Summer's Promise
Chapter 2: "Nice to meet you."
Luka sighed as she looked at the bowl of rice in front of her.
"I'm sure I dropped it there when I bumped onto that guy," Luka thought, putting food in her mouth with her chopsticks.
She quietly ate her food while her siblings, Rin and Len, argued about something worthless to Luka. Since it was almost an everyday thing, their parents just talked as if their ranting didn't exist.
"You three need to hurry up and finish your food. School starts tomorrow. Wake up early so you won't be late," their mother lectured, stopping Rin and Len's argument before it got bigger.
"School, huh," Luka doze off.
She was the first to finish her food, paying her goodnight to the family before she headed to her bedroom.
Their house's structure was a little strange, even though it was Western. The only room upstairs was Luka's because it sat atop their garage. The master bedroom and her siblings' bedrooms were located in one area of the house, which is on the opposite side of where her room was. Luka was glad to have her room separated from where her noisy siblings were, especially since she also had her own bathroom upstairs.
After taking a bath, Luka entered her dark room with only the computer's screen as the source of light. She sat down on her desk and got on her social network account, hoping to find news from her friends back in the States. When she looked at her newsfeed, she found pictures of her old friends enjoying the school's competitive football game.
"I'm glad I got to spent 9th grade, my first year in high school, with these people," she smiled as she scrolled through the goofy pictures.
"If I was still there, I'd be a 10th grader, huh," she laughed even though she wanted to do the opposite.
"But now," she muttered.
Before tears started flowing out of her eyes, Luka closed the computer window and looked at her closet. Hanging on the closet's handle was her winter uniform, ready to be used for the next day. Even her shoes were polished on the floor, just underneath her uniform.
"I'm spending another first year in high school here."
Luka tucked herself in bed and looked at the ceiling for some time. She thought about what her friends were doing back in the States and what they would be doing if she was still there. Slowly, without her knowing, Luka's eyes closed and she had fallen asleep.
When morning came, Luka got dressed in her school uniform, a new experience for her. Since Luka was going to be a high school student, she didn't wear the famous sailor uniform, which was worn by the junior high school students. Her school uniform actually looked cuter and more formal than she expected.
First, she buttoned her white, round-collared blouse, then the long sleeves' cuffs. Then, she closed the zipper on the side of her high-waist, gathered mini-skirt that embraced her waist, showing off her curves. The skirt was a shade of cobalt blue and the column of buttons that ran down the waist area of the skirt were gold. After patting her skirt, she loosely tied the maroon ribbon around her neck under her collar. Luka put on her white, mid-thigh high socks before she put on her navy blue, cropped blazer with the school's crest on the pocket on her left chest.
While Luka brushed her voluminous, hip-length, pastel-pink hair, her digital alarm clock rang. She turned it off, realizing that her anxiety caused her to wake up earlier than the time she planned to, just hoping she wouldn't crash in school later on. Before she grabbed her satchel and headed out of her room to prepare breakfast, Luka looked at herself one last time.
"As expected of a private school," she told herself.
"I look cute and professional at the same time," Luka smiled, looking at her reflection from head to toe.
Since it was their first day at work, Luka's parents also woke up early and was already dressed up. Luka's mother made chocolate chip waffles, fried eggs, and freshly squeezed orange juice. Luka smiled to see her favorite breakfast served on her first day of school. After Luka's mother brought her cup of coffee to the table, Rin and Len arrived just in time for all of them to sit down together. While Luka ate her meal, she looked at her family and observed her surroundings.
"Maybe, it's going to be a good day after all," Luka smiled, seeing the harmony that surrounded them.
After they all finished their breakfast, their father offered them a ride to school. However, their father reminded all of them that their parents were going to be busy soon, meaning this was the last time he was going to take them to school. He also reminded them that starting the next day, they were going to start taking the train or walk to and from school. Since Rin and Len's junior high school was closer, they were the first to be dropped off in just a matter of a few minutes.
"Have fun, you two," their mother greeted, waving her hands.
As soon as they could no longer see Rin and Len, the car drove off to Luka's school next. On the way there, they passed by the stationary store where Luka bought her school supplies. Quickly, she looked at the ground to check if the keychain was there, but of course, it wasn't. After a couple of minutes, Luka had arrived at the large front gate of her school.
