Breaking All the Rules

 

Chapter Two: Hello World

 

Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing.  Just borrowing.  You can borrow this story to with my permission.  I own a bunch of new characters. 

 

Author’s Note: I decided to challenge myself on this one.  I wanted to create an original character that was wonderfully original.  Not everyone from the cast is going to show up for this one.  As some of you already notice, no this isn’t going to be a Heero and Relena fic.  Aren’t some of you sick of reading about that pairing?  Here’s a real challenge that I’ve never seen done right an original character paired with Relena.  Okay, yes, I did do the standard Heero and Relena, but that was for one story.  Um…any reference to my 12^th grade AP English class or physics class is purely coincidental :-P.  And I’ve chosen yet another location for this story.  Let’s go Down Under.

 

*          *          *          *          *          *

 

Four Months Later, Sydney, Australia

 

            The bell signaled the start of another day of school for the early risers of the school.  It was only seven in the morning, but almost half the school were taking classes that early in the morning.  Hilde Schbeiker was so sleepy for these early morning classes.  She was sitting in her advancement placement English class for composition.  Her eyes were closing slowly as the teacher droned on and on.  She wasn’t listening to anything that the teacher was saying.  It all sounded like a foreign, unworldly language as the time pressed on.  She wasn’t really awake until eight in the morning, but she had to be up by 6:30 to go to school.  Sleep was starting to over take her.  A gently tapping at the back of her neck snapped her awake.  She looked up to see the English teacher, Mr. West, standing above her.  She smiled a little nervously at him. 

 

            “Ms. Schbeiker, please read the part of Vladimir,” instructed Mr. West with annoyance apparent in his voice.

 

            “Um…yes,” said Hilde as she read the lines from the book in front of her.  Soon, the bell rang and the class was over.  The students sped out of the room as Mr. West tried to tell them their homework assignments for the next day. 

 

            “Thanks for keeping me awake,” said Hilde as she walked out of class with the person who helped keep her awake in class.  He ran his fingers through his short, red hair.

 

            “No problem, Hilde.  Old Man West is more boring than Hell,” said the boy next to her.  He smiled at her as they got ready to go to the next class.  “Duo hopefully will be on time for our calculus class,” he added.

 

            “You’ve been living with him for three months now, do you think he’ll be on time?” asked Hilde with a laugh.

 

            “No, I don’t,” said the red head also with a laugh.

 

*          *          *

 

            Duo was at Relena’s house having breakfast with the Darlians while Hilde and his roommate were in their English class.  He always walked Relena to school because she didn’t want to be driven, and he was her protection from the Preventers.  Mrs. Darlian enjoyed having breakfast with both of them in the mornings.  Duo wasn’t really an early riser; he’d throw his pillow at his roommate’s alarm clock every Monday through Friday as part of his morning ritual.  “I don’t get up that early unless there’s a war,” he said often.  The oddest thing was that Duo made it right on time to the Darlians for breakfast.

 

            “What do you think will be on the Physics test today?” asked Relena as she sipped her orange juice, then buttered her English muffin.

           

            “I have no idea.  All I know is, we messed up the last two experiments, Relena,” answered Duo with a grin as he took a bite of his English muffin.

 

            “What exactly happened?” asked Mrs. Darlian with curiosity. 

 

            “We were supposed to put a circuit together and measure volts using different conductors,” replied Relena. 

 

            “Yeah, but someone hooked it up wrong, and it shorted,” added Duo.

 

            “I wasn’t the one who did it.  You did,” said Relena calmly.

 

            “Oh, that’s right!” exclaimed Duo. 

 

            “But that’s only one experiment, Relena.  What about the other one?” asked Mrs. Darlian patiently.

 

            “Oh, will you look at the time?  It’s time we get going to school.  We don’t want Duo to be late again for his Calculus class,” said Relena as she kissed her mother goodbye for the day and went out the door grabbing her lunch.  Duo followed closely behind her, waving goodbye to Mrs. Darlian, “Later, Mrs. Darlian,”

 

            “Goodbye, Relena.  You too, Duo,” said Mrs. Darlian.

 

            Relena and Duo set off for school.  Relena waved to Pargan who was in the garden, so did Duo.  It was going to be another day at Augustine High School of the Sciences and Arts in Sydney.  

