RING!

'Good work today everyone! Remember, I would like questions 1-12 completed by Tuesday. Any problems don't hesitate to email me! Dismissed!'

Rena slid her books into her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She opened her phone and made a quick note on the homework before turning to Honey Lemon and linking arms with her.

'Everyone still on for that new pancake place?' Rena asked her. Honey Lemon was usually up to date on these things. She was the one that organised when they met up and where they went and all that boring stuff that Rena couldn't be bothered with.

'Yep! And they have a two for one offer on for students.'

'You're good aren't you?'

'Thank you! I try very hard.'

They met Gogo, Wasabi and Tadashi out in the corridor. Gogo walked next to her, ranting about how she was cheated out of an A+ just because she gave the answer to the wrong amount of decimal places.

Rena elbowed her playfully. 'Rookie mistake! You always read the question twice!'

'Yeah well it's not my fault. This guy came crashing into the classroom about halfway through and from then on my concentration was all wack.'

'What guy?'

'I don't know, one of Abigail's friends. He's meant to be a helper or something but all he did was succeed in being extremely annoying. And he was only in there for like, 10 seconds. Think his name is... Charlie? Cameron? Something beginning with C anyway.'

'Caine?'

'That's it, yeah. Why? You know him?'

Rena shrugged. It had been a week or so since Caine had first introduced himself and the guy didn't seem to leave her alone. She didn't really mind, he was sweet really. Plus, he seemed actually interested in what she had to say. He never seemed to stick around for long though, as soon as Caine caught sight of Hiro he would excuse himself and leave very quickly. But Rena shrugged it off. He was probably just shy or something. A bit weird to be scared of a fourteen year-old, but it was unfair to hold that against him. For some reason Hiro often did intimidate strangers. it was probably just a combo of his massive IQ and wide eyes and scared people off. She felt bad for him sometimes even if the youngest Hamada didn't seem to mind it. 'I've talked to him a couple of times, yeah.'

'Oh I see how it is, trying to replace us with a hot older guy?' Gogo smirked, hitting Rena's arm teasingly.

Rena choked on air. 'I.. what?! No!... You think he's hot?'

Gogo winked and Rena gagged. 'Nope. Nuh uh. Absolutely not. Honey Lemon, back me up on this!'

'He's not that bad...'

Rena threw her hands in the air dramatically 'ugh! You two!'

'Statistically, you're the weird one here.'

'Just because he's not my type!'

'What is your type then?' Gogo asked her casually.

Rena shrugged, trying to hide her discomfort as best as she could. What was her type? She never really gave any attention to boys, they just annoyed her. She'd much rather just not bother with them... at all. 'Uhhh, I don't know? Not Caine?'

Honey Lemon shook her head. 'Honestly Hamada, have you ever even kissed anyone?'

Rena laughed nervously. They rounded the corner and she spotted Hiro at the end of the hallway, silently thanking whatever God was out there for this lucky save. 'Hiro!'

Her younger brother turned and grinned at them as he saw them approach. 'Hi!'

'How was maths?'

'God have you got my timetable memorised? Yeah, it was alright.'

Rena shrugged. She continued walking and Hiro followed her, pushing open the doors and letting the sunlight stream through into the hallway. 'Coming to that new pancake place? What was it called, Smithy's Pancake Bar? Something like that.'

The grin slid off Hiro's face. 'Oh.. that was today? Shoot! Sorry, I promised Harvey that I would work on our project with him tonight.'

'Well, tough luck then buddy.'

'Ah well, I'm sure I can handle missing out just this once. Hey Fred!'

Fred came bounding over to them excitedly, brandishing his shiny new SFIT sign. 'Hey guys! Let's go straight there because I am STARVING!'

'Fred.. you ate three pizzas for lunch like... an hour ago. I'm surprised you still want to come.' Wasabi said, sounding half disgusted and half impressed.

Fred shrugged. 'You could say it's my superpower. Speaking of-'

'Nope. Not happening, not today.' Tadashi laughed.

'Oh come on! I had an idea, just hear me out. Right, okay. So-'

'And I'm gonna take that as my cue to bounce.' Said Hiro. He hoisted his backpack further up his shoulders and started retreating. 'I'll see you guys later!'

'Don't do anything I wouldn't do!' Rena called after him. He rolled his eyes before turning his back.

