<Roi Sato POV>

My name is Roi Sato. I’m in my second year at Willow Preparatory Academy here in Tokyo. This school is one of the best in the entire world and the graduates can get into any college of their choice as long as they have a 3.0 GPA. The school offers pretty much anything a student can imagine from massive facilities, top-notch food for the students, and pretty much any sport you can imagine. 

I crawl out of bed and walk out of my bedroom and go into the kitchen. My parents always travel abroad for work so most of the time I have the place to myself. 

I grab some orange juice from the fridge and pour it into a cup. I also go to the pantry and search for anything to eat. I come across some oatmeal and decide to go with that for my breakfast.

After the oatmeal finishes cooking I grab it from the microwave and decide to scroll through my phone.

While I am in the middle of eating I get a phone call from my best friend Akari Okuma.

“Yo,” I say to him as I answer the phone.

“Sup bro! You ready for today?” Akari asks me.

“I mean, I guess I am, but it just feels like any other day,” I respond while finishing the rest of my oatmeal.

“Nah bro, this year is the year!” Akari said with much excitement.

“What are you talking about bro?” I said while putting my bowl in the sink.

“This is the year where we are gonna get girlfriends and laid!” He said with the most confidence.

“Whatever you say Akari,” I say with a chuckle.

“Well, I’ll see you at school the train is almost here. You better not be late!” Akari said then hangs up the phone.

I stare at my screen as it shows that the call has ended. I put the phone in my pocket and finish getting ready to go to school.

About 15 minutes or so, I was on the streets, heading to the train station to make it to school.

I had to power walk to the station because I left the apartment a bit later than expected but no big deal. As I walk to the station I see all the different people either going to their job, school, or just walking around. Everyone is living in their little bubble just trying to get through the day.

I finally make it to the train station and it is as busy as ever but surprisingly all the traffic flows perfectly so waiting times are pretty short. 

After paying for my ticket I reach the train which seems to have just arrived and looked around I see a lot of students wearing a familiar school uniform. 

I get on the train and sadly I wasn’t able to get a good seat and ended up having to stand. Not a big deal but when you have to stand you always end up banging into people which gets annoying pretty fast.

The train is filled with a bunch of kids from my school laughing and chatting to help pass the time. For me, I just put in my wireless earbuds and play some music and just enjoy the ride.

[TIMESKIP]

The train finally reaches the station and from there the school is only a 5-minute walk. Just like all the other students, we all walked in the direction of the campus. Since it is the first day of school we are all getting our schedules, which are placed in our lockers.

Usually, the school does a whole assembly but this year they are just going to play a video in our homeroom. 

I finally reach the campus and scan my surroundings as I head to my locker. Nothing looks too different to the campus besides there being some new sliding doors and the lockers look new.

After putting in the locker combination that was emailed to us, I reach in and grab my schedule. My classes seemed alright, nothing too crazy like some of the honor kids in our school.

As I finish looking at my schedule I start walking towards my homeroom class. According to the schedule, I’m in class 2-D, which is all the way to the end of the classroom.

I carefully try to avoid bumping into other students and saying hi to some of my acquaintances, but I haven’t seen Akari or Alto yet today. I will probably see them at lunch or something.

Arriving at the classroom, I slide the door open and walk into the classroom. Just like last year my classmates are all chatting up and forming new little social circles. Before I can continue scanning the room I look over to the board and see the seating arrangement.

“Looks like you’re sitting behind me,” Akari said standing behind me which caused me to get startled 

“Holy shit you scared me,” I say while trying to catch my breath.

Akari just starts laughing at his successful attempt on almost making me shit my pants.

“Let’s head to our seats,” Akari said and we both started walking to our seats. I didn’t even have the chance to properly look at the seating chart.

We both make it to our seats and start having a chat with each other and the other people that sit near us. Pretty much everyone at the school is friendly with each other if you aren’t weird.

Right before the bell rings the door slides open and everyone stops talking to see who came in. Sparking my curiosity I look over and see who it was and it was Sakura Mori and Ichiro Hino. The two started dating right before summer vacation and were instantly the schools’ power couple. The captain of the basketball team and the school queen, kinda cliche but I’m no hater. 

After they made their presence known a lot of our classmates flocked over to their desks asking them about their summers and other things. Ichiro didn’t seem to be interested in what they had to say but Sakura was attempting to be nice and answer everything being asked.

“You think Alto can hook me up with one of Sakura’s friends?” Akira whispers to me.

I shrug as my response and our homeroom teacher walks in. And now the first day of school has officially started.

The welcome video was nothing special. All the school said was that they have big plans for future events throughout the year that they think we the students will love. Apparently, they are also making it a requirement for students to join a club or school government in order to force students to socialize. Not a bad idea but something like that will be a first to me in terms of joining clubs not socializing.

The rest of the homeroom was mainly just the teacher explaining the rules and expectations that the school and the school board have for us and that we have to follow them. After the small lecture, we were allowed to talk for the remainder of homeroom before first period.

“Wanna try to hang out this weekend Roi?” Akari asks me as he grabs his chair and puts it in front of my desk.

“Yeah, I don’t mind. We can ask Alto later at lunch because he seems to always know what’s going on,” I said back to Akari.

“Maybe I should play a sport this year,” Akari said while looking out the window.

“What sports are you even good at?” I ask in a curious tone.

“I am pretty solid at basketball so maybe I can try out for the team,” Akari responded.

“Guess Alto can help you out since he is the co-captain,” I say.

“Well, what about you?” Akari asks me.

“I was thinking of joining student government because I heard it looks better on college applications,” I said while looking at my phone.

“I heard there are plenty of fine females in student government so it’s prime time for you,” Akari said while laughing.

“If I manage to get a girlfriend before you, that is gonna look bad on you,” I say with a chuckle.

“You wait and see, I will get on the basketball team and pull all the hoes!” Akari said with a fire burning in his eyes.

“I wish you the best of luck brother,” I tell him while getting up from my desk because the class is about to end. I pat Akari on his back and the bell rings shortly after.

“Class dismissed,” Our homeroom teacher says and everyone starts leaving the classroom and getting ready to head to the first official class of the day.

Darkvoid33

Here is the first official chapter of the new Social Differences, which I think already has a better start than the last story. And as some of you will notice is that things are quite different. I hope you guys enjoyed it and the new and improved adventure that awaits