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[Elana]

Oryza felt ridiculous, holding ice to her eye and with a little square bandage over her nose (specially designed for Mametchi noses!). Just before what some might say is the highest pressure social moment of the school year: the first lunch.

Over the summer, friends can fight and new friends can be made, so it's a slightly shuffled social configuration that comes in to the school in the fall. Unresolved conflict that had simmered during months at camp or away, has settled into full-blown vendettas when they meet each other on the school battleground.

Not to mention the influx of new students in grade nine. They're all wide-eyed and fearful, white-knuckling their trays as their eyes dart around for the most socially strategic place to sit - or maybe the best hidden corner to hide - or maybe they just run to the bathroom and eat lunch there!

So Oryza was not pleased that her big debut on the cafeteria scene would also be her big debut as an Egyptian mummy. She sighed and picked at her white bandages, wondering if it would really be so bad to just take them off.

She was looking forward to seeing her old friends that she hadn't seen over the summer. Also, some of her friends' younger sisters were new grade nines at the school, and she wanted to say hello and make sure they were settling in okay. How are they supposed to recognize her like this? She looks like some sort of punk zombie.

She kept her head low as she made her way through the halls, avoiding eye contact. She took a deep breath before stepping into the cafeteria.

Bandai High's cafteria was its architectural pride. The school was originally built in the shape of a square, with an outdoor garden in the middle. When the school got bigger and bigger, they installed a glass ceiling over the central garden and put in floors, and made it into the beautiful cafeteria. The counters to get food lined the left wall when you walk through the front doors, and then stretching all the way back under the bright natural sunlight are rows of long tables. At the very back, sometimes they would set up a stage for school events. Arjen had certainly made that stage his more than once.

Closest to the food counters were the Hinatchis and Dorotchis who liked to play trading card games together at lunch. The first tables under the sunlight was usually full of uncertain younger students, too scared to go back any further into the cafeteria. Because no doubt, from the fourth or fifth row on, the caf was dominated by the older Tamagotchi. On the right, all the Mimitchis and Memetchis, who would sit on the tables instead of on the benches, and laugh really loudly while glancing about to make sure everyone was looking at them. Beyond them were the Ginjirotchi and Gozarutchi, trying to act tough to impress the girls. On the other side, the Marumimitchi, Zuccitchi, and Kiwitchi, secretly snickering at the Memetchis' behaviour.

Oryza's group of friends often didn't eat in the cafeteria, but in another small atrium in the east wing. It was quieter there, and they had staked their claim on that territory. But they still had to come in to the cafeteria to get the food.

It was very crowded that day, because of all the grade nines who were so anxious to make sure they had time to eat their lunch. Oryza pressed through the crowd and saw someone she recognized: Fang, the Hikotchi, the cousin of one of her good friends. She must be new at the school. She offered a smile and a wave before remembering that she was all wrapped in bandages.

[Chi]

"Who is that?" Fang racked her brain.  She had been sitting alone at one end of a table in the corner when another Tamagotchi had waved at her.  This Tamagotchi, however, was covered from head to toe in band-aids!  It looked like a mummy!  Did she know this person? 

Hmm...as the new kid, she hadn't expected to know anyone...wait!  Last year, Fang recalled, her parents, a Teketchi and a Pipotchi, had forced her to fly almost three hours straight to attend a family reunion!  Clearly, they didn't feel the strain of using their propulsion that much, but Fang wasn't even allowed to fly in the house!  They didn't know where she was coming from at all.  Anyway, when she was there, she had glimpsed one of her many cousins laughing and joking with a Mametchi.  And that bandage on the mummy's nose was made just for Mametchis...

"Oh dear!" Fang cried.  She jumped up, set her jets on medium, and rushed as fast as she could over to the poor Mametchi.  Surely she was the one who'd had that horrible accident that morning!  But, would the Mametchi appreciate talking to a freshman?  Fang stopped herself and wondered.  Before the Mametchi could see her, she ducked behind a pole.  Fang waited for her to ask what she was doing.  But the Mametchi walked right past her, past all the tables and out the door.

Finding herself with nothing better to do, Fang wondered where she was going.  As quietly as she could, she zipped after her, her jets humming softly through the halls.  Soon enough they exited the building.  Across the courtyard the Mametchi went, and Fang followed.  Finally, she found herself at a secluded table in the shadow of the east wing of the school.  A group of other Tamagotchis warmly greeted the Mametchi. 

"So she was just eating lunch in a different place!" Fang would have slapped herself on the forehead if she'd had hands.  As she quietly headed back to the cafeteria, someone behind her yelled,

"Who are you?"

[Koluki]

Michaela Morysha, whom adults clled Mikki and students knew as Madame Morysha, the Fuwaratchi, grabbed her students' textbooks from her car. She was tired, after spending almost all of the lunch break helping James Wand clear up a mess in a classroom. Mikki hated the first days at school every year, and this year, with her little baby Spark, was already proving to be even harder. She'd been late because she'd had to drop Spark at the primary school.

Mikki was primarily a Dance teacher, but she did teach the Tama Politics unit too. She picked up the Tama Politics class roll, put it on top of the pile of Tama Politics textbooks, and walked over to the classroom. She scanned the roll. Most of the students she knew. She was pleased to see that Oryza Mameshima was in her class again that year. Oryza was always a pleasure to teach.

"Fang Yashashii?" Mikki muttered to herself. She expected this Fang must be a new student or something. She didn't know her.

Arjen Kusajko and Heyzen Kamoshizo were in her class too, she noted. She'd never taught either, but they were supposed to be good students. Overall, Mikki thought she had a class she could live with. Little did she know...

(I thought this was a great idea, so I revived the thread. Is it alright to have a teacher as my character?)