Chapter One
Three high school girls found themselves sprawled out on the comfortable grass just outside their cafeteria at school.
That particular lunch time, two girls with red hair took turns giving each other looks that asked if something was wrong with their blue haired counterpart.
"Uh, Natsuki? Still with us?," Mai asked as she poked her zoned out friend.
Nao beside her nodded.
"Yeah pup, you've haven't said anything in ages."
"Huh? Oh sorry guys I guess I'm just a little preoccupied."
Mai and Nao followed Natsuki's gaze until they found themselves starting at a beautiful chestnut haired girl with sparkling red eyes.
Natsuki's two friends exchanged looks once more before the bolder of the two decided to smack her.
"Wait a minute, don't tell me," Nao started. "You're into the head cheerleader? Come on man how cliché can you get? Can't you just be into like, a nerd or something? Just to shake things up a bit?"
Mai and Natsuki looked at Nao and thought for a moment before deciding it was best to say nothing.
"Natsuki, why don't you just ask her out?," Mai asked nonchalantly, prompting a sigh out of Nao.
"Ok go ahead with the ignoring the things I say. Not like it turns me into an attention seeking lunatic or anything," the red head grumbled.
"Oh I don't know maybe because she's the head cheerleader and I enjoy keeping my ego in-tact?," replied Natsuki.
"You do huh? Then why the hell do you walk around dressed like that all day?"
"What's wrong with the way I dress?"
"Nothing if you aim to dress badly."
"I swear you only exist to aggravate me Nao."
"Ah its cool. We're only in second year so you have like another two years to make her fall in deep, deep like with you. After that you can trick her into marrying you and live happily ever after with seven gnomes."
"Are you really that retarded?"
"No. What did I tell you about mixing things up? Don't settle for the boring life Natsuki!," Nao proclaimed as she jumped to her feet before promptly being pulled back down by Mai.
"Nao leave her alone, she's probably too busy thinking about Fujino to care about what she looks like in the morning. See what I did there? With the blocking out the things that were too weird for my liking? It's my new stay friends with Nao strategy," Mai said as she flashed a wide grin. "Like it?"
"Love it," Nao replied with her trademark smirk.
Natsuki just shook her head.
"I don't think about her!"
"Hey Natsuki has the skill too!," Mai said happily.
"Yeah, on that note pup, you might wanna wipe up the drool," Nao said as she rolled her eyes at her troubled friend.
"Seriously Natsuki if you like her you should just tell her. Proclaim your love from rooftops!," Mai declared with all the excitement of a hopeless romantic.
"Yeah!," Nao agreed nodding. "You know this is real life. There's no fat man in a red suit that's gonna come breaking into your house to eat your food and drink your milk or get stuck in your fireplace."
Natsuki brought her hands to her head and proceeded to massage her temples.
"Ok whatever that was Nao, it was all kinds of wrong," she said.
"Shall I put it simpler then? Either you tell her you love her or take her out the back and grope her so she finds out on her own."
"I'm not you Nao. I don't have that confidence and I'm not comfortable with doing illegal things.
"Works for me, never had any complaints before."
Natsuki sighs.
"Can't I have normal friends who'd give me normal advice?"
"Like what?"
"Like I don't know, she's out of your league Natsuki, let's all go home and play games?"
"Geez are you some sort of closet nerd?," Mai asked worriedly. "But you look so cool..."
"Drastic measures have to be taken! Gotta get advice from outside the square!"
Nao once again stood up and started surveying their surroundings.
Spotting a familiar looking blonde nearby, she found her smirk returning quickly.
"Look look there's Haruka, why don't you just ask her," Nao offered as she watched Natsuki fidget uncomfortably.
"Haruka? Why would we ever want to ask..."
"Oi Haruka!"
"...her," Natsuki finished.
"Dammit Nao," Mai said as she started throwing her belongings in her bag. "Uh, I'm going ahead. Gotta get stuff outta my locker and whatever other statement that seems like a good excuse to avoid a raging blonde."
