Chapter 3
New Beginnings, New Friendships
The next morning, Rise arrives at the station again and waits. After her first meeting with Akari, she felt really happy that not only she made her very first friend, but that Akari has the same problem as her: lacking presence. Sighing happily, she looks over at the clock, seeing that the train has about 10 minutes before departure. She is hoping that she will meet Akari again and ride together while sitting next to each other, just like yesterday.
"Rise-chan!" a familiar voice calls.
Speak of the devil, the red-head rushes over next to the dark haired girl and stops to catch her breath.
"Good morning!" she greets.
Rise whispers her greeting back.
"Am I on time again?" Akari asks.
Rise turns on her smartphone and shows the time to her new friend. The red-haired girl sighs in relief.
"Oh, good!" she says. "I was sort of slow getting ready this morning, but I'm glad I made it." She walks over next to her. "So, do you want to sit next to each other again?"
Rise nods happily as the train arrives. The two enter it together and sit next to each other as other people enter. After about a few minutes, the train begins its departure. During the ride, Rise looks over at Akari who is sitting quietly while turning over to her dark haired friend.
"Is something the matter?" she asks.
Rise shakes her head as she whispers and smiles.
"Oh, I'm glad I could ride with you, too," Akari says with a giggle. She puts an arm around the raven-haired girl, which catches Rise by surprise.
She never had anyone do this before in her life. Surprising yes, but for her, it's a good feeling, even a small smile appears on her face. Akari smiles back as they enjoy the rest of the ride together until the train stops at their destination. The two exit the train and walk together along the path to the middle school when Akari takes notice of Yui, Kyouko and Chinatsu walking together with Chinatsu holding Yui's hand. Akari wanted to introduce her new friend to the others, but thought about what might happen if she does try to get their attention. Maybe they'll just ignore her like the other day.
Then, she feels a tug on her sleeve as she turns to see the raven-haired girl looking at her in concern while whispering.
"Oh, I wanted to introduce you to my friends," Akari replies. "But . . . I'm not sure how they'll react or if they'll even see us."
Rise looks down at the ground as she nods. Akari is right. Both of them lack presence, so it's impossible for them to introduce each other to other people, however, there is one person.
"Hm? You want to introduce me to your guidance counselor?" Akari asks as Rise nods as a reply. "Okay! Where is she?"
Rise leads the red-haired girl to the school and into the guidance department. From there, after turning left, Rise knocks on the door with a sign that says, "Nishigaki".
"Come in," a voice says from behind the door.
Rise opens it and beckons her new friend to follow her inside. Akari sees a young woman with shoulder length platinum-blonde hair with a side bang covering her right eye. She sits up and sees the two girls enter and smile.
"Well, hello there," she says. "Who do we have here, Matsumoto?"
Rise gestures her hand towards the red-haired girl and whispers.
"It's nice to meet you, Nishigaki-sensei," Akari says with a bow.
"Nice meeting you, too, Akaza-san," the young woman says. "I'm Nana Nishigaki, the guidance councilor. I talk with Matsumoto most of the time."
"You do?" Akari asks.
"Certainly," Nana replies. "Whenever Matsumoto has problems or needs some advice, she goes straight into my office. Though, most of her problems were trying to make friends."
"I see. Well, to tell you the truth, I've been having the same problem," Akari explains.
"Oh? How so?" Nana asks.
The red-haired girl takes a deep breath and exhales slowly and tells Nana the story of how she's treated like she's invisible and now her current friends are ignoring her because of one transfer student. This whole time, Nana had listened to Akari's sad story and nods.
"I am so sorry to hear that, Akaza-san," Nana says. "Well, I'm very glad you made friends with Matsumoto. She really needed one since she first talked to me."
"Thanks," Akari says. "I'll makes sure to get along and take care of her, Nishigaki-sensei."
Rise turns to the red-haired girl as she smiles. She is glad to hear that from Akari.
"That's good to hear," Nana says as she stands up to get the door. "Well, you two better head to class because it's about to start in a few minutes."
"Right!" Akari dashes out the door as soon as Nana opens it.
However, the platinum blonde stops Rise for a second and pulls her aside as she gives the quiet girl a smile.
"I'm glad you made a friend, Matsumoto," Nana whispers. "I never expected this to happen, but you did it. I'm very proud of you."
Rise gives the guidance councilor a small smile as she nods. She is glad she made friends with Akari, too, and would never forget their first meeting ever. With that, Rise leaves the office and starts walking towards her homeroom. She wonders if Akari has the same lunch period as her because she'll also love to talk and eat with her if that ever happened. However, her thoughts are interrupted when she accidentally bumps into someone in front of her and falls on her butt in the process.
"Huh?" a girl with violet hair tied into a long pony-tail says as she turns around to see what hit her. "Oh, my! Are you okay?"
