I See Emeralds

Chapter Six (Kiku's POV)

I pick a blue shirt out of my closet and can't help but smile. It always brightens my mood to see blue. I wish I could see it in somebody's eyes too.

I get dressed and zip up my jacket that I don't know the color of. It's cold out. I hate walking to school on days like this. But one of the many reasons I'm grateful to be able to see blue is that it is always with me. The sky is blue, so as long as I'm outside there is blue all around me.

Why must the school be so far away? I'm the only person who walks in my neighborhood. But because of the vast sky, I never feel entirely alone. I still have quite a while until school starts, so I walk at an easy pace. I guess I should regret this, because someone runs into me. In fact, they run into me from behind so I end up falling down.

Laying on top of me is a boy my age who hastily gets off of me before I can get a good look at him. He brushes off his pants and extends his hand to me. "Sorry, sorry! You okay dude?" I take it and he helps me up. He tenses up the moment I stand up. His eyes widen from behind glasses.

His blue eyes.

"Your...your eyes...!" he sputters. "Brown!"

I have brown eyes? Interesting. "Blue!" I point at his.

"Um...hey?" he says awkwardly, "Am I supposed to introduce myself?"

"I guess so. Might as well," I reply, "I'm Kiku."

"Alfred." We shake hands. That name sounds vaguely familiar. I think I've heard some people talk about him before or something. But I don't pay much attention to stupid gossip. I don't pay much attention to people at school in general. Maybe I've met him somewhere else before? No, it's probably just my imagination.

"Why were you running?" I ask.

"I'm gonna be late. And so are you, if you're going to Mondo High School. But I don't know you. Do you go there?"

"There's still 30 minutes until school starts."

"Wait, really? My watch must be off," he sighs. "So all that panic was for nothing."

He begins to walk off until I tell him to wait. "We're going to the same school, so why don't we walk together?" I suggest.

"Oh, guess so." He lets me catch up to him. He covers his mouth with his scarf.

"Your scarf is blue," I comment. He blushes a little. Whether from the cold or from embarrassment, I'm not sure.

"Is it..." he mutters. "Are you a freshman or a sophomore?"

"Sophomore."

"Me too." I'm relieved. It would be sort of weird to date someone who's a grade younger than me. Wait, I shouldn't even be thinking about dating him yet. We've only known each-other for five minutes! But we're destined to, so why deny it? That's the nature of being soulmates. Ugh, shoo weird thoughts!

"How come I've never seen you before?" I ask curiously.

"Our schedules must not match up enough to even see each other in the halls. But..." He stops for a moment. "I switched one of my electives yesterday. I got a schedule change. So it might not be like that for long."

"What did you change?"

"I switched out of computers and into art. I'm not good at that technology sort of stuff, as it turned out. But I'm not so great at drawing either, to be honest. It was the only thing open."

"That's funny, I'm in art too. 8th period," I tell him. He lowers his scarf a bit. He's smiling.

"That's good. I doubted I'd know anyone in there."

"You can sit with me if you'd like," I offer. Why am I doing this? I hate social interaction! I always refuse when other people offer me a place. So why did I suddenly change my mind?

"Today's my first day in there," he tells me. "So what are we going to do about this color business?"

"I was planning on just trying to ignore it for now because I don't know what to do," I admit. "I wasn't expecting to meet you so suddenly..."

"Me neither. But honestly, I'm relieved. I'm practically the only person in my friend group who didn't know their soulmate," he says.

"Friend...group...?" I'm confused.

"Yeah. You've probably seen some of mine before, or at least heard of them," he says with a shrug.

"Friend group?" I repeat.

"Yes. I actually have friends, I'm not as horrible as I seem." He chuckles.

"Oh. That's what that means," I muse.

"Hm?"

"Friend group. I think I know the definition now. Multiple friends who are friends with each other as well."

He looks stunned. "Wait a sec...you're saying you don't have one? Are you new?"

"I've lived in Mondo my whole life..." I mutter. Am I supposed to have friends by this point?

"Oh. I moved back here last year. I was here for a couple years a long time ago but we moved for a bit," he tells me and then looks at me sympathetically. "Do you not have any friends, Kiku?"

I try to zip my coat higher to hide my face but it's already zipped as high as it can go. Rats. I nod and gaze downwards, filled with embarrassment. I'm what's known as a loner. I'm also known as socially awkward and shy.

"Aww, I'm sorry. You know what?" he says and holds my hand. I flinch at the sudden gesture. "Starting today, I, Alfred F. Jones, am officially your first friend!"

Ah, jeez...

(I forgot to switch Kiku's shirt to the male option when I was creating pictures of each character on the site I was using. He has the female version, sorry! Please ignore my dumb mistake. ;-;)