The First Morning

Let's move our focus to the nearest WcDonald's, where one of our heroes was buying a burger. Risa was looking at the menu, which glowed slightly red and yellow. The pictures of the food on the screen weren't accurate to what you are buying. They were dressed up in various ways to make the burger look bigger, juicier, and actually edible. You'll never get the burger on the screen. They were always flattened disappointments to put it nicely. Well, that's if you raise your expectations too high. Those expectations should be a limbo bar that is placed unfairly low.

But Risa wasn't really thinking of expectations here. She was absorbing the vibe of WcDonald's in the morning as she reached the front of the line.

"May I serve you?" asked the overly nice employee, trying to make a natural-looking forced smile.

"Can I have a Big Wac?" Risa asked, tugging at the strap of her backpack.

"Yes, of course. What drink do you want for that?"

"A Wepsi?"

"Sorry, we only have Woca-Wola."

"Then I'll have a Dr. Wepper."

"Of course."

Risa handed her WcDonald's gift card. The employee wasn't surprised by the amount of money left on the card.

The Big Wac Meal arrived after about a minute of waiting. She left the WcDonald's and put the burger in her mouth. She checked the time on her phone and started running as if she just stole the burger.

Yuri and Kasumi were in front of the school wondering what the hell was going on. The school year was about to start. Yet their group was incomplete. Risa left a note in the morning stating that she'll be gone. As such, they haven't seen her all day. Or rather all morning.

Then they saw a little silhouette of a girl on the distance. The girl was booking it to towards them with a burger in her mouth. Within seconds, the two girls deduced what was going on.

"You do know that you're supposed to eat the burger, right?" said Kasumi when the mysterious figure reached her.

"Sorry," said Risa, taking the whole burger out of her mouth and catching her breath, "I was in a rush. No time for eating."

"I guess a burger is harder to eat compared to a slice of buttered toast."

"I guess you are right," she panted.

"Fries?" asked Yuri, hovering her hand above the WcDonald's bag.

"You can have as many fries as you want, Yuri."

Risa started to eat the burger, and she made that weird face that anime girls do for some reason every time they eat anything remotely good. It sometimes makes sense, but it's so overused that you wonder if their most common meal is prison food with a glass of toilet water. However, this was particularly weird for Risa to do because she was actually a pretty cook.

While Risa was falling into the Big Wac's greasy goodness, Kasumi was looking at the cherry blossoms. They were in full bloom. It looked like the beginning of a romance anime. Kasumi was wondering where the sexy shadow of her childhood best friend was, which was weird because she didn't have a childhood best friend to fall in love with. She was a loner child, for the most part, so she will never get that feeling of growing up with someone while awkwardly growing feelings for them. She wouldn't ever feel that feeling of cringing at relatives shipping her and her friend together until she finally realizes that they were probably right.

The only other option in her mind was to wait for the mysterious transfer student to show up and steal her heart at gunpoint, but to be fair, any boy would be a mystery to her at this point. She missed crucial awkward years in middle school due to being a magical girl. Do boys still only care about who can run the fastest? Does dating still mean playing tag during recess together? Does she still have cooties? That would simplify romance, but that probably wasn't it anymore. She decided that the best option to go for was to avoid it all and to assume that high school romance was dead. All of those stories about wholesome relationships were written by adults looking back at their high school years. They were just adults trying to relive some kind of fantasy. She bet most of those authors haven't talked to the opposite gender for the entirety of their high school career. And any romance that happened in high school was probably some delusion that justified the hormones that ran through everyone.

Was that too cynical? Oh, well. Cynicism sells these days. Out are the days of romanticism, in are the days of realism. Time to realize that the roses you are smelling have thorns. Kids these days don't want to have fun. They want to look smart and mature. They tell themselves that being an outcast is a small price to pay to escape the horrors of society. Society sucks, or at least, that's what they want to believe. Why else are they failures? It can't be that it's their fault.

See. Kasumi can argue for both sides of the argument. That means that she's a smart character.

No, that can't be right. It's too simple. Saying both sides are wrong doesn't make you a genius.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Risa.

"Is high school romance dead?"

"Woah, that's way too dark! At least wait until you walk into the building."

Risa shoved everything WcDonald's related into a trash can.

"You know, are we allowed to bring fast food into the school?" said Risa. "I know that, in American schools, they do it all the time."

"When were you the expert in American schools?"

"I watch too many American movies, and I already know all the problems they go through. Who are you taking to prom? Are you going to be class president? Are you going to party hard when your parents are out of town? Who's bringing the alcohol? Who killed all of the cheerleaders this year? You know, that's what you ask in American schools."

"I'm almost certain that the last one doesn't happen that much."

"Either way, it's an American thing. We are in Japan!"

Risa ran into the school.

After the opening ceremony (which wasn't that interesting, to be honest), all three girls ended up in the same class because we wouldn't have much of a story if they couldn't be together at all times. I mean, it's possible, but that requires more characters and multiple perspectives to watch all of the different friend groups each girl makes. But it's too difficult, and we are barely on the second chapter. Maybe next year. Anyway, back to the story.

"Welcome to the school year. My name is Mrs. Hiiragi, and I'll be your homeroom teacher for A-2."

And that's where the introductions started.

After the introductions of some unimportant characters, we finally reach Risa.

"Hi, I'm Risa. I'm 15 years old and in the first year of high school. I may look like your average girl, but I'm not. My favorite color is pink. My favorite soda is Wepsi. My least favorite number is -1/12, and my favorite number is 569936821221962380720. I love animals, but I don't have any pets. My favorite war is World War I. I'm mildly allergic to shrimp. I cry during sad movies and laugh at scary ones. I've seen many of the movies from Hollywood, but I don't like Bollywood. The sky is blue, and I wish I was taller. I weigh a certain weight. My left foot is bigger than my right hand. One of the pros of me is that I'm enthusiastic, and one of my flaws is that I'm clumsy-"

"Okay, I know that you haven't shown any indication that you are clumsy during the whole time I knew you."

"Oh, really. Observe."

Risa tripped so hard that she broke the chapter into-