 

*          *          *

 

            Duo and Relena went their separate ways after Duo walked her to class to make sure that she got there safely.  After that he took off sprinting for his Calculus class.  He took his seat behind his roommate.  The teacher was about to begin the lecture for the day, and Duo just barely got there on time.  The bell rang to start class. “Ah, Mr. Maxwell, you made it on time with five seconds to spare,” commented the Calculus teacher with a French accent.

 

            “At least you got here on time,” whispered his roommate.

 

            “God, Mr. Pierre should give me a break,” whispered back Duo.

 

            “Well, you have been late for almost all his classes,” whispered his roommate thoughtfully.

 

            “Gentlemen, will one of you state the definition of an anti-derivative for me in theory form?” asked Mr. Pierre.

 

            The two boys pointed at each other rather than answere the question.  At the same time, they exclaimed, “He wants to do it!”

 

*          *          *

 

            Relena was actually running late for her archery class, when she ran into someone in the hall.  “OUCH!” she exclaimed as she scrambled to pick up her book bag, and the person helped her.  She looked to see a boy with orange-red hair and a lanky built with the lightest green eyes she had ever seen.  They were almost cat-like.  “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he mumbled.  He was wearing the school track uniform, and he simply walked passed her after he apologized.  Most people would have gone out of their way to make sure that she was fine, but there was something refreshing about someone just acting normal around her.  That was all Relena really wanted: she wanted to be normal.

 

            It was a tall order considering that she was still the Foreign Vice Minister Earth and the Colonies.  However, Relena decided after the Mariemeia Barton Incident that she wanted to have a normal life.  She wanted to go a high school of her choosing.  Mrs. Darlian was a graduate of Augustine.  The school was different from public and private schools.  Basically, there were three ways to get into the school: art, science, and straight academic testing.  Art meant that the student had to present a portfolio of his or her art, whether it was drawings or pictures of sculptures.  Some arts students brought their sculptures to the committee to show them.  Arts also included the performance art as well, where the students have to perform scenes from a play, do a speech, or write a one act play.  Those on a science track had to do an experiment and document it.  Although, it is not limited to the hard core sciences, but also included young mathematicians and mechanics who put together some of the most amazing mobile things.  Finally, straight through academic testing, which was the hardest way to get into the school.  Very few people tried to enter Augustine that way because it was a brutally round of tests that was composed of nearly a dozen subjects.  Anyone could apply to the school, but to get in required these tests.  Relena wanted to go the school, so that she would also be close to home because Mrs. Darlian had settled in Australia after Mr. Darlian had died.  Mrs. Darlian spent the last years of her childhood in Australia.  It was wonderful to be at home with her mother. 

 

            She looked at her watch and realized that she was going to be late for her archery class.  Relena had to stop at the equipment managers place after changing to get her archery equipment.  Relena was the reigning champion from last year’s competitions in archery.  It was only a national competition, but she was proud of herself.  Her mother, Pargan, Duo, and Hilde were there to cheer her on, and she had every intention of impressing them at the next competition, which was only a few months away.  Relena was doing well in school, and she was glad to be out of math, but she still took science classes.  Anatomy and Physiology with Hilde; Duo thought of taking the class with them, but it was before lunch and he didn’t want to dissect anything before then.  Duo and Relena took Physics together.  She wasn’t doing as well as she hoped, but Duo was her lab partner, so she was doing better than expected. 

 

            Her favorite class wasn’t any of the academic classes like the science ones or even the social studies classes.  No, Relena’s favorite class was the drama and performing arts class.  She loved doing plays and dances on stage.  Perhaps, it was because Mrs. Darlian was a ballerina her time when she attended the school.  Relena wasn’t much of a dancer.  Just average, but she was excellent at delivering long monologues on stage.  It was her experience as the Foreign Vice Minister that allowed her to do so well in the class.  Relena suddenly remembered that she had seen the boy she had ran in the drama class.  ‘What was his name again?  I can’t remember.  He’s always so quiet in the class.  I really should pay better attention,’ thought Relena.

