Summer's Promise
Chapter 4: "I don't belong here."
When Luka arrived to school, she was still talked and whispered about whenever she passed by. Luka was still considered a new student that intrigued everyone, even the third-year high school students. Luka opened her shoe locker to find love letters even though it had only been her second day of school. Since she was a good person, Luka kept the letters in her bag for her to read later on and smiled in gratitude that she was accepted by the people around her.
"Good morning, Princess Luka!" the boys in Luka's class lined up in two rows and greeted her as she walked in.
"G-g-good m-m-morning, every—wait… 'P-p-princess?'"she asked, noticing the nickname they had given her.
A look of shame and annoyance, Miku walked in with Ia and Lily to see the uproar that the boys in their class were making.
"You are our princess, and we are your knights. We'll always be here to protect you from the other classes' boys. So, rest assure now, Princess!" the boys robotically said in synchrony.
Luka's face kept getting warmer and redder with all the attention she was getting, especially with all the glares she was getting from the other girls. Miku, Lily, and Ia noticed it right away because Luka started wobbling. Before they could do anything, Luka couldn't stand it any longer and lost her balance. Luckily, Miku and Ia were able to catch her before she fell to the ground, and Lily was able to grab ahold of Luka's bag.
"Luka-chan! Are you alright?" Miku concernedly asked.
"Princess!" the boys exclaimed when they saw Luka fall.
"I-I'm alright. I just r-really can't stand a lot of attention," Luka awkwardly smiled to reassure her friends.
"Morons!"an unknown voice echoed from the entrance.
When the boys heard the familiar voice, they felt a cold shiver down their spine. Not wanting to, although, the boys turned to look at who it was. Due to the fear the boys had in their minds, the person by the door looked scarier than how the others see her. To the boys, her hair was sizzling fire, and her eyes and mouth were yellow and glowing like a scary unknown creature hiding in the bushes at night. Her ahoge, to them, also looked like a murder weapon she could take off anytime.
"You're causing her trouble, aren't you?" the girl asked, her voice terrifying the boys.
All of the boys that were lined up for Luka started cowering when the girl slowly walked into the room. They also took steps back to get away from her.
"Sit down!" she roared.
"Yes ma'am!" the boys screamed as they all ran to their seats.
Luka was amazed at how the boys were easily tamed and bossed around by the girl that just came in. Miku, Lily, and Ia helped Luka properly stand up after watching the little show that their friend put up to save Luka from the boys' stupidities. With their friend's roar, the classroom also returned to its normality.
"You must be the transfer student," the girl smiled as she walked towards Luka.
"Oh! Umm, y-yes," Luka answered in panic, scared that the girl was going to roar at her, too.
"Wow. She's actually really pretty," Luka thought, wondering why the boys thought she looked like a scary monster.
Miki had long, red hair, and her eyes' color was similar to her hair's. She was a little shorter than Luka and was about the same height as Miku. She also wore a large headphone with a star on each ear pad's housing around her neck.
"I'm Miki Koudo. I wasn't here yesterday, so I didn't get to meet you, but these three couldn't stop talking about you in our conversation on the phone last night," the girl named Miki giggled, embarrassing Miku, Ia, and Lily.
"I-I'm Luka M-Megurine! N-n-nice t-to meet you!" Luka said out loud in nervousness.
"No need to panic, Luka-chan. Miki only turns into a monster when the boys in our class become idiots," Ia comforted.
"That's right…wait—hey! I don't turn into a monster!" Miki countered.
"Yes, you do," all the boys backed up Ia's statement, only to get a terrifying glare from Miki.
Miki and Ia started arguing playfully while Lily and Miku held them back away from each other. Luka was amazed at how well the four of them got along, and before she knew it, she was laughing at the four's ranting. The four of them stopped to see and hear Luka laugh out loud for the first time. They haven't been together with her for a long time, but they thought she was never going to get comfortable enough with them because of her shy nature. Seeing Luka laugh was an eye candy not only to the four of them, but to everyone in their class.
When Luka noticed that the whole room got quiet, she stopped laughing right away and hid her face with her satchel.
"I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to laugh so loudly," Luka shyly said with her blushing face.
