(Wow, it's been awhile. A long while. 4 months to be exact. I never expected this to get anywhere, and I still don't, but I've been thinking about it a lot recently and decided to upload more of the story since I already had so much of it made. On top of that, the longer the story is, the more likely it is to be seen, since some people like to look for longer stories, at least that's what I normally do. It was just a thought. Anyways, I'll stop rambling. I'm glad to be back, and hope to be much more on top of this. Thank you for being patient, and I hope you enjoy. As always, I'm very open to any kind of criticism anyone wants to throw my way.)

I do not own Doki Doki Literature Club, nor do I own any of the characters portrayed within this story.

I woke up the next morning before my original alarm went off. I was twelve minutes before it, but I wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be so I just disabled it and got up to do my morning routine. So much for giving myself more sleep, I thought.

Before I know it, it's time to head out. I got to the front of Natalie's house, but she wasn't outside yet, which was unusual for her. I shot her a text.

Are you up? I'm outside your house. I text her.

I got a text back almost immediately.

I'm sorry! I'm running a little behind. I'll be out in one minute.

Well, at least she's up and moving.

Surprisingly on time, about a minute later, Natalie comes outside, hair messier than usual, bow off center, bag hanging off one shoulder, she's breathing really heavily.

"Geez, are you alright?" I grab her bag strap and puller her closer. I reach out and straighten her bow out, and pull her other strap up over her other shoulder so she isn't straining herself. "What did you do, run all over the place getting ready?" I say with a little chuckle.

"That's…*huff*… exactly…* huff*… it…" she barely gets out.

"Alright, take a second to catch your breath. We have time, it's alright." I reassure her.

After a minute or two, she's caught her breath and we start walking. I give her a water bottle from my bag (I always bring one to school. I didn't like to drink from the water fountains if I didn't have to). She gratefully accepts it.

"Hey Nick?"

"What's up?"

"Thank you…"

"For what?"

"For… everything just then…" she says slowly

I gave her a little playful shove. "Don't mention it Nat. I'm just looking out for you."

"No, really. I almost made you late, and you still were so nice to me. You shouldn't worry about me so much."

I was kind of confused. "Why would I be upset with you? I was just helping you out. Isn't that what friends are for?" I give her a little smile.

She kept gazing forwards. "I guess so. I just don't want to be a nuisance…"

"You aren't a nuisance! Absolutely not! You should never think that. I know you would do the same for me." I can't believe she would even think such a thing. This wasn't like Natalie. Something is up and she isn't telling me. I remember how she was a little distant yesterday, so I decided not to mention anything. At least, not at the moment.

"If you say so." She said shrugging a little.

It's silent for a little bit, so I decide to try and break it.

"So, what do you think we'll be doing in the club today?"

"I'm not too sure. Probably something to do with writing." She responds

"You don't know? Aren't you the vice president?" I hope that didn't come off sounding too rude. I didn't mean it to be.

"Yeah, but Marissa does most of the work and keeps it a secret from me. The only time my 'vice president' title really shines through is when I'm helping her with a project or she needs me to do some dirty work for her."

"Seriously? What do you mean by 'dirty work'?"

"I don't know. Like making pamphlets, or coming up with ideas for flyers to advertise the club. Just stuff like that." She says

"Do you like doing that stuff? I mean, it doesn't sound too entertaining, but, do you find enjoyment in doing that stuff?"

"No." She said blankly

I give in. I can't take when she does this.

"Natalie?"

She looks up at me. "Hm?"

"What's wrong? Something is certainly bothering you. You're running behind, you don't seem yourself, somethings off. Am I reading too far into this? Are you okay?"

She doesn't say anything at first, but shakes her head and replies. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay!" She smiles.

Hmm.

"I know I said it yesterday, but I'd like to reiterate. If you ever want to talk about something, I'm always open ears. You know that, right?"

"Seriously Nick, I'm fine. Y-You worry about me too much, hehe…"

There's that stutter again…

"Okay. If you say you're alright, I'll take your word for it." I say.

She smiles at me again, as if she's trying really hard to convince me she's really alright. Although I know she's hiding something, I smile back. I'll get to the bottom of it.

Before we know it, we're at school, we say our goodbyes, and go our separate ways.

The school day is average. Nothing really to talk about. The end of the day comes quicker than expected, and it's time for clubs. I walked out of eighth period, and there was Natalie to walk me to the club again. I have to say, it was nice to have something to look forward to at the end of school. I didn't do anything, with anyone for that matter, after school. So, it was cool to get to see Natalie at the end of the day. It felt like we were spending more time together, just like the old days. Just like the old days? I thought. God, I'm mentally 50.

We roll up into the literature club and set our stuff aside.

"Hey everybody!" Natalie beams to the other members. They all greet her as well, and say hello to me too. Aside from Naomi, who ignores me and does her usual thing in the back of the room.

