It was the perfect first day! She had friends, most of her classmates liked her, and she was about to get title of being the representative pilot of Russia. As if acknowledging how awesome the day was, the sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a single dark cloud to be seen. If she focused hard enough, she could even hear birds singing, something which was supposed to be impossible since they were in an artificial island, but who cares? She was having a blast!
She couldn't believe her dad was worried about her. Sure, she might've been a bit clingy in the past, but that was all over now! Today she was a full student, and on her road to the path of independence. Tonight, she was going to her dorm room and she wouldn't worry about anything at all. Maybe she could even make friends with her new roommate. Honestly, her dad was such a worrywart.
"Tatenashi-chan, are you alright? You've been laughing to yourself for a while now."
She turned to the right and saw her friend Isadora giving her a worried look. Isadora was her first friend in ISA, something which didn't surprise her. Sure, maybe they weren't the childhood friends you saw in manga's, but they were so similar that they instantly hit it off. If she had to describe her, Tatenashi would call her a ray of sunshine. Always smiling and polite, her long blond hair and gold eyes gave her the appearance of a Saint, which was pretty accurate considering she was a devoutly faithful Christian. She was a foreigner - Turkish, if she remembered correctly - though that wasn't very odd in a place like this. Everything else about her was normal, except for her rather.....generous assets. Good thing this place was all female.
"Tate-nyan's probably just happy that she got her own personal IS today. It's really rare for someone to be a rep candidate at her age." An accented voice interrupted.
The voice came to her left this time. This was her second friend, Katherine "Kate" O'Donnell. A A Canadian classmate of hers. Shorter than her by about half a head, Kate also had a constant smile on her face, though hers held something more sinister compared to Isadora. Her blond hair was cut just below her shoulders and her green eyes radiated mischief no matter the situation. Body wise, she looked about her age, though she wasn't afraid to flaunt it. On her hands was a camera, which was the reason for most of said mischief. To describe her in one word: Paparazzi. If you had a secret, then stay away from her.
"No, I think she's just crazy....."
Ah, there was the ever encouraging comments of her last friend. Yami Suzuka, hailing from the land of Japan. In contrast to her friend's ever sunny demeanor's, she often had an upside down V on her face and a snarky comment no matter the situation. In contrast to her friends brighter hair colors, her hair was colored dark black and stopped just above her neck. Her eyes were red. Well, at least that's what Tatenashi thought. Her right eye was covered by a few stray bangs and the only exposed eye was red, so she figured it was a good guess. She looked thinner than her friends, and had more of an archetypal athletic build compared to her peers.
These were her friend's. Sure, they looked like a ragtag bunch of misfits, but didn't they say that opposites attract? It was a good enough reason as any to hang out with them....even if they took to answering her questions for her.
"Nah, I'm fine!" She grinned and waved off her friend's concerns, "I'm just thinking how awesome school is!" Yami rolled her eye discreetly behind her, "I don't know why Dad thought this place was going to be so difficult to get used to. I feel at home already!"
"Indeed," Isadora smiled and nodded next to her, "This place is simply divine. I'm glad that my parent's allowed me to go here for the next three years. I trust it'll be a learning experience."
"Yeah...." Yami agreed, "Maybe I can learn something else here that aren't on the datapads and research notes...." A small bit of excitement pierced through her dull tone.
Kate clicked her tongue exaggeratedly at her friend's announcements. Couldn't they think of something other than the IS? "Learning schmrning!" She held up her camera, "I'm here for the best scoop I can get! Honestly, who cares about the IS? Being a reporter's way more fun! Speaking of which~" She turned to her blue haired friend, "I'm interested to know how your dad knows so much about ISA. We aren't allowed to tell our parent's anything about the school, so I'm curious to know. Is our very own Tate-nyan a rulebreaker?"
Tatenashi leaned back and avoided her friend's gaze, "D-Don't ask me! He says he knows this place is bad news and that I should be careful," She shook her head and looked forward, "Anyway, he was wrong about this place. How could he think this place is dangerous or anything? Things have been going great since I got here!"
The 4 friends continued to chat till they reached the dorm gates. The area around them was deserted, no doubt due to the amount of student's who were still in school exploring. It was actually still rather early and the sun was just beginning to go down over the Horizon. This gave the 4 of them enough space to admire their surroundings.
"And then she said- Hey, who's that?"
Kate pointed at the gate. Or rather, at the person standing next to it. Now, a person loitering at the gate was already slightly odd in and of itself, but there was something that mad it crazy: He was a male.
He wasn't looking at them, but rather at the ground in front of him. They couldn't really make out his face, what with this white bangs covering his face. All they could really see were his odd clothes: A black long sleeved shirt with a zipper in front of the left shoulder and grayish white jeans and black sneakers. His stance indicated that he didn't find anything odd about being there, which was extremely odd given the situation.
"Is that a male?" Isadora asked, "Did he get lost and take the wrong train, perhaps?"
"No way..." Yami shook her head and narrowed her eye dangerously, "Maybe it's a pervert. There's no way someone can take the train by mistake here. It's either that or an intruder. Both don't bode well for him...."
"Hmm, this looks like a scoop!" Kate grinned and took out her signature camera, "What do you think Tate-nyan? Pervert or Intruder?"
"....Worse."
Her friend's gave her an odd stare, but they didn't get a chance to ask what she meant. The guy, seeing their approach, raised an eyebrow slightly and walked towards them. All of them unconsciously backed away when they saw him go near.
Well, almost all of them.
Tatenashi stepped forward, face looking irate as she stared him eye to eye. Now that he was facing them, they could see his features more clearly: Eyes of Gold stared back at her friend, though nowhere near as irate as her. His face had a youthful look to it. If they could hazard a guess, he looked to be about 14-15.....which didn't help the pervert case at all. Attractiveness wise, he looked handsome, or was it cute? None of them were an expert on it.
