Chapter Five

It was Friday, the end of Rin's first week of school, and she sat alone at her desk during lunch again. She did this every day, and not once did she bring a lunch to eat. Luka would always come by and make a remark about this, but over the course of the week these comments became more like suggestions to eat than commands. Rin was more than fine with this, though it was still rather annoying having Luka come up to her every day. She wished her teacher would just leave her alone already.

"You really should eat something."

Today, though, this remark didn't come from her teacher. Rin turned around and looked at the pink-haired girl sitting a desk away with a surprised expression. IA merely stared back at her with a blank look.

"Huh?" Rin said questioningly.

As far as she knew, IA hadn't spoken to a single person ever since school began, so why was she talking to her, of all people?

"You'll starve yourself if you don't eat something," IA replied simply.

"I'm fine. Plus, even if I was hungry, I don't have any food, idiot," Rin retorted sharply.

IA seemed unphased by her remark as she reach into her bento box and pulled out an onigiri. She then held it out to Rin, face still expressionless. "Eat."

"No way," Rin responded curtly.

IA frowned slightly before moving closer to Rin, so that now the onigiri was practically against the blonde girl's nose. "Just eat it."

"No! Hey- mmph!"

Rin's protests were muffled by IA stuffing the onigiri into her mouth. Rin sent the other girl a death glare, yet had no other choice but to eat it. IA, for some reason, looked satisfied.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Rin exclaimed angrily once she had finished swallowing the onigiri.

"Ms. Kagamine, we don't use language like that in this classroom," Luka said sternly from her place at her desk at the front of the room.

"You're not going to do something about this?!" Rin asked incredulously.

"Well, normally I would intervene, but seeing as you've finally got some food in your stomach, I don't have a problem with it," Luka answered simply.

Rin stared at her in disbelief for a few seconds before turning to look at IA once more.

"You'll thank me later," IA stated plainly.

"I'm not thanking you for anything!" Rin practically yelled, feeling her temper rising by the second.

Just who was this girl, and who did she think she was? They didn't even know each other, and yet she felt she had the right to force feed Rin an onigiri? Hell, Rin might not have let even Miku do that!

"You're such a weirdo," Rin grumbled, sending IA one last glare before turning back around in her seat.

"You're the one who doesn't eat every day," she heard IA mutter softly.

Rin's eye twitched in irritation; that was none of her business whether Rin ate or not. Still, she tried to contain her temper the best she could. Rin honestly didn't feel like making a big scene in the middle of the classroom, especially since lunch would be ending soon and the rest of her classmates would be returning.

"Geez, I could at least get a little 'thanks' for being nice..."

Nope, screw trying to contain her temper. IA thought she was being nice? What part of "nice" entails shoving food down someone's throat?! Rin stood up and slammed her palms against the top of her desk, then whirled around to give IA an ice-cold glare.

"You know what? I don't need your 'kindness', or whatever the hell you want to call it! In fact, I hate pointless things like that!" Rin shouted. She started walking toward the other girl as she continued. "People who do 'nice' things for others when they don't even know them are so stupid! What do you have to gain from that? Does it make you feel satisfied?! Do you feel good about yourself?! Why don't you just-"

"Hey, hey, calm down! No need to start a fight!" a green-haired girl named Gumi rushed over and grabbed onto Rin's arm, stopping her from getting any closer to IA.

Rin glared at Gumi and was about to protest, when suddenly IA's voice brought her attention back to the pink-haired girl.

"Do you really think like that?" IA asked quietly.

"Of course I do!" Rin spat.

"I see..." IA muttered. She then stood up silently and walked over to the classroom door, pausing in the doorway to give Rin a sideways glance over her shoulders. "I feel bad for you, then."

After that, IA exited the classroom without another word.

"IA, come back here! You can't just go off on your own!" Luka called while hurrying over to the door. Though, she also paused briefly to look back at Rin, yet she held a much more firm gaze. "You don't go anywhere either, understand? I'll have a talk with you after class."

Luka left the room as well to chase after IA. Rin merely stood there, staring at the doorway in stunned silence. She had just seen IA smiling... hadn't she? It wasn't a mocking smile like one might expect in this situation, but rather a pitying, sympathetic smile. Somehow, as Rin stared blankly at the door, she couldn't seem to get the image out of her mind.

At the end of the day, everyone except Rin filed out of the classroom, while the blonde-haired girl sat at her desk and tapped her fingers on the surface in irritation. She looked at Luka with an expression that was a mixture of boredom and exasperation, wanting nothing more than to just go home already. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Luka was going to be letting her out of here any time soon.

