RP Chasing Dreams

UmbraSight

UmbraSight

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Maybe she had taken a wrong turn at the corner store.

Deep purple painted the distant horizon as the first light of the day drew near. A chorus of crickets chirped in an empty field to her left where long grasses wavered in a humid summer breeze. A pair of birds chattered away on the branches of an old withered tree. Seika leaned against a streetlight, illuminated in the wash of its pale glow as she looked over a small paper map. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her clothes were light and comfortable, a pair of blue shorts and a white t-shirt with excess fabric pulled into a knot at her side.

The town had seemed small when she checked it out the night before after they had finished unpacking the moving truck, but clearly she had been overconfident. She knew the streets of her hometown like the back of her hand, but here everything was slower and more… rambling? Unmarked backstreets ran here or there between residential buildings, a few of which she had been silly enough to try to cut through for a shortcut only to end up on a street she couldn’t find on the map. Seika looked up from her map with a faint frown. Better to backtrack or see if someone was around to ask for directions?

For a moment Seika looked back over her shoulder, before shaking her head and returning her gaze to the map. Who else would be out this early, anyway?
 
Ayano had run up that street a million times. No matter how many times she changed routes, there wasn't a pavement on that awful small town that hadn't torn the sole of her snickers on one of her morning runs.

There was something different that day however, and the difference was a girl. She looked to be around her age and had a map in her hand - how many people would walk around with maps nowadays?

"Are you lost?" She asked, slowing down her jog when passing by the stranger. Ayano's bangs were glued to her forehead with her sweat, while the rest of her hair was tied to a tight ponytail. She wore an old pink shirt that had a few holes in it over a top and shorts, definitely not looking her best. The blonde didn't plan on being seen by anyone until later, after she'd had a shower and looked a little more presentable.
 
“Are you lost?”

Seika bounced in place as a voice suddenly addressed her. A sheepish smile curved her lips as she looked up from her map. Another girl who looked to be her age stared back at her, she wore a worn pink shirt, but her hair caught Seika’s attention first. The girl’s blond hair seemed to glitter under the light of the street lamp, like thin filaments of gold, and if the way her bangs and shirt were plastered to her skin was any indication she had been jogging for quite some time now. Seika released a breath as she relaxed her shoulders.

“Oh! Hello, uh, yeah I think I’ve gotten turned around.” Seika said, with a quick laugh. She looked back down to the map. “I picked this up at the station, but it only seems to have about half the roads, so it isn’t very helpful.” She reached up and brushed her bangs to the side as she looked back to the girl.

“If it isn’t too much trouble I was trying to get to school, just trying to find a good route from my house y’know.” She was making this awkward, wasn’t she? Seika smiled, because that seemed like a good use for her nervous energy. “I’m Seika.”
 
The blonde jogged in place a couple times before coming to a stop, resting her hands over her knees. The girl's laugh was lovely, and for someone who found herself lost she didn't seem at all worried about it. Not that she should be worried, nothing bad or intriguing ever happened in Iwami, at least not in Ayano's experience.

"I'm Ayano." She smiled back, before reaching for her bumbag to get her phone and open a maps app. "Here's where we are. Turn right and you'll be back at the main road, the school is right after the train line."

She couldn't help but find a little funny that a girl her age was holding a paper map. She tried not to laugh at it, as she didn't want Seika to think she was being made fun of.

"Are you new here? What year are you on?"
 
“That’s a very nice name, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Seika said with a polite dip of her head. Ayano returned the smile and Seika couldn’t help but feel it was as brilliant as her hair. Seika leaned in as the other girl brought out her phone, her gaze falling to her phone as she brought up the map app. She really needed to see about getting a new phone once her mother and her were settled in, but things would be busy for a while. She followed one of Ayano’s slim fingers as she showed the directions to the school. So, she wasn’t too far off, with enough wondering she might have made it there eventually.

Well with a town this size it was probably hard to get fully lost anyway.

“Thanks, I owe you one.” She said with an easy smile. She folded her paper map and slipped it into the back pocket of her shorts. Would it be weird if she offered to buy her tea or something as thanks? ”Yeah, we just arrived yesterday, we've barely even made a dent in unpacking.” Seika said, with another quick laugh.

“I’ll be joining as a third year, how about you?” It’d be nice if Ayano was in the same year, at least she wouldn’t feel completely out of place on the first day. “Oh, are you in the track club? If you don’t mind me asking.”
 
A new girl, it made sense Ayano had never seen her around before. She wondered if it was too late to tell her to run and move to another city. Probably.

