Minako
Minako rolled her eyes as Akiyama-san started on his little tirade, brows perking up at the term ‘we’. This boy had certainly gone from standoffish, to intrusive in what seemed a mere stroke of the hand. Her amused thoughts were immediately shattered; however, at his insult to her favorite food on the entire planet.
“What?”
Her body went stiff as she turned to watch him evenly.
“I think I must of misheard you because you can’t get rid of a type of food simply because you don’t like it.”
Her tone was curt. There wasn’t even any curry left in her boxes to sooth her irritation. There were things you could mess with, but food was NOT one of them. Digging in her bag she pulled out a new box of Pretz. All thought of working in tandem with this Yamato kid to help Hana win rested in the balance on his next statement.
Hana
Yamato leaned back into his chair and sighed.
“Look, Curry-chan. I get you have awful taste in food. All I’m saying is strong smelling food be eaten outside the classroom. Food smells linger… ”
Hana nodded her head unconsciously in agreement. For a yankee, he was being reasonably fair… Yamato pointed at her and said.
“Look. Even Chibi-chan agrees.”
Hana looked up at him in shock. Uh Oh. She wavedher hands in front of her.
“No. No. I-“
Yamato slammed his chopsticks back down onto his desk. Other students in the class room turned to look at them. Hiro was smiling awkwardly at Hana. Yamato was leaning forward in his desk again.
“Look here, Chibi-chan. You can’t be so wishy washy. To be in charge of people you need to stand your ground. You already have a right and left hand man. The Japanese respond to people who strike fear in their hearts. That’s why we must destroy Asuna.”
This was so intense. It was like he wanted to go into battle. She started to look around him for hidden samurai armor.
“Akiyama-san…”
Yamato turned his head.
“Chibi-chan, we are classmates now with a common goal. You and Curry-chan need to call me, Yamato. Y-A-M-A-T-O, ok?”
Hana shook her head and he turned to Minako.
“You are going to be the right hand and I am going to be the left hand. We will use Chibi-chan to take over the school.”
He was smiling like a crazy idiot.
Minako
Minako’s eyes narrowed as she witnessed between her supposed friend and this straight up intruder AGREEING. In silent protest she expertly put her bento away so as to get rid of the scent that was bothering everyone OH SO MUCH.
“Listen A-KI-YA-MA-SAN, this is not a war and your intense nature is going to scare everyone into voting for Asuna.”
Her Pretz stick was pointed directly in his direction whilst she spoke.
“Also, she is half Japanese so she doesn’t need a lesson on what the Japanese respond to. If anything it’s more about what post-secondary school students from the city respond to.”
The Pretz stick disappeared in a matter of seconds.
“We already know your reputation is known by Asuna’s friends, but since everyone will see you and Kobayashi-san making nice that will help give her the edge. Also-”
Reaching over with her chopsticks she quickly snatched a Takoyaki ball and popped it in her mouth,
“It’s Tatsumiya-san.”
Hana
Hana had the sudden worry that her face had turned purple. Minako was annoyed. Yamato-san’s pushiness and overzealous nature had rubbed her the wrong way. and her unconscious head nods had made the situation worse. Yamato looked at her in shock.
“My Takoyaki…”
He whispered. The entire class seemed to have tuned into the conversation again. Wether it was because of Yamato or Minako they were all paying attention. Hana stood up from her seat to walk around and kneel in front of the other two’s desks. She looked up at the two of them nervously.
“Guys….Can’t we just get a long.”
Yamato looked at her and sighed.
“Chibi-chan-”
Hana put her hand up. She stood up and bopped him on the head.
“Yamato-san. Friends can disagree, but we still have to be polite.”
He slumped in his seat and nodded his head. Hana took a deep breath, gathered her courage and turned back towards Minako.
“Minako-san. People sometimes don’t make very good first impressions. That doesn’t mean they are bad people. A good high school environment consists of curry and takoyaki.”
She turned back to look at Yamato.
“We are schoolmates with the same cause, right? Let’s figure out how to get a long.”
When she was done she took a step back to regather herself, but found herself slipping on the leg of the desk that was behind her. She fell backwards into the desk and landed on her butt. Hana looked up at her two bickering classmates shocked. The classroom around them erupted in laughter again… Hana looked directly at Minako.
“Minako-san….”
Minako
Minako opened her mouth to oppose using the word ‘friend’ about herself and Akiyama-san, but fell silent once Hana addressed her. Her mini speech was very rudimentary, yet the food analogy was enough to earn her compliance. Resting her chin on her palm she watched Yamato out of the corner of her eye. Honestly there wouldn’t have been any issue if he hadn’t insulted curry of all things. But Hana was right that they were classmates and since they were going to be sitting right next to each other some comprises might have to be made or else someone could end up thrown out of the window.
“Hana-chan!”
Minako bolted upright at the sight of Hana falling yet again. She gave a soft sigh of relief at Hana being alright. Well, she wasn’t entirely sure if being this accident prone could ever allow her to be alright if she was being honest. Walking around her desk she held out her hand to help pull Hana back to her feet.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure that none of our classmates would be nosy enough to have been watching or immature enough to laugh. I mean come on, we aren’t secondary students anymore.”
Her voice was loud enough to ensure she was heard by her fellow students with a genuine smile plastered on her face as she looked at Hana.
“But yes, Akiyama-san and I will do our best to get along. Right?”
She turned on her heel to look at Yamato. She was not above taking another takoyaki ball. Their classmates stopped laughing and looked at each other like they were embarrassed themselves.
Hana
Hana took Minako’s hand gratefully. When she was up, and she started to dust herself off, she saw Hiro stand up and stick his hand out in front of Yamato.
“Yamato-san. My name is Hiro. Welcome to class 1-C.”
Yamato turned to look at Hana and Minako. Hana nodded her head at him. He turned back around and shook Hiro’s hand.
“Thanks.”
A few other guys came up and introduced themselves to Yamato. When some of the girls approached him he turned cold again, so they stood on the edge of the group sighing. Hana walked back over to her seat and leaned towards Minako.
“Maybe, we won’t have to worry about speeches.”
Her eyes turned to Asuna. Who was standing on the other end of the room with her two girl followers. She had been the only one to not bother to come over. It may not be what she intended, but things seemed to be working out for themselves in their own way. Besides, Yamato was right when he said Asuna would be a problem. It was clear to her that something about her threatened her classmate. If she did not remove her then she would always be a thorn in her side. She looked back at Minako smiling. At least she had met one honest and blunt person.
