I was once told that a drowning man is not troubled by rain. I didn't understand what that meant for the longest time, but then, I started to drown… not literally, no. I mean, I started to drown in my own emotions. Feelings of… not really helplessness, but the feeling that nothing I could do would really change my situation. Kind of a feeling of "damned if you do, damned if you don't," and that never feels good, as I'm sure you could assume. It kind of brings on this strange mixture of anxiety and depression, like I want to do something, but everything I could do wouldn't have any effect so I'd be better off just not doing it altogether. That's a horrible way to live, I know, but that's how I was living at the time.

It was early in the morning, far earlier than I like, but I knew that I had to drag my ass out of bed at some point before one of my older brothers did it for me. And by that, I mean they would literally drag me out of my bed and onto the floor. Yeah, none of them were particularly nice when it came to waking me up for school. I got up and pushed myself to my feet, slowly proceeding to walk over and turn on the light. Putting on my glasses, some of my usual sweatpants and a plain black T-shirt, I looked at myself in the mirror hanging above my dresser. Predictably, I looked like shit. I had bags under my eyes and a resting facial expression that was cold and rather uninviting, to put it lightly. "Let's get this shit over with," I sighed to myself. Grabbing my pill bottles, I grabbed my two pills and put them in my pocket. All I needed now was a drink to wash them down.

I left my room and walked down the hallway into the main room of the house. Basically a huge open room where we had everything, kitchen counter and accompanying parallel island counter, couch and TV and a big dining table tucked into the corner not too far from the house's entryway. Even with all of that, there was still quite a bit of open room. Of course, that room was basically most of the house.

As soon as I walked in the room, one of my older brothers turned away from the stove to face me with his usual stupid, semi-smug smirk. "'Morning, Roy," he started. "So, I'm guessing you're ready for another fun-filled year in that wonderland we call high school?"

"Fuck you, AJ," I spat. It was far too early in the morning for his poorly-timed wise-ass comments and he damn well knew that. He threw up his hands as if he were giving up and turned back to the stove to continue making breakfast for himself. I wandered over to the refrigerator and grabbed the carton of orange juice out of it. I took my pills out of my pocket, tossing them into my mouth and drinking some juice straight from the carton to chase it down. Of course, my more competent older brother, Espen, noticed of this as he came into the room.

"You know, we do have glasses that you could pour juice in rather than just drinking straight from the carton," Espen said, glaring at me with his standard deadpan expression. I'll admit, him being in a suit and tie made it slightly more intimidating, but I really didn't care either way.

"I know," I responded. "This is just faster."

"Whatever." Espen shook his head slightly as he turned towards the door. "Let's just go."

I grabbed my backpack from the spot near the door, where it'd sat for the whole summer, and slung it over my shoulder. "Try not to kill anyone on your first day back!" AJ called back at me. I flipped up my middle finger as I opened the door to leave. He just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the stove.

I sat in the car silently as Espen drove towards the school. I was lucky enough to have my school be in the same direction as his job, so he was able to take my every morning without issue. He looked over at me for a moment to see me resting the side of my head on the door, looking out the window. "So, what are you gonna do this year, Roy?"

"Whatever I feel like doing… Jesus," I remarked.

"Okay," he said sarcastically. "I was just wondering since last year you did nothing, and the year before that you did nothing, and the year before that-"

"I did nothing," I cut him off. "I know."

"No, actually, that year, you did things," he corrected me. "You know, things involving interaction with other people and not isolating yourself from everyone else."

"Well back then, there were people around me that I didn't loathe," I pointed out.

"I know you don't hate everybody there, it just seems like a lot of people," Espen responded. "Look, your only friends from back then aren't around anymore. That doesn't mean you can't make new ones."

"Nobody fucking talks to me, man!" I exclaimed.

"That may have something to do with you never talking to anyone else." Espen was getting rather irritated at this point. He drew in a deep breath. "Look, there are some things that you really can't just expect to happen. Just be yourself and someone is bound to like you at some point."

"Right," I muttered, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

The car came to a stop in the school's drop-off area, which was rather empty seeing as class didn't start for quite a while. While Espen could take me every day, he had to do so early. I didn't mind that too much, though. It sure beat the hell out of walking. As I got out of the car, Espen called out to me, "Hey!" I turned to face him.

"What?"

Giving me a concerned look, he told me, "At least have an okay first day back, alright?"

I looked back at him. "No promises," I replied, knowing that he hated it when I responded like that. He rolled his eyes before I slammed the door and he drove off to work. With that, I turned and headed into the school building.

