Kaneki barely made it to his second hour class, which turned out to be gym. He groaned inwardly, wondering why he'd been cursed with gym in the morning, as the gym teacher came out of the boys' locker room and stood in front of the crowd of disinterested and unmotivated students.
"LISTEN UP!" he shouted, hands on hips as he turned to stare each one of them in the eyes in an attempt to scare the living daylights out of them. Mission succeeded. "I am your gym teacher for this school year. While you're in my class, everything I saw is LAW!" He shouted the last bit, making Kaneki flinch. "And what do we do about the law? We FOLLOW it. If you fail to participate or disobey instructions, I will chain you to a chair and pull out all of your fingernails, wait for them to regrow, and REPEAT THE PROCESS!"
Is it just me, or is he looking directly at me? Kaneki wondered, trying not to move as everyone around him stood still, holding their breaths, until he gave a tight smile. Everyone exhaled collectively.
"Unfortunately, that is not LEGAL, so you'll be facing suspension or detention or whatever the heck this SCHOOL decides," he said, continuing to emphasize random words as he turned. "Now, go get changed into your uniforms."
A boy with dark hair styled in an odd fashion raised his hand, the movement lazy and undefined. "Mr. Oomori? I don't have a uniform."
Mr. Oomori, full name Yakumo Oomori (aka Yamori aka Jason), stood over the boy, quivering in rage. "Do you bring your PENCILS to SCIENCE and your NOTEBOOK to ENGLISH and your CALCULATOR to MATH?"
The boy shrugged. "I don't know."
Kaneki winced and turned away so he didn't have to witness the berating of a student by what looked like an extremely overzealous gym teacher meant to torture them for 2nd period. Instead, he went and changed, joining everyone else - minus the boy - for their warm-up, which he learned included 10 laps of running, 50 push-ups, and 100 sit-ups.
So...death. And then some.
By the time he was walking towards third period, he had no strength in any of his limbs and nearly fell down twice (although one of the times, he was tripped by an upperclassman). He managed to slump into a desk just as the bell rang.
My art elective, he thought to himself. Should be a walk in the park compared to gym...
"I am Ms. Kaya. I will be teaching art for this semester, and I'd much appreciate it if you all put forth effort despite this being an elective," she said, and Kaneki just looked at her and thought, Finally, a normal teacher. "Please pair up with another student and begin by making a rough sketch of your partner. Remember: it can be any style, whichever you prefer, and your abilities as an artist aren't being graded. Like I said earlier, just try your hardest." (Ms. Kaya = Kaya Irimi by the way)
Immediately, everyone began pairing up, and Kaneki looked around with a panicked expression until his eyes landed on the only other single person. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed his notebook and walked over to the boy who had been kicked out of gym last period.
"H-hi," Kaneki said, wincing and faking a smile. "I thought, since we're the only two left, that we would...well, that we could-"
"Be partners?" the kid asked, and Kaneki nodded. The other guy waited a beat before shrugging and nodding towards the empty chair. "Be my guest."
Neither of them spoke for a few minutes while Kaneki struggled to draw the guy and while Kaneki's partner seemed to be doodling with a bored expression on his face.
After a while, Ms. Kaya came by their group and asked to see what they were working on. Kaneki shyly held up a fairly decent sketch of the other kid, and Ms. Kaya nodded. "Well done, Ken," she said, smiling gently, and Kaneki nodded, thanking her and blushing slightly as she turned to his partner. "Uta? How about you?"
Kaneki's partner, Uta, smirked and held up a beautiful drawing of Kaneki reaching out a hand and touching the hand of what looked like a reverse image of Kaneki, with white hair instead of black, and instead of white sclera, black. Kaneki's eyes widened, surprised by how good his partner was.
Ms. Irimi smiled at him. "Very nice work, Uta. Continue on," she said, smiling and turning away to consult with other students.
Kaneki was so drawn in by Uta's picture of him that he didn't even notice her leave. "Uta-san...can I...I mean, can I buy that picture somehow?"
Uta considered the proposition a moment before nodding, already handing over the drawing. "Sure thing, my very special customer."