It's Friday, the last day of the first week of school. The scent of new clothes and materials still lingered in the halls of Lakewood High School. It was currently Lunch B, everyone now in their groups setting around and eating in the glass walls of the lunchroom. Red metal beams cut the glass in halves and support the walls while giving it a design element. The carpet was the typical gray with spicks of other colors to give it some spark all over the school (except in the art room, since they didn't want to have to clean paint out of the fibers). Some could be seen wandering the halls behind the glass from Lunch A, hurrying to class before they were late.
There weren't too many new transfer students for this new school year. For the seniors, the newest student came in back in middle school from Russia. Umehito Nekozawa had since been in charge of the paranormal activities club. He was enough weird, the class agreed, to not need a new student. He was in a corner of the lunchroom talking amongst the emos.
The most popular in the class were cousins, Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Huninozuka. Takashi was the star athlete on the varsity hockey team. He could play every position on the ice, but he preferred goalie. Despite his fame, Takashi was quite the shy guy; he barely spoke too many words with his deep voice. His cousin, who was much shorter and quite the opposite, was the peppy mascot. He knew all the cheerleaders, band geeks, and athletes by name. However, Mitsukuni would still hang out with his cousin over anyone else.
"Hey, Takashi!" Mitsukuni quickly took his spot next to his cousin at their unspoken assigned lunch table. "Wasn't the lake a great place to go this summer? I still can't believe you didn't ask that girl for her number. You two had a lot in common."
The younger of the two shook his head, forcing back a blush. This talk seemed to keep coming up in conversations recently. He let out a heavy sigh. "It was just a summer love. You know? Like that musical you forced me to watch after I was bedridden from eating too much seafood." Suddenly, Mitsukuni went into songs from Grease. He stood up in his chair and started to sing loudly, but a teacher quickly appeared and put an end to his shenanigans. The lunch room, however, applauded his performance.
Tables away from the seniors sat the popular Juniors. They were quite the energetic class, thanks to the two French transfer students. "Encore! Encore!" they shouted in unison. Renge Houshakuji came in during her Freshman year. She was quite creative and planned the class dances and events to raise money for field trips. She was also an otaku that now led the anime club at Lakewood High. Many believed the her and René should date to drain their energy on each other. However, Renge liked someone else. René Grandtaine was quite the charmer, though he wasn't dating anyone currently. He was on the varsity soccer team, which was very hard to get on at their school. There was no girls' soccer team, but no girls were interested in the sport; they were more interested in shopping and watching the guys play.
His best friend, and polar opposite, was the class president, Kyouya Ootori. "Yet another year of Huni," Kyouya shook his head. Despite those words, he found himself clapping. He was, without a doubt, the coolest of the cool. In fact, some of the dictionaries in the library had his picture pasted next to the word; that was also due to the sophomore Hitachiin twins prank.
Speaking of the sophomore class, they did have two new students this semester. Twins, in fact. It was odd, since the class always had the identical gingers twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, who sat across the lunchroom for their new classmates. The basketball stars, the hipsters, and the most antisocial of them all. They had quite the attitude until recently. The class didn't know if it was necessarily the new twins that had made them territorial, or if something happened over the summer for them to want to start socializing with others in the class. "Mitsukuni should try out for the play this year," Hikaru laughed as he elbowed his brother lightly. Kaoru was still wiping his nose from laughing so hard that his milk came out of his nostrils. His older brother's comment only got him to start laughing again.
The Kally twins were fraternal. Rio looked like the typical Redneck-American everyday so far in class; he had blonde hair pulled back, always in a flannel shirt that was tucked into some jeans. Of course, he wore cowboy boots to go along with it. He never was into musicals, so he wasn't sure what was going on. Rio just kept eating the lunch special of taco-in-a-bag. His sister, Ariel, had the same blonde hair but draped over her shoulders. She didn't wear her redneck, but rather her accent revealed it. It was much deeper than her brother's. No one had asked the two yet as to why they moved to the area, but they were making friends with the rest of the class pretty quickly.
Then, there were the freshman, the fresh meat and soon-to-be 'slaves' to the upperclassmen. Adriana Villa, Emily Emmerson, Ritsu Kasanoda, and Haruhi Fujioka had already made quite the name for themselves. Adriana was rumored to be trying out for the varsity soccer team this spring. Seeing that she was in the Supernatural Club with Umehito didn't really make sense to people. They figured it was just some odd rumor and left it as is. Emily was the band geek, who could easily be picked on with her innocence. Ritsu was among the other classes' gossip, however, being a cop's son and the hall monitor. They were always careful what they talked about around him. "I feel like people ignore me," he was explaining to Adriana. "Do you think it's my face?"
"Don't be silly." She couldn't help but giggle at his thoughts. Sure, he had a few zits, but so did the rest of their class. He was very self-conscious. She had suggested he rub toothpaste on his face; some still caught in his hair, but no one had the heart to tell him.
"Yeah! Hang in there, Ritsu!" Emily nodded. Her mouth was full of the other lunch special of pizza. Friday was always the best day for specials for the school. It was the closest to junk food they could get unless they were seniors and could go out for fast food.