"Welcome to Iwami, Seika." You'll hate it here. She smiled, and it grew wider as she mentioned the one thing she loved doing.

"I'm captain of the club, are you into track? I'm in my third year too, if we're lucky we could be classmates."
 
”Thank you, the town seems very quaint.” Seika said. That seemed like the safest thing to say anyway, she didn’t really have an opinion of Iwami yet other than that it seemed small. Or, as her mom had said it would be a nice change of pace, which was a statement she also wasn’t certain if she had an opinion about. Still, it seemed like she was on her way to making a new friend already so it couldn’t all be bad, right?

Seika’s eyes lit up when Ayano mentioned that she was the captain of the track team, a broad smile catching her lips. “Really? That’s awesome Ayano! I’ve been doing track since junior high, so I hope there’s room for me on the team.” She laughed again. “I hope we’ll be in the same class, it’ll be nice to have someone I know a little bit, y’know?
 
Quaint was a word for it. Ayano's smile remained comfortably in her lips, an unexpectably happy surprise for what should've been an ordinary morning.

"If you're fast we can sneak you in." The blonde teased. Ayano had friends in school, but nothing beyond than superficial. She had only just met Seika, but something about her, maybe it was her laugh or their mutual love for track, made Ayano's heart beat a little faster. "I hope so too." She said in all honesty.

As much as Ayano wanted to stay and get to know Seika a little more, she should run back home or she'd be late for class. She put her phone back on her bumbag and jogged slowly past the brunette.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Seika! I'll see you at school!" She smiled and waved on her way out, turning her back on the girl and picking up speed.
 
“You won’t be disappointed,” Seika said, returning the playful teasing with a wink of her own. She had been worried that the team wouldn’t have been looking for new members so she was pleased to learn that the team might still have a spot open for her. Hopefully the rest of the team were as nice as Ayano, maybe if she could make plenty of friends then she wouldn’t miss Tokyo so much. Seika hoped so, anyway. Perhaps it was overconfidence or just the warm glow of how fun Ayano had been to talk to, but she didn’t feel concerned about her chances to get on the team.

”It was great meeting you, thanks!” Seika said, raising a hand to wave as Ayano began to jog away. For a moment she watched the blonde’s long hair as it bobbed in the streetlight, like flakes of gold glittering in the night. Then, Seika called out on a whim, “let me treat you to tea and cake sometime as thanks!” before she turned the way Ayano had pointed and jogged back to the main road.

~~-~~-~~-~~-~~

One shower and a change of clothes later and Seika found her way successfully to the school building. She knew it was a little silly, but she was still surprised by how small the building was compared to the one back home, or, it wasn’t really home anymore was it? She had a much easier time finding her classroom than she did the school building that morning she had her homeroom teacher giving her a quick tour of the building after all, and she couldn’t help feeling a little excited to see if Ayano would be in her class as they walked. She wasn’t completely sure why, but she could feel her heart beat just a little quicker at the thought.

“We will have a new classmate joining us starting today.” The teacher said when they finally arrived at the room following the first bell. Seika stood in front of the blackboard, looking over the faces of her classmates. There really were a lot fewer than she was used to, but it still felt uncomfortable to have so many eyes on her at once.

“I’m Yanagi, Seika, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope we can all get along and become good friends.” Seika said cheerfully with a polite bow of her head. She looked up, catching a familiar pair of eyes as an easy smile crossed his lips.

“Let’s see, where’s an open seat for you?” The teacher said, looking over the classroom.
 
After the shower, the make up and the blow dried hair, Ayano was a completely different version of herself. She shared many of the insecurities all teenage girls had, but when she put up that persona it was like putting up a shield. She was pretty, and with her bracelets, earrings and lipstick, she and everyone else forgot she was also poor.

Her legs were sore from the morning run, the same as everyday when she walked into school. She waved and smiled at some acquaintances as she made her way to her homeroom, where she was met by Ryuu and his friends by the door.

The captain of the track team and the captain of the soccer team: the perfect match. Ayano had been dating the most popular guy in school since the beginning of the school year, and they got along just fine. They didn't have much in common, but it didn't interfere much in their relationship.

"Morning babe." He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and walking her into class.

The bell rang just as Ayano sat at her desk, and the teacher announced a new student. It couldn't be anyone other than Seika, and she smiled before the girl walked through the door.

"Do you know her?" Ryuu asked from the seat behind her.

