Chapter 3

Ring

Ring

With the final bell of the day alerting that school was over, the students began to pack up their things. All of them are wearing smiles on their faces knowing that they can finally go home and relax after the stressful work they endured. All except for one…

"Hurry up, Winston!" Underneath the doorframe to his class, Sayori was montioning to him to quicken his pace. Albeit that he would very much rather follow his peers out to the exit, he remembered the promise he had made: To go check out that club that she had told him about.

'What was it again? The literature club?'

Making sure he had all of his belongings, Winston walked over to the pink-haired girl, who kept pointing to her waist, pretending as though there was a watch when in reality there wasn't. " C'mon Winston! We're going to be late.", she said with a small cry of desperation.

" Okay. I'm ready."

" Well, then why aren't you moving?"

"Because I'm supposed to be following you, remember? I have no idea where that club is even at."

With a smile on her face, Sayori stammered, "O-Oh yea…" She scratched the back of her head as Winston looked at her with disbelief. "Are you really the vice president, Sayori?"

She gave him a pout before walking towards the door which led to the east hall of the building."Just make a move on, smarty-pants!"

Winston made a small chuckle as he watched her begin to skip once again. Though as if he heard a voice call his name, he turned his head over in the opposite direction of where she had gone: The front office, and over to the left he could see a sign which read 'EXIT', with a red arrow pointing to a different corridor. He stood there staring at it, almost in a trance-like form. It felt like almost a sign.. Like as though the universe was telling him to walk away..

"Winston?"

He turned back around to see Sayori standing with her arms behind her body. Since it was mid-September, the sun was beginning to set earlier than usual. The sunlight that came through the glass windows, giving her body a glowing other words, she simply looked like an angel, and that caught him by surprise. "Huh?"

" I said, Are you coming or not?", she repeated with a worrying look on her face.

He grabbed his backpack and walked up to her. "Yeah. Let's go."

She simply gave him a smile and proceeded to make her way through the doors, with the boy following her from behind, who gave a sigh as he watched his friend almost slip while skipping.

10 minutes later...

"And this is where we keep all the writing materials. Though, I'm the only one who actually uses them because nobody else forgets to bring their stuff, heh heh."

As Sayori continued to ramble on about what was available for them to use, Winston occasionally looked around the room, taking in the new surroundings. Maybe it was because he was always left alone, but since he was a kid, he had the habit of inspecting a new place or such, noticing things which others would easily miss.

The clubroom seemed to be as any other: it was located in an empty classroom, with windows lined up on the opposite side from where the door. If you were to peer through, the front parking lot was visible as well as the main entrance to the school. There were three rows of six desks spaced out evenly across the room, all facing a whiteboard which took up a majority of the wall where the teachers desk was placed. For the remaining three, posters and drawings filled up the emptiness of the bland white walls.

'Must be an art class during the school day.' He thought as he looked at a brown door placed in the far left corner of the room. Sayori had mentioned that it was some sort of storage room. 'But for what? Well, I'm sure I'll find out soon.'

Winston looked at the floor. It was pretty dusty, as though it hadn't been cleaned in quite a while. His eyes zoomed all over the wooden floor until they spotted something in the far corner. So far, the tiles seemed to be aligned correctly, but for some reason the tiles in the far right, just underneath a gray metal storage, seemed to be uneven. 'Someone didn't do their job right.'

"...And that is where I sit!"

Pointing to one of the seats in the front, Sayori smiled happily as she pulled him by the arm to the spot, surprising Winston as she did so. "Woah!"

"Yep..this is where all the magic happens." She told him with a smirk as she took a seat on the top of the desk, crossing her legs over the rim. " Any questions?"

He gave her an annoyed look before saying, " First off. Please don't pull me like that without any warning."

"But I've always done that since we were kids!" She whined a little.

" Anyways.. I do have a question." He looked around the empty room. "Where are the other members?"

Sayori placed a finger on her chin, showing that she was thinking. "Hmm.. Usually they get here before me, so I was a bit surprised when they weren't already here."

"Or maybe… there really isn't a club and you actually just wanted to waste my time."

" W-What?" She exclaimed in shock. Standing up, she got close to Winston and grabbed him by the collar of his flannel, their faces merely inches apart from each other. "I-I didn't lie. I p-promise! You have t-to believe me." She cried, and he could see that her eyes were starting to swell up.

" I was just kidding, Sayori. Of course I believe you." He quickly assured her, and he gently took her hand off of him.

"Oh. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad." Sayori chuckled softly, looking down at the ground as he continued to hold her hand, which he was unaware about. She fidgeted as she continued to look at everything but him, and he started to grow uncomfortable by it.

