"Come on, Anon! We're going to be late!"
"Ok, OK! I'm coming, jeez..."
"But school's starting in 2 minutes! We can't be late on our first day!"
"Fine, fine, I'll speed up!"
"You say that but you're not even running!"
"Fine!" shouted Anon as he caught up with the annoying girl with the coral pink hair. "I think we can still make it!"That girl is his next door neighbour and best friend Sayori, although they were so close they were practically siblings. As Anon finally caught up with Sayori, the two hastily rushed down the dull asphalt.
"NOO the students are already in their classrooms! We're late!" whined Sayori.
"No we're not, they're just early, look: It's not even 9 yet!" replied Anon, struggling to catch his breath.
Sayori and Anon walked to the centre of a few chairs arranged to form a circle. Lifeless stuffed animals started back at them.
"Good morning class!" Sayori said, mimicking an adult; Anon tried his hardest to suppress his laugh.
"Good morning Miss Asoka..." said Sayori in a different tone, this time imitating a cartoon character.
"As you all know, today is the day you guys will receive your results," Sayori said, returning to her "mature" voice. "And I'm happy to say that all of you passed!" Sayori exclaimed with glee. "Mr Kazuma, would you like to give out the awards?"
"Alright... alright..." groaned Anon. He looked at his list unenthusiastically. "For best in maths... Mr Cow..."
"Come on... can't you be a bit more excited?" whined Sayori.
"FOR TOP IN MATHS, MR COW!" yelled Anon, startling the poor teacher. "There, you happy, Ms Asoka?"
"Ehehe... congrats Mr Cow!" said Sayori as she picked up her stuffed cow and gave her a medal that had the words "Thanks for participating!" on it. She then turned back to her teaching assistant. "Who else is next, Mr Kazuma?" Anon looked at the list, "For best in science... Mr C-Sayori why are all the recipients Mr Cow?" "Because I love Mr Cow!" shouted Sayori. "What about the other students? What about Mr Duck, or that bird?" "MR COW!" yelled Sayori even louder. Anon sighed and smiled. The enthusiasm Sayori had for being a teacher was honestly kind of admirable. Besides, other than the times Sayori came over, he did nothing all day besides watch cartoons, so who was he to judge. "Alright Sayori, best in science goes to Mr Cow." replied Anon. "YAY!" cheered Sayori. "Congratulations Mr Cow!"
"Hey! What's going on here, you two?" a sudden voice came out from behind the duo, startling them both.
Sayori and Anon spun around.
"O-oh! H-hi James..." Sayori muttered as her face turned red.
Anon's reaction was the complete opposite, as he stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the taller boy with blond hair. James was the older kid in their neighbourhood. Most girls around Sayori's age found him to be attractive; including Sayori, but Anon hated his guts since the day they've met. There were many reasons for his strong disliking of James including how James was superior to him in every way, but mostly it was because he would always get in the way between him and Sayori. Such is a case for today, where Sayori was already completely ignoring him and swooning over the blue-eyed boy.
"W-we were just playing teacher, would you like to join us?"
"Sure, Sayori" replied James with a wink, making Sayori melt on the inside. As soon as James joins the class, he quickly took over, making James feel more inferior than he already did. What's worse was that Sayori didn't seem to realise he was feeling this way. Eventually, Anon sat down and watched as Sayori and James continued handing out trophies to Mr. Cow.
Eventually, James had to leave, leaving Sayori and Anon with the stuffed animals.
"Come on Anon! It's recess time!" Sayori shouted, seemingly forgetting that she had just ignored him for two hours. Apparently Anon's disheartened face had no effect on the cheerful girl.
Anon sighed. "At least she's back..." he thought. "God, I hate him"
...
As afternoon turned to evening, Sayori and Anon continued playing in the park. Elementary School was starting for the both of them and they were trying to make the most out of their time left. "I can't wait to meet new friends and tell them all about our amazing adventures!" said Sayori to Anon. "Err..." started Anon, a bit embarrassed "...maybe leave out the parts where I had to-" "-Of course I'll leave those out, dummy! Only the fun stuff! And maybe the part where you helped me out of that pond, and the part where you helped me crawl out of that hole, or the part where-" "Alright, I get it Sayori." smiled Anon. Sayori returned the smile and ushered Anon to sit beside her on the park bench.
"You'll make friends too, right?" asked Sayori, quizzically looking at Anon. Hearing this question made Anon look down in embarrassment. Both their parents knew Sayori was Anon's only friend during pre-school all the way to kindergarten. Even when the neighbourhood kids came together to play, Anon only ever hung out with Sayori, only really speaking to the other children when he needed something or when he said "excuse me".
"I-I will. I'll make friends..." replied Anon half-heartedly.
"W-will I still be your best friend?" asked Sayori, her normally cheerful nature suddenly faltering.
"O-of course. I'd be crazy to let anyone else replace you as my best friend, no matter how nice or funny they are." Anon replied, giving Sayori a knowing smile.
"It sucks that we're going to different schools..." lamented Sayori, with a despondent look still plastered on her face.
"Hey, don't worry. After school, I'll come over and we'll play. Like today!" Anon suggested after sensing Sayori was feeling down. Sayori stares out into the sunset before finally asking "P-promise?" her voice starting to shake.
"I promise. You know what, after our first day of school let's go watch Cars again at my house."
