I got to school earlier than Eli today. Only Nozomi was at her seat at the time, and there wasn't anything by either of Nico's or Eli's desk to allude to them being at school.

"My, you're early." Nozomi said, closing the small book she held, giving me her attention.

"Ah, yeah." I rung my neck. "I kinda assumed Eli would be here early, too, so I hurried out my house." I took my seat.

"She's on time, always, but rarely super early." Nozomi said with a soft smile.

"What about Nico?" I faced front, inspecting her desk more.

"She's usually here before Eli is, but she likes to talk with the other girls as opposed to sitting in class."

"What about you?"

"I usually walk here with Eli, but I had some shrine duties this morning, so I was more or less forced to come to school early."

"Shrine duties?" I asked, confused.

"Mmhmm." She nodded. "I volunteer at a local shrine around here. I haven't cleaned it in a few days so I decided to do it to restore myself and see if it would wake me up more."

"Ah, restore yourself?" More questions have been raised.

"Nozomi's like that." Nico said, jarring me, as she set her bag down besides her desk.

"Did she scare you?" Eli asked, trotting to my side from the door.

"No, I'm fine." I waved her off.

"You two came here together?" Nozomi asked, looking between the two.

"Coincidence, but yes. We met at the school gate." Eli said, taking her seat next to me.

"She has something to ask you, by th-" Nico was interrupted by an eraser thrown by a distressed Eli. Nozomi picked the eraser up off the floor by sliding it to her with her feet.

Drawing my attention to Eli, who seemed nervous. "Something to ask me?"

She whined. "Yeah, I wanted to ask your..." she trailed off.

"My?" I edged her on.

"Your E-Mail, if you don't mind. I wanted to see if you and I could walk together to school sometimes." She looked to the side.

A meeting of hands behind me made me turn to Nico and Nozomi, who looked around unaware as I met them.

"Ah, yeah, that's fine. I was gonna ask you the same thing sometime soon. I also wanted to ask if you were gonna be free today, too, depending on how much homework we get." I pulled my phone out and entered Eli's address on a small slip she handed to me.

"Is there anything you wanted to do?" Eli asked, fidgeting with a pencil in her hand.

I looked down and pondered for a moment. "Oh, ah, I haven't seen the shrine Nozomi goes to sometimes, right?" I turned to her.

"It's clean today, too, so it'll look extra nice." She gave a confident nod.

"Well I don't really know the local places around here, so maybe you could show me around, too?" I gave Eli a small smile.

"Honoka's family has a bakery in town, too. You might see her there if she isn't asleep or something." Nico said, sitting backwards in her chair to join the conversation.

Eli giggled softly. "Yeah we could give them a visit to."

"Well how long do you think that would last? We shouldn't be out for too long or else I'd get worried." I frowned. "Especially with you having to go home by yourself or something.

Her cheeks tinted pink. "Well we live close by, don't we?" She waved her hands, dismissing my worry.

"I'll walk you home first, then." I bit my lip in thought. "Say, what do you all do in your free time?"

The question came as a shock to Nico, who looked between Eli and Nozomi.

"Oh, shoot." Eli clenched her hands. "I forgot to tell you I'm head of the Student Council."

"The teacher told me that yesterday, though."

"Well what that means is that her and I will be completely unavailable some days." Nozomi added.

"Are you on it, too?" I turned to Nozomi.

She nodded. "I'm the Vice President, so I end up doing a lot of paperwork with Eli on days we decide to do Council activities."

"So you'll be busy on some days, then?" I turned back to Eli.

"Mmhmm. I'll tell you what days, though. I'm really sor-"

"It's fine, don't apologize." I smiled, not realizing I interrupted her, before apologizing afterwards.

"Well I'll just be busy until the school closes around 7. When we do work days like that, we end up with a lot to do. If we did it every day, we would never have time to relax."

"Makes sense to me. That's why you're quiet on some days after school." Nico added.

"What should I do on those days, then?" I snuggled into the back of my chair to sit up straight.

"You could see if someone else in our group is free." Nico said, kicking her feet.

"Ah, do you think that's a good idea?" Eli leaned forward, sounding nervous.

"Yeah, why not. Umi would probably like hanging out with him or... Something. Whatever she does in her free time."

Nozomi sounded pleased. "Ah, she exercises a lot, doesn't she? I'd imagine a jog would be up both of your alleys, no?"

Eli squirmed. "Hey now, he shouldn't rush into this, right? He barely knows everyone."

"She does have a point, too. Not like I'm just gonna hang out with a bunch of random girls I've just met a few days ago." I said, tapping my finger on my desk.

