Hannah shifted her book bag again in an attempt to make it more comfortable on her shoulders. She'd had so much homework to catch up on that she had had to take all her books home with her over the weekend. She paused and stretched her back out a bit before continuing to walk to school.
“YEAH Dad, I get it, alright?” a girl with tanned skin and purple-ish hair yelled out of a house backwards, swinging her book bag onto her shoulders.
“Well have a nice day anyhow,” the girl's (presumed) father called out from the doorway. A chibi poked out from between his shins and waved too.
The girl turned around and rushed into the sidewalk – where she ran into Hannah and sent both of them crashing to the ground. The girl was able to get up first because her book bag was nearly empty.
“I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention,” she said as she got up and tried to give Hannah a helping hand.
“And now that we have assured ourselves that gravity DOES infact still work hopefully we can get on with out day.” Hannah replied sarcastically from the ground. She slid the book bag off of her back and sat up straight. Hannah looked up at the girl and quirked an eyebrow. She'd never seen purple hair on a human, she wondered vaguely if she could get hair dye that color too. She took the girl's hand and stood up. “It's all right. I wasn't really paying any attention to where I was going either, I don't usually have to.” Hannah said, finally actually replying to the girl. The purple haired girl giggled.
“You're really funny, I wish I had that sort of wit – the... the gravity thing I mean, it was funny.” the girl said, feeling incredibly lame in doing so.
Hannah hefted her book bag back onto her shoulder. “Yeah, I'm sure.... uh, who did you say you were again?” she asked, adjusted her book bag, in hopes of being somewhat comfortable.
“Oh.... I didn't. April, April Ross.”
“Hannah Overton, pleased to meet you I guess. Do walk with me, I'm already behind my schedule. So, you're going to the high school right?” Hannah said as she started to walk.
“Um, yeah – Freshman year in fact,” April said as she started walking too.
“Oh, I'm a Junior.”
“Does that mean I won't be seeing much of you then?” April asked.
“What, you mean you want to? We just met and I've been nothing but sarcastic.” Hannah replied, genuinely surprised that the girl was sticking around at all.
“Well... it's just that I just moved into town and I don't know anyone – and you obviously take the same route to school as I do...” April replied.
“Oh.... well that as good a reason as any I suppose. When I get to know you a little more I'll set you up with some friends that are a little more your stripe.” Hannah replied.
“Oh... um, thanks.” April replied dully, a bit confused as to what Hannah meant by that. She had to assume that it meant that Hannah did not really want to hang out with her and was just being polite, and she wasn't far from the truth.
Hannah sat down at her preferred table in the cafeteria and sniffed her lunch. For school food it smelled pretty good. She pulled out one of her textbooks and started in on her lunch routine.
“Hey!” a voice yelled happily from directly behind her giving her a heart attack. Hannah spun around and saw that it was April. “Hi Hannah, guess what? We're in the same lunch period, isn't that nice? I was worried I wouldn't see you again until the end of the day!” April said as she slid into the seat next to Hannah.
“Hello April,” Hannah replied, just barely keeping the annoyance out of her voice.
“Hi. Did you want to hear about my first day so far? It's really going great.”
“No, not really,” Hannah replied, opening her textbook to last night's homework.
“Oh.... okay, well what about you? Is your day going good?” April asked, determined not to give up on making friends with Hannah.
“No more disastrous that usual,” Hannah said as she took a bite of the mash potatoes off of her plate. She put it in her mouth and turned a page on the book, equally determined not to have her routine disrupted by the strange new girl.
“Heh heh... you're being funny again...” April replied, smiling nervously. Hannah just rolled her eyes.
“Honestly, if you've had such a great day why not go sit with someone from one of your classes? You've had at least 3 by now, surely someone you've met will be in this lunch period?” Hannah asked testily.
“I... I didn't really get to know anybody...” April replied, she looked down and picked at her lunch a bit.
Hannah quirked an eyebrow and said nothing for a moment.
“What kind of friends WOULD you like? Hannah asked when she finally opened her mouth.
“What?” April looked up in surprise.
“What sort of friends would you like? I told you this morning that I'd help you find some,” Hannah repeated patiently.
“Got yourself another victim Hannah?” a boy who was walking pas asked when he heard her say that. He laughed and walked away before Hannah could say anything in reply. April looked at Hannah questioningly but Hannah didn't clarify what he meant by that.
What April didn't know was that Hannah had an odd reputation of befriending new kids (or other such prey) and being their first friend in the school. She'd get to know them and place them with a group of people. Something curious about it though was that the group was never the type of people that he or she would normally get along with.
