"Wow, we have a big turnout this year with all the applicants from Whole Cake! I've never seen so many girls sign up before."
"It's quite the large gathering. I hoped we've opened enough trails for them to go down."
"Oh? I think there's a typo on this page. This name isn't female sounding at all."
"Huh? What do you mean? Luffy sounds like a female name to me."
"Wait a minute...Monkey D. Luffy? Why does that name sound so familiar to me?"
In the middle of the woods, two women were setting up for the field trippers that were coming for their annual hike. Both were actually graduates of Whole Cake Academy, having graduated years ago. Now they ran the same camp that they used to venture to, doing their best to preserve its authenticity and grandeur.
The smaller female had fluffy, curly white hair, dark brown eyes, and little dimples on her cheek. Her pale skin was getting slightly tanned from being out for so long. She wore a white tank top, khaki shorts, and red sneakers. In her hair was a cute horned headband. Currently, she was setting up for the lunch picnic the students would have later.
The taller female was putting out various pens and pencils for them to write in their field journals. She let her hair out, the wild red hair resembling a lion's mane. Unlike her partner, her skin was caramel gold and eyes were hazel. She had on a yellow tank top, a dark orange sweater jacket around her waist, orange shorts, and the same red sneakers like her friend. A sunflower tattoo was on her left shoulder.
"Well they'll be here soon." The tall one said, smiling wistfully. "Makes me excited to see what's to come."
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"Thanks for all the snacks for the road Bonney! You didn't have to buy me this many!"
It was the morning for the extra credit hike up the Whiskey Peak and the people who were going were heading on the bus. Luffy, along with an array of different females, were going to spend the day exploring the great outdoors and taking notes on what they saw. He decided to pack lightly, only including a water bottle, his lunch, and a compass in case he got lost. Bonney and Carrot were waiting for him by the gate, Bonney handing him a bag of treats from Mikan's Cafe.
Bonney turned to the side, blushing slightly. "I just thought you would get hungry. I remember doing that field trip when I was in your grade and I nearly died of hunger after going through my rations."
Carrot pouted. "No fair! You get to spend a day in the woods with all those cute creatures while I have a biology test."
Luffy laughed and patted the girl on the head. "Don't worry Carrot, I'll make sure to take some pictures of those cute woodland creatures for you."
"Luffy you are too pure for this world!" Carrot cheered, giving him a big hug before catching herself and yanking backwards. "I wish I could've gone with you."
A whistle sound was heard as the assistant coach, whom the girls affectionately called Baby Five, herded all the girls on the bus. The voluptuous beauty with a heart of gold was one of the few teachers Luffy actually had a good conversation with. In fact, she was the reason he was on this field trip in the first place.
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"Ms. Five, do you need help with those fliers?"
Luffy was on his way to the cafeteria to meet up with his friends when he ran into the clumsy assistant coach. The poor woman couldn't see where she was going and ended up ramming right into him, sending the fliers scattering all around.
Fixing her thick glasses, Baby Five nodded. "Thank you so much! I rather not have these all trampled and muddied when the rest of the students come out."
Picking up the papers, Luffy read what was on them. "A hike in the mountains? This school does field trips?"
Baby Five smiled. "Yeah, and you get extra credit for doing so. We go to a camp we rent out for the day and they lead us through the woods. Then we have all of you go off and explore on your own. You have to bring a journal to write down your observations in order to get credit."
"Yosh! This sounds like fun! Where can I sign up?" Luffy asked, excited for the prospect to be in the woods without feeling like his life was in imminent danger. When he was small, his grandfather brought him and his brothers into the woods and left them then for entire weekends to learn survival skills.
"I can sign you up as soon as we finish putting these up around school!" Baby Five handed him half the pile. "You are a sweet guy Luffy! One day, you'll find someone lovely to marry you!"
"I rather not think of marriage right now." Luffy said, sweatdropping at his delusional teacher.
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Getting on the bus was the easy part, at least that's what Luffy thought.
The hard part was trying to find a place to sit.
All the girls glared at him as he entered the bus. He felt himself shiver a bit when he saw that Black Maria and Ulti were on this trip, both giving him sneers as he shuffled by. He nearly tripped over Ulti's foot when she stuck it outwards.
They knew that Hancock had helped Luffy as well as some mysterious female with long red hair. Ulti thought she looked vaguely familiar, but Maria said otherwise. They weren't here to make friends, they were only there to make that boy's life miserable. Kalifa had told them this morning the plan that Linlin had cooked up. Had she not been in an alliance with their boss, they would've thought Linlin was some psycho who had it out for the strawhat boy.
Luffy continued his trek backwards, getting passing glances, hateful glares, and annoyed looks as he continued. He was contemplating sitting on the ground at one point before someone called out his name.