"What are you doing here? I told you I'd be fine on my own." Though she tried to sound angry, she sounded more annoyed than anything.
"I was worried about you...." His voice was soft and had a slight breathless feel to it. They had to strain themselves to hear it, "It's your first day of school, Sara, so I got worried that you'd do something bad...again."
"Oh come on, that was in third grade!" She stamped her foot irritatedly, "When are you going to let that go? Just because I thought pulling a prank would be funny, you've never let me hear the end of it!"
He gave her a blank stare, "He still cries whenever someone mentions banana......" He commented, causing her face to go red, "I just wanted to make sure no one will be going to the nurse's office complaining about fruit related trauma again. I don't know how to cure someone who starts laughing whenever someone says pineapple or screams in fear whenever they hear tomato."
"I'm not going to pull any more pranks!" She covered her eyes with her palm and sighed, "Look, I'll be fine. Just don't-"
"Excuse me for just a second!"
Kate grabbed Tatenashi by the arm and pulled her back towards them. He gave her an odd stare, but chose to wait till they were finished. He had to respect her wishes, after all.
Back at the group, all of them made sure to turn their backs on him and whispered so they couldn't hear him.
"Tate-nyan, who is this guy?" Kate gestured to the still confused male, "Is this the secret childhood boyfriend come back after 10 years flag to confess his love?" Right, one thing about Kate was that she was an eroge addict. She used it as reference for her sneaking techniques, apparently.
"Childhood- What? No!" Tatenashi shook her rapidly reddening face quickly, "There's no way he's my childhood friend or anything like that! Look, he's-"
"Is he an intruder then?" Isadora interrupted, "Perhaps we should call the teacher's and see if he has authorization to be here."
Tatenashi tried to speak again, "He has authorization to be here! He's-"
"The school nurse...." Yami finished for her, "He was here since this morning and helped me tend to an injury I had earlier....he was very kind......" Despite her calm tone, a soft redness started to spread across her cheeks and she refused to look the others in the eye, "I didn't recognize him earlier since I didn't see his face, but I'm positive it's him now..."
Why was her face red? Was she shy about getting injured and needing help from somebody else or was it...no, it couldn't be. But the signs were all there. Blushing cheeks, refusing to look somebody in the eye, slight hesitation in speaking.
"You like him!" Kate blurted out. Tatenashi and Isadora instantly used both hands to cover her mouth and looked back at him. Thankfully, by the confused look he gave them, he didn't hear her friend's little outburst.
Yami didn't reply and simply continued to look down. Much to the confusion of her friend's Tatenashi had a look that was a mix between horror and disgust. Was the thought of their reclusive friend liking someone really that odd?
"Come on, it's no shame to like someone!" Kate whispered with a big grin, "It's not like it's wrong or anything."
"Yes it is!" Tatenashi interrupted with a fierce whisper of her own, "It is very wrong! In fact, I believe we should stop talking about this before I start puking!"
"Why do you look so - Oh, I get it!" Kate had an even bigger grin on her face and started fondling her camera in a not so comforting way, "You like him too, don't you? Come on, I won't think any less of you for it. He is pretty good looking."
"Like him!?" She retched back and resisted the urge to vomit, "Th-That's disgusting! Never in a million years will I let that cross my mind! I'd rather jump off a cliff than imagine that happening-"
"......Excuse me."
Her would be rant was stopped again as she suddenly felt someone tapped his shoulder. She looked back and found him giving all of them the same calm stare from before.
"If you don't mind, I have to talk with Sara about something before I go back to the office." He waited for them to interrupt him. When none of them did, he continued, "Sara, your mother wants to meet you later to congratulate you on getting the position as the representative candidate of Russia tonight. I would go with her if I were you, she looked really excited about it..."
Tatenashi wanted to use that chance ti get away, but Kate beat her to the punch, "You know her mom too? Tell me, what exactly is your relationship with our Tate-nyan?"
"....Relationship?" He gave her a confused look, "I don't understand what you mean by relationship. I'm the school nurse of this school, and she's a student, so I think-"
"Oh, just introduce yourself already!"
"But the job description states-"
"I don't care what the job description says!" She went behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders, "Just tell the others who you are before I get a migraine explaining it to them!"
"I don't want to break rules on the first day...." He protested weakly.
If there was one thing she hated about him, it was that he refused to break anhy contract unless he was given an ultimatum. Fine, if he wasn't going to do it, she'd have to force him, "I'll tell mom that you were seduced by schoolgirls on the first day!" She laid out her trump card. There was no way for him to resist that.
".....You wouldn't dare."
She was right.
"H-Hold on, why would it matter to her mother if that was the case, " Isadora asked hesitantly, "Does that mean that you are her younger brother?"
It made sense, all things considered. They argued like a pair of siblings, his appearance fit it well enough, and it would explain Tatenashi's earlier revulsion to discussing a relationship with him. She knew how awkward discussing sibling relationships with people could be.
"H-Her younger brother..." Yami whispered to herself. This made things both easier and harder. She had a friend to consult on her slight infatuation, and she could get help. On the other hand, it made things more awkward in the long run.
Kate didn't bother speaking. She simply got her small notepad and started writing notes.
"Not quite..." He shook his shoulders off her and tapped the clothes lightly. Turning back to face them, he gave a deep sigh and bowed politely, "My name is Yuri Graham, though I prefer to be called Irish. I'm not her younger brother, and it worries me that any of you think so."
"You're not?" Isadora asked, "Who are you, then?"
"I'm her father."
2012-08-26, 10:17