Haruhi was sitting with the three, but she was just listening. She was the richest transfer in history so far from a private school. Her father had made her attend, for at least a semester, to broaden her horizons by going to a public school. The experience would be good for her, he said. However, she did not agree.
Ritsu suddenly covered his face and screamed. Everyone in the lunchroom turned to the Freshman, who had toothpaste in his eye. When he went and combed his fingers through his hair, the toothpaste got on his hand. Needless to say, when he rubbed his eye, it resulted in a painful sting. Adriana quickly stood up and went with her water bottle to help him wash it out. Everyone else was in shock and confused.
That's when suddenly, Mitsukuni pointed over to Adriana. The curls that wrapped her cheeks reminded him of the girl Takashi had talked to about video games all summer while they were at their cabin at the lake. "Hey, isn't that-?" Before he could finish, Takashi quickly covered his mouth. His cousin pushed his hand away started jumping up and down in his seat. "It is! Go get her number, Takashi!"
"I already have her gamer ID!" he finally revealed. His cousin's eyes sparkled as he gasped. "And, no. I'm not going to ask her out on a date."
"I'll post it on all over social sites until you do! I ship you two so hard." Mitsukuni squealed and stretched in his seat in excitement. "She's really cute, too. I don't see why you don't just go on one date."
Takashi groaned, his head hiding into his arms folded on the table. "She just got over a hard breakup. I'm not going to push her into anything right now." He peeked over his arm to her. She had her hands on her hips as Ritsu was sighing in relief. Takashi sighed as well and went back to hiding his blushing from his older cousin.
"Ooh, you got her gamer digits, at least. Maybe by homecoming she'll be over the dude. Then, you have to ask her out. Don't make me go on an all-cake-diet in rebellion again. You remember the bad breakouts I had last time when you wouldn't try out for the hockey team back in middle school? Now, it's your favorite things to do...besides video games and talking to - what's her name? – Katie?"
"Adri," he said in his deep voice.
Mitsukuni laughed. The only thing preventing him from going on was him biting his bottom lip. It was always so interesting when his cousin liked someone, being that he was such a shy guy. It took a lot to push him to do things he enjoyed. "There, you see her. Sitting there across the way. She don't got a lot to say, but there's something about her. And, you don't know why, but you're dyin' to try. You wanna kiss the girl." Mitsukuni began singing from The Little Mermaid.
Suddenly, the Hitachiin twins chimed in. They had a peak of interest after hearing the two talk about gamer digits. They lived in the same cul de sac, so they knew each other well. "Yes, you want her. Look at her, you know you do! Possible she want you too. There's one way to ask her."
"You are all trolls." Takashi got up, picking up his finished tray to toss the contents into the trash. The twins were following him to do the same, snickering away. "You don't even know what we were talking about," he mumbled, holding the trash lid open for them.
Kaoru shook his head, tossing his tray foods away and putting it on top. "No, so why don't you tell us?" Hikaru agreed. His brother took his tray from him to clean it off. "Yeah. Tell us about your little fling with gamer chick. It's not like we won't end up hearing rumors now that Mitsukuni is going to put it online"
He dragged the two out into the halls. This was also a way to get away from his cousin for a bit. It was really a sense of relief for him. The twins looked up at him ready, their expressions and stance identical. Takashi looked over passed the cafeteria glass wall. "She bumped into me while I was swimming in the lake. She popped up, holding something above her head while making the "item obtained" sound from Zelda. I didn't see what she had at first, so my hands quickly checked to see if my trunks were on. Luckily, it was just a seashell."
The twins held their sides as they roared with laughter. The sound caught Adriana's attention. She blinked then squinted in disbelief of who she saw. There was no way it Takashi, so she shrugged and went back to comforting Ritsu. "Sorry, go on," Hikaru waved his hand as he gained a little more control of the image in his head.
"Well, we just started talking about games, after that. She said she just moved here, and we just started hanging out whenever we saw each other at the beach. Mitsukuni caught us under the pier, just trying to get out of the sun for a while. He said it was a make-out spot." Takashi mumbled, blushing at even the thought of doing such a thing to someone he barely knew. Though, he did find her attractive in her swimsuit. The meaning of seashells became an inside joke with him and Mitsukuni. "Nothing really happened. We talked about a few things, but once she brought up her ex, it was like a red light of 'currently not available'."
Hikaru folded his arms, looking in the cafeteria for who this girl was. "Well, at least you got to hang out with girls. We had to work at the comic shop with dad all summer. Nerds told us that our prices were too high, and how they could get the same comic cheaper off the Internet. Dad would end up yelling at me after I yelled at them. I don't see why they had to complain. They still bought the thing."
His brother sighed at the memory. "Yes, but we did get money for the coffee shop. It helps us get out of the house from our crazy parents while they're here. Otherwise, they're always at a convention." Kaoru smiled to his upperclassman. "I still think you should, at least, go talk to her before—." He jumped as the bell ring. Too late. Lunch was over. The twins both sighed.