September 2nd, 1996

The first day of school. Also known as the greatest day ever. Also known as the happiest day in my entire life. And I got to have it once a year, every year. Needless to say I was very excited that morning. My friends would be waiting for me at the school gates, and then we would conquer the third grade! Emmy and I were the champions of Barr-Haven Public School in Ottawa, ya see. No other student, not even the sixth graders could stand up to us!

We weren't bullies, that's not what I meant. We just did a lot of schoolyard roleplaying. I was the Princess of Icetopia, our fictional snowy world that spanned the whole of the schoolyard, which my memory tells me was very large. Lots of space for myself and the Bandit Princess to ride our horses through and slay leagues of monsters.

Our kingdom stretched to the far reaches of Stone Way Park as well. I lived just down the road from the nice open park with it's little play structure and soccer field. The sledding hill was great in the wintertime as well. Oh, excuse me. Mount Rutschen. The highest peak in my kingdom.

And today marked a new conquest! The trials and tyranny of Grade Three! To say I was prepared would have been a gross understatement. Everything from the second grade, every book, every scrap of paper had been thrown out, replaced by all shiny and new binders, notebook, and even a fancy new TI-83, still in it's box in my school bag. Not that The Have allowed third graders to use calculators or anything. But I was prepared if say, we were handed a pop quiz that involved poly-dimensional differentiation. Again, not that I could have even done those, but the little black calculator was capable to do so.

"You're taking too long!" my sister complained, leaning on my doorframe. "Just pick one and lets go! You're gonna make me late too!"

I was not taking too long. I was savouring the moments, carefully choosing what I'd wear on my first day of school. I had picked out a sweet little skirt and my favourite hoodie with the Herzeleid album art. Not that it was supposed to be a cold day, it was still late in the summer, but I wasn't taking any chances. I don't like the cold.

"I'll take as long as I need to, thank you very much" I said back, trying out a little bit of snap in my response. Winter scoffed back at me and stormed off, her angst so palpable it could have been classified as a mineral. Specifically salt. But she was seventeen, it was to be expected. I pulled on my rubber boots, since you never know when a good puddle will present itself for stomping in.

My jean jacket was next, slung over my shoulders and buttoned neatly up the front, my hoodie sticking out just so. I grabbed my bag from the floor and hoisted it up to my back. The bright yellow cloth bag had all of it's little pins on it, each one bought at the Montreal Comicon for whatever pocket change I had. My favourite one was, and still is, the Street Fighter II pin that I wore on the front of the left strap. Before you get all up in arms about and eight-year-old liking Street Fighter, remember this was ninety-six and the ESRB was in its infancy. Also Montreal doesn't give a damn.

Out of the room I went, skipping lively down the skinny wood staircase of our little house. It was nice to live in a new house, having moved there at the beginning of first grade from Germany. Attending school that year with as thick an accent as mine had been no easy feat, but I was not deterred by such trivial things as that. Plus, teaming up with my Persian friend who's accent was similarly thick had made it easier.

"I wonder what Emmy's wearing for her first day" I said aloud as I skipped down the hall towards the front door. Having family members had occasional disadvantages, the worst of which being that anything I needed to reach on any ledge was always just beyond my grasp. I grabbed my stepstool out of the closet and hopped up to grab my house keys off the hook next to the door. Pulling the door open I leaped outside and into the morning sunshine. I was happy. First day of School happy.

"Come on!" came the angry yell from my sister again. She was sitting in father's ancient Catalina, waiting for me to get in the car so she could drive me to school. I eventually got my butt in gear, bouncing over and pulling the eighty-pound door open and climbing in. I knew he still had some in the car, so I popped the glovebox open and grabbed Aerosmith's Draw The Line and shoved it in the 8-Track player.

"Let's roll" I said confidently as I put on my bright pink sunglasses and pretended to be cool. Winter rolled her eyes and loped the huge wagon out of the driveway. I don't know why she was always in a hurry at seven in the morning. My school didn't begin until quarter to eight and her highschool didn't open until nine. I always assumed it was because she was meeting a secret boyfriend or something our parents wouldn't approve of. I found out later that it was for rugby practice before school, strictly against our father's wishes. Had I known, I would have been more accommodating, I think.

