The Bookworm and the Book
selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 16, 2009 18:06:39 GMT -6
It was a day like any other day. Kotomi Ichinose woke up to the sound of her alarm and quickly shut it off for some more sleep. Ten minutes later, the bright eyed girl was up and heading off to start her morning routine. She went and brushed her teeth, washed her face, took a shower, then got dressed. It took about twenty minutes at the most. After she was finally ready to head to school, Kotomi went to the kitchen. Breakfast was really important if she was going to be doing some reading today. She didn’t want to get little headed in the middle of studying. And she needed to make a lunch if she was going to stay at school all day. Once she got the library, Kotomi knew she wasn’t going to leave. It was just a part of her usual routine.
The girl packed rice, eggs, dried fish, miso, and half of an apple pie into her bento box before heading off to school. There was always the chance someone disturbed her during her precious reading time, so she had to be prepared to share. Long, long ago, she made a vow never to be selfish; so she made sure to have enough food to help a starving made or anything like that. It was pretty useless considering she always came home with just extra food, but such a thing never stopped her. It was a part of her promise to God after all, and she so wanted God to fulfill his part of the deal. Grabbing a pair of scissors off the living room table, Kotomi placed them in her bookcase before heading off to school by her lonesome. There was no one to say goodbye to, nor was there anyone to say goodbye to her. She had lived by herself for so many years that it didn’t even bother her anymore. Kotomi was, and would always be, alone. But that really didn’t bother her; the girl preferred it this way.
The walk to school was as mundane as usual. There was nothing ever different about this town she had lived in all her life. There were always children walking with their mother’s to elementary. There were always businessmen rushing off towards the train so they could get to work. There were always store owners sweeping up, getting ready for opening. It was just the usual routine of this town. But Kotomi had never really paid attention to such things. The world seemed to pass her by as she walked down her usual path to school staring up towards the sky. There were so many things on her mind and she couldn’t figure out which to concentrate on today. Greek philosophy? Norse mythology? American history? What country would be interesting in studying about today? Kotomi simply couldn’t decide what to try to brush up on. There was always science. She did adore scientific theories more than most subjects…
“The world is make up of harps…”
The purple haired girl stopped as she blinked a few time. Her lavender eyes looked around, as if she heard something. It must have been the whispering of the wind her or her own memories muttering such familiar words. The girl smiled as she focused on the blooming cherry blossom trees all about. Fall was such a lovely time of year, minus the occasional chilly breezes. Her trip to school went without a single interruption. While she wasn’t alone walking up the hill to the school grounds, no one said a word to the girl. Instead, they whispered and gossiped about her. The girl was a ’legend’ among students. Ichinose Kotomi was the smartest girl in school. She scored on the top ten in every subject nationally. And she was always in the library. At least, that’s what they whispered around her. It was nice to know that all the gossip about her was true. Kotomi hated lies. There was no reason to ever lie. Knowledge was truth, and truth was absolute.
Like usual, the small girl stopped by her homeroom and gave the teacher a shy greeting. She informed the man she would be in the library like usual and he nodded, sending her on her way. No one dared asking her to attend class. There was no need. Those standardized test schools of hers proved she knew everything they wanted to teach her. Besides, she could spend her time learning more advance things with her private studies in the library. Waving hello to the librarian Kotomi headed to the back of the library. She sat her belongs down in a corner before removing her shoes and socks and placing them beside her things. She was finally at her home away from home. There was no need for shoes or things now. Here, she could be happy and comfortable. The dark haired girl crept about the library, looking for a nice book to settle down and read. While browsing, she found something a bit unusual that she just had to grab: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. It wasn’t unusual to find a World War II book in the library, but it was a treat to find it in English! Kotomi picked up the book and instantly started to read as she walked back to her corner. She didn’t even notice she wasn’t alone.
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 895 (without code) || OOC Note || Enter any way you see fit. ^-^
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odin Guest
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Post by odin on Jul 16, 2009 19:31:26 GMT -6
Questions... questions, and more questions.Alex looked at himself in the mirror in the uniform that he was in; the colors were so bright that it didn’t even blend into the environment that he was in. He just found himself too vulnerable and he stood out by way too much because of the color, Alex took a deep breath and sighed. Today was his first day he knew he should make good impressions on people and his ‘higher-ups’ if he was to survive this school year. He packed his bag pack and went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, and cleaned his face.
He noticed something that he didn’t notice for a while. The old scar on his cheek reminded of him that he was once a delinquent, and that hard serious look on his face clearly showed his transformation from a baby eagle to proud fledged bird of prey. Now only if he had only one year of school year left Alex planned to go back to America once he was finished with this place, only a couple months… it seemed so far away from today. Alex shook his head; all he needed to do was focus on his work and time will fly. “Just concentrate on your mission, do not falter on the objective that’s given to you.” Alex repeated silently that his father once said to him.
On the way out of the house he grabbed the lunchbox his mother made for him to eat for lunch. The walk to school was unusual, he used to wait for school bus when he was elementary school and he knew that high school also had bus service back at his country. It was strange coping Japanese culture, but he walked anyway… Alex wasn’t sure of the directions so by judging other student’s uniforms he followed them silently from behind. The students talked in a weird language that Alex could barely understand, of course he understood some Japanese, but why were they mixing it with horribly pronounced English?
The young soldier just didn’t get it. Ever since he came here everything about this country was different and weird, well not weird in a way that’s bad… somewhat confusing was a better term for it. It’s been a couple of months; Alex still had difficulties adjusting to Japanese culture for him it just didn’t feel natural unlike the place that he was in. Everything was straight forward, organized, and simple an order that his drill sergeant would give him for morning run would be commanding and natural perhaps? Now he saw nothing more than disorder and unorganized except the uniform part.
When Alex placed his foot on the school he felt as if he entered a different world, everyone looked at him in a foreign manner. He felt nervous, but the soldier sucked it up and kept on walking. Alex heard some of the mummers and mumbles amongst them, damn, why couldn’t they just talk quieter? He didn’t get it, but he tried to act as normal and composed as possible so that he won’t look like a total dumbstruck dumbass.
The young man dug into his pocket and looked at the paper as he walked into the hallways filled with students. There was a letter and a number written on it, Alex stopped. Why were classrooms labeled with a letter and a single digit number? Usually they were labeled with three digits…. Hopefully someone in this school can give him some heads up on this intel that he held onto. Alex wondered around the hallway confused and struggling to find his class, “Why is it so complicated?” He thought. He also tried to find a secretary office, but apparently there was none.
Truly he was in for a hell Alex was glad that he stumbled upon library. Perhaps they could give him some information about this school! He opened the door hoping to see a librarian with a warm welcome, instead it was empty…. Where was the librarian? So were Japanese students allowed to take books without scanning them and their ID? He tilted his head in confusion, but he found a flickering light of hope when he saw a girl reading on the floor. Maybe she was doing her homework. Alex approached her and attempted a friendly smile which he wasn’t used to, but it wasn’t too bad.
It was time to put what he had learned to the test. “Hi, I’m Alex S. Gunthur. Nice to meet you, I’m a new student around. So, here I was wondering if you can show me to the classroom I am supposed to be in.” He handed her the paper that he held onto. Alex wasn’t used to starting conversations, it was a little awkward, but that was a start. Alex noticed she was reading ‘The Greatest Generation’ by, Tom Brokshaw. So the library also had some English books, which was relieving. He never read this book before, from what he can remember all he read was military tactics, how to treat a wound in a battle, how to field strip and take care of your weapons, close quarter combat, world war I, cold war, and world war II.
