Story: AN AFFILIATION OF SORTS (all chapters)
Authors: ALLjapan
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Chapter 1
Title: Chapter One: First Impressions.
Lanna walked into the class room boldly. It was her first day at this school. She had just transferred. She didn’t want to show how nervous or scared she was. Lanna kept a look of indifference as she stood at the front of the class to introduce herself. "My name is Lanna Howling." "Lanna would you like to take the seat available next to Ayumi?" The teacher points to the empty chair beside a girl and Lanna walked over and she put her bag down before sitting down.In the back seat was a red-haired girl who was dead asleep in her seat. Her head is propped up on her textbook and notebooks, and she's gnawing on her lip in her sleep. Lanna’s bemused by the teachers lack of reaction to this and seemed to ignore the sleepy girl who Lanna now sat beside. She couldn’t help but smile though just a little at least at the girls’ cute expression. But not wanting to be distracted by the task at hand she sat back in her seat more comfortably before getting out a book and her pen so that she could begin taking any necessary notes for the class ahead of her.The girl's eyes opened half way, a sort of blank expression upon her face with sleepy looking eyes. The eyes were an amber, almost red, color, and they stared at Lanna for a moment. “A new student... Blegh... Fresh meat.” Is all that the red headed girl mutters; just loud enough to be heard by the closest kids, who giggled at the sleepy comment. Lanna heard the comment crystal clear of course and a small frown threatened to furrow her brow. She looks over to the other girls still rather sleepy expression. She’s in the midst of a battle of emotional reactionas to what to do. What to say?! ‘I won’t let her make me look weak.’ Lanna thought to herself as her ‘I’m annoyed-o-metre rose within her. She stops her writing momentarily and decides to lean closer to the red head as she whispered; "hey now, that’s not very nice to say to your new class mate- the seating arrangements are permanent here; so let’s agree not to say those things to each other~"Lanna had thought herself to be quiet clever and not over reacting or under reacting. But the girls reaction to her words are unexpected as the first insult. Lanna watches as her lips twitched into a smug smile, and she leant forward to whisper in the ear of the guy in front of her. He sniggers nastily and passes the message on to all his buddies, starting a gossip string. The girl lays her head back down, still smiling at me with a hint of malice. “Welcome to my world, Howlie”Lanna sits back up and glances at the board, her notes and then to Ayumi. She had to admit she was curious as to what was whispered while at the same time irked that she may have made a screw up by answering the girls’ twisted comment. "Hmph, well thanks for the welcome...Ayumi." Lanna muttered in reply she decided that she'd have to be careful with this strange girl...at least until she found out more about her...“You're welcome, fresh meat” Her eyes slide closed yet again, and she's asleep almost immediately. The other students are still giggling and whispering about the comment Ayumi had started, laughing about it behind their hands. They were pulling a classic move. Trying not to let Lanna see how they were laughing at her while making it obvious that they were laughing at her. Lanna felt her anger begin to stir deep inside her she gritted her teeth before letting out a breath. This was gonna be hard. But she couldn’t allow anything that happened in her last school repeat here too! She glanced at the people behind her and then pretended to be REALLY busy writing down the notes. The other students eventually quiet down, only just in time for the school bell to ring and the class to end. Everyone but Ayumi seemed to jump from their seats. Laughing, calling their friend's names...Lanna watched them sighing at their regularity. She stood up and glanced beside her; the redhead stretches, yawning a bit before lifting her head and resting her chin on her hands “Meh...”Lanna put her books away and then looks at the red head again. She was pretty attractive, but that just seemed to piss Lanna off more. Who was she? Lanna knew she should leave. Have a little self control maybe. But she stood there and said in a low voice so that the teacher didn’t hear; "What...did you say?"Ayumi yawns a bit again, then looks over at Lanna indifferance painted on her doll-like face. “Hm? Oh, that. I said ‘Fresh Meat for the football team. Fresh Meat for the cheerleaders.’” She grins at the other girl, her unusually sharp canines flashing in the light. Then she stands and walks off.Lanna stood baffled for a moment in a bit of a daze. Until the teacher says, "Are you okay Lanna?""F-Fine!" Lanna says stiffly leaving her seat completely. "Thank you miss." She picked up her bag and rushed out of the class before the teacher could stop her. ‘That damn Ayumi! Who the hell is she; and what was she talking about? All this 'fresh meat' shit.’ "Shit, shit, shit!" She murmurs walking briskly into the lunch courtyard. Not wanting to draw attention Lanna decided it would probably be best to stop doing that. She let out a sigh and scanned the area to figure out where to sit. Her eyes eventually rested upon her class mate. Ayumi was sitting by herself against the wall of the library building. