How do you like your eggs?

Morning on Astraea Hill was often placid and calm. The cherry blossoms that lined the pavement gave off a distinction of purity and dignity. The entire campus was surrounded by forest, effectively cloistering the three schools off from the rest of civilization. Today, however, was markedly different from those usually serene mornings due to the arrival of a new transfer student.

The transfer and a St. Lulim girl stood in front of the entrance to the Strawberry Dorms. Aoi Nagisa was still in her old school uniform, with a sailor type top and pleated skirt. Next to her, was Minamoto Chikaru. She wore the traditional Lulim attire, composed of pink and yellow plaid designs. Nagisa noticed that she was different from other girls in that Chikaru also wore two elegant red bows in her long, flowing black hair.

"Are you sure about that Nagisa-chan?" Minamoto Chikaru feigned disappointment. "I think you'd fit in so much better in Lulim. You're way too cute to be stuck with those Spican stiffs."

Nagisa waved her off, surprised by the compliment, "Ahh! That's not true. You're just teasing me, Chikaru-sama."

The older girl leaned in closer and Nagisa unconsciously stepped backwards, "Well you're always welcome to join the St. Lulim Costume Club. Even if you are a Spican. By the way," Her smooth interjection caught Nagisa off guard, she changed her tone in a way that assured Nagisa that she was being playfully teased instead of insulted. The girl with the red bows smiled warmly before lightly placing her hands on Nagisa's shoulders, "These are the St. Lulim dorms. The St. Spica dormitories are over here. See you later." She gently turned the shorter girl to said direction before departing.

Nagisa wondered if all girls who went to St. Lulim were as equally friendly. After waving to the departing Chikaru, she looked around the dormitories. The building wasn't a single building at all, but rather three rectangular structures arranged in a triangle connected by walkways on the second floor. Nagisa could see how the dorms earned their nickname. Together, the three buildings sort of resembled one giant strawberry.

The St. Spica dorms appeared to be the wing on the farthest left, and since she was standing in front of the St. Lulim dorms, she guessed that the St. Miator dorm stood in between the two.

As she was passing the Miator dorms, she noticed a girl running in tears towards the entrance of the dorm and another standing in the midst of the courtyard. The tall, slender figure leaned lazily against a tree as if she was contemplating whether to move or if she was content to just stand there all day. Nagisa wished she were a photographer at that moment as she watched the cherry blossoms fall amongst the solitary, silverheaded girl. She held up her hands, putting her thumbs and index fingers together as if she was framing the picture before her.

But she wouldn't have done if she had known the girl would actually notice.

Nagisa stood frozen, her hands slumped down but they were still locked in the shape of a rectangle. I must look like such an idiot right now.

Even from a distance, the dignified figure's stare was pointedly powerful. Suddenly Nagisa felt like some sort of tractor beam pulling in unwanted attention. The girl with the lustrous silver hair walked closer, her gait was graceful and smooth.

Nagisa had to make a conscious effort to separate her two hands, which didn't go unnoticed by the other girl.

"Taking pictures are we?" The older girl asked. She had an almost predatory look in her eyes.

"Something like that." Nagisa half-heartedly laughed.

"Get any good ones?"

She recognized the joke for what it was, but she decided to play along, unsure of what else to do. "Not really, I'm afraid I'm not too good of a photographer".

The taller girl dressed in the stately black and white trimmed St. Miator uniform took a step forward and extended her hand. The uniform looked as if was designed especially for the older girl, complementing her elegance. The green tie, the only outstanding color on the Miator garb, accentuated the elder girl's bust. Nagisa wasn't sure she could further dwell on the matter without feeling incredibly gay.

"Could I see them?" At first Nagisa thought the voice was coming from some dark, hidden desire on her part. But instead it was the girl standing before her, a faint smile on her lips.

"Oh, yeah." Nagisa looked towards the other girl's hand and, without thinking, slapped down a high five. "There you go!"

She regretted it as soon as she caught the shocked expression on the other girl's face.

"What's your name?"

For the first time in a while, Hanazono Shizuma was genuinely surprised. All the other girls that dared to meet her outstretched hand only did so with such a hesitant grip. Shizuma, a girl accustomed to control and a sort of forcefulness, was taken aback by the younger girl's brazen manners. Yet the expression following immediately after shock wasn't that of disgust, but a disarming smile that concealed less noble intentions. Nagisa found herself laughing nervously, unaware of what her penchant for honest enthusiasm had sparked.

"Aoi Nagisa…"

The older, more dignified girl set both of her hands on the fourth year's shoulders. Her hands were big, but not at all less feminine, as her fingers were long and slender. She pulled Nagisa into her, the younger girl slightly tripped, but Shizuma looked as if she didn't care at all.

"From now on, you will be my younger sister and must only call me Shizuma-oneesama. If you break your promise…" Shizuma trailed off, her golden orbs fixated on Nagisa's own amethyst eyes, causing her to blush. "I'll punish you." Nagisa felt a sting on her left cheek where Shizuma had pinched her.

"My, my Shizuma-sama." Another girl in the St. Miator uniform had crept up to the pair of girls. Neither of them had noticed before as they were too busy locked in each other's stares. Shizuma looked towards the other girl nonchalantly, while Nagisa blushed furiously. She felt as though she had just been caught doing something exceptionally wrong. The other girl was Rokujo Miyuki, the class president. Her very demeanor epitomized the strict teaching style of Miator. Unlike Shizuma, whose uniform complemented her grace and beauty, Miyuki's uniform lent to her aura of authority and superiority. "Who knew you would be hitting on the new transfer student this early, especially one who's about to attend Spica."

