Let's see how well I can balance school with this story.

Lunch the next day was a bit earlier than had been scheduled. Every class had been shortened in order to fit an assembly at the very end of the day. I thought it was odd, honestly; can't they just hold the assembly for a short amount of time in the morning before school starts so everybody can have full class times? I didn't understand the American education system one bit, especially here. I didn't even get why the students seemed to be extremely lively today; maybe that assembly was the reason why?

English had gone by relatively quickly, only about a half hour. Droite and I were too preoccupied with trying to get a vocabulary assignment finished to speak to each other, so we left class without even a goodbye; and besides, Gauche was there to escort Droite to her next class, which I scoffed at as I had trotted away from them. Who wants to deal with the awkwardness of being a third wheel? I certainly didn't need that in my life right now.

Zoology was boring. All we spoke about was the types of ecosystems found around the world. 3D Art was basically teaching us how to use the pottery equipment. Geography was all about memorizing the entire map of North America—including capitals, states, territories, and the like. A relatively uneventful day, excluding the pang of jealousy I felt seeing Gauche and Droite interact with each other.

I repeated my routine of getting the icky pizza, staring at it for a few consecutive minutes, then deciding against eating it and figuring Alit would enjoy eating it. Hurriedly striding across the cafeteria, I found the group in their usual huddle around their circular table. However, the girls were all bunched together, excluding the cat girl who resumed sitting beside Alit like she didn't want to deal with the business being thrown around. I made my way over, and as I slid my pizza to Alit, I felt somebody grab my arm.

A girl with blue hair and crimson eyes smiled at me as she clung to my hoodie sleeve. Droite was beside her, one arm looped around the blue-haired girl's waist as she spoke to Gauche about couple issues. I blinked at the female student holding my arm, wondering just what her motive was.

"Us three," she started, winking, "Are going to the roof. You don't got a choice with this, Kai!"

"Wait." I held a finger up for extra effect. "What?"

Droite apparently caught what I had said and blew off Gauche to speak to me. Her orange eyes glowed with amusement as she answered. "It's a girls' day, I like to call it." As Mizael rose to speak, she flicked his forehead and forced him back down. "Miza, honey, you may think like a woman but you ain't one, so stay down."

"Aw." He dropped his head and his golden hair fluttered around his head.

I sighed. "Okay, I guess. I'll go." Besides, I needed some girl-talk right about now. Get my mind off society and weird Americans for a little bit.

"Good!" Droite tapped the other girl's shoulder. "This is Rio by the way."

"Heya," Rio replied, sticking out her tongue at me.

I shrugged. "Okay," I stated simply. The two smirked at me before grabbing one of my arms to themselves and hauling me off before I could complain.

Droite knew the school layout quite well. She guided us down into one of the lower halls, H Hall, where I saw a majority of the freshmen hanging around. The smaller students blushed as they watched us three girls split the hallway, admiring Droite because of her popularity. Rio gave a few boys cute little winks, which caused them to squeak greetings at her. I just let myself get dragged along, glaring strongly at the girls and boys that we passed by; they were deterred by me and as soon as they saw me they stopped looking at us. Clearly the popularity chain ruled this place; yet another reason why I dislike going to school in America.

Droite directed us into the girls' bathroom and locked it. There was a maintenance closet located within the pink tile-clad bathroom, apparently and old room that wasn't used anymore. She took out a couple of hair barrettes and picked the lock on the door, opening it swiftly to reveal a ladder going up to what I assumed was the roof. She let Rio go first before helping me up the ladder, but falling was the least of my concerns. I was wearing a similar skirt to the one I had worn yesterday, and I was pretty sure Droite could see up there and at my panties. The mere thought that she now knew what I wore made me blush heavily in the stale darkness that surrounded us.

Rio got to the door first, throwing it open and crawling out, stretching in the midday sun. I followed her, wobbly on my feet as I looked down to the street below. The smell of the sea was heavy in the air and I breathed it in; it reminded me of home. I heard Rio giggle quietly and turned to see Droite having problems coming up the ladder; her jeans' leg was stuck on the railing and she looked hilarious as she squirmed to get it unhooked. After a few moments of intense cursing and wriggling like a fish out of water, she managed to get unstuck and came to stand beside me and Rio.

"Having problems?" I commented drily. Droite just glared at me for a few seconds before laughing it off.

"Nah, not at all." Taking a seat on the gravelly surface of the roof, she dug out an apple juice carton from her jacket and proceeded to open it.

Rio and I sat down beside her, I with my apple and Rio with some pocky (mm, so very good). As I munched, I watched Droite carefully. Her face was illuminated perfectly, an expression of loneliness somehow contouring her skin. The blue-haired girl with us sighed heavily and popped her spine, crimson eyes taking on a look of longing.

"Something up?" I asked innocently, honestly confused as to why they seemed so distant now.

Droite gazed over at me carefully. "It's hard, you know," she started, "to be popular."

"Especially if you're a senior," Rio added, chomping on strawberry pocky. "What you see in there, that's us when we're in school. We have to keep our image because we're the graduating class."

"Yeah." Droite finished off her carton and tossed it off the roof. "See, this little town of ours, Little Wave, has the top graduating class in this part of California. Our reputation is also something we have to uphold, and that's why homosexuality is looked down upon strongly here." She looked at me solemnly. "That's why, when I heard you say that you don't have an interest in men, that I tried asking for more information—I don't want you falling prey to the strict rules we have here."