“The book that you’re reading, what is it about?”
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Post by Kichiro Haru on Jul 16, 2009 19:59:48 GMT -6
Kichiro Haru
___________________________________________________________________________ As the alarm started to beep in its usual loud, rhythmic, and pain-in-the-butt sound, Haru was just starting to wake up. He had been up studying until the early hours of the morning, and barely got any sleep. It wasn’t the first time that he had done such a thing, and it wouldn’t be the last. His body usually adjusted to the lack of sleep rather quickly, so by the time he was up and out the door for school he would be as awake as anyone who got their eight hours. Till then, he was a groggy, half-asleep monster that just wanted the alarm to shut up.
To do that, he blindly smashed his hand around the end table till he found it, and pressed the off button. The beeping, joyfully, stopped. With it’s annoyance removed from his mind, Haru pulled himself up out of bed and began to get dressed. Since the day was a school day, he would have to figure out what he did with his uniform. He recalled placing it on a hanger up on the door, but as he turned around he found that it was no longer there. Panicking a little, he started to glance around a room for a sign of his uniform, but it was nowhere to be found. He was about to storm out of his room and search the home when he had an epiphany. Turning to his closest, he opened it to find his uniform hanging comfortably amongst the rest of his clothes.
Taking it out, he called himself an idiot, playfully of course. It was just another morning for him, misplacing clothes and having to search all over. For someone who always got such high marks, he could be quite the scatterbrain. Then again, madness and genius were opposite sides of the same coin, right? Either way, he had located the lost treasure of his uniform and had to get changed. Discarding the white tanktop he wore to bed into a pile of clothes, he replaced it with the white dress shirt of the uniform. Taking the tie, he knotted it and tightened it up against his neck. He personally didn’t like it, but he feared detention more than uncomfortable neckwear. All that was left was for him to put on the light-yellow jacket, with matching blue-emblem to represent his third year status. While he normally didn’t take advantage of his upperclassmen status like other did, it did help when he needed to get a book out of the library and his competition was a first year.
Just before he was about to head out the bedroom, however, he remembered that he still had to change into the pants. It didn’t take long as he normally just wore boxers to bed, so all he had to do was quickly put his legs into the blue dress pants and belt them. Now that he was finally dressed, he headed downstairs and towards the kitchen. His parents must have already left for work, but they left behind some bread for him to eat. He grumbled a little, but took it anyway. A quick look at the clock informed him he didn’t have the time to go all out on breakfast, so bread was about the only thing he could eat. Stuffing it into his mouth, he slipped into his shoes as he made a dash out the door.
Eventually the young man arrived in a stream of other students from his school, and his panicked dash turned into a casual walk. He wasn’t going to be late for school, so he could afford to move a bit slower. Gave him some time to think about what to do throughout the day. The first thing he had to do was stop by the library and drop off a book that he had borrowed for English Grammar. It was a book written in all English, and while he didn’t particularly care for the story, it was easier to understand the lessons by seeing them in action. A rather strange and indirect way to learn, but that was the sort of thing he was good at. Of course, if he walked into the school library, he had to check something out as well. Three years at this school, and not one week had gone by he didn’t have something out. He wasn’t going to stop that now was he?
By the time that he arrived at the school gates, he was nibbling on the last little bits of his bread. As he finished his last bite, he noticed all the students were mumbling about something. Most likely it was whatever was the latest gossip. Who’s dating who, who broke up, what’s the latest stupid stunt the local delinquents Tomoya and Sunohara performed, etc. Haru didn’t really care for it, and just drowned it out by singing random tunes in his head. That always did the trick, though occasionally he’d hit a song that wouldn’t get out of his head, and he’d go crazy trying to get it out for the rest of the day. Other than that it was a perfectly fine method to ignore people with.
Walking into the school, he made a beeline for the library. In three years it was probably the location he visited the most, to the point he could find it blindfolded if needed. Entering it, the smell of books filled his nostrils, and noticed the two inhabitants of it.
The first of them was Kotomi, which was no surprise to him at all. She was always there, reading away on the floor. No matter what time of the day he walked into the library, she was there. He almost thought she lived there till one day after school he saw her leave. Though since she ate there and spent the whole school day there, she might as well have lived there. To a degree he was rather jealous of her being able to do that, and kind of wished the teachers had let him do the same. But while he was good, he wasn’t near her level, so it was classes for him. Disappointing really. Kotomi could probably use some company when she was there all alone and….
Quickly leaving that train of thought where it was, Haru focuses his attention on the other person in the room. He didn’t recognize him at all, though from the looks of him the guy seemed kind of intimidating. Since labeling a person without knowing them was rude, Haru wasn’t going to consider him a delinquent. But the kid sure did look like one. He was also trying to talk to Kotomi about something, and Haru knew where that was going to get him.
“Hey, if you want to try and say something to her you have to say Kotomi-chan or something. Otherwise she’s going to ignore you.”___________________________________________________________________________
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selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 16, 2009 23:04:55 GMT -6
”Hi…student…show…book…about?”
The wind was whispering in her hear again as she read the book. It seemed impossible considering she was indoors, but there were things well beyond even her comprehend at times. Besides, someone could have easily walked by and opened the window. Just because she didn’t know the answer didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Kotomi was too busy with the book to even try to consider the list of possibilities. The book was written by an American news anchorman apparently. He went about the Americas to go and talk to different soldiers about their experiences during World War II as well as normal civilians about their hardships during the United States’s Great Depression. The book reflected the man’s respect and admiration for such a generation as they seemed to endure such hardships and animosity with love and courage. Every page was more fascination than the last as she started to feel as if she experienced with these men and woman had gone through. There was such unity in these stories. Americans seemed to have such a sense of togetherness…
”… Kotomi-chan or something. Otherwise she’s going to ignore you.”
”Huh?” Kotomi looked up as she heard her name being called. It was rare that anyone actually said her name. When people tried to get her attention away from a book, it took the correct pronunciation of her name to break the book’s spell over her; Ichinose or plain a Kotomi just wouldn’t do. It had to be Kotomi chan. Her lavender eyes slowly peered up from the papers of her book. She blinked for a moment, looking at the stranger that standing near her with such a friendly smile. She hadn’t heard a word he said since she was so lost in her book. Her eyes slowly pulled away from the smiling school mate to a somewhat familiar face. She had seen the boy before between searching for books, and she even got to know his name. The normal looking, brown haired boy was named Kichiro Haru. He was a third year at this school as well. The small girl blinked a few times before realizing she was being rude. Slowly, she placed the book down on her pillow, completely shut so she wouldn’t mess up the pages or ruin the bounding. Kotomi rose to her feet and bowed towards them both before putting on a smile.
”Hello. I am Ichinose Kotomi. I am a senior in class 3-A. It is very nice to meet you.”
There was really no reason to greet Kichiro in such a manner since she had already become acquainted with him. Others said that the boy was a rising star. His grades put him near the top of the class thanks to his studious persona. It made sense that he came to the library if he was going to work hard; this place was a sanctuary for learning. It was why she spent so much time here. At one point, she had hoped to read every book that was lurking in these lovely shelves, but then she got a bit discouraged at the thought. If she read everything, what would be left to learn? The girl with crazy from worry one day and insisted that new books be ordered. Considering her status, the librarian took note and started to reactively get more books. All the older books were put in storage so they could make room for the young scholarly girl’s needs.