 

            “Miss Darlian, you’re almost late for class,” said the coach, Ms. Perkins rather sternly.  She was a great teacher, and Relena was her top student in the archery class, but she still couldn’t allow Relena to get away with being tardy to class. 

 

            “I’m sorry, Ms. Perkins,” said Relena as she got ready to do some archery.

 

 

*          *          *

 

            Duo was in the advance robotics class doing some work on a robotic arm.  Being a former Gundam pilot gave him an advantage over the other students, so he finished all his work early in the class.  The teacher, Mr. Williams, gave him other projects to do for extra credit.  He was so close to having Duo work on his car. 

 

            “Hey, Duo do you know how to fix up these wires?” asked the guy next to him.

 

            Duo looked at the small circuit board that the guy was working on with a partner, “No, don’t do it that way.  You’ve go these wires cross.  If you hook up the power source, you’ll probably end up with a smoking mass of metal and plastic,” he said.  The oddest thing was that Duo never made a mistake with wires in the robotics class, but he made mistakes in the Physics class.  Or maybe, he was subconsciously doing it to drive Relena nuts.

 

            “Oh!  Geez…Greg, we’ve got to change this around.  Thanks Duo,” said the guy as the went to his partner.

 

            Duo looked at the arm again.  He was so bored.  Really, really bored.  The class proved to be no challenge to him.  Maybe, he should have signed up for more challenging classes like his roommate.

 

*          *          *

 

            Relena came to her favorite class after three more classes.  It was the last class of the day because later on when the stage productions started, they would need to stay after school.  She looked around for the guy who she had ran into earlier.  She finally spotted him sitting at his desk reading a book, Waiting for Godot.  It was obviously for the advance placement English class that Hilde was in.  Relena walked over to him.  She had already taken the English exams and was no longer in English.  “Interesting reading,” she said.

 

            He looked at her with his cat-like, light green eyes, which looked almost sleepy or rather bored.  “No, it’s not.  It’s boring,” he said calmly as he returned to his book. 

 

            “Do you know Hilde Schbeiker?” she asked.

 

            “Yes, I sit behind her in West’s class,” answered the boy without looking up from his book.  She looked at him.  He was pretty lean in built, but he was a track athlete.  He wasn’t as tall or muscular like Duo, but he was made of more compact muscle.  His hair were in short spikes that were sort of messy.  On his ear he wore an ear cuff earring and he had a jade bead bracelet.  He wore a short sleeve, black button up shirt and a pair of stonewash blue jeans.  On his feet were a pair of sneakers that were pretty fast looking.   

 

            “Is it true that he’s boring?” asked Relena.

 

            “Yep,” replied the boy, again without looking up at her.

 

            Finally, the drama teacher, Mr. Durant started the class.  He was a lean man in his early fifties and his hair was silvery gray.  Mr. Durant was an experience actor who graduated from the top acting school in Europe.  He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company before he chose to become a teacher at Augustine.  He was a man who was passionate about everything that he did, so Relena found the class even more enjoyable.  She was still bothered with the fact that the boy she had been talking to had been in her class all this time, and she couldn’t, for the life of her, remember his name.  Now she was thinking about what his name was.  That was the thing that was bothering her.  Had he always been in the class?  Of course, now she felt worst for not remembering his name.  Not that she would admit it. 

 

            “Up to this date, all of you have been learning how to put a play together and how to perform.  Now comes a true challenge: we’re going to start putting on plays.  There will be three plays, so that means that there will be three groups.  One group will start with performing on stage for the first play.  Another group will be coming up with the play that has to be performed and finding just the right actors or actresses for the parts from the first group.  The final group will be the crew and stage hands.  This group will be in charge of costuming, lighting, other effects, plus refreshments for everyone, including yourselves.  I want all of you to think of this as a real playhouse and a real theater.  That means you must all act as professionals.  Also, the groups can be rotated at any time to best suit whatever play we’re going to do.  If the play requires more players than the first group, then other players will be pulled from the other two groups.  However, each group will be made up of pairs.  As a pair, you will practice the lines for the plays.  Be as professional a possible,” said Mr. Durant. 

 

            “How are we going to partner up?” asked Sandy, a short girl with curly blonde hair.

