Freaks and Friends

[brythain]

Wow! The posting rate for this fic just shot up!! (For which I am truly glad, Oddball.)

And... Rin x Miki, one of my favourite juxtapositions.

[Mirage_GSM]

2) A scenario where Snoozu hates Miki? Talk about twists!

Yeah. Since the chapter where this was mentioned was up in 2013 I didn't remember that either.

[HoneyBakedHam]

Well, to be honest, the only thing I remember from the earlier chapters with Suzu was her rant about penises, so...

[androios]

I started reading. Then, I noticed the publication date and thought "damn, another good-yet-abandoned story". But as I was nearing the dreaded last page, I saw it wasn't abandoned... anymore. Yay! I love this and I can't wait for another update.

[Oddball]

I started reading. Then, I noticed the publication date and thought "damn, another good-yet-abandoned story". But as I was nearing the dreaded last page, I saw it wasn't abandoned... anymore. Yay! I love this and I can't wait for another update.

It's never actually been abandoned. At no point did I go for more than a week without at least writing something. I just ran into a long period of time where I didn't like where things were going and had to redo quite a bit.

For examples, there is no longer a subplot involving Spike Spiegel getting kicked out of school and Time Warp no longer gets hit by a car. ... not sure what I was thinking with those two.


I actually have two chapters ready right now I could post, but I'm still going over them to check a few things out.

[HoneyBakedHam]

You are tearing us apart, Oddball!

Wait, how did Cowboy Bebop get involved? Not that I'm complaining any. I think KS could use a little more awesome jazz.

[Critical115]

I'm glad to see this story getting continued. It's a very unique twist on the story of Yamaku. I can't wait for the next chapter!

[Oddball]

Wait, how did Cowboy Bebop get involved? Not that I'm complaining any. I think KS could use a little more awesome jazz.

Spike and Lelouch were going to be the "bad eggs" of Yamaku and could get students almost anything for the right price. They were eventually going to get caught and expelled.

Also, Spike had a glass eye.

It's a very unique twist on the story of Yamaku.

Glad you enjoy. I've certainly tried to do something different.

[Oddball]

Chapter 14


With the teacher's permission, the class splits into groups of two or three. It actually takes the other students far less effort than I had expected to find each other. It still amazes me how easily most of them get around when I'm still bumping into everything I come across.

I'm watching everyone pair off into twos and three and it's not until they're all settled that I realize I'm left alone. Great. Now I look really pathetic.

Oh. Wait. Maybe I don't. Nobody here can see me. That's one major plus for being in the blind class. Still, it's a group assignment and the teachers can see me at least. Time to swallow what little remains of my pride I have left.

I turn to the two students closest to my desk, the girl with the sleep mask that sits next to me and a blank eyed boy with a bowl haircut.

“Do you mind if I join you?” I ask.

“I'm cool with it,” the girl says.

“If you're good at math, then the more the merrier,” the boy says.

“I'm okay,” I say.

“Good enough!” he says happily. I was hoping they'd introduce themselves to me. I haven't gotten to the point where I can remember the names of most of my classmates yet. They don't though and I'm not going to ask.

The assignment is my least favorite type of math problem, the overly long and complicated type that rely on formulas I can't see why anyone would ever need to know. We get started as a group with only the occasional words shared between us. The paper we're giving is written in braille with regular text underneath. I waste a few minutes trying to see if I can match braille symbols to words, but it's completely useless. Even if I lost both eyes, I doubt I could ever pick it up. I'd just have to give up reading.

The boy with the bowl cut doesn't seem to have any problems with it though. I wonder if he was struck blind at some point or just born that way. The girl is much more of an enigma. She dies her hair, so color must mean something to her, and she can see somewhat, but I've seen her pull a blindfold over her eyes and relying on braille quite a few times since school started. Right now she's going without it and seems to be doing okay.

“Hey, can you help me out here?” the girl next to me asks puling me back to reality. “What did you get for question thirteen?” she says a bit too loudly.

“Fifteen,” I say, looking around the class to see if anybody notices us. It's fairly obvious that quite a few people do. It's also obvious that people are going out of their way to act like they don't.

“No good. I got Sixty Three,” she says wearily.

I blink in disbelief a few times. How did she possibly mess up the question that badly? … or did I mess it up that badly?

“That's what I got too. Fifteen,” bowl-cut says, looking somewhat in my general direction.

“Let me see what you did,” I say. She hands her paper to me. Her formulas look correct. There's just a few instances where he numbers jump up for no reason that I can see. It actually takes me a minute to figure out what the problem actually is. In a number of places she's simply mistaken one number for another. Sixes in place of eights and ones in place of sevens. I hand the paper back to her pointing out the now obvious errors.

She looks at the paper, tilting her head oddly. “Huh. Imagine that,” she says. “Switching over to blind mode,” says and as she pulls her headband down into a blindfold.