But the boy in front of her was completely new. She had never seen his face before, and Kotomi was very good with faces. Her lavender eyes blinked a few times as she studied him. Considering his facial features, he was foreign. She couldn’t be too sure which country considering she hadn’t heard his accent, but he was either Eastern European or North American. His dark eyes were very hardened and straightforward regardless of the fact he was smiling. And there was a very distinct scar on the right side of his face. It obvious came from a fight or something like that some years ago since it had left a dark indent on his face. There were frown lines around his mouth, indicating that he didn’t smile too often; if anything, it meant he was scowling or grimacing the majority of his days. His hair was combed yet looked mess all the same. But despite his daunting looks, the boy had on a very clean and primed uniform. His yellow jacket was cleaned and pressed, his white collared shirt was nicely tucked under his blazer and amazingly white. His tie was on straight and tightly around his neck. His blue slacks were freshly ironed and even had that crease down the center of them. While his face looked like he could be a delinquent, the manner he wore his clothing stated otherwise.
”Kichiro kun,” she said in a low voice, ”good morning. Is this boy your friend?” She pointed at the foreign boy’s face. Her finger was so close she could feel the warmth emitting from his nose. She looked at the blue eyed boy blankly for a moment. Why would he bring his friend into the library to meet her? It made no sense to Kotomi at all. Oh! Maybe the dark eyed foreign boy had missed breakfast and Kichiro knew she had food. The girl suddenly smiled as her whole face lit up. Sauntering back to her original position, she knelt down on her pillow as she opened her bento box. She took the cute little red box apart and took only the bottom tray where she placed the homemade apple pie. While rice was a good source of carbohydrates, the pie had just as many carbohydrates from the crust as well as glucose from the feeling. The glucose would kept give him a bust of energy for right now as the carbohydrates slowly dispersed energy to last him until lunch.
Kotomi returned to in front of Gunther and took his hands within hers so he could hold the tray with the pie within it. ”Here,” she said warmly, looking up at him with a satisfied look. Thank goodness she came to school prepared for incidents like this. Her fellow schoolmate would be fine until he could get a complete nutritious meal in him! She stood there for a moment with her hands in his before turning to Kichiro and smiling. Now that the mission was accomplished, she could happily return to her world of reading without any problems. She gave both boys a slight nod before going back to her corner. With the book once again in hand, the real world was ignored as she dived back into the lives of an elderly American generation.
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 1126 (without code) || OOC Note || ---
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odin Guest
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Post by odin on Jul 17, 2009 14:54:35 GMT -6
Is this a request to eat the pie, or is it an order?Alex felt ignored when she kept on reading the book, did she understand what he was saying? Perhaps his Japanese wasn’t good enough. Either way it seemed like she was ignoring him for a reason too, Alex gave himself a mental sigh, his smile faded from his face as he withdrew the paper that he held out in front of him. Alex thought that she was an anti social person, so he might as well leave her alone… communicating with students in the school was harder than he had imagined. He stood up straight rubbing his right shoulder from stiffness, Alex shouldn’t have rolled around in the bed too much.
Then he heard another voice, Alex turned around. He said something about her name had to be Kotomi-chan or else she won’t acknowledge other person’s voice, so students around like here were like soldiers as well? Interesting, so this ‘chan’ had to be her rank Alex had to assume she was around Lieutenant or Captain to have such dignified rank considering how long she might’ve been here. For example, his rank back at Marine military academy was: ‘Corporal first class’ so Alex would be called: Corporal first class, Alex. It sounded a little weird thinking this way; probably it was their way of acknowledging people. Alex nodded at the boy; he studied his facial features carefully making sure that he’ll remember his face.
So this school had ranks, it was relieving to see such organization. “Thanks for the information.” He said, “My name is Alex S. Gunthur, rank: Corporal first class. With your permission I’d like to request if you could help me find the classroom that I’m supposed to be in, and I ask what your rank is.”
It wasn’t long before he heard her name, assuming she was a higher-up than he was Alex quickly gave her his undivided attention like he would to his drill sergeant in military academy. The girl introduced herself as ‘Ichinose Kotomi’, assuming that she knew his name already Alex waited for the orders to be given. “It’s nice to meet you as well, Kotomi-chan.” He said as he studied her facial features. Alex didn’t have the chance she had her face buried in the book, he had a good look at her of course her odd colored hair was a plus. Her eyes were very beautiful; it had this very bright lavender color that anyone probably could just stare at it. Her uniform was very neat and clean as he would expect from his higher-up.
Now he brought up another question, why did Japanese people have oddly colored hair? He saw orange, blue, red, bright golden yellow, bleached yellow, not to mention purple. Were Japanese people born this way or did they dye their hair? Alex had to save that question for later when he got home considering the fact that he would feel a bit rude asking such question. He listened to the boy and the girl’s conversation silently, Alex just stood there waiting to see if his higher-up would give him the orders. So, the boy’s name was Kichiro-kun? The ‘kun’ in the end made him sound muscular, probably he was just a private or somewhere around corporal rank.
“If I may, I just met this boy, Kotomi-chan and-.” Alex was interrupted by the lunchbox that was given to him. Did she assume that he was hungry? Well, because he was in hurry he didn’t eat any breakfast before coming to school since he assumed that this school also served breakfast like his old school after the first class was over. However, this was from a higher-ranking and she was asking him to eat her food… it was strange. Alex wasn’t allowed to disobey an order from a higher-up; he was dumbstruck and confused to see a tray of an apple pie in front of him. So it meant he could eat it, right?
Alex nodded and acknowledged the order that was given to him, “Understood, Kotomi-chan. I will eat it as you have asked.”
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Post by Kichiro Haru on Jul 17, 2009 15:58:14 GMT -6
Kichiro Haru
___________________________________________________________________________ Just as he had suspected, Kotomi had been completely absorbed in some book when this new guy tried to talk to her. Haru, tilting his neck a little, got a look at the title of the book. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokshaw. He hadn’t read it yet, and hopefully Kotomi would leave the book intact so he could get the chance. It wasn’t surprising that he would find a book from the library with pages cut. The librarian didn’t seem to mind it that much, outside of small grumbling about it, but it kind of annoyed Haru. Still, he had yet taken a chance to chew the girl out over it. Not like she would understand anyway. She always seemed to be a bit…out there.
Just like he said it would, the words “Kotomi-chan” worked like a charm to break her out of the books spell. Whether she heard the rest of the conversation didn’t really seem to matter, though Haru assumed she didn’t. Like a lost puppy, the girl simply blinked for a moment before apparently realizing the situation at hand. She stood up, and introduced herself to the two of them with a bow. He just assumed she was doing it for the benefit of the other guy, though he didn’t necessarily leave out the option she was doing it for him.
Of course, everybody at this school knew who she was. She was a genius, ranking in the top ten in Japan in every subject. Also possibly the only person to ever live in a library, or at least seemed like it. Haru always saw her in here, and would occasionally make an attempt to talk to her. At first she ignored her, until he eventually caught on to the magical power Kotomi-chan had on her. Still, the conversations would be rather short, and it wasn’t long before she was lost in her book. At least he would sometimes get free food out of it, and she was a pretty decent cook. Maybe she had gotten her hands on cookbooks at one point and absorbed their knowledge? Whatever it was, she was probably one of the few girls he could talk too without eventually breaking down, probably because of how short such talks were.
“No, he’s not my friend. He’s just coincidentally in the same room as me,” Haru replied to Kotomi’s inquiry about the guy next to him, who quickly introduced himself as ‘Alex S. Gunthur, rank: Corporal first class,’ and then asked where his classroom was and their ranks.
