A Wild Encounter
Why So Sugoi?
The following day was pretty easygoing. Deal with Mel's little brother trying to wake us up early, mess around on Pokemon Platinum by making mini romcoms involving two of my party pokemon until Mel wakes up, eat breakfast even though I never eat breakfast over the weekends, make Mel almost choke on her Captain Crunch when I ask her if the guy as her computer background was "EunHae", and feel the bitter emptiness of having to wait another whole week to see new episodes of your spring animes.
Yeah, a basic Summer Monday. Only today, I had one more thing to worry about.
"So you have to go get ready for school? Already?"
"Yeah, it's ridiculous. Give me one ing week of summer and then ship me right back. It ." Today was indeed the day of reckoning. Get there at ten to sit around in a classroom for three hours while being slowly air-conditioned to death; god help whoever sits by the vent, the air-conditioning at that school is fierce. The day after that will only be worse because I have to wake up at seven and sit there for six hours. Ugh.
"Now what the hell am I gonna do all day." That's how Mel was: sarcastic and joking one minute, unfiltered and brutally honest the next. She suffers from boredom a lot more than I do due to her intrest in anime dwindling. For me, there's always some new anime to watch, but for her, there are only so many bands she's interested in now. 'That's right, you can just be with your precious boy bands for now.' I flinched at the random bitter thought that flashed through my head. "I dunno. You've still got it better off than me. How much do you bet that my class is gonna be full of stuck-up, Iri-queer dating drama queens?" In case you were wondering "Iri-queers" were what we called kids from our rival school, Iroquois. Girls from our school often pilgrimaged there after school to flirt with boys that don't know what drama queens they are.
"100% chance. No, 1000% chance!" she added with a grin. We both burst into song at the same time almost yelling the words to "1000% Love" from Uta no Prince Sama (I honestly didn't like that anime too much, but I like the song just fine). After we got through all of the intro to the song, she told me to bike my outta here and message her on Tumblr regarding my first day of summer school. I obeyed and with Matryoshka (the Tenchou and KuroNeko version) playing in my ears, I shot down the vacant streets.
Not even bothering to stop back at my house, I went straight to school and texted my parents to let them know I made it there on time for my first day. I left out the part where I wished that one of the cars would hit me on the way there and sent it along with a little smiley face at the end. My mom replied in an equally cheery manner and wished me luck. Judging on the people I saw entering, I was going to need it.
I didn't see a single friendly face in the crowd. Just scowling ones and the dolled-up ones that sent me a forced smile before looking back to their "friends." Honestly, I would rather have a painted-on smiley friend that actually hated my guts right now rather than no one. It not having any friends in a class. My only two friends that were taking summer school were in the Academy classes (necessary classes kids who scored low had to take before going into the next year) while I was in World Cultures to free up electives during the school year.
I could only find comfort in seeing the other people who were suffering along with me. They looked my hope for making this class interesting. One was a girl that used to be on my softball team, but I long forgot her name which would make everything about talking to her awkward. The other was a freckled boy with a blue shirt that hung off his shoulder looking on a the crowds in disgust. That works, I can work with negative people well.
I walked over to the snack machine he was leaning on, examined the various sugary treasures, and started regarding the crowd along with him. "Six weeks. I can barely stand these few minutes."
He quickly turned over to the snacks also, "I know, right? Seriously, look at those two over there," he motioned over at a couple not-so-secretly kissing in the corner, "can't they save that for when they aren't in my line of vision?"
I snorted, "I dunno, the school entrance is a pretty damn romantic spot. Between the puke colored tiles and the blackened gum on the ground, it just has the perfect atmosphere."
He chortled for a moment before adding, "Oh yes. Is that love in the air or is that just the cafeteria food?"
"Might be both. They have pizza in the caf today and you know how romantic Italian food is for dates."
"They are truly the masters of romance. Should I be taking notes on this?"
I shrugged and walked down the hallways, the short boy following behind, "I didn't bring a notebook anyway. Well, except my sketchbook. This class is going to be a snooze anyway. The teacher is probably going to end up yelling at the other kids the whole time, and I'll be spending quality time with my Prismacolors."
He raised an eyebrow quizzically, "You're an artist?"