She placed geeks with a group of football players, and a girl who had been a cheerleader in her old school she had placed with a group of school anarchists. Nobody really understood this since after a week the person would have left that clique and joined up with their respective personality type, or some other group. Some of them, however, chose to suffer in silence with the group they were placed in, apparently too shy to admit that they didn't like it where they were.
Hannah never cared to explain why she did this, and being the generally friendless loner that she was people just assumed she did it solely out of spite.
“Never mind him, just answer the question.” Hannah said
“Oh... well, people a bit like you I guess.” April hedged. She never really thought about the kinds of friends she'd like to have before.
“Hmm.... so, what would like mean? Someone a bit older, sarcastic, likes alternative music -.”
“Actually I like ska.” April interrupted.
“Ska music. And probably everything that goes along with it. Skaters, and garage band people I take it?” Hannah questioned.
“Yeah, that sounds nice.” April said cheerfully. Hannah nodded, apparently thinking. There was a group of Sophomores in the same lunch period that sort of fit that description. Opposite of just about everyone else in the school... except her sort of, Hannah got along with them to the extent that if she wanted they might be friends, but then again she was like that with most of the people in the school.
“Alright, gimme a day or so, a group like that shouldn't be that hard to find.” Hannah replied, wondering if the cheerleaders would take her, she was certainly cheerful enough... but a bit too clumsy perhaps. This girl could certainly stand to climb the social ladder.
April spilled her coke all over Hannah's notebook with a screech of “I'm so sorry!!”
'... Then again maybe I should torture her with the bottom of the social ladder instead – the Psychology club could use some decent variety couldn't it?' Hannah thought to herself as she mopped the coke up from her notebook and the table.
On the way home from school April looked over at Hannah who was walking just ahead of her, acting as though the only thing the two of them had in common was their route home.
“What are you thinking about?” April asked, seeing the pensive look on Hannah's face.
“Mostly about how to avoid my grandmother bugging me about my homework. She's a little annoyed that I let it pile up yesterday.” Hannah's book bag was not as loaded today as it was yesterday but was still well packed.
“Is she really strict about grades?” April questioned, edging up to Hannah's side.
“Not exactly, but she gets upset if she thinks I'm slacking.” Hannah replied. She had, in fact, been slacking off all week, she she couldn't really afford to continue as she was.
Suddenly the two of them heard a loud barking coming from down the street. April turned around to face the noise. “Is... is that...?”
“It's just a dog, if we stay inconspicuous they it won't even notice us if it comes this way.” Hannah replied. A dog came charging around the corner, a leash dangling from it's neck.
Hannah all of a sudden felt something heavy land on her back and turned just in time to see the dog racing towards her and it's owner rounding the bend chasing after it.
“You stupid dog, get back here!” the guy yelled, running up to Hannah where the dog had stopped. The dog was barking at Hannah, who was using April's backpack to fend it off. “I'm so sorry! He doesn't like Chibis!!” the dog's owner picked up the leash and baited the dog away with treats.
Hannah dropped the book bag and sighed in relief. Then she recalled what the man has said. She stumbled as she felt her own back pack moved and something clung to the back of her head. Hannah paled and stood very still.
“Gone-ape?” a voice said next to Hannah's ear. Hannah's eye twitched nervously.
“...g-get off me...?” Hannah replied hesitantly. She reached behind her head and felt a small body settled on top of her book bag. Hannah froze in a combination of confusion and fear.
The small body changed position for a moment and with a cry of “Ape-rill!” it leaped over Hannah's head and landed on the ground in front of her. It turned to face Hannah and she was shocked to see a chibi version of the girl who had been standing beside her just a moment ago.
Hannah gaped, and she gaped even more when the chibi morphed quite suddenly back into April. April fidgeted nervously for a bit before she realized that Hannah wasn't going to say anything.
“Well... ah.... I'm half chibi.” April stated.
“No you're not! I've SEEN half chibis!” Hannah replied, finally getting her voice back. “They look like hobbits! They come up to about your hips and have big hands and feet! They do NOT go from one species to another like that!”
“Well no, I guess not all of us do...” April replied hesitantly. She bit her fingernail and looked a bit anxious. “Listen, I can really explain it and even if I could I don't want to talk about it here. We're almost at my house and my dad might be able to explain it better. Well, he's not actually my dad, I just call him Dad.... anyway, he can explain.” April picked up her back pack and looked at Hannah hopefully.
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