The Cast Outs at Castaway High

To New Beginnings

"Ari! Look what my teacher gave me after class!" I ran to catch up with the curly blonde walking alone along the path towards the school entrance. She turned around in time for her eyes to widen as my form collided with hers and we tumbled to the ground in a heap of skirts and hair. My hand landed on the ground beside her head, my hair falling in a curtain around our faces. Sparkling eyes looked up at me, set in a pale face dotted with the perfect amount of freckles. I could feel my own face heating as the people around us began to whisper among themselves.

"Oh my gosh, there they go again."

"Geez, they should get a room. School isn't the right place for that."

"Rin, what have I told you about making moves on my girl?" A male voice taunted me as a pain of hands grabbed me by the shoulders and hauled me off my best friend. Grabbing her hand on my way up, we attempted to take what little dignity we had left. Dusting off our uniform kept us from making eye contact with the judgmental populace around us. Instead, I turned towards our savior and craned my neck back to look up at his height. He stood at six feet and two inches, the gentle and more than slightly perverted giant that accompanied Ari and I on almost all of our endeavors. His hair was disheveled giving him the appearance that he had just rolled out of bed. Chocolate brown eyes that swirled with mirth sat in a face with soft features. His messenger bag was heavy, probably with the inappropriate contents that a normal teenage boy always had. Ari and I chose to ignore his sick obsession. He ignored ours.

"Thank you Kakura. I didn't need your help though. I was this close to seducing her! That was the longest she's ever held eye contact!" Beside us, Ari began laughing to herself before handing me the paper I didn't realize I had dropped. I accepted it eagerly and together the three of us began to move towards the entrance again. The people around us carried on. One would think that after two years of a similar occurrence almost every day, they would have accepted it as routine by now.

"Guys, I'm not for either of you to seduce! I'm a strong woman. I don't need either of you making me look like either a dramatic lesbian or pervert affectionist." She pointed respectively to each of us as she made her statement. Kakura and I snorted at one another and passed dirty looks back and forth stopping only when Ari leveled her motherly glare at us. Our group was dysfunctional at best but it made this hell of school a little better.

"Anyway, so. My teacher gave me this paper today after class! It's an acceptance letter! I got into that hoity-toity school on the north side of town!" My hands flew through the air and I twirled about before my best friends, waving the paper in the air. They stopped before I accidentally hit one of them, ignoring my childish antics. Ari smiled and began clapping for me before she popped my bubble.

"Do you even know the name of said hoity-toity school?"

"It won't matter. We both know that she'll get kicked out. She'll touch some dude's butt and he'll make a sexual harassment report that she can't sweet talk her way out of." My fist found Kakura's arm which resulted in a playful shove. "But I got the same letter." He fished in his pocket and pulled out the paper still in the envelope that I'd received mine in.

"Me too." Ari pulled a balled up piece of paper out of her small backpack and put it in her extended hand before her. Kakura and I looked at the paper and then her.

"That's an acceptance letter to one of the most respected and honored schools in the whole city and you just balled up your acceptance letter? Honestly Ari, what would you do without us?" Snatching the paper from her, I put my best effort into straightening it to its normal shape. Kakura sighed beside me, throwing his arm around our ditsy blonde.