'Alright, Akko, you can do this. No problemo.'
Akko wanted to believe her thoughts, but the menacing looking door for her high school was getting the best of her. What if she doesn't fit in? She's always read those chicken soup for the soul books about how high school can either be the most miserable or the most exciting milestone for a person's life. While the book goes through the typical 'blah, blah' about doing well at school, Akko agrees with herself that it's easier read than done.
Akko peered through the glass paned door, looking for anyone she might recognize, maybe Sucy and Lotte will pass by, after all three of them enrolled into Luna Nova at the same time. It was just Lady Luck that intervened that day, separating the trio and making Akko fend for herself. With a huff, Akko backed away from the door and sat on the grass.
"'Still got here way too early cause of Okasan mistaking the time of my first class, maybe that's why Sucy and Lotte aren't there yet.' She sighed, and rested her chin on her palm,
"Guess I'll just wait."
"1-A?" Akko looked confused, she showed the administrator the transcript, and pointed at the number, "Am I one of the first enrollee or something?" Honestly, Akko could care less about where she was placed, as long as Sucy and Lotte were with her.
"The placement of new-coming students is random, Miss Kagari." The admin did not bother to look up, continuing to type on her keyboard, "If you are unsatisfied with your schedule, please submit a request slip."
Akko felt her eyebrow twitch, 'Rude much?'
Lotte chimed in, giving Akko her friendly signature smiles, "Akko, is it really that bad if we're not in the same class this year?" Akko froze, "I don't imagine us having very much time to spend in the classroom, and we can always eat lunch together, the lunch times are determined by year after all."
It was Sucy's turn, turning to face Akko, "Plus I'd rather not get dropped after some foolishness you will undoubtedly commit." Seeing Akko's pout, Sucy formed a mischievous grin continuing to work on some strange…formulas?
'Says you' Akko thought, recalling her unpleasant experiences with Sucy's concoctions
The admin suddenly intruded, "Miss Manbavaran, please refrain from talking to fellow students in a degrading manner."
Sucy nodded, but the grin still remained, "Sure, ma'am."
Akko scoffed, everyone knows it's better to make a deal with the devil than make a promise with Sucy, still she couldn't help thinking that Sucy was one of her closest friends, even if Sucy comes off as stoic and deprecating. Her self-discovery of her loyalty to her friends makes it even harder for them to be separated from each other.
Lotte grabbed Akko's hand, getting her attention, "We promise that we'll eat lunch with you every day," The Finnish girl gave Akko a squeeze of reassurance, "even if I have to drag Sucy there." Which the Filipino girl responded with an eyeroll.
Akko smiled, 'What would I do without either of them?" The image of Sucy being literally dragged into the Cafeteria by Lotte alone makes it seem worth it.
She sighed, "Fine" she muttered
The admin who just finished with encoding another set of student record finally looked up, and to the trio's surprise gave her own soft smile,
"Alright Miss Kagari, your final schedules for first semester will be finished and passed out by tomorrow." Akko nodded, the admin turned to Sucy and Lotte "And the same thing for you two, please pick it up here tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am"
"Sure."
"ALRIGHT!" Akko punched the air in excitement, "This'll be the best year ever or I'll make it!" she felt blood pumping through her veins and was ready to tackle on the world.
Admin who was back to typing once again addressed Akko, "I have no influence on your plans, but please try not to shout in the administrative building Miss Kagari." Akko felt her breath hitched when she remembered where they were, and the people staring at her in confusion.
'Good job, Akko.' She thought sarcastically, but she had to do something, so she brought a hand to the back of her neck and forced a laugh, "Hahaha, my bad everyone."
But the ensuing silence was not what she expected nor wanted.
Sucy perked up though, stopping her writing for a moment, her stoic expression in full effect
"You are something else, Akko"
'Who in the Nine is that?' Diana thought to herself, taking a peek at the one-way glass. There was what looked to be a brunette girl rubbing her neck awkwardly while several people in the room were staring.
'Strange' she thought, while it's impossible for any school to not have any 'spontaneous' students, she'd at least think every student can show some decency when it pertains to staff members.
"Miss Cavendish?" a voice broke her train of thought, "is everything all right?"
