Connect

3: Fire Away, Fangirl

I yawned and stumbled down the quiet street, the bus leaving me behind with a loud roar. The sun beat on my back and reminded me that yes, spring was coming, and summer wasn't far off.

A gentle breeze tickled my still sleepy face and cicadas droned, rinsing the residue of dreams from my ears.

"No, no, no!" I heard a voice and it jolted me to life.

"Shut up, idiot, just accept the truth!"

"Will you two please be quiet? I'm trying to find out what shampoo Kaito uses!"

I squinted into the distance and saw three figures: Len, Miku and Neru. Neru had her head tilted downwards and Len and Miku were looking daggers at each other, scornful expressions painted onto their faces.

I ran up to them and smacked Miku and Len hard, on the back, making them both yelp.

"Gumi!" They yelled.

"Hey, guys," I smiled and found myself a place between them, draping my arms over their shoulders, "What's the hubbub? Did Len steal your clothes, Miku?"

Len gagged. "I'm not a pervert!" He pouted, "And even if I was, this squeaky rat isn't even worth fantasizing about!"

"He keeps saying that bananas are better than leeks!" Miku glared at him momentarily and we all kept walking, "Leeks are clearly the superior food!"

"Leeks sound like something a little kid would do!" Len laughed before putting on a baby voice, "Mommy, I did a leeky all over the cawpet!"

He laughed like a hyena. Miku pulled a leek out of her bag and swiftly smacked him with it. It made a loud cracking noise and snapped in two. She gobbled it up.

"That hurt, girly," Len groaned and rubbed his arm, "Gumi, you settle this."

"Huh?" I looked at him, then at Miku.

"Which one's better?" Miku scowled at Len, "No...which is best? What's the superior food?"

"Hurry up, Gumi!" Len slammed his side into me playfully and I crashed into Miku.

"Well, if you really want to know what I think," I said, looking at both of them, one by one, "Then carrots are the best."

"What?" They both cried out in unison, "That's...that's not..."

"Hey, they're crunchy and they have that nice, long shape that bananas do!" I tried to defend my stance. Miku scoffed and Len grabbed my head, giving me an intense noogie.

"Geez, Gumi...," he mumbled as I squirmed, "Whatever."

"So apparently, Kaito bought this new ice cream scented shampoo...," Neru looked at us, "What do you think it smells like?"

Len chuckled and rolled his eyes, grabbing my shoulders and pressing hard, making me cry out. "Like ice cream?"

"Len, that hurt!" I pushed him back and he just laughed.

We headed off to our classes. Len and Miku both had English and Neru went to Math. I had Accounting. As I hurried upstairs, I felt a pang of guilt because I did so badly on the test yesterday.

I got into my seat and put my head down, listening to footsteps as students began trickling into the classroom. I felt the chair beside me slide back and I raised my head to look at the boy beside me.

"Hey, beautiful," he winked, flipping back his purple ponytail. I scowled.

"Save that for Luka," I mumbled, "Flamboyant chess player Gakupo..."

"If you'd have told me that she liked me, I would've done something!" Gakupo flailed his arms, "And I am pretty good at chess, you know!"

"Of course I know!" I said, "You've been president of the chess club all year. You're unbeatable."