March 10th — School
Students—especially teenagers—are naturally loud. But that morning, the chatter went too far.
Walking down the ground-floor hallway, you could hear it coming from Room 202, the second-year high school class. The students wouldn't sit still. The buzz was so loud you could barely make out individual words. Something big was going on in there.
The Biology teacher was practically losing it, feeling her blood rush to her head. She was a medium-height woman with glasses, light brown hair tied back. Usually she was in a good mood—just not today.
"SILENCE! PAY ATTENTION! SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW OR I'LL SCHEDULE A TEST FOR NEXT CLASS!"
That was her last resort. Nothing was more effective than threatening a test with barely any time to study.
The students—especially the girls—finally turned to her, annoyed.
"Ugh, teacheeer… But the new student didn't even introduce himself."
"Yeah… we have to know who he is, riiiight…"
The audacity, the teacher thought, adjusting her glasses, with no patience left to argue.
With no better option, she decided it would be easier to give in than keep fighting.
"Fine. Stand up and introduce yourself, student…"
Slouched awkwardly at his desk with his head lowered was a red-haired boy, clearly irritated by the girls standing around him.
At the teacher's command, he stood, walked to the front of the room, and faced the class—his posture straight, but tense.
"Hi. I'm Adonis."
After that, he went right back to his desk.
The curious girls were disappointed, wondering why it had been such a short answer. The teacher gave him an approving nod, grateful that it had ended quickly.
"Perfect. Thank you, and welcome. If anyone wants to know more, go interview him during recess."
The girls still wouldn't let it go. They kept staring at him, whispering, obsessed with Adonis's looks.
"So handsome…"
"So cute!"
"A Greek god!"
"I'd date him."
WHAT… WHAT KIND OF COMMENTS ARE THESE? the redhead thought, appalled.
The first three periods flew by. The new student was the main topic all over the school. Then the bell rang, and the classes went out for recess.
Recess
That morning, unlike any other, Aino was radiant. She walked across the courtyard as if she were floating.
When she spotted the girls, she ran over and, with a huge smile, asked:
"GIRLS!!! ISN'T TODAY AN AMAZING DAY TO BE ALIVE?!"
"YEEEEES!!!" Akiko answered.
"Why?" Miyu asked.
"No." Yukino and Naoko replied, dripping sarcasm.
Aino didn't even register their answers.
"Did you see the suuuper cute boy who transferred into the second year today?"
"None of us are in second year," Naoko pointed out.
"I'm not interested in staring at a guy," Yukino said, frowning.
"Look at him over there—surrounded by his faithful admirers!" Aino said, pointing. She wasn't listening; she just wanted to show them the boy she'd taken an interest in.
On the other side of the courtyard, Adonis stood there, irritated, stuck in the middle of a group of girls crowding around him.
I just wanted to eat… he thought, feeling his anger rise.
And the questions came, one after another:
"Single?"
"Where are you from?"
"Go out with me?"
They wouldn't stop. The same questions and comments, over and over. He could tell it would never end.
Back on the other side, Aino kept going.
"You know what they're calling him? Greek God! Because his name is Adonis."
"But Adonis isn't a Greek god," Miyu explained. "He's a mythological figure. And he was killed by a boar."
"He's not even all that," Yukino muttered, still annoyed. "They're just excited because he's new."
"I feel sorry for him. He looks completely uncomfortable," Naoko said, bothered.
"WHO?" Akiko asked, totally lost.
Aino, now impatient with her friends' comments, dropped her smile and furrowed her brows.
"UGH! GREEK GOD AND MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURE ARE PRACTICALLY THE SAME THING! AAAH—FORGET IT. I GIVE UP ON YOU GUYS!" Aino snapped, clenching her fists.
She turned and walked away, huffing and muttering to herself.
"Wow. She really got irritated," Naoko commented.
Miyu and Yukino just watched the little drama. Akiko kept wondering what had happened.
Recess ended, and everyone went back to class. The day continued normally. After the break, there were only two more periods, and even those passed quickly.
When noon came, the familiar bell-melody played, and the students rushed out, excited to finally go home.
Everyone was in a hurry—especially Adonis, still the target of affectionate attention from the girls.
When his patience reached its limit, he took off running to get away from them.
"Wait, Adonis—let us walk with you!" one of his classmates offered sweetly.
"I CAN'T. I'M IN A HURRY."
"He's so cute…" a student whispered.
"Bye, Adonis, Greek god!" another called out.
He ran faster than normal. People on the street noticed and looked worried, as if he might be involved in some school fight.