"Excited for your first day, kiddo?" she asked, as if trying to make conversation.

"Yup! Em and I are gonna make sure we have class together!" I said with a vigorous nod. Well, I certainly hoped we had class together. "If not we're gonna take over the school."

My sister laughed. "Planning a mutiny already, Weiss-Cake?"

More aggressive nodding.

"That's my girl."

Today was going to be a good day. I could just feel it. As we rolled up to the front of the school in the tired and smokey car that ticked like a cheap clock, I could just feel the energy in the air. Before we had even fully stopped I had pulled my seat belt and had already opened the door. If Winter had said anything against it, I hadn't heard as I had already booked it across the schoolyard, yelling my goodbye over my shoulder.

"Emmy!" I yelled, skipping around. I couldn't see her yet. She had probably scampered up one of the low trees along the back of the yard. Quite a lot of other students were milling about the yard, from the first graders right up to the pompous sixers. The kindergardeners were penned in near the north end, and all standing around with their parents, waiting for the teachers.

"Emmy!" I called again, skipping along the line of trees. "Emmy?"

No luck. That was alright, maybe she was just late. Well, not late. Just not as early as me. A shame. I missed her olive brown skin, her appreciation for beige shorts, and her apple-a-day habit. Maybe I was just hungry. In my excitement, I realized that I had forgotten breakfast. I wasn't gonna break open my lunch and rob myself of that luxury, no sir. I was above that sort of debauchery. I slowed my skip, brushing my hand along the bark of one particularly thick tree.

And that's when I found him.

Sitting at the base of the tree, right at the far corner of the schoolyard, right at the fence facing the sports centre. He had his knees tucked up to his chest, the dark blue denim torn from both of them. His messy blond hair was very different from any of my classmates, and that was the first thing I actually noticed about him. It was almost yellow blond, something I had never seen before.

"Hi there!" I said, squatting down on the grass "What are you doing way out here?"

He sniffled, pulling his knees closer. He looked like he was cold, wearing only ripped jeans and his navy t-shirt. I felt bad for the kid. "Hey, you shivering? You wanna borrow my coat?"

I didn't even wait for an answer. I already had my bag off and was halfway through undoing my jacket, ready to offer up my best gastfreundschaft to the boy.

"No, it's okay..." he said, his voice thin and a little afraid. Maybe I had come on too strong. "...I brought my coat."

I looked around for said coat. New Kid wasn't gonna hide anything from me. Although, I soon found out he was telling the truth. He was sitting on it. I sat down on my knees in the dirt, sitting properly with my hands in my lap to hold my skirt down from the wind.

"Why are you sitting under a tree?" I half asked, half said. He still hadn't answered my first question. Why I thought this would change with a second was could be attributed to an overwhelming sense of optimism for this poor soul.

He shrugged. "I don't have any friends here."

Well that just straight up wasn't true.

"I'm your friend."

He looked over at me questioningly.

"But we just met."

I nodded, big smile on my face. If no one else at this school wanted to befriend him, I would. And I would do it better than everyone else.

"Yup. And now we're gonna be best friends. My name's Weiss! I was born in Hamburg and I like the colour blue. What's your name?"

A very slight smile hit the boy, probably amused by my two unrelated facts.

"M-my name is Jaune..." he stuttered "And I'm from Marseille, and I like… red? I guess?"

"Come on, Jaune. Be confident in your answer. Best friends need to know important things about one another."

He seemed hesitant. I persisted.

"For example, I strongly enjoy pink lemonade. What is your favourite lemon-based drink?" I asked, switching to cross-legged since my feet had gone to sleep. He finally put his legs down and stopped his little self-hug. He wasn't fully relaxed yet, though.

"I like… regular lemonade."

"Not anything fancy, like spicy strawberry jalapeño lemonade?"

"No, regular is fine."

I smiled.

"See, that's better! Confidence!" I said, giving my honest thumbs up. "So, you should come hang out with me and my friend. We're the cool kids, so you'll be safe with us. But why were you by yourself over here?"

"I told you." he said, avoiding eye contact "No one wanted to be my friend."

"But why not?" I asked, perplexed. "You're a totally normal person, right?"

"It's not that. We just moved here yesterday."

Oh, a recent immigrant. From The France, no less.

