Chapter Seven: The New Student
"Have you seen the new kid?"
"I heard he came over from Japan!"
"Do you think he's cute?"
"Oh definitely!"
This was the only thing you could hear being talked about throughout the school. It was a subject that dominated any girl's bathroom or locker room. Barely anyone has seen the new student, yet the rumor of a hot, new, Japanese guy being here spread through the school like wild fire. He was the most popular person within the school and was nameless, even faceless.
Well, to the rest of the student population anyway. I, on the other hand, had info on him. His name was Takeru Takaishi, T.K. for short. From the vague description I got from Mimi he was said to be tall, blonde, and has blue eyes. Otherwise, I was basically on my own in finding him, which could be a problem. This was a relatively large school with countless, nameless faces.
"Erika, ya comin'?"
"Be there in a min." I replied as I forced some books into my tiny locker.
It was turning out to be a long morning. It didn't help matters that I stayed up extra late studying for a test in math, which I think I failed anyway. The only thing that seemed to keep me from falling asleep in class was that I wanted to keep an eye open for Mimi's friend. The guy must be feeling pretty inadequate moving halfway across the globe and entering a school without knowing a soul. Hell, he might not even know the English language well enough to hold up a conversation. Although, that was doubtful since the Japanese are well known for their academic achievements.
The late bell rang and I just barely made it into Mr. Barry's History class. He gave me a stern look down his straight nose as I slid into the seat next to the door. He then commenced writing on the white board. I grimaced as I took out my fifty pound History book (literally, I weighed it at home the first day we got it). I was not on very good terms with most of my teachers at the moment since I kind of neglected most of my school work due to the Spring musical. Thankfully that was over now. Hopefully, I'll be able to rise the grades before the end of this term.
"Now, who can cover what we went over in class on Monday?" Mr. Barry asked placing the blue cap on his marker, turning to face the 30 or more of us in the class.
Like a shotgun Miles Ladd had his hand up in the air. He was depended on by the majority of the class to keep us up to date. His voice was smooth, yet collected. He was one of those people you wouldn't expect to be 'smart', judging by some of the people he hung out with and what they did. Miles was pretty smart though-- and a pretty boy at that; tanned skin and light brown hair with a few blonde highlights in there. He had a terrific white smile, and light green eyes that screamed he was clever in one way or another.
I've liked him since the fifth grade.
"Ah, Mr. Ladd. Always willing to lend a helping hand." Old Mr. Barry said, nodding to Miles.
"American Revolution. We were just getting into... Uh, the Boston Massacre I think." Miles responded, cutely scratching his head.
It was a shame he sat three rows away and five seats behind me.
He caught my eyes and smiled while flirtatiously waggling his eyebrows as Mr. Barry went on to accuse Ally McNeil of not doing her home work. I smiled sheepishly, a heavy blush settling on my cheeks before quickly looking away to pretend I was getting ready to jot down notes. The euphoria of notice faded as beloved Mr. Barry started the discussion on the well known story of the Boston Massacre.
I sighed because Miles Ladd was /very/ popular, funny, witty, tough, gorgeous, and very well sought out for. Any type of relationship between the two of us beyond classmates was a dream. He was a flirt, a well known one at that, so of course he'd throw a coy comment at me once in awhile, but he always seemed sincere. However, I knew he would never look twice at me. Oh no, not with Lindzy Tripe waltzing around in all her womanly assets glory.
"Wait... I don't get it." Came the ditzy voice of Tripe.
"Miles, explain it to her." Mr. Barry ordered with a sigh, not taking his eyes off of what he was writing on the white board.
Inwardly I cringed, knowing that she was twirling her artificially, straightened, blonde hair around her index finger and chewing that obnoxious blueberry smelling bubble gum, while making puppy dog eyes at Miles. Miles, of course, was all but willing to comply. He shifted slightly in his seat to face her (who sat a couple seats behind me, ugh) and put his hands across his desk, palms uplifted, and compassionately began to explain whatever it was that the ditz didn't get with a, "You see...."
