Today we were excited. Last Friday, Miss Loveheart had told us a new student was going to be in our class. We were busy thinking about what they would be like all weekend. Purry was certainly having fun with it.
"I hope they are hot! If they're a boy, I mean," she said on our way to school. She happily swished her fluffy tail to and fro as we walked.
"All you think about is boys!" Aqua scoffed.
"Nah-uh!" She lashed her tail and they had a little fight which is kinda typical for them. Amelia nervously scratched her cheek amidst it all.
"Well... I just hope they are kind." Personally, I wasn't expecting too much but it's always nice to have a fresh new face around! We live in a small town after all, so we don't get many new people moving in. We turned the corner and the school was much louder than it usually is. A big crowd had formed on the court.
"I guess the new guy came," I thought aloud.
"You must be right, Ricky. Let's go look!" Amelia squeaked and we ran to join the forming crowd. We squeezed through to the centre. I don't remember this many people at my school... Where did they all come from!? Anyway the new person, much to Purry's dismay, wasn't a boy. They were a guinea pig girl with a fringe so long you couldn't see her eyes. Her fur was grey with orange and darker grey patches. Around her neck was a cute pink collar with a carrot charm. She seemed to be enjoying the attention she was getting. Purry shuffled closer.
"Hi! Are you the new person?"
The guinea pig turned to look at us. Although her eyes weren't visible, you could tell she was looking us up and down. She put her hands on her hips in a confident pose.
"Yes, that's me! The name's Charlotte!"
"Nice to meet you!" Amelia said. We shook paws and introduced ourselves. Charlotte was very friendly and not shy at all. She seemed to be settling in well. Eventually a teacher yelled at us to get to class. The crowd slowly dispersed, almost like it was never there to begin with. My friends and I also started to walk away.
"Wait!" Charlotte shouted. We turned to look.
"What's the matter?" I asked. She shuffled her pink feet around.
"Well, you know... I don't know my way around the school so I need someone to show me..." She stared at us with her paws in a pleading motion. Amelia giggled.
"Okay! Follow us and we will show you the way!"
"Alright!" she shouted and jumped in the air. She ran up to us and tagged along. Showing the new kid around should be fun! Nothing bad can come out of that! Right!?
During class, we showed Charlotte around the school. It's a good thing she didn't have the text books! We showed her the school library, which is where she was able to get her text books. It's a rather small library but it's filled to the brim with amazing books. I don't read much but I have found some hidden gems in there! Charlotte thought it was pretty good and was amazed by it's size.
"Wow!" she gasped. "It's so much smaller than my old school's library!"
"Oh yeah? What was your old school like?" Aqua asked, hands on hips. She fell silent and stared at nothing in particular. We stared at her waiting for a response. Amelia even waved her paw in front of her face. She stood back in surprise.
"Ah! It was good," she said at last. She brushed her paws through her hair. "Where to next?"
"I guess we can show you the gym while we're at it..." Amelia said, twirling her hair in her fingers. Charlotte waltzed outside the door and Amelia and Purry followed. I turned to Aqua, who shrugged. That was quite a dismissive response... Maybe something happened at her old school?
After the small tour was finished, we went back to class. This was supposed to be English class but not much work was being done. Everyone was too excited about the new student! Everyone crowded around her desk, asking questions and trying to make friends. A lot of the questions were about her old school but like before, she dismissed them all. She didn't give us much information about it. No one else seemed to be bothered but I was starting to. I think my friends felt the same way.
Purry let out a sigh. "What's up? Jealous?" Aqua asked, a slight smirk on his lips. She rolled her eyes.
"I'm just curious. About Charlotte's old school, that is." Amelia pivoted around on her seat, holding a pink pencil to her lips.
"Me too..." she said, her blue eyes staring vacantly. "But if she doesn't want to talk about it, then we shouldn't force her to." Purry glanced at the clock that hang on the classroom wall. Oh, it's going to be recess soon! Like, in five minutes.
"We'll see~," she grinned. The bell rang and everyone packed up their belongings. Charlotte seemed to taken to following us, so she was right behind us. That's fine, I (and Purry) wanted to talk more. We went to where we usually sat at recess and lunch, under the big tree on the grassy oval. Charlotte joined us under the shade. We ate our food, having small conversations about random topics. Purry patted her mouth with a napkin and cleared her throat.
"So... Why did you decide to move to Forestville? We're not exactly note-worthy, ahehe..." She turned to Charlotte and laughed.
"That's not true! This place is great!" Charlotte grinned and stood up, throwing her arms in the air. She twirled around in a circle. "This place has such good fresh air! And also it was the closest to my other place..."
"Where did you used to live?" I asked. At this point, we were all starting at her intetnly. She seemed to like the attention, even if we were asking rather personal questions. She pointed to the right, although no where in particular.
"The next town over! The one close to the city!"
"Oh, Rosie from the diner lives there. You might know her," I said. Meanwhile, Purry was mumbling next to me about wanting to live near the city.
