Tribute to Yuki Mizuno/sage of dorks.

OFF: So, let's start with setting things straight, right? Honesty's the best policy and all that.

If you got interested just from reading the title of this story, chances are you're a fan of Yuki Mizuno's work. I don't blame you; her writing is quite good when it comes to tugging one's heart strings, and she doesn't do enough grammatical mistakes to make your inner alarm go 'wait am I really reading this right?'.

It's just… she's not the best. She's decent, definitely, but her writing is rather focused too much on the self-satisfaction side of things, hurrying things like plot development for the sake of having her characters happy. Which… I'll be honest, is not a bad thing. It's not going to be the Next American Novel, but she's writing with all of her heart, and I just don't feel too happy that she doesn't write as well as she could be. She's a writer, but not an author.

That's where this tribute comes in. I'm going to try and write a story based around those same elements of her classic, 'The Aspie Girl', but with less 'wish fulfillment' and more 'fitting with canon', and see how it comes. I can't promise you 'it's better than the original because I say so', but if nothing else, I hope people enjoy this story even then.

And hey – even if you dislike this one, there's always the original for you to prefer.

Enjoy.

"HONK-HONK!"

The truck shook and trembled as it made its way through the streets, not that she could tell where she was. She hoped it was a street, at least; the road had been too rough for most of the trip so far, and she hadn't really slept at all since she got in there.

True, it was in part because her family hadn't exactly left her with anything to be comfortable in and because she was scared the piled-up boxes would end up falling on her, but even then the truck's loud noises and the amount of times she felt like she was bounced off her makeshift bed were too much for her to take.

Still, now the road felt a little smoother, the drive much less unpleasant than it was up to five minutes ago. Sitting up slightly, she moved towards the small pack that was left with her – a precious gift in its own way, seeing as how it was the only food she had left for this entire trip.

The girl took out a bottle of water from within – Dasani – and drank some of it, the best she could. The lack of trembling was good enough, but it was so dark she didn't want to try and eat anything yet, since she couldn't see it well at all.

She was halfway through her second drink – God, she was thirsty – when the sound of screeching brakes nearly made her spill the entire bottle on herself. She forced herself to swallow what she had and pressed her hands against her ears, trying to make the noise go away, to no avail.

After a little more, the back door finally opened. "Alright, we arrived!" the burly driver man said, the light so bright she couldn't even look at him properly right now. "Grab your stuff and get out. Your family's waiting for you."

She couldn't answer him, and unfortunately looking at the ground was really hard right now thanks to the time spent in that dark area. After a bit, she just nodded, scurrying to grab her things and get out of the truck.

"Weird kid," she heard him say, while she wasn't looking at him. A pang ran through her, making the poor girl flinch and bite her own lip, trying to not react any weirder than she already had.

With a deep breath, she took a quick look around, her eyes going to the ground every so often. She didn't see her family yet…

"Uuuuwaaaahhh…" A short, pink-skinned boy yawned and licked his lips as he started to wake up, wiping his eyes clean. He was only half-dressed in a sleeveless undershirt and boxers, halfway through scratching his side as he got up, not at all ready to face another day even if it was just Sunday.

He had just gotten himself to the kitchen when he saw a note from his parents. "Huh. They had to leave for the day?" he let out after reading it fully. "Must have been some serious family emergency…"

Of course, considering the note said it had to do with grandpa, he wasn't that worried. The old man was possibly the worst driver he had ever seen, drank and smoked like nobody else, and had lived through some of the most intense things he had ever heard of, and yet had come out of it with not even a scratch. Sometimes, he wondered if that wasn't where his abnormal resistance had come from – along with the regular beatings and punishments the kids loved to deliver unto him.

Meh. Some cereal would do him good, and at least Ed hadn't gone about sleepeating his way through their houses again. Last time that had happened, Double-D had to go out and replace all of their milk boxes before their parents woke up, unless they wanted to drink Ed's stored milk – and after taking a whiff of it, the instant spoilt state had been enough to make him not want to drink for at least two months.

Bowl in hand, the boy went back to his room. He had just found a way to unscramble the cable on the mini TV he had snuck into his room, and with his parents out, it was the best time to test it out. And besides, it was Sunday; who would bother him so early in the morning?

After setting up his seat in his bed, he turned to the window. Better shut the curtains before enjoying some 'alone time', right? He was about to do that when he saw someone out there, coming in through a hole in his fence. Well, he thought it was someone; the window was still kinda dirty from the last scam he had done. And that sure was annoying; didn't they know this was private property?

He briefly considered yelling at them through the window, but after that mess with Rolf at the start of Summer, he was starting to think that his window was soundproof, and that idea actually appealed to him, so it was a no on that field.

So, through the door it was. What a pain; this was the first Sunday in a long time he had completely for himself at all, and now the ideal peace of that early morning was ruined thanks to some moron entering his house? Oh, he had quite a few words for that person, that was for sure.

"HEY!" he yelled, as soon as he got out; the person flinched at once, turning to face him. "What do you think you're do–"

The words died in his mouth.

The brown hair swished with the turning motion, revealing the face of a glasses-wearing girl, either his age or a bit older. She had a rather conservative outfit on herself, the green shirt and khakis reaching down to her shins looking fitting for this neighborhood, although most girls he knew didn't keep their hair to that length.

It took him a couple of seconds to realize the girl was actually trembling as she stared at him, her brown eyes so wide he could see them past her thick glasses.

"I-I'm s-sorry!" she let out, looking at the ground at once. "I-I… I got lost…"

Her reluctance at looking at him was actually bothersome. He tried to look into her eyes again, but she kept looking away, stepping back as he came closer.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, and she nodded quickly, but still nervously. "Look, if you need to go somewhere, I could–"

"N-no!" she told him, her voice only a bit stronger. "I… I'll go back…"

Before he could stop him, she made for the fence; much to his surprise, there had been a hole in it he hadn't noticed before, though it didn't look like it was very recent either. Was it because of the Kankers going on a rampage or something?

"Well, that was weird," he said, putting it out of his mind for now. "I had better go back home before anyone else sees me like this…"

As he got back inside, however, those brown eyes still intrigued him; it had been too long since he had seen a reaction like that, and yet, it felt awfully familiar…

OFF: So, what did you think? Did you enjoy it? Did you dislike it? It's only chapter 1, which is why this starting interaction is so different…

I hope this tribute will be good enough for the fans of the original. But either way, I won't give up until it's done!