I turned back around, practically fuming, and ran a hand through my /naturally/ blonde hair.
The bell rang and I thanked the Gods. It was lunch time.
The halls became a traffic jam and I figured it might be just as well to wait in the classroom another five minutes. It wouldn't kill me, but it would be nice to get the 'once-a-day-bitching-I-hate-Tripe' out of my system. Five minutes wouldn't kill me; five minutes was nothing.
"Hey Miles, I'm having a party Saturday. You're comin', right?"
Argh! Screw the five minutes, I'd rather be pushed and shoved and possibly ass patted then listen to their conversation another second!
I stormed into the crowd and held my history book close to my chest for protection from the claustrophobically close student body. Half of the dimwits had planted themselves in the middle of the hall, talking or doing some stupid handshakes. I bypassed my locker, not having the patience to push myself to the other side of the small hallway, and continued down the stairs to the lunch room.
The cafeteria was thankfully /huge/ with many windows letting in bright sunlight. So bright in fact, that you had to squint for the first few minutes to adjust to the new light. I stood to the side of the doorway, scanning for any sign of my friends at one of the many round lunch tables. Finally I spotted a familiar face, waving energetically at me, and only a good ten feet away. I swear I'm as blind as a bat, but the nurse keeps telling me I've got 20/20 vision.
"Whoa, space cadet!" Willis Micheals called to me as I approached. I rolled my eyes at him and dropped my belongings on the table.
"Seen any of our crew?" I asked scanning the doorway.
"Just you." Willis replied sitting down. "What about you? Any luck with Mimi's friend?"
"Nadda." I replied also sitting having given up for searching for anyone through the hundreds of bodies sifting in and out of the room. "Actually, I'm surprised I haven't seen them; you'd think they'd be easy to pick out don't you?"
"Um, no." Was his dumbfounded response. "Erika, we go to a school with /hundreds/ of people and we can't even name, or recognize for that matter, half of the people in /our/ grade! What makes you think you're going to be able to tell the difference between a new kid and one you just never noticed?"
"Well," I smiled deviously leaning across the table as if to whisper a juicy secret, "I've been told the new kid is a hot, Japanese guy. /That/, my friend makes all the difference."
Willis laughed as I sat back against my chair and searched for our crew once again. After a minute or so of the both of us scanning the cafeteria, he pursued the conversation of the new kid.
"So, it's a boy, and Mimi's friend too?" He asked curiously. I nodded affirmative. He looked thoughtful for a moment. "This kid have a name by chance?"
I rolled my eyes, "Don't ask questions you know the answer to."
"Okay, I admit, stupid question. What's his name?"
"Something I can't pronounce." I smiled sheepishly. He laughed and shook his head again and I tried to defend myself, though laughing too, "Not well anyway."
"You're bad." He said, a grin still plastered on his face.
"I know." I replied somewhat apologetic.
"Ugh! My God! That Tripe is going down!" Catherine O'Brien declared angrily as she slammed her bag onto our table.
I smiled up at the Irish girl, "What'd she do?"
"You mean what /hasn't/ she done!" Catherine yelled, green daggers darting across the room in the insipid girl's direction. "First, I some how get stuck doing not most, but the ENTIRE project on Speak----- you know, the book we had to read for English---- and then her little posse decides to play a joke on the Irish girl, misplacing my workbooks, making snide remarks on my less than perfect assets--" Willis tried so hard not to laugh-- "But then, THEN, she marches up to Kevin and asks him if he wanted to take her to the dance next Saturday!"
I bit my lip. Kevin Leary was Catherine's boyfriend and I could see Catherine's rage was starting to give way to unhappiness. She closed her eyes for a minute to calm herself. In a much more level voice she spoke again, opening somewhat remorseful and somewhat frustrated eyes,
"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now /who/ he takes to the dance."
"What do you mean?" I asked quietly dreading the answer.
"Kevin and I broke up."
"Oh, Catherine--" I began, but she interrupted with making a cutting off motion with her hand.
"Erika, I don't wanna hear it. We all knew it was bound to happen." She replied seriously.
