After classes were completed, Tridon and Sayori made their way to the clubroom.
"So what do we do on a typical day?" Tridon wondered, "This is the first time I've heard of a Literature Club at school."
"That's what we're trying to figure it out." Sayori answered, "The club is new and we're trying to figure out what we should do." Sayori sighed and kicked her bag with her knees while they walked, "Most of the time, Natsuki goes off to the corner to read her manga, Yuri reads a book, and Monika tries to figure out how to get more people into the club."
"What do you do?" Tridon questioned.
"I help her." Sayori answered, "I'm the vice president of the club."
"Oh. Can I be co-vice president because I'm your best childhood friend?"
"Not a chance." The two entered the classroom where the others were already siting and doing exactly as Sayori said, "See?"
"You were right." Tridon and Sayori made their way to Monika, "Yo Monika!" Tridon yelled.
"Shut up." Sayori chopped Tridon's chest to shut him up, "Don't yell when she's right in front of you."
"Fine... sorry..."
"It's okay." Monika reassured them, "He's quite the character huh?"
"That's how the writer made me." Tridon commented, "He made me this way."
"Anyway," Sayori interrupted, "what's our plan today?"
"Trying to figure out how to give our club traction." Monika answered, "Most of the people I've gone to only see this club as something for nerds and would be too boring to attend."
"Who said we needed more people?" Tridon wondered, "I thought a club only needed 4 people to be recognized as a club."
"Well," Monika explained, "the student council changed it to 5."
"I'm the 5th one." Tridon interrupted.
"Oh yeah." Monika turned to the chalkboard and wrote each person's name on it, "That is 5 people."
"So does this fix that problem?" Tridon asked inciting a nod from the two heads of the club, "Well there ya' go."
"Well that only fixes a small problem." Sayori commented, "We still need to find topics to get everyone involved." Sayori pointed at the other two who were off in their own worlds reading, "Because right now, it's more like a place where people hang out more than just discuss literature."
"Yeah." Tridon and Monika agree in unison.
"So what do we do?" Sayori wondered, "Any ideas?"
They stood there along the chalkboard brainstorming until Tridon snapped his fingers, "I got it." He stepped in front of the two and explained, "Literature can be split into multiple things, right?"
"Yeah?"
"Like short stories, poems, or even full-fledged novels." Sayori and Monika nodded at Tridon's statement while he continued, "What if we take times every other day to share our work? I know I have a lot, but it might help a certain purple-haired individual break out of her shell completely."
"That could work." Monika commented, "When should we start?"
"How about 2 days from now? Thursday."
"Yeah." Sayori agreed, "We can treat it as a workshop. We can turn something in, give others time to read and review it, then come back to discuss it."
"Yeah." Monika smiled and nodded, "That would be an awesome idea."
"So you two." Tridon pushed the two in front of him and softly said, "Go and tell them the plan."
"Uh, girls?" Sayori called out, "We have an announcement."
"We heard." Natsuki interrupted, "You guys are literally just a few feet from us."
"You know," Tridon interrupted, "now that I think about it, we were rather loud when talking about this stuff."
"Yeah..." The leaders say in unison.
"But I'm down." Natsuki agreed, "I'm not much of a writer, but if this gives me a chance to work on my craft, then by all means." Natuski smirked and stood with fists on her hip, "I can even bring my world famous cupcakes!"
"World famous?" Sayori questioned while her mouth proceeded to salivate.
"Gross..." Tridon closed Sayori's mouth and wiped the saliva that dripped from her mouth, "Uh, can we have something that isn't carb heavy?"
"Why you..." Sayori growled and put Tridon in a headlock, "You're not stopping me from enjoying delicious cupcakes!" Sayori pulled Tridon to the ground while he screamed like a girl.
"Well," Monika continued, "our snacks are taken care of. How about drinks?"
"How about tea?" Yuri offered, "I can prepare tea for these workshops."
"I-I..." Tridon raised his hand while Sayori continued to choke him, "can do tea..."
"That settles it." Monika smiled and said, "This coming Thursday, we will have our first time handing out submissions for our impending workshop!" She looked down at at Sayori who joined her. However, Tridon remained on the ground passed out from the choking, "Be sure to bring any submissions for our workshop so that we can critique your work. Don't be afraid, this will be a great moment to receive constructive criticism for your work!"
"I guess we should thank," Sayori bent down and picked up Tridon, "our new club member Tridon for this suggestion."
"Glad I could help..." Tridon weakly stated, "I'm here always..." Sayori dropped him on the floor as she continued her speech, "Ouch..."