Rise looks up at the girl and nods as she stands up and brushes off some dust from her uniform. The girl in purple hair, along with another with short silver hair and glasses, come over to see if the Rise is alright.
"You should watch where you're going, miss," the purple haired girl says, gently.
Rise nods in understanding.
"Hehe! She's such a cute girl!" the silver haired girl says, her voice containing a Kansai accent.
The violet haired girl smiles as she nods. "Yes, she is." She turns to Rise. "Are you lost?"
Rise shakes her head.
"Well, okay. Be careful," the violet haired girl says. "Come on, Chitose. We're going to be late as well."
The silver haired girl, Chitose, nods. "Okay, Ayano-chan." She turns to Rise. "We'll see you later, miss!"
Rise waves the two girls farewell as they walk to their homeroom. The raven-haired girl is surprised that the violet haired girl, knowns as Ayano, seems like a very nice person, so does that silver haired girl, Chitose. She hopes to see them again.
Lunch time finally arrives after 3 periods and Rise has just entered the cafeteria. Looking around her, there were a bunch of people sitting and eating with their friends. Usually, she eats by herself, but all she could think about is Akari. Maybe she doesn't have the same lunch period as she does. Sure it's not all that bad, but to her, she's starting to feel lonely again. For a quiet girl like her, all she wanted was to enjoy her lunch time, not sit by herself and be bored the whole period. After looking around some more, she sees that there's one empty table with most people walking by it. Why is that? The other tables were already filled up, so why is this table empty? Shrugging, she starts to walk towards the table when she hears some yelling and screaming coming from her right. She sees two girls chasing each other, one with medium length blonde hair and the other with blue hair tied in twin braids. The blonde girl didn't look where she's going while running with something in her hand when she bumps into Rise, making both of them topple over.
"Owwwww!" the blonde girl groans as she gets up. "Where is that cookie?"
Rise notices the bag lying on the ground and picks it up. The blonde girl immediately jumps up and puts out her hand.
"Hurry! She's trying to take my cookie!" the blonde girl begs. "Quick! Give it to me before she attacks me with her breasts again!"
"Huh!?" the blue haired girl gasps as she stomps over towards the blonde girl. "I'll have you know that I was the one who has that cookie and you took it from me! Give it back now!"
"Try me!" the blonde girl teases. "Or is your breasts way too big for you to run?"
"Stop that!" the blue haired girl shouts.
Rise tilts her head in confusion as she eyes the cookie. She really didn't care who's it was, but to be fair, she takes it out, split it in half and gives it to the girls.
"Y-you're giving half to the both of us?" the blonde girl asks.
"Th-that's very kind of you, but you didn't have to do that," the blue haired girl says.
Rise just gives the two a gentle smile before waving to them. Both of the girls stare at Rise as she heads for the empty table.
"Wow," the blue haired girl says. "I never expected this girl to be . . . this kind to us," the blue haired girl says.
"Yes, unlike you, Himawari," the blonde girl teases.
"You should be really grateful that girl split this cookie for us," the blue haired girl says.
"Hehe! Okay, whatever you say," the blonde girl turns and walks off. "Come on, Himawari. Let's eat."
As the two walk away, Rise stares at the girls with a smile on her face. It's good that she could fix the problem, but she still feels lonely inside. She's going to have to eat alone like she usually does and just observe the other girls having a good time. Sighing she starts to head for the empty table when all of a sudden . . .
"Rise-chan!"
The raven-haired girl swiftly turns her head to notice the red-haired girl waving as she approaches her. A bright smile appears on Rise's face as she whispers a "Hello".
"Hi, there!" Akari says. "I was looking for you! Sorry, I'm a bit late. It's so crowded in here!"
Rise nods as she gestures her hand to the table and whispers.
"Of course, Rise-chan~! I'd love to sit with you!" Akari says, happily.
That response makes Rise's heart soar. Not only she's happy that Akari showed up, but is glad that she won't be lonely anymore during lunch. Akari proceeds to sit next to the raven-haired girl and the two eat lunch while enjoying each other's company. For Rise, she couldn't be any happier. She made a new friend and is eating lunch with that friend, who is somewhat similar to her. For the whole lunch period, the two ate and chatted together. When lunch is over, the two stand up while picking up their bags.
"I had so much fun eating with you, Rise-chan!" Akari says happily. "We should do this again tomorrow!"
Rise whispers.
"Oh, I forgot. Tomorrow's Saturday," Akari says while rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry! Ahahaha!"
Rise giggles as she whispers.
"Well, I'll see you after school, Rise-chan," Akari says as she takes her leave.
Rise waves at Akari as she whispers.
"See you later!"
