Author's note: Hi everyone! Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. This chapter may not seem so great, I'm going to just let things flow, I have no real goal for this chapter unlike the previous three where I knew where I wanted it to end.
If you haven't noticed, all of the chapters have so far ended in "Just there". I basically think of an ending sentence for a chapter, and then I start to type up the rest of the story, but this one didn't come to me. So... We'll see how it goes. x]
I apologize for how 'slow' this is going, but like I've said before, I'm trying to make this realistic. However, later chapters won't be as slow progressing as these past few have been, I promise. It's just the first day and I want to introduce everyone.
Fantasyguardian: Thanks so much for the review, it means a lot that you take interest in the way I write. I always think I could do better. And YES, they do end up together, just have faith and try not to hate Mimi's guts in the end. Even though Matt and Mimi are together, Sora and Matt are best friends, and well, there will be Sorato scenes, but light, because I don't want Matt to be a cheater.
KoumiLoccness: Yes, I'm going to use Koushiro's English name. If you haven't noticed, I've been using everyone's English name. I've stated several times that it will end in Sorato. It may or may not end with a Koumi, but who knows. And I would appreciate it if you would try to not be rude in your reviews, it makes me want to not make it end with Koumi just to spite you.
Disclaimer: Heard it before? Probably don't own it.
Chapter 4: Photographs.
As the four friends continued to laugh, three other boys approached the group, each with trays in their hands. Apparently, they decided to buy their own lunches in the cafeteria. Wrong move, today's special was the Sloppy Joe's. One, Sora had obviously recognized. She waved her right hand in the air, greeting the three boys, "Hey Tai!" Sora's eyes looked down at the shorter two boys, one shorter than the other. In curiosity, the redhead's head tilted to the right just slightly. Tai laughed and waved back, balancing his tray of food with one hand. As the three neared the other four, Tai began to introduce his companions. "Hey, Sora. Oh, this is Davis. He's a freshman." Sora recognized the shorter boy. His hair was shorter, but had an odd similarity to Tai's and he was also wearing the goggles that reminded her of Tai's. "And this is Cody." The shortest boy gave a courteous bow at his introduction. "Hello, nice to meet you." Sora smiled at how polite the younger one was and nodded back at him, "Nice to meet you too, Cody, Davis. I'm Sora, obviously." All three of them joined the circle.
Tai sat down and placed his tray in his lap, rubbing his hands together. He looked around the circle with a grin on his face. "So, what does everyone have today?" Kari took out her own lunch-pail and took out a container, opening it to reveal some sushi. "I have eel!" Davis tried his best to hide a face of disgust, he absolutely hated fish, well all kinds of seafood for that matter, but since it was Kari, "Oh, can I try some?" TK took a bite of his Peanut butter sandwich and raised a brow at the boy on the other side of Kari, "Davis, I thought you didn't like sushi." Kari laughed as Davis shrunk back a bit. Sora opened her own lunch container and took a whiff of her mother's cooking. "Mmm. I have home made fried rice with chicken katsu!" Both Davis and Tai's mouths were watering upon inhaling the delicious scent. Cody, TK, and Matt only laughed. Matt took out some cold pizza and a can of Root Beer from his brown bag. "Oh, yum. Left overs." TK laughed, "Dad working overtime again?" The older brother nodded, "Yup. And I woke up too late to cook something up." TK nodded and gobbled down the rest of his sandwich.
Cody stared down at his food. He really didn't like Sloppy Joe's, especially because it wasn't a balanced meal: there were no vegetables; nevertheless, he took a bite. Kari smiled over at the shorter boy, tipping her tupperware to him, "Would you like some, Cody? There are carrots too!" Cody smiled and happily took one piece of sushi and a couple carrots, nodding his head. "Thank you, Kari." Kari only smiled back and nodded her head, "Yup! No problem, Cody."