"R-really? YAY I LOVE THAT MOVIE!" Sayori exclaimed, her downcast attitude replace immediately by a tidal wave of joy. Seeing Sayori so happy made Anon smile to himself. Sayori: His best friend in the whole world, nothing on this Earth would ever change that.
"We should get going. It's getting dark." noted Anon, looking up at the sky, the moon already starting to appear.
"Ok." said Sayori as she started putting all her stuffed toys into her basket. "Help me with the chairs." "Oh, right" replied Anon as he started stacking the plastic chairs. Sayori looked at him in awe. "Wow Anon, you're so strong! You're like that guy on TV who's also strong!" "Guy on TV? Sayori what are you talking about?" "You know; the one where everyone shouts his name whenever he comes." "John Cena?" "Yeah, him! John Cena!" Anon blushed at that comment. Even his own mother kept telling him to eat more and exercise. "Wow." He thought to himself. "How lucky am I to have a friend like Sayori."
...
As the two friends hauled the chairs back to Sayori's house, they saw Sayori's mother, Midori, waiting for them at the doorstep.
"How was school?" she asked jokingly. "Did Mr Cow give you two any trouble?"
"Nope!" replied Sayori. "He is the best in every subject too!"
"Really? That's wonderful!" said Midori as she took the stuffed cow out of the basket and hugged it. She held the door open for Sayori and Anon as they walked inside. "Mrs Asoka, may I use the bathroom?"
"Of course, Anon." Midori replied warmly. By now, Anon had been such a frequent visitor to Sayori's house that he knew every nook and cranny of it. As he walked towards the toilet, he noticed the fragrant smell coming from Sayori's kitchen. On the stoves there were the masterpieces that were Midori's cooking. Fried fish was simmering in oil in the pan, aromatic rice slowly cooking inside the rice cooker and the best miso soup that rivalled Aunty Aiko's, the town's roadside restaurant owner.
The smell is enough to make Anon forget about this trip to the toilet as he looked at all the delectable food, his mouth watering every second. All of a sudden, his trance is disrupted by a poke on the shoulder.
"GAH!" he jerks. He sees Sayori standing next to him with a puzzled look on her face, which quickly morphs into a mischievous smile.
"Weren't you going to the toilet?" asked Sayori, putting her hands on her hips.
"I-I am... I just... I was..." mouthed Anon, his face turning red. Sayori starts laughing. "H-Hey! I just... smelt your mom's good cooking, that's all! No need to act all rude about it..."
"Sayori..." said Midori in a stern voice as she walked over to see what the commotion was about. "...you aren't giving our guest a hard time are you?"
"Ehehe..." said Sayori, putting her index fingers together.
"Yeah, Sayori!" replied Anon, becoming smug as well, sensing he had Midori backing him up. "You shouldn't treat your guests this way."
"I was joking!" pouted Sayori, causing both Midori and Anon to start laughing. "Lighten up, Sayori, I'm not mad. And Anon, you can stay for dinner too, you know?" asked Midori. Anon's laughter stopped and is replaced by a crestfallen look. "Err... sorry Mrs Asoka, but my mom is cooking dinner today..."
"Aww really?" asked Sayori, getting disappointed as well. "Can't you just tell your mom to-" Sayori's interjection is interjected by a look from Midori. She looks down at her feet.
"It's alright, Anon. You go and enjoy Lisa's dinner. Maybe next time we'll all have dinner at your place too." Midori suggested, sensing Anon's discomfort. "Yeah. That'd be nice. Thank you, Mrs Asoka."
After a brief trip to the toilet, Anon prepared to make his leave before getting interrupted by a hug from Sayori. "Bye Anon." Sayori said sadly. Unbeknownst to him, tears started forming in her eyes. "It's ok Sayori; I told you we can still play after school. My house is near here." Anon reminded. "Oh yeah." replied Sayori, still a bit downcast. However, it seems that Anon had not picked up on that.
"I have to go home now. Bye Sayori!"
As Anon slowly walked out of her house, Sayori only got sadder. "Bye Anon..." she said softly to herself as she closed the front door.
...
"Mom, I'm home!" Anon slowly pushed the door to his house inwards, peering his head in. "Mom?"
"I'm in the kitchen Anon, close the door yourself please." Lisa replied from the kitchen. Anon immediately caught a whiff of his future dinner and was disappointed. "Fish and broccoli..." he muttered quietly to himself. Lisa's cooking wasn't exactly bad, but Anon was tired of the same food every day. He forced himself to smile and walked towards the kitchen, closing the front door behind him.
As he walked past a family photo, his heart sunk. The photo was taken a year ago, but only two thirds of the people in it still lived in the house. Shaking the thought from his head, he trudged on to the kitchen where he found his mother frantically speaking to someone on the phone, most likely her boss or a superior.
"Yes, I will get the reports by Monday and yes the Kota family will be sorted out" said Lisa, short of breath as she rushed around the kitchen, checking on the rice, checking on the fish and making sure the broccoli aren't burnt to ash. Anon knew better than to disturb his mother when she was busy and dragged himself upstairs to his room.
Opening his room door, Anon plopped himself onto his Lightning McQueen bed and closed his eyes. Downstairs, Lisa could still be heard talking to her superiors, the sound of pots and pans clashing accompanying her. It was going to be a while until dinner was ready. Anon's bored eyes panned over to his dresser: His clothes piled up; never to be sorted, his Lego toys; broken down with pieces never to be found, and the thing that caught his attention; a picture frame containing him and his best friend. The world around him stopped as he slowly got up and walked over to the dresser. Holding the picture frame in his hand, he suddenly remembered the conversation he had with Sayori a few minutes ago.
