Chapter 01: Food Is The New Fashion

A new start. A new school. New friends. A change.

Well, the person who came up with that has obviously never been to Crypton High.

Me, my mom, my dad and my big brother Mikuo had moved from our old town due to a job offer. Dad was finally getting a promotion in his work, and when he broke the news, Mom insisted we take this chance. I hated saying goodbye to my old friends, but I had already convinced myself that I would make new friends. Maybe even better ones.

I was eating my words four periods later as I made my way across the cafeteria, food tray in my hands.

There's a set order in the canteen. The science geeks sit at a table together (I literally had to leap out of the way to avoid getting caught in an explosion). Then there are the jocks that throw footballs, rugby balls and more all over the place, determined to hit anyone that walked by. I'd been hit in the face with them too many times in my old school to keep track of. And next to the jocks, is the worst table of all: The popular girls. They sit and sneer at any girl that hasn't plastered a ton of make-up on her face and isn't wearing designer clothes. I let my turquoise bangs fall into my face and my pigtails drape over my shoulders, trying to avoid making eye contact with any of those girls. Though I noticed that there was a girl sitting at the head of the table, laughing. She seemed to be the main one. She had short brown hair and brown eyes that glittered when she smiled. She was wearing the school uniform, showing a bit of her chest. Yet even though the outfit was revealing, she looked stunning.

A little too stunning. I was so busy trying to hide from her, that I failed to see the rugby ball that had rolled in my path and tripped right over it. I fell to the floor, my tray of food flying into the air before landing all over me. My school uniform was instantly covered in fruit and vegetables, my hair sprinkled with green vegetable juice. The whole canteen gasped them erupted into laughter. I could feel my cheeks turning bright red in embarrassment.

"Oh-my-gosh. Talk about humiliating!" I heard as I looked up to see who was commenting on my fall. There was a girl with long flowing blonde hair sitting next to the brown haired girl. She was smirking, her yellow eyes glittering. "Your supposed to eat the food, not wear it!"

There was more laughter. All eyes were on me and the other two girls, everyone wanting to see how this would play out. My cheeks went even redder. I felt like I was gonna cry. Or strangle someone. Though I don't think strangling is legal here, so the chances are, I was gonna burst into tears. This was my first day and already I was the laughing stock of the school.

"Hey, leave her alone Mayu!"

I looked up past the spilled vegetable juice and fruit/veg to see who had 'come to my rescue'. A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes bent down next to me, looking concerned. I backed away slightly, thinking he was going to take a picture or something. He only offered his hand to me, wanting me to take it.

"Don't be mean! Why don't you come over here and make amends?" The brown haired girl said, seductiveness in her voice, obviously flirting. She pointed to the seat next to her, smirking. Man, she must have it bad... I thought. Another girl was sitting there, but after a quick glare, she moved. The girl, named Mayu, pulled a fake 'hurt' look at the blonde boy. Though the boy simply raised an eyebrow and extended his hand further to me. He looked up.

"I'm being mean? That's rich Meiko. And no thanks; I've got my own table." The boy grabbed my hand, helping me up. It was still slippery and he had to grab the other one to steady me. I blushed, hoping nobody was looking. Though they seemed quite surprised that I hadn't lost it yet, and went back to chatting with their friends. The exciting stuff was over for them. Or maybe tons of other people had done the same thing and it wasn't funny anymore?

However, there was still one person looking at me. That girl with the brown hair. Meiko, the boy had called her. Meiko was glaring at me for some reason. Well, that looked like another person off the possible friends list. Sigh.

"Are you ok?" I focused on what was happening and looked to the boy who had helped me and was surprisingly still holding my hand... He stared at me, obviously expecting an answer.

"Well, I've got vegetables and fruit all over me, vegetable juice in my hair and the whole canteen was just laughing at me. I've had better days." I smiled and laughed, though it wasn't funny. The boy smiled warmly and laughed too. His laugh made my stomach go all fluttery, for some reason.

"Fair enough!" He said. He led me towards another table, right at the back of the canteen and next to the window. I hadn't noticed it before. I couldn't tell what these people were like; they all seemed different from one another.

But in a good way.

"No point in crying over spilt milk, or in this case, vegetable juice." The boy laughed cutely at his own joke.

Wait, cutely?! Where did that come from?!

"Hey Len, over here!" I heard a voice calling out. I looked up at the table and immediately felt queasy as I saw everyone sitting at the table staring at us, mostly me.

