Speech

"See you Annabelle, we have to go give that fart an answer! Look for Dora, or that kid Rick if you need something!" Cass waved as she and the guys walked onto the campus.

"Bye." 'Please don't attract attention, please stop talking to me, don't look at me. Thank god it seems like the only people here are new students.'

She walked into the building just as the doors started to shut. 'Wow there are a lot of new students here, glad I made it in time… Stupid Marc, took him longer than Cass to get ready.'

"Hey, aren't you the kid that fell asleep during the test?"

"I guess that's what I'm going to be known for isn't it?" Annabelle turned to the girl who had come up beside her.

"Yea, but at least you passed."

"True I guess."

'How long is this going to take? Why did we have to be here so early if it was going to take them fifty minutes just to get their speaking platform set up, you would think that would be done already…'

After what felt like hours a lanky professor finally stepped forward.

"Hello and congratulations, you have officially become a student of the Academy of Research and Diplomacy. We were trying to wait for the Deans to come in, but seeing as they still aren't here, we would ask the person with the highest score to come up and say a few words about being accepted to this academy."

The professor turned to mumble to the person behind him. "And that would be Ms. Annabelle Seau! It's no surprise that Ms. Seau had the highest score, since her guardians are a group of alumni from the research division. Ms. Seau, would you please come up?"

He started searching he crowd.

'Oh my god, are you freaking kidding me?! Why did he have to mention those three and what the hell! The damn deans are supposed to be the ones making opening remarks, why are they pushing it to me? Is there any way I can just disappear?'

She hunched over a little bit and headed for the doors.

"Hello Ms. Seau, let me help you get up on stage." The professor had appeared in front of her, grabbing her arm and teleporting them both onto the stage.

Straightening herself she glared at the man.

"Here you go." He smiled and handed her the mic.

"Hello everyone."

'Ohmygod ohmygod what do I say?'

"It's awesome that we all made it through the exam. I hope you are all as excited as I am."

'Though I hope from now on, the'

"deans do their jobs and are here to make speeches when they are supposed to, instead of flaking and leaving it for someone else to do on the fly."

'Oh shit, I just said that out loud. That was not supposed to be out loud. Oh'

"I am sooooo screwed!"

There were some quiet giggles, a few raised eyebrows, and some outright laughing. She could even see one student having trouble breathing.

"Alright, thank you for that speech Ms. Seau, you can go ahead and leave the stage now." The professor smiled nervously, taking the mic rather quickly from her hands and shooing her off stage.

"O M G That was AMAZING ANNABELLE!"

'Oh no…'

"That's right Annabelle tell those old farts what's what!" Marc seconded his sister. They had walked in with Jazz just as she was saying that the deans should stop being flakes.

Even Jazz was grinning.

'Can I just hide in a corner and pretend I don't know them? Ugh, I give up, this is never going to be a secret. Might as well embrace the fact that they are famous and get over it. Their fans won't even notice my existence anyway. I need to stop thinking about all those anime's that had crazy fans. Stuff like that doesn't happen anyway.'

"Hey kid, not the best speech, but at least it was memorable." Jazz rubbed the top of her head. Marc copied him, and Cass threw her arm around Annabelle's shoulders.

"Let's go, we negotiated with Fresor that you'd stay with us instead of in a dorm. Also, don't worry about Rou, he's not mean, he's just a bit mischievous."

"Why'd you bring up Rou, I didn't see him anywhere?"

"What are you talking about? He's the one that took the mic from you and shooed you off stage." Cass thumbed back at the young professor on stage.

"No Rou is a huge hamster. Complete with whiskers and claws."

"He's still doing that?" Marc doubled over, laughing.

"You're kidding?" She was astonished.

"Nope, he's been doing it since we were students. He loves watching people freak out about how to interact with a 'non-humanoid' sentient they've never encountered before."

Annabelle looked at Cass in shock. "That jerk! He did my last exam as an overgrown hamster! He even pretended that I had passed so that I'd let my guard down!"

Her hands were balled into fists, and she glared back at the man.

"Sounds like him." Jazz chuckled.

"How can he change shapes like that though? I didn't feel anything wrong with his energy."

"He's a bit special. No one really knows what he is, we all thought he was human, until he didn't age, and started turning into random animals. He's a lot of fun once you get to know him though. Just give him a chance." Cass pulled Annabelle closer as they started walking again.

"So, are we going back to the ship?"

"Nope, Fresor already had everything delivered to our apartment. You'll love it, and it's only about a ten-minute walk from campus."

"Here we are. Would you like to do the honors?" Jazz held a key out to Annabelle.

"Really?" She took the key after he nodded, carefully inserting it.

'Wow it's beautiful.' The entrance opened to a living room with a big couch, to the side was a kitchen, between them was a spiral staircase.

"You can go ahead and explore, Marc, Cass and I agreed to let you pick a room first."

"Are you sure? I don't want you guys to get gipped."

"It's fine kid, now go choose!" Marc bopped the back of her head.

"Alright!" She protected the back of her head, sticking her tongue out at him as she made her way upstairs.

On the second floor one room had a window facing East and the other had a window facing West. The third floor had a third room in which the window was facing North. However, she fell in love with the last room, the room faced the city in the South and had a window bed.

"Hey guys, can I have this one?"

They all came in to look around the room.

"Are you sure? It's kind of small." Cass asked.

"Yeah, I really like it."

"Great, I'll let the movers know where they can put everyone's stuff now. Marc I'm betting you don't want the room facing East."

"Nope, never in a million years, I'd rather die than have to face the morning sun!"