Hi everybody! How are you guys, first of all? I don't have much to say, this time, except that I don't own anything from KND, or anything from LoZ OoT, which I will be mentioning in this chapter. tada. Have a nice reading session!
Nigel Uno hesitantly sat down at an empty table, waiting for those who had invited him to sit there in the first place. They were late. He felt sort of embarassed, having to sit with two girls. He would most definetely be out of place, even more so than at the geek table, though he'd never fit in there, either.
He, like the geeks, had always done his best at school. He, like the geeks, was pasty-skinned and scrawny. What on earth set him apart?
He didn't try to get on the teacher's good side for extra points.
He didn't avoid everyone outside his little group.
He tried to find new angles to look at things from, new ways to answer questions.
He liked a girl who sat at the popular kids' table.
He felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and turned to see a short, thin Japanese girl smiling at him.
"Hi," The voice was as soprano as he had expected, with even a tiny tingle of a baby voice. "I'm Kuki. Mind if I sit here?"
"No," Nigel responded. She seemed amazingly familiar, and as she sat with her tray filled with salad, turkey chilli and a frosted brownie, she wore an expression that clearly read 'we have a lot to catch up on.' He slid in the seat opposite her, and spoke again. "I'm Nigel, by the way." The girl nodded, as if she had already known. "Are you new here?"
Kuki grinned widely. "Yeah. Yesterday was my first day here. I just moved, from Japan."
He raised his eyebrows at her. "That's funny. I thought I might've seen you before then." The girl giggled knowingly. It was annoying. If she so obviously knew something he didn't, why couldn't she just come out and say it?
"Yeah, I used to live here, 'till we moved two years ago. Then we came back. We're even living in the same house as before."
"That must be nice. Then it's not too much of a difference. From before, I mean."
"That's right. I'm even living really close to two of my best friends. But we can hardly remember each other."
The boy looked up from his milk, surprised. "That's weird. It's only been..." He narrowed his eyes at her. "... two years? You're a freshman, right?"
"Yep. You are, too?" The British boy nodded, and returned to his meal, and Kuki grabbed this chance to glance around the lunch room. Abby was coolly leaning against the doors, chatting with Hoagie (however hard that was), waiting until she would pull out the picture...
"... so, yeah, I'm planning on studying there." Hoagie finished. Abby nodded, and assured him that he would do great, when she saw a certain 14-year old duck into her bookbag after obviously having apologized to her only companion, a pale, grey-eyed boy, about the same age. This was her cue.
"Hey, Hoags, you mind sittin' by us today?"
This took the younger boy by surprise. Weren't they just talking about future jobs? "Uhhh... sure, why not?"
"C'mon." He followed her silently, side-stepping the rowdy sophomores and jocks, until they had arrived at the only table with free seats at the far side of the cafeteria. By now Abby, who had watched the pale boy's reaction, saw him staring dumbfoundedly at a photo. But he had only let his cool slip for a second. Then his cold, cold grey eyes, now turned to slits, riveted onto Kuki.
"What is this?"
Kuki's eyes widened for a minute. She hadn't expected this. His voice was like an icy cold knife. She opened her mouth to let escape a defensive retort, but as she was doing so, in her head she felt a voice, one that she decided to copy.
"I'm not really sure, actually." She said, innocently twisting the photograph so she could see it as well. "See, this is my birthday, I guess -"
"I can see that." The voice was nearing a sneer. "Do you think I'm blind?" He pointed at the 'Happy Birthday' banners in the background. "The question is, how did you get a picture of me in it?"
A chocolate-coloured arm slid a tray into the spot next to Kuki, who sighed in relief. "Hey, Nigel, glad ya made it." She motioned for Hoagie to sit on the other side of the cafeteria table. "Isn't that a weird photo?"
"Yes..." Now Nigel became sarcastic. "... funny how I don't remember any of it."