I let out a sigh of relief, "Yes, and thank heavens you didn't say draw-er. I was starting to lose faith in both the English language and my generation." Drawer is a name for a place to put socks, not for someone who draws. I fumed about this and took the desk farthest away from the vent.
"Can I see this almighty sketchbook of yours?"
I blushed a bit despite myself. "My art is far from almighty, but sure." My blush isn't even cute. It looks like I ran for too long and need an ambulance most o the time. Wait, why do I care if my blush is cute!?! Ugh!
While I was having a mini brain fart, he took a seat in the desk next to mine and started leafing through my sketch book. It wasn't until he had a matching blush on his face that I realized that letting him explore my sketchbook willy-nilly wasn't a good idea.
His blush, in fact, did look adorable. It made the little freckles on his face stand out and accented his chestnut brown hair. The page he turned to just so happened to be my little homage to my favorite manga, Rutta to Kodama, complete with expressive facial features (to express exactly what they were doing) and, a rare sight in my regular sketchbook, full-frontal ! At that moment, I simultaniously laughed and died on the inside. 'So much for having friends at summer school.'
Freckles placed his hand over his mouth for a moment, and then pointed directly at the picture. If it had been any noisier, I would've missed the small words he mumbled out.
".........are they from Rutta to Kodama?"
My face burst into flames and brightened immediately. "Yes! Yes, of course! I love Torao and Tatsumi!" I was totally unprepared for this conversation. "U-um! I really like the main couple too, I couldn't help but draw a piece for these two! It would've been neat if they got another chapter. I mean they only got two chapters which is even less than the a pairing got in Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi omg I just said a in school but then again I never ever imagined there would ever come a time-"
"Oi! Quiet down! You want the whole school to know that I read BL!?!" he whispered harshly.
I shut up immediately. My mind could use the break anyway; it felt like there was a mob of bees buzzing up there. "I'm sorry, but it's not every day I meet a fellow fangi- boy. I mean, I doubt tha-hat anyone even know-ohs what means." I flinched at my habit of stuttering over one syllable words and noticed my sketchbook was still open in his hands. "That being said, they would, however, recognize gay when they saw it. So ca-an you please-"
He blushed again and quickly shut it. "Right right! Good idea.....Jess?"
"Huh? How do you know my name?"
"It says on your sketchbook. My name's Lee by the way." Before I could even muster a skeptical look, he spoke again. "Yes, I know. I don't look like a Lee cause I'm not Asian. Yeah, Lee is short for my monsterous first name."
"Lemme guess, you've had mire than enough of the teacher pronouncing your name wrong?"
"Yeah, that tends to happen when more than half the letters in it are vowels. The only ones who are even close sometimes are the English tea-"
He was interrupted by the teacher finally arriving. "Sorry I'm so late. I live over in Deerspring and I got held up by a train."
He whispered one last thing before focusing his eyes on the teacher, "Speak of the devil."
The teacher quickly introduced himself, throwing in the occasional sarcastic comments that flew over the heads of the academy students who managed to make it into a regular class this year. I laughed though. It seems that at least the teacher this year won't be terrible. Also, I managed to make a friend on the first day. Ha! Whoever said that gay doesn't bring people together is a liar!
As expected, many people were given warnings on talking during class and texting under their desks, and Lee and I rolled our eyes at each other. Also as expected, I spent most of the time drawing. Lee noticed what I was doing and quietly if I could draw Kodama for him. I nodded enthusiastically at the request (they have been awfully scarce lately), and spent the rest of the time sketching out the cute uke for him.
When the bell finally rang, he was overjoyed with the results. "Oh my god! It's perfect! Thank youuuu!"
I grinned and blushed at how happy he was with my drawing as we walked out of the stuffy classroom. It was always wonderful seeing people being made so happy with your art; it was what made the while hing worthwhile. "Oh jeez, it's not that good. I didn't draw it with any reference so his arms lo-"
"What? He looks perfect!" he gazed back down at the page. "You even drew a little chibi Kodama in the corner."
I was going to reply about how ty my chibis look, but a low hiss broke my chain of thought. "Pff, ." Both of ours heads snapped up at the retreating figure. Angel, as ironic as his name was, was a known troublemaker. And not even the rebellious kind, he just did stupid , swore, and got in trouble for it. I simply glared at the ignorant , but Lee had a more audible reaction.