'Why does she seem really affected by this? Usually she would try to get back at me, and that didn't seem like such a big deal.'

"...Sayori, are you-!"

The sound of the door swinging open caused him to not only stop mid-sentence, but the two of them to let go of each other. Winston and Sayori looked over at where the sound came from, and soon the cause of it came walking into the room. Or more like the causes.

"...And that is your huge and logical reason why it isn't literature?"

"Yes. The fact that manga consists of images and poor dialogue cannot be seen as literature for it doesn't have any real assonance nor structure!"

"Well… it has imagery."

"You know that it isn't the same."

"Whatever. It is, and that's final!"

As the two girls continued to bicker, Winston watched in awe as Sayori quickly ran to them, trying to get in the middle of the pair, who were now shooting daggers at one another.

" Why, I outta.."

"What? What are you going to do? I dare you to say it!"

" Guys, please stop!"

Debating whether to help Sayori or not, Winston eventually decided to stay put.

' I don't want to start trouble with people I don't even know.' He thought as he saw Sayori holding back one of the girls, who was a bit shorter than she was. She had pink hair too, except it was pulled into a swept fringe with two pigtails, having a messy look held all together by thin ribbons. " Let go of me, Sayori! I'm not going to do anything too violent. I promise!" The girl struggled to escape from her arms, but failed to do so.

" No! Not until..ugh! Not until you've calmed down, Natsuki!", Sayori responded.

'Natsuki, huh? For a girl her height, she is pretty feisty.'

He looked over at the other girl who had been arguing with Natsuki, and he noticed that she seemed to be shifting uncomfortably where she stood. It seemed like she was regretting what she had done, or more she was afraid of the girl. " Natsuki… I'm s-sorry.", she muttered softly, surprising both Sayori and Natsuki as they froze.

"What?", Natsuki asked.

Rubbing her arm with her right hand, the girl avoided eye contact as she continued to speak in a gentle manner, hoping to not stir up another argument. " I said I was sorry. I shouldn't have spoken of your manga in such a way. It wasn't right of me, and I truly feel bad."

The room was in silence. Winston looked over at Natsuki, trying to read what her reaction was to the sudden apology. It was a bit hard to tell, because she was still clenching her jaw which revealed another feature: her canine teeth were a bit larger than her other teeth.

"Hmp!" she said as she finally broke free of Sayori's arms. Then, she crossed her arms over her chest, closing her eyes while she gave a small smirk. " Well, I guess it's okay. Just make sure to never mess with my manga again and we'll call it even!"

With her eyes closed, Natsuki wasn't able to see that the girl had given her a timid nod for her answer. "...Well?", she asked opening one to see what the delay was. Thankfully, Sayori jumped in once again.

" Of course she won't! Right, Yuri?" She assured her, and the girl nodded a second time.

'Yuri, huh?'

Out of the three girls, Yuri was the tallest. She had long and straight purple hair, which she let down to her waist. Though beating the other girls with height, Winston noticed that she seemed to be the more reserved of the group, yet the way she used a more elegant tone of speech gave him the idea that she was knowledgeable.

'Yuri and Natsuki. I haven't seen them before around school. Well, I don't really go around socializing with people so it's fair to say that I don't know a lot of faces.' He thought as he looked down at the desk top where Sayori had been sitting. ' I guess she really is my only friend. That's kinda sad now that I think about it.'

In the midst of his thinking, he didn't notice that someone had walked up to where he'd been standing the whole time. Once he looked up, he saw that Natsuki was now in front of him, arms to the side of her waist as she stared up at him with a glare that intimidated him just a bit. Still, he kept his composure as he turned his body towards her. "Yes?"

"...Are you lost, buddy?" She merely said, keeping her intense gaze on him.

"What do you mean?"

" Well, this is the literature club. The exit is that way." She pointed to the door. Even though they had just met, Winston knew that the girl had a temper, so he needed to choose his words carefully. " I'm not lost. I came to check out the place."

Natsuki scoffed before telling him, " Really? A boy is interested in writing poems and reading books? Please!"

'Writing poems? That does sound boring. Still..'

" Yes. I am. Sayori was the one who invited me. If you don't believe it, ask her yourself."

Lessening her glare, she called to Sayori as she kept her eyes on him. "Sayori! Is that true?"

Sayori walked over to where they were standing and she placed a hand on Natsuki's shoulder. " Yeah. I wanted him to come", she told her with a smile. " If he sees that the club is interesting, luckily he'll join."

" Join?" Winton and Natsuki both said in unison.

