Chapter 04: Apparently, I'm Interesting to Look At ~ Miku

After I fill out my paperwork and talk to the principal - and apologize again and again for my tardiness - I drag along to homeroom, my first period, where I need turn in my sign-in sheet. After that the rest of the period is free for students to do whatever they please, though reading and doing the homework that was supposed to be finished the night before is heavily encouraged.

I'm about to enter the room when someone turns the sharp corner by the door and gives me a mini heart attack. "Eeeee!" The weird noise comes out of my mouth as I back away. The person stops and glares at me, giving me the chance to observe her.

She's tall. I mean really tall. This girl stands a head over me, and I'm 5'5. She's wearing a black shirt with wrist length sleeves and faded blue jeans, but her most interesting feature is her face. This girl's face is so white she appears almost ghostly, the dark shadow around her eyes adding to the creepy factor. Her raven hair is tied into a knot on the back of her head, and her eyes look like black pits.

For a moment I'm afraid she's going to snap at me for staring at her, but instead she says in a kind tone, "Be careful when entering and exiting this room, and be especially careful when turning the corner. This is a rather famous spot for students to literally run into each other." Without waiting for me to respond, the mysterious girl turns on her heel and enters the room. I gape after her a moment too long before I also enter.

Students buzz all over, chatting away with the latest school gossip and talking about what they did over the weekend. My heart sinks as I find no empty seats. Did the principal accidentally tell me to go to a class that has no room for any more students?

I'm about to assume so when I notice one of the dual desks by the wall only half occupied. Sitting in the chair closest to the window is a girl with damp blonde hair clipped out of her face. Unlike the other teens, she's not socializing but instead seems busy with the sheet in front of her. Her lips pucker and her brows furrow as she erases something off the paper. Taking a deep breath, I cautiously walk towards the girl, but I stop walking when I hear a loud whisper.

"What's that girl doing walking towards Hyper Piper?"

In that instant, I feel eyes land on me. They've all noticed me, but it's not me they're talking about. It's the girl I'm approaching.

"That hyperactive freak can't have friends, can she? Or at least others besides the weirdo Akita twin."

"No way. That girl's new."

"You're right: I've never seen her before. Think we should warn her?"

"The new girl is pretty; it'd be a shame if she associated with the wrong people right out of the gate."

The blonde girl freezes, knowing what's being said about her. I notice how, without moving her head, she looks at me from the corner of her eye. With her gaze back on her paper, the girl pretends that she didn't hear anything. However, by the way her pencil is hovering over the sheet as she wipes her eyes with the back at her hand, I can tell how badly the words hurt her.

Shifting my attention to the direction of the voices, I see a group of students staring at me. "Don't do it," one girl mouths while the boy besides her whispers, "Sit with us" despite there being no available seat. Anger swells within me. Can't they see how lonely this girl is? Why would they discredit her so easily? I look back towards the tiny girl, more determined than before to sit with her.

I resume crossing the room and stop in front of the half empty desk. From a distance the hoodie the girl's wearing looked white, but up close I see it's actually a very light blue with soaking wet shoulders thanks to the girl's damp hair. The blonde girl starts yanking on her hoodie strings in apparent frustration. Whatever she's doing, whatever she's occupying herself with in order to avoid everyone else, it's not going well.

"Ex-excuse me," I stutter, gaining the girl's attention. I'm frozen for a solid moment when the girl looks at me with her large cerulean eyes. She has the same eyes as the boy in the hall! The two of them must be siblings, but their resemblance is enough to throw me off before I remember the girl isn't the one I bumped into while slowing time. I point at the empty chair next to her, asking a question I already know the answer to. "Is anyone sitting here?"

The girl shakes her head. I notice her observing me as I sit down. Based on what the other students were saying, this girl is surprised I would even talk to her. Despite my choosing to sit with her, I try to ignore her stares, but her gaze is too strong to pretend it's not there. Carefully, I look over at her. She's still silent, but I see she's struggling to keep her mouth shut. "Why are you so quiet?" I ask. That was definitely the wrong thing to say.

"Because Len says I talk too much and too loud that it bothers people so I need to be quiet or else nobody's going to like me and I don't want to scare you away when it's so obvious you're new - I mean you have to be new or else I would have seen you before and here I am rambling for no apparent reason but I can't help it-" And then I lose track of what she's saying.

I managed to pick up a British accent when she started talking, a thick and heavy accent like the actress Kathryn Prescott. Only now it wouldn't matter if she spoke in an American accent or a Japanese one because she's talking too fast for me to comprehend what she's saying. She could be speaking Chinese for all I know.