I decided today would be the day I see what's up with Naomi, and see if I can get closer with her like I have with Ada. See what her interests are, that kind of thing. We had a little bit of downtime before we got into the swing of things. I make my way to the back of the classroom.

"Whatchya doin' there?" I ask

She jumps, not expecting me. "Jesus! What, do I have to put a bell on you?!"

"Eheh, sorry about that," I ask her again "what're you doing in the closet back here?" I decide to hold off on a 'come out of the closet' joke. I'm not close enough to her nor do I want to look lame.

"It's stupid, but if you want to know… I keep my comic collection here in this room. But every day, Marissa moves it to the top shelf, and I can't reach it! Like, why does she have to do that?" She crosses her arms and huffs.

"Comic collection? I don't think that's stupid. I have a collection of my own. I like to read comics too."

She turns around, interested. "Wait… really? I thought I heard you mention something about comics yesterday…"

So, she was listening.

"Yeah. Why do you keep it in this room and not at home?"

"My dad just thinks it gets in the way. H-He doesn't like me having it for whatever reason." She seems antsy talking about it for whatever reason, so I decide to change the subject.

"Huh, that's odd. Anyways, do you want me to get the collection down for you?" I say

"No, I'm not helpless! I'll do it myself thank you very much!" she scowls at me, but it quickly fades. Maybe I'm making some sort of ground here.

I put my arms up in a 'surrender' like manner. "Alright, alright."

She pulls the teacher chair over, which didn't seem like the brightest idea considering it had wheels, and the student chairs didn't. The only difference was the teacher's chair was taller, which is probably why she picked it over the others. Now that I look at it, she really is one short girl. Shorter than Natalie, and she's like five-three or so. Naomi had to be five-one at best.

She climbs on top of the chair and reaches for the collection. There was seriously a lot of comics in that box. Like, a LOT. It looked heavy, especially for someone of her stature. She pulled the box out and held it above her head. "Got it!" she exclaims.

But, she started tipping back with the box in her hands. She was about to fall.

She fell back with a little yelp, like someone just stepped on a small dog (accidentally of course). I realized she was probably gonna get hurt pretty bad without something to break her fall. I jumped forwards behind her. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to catch her, and stay standing. I was holding her wedding style, like how a groom would hold his bride on their honeymoon night, walking up the stairs. She was really light, which was no surprise considering how skinny she was. It was like something straight out of a movie.

I looked down at her. She still had her eyes closed like she was bracing for the worst, and the box still in her hands. She opened her eyes and looked up at me with an odd expression, she was staring at me, her mouth slightly agape, taking in the fact that I saved her from a pretty bad injury. I didn't think much of it, but it made me feel kind of good about myself honestly. I made sure she was alright, and stood her back up

"Wha- What just happened?" She looks around, and realizes what happened. "I-I, Y-You-"

"That was seriously amazing!" Marissa yelled from across the room. I only just now realized everyone was staring at us. Marissa and Ada with dumbfounded expressions. Natalie was simply just… watching? It was an oddly emotionless stare. "Naomi, Nick just saved you!"

"Wh-what?" She pauses, and looks around. She recollects her thoughts. "I didn't need saved, I would've been completely fine on my own!" Another pause. "... but… t-thanks…I- I probably could've gotten hurt…" She finally admits

If I'm not at least at a better standing with her, then it's hopeless. "Glad you finally admitted it, dummy." I say sarcastically. "But you're welcome. I'm just glad I was in the right place at the right time."

" Do not call me a dummy, dummy." She shoots back. She punches me in the arm, surprisingly hard. It made me flinch. I flinch at everything. It's a long story. I'll explain later.

I rubbed my arm. She gives me a confused look, almost like she was concerned. But she stays quiet. "Ow… geez Naomi."

Well, after that fiasco, I realized that I still hadn't gotten to discuss the book with Ada. I went over and approached her, who surprisingly was nose deep in her phone and not a book.

"Hey Ada, ready to talk about the book?" I asked.

"O-Oh, of course! How far did you read to?" she asked

"I had a little bit of time yesterday, so I read both chapters one and two, is that alright?"

Ada assures me it's alright, and that she re-read up to chapter three. We discuss the book, the characters, and the developing plot as it ensues in the book. She really is passionate about it, because she has much more input to the conversation then I do. It's mostly her just stating things that I had thought the same about, and that I would agree with her to. Aside from a few small comments, I swear the most things I even got to say were, "Mhmm", or "Me too", or "You're absolutely right". But, she was enjoying herself, and even though I may make it out to seem the conversation was unpleasant, it wasn't, and I actually enjoyed myself. The book is picking up a little too, and it's pretty entertaining. I made sure to remind Ada that she has good book taste. I think she liked hearing that. We probably went on for about ten minutes before Marissa announced it was time to get into the club. We didn't have enough time to start reading together, so we both agreed on two more chapters for the next day, and went from there.

"Alright everyone, so do you remember how I said we would start getting into the more literary stuff of the club?-" She's cut off.

