr. Spears narrowed his eyes at the sound and flicked the late pass off of his desk with a ruler.

Then, he immediately went back to his lecture.

...

Alois stomped his way into the cafeteria. The first day of school, the first period of the day and he'd already been threatened with suspension? It was a new record for him though he wasn't sure if he was happy or upset about it. Besides… he wasn't sure… but he thought that he had seen Aria Tamburlaine in that class. God damn Mr. Spears. Alois sighed in frustration. This year was going to be Hell if he couldn't switch out of that class. His other classes had gone fine but he felt extreme relief in the fact that it was finally lunchtime.

He moved on autopilot to the lunch table him and his friends had taken ownership of. There was little space on the bench for him and irritation flared up.

"Ciel." He snapped. The aforementioned Phantomhive looked up wearily at the sound of a familiar voice, interrupting his conversation with Soma. Ciel opened his mouth to speak but Alois cut him off abruptly-

"Move over or I'm gonna sit in your lap." Ciel rolled his eyes but moved over until there was enough space for the blonde to sit.

Their group was a moderate size. There were 12 of them in total counting Alois. Ciel, Elizabeth, Soma, Finnian, Bardroy, Mey-rin, Agni, Hannah and her groupies Thompson, Timber, and Canterbury.

"Someone's in a bad mood." Ciel commented sourly.

"He's always in a bad mood." Elizabeth cut, looking at the blonde in disapproval.

"Shut up." Alois snapped back, running a hand tiredly through his hair.

"What happened, Alois?" Soma asked with genuine curiosity.

"I got stuck with Spears first period. He kicked me out as soon as I walked in."

"I tried tellin' you but you wouldn't to listen to me." Bardroy huffed, tipping his chair backward and resting his feet on the table. "That asshole hates it when people are late."

"You want a smoke?" Meyrin offered holding out something that looked like a cigarette. Alois eyed it in interest.

"I thought Pluto wasn't supposed to deliver until the end of the week." He reached out excitedly to take it from her. A hand suddenly swiped it away from his grasp.

Alois' eyes followed to hand back to the owner, frowning deeply when he saw who it was.

"What the fuck Hannah?!" Unwavering blue eyes stared back at him.

"Ugh! Seriously?! I told you to stop trying to control me you fucking bitch!" Timber, Canterbury and Thompson glared at him. He glared back and his mood soured further. Suddenly, a flash of black passed the corner of his eye. He looked up.

Aria was walking past their table with some tom-boyish looking girl talking animatedly to her. Odd, he thought, he didn't think that she ever went into the cafeteria and he'd never seen her walking with anyone other than her brothers or Aleistor Chamber.

He stared far longer than necessary and his friends soon followed his gaze.

"I still can't believe you said that about Claude right in front of her." Elizabeth commented snidely. Alois didn't bother responding to her. As soon as they'd met up with everyone she had immediately told everyone what exactly he had done and in great detail how bad it was and how terrible of a person he was.

"She's kind of hot…" He muttered absentmindedly. Her facial features were soft but striking at the same time, her hair was blacker than any black he'd ever seen and he had to suspect that it had been dyed (though her brothers shared the same trait), her eyes were lighter than blue and almost silver in the way they sparkled. At first glance she was at most pretty, but once he had taken a moment to actually look at her there was an unearthly beauty about her that seemed to be slipping through the mediocrity.

"Well, what do you expect? She's related to those guys." Bardroy quipped, rocking his chair back and forth.

"Are they actually related? They all have different last names." Finny questioned, launching the majority of the group into an argument.

Alois was turning around, suddenly aware that he had been staring for quite some time, when he noticed Ciel. He was staring at Aria as if in a trance. A sinister smirk appeared on Alois's face. A brilliant idea had just come to his sadistic mind.

"Ciel you sure are staring pretty hard over there." He said airily, as if he was commenting on the weather. Ciel snapped out of his trance and focused his attention on the blonde.

"See something you like?" Alois asked grinning smugly. Ciel's pale cheeks heated to a light red.

"Alois, stop bothering Ciel." Elizabeth cut in, before Ciel could answer. Alois, expecting her to say something, continued to stare Ciel down.

Ciel glanced at Elizabeth and she continued, an inch of hysteria lining her voice.

"Of course he wouldn't like her. She's nothing like me." The other people at their table were fully immersed in the controversial topic Finny had introduced and paid the three no mind. Elizabeth, still receiving silence as an answer, frowned.

"Right, Ciel?"

"Why don't you go over there and talk to her? If you don't, I will." Alois challenged, completely ignoring Elizabeth. Ciel frowned at him.

"Because you made such a great impression with her this morning." He scoffed. Alois smirked.

"At least she knows who I am. I can't say the same for you."

"I don't even want to talk to her." Ciel said unconvincingly. Alois lifted an eyebrow skeptically.

"See? I told you-" Elizabeth started only to be interrupted again.

"I've got a brilliant idea, Ciel." Alois announced finally. Ciel immediately looked wearily at him.

"Don't give me that look. So… let's make this year interesting. Let's play a game."

*As a side note the name "Alexandrina" comes from the Queen Kuroshitsuji is actually speaking of (I think)*

SO? How was it? I've been working on this story for the past year writing and rewriting and I've rewritten this chapter so many times! I think it's finally ready to be viewed by the public. I have a few more chapters that I deemed acceptable and just as many that are in progress. I'm quite bad at finishing my stories so it's really going to be up to your support! FOLLOW it if you're interested to let me KNOW that you are and maybe I'll be updating again within the month- we'll have to see.

I know it's kind of strange that Claude and Sebastian are students as they are usually teachers or professors in most stories concerning school/university. But hey! How dare you disrespect Sebastian like that by doubting his abilities! He can act out a high school boy better than you can! Also, as you can probably guess Ciel and Alois are about 15/16 in this story and their friends are of varying grade levels. And in reference to the summary although you all already know Aria isn't human I certainly won't be telling what she is anytime soon! You'll have to join me in this adventure to find out!

Until next time!