One: The Beginning of Nuisance

My alarm rang and I groggily moved my hand to my alarm clock for what seemed like the fourth time today which it probably was. I sighed and checked my phone, I was late, late enough to miss early morning basketball practice but I couldn’t care less since it was the first day of school.

I entered my contacts and dialled my friend, Misaki.

“Hello.” I heard her slur, I could tell she had just woken up.

“Are you coming to school today?”

“Hell nah, you know I won’t be there till next week.”

“It’s our second year at high school.”

“I fail to see your point.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“That wasn’t a compliment and you know it.”

“It’s fun to annoy you, I bet your face is all red right now.” I huffed and ended the call.

I got up, running a hand through my dark hair before heading to my bathroom. I quickly brushed my teeth and took a bath before changing into my ironed uniform, I put on my shoes and carried my bag before running downstairs.

“Not so fast Arata.” I stopped myself from opening the door and looked at my mother, raising a brow.

“You know what mum is going to say and yet you pretend to be an idiot about it, but when you think about it…”

“Shut up,” I growled, cutting my brother off.

“Thank you,” I mumbled to my mother and grabbed two slices of toast.

“At least you’re eating.” She said with a sigh

I nodded and ran off to the door, opening it. “I’ll see you guys after school.”

“Okay.” My brother replied and I gave the both of them a small smile before leaving the house.

I slowly walked while finishing the toast, my school was only a few minutes away so I didn’t have to worry about missing class. I huffed as I stared at the group of friends that loitered at the school’s entrance and waved at the few who recognised me as I walked into the school.

I got my timetable from the school head and entered my first class, maths. They were a group of girls laughing and talking about something I couldn’t care less about and I sat in an empty seat. I took out my math books and stared out the window counting down the seconds before the mathematics teacher would walk in, late as usual.

“Morning, class.” The cheery woman greeted and I realised the other absent students had shown up.

I closed my eyes and tried to listen to what the teacher was saying but, someone sat next to me completely surprising and distracting me. I opened my eyes thinking Misaki had decided to make a surprise entrance but my face fell when I realised it wasn’t Misaki. The girl’s blazer and tie were absent and her white school shirt was untucked, her skirt seemed very short, and her fashion sense was nothing like Misaki’s.

She had dyed dark red hair unlike Misaki’s blonde hair and wore purple contacts and I instantly recognised her as the popular girl who always stuck to my teammate, Hirata. I hated the boy and decided to ignore the girl

She gave me a small smile, trying to look cute and I gave her a simple nod of acknowledgement before looking at the teacher. She had written some welcome back exercises on the board, simple quadratic equations and I quickly got to work while the girl glared at me.

“Suzuki Kanna.”

“Huh?” I asked, looking at the pouting girl.

“That’s my name.”

“Okay, I didn’t ask though.” I simply stated and looked back at my book.

Her eyes lingered on me and I could already guess that she was pouting. Soon enough, she was poking my shoulder and I sighed and closed my exercise book before glaring at her. She flinched but stood her ground.

“My name’s Yoshida Arata, I won’t reply if you call me.”

She smiled and I scoffed before looking back at my exercise book. I started to check my work, very sure that the psycho had made me make a few mistakes in my solutions. Sure enough, I was right.

“A… ra… ta.” I gave the girl a side glance and watched her smile before she raised her hand.

“Mrs Ida, I’m finished.”

I gasped slightly, I’m pretty sure I didn’t see her do a thing, I thought and huffed before looking back at my book.

The girl stood up and I watched her stand up and hand her work to the teacher before she stood in front of me.

“I’ll see you later, Yoshida.” I gave her a blank stare and continued with what I was doing.

“I don’t plan on seeing much of you again.” She gasped.

“Meanie.” She grumbled and walked out of the class.

I sighed as I looked around the cafeteria contemplating where to sit. Every table was taken by a group of friends and I mumbled a few cusses before hesitantly sitting with the basketball team. I didn’t say anything and rather pretended to be interested in their conversation as I tried to make it through lunch without causing a fight with Hirata.

“Yoshida!” my eyes shifted to the redhead waving enthusiastically at me and I ignored her before focusing on my food.

She didn’t seem to know what she could have possibly stirred up and I hated her for it. An apple came flying at me and I moved slightly and watched it roll on the floor after it landed. I looked at Hirata who was glaring at me and returned it.

“You didn’t show up for early morning practice.” Hirata started.

“I overslept, you can’t expect my entire life to revolve around basketball. Most people have more than two things going on in their life.” I could see him glare at me before he took a bite of his meet and smirk.

“Coach was thinking about putting me as team leader, has something to do with our current one lacking the perseverance.”

“I thought only talented people were put as captain.” I pointed to him using my fork and flashed him a childish grin. “Money can’t buy talent you know? I’m pretty sure he said Hinata and not Hirata.” His face was red and he stood up quickly and left the table.