At that point, Haruka had managed to storm over and build up her generally annoyed attitude.
"What? What do you want Nao? Don't say my name like we know each other what's wrong with you?! I can't have people see me hanging around with delinquents."
Nao replied with a matching pose and hair flick just to annoy the other girl.
"Tch. Not the song you were singing last night babe," she replied with a wink.
'Nao and Haruka?,' Natsuki thought as she returned to massaging her temples. 'This is what I get for befriending crazy people.
"Stop talking you idiot!," the blonde in question said as she stomped her foot on the ground. "I never did anything with you last night! Stop winking and making everyone else think otherwise."
Nao beamed, happy that she'd managed to get an interesting response out of the girl.
"Uh huh. Anyway, is that Fujino dating anyone?," she asked calmly, making Haruka raise an eyebrow at the sudden change in conversation topic.
"The bubuzuke?," she questioned. "Dating anyone? What would that matter? Even if she was that wouldn't stop you."
Nao shrugged as she watched Natsuki from the corner of her eye. Seeing the girl take a sudden interest in the conversation made her sigh inwardly.
"Just answer the question woman," she said, turning once again to Haruka.
"No she's not dating anyone, no she's not going to date you," the blonde replied simply.
"I'm not into her Haruka," Nao stated matter of factly.
"Good. Both counts... are good," Natsuki said, piping up from the sidelines.
"Okay..." Haruka said unsurely. "Anyway that girl doesn't date. She just has legions of fans. Believe me she's had offers. Like you know the captain of the rival team? Tomoe-im-a-psycho-Marguerite? Well that girl practically proposes once a week."
"I see," Nao replied as she saw Natsuki looking disappointed. "Don't worry about it Kuga, maybe she's just not into psychos," she added.
For the second time in the conversation Haruka found herself raising her eyebrows.
"Wait a minute, it's Kuga that's into Fujino? That's precious. Miss I'm the best sports player in school but I refuse to join the team because it doesn't fit in with my too cool lone wolf persona into the head cheerleader? Please."
Natsuki frowned.
"Haruka, why do you keep adding tags to people's names? I'm not even like that, I just don't wanna be tied down to a team."
"Whatever, I have a tutoring appointment to get to and some of us around here actually respect keeping to their schedules."
Nao smirks and throws another wink at the bothered blonde.
"Keep that look of your face you redheaded idiot. Yukino and I don't have that kind of relationship."
Nao's smirk only grew at the recent revalation.
"I find the way you address people rather interesting Haruka. So it's Fujino, Kuga, Tomoe-im-a-psycho-Marguerite , redheaded idiot and...Yukino?"
The blonde shifted uncomfortably for a moment before figuring out she didn't actually have to stand there.
"I'll be ignoring you now," she said as she made to walk off in the direction of her appointment. "And Kuga in case you haven't noticed, people who spend most time with cheerleaders? On the team. Doesn't take an idiot to figure that one out."
Natsuki could only stare after the blonde as she stalked off muttering about how certain people should really be staying out of certain other people's business.
"Did Haruka just offer me helpful advice?," the blue haired girl wondered aloud.
Nao nodded.
"But I wouldn't dwell on that fact," she advised. "The world might explode or something."
Natsuki snorted at that before packing her things.
"Off to class then?"
"Uh yeah, you go ahead though I got some stuff to sort out."
"Do I want to know?," Natsuki questioned.
"Relax, it's nothing illegal," the redhead replied with a wink.
"Just don't call me from jail Nao."
--
Walking into their next class, Natsuki wandered over to her usual seat and found Mai already waiting.
"Yo."
"Hey Natsuki. I thought you were gonna show up with Nao."
"Yeah, I wonder where that idiot ran off to."
Mai scratched her head worriedly.
"Shouldn't we go look for her or something?," she asked.
Natsuki on her part just took a seat and lay her head on the desk.
"Do you really wanna get caught up in another riduclous situation? I think not."
Mai smiled at that and visibly relaxed.