Matt nibbled silently at the cold combo pizza, Tai and Davis sloppily ate their messy burgers, and Kari and Sora ain't daintily at their own lunches. It was then Kari noticed a two people who had her next class with her missing. "Anyone know where Ken and Yolei are?" Cody finished the last of his Sloppy Joe, reluctantly, and pointed over at the computer labs' direction with his fork. "Working on something for Computer club." Kari's lips formed an 'o' as she nodded.
Matt opened his soda can with a refreshing 'pop', to it, startling both Kari and Sora. Finishing up her last bite, Sora looked over to the group in front of her. "So, what class do you guys have?" Davis immediately piped up, a huge grin on his face. "Kari and I have poetry next! Don't you think poems are romantic, huh Kari?" With a roll of her eyes, Kari laughed, ignoring Davis' question. "And so does TK and Cody." TK couldn't help but point at laugh when Davis' face fell upon Kari's rejection. He then remembered, "Oh! So does Matt! What about you Sora?" Sora's head looked over to Matt, smiling. "Same, actually. I bet that class will be easy for you. After all, you do write your own songs. You must have a lot of creativity in that blonde head of yours." Matt shrugged, finishing the last drop of the soda. "Yeah, I guess." Tai placed his tray in front of him in the circle, on top of Davis'. "Well, while you guys are having fun in Poetry class, I'll be having so much fun in Music Theory." Kari laughed, shaking her head. "Oh boy. Whoever put you in the class obviously didn't know you're absolutely tone deaf." Tai leaned back, his elbows behind him to support his weight. "Right? That's what I said."
Matt looked over at Sora, sitting beside him and handed her his empty soda can. Sora blinked and took the can with a smile on her lips. "Awh, Matt. I can't believe you remembered." She carefully took the can's tab, bending it back and forth as she recited the alphabet in her head. As Matt watched her do this, he shrugged his shoulders with a slight grin. "How could I forget?" In his head, he too was reciting the alphabet, mentally saying each letter with each bend of the tab. Finally, the tab broke off, but Matt shook his head, it wasn't nearly long enough. Sora looked at the now broken off Tab, thinking out loud. "Hmmm. N?" Kari's eyes lit up at the letter, "Oh! Nate from back in California!" Kari remembered very well about the boy Sora had told her over the internet one night. Sora's eyes bulged out, shaking her head furiously. "Oh god, not him."
Davis raised a brow, confused. "What's all that about?" TK gathered all his trash, and Matt's into his brown bag, making it easier for him to throw away, then looked up to Davis. "Back when we were younger, all the girls had this weird... game thing. You basically bend the tab of the soda pop can and recite the alphabet with every bend. The letter it breaks off at is the the starting letter of the person you'll marry in the future's name." Davis immediately leaned toward Kari, "So Kari, you ever get D before, huh?" Kari shook her head, putting a finger to her chin as she thought. "Nope, don't think I have anyway." Davis leaned a bit too far and fell on his face. The rest of them laughed.
The bell rang, and they all gathered their things. They had about ten minutes to get to class. Tai had to go, his class was all the way on the other side of the campus. TK and Davis decided to go ahead, Cody and Kari stopped by their lockers, and so did Matt and Sora. Dropping off her lunch-pail in her locker, she sauntered over to Matt's locker, who grabbed a black tattered notebook from inside and stuffed it into his brief case. Sora raised a brow. "Hmm. Couldn't afford a new one?" The two began to walk each other to their next class as Matt laughed, shaking his head. "Nah. It's my song journal, you know?" Sora blinked and nodded, turning the corner with him and entering the second door to the right. The way the class room was set up reminded her a little bit of first grade. The desks were placed in a huge circle within the class room, and at the head of the room and one point at the circle was a wooden chair that sat a little elderly lady with gray hair put up in a bun held up by a few bobby pins and a flower. She turned her head to the children that just filed into the room and held her hand out towards the circle of desks, "Please, take any seat you would like." Many girls rushed to find seats, and the boys filled in the seats as well. A few girls hollered over at the blonde rockstar, "Matt, Matt! Sit next to me, please oh please!" While boys either rolled their eyes or lifted the hands to point at a chair beside them, "Nah, bro! Sit over here." Those kind of boys only wanted his friendship if it brought them girls. The only seat far enough from all those kinds of people was the center, and that meant that he'd have to pay attention in the class, especially since the old lady would be looking at him directly. With a shrug of his shoulders, the boy decided to take on the center seat. It wouldn't be too bad, especially since this was probably one of two classes he'd actually enjoy.