"Why would that have any effect? I'm from Germany, and I managed to make friends really easy."

"I just..." he said, scratching his ear "...don't know how to pretend to be Canadian like my mom says I have to be to make friends."

Well that was preposterous. But I could work with this.

"You don't have to do much to pretend to be Canadian. It's simple, you just have to pronounce it like a-boot and end every sentence with 'eh' and you'll be good!"

"But I sound like I'm from France." he persisted. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Not really, you sound just as normal as me. If you need to, just pretend to be from Quebec like I do sometimes if I can't pronounce something."

This seemed to have grabbed his attention.

"You speak French?" he asked, turning his head

"Oui." I said, my accent coming through again. "I attended an international school for kindergarten, or the German equivalent or whatever it was. Most of my classmates were from Paris."

Not that we were doing any French classes at four years old, but having to use the very basic french I knew to just talk to them was learning enough.

"That's kinda cool, I guess." he said, his shell slowly coming off.

"Yeah, you should meet Emmy. She speaks Farsi, Italian, French and English. She's the cool one."

He smiled, rubbing his nose. "I guess so."

"What did I say about confidence, Jaune?"

"Okay, okay, sure."

We sat around for a moment in silence. The wind whistled around us a little.

"Why did you want to be my friend?" he asked, tilting his head at me. I frowned down at my hands.

"I think we should always seek out new friends. No one should be left out. Especially if people are alone. Then they should be included first. Make sense?"

I was always the outcast myself, so I had needed to become the extroverted one in order to maintain friendships. But that was from being a German in Canada. And as it turns out this was not something a lot of racist children didn't appreciate. So I had to invent a coping mechanism.

"I guess so." he said. I gave him a look. "I mean yes, it makes sense."

"Good! Lets go find Emmy. She should be here now."

I stood up quickly and grabbed my bag, slinging it back over my shoulders. I extended my hand down to him. He hesitated for only a very brief moment, before taking my hand and letting me pull him off his bum and onto his feet. He grabbed his jacket, which was as I suspected, now very dirty. His hands were crazy soft, though.

"Okay..." he said as I skipped off. I could hear him following along, so I knew I didn't have to go back and hold his hand or anything. I had already committed the highest schoolyard sin. I had touched his hand. This meant I needed my industrial strength hand sanitizer. I had left that at home, however. Today I would have to just deal with the cooties.

"Hey, wanna see something cool?" I asked, spinning around like a ballerina, my boots having minimal traction on the grass.

"Okay." he said, genuine interest in his voice. I smiled.

"Stand back!"

He obliged. I carefully took my backpack off and set it on the grass, before bouncing up again. I held my hands above my head, and lifted one leg. With one fluid motion, I cartwheeled over my hands, landing back on my feet. With practice, I had taught myself to cartwheel fast enough so my dress stayed down at my knees, something I can still do. I followed the first cartwheel up with a second one, and then a third, which had to be ended with a round-off as my core was not all that strong and I nearly collapsed.

"Impressive" he said, giving me a few quiet claps of approval. I beamed, trying not to breathe too hard from the sudden physical activity I had forced upon myself. "I wish I could do something like that. I can only do boring stuff."

"Like what?"

He shrugged. "I can play violin, but not very well. I'm not really learning very fast."

"Hey, that's pretty cool. I can't play any instruments, so you have that going for you. I wish I could play guitar or drums or something cool like that." I realized I was rambling. "But that's whatever. What kind of songs can you play?"

I received another shrug. I knew I would need to get used to that.

"Just whatever my teacher gives me. She taught me some Paganini, but I don't know if that's cool. It's too hard, though."

So be fair, I had never heard of Paganini. But I pretended to, just so I could continue his train of thought.

"No, that's pretty cool, actually. Classical music can be cool. I listen to rock, or whatever is in the car. I don't really get to choose." I said, making him laugh a little. I guess the raw truth of not being allowed to change the radio station in the car could be considered funny. "My sister listens to it a lot. She's the expert."

"You have a sister?" he asked, eyebrows raising.

I nodded. "Yep. She's super into German rock. Weird stuff you probably haven't heard."

"Rammstein?" he guess, immediately. I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was, seeing as he was from France, a country that happened to be conveniently located right next to my own. "Your sister has very intense taste."