"What if she's right?" Anon said out loud to himself. "What if I don't make any friends...?" He looked down at the picture once more. Sayori had held her hands over Anon's head making a peace sign. Behind them, two elephants were minding their own business. The huge smile on Sayori's face was enough to create a smile on Anon's face as well. "Even if I don't make friends... I'll still have you." He said to the Sayori in the photo. "We'll be best friends forever."
"Anon! Dinner's ready!" Lisa yelled from the kitchen, ejecting Anon out of his trance. "Err...Ok Mom, I'll be down in a while..." blurted out Anon as he scrambled to find a decent response.
"Ok, but don't take too long: you dinner's going to be cold." It seemed to work.
Anon placed the frame back onto his drawer gingerly, taking one last look at his best friend.
"Forever."
10 Years Later
"Ok, OK I'M UP I'M UP, SEE?"
"You better be up, or else you're going to be late! Again! I'm not driving your lazy ass this time!"
Anon opened his eyes slowly, the glaring light of his lamp burning his irises. As he slothfully sat up on his bed, his eyes made their way to his digital alarm clock. His eyes then rolled.
"Goddamnit... MOM! IT'S NOT EVEN AN HOUR TO SCHOOL YET!"
"NO, NO, NO, YOU TAKE FOREVER TO GET UP! BREAKFAST IS READY, EAT UP!" Lisa shouted from the kitchen.
With a frustrated sigh, Anon lifted himself to his feet with all of his strength. Scanning for his high school uniform, he spotted a pair lying on his dresser. As he grabbed his blazer and his tie, he revealed an old picture frame of him and his childhood friend underneath it, collecting dust, never to be cleaned.
"Man, I miss my childhood" said Anon as he buttoned his uniform up, tossing his old clothes onto the dust frame. "Ok, Mom, I'm coming." He said, leaving the picture frame under his clothes, not giving it a second thought.
Butter bread and a glass of milk stared back at him. "What a surprise..." he muttered to himself.
"Yes, OK? We're out of eggs and I didn't have time to buy them." Lisa answered with a hint of annoyance, apparently hearing Anon.
"How is it every time I say something you're not supposed to hear, YOU HEAR IT?" Anon jokingly asked.
"I'm your mother. Now eat up, tomorrow will be eggs and toast, ok?"
"Ok, thanks Mom." replied Anon as he dug in. Anon wasn't many things, but the one thing he at least could do was eat fast so his mother wouldn't complain; within minutes he had finished his meal. Anon grabbed his bag and slung it around his shoulder. "Bye Mom."
"Have fun at school!" Lisa called out from the kitchen.
"Oh I bet..." Anon replied softly, rolling his eyes as he prepared himself for another worthless six and a half hours.
...
"Oh crap."
Sayori slowly got up from her bed. As she turned back to her alarm clock, she scoffed. "8:30", it read. As Sayori made her way downstairs, she saw a note left on the table. She picked it up and read it in a monotonous voice "Yesterday's leftovers are in the fridge, here's your allowance for today. – Midori" Sayori looked back at the table. A thousand yen note sat there waiting for her.
"No thanks, Mom. I'll just make my own lunch." Sayori said to her mother but actually herself. "School food sucks anyway..." she said mid-sigh.
As she opened her fridge, sure enough, there were the previous day's leftovers snugly placed at the bottom shelf next to the eggs.
"Yay!" Sayori said with a small smile as she heated up her soon to be lunch. With 15 minutes till school, a proper breakfast was out of the question. Luckily for her, Midori always bought a stalk of bananas before returning home from work. Sayori grabbed a banana and munched down while waiting for her meal to heat in the microwave. As she looked down at her feet, she suddenly remembered something.
"I FORGOT TO CHANGE!"
Sayori rushed back upstairs to her room, her uniform and blazer still hung on her wardrobe door waiting for her. As she frantically took off her pyjamas and buttoned up her blazer, she realised her bow was still not tied either. "I'm not going to make it!" she whined as she half-heartedly put her bow together while sliding her arms into her blazer. For some reason, she couldn't find the left arm hole. "COME ON!" she shouted as the microwave started beeping. Tear started forming in her eyes as she accidentally dropped her bow. "Fuck it!" she said angrily as she grabbed everything and rushed downstairs.
The microwave beeped again.
"I know, I KNOW!"
Sayori opened the microwave door and took out her Tupperware.
"OW, FUCK!" she exclaimed as the still hot plastic box burned her finger. Luckily, she dropped the Tupperware onto the kitchen counter and nothing was spilled. Sayori then finally put her blazer on and fixed her bow. She stood there for a moment, processing whatever just happened. She looked at her burnt fingers before angrily slamming the microwave door shut.
"I can't do anything right!" she screamed in agony, the tears starting to trickle down her face. With another sigh, she walked over to the sink and cooled her burn under the running water. From her kitchen window, she saw a brown haired woman rush into her car from the house down the road. That was Mrs. Kazuma, the mother of her childhood friend Anon. Seeing as the front door was already closed, Sayori assumed Anon had long since reached school. Sayori and Anon shared schools throughout and they used to walk to school together. However, as time went on, Anon became increasingly holed up and busy with his work and their trips became less frequent. Not to mention, Sayori would always wake up an hour after Anon anyway. Eventually, they stopped walking together altogether. Seeing his mother only made Sayori's mood worse. She knew Anon stopped walking with her because she was always late and she blamed herself for that. The two haven't even spoken in years and Sayori was miserable everyday as a result. But more than that, Sayori had another secret.