This left Sora at the head of the class room, wondering where to sit. She didn't want to assume that she'd be able to sit next to Matt, for all she knew, he was already annoyed with her by now. But the call of her name from her best friend's voice said otherwise, "Sora. Where are you going?" Her head whipped around to see Matt sitting down, patting the desk beside him twice. She headed over to the seat and sat down, placing her briefcase on the desk. TK, Kari, Davis, and Cody sat on the other side of Matt in that order. Davis wanted to sit next to Kari, complaining about how she always sat next to TK. TK stayed quiet, letting Davis cause the scene by himself while Cody resolved the problem, suggesting Kari should sit in the middle. Sora leaned over to Matt, whispering over to him, "Is he always like that?"
Before Matt could answer, two juniors, sophomores, by the look of their uniforms, were able to make it to class, filling in the last two seats between Sora and some other girl with black long hair. "Sorry we're late! Computer Club ran a bit long." Yolei took the seat next to Ken who took the seat next to Sora. The violet haired girl blinked, noticing a new face. "Oh, you must be Sora! I'm Yolei!" The girl gave an enthusiastic wave and Ken nodded, "And I'm Ken. I think we gave you directions earlier to the Mr. Sever's first period?" Sora smiled and nodded, remembering. "Oh yeah! Haha, well, nice to have formally met you two!" Yolei laughed and nodded twice, a huge smile on her face. "Yup! Likewise!"
The old lady went towards the board, writing her name rather low on the white board with a dry erase marker, considering her height. "Hello, everyone. I am Mrs. Hanuki." Turning back around, she took her seat back at the circle, smiling as her old worn eyes from behind thick glasses scanned each and everyone's face. "I was informed of a new student that would be joining us. Sora, which one of you lads is this young lady?" Sora raised her hand with a small smile on her face. "That would be me, Mrs. Hanuki." Mrs. Hanuki smiled back and nodded. "Well don't be shy now, honey. Tell us about yourself."
Sora stood up, biting on her lower lip. She hated doing this, she never knew what to say. "Well uh..." A few snide loud whispers from near by girls caught her friends' attention, "God, she must be dull. And her Japanese pronunciation sounds so..." Before the girl could finish, Matt rolled his eyes and TK cleared his throat. "This is Sora. She's originally from Japan," he paused and let Kari handle the last bit, "But moved to North America when she was twelve. She's back now and is a senior, if you people were too dumb to notice." Many of the girls shut up, it was such a privilege in the school to go to North America. "She plays tennis, her favorite color is blue. She only sings when no one's around to listen." Sora laughed, surprised Kari remembered all their conversations over AOL instant messenger. A couple of chuckles were heard from a group of boys on her left. One boy in particular raised his hand, "Hey, are you a natural ginger?" About to speak, Sora was caught off by Matt's voice, "Yeah, she is." She looked back to see a glare fixed on his expression, she wondered why, but had no time to verbally question it. "I grew up with her, and I don't think five year olds dye their hair." He added that last bit to his sentence before anyone could even start to think of the rumor to spread.