'Make sure to call if you need anything!' Tadashi yelled. Hiro ignored him. Rena didn't blame him, she would too. Tadashi turned to his sister. 'Do you think he heard? Should I just text him to make sure?'

'Uhh, no? Stop stressing, he's fine!' Rena said, although he didn't look convinced.

'I'll text him just to make sure.'

Rena rolled her eyes. Ever since Hiro had been caught for gambling, he'd been even more protective than usual. It was starting to get on her nerves a bit, even if she did understand why. Tadashi was terrified of their little brother falling back into botfighting. Rena was as well, especially since the fire. She'd been even more worried about the safety of their tiny family. At least she had the consideration not to be so whiny and annoying about it all the time. 'I don't think that's necessary... like, at all.'

'Well good thing that I don't listen to you then.'

'You should. We all know that I'm the wisest.'

'Wisest? HA! More like weirdest.'

'Bloody hell! Calm down Tadashi, I don't think I'll be able to take much more of a severe mental beating.'

'Oh shut up-'

'Hey guys! Did you hear about my really awesome plan that we're totally doing?' Fred burst into the middle of their conversation and threw his arms around the both of them, sandwiching himself in the middle of them. 'Everyone agreed to it!'

'Actually, if I recall, we said no-' Wasabi started but Fred kept talking so that the poor guy couldn't get a word in edge-ways.

'So yeah everyone is really on bored with it, as I've said. Okay, so you know how we all really want to be superheroes cause it's really cool and exciting?'

'Umm, no.' Rena answered, but Fred ignored her. She had the feeling that that was intended as a rhetorical question.

'Right, so I say we patrol the city again. All of us this time. Then, we can find that weird guy with his glowing stuff and we can track him down and save the city!'

'Fred!' Rena facepalmed, 'listen, I get your concern but there's many things wrong with that plan.'

'Name one!'

'Okay. Well, firstly, we don't even know if this guy was up to anything evil. What if it was just something innocent that we caught out of context? We can't stalk the city for an innocent person!'

'Yeah, but what if he's not innocent? Then what?'

'Second thing, San Fransokyo is literally massive. How the hell are we going to find one guy when we don't even know what he looks like?'

'Baymax can scan him! He did it with Callaghan, didn't he?'

'One slight problem with that though.' Tadashi said, sliding Fred's arm off his shoulder as he spoke. 'We have no Baymax, and we won't for a long time. Besides, he would be no help if we did anyway! He wasn't with you when you found him, so he wasn't able to scan him.'

Fred's face fell. 'Alright, slight flaw there. But I'm sure we could find him if work hard enough. You're all super smart, why don't you just make an invention to find him?'

'That's not how anything works.'

Fred pouted. 'Fine! I'll find him on my own. But I'll need your help to defeat him once I do find him, will you?'

'Fred-'

'Will you?' He asked again, a lot more insistent this time. 'Please?'

Rena sighed, exchanging a glance with Tadashi. He shrugged and she nodded reluctantly. 'Fine! Will you shut up now?'

'YESSS!' He yelled, punching the air.

Rena sighed. She had only said yes because she knew he would never find that guy on his own. 'I swear to god...' She muttered to herself as she watched him dance along the grass towards where the cars were parked.

'He's gonna do something stupid, isn't he?' Tadashi asked nervously.

'Listen, you can't start stressing about Fred as well. I feel like you'll literally spontaneously combust.'

Tadashi laughed. 'Alright. True. Do you wanna drive?'

Rena shook her head. She didn't know why he still bothered asking. She hated driving. 'Nah. But I call shot gun because i am NOT listening to Wasabi's music again. Ever.'

'What's wrong with it?'

'Buddy. Come on. You listen to nothing but Phil Collins.'

'Yeah, what's up with Phil?'

'Literally everything.'


'Oh my god no way.'

They'd just pulled up outside the pancake place and Rena caught a glimpse of someone with a familiar mess of shaggy blonde hair in the window. She was half tempted to turn around and drive home, but she wasn't that cruel.

It's not like Caine was a bad person. He was just a little bit annoying with his constant questions and intrusive stare. (And those eyes! Seriously, why did they bother her so much?) But hey, he listened to her. And he made her feel interesting. So that was something at least.

Wasabi held the door open and she had barely stepped two feet into the place when he was in her face. 'Hey Rena! Fancy seeing you here!'

'Hey Caine. I didn't realise that you worked here.'

He shrugged. 'It's only part time. Besides, I'm never in on Fridays. Might as well do something with my free time.'