If Shizuma was surprised in any way, it didn't show on her perfectly practiced features, "Oh Miyuki. You know me. I don't discriminate when it comes to love."

This has got to be some sort of joke. Nagisa looked to the pair of hands that were still on her shoulders and winced, unnoticed by Shizuma.

"Indeed. Although you should probably let this one go, she looks like she's about to squirm out of your grasp at any minute now." Shizuma glanced down and Nagisa looked away guiltily. "Besides, you have some duties you need to attend."

Shizuma reached up to pinch Nagisa's cheek once again, but this time she did so more softly and lingering. "Even if you had only lost your way, I'd never let you return from whence you came." She grandly boasted, and Miyuki stood to the side, rolling her eyes. Eventually she let go of the younger redhead, "I'll be seeing you around, my little Spican Nagisa-chan."

To Nagisa it sounded more like a dire promise than a casual word of parting between friends. She watched as Shizuma and Miyuki walked off together out of sight before letting out a deep sigh. She wondered if everyone else on Astraea Hill was equally as flamboyant.

The transfer eventually managed to make it to her room without a hitch. Due to the customs of the St. Spica Girl's Institute, new transfer students were placed into solitary rooms for their first two weeks of school. Nagisa threw her bag onto the floor, and leapt onto the only bed in the room. She let out another long and drawn out sigh before falling asleep.


After a week of classes, word had spread like wildfire about the new girl who had the audacity to violate the Prince of Spica. Even in her new St. Spica uniform, she still didn't blend in amongst the other students. Unfortunately, from what Nagisa could see, she was the only student on the entire Astraea campus who had characteristically red hair.

The lone redheaded girl sat at her desk, absently doodling on her textbook in an effort to ignore the sniggering of the other Spicans around her. A week after the incident, rumors were at their peak. Often times Nagisa would pretend to be absorbed in one of her texts, but in truth, Nagisa barely read much of anything. She was one of those girls who, not because of a lack of intelligence, would become easily bored reading anything of the nonfiction genre. Today, she didn't even have the energy to mock read, as she lazily lolled her mechanical pencil around the corner of the page. She began to recount some of the rumors she had overheard because of careless gossips:

"Did you hear about the new girl? I heard she had the audacity to leap right into Amane-sama's arms!"

"That was HER? What did Amane-sama do? She'd never let someone that unrefined ever lay a hand on her!"

Because of the vicious nature of such rumors, Nagisa was beginning to develop a crick in her neck from the innumerable amount of times she had lowered her head in humiliation.

"Of course our Prince didn't just shove her off or anything cruel like that."

"Of course not! I heard that Amane-sama just whispered something softly into her ear, and she just left. Just like that."

"I wonder if other schools know about our Prince of Spica. That's probably why she transferred here."

Everyone would always mention the word "Prince" in such a way that Nagisa imagined the title as capitalized and proper.

As she watched random scribbles emerge on the glossy pages of her textbook, she caught the latest batch of today's gossip.

"I was there! The Prince just looked down at her, right in the eyes. She couldn't take the magnificent sight of it, so she immediately let go and fled!"

"I was there too! It was awful! She pushed down a second year on her way to ambush Amane-sama! "

"H-hey!" As expected of any gossip among teenage girls, the rumors were starting to get out of hand. Sadly, Nagisa's objection went unheard as the other girls continued to talk amongst themselves in hushed but agitated tones.

"That second year? That was nothing! You should've seen her run into the crowd! She dropkicked a fifth year!"

"Now that's going too −". Before she could properly voice her protestation, Nagisa was cut off by the appearance of another girl. She was a little taller than Nagisa, which wasn't surprising considering Nagisa fell a bit on the short side compared to most of her peers. The other girl had pale, white skin and long, perfectly straight black hair. Both she and Nagisa were in class Un together, so naturally they had shared classes as well. Even the transfer student was aware of Nanto Yaya's reputation, again through careless gossips, as a hardcore lesbian. That fact, and the perpetual smirk on Yaya's face, discouraged Nagisa from any attempt to personally introduce herself, even though they sat right next to eachother.

Yaya, stood at the door of the classroom, her hand on her hip and the trademark smirk plastered firmly on her features. "Seriously guys, that was so last week ago. Literally. I'm not even enjoying this anymore."

The girls all looked around at each other, unsure of how to form a rebuttal. Every fourth year and underclassman respected, if grudgingly, Yaya for her shameless confidence and ability in sports.

One of the girls in the group, most likely the ringleader, finally got the nerve to pipe up, "Jeez Yaya, it's not like we need your permission to talk about anything."

Yaya wasted no time, verbally smashing her down. "Shut up. You weren't even there like you say. You were in the classroom before anything even happened. I saw you enter the building."

She folded her arms against her chest in triumph as she watched the other girl look to her cronies for support. When they collectively turned their heads, the girl harrumphed and sat down in her seat to sulk.

Nagisa watched as Yaya took the seat to the next of her. A look of new admiration was dawning on Nagisa's face, and Yaya could clearly tell.

"You don't have to thank me. That was too easy."

"Thanks!"

The dark haired girl sighed, but held out her hand. "Nanto Yaya and you must be –"

She gripped her hand tightly and Yaya slightly blanched, "Aoi Nagisa! Fourth year, class Un!"

Yaya's hand was still swinging as she put her other hand to her forehead, "…Of course you're a fourth year in class Un...We've been in the same class for a week now, Nagisa…"

"Oh yeah…"