Utau Hoshina, captain of the varsity cheerleading squad, could almost hear her entrance being narrated in the freakish minds of those she approached. Something involving "damsel in distress" and her blond hair being like a "sack of gold coins" or something. In her mind it would have sounded more like the voice-over in an old detective movie-the only kind of movie she and Tadase could both watch without fighting.
She threw a wad of bills down on the desk in front of Kukai. Three pairs of eyes in the room went to the money. And then to her shapely legs. And then back to the money.
"I want to hire your services," she said with a little disgust. She didn't want to to be there. And it was no surprise.
Chapter One:
The Nerd Herd
If Utau had to choose what bothered her most about being the captain of the cheerleading squad, it would be all the other cheerleaders following her around like puppy dogs, hanging on her every word. Sure, at first the power was really appealing. But after awhile, it got old. Not to mention annoying.
"I love your bracelet Hoshina-sempai," Saaya Yamabuki complimented on their way to the cafeteria. Saaya is her underling on the squad, her good friend and more of a pain in the ass than anything else. However, Utau put up with that not out of friendship but respect. Saaya could be a devious person, but she always found a way of getting what she wanted. An impressive characteristic in Utau's opinion.
"This?" Utau regarded her bracelet passively, "Tadase gave me this a long time ago. I guess I put it on without thinking." It was odd, she used to treasure the old piece of metal so much she would be anxious about wearing it out. Now, she didn't even bother with that anymore. Goes to show how long their relationship has lasted. Going on two years.
"Tadase-kun is quite a catch, isn't he?" Saaya observed, admiring the bracelet profusely, "When I first met him, I thought he was as charming as a prince."
"Oh, he's charming alright," Utau commented, more for herself than to perk Saaya's curiosity. Tadase was just exhausting at times.
"You guys aren't having trouble, are you?" Saaya asked concerned, well, as concerned as she could be about an issue that didn't involve herself.
"Nothing like that, I just don't think we'll get to spend as much time together since the school production is about to start." Which wasn't completely true, but was all she was going to confess to Saaya about her relationship problems.
"I'm excited about it, too!" Saaya exclaimed, instantly perked up with this change of topic, "I'm going to audition for the leading lady."
"What happened to your disgust of drama geeks?"
"Are you kidding? I was meant to be on stage!" The thing about Saaya is that she was never modest about anything. No, she was more along the lines of a huge attention whore.
"I'm sure Saaya would be perfect for the part!" by this time they had made it to their usual table, where the freshmen girls loved to try to get in favor of a junior or a senior.
"I know right!" Too bad for those freshmen, Saaya expected people to give her those kinds of compliments, there were no points to be earned in that department.
"I'm sure you'll get the part Yambuki-san," Tadase commented just out of kindness, because that was just how he is, "You already seem passionate about it."
"Thank you Tadase-kun!" Saaya thanked him sweetly with a nice smile. To Utau she was just pretending to be sweet and innocent, a little game she liked to play with Tadase and adults. Utau never thought anything of it.
When she sat down next to Tadase, she felt pissed about the smile he gave her, "How has your day been?"
What do you think you stupid idiot? "Fine," Utau responded passive just picking at her food, barely hearing the conversations going on around her. There was just too much on her mind.
She and Tadase have been going out for a long time. Lately though, it seems they've done nothing but fight. Once that dating "honeymoon" phase was over, they realized how different their interests were. Of course she was into basic girly things: clothes, makeup, music, etc. She never would of thought that Tadase was into things like Star Trek and Lord of the Rings. How was she suppose to relate to that?
They couldn't even do things together without getting into it. What she needed was a solution to this problem.
That's when something miraculous happened, that never had before.
"Is that Hinamori?" someone at the table asked, clearly shocked, making everyone, including a slightly annoyed Utau, direct their attention to the entrance to the cafeteria. Sure enough, there was a girl standing there with pink hair and uniform fit more for a punk aesthetic, glancing around the room passively, with an air of superiority, Utau assumed this was Hinamori.