The whole class was quiet at first, but after a few moments, they all started admiring Luka's adorable laughter and how she looked so carefree.
"I look forward to a great year with you, Megurine-san. You can just call me 'Miki,'" the red-haired girl said as she grabbed Luka's hand and shook it.
"T-then you can just call me 'Luka,' Miki-chan," Luka replied with a relieved smile on her face.
Just then, the bell rang and everyone headed to their seats. Meiko came in time, for the first time. However, she had a tired and grumpy face on in the beginning of class, which was also a first since she usually teases her students when she took attendance.
"Everybody's here? Ok, good," she said without even carefully looking.
Everyone in the class could already tell that their teacher, Meiko, was in a bad mood. However, they couldn't really tell why. Meiko took out the things she needed from her bag as the class quietly tried to figure out what was wrong with her. When they all whispered around and asked each other what they think the reason is for Meiko's grogginess, nobody was close to the right answer, except for Lily's guess.
"She's probably stressed about today's class fusion," Lily whispered to Ia.
"Fusion?" Ia asked, confused.
"Yeah. You know how we have to combine with another class for the school festival? That's probably why Meiko-sensei's really groggy today," Lily remembered.
Before they could even confirm and ask Meiko if Lily's guess was right, a knock on the door echoed in their classroom. Meiko slowly and creepily turned her head to the door, her eyes widened in fright.
"Sakine-sensei," a man's voice came from the door.
Meiko heavily and roughly sighed as her head dropped down in despair.
"Come in," she unwillingly replied, having no choice but to do so.
The whole class watched as the sliding door moved to the side. They could only see bright light, until a tall man with eyeglasses walked in with some of his students.
"Are we ready for the class discussion?" the man kindly asked.
Meiko loudly sighed once again after giving the man that walked in a why-are-you-even-here look. She groggily turned to her class and sighed once again while peeking at the man with the eyeglasses to see if he reacted. Lily immediately took note of Meiko's actions and realized that Meiko was referring to the man with the eyeglasses when she disgustedly said 'that teacher' yesterday.
"Okay, everyone. For our school festival, we're working with Hiyama-sensei's class. Today, we're brainstorming our final ideas so we can start working on it. Let's all get along, okay?" Meiko said, her voice unfriendly and tired.
The male teacher took over Meiko as she gave room for him in front of the class. The students that he brought along with him stayed by the door, however.
"Okay, everyone. I am Kiyoteru Hiyama and I teach history in other classes, except for this class because you have Sakine-sensei to teach you that," Kiyoteru introduced himself, even giving Meiko a friendly smile when he talked about her.
"I hope we'll all get along with each other to have the best school festival program in the first-year students division and win first place," he bowed.
Meiko's students were hyped with the thought of winning first place for their school festival. Meiko gave instructions to her students to make room for Kiyoteru's class. They all got up and started lifting their desks to make more space. As soon as the classroom was ready, Kiyoteru called his other students, who were left outside to wait.
Most of the people in Luka's class were excited and glad to see the students from the other class because most of them were have been friends with each other for a long time. Luka was actually more anxious than excited because she knew that she'd have to meet more new people. Noticing Luka's nervousness, Miku placed a supporting hand on Luka's shoulder and gave her a comforting smile. Luka felt assured to have Miku with her despite all the murmurs of excitement that filled the room.
Suddenly, all of Luka's classmates started getting louder as the last three people from Kiyoteru's class entered the room. Luka didn't know what was going on, and she didn't want to ask why everyone was making such a big fuss over the last three people that came in. The only thing she could do was observe and listen to what they were saying.
"Kamui-san looks so dreamy today."
"Nakajima-san's so cute! She'll be my girlfriend one day."
"We're so lucky we'd get to work with Shion-kun."
Luka felt lost and confused on who was who. After finally gathering her courage, she decided to ask Miku on who the three people were. However, Luka noticed Miku staring at the boy with the blue hair, who was also looking back at her. They both had looks in their eyes that Luka had seen in romantic movies in the States before. Miku's eyes were shimmering and she had a gentle smile on her face. The boy was also smiling back at her while he nervously scratched the back of his head.