'Well yeah, fair enough I guess.'

'So how are you doing?'

'Pretty good I guess, you?'

'Same as always. Anyways, I'd best get back to work. Give me a shout when you're ready to order and I'll come over.'

'Okay, thanks.'

He smiled and zig-zagged between the tables to an family of four sitting over in the corner. Wasabi came up behind Rena and eyed the little kids sat at the table. They were little, the oldest being about four and the younger one being a baby barely old enough to walk. 'Can we sit away from those kids?' He asked.

As if on cue, the older one opened his mouth and began an epic tantrum. Caine stepped back from the screaming child as his parents tried to calm him down and Rena didn't blame him. 'Oh yeah. Absolutely.'

They weaved between the tables until they found a vacated booth at the back of the restaurant, tucked neatly out of the way in a little corner. Rena slid in, sandwiched in-between Honey Lemon and Gogo. The boys sat opposite them, Fred and Wasabi already bickering about something.

'Wasabi, of course it's science!'

'No it's not!'

'Uh huh! Why would they call it science fiction if it wasn't science?'

'Are you aware of what the word FICTION means?' Wasabi buried his head in his hands, 'Fred, it's not possible.'

'What does he want?' Gogo laughed.

'A shrink ray!' Fred exclaimed excitedly.

'Freddie, Wasabi's right. That's not science.' Honey Lemon said gently.

'Oh yeah? Just like that invisible sandwich wasn't "science" either?'

'Yes! Exactly like that!'

'I don't know what you guys mean.' Rena said, smirking. 'Of course a shrink ray is possible. In fact, I dare say that it would be easy for Wasabi to create.'

Fred grinned at her and Wasabi looked like he was about to cry. 'WHY would you say that?'

'Okay let's move on. Before Wasabi has a mental breakdown.' Gogo said, but she was clearly trying very hard not to laugh. 'Where's the waiter?'

'There's one over there!' Honey Lemon exclaimed, waving the waiter over.

'Oh no, not him!' Rena hissed. She really didn't want another reason for Gogo to think that she was head over heels for the guy.

Too late. He'd practically ran over as soon as he saw Honey Lemon trying to get his attention. 'Hey SFIT gang! How are we all doing today? Having a great time?!'

We've literally been here five minutes. Rena thought to herself, but she opted against being rude to him. 'Hi Caine.' Rena said, subtlety shooting Honey Lemon daggers. 'Any chance of some menus?'

He produced a stack of laminated menus from behind his back and dumped them on the table. The plastic slid across the table and Rena grabbed one. 'Do you guys need a minute or are you ready to order now? I can take drinks orders now?'

'Drinks will do.' Rena said, scanning the small section of the menu. 'Uhh, I'll just have a diet coke.'

'Same.' Gogo said, nodding.

'I'll have a green tea.' Said Honey Lemon. Caine scribbled the order down and looked expectantly at the boys.

'I'll take the biggest chocolate milkshake in the building! With extra whipped cream and sprinkles and-'

'Just a water for me thanks.' Wasabi added, butting in over Fred.

Caine smiled and noted it down. 'Anything else?' He asked, looking at Tadashi.

'Just a lemonade.' He said.

'Alright, cool. I'll get those now for you.'

He left and Rena sighed, sliding down in her seat. 'Why's he even working here? Do SFIT not give him enough?'

'Clearly not.' Wasabi said, eyeing his retreating back. 'Does he seem a little weird to anyone else?'

'Oh yeah. Totally.' Gogo replied, 'I feel like he's really unqualified. Plus he seems like a little bit of a creep.'

'I know what you mean.' Honey Lemon added, nodding thougtfully. 'He does seem a little... off.'

'Hey he's not that bad!' Rena protested, surprising even herself. Sure, he was annoying but he was still nice enough. The guy was just a little enthusiastic is all! 'I'm not saying that I'm his best friend or anything, but he seems pretty cool to me.'

'You sure you're not best friends?' Gogo teased, 'he's ALWAYS talking to you.'

'I reckon he wants something from you.' Fred said mysteriously.

'It's not a bad shout.'

'Hang on, backtrack a second! First of all, what do I have that Caine could possibly want? Also, is it really that hard to believe that he might just like talking to me, you know, as a friend?'

'No offence, but yeah.' Gogo shrugged.

