Whatever! Book One: Freshman Year

Episode 2: The Sort of New Girl

(Atsuko's POV)

I followed my usual morning routine except this time I had a waffle for breakfast! I like waffles, but not as much as I do ramen, bento, or sushi. Oh and calamari, oh man, calamari is my favorite food of all time. You see, I live in New York City, or just outside of the place, but I moved here from Japan when I was still really little. I grew up in my house with Japanese culture and all of that jazz, but I still like to call myself American.

Well, anyway, I left my trailer, hopped onto my bike and sped off to school.

(Daichi's POV)

I got dressed in the usual plaid shirt with rolled khakis and a black messenger's cap.

I slipped on my shoes and ate my breakfast of oatmeal and a Twinkie. I ran out the door with my bag not full of school things. I do all of my homework at school so I just leave my stuff in my locker. My bag was actually full of tools, gears, and other gizmos. I'm an inventor who doesn't have time for girls or anything social. Or as Atsuko says, "I'm an emotionless guy who is the overlord of boredom." In the perspective of someone like him, that is basically true.

I raced out the door sat down on my bike and headed down the road to school.

(Atsuko's POV)

When I arrived at the hell that is... School, I walked through the front doors into the waiting room that we stayed in 'til the first bell rings. I dropped my bag against the wall and flopped down on top of it. I saw some of the football guys walk by, one of them, a sophomore, had bloodshot eyes and a half smoked cigarette tucked behind his ear. And, god, he smelled terrible!

"Haha. Guess he couldn't wait a couple more years!" I laughed to myself just loud enough so that stoned bastard could hear me.

"What was that?!" The jock turned around and stomped towards me. He blew some of his pot smoke into my face from his nose and I imagined him with horns and a nose ring and I laughed again. I stood up with my hands in my pockets and said the most perfectly wrong thing at the right time.

"I was just talking to myself about how you couldn't wait a few more years to get your ass kicked by a fourteen year old!" I laughed again. Man, I was hilarious. I guess that made him angry, because then he threw his right fist at my face. I slightly bobbed out of the way and stuck two of my fingers up his nose and pulled him by the face straight into the cap of my knee. Blood dripping from his nose, the jock fell flat on his back, passed out cold. Partly because his weed already did a number on him. His cigarette rolled from behind his ear right to the foot of Mr. Blaine.

Mr. Blaine was my favorite teacher. He thought I was the coolest cat in the bag... Wow... I can't believe I just said that... Did I mention that Mr. Blaine grew up in the 80's?

"Who's is this?" He turned to me, I shook my head. Then he looked to the passed out jock. He stepped over to the sophomore and opened up his eyes, which were still bloodshot. "Alright. When he wakes up I'll be taking him to the principal." When Mr. Blaine exited the room, he tossed the cigarette into the trash and gave me a thumbs up. "You still have detention though." And just as Mr. Blaine left, Daichi entered the room.

He looked at the bleeding jock and back to me, "You're really good at that aren't you?"

The day pressed on and soon it was lunch time.

I sat down at a table with a tray full of food. Today's lunch was chicken nuggets. Some of my friends from last year were at the table, there was John Gryffon, Craig Meyers, and Craig's girlfriend, Maria McNate. I saw Daichi emotionlessly walk into the cafeteria with a tool box. I waved him over and he sat down.

John asked, "Who's this and why does he have a tool box?"

"Oh! This is my new friend Daichi. I saved him the other day. But, I have no idea why he has a tool box," I looked at Daichi, "Would you care to share this information with your newfound friends?"

"Sure," he said emotionlessly. He opened up the tool box and inside there was... Tools! He pulled out a hammer, a power drill, and other assorted tool ands gadgets. At the bottom of it all was a plastic bag, inside the bag there was eight pieces of different sushi. Instead of eating his amazing looking lunch, he started building something instead. He replaced his cap with a pair of goggles.

In the next minute or so, Daichi had made a small, non-digital, wristwatch. He set the time and placed a battery in the bottom. It started ticking away the seconds and he replaced his old one. He later through the old one in the garbage.

"That... That was pretty cool," John said. He was clapping, but not an excited clapping.

I wasn't even paying attention to that anymore because right when Daichi started tinkering I saw the prettiest girl walk into the cafeteria. I knew I'd seen her somewhere before. Oh right! she moved here from Michigan at the very end of last school year. I guess I never realized how beautiful she was, but I do remember that she was really nice. She saw me looking at her and blushed and looked away. She stood where she was for a few more minutes. Then she sat down next to me.

"Sorry. Everywhere else is filled," She apologized.

"You're a bad liar," I said back. There were a ton more seats open at the other tables. She blushed again.

Se stuck her hand out and apologized, "Sorry. Anyway... My name is Ayame. What's your name?"

"Atsuko. But, Ryu calls me Atsu because he thinks I'm his friend," I answered to be polite. I pointed to Ryu who was sitting three tables over. I took a bite out of the chicken nuggets. Ayame opened up her lunch box and pulled out two rice balls. There was a V8 in there as well.

"Wanna know something funny," Ayame said after swallowing a piece of the rice ball.

"Sure," Everyone but Daichi said, finally noticing her.

"I got detention on the first day of school!" She laughed.

I high-fived her and laughed, "Me too!"

Nothing really happened for the rest of the day. Ayame's and my detention wasn't until Thursday, so I invited her, Craig, Daichi, John, and Maria over to my trailer.

We hung out for awhile. Then Craig broke the silence with, "We should start our own club. Like, to participate in team events and stuff. There's a paintball tourney coming up, and the grand prize is a free clubhouse/treehouse thingy."

"Sure or whatever," I said while finishing my fifth juice pouch.

"The Whatever Club! That's what it's called!" John added. Craig and John high fived each other.

"So Craig... What are the rules of this tourney?" I asked.

"It's four on four on four. Three teams of four. You can bring your own paintball gun, you can even modify it. If you are shot three times in the chest you're out, head shots count, and you can be any distance away when you shoot your opponent. The game name is No Holds Barred!!!" Craig explained. "Oh yeah! And the game is on Thursday at Central Park."

"Crap! Whatever, I'll just do detention on Friday or something," I said, remembering my sentence to school.

"Are you allowed to do that?" Ayame questioned.

"Depends on who you have detention with."

"Mr. Blaine."

"Yeah. You can do your detention anytime within a week of receiving it in his class. Cool right?"

"Yeah... That's actually really cool," Ayame blushed lightly again.

"Well anyway. Who's participating? I mean among us." Maria asked.

I grabbed an Orange Crush bottle off of the counter and put it on the floor. "The first four people that this bottle points to get to participate," I said. I put the bottle on the floor and spun it.

All four were picked and the participants were myself, Craig, Daichi, and John.