This is my first story on ! This first chapter is told from the perspective of Sanada Ryu, best friend of Kazehaya Shota, and hopefully soon-to-be-boyfriend of Yoshida Chizuru. Please enjoy the story! Yes, it features an OC… please, don't kill me.
She stood at the front of the classroom, and looked down at all of us. She was extremely tall, even taller than me, and incredibly graceful-looking. She neither grinned nor glared at us; she simply stood there, looking blank, but not confused in the least. She tucked her hair behind her ear, and said, "My name is Yuki Dahl. My family and I are from the city of Bergen, in Norway. I apologize for causing a disturbance for coming so late in the year. I hope that we will be able to get along well. Thank you."
She made an odd half-smile at the rest of us, and returned to her seat, located at the front of the classroom, right by the door. She was an extra student in class 1B, a last-minute right-after-the-summer addition. I had already heard the rumors circulating that morning, amidst the chatter about where my own peers had spent their summers, that she was from northern Europe, which explained why she was so tall, and the color of her hair, which was flaxen blonde. No one had gotten close enough to tell the color of her eyes, but we were certainly able to see her milky, pale skin. She couldn't have looked Japanese even if she tried.
One of Shota's friends, this groupie guy whose name I think must be something like Jonouchi, had said that he had heard from the girls, Kumiko and Nanami, who were from 1D, that the new girl, who had told no one her name until her introduction, was able to beat up four yakuza thugs at the same time. I don't believe any of it, personally. It doesn't concern me in any way, either way.
I'm not really the kind of guy who cares about the rumors or whatever crap my fellow students are spouting and blabbering about now. I like sitting by, observing things from close up and yet still being ignored, because everyone knows I'll never tell a soul. Or so they think, anyway. I'd rather stay silent than join the gossip game that all the girls seem to be playing. It irritates me.
Time passed surprisingly quickly until lunch, when we all tromped outside and began to eat our bento boxed lunches. I sat with Shota, Chizuru, Sadako, and Ayane. We were having fun, just messing around and eating (well, they were anyway, I was more or less sitting by) and we saw the Yuki Dahl girl from our class earlier sitting alone, eating some kind of fish (judging by the smell, it must've been pickled herring or something), potatoes, and plain bread.
Sawako, who it seems can't leave the lonely, excluded, alienated, ostracized, antisocial, and whatever-else alone (kind of like Chizuru and Ayane befriending Sadako in the first place), shyly walked over to the girl and asked if she'd like to sit with us. The girl said something that probably resembled "fine" and gathered her food and bag, then walked over to us.
She was at least a head (or nearly two, in Sachiko's case) taller than all of us, even Shota and I. We were like dwarfs in her presence. It would have been different if she had been a guy, but not that much. She was still insanely tall, especially for a 15-year-old first-year. Then again, she was from northern Europe, and seemed to be eating nothing but carbohydrates and fish, judging by her lunch, so it probably wasn't unexpected.
She sat down confidently at the edge of our little circle that we had formed. Sawako suddenly burst out, "U-umm… how tall are you?" Dahl replied in a slightly almost-lively-sounding voice, "I'm six foot two." I noticed that she had to actually angle her face down quite a bit to look at Sachiko.
"Okay," said Sawako. "Umm… do you have any hobbies?" Dahl said, suddenly dreamy-looking, "I… I like playing guitar…" She looked up at the sky. Ayane asked, "If you don't mind… when did you come to Japan?" By this point, we had noticed that her Japanese was impeccable, except for a slight accent occasionally creeping into her words, a small purr, a far harsher sound than Japanese. "You said you were from N… Nor… way, right?"
The girl nodded. "I am from Bergen, which is the second-largest city in Norway. Norway is located in the far northern reaches of Europe. My mother is half-Japanese… if you were wondering why I can already speak Japanese." She always spoke extremely formally, with her back straight and her body stiff. She was probably nervous or something. No idea why, though.
"Okay," said Ayane, relieved. Shota and I were both quietly eating our lunches; Chizuru was pigging out on a small box of meat-filled onigiri. I have no idea why, but she sometimes looks even a little cute like that. It's pretty weird, I know. But she's been a tomboy, so different from the other girls, since she was a kid. We grew up together. I should know.
"You play guitar?" asked Chizuru. "One of my older brothers' friends played guitar… I think he had a something-Paul? His name was Yamamori." Dahl nodded. "That's called a Les Paul," she said. She pronounced her letter L's impeccably. She definitely had no trace of a Japanese accent. "I used to have one… but now I play a different kind of guitar."
The bell rung and we all went back inside to class. Dahl never talked to us after that, only turned back to Ayane, Chizuru, and Sachiko, and said, "Thank you for allowing me to have lunch with us," and disappeared into the crowd of students mingling and coming back into class 1B.
Little did I know that these lunches were the beginning of a long friendship between Ayane, Chizuru, Sawako, and Yuki Dahl. We would get to know her much better soon enough. To us, she would forever be remembered as the independent, unique, occasionally clashing, but always caring high school girl that she was.
I'm not actually sure whether Chizu has a brother or not, but I had to include it, okay? And also, this was narrated from Ryu's point of view, but from now on I'll be selecting a new (random) character to have their POV per chapter. Please write any reviews if you can, but no flaming, as this is my first fic.