" Wait, Sayori I only agreed on-"

Winston was interrupted by Natsuki turning around and grabbing Sayori's arms, which surprised her a little as she yelped.

" Sayori.." She started in a pleading voice. " You invited a boy to our club? Why would you do that?" She said that last part in a low voice, clearly trying to prevent Winton from hearing but alas he still did.

" Natsuki, you know we need more members."

" But a boy..?"

" I trust him. He's not going to bother us." Sayori explained, and that seemed to calm Natsuki down. Hearing that also made Winston feel a wave of affection for his friend, knowing that she thinks so highly of him.

" Yeah. I promise I'm not going to do anything crazy. I really do want to see what the club is all about." He assured her. Nastuki looked at the two before crossing her arms and giving a pout. "Fine. But no funny business, or you're out. Got it?"

Playfully, he gave a courtesy bow and said, " I promise."

Not a moment later, the door swung open again. Everyone in the room turned their heads towards the entrance, and a girl with brown hair and a white bow made her way into the room. She was holding a stack of papers in her arms and laid them onto the teachers desk. As she wiped her forehead to move some of the hair covering it, Winston was now able to get a good look at the girl, and when he did his mouth dropped a little.

'Is that… Monika?'

Albeit he didn't pay attention to anything happening around school, just like the rest of the school Winston knew who Monika was. The head cheerleader and president of the school council, she was quite a popular girl, and of course a wave of admirers always tried to get to her. In fact, this may have been the first time he'd seen her without a circle of friends around her.

'What is she doing here?' He wondered. He noticed that Sayori was glancing at him, and as though she had read his mind, she smiled and said, " That's Monika, our club president."

" Really?"

" Yeah. Why so surprised?" Natsuki asked.

" I just thought she'll be leading the leadership kids or something. Not a club with merely three members." He responded in a much harsher tone he had intended. Natsuki glared at him again for a moment before walking up to what he assumed was her seat. The other two girls did the same, leaving Winston standing by himself.

" Sorry I'm late. The teacher wanted to talk to me about piano and we chatted for longer than I had intended." Monika explained before gesturing to the papers that laid on the desk. " He left me these notes to review, so today will just be a 'free-day' while I catch up. Oh. What is this? A new member?"

Noticing Winston, Monika stood there with her head tilted slightly, her hands clasped together behind her. However, before Winston could say anything, Sayori stood up and saluted for some unknown reason. " I brought him here, Monika! He's here to see what we do in the literature club."

" Oh. Well, of course that's fine." She told her with a smile, and once Sayori sat down she turned back to the boy. " If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"

" …Winston Jones."

" Well, Winston, I hope you enjoy the club. Though like I said earlier, we won't really be doing anything today." She added that last part with a bit of resentment.

" That's okay. I'm sure I'll find something to do."

' I mean, it's not like I'll just be here sitting by myself, right?'

20 minutes later…

"Winston…"

"Huh..?"

"Winston, wake up."

Feeling someone pull off his beanie, Winston slowly opened his eyes. Having nothing to do, he had rested his head on the desk and accidentally dozed off. Lifting his head up a little, he was startled to see how close Sayori was to his face. He jolted back up in his seat. " What the-?" He exclaimed, causing her to jump back a little as well.

" Sorry!" She started before stopping herself. " Wait a minute.. No I'm not. Winston, this isn't the napping club, you know."

" There's a napping club?"

"Winston!" She pouted.

" I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just that… there really isn't much to do here." He explained. Knowing that she was going to tell him to read, he went on. " Plus, I didn't bring a book to read."

She gave him a smile before pointing to a shelf located in the back of the room. " There are a handful of books available for you there." Sayori got up from her knees and tossed him his beanie before walking back to her desk. " Grab one, and don't go back to sleep, okay?"

"Fine…" He mumbled as he watched her take a seat and put in her earphones back in her ears and continued to read a red book. Once he made sure his beanie was placed on just right with a bit of his hair visible, Winston got up from his seat and went towards the shelf she had referred to. Sure enough, there were a good amount of books lined up neatly across the wooden plank, each ranging in various genres.

'Hmm… not exactly feeling like reading right now..' He thought before turning back to the room. 'Isn't there anything else I could do?'

He looked at each of his options: Sayori was sitting at the desk closest to the door, nose glued to the page as she lightly hummed along to whatever she was listening to. 'Don't wanna bother her. She seems to be enjoying that book.'

Monika was sitting at the teacher's desk. She was working on what he assumed to be the notes that her teacher had given her. 'It's probably best to let her work on that without any distractions. Besides, I wouldn't know what to say either way.'