"Sorry to interrupt, but where'd Natalie go?" Naomi pointed out

I looked around the room. She was gone. I can't believe I hadn't noticed it, I must have been so involved in my conversation with Ada that I hadn't even heard her leave.

"Oh, she said she wasn't feeling too well, so she said she'd be going home for now to make sure she wasn't getting anyone else sick if she did happen to become sick." She replied.

She seemed fine earlier. Was I really that oblivious to it? Natalie's mom wasn't home often, she traveled a lot for work. I think I remember Natale saying her mom was in Chicago for a few weeks for her work just recently. If she was sick, then there wouldn't be anyone there to take care of her. I decided after Marissa's announcement I would leave and go check on her. I needed to make sure she was okay.

"Oh. Okay, I hope she feels better. Go ahead. Sorry to interrupt." Naomi said

"It's alright. I already let her know about what I'm about to tell you guys, so she's caught up," Marissa continued, "So I thought, what a better way to practice literature, than to write! For tomorrow, and every day after that, I'd like everybody to write a poem, and bring it in. Then, we can exchange poems and share with each other, then give criticism to the poems. How does that sound?"

"W-wait… sharing?" Ada shakily asks

"You're saying… we'll be reading each other's p-poems?"

I stayed silent.

I was as dumbfounded as the other girls. Poems?! I was bad enough at writing as it is. I couldn't write a paper for the life of me. But… Poems?!

"Aww, come on guys, it won't be that bad. Nobody will be rude about it, just a little poem, that's all. I'm not asking you to write a four-page essay." She concluded.

I figured if somebody didn't jump in and agree with her, nobody would. I didn't want Marissa to feel bad, because honestly, it wasn't a terrible idea, I just wasn't necessarily looking forward to it. I took the initiative.

"I think what Marissa is asking for is fair, it could be fun guys!" I may have said that with a little more enthusiasm than I had hoped.

"W-well, if everyone thinks so, then… I'm in." Ada added

"Fine, I'll do it, but don't think for a second that your poems are gonna be better than mine, you two!" added Naomi, turning towards me and Ada.

"It's settled then!" Marissa says with a smile, "Also, Nick, we started a group chat for the literature club. I'm going to need your number so I can add you in it."

"Alright, cool. Here." I recited my phone number to her.

"With that, it looks like everything I needed to go over is gone over! Don't forget to write a poem for tomorrow's club." She announces.

I started to get my stuff together, when unexpectedly, Naomi stops me.

"Hey Nick?... Could you hold up a second?"

I didn't have a lot of time, I needed to go see how Natalie was doing, but I decided to see what she wanted. I didn't want to be rude. Marissa stops, and waits for us, but Natalie politely waves her off. "Go ahead Marissa, I'll lock up tonight." She give us a thumbs up, and quickly waves us out. She had headphones in.

I was alone in the room with Naomi. It was kind of… awkward. It was only my second day, I didn't expect to be alone with anyone yet. I wasn't taking it the wrong way though, don't get me wrong.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well… as a thank you… I wanted to give this to you." She hands me a copy of one her comics. It was a Japanese one. They called this a manga over there. I had seen some before, but I didn't own any before.

"A manga?" I read the title aloud. "Dragon Ball Z Volume 1. 'The World's Greatest Team'. I know of this! I only saw the anime, I've never read any of the manga though. It was one of my favorite shows growing up!"

"Yeah… I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to it. I've already read the whole series, so I figured I could give you that one to start off with. But I'll need it back, I'm not gonna let you keep something from my collection, no way. But hang on to it for now."

I take it as a compliment. "Wow, this is awesome Naomi, thank you!"

"Also…" She goes on. "I figured… you know… maybe we could read it together if we ever have free time during the club… or even discuss it… if you wanted to."

Wow, I didn't expect that from Naomi. Was she nervous?

"You know, if I didn't know any better I'd think you're nervous right now." I say with a smirk.

"I-I am not! It's just… cool to know someone with the same interests as me…" she admits.

"Haha, I'm just messing with you. I'd like to read it and discuss it with you when we have time, if that's what you'd like."

"Yes!" She exclaims "…I-I mean, whatever. Yeah, it's fine." She pauses, but suddenly gets an angry look on her face. "You better keep that mint condition. If I find a single crease in any of the pages, you're going to be in huge trouble!" She punches me in the arm again, in the same spot. I flinched at it.

"There it is again. You flinched." She rubs her chin and studies me. I rub my arm where she punched me. "Is everything alright at home?"

"What?" That was surprising. Where did a question like that come from? She doesn't know about my home situation. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

She sighs. "It's nothing. I'm gonna get out of your hair now. I'll see you here tomorrow, alright? Read the first chapter of what I gave you, we'll talk about it."

"Alright. I have to go check up on Natalie anyways." I slip the manga into my bag, carefully, remembering Naomi's threat. "See you tomorrow."