"I NEVER WANT TO GO BACK THERE AGAIN!" Adonis burst out, sweaty and out of breath, his heart pounding.
He truly meant it. In his mind, he was already done with that school—his first day had been the weirdest experience of his life.
He lived in a building near the school, about ten to fifteen minutes on foot. That day, he made it in five.
The building was relatively old, but well kept. The upside was that the apartments were usually bigger than the newer ones. The area was close to downtown and near the soccer stadium—yet the street itself was quiet.
What was that? What a bunch of crazy people, he thought, catching his breath and calming down.
He pulled the key tag from his pocket, unlocked the entrance, and headed to the elevator.
"That's it. Today's over. I need to mentally prepare for tomorrow," he muttered to himself, taking advantage of being alone.
Once the first wave of anger passed, he began to accept that he would have to live with the school's annoyance.
He reached his apartment on the fourteenth floor, unlocked the door, stepped inside, sighed again—then turned and froze.
"KOA—WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
"I'm shocked too," Koa replied. "I was assigned to accompany your mission."
Koa was tall—1.87 meters—dark-skinned, with short white hair. His well-defined body bore a few scars. He had jade-green eyes, and on the left side of his face there was a cut scar running from his eye to his jaw.
He looked imposing, but he could also move silently, almost stealthily. He wore hoops and piercings. His clothes were black, with leather accessories and chains. His expression wasn't exactly friendly.
"But… wasn't it supposed to be Itzel?" Adonis asked.
Koa found the slang odd, but answered:
"He's already busy with his own missions. So I was sent."
Adonis was resilient; his body no longer looked as tense now, and he started getting ready to eat.
That didn't change the fact that the day had been surprising in every possible way.
And he wasn't excited for the rest of the week at all.
Next Day — School
That morning, the school had a different air.
During recess, students from every grade were called to hear an important announcement. The new students didn't really know what it was, but the older ones seemed to know exactly what was coming—and they were thrilled.
"STUDENTS! LET'S GATHER FOR AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!" said the Biology teacher, Mira.
Mira raised her hand and pointed up toward the sky, making the moment dramatic.
"THE GINCANA SEASON IS OPEN!"
The news was received with excitement. Students cheered, shouted, jumped—clearly they had been waiting for that moment all year.
"I CAN FEEL YOUR ENERGY! THE TEAM LEADERS WILL BE THE 1ST, 2ND, AND 3RD YEARS! THE OTHER GRADES WILL BE SPLIT AMONG THEM! WE'LL DRAW LOTS!" the teacher said, energized.
"Already…?" Yukino stared, wide-eyed, not excited at all.
The rules were simple: there would be three teams. The leaders would be the high school grades. The middle school grades—from fifth through eighth—would be distributed among the teams.
"What kind of challenges are there?" Miyu asked.
Everyone participated, and students could choose categories where they could contribute best. There were arts challenges, sports competitions, and quiz-style rounds. Some students were hyped; others treated it like an annoying obligation.
"WOO! FESTIVAL! GINCANA!" Akiko cheered. She had never taken part in school gincanas back on her planet, but her heart told her it would be great.
The winning team received +1 added to the final grade average in every subject. Second place got +0.75, and third place got +0.5. That was why the dispute was always so fierce.
A crowd chanted in unison in the background: "UHH, IT'S THE SENIORS! UHH, IT'S THE SENIORS!" It was the final-year class with their standard chant—one that had existed for decades in many schools across the country.
"ARE YOU SUMMONING SOMETHING?" Naoko blurted out. She still couldn't get used to her classmates. The chanting, the circles, the hugging and jumping—it felt completely bizarre.
"WHAT IS THIS? IS IT SOME KIND OF RITUAL?" Adonis added. As if the first day hadn't been strange enough, now the second day felt even worse.
"Hahahaha! You're so funny, Adonis," a classmate said. Since they didn't know he was from another planet, they assumed he was just joking about school life.
The school's standard colors were red, white, and blue—official colors for all activities.
Once the first draw was done, the groups had their team colors, which would guide the themes for presentations, chants, and of course the team name. And everything had to connect to the gincana's overall theme, chosen by the teachers' council and announced when preparations officially began.
The teacher picked up the microphone again.
"First Year will be the Red Team! Second Year will be the White Team! And the Seniors will be the Blue Team!"
She paused, then delivered the last news.
"And this year's theme will be… THE ENVIRONMENT!"
The rest of the school morning continued almost normally—except classes kept being interrupted by groups of students arguing about who would lead each class, what everyone would do, and how they would handle the challenges.