She had depression.
She had it since young, but she only understood it during her middle school years. She kept it to herself, however, as she didn't want anyone worrying about her, even her own mother. She didn't know why or when; maybe it was when her parents divorced, maybe it was when Anon stopped talking to her, all she knew was there was nothing she could do about it. Every day was an uphill battle. She wasn't the type who got bullied, she didn't make enemies and in fact, she ended up making more friends than Anon. But she still struggled to get by every single day: even at home she felt like garbage.
And she felt that everything she touched turned to garbage.
And there goes the garbage truck.
"The garbage truck? OH NO!" Sayori exclaimed in panic as the green garbage truck roll past her window. Looking at the main clock, Sayori realised she had been staring at nothing for 10 minutes and now she was late for morning assembly. "Hopefully I can still make it for Biology." she said.
Wiping her hands and grabbing her bag and Tupperware, she bolted out of her front door. She ran past the Takudo household. She ran past the Suiji household. She ran past her neighbour Lee watering his plants. She ran past with her eyes widened.
"I FORGOT TO TURN OF THE SINK!"
As Sayori turned to run back, she heard someone calling her name.
"Sayori! Sayori dear!"
As Sayori turned around, she realised it was just Aunty Aiko. She was standing in front of her restaurant door, but she seemed to be troubled with something. Letting out an annoyed breath, Sayori forced a smile and waved.
"Hey Aunty Aiko! Is there something I can help you with?" As Sayori walked over, she noticed Aunty Aiko had her hands filled with her usual ingredients and on the floor were more plastic bags that were also filled with other food items.
The elderly lady gave out a toothless smile. "Y-yes, Sayori dear! Can you help me with my groceries?" Sayori looked at all the heavy bags. How long would an out of shape high-schooler and an eighty year old woman take to heave all this shit to the kitchen, which was at the BACK of the establishment? Still, Sayori knew better than to leave an old woman hanging.
"Sure, Aunty Aiko! Here, hand me those bags; I'll help you carry them in."
"Thank you, dear!" Aunty Aiko handed Sayori her bags and took out a small metal key and unlocked the glass doors of her restaurant, letting Sayori in before following suit with more bags.
"Pant...pant...all done Aunty Aiko!"
"Thank you Sayori dear! Here, Aunty Aiko just made some fresh parfait before the ingredients arrived-you should eat some!"
"Oh, it's alright, Aunty Aiko, really! I was just doing what everyone should do; it's not that big of a deal." Sayori lied, her mouth watering at the sound of free ice-cream but her brain telling her to get the fuck to school. However, seeing Aunty Aiko's kind gesture made her feel bad.
"Well...I guess I could have ONE scoop..."
Aunty Aiko let out a small chuckle.
"You're still the same old Sayori after all these years."
Sayori smiled before turning away and rolling her eyes.
"Oh I bet..."
...
After what seemed like an eternity, Sayori finally made it to school. At the gate, an irate boy greeted her.
"You're late again." He said, tapping his fingers on his notebook.
"I'm sorry, Kouichi, I had to help my neighbour carry some-"
"I'm not here to hear excuses. You're late again, which brings you up to six times this month and that means only one thing." replied the annoyed Kouichi.
"W-wha?" Sayori exclaimed in shock. "I never knew I had that many!" "Come on, Kouichi, I promise I won't be late again!"
"I'm sorry Sayori, but rules are rules. Six late-comings equals detention. Now hand me your student pass."
"Fine..." Sayori said with a pout, hiding the fact that she wanted to smack the arrogant boy in the face. Kouichi took Sayori's pass. "I'll give this back after your detention is over." He said, continuing to look at her. Sayori stood there expecting something more.
"What are you still standing here for? Go to class!" Kouichi said, raising his voice.
"Ehehe... sorry..." Sayori laughed as she turned around. "Then why were you looking at me like you were about to say something, jackass?" she muttered quietly to herself.
"What was that?"
"Oh crap." Sayori gasped. Kouichi had heard her.
"N-nothing!" Sayori spun back around. "I was just saying how great of a president you were!"
"Sayori, your attitude is terrible! Not only were you late and tried to make excuses for it, but you had the cheek to talk back to the student body president! I'm going to give you detention for the whole week! Understood?" the arrogant president scolded.
"Yes sir." Sayori said defeated. "Off to a great start are we, huh February?" she said internally.
As she cautiously opened her classroom door, she peered inside. Everyone in the classroom stopped to stare at her.
"Late again, Sayori?" asked her teacher, Mrs. Chen with a disapproving look.
"Ehehe... sorry Mrs. Chen." Apologized Sayori. By this time, she was ready to break down, but she couldn't let everyone else know she was suffering. Everyone in her class thought of her as bubbly and friendly, if a bit clumsy and non-observant, so she had to respond in a way that her classmates were expecting her to respond to not arouse suspicion.
"Take a seat quickly; we're already starting on a new topic."
Sayori hurriedly took a seat next to her best friend Mio.
"Jeez Sayori, you need to get to school earlier next time!" chided Mio. "I don't want to see you get scolded by that dickhead of a president again!"
