Starry Days & Sunlit Nights: Volume 1 - Reluctant Blaze

Chapter 2.5 - One-Track Redhead

At Marie Florence High School, the lunch bell rang at exactly noon, signaling the race to the cafeteria for one of the limited dessert treats. Those who would rather be thrifty or simply preferred their own home cooked meals chose to eat in their classrooms or on the roof deck, or wherever else they could sit down and dine with their friends.

Having bought four sandwiches and a carton of juice from the cafeteria, Kylie was on her way to the courtyard where she and Yumi usually ate together, when a young man almost a foot taller than her blocked her path and rested a hand on the wall. He was tall, had a slight tan and dark hair, and would be what most would consider handsome. Strapped to his back was a guitar case, and in his hand was a red rose, held towards her in offering.

"Hey there, I don't suppose a beautiful angel like you has any plans for tomorrow night?" he said smoothly as he started to lean closer. "If you come with me, I'll promise to show you a fun time."

"No thanks!" Kylie immediately answered with such explosively cheerful energy that it startled him. "I'll be working an experiment on some artifacts I uncovered. The sun means heat, right? So maybe there's some significance if they are exposed to different thermal levels! I wonder if the guys at city hall or any other antiquarians have come to the same conclusion. No, I don't think so, or they'd be releasing more info on the internet and those history channels. It still doesn't explain the other symbols, but I'll figure it out! Perhaps the materials they're carved on are associated with the emblems? That might make sense. Mhm! It just might work."

As she went off on a tangent, oblivious to anything else, the boy who had tried to ask her out felt a headache coming. "Wait, wait a second," he said bewilderedly, but the girl was already walking away. "Damn."

Another boy walked up to him and started rubbing his fingers together. The rejected young man sneered and dropped a money bill into his hand, earning him a pat on the shoulder.

"Told you she's immune, Miguel," his associate said. "MacHallen's not like other girls, at least from what I've gathered. I don't think it's a religious thing, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't swing the other way either."

"Suppose she just doesn't have a romance gland in her, let alone the steamy version of it," Miguel concluded disappointedly. His acquaintance raised his eyebrow at his use of roundabout terms.

"How about her friend, um," Miguel tried to ask before consulting a small notepad filled with the names of female students. At least fifteen names had been crossed out, indicating a chain of successful conquests. "How about Yumi Manaka?"

On her way to meet up with Yumi, Kaira Lynette MacHallen caught her chatting with three other schoolgirls. Yumi was a fairly popular girl, but it was more due to her kind, outgoing, and cheerful nature than anything else.

"Hey! Whatcha talking about?" she said with an eager grin as she came over. Those currently accompanying Yumi felt a sudden urge to leave as she came closer, although the rose-headed girl didn't seem to mind their reactions and waved back at her best friend.

"It's nothing, MacHallen," one of the girls said, getting up, an action quickly followed by her two companions. She was a dame with pale skin, narrow eyes, and long dark hair with blunt bangs. "We were just catching up."

While she had said it in a friendly voice, she held no love for the red haired girl, and dismissed herself peacefully for Yumi's sake. It went unsaid that she and the other two, along with most of the school's female populace, generally found being around Kylie to be either exhausting or annoying, if not both; and that wasn't even taking into account how many of them felt that her natural, curvy figure was wasted on someone like her.