Woodgreen Academy Archive

The director was a very respectable man albeit a tad scary sometimes. He was a colonel who had taken an early retirement and had become the director of a private academy. He ran the place with the discipline and patience borne from his experience with the military. It was not a democracy but it was far from martial law. Director Treize Kushrenada could be very lenient after all. The director was being lenient right now as his striking blue eyes glowered at the blond hair of the Japanese man in the office.

Eikichi Onizuka, known for his trademark dyed blond hair and rubber slippers, looked around the director’s office curiously. He had been in here before but the place never failed to impress him, particularly the collection of weaponry that decorated the long stretch of wall to his left.

“Mr. Onizuka.”

Eikichi cleared his throat and brought his attention back to his director, who handed him a folder then sat behind the oak desk.

“I’m sure you have been told of your role as this year’s moderator. Nonetheless, I will repeat it for clarity. You nominated the line-up; therefore you are directly responsible for overseeing their performance.” Treize leaned back against his chair and steepled his fingers, “As for your candidates, I have gone through their records personally and it came to my attention that two out of four students have colourful disciplinary records, often involving each other.”

“Aha, well, you see–”

Treize raised his hand before Eikichi could continue. “If I wanted saints for prefects, I would have had the qualifications modified a long time ago. These boys will not be the first prefects to have a thick folder filed under their names. It just came as a surprise that more than half of those incidents involved the other one. Do you see my point?”

“Yes, but–”

“I will assume that you have your reasons for your selection and I will leave it at that. Should anything go wrong, it will reflect from the end-of-year evaluation.”

Eikichi grinned and bowed, grateful for the freedom. He had been teaching for a while before he was transferred in Woodgreen. His formal academic background was not at all worthy of note but his practical background from teaching came highly recommended. He had readily dropped his old school when the invitation to teach in Hawaii came up with all travel expenses paid for.

“You may leave.”

Eikichi turned to do so. He was closing the door when the director gave a parting shot.

“And don’t forget to wear shoes once classes start. I don’t want to keep repeating myself every year.” Treize sighed while reading through the reports on his desk. He didn’t even bother to look up anymore.

Eikichi gave a casual salute and closed the door. Outside was his good friend, Kumiko Yamaguchi, who clapped her hands after he had given the thumbs up sign. He really wished she would get rid of the glasses and let down her pigtailed hair.

“Good! Now let’s go get drunk and celebrate!” She grinned, dragging him with her through the winding hallways and out of the administration building. “I still don’t understand your selection. Well, I can understand the Granger kid and even Parkinson but the other two?”

Eikichi tipped his fingers one by one, “Granger is a pushover. She’ll get the others to work and work and she’ll always remind the others of the rules. Not that I want them to stick to the book but it’s always good to have a nagging friend. Parkinson can get anyone to work for her. We’re talking about manpower the student council will no doubt need during festivals and every other escapade we can come up with.”

Kumiko snorted at that but laughed it off. “And the other two?”

“Malfoy is a survivor. If things are going from bad to worse, he’ll do anything to save his ass. And since the prefects are considered as one unit, saving his own ass means saving the rest of the team. And Weasley? A kind soul and an understanding brain who can pack a punch.”

“Not to mention a short temper.”

“Which is why he’s in South Wing.”

“Ooooh… I placed Sawada there last year. You really thought of all these?”

Eikichi stopped by a window to fix his hair, “Hey, I’m a genius!”

“If you say so.”

They both laughed and continued out of the school compound, singing loudly about beer. The coming school year was, once again, something to look forward to.

At the end of each year, the assigned teacher would nominate four incoming seniors as prefects to help run the high school. Only the high school department had that system. The primary students were too young to be given that responsibility. The junior high students were too scattered, finding their own niche amongst the crowd. And the college students were assumed to be responsible enough as individuals.

High school, on the other hand, was where the pressure of fitting in, studying hard, and surviving could become too much especially in a school run by Treize Kushrenada. Fun was something all teachers in their department wanted the students to not forget. And for the last decade, there was that balance in the prefect line-up and life was crazy.

Eikichi wanted to keep the tradition of craziness intact. He was willing to bet on it with his four kids together.