"Uwaah! Don't use that language! It's dirty!" Sayori exclaimed angrily, despite swearing behind the scenes on a daily basis. Again, suspicion.
"I'm sorry, but it's the truth. I saw what happened outside from the window. Did he give you a hard time?"
"Yeah... it's nothing really, just detention." Sayori lied, not wanting to say how much she wanted to kill the guy. Thankfully, Mio seemed to believe her.
"Ugh, I can't even with that guy. He's only nice to the popular girls like Kisami or Fumi. Girls like us? Pfft! The worst part is, those girls seem to eat him up, not knowing how much of a fake bastard he is. How the hell did he even become president of the student council?!" she asked loudly, attracting the attention of her classmates.
"Shhh!" spitted out the annoyed boy sitting in front of them.
"Shut up, Kazami!" Mio retorted. Kazami shook his head and returned to his work, causing Sayori and Mio to giggle.
"Anyways," continued Mio, "you get what I'm saying, right?"
"Yeah, I guess." Sayori lied once again, which, again, seemed to convince Mio.
"Wow, Sayori, you really don't have to capacity to hate anyone. How are you going to survive in the real world? People will just walk all over you!" Mio remarked.
"You shouldn't hate people you don't actually know, Mio. Maybe he's nice once you get to know him."
"You never learn, Sayori." Laughed Mio.
With that, the two friends returned to their work and listening to Mrs. Chen drone on about photosynthesis.
It was going to be a long
Long
Day.
...
"It's going to be a long, long day."
"Jeez, Anon, why so negative?"
"What do you mean "negative"? You're probably feeling the same way! We're not even half a week through yet!"
"Anon. It's fucking April. How do you expect to survive when you're already giving up at the start of the first term?"
"I'm not giving up, Hitoshi, I'm just...unmotivated. I'm still doing homework; I'm not totally throwing in the towel."
"Yeah, but your work isn't exactly stellar."
"Don't act like yours is any better, dickhead. Hell, I heard you were the lowest for the physics recap quiz. Even I did better."
At this point, Hitoshi had stopped listening. His attention was onto something else.
"Dude, are you even listening?" Anon asked with a hint of annoyance. His eyes followed Histoshi's and landed on a girl with a large white bow.
"Dude. You need to stop staring at Monika."
"Why? Are you scared that she's going to catch you?"
"No, it's just really frikin' creepy."
"Whatever, man. You don't get to talk shit to me like that; you were in the same class as her last year!"
"I only spoke to her a few times, though. Hold on, are you jealous?"
"What? N-no I'm not, why would I? She's just a bitch anyway like the other council members."
"You're totally jealous, dude! You're face is fucking red!"
"Sh-shut up, bitch! You're staring at her too!"
Anon's face suddenly filled with realisation. Through all the talking about Monika, he had inadvertently started staring at the popular girl as well. As his eyes moved up to check if she had seen, his realisation quickly turned to panic.
Monika was looking right back at him.
Anon quickly turned his head back to Hitoshi and pretended to laugh at something he had said.
Unfortunately, Hitoshi was still staring. "Oh for god's sa-"
"Can I help you two with something?" Monika asked, folding her arms. Her clique had stopped their conversation and now all the attention were on the two boys. Snickering could be heard from within them.
Anon turned back to Hitoshi looking for an answer, but the wall greeted him instead. "What the-" As he spun back around, he saw Hitoshi quickly walking into a classroom that wasn't even his. "Thanks, dick." he said to himself.
"Err... no, nothing. I-I was just... spacing out."
Monika raised an eyebrow.
Anon decided against continuing this awkward conversation and hurried off to his class, while Monika's clique burst out into laughter behind him. As he briskly walked down the corridor to his classroom, his mind was overflowing with anger. Not only had his so-called friend hung him out to dry, but the most popular girl in his level not only didn't recognise him anymore, but probably thought he was a creep and a loser now. "I'm going to fucking kill you." he muttered softly, his voice dripping with venom. As he finally reached his class, a girl suddenly walked out of the door, smashing into him.
"Jesus! Watch where the fuck you're-"
Anon's anger filled eyes subsided quickly once he realised there were books all over the floor. He looked back up towards the girl. Instead of picking up her books, she just stood there clutching her left arm with her long purple hair in her face. Anon noticed that she was slightly trembling and felt slightly awful he had yelled at someone for no reason.
"I-I'm sorry. I'll help you pick these up." He offered. The girl continued standing there, lowering her head more.
Anon decided to make the first move and reached for a book, but as he did, the purple haired girl reached to grab the same book and they bumped heads once again.
"Kya!" she jumped, startling Anon. "Nice going, idiot. Now you've upset two girls in the span of two minutes." Anon scolded himself. This time, as he reached to grab the books, the girl didn't reach with him. In fact, she looked to be even more afraid than before.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Anon had gathered all the girl's books. As he handed the books over to her, the girl finally opened her mouth.
"S-sorry..." she said almost inaudibly.
"Oh, don't apologise. It's my fault anyway and I'm sorry for shouting at you too. I was being a real jerk." The girl still didn't look up at him; her eyes firmly planted on her blue shoes. "Wow, am I really that bad?" Anon thought to himself. "Fuck it; I'll give it one last shot."
"I'm Anon, by the way." he introduced, hoping the girl would at least give him her name. Thankfully, she had seemed to calm down.
"Y-Yuri..." she said a little louder, but still pretty much inaudible.