Another boy from the opposite side of the room raised a brow at Matt. "I thought you and Mimi went on dates to touch up your roots." Sora raised a brow, crossing her arms over her chest, "Oh, really? Do you want me to call my salon, I think it's time for your touch up." The boy shrunk back in his seat, trying to cover the brown roots peeping through dyed blonde hair. Most of the class erupted in laughter, including old little Mrs. Hanuki. "Now, class. This is poetry, and there will be plenty of time to insult others, anonymously of course." She stood up, slowly making her way to the desk behind her and taking a stack of papers, handing half to one side of the circle, the other half to the other side. "Your first assignment is to write two poems about or directed to two different people. Now remember, students, poems don't have to rhyme, and sometimes, you could say, they don't even have to make sense to other people. This is your creation, there are no wrong ways to free verse." Each student took a paper with their prompt and passed the rest of the stack onward.
When Sora received the last one from her side, her ruby eyes skimmed over the paper. She read it out loud, "Think of the first two people, or group of people that come to your mind. How do you feel about them? If they died tomorrow, what would you want to say to them?" Davis raised a brow and scoffed. "This is a little depressing, don't you think?" Kari shook her head and placed the piece of paper into her green and blue binder. "No, not at all. I think it's wonderful actually. It's anonymous, unless you don't want it to be, so you can kind of just vent, you know?" TK nodded in agreement. "Exactly why I took this class. Izzy said it was one of his favorite classes and recommended it to me." Cody also chimed in with agreement, "Yeah, he told me that, too! I thought it would be an awesome alternative to releasing stress by kendo, it's a lot less violent."
Davis shook his head and laughed, "Well, you know Kari, I guess you're right! Wow, I never though of it that way. Maybe we can write our poems about our crushes!" Yolei rolled her eyes, adding in her own two cents. "Yeah, and maybe I can write my poem about the horrible attempts at impressing a girl can make in one day." Ken couldn't help but laugh beside her. "Knowing Davis, he'll probably write about soccor." Davis frowned, a bit offended, "Hey man. I think about more things than soccer!" Sora laughed, then looked to her right to Matt. "What do you think you'll write about?" Matt bit on his lip, then sighed, looking over the paper before placing it into his briefcase. "A friend, maybe TK. Maybe my mom."
"And Mimi?" Sora gave a small smile. Though there was an apparent smile on her lips, her eyes weren't smiling with them, they didn't match: they lacked luster in them. She couldn't explain why it was so. She was happy that Mimi's childhood crush had become her boyfriend, but something pulled at the strings of her heart again, like it had done so before.
Matt hesitantly nodding. "Well, of course." Actually, the thought of her didn't cross his mind. He had to admit, in the beginning of their relationship, he was all for it. Maybe it was because it meant that one of his close friends wouldn't be leaving for the states. But it seemed that now, things weren't exactly the same. Don't get him wrong or anything, he absolutely loved hanging out with the girl, but things were just different. Or maybe, they never even changed.
The rest of the class was used to get to know each other better. Yolei and Ken were obviously sophomores. The top two in their class actually. Ken was the smarter one, but Yolei wasn't far behind. They took many classes that were advanced for their grade level and Sora was correct in guessing that the two of them were a couple. They just weren't as affectionate as the others. Sora discovered that Davis was Tai's mini-me. He had that leader-like personality and was a part of the Varsity soccer team, shocked? Sora was, he was the only freshman on the team. Ken was the only sophomore. TK was following in his big brother's footsteps. Well, not the whole leader of the band type of thing, but more like many girls seemed to adore him. Kari indeed traded her whistle in for a camera. She was a huge photography junkie now. She promised one day, she'd bring Sora over to show her all the pictures the had on her bedroom wall. Kari also brought pictures from home for Photography class, but that was for later. Sora learned that Cody was half chinese. His dad was in the police force, but passed away while on duty. He lived with his mom and grandfather who taught kendo and was the one who was teaching Cody himself.