"Wha-hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Nico said, sounding honestly a little offended.

"What he means is that we're girls, Nico." Nozomi said, tapping her lip with her index finger, seemingly in thought.

"Well, and also I kinda feel bad for butting in, I think?" I shrunk in my chair a little.

Nico and Nozomi looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Well that's kinda how we became friends to begin with." Nico said, shooting a look of confusion at Nozomi.

"I don't think you should be too worried about that, Edward." Eli lightly brushed my shoulder.

"We can talk about it at lunch, can't we?" I tapped my foot anxiously beneath my desk.

"Mmhmm." Nozomi nodded. "I'm confident the second year girls would take a liking to you."

"Hey what about me?" Eli tugged on my shirt sleeve with much force, sliding my arm off the side of it.

"Getting jealous, are w-" A wad of paper intercepted Nico's taunt.

"Well I don't just wanna be at home with nothing to do on days you have Student Council duties." I said, facing the blushing blonde.

"Those days will be few and far between, and at least once a week. For the time being we won't do that until this Monday." She composed herself a little, loosing her unnatural tint.

"And it's Thursday anyway." Nico crumpled the paper ball into a tighter form.

"You do exercise, don't you?" Nozomi asked, a bit softer than her tone before.

"Yeah, wh-"

"Of course he does." Eli said over me, causing me to give her a look of embarrassment.

"What?" I asked in a strained voice.

"W-Well you just said yesterday..." She hid her lower face behind her ponytail.

"I assume you'd want a jogging path, wouldn't you?" Nozomi tapped her nails on her desk.

"Yeah I guess that's a good point."

"Hey we can talk about that when him and I-"

"These are future plans, not overwriting ones. That's rude." She said, placing a hand on her heart.

"What the-" Nico muttered under her breath.

"Just bring it up to Umi, because she might know. I just wanted to tell you that." Nozomi nodded.

"W-Well anyway I'll message you tonight and see if we'll both be free tommorow, OK?" Eli again tugged my shirt sleeve.

"Why not today after school?" I turned to her.

"Yeah, none of us have anything planned today, I don't think."

"I might finish doing things at the shrine today, too." Nozomi thought out loud.

Eli took a breath. "Do you think that would work out for you?" She cocked her head.

"We'll be heading home afterwards anyway, won't we?"

Eli nodded with a smile. "I'll think if there's anywhere else we can go toda-"

The loud bell, signifying class had begun cut Eli off mid-sentence.

"We can talk more about to during lunch, OK?" She said with a cute smile.

The shrill bell rang during a quiet point in class, where everyone was doing worksheets. Admist the few seconds of a sliced silence, I could hear a few people jump with fear.

"Who's buying lunch today?" Nico said, pushing her chair in.

"Rin, I think. Eli was yesterday." Nozomi sifted through her bag before getting up.

"Did you bring something to eat today?" Eli said meekly, tugging my shirt's bottom.

"Actually, yeah I did." I said, holding a small wrapped box I grabbed out from the inside of my desk.

"Oh, alright. I made a little extra food today just in case you forgot." She blushed, holding her lunch behind her.

"Come on, you two." Nico said, standing next to Nozomi at the entrance of the room.

Eli started walking past me, and I followed her up the stairs outside the room, up to the rooftop. Opening the door for Eli and the other 2, we were greeted by Rin and Hanayo.

"Well you're early." Nozomi said, taking a seat on the brick rooftop.

"I was gonna wait for everyone to get here before I left." Rin said, slightly rolling around on her legs as she sat.

"So you still wanna ask Umi?" Eli said, patting a spot next to her.

"Yeah, I do. It'd be weird to ask her in front of everyone, though."

"Why, does it embarrass you?"

"I just don't know everyone yet."

"Mind if I set next to you today?" Nico asked, rather politely.

"No, I don't mind, Nico."

She sat down with a deep breath.

"Something on your mind?" Eli asked, leaning forward.

"No. Just wondering how today will go." She said, looking forward, to the skyline of the town.

"Hmm?" I cocked my head.

"Well with you here, it'll be different."

"Different?" I repeated.

"Yeah. Exciting-" she did with air quotations "-as Honoka would say. You're a new person in our group, so naturally we wanna get to know you, ya know?"

The rooftop door opened, along with the rest of everyone. Honoka and Rin had a loud conversation about what to have for lunch. Kotori quietly pleaded for them to sit down, but to no avail, as the two left in tandem to pick up the others orders.

"To be honest I'm just nervous about meeting everyone. I never knew this many people at once when I was younger."

"Me niether. It's a nice feeling, isn't it?" Nico said, in a mature tone for her.