“Seriously, Hikage? Again?” the other person says with exasperation. “Sometimes I think you enjoy those massive headaches you get.”

“Hey, my eyes kinda work. I do want to get some use out of them,” she says back. I'm really really curious right now, but I don't want to pry. I got tired of explaining my deal to people, I can only imagine how bad somebody that's lived with their issues much longer has to feel. “Partial vision is better than none, right?”

“I get by fine,” the bowl cut boy says somewhat proudly with a healthy touch of smugness mixed in.

“That's because you don't have to see that atrocious looking haircut you have. You'll back me up on this, right Fu... zu? Fusuki? Fuji?” the girl says stumbling horribly over my name. I don't feel so bad about not knowing their names now.

“Fuku, although I hear people are more open about names here, so I guess you can call me Hitomi,” I say.

“Some people are, some aren't. I'm Hikage and this is Slappy the bowl-boy,” the girl with the blindfold says.

“Oh, bite me,” he says. At that moment, somebody loudly and obviously clears their throat as if to say 'I heard you. Now knock it off'. “Call me Harada,” he says in a softer tone. “Now let's get back to work.” I look up from the textbook to catch our teacher and the class helper whispering softly to each other as the look about the classroom. When she noticing that I've looking back at her, the teacher smiles at me as if approving.

“Excuse me, Hitomi,” Lilly says in my general direction as the class files out for lunch. Naturally she can't pick out exactly where I am in the group, so she's settled on standing back from the rest of the students and calling out my name.

“I'm really sorry about the other day, Class Representative,” I say as meekly and politely as possible.

“Are you still beating yourself up over that?” she says with a small polite looking giggle. “It was a simple misstep. Everyone makes them once in a while. It's likely I would have tripped up myself had you not been there anyway.” I really don't believe that last part, but I don't contradict her. “Other than that minor incident, things went rather well, don't you think?”

“Sure,” I say half heartidly. I've yet to really figure out how to talk to this girl.

“But enough of that unpleasantness. Actually I was stopping you because I realized I hadn't gotten your contact information as of yet.” She hands me a cellphone being as subtle as she's able. “If you could please enter your number here,” she says.

“I didn't think students were allowed to have phones on campus,” I say.

“It's for emergencies only,” she says. “I leave it on vibrate during classes.” The expression on her face is one caught doing something they shouldn't and trying to talk their way out of it. “and please, I'd appreciate it if you would simply call me 'Lilly',” she adds, changing the subject slightly.

I smile as I enter the number and hand it back to her. So she's not perfect after all. That's good to know.

...

For lunch, I join Time Warp and Hachisame again and again our time starts with idle conversation.

“Have you had science yet?” I ask.

“Yeah, that's our second class,” Hachisame says.

“I have to say, I panicked,” I say as I look through my bag to see where the errant straw for my juice box has disappeared to. “I don't think I got any of those questions right. Once he said at the end that it was a college level test and wouldn't be counted...” I let loose an exaggerated sigh or relief.

“It was a brain bender alright,” Time Warp adds a moment later.

“Yeah, but I think I did well,” Hachisame says. “It wasn't that bad.” I stare at her in disbelief, causing Time Warp to laugh and spill her milk over her blouse as she does.

“I only act stupid,” Hachisame says. “In real life I'm actually very smart.”

“and look it,” Time Warp adds a few seconds later as she dabbed the milk with her napkin. “I'm glad I have gym next. I could use something less .. brain... thinky,” she adds making the dumbest face possible.

“How about you? Have you had gym yet?” Hachisame asks.

“Not yet. Our class is supposed to do it twice a week but --” I shrug to finish my statement. “I really don't even know how gym is going to work with blind classmates. I just keep picturing people throwing balls and hitting each other in the face constantly.”

“I'm sure they've got something figured out by this point,” Time Warp says. Her statement is just vague enough that I have to wonder if she actually heard what I said.

“Speaking of unnecessary physical activity, how's the morning swims?” I ask.

“Highlight of the day, each and every day,” Hachisame says with an odd sense of pride. “How's sleeping in?” she adds with a grin.

“They're okay. Why do you ask?” Time Warp responds to my question on the swims completely interrupting the flow of conversation again. I'm still not sure whether I should go back and respond to her or just keep going with what we were saying.

“She loves them. She's just doesn't want to admit it, so she lies,” Hachisame says. Hachisame face contorts into an overly exaggerated expression of rage. “Why must you always lie!” she says pointing at Time Warp.

“I don't know. I tend to wake up early, so maybe I could join you or something,” I say, trying to keep Time Warp in the loop. Having said that, Hachisame's eyebrow raise and a worried expression comes across her face.

As her expression changes, Time Warp swats where Hachisame's pointing finger was even though it's not actually there pointing anymore.