It was my turn to shrug. "I guess so. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Yep. Seven older sisters."

My jaw hit the floor. Seven?!

"S...seven?"

He nodded, as if this was a perfectly normal amount of siblings to have. "Yep. I'm the youngest. I used to think it was because they wanted a boy."

"...seven..."

"I guess they just finally decided that eight was enough." He dug his hands into the pockets of his coat, kicking some dirt along the edge of the basketball court. I still couldn't believe that he was one of eight. Still can't. It's nothing short of absurd. I needed a distraction. Lucky for me, at that very moment my first friend arrived. In a pale green dress as well. But not a real green dress, that's cruel. Or so I'm told.

"Oh hey, it's Emmy! Hi Emmy!" I called to the girl from across the schoolyard, waving my arms wildly. She started running over to us, her boots kicking up dust with every step. She smiled brightly, brighter than anyone ever should have for Monday morning at seven thirty.

"Hey, Weiss." she said, her heavily accented voice a fairly stark contrast from my faded German and Jaune's mild French one. "Who's this?"

"This is Jaune, he's new. He's my new best friend."

"But what about me?" she asked, fully justified in doing so. "I thought I was your best friend?"

I laughed it off best I could. "Don't worry, Emmy, you're still number one. We just need more people in our group."

"What about the… you know… kingdom?"

"Every kingdom needs a Knight to help protect it, Em." I said, much to her annoyance.

"But… you can't do that!"

"Yes I can, I have knighted him, he is now a knight. Okay, Sir Jaune?"

He looked completely and utterly bewildered. Completely expected, of course. Emmy wasn't having it.

"Princesses can't knight people, only kings and queens can" she said, completely correct in saying so. "And you're not the queen."

Darn, I had been foiled by logic.

"Well, he's a knight anyways. A rogue knight." I said, applying a new rule to our world. Emmy had to concede. The use of 'rogue' had won her over, and now I had my own new knight. So our new monster-hunting party was two princesses and a knight. Seemed fair.

"Well, whatever. He can join us if you're so interested." She rolled her eyes with as much sass as a third-grader could, before crossing her arms in front of her. A cursory glance at her little digital watch, which was upside down from my perspective, showed a time of seven-forty-four.

"Oh, class is starting! Come on, guys, we're gonna be late for class line-up!" I grabbed both of their hands and pulled them along, running as fast as my short little legs could carry me. Everyone else was already congregating around the entry doors of the old brick building, all neatly standing in lines in front of teachers with class signs on them. The rest of the students were still throwing stuff at each other from their respective lines and ranks.

I quickly pulled them to the three lines of third-graders. We'd be in one of these three lines of students. Now, if only to find out which one. The first class seemed promising, it looked to be missing about three students. Maybe that would be the three of us!

"Okay, lets's see..." I pondered aloud, reading the sign the teacher was holding. The very first name on the list, in bright blue letters, was Jaune Arc. "Oh, here you are, Jaune. You're in this class!"

"O-okay..." he said, relegating himself to the back of the line as I continued down the list. A few students names I remembered from last year, a few I did not, but I finally found my way down to the S's. First one was me! "Hey Jaune, we're in the same class!"

I tried not to cheer so loud and make Emmy jealous. I checked the list again. Just below my name and one other student's was Sustrai. Her name. I let out a sigh of relief. I wouldn't have to stage a mutiny after all. Excellent.

/…/

Class came and class went. Lunch came, and lunch went. Afternoon class came, and afternoon class went just the same. I will always argue that eating outside on the grass, under the shade of a nice comfortable tree creates a positive learning environment for your brain, but somehow being eight years old means that every argument is always shot down with 'go sit down at your desk when you eat, Weiss'. No matter how good my arguments are. Oh well. The rest of the year I'd just sneak my food outside, I thought.

Thanks to both having S last names and in such close proximity to each other on the student list, Emmy and I got to sit right next to one another in the small, sterile-feeling classroom. I knew that within a year we could have the place filled with our artwork, completely covering every tapeable surface.

The unfortunate thing was that my new best friend was forced to sit right at the front in front of the teacher's desk, miles away from us at the back of the room. Not even close to note-passing distance. I could probably have hit him with a paper airplane, though. I wasn't going to try on the very first day of school, but I was sure I had that sort of paper-based air warfare skill.

