Honey Lemon had been sipping on green tea when her friend had spotted him.
"Honey get a load of him," Go Go Tomago had said, raising an eyebrow with obvious interest. Honey Lemon followed her gaze to set her eyes on a tall young man.
Go Go, with her spunky attitude (that Honey joked matched her hair, with it's purple streaks), was not the type to check out guys often, Honey knew. But as she looked at this boy Go Go pointed out, she couldn't help but stare along with her.
At a distance, he was a bit hard to make out, what, with the crowd having gathered that morning at the entrance ceremony. He was wearing a gray cardigan with a pair of black skinny jeans, and on his feet were what she made out to be mint green sneakers. A baseball cap was on his head, obscuring his hair from view. With a brown messenger bag slung across his body, he looked like your average, run-of-the-mill college freshman.
"You have a crush, Go Go?" Honey Lemon teased the shorter girl. She scowled, ruffling her short black hair and blowing a large pink bubble, which Honey Lemon had the urge to pop. Of course, if she did, it would probably result in the sticky pink treat to get all over her face and hair.
"Am I not allowed to point out guys without it having to be a crush?" Go Go complained as she slumped down in the auditorium seat, "I mean, come on!" Honey laughed, fidgeting in her own seat. The plastic seat was uncomfortable, creating static friction between her legs and the soft yellow leggings she was wearing. She looked around, holding her cup of tea carefully between her fingers. It was getting crowded, and she could feel her skin start to prickle with sweat.
"It's a little hot, isn't it?" Honey commented after a few seconds of awkward silence. Go Go shrugged, stretching her legs out until she was blocking the path to the row of chairs.
"Take off that dumb sweater," she said. Honey rolled her eyes. Typical Go Go, to call everything dumb. Nevertheless, Honey slipped off the heavy pink cashmere she had worn over her clothes, and immediately, she felt a rush of cool air on her bare arms.
"So," she carefully folded her sweater in her lap, slipping her tea into one of the chairs cup holders, "how was your summer?" Go Go shrugged again.
"Visited relatives in South Korea for half the summer," Go Go replied nonchalantly, "what about you? Any Spanish relatives come visit?" Honey shook her head, wisps of blond hair falling in her face.
"No, they were too busy this year," Honey said, "But I did do some experiments in my toolshed!" At this, Go Go almost choked on her gum- from laughing, Honey assumed, as her shoulders were jerking up and down, cheeks turning red.
"More chemistry?!" Go Go exclaimed, "Please tell me you didn't blow up your toolshed?" Now it was Honey's turn to be embarrassed. During the experiment, the mixing of some of her chemicals didn't exactly work out a she had calculated. Go Go groaned as Honey blushed, saying, "Sometimes I think you're like the reincarnation of Dr. Frankenstein or something, with the way you use those things."
"At least no one go hurt, right?" Honey said sheepishly, although she knew Go Go was right; she really had to work on perfecting her chemical compound calculations. More people were filing into the auditorium, Honey noticed as she decided to take a quick peek around.
She didn't see the tall boy anywhere.
"I guess," Go Go caught Honey's attention, and Honey turned to see Go Go push herself back up to sit properly in her chair, her feet quite not making it to the ground as she let her legs dangle. I guess that's the curse that comes with being short, Honey thought. A low buzz settled in the room as new students were taking their seats, and Honey felt a shiver of excitement run down her spine.
San Fransokyo Institue Of Technology was the greatest place for scientists to expand their talents. That was why she had applied- she hoped one day to become a great chemist, one who would hopefully change the world. As was the case with everyone else in the room, it seemed, as Honey watched a lanky boy waltz into the room and yell with a sort of relaxed bravado, "Who's ready to change the world?!"
"Nervous?" Go Go cut through her thoughts.
"A little, I guess," Honey said, "I mean, we're finally college students, Go Go! Isn't that exciting?" Go Go shrugged, leaning the crook of her arm over the back of her seat, eyes narrowed at student as they filed in. Some sat alone, others waved to friends. Some, she noticed, made small talk, and she was sure those that did were to become fast friends later on in the year.
