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Ever since kindergarten, Alise had had a reputation among her classmates for her tall tales and highly exaggerated stories, some of which had a tendency to scare the other children. Even now, twelve going on thirteen, Alise was still going strong, despite her mother's constant lectures about how she needed to start growing up and thinking about the future... things Alise tended to tune out. After all, highschool was still in the (relatively) distant future, and, since becoming a senshi, at least some of her stories were true; admittedly, there was still a great deal of exaggeration, and some details had to be changed or omitted, but it wasn't exactly as if Alise was lying... kind of.

And besides, while Alise had admittedly scared off her fair share of potential playmates over the years (also to her mother's frustration), there were still people that thought of her as a cool person, and were her friends. Of them, some even turned out to be senshi like herself, such as Clem and Pam, which was an added bonus, and Alise was determined to find even more potential senshi hidden among her classmates. Unfortunately, she couldn't really sneak Etoile into school with her, and so she had to wait.

And wait.

In the meantime, it was lunchtime, and Alise sat, picking at her lunch and looking for someone to trade with. Her mother still continued to try pushing 'healthy' (aka, 'completely boring') food on her, packing it for her lunches, and Alise always looked to foist it upon someone else.

Alise was still picking at her lunch and looking for some poor unfortunate soul to trade with when Courtney asked to sit with her, and she looked up, trying to pinpoint if she'd seen the other girl in her classes before or not. Ultimately, the verdict was 'not sure, but maybe'; there were a lot of kids attending Knightside, after all, and it wasn't Alise's job to pay attention to who was who.

(It was probably safe to say that Courtney wasn't one of the kids that were scared of her, though, if she was asking to sit with her.)

"Oh, sure, go ahead" Alise said, "I'm Alise."

Scouting for potential senshi during the middle of lunch (and without a cat) wasn't really the grandest of her ideas ever, but she was suddenly curious. What if...?

"What grade are you in?"

Alise didn't even need to take a moment to decide- she immediately offered the banana to Courtney. "Deal," she said, eyeing the pudding cup and twinkies eagerly, "You can have anything else you want from my lunchbox, too- my mom's always packing stuff she claims is 'healthy', and it's the most boring thing ever."

Alise longed for the day she could start packing her own lunches, whenever that day may come. While she could spend her allowance buying candy for herself (and Etoile), the fact was that she wished she could have a more 'normal' lunch, like everyone else's parents apparently had the common sense to pack.

"Anyway, you said you're in 7th grade? No way, that's so cool- I'm in 7th, too! We must have different classes," Alise concluded, though now she wondered if she had indeed seen Courtney before in one of her classes.

"What do I like to do?" Alise repeated, "Well..."

What did she liked to do that was considered a 'normal' hobby? There was her collection of plush rabbits- but only certain people knew about it, and they were otherwise sworn to secrecy- that was one thing. Some of her other hobbies were tied to being a senshi, too, soooo...

"I guess I like to dance? Kind of- if you count trying to learn the dances on youtube, like Vocaloid and stuff."

And some other related stuff like Aqours, but if Courtney meant something more formal like ballet or whatever, the answer was 'no'.

"I like playing video games, too- do you like video games?"

"I would totally be up for hanging out with you sometime," Alise said, setting her plans into motion, "I have another friend who can join us too- Clementine Drew- she likes games, too? She comes over to my house sometimes, or I go over to hers- the three of us can play games together."

But Clem wasn't really needed for what Alise was plotting, though if things worked according to plan, she could introduce the two to each other later on, provided they didn't already know each other.

"Anyway, you can, like, come over to my house sometime, too? I've got tons of games we can play. I gotta make sure of something first, though-" she continued.

"- You're not allergic to cats or anything, are you? Just wondering, out of curiosity and stuff."

Quickly, Alise realized her mistake, but there was no going back now. Well, as long as she could make certain that Courtney wouldn't accidentally reveal Etoile's existence to her mom, it would be fine, right?

"Oh, yeah, I have a cat, though it's kind of a secret?" Alise said quickly, "She's really friendly and stuff, though. Really... talkative?"

Courtney was writing down her phone number, and Alise decided to do the same, tearing off a piece of the napkin that the other girl's number wasn't written on, and writing down her own. "Anytime is fine with me," Alise told her, hoping she wasn't making a mistake in revealing Etoile's existence, "You can come over today, even, if you want?"