Without the presence of Honoka and Rin, the rooftop's loudest sound was the wind blowing over the school. Hanayo and Kotori were doing something, that appeared to be knitting, together. Nozomi quietly read a book. Maki and Umi had a small board of checkers, which made a rhythmatic tapping when they would move their pieces.

"Hey, if you wanna talk to Umi, you might as well do it now." Eli whispered.

"Yes?" Umi heard the soft murmur from a fair distance away, catching the attention of Maki, her opponent.

"Can you move over here?" Nico motioned for the two girls.

They gathered their pieces up, carrying the book sized board with them.

Maki set the board down, arranging the pieces with some visual difficulty on her face.

"You wanted to ask me something?" Umi looked between me, Nico, and Eli.

"Ah, you go jogging sometimes, don't you?" I asked shyly, feeling a little warm in the face.

She nodded. "Every afternoon, after I get home, and on weekends."

"You do it in the afternoons? When?"

"From around 4:30 to 5:30, before I do homework. If we hang out after school, I usually save it for weekends."

Eli placed her hand on my arm. "What's he's trying to ask, is if you can tell him good places to run."

Umi looked intrigued. "Oh, you like running, too?"

"It's my personal favorite form of exercise, I think." I straightened my back up, feeling more confident in the conversation.

"Well, I think the thing he wanted to ask was-" Eli started

"Was that I wanna know if you any trails you usually go on." I finished, feeling a little rude after the fact.

"Oh, we all jog next to Nozomi's shrine." Maki said, entering the conversation.

"Oh yeah I guess that's right." Eli shrunk.

"Eli will show you where it is, won't you?" Umi said with a smile.

"Mmhmm. Maybe you'll see someone depending on the time of day." Eli smiled to me.

"There's a really large staircase seperating it from the road, too. Other than that we just do laps around the building." Maki twirled her hair on her finger.

"5 laps or so equal a mile, if I'm not mistaken." Umi added.

"I think it's 6." Nico said with a mouthful of food.

"Manners, Nico." Maki teased.

Nico responded a garbled sentence in a negative tone.

"So yeah-" Eli tugged my shirt sleeve "I'll show you where it is. It's a long way from where you and I live so you might have to take a train." She ended her sentence in a confused tone.

"Or you could walk there, but then again we don't know how far it is." Umi shifted her legs to rest comfortably.

"Well what's your address?" Maki asked, holding her phone.

Eli stammered "Hey now!"

I chuckled in response and opened my mouth to speak, but Eli covered my mouth. Taking the moment by stride I could smell her hand, it hinted of lotion.

"Just put mine in." Eli demanded.

Maki wore a goofy smile and did as told.

"Seems it's around 5 miles." Maki frowned.

"Just getting there would be all I'd need." I grumbled.

"Well that would work too, ya know." Umi couldn't get comfortable properly, and again moved her legs around.

"Well if you're gonna do that, I could go with you, couldn't I?" Eli sweetly asked.

"If you can keep up." I teased.

Nico's silence was broken by a laugh through her stuffed mouth, which almost made her choke.

"Manners." Maki repeated to Nico, in air quotations this time.

"H-Hey now I can keep up with you." Eli pouted, feeling a hit to her pride was done.

"No you can't, you never could when we were kids." I prodded her cheek, which she responded with an angry growl. Hopefully it wasn't serious.

"You meanie." She folded her arms, looking away from me.

"Now, now, you two." Umi said in a soft tone. "There's only one way to decide this, then." She continued.

"No, no more physical shenaniga-"

"Physical shenanigans!?" Rin hollered as her and Honoka entered the door. Maki stifled the rest of her sentence, having been interrupted.

"A-Ah, sorry." Eli whispered to me.

"It's fine." I replied.

"No, nothing! We aren't planning anything." Umi waved the two off.

Honoka pouted and trotted over to Kotori and Hanayo, still quietly keeping to themselves.

"So yeah, I'd like to see you try to keep up with me, Eli." I continued to tease her, waiting for her to do something rash.

"Hey, quit it. You're being mean." She blushed, hitting my arm.

"But really though, if you do wanna walk or jog with me, that's fine. We can't do it at night."

"You're really scared of me being out at night, aren't you?" Eli looked puzzled.

"Well yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I also was puzzled.

Eli blushed. "S-Stop it, you're being too sweet."

"You do know other people exist right now, right?" Maki jutted in our conversation.

"Sorry about that." I whined.

"It's fine, we should go get out lunch, anyway." Umi said, standing up.

Maki took a second gathering her thoughts and followed Umi to the large blanket laid down on the rooftop, where the other girls were.