"Luffy over here." Nami waved him over to her spot on the long bench in the back row. "I saved you a seat."
"Nami! Man am I happy to see a familiar face." He said, sitting down next to her. "I didn't know you were on this trip."
"Well...I decided to sign up last minute. Had to tell Ms. Monet that I would be studying weather patterns up on the mountain." Nami admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "What made you sign up?"
"Ms. Five suggested it would be a great extra credit assignment. Plus, I kinda helped her out with putting up the fliers. Carrot also wanted me to take some pictures of wildlife, so maybe I'll do my journal entry on that." Luffy leaned on the chair, letting Nami see his rippling muscles. "I guess that we can help each other out."
Luffy took a moment to realize that Nami wasn't wearing the school uniform. Sure the field trip said to wear comfortable clothes, but the clothes she was wearing looked quite cute on her. Her orange hair was up in two ponytails tied with yellow ribbon. She wore a pair of blue shorts along with a plaid red shirt. A small black backpack was sitting by her brown hiking boots.
"Your hiking outfit looks cute!" Luffy said aloud, smacking a hand over his mouth. Did he really just say that out loud?
Nami's whole face turned red. "You really think so? These old clothes are just something my mother wanted me to wear since we're heading up high in the mountains."
"She has good taste, in clothes I mean!" Luffy waved his hands. "I don't mean that you don't have good taste or anything."
Gosh, why was he acting so flustered? This is Nami, one of his newest friends and his math buddy. She should be easy to talk to since they often chatted in class when Ms. Bellmere wasn't looking. They also pulled many pranks that involved all sorts of neat tricks she had taught him. So why was talking to her so hard!?
Nami fiddled with her ponytails, shyly sneaking glances at Luffy as he started to nod off. Her heart stopped as he leaned on her shoulder with a smile on his face. If she wasn't smitten then, Nami was sure she had died and gone to heaven. Gently, she placed her own head on his and closed her eyes. His body smelled like the ocean mixed with slight traces of meat. She would treasure this quiet moment with her crush, ignoring all the various expressions on each girl's face.
Little did she know that more competition was just around the corner.
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"OMG, are you seeing what I'm seeing Alvida? Nami Mikan is sleeping with that cute strawhat boy."
"I can see Porche, no need to drag my head behind the seat to see."
Sitting not so far away from the duo were two girls that were second years. One was a slender young woman with dark blue hair, blue eyes, and a long pointed nose. She wore a cute pink tank top with matching shorts and sneakers and a sunhat on her head. A magenta mask covered her eyes, giving her a hidden allure. A pink fox backpack rested on her back.
Next to her was a slim, well-endowed young lady with dark-green eyes and long wavy black hair. Her outfit consisted of a purple jacket that covered her white bikini top, long dark purple carpi-length pants, and big black boots. A white cowgirl hat adorned her head, pink flowers decorating the rim. A big pearl necklace sat on her neck.
These two were Alvida and Porche, two girls who were part of the school newspaper's gossip column. If there was a juicy story going around, they were the first ones to know. If a girl did something embarrassing or broke up with some guy, they would publish it in a heartbeat. Seeing as they considered themselves to be the cutest and hottest girls in school, most read their column with a grain of salt. Not only was most of their work mean spirited, but tended to be mostly bias to their opinions.
It was no wonder Linlin relied on the two to spread falsities and gossip to stir up chaos in the school.
"What do you think? Tangerine Girl and Strawhat Boy back there look nice and cozy." Porche chuckled, wanting so badly to take a picture of the two. "I thought you were going to snatch him away from Hancock. Did you miss your chance?"
"As if!" Alvida slammed her fist on the bluenette's head. "I was just bidding my time as all. Men are much more handsome when they have a target in mind. I plan on introducing myself to him when the time is right." Flipping her hair, she smirked brightly. "Hancock may consider herself to be the most beautiful woman in the school, but once I had strawhat by my side, she'll be distraught. You heard she saved his life the other day."
Porche gasped. "I think I heard rumors that Luffy got beat up by those strange new exchange students." Pointing to the front of the bus, she gave a fearful stare. "Those two are creepy! Unnaturally tall, too beautiful for words, and one of them wears a face mask! What's she trying to hide?"
Alvida gave her a blank stare. "Porche, you literally wear a mask over your eyes. Don't throw rocks at that glass house." Turning back to stare at Luffy, Alvida sighed dreamily. "Oh I admire men like him. If it wasn't for Linlin trying to ruin his image, I would've snatched him up sooner."
"But I thought you said-"
SMACK!
Once again, Alvida hit Porche with a fist to the head, silencing the poor girl. No matter what happened on this trip, she would get his attention away from the tangerine female.