That sounded a little odd to Haru, though he apparently dropped the rank request after Kotomi introduced Haro to the guy as Kichiro-kun. Haru gave Alex another look, and noticed that he didn’t seem to be Japanese. His skin was darker, and as he talked Haru noticed an unfamiliar accent. That, and he seemed to have some trouble with his speaking. If the guy were foreign, that would help explain some of the strange behavior. Just a little bit at least. Even foreigners usually didn’t act like they were from the army, or was this guy from some army? He seemed to be a little young for such an occupation.
Before he could ask about it, however, Kotomi had handed him a tray with a piece of apple pie on it. While Kotomi had given Haru food in the past, he was still a little surprised she just gave a complete stranger food. It was a testament to her rather caring nature, which normally was hidden by her complete lack of awareness of the world around her. Though Haru couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that he didn’t get a slice, but pushed that thought into the crevices of his mind after Kotomi gave him a smile. Not wanting to be rude, he returned the smile, a slight tinting of red appearing on his face as he blushed. He was rather pathetic, wasn’t he?
”Kotomi makes some really good apple pies you know. And she’s always happy to share some," Haru just let out, giving some background knowledge for Alex.___________________________________________________________________________
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selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 17, 2009 17:37:46 GMT -6
Did she notice how each boy protested to being friends? Not even in the slightest. But she did hear the foreign boy’s name, however. His name was Alex S. Gunther. Alex was probably short for Alexander. Alexander was another spelling of the Greek name Alexandros. The name meant to defend men oddly enough. But there was also the great Macedon king, Alexander the Great. If anything, he wasn’t a defender of men, but a conqueror of them. Alexander the Great’s kingdom reached from Greece to Egypt to India if she remembered correctly. And Gunther had to be a derivative of Günter, which was German. In fact, in the Song of the Nibelungs, Günter was a Burgundian king. Through king does marry the great and power Icelandic queen, Brunhild, he is only able to do it with the amazing Siegfried’s help. But regardless of the two different origins of his name, his heavy accent suggested he was American. His pronunciation of certain words had oddly stress syllables, and he used such proper pronouns instead of the more masculine slang ones. It was obvious he hadn’t been speaking Japanese for long.
But she had solved Gunther kun’s hunger issue with delicious pie. Hopefully he had a packed a lunch or managed to get to the cafeteria in time, or else she might see him again later in the day. It wasn’t like she minded the little interruptions in her reading time. It would be selfish of her to completely disregard them; even if she already did such things. But her ability to ignore others while reading wasn’t something she did on purpose. People talked around her all the time. She just had learned to ignore their chatter unless someone was speaking with her. And the only way she knew someone was talking with her was if they called her ‘Kotomi chan’. It was a very simple process really.
”…apple…she….some…”
The wind seemed to be whispering about as she read once again, but the girl ignored it. The wind was more than welcomed to talk. Once she finished with the book, she’d tried hard to see what it was saying. Maybe these random things she was hearing were of some importance. It would be truly amazing if the harps of the word actually resonated at such a rate that it was able to mimic words and phrases. Such a discovery probably would have made her beloved parents jump for joy. ”…Kotomi chan. I will eat it as you have asked.” Kotomi shyly looked up from her book over at Gunther kun with a confused look. Oh! He was still here. Her eyes moved towards Kichiro kun and blinked. They both were still here! She set the book down for a moment as she looked between the two. How much time had passed? At least she was almost finished with the book. It wasn’t anything amazingly long. And it surely wasn’t hard to understand. English was a fairly simple enough language as long as it didn’t use slang. English slang confused her quite a bit because normal words ended up meaning something entirely different. She often wondered how Americans could even keep up with so many meanings of one word.
She looked over at the darker skinned male once again before her eyes lit up. He was foreign! He was American! That meant she could practice speaking English with him! It was such a treat that she couldn’t help but smile brightly. The girl once again got up from her pillow and walked over to Gunther and stood in front of him starry eyed. ”How-dee part-nerd,” she said in English with a huge smile. Her mouth overly pronounced very syllable so she wouldn’t mess up. ”Well-come to Jay-panda!” The last part came out so excited that it almost sounded like she was cheering. She stood there smiling at him for a moment, trying to study his reaction to her English. Did she do well?
But soon her attentions moved back to the male she was familiar with. Kotomi walked over towards Kichiro. Her lips were puckered out as she thought carefully about her words. ”Hey Kichiro kun, I did not know that you were friends with an American transfer student. Are you an expert in the English language? Should I speak to you in English for now on?” It wasn’t like she was particularly close with the boy. They were considered casual acquaints at best; but that didn’t mean he didn’t impress her. Kotomi was truly amazed to learn that Kichiro kun was so skilled in the English language that he could make friends with someone who obviously was having trouble with Japanese. He probably could help her grasp all these weird meaning of English words. And if he knew English fluently, what other language did he know?
”Tú hables español? Parli Italiano? Français? Puhutteko suomea? Talar du svenska?”
She stared at the boy in amazement for a moment. Kotomi didn’t even wait for him to answer her question; she already assumed he was fluent in every language she mentioned. How amazing! While she might have been very good in different subjects, she was not an expert linguist like she had already assumed of Kichiro. Was he planning to tour the world after high school, thus he made sure to study so many different languages? Did he have a private tutor? Or was the boy just a nature at understand different languages? Foreign languages were also so interesting to her because of the different conjugations and pronunciations. Some languages were derivatives of others while some took a little of everything. But languages like English were so interesting because they didn’t have masculine and feminine tenses. She often wondered how English speaking countries knew the difference between simple things like a girl dog versus a boy dog. It wasn’t like there were special words for that sort of thing. Unless it was covered in slang?
”Hey Kichiro kun, will you tutor me sometime,” she asked grabbing his right hand with both of her hands.
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 1009 (without code) || OOC Note || She asks if you speak Spanish, Italian, French, Finish, and Swedish in different languages.
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odin Guest
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Post by odin on Jul 17, 2009 20:38:36 GMT -6
I am totally not from wild west.... Alex tried to understand what Haru was saying; so far he understood the first part of the sentence and the second sentence he had hard time understanding. He tilted his head slightly, “Is that so?” he replied. He took the apple pie from the tray and nibbled, he was surprised by the fact that how she used everything in harmony in this pie! It was such an organization of flavors that Alex had to keep on eating until the last bit of piece was gone, it was an irresistible sweet pleasure that no one can back down. The boy was right; she was good at cooking perhaps in return he could make something for her.
Even though he wasn’t hungry Alex was surprised how quickly he ate the apple pie, perhaps he found himself a new favorite food that this girl whipped up. Hell, he’ll eat it anywhere, anytime, and anyplace. He still had this sweet apple flavor mixed with cinnamon and brown sugar was still in his mouth perhaps it was the best apple pie he ever had. It was strange to find this kind of cooking, wait; he was still confused why she gave him an apple pie. Alex still had a confused look on his face trying to figure out this little mystery why in the world this girl gave him an apple pie, maybe perhaps this was a way of saying welcome to the school?
As much as he knew Alex doubted he would see these types of kind people around the school randomly passing out apple pies. It wasn’t long before he noticed Kotomi smiling at him, he returned the smile then he walked up to him with a pair of starry eyes. He placed his right foot back; Alex wasn’t scared it was his instincts to back off from people who approached him this close unless they were aggressively handing out orders like a drill sergeant. “Is there something I can do for you, Kotomi-chan?” He asked, but it wasn’t long before she started to talk in English. In his opinion it was horrible, saying every syllable in each word was rather annoying.