 

            “I was just getting to that.  I’ll be pairing everyone off and putting up the list for the groups,” said Mr. Durant.  A collective groan could be heard from the class.  It didn’t matter to Relena; she didn’t care because she could work with almost anyone.  She looked to see the boy, whose name that she couldn’t remember, talking to one of the other boys.  She was trying to listen to them with hopes that the other boy, whose name was Dennis, would say the his name.  Relena wasn’t about to admit that she couldn’t remember the green eyed boy’s name.  She wasn’t paying attention to Mr. Durant when he heard her call out the names, but when he called hers, she snapped to attention.

 

            “Relena Darlian and Derek Yarden,” said Mr. Durant.  ‘Who was that?’ she thought, ‘Oh great, someone else, I can’t remember.’ She slumped in her chair.  There was a gently tap on her shoulder, looking up she found herself looking into the light green eyes of the mystery boy whose name she couldn’t remember.  ‘Great, figures…wait, what did Mr. Durant say his name was?’ she thought.  She wanted to smack her forehead, but that would give him a bad impression.  Relena wished that she had paid better attention when Mr. Durant called out the names.

 

            “Hello,” said the boy in a soft voice that sounded rather tired.

 

            “Hello, my name is Relena Darlian,” said Relena, thinking that it was best to say her name and offered her hand for a handshake.  He looked at the hand with a smirk.

 

            “I know, Relena, and my name is Derek Yarden, but you already knew that,” he said, maintaining the smirk on his face as he shook her hand. 

 

            “Well, I look forward to working with you, Derek,” said Relena, sensing the sarcasm in his voice.  ‘What a jerk!  Why does this kind of thing always happen to me when I met someone new, my age?  Well, I already feel embarrassed, but at least he hasn’t pulled any weapons on me yet, or has threatened to kill me,’ she thought ruefully.  The bell rang signaling the end of class.  Relena and Derek left after checking the list to see what group they were in.  They were in the crew and stage hand group.  That was easy compared to other two groups.  Relena prayed that they wouldn’t land on the directing group for the final project because everyone would rely on that group to make or break the entire class’ grades.

 

            “I’ll see you later,” said Relena as she walked off away from Derek.

 

            “Yeah, later, Relly,” he said with a smirk as he went off.

 

            “That’s RELENA!” shouted Relena in agitation. 

 

            “I know that, Relly,” said Derek sweetly as he took off.

 

            Relena had never been so embarrassed and annoyed all in one day.  That happened before at the St. Gabriel’s Institute, but that wasn’t her fault.  In the case of today, it was.  She couldn’t believe that the person who was her partner was that boy.  How aggravating.  How annoying.  How impossible.  Of course, that would happen to her.  Relena should have known her luck by now, but she was an unbridle optimist.

 

*          *          *

 

            Duo was at home by about four because he had to escort Relena home.  She seemed to be a little annoyed at something, but he was afraid to ask.  When he finally got home to the studio apartment, he was trying to finish off his Calculus homework, but got bored.  If only his roommate would come sooner, but he was at a track meet until five.  Duo could call Hilde, but she was at a dojo downtown participating in a tournament and it wasn’t the right day for practice.  Each of them were taking some form of sports: Hilde was taking karate, Duo’s roommate was on the track and field team, Relena was on the archery team, and Duo was on the soccer team. 

 

            Duo took a break and picked up his hacky sack.  He started to play around with it and did several moves for the next fifteen minutes without dropping it.  He wasn’t the soccer team’s star center for nothing.  The sound of the door being opened is what made him stop suddenly.  His roommate came in removing his helmet and shaking his head.

 

            “How’s the track meet?” asked Duo.

 

            “Fine, what are you doing?” asked his roommate.

 

            “Nothing,” answered Duo. 

 

            His roommate sighed and put down his helmet next to his motorcycle keys.  He dumped his bag and kicked off his shoes.  Walking over to the closet, he grabbed a towel and some clothes, and he walked off to the bathroom.  The next sound that Duo heard was the sound of running water from the shower.  Duo was feeling a little mischievous, so he made a mad dash for the kitchen sink and turned it on. 