Something I immediately notice is how this girl bounces when she talks, reminding of a chihuahua or any small dog that jumps when it barks. There's a lot of energy pent up in her tiny body, and it's waiting to break free. She's without a doubt more hyper than a five-year-old on a sugar rush. Now I understand what the other students were warning me about.

"Enough!" I say a little louder than intended as I place my right index finger over her lips, silencing the talkative blonde. Her eyes widen even more - quit a surprise since they're so large already - as she looks at me. "You need to slow down, Triple Shot," I say, and she arches an eyebrow at the unusual name. Can't say I blame her: Cul insists I always give the weirdest nicknames. "What did you do," I begin, "overdose on the sugar in your cereal and then gulp down your mama's coffee?"

"I don't like coffee," she mumbles under my finger. Her gaze drifts downward, and I know she's afraid that I'm going to make fun of her, too.

"Just slow down, okay," I say more calmly this time as I move my finger away from her lips. "You're talking so fast I don't understand what you're saying."

"Sorry." She continues to look at her lap, refusing to meet me in the eyes. "I get a little too excited and start speaking really fast. I can't always help it."

"It's okay." I smile at her, but she doesn't respond. "You're not as bad as me. When I get super nervous, I talk so fast I sound like a chipmunk."

"Really?" The girl begins to laugh, albeit a small one.

"Totally," I respond, and it's not a total lie. When I get nervous - especially when talking in front of large crowds - I unintentionally start slowing down time. Not enough for anyone to appear frozen in my point of view, but just enough where it sounds to them like I'm talking twice as fast as normal.

When the girl says nothing, I try, "Don't listen to those people: they're a bunch of idiots. I think being energetic is a great trait to have."

Finally the girl stops staring at her lap and looks at me. I smile to let her know I'm serious, and she smiles in return. Then her focus is returned to the sheet in front of her, as if she's afraid to say anything else to me.

"I'm Miku, by the way," I introduce myself, refusing to give up on her so easily.

"Rin," the girl returns. I still see how she's bursting with energy, but she seems to be restraining it the best she can. With her large cerulean eyes and bobbed blonde hair, she's without a doubt the cutest girl I've ever seen. She even radiates a childish personality, something I would say works in her favor. I think I'm going to like her, so screw what everyone else thinks.

"Nice to meet you, Rin," I say. I glance at the paper she had been working on and find it covered in problems. "Trouble in math." I don't even have to phrase it like a question.

"Is it that obvious?" Rin pouts. "I can't afford to not turn in another sheet. Because my stupid brother ruined my homework last week, Mr. Hiyama said that he will only overlook it if I get a perfect score on this worksheet. If not, I'll have detention after school."

I lean over and study the paper. "Hey, you're doing polynomials!" I exclaim.

"Failing is the better fitting word." Rin sighs in frustration.

"You just have your numbers backwards is all," I note as I point out her mistakes. "See? You need to multiply these two numbers first before multiplying the ones on the ends."

"That would make sense," Rin muses as I show her how to solve the problem.

"Once you understand what you're doing, this is actually really easy," I promise as I scan the rest of the sheet. I frown when I realize these problems are for Algebra 2 students, not Algebra 1 like I was expecting. She can't be a junior, can she? "Rin," I begin, "how old are you?"

"I just turned seventeen during Christmas break," she replies as she sharpens her dull pencil with a portable pencil sharper she dug out of her bag.

I snap my head her way and try to process the information. How is she older than me? She looks no more than fourteen!

"Well," she exhales as she puts away the sharpener, "I guess I had better accept the fact I suck at maths and am going to enjoy two lovely hours of detention."

"What are you talking about?" I grin. "There's no way you're going to be put in detention today." Seeing the quizzical look Rin's giving me, I add, "I'm going to help out with this evil assignment."

"Are you serious?" Rin asks in disbelief. First I willingly sit with her, and now I'm offering to help her with her homework - I wouldn't be surprised if Rin was questioning my motives.

"From what I understand, your task is to ace this homework," I answer, "but there doesn't seem to be a rule against getting outside information."

Rin's jaw is hanging slightly. I'm guessing no one offers to help her with her homework often, but she seems like such a sweet girl that I can't find any reason not to. "Oh, thank you, Miku!" Rin exclaims as she tackles me and wraps her arms around my waist. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cries into my shoulder as she keeps a strong hold on me.