From her sentences he noticed she was saying: ‘Howdie part-nerd’ and ‘Welcome to Jaypanda’. Was Alex a nerd? He didn’t consider himself as one; perhaps she was assuming he was a nerd because of the clean clothes he was wearing, it wasn’t like he had stupid hobbies like those weird people who played with Japanese cartoon dolls that he saw. No, that couldn’t be it…. Was she trying to say: ‘partner’? Either way the last word was horribly pronounced. What the hell was Jaypannda?
Jaypanda…. Alex thought of it for a moment. Let’s see, a jay bird combined with panda? Perhaps, was this the name of the school- no most likely not? Why would anyone name their school: ‘Jaypanda’ anyway? He gave himself a mental sigh; Japanese people were going to hard to get used to. Alex decided to reply in English in return since she made so much effort to speak in one, he could help her speak English if she truly wanted him to.
“You can just say regularly say: 'hello' instead of saying: ‘Howdie partner’. I'm not from wild west you know Kotomi-chan.” Alex said coolly, “And thanks for the warm welcome.” He looked at the clock as his eyes widened. He was late… his jaws dropped as he realized he made a fatal mistake, now his whole daily schedule was off! What should he do?! This was totally an end of the world for him, at least he should demand this boy to take him to the classroom now or else face serious consequences. That won’t work…. He had to deal with this serious situation as calmly as possible.
Alex took a deep breath and out before speaking, “Perhaps someone can show me where the classroom is located before I suffer punishments for being late?”
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Post by Kichiro Haru on Jul 17, 2009 21:27:48 GMT -6
Kichiro Haru
___________________________________________________________________________ Haru hadn’t noticed that Kotomi had gone back into her own little world after giving Alex the pie. So when she suddenly just looked up at them completely confused, he wasn’t sure what had happened. Had they done something strange? Maybe she wasn’t sure how to deal with the kid’s strange behavior? Or was it she didn’t know exactly what to do around a new, foreign kid? Then again, she always had her head in the clouds, so maybe she had just forgotten they were there. That seemed a more reasonable to him than anything else.
When Kotomi stood up and walked over to Alex all starry-eyed, Haru wasn’t sure what to make out of it. He doubted she had just fallen for the guy, considering it seemed she never had a romantic thought in her life. So it didn’t surprise him much when she started to speak to him in what sounded like English. The words were broken up syllable by syllable, and he was pretty sure something was wrong with the pronunciation. He wasn’t a native speaker of it, however, and she was the genius girl after all. What was he supposed to know, uh?
Then again, once the new student started speaking, again in English, he sounded like he knew it a lot better than her English. It was fluent and fluid, not broken like hers. Most likely it was because he was actually from America or some English-speaking country, and therefore a native speaker. Sadly, even with his knowledge of English from his studies, Haru still had some trouble when it came to listening to people speaking. Kotomi’s he could understand (and was with Alex in wondering what a Jaypanda was), but Alex’s was harder, and he could only get the gist of the meaning. He sounded friendly enough, betraying that delinquent look of his. At least he wasn’t getting frustrated with Kotomi’s uniqueness like other students had done.
Of course, coming from the apparent reaction he had to her pie, Haru doubted the guy would do anything bad to her. From the looks of it, he really enjoyed the pie, and Haru knew exactly why. For a girl who looked more interested in reading about atoms and electrons than flour and fruits, she could make a mean pie. She expertly mixed the warm, flaky crust with the cool, syrupy apple filling. Anyone who had one of her pies would instantly become her friend, and would easily learn to put up with her behavior just to get another slice of it.
Not that Haru was interested in being friends with her just because of the pie (though that certainly helped). She seemed like a really nice girl, never minding if he interrupted her reading. It never seemed to bother her at all that he talked to her, and she was always happy to give him some food, whether he not he said he needed any. If he could get a conversation out of her, she always seemed like she enjoyed it. Heck, just right now she got really excited about a chance of speaking English to someone.
Speaking of which, Haru really wasn’t too sure what to say when Kotomi walked right up to him and asked if he was an expert in English. He was far from it, but he didn’t get a chance to answer before Kotomi decided it was yes. The next thing he knew, he somehow became multilingual in Kotomi’s mind, magically knowing several languages that he had no clue about. Every time she said something in a random language, he tried to interrupt, but she just kept going until finally saying something that sounded East European. He thought he would finally get a chance to say something, but there she went and grabbed his hands and asked if he would tutor her. Such an idea seemed rather silly, but in Kotomi’s mind, it wasn’t. He just became a master linguist after all. That was something he was going to have to fix rather soon.
”Uh, uhm, Kotomi-chan, I’m not an expert in English at all. I know just about as much as you do. And I couldn’t understand anything you just said. I-I don’t think I could tutor you at all,” he replied before gently slipping his hands out of hers.
Looking at the other member of that morning’s library inhabitants, Haru noticed he seemed to be worried about something. His eyes were large, jaw dropped, and he had the whole ‘the worlds going to end’ look on his face. Looking around the library, Haru tried to see what could be the cause of such a disturbance. All he saw were a bunch of books, a few tables, a chair here and there, and some windows. Looking out the window, all he saw was some students and the school grounds. Everything looked calm, relaxed, and in order. So what was the guy’s problem?
Then the guy spouted out something that sounded to the effect of “Show me were to go or I’ll be late.” Haru glanced up at the clock, and finally realized what the issue was. The bells were about to ring, and if they didn’t hoof it they were going to be late for class. Kotomi didn’t have to worry since she was excused from classes, but they didn’t have that luxury.
”I’ll help you out with that. Just tell me what class number you got and I’ll point you in the right direction. I’m in class B. I guess I’ll see you later then Kotomi-chan,” he added, giving a polite bow to the girl before heading towards the library exit. Hopefully he could make it in time before…
”Crap, forgot to return my book,” he grumbled to himself before heading over to the counter.
Finding the return slot, he slipped his book in and then started to head over to the shelves to get another book. However, he remembered the issue of being late to class, and found he had a dilemma. He could be late for the first time in years, or loose his ‘record’ of always having a book out ever since high school started. On the one hand, being late was for the most part a slap on the wrist. The school delinquents did it all the time and only get lectured about it for the most part. But, still, he was a model student, and it didn’t look good if he was late. Then again, he could tell them he was in the library, and they might let him off the hook for it. This was a very challenging scenario to solve.
”Hey Kotomi-chan, if you’re done with that book, could I borrow it for today?"
That seemed like a good compromise. If he didn’t have time to check out a book, borrowing one from her seemed the next best thing. She was practically a librarian anyway, and probably knew the place better than the real one. Besides, she was probably done with it anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt anything. Then he would just pop back in later, return the book to her to return, and then check one out on his own. His records would be intact, sort of, and barely any time would be wasted. It seemed perfect. ___________________________________________________________________________
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selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 18, 2009 0:07:14 GMT -6
“Uh, uhm, Kotomi-chan, I’m not an expert in English at all. I know just about as much as you do. And I couldn’t understand anything you just said. I-I don’t think I could tutor you at all.”
