- The Biggest Nerd on the Block -

Chapter 1: Dead Mouse

If there ever was a title for biggest nerd in all of Beach City High School, not only did Peri owned it, but she also trampled anyone's chance to ever take that crown. Peri really was the biggest nerd this city had ever seen. Not only did she looked like one – with her unruly spiky blond hair, her forest green eyes hidden behind the biggest glasses there ever was, her skin so pale that it sometime seemed greenish, and her way too large sweaters, on which a nerdy joke were always written – but she had adopted the secluded attitude of the perfect nerd. She usually avoided any crowded places, such as the cafeteria, only to spend her lunch time hidden under the school's tiers, playing god knows what on a random portable device.

So, it would come to no surprise to say that you would never, ever find Peri at any sports event. Except one. Because, as weird as it may sound, Peri never missed a single one competition of her school's female swimming team. Very often you could spot her passing time on her phone while the rest of the crowed cheered one, until one person walked up to the pull, all clad in her blue swimsuit and none caring attitude.

And this girl was Lazuli, Peri's insuppressible crush. Peri knew, deep in her heart, that there was absolutely no way Lazuli would ever know about that crush, not because she was a big coward when it came to human interaction – which she was – but because, for a start, she was convinced that Lazuli had no idea she even existed. That complicated things way to much for Peri, who was absolutely satisfied with watching her from afar, and cheering for her with the rest of the school every time she stood on the springboard.

Lazuli really was the most beautiful girl Peri ever saw. She had short blue dyed hair, so that the were easy to tug underneath her swimming cap, deep ocean blue eyes, and she was, surprisingly for a swimmer, just as pale as Peri, so much so that the pool gave her skin a slight blue hue. But most interesting about Lazuli was her expression, or rather her lack of it. She always looked uninterested by what was going around her, whether it was a simple math class or her winning yet again a trophy, Lazuli never looked excited about it.

She was clouded in mystery, for everyone and especially for Peri, but the nerd liked it that way. It was better, she always told herself when she had gathered the smallest amount of courage and readied herself to go and finally talked to Lazuli. It was better that way.

When Lazuli didn't occupy Peri's mind, it was usually fully devoted to video games, on which she usually spent her every nights and every weekends. She didn't have any friends anyway, so video games was a perfect alternative. Actually, no, she had one friend, and the guy's name was Steven. This guy was crazy popular, as if he knew the entire town and the entire town liked him. And most unbelievably, he was not even a jock. No, he was a nerd, just like her. But apparently, people liked him better. Apparently, Peri had an annoying voice and a displeasing behavior. She was just a bit too honest for normal people, is all.

Steven had actually come to see her this particular Saturday morning, before he had to go to work. They played a few rounds of Lonely Blade together, in complete silence, so focus that they had no control over there fingers anymore. But alas, Steven had to go work at his small multimedia shop, by the beach, and she got back to her computer to play. First a few long hours of RPJing, grinding the same crystal bug for what felt like – and really was – hours. Then she moved on to a multi-player shooting game. And this was when things turned for the worst.

She kept on losing. Beautifully, admirably, yes, but losing anyway. She blamed it on anyone who dared to cross her mind. She blamed it on her teammates, on her opponent, on Steven, who had left her with only this stupid game to play. She blamed it on Lazuli, for some reason her mind couldn't quite make up. And most of all, she blamed it on her mouse, her stupid mouse and equally stupid mouse-pad who seemed to bug and made her play poorly.

Finally, after two hours of none stop loosing, she'd had enough. In a streak of anger, she threw her mouse on the ground. It was too late when she realized what she had done. She instantly jumped from her chair to assess the damage, only to find her mouse shattered in so many pieces.

"No, no, no, not again!" she complained as she uselessly tried to reassemble the broken mouse. Then, she looked back up to her screen, only to notice that a new game was about to began, but she was far from ready. She slammed the pieces together, in hope that it would work, but it was pointless. And as the new game started, she panicked and turned off her computer, before pacing around, her dead mouse in her hands.

"No, no, no, I need to... Oh god! What am I gonna do?"

She finally found her bed and let herself fall backward on it, spreading the pieces on her quilt. She couldn't spend more than a few minutes without her mouse, because almost all of the good games, the one she wanted to play now, where on her computer. Finally, she jumped to her feet. She was so dump sometimes. The video game shop was just around the block, she could run there, fix her mouse, and come back in no time. If only.

So she did. She carefully took all of the pieces, and threw them in her backpack, before leaving her basement room and running outside. Never in her life had she ran this fast. Just around the corner, she kept repeating herself, as her lungs ache for air. And as she finally stopped in front of the shop, she first bended in half, hands on her knees, taking in as much air as she needed. Then, she pushed the door. It didn't budge. She tried again, then tried to pull it, but nothing happened. Finally, she saw the sign on the door, stating that the staff was on a one-week break, from this day up to next Friday.

Peri thought she had a heart-attack when she noticed the sign. Of course they were not here! And she knew it, because the guys working the counter told her before. She wanted to yell out of pure rage, but only a low and annoyed growl came out of her mouth.

