The day following her arrival on Earth, Relena goes in her special limousine to the St. Gabriel School which she attends regularly. There are many girls from nobility in this school, so the limousine is not an uncommon sight. Besides, the name of the family Darlian as the biggest multimillionaire at school is known among the pupils.
Even on the walk to her classroom, Relena is greeted politely by many of her schoolmates assembled there.
Is it because of the well groomed, shining hair and the nicely modulated voice that the wine red school uniform doesn't seem simple in the least? It's like a beautifully blooming flower moves in the masses. Every once in while a male student addresses her while passing her in the halls.
After Relena has taken her place, her classmates wish to chat with her. Maybe it's because they know that she was in space until yesterday together with her father. Even if they are children of aristocracy, only a handful of them ever gets to go to space, and that occurs much less frequently now that rumours of tensions with the colonies have been put into the world. They are not allowed to go into space unless there's a very special reason.
But for Relena, the colonies are nothing special. There is no difference between the humans living there and the humans on Earth. Life in the colonies is the same as on Earth. What is different is that the air and water necessary for human life have to be manufactured there by the humans themselves, else life is not possible. Nobody is interested in these kind of things. Therefore it's not a special subject. It's also stupid to explain right now what weightlessness is.
When Relena sighs, a class mate fortunately misunderstands this and opens her mouth to blame everybody.
"That's because Miss Relena must be tired."
The nature and subject of the talk change. But nevertheless the chat does not go away from the subject of Relena.
"Besides, tomorrow is Relena's birthday."
"I'm looking forward to it so much!"
It seems the talk of the girls does not want to end.
Then, finally, the class-teacher appears and the chatting stops by itself.
But when the pupils notice the boy following the teacher, they start again whispering among themselves.
"That kid..."
Relena is surprised. It's the boy she helped yesterday at the beach.
"Quiet please. I want to introduce you a new classmate."
Following the words of the teacher, the boy introduces himself with an unfeeling, indifferent voice.
"I'm Heero Yuy. Pleasure."
The boy is told to take an empty seat. He comes directly besides
Relena and sits down without greeting anybody in the vicinity.
"It's a pleasure, Heero."
Relena addresses the boy sitting on the seat between her and the aisle, but the boy who introduced himself as Heero only looks at the platform without even glancing at her.
What kind of child is that??
Relena senses her curiosity rising. This is very rare for Relena who has so far not shown great interest in other people. One could even say it's the first time with a boy.
She will try to talk to him during the break. She won't even ask him about yesterday.
Relena immediately decides on this course of action.
When the morning lessons are finished and lunch break starts, the pupils each enjoy their individual lunches on the terrace of the Café and relax. It's indeed a school with lots of aristocracy and multimillionaires.The colourful scene is far from the image of a formal school. Lounging around at teatime after lunch seems like a primitive imitation of aristocracy.
Relena quickly finishes her lunch and goes in search of Heero.
Heero has gone to the garden and stands alone on the protruding terrace. His gaze is directed to far beyond the garden and he doesn't move in the least. It's a posture saying there's nothing of interest in the vicinity. Or he wants to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. As if to prove this, nobody around Heero wants to look in his direction.
As soon as Relena sees Heero, she approaches him without hesitating. When they see this, the classmates finally come closer to the two of them, watching what is happening.
"Heero."
Relena addresses the boy, looking directly at him. But Heero watches the view outside, without intention to turn his head. It seems that looking at the trees is more interesting than looking at Relena.
"Tomorrow is my birthday. Surely you will come too?"
Relena stretches out
the invitation card as if she absolutely wanted him to accept
it.
"Aaahh!" cheer the classmates. It's a cheer to Relena's generosity, inviting even a transfer pupil she has just met.
Heero finally turns his head. He throws a glance at the card and then accepts it without saying anything.
Again cheering is heard.
But before it can end, Heero grabs the card with both hands
and, tearing it in two parts, he throws it away without showing
any emotion.
The card, torn as if it were garbage, dances in the wind.
"How could he..."
Before Relena notices herself, tears show in her eyes.
Is she sad because the invitation was torn up? Is it that Heero rejected her? Relena herself doesn't understand it. It's the first time she has experienced anything like this.
Then a stretched out finger softly wipes away the tear flowing down.
It's Heero's forefinger.
Relena startles and lifts her head while Heero passes beside her.
In that moment, she hears his soft whisper.
"I will kill
you."
He says it too clearly for her to think that she misunderstood.
A shock wracks Relena's whole body. She understand clearly enough from his voice that he's serious.
What.. what kind of person is that??!!
Even though Relena is surrounded by a whole bunch of classmates, Relena just stands in thoughts on the terrace, confused and as if she were all alone.