"McAvoy-senpai!"

Firinne cringed at the loud, shrill voice echoing down the halls. She stared out the window, and hoped no one would notice that Nagisa was calling her out. Although, that's a bit difficult when you have such a Western name. He caught up to her with ease, and clasped a hand onto her shoulder. She tensed at his touch, and pulled away.

"Yes, what is it that you need? Shouldn't you be at swim practice anyway." The words had sounded less harsh in her mind.

"Do you get along with Mako-chan?"

She took a small side-glance at him. He was beaming like he always did, but this time a glint of desperation was shining from his eyes. "I suppose so, yes. He's very nice to me in class. I don't know why. I haven't done anything to deserve that from him."

"Oh, Mako-chan is kind to everyone."

She slowed to a stop near the exit, and lockers. "I don't mean to be rude, but I have to be home very early today, and I would like to know if there is any true point to this conversation." The surprised look on his face nearly made her chuckle, but she held it back. She didn't want him to think her too rude. Then his demeanor became very serious, and very dark in a matter of seconds, and any thoughts of laughing at him vanished.

"If Makoto doesn't get his marks up in English he's going to have to be pulled off the swim team. We already technically don't have enough people, but they still let us be a club, and join in tournaments. And we're a family; I don't know what we'd do if Makoto wasn't there. Everything would fall apart. Please, you need to help us, I would-!"

"No."

He took a step back from her, looking truly appalled.

She tried to get rid of the lump in her throat as Nagisa welled up, and gaped open his mouth like a fish.

"...What?" He whispered.

"I-I'm sorry," she spat out, "I can't. I don't have enough time. I spend so much of my own time studying, and I barely know Tachibana. Maybe if he had asked me, and even then I don't think I could. Besides, it's a bit presumptuous to assume I even know how to teach it. I mean I just have so many other things I do in the mean time, it'd be so difficult to come up with something, and I'm sorry that this'll hurt you, and you're friends, but there's nothing I can really do about it."

"B-but, there's got to be something…?"

"I'm sorry. No. It can't be helped. I'm sorry. I just don't think my parents would let me out either. It's difficult to say. I could think on it, but at this point I'm not sure that there's really anything in-"

"I get it." He said solemnly. "You don't have to make excuses. It's alright. Maybe I can find someone else. I'm sure Rin would help him." And with that he sprinted away toward the other end of the hallway. She felt hot tears well up in her eyes as the burning stares of the few people left in the hall drilled holes through the back of her head. Her feet had brought her out the locker room, slipped on her shoes, grabbed the rest of belongings from the locker before she realized she had started crying.

She couldn't even tell why. Maybe she felt bad for telling Nagisa no, or maybe the stress was finally getting to her. The scuffle with her mother the night before had been enough make her feel like a bottle ready to burst. It felt like at any moment she was going to break at any moment. Thankfully she hadn't yelled, or sobbed out. This was just simple, quiet crying. That was something much nicer than yelling, or being furious with the world. She generally tried to avoid feelings like those unless absolutely necessary.

Firinne had lied to Nagisa. She needn't be home early today. Her parents had planned to be out until around midnight.

She wished that she had something to look forward to when getting home. For a

while she had had a cat. A small, sickly, old tom-cat, named Jet, who had lived out the last good years of its life with her, and died only a bit before they had moved. Her life, and the house seemed empty without him. It sounded wrong to say, but she admitted that she wasn't distraught over the death. She had been expecting it after all.

Firinne flipped through one of her maths notebook looking for the one formula she hadn't quite been able to remember in class earlier that day. School was done, but she had lingered, not wanting to go home.

As she leafed through the pages, a piece of paper fell out. It was small, about the size of her palm, and a delicate pale blue color. It was carefully folded down the middle, as if someone had taken their time to make sure it was perfect.

She scooped it off the ground, and turned as two bodies nearly crashed into her. It was Rei, and Gou. They were both panting.

Gou spoke up first. "McAvoy-senpai, you need to tutor Makoto in English!"

"I'm not good enough at teaching to help him!" Rei whined. "And none of us could bare to lose him from the-"

"No." She snipped. "Just leave me alone, okay?"

Turning again, she jogged away.

When she was finally off the school grounds she paused for a breath, and to look at the note.

With shaking hands she unfolded it slowly, certain there was going to be something rude cruelly inscribed in it. Instead, she received a pleasant surprise.