"Not a hugger," I say, feeling my ribs crack under the extreme pressure. Rin's definitely a lot stronger than she looks. I notice that everyone in the room is staring at us, but it doesn't bother me. Seeing how Rin doesn't plan on letting go of me any time soon, I awkwardly pat her on the back. At least I've managed to make a new friend.

Psychology is my class after homeroom. After showing Rin my syllabus, she told me we had lunch period followed by free period at the same time, leaving us no official classes together. "You have two classes with my brother though," she says as her eyes scan the copy paper.

That's beautiful. Rin and that boy in the hall have to be siblings, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to believe Rin's talking about him. I'd feel better if he and I didn't share a class. What if he finds something about me familiar?

Rin doesn't tell me which classes I share with her brother, nor do I ask. Instead all I ask for is directions to the Psychology classroom. After I'm pointed in the right direction, I promise Rin I'll see her at lunch before I stalk down the now crowded halls.

I find the room with only slight difficulty. I introduce myself to the teacher, and he points out an available desk for me. It's in the second row and roughly set in the middle. Just my kind of spot.

The room has some students already seated while more flood in. Being an elective class and not mandatory, there is a wide age group of the students in the room. I see a black-haired girl who has to be a freshman talking to a green-haired boy about her age. The boy says something that leads the girl to place her face in her palms and shake her head.

Despite paying next to no attention to the students entering the class, I notice immediately when the blond boy I wanted to avoid walks into the room. Rin's brother, and the guy who may or may not have noticed me during my rush earlier. Stupid shoe coming untied.

I look away before he sees me, but even then I can still tell when he notices me. It feels like he's drilling holes in the back of my head. Crap, he definitely saw me. Can this get any worse?

Blondie sits in the desk next to mine.

Welp, spoke too soon.

Try as I might to ignore him, I cannot stand the pressure of his sharp and intense gaze. Geez, he and Rin both with the hard stares. Frustrated, I snap my head in his direction and stare right back at him. Though he doesn't flinch, he does blink in surprise, as if taken back by my will to look him in the eyes.

He and Rin appear so alike it's actually terrifying, but after a moment I notice that his jaw is more square while Rin's is round and his lashes aren't as long as hers. Besides these little features, they're as similar as fraternal twins can get. I have to admit, he's really cute. Hell, he's downright attractive, which I guess is the same as saying Rin's attractive.

For a solid minute, we study each other and take in the other's features. Rin said his name, didn't she? I go through everything she and I said to each other and pull up a single name. Len. Is this Len? I think so.

Finally, the boy smirks at me and asks, "Like what you see, sweetheart?" He sounds confident in himself, and like Rin, he has a thick British accent.

Putting on my best glare, I hiss, "I can say the same." He chuckles, but before he can get another word in, I spit, "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer." I immediately turn away after I get the words out. I want to come across as a normal girl being annoyed by the boy staring at her; no more, no less.

I look to my right to see a girl with beautiful long pink hair sitting in the desk next to mine. "I love your shirt," I smile, hoping if I talk to her the boy will leave me alone. Plus, it is a pretty shirt. Frilly, too.

"Thank you," she replies. "I made it myself."

"Really?" I ask in amazement. "When I was twelve I tried to make a dress for Halloween, but I ended up stabbing my poor fingers so much that to this day my mom still won't let me near the sowing needles again."

"It takes a lot of practice," the girl says. Something behind me catches her attention. "Uh," she begins, "you might want to turn around."

Doing just that, I turn right on time for the sound effect of a camera going off. The boy is holding is phone in front of me, and by his grin, I can tell he just got a good picture of my face. "What are you doing?" I demand.

"Taking a picture," he replies as he sets his phone away. "What? You invited the idea."

"I could report you," I state.

"Yes, you could," he admits. Then he smiles a knowing smile, a smile that says he knows something I don't want him to know. "You could," he repeats, "but you won't."

I feel a myself suck in a shaky breath against my will as an invisible force constricts my chest. He knows. He definitely freaking knows. This is not good.

"So, you new here?" he asks, but I don't bother to answer. I'm not in the mood to play mind games.

"Leave me alone, you prissy," I say, and it's to my luck the teacher begins calling roll.

My muscles tense so badly it feels as if they have been replaced with iron. I bite my lip so hard I taste blood. What have I done? I'm so deep in thought I almost miss the teacher calling my name.

"Hatsune, Miku."

"Oh." I raise my hand. "Present!"

Author's Note: Super sorry about the lack of update last week. Totally my (Raye's) fault.

- Raye and Kate

P.S. Thanks to the anon who pointed out I posted the wrong document!