I was rather lucky to have my daily schedule that year start with something like history. Not because I like it, in fact I absolutely loathe the subject of history with every fiber of my soul, but because even if I was too tired to pay attention, the information never really changes so it's extremely easy to catch up if I miss something. This particular morning, however, I was fully awake and alert, sitting practically alone in the classroom with nearly a half hour before class even started. Hey, I may get there early, but again, better than walking.

Anyway, as I sat there and thought to myself about what this year was going to be like, I started getting some good ideas for lyrics, to which I pulled out my special green notebook and a pencil. This little green notebook held dozens of poems and lyrical compositions. I know, you'd probably expect half of them to be me feeling sorry for myself, and a little bit of the earlier stuff I wrote in there was along those lines, but for the most part, I really didn't care enough to feel sorry for myself. After all, what the hell would that do other than make me feel worse than I already did? Loneliness and self-pity may seem like a winning pair, but they really aren't. Either way, everything written in it reflected my thoughts and feelings at the time of writing, so it was always from a genuine place in my heart. Opening the notebook to a blank page, I started writing down the idea I had gotten. As soon as I started writing, I could feel it flowing onto the page like it only does when it's something incredible. I was about four lines into writing it down when I heard someone come in the door to the classroom. I looked up to see something… different.

She stood in the doorway, wearing a small purple zip-up dress under what looked like a shrunken hoodie that only went down to about… three-fourths of the way down her ribcage? It was hard to tell. She was very short, under five feet tall for sure, and she had such a small childlike body shape that it was hard to estimate exactly where that little hoodie ended. Regardless, it was most definitely not the most unique thing about her appearance. Her hair was a short, straight mess of warm, light purple. In it, she had two little hair clips shaped like old-era game controller D-pads. Her eyes shared a very similar color to that of her hair, and they were filled with an aura of excitement and enthusiasm towards whatever life might throw at her.

Following right behind her was a taller girl with a much more relaxed and almost borderline nervous look to her. She wore what looked like a white sailor's uniform made to function as a dress, with purple outlines on the buttons, pockets and edges. This color pattern continued with her boots, which had a stylized 'N' emblem at the center of the strap as well. Her hair was the same lilac color as the other girl's, only it was longer and looked much more well-kept. Along with that, she, too, had a little D-pad hair clip on, but only one rather than two. Another color similarity between the two girls was their eyes, only the tall girl's eyes gave off more of an aura of… anxiety? Possibly nervousness? It was hard to tell. All I could tell for sure is that she appeared nervous about something, I'm assuming it was just that it was her first day, but you never know.

That's another thing. I should mention that I was positive of something else: these two had to have just come here that year. I was in a sophomore history class, so they couldn't be new freshman, and I would've remembered seeing them if they were there the year before. This had to be there first day at this school overall, so my guess was that was what the tall girl was nervous about.

The short one gave a smile as she looked out over the empty room and took in a deep breath through her nose. She then gave an exaggerated sigh of pleasure as she glanced back to the girl behind her and asked "You smell that?"

The tall girl looked confused. "Uh…"

"That, Nep Jr., is the smell of learning!" the short one stated confidently.

I'll give it to her; her entrance got my attention. Not for very long, but she did catch my attention. I proceeded to turn my attention back to the notebook in front of me. As I continued to write, I could see the short girl out of the corner of my eye, excitedly strolling towards me with an almost alarmingly carefree look about her. She proceeded to sit down at the desk directly to my right.

I had a few things go through my mind at that moment, but none of them proved important as the short girl spoke up. "Hiya! I'm Neptune," she said in a relaxed tone, "and, from today on, I guess I'm your new neighbor in this class. What's your name?"

I was tempted to question who in the hell names their daughter 'Neptune,' but I remembered how my dad named me and my brothers so we would 'never get mixed up with anyone else just because of your name.' I guess that concern might have stemmed from the fact that his first name was John.

I looked up at her to see a rather warm, expectant smile. I wasn't used to that, to be honest. Most people who grew up in this general area didn't see me as someone worth talking to. I had to admit, this was a nice change of pace, but that didn't make me any less skeptical of how friendly this girl was being towards me. "I'm Roy," I responded rather plainly.

"Well, Roy," she continued. "It's nice to meet ya. I hope we can be friends. I am new here, after all, and I'd hate to be as friendless as a certain Noire I know."

I must have looked totally confused (which I was), because Neptune's taller counterpart spoke up. "Oh, Noire is one of the people in our friend group." I nodded in understanding. I mean, the fact that this Noire was within a group of friends would kind of imply that she is not, in fact, friendless, but I just assumed that it was kind of a running joke in their group or something. "I'm Nepgear, by the way," the tall girl added. "It's nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," I returned, trying to be polite.