"So for Thursday, we expect some cupcakes, tea, and some submissions for a group workshop session!"
"Wait!" Tridon shot his hand up and proceeded to speak while moving his hand to go with his words, "Can I make another suggestion?"
"What is it?" Monika wondered.
"Can we liven this place up a little or go somewhere it doesn't seem so... bland?"
"What's wrong with the classroom?" Sayori questioned, "It's not like we can go anywhere else Tridon."
"We could always go outside and take in the nice air. When it gets too cold or if the weather is bad, we can come back in and spend time in here." Tridon hopped up and fixed himself, "When I read, I wanna be comfortable. I mean, who doesn't?" The girls nodded in agreement while he continued, "What's more comfortable than unwinding outside and just taking in the nice summer breeze before it becomes fall. Tell me I'm wrong."
"You're not." Monika answered, "Well, what do you girls say? Should our sessions be moved outside?" They all nodded with Monika nodding as well, "Then it's settled. Wow Tridon. You really know how to take charge huh?"
"Not really." Tridon retorted, "Besides, being outside makes it easier for me not to jump out that window."
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about it."
"You know," Sayori interrupted, "Why don't we go outside now?" Sayori skipped over to window and stared outside, "The weather is amazing right now. At the end of summer, the air starts to cool, but not too much. So it's perfectly warm with some nice puffy clouds outside."
"She does have a point." Natsuki joined Sayori by the window and stared outside too, "The weather is nice for just talking. Since the whole workshop thing is Thursday, who said we had to enjoy this weather later and not now?"
"I agree." Yuri added, "Nothing is better than nice weather. Especially for reading."
"Well, if we're out there today, we can't separate ourselves to read in a corner or alone." Monika shot a glance at Natsuki and Yuri before turning to Tridon, "Since our new member today did quite a bit to help jump start our club for the semester. Why don't we use this moment while outside to learn a little bit about him."
"Oh yeah." Sayori turned around and ran back over to Tridon, "I didn't tell them much about you, so I think going outside would be a great moment to tell them about yourself."
"Uh." Tridon rubbed his chin and started saying, "Well, it all started in the Summer of '86..." In the middle of Tridon's sentence, Sayori grabbed him and delivered a german suplex to Tridon, "Guack!"
Sayori stood up and dusted her skirt off, "So you guys wanna head outside now?"
"Yeah..."
"I got him. I'll be right behind you guys." Sayori picked up Tridon by his legs and dragged him through the hall.
Outside, Tridon was still on the ground while the girls sat around a tree. He turned to them and noticed he could see up their skirts, "Well that's unfortunate." Tridon turned his head and called out to Sayori, "Hey Sayori!"
"Yeah?"
"I want you to take a moment to lay down to my left and look to your left."
"Okay?" Sayori proceeded to lay down next to Tridon and looked left.
"Do you see the problem?"
"You looked."
"Well obviously! When I woke up, I had to see where you girls were." Tridon sighed and asked, "You girls did this on purpose!"
"I didn't." Sayori added, "I just sat you down there because you were getting heavy."
"Well." Tridon sat up, turned around, and proceeded to shuffle next to Yuri, "I'm not getting kicked into oblivion today."
Sayori sighed and joined the spot next to Natsuki, "You should be in front of us."
"Well, I don't want to do that by sitting in front of you girls." Tridon retorted, "Can't we just stay in this half circle?"
"Fine."
"So Tridon." Monika began, "What's your story?"
"If you say the Summer of '86 again, I'll chokeslam you through the pavement." Sayori threatened.
"Why so hostile? I thought I was your best childhood friend." Tridon sighed and started, "Well, Sayori and I met in pre-school when she glued her hand to my wrist."
"He cried." Sayori interrupted.
"She laughed." Tridon continued, "Anyway, after being stuck to each through lunch time, we actually enjoyed each other's company."
"Then we found out we lived next door to each other." Sayori explained, "Then from there, we lived next to each other until now."
"You guys have lived next to each other for that long?" Yuri asked in shock, "That's amazing."
"Trust me." Tridon continued, "Living with her has been some of the best moments of my life. She absolutely makes my day. Especially over summer break."
"What happened over the course of you life before high school?"
"Well." Tridon paused and looked at the sky, "Writer, what has this placed been confirmed to take place?"
"I wanna say Japan?" Monika answered, "But your name isn't Japanese."
"My name isn't even American..." Tridon retorted, "So where is this taking place?!"
I wanna say America to make some of your backstory make sense a little. Just go with it!
"Makes sense." Tridon nodded and continued, "Alright, so when I was in elementary school, I play a lot of football."
"Futbol or American Football?" Natsuki asked, "There is an obvious difference."
