Chapter 1

The clouds loomed above my high school. Then they, of course, had to go and burst open. Rain poured down and soaked my clothes. Fortunately, that was the only encouragement I needed to sprint into the dry school.
I slammed my locker shut and looked around. Then I saw her. How does she do that? I wondered. How does she look so pretty? I forced myself to look away. If she saw me staring it would be game over.

It was funny because we were becoming pretty good friends. And I still tried to hide my ever growing crush on her. Oh, Yukari...

"Miss Megurine?" called my math teacher. My friend responded with a simple "here". I glanced at her.

"Luka," I whispered, "what should I do?" I pointed my finger towards Yukari.

"What do you think you should do? Ask her out! Lord knows how long you've liked her..." she responded. Same answer as always. Why do I even bother anymore?

"Miss...IA?" the teacher called my name warily. One of the many problems of only having a first name.

"I'm here, sir."

The bell rang, telling us it was time for lunch. Luka, Miku, Gumi and I decided to sit under a small tree that had a shady bench. No one was really sure what kind of tree it was because it was still a baby. Just as I opened up my metal lunch box I saw two purple pigtails underneath a bunny hoodie.

"Hi IA!" I heard her peppy voice, "Isn't great that it isn't raining anymore! There's not even clouds!" Ah, Yukari.

I sighed.

"Yeah. It's great," I tried as much as I could to sound positive like her. It didn't really work. I knew that Miku, Gumi and Luka were looking at each other, probably wondering when I'll ask out Yukari.

She continued. "So, may I sit with you all?" she wondered. Of course, her face almost forced me to say yes.

"Sure," was my dull reply.

"She means Of course. We'd love to have you!" added Miku, nudging me in the process.

"Oh sweet. Thanks!" Yukari smiled at us and sat down, smoothing her purple dress. She was sitting next to me. Not awkward. At all.

So," she was only talking to me now, "would you like to go the mall with me tomorrow? Just us." She smiled at me, waiting for a reply.

I knew it wasn't an actual date, but still. It would be fun. "Of course," came my shaky response. I stared down at the ground. My awkwardness was going to ruin practically any chance of me going out with Yukari.

Brrring. My cruel alarm clock blared into my ear. Ouch. I sighed sleepily and turned off the alarm. Then I remembered that I was going shopping with Yukari today. Crap. I rose out of my bed and drowsily walked to my dresser. What outfit would be good for shopping with Yukari? I surveyed all of my clothes, finally deciding on a short pink skirt and black and white crop top, with an undershirt, of course. I pulled on my choker and put in my two signature braids.

Oh crap. What if we see a crazed fan or something? Fortunately Yukari and I weren't as famous as my other friends, but you never know. Oh well, we'll just try to stay in the shadows.

I disliked crazy fans. They made me too nervous. Yukari, on the other hand absolutely adored them, taking selfies and everything for them. So we would have to ignore them for both of our sakes.

I parked my bike in front of Yukari's house. It was purple, her favourite colour. How spoiled was this girl? I walked up the steps to her, also purple, front door and knocked on the wood.

No answer. Crap. What if I came too early? Maybe she is still asleep! I waited patiently, looking behind me for anything interesting. Suddenly the door opened. I turned back around.

"Oh, Hi IA," spoke Yukari, still wearing purple bunny pants."You can come in. I still have to get changed."

I walked into her living room, standing there and waiting. My feet stood on a purple rug. It was making my eyes hurt. Fortunately for me, Yukari was a surprisingly quick dresser. She came back down the steps in her short purple dress and classic bunny hoodie, purple socks pulled past her knees and hair in identical pigtails.

"Um, I can't drive yet but... the mall is pretty close," Yukari informed me.

"No, It's actually fine, I brought my bike and two people can ride on it."

We both hopped onto my bicycle, our peddling in sync.

Once we reached the mall we stopped the bike near the entrance and got off.

"Come on, IA! This is going to be so much fun!" Yukari skipped into the mall. Yeah. She skipped.

As soon as I was in the mall I recognized something. Apparently, so did Yukari.

"OMG IA, it's that song you and Miku covered together! iNSaNiTY, right?" Yukari's hyper voice chirped, holding both of my hands and jumping up and down with me. "Wow, that's so cool!" she continued, "Sure, my music has been played in small places, but wow! In our huge mall!"

The fact that Yukari kept talking about it wasn't helping my anxiety. What would I do if someone recognized me?

The mall's speaker system must've been on a vocaloid playlist or something because next up was Happy Synthesizer, a song that both me and Yukari sang together. It brought back good memories of when we were recording together. Now Yukari was thrilled.

Right as we passed a clothing store Yukari's voice seemed to echo throughout the whole plaza, "OMG OMG OMG! It's our song, IA!"

Just then a little girl must've seen us because she was now walking over to us, a chocolate ice cream in hand.

"Hi, IA-Chan and Yukari-Chan!" the girl squealed, almost as much as Yukari. I was ready to run. But Yukari bent over, talking to her.

"Hi sweetie! What would you like? An autograph, a picture...?"

"I want you and IA to kiss."

WHAT! My jaw fell to the floor. "Um, I'm sorry but um..." I tried to think of a good reason to decline...

"PLLEEASSE?" she was begging now, ice cream weapon prepared.

"Sure, dear!" Yukari agreed, rising back up to my height.

My eyes were wide. "Yukari, what-" I started. But before I could finish Yukari pecked me on the cheek. Oh. That wasn't so bad.

"Bye, sweetie!" spoke Yukari as the girl ran back to her mother, smiling.

When she was out of sight, Yukari spoke first. "You have soft cheeks," she commented, as normally as if she was saying, "it's raining." I almost screamed.

"Um... You have nice... lips..." I stuttered, staring at my feet.

"Thanks!" she accepted my compliment casually, walking on. I had to run to catch up with her.

"So, where to next, IA?"