Diana looked back at Principal Holbrooke, and shook off her distractions, "My apologies, again I'd like to thank you for this opportunity for me to attend this institution." Principal Holbrooke waved her hand in dismissal
"The pleasures all mine, after all your family has quite a history with Luna Nova don't, they?" While Diana knew that the principal never meant it in that way, she can't help but feel her heart throb. Holbrooke must've also noticed as she looked at Diana who seemed downcast.
"Oh, my most sincere apologies Diana, I never meant it in that wa-
"It's fine ma'am." Diana interrupted, trying to keep her voice steady, "Is my schedule ready?"
The principal placed the transcript on the table, and pointed to the top-right corner, in big bold print, "You're assigned section is 1-A, but the admin still needs to finalize encoding, so you may pick it up tomorrow."
"Thank you, Principal Holbrooke," Diana gave a polite nod, and rose from her chair, "Oh, and I'm sorry for my rudeness but may I request something?"
Holbrooke gave her a soft smile, "Of course, Miss Cavendish."
Diana blushed, not used to being able to ask for things, "…My mother, Bernadette Cavendish, do you perhaps have any…school records of her? Preferably pictures." She mentally scolded herself for getting so choked up, but to her surprise the principal remained smiling.
Holbrooke nodded "I'll see what I can find."
A gentle warmth crept up Diana's spine, and she smiled, "My deepest gratitude. I look very much to starting school principal. Goodbye for now." Diana gave a courteous bow with Holbrooke returning her own, and walked outside the office.
Upon walking out onto the main lobby, she encounters the same strange brunette girl again, but instead of trying to ease the air of embarrassment, she was now full-blown sobbing onto her blonde-haired friend's shoulder right in the middle of the building.
"WAAAH I'm gonna miss you guys!" the brunette cried out, though her voice was slightly muffled by the fabric she was crying on.
The girl with glasses looked uncomfortable while she herself was trying to comfort the brunette, patting her back and shushing her, "Um…Akko, we're still going to the same school, we're not leaving or anything."
The other girl next to her with dark pink hair was busy jotting something down on a notebook, apparently disinterested if that was possible, "You're not leaving you mean?" she asked which quickly got reciprocated with a quick elbow to her sides, courtesy of the blonde girl who immediately went back to soothing the brunette. Diana could see beads of sweat forming on her forehead, and she does not blame the girl in the slightest, especially with all those people watching her in shock.
'Well I have to do something, don't I?' Diana thought to herself, ignoring the gasps from the crowd recognizing who she was she strode up to three girls, and cleared her throat. After a moment, the three went silent as they noticed presence of the platinum haired girl.
Diana began once the brunette girl was only lightly sniffing, "I'm sorry to intrude on your…gathering, but you are causing a scene in this building," Diana expressed by waving her hand across the room, with a good crowd of people looking in what is probably confusion.
Lotte was the first to perk up, "Oh! I'm sorry, my friend here is just having some…separation anxiety." Lotte blushed in embarrassment, but quickly dismissed it, "I'm Lotte Yanson, this is Sucy Manbavaran," she nodded towards the girl still writing with a now dull pencil. She grabbed Akko's shoulder and turned her around, the brunette girl surprised by the action, "and this is Atsuko Kagari."
Diana looked at the strange mystery girl, observing her facial structure, and small stature she assumed Atsuko was of Asian descent, Diana after a very brief inspection of the girl found that she was beautiful, with a nice figure, however the most prominent feature of the girl were her big, red eyes. Even with small pools of fresh tears haven fallen from her face the natural details Diana was able to determine almost effortlessly, the color of crimson, and absolutely magnificent, and so sharp it felt like if the brunette were starting right into her soul Diana felt herself being put into a trance.
'Lotte-!' Akko couldn't believe her friend was showing off her crying face to the world (or a small amount of people but same thing), but when she turned around, she was surprised by a new face.
The girl was absolutely gorgeous, like the one's people would find on the cover of those fashion magazines. Bright fair blue eyes, silky blonde hair with green tints, and facial details so ethereal Akko couldn't believe this was a human being. And Akko glancing down, can't help but note even with the shirt dress the blonde was wearing, her figure was outstanding.