"Not again..." I heard someone say. I looked to who had spoken. A girl with blonde hair, basically yellow, and yellow eyes put down her Coke can and looked at me. Her hair was up in a side ponytail.

"Yup. Another poor victim has been foodized." Said a boy sitting next to the girl with short blue hair and green eyes. I giggled, thinking he was making a joke, but stopped when he stared at me.

"I've never heard of being 'foodized' before." I explained. The yellow haired girl pushed her Coke can away and grinned.

"Congratulations! You've been foodized. This means that you've been attacked by the canteen food due to the jocks. Don't worry. The last person that got foodized was Gumi."

"Neru! You promised we'd never mention that again!" A green haired girl said. That was obviously Gumi.

"Sorry." Neru giggled. Then she turned to me. She scooted over a bit in her seat. "Have a seat...?"

I waited for her to finish. Then I realized, that she was asking for my name.

"Oh! I'm Miku Hatsune, but you can call me Miku, if you want."

Neru smiled. "Miku it is."

I went to sit down, though I stopped when I realized I'd be leaving my savior, the blonde haired boy. However, he had already let go of my hand and had sat himself down next to a purple haired boy with purple eyes and Gumi. He sure moves fast. Nervously, I took a seat next to Neru. She smiled.

"Ok, your new here, so I'll introduce you to all of us. We're the only sane ones in this hellhole of a school-" Neru was cut off by a short girl with short blonde hair with a bunny bow in it and blue eyes. She looked a lot like the boy who had saved me.

"Neru, language!" She said, though she was smiling.

"Ok, sorry. Moving on. Intros. I'm Neru, obviously. That's Rin," She pointed to the blonde girl who smiled cheerfully and waved at me,

"Hi Miku, you'll love it here! I joined here a while ago and I got covered in food too!" Rin didn't seem at all faxed by her memory. She was still smiling cheerfully.

"Is it some kind of initiation test or something?" I joked, pulling lettuce leaves out of my hair and smoothing down my uniform. Neru started to laugh loudly, catching me by surprise,

"No, but I wouldn't be surprised! Anyway, this is Gumi," Neru pointed at the green haired girl. Gumi was a young looking girl with bright green eyes.

"Hi, nice to meet you Miku! I know we'll be great friends!" She smiled as she spoke. She seemed eager to meet me, full of energy. I smiled back at her,

"Me too." I was glad that I seemed to be fitting in here ok just now. Gumi seemed eager to be my friend, which was a good sign.

Neru caught my attention again and moved her hand to the purple haired boy. "This is Gakupo."

He nodded at me. "Hi Miku, I'm Gakupo, as Neru said." And that was all he said.

"Don't worry, Gakupo will talk more to you in time. He takes time to adjust, don't you Gakupo?"

Gakupo looked up at her, "Don't push it Neru." He blinked harshly then went back to his lunch.

Neru only laughed, though I was rooted to the spot. He seemed a little aggressive from what I'd just heard, yet Neru had only laughed, as if she didn't take it serious.

"This is Kaito," Neru turned to the boy sitting next to her. Kaito smiled warmly at me, his green eyes looking as if they could see right through me. I smiled back a little nervously, blinking.

Kaito nodded at me and lifted up his spoon. He picked up a spoonful of ice cream and spooned it into his mouth. He turned to me,

"You like ice cream?"

I giggled and nodded. "I take it you do."

Kaito nodded. "What's your favorite flavor? Mine's is mint with chocolate chips."

"Mine's is leek," I could see a couple of members at the table looking at me confused. "I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh." Kaito nodded, and smiled. "Ice cream is my favorite thing."

"Yeah we all know Kaito!" Gumi rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I like what I like." Kaito winked at Gumi, smiling. She sighed and smiled. I grinned, so seeing if they were dating. They seemed awfully close and looked quite cute together. Though I didn't want to ask.

"Anyway...she's Luka," Neru pointed to a girl that was sitting with a notebook in her lap, pencil in hand and looking thoughtful. She had long pink hair and dark blue eyes. She looked up when her name was mentioned and gave me a smile. I smiled back. She's quite beautiful... I wonder why she's not at the popular girls' table...

"Those girls are bitches." Luka suddenly said. It was as if she had just read my mind. I didn't ask any questions.

"Ahem," Neru coughed, wanting to continue with her introductions. She pointed at a girl coming towards the table. She had red hair in curly bunches and red eyes, "This is-"

"Teto!" I yelled, interrupting Neru. She looked at me, confusion written clearly across her, also clearly shocked at my raise in volume, "You know her?"