The bell rang, each of them grabbing their belongings and exiting out of the back door, but not before saying a goodbye to the lovely little Mrs. Hanuki. Sora waited outside for Kari, and when the younger girl stepped out of the classroom, Sora smiled, approaching her, "Hey, uh.. Kari, Tai said tha-" Kari interrupted her long time friend and took her by the arm. "No worries, Sor. Tai told me we had Photography together. So does TK, Ken, Cody, and Matt and Mimi." They went across the hall to enter a large room with three seats and Mac computers at each table. At the desk in the front was a young man with black shaggy hair. On the bridge of his nose were wide square black framed glasses, around his neck a DSLR camera. He wore a green sweater vest, a white dress shirt underneath and some khaki pants. Sora raised her left brow. "Wow... What a hipster." Kari looked back, a quizzical expression on her face. "A what?" Sora laughed and shook her head, "Nevermind." Kari shrugged her shoulders and went took a seat next to TK in the middle of the class room. At the table to the right of them sat Cody and Ken. Sora took a seat at the table behind Kari and TK, waiting for whoever to join her table. She sat at the left end and placed her briefcase behind her chair.
As she waited, her thoughts began to wander: mainly focused on the poetry assignment. Who would she write about? Maybe her mother, or what about her dad? Mrs. Hanuki said that they could direct it to a group of people, she might elaborate on that one. "Sora!" Mimi came up to the table and hugged the girl tightly. Her strawberry blonde hair was now tied up in a ponytail. Sora gave a laugh and hugged Mimi back, the scent of flour reaching her nostrils. "Cooking class?" Mimi nodded and placed her hands on her hips. "Yup! Bet you didn't know I had it in me, eh?" Sora shook her head, trying not to laugh. "In all honesty, I didn't." The girl standing pouted, then took her seat at the other end of the table, "Well jeez. I'm hurt." Matt came from the door and looked around, trying to find a seat. He soon saw his girlfriend's waving arms in the air, "Baby! Over here. Come sit with me and Sora."
Matt sighed and put on a half smile, making his way to the back of the class room to pull out the chair between his friend and girlfriend. He sat down, placing his briefcase on the table on top of the computer's keyboard. The first two days for him were always draining, especially since these classes seemed to go on forever. The bell rang and the man at the front desk raised his hand, his voice loud to try and catch everyone's attention. "Hey, listen up. Welcome to Photography class. I'm Mr. Hunt. We have a new student, Sora Takenouchi." At this, Sora waved her hand. Mr. Hunt laughed and then continued on, "So, I'm going to assume that Sora is way too tired to introduce herself again for at least her third class today, so I'm going to go right on with it." He stepped around his desk to lean on it from the front. "I'm going to trust at least some of you brought pictures from families albums of some sort, yes?" A couple people groaned, others got their shoe boxes or photo albums. "Alright great. I'll be going around to see what kind of photos you guys take. Today's more of a reminiscing class." Kari grinned and took out her shoe box full of photos. "Hey guys, look what I brought!"
Her group of friends gathered around the table she sat at, the third person at the table abandoning them to join another for the time being. She dumped the photos on the table, letting everyone shift through them. Cody picked out a particular one. It was of a small girl in yellow pajamas and a slightly older looking boy balancing a soccer ball on his head. In the girl's lap was a brown and white cat. "You and Tai?" Ken looked over Cody's shoulder at the picture. "Devoted little boy to soccer, wasn't he?" Kari laughed and shook her head, "You have no idea. Look, they all were." The brunette girl took a picture from a pile and placed it on top for everyone to look. She pointed at each little figure in the picture. "Tai. Matt. And Sora." Sora was in at the right end of the photo, passing the black and white ball to Matt and Tai was trying to steal the pass. Cody raised a brow. "Where are Mimi, Cody, and Joe?" Ken nodded, then added in, "And you and TK?" Mimi laughed and rolled her eyes. "Really, you think I'd play and get my clothes dirty? Hmmm" She paused and took a pile of photos, trying to find a picture of herself. Once she did, she placed it on the table. "That's me with Joe and Izzy." Ken laughed and pointed at the mini-Izzy. "Wow! He really is a die hard computer nerd!" Kari noddded, laughing. "And there's Mimi wearing pink everything. And Joe with the first aid kit." TK laughed and pointed at a photo that was put to the side. It was of him and Kari chasing a bird. "Do you remember that, Kari?" Kari's laughter grew louder as she grabbed her sides, tears threatening to fall. "Oh jeez, TK! We got so mad that thing made us drop our ice cream!" TK shook his head, "Not even! You dropped your ice cream then the thing started to peck at your head and you were running around like a crazy person and knocked my ice cream over! I got mad and chased you while you chased the bird!"
