Meeting Her

Tokyo, Japan 2024

I groaned as the loud alarm clock next to me blared out, urging me to wake up for the day. I sluggishly reached over and hit the off button, slowly opening my eye and looking up at the ceiling. "Another day" I mumbled to myself, rubbing the sleep from my eyes and rolling over to get out of bed. After taking a shower and putting on my school uniform, I entered the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge. "Good morning, Aries!" a voice from behind me spoke. It was the same voice I heard every morning for the past several years, my sister Aiko. "Yeah, morning" I responded, still rubbing my eyes slightly. Fairly recently I was able to get a part time job at an office building when I'm not at college, and along with the money left by our parents, we were able to get an apartment fairly close to the school. I sighed and took a few sips from my water, leaning against the kitchen counter. I grabbed my nearby bag and threw it over my shoulder, cracking my neck as my sister did the same. We headed towards the door, my sister pausing for a moment, looking over at the wall nearby at a family portrait, "Be back later mom" Aiko said, keeping a smile on her face as she exited the apartment behind me. 

The train ride to school was fairly uneventful, the only redeeming part was the view, it wasn't bad, a nice expanse of buildings and lights. I stood there with my headphones in, quietly listening to music to pass the time. As the train began to approach the school, the rather massive center building stood out among the surrounding area, a sleek white with golden accents, giving it a more defined appearance. The surrounding buildings were more or less the same, just smaller for different areas of study, some had slightly altered appearances to cater to said course of study, such as the medical building having a white and green look with a stethoscope for a sign. The train stopped at the nearby station, all the passengers funneling out with me and my sister. I let out a groan as the crowd poured out, beginning their walk to their respective classes. "I'm gonna go catch up with my friends, I'll see you later, okay?" Aiko said, skipping off, waving behind her, not even giving me a chance to respond to her. I shrugged and began to walk off myself, heading to my first class of the day.

As I walked through the vast courtyard, it was filled with students either chatting with their friends or hurrying on to their classes. Since I stood out, I got a few stares here and there, hearing a couple people mumbling about how I looked like a delinquent. I shrugged it off and sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before feeling something bump into me, followed by a loud thud on the ground. "H-Hey! Watch where you're going!" The person spoke, as my eyes trailed down, I noticed it was a girl, roughly 5'7, and my upperclassman. She had fairly short hair, styled into a bob cut, her eyes were a baby blue, her hair dark grey. "Right, sorry" I said, helping her up from the ground before beginning to walk away. "Hey! Don't just walk away from me!" She said angrily, rushing after me before hearing the bell blare out, signaling that it was time for classes to begin. She groaned and began to stomp off, not without pointing at me like a child and yelling first, "This isn't over!" and with that, she stormed off to her class, leaving me standing there confused on how it wasn't over.

I stared out of the classroom window, gazing at the birds and the planes flying overhead as my teacher talked about something I didn't really care for. "Will Aries Allred please come to the counselor's office, I repeat, will Aries Allred please come to the counselor's office". Hearing that earned me a few "oooo's" and "aaaa's" from the class, but nonetheless I stood up and left the class, soon after arriving to the office. As soon as I entered, I was overcome with a feeling of dread, seeing the girl from earlier once again. "You!" She yelled as she hopped up from her seat, pointing at me, "So you're Aries Allred huh?" she asked sarcastically, obviously not very happy about this either. "I apologize for calling you two here on such short notice, but, a local cafe needs volunteer help, and both of your names were pulled at random" the counselor said, holding up a flyer for the cafe. "Great, just my luck having to help out with someone like her" I thought to myself, looking over at the girl. "Oh right, I haven't really introduced you two" The counselor spoke, pointing to me first, "This here is Aries Allred, like you just heard, and this" He said, pointing to the girl, "This is Nitta Minori, a 2nd year here" She had a smug grin like her name was supposed to be powerful. "When are we supposed to do this?" I asked, just wanting to get it over with. "This afternoon and tomorrow, both after school so you don't miss class" I nodded and began to walk away, unfortunately Nitta began to follow me, "Do you have any experience in a cafe? I bet you don't, you seem like a loner" She said with a fake laugh, patting me on the back, "Don't worry, Mrs. Nitta Minori here will guide you my young apprentice!" She wore a shit eating smirk, like I was supposed to bow down to her and beg her to teach me. I sighed and walked away, going back to class to get the lesson over with. 

As the school day had begun to wound down, I roamed the halls, eager to hurry up and get the volunteer shit over with so I could go home and sleep. "Hey Aries!" I heard from behind me, it was a very familiar voice, my sister. I turned around to see her skipping up to me, giving me a slight hug, "How was your day? Get into any trouble while I wasn't with you?" She said, acting as if she were my mother. "I don't know if you would call it trouble, but I have to volunteer at a cafe today and tomorrow with a girl who bumped into me this morning" I said, beginning to walk again, my sister walking beside me. As I finished my sentence, she took a moment to comprehend what I said before her eyes went wide. She looked up at me with stars and began to bounce up and down, hitting my shoulder, "OMG OMG OMG THIS COULD BE YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A FRIEND ARIES, AND MAYBE EVEN A GIRLFRIEND" She yelled, loud enough that the students around us could hear. I shrugged her off me and groaned, rubbing my eyes, "You already know how I feel about that stuff. Plus, she's more of an annoyance than anything" I replied, thinking back to my two encounters with the said annoyance. "Oh right... I forgot about that... sorry" she said, her voice sorrowful and quiet. She looked down, feeling bad for mentioning friends to me. I sighed and rubbed her head gently, motioning for her to hurry up, "Come on, you can't miss your show on TV, right?" Almost like flipping a switch, she immediately brightened up and went back to her usual bubbly self, skipping alongside me, humming a tune as we walked home. 

After I got home, I changed out of my school uniform into a t-shirt and shorts, knowing the cafe would have a uniform for me. I tied my hair back into a bun and put my glasses on to appear friendlier before saying bye to my sister and heading out of the house to the cafe. When I arrived, I entered and headed to the back to change. All I could hear was yelling and foot stomping, and I knew exactly who that was. "I can't wear this! I'll be the laughingstock of the school for the rest of my life! You didn't even say it was this kind of cafe!" Nitta yelled. I sighed and opened the door, seeing her in a maid outfit, which, I had to admit, looked pretty damn good on her. She turned around and saw me, which caused her to instantly begin blushing furiously. "Go away! Idiot!" She began to throw various things at me such as lipstick, brushes, and even shoes. Eventually, I sighed and left the room to wait, knowing that a long 2 days were ahead of me.