Yuri had gone to the restroom, but she left right after Monika excused them to do whatever they liked. He looked at the clock hanging just above the whiteboard. 'It's been a while since she left. Should I go after her? Wait, no. She's probably fine, and it'll be weird if I decide to go after her like if I was her friend. Maybe Natsuki should… Where is she anyway?'

Examining the room, Winston couldn't spot her anywhere. His first thought was that she accompanied Yuri to the bathroom, but that vanished when a sound could be heard coming from where the storage room was located. 'Maybe she's in there.'

Closing the shelf, he walked over to where the brown door stood, and slowly pushed it open to reveal a small enclosure: The room was made up of metal storage racks lined up across the walls, each holding brown cardboard boxes stacked in pairs. In the middle, a black table stood underneath a dimly- lit striplight that barely gave visibility to the whole room itself, and in the corner the pink-haired girl was there lifting a box back into one of the racks. Once she was done, she turned around and noticed him still staring at her. " Can I help you, prevert?"

"Pervert?" He asked dumbfounded by her remark.

" Yeah. You're standing over there in the dark like some stalker." She said in a curt manner as she grabbed a book that laid on top of the table.

" I'm not stalking anybody. I was just wondering what you were doing." He explained, walking up to the table himself.

" Why? Are you hitting on me or something?"

'This girl.'

Starting to grow irritated, he quickly calmed himself and looked over at the book she was holding over the table. "Parfait Girls?"

"What?"

"That book you're reading." He pointed at it, and Natsuki hesitantly moved the book closer to the light so he could get a better look. Taking in the details and the layout of the cover design, he knew what kind of literature it was. "That's manga, right?"

"Y-Yeah. You've read it before?" She asked, but the soft tone of her voice startled him a little, for it was the first she'd spoken like that to him since they've met.

"No, sorry."

"Oh.."

"...Uhm, what is it about?"

" It's about these girls who are getting into crazy situations in their everyday lives all while doing their best to survive high school drama. It's really good."

"That does sound a bit interesting. I'll have to pick it up sometime."

"Yeah, you should…"

The two then stood their silence, with only the sound of the striplight buzzing above them filling up the room. With the awkward atmosphere growing, Winston placed his hands inside his pockets. 'I'll just leave her to it, then.' Right when he was going to clear his throat, the girl had beaten him to it.

"...While we're here…do you want to read it with me?"

5 minutes later…

Taking a seat on the ground below the windows, Winston stretched his legs out as he rested his back along the wall. Soon after, Natsuki accompanied him, sitting a few inches from where he sat to put some distance from the two he presumed. " Here." She said, handing the book over to him. He took it and opened up the first page. Just like any other manga, the pictures filled up the paper, and he easily read the two pages in under twenty seconds.

" Hey!"

He looked over at Natsuki, who seemed to be glaring at him. " What?"

" Why'd you turn the page?" She asked. He gave her a confused look before explaining himself.

" Well, I was done with reading it, so…"

"We're supposed to read it together, idiot. How am I going to know where you are if you just read in your head?"

Opening his mouth to protest, he realized that he had no other choice but to do what the girl said. Winston gave a small sigh before starting to read outloud. " This is my school, and these are my friends…"

As the pages turned, Winston would hear small remarks coming from Natsuki from time to time. " I remember that!", she would say, or "How did I forget about that?". Of course, it didn't bother him for the girl was overjoyed with each cheesy joke the book offered. Seeing that excitement over her face made him smile, so he made sure that he read as clearly as he could so that she wouldn't miss anything. Though, from time to time, he would notice something interesting from the corner of his eye as he did so: Natsuki would stare at him instead of the book. He didn't want to say anything, so he just shrugged it off and continued to read until they eventually ended up finishing the book an hour later.

" The end." He said, closing the book before handing it back over to her. Still wiping away tears of laughter from her eyes, she asked him, "Well…what did you think?"

' It was just as expected, a classic high school drama…' He thought, trying to figure out how to put it in his words. " It was okay, I guess. I don't really know how they can go on from this in the next book. How much did you say there was, again?"

Natsuki seemed to be quite pleased hearing that he somewhat enjoyed it. "There are seven more, so eight in total.", she told him with a smile. Then, placing the book on the ground, she stretched out her legs as she leaned her back on the wall. " If you want, I can lend you the second one."

Although he knew that he would most likely forget to read it, Winston realized that the girl was starting to treat him more like a human being. He didn't want to get back on bad terms with her, so he reluctantly agreed. "Sure."

" Just make sure to not bend it, or I'll kill you.. Got it?" She growled, and he gave her a nod. "...So who was your favorite character?"