When the end of the slow, yet fully exciting first day of classes unfortunately came, and we had all been handed our take-home assignments, it was time to go home. I found myself saddened by the end of the day, even though I'd be back again the very next morning to do it all again. And seeing as I had myself a new best friend, the rest of the schoolyear would be amazing.

I skipped along the playground and through the gate again.

"Oh, hey Jaune." I found him sitting against the main gate, out of view behind the big concrete school sign. "What are you doing down here?"

"Waiting for my sister. I'm not allowed to walk home alone." He said, watching two of the school buses leave in a cloud of dust.

"Oh." I said, pausing my skip. "How far do you live?"

"Down near Stone Way park."

I was, as you could expect, overjoyed.

"Hey, so do I!" I nearly cheered. "Wanna walk home with me instead?"

His smile was very brightening. I almost couldn't control myself.

"Well, I suppose so. Can we wait a minute so we can tell my sister? I don't want her to worry or anything."

So we did. His sister, a sixth grader named Meyln, seemed pleased to be rid of him if I was honest. Stupid sixers. They were all like that, though. Willfully intolerant of every other grade in the school. Thought they were so good because they were graduating. Bunch of meanies.

We walked home together. Well, I more skipped home with him shuffling along to try and catch me. His sister stayed around the school with her friends, so we didn't have to walk with her. And that was fine by me. I skipped along.

I don't know, maybe it came from having parents who were very reserved and isolated from their children that made me like this. This overwhelming urge to attach myself to people and befriend them. My father was always at work, and when he was home he'd be in his office, still working. I don't think I can remember a time when he took a moment to play with his children. All he cared about was work.

And my mother, as well. But that was less about work and more about keeping my six-year-old little brother from jumping off everything in the house, so she never had time for me or my big sister. It's almost as if they didn't necessarily care about their middle child. But that was an absurd notion, I hate myself for even thinking it. Of course they cared. They just didn't show it in the same way as everyone else. Maybe that's why I wanted so badly to have Jaune and Emmy as my friends. So I could have people to relate to. God knows that Jaune might have the same problem, being one of eight children. I'd be surprised if his mother could remember each name.

My skipping slowed as we reached my street. I didn't know if he needed to follow or continue down the main road any further.

"So, this is where I have to go. Do you live near here, or farther away?" I asked, catching his attention. He seemed to have been lost in his own world in his head. I gave him an inquisitive look, happy to be accommodating if I had to be.

"Oh, uh, no I live down this street too." he said, shaking his head to clear it. I still sometimes wonder what goes on in that head when he spaces out. Probably the same things as me, actually.

Still, by some miracle of convenience, we lived on the same street. It clicked in my head that his was the house at the end of the street that had the moving van there the past week and the big SOLD sign hanging out front. My excitement was barely containable. This meant, as newly minted best friends, we could hang out more often as it was only a two minute walk to his house, instead of the twenty-five minute one to Emmy's. Lucky still was that Emmy was allowed to ride her bike by herself unlike me, so she could join us at Jaune's house more easily.

"Hey, that's cool!" I said, keeping my tone cool and collected. I slowed to a stop on the sidewalk, in front of my house. "So, I live here. Uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Bye bye, Weiss."

I did the first thing that came to mind. I don't know why I did, I don't know what universal force compelled me to do so, but it happened. I gave him a hug. A quick one, over in a flash, but a hug none the less. "Bye, Jaune!"

With that, I turned and skipped up my walkway, and into my house. I don't know how long he was left perplexed by it, but I was once told at minimum five minutes. I still don't know why I did.

Maybe I wasn't hugged enough as a small child? Maybe. I just figured it was the correct way to say goodbye to a friend, especially one I was classifying as my new best friend. Although Emmy never got that sort of treatment. I decided in that moment that I would hug more people. Hugging was something I was missing so incredibly badly in my life. Every time I would say goodbye to one of my friends…

I would hug them.

They were my friends! They deserved it! Having new friends meant you had to change a little bit about yourself. So that's what I changed. And now Emmy and Jaune got hugs, the latter still confused by them, even months after.

But, enough of that.

That was how the first day of Third Grade went for me. I met Jaune Arc on that day.

It was the greatest first day of school of all time.