"I-It's nice to meet you Yuri." Anon tried, a little relieved he didn't make a fool out himself a second time.
As Yuri finally looked up, Anon realised how unique the girl was. As her purple hair drifted away from her face, it revealed a large pair of violet eyes. She also had a rather mature figure. Anon stopped his eyes from going any lower than Yuri's neck.
"I take it that you're going to your class?" Anon asked.
"Y-yeah. I have biology now and mathematics later..." she managed. As Anon took physics, it made sense why Yuri had left the class in a hurry, but his mind focused on something else.
"Wait, you have mathematics in second period?" he asked.
"Y-yeah."
"And is Mr Okuda your teacher? Or is it Mrs Nakamura?"
"M-Mr Okuda..."
"Hey, that's my teacher too. I don't seem to remember you, though."
Yuri looked down again, her face turning red. "Oh, god, what the fuck did I say now?" Anon thought.
"I-I..."
Anon decided to drop the topic before he made the poor girl feel worse, even though he had no idea why she was feeling that way.
"Well, I'll see you later, then. It's nice to meet you, Yuri."
The purple hair girl managed a nod before brushing past him.
"What a weird girl." Anon thought. As he walked into the classroom, a familiar sight greeted him.
"What took you so long?"
"Shut the fuck up, asshole! Some friend you are. Now Monika probably thinks I'm some kind of pervert."
"Well, you kind of are. Remember? Staring?"
Anon rolled his eyes, trying his hardest not to break Hitoshi's jaw.
"Just, forget about that. Come on, we have physics to learn."
...
"Have a good day, sweetie!"
"Thanks mom..."
Yuri hurriedly got out of her mother's car. As she looked towards the bright yellow banners stringing across the school walls, her anxiety started to rush back in and her breathing quickened.
"What's wrong dear?" asked Yuna with a worried expression on her face.
"N-nothing, mom, I'm fine. I-I'm just... a little tired... that's all." Yuri lied.
"She's just scared she won't get a boyfriend." A high-pitched voice came from the back seat.
"Y-YUKI!" Yuri exclaimed, her hands quickly jumping up her to chest. Her little sister's face popped up from behind the window. "Hahaha! Look at her getting all red, Mom!"
"Alright Yuki, that's enough now." chided Yuna. "You sure you're alright, Yuri?"
"Yes Mom, I'm fine. Look, I-I really have to go now, bye Mom!" Yuri nervously answered. Yuna still wasn't convinced but decided to let it go. Lowering her window, she silently waved to Yuri and drove off.
As Yuri made her way up the steps towards the main building, she could already feel the eyes of the many students surrounding her. Some younger boys hanging out around the railings started to whistle, making Yuri even more nervous than she already was. She quickly hid her head under her long purple hair and quickened her pace. After all, she knew these clueless boys weren't her biggest problem.
As she finally crossed the highest step and made her way into the building, she looked around to see students swarming around, mostly in groups or in pairs. Yuri's heart sank. Even though she knew she didn't have many friends, it still hurt that she wasn't part of any clique. To her, she didn't belong anywhere. She lowered her head and started walking to her usually spot before school started; the study benches. Hopefully she wouldn't get noticed by anyone.
Approaching the study benches, Yuri's biggest fear came true. Scattered around the many benches was the popular group. Many student leaders were there, cheerleaders, boys from the basketball team; people Yuri generally didn't want to attract the attention of. Hoping to not get their attention, Yuri quietly sat down at the furthest bench and pulled out a book from her bag.
"The Portrait of Markov? The hell kind of stupid name is that?" a voice rang out from few benches next to her, making her jump.
She turned her head to see a light-brown haired girl staring at her. Not wanting to respond, she lowered her head and tried to start reading.
"Hey! I'm talking to you, Yuri! You're reading some stupid edgy crap again, aren't you?" the girl asked with more hostility.
Yuri felt her face heat up and she lowered her head even further. At this point she might as well rest her chin on the table. By this point, the girl had had enough of Yuri ignoring her and walked over to the poor girl.
"Yuri! I asked you a question and you didn't even bother to answer? And yet you sulk when you realise you don't have any friends! Seriously, how conceited can you get?" The girl's words felt like a smack to the face, but Yuri couldn't even argue because she was right.
"F-Fumi I-I'm not even bothering you! P-please... j-just leave me alone!" Yuri cried out a little loudly. Fumi was taken aback and the rest of her clique had walked over to see what was going on. People standing around in the hallway had also turned towards her. Sniggering could be heard.
Realising she had raised her voice, Yuri's face again turned completely red as she looked down. A girl with slightly darker brown hair walked up behind Fumi.
"Come on, Fumi. She's not bothering us; let's just get to class, alright?" Yuri was surprised that a member of the popular clique wasn't outright bullying her, but she still felt like complete garbage.
Fumi scoffed at the shy girl before walking off with her friends. As Yuri looked up, she was shocked to see the brown haired girl standing in front of her.
"A-AH" she exclaimed before quickly turning away once again, fiddling with her long plum coloured hair. The girl walked over to her.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you..." the girl started. Yuri continued to avoid eye contact; after all, she still couldn't trust this girl: She's part of the popular clique. Seeing as she had made her nervous, the girl sat down next to her, placing her hands on her lap.
"Hey, don't worry about them, alright?" the girl tried. Yuri still looked away, playing with her hair once more. "Err... I'm Monika, by the way. It's nice to meet you...Yuri, I'm assuming."