Teto walked up to the table, and when I yelled, her face lit up with glee, "Miku! Miku Hatsune! Oh my god, I haven't seen you in ages!"

I wanted to rush up and hug her, but I didn't want to embarrass her in front of her friends. I didn't want to embarrass myself either; I needed all the friends I could get.

Besides, these people all seemed nice. Like...they actually wanted to be friends with me.

"How do you two know each other?" Gumi asked. I grinned sheepishly, feeling my face heat up.

"I used to go to Miku's school before I moved here. We were good friends." Teto placed herself next Gackupo, smiling. "Hey Miku, can I see your timetable?"

"Sure." I said. I fished around in my pocket, searching for it. I pulled it out at last. It was a bit crumpled from being stuffed into my pocket back and forth. I passed it to Teto. With raised eyebrows, she started to write on it with a red Sharpie. I decided to leave her to it.

"Oh, that explains it! Ok, one more to go!" Neru took a sip from her Coke can, "Ok this is, oh..."

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the empty seat in between Gumi and Gackupo.

"Len...he's gone, again." Neru told me, "He's always doing that. He doesn't like to stay in one place for too long."

"Really?" I asked. That's kinda like me...

"Yup. Always rushing off." Gumi said, "He's like dead athletic so sometimes he'll go to the school gym."

"Boys," Teto rolled her eyes and handed me my timetable back, "They always wanna keep in shape."

"Tell it like it is Teto," Neru said, putting down her can.

"I'd rather sit and eat my ice cream thank you. Who cares about keeping in shape?" Kaito said, spooning more ice cream into his mouth. I wondered how someone who ate ice cream most of the time, didn't care about the gym yet still managed to keep in shape. Weird...

I peered down at my timetable. Teto's red Sharpie ruled the whole piece of paper. She had written down what subject I had with each of them. I had Science with Teto, English with Rin, Maths with Gumi and Kaito, PE with Neru, Geography with Gakupo and Art with Luka. I also noticed that I had Music with Len. And I had Music today. Maybe I could ask why he left.

"Len's the one that helped me up, right?" I asked Luka, who seemed to be watching me.

"Yup, that's Len! He's like that. He seemed to like you; he never brings anyone to our table," Luka explained as she winked at me coyly.

"Not even Meiko?"

My comment caused everyone to stop chatting and look at me, even Gakupo.

"Meiko? What makes you say that?" Luka asked.

"Well...she seemed to like him. And he seemed to like her. I just figured that they were..." I didn't need to finish my question to know the answer to my theory because Kaito and Gumi were laughing.

"Miku! Len doesn't like Meiko!" Kaito laughed. I suddenly felt pretty stupid.

"Shut up Kaito, she's new!" Neru smacked Kaito around the head, causing Gakupo to smirk at him. I thought Gumi would have told Neru off, but she didn't seem that concerned.

"Len isn't a romance guy," Rin explained, "And if he was, he'd tell me." She saw me looking a bit puzzled. I mean, why would he tell her first? I thought the obvious first: dating.

"Len's my brother. We're twins." Rin explained.

That kinda left me in shock for a minute. Rin and Len were twins? Well, blonde hair and blue eyes. They were easily compared to each other. That explained why I first thought they looked so alike.

"Wow, really...?" I managed to ask.

Rin smiled. "It's always the same reaction."

I felt kinda awkward at that point, but let it go.

"But your right; Meiko likes Len. So if your hoping to have a romance with him, you'll have to deal with his disappearing act and an angry Meiko." Gumi said.

"W-What?! A romance with Len?! I've just met him, and not even spoke to him much." I quickly explained. But Neru, Rin, Teto and Gumi looked at each other knowingly, smiling.

Then suddenly the bell went, signaling the end of lunch. Neru stood up, dumping her tray on the side. She turned to Gakupo. "Come on, we've got History."

Gakupo sighed, but stood up and went off with Neru. She waved happily and Gackupo nodded then they were gone. Rin got up and stood by the door, waiting for me.

"Come on Miku, the English teacher will kill us if we're late!"

I followed Rin; waving to the others as I went. They all smiled and waved back happily, giving me hope that I had found good friends. They all seemed keen which was a start I guess.

Though secretly, I couldn't wait until Music. To see Len again...

No! To see why he left, yeah, that was it.

There was no way that the others were right. I did NOT have a crush on Len. No way!