Chestnut Trees

I would scale the mighty chestnut trees

Growing in your eyes

If it meant that I could look upon

Your body, for a time

I would swing all through the branches

Recount your visions passed

Bask beneath the shadowed canopies

Swallowed in the black

Yes, I think I would quite like it there

I'll go one day. Perhaps

-Sam Clemens

A steady blush rose up into her cheeks. The note was signed with two wavy scribbles, but not in kanji. It was in the Roman Alphabet. She could barely make out the initials, but they looked like N.I. if she squinted enough.

Shrugging, and trying to not smile, she stuffed the note in her blazer pocket. She glanced up at the street, still grinning like an idiot. Though it was nice to get a sweet, poetic note, it was nicer to know who wrote it, and she didn't know. Obviously the person who shoved it in her locker wasn't Sam Clemens, she had no idea who that was, and even if someone with that name went to this little school, she was sure she would've noticed him or her by now.

But even the separate initials alluded her. She couldn't come up with a name for N.I.

The note made her feel like a giddy school girl, and she couldn't bubble down.

So she took the long way home. She didn't need her mother to see her like this, and chastise her for focusing on something other than school at this time of year. And she hadn't even made a single friend at school. Unless she counted that ridiculous swim club. Neither Nagisa, Rei, or Gou had been too pleased with her answer to not tudor Makoto so maybe she couldn't count them. Makoto seemed to think that they were friends, but she tried to deny that.

Her reasoning was vain, but she didn't try to deny that. She figured if they became friends, his unintentional flirting would get to her. In the long run, she realized, she would begin to like him, and the feelings wouldn't be reciprocated. It was a silly, and childish way to avoid emotions, but it had been working for the past three years so she relied heavily on it.

By the time she strolled into school the next day, she figured the onslaught of people pleading her to tudor Makoto would be over with. She thought that she had seen the entire team. She had walked to school early, and sat at her desk, staring past the row to her left, and out the window.

The rest of the class slowly filed in, some of them still giving her odd glances. She didn't mind though, at this point in her life she was used to it. Her eyes were glued to the window, wishing she could get out.

I feel so selfish, and stupid for not saying yes. I'm going to ruin something for a group friends just because I'm an idiot, and don't want to be friends with that dork. Why couldn't I have just said yes? I wish I could take it back now, but I can't just go back, and say yes. But then they would probably hate me, and would just go to someone else instead. They said that they're friends with Rin, but it might not be the same one that…

"McAvoy-san," she jumped at the voice, and shifted her focus to a boy sitting by the window. She remembered his name to be Haruka, but couldn't quite remember anything else too important about him; except that he and Makoto always came into school late together, and were very close friends. She readied herself to be pleaded with, and held her breath.

"Hai, Nanase-san?"

He looked to the front of the room where Makoto was busy talking with a small group of girls, blushing madly, and rubbing the back of his neck. Firinne felt herself shrug at the sight, but didn't say anything yet.

"We have a large English project due in a week."

She took a large breath in to yell at him, or scream no, or anything; but she didn't do a thing. She exhaled quietly.

"Fine," she said in a harsh whisper, making sure that he could hear her even though he was wistfully staring out of the window, cut off from the rest of the room. "I'll do it. We can start tonight. Just tell him I'll be waiting."

She tore out an unused, and unneeded notebook, flipping it open to it's first page. Scribbling out a list of things to do, she sighed. She was waiting for a simple thank you, or even a little nod of the head from the ingrate, but nothing came. Sighing again, she stared back down at the notebook even though she could feel someone's eyes on her.

Not wanting to look up she tried to stay glued to the notebook, but it didn't work. Eventually she glanced up catching the bright green eyes of a ridiculous gentle giant who she was willing to help. He looked as though he was going to grant her with the glimmer of a smile, but she rolled her own eyes, and stared back down at the lesson plan unfolding on the piece of paper before he could.

Firinne sat on a bench just outside of the school, and waited. She had texted her mother, telling her that she would be home late, and was tutoring another student after school. Her mother had sent back a simple 'k'.

As she waited she wrote out more in the lesson plan. She had no idea how to teach, let alone how to teach something as complex, and difficult as a language. Even so, she had to give it shot for this mismatch group of friends. Though, as she sat she inwardly panicked. If she didn't teach him well enough, if this didn't go over well they would hate her. She would become even more of an outcast than she already was.