They all joined in on their laughter and Sora couldn't help but notice another photo. She pointed at a particular photo taken a week before she had left. It was at Matt's birthday. The young matt's face was covered with cake and so were Sora's hands and hat. "Oh, wow. I remember that party!" Mimi pouted and frowned, her hands going up to her hair. "I do too! You guys got it all over the place, it even got in my hair!" Kari laughed, so did TK. "And then put the cake on Tai's seat and he sat on it!" Matt groaned, "Yeah, and I wanted some of that cake too! It was ice cream..."
The class ended and the only ones left in the room were Kari, Matt, TK, Sora, and Mimi. Ken had to go work on computer club again with Yolei and Izzy and Cody and kendo practice. TK helped gather the pictures into Kari's shoe box. "Kari, I'll walk you home." Kari smiled and shook her head. "I've got cheer leading try-outs, today, TK." TK laughed and scratched at the back of his neck. "Oh, I forgot." Kari took the box TK handed to her and smiled, "But you could always come watch." TK nodded and they walked out of the class room. "Oh, alright. Why not?"
Mimi couldn't help but giggle, then leaned up to kiss the blonde boy on his cheek. "I've got to go, babe. Mom made us an appointment to get our nails done!" Matt nodded and slowly let go of Mimi's hand as she exited the class room too. He then looked over at Sora, the only once else in the room other than himself. "Well, I'll walk you home." Sora raised a brow, placing her chair back at it's original table. "Don't you have important Mr. Student Body President things to do? Or.. band practice?" Ishida shook his head, reaching his hand out to her. "Nah. It's only the first day. Meetings are every Monday starting the second month of school. And band's at six. I'll walk you home." Sora hesitantly took his hand after just looking at it as she contemplated her decision "Mm, alright." They walked out of the room together, stopping by their lockers to retrieve their belongings needed to be taken home.
Exiting the school building together, they walked down the street, making plans with each other. "Hey, remember, Matt. You promised you'd let me hear one of your songs." Matt laughed and rolled his eyes. "I know I know. But hey, we should just hang out. Catch up on lost times. I missed you." Sora smiled. She liked the idea of spending time with Matt very much. "Awh, Matt. I've missed you, too." Matt looked over across the field, staring out at the place they had said their final goodbyes. Sora leaned her weight against him, sighing. "Seems like yesterday, yeah?" Matt nodded, wrapping his arm around his best friend's arms. "I wish it was."
They stood there like that, watching the little dots on the field kick a smaller black speck across the green grass. They reminisced, looking at what seemed to be a glimpse of the past.
Just there.
Author's Note: And there you have it! Now, for the poetry assignment. Only Sora, Matt, TK, and Kari will be reciting their poems. This will not happen in the next chapter, however I've already written these poems today during the last bit of time I had during my Physics final. Haha. I have three poem's for Matt. I for sure want a poem about Sora in there. But the other poem is up to you. You guys can choose between Mimi or TK. I really like the one I wrote for TK, but Mimi's kind of matches and is a great contrasts to Sora's poem. So, please tell me which you'd like in you're review! Thank you! Oh, and sorry for the errors, I just really want to get this one out, I've been kind of neglecting even writing this.
Like always, please review! Criticism is appreciated!