"What about you, Nico?" I turned to the girl, looking content with an empty box sitting in front of her.

"Oh, do you want me to go?" She cocked her head.

"No, it's fine. I didn't know if you wanted to be with the other girls or not.

"Maki and Umi are gonna come back, anyway. No biggie." She shrugged.

"Have you eaten yet, Eli?" I turned to her.

"Oh, no, actually." She looked around her person to where she set her small box of food.

"I haven't either." I said as my stomach growled.

"Hey now, eat something." Eli whined a little.

Umi and Maki returned and our small group ate in relative comfortable silence for the rest of lunch.

"So weren't you supposed to be busy this afternoon?" Maki asked, walking down the hall to the clubroom.

"I wanted to um. Double check with everyone about what's gonna happen today."

"Huh? Are you getting nervous about it?" Maki rose her eyebrow.

"Well, no that's not really the reason why, I just..." Eli trailed off.

"What do you have to be afraid of?"

"What if I mess up or something."

Maki chuckled to herself. "Mess up what, exactly?" Maki opened the door to the clubroom as they approached it, letting Eli in first.

"Hey, what are you doing here." Nico said, before Eli could fully enter the room.

"I came to... To um..." Eli grew warm and fidgeted with her hands.

"Don't tell me you just left him out there." Umi sighed.

"No, I didn't!" Eli waved her hands in front of her, looking around the room to the other girls.

"I can see him at the front of the school, right now." Rin said, forcing a hole through the blinds with her fingers.

Honoka peered through the blinds as well, stamping her foot. "Eli! You gotta go!" She said, charging up and forcibly pushing her out the room.

Eli gripped the sides of the door way, whining in vain. "Wait I have a question, though!"

Honoka stopped, perching her chin on Eli's shoulder. "Hmm?"

Eli lost her train of thought and made a small croak.

"Eli don't be nervous about it." Kotori encouraged her from the far back of the room.

"He's coming into the school now." Rin whispered.

Eli spun around on her heel, forcing Honoka to take a step back. "He's what?"

"He's coming in, looking for you." Nico said, hands on her hips.

Eli nervously curled her ponytail on her finger.

"Eli, it'll be fine." Nozomi said, placing her hand on Eli's shoulder.

"But him and I are gonna be alone and stuff." Eli muttered.

"You two did that like. Wha- a couple of days ago, right?" Maki said, folding her arms.

"Well yeah but this time it's different!"

"Not really, Eli, you're getting worked up over nothing." Umi went to stand up.

"Well it is something, isn't it?" Kotori placed her hand on Umi's shoulder, bringing her back down.

"Yeah, Kotori does have a point." Hanayo quietly said.

Rin jogged across the room peering out the door, before waving heavily. "She's over here~!" She called out to someone down the hall.

A familiar male voice made Eli's heart drop. "Rin what are you doing!" Eli said in a forceful whisper, pulling the small girl back inside in an attempt to close the door.

I gripped the door before it could forcibly close.

"Hey, is something wrong with-" I opened the door back open, flinging a blonde girl holding the door handle towards me.

Eli lightly hit my chest and took a step back. The sudden physical contact with her was brief but enough to make my brain stutter for a few seconds.

"E-Edward." Eli started, breaking the pause.

"Is something wrong? I was waiting for you in front of the sch-"

"Nothing's wrong!" Eli blurted, her face turning pink.

I took a deep breath and gave her head a small shake. "Come on, alright?"

"Gimme a minute." Eli said through a breath, her shoulders sulking.

"Are you feeling alright." I said, beginning to worry if she wasn't feeling up to it.

"No, she's fine." Kotori said, making Umi chuckle to herself.

"I think you two will make it to the shrine before I do, so I don't think we'll be seeing each other afterwards." Nozomi took a seat at the table.

Eli picked her bag up and turned on her heel.

"Are you going now?" Nico huffed.

"You make it sound like we want her to leave." Maki added, a grin creased her face.

"Oh no, we wouldn't want anything like that." Nozomi continued.

"Hey, quit it you three." Eli whimpered.

"Don't worry, Eli, it'll be fine." I sighed.

"Yeah, he'll be there the whole time." Honoka said with a giddy smile.

"Yeah like what if you get robbed or something." Rin said, punching the air.

"We're not gonna get robbed!" Eli stamped her foot, hurrying out the room, brushing past me.

"Hey." Nico said, as Eli was a distance away from the clubroom. The other 7 girls turned to me in tandem with a rainbow of expressions.

"What." I responded, standing up straight.

"Take care of her." Nico said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Eli means a lot to us, you know." Kotori added.

"She means a lot to me, too." I took a deep breath and shut the door to the clubroom.