With that, Akari is gone in a flash. Lowering her hand, a small smile creeps on her face. Yup, like earlier, she cannot be any happier.
When the final bell rings for dismissal, Rise walks out of the classroom to find Akari right away next door. Surprised, she walks up to the red-head and whispers.
"Oh, yes!" Akari says. "I had no idea that your homeroom was close to mine either. I guess it's because it's so crowded that we barely saw each other, plus we had other classes to go to."
Rise nods and whispers.
"Alright," Akari says. "Let's get to the station before it leaves."
Both of them exit the school and start walking along the path until Akari notices 3 familiar girls ahead of them: Yui, Kyouko and Chinatsu.
"Oh! Hey, you guys!" Akari calls. "Hey, I made a new fri-"
"Aw~! You're just so cute, Chinatsu-chan~!" Kyouko coos as she hugs the small freshman.
"Hey, will you stop that?" Yui says. "You've been doing that too many times."
"I can't help it!" the blonde says. "Chinatsu-chan is just too cute~!"
Chinatsu clings onto Yui really closely. "Help me Yui-sempai! Kyouko-sempai is going to eat me up if she keeps this up!"
"Oh, don't worry!" Kyouko assures the freshman. "Hey, let's go to my place so she can check out my latest comics."
"I'd rather go to Yui-sempai's place," Chinatsu objects as she squeezes her arms tighter around the short dark-haired girl.
"Uh, you guys?" Akari says. "Are you even listening? I want you to meet my new friend."
Rise looks at the red-haired girl with worry. She realizes about what Akari had said earlier about her friends treating her like she's invisible and now she's seeing it with her own eyes.
"I think that's a good idea," Yui says. "Why don't you come along, Chinatsu?"
"Hey!" Kyouko whines. "Why do you always have to choose Chinatsu-chan's side!?"
"Because you can sometimes be a handful," Yui replies. "Let's go."
"Fine," Kyouko sighs as she drags herself along with the others.
Tears are starting to fall from Akari's eyes as she sees the two leave without ever hearing or seeing her.
"O-okay," she chokes a sob. "I-I guess I'll see you l-later."
Rise comes over and tugs on her shirt. Akari looks over as she wipes her tears.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Akari sniffles. "I failed again. It seems like Yui-chan and Kyouko-chan want to hang out with Chinatsu-chan from now on."
Rise nods as she wraps her arms around the red-head and buries her head in her chest. Soft sniffling can be heard from the raven-haired girl.
"Wh-why are you crying, Rise-chan?" Akari asks. "I sh-should be the one wh-who should be down."
Rise whispers as she looks up at the red-haired girl.
"You're right," Akari says. "Why can't people understand us? We're just really lonely that need friends, but they don't see that. They all look at us in a different way: like we don't exist in the world." More tears fall from Akari's eyes. "It's just . . . so unfair! So unfair!"
Rise nods as she hugs Akari a bit tighter as her own tears fall freely from her eyes.
"It's okay, Rise-chan," Akari sobs. "Y-you don't have to be alone anymore, neither will I. S-so don't . . . don't cry alone anymore! I'm here to cry along with you!"
Rise gasps as she hears that from her dear friend.
"Let it out, Rise-chan," Akari whispers. "It's not really good to keep it inside you. The same goes for me."
And that's just what Rise does. As more and more tears fall out, Rise let's out quiet sobs for the first time in her life. She had been keeping it inside her for so long that she's finally letting out everything that she's been holding back. Akari let's out her sobs, too as she hugs the raven-haired girl tightly. Both of them cry their hearts out for a good 15 minutes until none of them could cry anymore.
Both of them sit on a bench for a moment near the station after they are done crying, but their eyes remain red from doing that.
"Are you feeling better, Rise-chan?" Akari asks.
Rise nods as she whispers.
"Yes, I'm feeling a bit better. It felt good though."
Rise nods again as she leans in close to her red-haired friend. It did feel good to let it out, especially with Akari right by her side. It had made her feel better to cry along with her. Akari puts an arm around the raven-haired girl and smiles.
"Rise-chan," she says, softly. "Promise me that we'll be friends forever, okay?"
Rise gasps at Akari's statement. The red-haired girl offers her pinky and winks.
"Promise?" she asks.
Rise stares at the pinky for a bit while a smile appears on her face. She wraps her own pinky with Akari's and both of them gently shake.
"It's a promise then," Akari says.
With that in mind, both of them stand up and enter the train together.
A/N: Whew! That's a long one and early on the drama as well. Sorry about that. But that's all I could think of at this point. And how do you like the cameos with the rest of the "Yuru Yuri" cast? Don't worry. They are all nice people. I'm not planning on making one of them mean or anything. I just don't see that in them.
Anyway, feel free to give out any suggestions, questions or concerns and don't forget to review. ;)