Exchange Student AU

                                    

                                          
For his last year of high school, Cole wanted to do something spontaneous. For shits and giggles, he applied for an exchange program for Japan and actually got in. He got a scholarship for it and only had to pay 4k out of pocket, the other 10k covered by the scholarship. 
To say he was shocked he was able to do this was an understatement. But it was so entirely real as he sat in his new house, staring at his new school uniform. He'd start at his new school, Moriyama High School in Tokyo tomorrow. He was nervous, scared, and intrigued. He knew little to no Japanese, surviving the first two weeks off a pocket dictionary and learning the two simple alphabets. 
He knew maybe 30 Kanji characters. Definitely not enough to get around with no problems. He did however manage to be able to learn some school talk, simple commands like sit down, stand up, repeat after me etc. Nothing specific. He closed his eyes to get some rest before his mind went to the worst things possible.
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He managed to get to Moriyama with only a few hiccups on the way, thanking whatever deity was looking over him that he ended up in Tokyo, where quite a few people knew some English and were able to help him out. 
He got to his classroom finally and looked around. A mix of female and male student were trickled into groups, talking amongst themselves. He wasn't sure if he could sit anywhere, so he decided to stand awkwardly as people would look at him then talk to their classmates again. 
He knew they were probably talking about him, a white boy, in an entirely Japanese class. What caught his attention though was another boy towards the back of the class, sitting in a desk already. His hair was long, indicated by his low ponytail hair below the shoulders required. 
He noticed he wasn't talking to anybody, which was strange as everyone else were very social with each other. The homeroom teacher walked in and said something introductory. She placed a seating chart up on the chalkboard and people rushed to see where they were. 
Cole waited until people figured it out and walked up himself. Luckily, he could recognize his name in Japanese at this point. He was in the back of the classroom, next to the window, with someone next to him. He headed towards where it directed him and placed his belongings underneath the desk before sitting.
The teacher began role call, skipping over him until finally getting to him, saying something else in Japanese, then in English invited him up to do a self-introduction. Luckily his host family had mentioned this before, so he went up with a folded piece of paper he tore from a notebook with shitty Japanese Hiragana handwriting on it. 
He began reading and gave a simple introduction. His name: where he was from: and something he liked. The teacher thanked him in English, and he was able to sit down again. The boy from before was sat in the desk next to him. 
The teacher began explaining things and writing things down in Japanese. Cole did his best to listen and recognize the strange symbols, yet he was pretty lost still. The boy next to him looked over. 
"This is just an introduction about the school, no need to be so focused. They do this every year." The boy said.
"You just spoke English." Cole said, alarmed as this was the first understandable English he had heard outside of calling his mother. 
"Yeah, what about it?" The boy replied, clearly a little annoyed at Cole's reaction. 
"Nothing, just didn't expect anyone in here to be able to understand me." Cole answered. 
"Your Japanese isn't too bad." The boy commented. 
"Thanks. I came without knowing much but hello and goodbye." Cole replied.