"We just met this morning." She answered quickly, not wanting to interrupt her introduction. After her eyes met Seika's, she tilted her head to the right, and the empty seat by her side.
 
Eyes caught and Seika’s smile widened as Ayano tilted her head towards an adjacent open seat. She felt a quick flutter in her stomach as the teacher’s gaze turned away towards a pair of open seats next to the windows next to a rather serious looking boy, and with no ill will towards that boy, it really wasn’t where she would like to sit as nice as starting out the window would be. So, Seika cleared her throat faintly before gesturing towards the open seat next to Ayano. “That one there looks open.” She said.

“Oh, yes that one is. Ayano, I hope I can trust you to take care of the new girl and show her the ropes.” The teacher said, motioning for Seika to go take her seat. Seika offered another quick bow of her head to the class before quickly making her way over to her seat. She dropped her bag down onto the top of the desk before sliding down into her chair. Seika looked over at her new friend – was it right to call her a friend after one meeting? – and grinned.

“Fancy meeting you here,” she said softly with a wink.

“Alright, now, let’s all turn to page 63, and ah, Ayano could you let Seika share your book until her own comes in?”
 
Ayano bowed her head at the teacher's request and helped with pulling Seika's desk closer to hers so they could share the textbook.

"No problem, Fujisawa-san." She smiled up at the older woman and opened the book on page 63, looking at the board where the she began to write down notes. Ayano wrote down a note of her own in pencil, at the white margin of the page.

Happy you didn't get lost! [IMG alt=":)"]https://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png[/IMG]
 
A little bit of scooting with Ayano’s help and she was shoulder to shoulder with her new friend. At first her attention was on the whiteboard as Fugisawa began to write but it quickly slid down to the desk as Ayano slid her notebook her way a little to catch her attention. A little note there just for her. Seika grinned as she picked a blank space just below Ayano’s neat handwriting.

It was touch and go, but your directions were excellent [IMG alt=":)"]https://storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png[/IMG] she wrote back. She paused a moment looking around the classroom before adding a quick line, This school is so much smaller than the one back home.
 
Where’s ‘back home’?

She wrote down and quickly looked up, pretending to pay attention to what the teacher was saying.
 
‘Tokyo, I’ve never really been out in the countryside before’ Seika wrote, glancing up as if she were checking the whiteboard for her notes.
 
When the teacher turned to the board Ayano looked down at the book, and her eyes widened while reading Seika's response.

TOKYO! Cool! She pondered for a moment before adding:

I'm going to college there after I graduate.
 
You are? That’s cool, I haven’t decided on where I want to go myself Seika wrote back. Its a big city, but I’ll need to show you around sometime, I know all the best places to eat, haha
 
Ayano envied Seika so much right now. She'd never been to Tokyo, and it had always been a dream of hers to move to a big city. The dream of like, every country girl ever.

From that point onward, the conversation had to stop. The professor asked the class to answer some of the questions from the textbook, and Ayano wouldn't want to get Seika in trouble on her first day in a new school by being a distraction. Before the class was over she managed to sneak in a small doodle of two stick figures getting on a bus with the sign "tokyo".

The bell rang, and Ayano sighed in relief that the class was finally over.
 
Classes passed by quickly, thanks in no small part to Ayano, and before Seika knew it it was time for lunch. The little picture Ayano had drawn of the two of them heading to Tokyo brought a smile to her lips whenever she thought about it. Was that silly when they still barely knew one another, but her new friend was so easy to talk to that Seika couldn’t help but think about how fun it would be to take her on a tour of her old stomping grounds. It was hard to know when that could be, but they were bound to have some time off sometime, right? Well, no reason to get too far ahead of herself.

With a yawn Seika flipped her notebook closed and raised her arms over her head in a stretch. Only a few more hours before she could finally check out the track team and see if she could make it on. She looked over at her friend, and grinned. “Well, I’m in your hands today so where’s the best place to eat? Or, are we just sticking in the classroom? As she spoke she nudged her bag out from under her desk before pulling out her lunchbox.
 
Ayano opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the tall boy that’d been behind them all morning.

“Seika, isn’t it? I’m Ryuu.” He said, wrapping an arm around Ayano’s shoulder and offering the new girl a hand to shake. “We eat on the patio. Come with us, meet the gang!” He smiled.

Ayano wasn’t as thrilled about the idea of introducing Seika to her other friends, but she smiled nonetheless. The trio walked together while Ryuu talked some more about himself and the school’s football team until they got to the table where three other people were waiting for them.
 
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