Lee flicked him off, "Shut the up and go back to whatever sewer you found that outfit, dickweed!"
This got the attention of the kids around us quickly. I muffled the laugh at the glare on Angel's face. He was a tough customer, but I knew without a doubt that, because of my height advantage and self-defence classes, I could kick his droopy-jeaned . "Whadyou say about me, fudgepacker?"
Lee's almost yellow eyes flashed dangerously, and his normally cute face turned dangerous with a smirk. "I said that you need to shut your mouth, breath, before I smack the halfstache off your ulgy face."
Angel's little posse of friends laughed also, saying "Oooh !" to themselves. Angel, after a quick punch to the side of his friend Christian, gave a slimey smile back. "I guess I couldn't hear you. I guess it'd be hard to talk with a in your mouth."
Without a moment's hesitation, Lee spat back "Your mom didn't have a problem with it last night."
Before either of us could register anything, Lee was cradling his jaw in his hands. The thing about Angel is, that because of his short stature, he could strike fast. The thing about me is, if you messed with my friends, you get a facefull of sole. Although it wasn't taught in self-defence class, I learned long ago how to effectively kick someone in the face. Angel was bowled backward into Christian, who simply looked stunned.
The burly teacher from across the hall came out to see me taking a look at Lee's jaw and Angel swearing to the high heavens and immediately commanded Christian, Angel, Lee, and I to go to the dean's office. Everyone else cleared out, and my heart felt encased in ice for a moment. The dean? I never got a detention before! Ever! Angel mumbled about this being bull, and the teacher- Mr. Vella was it?- sent him a stern look.
Lee leaned over onto my shoulder for support in an unintentionally comforting gesture. I put my arm around him to help him walk down the halls. I've helped people much more hurt than he was during my years in the softball league. My job right now was to look as innocent and worried as I possibly could to help our case.
As expected, the dean's office was not a pleasant place. It felt physically draining for me to even be in there. Lee was given a tissue for his bleeding nose, but that was all the first aid that was given to the two of them.
"So what happened here?" the dean started. "I want the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Angel, with his super-fast reaction times, spoke first, "This psycho kicked me in the face!"
I looked at him angrily, but said nothing. I've seen enough Judge Judy to see how this goes. The Dean did not look pleased. "Did I not just ask you to tell the whole truth, Mr. Alverez? No one just goes up and kicks someone in the face, "psycho " or otherwise. Now can someone please tell me how this all started?"
Lee took the Kleenex off his face for a moment. "Jess and I were walking out of class and I heard him call me a ."
"Alright, what happened after that?"
Lee frowned and looked down at the ugly tiling. "I told him to shut up. He called me another gay slur, and I insulted his halfstache."
"How did this end in violence?"
Lee scowled downwards, "He said something about not being able to hear me around the in my mouth."
The Dean nodded gravely. "And then Miss Miller kicked him in the face?"
Lee looked back up at the Dean. "No, I said that that wasn't what his mother said last night and he punched me in the face."
I spoke up right after that with a wavering voice. "I kicked him in the face as a retaliation right after that," after a moment's hesitation I added, "Sir."
I accidentally met Angel's glare before shifting my eyes to a bauble on the Dean's desk. The Dean sighed, "Is this true, Mr. Mungea?"
Christian perked up immediately. "Yeah, he was all insultin' 'is mom and sayin' he came from a gutter, so he punch 'im in 'is ginger face."
"Gingers have red hair......" Lee murmured under his breath.
The Dean tented his fingers on his desk and sighed. "I'm sure that all of you are aware that Stewart North does not allow violence of any kind among the student body." My stomach dropped and my heart squeezed in fear. "However, I'm sure you are also aware that Stewart North is one of the schools leading the way in many anti-bullying and LGBT equality initiatives, and to ignore such a blantant case of bullying would not only be against everything I believe in, but everything this school believes in."
Lee's sullen face lit up immediately. A greatful smile snapped onto his face, and I could see his eyes almost sparkle with tears. He said nothing though.
Angel's reaction was gold. First was outright shock, followed by rage and frustration. "Ugh. This is bull!"
The Dean ignored him and smiled at Lee. "Miss Miller, would you be so kind to him to the nurse?"