It always happened at one point, anyway.
"Honey," Go Go popped her gum, "when did you say this thing started?" Honey let out a small "Oh, right!", going to check her wrist when she realized: she didn't wear watches. She was never able to find one cute enough to coordinate with her outfits. She opened her mouth to apologize, both girls surprised to hear a deep voice come out instead.
"The brochure stated they start orientation around nine, so that should be in five minutes."
Honey glanced up to find the tall boy Go Go had pointed out grinning politely at them, his thumb hitched under the strap of his bag. Up close, she could see he had Japanese features, with pretty almond eyes and blemish free skin. Under the baseball cap he wore Honey could see he had short black hair, and he wore a white t-shirt with a ninja emblazoned on the front under his cardigan. Go Go eyed Honey smugly as he pointed to the seat next to her.
"Sorry," the boy apologized, his cheeks tinging red, "Uh, is it okay if I sit here? I can't really find anywhere else." Honey glanced at Go Go, who just shrugged, chomping on her gum to blow another bubble. Honey nodded, smiling broadly.
"Sure!" she said, and the boy carefully setting himself down. Resting his elbows on his knee, he leaned forward a bit so he was looking at both girls.
"I'm Honey Lemon," Honey introduced herself, feeing her smile grow wider. The boy nodded as Go Go popped her gum, drawling, "Go Go Tomago, pleasure to meet you."
"Tadashi Hamada," the boy returned the sentiment, "Nice to meet you two as well." There was an awkward silence as everyone absorbed what they had just learned- even then, it wasn't anything, just a simple name. A label given to you at birth, if it were to be anything significant.
Tadashi cleared his throat after a few minutes, "So, are you two freshman as well?"
"Oh, yes!" Honey answered- bit too quickly, she realized, the look on Tadashi's face telling her she caught him off guard. Brushing wisps of hair out of her face, she said more quietly, "Sorry- uh, yeah, we are." Honey watched as Tadashi nodded, a tendon in his neck straining with the motion.
"So that means we have four years together, huh?" Tadashi teased them. Honey rolled her eyes and Go Go groaned, although both girls were secretly flattered to have such a handsome guy talking to them. As soon as Tadashi had approached them, Honey thought she could feel the stares of every other girl boring into her and Go Go's backs, like a knife cutting through a loaf of bread.
Who could blame them, though? It was hard not to notice Tadashi, with the way he looked and all.
It looked like the same could be said with the staff, one of the teachers strolling in as the lights dimmed down to a pitch black, save a spotlight that followed a man as he got up on stage, the beam sweeping the floor a few inches from his feet. Honey swore that as he scanned the crowd with scrutinizing eyes, he paused briefly as he passed over Tadashi, lingering for a minute before forcing himself to look away, focus on the task at hand.
Footsteps echoed as the man crossed the stage, brushing off a maroon colored sweater vest over a gray button down shirt, paired with brown khaki pants. Feedback blew out from the microphone as he tapped it gently, everyone collectively wincing at the sound. They heard the man cough as he leaned closer to the microphone, sighing with a heave of his shoulders.
"My name is Robert Callaghan," the man said, adding, "Although that would be Professor Callaghan to all of you. Anyway, I want to welcome you all to your first semester at SFIT. Here, we use science to change the world- and I hope that's exactly what you, as students, will do." He nodded a small thanks and began to stride off the stage, jogging a little as he went down the small set of steps.
As soon as he had left the microphone, he was greeted with uproarious applause. Honey thought the speech was a tad short, but drove home the point anyway. As she clapped politely, she glanced over at Go Go. The girl was looking as bored as ever, popping and snapping her gum. Sighing, she turned her attention to Tadashi.
