For the first week of school, everyone refused to call Aoba by his new name. Even the narrator. It was annoying and he had to retaliate by ignoring anyone who used his "real" name. There were only two people who called him by his new name, both of them in his homeroom class: Mizuki (of course, always a bro) and his other good friend Koujaku.

Koujaku was the opposite of cool. It cramped his style just to look at the guy. He had braces, and rather than conceal them by keeping his mouth shut, Koujaku liked to request red bands for the brackets, and he liked to talk. The worst part? He talked mostly about video games. Not even the cool ones. Koujaku liked MMORPGs. World of Warcraft and stuff like that. For some reason, he thought it would get him all the chicks.

He was a good friend though, so Aoba tolerated him. Even when his braces made him really drooly and gross. Currently it was a Monday morning again and Koujaku was going on about… something game-related. Aoba wasn't listening. Mizuki was drawing a skull on his desk in Sharpie while he pretended to listen. Neither of them had a clue what he was saying. It wasn't until Aoba heard him say the words "Sly" and "Blue" that he gave Koujaku his undivided attention.

"What?" he asked, perking up like a nipple in winter.

"I said, everyone in my guild would be stoked if you joined us. If you tried the game, you'd like it." Koujaku's tone was excited - seeing his friend's positive response had given him (false) hope. It was painful to watch. Aoba had to let him down easy.

"I'm not gonna play frickin' Runescape, Koujaku." Easy like Sunday morning.

"It's not Runescape!" objected Koujaku. "That's for noobs."

"Did you just say 'noobs' in real life?" Mizuki cut in.

Koujaku ignored him. "It's called Rib," he corrected Aoba. "I even checked character creation, and the name 'Sly Blue' isn't taken yet."

This asshole tried to make a character for him? How desperate was he? Aoba hadn't played games like that in forever. It was so dorky. He wanted to tape his friend's mouth shut.

"You're considering it, aren't you?" Braceface persisted. Aoba rolled his eyes and shot him down quickly with a "Hell no."

Suddenly, the kid in front of Koujaku spun in his seat with the most skeevy grin Aoba had ever seen. He was decked out in so much black, white, and neon green that it made his eyes hurt. The boy was wearing a really stupid hat with cat ears on it and a zipper down the middle that seemed to serve no necessary function whatsoever. He also wore a ridiculously huge necklace that was just a row of skulls (Mizuki, Aoba noticed, was trying to be secretive about staring longingly at it). There had to be a law against how many layers of clothing he had. It was as if he was competing with the Blaine Nuts jacket for fastest heat stroke. In his hand he held up a cell phone, on which was displayed a shitty Microsoft Paint caricature of a forlorn face. The boy glanced back and forth from the image he was showing off to the other three students as if he expected them to understand what the hell was so entertaining about it. All conversation was at a standstill for a good ten seconds before Mizuki spoke up to Aoba's left.

"Nice selfie," he commented, eliciting giggles from Aoba. Neon Hot Topic Disaster's smile vanished and he said flatly, "It's the 'that feel when' guy. How the fuck do you not know—"

"Isn't that like four years old?" Koujaku asked, much to the Cat in the Hat's dissatisfaction.

"It's a classic and always applicable. It's funny because of society's standards of constantly needing a committed relationship to achieve self-satisfaction. 'That feel when' guy is sad because he doesn't have a girlfriend. Kind of like you, because you just got rejected by Jolly Rancher hair here." The entire explanation was said with a straight face. Koujaku was severely unimpressed while Aoba (and Mizuki) still had no idea what was going on. Finally Rave Edition Hello Kitty added, "It's a meme."

Aoba had heard that word before. "Like the cat pictures with the funny captions?" he guessed. Meme Boy looked insulted and snapped, "No one cares about the stupid Facebook memes anymore."

"You're wearing a cat hat, dumbass," Aoba countered. "How was I supposed to know you don't like the cat pictures? And how dare you assume I have Facebook. That's so lame."

Koujaku opened his mouth to speak, but Aoba shot him a silencing glare; he could not have people hearing that he really did have a Facebook account. Final Fantasy Costume Reject processed Aoba's response silently until his mouth turned up in another smirk. "I'm Noiz," he introduced himself as he held out his hand. The hell kind of a name was that? Regardless, Aoba shook Noiz's hand. Apparently disdain for Facebook was all it took to make new friends. Too bad this kid still had a long way to go before he was cool.

"I'm Sly Blue. That's Koujaku, and that's Mizuki." Koujaku continued to look derisive while Mizuki nodded at the new acquaintance. It seemed that Noiz was going to milk Koujaku's growing antipathy for all it was worth; he turned to him and picked the worst possible thing to taunt him with.

"So you play Rib? You know that shit's for peasants, right? The combat system is so outdated."

Koujaku immediately replied, "Your mom's system is outdated but I still play her." Everyone pretended not to see that he accidentally spit on his desk a little from the force of his angry words.

This began bickering that went back and forth for a few minutes. Mizuki returned to drawing on his desk. Aoba watched in order to tune the other two out. Unfortunately, the teacher chose that moment to enter the classroom. The poor man had to stand right next to Koujaku and Noiz's desks to get their attention and calm them down. Immediately after that he sentenced Mizuki to detention for "defacing school property again," which was one of the plentiful reasons Mizuki always got detention; it happened so often that most days he took the activity bus home with the kids who actually attended clubs and such. To put it in Mizuki's words, he was fresh out of shits to give. The rest of the class was admittedly entertaining - Koujaku and Noiz tried to continue their argument through whispering and note-passing. One time when he caught a glimpse of the paper, Aoba spotted another creepy drawing of a face with "U MAD?" written under it. It was apparently so offensive that Koujaku refused to reply after receiving it.