"She never eats in the cafeteria. I heard she leaves school to get good food."
"Not a bad idea," Utau chimed in, amused by the freshman's face of horror. She wondered for a moment if Hinamori stole his lunch money or something.
"That's nothing," a girl added, "I heard she beat up the entire Sakura soccer team single handedly."
"Yeah, she's got a hell of a reputation, even the principals are afraid of her," a guy said, Utau assumed he was one of Tadase's friends, "She's one hell of a badass, it's really hot." Utau rolled her eyes at the last comment. She was just a girl that played dress up every day, what was so "hot" about that.
She would have voiced her opinion if they all weren't in a trance by her actions. When Utau looked around, it seemed the people around her were watching Hinamori too, just like a kind of school celebrity.
When she began making her way to a table, everyone followed her, even Utau did, more to hop on the bandwagon than anything. When she finally took a seat, Utau wasn't the only one whose mouth dropped and eyes widen. The girl everyone saw as a cool, badass, rebel was sitting at the table of social suicide, the Genre and Nonsense club, also known as: The Nerd Herd.
"Oh, this is too good," Saaya said, seeming more happy than surprised, as she pulled out her digital camera and snapped a few shots of the girl socializing with the losers of the school.
The Nerd Herd only consisted of three poor saps that were too stupid to leave their hobbies at home. Kairi was this kind of genius that she had seen being harassed more than once. Nagihiko looked like a hippie to her, with his long hair, and love and peace attitude. Kukai was the only one she had contact with. He was in her homeroom, and he got busted by the teacher on a daily basis for playing video games during class. A real loser in her opinion. Utau never felt sorry for the guys, it was their own fault for the abuse they received.
That was when she came up with the idea, something so insane and dangerous she just had to give it a try. For the rest of the period she watched the table with a sly smile on her face, barely regarding the conversation about Hinamori at her table. This was just a plan she had to motivate herself to commence, for she was sure this wasn't going to end well.
~Flip the Paige~
Their expressions were through a wide range: genuine surprise that she even knew where the media room was (Kukai and Kairi), a look of subtle horror concealed by a nervous smile (Nagihiko), and a passive look of disinterest (Amu).
"You..., um, what?" Nagihiko asked not sure what they could provide for Utau Hoshina, especially something that she required.
"I want you to teach me your...stuff..." Utau waved her hand at the Star Wars posters, action figures glued to the window sill, cans of soda constructed into a pyramid and open bags of chips. She cringed a little at the last. "I want you to teach me everything you know about video games, science fiction shows, and movies."
"Dear God...I think we're being punked," Kukai commented, disregarding his game to stare at the door, waiting for the camera crew to come in.
"Why?" Kairi asked, not looking up from his desktop. His glasses on the tip of his nose, in complete concentration on whatever he was doing. Utau rolled her eyes at the display.
"My boyfriend is into this kind of stuff. You know, Tadase?"
"Yes, we all know who Tadase is," Kairi commented, still focused on the screen, "'Prince' is the nickname I believe. How appropriate."
Utau ignored him. "He's into it, and I don't get it at all. Any of it. We fight about it all the time. I thought maybe if I learn something about... all this, we would be able to...communicate..better."
"You're going to pay us money to teach you to speak geek so you can talk to your boyfriend?" Kairi asked making sure he understood the situation.
"Yes." She answered, trying to convince them she was serious, while she was trying to convince herself that this wasn't the worst idea she had ever had.
"I'm game," Kukai answered, focusing back on his PSP, "It sounds like fun."
"It sounds stupid to me," Kairi voiced his opinion, "We're not some support group."
"Kairi, not helpful," Nagihiko warned him. He composed himself and offered Utau a professional smile, "Now, what exactly is it you want to know?"
"Well, Tadase likes Star Trek..."