"Did you have friends?" Aqua squeaked. Charlotte puffed her cheeks out and puffed out some air.
"Of course! You think I'm some sort of loner!?" She crossed her arms rather angrily. Amelia gently put down her food and looked up.
"It must feel sad to leave your friends behind..." she said with a sad smile. Charlotte mumbled and nodded with a smile. Perhaps that's why she was being dismissive before? She just felt upset about leaving all her friends at her old school... I stood up and put an arm around her.
"At least you can make new ones!"
"Ahaha, yeah! But get off of me!" she joked around and pushed me off. The bell for the end of recess sounded shortly after. We picked up our things and went back to class, Charlotte following close behind.
~~~~
Class was as you would expect. Nothing all that exciting but it's what you got to do. For the first period, Charlotte was following us but then by the second she just kinda... disappeared. None of us had any idea on where she ran off to. Don't tell me she's ditching already!? It's only her first day! Sometime later she came back again. This time with Grapefruit.
Grapefruit is... They're kinda weird. They are a small orange dog who sits at the back of class. They don't talk that much but when they do, oh boy, they are aggressive. They don't take no for an answer and they are always bossing someone around. To be fair, they are only 14 but I don't know how much of that to blame on adolescence... They are also a troublemaker, so definitely a bad influence for Charlotte! How dare they make her cause mischief already! I shook my head in disapproval but I don't think either of them noticed.
When lunch came around, Charlotte showed us her new friend. "Look who I found!" she squeaked, making a motion like she was presenting something. Grapefruit looked at us with a cheeky grin. I already don't trust that smile...
"I'm glad you're making friends, Charlotte, but um..." Amelia said with a nervous laugh. "Grapefruit's a bit..."
"We already know them so no need to introduce us," Purry huffed, swishing her tail. Charlotte either couldn't take the hint or was pretending to not notice. She said she was glad that part was over with. Then Grapefruit's true colours started to show. They stepped forward, looked at us up and down and smirked.
"Oh? You've been hanging out with these losers all day? Surely you can do better than that!" they shouted.
"You shouldn't be too picky on your first day," she replied. Wait, is she agreeing with them!? They turned to me.
"You, you're a try-hard." Then Purry. "You should get a better mirror, honey." And lastly Amelia. "You need to face the music and realise life isn't all sunshine and rainbows! Oh, you're a little annoying too."
"Hey!" she shouted. Actually, we were all feeling angry. We stared at them with a glare and I even had my paws on my hips. Everyone but Aqua that is.
"I've heard a lot about you," they said, narrowing their purple eyes as they stared at him. They swished their head to the other side dismissively. "I guess you're alright." Aqua burst into tears! Wait, what!?
"Wh-why are you crying!? That was pretty nice actually!" I wailed and rubbed his back. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes.
"I'm sorry, It's just that..." he sniffed. "Besides you guys, that's the first person who's been kind to me since the incident..."
"Incident?" Charlotte echoed. Oh, so now she speaks up! She watched us all get insulted and did nothing about it! Aqua seemed to have bounced back already.
"Oh, yeah, I guess I should tell you," he started. "I'm gay. If you've got anything bad to say about it, say it now. But trust me, I've probably heard it a thousand times already~!"
She wasn't fazed and instead said: "Oh, it's not that. I was more thinking 'yeah, that makes sense'."
"What's that supposed to mean!? You've only just met me!!" With Amelia desperately holding him back, he got real mad and started shouting at her. Purry was laughing hysterically on the floor saying something along the lines of: "it's true, it's true!" I let out a heavy sigh.
"Say, Grapefruit," I said. "You seem to get along well. Has Charlotte told you anything about her old school?" Aqua's shouting stopped and everyone turned to look. Grapefruit slowly wagged their tail. "Nothing that important."
Charlotte clapped her paws together and made us jump. "Okay! I think the bell will be going soon. We should get a head start!"
"That's a good idea," Amelia replied and closed her lunchbox. So, she's still being weird about it... The school day was almost over. Will we be able to uncover the truth by then?
The answer is: not really. We didn't want to be too nosy, obviously, so it was hard to decide what to say. We tried to drop some hints here and there but she didn't say anything noteworthy. Also, Grapefruit was now shadowing her wherever she went.
It was home time now and we had given up for the day. Maybe tomorrow! I shoved my books into my bag and zipped it up. I ran towards where my friends were waiting.
"Ready to go?" I asked with a smile.
"Yes!" Amelia grinned. We turned to leave when some footsteps came towards us.
"Wait a second!" It was... Charlotte and Grapefruit! Since it was the end of the day I thought we got rid of them. Apparently not.
"What's the matter?" Aqua said. They looked at each other, spoke telepathically I guess, and turned to us.
"We want someone to escort us home. You can't leave a girl and a little dog to walk home alone!" Charlotte squeaked.
