A Songbird's love

Chapter 8: Dealing with nonsense

The next few days in school went pretty much the same way, except it was less obvious. If you could count Neru trying to embarass me in many different ways less obvious. In one day alone, she has tried to get my clothes wet, tried to trip me when we were walking out of the classroom for lunch, and tried to hit me in the head with an umbrella. Notice I said tried, she failed in all. The week was almost ending (there was just two days left), and I couldn't take her nonsense anymore. I asked to meet her outside our classroom after school ended, so that the twins were close enough and wouldn't worry about me, but couldn't hear what we were saying. She surprisingly agreed, and alone as well.
Neru leaned against the wall and said, "Well?"
"What do you want?"
"You asked to talked to me. I should be asking you."
I let out an impatient breath, "What are you trying to do? What do you want from me? Target me all you want, but you almost hit Rin in the head with that umbrella. I will not allow anyone to hurt them, so tell me. What do you want?"
She leaned in closer to me, "I want you to leave Len alone. You follow him around like some dog seeking for attention. You're new here, you should learn from the others. Len is popular here, like me and unlike you. You're just in his shadow. And I don't care about Rin. If it wasn't because she was Len's sister, I wouldn't even be nice to her. I can see why the both of you are friends though, you're both annoying."
I blinked, "That's it? You just want his attention?"
She got pissed real quick, "I don't just want his attention. I want him. And you're in the way. He only ever looks at you or Rin, and the way he looks at you was different from Rin or anyone else as well. It's the look I wish he gave me..." She trailed off, looking forlorn. I didn't pity her at all though, she had called Rin 'annoying'. Rin was hyper, sometimes a little too excitable, but she wasn't annoying. In fact, the annoying one right now is Neru herself.
"If you want his attention, then be nice to them. Right now, they don't even like you."
"I am being nice to them! You saw it on the first day, they totally ignored me. He totally ignored me. He didn't even seem happy to see me." She was getting desperate, pouring her emotions out to the one person that she hated. Me.
"I mean, actually be nice. Not fake it. They're human too, they can sense that you're faking all the cheeriness and you can tell they don't like it."
Neru stared at me for a while, then hissed at me, "You make it sound so easy, yet look at you. You follow him everywhere, always sticking by his side. You want his attention as much as I do. Where you are was where I used to be, because his sister always stays on the other side. I want my place back."
There was no point talking to her, the message wasn't going through. "Look, your problems are not my problems. My problem right now is that while you're here complaining to me, there are a pair of twins in the classroom waiting for me. And I'm not going to let them worry again, so please buzz off."
With that I slide open the classroom door, and called, "Rin, Len, we're done. Let's go!"
As the twins were packing up and walking over, I told Neru in a low voice, "And no. I'm not like you. I don't need attention."
I turned away from her as Rin and Len came closer. I walked with them, leaving Neru by herself in front of an empty classroom.

Of course, she didn't improve. In fact, her behaviour got worse. It became kicking me under the table, pushing me in crowded areas, and knocking my lunch out of my hands. That's not the end of it.
It gets worse everyday.
She began targeting Rin as well, just to get to me. Not that Rin notices it, she just thinks it's her bad luck. I can tell Len knew what was going on though, and he didn't like it. He always glared at Neru whenever she got too close, but that didn't stop her almost causing Rin to fall by tripping her. Then it started getting dangerous.
Neru started bringing scissors wherever she went. I would always find my assignments having a small cut when returned. I could take that but Neru had also started to walk with us, uninvited. She would just tag along wherever we went, one hand always in her pocket. I assumed the scissors were in that pocket so I always walked at that side to make sure neither one of the twins would be the first one to get hurt. I always thought the scissors were for show. Well that proved to be wrong.
Due to the summer festival coming up, the school was hosting a mini summer festival itself. It was going to be held on a friday night, and we were to wear our traditional clothing. Which meant I had to go shopping again, because I didn't bring my yukata. Coincidentally, Rin had to go shopping too, saying she wanted a new one. We decided to go right after school, with Len coming along so that after we were done shopping we could have dinner.
What we didn't expect was Neru wanted to come along, saying she also wanted to get a new yukata as well. Rin, out of courtesy, agreed. Len on the other hand, just sighed and rolled his eyes. It was kind of amusing to see him so done with Neru. I didn't want Neru to come along, but Rin had already said it was fine, so I couldn't do anything.