Millions of thoughts flooded Yuri's head. "Why is the popular girl being nice to me? Can I trust her? What if she's playing me? I probably should not talk to her, oh but then she would get mad that I'm ignoring her like Fumi did. But I still don't want to talk to her too much and end up making a fool of myself. Uuuuh... what do I do?" While all this was happening, Monika just sat there waiting for a response. To Yuri's surprise, Monika didn't get agitated or impatient. Instead, she looked patient and had a knowing smile on her face. After what seemed like an eternity, Yuri decided to respond.
"Yes! M-my name is Yuri."
Monika stuck her hand out to shook, to which Yuri responded by gingerly holding out her own hand and shaking it in return.
What followed was a deafening awkward silence. Monika shifts a bit in her seat hoping to get a response out of Yuri, but that only made Yuri nervous again as she looks down blushing.
Sensing that Yuri had no idea what to say, Monika decided to take the first step.
"So, what classes do you take, Yuri?"
"B-biology..."
Monika sat there expecting something more, but realised Yuri wasn't capable of answering with more than one word.
"O-okay... what else do you take Yuri? Are you enrolled in any other electives?"
Yuri felt awful that Monika had to prompt her to keep talking, but her second question perked her interest a little.
"O-oh...I-I do... actually... I'm taking poetry." Yuri's answer was returned with a shocked expression on Monika's face and her short burst of confidence melted away. "O-oh no... She's going to think I'm weird for enrolling in an elective like that... w-what was I thinking? My whole class already thought it was weird, so why did I just say it out loud?" Yuri thought to herself, her morale plummeting by the second.
To her surprise, Monika expression morphed into a rather joyous one.
"That's wonderful, Yuri! Personally I would also like to join more leisurely electives like yours, but I kinda have to commit to more leadership intensive ones that help the school directly, you know: Student Leader and all?"
Monika's response might have been condescending to some people, but to Yuri it was music to her years. For once, someone didn't make fun of her weird hobbies. However, it seemed that Monika only liked those electives due to their more laidback nature, rather than actually being invested in poetry.
"Can you keep a secret, Yuri?"
"H-huh?" Yuri was taken aback by this sudden question. "Oh, err... I-err... I mean, I, yes I guess..."
"So that's a yes?" Monika asked accompanied with an awkward laugh, making Yuri blush out of embarrassment.
"Well, I kind of like writing poems myself. Don't tell this to my friends, though: They'll think I'm weird and all that! But still, I love poems! They're a very simple and efficient way of capturing our thoughts and our feelings. Keeping these feelings inside won't do us any good, but when written down, these emotions come alive. You get what I'm saying, right Yuri?"
Yuri was awestruck. Everything Monika said reflected her own life: Her feelings were mostly kept to herself; even when she wrote them down in poems, she never showed them to anyone anyway, but it still felt good to get them down on paper. But more than that, the fact that a popular girl-THE most popular girl in her batch had the same hobby as her, and a weird one at that, was completely beyond her. This had to be a dream!
"Err... Yuri?" Monika's question snapped Yuri out of her dream. "You're kinda daydreaming a bit."
"I-I am? I'm sorry..."
"Oh no, don't apologise! There's nothing wrong with being lost in your own world- I get lost in mine sometimes as well, especially when writing poems." Yuri was once again pleasantly surprised; the list of similarities between the two girls kept growing.
"Maybe I could take a look at one of your poems, Yuri!"
Yuri felt like she just hit a brick wall. That was by far the worst question anyone could have asked her. Her confidence shattered into a million pieces and she reverted back to hiding behind her bangs, her face flushed and her hands trembling.
"N-no..." she said rather softly.
"What was that, Yuri?"
"NO!" Yuri shouted in exasperation, making Monika jump a bit. Immediately after that, Yuri retreated behind her wall of hair. "D-did I raise my voice? Uuuuh... I-I'm so, so sorry!"
Seeing the poor girl in such a sorry state, Monika decided to drop the topic. "That's alright, Yuri... err... what subject do you have now?"
Yuri didn't answer. Monika was crushed. After all that effort trying to get Yuri to open up, just when it seemed like it could finally work, it all came crashing back down onto her. "Well, I have social studies in a few minutes time so I better get going."
"Y-yeah..." Yuri finally responded, though with much less eagerness than before.
"I'll see you a-"
Monika's response was cut short by the tall girl standing up almost instantly and rushing off down the hall with her head down.
"-round..." Monika sighed. Was she really that intimidating? She looked up and realised something.
"Hey Yuri! You're going the wrong way!" No response from the girl. Monika looked on in sympathy. After all, she knew her clique's opinion on Yuri and suffice to say it wasn't the most positive. Monika herself had no strong disliking towards Yuri before their conversation, but the rest of them, especially Fumi, did. Monika thought Fumi's reason was kind of stupid, but she couldn't argue against it because it would be rather hypocritical, given her more... developed... body. The boys would mostly tease her to get a laugh out of Yuri's embarrassment, which they thought was cute; to Monika it was sad and pathetic.
Monika heaved out another sigh as she turned and walked towards her own class.
...
"Well, I'll see you later, then. It's nice to meet you, Yuri."
The day had gone from bad to worse for Yuri: Not only did she enter the wrong class, get laughed at by the students and scolded by the teacher, but she had a head-on collision with another student and had a train wreck of a conversation with him. It seemed like Yuri's decent start to the day was a mere fluke and everything was reverting back to normal for her.