After what seemed like a day of waiting, she finally heard soft voices, and laughter from a few feet away, coming out of the school. She straightened her back, and popped up from her seat just as Nagisa and Rei skipped by. Haru, and Makoto were slacking behind, and walked by the old bench as Firinne spun around on her heel for face them. Her nose nearly hit Makoto's chest, and she backed up at once. She stared at the ground for a moment.

Haru kept walking.

"Why are sitting here, McAvoy-san?" He asked kindly, rubbing the back of his neck again.

"You should know. I told Nanase-sa…!" She trailed off, trying not to yell.

"I don't think I understand…"

"I'm tutoring you in English." She said with a huff, turning her back to him. "We're starting to tonight."

"Really, you don't ha-"

"Your friends informed me of the predicament you're in, and I'm going to help you. Each one of them asked me to help you so here I am. Do you want to stay on the swim team with your friends, or do you want to be kicked off because you failed our English project next week."

"I...but...alright. Thank you." He caught up to her, and smiled sweetly. She cringed to see him so grateful.

"Yeah, okay, well tonight you're just going to show me how much you know. And this isn't going to be some cute little, here's a little help with your English, let me coddle you. Nope! You will learn English, and be so fluent you won't be able to tell the difference between it, and Japanese!" She said resolutely. "Oh, and, we'll have to go to your house I'm afraid. I hope that's alright. At the moment I can't invite people over as we're still unpacking, and my parents are ashamed of their 'naked house'."

He didn't seem to know what to say. Or which one of her rambling sentences to respond to rather.

"So, ah, how am I going to show you what I know? Should I just try to speak or…?"

"I made up series of quizzes and questions for you to answer, and I'll grade them, and see how you did. Depending on that I'll create a lesson plan, though this week we'll be focusing on your English project, and getting that done, but we'll go from there."

"Heh, what exactly is the English project again?" He asked nervously, and half-heartedly.

"Weren't you paying attention? You have to use a modern English book you were supposed to read over the break, and write a ten page essay on it."

"Oh, yes, I knew that." He answered smoothly as they neared the train station.

He hadn't known that.

"I was wondering what exactly it supposed to be on. The characters, plot, themes…?"

"It can be on any or either or all of them. As long as you show basic understanding of the book, and write all of it in English. I won't do your work for you, but I will help. What book did you read?"

"I...ah...American Gods." He said slowly. Rei and Nagisa were nearly yelling in a playful argument, and Haru was off the the side, staring off into nothing again.

"That's a good book, it's by Neil Gaiman. You should read The Alchemist and Cloud Atlas. All three of them are really beautiful books. They all have the same basic themes, but when you get to their core they become this fantastic kind of tri-force. I could give you those if you want. I mean after this English project, and maybe when we've progressed a little more of course. Or, I'm not sure when you would want them. Unless you don't want them at all of course, and they're all in English too so maybe it isn't such a…"

He couldn't help but smile and chuckle at her excitement, and sparkling eyes.

"W-what?! Stop laughing!"

"I've never seen you smile before, McAvoy-san."

She glared up at him for a moment, then back at the rattling tracks. The train was close.

"Don't get to used to it." She grumbled, as the doors creaked open, and they rushed aboard.

She found a comfortable seat alone, sitting across from the four boys, she stared out the window at the trees, and clouds that flew by. Trying to ignore the group across from her was difficult. Nagisa's whisperings could barely be called whispers, but rather talking in a hushed tone.

"What?! She told me, and Rei-chan no! And then she just says yes to Haru-chan."

"That is odd." Rei's voice picked up a little volume.

"Maybe...maybe she's in love with Haru-chan!"

As their laughter rose up, and died down she turned with a deadly look on her face. Nagisa, and Makoto, who were both sitting on the outside of the four-person seats, shrunk back as they felt her eyes burning into them.

"I chose to tutor Tachibana-san simply because I was tired of each of you inquiring me to, I felt bad, and I was worried other people may be mad because I tore apart their swim team."

Nagisa sunk further back into seat, nearly burrowing into Rei, while Makoto nervously laughed.

"Thank you again, I'm not sure how I can repay you though. Would you like to be paid for this?"

"No," crossing her arms, she stared straight ahead, "Getting time to do something other than sit at home, and cry about my feelings is payment enough." Makoto was speechless for a moment. "I was joking, Tachibana." She smirked as he apologized profusely.

After Rei, and Nagisa said their goodbyes, Makoto and Haru walked side-by-side back to their homes with Firinne trailing close behind. She knew her way around this area of the village, she realized later that she only lived around five or ten minutes away from Makoto and Haru.

