Chapter 1

Sakura High School.

Nishino Katsuma stepped into the gates, onto a concrete pathway. She sighed as she looked up at the half statue of some weird due in front of her and the rising school building. A simple rectangular building, painted white with numerous rectangular windows. She walked slowly onwards as she was tripped by a wild, brown haired girl, with brown eyes, coat open, shirt untucked, sleeves rolled up, who jumped on to a lanky black haired girl, who, seemingly, shouted in terror. She slammed the brown girl's face, hard, enough to give a bystander the chills. Was this how girls were in an all girls school? Ruthless, wild, violent...? Fear, shyness and slight terror rose at her throat. But she hastily removed these thoughts from her mind, as the bell rang over her head. Time for first period.

Lunch...

Turned out, the new kid was in the same class as those girls she had observed in the morning. That gave her goosebumps. Will she be dragged on by the bully? Horrid pictures of painful wedges and terrible cases of school money and lunch being stolen. Of course it had never happened to her. But...what if? She realized that she had forgotten her lunch in class, as she was lost in her thoughts. As she entered class, there was the lanky black haired girl again, busily finishing her maths work. She paced towards her appointed seat, coincidentally behind the girl. The girl didn't look up. Katsuma picked her bag, when the girl turned around, her black timid eyes, endlessly making contact with the ground, muttered a soft 'hello' under her breath, while Katsuma, her dark brown hair tied in a long French braid stooped closer to hear what the girl had said.

"Pardon?" Katsuma said.

"I...I'm Akiyama Mio. It's pleasure to have you in class, Nishino-san," she replied shyly.

It had just been nearly three hours in class, and a pleasure? This conversation was going weird.

"I...If you need any help, I..I'll be ready f...for your assistance," she continued.

"Thank-"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, as two brown haired girls entered the class. One of them was the one who had been slapped just today.

"Mio-chan! What were you doing here?" the other brown haired girl squeaked gliding over to Mio and placing her lunch box on the table.

"Y...Yui..." Mio stammered, as Yui grabbed a chair and sat on it, giving a very sleepy and sheepish look at Mio.

"Oi! Yui! Move off! That's my chair!" the brunette stated, battling with Yui for the chair.

"Ritsu! Yui! Stop it! Ritsu get another chair!' Mio yelled over the racket, all timidness leaving her.

"Yes, Ricchan! Get the other one! Finders keepers!" Yui said cheerfully, opening her lunch box, a ravenous look on her face. Ritsu huffed and puffed, cursing under her breath as she seized another chair and set down. At that moment, she seemed to notice Katsuma.

"Oh! I totally forgot! Katsuma-chan! Have lunch with us! Grab a chair!" she said motioning for her to sit down. Katsuma took an adjacent chair and sat next to Mio, holding the burger in her hand.

"Katsuma-chan! I am Tainaka Ritsu, the club president of the light music club! And this is Hirasawa Yui, the club's guitarist and lead singer! And you must have gotten the club choice list! You have to choose ours! We're an awesome band!" Ritsu stated.

"Stop promoting the club Ritsu! You sound like a jerk! Plus, she can go to any club she wants! It's not like you who dragged me into it!" Mio answered.

"Nee, nee can I call you Katsu-chan? That'll sound so good on you!" Yui burst out of nowhere.

Katsu-chan? So fast! I didn't even know who she was!

"I guess that's fine. I-"

"Yui! Help me in promoting the Light Music Club! We need members!" Ritsu commanded Yui.

"Sure! Katsu-chan, you don't want to become a NEET, as Nodoka-chan said! You do know what a NEET is right?" Yui asked, leaning over Katsuma.

"No...I-I mean yes...Err...N-no..." Katsuma stuttered, deciding whether to pretend that she knew what NEET meant, or going with honesty being the best policy. Not realizing that she had tilted her chair until it was on it was solely on its two hind legs. As Yui leaned forward, in a flash of a second, Katsuma was on her back with the chair on the floor. Katsu, her eyes wide open stared at the ceiling, stunned at her sudden fall, as her head throbbed as it had slammed on the floor.

"Yui!" Mio gave a tiny gasp and helped Katsuma up.

"I'm sorry Katsu-chan! I was testing you whether you were familiar with a common word such as a NEET!"Yui apologized, thought her tone did not contain any sign of sorry.

The door opened again and another girl came in. She looked dignified, her long blond hair flowing behind her, with distinct blue eyes. She held an elegant lunch box in her hand and walked gracefully, as a high class lady would. Was she from the States, like how Katsu was?