Steven was lightly bended over the counter of the shop, his head resting in his hand, his elbow on the wooden counter. It was a calm early afternoon, with only a few clients, and most of the staff working with him was acting just as normal as usual. Amy sat beside him, eating yet another strange sandwich – this one had a piece of pizza sticking out of it – Earl was her usual self, rearranging again and again the shelves after a client had passed. Only Ruby and Sophie were missing, but he knew fairly well that they were in the staff room, probably cuddling.

When the door burst open, Steven almost fell from his stool. Peri rushed to the counter, her face red from exhaustion. She was out of breath, and very sweaty.

"Peri? What are you doing here?"

"My... mouse.."

She threw her bag on the counter, and Steven looked inside, only to find the rest of a computer mouse, exploded into dozens of small pieces.

"Fix it, please. I need it."

Steven gave another look to the mouse, than to Peri. He had no idea how his small blond friend had actually managed to brake it so badly, but there was absolutely no way to fix it. Yet, when he saw Peri's desperate eyes, a pang of pain stung his heart. He could not, and would not let his friend mouse-less. He nodded, and pulled out of the bag every single little piece of plastic and metal.

"I'll see what I can do. In the mean time, why don't you look around? We just had a batch of new old-games."

He walked around the counter, only to find Peri still as winded as she was when she arrived.

"You ran?"

She nodded.

"All the way from home. It's very urgent."

He froze from surprise, before nodding again.

"Alright, I'll take care of it."

Steven entered the storage room, and a very short-breathed Peri wondered the alleys, looking out for some games that might interest her. Soon enough she was very much absorb in the titles, and covers of the plastic boxes, so much so that everything happening around her disappeared in a blur of nothingness.

She didn't hear the door open once again, and a calm voice ask Amy if they had a copy of The Spirit Morph Saga: The Game. She didn't notice a thin blue-haired girl walked up to the shelf in front of her. The only thing she saw, was the very interesting title of a open world game adapted from a series of book she had a mild remembrance of. But as she took out the game from the shelf, a cold presence came by her side and asked:

"Can I... see that game, please?"

Peri recognized the voice. Of course she did. And she froze, her eyes so big they almost rivaled the lenses of her glasses. She pivoted to the left in one broken movement, only to find Lazuli, just as bored-looking as usual, looking straight at her, then to the game, then back to her. Peri's brain had probably exploded, or had been turned to a gooey substance, which was going to flow right out of her nostrils. The only thing she could do was hold out the plastic box toward Lazuli with the shakiest hand every witnessed. Lazuli simply raised an eyebrow, but took the game.

"Thank?"

The blond had her confuse. Who was that girl anyway? She seemed about her age, and she seemed familiar. Like she had already seen her a thousand times before, yet only really saw her now. Peri, that was her name. Lazuli gave her a small amused smile, efficiently freezing once again poor Peri. It made Lazuli laugh internally. Peri was actually quite cute.

"Peri? I fixed it!"

Steven's voice took her out of her daydream, also possible second heart-attack of the day. She practically ran to the counter, where Steven stood proudly, brandishing her grayish mouse, which truly looked good as new. She took the mouse quickly, chasing Lazuli away from her mind, but not enough. If Lazuli hadn't been here, she would have probably hugged her precious mouse. The blue-haired girl watched from afar, amused by the smaller girl. How come she had never noticed her?

"Oh thank you, thank you Steven!"

She gently placed the mouse inside her bag, then asked:

"Do I owe you something?"

He shook his head.

"No, don't worry about it."

"Thank you again! I really thought I was done for this time! You saved me! It really is my lucky day today!"

She stopped her unstoppable flow of words. Her lucky day? If she really was that lucky, than she should ask Lazuli out. After all, it was her lucky day, so why not? She suddenly heard the door of the shop closing, and spin around, only to noticed that Lazuli was, indeed, gone. She bolted outside, without another word for Steven, and almost tripped twice. Lazuli was heading toward the beach, but Peri cached up with her rather quickly.

"Lazuli! Wait!"

She was close to trip yet again, and was almost temped to finish on all four, but she stopped herself. Lazuli turned to face her, still just as bored-looking as usual.

"What is it, Peri?"

Peri was first very shocked to find out that Lazuli knew her name, and it didn't once brush her mind that maybe she had learned it when Steven called her.

"Wait, you know my name? No, wait... I mean..."

Peri quickly turned red. It was way to late to turn her back on the situation. She had dared to talk to Lazuli, now was not the time to back down. So she asked the first thing that came to her mind:

"Do you want to come to my place and watch some Camp Pining Hearts?"

She knew she should never have asked that. This TV show sucked and she only watched it to mock the main characters for their incomprehensible decisions. In fact, she had planned to watch a few episodes this very afternoon. This was probably why she had just asked her crush to come and watch it with her.

"Which season?"

Peri's mind was blank.

"I don't know... Three?"

Lazuli had once again a small smile full of amusement, and Peri's heart jolted. Of course Lazuli was going to say no and it would brake her heart and she would spend the rest of the day rolled up in a ball on her bed instead of rejoicing because of her now fixed mouse and it would suck and she may never get over it and...

"Sure, why not."

A/N: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this first part! Second part will be release next week. If you have any questions, or anything you want to say, please feel free to leave a review, it always helps! See you for part 2!