"Hmm… If I had to choose it would have to be that one girl…uhm what was her name again… Terry?"

" Really? How come?"

"Well, she was a photographer, so I could relate to her the most."

Hearing his response, Natsuki raised her back from the wall and leaned in a bit closer. " What do you mean?"

" I like taking pictures in my free time. I take my camera with me and stroll around the park sometimes." He said, but was surprised to hear chuckling coming from the girl. Using her hands to cover her mouth, Natsuki tried to cover the sound. " What? What's so funny?"

"It's just that…that.." Midway through her sentence, she lowered her hands back down. "..that I can just imagine you walking around the park taking pictures of girls, you know. Since you're a pervert."

'I just can't deal with this girl.'

He stayed silent as she continued to snicker until she gave a breath of relief.

" I like to cook. I guess that's a hobby I have too."

"...Aren't you a little too young to be cooking? Ouch!"

Receiving a punch to the arm, Winston gently rubbed the area with his other hand as the girl angrily crossed her arms over her chest. " Serves you right!" She told him. " For your information, I'm fifteen, a sophomore. Just a grade below you." With that, she stood up from the ground and headed to the front, but not before calling out to him one more time.

" Tomorrow we'll read the second one, so look forward to it, ok?"

Ring.

Ring .

Ring.

An alarm from someone's phone echoed across the room. Standing up now himself, Winston saw that it was coming from the teacher's desk.

" Well, looks like our time here is over.", Monika told the group as she turned off the alarm on her cellphone. " Again, sorry that we didn't really do much today, but I promise that tomorrow we'll have a plan. Right, Sayori?"

" Yep!" The girl called back to her as she was putting the red book back into her bag. At the same time, Yuri , who Winston hadn't noticed coming back from the room until now, was putting in her bag a black notebook and something else that he couldn't quite see well.

'When did she get back? Must've been while I was reading with Natsuki.'

Thinking nothing of the situation, he proceeded to get his things too as Monika continued in the background. " Good. Well, I guess that's all to say. Oh wait. Winston?" Hearing his name, he stopped what he was doing and turned to Monika. " Yeah?"

" Now that you've gotten the chance to check out the club… are you interested in joining?" She asked, and all the girls paused what they were doing as well as they stared at his direction, waiting for her answer. With the attention on him, Winston looked down to the side as he pondered the question.

'I promised Sayori that I would come to see, but join? If I wanted to be part of a club, I would've joined one that more suited someone like me? Like the gaming club or the photography club. Writing poems and reading books? I mean sure, books I could do but poems? That's not really me…'

He looked up and unwillingly made eye contact with Sayori, who was looking at him with a bit of desperation. Then, a memory flashed through his head of what she had told him on their way to school that day.

'...She really wants me to join, not because we need more members or anything… but because she cares about me. She doesn't want me to be alone anymore…'

With a sigh of defeat, he looked back at Monika and shook his head. " Sure, I'll join."

20 minutes later…

Rounding the corner of the street, Winston took a right and continued on straight with Sayori right beside him. Since they live so close to each other, they both agreed to walk back home together. As they walked, Winston kept hearing the girl hum happily. He smiled, asking her what she was so happy about.

" Sorry. It's just that I can't believe that not only you came to visit my club, but you actually agreed to join it!" She beamed at him as she gave him a surprise hug.

" Sayori…" He reluctantly returned the hug for a few seconds before they broke apart and continued to make their way.

After a few minutes, Sayori's house became visible to them. Winston walked her all the way to her front door, and once he made sure that she had the keys to the house, he decided to bring up something he had been meaning to ask. " Hey, Sayori? Are your parents home?"

Sayori stared down in silence for a little as the two stood at her front porch. Eventually, she looked back up and said with a smile, " Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"...No reason at all. Goodbye, Sayori." He said, and he turned back around. Though before he could get too far, he heard her call his name. " Yeah?"

" Thank you for joining the club Winston. It may not seem like a lot, but it meant a lot to me."

Unsure why his heart was beating, he gave her a stiff nod and watched her close the door behind her as she walked into the house. Feeling a bit confused with what she just said, he placed his hands in his pockets as he made his way more along the paved walkway.

'I guess I was worried all for nothing. The literature club… It's just poems, Winston. How bad could it be?'

To be continued…

A/N:

Thank you for reading! I hope you all enjoyed it. One quick favor... can you guys let me know in the comments what you guys think so far of the story please? I'd really like to know. Thanks!

The next chapter will be posted next Friday!

P.S.-

Where did Yuri go during the club?