"Riiiight..." Abby started. She, like Kooks, hadn't expected this behaviour.
"Is that what you wanted me to come for, Lincoln?"
"Yeah," She answered, acting clueless. "It is."
"You have no idea how easy it is to insert a picture of someone else into a photo."
"Well, apparently not. I've neva been to da computer club."
Nigel took this as an insult. "You think it's nerdy to be able to type? I'm so sorry to use an e-mail address, slowing down your stamp collection considerably."
Kuki rolled her eyes. "Cut it out, you two." She interrupted. "Look, Nigel, the bottom line is, I found that picture in my attic. I don't know how it got there, or how your picture got in, but we're not faking. If you have such a problem with trying to have friends, you can go back to your geek table."
Nigel, who had already stood up, hesitated in walking away. What Kuki had said hit him hard. Was he too afraid to make new friends? Had he been building up his defenses, just to prevent himself from getting his hopes up? Was that strange picture just an excuse for him to walk away, when the real reason was that he didn't want company, he didn't want friends, for fear that they might abandon him, like...
... like they had done once before?
He knew what he had to do. But he had to eat humble pie for it.
Though... it was worth it, wasn't it?
"Abbigail, Kuki... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did."
"It's ok, silly." Kuki's annoying giggle brought him back to earth.
"Come and sit down, man." said Hoagie, speaking to him for the first time. Nigel did, and they spoke normally, getting to know each other through the lunch break.
Abby smiled as Kooks giggled at her. "Silly, it only works when we're in a hurry, and have no idea that we don't actually know where to go."
"Dat doesn't make any sense, gurl. I know you know da way dere."
"Come on Abby, just in case. I don't want to get lost. We only know the way when we're not thinking about the address, just when we're thinking about getting there."
Abby brushed a bit of ice off of a nearby twig. They were in a dinky, dirty park near Abby's house. School had been out for a couple of hours, and Kuki had been getting more and more worried about Wally. She could've tried to get to his house, only to lose her way, until she could meet Abby after her martial arts classes.
"Wasn't anyone else there?"
Abby blinked dumbly. "Wasn't anyone else where?" Then, as she remembered, "Ohhhh... Kooks, you've already asked it a million times. Nobody related to him was dere at the martial arts classes. Not him, not his mom, nobody. Sorry, gurl."
"But something could be seriously wrong!" wailed Kuki. "You said he never skipped classes, hardly ever got sick, and if he did, he'd still show up at kickboxing!"
"Kickboxin'? Gurl, he doesn't do kickboxin'."
"Don't change the subject!"
"He can take care of himself."
"I know, but still..."
"You wanna see him?"
"... yeah."
Abby sighed, thinking about the mounds of homework waiting for her at home and next week's test. "Alright. But Abby ain't gonna be too happy when she gets a C because she couldn't study."
"Oh, don't worry about that, just show me the way, then go home when I get there!" said Kuki, instantly brightening. "I can find the way back by myself."
"Alright. Follow Abby. How were the tryouts, anyway?"
"Oh, they were great! They need more cheerleaders desperately, so they had to take me." Kuki jogged to keep up with tall Abby's long strides. "I'm getting extra practice after school, so I can catch up. But I think I'm gonna like it." She further explained about the teams, and the routines, until it became hard to breath and talk. By then, though, they had arrived.
"You want Abby to pick ya up in a half hour, or you think ya know da way?" asked Abby, after motioning towards the bright yellow two-story house. Kuki reassured her that she knew, and wished her luck with studying. Then, not knowing exactly how she would handle the situation that would no doubt follow, she rang the doorbell. A light, high-pitched doorbell sound was heard, followed by clacking high heel sounds as someone neared the door. A pretty, green-eyed blonde lady, no doubt Wally's mom, opened.
"Whoi, hello, Kuki." The woman smiled. "Haven't seen you in a whoile. How are you?"