"Thanks for taking me, Dad," Luka said as she carefully got out of the car, shutting the door behind her.
With Luka's nervousness, she didn't notice how many students were looking at her. They all could tell that she was a transfer student because they had never seen her before. Luka's father rolled his window down before Luka could walk away from the car.
"Luka," he called, his voice deep and loud.
Luka grabbed more attention from the students around, especially because her father was a foreigner with natural blonde hair and peachy-white skin. The people whispered to each other, already creating false rumors and made-up stories about the transfer student.
"Good luck," Luka's father kindly smiled.
She smiled back after giving her thanks to her sweet father, feeling as if her confidence had gone up. Gracefully, Luka walked towards the school building with everyone's stares towards her. She could hear their whispers and murmurs, but because of her shy nature, she couldn't do anything to stop them but keep walking the way she was. By the time she entered the building, Luka was already the talk of the whole school.
While Luka walked down the hallways, more people stared and whispered about her.
"She's so pretty."
"Is she in first year?"
"No way! She's probably a third-year student, especially with her mature looks!"
On the way there, Luka passed by a group of girls that surrounded a boy as he walked the opposite way. The boy noticed Luka, especially with his tall height, but she didn't notice him, for she kept her head straight. The boy kept his eyes on her until he could no longer turn his neck to look at her. Before he could turn his body around to look at the mysterious girl more, she had already walked in to the councilor's office.
"I think I've seen her somewhere," the boy thought, pausing his walks.
"Hey, hey, Kamui-kun, you didn't answer me," a girl that held onto his arm whined, interrupting his thought.
He apologized and continued walking with the group of girls, removing the mysterious girl off of his mind. When he reached his classroom, the bell rang and the group of girls dispersed with some of them going to the classroom he was going to, and some going to the classrooms nearby.
"Popular as always, huh, Gakupo," a blue-haired boy praised.
"Don't say that. You're popular, too, Kaito," Gakupo replied as he sat down on his seat in the back.
Their teacher walked in as everyone took their seats. Their day began after greeting their teacher, the normal day proceeding.
Meanwhile, in the classroom next door, the students all goofed around with their infamous homeroom teacher, Meiko Sakine. She took the attendance, calling out each student's name in a funny way before she continued with the agenda for their homeroom period.
"Today, we have a new transfer student," she announced.
"Come on in, transfer student-chan!"
Luka, who had been listening to their rants from the other side of the classroom door, took a deep breath as she pulled the door open. She silently walked in, keeping her nervousness to herself. Luka's hands were trembling and her heart was pounding, but her stature was composed and the way she walked was poise and mature. She stopped beside the teacher, who had already written her name on the board.
"Introduce yourself," Meiko smiled, giving her a pat on the shoulder.
"Good morning, everyone.My name is Luka Megurine. I came from the United States. Pleased to meet you all,"Luka bowed.
At first the room was silent as they looked at her with their jaws hanging and their eyes widened. Then, out of nowhere, all of the boys and most of the girls started hollering and cheering, surprising Luka.
"She's so pretty!"
"Yes! A cute girl!"
"Be my girlfriend, Megurine-san!"
Luka was scared and shocked at the reactions of her new classmates towards her. She turned around to look at her homeroom teacher in hopes of getting some help or explanation of what was going on, only to get a shrug and a grin, however.
"Okay, okay! First to shut up gets to have Luka-chan sitting next to…"
Before Meiko finished her sentence, everyone had already quieted down and sat properly, like normal students.
"Them," Meiko finished, her eyes and jaw open in disbelief that her students behaved right away.
Meiko laughed at her students as she looked around for an empty seat. Luka, who was still nervous, just hoped it wasn't like that every day for the rest of the year.
"Okay, Luka-chan, you can sit over there beside Miku-chan," Meiko said, pointing at the girl with the twin tails.
Luka followed her teacher's directions and sat beside the girl named Miku in the center of the room.
"It's nice to meet you, Megurine-san," the teal-haired girl smiled.
For the first time in the whole day, Luka softly smiled as she shook hands with the girl she was going to sit next to for the rest of the year.
"Nice to meet you."