'Gogo doesn't mean it like that!' Honey Lemon exclaimed quickly as she caught a look at Rena's face. 'You're just a little... hostile is all. It took ages to get you to actually become friends with us instead of just staying shut off and unfriendly.'

'Harsh! I'm not that bad!'

'Don't lie, yes you were. Especially last year.'

Rena sat back in her seat and blew a strand of hair out her face. She bit back a retort and instead remained silent. She hated them because they had a point. 'Yeah yeah, whatever.'

'Moving on.' Honey Lemon said somewhat nervously, 'is anyone else going back to campus tonight? I'm still working on that formula for chemical metal embrittlement, I think I'm almost there but putting some extra work in tonight would really help.'

'I wasn't going to, but if everyone else is I might as well.' Gogo responded, shrugging.

Wasabi stopped studying the menu for a second and said 'sorry, I can't. I'm babysitting tonight for my neighbour.'

'Rena?' Honey Lemon asked.

'Well if Tadashi is going then I might as well.' She looked at her brother for an answer but he wasn't paying any attention to her, he was too busy typing something into his phone. 'Oi!' He didn't respond so she resorted to kicking him under the table.

Tadashi yelped and his phone slid out of his hand and landed on the table. 'OW! Don't you think that was a little unnecessary?' He complained, rubbing his shin where she'd struck him. He chewed his lip anxiously and Rena made a mental note to interrogate him later, not wanting to ruin the mood.

'Stop whining, woman up.' Gogo said, 'you coming or not?'

'Coming where?'

'SFIT! Were you even listening?'

'Would you be offended if I said no?'

'Extremely.' Gogo replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Tadashi clicked his phone off and tucked it away in his jacket pocket. 'Uhh, yeah I probably will. Baymax needs all the work he can get at the minute.'

'Yay! I love writing down lists of chemicals!' Rena said sarcastically. Truthfully though, she didn't mind it. Not like it was difficult anyway.

'Hey if you want to whine about it then you can always do some coding?'

Rena shook her head. 'NOPE! Ugh, I can't think of anything worse.'

'What's wrong with coding?' Wasabi asked, interested.

'Hey, I'll do it if I have to! It's just boring.'

'What, and writing down ingredients for antiseptics is the epitome of excitement?' Gogo smirked.

'Don't question my logic!'

'I'll question your shitty logic all I want.' Gogo said, grinning.

An old woman walking past them gave a scandalised gasp, holding her hand over her heart like she'd been wounded. 'Young lady! You should no better, that is in no way acceptable! I will pray for your damaged soul in hopes that you will find refuge in the Lord.'

For a second, they all stared at one another, not daring to say a word. Then, as soon as she got out of earshot, they erupted into laughter. Rena collapsed against Honey Lemon, her chest heaving. She wiped a tear from her face and gasped 'stop! How will we find refuge in the Lord if we act like this?!'

'Gonna get your Bible out, Gogo?' Tadashi laughed.

Gogo reached over the table and pulled his cap down over his eyes. 'Buddy, if anyone here is going to be a die-hard Christian then it's you!'

'She's not wrong.' Fred said.

'Woah there gang?! What's so funny!'

Rena jumped. She hadn't even realised that Caine had returned with their drinks. 'Oh... just the fact that Gogo is becoming a devout Christian.'

Caine blinked, clearly unsure as to whether or not the middle Hamada was joking. Gogo was quite possibly the least religious person that walked the planet. 'Riiiiight... I've got your drinks!' He started handing out the drinks without further commenting on the matter. A smart move, in Rena's opinion.

Gogo went to grab a diet coke on the tray but Caine was faster. 'Not so fast! That one belongs to Rena!'

He handed her the drink, which she accepted with a mumbled thanks. Well. That was... weird?

'Uhh, does it actually matter?' Gogo asked incredulously.

Caine smiled at her. 'Good customer service is of upmost importance, duh!'

Rena blinked. 'What?'

'The straw!' He said beaming.

She glanced down at her drink. The straw was orange and she smiled, remembering the conversation in which she'd told him her favourite colour. 'Oh! I see now. Thanks.'

'No problem!' He winked, 'are we ready to order?'

As they all gave Caine their orders, Rena twirled the straw in her fingers. It was sweet, she was actually rather touched that he remembered this little detail about her. He didn't even question why such an ugly colour was her favourite, which was new. People always asked whenever she mentioned it, which the teen found really weird. Why did anyone actually care? Caine simply nodded and moved on. She tried to tell herself that it wasn't a big deal, it was just a stupid straw. But she couldn't help but smile. Maybe Caine was her friend after-all.