His hand pulled away as Kotomi stared at the boy, trying to unravel all the preconceived conceptions she developed about him. It was a bit hard for her mind to give up on the master linguist notion considering how far her imagination had gone off. Her whole imagine of Kichiro was suddenly crushed with this new realization. He wasn’t a master linguist; he wasn’t planning on traveling abroad and teaching Japanese to different young minds. He was just a normal high school boy. ”Eh? Hmm… Maybe I overestimated you.” The lavender eyed girl didn’t even notice she said something very harsh. It was just her honest opinion of the boy. Kotomi looked rather disappointed as she turned away from Kichiro. It was a bit sad to suddenly have no amazing linguistic genius around. She could also go to one of those foreign culture clubs and try talking to them. They might have some amazing hidden talent amongst their group. While she felt confident in her abilities to understand different languages, it was pronunciation that got her. Foreign languages made her tongue so tried and she couldn’t mimic the correct way of saying things without hearing it first. Sadly, the library didn’t have several books on tape.
The dark haired girl turned back to Alex on her way back to her corner. There wasn’t really much for her to talk to either boy about now. Kichiro wasn’t some diamond in the rough, and the boy with German ancestry was kept from a first day crisis thanks to a hearty helping of carbohydrates and glucose. Everything was resolved all before class even started. Gunther had finished the sweet treat, thus he was ready to ship off. She took the box from his hand with the intentions of sitting down again with her book when she was distracted by his English.
”You can just say regularly say: 'hello' instead of saying: ‘Howdie partner’. I'm not from wild west you know Kotomi-chan. And thanks for the warm welcome.”
”You sp-eek very fast,” she commented, trying to translate everything he said. It took a few seconds for her mind to think of a reply then translate it in English. For a second, she just looked completely absentminded before she smiled again at him. ”But I we-ill tri-eye to re-ma’am-burr to say hell-o from now on. If you are not from the Wild West, does dad-at me-n you do not have a whore-see?” Her smile disappeared for a moment as she thought about her pronunciation. It was truly easy to see how she had trouble saying things compared to his fluent tongue. Some words were just so hard for her mouth to move. Kotomi frowned and shook her head. She had to do better. If she was going to be an example student and keep her promise, then she had to overcome her tongue’s inability to move and twist. ”Whore-say, no…whore-sea, no…whore-c?” The girl shook her head. It still wasn’t coming out correctly. ”Horde-sea, no…horde-say, no…horsie!” On the seventh try, the word finally came from her mouth. Her lips curled back into a smile, satisfied with her progress.
This was quite invigorating! Even if she couldn’t find a Japanese student fluent in English, she could always try her skills on an American student trying his luck at Japanese. She would have to try to engage in a conversation with this Gunther at another time. ”Good luck, Gunther kun” she said in an encouraging tone in her native tongue of Japanese. She gave him a polite bow before settling down in her corner. The girl fixed her bento box nice and neatly then folded her legs under her on her pillow. With the wondrous book back in her palms, the residential genius sped through the book with ease. Pronouncing English words might have been a challenge, but reading them was mere child’s play. She had forced herself to read enough English books that she had no problem with such a casual read. It didn’t even bother her how English books were written completely backwards. The first time she read an English book, she couldn’t understand it since she read it the Japanese way. But after figuring things out, she was a bit surprised the English didn’t do something odd like write bottom to top. At least they got that concept correct…
“…Kotomi-chan, if you’re done with that book, could I borrow it for today?”
Kotomi closed the book as she looked up at the boy’s bright face. ”Hello Kirchiro kun. Good afternoon,” she moaned, climbing back to her feet. Her eyes moved away from his face towards the window off to the side. The sun was still much too low for it to be afternoon. Was he really still here from his first trip? Her body tilted to the right as she glanced behind him to see Gunther still standing about, lost. They both were here! Maybe time was moving slow today? Or was this some elaborate trick? ”My book?” She pressed the book against her chest as if it were something dear. Slowly, she pulled it away and looked at it sadly. She had already finished the little novel. It was so sad that it was such a short book. She would have enjoyed reading about a few more Americans and their lives back during World War II. But the book was finished, and there was nothing she could do about it. ”Here you go,” she said shyly, handing the boy the book. She gave him a nod before walking passed him. With nothing new to try to chat with Gunther about, there was no use in acknowledging him. Instead, she needed to find a new book to occupy her time with. The girl tiptoed through the halls of the library, barefoot. The bell would be ringing soon, but she wouldn’t even notice if there was a new book in her hands before then. Bells were so meaningless to the girl. The only thing that mattered was finding something else interesting to read.
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 1044 (without code) || OOC Note || ---
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odin Guest
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Post by odin on Jul 18, 2009 16:49:28 GMT -6
Objective sighted, moving onto the location.Alex looked at the boy; he gave a nod of approval for his courage to tell the truth to the girl he wasn’t a total genius. It was strange how she thought he was fluent in English; surely Haru clearly stated that they weren’t friends. Did Kotomi have bad ears? He couldn’t deny the fact that it was a possibility or probably a coping strategy in order for her mind not to explode from being called different names; in exchange she blocked the world out with books? Wait, that didn’t make sense…. Either way, this boy had the courage to tell the truth, that’s all that mattered.
Her harsh truth on the other hand about her over-estimating on the other hand was going to hurt the boy in Alex’s opinion. She was his higher-up, Alex didn’t dare to speak out or talk back against his superiors. He learned it hard way back at the military academy, talking back to superiors meant certain death not literally, but almost certainly in a boot camp with other trainers and a drill sergeant around. Alex was almost sure by judging by this boy’s behavior he was going to take it a bit hard; surely her subordinate was trying his best or… so he thought he did.
When he heard about Haru saying that he could help him find the classroom that he was in Alex was relieved that he could find someone helpful, “I’m thankful for your cooperation, Kichiro-kun.” He dug into his pocket and handed him a paper that he scribbled on so he won’t forget his classroom number, “I am in senior class 3-C as Kotomi-chan have said earlier.” Then he went to return the book, hopefully the boy got a glimpse of the note that he showed to Haru.
It wasn’t long before Kotomi replied in horrible sounding English that he heard earlier, wow, Japanese people did have hard time speaking English after all. Even for a smart girl who seemed to know foreign language she had difficulties, now the problem was set in front of him he had to decipher the complex code of horrendous syllables. He made out a couple of words; Alex managed to understand she will remember to say: ‘hello’ than ‘howdie partner’ next time. As far as the last part went she said a word that shouldn’t be said!
Alex didn’t own a whore at all! He was feeling slightly upset by this, but he held back his upset feeling since she was a higher up. He calmly nodded, “No I do not own them, Kotomi-chan.” Then she seemed to have pronounced the word wrong, the girl was trying her best to correct her sentence and finally said it. Kotomi then smiled at her accomplishment, she seemed like a child who perfected something the way she smiled was rather infectious and made Alex smile back slightly.
The soldier looked up at the clock, he was late the bell was going to ring within three minutes! “If you’d excuse me, I’ll have to head to my class.” Alex turned around and headed out the door, again he heard Kotomi speak saying something about ‘good luck’. He immediately turned around and gave her a crisp salute like a marine, Alex turned to his side and flipped out the paper that he had earlier labeled with: 3-C. His classroom, Alex looked up and what did he find? The entire classrooms were labeled with C’s along with a single digit number, down the hallway he saw the classroom that he was supposed to be in. He turned towards Haru in the library, “It seems my objective is found. Again, thanks for the cooperation.”
The bell rung, Alex took a short sprint down the hall and opened the classroom door. The teacher was in the classroom already, great, first day of school and he was late. He didn’t want to get an impression of a delinquent; probably the teacher got that impression from him then again Alex knew he was lost. No, he had no excuses Alex was willing to take the penalty or a punishment that he would be given. The students looked at him oddly, again Alex felt a sense of awkwardness coming from them.