Since Luka paid more attention to her classmates' murmurs, she didn't notice that Kiyoteru had already given instructions for all of them to begin discussing things with each other. Everyone got up and reunited with the people they knew except for Luka, who didn't know anyone from Kiyoteru's class. She looked around to try and find her friends, but all she found was a crowded group of girls surrounding a guy with purple hair and the boy that still stared at Miku, a crowd of boys surrounding a girl with green hair, and smaller groups that wanted to socialize than to flirt and try to impress the three surrounded students.
Luka felt alone and out of place in the sea of students in her new classroom. Her eyebrows slanted in sadness as she remembered what happened to her last night. Before Luka could even start thinking of excuses so she could get out of the classroom, her stomach began grumbling, startling Luka. Sighing, Luka got up to ask permission from Meiko if she could go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, Meiko looked as if she was lecturing Kiyoteru, who just smiled and laughed at the groggy teacher.
"Even Sakine-sensei's getting along with Hiyama-sensei," Luka thought.
Quietly, she made her way to the back of the room to exit through the back door. Since everyone was busy socializing, nobody noticed that the lonely pink-haired girl left the classroom. Without Luka's knowing, someone noticed that she had gone out of the room and secretly followed her.
After closing the sliding door, Luka turned to the left and right of the long hallway to try and figure out where the bathroom was. The tired girl gave up and just walked to the left with hopes that the bathroom was that way.
"What am I doing? I don't even know where the bathroom is," Luka said in her head, slowly walking away from her classroom.
"I knew it. I don't belong here," she sadly told herself.
Meanwhile in the classroom, just a few moments after Luka left, Miku noticed that her new friend was nowhere in the classroom. Not wanting to ask one by one, the teal-haired girl raised her hand up to catch Meiko and Kiyoteru's attentions.
"Sensei, have you seen Luka-chan?" Miku worriedly asked, also catching everyone's attention.
"Huh?" Meiko irresponsibly replied, still dazed and frustrated.
"Kamui-kun's not here, either," one of Kiyoteru's students also noticed.
"Oh, who cares where he is?" Meiko commented, irritated.
Ia figured out that Meiko referred to the famous Kamui when she said 'that guy' yesterday during their school festival discussion. However, Ia didn't understand why Meiko didn't like the famous boy from Kiyoteru's class.
Just after their noticing the two's disappearance, they heard an exclamation from outside the room. They all hurried out to check who it was, some of them walking out of the classroom and some of them peeking from the doors.
"Gakupo!" the girl with the green hair from Kiyoteru's class called out when she turned to her left to find her classmate.
The boy with the purple hair named Gakupo faced his classmates and showed them Luka, unconscious in his arms.
"Help!" Gakupo called.
Author's note:
ahoge- literally foolish hair; hair that sticks out from the top of the head (see Izumi Konata of Lucky Star for an example)
Hello, minna-san! Mayumi Selnia here again! :D Well, here's more explanations that may answer your curiosity and questions from the things you noticed (if you had any). First off, for Miki's last name, I didn't want to use her voice provider's last name because they'd end up becoming the same person (Miki's voice provider is named Miki Furukawa, so if I give Miki, the Vocaloid, 'Furukawa' as her last name, then she'd be a real person). So, I just used the Japanese form of 'code' from her actual name (SF-A2 development code miki), which is koudo (Tadah! Miki Koudo! xD) Next, I know you all probably already know who the green-haired girl from Kiyoteru's class is, so I'd just explain her last name now. Since I didn't really want to use 'Megpoid' as Gumi's last name (admit it, it doesn't sound like it could be a last name in Japan), so I just used her voice provider's last name, which is Nakajima (Megumi Nakajima). That's all. So, now that you know that Meiko was referring to Gakupo when she said 'that guy' and Kiyoteru when she said 'that teacher' from last chapter, why do you think she has...hmm...negative feelings (?) towards them? If you're also wondering why I'm asking these questions...well...I, too, don't know. I mean, come on, everyone enjoys little fun quizzes. (: So leave your answers/guesses with your reviews. Tune in for the next chapters. Don't forget to review! :D -Mayumi Selnia