"Well... This town is pretty safe, actually," Amelia nervously laughed. With that all said and done, they were insistent that someone walked them home. I understand if Charlotte felt a little nervous because this is a new place for her... But what's Grapefruit's excuse? They should know their way around town!
Purry's ears perked up and she looked at her paw, like she was looking at a watch. "Oh, would you look at the time! I have music practice to go to!" She darted away.
"I-I do too!" Aqua shouted and ran after her. They don't have music practice... It's an excuse to get away!
"I have a lot of homework to do, sorry. Maybe some other time," Amelia said and bowed. And then I was left on my own. Charlotte and Grapefruit pleaded for me to come. With her this close, I was able to see Charlotte's cute brown eyes. I shrugged.
"Alright, I'll come. Where do you guys live?"
As it turns out they live on the more... unsightly side of town. Although what Amelia said about the town being safe is true, if something terrible were to happen it probably would happen here. There's kinda a small gang of sorts that hangs around here. I've also heard that Ayo from class fights a lot with them... I hope we don't run into him...
"S-so, you live out here, huh?" I said, trying as hard as I could to hide how anxious I was.
"Isn't it cozy?" Charlotte squeaked in happiness. Both her and Grapefruit laughed. Uhh... We've been walking for quite a while... How far in are their houses? We turned a corner and heard a sound. It sounded suspiciously like two people fighting... I didn't want to but those two wanted to investigate... As it turns out it was Ayo and some other guy I've never seen. Welp, I tried to avoid him. In his hands was a wooden baseball bat with nails stuck in it. It looks like the fight was over because the other guy scampered off, whimpering.
"Who's pretty boy?" Charlotte said.
"Ayo," Grapefruit replied. "Isn't it so cool that he fights and stuff!? I asked him if he would teach me how but he told me to go away..."
"Oh, really..."
"A-anyway, we should be going and- Wait, no! Don't go up to him!" Charlotte was cheerfully skipping towards Ayo. Oh no, this is bad! Her first day and she's going to get beat up already! But what actually happened... I couldn't make it up even if I tried.
Charlotte stood in front of him with the sweetest smile I've ever seen. That smile twisted into a devilish grin. With one swift motion, she grabbed him by the arm and sent him flying in the air. He landed with a loud thud on the concrete. His baseball bat landed shortly after, making a similar sound. Both mine and Grapefruit's jaws dropped to the floor. We couldn't believe our eyes! Ayo was seeing stars on the ground so I bet he's thinking the same. She picked up the bat and looked it over in her paws.
"I guess I should tell you why I moved schools. I got expelled," she said and stood on top of him, making him grunt in response. "Because I stabbed a chick!" She threw her arms in the air and cackled. She looked like the reveal of the villain in some action packed movie. I was stunned with what I heard but everything she was doing today made sense. She didn't tell us straight away because she didn't want to scare us. ...Is what I would like to think but that's certainly out of the window now. She has scared me, anyway!
"Wa-haa! So cool!" Grapefruit's eyes glittered in amazement. Cool!? Are we seeing the same thing!? They ran over to her side, looking very happy. They bounced around her legs and practically begged she teach them how to do that (what's with their obsession with learning how to fight?). Ayo raised his head and with one shaky arm pointed towards Charlotte.
"Give that back..." he said, his voice trailing off a little at the end.
"Oh this? This is yours?" she teased and looked the bat over once more. "Would you look at that! It even has your name engraved in it! Well, Ayo, I'm sorry. I rule this place now~." I'm not sure what she's talking about. It got Grapefruit cheering though. She outstretched her hand and the bat landed next to where Ayo lay. She picked up her school bag, put it over her shoulders and turned in the other direction.
"Bye, Ricky! Thanks for walking with us. See you at school!" she waved. Then she left, with Grapefruit by her side. The sounds of them showering her in compliments started to fade. I still stood frozen in place, shocked. What Charlotte did had left me completely speechless. Ayo's groans brought me back to reality. I shook my head and clapped my hands on my cheeks.
"Need a hand?" I said and outstretched my hand towards him. He said nothing but he did hold hands. I pushed him up and got him back on his feet (though he was a little taller than what I was anticipating...). But while doing that, something caught my eye. On Ayo's arms were white bandages. I never paid much attention to it but now that I think about it I've always seen him wearing them. As I said, they should be white but instead they were turning red.
"Ah, you're bleeding!" I shouted. ...Huh? But why? Charlotte had nothing sharp with her and that looks like a funny place to bleed after being thrown on the ground. He looked away and quickly covered it up with the sleeve of his blue hoodie.
"It's nothing..." he mumbled. I decided not to ask about it. Now this situation felt awkward. I bounced on my feet and put my paws in my pockets.
"So... Since we're both here, want to walk home together?"
"I'm not a child. I can get home on my own," Ayo snapped and gave me a frown.
"Fair enough. See you at school," I said and booked it out of there. I didn't want to stick around to see what he would do next.
When I finally got home, I decided to give Aqua a call.
"Hey, Ricky! What's up?"
"Dude, you'll never guess what I just saw."