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Post by Kichiro Haru on Jul 18, 2009 18:31:46 GMT -6
Kichiro Haru
___________________________________________________________________________ The look of disappointment in Kotomi’s face almost made Haru feel ashamed he couldn’t help her. Almost, of course, was the keyword. Through some logic that she only understood, she had assumed he was a master linguist just because he met some guy who knew English. He knew that not to be true, and while it was a rather unexpected turn of events, coming from her, such assumptions were not abnormal. Still, she had seemed so exciting to think that he might have been able to help her learn more about languages. It made him a bit sad that there wasn’t anything he could do.
That was until she made the comment about underestimating him. It sounded like a rather harsh and rude thing to say to someone, even if that was what she had technically done. The problem wasn’t so much he couldn’t learn languages as it was he didn’t have much access to the resources to do so. For a moment his face scrunched up in a bit of a fit of anger, but he cooled down almost a second later. This was Kotomi he was getting upset about being harsh. The girl never had much communication, and while you could learn all about science and history from books, social interaction was one of those things you had to learn with experience. Sure, there had been plenty of books on the subject, but they could never really get those small little ticks and thought processes that people had completely right. His anger turned into more of a sigh as he just let it out.
Then it hit him; there was a way he could help her learn and at the same time show she hadn’t completely underestimated him. Since he tended to get out a lot more, and had several friends that were as studious to him, with a little work he could probably get his hand on something. Maybe some language tapes to listen to or something. Heck, he might be able to ask the one of the foreign culture clubs about some suggestions. That would hopefully improve her mood a little.
”Hey Kotomi-chan, just because I don’t know any foreign languages doesn’t mean I can’t help you study. Maybe I could….
Haru froze up a little as he realized just what exactly he was planning on doing. He was going to tell Kotomi he could get some language tapes and they could study together. That would mean it would just be her and him, alone. The very thought of it caused him to sweat a little, and as he started talking again one could tell he sounded kind of nervous.
”Maybe I could get some tapes for you to study to. You know, to make up for the fact that I don’t know anything,” he finished, a weak laugh ending the sentence.
He was rather relieved when the other boy started speaking to her in English again, and she started to get wrapped up in it as well. It gave him the perfect chance for him to calm down some so he wasn’t a nervous wreck getting into class. Adding in the note from Alex giving him something to distract himself with, and he was set. By the time that she got onto the sixth or seventh saying of the word, his heart and lungs were back on their regularly scheduled rhythm. He took one more deep breath before turning towards Alex,
”Yeah, sure I’ll…where’d he go?”
Alex, apparently note a very patient guy, had already left the room. The bell was about to ring soon, so maybe he decided to try his luck and find it on his own instead of waiting for him? Well, Haru hoped that the guy found success in his hunt. As for him, he had a book to get from Kotomi.
However, first she had to register that apparently it was still morning, not afternoon, and that the two of them never left the library. It was amazing how her sense of time had apparently been all but destroyed by her reading. Could she really not tell that it had only been a few seconds since he had last spoken to her? Either way, it didn’t stop her from being rather hesitant about giving up the book. She held it close to her chest, and then slowly pulling it away from her. The saddened look on her face made him almost tell her just to keep it and he’d go without a book for now, but she shyly handed it to him.
”Um, thank you. I’ll give it back to you later today all right,” he replied, not really sure what else to say in the situation. He watched her get up and head over to the shelves, and then headed out of the library. Looking at the clock, he had maybe a minute left before it rang, and knew he wouldn’t make it in time. If the librarian were there he would have gotten her to give him a note, but it looked like he’d have to get a punishment. Since it was his first offense, and he was a model student, then it would probably would just be a warning or something. It would hurt his pride a little, but he’d live.
As the bell rang, he found himself in the classroom halls. Up ahead he saw Alex, and apparently the man thought Haru had actually done something to help him as he thanked him.
”You’re welcome?” he replied, rather confused actually.
He kept walking onwards, eventually finding the door to his classroom. The teacher was working on attendance, and upon Haru’s entering, looked up. Apparently he seemed surprised that Haru was late, as he was rather quiet. Haru told him he was in the library that morning, and got distracted by a new kid needing help finding a room. The teacher, having no real reason not to believe him, warned him to be more considerate of time in the future if he did not want anymore trouble. ___________________________________________________________________________
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selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 19, 2009 9:26:46 GMT -6
He would bring her the book back later today so she could read it again. He would find her some tapes so she could practice different languages. He was always very kind to the books, constantly checking them out and returning them on time. And he never complained when she had a book he wanted. All in all, Kichiro was a good guy, even if she overestimated him. She continued stepping lightly through the library in search of something new to read. Suddenly she noticed the two men heading out the door. Gunther seemed to be in more of a rush than Kichiro. The girl stood still with her hands clasped in front of her.
”Kichiro kun,” she said to the boy hurrying off. ”Do your best.” She bowed fully before watching him take off into the hallways. Shortly after, the bell started to ring. Kotomi blinked confused as she looked up. Was it really that early in the morning? That did explain why the two men were in such a rush, but the whole thing left Kotomi a bit confused. How much time passed from when she entered the building to now? Did she really have no perception on time? Or did time move so fast for her while moving at a stagnant pace for others? Her time and their time seemed to cross paths and created so odd paradox. For a brief moment, the two wavelengths must have switched, thus time seemed to pass slowly for her while it went so fast for those two that they were late to class! How dreadful! She needed to keep her time from escaping him.
Was that even possible? Could she continue her own time?
Kotomi poked out her lips as she contemplated the thought, slowly moving towards the philosophy section. Maybe someone had already researched such a topic and wrote a synopsis on their findings. The question was if such a find truly would be in philosophy or in the scientific studies area. But before she even made it to the philosophy section to begin her search, the girl found several books stacked on an open table. The girl paused as she looked at the scattered books. It seemed like someone was doing research yesterday and forgot to put things away. Kotomi nodded as she stacked all the books in a pile before trying to carry them all. Slowly, she staggered back to her corner of the library. It was best to put them all away, but she wanted to browse through them all before cleaning up. There was no telling what the person who removed them was thinking. But through reading these books, she could grasp some type of understanding. She might even learn clues on to why they were in such a rush that they couldn’t put these precious books away.
The girl once again sat on her favorite pillow and picked up the first book in the pile. Her eyes moved right to left rapidly as she scanned the book. About five minutes into reading, her eyes widened and she placed the book on the ground. Instinctively, the moved towards her book bag and removed her scissor. There was an important article here! It was much too important to leave in this book; she needed to take it home and put it with the other. The girl went and snipped out the block of text and then placed it in her bag before going back to the book. No one seemed to mind when she cut pages out of books or even said anything to her. It was just something they considered a trait of a true genius or something to that accord. In truth, it was only because the article was related to her beloved parents. Any time she found something that could be collated to them; she couldn’t help but remove it and take it for herself. Hopefully small acts like these didn’t upset God. Wanting to assemble any and everything related to them wasn’t considered selfish, was it?
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 674 (without code) || OOC Note || And now, Kotomi is bound to the library by herself.