"Based on where this takes place, American Football. I played up until the year before high school."
"What changed?" Monika asked.
"I banged my knee up pretty badly midway through my last year in middle school."
"I remember that." Sayori added, "What was it exactly?"
"The cartilage in my knee was torn. Was in a wheelchair for the rest of the school year and throughout the first month of summer break."
"How is it now?" Yuri questioned, "Don't you and Sayori walk to school?"
"Yeah, but it doesn't bother me much, but the walk to and from school does put its toll on my knee."
"You should take the bus if it hurts your knee." Monika offered, "The both of you can ride it together and not have to worry about Tridon's knee giving out."
"Trust me. It's much easier to just walk. It'll help my knee get used to it. We have been walking for the last 4 years."
"That is understandable."
"That's not the only sport he's done." Sayori interrupted, "He also tried basketball for two years, but he stopped playing because of the injury."
"Did you like it?" Natsuki quickly asked, "Was it fun?"
"It was tiring." Tridon explained, "You gotta have the stamina and awareness to always be on your toes and being able to go back and forth while keeping your eyes on the game and your lungs full; it takes its toll." Tridon sighed and turned to the girls, "I didn't really like playing basketball all too much anyway. The basketball coach just told me to do so because he said I was a 'gifted' athlete. I said 'whatever'. It gave me a chance to school some nerds on the court."
"How'd you do?" Monika wondered.
"I was pretty decent. I was in the top 5 on the team, but I didn't shine as much as I did in football." Tridon leaned on the tree and looked at the leaves above him, "I guarantee you that if I could keep playing, I would be a top prospect and possibly on the way to the NFL!"
"Was he that good Sayori?"
"Definitely. He was a quarterback and he threw dots to the receivers. He was a beast and he was mobile. So he could run it down the field if nobody was open."
"That's probably what led to him getting hurt." Natsuki interrupted, "Did you know how to slide Tridon?"
"You could slide to avoid getting hit?" Tridon shot up and looked at Natsuki who nodded with the other 3 nodding with her, "Damn. I always thought that the only way to avoid getting hit was running out of bounds." Tridon nodded and raised his hands, "The more you know..."
"You're an idiot..." Sayori commented, "You could've been famous!"
"Yeah, but I won't be famous."
"Anything else interesting?" Yuri quietly began before asking, "Like your love life!"
Tridon paused with Sayori growing a look of worry on her face. The other girls noticed this and attempted to ask him, but Tridon quickly stood up, "I uh..." Tridon scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Sayori, don't you think we should head home now?"
"U-Uh. Yeah. Go and wait by the gate. I'll meet ya' there."
"Alright." Tridon quickly grabbed his bag and jogged over to the front gate.
"Sayori," Monika began, "what's up with that?"
"Uh. It's something very complicated."
"Are you gonna tell us?"
"I can't." Sayori quickly answered, "We pinkie swore never to tell anyone. I'm sorry girls, but this is something between the two of us and I just can't find it in my heart to break a pinkie promise." Sayori quickly walked away to join with Tridon at the gate.
Yuri and Natsuki looked at Monika who had her arms crossed, "Something isn't right you two."
"Obviously!" Natsuki exclaimed, "It's just not sitting well with me either."
"Maybe it's something too personal." Yuri commented, "Maybe we shouldn't tread too much on their personal lives." Yuri looked at the two walking off and looked at the ground, "Perhaps it's something that's just too hard for him to remember and he doesn't want to remember it."
"Yeah." Monika agreed, "We just gotta leave it be and wait until he trusts us to tell what happened." The two girls nodded with Monika adding, "I guess that's the end of our day today. Be safe on your way back home girls." They nodded once more before making their off the school campus.
Monika remained behind and looked at the sky, "What do you have planned writer? This is suppose to be a 'normal, vanilla' story. What the hell are you getting at?" Monika shook her head and grabbed her bag, "I've made my mistakes before, but I atoned for them. As for you, if you mess this world up, I will end you." Monika stormed off with her fists balled.
Why did I write her to be this sentient? Oh yeah, I said there would be a lot of 4th breaks and moments of sentience... I'm stupid...
A/N: I know Sayori might be a little OOC, but then again, some people have her OOC in those fan vids on youtube or fanfics. I just made her a little more aggressive as the childhood friend since I'm writing Tridon to be a random idiot from time to time. It's mostly to capitalize on their close friendship. Plus, I thought it'd be funny to imagine Sayori putting someone in a chokehold or suplexing someone. Expect more of that in the future. Anyway, I hope I see all of you in the next chapter very soon. Later!