Admiration was obvious in his eyes, and he as clapping so hard his hands were turning red, his knuckles turning white. She wasn't sure who Professor Callaghan was, and she had just met Tadashi, but if the man was able to make a student look so in awe with a few simple words, she figured e couldn't be all that bad.
Later, as a few more professors made speeches, and the excitement had died down, Honey helped Go Go strap on her rollerblades. They were heavy, painted black with a set of purple wheels.
"Those are sick," Tadashi complimented, and Honey thought she could see the slightest of a blush creep across her friend's cheeks as she slipped on her helmet.
"Oh, woman up," was all she could say, waving a quick good-bye to Honey as she wheeled through the crowd, almost knocking into a teacher as she went. Calls flew after ruer about not being allowed to skate indoors. Go Go, Honey knew, didn't exactly care, sending the middle finger behind her as she exited the auditorium.
"She seems nice," Tadashi said awkwardly, shoving his hands nonchalantly in his pockets. Honey smiled for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
"Yeah, but she's really nice once you get to know her," Honey backed him up. Tadashi nodded, fixing the bill of his black baseball cap so it was tilted slightly backwards, showing off his black hair.
"What about you? Are you nice?" he asked. Honey faltered as she opened her mouth, feeling heat rise to her cheeks.
How was she supposed to answer that? Sure, she was an overall bubbly person, with her bright pink and yellow clothes, and all the smiling she did was bound to hurt her cheeks after a while. But was she a nice person? Honey shrugged; no one had ever asked her this before, and she never contemplated the possibility of her having not been a nice person. She told Tadashi so.
"I guess we'll see then," he joked, giving her a crooked smile. He reached into his messenger bag, replacing his brochure with a piece of paper. A schedule, Honey realized. "What do you have?" Honey rummaged through her own purse, pushing aside multiple cosmetics- lipstick, eyeliner, the works, realizing she probably had to sort through it later, given that she probably needed to buy new makeup anyway. Finally, she found her schedule, the paper all crinkled, with smears of lip gloss and foundation and the like decorating the borders. Awkwardly, she handed it to Tadashi to compare.
"Wow…" Tadashi murmured, and Honey saw his eyes flit to each make-up stain, "Did the entirety of Sephora's make=up collection vomit on your schedule?" Honey giggled, shaking her head.
"No, I was experimenting with colors," she said as Tadashi scanned the two papers, nodding as he went down the lists.
"Looks like we have Robotics class together, huh?" Tadashi said, handing back her paper. She took it gingerly, carefully tucking it into her purse. She had to be more careful with how she used her make-up.
"Really? Go Go has that with me too!" she said cheerfully, clapping her hands. Nodding, Tadashi gestured t her bag, which held her schedule.
"So, why were you experimenting with colors?" he asked, adding "If you don't mind me asking."
"Oh, uh, I'm a chemistry major" Honey explained, laughing off the awkwardness of the question, "and I like bright colors-"
"As it shows," he gestured to her clothes. Honey smiled a little, pausing before she continued.
"- and I was trying to create a new shade of pink!" she said, "So yeah…. that's what's with all the make-up- sorry if I got any on you, by the way…." Tadashi gave her another crooked grin, and Honey felt her pulse race a little. It wasn't love, she knew- love made your heart beat faster, your palms get sweaty, things like that. This was more of a zing of fear up her spine, infused with the optimism of eating an entire ice cream sundae by yourself. That, or hopefully her green tea wasn't trying to come up for air.
"I bid you luck with that," Tadash said as they began walking through the auditorium, the light streaming in as they opened the doors that lead outside. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the lanky kid that had yelled about changing the world talking with a burly African American boy. They were quite a pair to look at too, with the other man being so much taller than him.
Tadashi squinted as they went outside, lowering his baseball cap, Honey braving the light face on. Of course, she was used to it, having remodeled her funky pink glasses to triple as a pair of goggles, regular glasses, and sunglasses.
All in all, she was putting fashion to good use in the science world.
And with her friends by her side, that was what she intended to do.