The teacher asked me to stand at the front, giving me the opportunity to introduce myself before the rest of the class.
"Hello, um. My name is Misaki Ishimaru. I like to run track, and I like to read. I, um, it's nice to meet you all," I bowed, my bun flipping over a little bit. As I brought my upper body back up, it flipped back a little into place.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Misaki Ishimaru," the class and the teacher chanted in an odd unison.
The teacher, Miss Kaname, walked over and stood next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, "We have plenty of open seats since our school isn't very big, so please pick where you would like to sit."
She removed her hand, and smiled at me, before returning to the side of the front podium, allowing me to choose my seat. I could feel the stares of my classmates, trying to decipher where I would choose to sit, but I refused to meet anyone's gaze. I scanned the open seats, and found one next to Rei. I made my way with my bag over next to him, and sat down. The students were muttering, I'm sure about my choice to sit near the window next to Rei.
"I'm glad you chose to sit next to me, Misaki," Rei said while pushing his glasses up on his nose.
"Mm, very movie-like, right?" I turned to look at him, "The new girl chooses to sit next to the boy she met that morning… so typical I might get sick," I smirked, "But I figure in the small time I've known you, I could handle sitting next to you for the year."
Rei chuckled a little under his breath, "Either way, I'm still glad. It's nice to finally have a friend in my class," He looked directly into my eyes with sincerity.
My face felt hot immediately, and my smirk disappeared. I turned down to look at the top of my desk while the day began.
Why am I getting so nervous? It's just a boy.
Miss Kaname began teaching almost immediately as I rushed to get my notebook and pens out of my bag to take notes. Retrieving them, I stole a glance at Rei. He was listening intently, taking, what seemed to be, very detailed notes at lightning speed.
After a few hours, and a few sloppy pages later, the lunch bell rang. Students began putting away their writing utensils and replaced them with eating utensils, and their notebooks with packed lunches.
As this was going on, I noticed in my haste this morning, and my terrible planning the night before, I didn't bring a lunch with me. My stomach growled, as I clutched around my waist.
"Shhh…" I tried to whisper to my stomach, in hopes it would stop feeling empty and quiet down.
"Misaki, are you not eating?"
I lifted my head a little and looked over at Rei, Nagisa entering our classroom behind him.
"I, uh, seem to have forgotten to bring a lunch today. I guess I'll go get one from somewhere…" I went to grab my bag and leave the room, when he reached out.
"Not necessary. Please, take some of mine," He held out his lunch.
Nagisa bound up, "Oh Rei-chan, that looks so delicious!" He cooed.
Nagisa looked over to my desk and saw nothing, "Misa-chan, where's your lunch?"
"I forgot about it at home…" I was embarrassed at that point and was looking down at my empty desk. My eyes felt hot again and my vision blurred as tears began forming at the corners of my eyes.
"Don't worry!" Nagisa called out. There was some scuffling noises, and he was beside me, placing a napkin on my desk, under my face. I blinked away the tears as both Nagisa and Rei scooped some of their lunches onto the napkin.
I looked up at the two boys standing over me while they fussed about how Rei's lunch was better suited because it covered all the important food groups while Nagisa's was too unhealthy.
"Besides, Misaki said she likes to run track, so she needs her nutrients. NOT your fattening foods, Nagisa," Rei scolded the small boy.
"Whatever, Rei-chan, mine tastes better," Nagisa continued to shovel some of the fried foods onto the napkin.
The two argued a little more, and stopped sharing their food. I looked back down to the napkin, seeing fried chicken and fried rice mixed with steamed rice, vegetables, and sautéed meats. Looking back up to the arguing boys, I just smiled, tears forming again. I blinked them away, "Thank you both, Rei and Nagisa."
They stopped their bickering and looked down at me. Nagisa smiled big enough to pull the skin off his chin, "You're super welcome, Misa-chan! Oh, but you don't have any chopsticks! Let me go get you an extra pair I have in my bag!"
As Nagisa ran off, I chuckled into my hand a little.
Looking back towards Rei, I noticed he was staring at me, and turned away, blushing. He pushed his glasses up on his nose, "You're welcome, Misaki. If you like my lunch, I would be happy to show you how I make it so that you may get all the proper foods and nutrients for running."
He wouldn't look at me while he said that. I nodded, and thanked him again. He sat back at his desk, still not looking at me. Nagisa rushed in, holding the chopsticks, still wrapped up and brand new. He handed them to me, and then sat at the desk in front of mine which belonged to another girl who left to another room for her lunch.
Nagisa and I talked about my first half of the day, but Nagisa did most of the talking. Eventually, Nagisa urged Rei to join the conversation. Rei coughed, almost choking on his food, "Excuse me, Nagisa, but you know how I like to eat my food first, then participate in conversation."
"Aw, Rei-chan, come on! We only have a little time left!" Nagisa pouted.
"Nagisa, I'll see you at practice after school, we can talk then, but I need to eat right now."
'Reeeeeiii-"
"Nagisa, stop!" Rei snapped.
Nagisa looked surprised, and taken back. He shrunk in the seat, looking more and more like a scolded child every second.
"Rei-chan, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm just very hungry."
Nagisa furrowed his brow, "Rei. What's wrong?"
Rei looked surprised then, with the lack of the intimate ending. He looked over at Nagisa first, then towards me, and blushed again, "Nothing," And looked back down at his desk.
Nagisa and I looked at each other, and he leaned in, holding his hand up to show he wanted to whisper something to me.
I leaned in a little, not getting too close, "Did something happen with you and Rei-chan?" Nagisa asked, wide-eyed. I shook my head, confused myself.
Nagisa looked back and forth between Rei and I, and then stopped and smiled.
"I know what it is, Rei-chan," He cooed, "You like Misa-chan."
We both froze, me looking forward towards Nagisa and Rei looking down at his desk. My stomach flipped and my face went from burning hot to below freezing cold. I looked out the window to my left to avoid and looks or eye contact.
Rei sighed, "Nagisa, that's ridiculous. We only met this morning, and hardly know each other. Yes, Misaki-san is very pretty. But I can hardly say that I have such romantic feelings for her when I only know her name and her hobbies. We do not live in a fantasy world where love at first sight happens," Nagisa gasped, "So if you would please, return to your class, and I will see you at practice."
I glanced toward Nagisa, and he looked at me out of the corner of his eyes. He smiled, and looked over to Rei, "You're right, Rei-chan. I was just messing with you. See you later!" Nagisa gathered up his items, and left the room.
I heard Rei go back to eating as I slowly turned my head to look at him. His eyes were closed, and he seemed focused on eating. I went back to eating myself, finishing the both lunches. Nagisa's felt greasy in my stomach, but did taste very good. Rei's lunch felt much fresher, but tasted bland.
After I finished, I folded up the napkin, and brought it over to the trash can to throw it away. After it hit the bottom, I stood there for a moment, not knowing how to talk to Rei again, if I even should. I should reaffirm that we are just friends, and we shouldn't let what Nagisa said interfere with us just being that. Friends.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes, thinking about how stupid and unnecessary that would be since he just said that himself. We do not live in a fantasy world.