I sighed, celebrating my small victory. I cut a piece of meat and scanned the cafeteria for any sight of Hirata and he was thankfully gone, I locked eyes with Kanna’s contacts and she gave me a wide smile as she waved again. I gave her a small smile and focused back on my food.

My other teammates were glaring at me and I ignored their stupid gazes and finished my food before leaving the cafeteria for my next class. I took a detour at the boys’ restroom and by the time I entered my next class, the only seat with a single person was a boy staring at a new girl.

“Good afternoon class.”

“Good afternoon Ms Miura.”

“As it is the first day of high school, you will be needing lab partners.” I groaned and leaned back on my chair.

“Misaki should be here, I’ll get partnered with some idiot because of her.”

“Yoshida Arata and Suzuki Kanna.”

“Ka… nna.” The name sounded familiar and soon enough the stupid redhead was sitting next to me.

“Yoshida!” she mumbled with excitement and I sighed before looking at the board.

Ms. Miura had finished calling partners and was scribbling the topic on the board, I heard a few students grumble while a smile tugged at my lip.

“Neutralisation.” Ms. Miura said, turning back to the class. “You should have an idea of the topic from junior year so all I want is for you to perform a simple titration practical with the apparatus in front of you.”

“I hate that topic,” Suzuki whined wearily and I scoffed.

“I don’t care.” She pouted.

“You’re still a meanie.”

“Who still doesn’t care about the shit that‘s coming out of your mouth.”

Suzuki giggled and took the beaker containing a concentrated acid and my eyes widened as she opened it and sniffed it before scrunching up her face and looking away.

“You are aware you’re holding concentrated acid.”

“No kidding Sherlock.” I eye rolled and picked up the base and pipette to get to work.

“Ahh!” we all turned to the new student and a boy I recognised as Arakaki picked up a lizard which she looked at distastefully.

I glared at the new student and looked at Suzuki who was wincing as she wearily gazed at a burn on her arm.

“You burned yourself?” she looked away from me.

“The screaming surprised me.”

“I told you the acid was concentrated, you should have dropped it.”

She kept quiet and I groaned before pulling her arm towards the tap and turning it on. Her cheeks flushed red as I gently rubbed the burn and she squirmed when I pressed on her wound.

“Why would you do that?”

“You keep staring at me, I hate it.”

She huffed and I ignored her.

“Ms. Miura,” I said, raising my hand. “Suzuki got burned and I would like to take her to the infirmary.”

“That’s quite all right Yoshida.” I flashed a small smile and pulled Suzuki out of the classroom.

She stopped walking when we left the classroom and I turned to her. Her head was down and she raised it slightly, pouting.

“Y…you called me Suzuki.” I raised a brow.

“That is your last name, or did I say it wrong?”

She quickly raised her head, “No, Suzuki is my last name, but,” she looked away and moved herself closer to me, too close. I coughed, trying not to look at her slightly exposed cleavage. “I’m giving you permission to call me by my first name.”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to call you by your first name, we’re not even friends.”

She sighed and gazed at me, “Okay, let’s go to the infirmary.”

She took my arm and I tried to ignore my surprise and let her pull me to the infirmary. She pushed the door open and one of the nurses turned to us, raising a brow.

“Suzuki has a burn.” She sighed and gave us a tired smile.

“Alright Suzuki, let’s get that treated,” she looked at me. “Make yourself at home.”

“Yes.” I walked over to one of the empty beds and made myself comfortable while watching the nurse controlling her frustration every time Suzuki squirmed.

Chemistry was over by the time the nurse had finished and Suzuki’s face was red as she approached me.

“I… I’m sorry I made you miss class.”

“It’s okay, I don’t like revision classes anyway.”

She sighed in relief. “I’m glad.”

“That I missed class?” her cheeks flushed and she flailed her arms frantically in the air.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” I chuckled slightly.

“You have to pick an afterschool club, don’t you?”

“I’m not into clubs, I have things to do after school.” I gave her a knowing look and walked her out of the room.

“Suzuki!” The both of us turned to an angry Hirata and I noticed how she looked down with red cheeks, it was the first time I had seen her like that. “We had an agreement, you were meant to meet me in the old music room and instead, I have to look for you because you’re ten minutes late!”

“I’m sorry, I got burned…”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Hirata you…”

“This has nothing to do with you Yoshida!” he yelled again, poking my chest with his index finger.

“I’ll see you later, Arata.”

“It’s Yoshida to you,” I stated coldly and walked away.

My phone rang and I grunted as I answered the call, “Speak.” I said, almost yelling.

“Yo…Yoshida, we need you for scouting, students here are very few.”

“Give me a moment.”

“Okay.” The person on the other line ended the call and I sighed and turned my phone off.

“Suzuki Kanna,” I mumbled and chuckled softly before heading to the school’s front yard.

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