Firinne had been in her own little world by the time they had arrived at Makoto's home. Her head had been so up in the clouds, she hadn't realized he had stopped, and had run into his broad back.

She stumbled back holding her nose.

"Ah! Oh, no are you okay, McAvoy-san?!" He slouched so he was on eye-level with her, and rested his hands on her shoulders. She flinched back from his touch, and held out a hand that grazed his chest to keep him far away. Rubbing her nose, she moved her hand away, and held both of her hands up to prove she was fine.

"Mako!" A shrill voice shouted as the door flung open. A little boy, who only vaguely appeared related to the boy standing in front of her, appeared in front of her.

"Mako-chan…?" A sleepier voice came from behind the boy. A little girl who looked a bit more like him than the boy, or at least Firinne thought so, appeared in the doorway.

"McAvoy-san, this is my little sister, and little brother; Ran, and Ren."

She nodded at the little ones, who dragged their big brother into the house, and she followed suite.

"This is Firinne McAvoy, she just transferred to Iwatobi. She's helping me with my English." He added hastily as his smiling father appeared in the doorway. "We have a project coming up that will bring up my grade."

"I assume you are fluent in English?" Mr. Tachibana asked easily. He had the same tall stature, and fluid smile as Makoto. Even so, Effy tried not to inwardly cringe at the assumption. But he was correct, and she had to give him that. He was correct.

"Yes, I am. Though, I suppose, technically Japanese is my first language."

As they slipped off their shoes, and Mako glided toward the stairs, he filled in for his father.

"Her parents expanded their business here before she was born. They're from Scotland."

Effy was surprised at how neat his small room was. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but not this for some reason. Observing the pictures around the room she found one in particular that was interesting. There were four little boys. Obviously the one looking away from the camera was Haru, and Mako was smiling, and…

"...Rin." She hadn't seen him in so long

"That's a picture of the swim team I was on when I was younger. You already know Haru-chan, and Nagisa, and that's-"

"Rin." She finally moved her eyes from the picture to look down at Mako who had kneeled beside her to look at the photo on the low shelf. He was nearly as tall as her on his knees.

"You know Rin?" He asked carefully.

"Well I suppose I did. We used to have a vacation home in Australia, and he went to a school there. I would see him sometimes, and he was the only friend I had when we were there."

"He's changed quite a bit, and he actually goes to a school not that far away now." He kept his eyes locked too steadily on hers. She felt the need to look away, feeling too examined by his gaze.

"That's good." She stood up straight, and spun on her heel to sit down on his floor in front of the bed. Her bag plopped down with her as she pulled out the notebook. "Alright, now if you need to speak while doing these you'll speak in English. If you need to speak while you do this quizzes speak in English."

She said it twice. Once in Japanese, and then in English. He nodded both times, seeming to understand, and gently took the notebook from her. He sat on the bed with a sigh, and started at questions.

He leaned down beside her a moment later. Tapping her shoulder to get her uninvested from her book. Slightly surprised, she looked up.

"You wear glasses." She noted aloud. He appeared confused for a moment, and then seemed to remember the frame upon his face.

"Ah, yes, and I-"

"English." She said with her skewed Scottish lilt. It had a touch of Japanese, but it was mainly a heavy Scott sound; something she was proud of, and intended to keep.

"Do you need this...tonight? Tomorrow morning?" He grinded out. Surprisingly, his accent wasn't as thick as she had expected it to be.

"Tonight if you can. I would rather be able to go over it tonight instead of when I'm waiting for you to get out of swim practice. I'd rather be spending my time planning out our next lesson for that night during that time."

"Okay," he leaned back again, "Thank you." The room was silent for a moment. "And you did not use English when you said I have…" instead of saying the word, maybe he didn't know it, he cheekily tapped the frames of his glasses, and went back to reading. She stared at him speechless.

"I really liked her, she seemed nice." Mako's mother gushed as he studied English book.

"Yes, she is. A bit cold, and odd at first, but kind."

"I'm glad she's doing this for you." His father beamed.

"She was pretty!" Ren squealed.

"Yeah," Ran yawned, "I really liked her too. Her hair was really bright, and her eyes were pretty. What color is that?"

"They're hazel," Makoto answered quickly. "Well one is brown-ish and blue, and the other is brown-ish and green."

"You pay attention to her a lot, Onii-chan."