And I think Rin was regretting her decision to allow Neru to tag along. She wouldn't shut up! The three of us had to bear with her going off about her family background, as if anyone wanted to know. I mean, it might come in useful, but it was still annoying. In an hour of walking around searching for yukatas, I learnt that Neru came from a wealthy family as well. Her father was a successful businessman and her mother was a fashion designer. After we got our yukatas (mine was light green with blue waves, Rin's was yellow with orange flowers. Didn't bother to notice what Neru got.), we went to find dinner. That's where we learnt that Neru could cook her own food, and usually does so around the house even though they have maids. She kept boasting about how she would be a great wife when she was older, giving Len hints which he didn't take. The poor boy had to listen to all this nonsense without a break today. I leaned in to whisper to Rin, "Shall we give Len a treat? He's been listening to Neru non-stop today, at least we had breaks when we were trying on our yukatas. We should at least treat him to his favourite restaurant." Rin nodded, looking at her brother with concern, then brightened, "I know! There's one restaurant here that he loves to go. Come on!"
Rin pulled me forward, with Len and Neru following behind. We came to this restaurant which sold ramen, Rin told me, "He loves the food here." Then to the other two, "Let's eat here for dinner."
Len tried not to show it, but I could tell he was happy to be here. His eyes practically lit up when he saw the restaurant. I saw him trying hid his smile and totally ignore Neru, not even bothering to give a small response when Neru asks if he's listening to her. It's nice to see him finally smile after such a long day of having to deal with Neru. We talked over Neru during dinner, not allowing her to have another word out.

"I can't wait for the festival! Imagine all the food we could eat." Rin was just salivating at the thought of the street foods the school had promised. Len lightly smacked her in the head, and Rin stuck her tongue out at him.
"You know, if you eat too much-" Neru tried to tell Rin off, but I interrupted, "The teachers said there are going to be games, right? We'll have to form teams of three."
"How nice! The three of us can be a team!" Rin gestured to me and Len.
"What about me?" Neru managed to cut in.
"You can find some other people. Len and I are obviously going to be a team, and we're not going to exclude our best friend." Rin told her while she pulled me into a side hug. A warm feeling blossomed in my chest. A best friend, huh? I didn't know that they see me that way. It felt nice to know I have friends. The people back at base were more of acquaintances and teammates than friends. Neru fell silent,but kept glaring at me throughout the time we were eating.
We finished in about half an hour, and I had to say I was amazed. How does Rin eat so much, and not put on any access weight? She had downed one bowl of ramen, a whole plate of chicken, and had ordered sushi on top of all that. She was stretching out her arms right now as we're walking, saying, "Man, that was a nice dinner. We should eat out more often." Len snorted, "You ate like a pig."
Rin pouted, "What? I did not."
Neru added herself into the conversation, "He's right. You did eat like a pig. You should really cut down on your food intake. Too much food isn't good for your health, you know." Rin was staring at her, trying to hold in her emotions, but I could see the tears welling up. I took a breath, ready to launch a huge threat at Neru when she turned to me and said, "And you! You as well, you eat to much too. You didn't have to join Rin when she ordered that sushi. With the amount of food you ate, you wouldn't even be able to fit into that new yukata you just bought. It would be a waste."
I stared at her in disbelief. I ate too much? All I ate was the ramen and a bit of the sushi Rin had ordered. She dared to tell me off when she herself is eating an ice cream? I wanted to tell her off, but Len beaten me to it.
He went straight up to her face, which made her blush at the close proximity. I wanted to knock her face in with my knuckles. Len literally said, "You don't get to tell either my sister or Miku off. Other than our parents, only I get to tell Rin off. I will not allow anyone else to say anything bad about her or to her. The same goes for Miku, no one is allowed to tell her off, or harm her in any way, be it mental or physical. There is no flaw about her that I can see, so you should just shut up and be on your way."
I stared at Len with wide eyes. Damn, he snapped.
Neru was shocked by him too. Len didn't give her enough time to react, he grab my wrist and pushed Rin in the other direction, away from Neru. Another day of leaving Neru by herself again.