"You do realize that I could have you potentially suspended for trying to start a fight with a student, don't you?" Luka started.

"I didn't even touch her," Rin grumbled.

"Had Gumi not stopped you, I'm sure you would've," Luka pointed out.

Rin said nothing, merely choosing to stare absently out one of the classroom's windows with a small mutter that really didn't form any sort of words.

Luka sighed. "But I'm not going to do that."

Rin sent her a questioning look. "You're not?"

"No, but I would at least like you to apologize to IA on Monday," Luka replied.

"Hey, why am I the only one who has to apologize? And why are you only talking to me? What about her? She's responsible for this too, you know!" Rin exclaimed angrily.

"I already talked to IA earlier when I went to go find her after lunch. Besides, what she did really didn't cause any harm, and she had good intentions while doing so. You, on the other hand..." Luka trailed off, knowing she didn't need to continue for Rin to understand what she was saying.

Rin merely stared at her incredulously. No harm? Good intentions? If that had been true, Rin wouldn't have gotten mad at her in the first place!

Luka sighed again, noticing Rin's expression. "Look, I think there's just been a misunderstanding here. IA's actually quite a nice girl, and I think the two of you would make great friends if you gave her a chance."

Rin scoffed. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm perfectly fine with how I am."

"I don't know what your definition of 'fine' is, but to me you look rather lonely, sitting there by yourself every day without talking to a single person," Luka frowned slightly.

Rin crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. "If I say I'm fine, then I'm fine."

Luka shook her head slightly for a moment, before speaking again. "Well, I don't suppose I can force you to do anything. Just keep an open mind, alright? And don't forget to apologize to IA on Monday, got it?"

"I got it," Rin grumbled exasperatedly.

"Alright, then you may go," Luka said, finally releasing Rin.

Without a moment's hesitation, Rin grabbed her bag and quickly exited the room. She knew that at this point she had missed her bus, but she didn't feel like talking to anyone right now, let alone asking her mother to come pick her up, so she decided to just walk home. It was about a thirty minute walk from the school to her house, but she supposed that wasn't that bad, all things considered. As Rin walked along the sidewalk, she realized just how long it had been since she'd really gone anywhere other than school and home. Of course, she occasionally visited Miku in the hospital, but other than that Rin never really got out. She didn't have anyone to hang out with, all of her previous friends had either gone to different schools and lost touch with her or got fed up with her constantly grumpy mood and left. After Miku was gone, she'd be able to call herself officially "friendless".

Rin didn't know why, but the thought saddened her. Wasn't she the one always saying she was fine by herself? Wasn't she the one always pushing people away? If that's so, then why did she feel so hopelessly lonely at the thought of not having anyone to talk to anymore? Had Luka been right after all? Was she really not alright with how things were? Rin clutched her bag strap tighter as she tried to push the thoughts from her mind. It was best not to think about it, that way she didn't have to worry about it. That was the kind of flawed logic she'd been using ever since Miku was hospitalized. It had worked well enough so far, anyway.

The house was silent once again when she arrived. Rin dropped her bag off by the door and kicked off her shoes before collapsing onto the couch. She was feeling even more sluggish than usual and didn't really feel like cooking anything, so since it was a Friday anyway she decided she'd order pizza for dinner. Her mother generally discouraged eating unhealthy food unless it was a special event or something, but Rin honestly didn't care about that right now. Besides, if Lily had a problem with it, then she should've come home and made dinner herself.

"Ugh..." Rin groaned as she laid on her back and put her arm over her eyes.

She hadn't really ever had such bitter thoughts about her mother before, so why now? Was it because of her bad mood? Well, she supposed she was always in a bad mood nowadays, so that probably wasn't it. Plus, it's not like it was Lily that Rin was mad at, it was IA and Luka. They were the ones at fault here.

"I'm tired... I just want to sleep," Rin mumbled, rolling over to lay on her stomach and burying her face in the couch cushion.

Yeah... a nap sounds nice, Rin thought to herself. She closed her eyes and nuzzled closer into the cushions. Things wouldn't be so bad if she could just stay like this forever...

A/N: I also had a lot of fun writing this chapter ^w^ The beginning part kind of entertained me, so I hope some of you found it amusing as well (if not, well then I guess it seems a little weird, huh?). Anyway, since school is starting up again in a few days for me I'm afraid updates aren't going to be as frequent. I'm going to try to post a new chapter at least once a week, but I can't make any promises. I'm already out of pre-written chapters... Well, please tell me what you think of this story so far and as always:

Have a great day/night/whatever~