"Really?" Nagihiko said in disbelief before he could stop himself. Amu stuck her nose deeper into her book, obviously hiding her smile at Nagihiko's expense.
"Ha, 'Mr. Wonderful' is a Trekker!" Kukai laughed.
"How old-school," Kairi chuckled.
Utau looked confused from one to the other as they fired off their remarks. "Um, yes he does, and I thought it was referred to as Trekkie. Old-school? Uh, he watches... the one with the Klingon. And the one with the dog. And the really old one."
"True Trek?" Kairi asked in higher spirits.
"There are two with a Klingon as a main character," Nagihiko pointed out.
"'Doggie'?" Kukai laughed, "Yeah, I remember a nice dog, a beagle I think." He remarked followed quickly by: "HA! TAKE THAT YOU STUPID MUSHROOM!" Probably to his video game.
Utau took a deep breath to calm herself and give the patience she needed to not commit murder at the moment. "He also likes playing on his Xbox and watching those dorky movies like Star Wars and those little guys...,"
"Xbox or Xbox 360?" Kukai asked, sitting up at attention for more details.
"'Dorky'?" Kairi demanded, slightly insulted.
"'Little guys'?" Nagihiko snorted, "Hobbits suck."
"Oh God, this was a horrible idea," Utau realized forlornly, turning towards the door.
"No wait, we can do this," Nagihiko reasoned, gaining back his composure, "So he likes Star Trek and the other... great major motion pictures and video games. Well, we have experts on all three of them. Kukai's a vidiot. He knows everything about every video game ever made. His name's on half the machines at the arcade. And Kairi knows everything about computers, be games or software. Plus he's a real fantasy freak. If it's got dragons, he's read it. My specialty is science fiction, genre and cult films. I'll handle that.
"And...Amu is," Nagihiko added delicately, hoping to draw her attention, unsuccessfully, "our book expert."
"Yeah..., Tadase doesn't read... a lot of books." Utau pointed out before any jokes could be thrown in.
"Well, what about book with pictures?" Nagihiko threw in, "Amu's an obsessive anime freak."
"Manga. Manga is the book. Anime is the televised broadcast," Amu explained, without looking up from her book. Utau hadn't believe the girl truly belonged among the rest of them, what with her punk aesthetic, but with that response, Utau saw the geek in her.
"See what I mean?" Nagihiko remarked, with a satisfied smile, as if they had met her expectations (and then some), "We could plan it out, like a syllabus, with...um, minimum interaction."
"Perfect. Where the interacting is minimumy."
"That was almost a Buffyism," Kairi pointed out to Amu.
"Almost," Amu replied, seemingly unconvinced.
"We could take her to Natsucomi as a final," Kukai suggested, getting excited by the idea.
"What's that?" Utau asked. The setup they were discussing was appealing to her. She was good at standardized education. "It kind of sounds familiar...I think Tadase talked about it..."
"It's our city's answer to World Con," Nagihiko answered proudly.
"It's a sci-ence fiction and fan-ta-sy con-ven-tion," Kairi explained, slowly and carefully.
"Not to mention the endless supply of manga and doujinshi available," Amu added, a hint of excitement in her voice that Utau did not know she could express.
"It's epic!" Kukai summed up with a grin.
"Huh?" Utau said, nodding, but completely lost, "Yeah, a final, that sounds good. So by the end I'll be able to fit in and talk to everyone, and impress Tadase. Maybe without being completely bored."
"Um, that's sounds a little ambitious," Nagihiko commented, with a nervous glance he exchanged with Kairi who was sure to make a comment. "We're just trying to get you through the day without losing your patience."
"Or saying anything too insulting." Kukai threw in, ignoring Nagihiko's warning glare. He was still too deep in his game.
"Yes. That sounds like a more workable end goal." Utau agreed, thinking about how to plan her schedule around this.
"A sports metaphor," Kairi noted pushing up his glasses and focusing back onto his computer, "How typical."