Akko could not figure out speech in that moment, but made do with whatever was still running in her head, "Ugh, we, well hello there, fellow student."
'By the Nine, what was that Akko?!" she internally screamed at herself. Her less than ideal introduction seemed to have brought the blonde-haired girl back to attention, she cleared her throat.
"Good morning, Miss Kagari was it?" The girl asked, Akko nodded in response, she was going to go with the "Just call me Akko" response but the blonde's upstanding air Akko felt, she decided that she'll just work it out later
"Well I was just suggesting that whatever business you and your friends were discussing at the moment, can be taken elsewhere, this is still a school after all despite class not beginning yet." Akko internally sighed, 'Ok well not exactly the friendliest first encounter I had, but I'm still friends with Sucy.'
The blonde finished, "Will that be any trouble Miss Kagari?"
Akko smiled and gave a thumbs up, "Sure! No problem…" she stopped once she realized she never got her name
"Diana Cavendish," the girl answered, "and thank you for obliging, you as well Miss Manbavaran and Miss Yanson" Akko saw her friends say their farewells, with Sucy raising her non-writing hand for a split-second. With that, Akko watched Diana walk past them until she remembered something
"WAIT, Diana!" she called out, the blonde immediately responded and turned around only for Akko to grab her wrist with her own
Diana turned around and felt her hands being snagged, only to be entrapped in soft, small hands, and noticeably warm might she add, but she could only feel shocked by Atsuko's sudden action
Atsuko, still giving her a bright smile, let their hands remain entertained, much to Diana's embarrassment, "Before you go, can you tell me your section?" Atsuko asked her
Diana, gears in her mind still processing the events replied, "1-A is written in my schedule." and the answer had an immediate effect on Akko and honestly more so on her. She was pulled into a bone-crushing hug, despite Atsuko being fairly smaller than her. Diana's mind was a blank slate at this point unable to comprehend such spontaneity at one time.
"Oh my god, oh my god, me too!" Akko laughed in joy, "We'll be classmates then, I can't wait now!" she let go of Diana and started jumping in excitement. Diana, who was able to return to normal began to speak
"Atsuko- "
But was cut off, "Call me Akko, please? That's what all my friends call me." She smiled brightly, her crimson eyes in full display
Diana too bothered to put up a fight gave her own soft smile and nodded, "Very well…. Akko." In all honestly Diana wanted to spend more time in figuring out how she made a friend in a span of five minutes, and the sight of Akko still bouncing about was a heart-warming sight, but the time on her cell phone didn't allow her,
"I'm terribly sorry Akko, but I must get going." She apologized, truly she didn't want to leave her new friend without getting a coffee or such.
however, the brunette giggled, and waved her hand, "Nono, it's my fault for keeping you, I'll see you in class then?"
Diana let out a sigh of relief, "Oh course," she waved goodbye to Akko and her friends and opened the tall, wooden door, "I look forward to it."
Akko ran over to hug her friends, who Lotte was silently cheering Akko on and Sucy who remained indifferent and found that mush tiresome, "I already have a new friend guys!" she exclaimed.
Lotte patted her head, "I knew you could do it Akko. "
Sucy looked up at Akko, "Yay for the idiot…" Akko rolled her eyes but retained her smile, Diana Cavendish, her first high school friend. She couldn't believe it happened so fast, and was about to start another round of cheers when someone behind them cleared their throat, the admin remaining stoic, but her eyebrows were curled up,
"Miss Kagari, please adhere to the advice Miss Cavendish gave you a few minutes ago."
Akko who was again embarrassed looked at the crowd of people who looked like they were there the entire time, "hehe, sorry ma'am."
Akko sighed again, and peered looked at the entrance of the school, people were starting to go inside, and the campus was starting to come to life. No encounter with Sucy or Lotte yet, but there was still hope, Akko smiled, and stood up. She pulled out her final schedule and skimmed to her first class, "Ursula…Callistis, Homeroom." She smiled and started walking towards the entrance
A/N: Progress towards the actual beginning of the superhero stuff is being made slowly, but considering how I wrote this chapter, I hope you guys like preludes
Sorry if you don't like italics, they're meant only for flashbacks but I did not mean for this entire chapter to be a flashback. Whateves, til next time, ciao.