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and Lanna noticed she was nibbling on a small red strawberry as she read what appeared to be a thick novel that lay in her lap. Not one person is sitting near her, nor do they even glance her way from their seats. Lanna sees an opportunity and glances around. She didn’t know where to sit...and Ayumi WAS going to be the person she’d be seated next to for the rest of the year...Lanna made up her mind and walked over and sat stubbornly beside the smaller figure of Ayumi. She glances up, a look of surprise on her face before she puts back on an indifferent mask. "So, Howlie..." She says, but the words trail off... She had no idea what to say. So she shrugged and went back to her reading."Hmmn, yeah...so Ayumi..." Lanna doesn’t know much what to say neither; she gets out a bacon and cheese sandwich and takes a bite before asking, "What book you reading?""A Thousand Grains of Sand..." She mutters, trying to hide the surprise that someone was talking to her and asking about her book. Almost reluctantly, she pulls a box of strawberries from her bag and holds it out. "Want one?"Progress! Lanna thought to herself. She smiled happily, "yes please, I love strawberries, they’re my fave fruit...are they yours too?”The smaller girl nods a bit, almost shyly. "My cousins own a strawberry farm outside of town. I go every other weekend to get fresh berries."Lannas surprised at the sudden shyness and quietness of the smaller red head. Not at all the little fireball from class. "Wow, that’s neato." She really didn’t know what else to say to that.Ayumi smiles, then the smile dies away as quickly as it was born. She returns to her reading, licking strawberry juice off her fingers. Lanna smiles and sits back and continues eating her lunch. It was good. And she felt great to sit by Ayumi without too much awkwardness. Ayumi simply keeps reading, trying to focus on the words on the page, not the ones in her head. Lanna finishes her sandwich and merrily yawns stretching out and leaning back. She smiled and looked up to the sky; completely relaxed.But too soon, did the bell ring signing that lunch had come to its end, and Ayumi stands, grabbing her bag and her book before melting into the crowd of bodies moving towards their classes. Lanna watches her go and frowns a little. 'Hmph! And I here I was thinking that I was odd...' she thought to herself grabbing her timetable from her bag before heading to her next class....I wonder if we share any other classes, She found herself wondering.
Chapter 2
Title: Chapter Two: Making Friends, Always, Always.
Lanna walks in a little late and sees again Ayumi; she’s sitting alone and Lanna looks around before going over to meet the teacher. "Hello, I'm Lanna Howling...I’ve just shifted to this class.”“Ah, yes. Lanna Howling, I was checking my emails this morning and saw the one announcing that you’d be in my class.” Lanna nodded her head numbly as she stood and avoided eye contact. The teacher had mad hair that was a burgundy purple color that curled and twisted everywhere. That doubled with the bright red lipstick and long lashes almost made Lanna want to turn straight. She chuckles inwardly as she continues to listen to the teacher, “I hear you were really good with math and calculus at your old school right?” Lanna nods and meets the teachers strangely emerald eyes respectful and obedient. “Oh great! You should have no trouble then should you? Well best you go take your seat. The table over there will do.” Lanna nodded her head a final time before walking over toward her table that the teacher had pointed to. She saw Ayumi sat at her own desk, unfortunately a desk in the back of the Calculus class. Lanna sees her as she pulls out the textbook and two notebooks required for the class, and then she folds her arms over the books and lays her head down, appearing to fall asleep almost immediately. Lanna shook her head slightly at this and then turned her attention to the unclaimed empty seat across the room from Ayumi. Only cheerleaders and their jock boyfriends are sitting near the desk, and they smile fakely at her and Lanna can’t help it as her skin crawls in memory of Ayumi’s term for her; ‘fresh meat’. Lanna, she immediately chooses she doesn’t like the looks of them, she glances over at Ayumi sadly before taking the seat assigned to her and letting out a sigh staring dead set at the board in a resigned state.Across the room Ayumi's eyes open a bit and she glares at the head cheerleader, Brittany, as the blonde smiles sweetly. This only makes Ayumi’s eyes darken for she and Brittany went way back, and they had hated each other for years. Lanna looked over and caught Ayumi as the red headed girl looked past her with a glare; she was about to smile at her friend but instead she frown and looked at beside her and to the blonde who had Ayumi’s attention. The blonde in question smiles to the new one, holding her hand out and introducing herself as Brittany Lane, cheer captain. Lanna smiles and takes the hand deciding without delay to not like the girl and still smiling she introduces herself as Lanna while she tries her best (not) to crush the cheer captain’s hand. "Pleasure to meet you."The cheer captain giggles and starts taking notes. Ayumi huffs irritably and lays her head down again. She had the inkling of a thought nibbling at her consciousness. ‘Why am I so pissed that Brittany is trying to be friends with Lanna anyways...’ She thought to herself as she felt her eyes draw down in sleepiness. She usually wouldn’t have a care in the world...Lanna makes her notes oblivious to Ayumi’s inner musings and she begins writing down her own notes. Writing them down; but none of them truly sank in. Her eyes glancing over at Ayumi every now and then; the red-head was sleeping again. She was also aware of Brittany’s occasional smiles that she falsely returned. She had chosen side. She was going to be friends with Ayumi. If the little red-head would allow her to be so. And in her heart Lanna felt that this was the right decision. There was something about the other girl which intrigued Lanna. Besides. Pushy cheerleaders were the last sought of person Lanna would want to hang blindly around. They were all shallow minded in her opinion. False pretty little dolls bought at cheap prices. And so that is how the rest of the class went. Ayumi snoozes away for the rest of class, flipping the bird at Brittany in her head. She dreams about beating the snot from her worst enemy, though she'd never do it in real life...Lanna takes notes returns false smiles while trying not to let Brittany or the others see her roll her eyes, as she triiiied to concentrate at least enough to write cohesive notes. The class doesn’t seem to take long to finish and Lanna walks over to Ayumi at the end of class touching her shoulder lightly. "Heyy, Yumi, class is over now; time for lunch."She opens one eye. "We already ate, silly." She closes her eye again, not wanting to budge out of stubbornness and pure exhaustion.Lanna shook her head, "hmm, no, that was just recess Ayumi; surely you know your timetable?" “Nah... I'm good.” Ayumi buries her head in her arms, snoring softly within a minute. Lanna shrugs and decides not to bother. It wasn’t her business if Ayumi chose not to go out for lunch...though she wanted to be friends she decided to leave the girl for now. They’d have an opportunity to talk later anyway. She then sauntered out of the class her bag slung casually on her shoulder and her mind already wandering onto the topic of what was for lunch. Lanna does however, stop at the door for one last moment looking back before saying; "fine, see ya tomorrow Ayumi; I have art next although I doubt we share that class too..." ‘Che, she probably can’t hear me’; she thinks to herself. Ayumi lifts her head a bit, watching Lanna walk away... More to the point, staring at the other's delicious butt. She lays her face on the desk, trying to hide her burning cheeks.Lanna walked out into the sunlight cheerfully a soft smile on her lips as she looked around. She had to admit the school was larger than it had appeared in the brochure.“Hey, Lanna right?” Lanna spun a little and her face nearly dropped at the sight of Brittany waving at her pessimistically to come over to join her. Lanna considered rejecting but pulled on a smile that stretched awkwardly across her face like a painted canvas. She approached Brittany with slight caution but tried not to show it.“So, like, how do you like the school? It’s your first day right?”“Yeah first day.” Lanna begins to walk as Brittany does putting a hand into her school jackets pocket. “And it’s been great, thanks.”“That’s good. The teacher is SUCH a bore don’t you think?”“I guess. She has weird sense in hair style.”Brittany lets out a laugh that is a bit too loud and Lanna struggles to not step away from her as she pats Lannas arm. “She TOTALLY does, doesn’t she? And her clothes are like so old; even dinosaurs wouldn’t like them.”Lanna laughs stiffly nodding her head. “Ah-ha-ha. I guess she does...”“I hate math anyway stuuupid subject. It’s just numbers. All you need in the world is to look good and stick with the right people. Then you’re set!”Lanna struggled not to laugh at the stupid sureness that was found in the blonde’s words. It was almost as if the cheer captain almost believed that nonsense. In fact Lanna wouldn’t be overly surprised if this were true...“Hey so I was like, thinking, would you want to sit with me and the cheer team today? We’re just chilling out but;” Brittany’s eyes slide over to Lanna. “I thought I’d offer you to sit with us anyway.”Lanna knew the hidden message pretty well. This was her chance to either get into the circle or she’d never be accepted at all. Then again it could also be a ploy; she and her friends may only be asking Lanna to be sitting with them as a joke. Because although Lanna was fair on the eyes she also wore glasses and had a quiet look and way about her which immediately set her apart from the “cool” kids on most occasions.“Well?”Lanna realised she had been thinking too long. She looks at Brittany’s dolled up face before smiling honestly at the cheer captain. “No thanks! I’m going to the library.” And so there it was.The line had been drawn. Lanna walked with a skip in her step toward the library and Brittany stared after her with her mouth agape in a totally lost in an “OMG did that just happen” expression.
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