I smiled shyly back. "Alright."
We exited the Dean's office hand in hand. We both walked all the way to the end of the hallway, him sniffling on my shoulder and me awkwardly squeezing his hand every once and awhile, before realizing that we passed the nurse's office. We both laughed, but I saw him wince slightly.
"Does your face feel okay?" For once in my life, I didn't follow up that question with a comedic 'Cause it's killing me!' Now wasn't the time for that.
"If this is your way of trying to get out of escorting me, then you have another thing coming, Miss Miller." he joked with a small smile.
"Why, me abandoning a person in need? Moi? You surely must not be talking of the very same Jessica Miller."
He laughed for a second and retracted his hand from mine to open the door to the nurse's office. The nurse asked us take a seat and went to fetch an ice pack and bandage for the small cut on Lee's cheek. Our conversation dissapated into the over air-conditioned atomosphere of the small office.
It wasn't until the nurse said that he was fine to go home and we left that we both spoke again. Our hands swung awkwardly between us like an unspoken question as he tried to keep up with my long strides and I tried to slow down a bit.
I finally broke the silence with a different but equally important question. "I'm sure this is a stupid question either way you answer it, but are you really gay?"
He shifted his icepack. "Yeah. As straight as a rainbow." As if to exactly contridict what he just said, his hand took mine again. "I've had to deal with kooks like those before, it's nothing new. One thing that was new today was having someone stand up for me."
I blushed. "Yeah, that Dean was pretty cool for doin that. I thought we were done for for sure!"
"You know that's not what I'm talking about little miss modest! Who kicks people in the face anymore?"
I blushed even more. "Jeez, it was nothing! That jerk was getting on my nerves for a long time. It's not like I came riding in on a white horse in a suit of armour to rescue you from big, bad Angel."
He laughed, stopped in his tracks, and turned to look at me. "Oh, but how would a damsel in distress have saved herself from such a villain on her own? Such a brave act deserves a token of my gratitude." Without a moment's hesitation, he balanced on his tiptoes to give me a peck on my slightly pink cheek. I instantly turned beet red when he gave me a small wink too. "Thabk you, brave knight."
My mind couldn't process information for a moment. "......you're downright puzzling, you know that? First you hold hands with me, then you say you're gay, then you kiss me on the cheek. You understand all the different colors of misleading you're giving a girl, right?"
With a small chuckle, he and I made our way out of the nearly abandoned hallway and into the entrance to the lobby. "Yeah. Have no doubt though. Even though I prefer a sword to a sheath, having a brave knight such as yourself to be my royal guard sounds wonderous."
"Can we drop the mideval shtick for a second? Are you asking me to be your girlfriend for all public intents and purposes?"
"Basically yes. If you don't want to, we can just be friends. Either way I don't care."
I thought it over for a second. "Sure, but calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend may seem sudden, so just say that you asked me out."
"Okay then. Why don't I try that right now? Ehem, Jessica, would you like to hang out sometime?"
"We could've just said you asked me out."
He looked up at me through his eyelashes in a way that made me swear at myself. "But hanging out with you sounds fun." More internal swearing. Frigging doki.
"O-okay. How-ow about tomorrow afternoon then?"
He beamed at my slight stutter. "Sounds like a date." Another wink. Goddamn mixed signals. He was doing this on purpose. He must've decided that was enough because his mood went back to silly. "Now dub thee a part of my official royal guard!" He reached up and kissed both sides of my face. Nope. Back to teasing. "See ya tomorrow Jess!"
"Ja ne, Lee!" Yes, stutter free!
A/N: = Y = How did I get this huge chapter out so quick? Its making my iPod crash because of how long it is. Mostly because of that stupid Evernote update. Yessssss, everyone, meet Lee. Lee, meet everyone! The plot will be arriving shortly, so enjoy this happy while you have it. In case you all want to know, Angel is a real douche I know irl, but I changed his name because I dunno. As for Lee, weeeeeeell. Fictional as can be~
Also, I'n kind of really proud of myself because I actually got off my and drew the picture for this chapter. I don't draw often on there, but my username on tumblr and deviantart are unabletositstill (or for my deviantart Unable-to-Sit-Still).
Hope you're enjoying so far!
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