 

            “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHAAAA!  IT’S HOT!  WHAT THE FREAKIN’ HELL!  DUO STOP PLAYING WITH THE KITCHEN SINK!!!” shouted his roommate from the top of his lungs.  Duo was too busy laughing to think of turning off the sink, but he turned it off after another minute.

 

            Ten minutes later his roommate emerged from the bathroom with a scowl on his face.  He looked like pissed off as all hell as he glared at Duo, who was sitting on his bed looking rather innocent.  He was sitting at the top of his bunk.  The beds were bunks with desk underneath to create more space in the small studio apartment. 

 

            “You are really messed up you know that, Duo,” said his roommate in a low dangerous tone. 

 

            “Huh?” said Duo as he batted his eyelashes at him, “Me?”  Before Duo could make anymore comments, his roommate threw a pillow at him, which he didn’t see coming.  His roommate was fast and agile, so he climbed up the ladder without any trouble.  He still looked red from the hot water from the shower with his orange-red hair to match, he looked like a cooked lobster.  Duo started laughing at him because he looked funny.  His roommate got him into a headlock.

 

            “Okay, okay, okay.  I’m sorry.  I can’t breathe, Derek,” gasped Duo.  He was out of breath from laughing, but more from the headlock.

 

            “You are a real dumbass,” said Derek as he managed to throw Duo off the bed.  It wasn’t very high up, about five feet, but Duo landed with a thud and a groan.  “I’m happy now,” said Derek with satisfaction. 

 

            “Fine…I was bored again,” said Duo.

 

            “You need constant supervision, Duo,” said Derek angrily.

 

            “Oh, I found out from Relena that she’s your partner in the drama class, so that means that you were finally formally introduced to her,” said Duo.

 

            “Yeah, it’s no big deal, Duo.  So what if she’s the foreign vice minister?  You said that she was coming to the school so that she can have a normal life for awhile,” said Derek with a dismissive shrug. 

 

            Duo smiled at his comment because Derek really didn’t care that she was the foreign vice minister.  He really admired his roommate’s calm and laid back attitude.  However, there were times when Duo wondered about Derek.  He was a strange one because he never really talked about himself if he could avoid it.  It gave him an air of mystery, and he appeared to be a slacker, unless on the track.  Derek was secretive about his life.  As far as Duo knew, Derek didn’t have parents like him, but Duo had no idea how he lost his parents.  Derek was also very advance in a number of subjects in school, but he took some lower level classes.  All in all, Derek was a great roommate.  Duo felt like Derek was like a brother to him, but he was fair more sensible than Duo. 

 

            It was rather nice living in Australia.  It wasn’t the place really, but the people that made things so wonderful.  Duo took the assignment of protecting Relena with a grain of salt.  It was just a job as far as he was concerned.  Duo didn’t really know Relena all that well, except when it came to Heero.  Duo thought that Relena was a brainless fool when it came to Heero; he thought that she was rather annoying.  As a foreign vice minister, he respected her for doing such an excellent for anyone their age, but as a person, he didn’t think that highly of her at the time.

 

            Things changed after he took the assignment, and he soon realized that he prejudged Relena’s whole personality.  Soon, the two of them had a brother-sister like relationship.  Duo protected her, and Relena reserved the right to stop him from doing reckless things.  For the first time in a long time, Duo had a family.  Derek was like a brother, while Relena and Hilde were like sisters.  Hilde moved to Australia at Duo’s urging to go to the same school as him and Relena.  Relena was the first one of the group to go there, and Derek was the last to join them.  To top it off, Mrs. Darlian acted like a mother to Hilde and Duo as well.  Duo always came early to the Darlian home, and Mrs. Darlian would always invite him to have breakfast.  That was how Duo ended having breakfast at the Darlians all the time.  Duo wanted to introduce Derek to Relena sooner, but Derek didn’t really care at all.  He wondered what would happen next.  He hoped that his two best friends would get along fine. 

 

            Derek finally climbed down from the bunk and helped Duo up from the floor.  “I’m tired,” announced Derek as he walked over to his bunk and climbed up.  Duo turned back to his open Calculus book and decided that he should get back to work.  He turned to look and noticed that Derek was already asleep.  He sighed and did his homework quietly.  He would take ordinary life over  war any day of the week.

 

Chapter Three: Why Me?