"You broke up because someone asked him to go to the dance?" Willis asked suddenly, staring up at the fair, unsettled girl with a quirked eyebrow. "I can see you breaking up if he agreed with her, but..."
"Well, what do you think he said to her!? She's Lindzy Tripe for God's sake!" Catherine snapped at the blonde boy throwing her hands up in the air.
"You can't be serious." Willis stated. "You mean Kevin, /our/ Kevin, said yes to her?"
But before Catherine could throw a comeback at the boy she was interrupted.
"Cathy, /forget/ that jerk." Came an excited voice from behind the two of us girls. We turned to face a bouncy, slightly plump girl with bright azure eyes and curly locks of platinum blonde hair. "Look over there, the boy getting out of line!"
I darted my eyes to the huge line, skimming for who Candra Churzy was addressing. "Which one?" I asked, backtracking through the lunch line and then over to the condiment stand.
"Dirty blonde hair, wearing the black long sleeved shirt, funny beige hat on his head..." Candra listed.
"Funny beige hat?" Willis offhandedly commented. "And he's supposed to be hot?"
"Shut up." The three of us said in unison; I could only imagine the pout on his cute face.
"Ah, there he is!" Candra pointed to a slim, tall boy walking up the large aisle lined with windows.
He was by himself, face half shielded by a beige fishermen's hat, with little tufts of dirty blonde hair sticking out. He was dressed in dark colored cloths, self consciously looking around the large cafeteria with his foam white tray in his hands.
"Not much to really see of him to tell if he's hot, Candra." Catherine uttered.
Just then a lunch duty teacher walked up to him. I guess they told him to take the hat off because he did and it was like the room suddenly went dark and he was the only thing you could see.
"Damn..." Catherine gasped. I nodded, seeing what she meant.
"Rumor is he's the Japanese transfer student." Candra explained, watching the shy boy.
"Really?" I asked, tearing my eyes away from him to look at her. "He doesn't look Japanese."
To that she shrugged. Willis got up from his seat, obviously annoyed with our little scene, and came over to us. "Okay, who is it? Point him out."
"Aw, is someone jealous?" I asked looking up at him, a sly smile on my face.
"Are you kiddin' me? Everyone knows I'm the coolest guy here." Willis said, trying to look a bit taller in mockery to what he said. I snorted before inconspicuously pointing the boy out.
His blue eyes widened and he blinked a few times, as if trying to register something. "Nah... It can't be." He muttered, staring at the boy.
"What?" I asked.
"But maybe... Hey!" The flirt trailed off, starting to walk over to the hottie.
"Willis!" I hissed, but he kept walking.
"What's he doin'?" Catherine asked, eyeing him curiously.
Willis walked up to the stranger, all smiles and starting talking to him. The new kid looked quite surprised and timid for a minute before a look of recognition set in on his delicate features. They talked for a few more seconds before Willis thumped him on the back and lead him over to us.
"Does he know him?" Candra asked bewildered. I didn't know whether to say "I hope so" or "I hope not." Willis had a history of embarrassing the three of us in front of guys, especially the ones we either liked or thought were cute...
As the duo approached I could hear them speaking fluently in Japanese, and it was much easier to see the newcomer's features. I could feel a slight blush starting to creep onto my face as an excited, yet almost mortified tension started to fill the air. Willis grabbed a chair from another table and swung it out in front of foreigner.
"A-arigato." The cutie said, averting our eyes as he set his tray down.
"Guys, meet Takeru Takashi." Willis smiled brightly. "He's the new kid." He added.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, forgetting my bashfulness upon hearing his name. I pulled up a chair and sat next to him. "You're Mimi Tachikawa's friend, right?"
He nodded, bashfully smiling. He looked so cute like that, I couldn't help wanting to just stare at him for a good minute or two. He had big, light blue eyes, bed head, dirty blonde hair, and such a cute smile. He seemed sweet.
"I'm Erika Lawrence; one of Mimi's friends." I smiled cheerily at him. Catherine jabbed me in the back. "Oh, and these two," I gestured to the girl's behind me, "are Catherine O'Brien and Candra Churzy."