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whammy Guest
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Post by whammy on Jul 19, 2009 12:20:03 GMT -6
Ibuki Fuko ___________________________________________________________________________ In a classroom on the far side of the school, a small girl sat all alone. She was completely focused on the wood in front of her, chipping and scraping it piece by piece with a small knife. Looking up for a second, she focused one wooden starfish she was using as her model. Another look at the block of wood she had in her hand, and she saw that it wasn’t going where she wanted. The top part had been carved a little too thin, and the piece in general was too thin. It just wouldn’t do well for her to hand someone such a sloppy starfish. There was no way someone would go to her sister’s wedding after that. They would see the sloppy starfish, and then cry tears of sadness at her ruining of such a majestic creature. No, she needed to get another block of wood and start all over.
Laying the incomplete piece of wood on the desk, she placed the knife into the pocket on her uniform. After making sure it was safe and secure, she got up out of the desk and grabbed a hold of her wooden star. She took a look at it, and began to admire its shape. The absolute pinnacle of cute, and it all hers. Soon her head began to be filled with images of her, surrounded by a sea of starfish. And she, she was their queen, ruling the entire starfish kingdom.
Anyone who entered the room at the moment would have found her just staying there, a look of pure joy on her face as she stood there clutching the starfish. Her eyes were closed, her mouth open in a small smile, and she was oblivious to the world. She was stuck in her mind, and the starfish kingdom that it created. It was a festival day, and all the starfish people were dancing their little starfish dances, eating starfish meals. The world was a perfect one, but the sound of movement outside the room snapped her out of it. She looked around for a second, and found she was still standing in the same place. Shrugging her shoulders, she walked to the door and peeked outside.
There was a third year student, and his arms were full of wood. Large blocks of wood, most likely for an art class. And on the floor were several blocks of it, and it looked as if he was trying to figure out how to get it. Fuko, of course, was more interested in getting them for her starfish carving. Opening the door, she stepped into the all and bent down, grabbing a few blocks of wood. The student took a look at her, and sighed before smiling.
”Hey, thanks for the…hey, don’t run from me like that,” he yelled as Fuko dashed away from him. The boy stumbled around for a moment, not sure how to chase her down and not drop any more of the wood.
Meanwhile, Fuko was making a run through the school, hoping to get as far away from the student as possible. She needed silence and concentration to carve the starfish, but if he followed her all she would get would be a bunch of yelling and screaming. He was such a loud person, and would probably take the wood from her. She needed to hide somewhere, but where.
She ran past the library, but soon stopped. Turning around, she peeked inside to see if anyone was in there. The only person there was a strange, dark-haired girl sitting in a corner with scissors and a book. Was she making a scrapbook or something? She seemed rather quiet, and wouldn’t bother Fuko in her quest to carve 700 starfish. Finding a table, she sat down and was about to pull out her knife to start carving when there was a commotion outside.
”Alright little girl, I know you’re around here somewhere. You got to give me those blocks back or else I’m going to fail,”
It was the loud man again! Fuko looked around for a place to hide, and noticed the big stack of books next to the girl. Add in all her other junk, and there was a possibility that Fuko could just blend into the scenery. Running over, Fuko curled up in the corner behind the books.
”Don’t tell the Loud Person Fuko is here,” she told the girl before turning to face the wall, clutching the starfish tight as she heard the door open behind her.
”Now where are you…there you are. Give me those blocks back,”the guy yelled in both anger and desperation.
Fuko was now worried. He had seen past her brilliant disguise of books, and now he was going to take away her wood she needed. The only line of defense she had now was the Book Lady. She started to poke her on the side of the shoulder.
”Book Lady, protect Fuko from the Loud Man so Fuko can get back to carving her starfish,”
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selene Guest
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Post by selene on Jul 19, 2009 21:30:15 GMT -6
It took a lot to remove Kotomi from her books. It was nearly impossible to get her to pay attention to anything if her name and correct suffix weren’t said. Considering her lack of social circles, Kotomi remained alone for most of her school days. No teacher bothered her. The librarian never had much to say to her except hello or goodbye; the only time there were sentences exchanged was during the request for new books. And students rarely tried to converse with her. There were a few that somehow broke the barrier of silent, thus getting her name, like Kichiro. But for the most part, Kotomi was happily alone in this school. It had been that way the majority of her high school career. There were no after school clubs to distract her, and there was no teacher looking down on her for not joining something an extra curriculum activity. The world was fine with Kotomi’s self studies, and she was more than happy to dwindle her days away reading a good book.
But this year looked to be different…
This morning she was introduced to Kichiro’s new foreign friend, Gunther (even though they weren’t really friends, they just happened to both be around at the same time so she assumed they were friends). It was nice to meet new people as long as they weren’t scary, perverts, or bullies. If she had seen Gunther without Kichiro around, her reaction might have been a bit different. Gunther was no mean bully, but he did look a bit intimidating. It must have been his cold expression and that scar on his face. But that was just a big misconception. Her first encounter with Kichiro had an odd misconception too. His first year at this school ended with him being labeled a pervert…but it seems that rumor was a complete liar. Kichiro kun wasn’t a pervert. He was a bit odd to Kotomi, but he was a kind boy.
But this man… Kotomi had finally closed her fourth book of the day just to be face to face with a man reaching for her. She didn’t even notice there was someone behind her or that someone was talking to her. She was too involved with her book until that very moment. And now she was face to face with a random boy reaching towards her with an open palm. She had read about this type of situation before. It was sexual harassment. He was going to grab a part of her body that she didn’t want touched. It honestly didn’t matter where he touched her, the fact of the matter would remain she didn’t want some unknown stranger touching her. The upset look in his eyes didn’t make the situation any better. He was angry and going to touch her inappropriately! She didn’t even know why someone would dare to do such a thing!
”No!” she yelped loudly. ”Pervert!”
The man suddenly froze as the dark haired girl hugged herself, crying somewhat. He waved his hands trying to settle her down, but that just drew more attention to himself. The patrons of the library began to peek behind the shelves and such, staring to see what the commotion was about. Kotomi was holding a book to her chest, crying by the time the man was apologizing, trying to convince her that this was a huge misunderstanding. Being accused of being a pervert was enough to distract the man from going after the little wood thief. He continuously bowed over and over as he moved out of the library. There were eyes following him all the way out the door.
Kotomi sniffled a bit as she wiped her eyes. Her first day as a senior had way too much excitement. She really wasn’t up for all of this. All Kotomi really ever wanted to do was sit there and read her book. Now she had to worry about perverts stalking the library. The girl looked down at the book still in her arms and took a deep breath. At least they both were safe now that the scary man had run off. Her lavender eyes were still filled with fright and her body trembled. Kichiro was definitely not a pervert. He never dared to do something like that…
Suddenly, she noticed there was something warm against her back and it wasn’t the sun. Slowly, the teary eyed Kotomi turned to see a very short girl hiding behind her back. Her eyes slowly shifted from the girl to the pile of wood not too far from her books, then back at the dark gray haired girl’s bright face. Her fear turned into confusion as her lips puckered. She had never seen this girl before. And when did she sneak behind her? She must have been a ninja to bypass her considering she didn’t see anyone behind the pervert. But surely enough, someone had gotten passed him and behind her. The thought of the girl entering before Kotomi even put the book down never occurred in the genius’s mind. ”Huh?” she moaned, looking into that girl’s bright yellow eyes. Just looking at the short girl made her feel like she had drunk a pack of energy drinks. She was just so full of energy in infected anyone near her. Kotomi moved about on her knees and about-faced. She started at the shorter woman for a moment and tilted her head.
”Are you a bully?”
___________________________________________ || Word Count || 910 (without code) || OOC Note || ---
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