Kuki blinked in surprise. How did she know her? "Uhhh... fine, thanks. And, how are you, Mrs. Beetles?"
The Beetles Lady shook her short, blond locks and looked back up at her guest. "I've told you, call me Jo."
"Um, ok. So, Jo, how are you?"
"Foine, foine. Oh, come in, it's freezing, isn't it?" Jo opened the door wider, and stepped out of the way. She took Kuki's coat, and hung it up on a bamboo coat rack, decorated with leafy carvings and koalas. "Joey, you'll neva guess who's hea'!"
Kuki shyly followed Jo, and, looking past her, spotted a young, blond-haired boy playing nintendo. He turned, then jumped up, throwing the controller on the floor, regardless that on the screen, Link was being pulverized by Koume and Kotake easily. "Kuki! I thought you'd neva come back!" the seven year old yelled, his voice still slightly squeaky. He ran over, jumped the couch, and hugged Kuki's legs. "Are you ok?" he now looked up, his large, blue-green eyes filled with worry. "How was Japan?"
"Uh, nice, but I'm glad to be back. And, yeah, I'm ok... Joey." Kuki was puzzled as ever. These people sure weren't brainwashed. She suddenly felt extremely timid, having no idea what to say to them. She looked around frantically, then, seeing the only thing that might interest at least two of them (namely her and Joey), asked, "Hey, Joey, watcha playing?" To her relief, one pair of eyes became unglued from hers. Joey ran back, after seeing that Link had died and he had wasted a fairy, ran back to his original post. "It's the Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time," Kuki started taking off her shoes, revealing a pair of sea green socks. She politely maneuvered her way around the cushy couch; sank down on it as she watched the exciting fight between the Hero of Time and the two Evil Witches. She then complemented Jo on the opal dolfin earrings she was wearing. Then, subtly, she brought up Wally.
"How is he?" She asked, carefully polite, not bringing up the fact that he wasn't at school.
"Oh, Walls... yes, he's quite alroight dea', no worries." answered Jo hesitantly, then decided that Kuki would understand perfectly what had happened, and if not, she deserved to know, so she continued with, "He's a little shaky, from what happened yesterday. That's whoi I wouldn't let him go to school."
"Um, excuse me," Kuki hoped she didn't sound too nosy. "But, what happened yesterday?"
"Oh, you should ask him, you know. He'd loike to see you, Kuki, so go on upstairs."
"Alright. Thanks Mrs... uhhh... Jo." I will never get used to calling her Jo, I just know it, thought Kuki as she sprinted up the stairs swiftly. She had a choice on which door to knock on: a plain white one, one covered with cartoon carachters and, wouldn't you know it, Link, and one plastered with Keep Out and Danger: Falling Rocks signs. Hmmm...
She knocked lightly on one sign bearing the words: Private Property: Enter And Die. A mumble was heard on the other side, something that sounded slightly like, 'not now mum'. Kooks opened the door a crack, not looking in, and whispered, "Wally, it's me, Kuki. Y'awake?" Thrashing of pillows and blankets was heard, then a 'Kooks? Come in.'
She crept in slowly, not sure what she was expecting. Wally was lying in bed, wearing yesterday's orange hoodie, and holding an ice pack to... well, somewhere on his face. Kuki couldn't really tell; his bangs were too long. "What happened, Wally? Why are you holding an icepack to your..." her voice strangled itself into a gasp as Wally removed the ice, revealing a dark blue ring around his eye. "Wally! Are you ok? Who did this? What happened?"
Wally's voice was raspy and quiet, and it hurt to talk. "Kooks." He swallowed painfully. "Kooks... ya shouldn't be hea'."
Mwahahaha. I am evil. Hey, do you guys know the song 'I am milk?' it's funny. sings I am milllk... I am Red-Hot-Ketchuup... and I am lost... so I am cruell... cruel as the deep blue oceaaaan... lalalalallaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... reviewreview... lalalaaaaa...