"Hajime--" The boy stopped himself abruptly before restarting with, "I mean... How do you do?"
I couldn't help but smile at him. A faint blush graced his fairly light face, "You will... Have to excuse my English. I'm afraid I'm not too good."
I heard Candra giggle a little before giving a quick shriek. Catherine, Willis, Ta...care...ru?, and I all quickly turned to see Candra clenching her chest, glaring at a laughing black boy.
Catherine rolled her eyes, muttering, "Honestly Chris..."
"Candra, you're my girl!" Chris Tuckus laughed slapping the curly haired girl on the back.
"When are you going to grow up Chris?!" Candra demanded, glaring into his dark chocolate colored eyes.
"All in good time, all in good time." He declared, a bemused smile playing on his face. Willis shook his head amused before turning to the boy sitting beside me.
"And that would be Christopher Tuckus."
At the mention of his name he turned to see who Willis was speaking to. "Ah... A newcomer, eh? Who are you?"
"His name's Takeru ("Taker wha?" Chris interrupted, but Willis continued as if he hadn't heard him) Takashi. He's the new kid from Japan."
"Ooooooooh. So you're the dude all the ladies have been talking 'bout." Chris smiled down at the shy boy.
I wanted to bang my head against the table; I felt incredibly sympathetic to the new kid, he seemed pretty scared of us. Well, we were a pretty embracive bunch. I hoped we weren't giving off a bad impression, I didn't want to scare him away...
"I'm Chris." Chris stuck his hand out to shake, "You got a nickname we can call ya? Not tryin' ta be disrespectful or anythin', but I dunno if I can pronounce your name without bein' offensive."
The Japanese boy lightly laughed and shook Chris's hand. "You can call me T.K.. My friends call me that."
"Then T.K. it is." Chris winked, withdrawing his hand. I mentally sighed relieved. With 'T.K.' there was no way I could say it wrong, I mean, they were two simple letters of our alphabet.
"We got lucky man, eh? I mean, the sexes numbers are even now." Chris grinned at Willis. Willis just smiled and shook his head. He muttered 'baka' to T.K., causing the fair Japanese boy to smile faintly.
"Hey, don't you go callin' me names now!"
"I didn't say anything!" Willis feigned innocence. "Isn't that right buddy?" He directed at T.K, but T.K. only smiled as if to say "I'm not getting involved in this."
The girls and I looked at each other before cracking up and everyone took their seats, waiting for the lunch line's numbers to dissolve. It seemed like things were looking up. I was sitting next to a hot, Japanese boy, was laughing with my friends, and only four more classes to go until the school day was done and over with. T.K. remained pretty quiet throughout our chatter, but he did smile a lot. We tried not to badger him too much, considering we knew (or rather, /I/ knew) what it was like to be the new kid. He'd open up sooner or later... If we didn't scare him off first.
As lunch was wrapping up I chanced a glance at the newcomer. I hoped we could become pretty good friends...
~*~
Author's Note: My sincerest and biggest apologies for not getting this chapter up sooner. Six months, my goodness! Time certainly does fly! Anyway, my excuses are taking a break from writing it, a bit of writer's block, and lack of motivation and inspiration. Also, a rule of mine is to get Defying Destiny's new chapter out before I produce a new chapter for this story. I think the reason for that is I started Defying Destiny before this, so....
So, in conclusion, I will withstand from saying "I'll get this next chapter out at such, and such." Saying "As soon as possible" isn't really too bad to say, because, hey, I'm getting it out as soon as possible :-p.
As far as sneak peak preview of the next chapter... I really don't know /what/ I'm going to do. I'm pretty sure it'll be back to T.K's point of view though. And with the recent turn of events, I do hope I don't turn my readers off from this story u_u.
Thanks you's to: Apple From Mars, Silver Angel, Silver, and Ace. I love you guys! You keep me wanting to continue the story ^_____^. **Glomp**
So, until next time.......
Eraya ^_~