She (TakashiMorinozukaxOC)

Chapter One: The Girl

Takashi stood still in the driveway calmly. At his right, his mother checked the time on her husband's wrist nervously. She ticked with annoyance and said something about commercial airplanes never being on time and that she should've gone to pick up the newcomer herself. Next to him, his younger brother shifted from one foot to the other. 

This year's recipient of the Morinozuka Martial Arts Scholarship was arriving that day. In fact, she was supposed to have arrived almost a half an hour ago. 

Behind the family of four, the sliding front door of the house opened. 

Emilio Leon exited the house. Freshly showered, his usually bouncy brown hair stuck to his head in half-wet waves. As last year's scholarship recipient, he had only until the end of the break until he had to leave. Emilio was nice enough, sure, but Takashi didn't see much in the Spaniard other than a privileged kid who had been groomed to win from the moment he was born. He was decent enough at karate, but Takashi felt that his heart was more into winning than enjoying the art. 

"Is she here yet?" Emilio asked Satoshi, who he took a space next to. 

Satoshi shook his head, "I think Okaasan is going to blow up if she doesn't get here soon." 

Emilio stifled a laugh. Takashi shot the two a pointed look. After all, it was no laughing matter. Perhaps the driver had gotten into an accident, or the plane had been delayed and they were not notified. On any note, Takashi did not enjoy seeing his mother panic. 

Which was what she was about to do until the shiny limousine appeared at the of the long, Sakura-lined driveway of the Morinozuka estate. It entered the gate and pulled up the curved driveway until it came to a complete stop in front of them. The driver got out of his seat quickly and ran around the front of the car-- as if he was hurrying to get whoever was in the backseat out of the vehicle. 

However, the door opened from the inside, and a head of blonde hair with soft, brown undertones popped up from the limo. She caught gazes with the driver, who sighed in annoyance. 

"Oh," she said, realizing her blunder quickly, "was I supposed to wait?" 

The driver, affectionately called Suzuki-san by the family, nodded once. 

The girl continued, "Should I go back in? Let you have your moment?" 

Satoshi and Emilio couldn't help it-- they started to laugh. Sazuki-san shook his head and said something along the lines of "It's quite alright. You're already out, Styles-san." 

The girl, clad in the clothes that she had worn on the plane, stood up straight. From her blonde hair coming loose from her ponytail, to her rather large t-shirt that hung off her shoulder (revealing a black tank top underneath), to her comfortable sweat pants and Vans, Takashi scanned the girl up and down quickly, trying to decide if this first impression was going well or not. 

As Sazuki-san closed the door behind her and rounded the side to start unpacking her bags from the trunk, the girl bowed lowly. 

"I'm so sorry that I'm late! The layover in Hawai'i took longer than expected and my phone died." 

She stood back up straight and said, "My name is Jennifer Styles, but I'd like it if everyone called me Jenni. Thank you for having me in your home." her smile was so large it was infectious. Her skin was sun-kissed with freckles along her nose and cheeks. Despite her obvious jet-lagged under eyes, Takashi noticed that she was quite pretty with long legs and, from what he could tell from the baggy clothes, an athletic frame. On her neck dangled a few chains of necklaces. One made of black, worn rope had a shark tooth dangling from it between her clavicle bones. Her ears were pierced twice in both lobes, and none of the earrings matched.