"Hello everyone,"she said, her voice sweet and gentle. She flashed a smile, which made Katsu feel all warm and confident inside. The girl's smile had something to it, something that made Katsu feel that probably not everyone was that 'over-eager'. But, first impressions could rather be deceiving.

"Hello Mugi-chan! Meet our new friend-Katsu-chan!" Yui burst out.

"How's you Katsu-chan?"Mugi asked politely, her mellow voice sounding honeyed as it effortlessly rolled out of her tongue, instantly making Katsu feel as if she had been their friend ages ago. Yup, it meant a lot to Katsu, the nervous one. Who couldn't help but feel EXTRA self conscious when she was with someone new. And now she was surrounded by four girls whom she had just met, three of them had devised a nickname for her in the past twenty minutes, and the fourth, well, Katsu couldn't tell. Perhaps, she had the same 'thing' Katsu had, but on a an entirely different level altogether.

The rest began to talk about their club activities, whilst the bell rang for the afternoon classes.

The bell rang sharply over her head. She sighed. A week had passed and she hadn't decided on her club! If there was a club that specialised in just that...that addictive sport she had started on when she was five. Urgh! Every day of the past week she had spent a day each in the jazz club, the occult club, the student council, the literary club, the tennis club, the gymnastics club and the athletics club. None whatsoever, appealed to her. Today she was scheduled to the badminton club, although she doubted that would be different from the tennis club. She threw herself onto her seat, silently cursing the lack of variety in school.

As the day passed on eventless, with lunch in the company of the other four, as the bell rang for the end of school, she made a decision. A grave decision, which was to change the course of her life forever.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, she was seated on a table, served tea and a delicious cake to, and bowing down to the four vigilant eyes staring down on her. It's not as if she committed a crime or so. She had just joined the light music club, K-ON!

Club President: Tainaka Ritsu

Club Advisor: Music teacher, Sawako-sensei, also referred to as Sawa-chan.

"Which middle school did you come from? Why did it take so long for you to enter high school?" Yui asked curiously. Wait a minute, didn't they bombard me with these familiar questions during all the lunch times they had together? Now that she thought about it, nope, none of them had actually bothered.

"I was in the States, before I came to Japan. Middle school?You'd probably wouldn't know about it,"Katsu disclosed uneasily, not keen in sharing her past.

"Katsu, what do you play?I'm so honored!I made yet another club member join!" Ritsu squealed.

"You didn't!You dragged me into the club remember?And Mugi and Yui came on their own!And Katsu as well, didn't you?" Mio retorted.

Questions, questions and more questions. You'll get used to it, don't worry, as you got used to her grumblings, Katsu consoled herself.

"Errr...well..."

"Well, what do you play?"Mugi interrupted, her mellow homely voice melting away all of Katsu's worries. For a minute, Katsu actually relished it.

"Katsu?"

"Yes, sorry I zoned out a bit. Umm...well, I play the drums, the bass, the violin and the saxophone. It's not much but..."

"NOT MUCH?FOUR INSTRUMENTS?"Ritsu, Yui and Mio cried out in unison.

Mugi laughed.

"What are you laughing for Mugi?" Ritsu asked.

"I've seen lots of people play six to eight instruments. It's no biggie. Katsu were you in a music school?" Mugi asked, interested.

"Err...well...not really. We were taught different instruments at each stage, but my special one was the drums," Katsu answered, with a smile.

"Really?Whose your favourite drummer? What band do you listen to?"Ritsu interrogated.

Before Katsu could answer, Yui had a brand new idea.

"Do you sing?"

"What?"

"I said, 'Do you sing?' "

"Of course I do, since I play the bass as well."

"Well, then," Yui said, handing over Mio's bass to Katsu ,"sing."

"B-but.."

"Sing Katsu!" Ritsu applauded.

Katsu turned beet red.

"I-I don't know any Japanese song..."

"Then sing an English one!" Mugi called out from the sink, where she was washing her teapot.

"Mugi you too!"

Katsu turned to Mio with pleading eyes.

"Well, I'd like to hear you sing. You're a new member after all,"Mio said, shyness and guilt in her voice.

"Fine!" Katsu said gritted teeth.

She sighed a deep sigh and closed her eyes. Then, for the next minute her hand was strumming the bass strings and her voice sounded in harmony with the bass notes. After a verse from Taylor Swift's Back To December, she stopped, embarrassment rushing through her veins, making her face redder than it already it was.