Three Misfits and a Dream

Chapter 4

Recess. The students flood out of the doors, disastrous for teachers, liberation for students. Jun, Yuji and Nali all sit at their bench, right next to the tennis courts. Solitary, since the courts aren't open at recess. The bench was a warm brownish red color, with a table in the middle but connected with a long, steely pipe. Jun and Yuji sit on one side, while Nali sits on the other side. They all face one another.

"So... is the bet already over?," Nali asks. She loosens her posture much like Jun, however with a sense of mischief, which was prominent of her character. 

"I mean I guess so, Jun practically lives next to her and they both take the same bus." Yuji states.

"Wow, I mean I know you get people fast, but that's like a new record isn't it?" Nali half - jokes.

"It's not like that, it's just lucky I guess..." Chio's teasing stunts Jun's mind, flustering his ears.

"Ooh? What do I see?~ Your ears are red!~" Nali points. A mischievous smile breaks over her face. "Something happened, didn't it?~"

"Wha- No! Nothing happened!" Jun turns away from the spotlight. As if God eavesdropped on their conversation, Chio was sent seemingly, cruelly, mercilessly into the eyes of the group. Like stalking prey, they all stare at her in little silence with Nali grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey Yuji, call her over, she seems to be alone." Nali plans.

"Oh is that so? She can join us!" Yuji brightly states.

"No wai-"

"Chio! Come join us!" Yuji boldly states. He gestures her over with his arm, catching Chio's attention. The thought of liberation from the disapproving stares of her peers saw her gladly walk over with a smile.

"Oh god..." Jun groans, his ears screaming red which doesn't escape the glance of Nali. Chio walks over and waves.

"Hello! I hope I'm not intruding?" Chio asks politely. She looks at Jun and extends her smile.

"Oh no not at all, take a seat!" Yuji says politely while pointing next to Nali, who promptly shifts over to one side to create space. "They're like the same side of the same coin." Jun thinks. The four sit in silence while Nali stares at Jun with a big smile, which was warmly received by a cold stare that committed an attempted murder.

"So Jun," Chio says with a blank smile. "You have quite the reputation I see." She interlaces her fingers and places them just under her chin, as if she was interrogating him. No, she WAS interrogating him.

"Ahaha... yeah..." He smiles awkwardly, averting her eyes. This was the first time he felt embarrassed about his reputation.

"Oh don't worry, Jun seems to be an awful person but he's a great person at heart." Yuji hurriedly says, quietly contemplating Jun's 'redeeming' attributes.

"Mm, but I seem to be attracting a lot of unwanted attention."

"Eh that's okay, screw everyone else you can just hang with us." Nali says.

"Then, I'll be in your care." Chio says with a smile, choosing to forget what had happened on her first day of school. "So what do you normally do during recess and lunch?"

"Well, uhh..." Yuji sits for a bit. "What do we do?"

"We talk and eat and play games." Nali says.

"Games..?" Chio asks.

"Yeah, mostly phone games." Nali pulls out her phone and shows her.

"I see."

"But apart from that we hang out at school near the shopping mall." Yuji adds.

"Oh, I happen to live there, similar to Jun."

"Oh wow you live THAT close?" Nali exclaims, looking at Jun while expecting an answer from him.

"Yeah. Yuji wasn't exaggerating." Jun says flatly. Nali smiles at Jun, as if to say "Loosen up, it's not that big of a deal." Jun flattens out his mouth and shrugs. "Do you have time to hang after school Chio?"

"Oh yeah of course, I live by myself anyway so I don't have to be home by a specific time." Chio smiles.

"Aight, let's go out and eat din din!" Nali says while beaming, "Let's have pizza cuz you got what you wanted yesterday." Jun smiles and agrees. The bell rings on cue and so Jun and Chio both stand up to walk to their lockers.

"Why you guys leaving so early? We still have like 2 minutes left?" Nali says. Then smiles. "Don't tell me... Y'all are gonna have a secret rendezvous?~" Jun sighs externally, but internally he wished that were the case. He needed to apologise to her anyway, but that was an excuse to hang out with her more.

"No, we already got in trouble for being late together so..."

"Oh yeah yeah whatever, go without us.~" Nali sings. Jun sighs again. Chio chooses to ignore with a smile.

"Bye bye!" Yuji says. "Don't get in trouble, we have Mr. Hayward!"

"Thanks for the warning." Jun says. They both walk a considerable distance away in silence. Despite all the ingredients for an awkward walk being there, Jun oddly felt comfortable and had a slight smile on his face. However he had to break it.

"Hey so, sorry about what happened this morning. I should've told you about what my reputation is like." Jun apologises.

"No, it's fine." Chio says. "I doubt I would've gotten along with anyone else here anyway." She points out.

"Fair enough. Whatcha think of my friends?" Jun asks.

"I think they're... interesting. I would never have guessed all of you were friends with each other. I feel like Nali is the battery of the group." Chio thinks. "Yuji is more like the caretaker, and you are... the middle child." Chio giggles.

"Wait wooah why am I the middle child?" Jun exclaims. "And why'd you have to think about it?" He said, while faking being offended.

"Ahaha, you're just like that, but it's reassuring. I'm also the middle child of my family." Chio says.

"That's cool." Jun says. "Middle childs are under-appreciated anyway." Chio giggles again. Jun smiles.

"This is where we split I think, my locker is that way." Chio points.

"Aight, I'll see ya in class then." Jun walks away while waving. Chio waves back, turning away to retrieve her stuff.

— 

Chio gets to her locker only to find the word "SLUT" graffitied over the door. Chio looks around to see the potential culprit, only to be met by eyes and whispers. She smiles. Ignoring it, she grabs her stuff out of her locker and walks away with the same elegance and confidence that she had when she was walking to her locker. Around the corner, smiles, giggles and pictures erupted from a group of girls.