"Biology. Ok, I made it." She said to herself as she finally reached the correct classroom.
As she entered the room, she was surprised to see that it was still relatively empty. She hastily made her way to the back of the class and sat down at her seat, all the while her classmates paid no attention to her.
Yuri decided to skip the book after her nightmare of a situation just now and simply sat there staring out of the window.
As more and more her classmates started funnelling in, the classroom grew noisier and noisier, fuelling Yuri's anxiety. To make matters worse, some of the naughtier boys had started entering.
"Damn, look at Yuri today! She's looking hella thick!"
"Yeah, fine for a freaking psycho! Did you not here the things she does when she's alone?"
Yuri felt her body tense up as she bit down on her lip. These words weren't new to her ears, but it didn't hurt any less to hear. To her relief, the noise didn't last long as her teacher Mrs. Chen walked in with the biology recap quizzes. Finally! Some good news! This was the one thing Yuri had been looking forward to: The quiz that she had studied hard for. After a disaster ridden morning, an A wouldn't hurt, would it?
Turns out, it would.
After the students and Mrs. Chen exchanged greetings, Mrs. Chen moved straight to the quiz results. Sure enough, Yuri did the best.
"For the highest score, we have Yuri! Everyone give her a round of applause!"
A few claps splattered throughout the room like bird shit. "Oh please, it's just a damn quiz, Mrs. Chen! What's the big deal?" Embarrassed, Yuri looked down, her face turning redder by the second.
"God, look at her. She's topped the class but can't even say a damn word. What an arrogant bi-"
"Goro! Enough!" scolded Mrs. Chen. She turned back to the now shaking Yuri. "Congratulations, Yuri." she praised, extending out her arm, signalling Yuri to walk to the front of the class and take it.
Yuri just sat in her seat, completely unable to move.
"Hey dumbass! You're supposed to collect your quiz!" one of the boys called out from across the classroom after a short moment of silence, making Yuri jump.
"Come on Yuri, stop holding up the class already! We want to know our results too, you know?" another girl said from somewhere else.
All these comments shooting from all over the classroom only made things worse for the shy girl. By now, she was stuck in her cowering pose as if someone had glued her skirt to her seat.
Mrs. Chen sighed. "Please pass this down to Yuri." She asked as she handed Yuri's quiz to the person sitting at the front of her row. As it made its way down, the poor quiz was met with scowls of all the students who held it and when it finally reached Yuri, there were additional comments on it that were definitely not made by Mrs. Chen.
"Dumb bitch!" it read in fine blue ink. Mrs. Chen didn't seem to notice, as she was already moving on to the other scores.
Yuri tried her best to look through her quiz and review her few mistakes, but her eyes were already starting to cloud up with tears. Thankfully, her quiet stifles were drowned out by the rest of the class as they chattered amongst each other, comparing results. In the midst of all the commotion, Yuri silently spoke to herself in tears.
"Sniff...p-please G-God...sniff...L-let me j-just by t-this o-one day...sniff"
...
Ten minutes had passed and by now, the roaring classroom had been reduced to occasional whispers as Mrs. Chen finished through the answers. Yuri was too distraught to be paying attention, but she had a near perfect score anyway, so it didn't really matter too much.
Trying to calm herself down, Yuri tried closing her eyes, but her efforts were cut short by the front door suddenly flinging open. A coral-pink haired girl rushed inside panting heavily.
"Late again, Sayori?"
Yuri looked up, wiping her eyes.
"Ehehe... sorry Mrs. Chen."
The girl that just walked in late was Sayori, the bubbly and carefree girl who usually made Yuri's class laugh. Yuri found her annoying, but she was one of the only ones who didn't make fun of her; or maybe she was just too nonobservant to notice all the shit that has been going down. In fact, when she's next to her best friend Mio, the two pretty much forget any of the crap that's happening around them.
"Take a seat quickly; we're already starting on a new topic."
Sure enough, Sayori briskly walked towards the empty seat next to Mio and plopped down into it and class resumed as normal.
Yuri attempted to focus on the lesson, which surprisingly seemed to work; the class was amazingly devoid of noise, none of the students were paying enough attention to her to make fun of her and the topic on photosynthesis was relatively easy. Sensing this opportunity to finally get back into the lesson, Yuri swiftly took out her notebook and began writing down notes.
"Alright class, now that we've finished going through the structure of a chloroplast, I thought we would try something a bit different today."
"Shit."
Just when Yuri thought she could finally learn in peace, Mrs. Chen had to ruin it with ideas of her own.
"I would like all of you to pair up and create a diagram of the chloroplast however you would like. There's no exact criterion, but the individual segments of the chloroplast have to be highlighted and you have to give a brief summary of their functions. The due date is tomorrow, so you and your partner can work on this project after school."
Yuri sighed in despair. Her experience with pair work was far from pleasant, but in a class like this? At this point she would be happy if she could work alone. Even though she would look like a total loner, at least she wouldn't get paired with someone who would put her through hell and back.
As she looked around the class, the usual scene plays out: The boys pair with each other, the girls group up then split into pairs, Sayori and Mio get to work immediately, shutting themselves off from the rest of the class, leaving her in her own seat by herself.
Yuri decided to get to start on her diagram now and finish it before school ends, but before she can get her ideas down onto her sketchpad, a voice from behind her derails her train of thought.
"I-is this seat taken?"
End of Chapter One