"Good point. So have you thought about what you're gonna do?," she asked prompting Natsuki to lift her head up off the table.
"About what?"
"Hello? TheFujino Shizuru thing. I'm getting pretty worried about you to be honest, if you keep drooling at that rate I'm afraid you're gonna die of dehydration or something."
"Very funny Mai. What an excellent thing to say."
--
At a nearby classroom.
A certain redhead was sneakily standing outside the door.
"Psst! Alyssa! Get out here!," she whispered in, glad that the teacher hadn't arrived yet.
"No," a young blonde deadpanned.
"Alyssa! I have embarrassing information on your sister!"
The youngster's ears perked up at that particular bit of information and she found herself being drawn out of the classroom.
Nao grinned at her in greeting before grabbing her by the wrist and breaking out into a run, forcing her to follow as best she could.
"What the hell was that about you idiot? We could have died!"
"It wasn't my fault you nearly fell down the stairs Alyssa."
"I sacrificed athletic ability for built in genius!"
"Which is exactly why I need you to help me out."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because, your sister is in dire dire need of assistance and we're all she's got."
"I don't like that look in your eye Nao."
"Not very many people do, it's the look I get just before all the fun starts."
--
Thanking the ruling powers above, Natsuki dashed home as fast as she could after the final school bell had rung for the rest of the day.
As soon as she walked in however, she was greeted by the sight of a young blonde who had taken to staring at her intently.
"Nee-chan what's wrong with you?," Alyssa asked outright.
"Nothing much, just had a tiring day I feel drained."
"Is that what lovesickness is?"
Natsuki fidgeted before making her way to her room as her sister followed her.
"I'm not sick," she replied.
"So you're in love?"
The question prompted Natsuki to sputter for a bit as a slight blush came to her cheeks.
"Alyssa, my head hurts, can you please go be a genius someplace else?," she asked as she lay face down on the bed and hid her face in a pillow.
The young blonde sat at the side of the bed and leaned on her sister's form.
"I came to help you," she said simply. "Your friend, the ridiculous one with the red hair decided to abduct me from one of my classes earlier just to inform me of your attachment to a certain leader of cheer at your school.
'So that's where Nao went,' Natsuki thought. 'Should have known it was gonna give me problems.'
"We go to the same school Alyssa quit talking like a weirdo," Natsuki replied in a muffled voice.
Alyssa shrugged.
"Alright. Well Nao said you wanted to bed the head cheerleader."
Natsuki shot up at this, forcing the younger girl to also stand up.
"I don't want to bed the head cheerleader!," she declared while adding; 'How could Nao tell that to my little sister?!' in her head.
Alyssa turned her head to the side and looked carefully at her sister.
"Nee-chan, the general colouring and heat rising to your cheeks right now kind of point to the opposite of your statement."
"Alyssa..."
"Would you like me to help you?," the younger girl offered simply.
"With what?"
"Love advice."
"Oh God I think I need to lay down again," Natsuki said as she did so. "Alyssa I think you're a little too young to be offering that kind of advice. What the heck can you possibly teach me about love?"
"I researched."
Natsuki shut her eyes.
'I'm totally gonna regret asking this,' she thought.
"And?"
Alyssa smiled. 'Oh nee-chan, always so innocent.'
"The findings? Females usually enjoy interesting communication and take comfort in the knowledge that they have similar interests with the person trying to woo them, they enjoy entertaining activities where they can truly get to know this person and they dislike being approached solely due to their looks."
"What?"
"Join the team, learn to speak, quit drooling around her and get the girl," Alyssa stated as she made her way out of the room.
Standing quietly outside, she heard Natsuki's frustrated growl and the tell tale signs of the girl digging in her wardrobe for hardly used sports gear.
Alyssa shook her head at the thought.
"Sometimes I wonder if one of us was adopted."
--
A.N~ Planned chaptered fic coming up, let me know if you're interested. Thanks much for taking the time to read it ;D
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Disclaimer: All belongs to Sunrise.