'Alright, thanks guys! The wait shouldn't be too long.'

He turned and strode back to the kitchen.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Gogo looked directly at Rena and cackled. 'OooOoOoOooO! Special straw just for Rena!'

'No stop!' Rena said, hiding her face in her hands to conceal her flushed cheeks. There was no way in hell that she liked Caine. Nope. Not at all. In fact, she was absolutely certain that there was not a single atom in her entire being that was attracted to the guy. Besides, she was pretty sure that she'd literally never had a crush on any guy ever. Nah, she didn't have the time for boys in her life. Also, living with two brothers she definitely didn't need another boy in her life. Of course she loved her brothers, she just felt like tearing her own hair out sometimes.

In fact, the only person that she had ever had a crush on was... no. She had told herself never to think about it. It was too painful, and she had already shed too many tears. In fact, if Caine had bothered to ask, he would know why her favourite colour was orange. And why he should stop hitting on her.

She felt like breaking down and crying. Why was this all so confusing? It was just a straw! One second she thought it was cool that she didn't need to explain herself to him and now she was demanding that she does? Why was she such a mess?

'Rena.' Tadashi said.

She lifted her head and took a huge gulp of coke before answering. 'What?'

'I know I shouldn't get involved because it's your personal life but this guy is quite a bit older-'

'I'M GOING TO THE BATHROOM!' She half yelled. Gogo slid out of the booth and Rena practically ran to the bathroom. She sank down on the toilet seat and lent her forehead against the door, closing her eyes as she did so.

There was no way she was going to have that conversation with Tadashi. Ever. What must he think of her? She felt as though she'd wormed her way into a hole now. Brilliant. Now everyone was going to think that she was completely head over heels for Caine when she was really anything but. Why did it even matter?! They were just friends! Why'd Caine have to be so annoying and insistent? And why were her friends so convinced that she liked him?

She wanted to scream the truth in their faces. After all, there was a very good reason that Rena Hamada was not in love with Caine. And it wasn't just the fact that he was a legal adult and she was only 17.

No, the problem was that the only person she had ever liked was gone from her life. Snatched away just as Rena had plucked up the courage to kiss them. Ever since, she'd distanced herself away from romantic attraction and was extremely determined not to fall in love again. It was too painful, and why have heartache when you can just shove everything down and get on with your work?

Oh, and this person was a girl.

Rena Hamada was gay.

She wanted to tell her friends, but she was absolutely terrified. Not because they would be homophobic or anything, but because she'd never admitted it to anyone. Now that she thought about it, she had never properly admitted it to herself. She was scared!

Rena opened her eyes and sat back in the bathroom stall, thinking about how her friends would be missing her but also not really caring. She stayed like that until her legs went numb and she had no other option but to stagger out of the stall and splash her face with cold water.

'Okay.' She whispered to her reflection, watching a drop of cold water run down her cheek like a single tear. 'Stop. You're okay, it's just a stupid joke. Caine doesn't like you, and you certainly don't like him. Just breathe, and go back out there.'

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, wondering why her head suddenly felt so foggy. She walked back across the restaurant in a half daze, only realising that the food had come when she sank down into her chair next to Gogo and looked down to see a steaming plate of pancakes that made her stomach turn.

'You okay?' Tadashi asked, peering at her with an annoying look of concern on his face, 'you look pretty pale.'

No. I feel like shit, quite frankly. Oh, and I just came to the revolutionary discovery that I'm gay only after shoving it down for about six years and pretending everything was fine but now I'm pretty close to exploding or something.

Instead, she just smiled. 'No, I'm fine.'


A/N; Woah, author's note at the end today! Wild. I pretty much just wanted to say sorry for the story being a little slow so far, I swear it will pick up a LOT starting from the next chapter. I just wanted things to be a little chill before plunging straight into action. It's also nice to have a chapter or two of them just being friends and being normal teenagers, you know? But yeah! As always, reviews and follows are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading and uhh keep being really cool :)))). Also, I hope that everyone likes the added revelation! Pretty cool, huh? I really didn't know how to reveal this because I've been thinking about it for quite a while, but I feel like Rena is the type of person to just shove everything down and pretend like her gayness doesn't exist.

And if you're a homophobe? Why are you reading fanfiction lmao get ur stinky ass off my profile.

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