Lunch time was sacred. Aoba treasured it because he could see friends that weren't in his classes. As he sat down with his tray at one of the long dark gray tables, Koujaku claimed the spot to his left and Mizuki the one to his right. Was this the beginning of a posse? How sweet was that. Noiz also joined them since he apparently had no one else to sit with (for some reason that was very believable). Slowly the table filled up; a few of Koujaku's friends who were in that MMO guild with him, some of Mizuki's leather-clad buddies, and even Sei showed up with a salad. What an attention whore. He only had like two allergies.

"...and he started talking about his suit. I was like, why the heck do I care? I came here for a smoke, not your stupid designer pants or whatever." One of Mizuki's friends was going off about something a few seats down, and the whole table was invested in it, though Aoba had been spacing out while he thought about what he should get with his next allowance. Now he was interested, however.

"Who are we talking about?" he inquired.

"Those guys that hang out behind the bleachers all the time."

That didn't sound creepy at all. Aoba frowned and stated, "I've never seen them."

Even Sei seemed to be in the loop. He nodded and added quietly, "They sell drugs and things like that. They tried to talk to me once during gym class. It was… unsettling."

Of course they'd pick on a weenie like you, Aoba thought, but kept it to himself. He was only interested in one thing. "What designer were the pants from?" he asked, and the table went silent. They all gave him a deprecating look.

"I'm pretty sure nobody cares, Sly," Mizuki said flatly, "but maybe you could ask." He was being facetious. Aoba knew that. But designer stuff was like his thing now. It was his duty to find out. One day he would have to stop by the bleachers.

"Speaking of weirdos," Noiz interjected, gesturing towards the middle of the cafeteria. Everyone followed his gaze. All students were seated and eating except one: a tall guy wearing mostly black who was holding a paper lunch bag and looking very troubled. There were plenty of goth kids in the school who would probably be glad to accept him. The feature that seemed to set him apart was the fluffy navy blue fake tail that hung from the back belt loop of his jeans. Whenever the boy neared a table to claim a seat, stares were directed at him and he would back away. Though he had not put a lot of effort into being nice lately, Aoba couldn't help but feel bad for him. (After all, they even included someone as strange as Noiz.) Before the others could object, Aoba raised his hand and called out to the boy.

"There's a seat over here!"

The whole table shot him another unapproving look. "There actually isn't," someone pointed out. One of Koujaku's dorky friends. Aoba looked at him, raised his eyebrows, and said, "Then make room."

Somehow that actually worked. Koujaku Crony #1 got out of his seat. There was a big mess of rearranging while the poor kid with the tail watched with an almost guilty expression. When everyone was finally situated, the seat across from Aoba was empty. Tail kid sat there. His hazel eyes surveyed the other students behind messy black bangs. His shirt had a picture of wolves howling at the moon, he had like five bracelets on his left wrist, and— was that a dog collar around his neck? There was definitely a theme here. Either he was shy, or he was waiting for someone else to say something first. Noiz looked like he was about to speak up. Whatever he might say was bound to be stupid, so Aoba took it upon himself to welcome the guy.

"Hi," he greeted, simple and sweet. "What's your name?"

"Ren." the boy replied. Everyone's eyes bugged out. His voice was deep. Aoba had been proud when his own voice started transitioning from nasally mouse to regular teenager mode, but this was incredible. It was unfitting as well. Though he was big, Ren's voice didn't match with his appearance. He added, "Thank you for letting me sit here," and every word was like a voiceover of a foreign film. Aoba grinned and assured him it was no problem. Gradually, the others started to talk again, and even though they didn't include Ren, it made things slightly less uncomfortable.

Then Ren pulled a hamburger out of his bag and it was uncomfortable all over again. It wasn't even a whole burger with bread and lettuce and such. Just the cooked patty. And he started eating it casually. Even Sei seemed concerned, and he wasn't normally judgmental.

"So what's with the tail?" asked Noiz suddenly. Even though he was trying not to think much of it, Aoba was curious as well. Ren lowered his hamburger patty and looked reluctant to answer, and when he did, there was hardly any explanation.

"I like wearing it."

"Can I pet it?" Sei asked. Whatever health worries he had about the hamburger were gone. When Ren gave him permission, there were an awkward few seconds in which Sei was petting the fake tail like it was a real animal, and Ren didn't seem to think much of it because he kept eating his so-called lunch. Sei looked at Aoba with a big smile and declared, "I want one."

Aoba sighed. Sei was always a bit eccentric with his fashion choices. Of course he would be fascinated by something "cute." Aoba had no room to object - after all, he had spent quite a lot on his jacket. Ren perked up when he heard Sei's statement, and perhaps it was Aoba's imagination, but it looked like he was bouncing in his seat a little. "I have a lot of them," Ren offered. "You can have one. I'll bring it tomorrow. That is… if I'm still allowed to sit here?"

Both Sei and Aoba nodded. No one else declined, so that meant it was a unanimous agreement that Ren was officially welcome at the lunch table. He didn't seem so bad; he just had uncanny lunch choices and a tail. If Aoba was going to be cool, he needed to expand his social circle. His posse had now grown to five (counting Sei, because realistically, he could never not include his own brother, no matter how annoying he could be). Next step: find out about those bleacher creepers.