It was a rainy day that day, the day I reflected back on. It was the day everything changed for me, for better or worse, I'll never know and I'll never care really. It was during my first week at Ox Elementary School, and I was just getting used to the fact that no one liked me, including my father who shipped me off to the god-forsaken academy. The bullying that happened to me during the week, just because I was different because of my eyes and hair color, was starting to get to me. It was when I was eating lunch under the main stairway when I met her, and how she became my first friend.
'I hate them,' I thought to myself as I took a bite out of the school sandwich provided to us. 'I hate them, I hate them, I hate them!' I thought bitterly as I threw my lunch across towards the other wall, hitting it with a loud clang as the metal tray I was eating out of fell against the wall, 'Why do they get to have all the fun while I have to be pushed around by them?!'
"Who's there?" I heard a voice say as I quickly ducked under the stairwell again, realizing in my rage I was outside the hiding range of the stairs. I waited for a minute, hoping they would just go away, before I saw a girl come around the corner, meaning my hiding spot was now gone. The only thing I did notice was that she had pink hair. 'Pink hair?' I thought to myself as I noticed she finally saw me under the shade of the stairs.
"Hi, who are you?" She asked me while I continued to sit in the corner I was in, hoping that if I stayed here long enough while not saying anything, she would get bored and leave. It's worked enough before.
"Why are you hiding under the stairs, isn't it dirty under there?" She asked again, now starting to grate on my nerves that she wasn't leaving me be.
"Why won't you ta-," "Will you just leave me alone," I interrupted her, figuring if I asked her this she would understand that I was the weird kid that no one likes and leave me alone.
She just looked at me one more time before walking off. I sighed in relief that she left, but felt sad that she did so. 'Why do I feel sad, she is just another person who would mock me,' I thought as the bell rang, signaling I would have to go to class, meaning my safe zone was gone again.
It was the next day, and I was eating lunch under the stairwell when I saw her again. 'What is she doing,' I wondered as she stood there, making sure I was under the stairs before speaking again.
"Hi, I'm Nonon Jakuzure!" She stated cheerfully as I looked over to her before going back to my lunch, taking another bite while noticing she looked annoyed.
"That's when you say your name," Nonon said as I debated whether or not giving my name would be a good idea. 'Maybe if I do, she will then realize who I am and leave me alone,' I thought before deciding to speak up.
"Ryuko Matoi," I said as I finished off my lunch, now just waiting for the bell to ring for next class so I can get the day over with.
"Well hi Ryuko, wanna be friends?" Nonon said as she walked over towards where I was sitting, until the bell rang and I went to class, not even saying anything to Nonon as I walked passed her.
The next day during lunch, Nonon came by again but this time with her own lunch. She then proceeded to sit down next to me and eat. 'Why is she doing this?' I thought, now thinking this wasn't a coincidence that she kept coming to where I was.
"Why are you here," I asked as my curiosity came over me, wanting to know why she insisted to spend so much time around me when there are other people in the school.
"Cause I wanna be," Nonon replied simply as she took another bite of her food. 'Why would she want to be here, doesn't she know that I'm the weird kid,' I thought as I sat in silence for a few minutes, just staring towards the opposite wall before I heard her voice again.
"You didn't answer me yesterday," She said, looking towards me as I finished off my lunch for today.
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I don't know."
"But it's either yes or no, just say one of them!" Nonon said as I heard frustration in her voice. 'What should I do, I could just say no and she would leave, but she is the first person here to be nice to me,' I thought as I went over my options, before deciding on my choice.
"Yes."
"Really?" Nonon asked excitedly as she stood up and raised her hand, "That sounds great!"
I decided that this would be fun, so I stood up as well and accepted the handshake, with a smile on my face. 'Maybe this school isn't that bad after all,' I thought as the bell rang.
"Oh the bell rang, gotta get to class," Nonon said as she started running off. "Cya tomorrow Ryuko-chan!" She said as she ran up the stairs to class. I myself could not keep the smile off my face for the rest of the day that day.
But of course, all good things must have their tragedies as well. It was two weeks into the new friendship we were in, and all in all I was happy. I waited under the stairwell as usual waiting for Nonon to come over. She even told me she would play her flute for me today, which I was really excited about. I then noticed that she wasn't here yet. 'Weird,' I thought as I waited by my lunch, 'she is usually here by now.' After a minute of waiting I heard a scream, and it made my heart stop for a second. 'That was Nonon!' I thought quickly as I got up from my sitting position and ran up the stairs, going to the location where I heard her voice. When I got to the roof where I heard the scream my anger skyrocketed. Three boys of a higher grade were standing around Nonon, who was on the ground with bruises and scrapes covering her skin.
"Get away from her!" I screamed as I got their attention, all of them looking towards me, laughing as they ignored Nonon and started to walk towards me.
"Well what do we have here," The first boy said as they all started to circle around me, closing me in.
"Oh, it's gear eyes!" The second boy said as the other two got a look of recognition in their eyes, now knowing who they're dealing with.
"Yeah, what of it," I said, hoping that they would just leave, but secretly knowing they wouldn't.
"Well you gotta be punished; ya see you weren't supposed to come up here!" The third boy said as he punched me in the head, knocking me off my feet as I hit the ground.
"Well now, what are ya gonna do now ge-, "He was interrupted as the bell rang.
"Oh no, we're gonna be late!" The second boy said as he rushed to the stairs leading back into the building. The rest of them followed.
It was a bit hazy for me for about five minutes before I could recognize anything, and the first thing I noticed was Nonon hovering over me, attempting to pick me, but since she wasn't that strong and was kinda small for her age, she couldn't do it.
"I'm fine," I said as I went to sat up, but was tackled into a hug by Nonon as she started to voice all of her concerns.
"Ryuko you're okay! I was really worried that you wouldn't be cause the big mean boys punched you and you weren't talking when I was talking to you and there was red sticky stuff coming from the back of your head and I couldn't pick you up an-," "I'm fine," I interrupted her as I felt the back of my head. 'Weird,' I thought as I couldn't feel any wounds there. It was a few minutes of awkward silence before we both stood up.
"Thank you," Nonon said as we started walking towards the class we were late for, "if you didn't come to help, I don't know what they would have done." When she said that I instantly remembered, she was still injured from those boys earlier.
"You need to see the nurse," I said as I grabbed her hand and started walking over there.
"Hey, I'm fine!" Nonon whined as she tried to resist, but it was a halfhearted attempt as it was, and she wasn't strong enough anyway even if she put her all into it. I think it was then as we entered the nurses office that the somewhat weak bonds we had towards each other were strengthen to steel, and no one could break our friendship. I could never be happier.
I hope you enjoyed reading this one-shot I made. I loved writing it personally and I got the idea from when I saw Satsuki and Nonon's mini back story together and I thought 'Why not have Nonon meet Ryuko before she met Satsuki' and this story was formed. If I get enough support for the idea I can definitely try and make this into an actual story instead of a one-shot, and I already have ideas on what I could do for it, but it depends if people want to read it or not. If you liked it, be sure to review and tell me what you liked, or if you think it could have been better, tell me what you didn't like and I'll be sure to revise the work if it seems logical enough. Anyway thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!
