A quiet red-haired girl stared out the window, her cheek resting against her fist. Rain was pattering softly, blurring all visuals outside of the school building. There wasn't much to see, really. Just some trees. The sky. A bird, or two. And an overflowing school pool. She didn't worry, though. There was a joint practice at Samezuka today, so who cares about the excess water in the pool, right?!

The school bell rang, interrupting all of her thoughts. She didn't have many, at that moment. All she could think about were abs, and her will to not fall asleep in the middle of class. Rain made her sleepy, an embarassing fact she made a plan to never mention to Nagisa at today's practice.

"Geez, that was so long and boring!," her friend, Hana-chan, stretched before approaching Gou's desk with a bento in her hands.

Before Gou could reach for her own lunch, Hana slammed her hands on the desk, leaning forward with gleaming eyes that stopped Gou in her tracks.

"Kou-chan," Hana started, calling her friend by the nickname she preferred to her real one.

"H-hai?," Gou asked, startled by the sudden change in her friend's behavior.

"I have some exciting gossip to share with you!"

"Eh?!"

Okay. Now Gou was excited.

Once she got her very own bento, Hana started eating whilst explaining the mysterious information.

"There's gonna be a new transfer student!"

"EH?!"

"In OUR CLASSROOM!"

"EHHHHHHHHH?!"

"I know, right?! It's so exciting-and get THIS!"

"What?"

"She-," Hana started, but, noticing the look befalling Gou's face, changed her tone mid-sentence, "yes, it's a GIRL, not a boy with abs like you prefer. ANYWAY, she's from AMERICA, and she's coming to our class tomorrow!"

Gou lost interest once she learned that the new boy was a new GIRL, but it was picked up again once she found out she was foreign. And from AMERICA, no less than that!

"Ehhh, that means she speaks English…"

"Yeah, isn't it exciting! Maybe she'll be a new friend of ours!," Hana beamed. At this, however, Gou frowned.

"You think she'll be our friend?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"No-do you think that she'll be OUR friend?"

"What? What do you mean-oh. Oh yeah, I see…," Hana's excitement faded at the truth that Gou and she were not exactly the best at making friends.

It wasn't that Gou was insecure about people or friendships. She had a really cool best friend, and she was friends with everyone in the swim club. It was BECAUSE of these friendships, plus the fact that she was, well, GOU, that she was incapable of creating lasting friendships.

All her life, Gou has had trouble making friends. It wasn't that she wasn't nice. She was just that she was sexually intimidating.

While many girls flocked to her brother, who shared many of the same physical characteristics as she did, she was hated by insecure girls who wanted to make her feel bad for having a level beauty that they considered unattainable to them, and she was hated by insecure boys who only wanted to date her for the sex, but, once she turned them down, looked down on her and called her a 'hoe'. It didn't help her in the least being friends with the class's 'brat'-Hana was a loudmouth, but she really wasn't a brat(all that often), and being friends with four of the hottest boys at the school. Nor did it help having a brother everyone wanted to ask out, but even if a girl did, he denied them instantly, causing them to hate Gou even more.

She was grateful to have the friends she did have. The ones who respected her, and didn't call her Gou(excluding Nagisa) or a degrading name. The exchange student might be the same as everyone else in the classroom.

Or maybe, she wouldn't be.

"Well, whatever happens, happens!," Hana stated, smile once again returning.

"Just don't act rude to her, Hana."

"EH?! Whaddya mean, RUDE?!"

"Act nice, like me!," Gou smirked at the face Hana was making.

"What the-well, don't intimidate her with your "beauty,"' Hana said sarcastically, causing Gou to make a face of her own.

"What do you mean by 'beauty?!' I'm pretty!"

"Ha, yeah, pretty enough to not get a date?"

Gou groaned and Hana laughed.

For the rest of the period, she and Hana continued to finish their meal, laughing and making fun of each other. Even though she didn't think it out loud, Gou knew that whether the new exchange student liked her or not didn't matter. She already had the best friend a girl could ask for.