(Back from hiatus! My deepest sorry for you guys, a combination of homework + having a social life + being tired has resulted in the hiatus. I've tried to write this chapter probably 4-5 times now, I couldn't decide how I wanted to progress with the story. I finally decided something after deliberation. Oh yeah, sorry that's it kinda short, I wanted to get this chapter out there to show that I haven't just completely abandoned this story. I'm glad that I can finally say enjoy chapter two! ^0^)
"BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIII IINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG" The bell annoyingly rung, resounding loudly through the school's wide corridors, a wave of chatter and the screeching of moving chairs and desks coming with it.
"Don't forget to read pages forty one and..." The teacher's voice fell out of earshot quickly for Yadomi, who'd made a beeline for the door the instant he could. Lunch was here.
"Not getting stuck with the slop you get when you're la-" "Ah!" So enthralled in his thoughts, he hardly noticed the figure in front of him before he collided with it, sending both of them to the floor, along with a stack of papers the girl had been holding. "Ah! Miyuzuki-san! Sorry! Are you okay?" Lunch now at the back of his mind, he reached out one of his hands to the girl, the other grabbing the few papers in reach.
"I-I'm fine..." She replied, taking his hand and getting up onto her feet. "M-May I ask why you ran into me?"
"Ah...I was trying to get to lunch early, before all the good food's gone." He said, crouching down to grab the papers, noticing all of them were different from
"E-Eh!?" It was only now she seemed to notice the papers strewn about in the hallway, her face reddening as she scrambled to pick them up. "A-Ah, I don't really write anything worth reading, I was actually going to go and throw these out..." She seemed to trail off, focusing on gathering up all the papers she could.
"Really?" He looked down at the one paper he had just grabbed, taken aback by how much she had packed onto one page. "But this seems to be pretty good! A fantasy story set in an alternate universe is a real norm in writing, but combined with the fact that the character thrown into this world refuses to believe in it's reality makes it really shine."
"You think so?" She looked up at him, no one had ever complimented her work, most took a "meh" approach and kept moving whenever she had tried to share her first writings.
"How I ever came up with an observation like that I'll never know." "Yeah! You shouldn't go throwing this story away, or any of the others if they're this good."
"T-They're not, they really ARE trash material..." She turned away from him, clutching the papers she'd grabbed closely to her chest.
"This girl has no self confidence, does she?" He'd just about given up on getting a decent lunch, instead focusing on Miyuzuki. "Why do I feel like I'm in a visual novel, and this is the starting sequence of one of the paths?" He spaced out for a moment, his mind expanding on that one fleeting thought. Having completed Kanon, Clannad, and Little Busters!, he seemed to be making more references from his life to video games, something that even as an ace pitcher he was addicted to. "I have Air to complete, I just bought Marvel vs Capcom 2... Skies of Arcadia should be next on my list, or maybe Chrono Trigger? Gaaah, I can't decide..."
"Yadomi-san...?" He was brought back to the current reality, with Miyuzuki lightly pulling his shoulder back and forth. "Hello...?"
"A-Ah, sorry. I spaced out there..." He looked down and saw that while he was off in his own world, Miyuzuki had picked up the rest of the papers, and had set them down beside her. "Oh, Miyuzuki-san, look out!" He yelled, lunging forward to grab the papers.
"EH!?" Her head snapped back in a panic, and when there was no imminent danger to her, she turned back to face Yadomi, only to see him running away from her with all of the pages in his arms. "W-Wait! Get back!" She called after him, faceplanting onto the hard floor when she tried to scramble up.
"O-Ow..."
...
"Why are you so out of breath, Yadomi?"
"H-Heh... Ran... From... Clumsy... Miyuzuki..." He replied, his face still scarlet from running down the halls.
"You ran from Miyuzuki, as in Kanda Miyuzuki? The studious bookworm who hardly participates in athletic activities? I'd think you'd barely have to jog to get away from her..."
"I'm sorry that I'm not some damn Jack-Of-All trades like you, Yukiatsu..." He rested his head in his hands, setting down the papers he'd protected onto the bench the three were sitting.
"Hey, Jintan?" Meiko leaned forward to see Yadomi, who was situated on the other side of the bench. "Where's your lunch?"
"Eh? My lunch?" His thoughts went back to his original goal, to get a decent lunch for a change. "I end up with no lunch instead.. Seems fitting." "Forgot it like an imbecile..."
"That's okay, you can have some of mine." Menma's usual charitable side came out, opening her homemade bento. "Now open up, Jintaaaaaaaan." She said, holding a piece of sushi between two chopsticks.
"I can feed myself..." He said, feeing his face redden again, only this time it wasn't exhaustion.
"Open up or no food for you Jintan!" Stubborn as always as well, Menma truly seemed to be a child at heart.
"R-Reall-" His sentence was interrupted by the *plunk* of a lunchbox being dropped onto his lap. "Eh? Yukiatsu?"
"You can have my lunch Yadomi." He turned to Menma, who was looking confused at the two of them. "Feel free to feed me, Menma."
"While that might not have been what he was going for, that just made him sound extremely creepy..." Though, he couldn't really complain, he just got a free lunch. "Thanks Yukia-" Again, interrupted, only this time by the sound of the school's bell.
"Ah! I have to go! Tamitiko-chan is waiting for meeeeeeeee!" Menma, in what seemed to be one fluent motion, threw her chopsticks into her bento box, closed it, and made her way off towards to school.
"I missed that opportunity... Oh well, hey, Yadomi, I want my bento ba-" He turned around to see that Jinta, his lunch, and the papers had all vanished.
"Thanks again for the free lunch, Yukiatsu..."