I never was interested in magic. So, I never even dreamt that this was possible.
Walking down the hallway, a girl with blue hair and red eyes sighed to herself. It had been a long day, and it was way too quiet.
"Rio-senpai! Bye bye!"
She grinned and waved to a couple of girls in her grade, shouting back a 'bye!'. The girls squealed and ran way giddily, shouts of 'she talked to us!' fading in the distance. Rio laughed quietly, continuing her walk home. Rio was fairly popular in her school, and lots of girls looked up to her, giving her gifts or talking to her at any chance. Rio thought it was endearing.
"Hey, Rio! Are you going home?"
"Tenjō-kun!" Rio looked up to meet eyes with Kaito Tenjō, who had caught up to her side. "Oh yeah, there's no tennis practice today for the girls today." He said, hitching his schoolbag. Rio laughed, subconsciously fiddling with the bottom of her coat. Kaito grinned at her, meeting her eyes. "You're really popular amongst all the first year girls. At competition, a lot of people were fighting to get you to join their clubs! They call you the most calm and beautiful girl in Heartland Academy, Rio Kamishiro."
Rio shook her head, raising an eyebrow at him. "What about you? You're popular not just with the first years, but second and third years too! The ace of the baseball team, Kaito Tenjō!"
Kaito ran a hand through his blond hair, his messy teal bangs pulled back by his hand, laughing somewhat nervously. "I have to go to my club now, bye!" They waved to each other, and when Kaito was out of view, Rio's entire face broke out in a blush. I talked to him! I'm so happy!
Rio's huge grin was gone when she heard a couple of footsteps nearby. "Bye, Rio-senpai!" She turned back to say bye, mentally scolding herself. If they see my stupid smile, I'll lose my cool status!
After the girls were gone, Rio continued her walk, stopping when she heard someone crying. Who in the world…?
The one crying ended up being Kotori Mizuki, the new girl. Rio's mind swam with possibilities of the cause of her crying. Did someone bully her?
"Mizuki-san! What happened?" Rio questioned, making Kotori look up in surprise. "Rio-san!" Kotori started sobbing again, her words coming out between hiccups. "I lost something really important! I keep searching, but I can't find it…" She rubbed at her eyes, trying to stop her crying. Rio sighed, her worry gone. She thought something more serious happened. "Do you know where you lost it?"
"I don't know! I didn't realize I lost it until too late. What if someone takes it? What'll I do?" Kotori's words came out in a hurry, not stopping to breathe. "Calm down, it'll be okay. We can look for it together," Rio said, trying to calm the other girl down. "Really?! You'll help me?" she said, smiling with tears in her eyes. "Sure! What did you lose?"
Kotori's face then got a weird look to it, and her enthusiasm to look for her stuff was gone. "Uh…"
And then she started laughing.
"I'm sorry, I'll look for it myself! Don't worry! I'm sorry! Bye!"
She took Rio by surprise, and Kotori ran away, waving back to her. Rio stared at her running, a dumbfounded look on her face. What was that all about?
Shaking her head, Rio continued her walk home, passing by the school's courtyard. That's when something caught her eye, under a bench. It was small and pink, and looked like a sort of portable game. "Is that what she lost?"
That's right! I saw Mizuki-san with this the other day, and she left it behind by accident!
Rio picked it up, turning it this way and that. Opening it, she was met by a bunch of strange symbols. "I never understood these games," she sighed, flipping it closed. "I should go find Mizuki-san and return this."
The look on Kotori's face was too excited over a simple game, tears in her eyes and a huge grin. "Thank you, Rio-san! Thank you so much!" Words of thanks kept spilling out of her, and Rio had to calm her down before she started to actually cry again. "Hey, it's okay! I was just passing by and noticed it under a bench."
"A bench?" Kotori mused, looking her device over. "I didn't even think of that…"
"That's okay, at least we found it. I'll be going now!"
"WAIT!" Kotori grabbed hold of Rio's sleeve, looking at her with a scared expression. "Did you open this?"
"Yeah, I did. I'm not interested in video games, though. You should be careful though, a teacher could take it away if they see you have it," Rio said, and then turned back to walk home. "See you!"
Kotori watched Rio walk away, and clutched her device close to her chest, smiling. That's when she decided she would follow Rio and watch over her.
In the hallways, in the library, at the entrance - Kotori followed Rio from a distance, peeking around corner and watching her. She wasn't being sneaky at all, and Rio could feel someone staring at her. She even followed Rio to her tennis practice! When Rio turned to look at her, Kotori just smiled from outside the tennis court. What does she want? Is she stalking me? I need to talk to her. "Hey, Mizuki-san!"
But Kotori was gone. Rio raised an eyebrow, clutching her tennis racket by her side. Was she just imagining things?
Kotori really was there though, and she was humming to herself as she walked from the tennis court. I've made up my mind! It's okay for me to tell Rio-chan!