"Anyways, whatcha writin' there, Roy?" Neptune asked, standing up to look over my shoulder at my notebook.

"Something that isn't exactly ready for the eyes of others at the moment," I said rather bluntly, trying to cover the pages with my arms. "So, I'd appreciate it if you uh... stopped looking."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Neptune sat back down. "My bad. I was just curious." Her tone of voice hadn't really changed from that relaxed kind of drone.

"It's alright," I sighed, waving it off.

"Neptune, don't pester anyone too much on your first day," a rather regal female voice spoke out firmly. I looked over to see a girl with fair skin and candy red eyes wearing a button-up dress that was mostly dark blue and white with some red and a tad of gold lining. In the back, she had a bow right above her hips. It seemed to match the bow she had on her collar, as well as the ribbons that held her long black hair in twintails. She also wore boots that went up past her knees, held in place by garterbelts. It gave her a pretty original look, I'll give her that.

"Aw, come on!" Neptune shot back, raising her voice to a much more full tone. "I was not pestering him! Was I?" She looked over at me expectantly.

She was right, I really wasn't feeling bothered by her at all. Was her entrance to the classroom a bit unusual? Hell yeah. Was her approach to an introduction a little awkward in nature? Sure, but I couldn't have done any better. Was her looking over my shoulder at my notebook irritating? Yeah, a little, but I can't really get mad at her or anything for it. It was just curiosity and she didn't know that I didn't want people looking at it. "You really weren't," I answered.

"See?" Neptune said triumphantly. "Maybe the fact that you can't tell the difference between making conversation with someone and pestering them is why you don't have any friends, Noire."

"Stop saying I have no friends!" Noire shouted in frustration. I awkwardly turned back to my notebook and continued writing.

"Sorry about this," Nepgear said rather nervously.

"Oh, it's fine," I told her. "I'm used to much more violently profane arguments at home, so this is nothing compared to that."

"Are you alright?" Nepgear asked with a hint of concern. "We aren't bugging you, are we?"

I looked back up at Nepgear. "Not really, no. Why?"

"You just look... kind of upset," she answered timidly.

"Oh," I reacted. "This is just kinda how I normally look, don't worry about it." I attempted to give her a halfway decent smile. Nepgear smiled back and gave me a little nod. ?" It was at this point where my skepticism had faded. It's hard to explain, but I could just tell by the way Nepgear was talking to me that she was actually interested in making friends with me. I figured that Neptune must have been genuine about it, too. I actually felt a tiny trace of excitement at the thought of having friends again, to be honest. It'd been roughly two years since I had anybody I was comfortable talking to and it was getting rather hard to keep on going like this.

I will admit that I was a little nervous of what reaction I would get from everyone. For all I knew, they could've hated me by the end of the week and I'd have been back in the same situation that I'd been in before. But, considering that was really the worst that could happen, that also meant I really had nothing to lose with this in the long run.

I decided that now was probably an okay time to ask a question that had been on my mind ever since Neptune entered the room. "Nepgear, exactly how old is Neptune?"

"Hmm? Why do you ask?" she curiously countered.

"She just looks a little… young to be a sophomore in high school."

"Oh, that makes sense," Nepgear responded. "Believe it or not, Neptune's actually my older sister."

"Bullshit," I said in disbelief. Nepgear almost visibly winced at hearing me say that. "There's no way she can be older than you. You're, like, a full foot taller than her!"

"I'm not kidding," Nepgear assured me. "It makes sense why you'd think that's not true, but I promise you that Neptune really is my big sister."

There was a brief moment of silence before I spoke up again. "So, how many people are in this friend group of yours?" I asked. It felt like a major deviation from the subject at hand, but it was another question that I had on my mind, this one more of just from my own curiosities rather than from blatant confusion over the situation.

"Uh," Nepgear stuttered. "Counting me and Neptune there's a total of ten of us. We can introduce you to them if you'd like."

"Really?"

"Sure," Nepgear said, smiling warmly. "I'm sure they'd all be happy to know someone who isn't also new here."

They were all new to the school? Had I been fully aware of how odd that seemed, I would've probably marked that as a big red flag, but I was a bit lost in other thoughts regarding the situation to notice anything I would've considered unusual. I slowly looked over at Neptune. Sure enough, she and Noire were still arguing with one another. I couldn't hear them, though. I couldn't hear anyone. All I heard right then was the music in my head as I began to wonder just what I'd gotten myself into.