"What's so bad about it?" I asked, chucking my apple away, unfinished. "I mean, yeah, it's bad in Japan where I'm from, but why here? According to Google, your country should be the most supportive of this kind of issue, besides South America and Canada."

"That's what we're confused about." Rio crawled a little closer to me so we were in a triangle formation. "But the principal says that homosexuality is the main reason schools fail so badly, whatever that means."

"Teachers are assholes," Droite grumbled angrily. "I mean, I… can't keep going with that jerk, but Morris keeps pushing me and Gauche together. Even Gauche doesn't know the real reason why we're together."

Rio and I shared a look. "Eh?" I pushed, wanting to know more. Rio leaned in closer, nearly falling on me.

Droite was taken aback, obviously not having wanted to share that information. "Uh… yeah. Our relationship is kind of… fake. Yeah."

The girl beside me dropped her jaw. "Wow! I knew you two were having problems but I never knew it was that bad."

"It is, but please, don't say anything." Droite sighed and laid back, not minding the gravel pressing into her back. "That's why I hoping for something to happen this weekend at the Halloween party. Which reminds me…" She turned to look at me. "Are you coming to the party? I wouldn't mind picking you up."

"I've never really celebrated Halloween," I admitted. "It's not as common in Japan as people make it seem. But… I guess I'll go. I only have my bird to hang out with, since my father decided to start living near the power plant."

"Good! Do you want help finding a costume?" She then sat up, crossing her fingers.

"Uh… sure?"

Rio raised her hand. "Can we go back to the part where you hope to hook up with some random person at the Halloween party, Droite? I want more info on that."

"Honestly, if I can snatch somebody, then what the hell, I'll fuck 'em." Droite crossed her arms with a yawn. Before I could ask about what they were talking about, the bell rang, and we were forced to clamber back down into the school and finish our classes before the big assembly or whatever.

…

Turns out it really wasn't that important. I went to the assembly alone because Droite and her group of friends decided to skip out on it. I would have done the same, but I couldn't find them fast enough before I had been dragged off by a teacher into the auditorium. So I sat in a corner, curled up in my hoodie, and watched without interest as the dancers overtook the stage with their fanciful dance moves and impossible splits. Now I understood why popular people, besides Droite and Rio and a couple others, seemed to be annoying—whenever the dancers came off stage and to their spots in the back to switch roles and things, I heard them commenting about people in the audience. It angered me that such discrimination could happen in such a school.

So as I went home, I was beyond furious and I didn't want to do any chores or homework. So I just tossed everything onto my bed, took off my hoodie and blouse, and sat there in my bra and skirt glaring at the wall.

This reminded me of how my father was to people back in Japan that had been lower than us on the society scale. He had been such a… bastard to my mother's friends, had even threatened to kill some of them if they didn't stop contacting us. And now look at us—stuck in a small town in California, clinging to the last bits of our culture with tooth and nail. I stood up off my chaise, going over to the picture of me and my dad when I had been just an infant. I picked it up, shaking with rage, and threw it to the ground, watching in satisfaction as the glass frame shattered and spread broken pieces of the clear material all over the wood. The photograph lay scratched up amongst the mess, and I gripped it in my hands, tearing it to shreds and letting it fall to the ground.

Galaxy squawked in surprised and fluttered over to the side of his cage, gazing at me with a questioning glance. I sighed and plopped onto my mattress, running my hands through my hair. I stared at the glass and shredded photo, starting to regret my actions, but I thought better of it.

My father had abandoned me and that's what he got for doing so.

I hurriedly swept up the mess, throwing it away with a pang of sadness. Galaxy watched the entire time, and it wasn't until I had calmed down a good amount that I let him out, allowing him to roam my room freely while cautiously gazing at me. I was in the middle of flipping through a textbook to find my homework when he landed on my shoulder with a pencil in his beak.

"Thanks, baby." Smiling, I took the pencil from him and continued hunting down my packet. He chirped and flew off me, settling for the lamp on my nightstand.

At around six, I decided to stop doing homework to watch a few YouTube videos (mostly hilarious readings of people's comments around the internet) on my rather… obsolete laptop while eating, once again, ramen. I was almost done with my ramen cup and on my fifteenth video when my phone started ringing.

I sighed, pausing the video and leaning over to grab the now-fixed device from the nightstand. I flipped it open and saw the number, raising my eyebrow at the unfamiliar number. Hitting call, I held it up to my ear and started off with the most foreign thing ever: "Moshi moshi."

"Um, this is Kaito Tenjo, right?" the lady on the other side inquired.

"Yeah, what of it?" I questioned right back, irritated at this woman for interrupting my YouTube session.

"We called to say that your father is in the hospital. He was in a car accident early today. But he's awake and talking, despite his injuries."

I blinked once, then twice. "Okay, thanks for telling me." Without letting her say more, I ended the call.

So what if my dad's in the hospital? I don't care and I probably won't ever care. Which reminded me… Taking out my phone once more, I typed in a number I had memorized from earlier that day. I held the phone to my ear again after I had typed the number in, and the person on the other side replied groggily.

"Eh…? Kai, is this you?" Droite asked, sounding like I had just woken her.

"Yeah," I said, using my shoulder to hold my phone to my head while I ate ramen. "When do you think we can hang out?"

Thanks to Count-kun, this story will eventually go up to M. You guys know what that means! :D

Anyway, review! Any guess as to what Kai will wear to the Halloween party?