“I'm not sure that's a good idea,” Hachisame says with trepidation. “I mean, did you ever get your head checkouted? Are you even supposed to be underwater with your eye missing like that?” She does have a point, and it's not the first time I've thought about it. I'm not sure I want to go see the Nurse again though. I made a bad impression last time and utterly humiliated myself. There has to be other nurses though. Maybe I can just keep watch out for one of them. Of course, I have the feeling she's more worried about something else than my health.

I might as well come out and ask.

“Look, about what happened yesterday during lunch--” I start and wait for her to react.

“Oh yeah. I just totally forgot I had stuff to do. Nothing serious happened.” She couldn't be worse at lying if she tried.

“You said something about having more of something,” I say. She makes a face like I just told her that she'd turned blue.

“I don't remember anything like that at all. You're just remembering things wrong,” she says.

“So, I hear Suzu's got you running errands,” Time Warp changes the subject. “Just so you know, she'll walk all over you if you let her. She's nice, but she's really lazy.”

“She's got her reasons, I guess.” I really don't want to defend her. I'm just looking for a way to not look like I'm a pushover.

“Everybody's got reasons,” Hachisame says. “Just be careful and stuff. Not everybody’s reasons are … not stupid ones.”

“I'll take your word for that,” I say.

“Of course, like I told you, I'm really smart,” Hachisame says and clicks her teeth together. Obviously I'm not going to get any answers from her about what happened. Time Warp wasn't exactly forthcoming with information the other day either.

I reach for my ever present bottle of water and miss it as I do. On my second try, I stop and hold it, just looking at it before taking a sip. I've been drinking a lot of bottled water the past few days, or should I say I've been drinking a lot of water from bottles.

I don't get why bottled water is so special, so I've just been refilling my empties with tap water. The point is, I've been drinking a lot of it lately since my incident with the nurse. That was the second, maybe the third worst I've ever felt in my life.

“Something wrong with the water?” Time Warp says pulling me away from my wandering thoughts and back into reality.

“I'm just thinking. There's a lot to think about lately,” I say. There's the typical silence as we wait for Time Warp to respond to what we're doing.

“I didn't want to say this, because I really don't know you that well, but has anybody ever told you that you can be kinda depressing?” Time Warp says.

“Sorry.” Without thought, my hand finds it's way to my face and I trace the scar there. After what I've been through recently, I think I have a good right to be depressed.

“Damn. … She's got a good point though,” Hachisame says. I don't want to have this discussion, so I purposely take a bite from my lunch to fill my mouth. That way I have an excuse for not talking.

“If you're going to cry because you're not normal, you really need to get over it. You're not going to be normal anymore. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not who you are now,” Time Warp says. She stabs a small piece of meat with a plastic fork and raises it to her mouth. I watch her as she eats, trying to think of something to say, but nothing comes to mind. Her movements seem very slow and deliberate as she chews, almost mechanical, I hadn't noticed that before.

“Some of us where never normal to begin with. It's no big deal,” Hachisame says. It's easy for her to say. She wasn't normal. She doesn't know what it's like to change. I just shrug in response. “Besides, you've got a look now. I mean, no offense, but you're pretty 'Plain Jane' without that patch. Now you're at least distinct. Kinda badass looking actually.”

“I'm not trying to be mean,” Time Warp says.

“And you've met us now,” Hachisame says. “You wouldn't have done that otherwise and we're awesome people,” she says shooting me a smile that's wide even for her. I try to hide my smile, but I can't. The way she says it, the over the top good-natured humor, it's hard to be mad at her, or even depressed, as much as I want to be.

“I talk to a councilor. If you need to there's one here. I'll openly admit I've got some issues I'm working out,” Time Warp says.

“Issues? I've got subscriptions!” Hachisame lamely jokes.

“You talk to a head shrink?” I ask to make sure I heard her right. She doesn't seem like the type that needs a psychiatrist.

“Her, not me,” Hachisame says pointing to Time Warp with her thumb.

“Yeah,” she says like it's no big deal.

“Lot's of people here do,” Hachisame says. “People you wouldn't think. It's no big deal. There are even people that can't talk that talk to shrinks. Did you know that?” Hachisame adds. “That's Yamaku for you,” she adds like it explains everything.

I nod. Maybe it does.

[Mirage_GSM]

One of these days I'll have to reread this from the beginning - Sometimes referrences to previous chapters go right past me by now^^°
It's good to see you're still at this, and it still is enjoyable to read, but do you actually have a plot in mind for this, or is it going to be slice of life untill you decide to stop?

“I talk to a councilor. If you need to there's here.

I'm not quite sure what this was supposed to say.

[brythain]

One of these days I'll have to reread this from the beginning - Sometimes referrences to previous chapters go right past me by now^^°
It's good to see you're still at this, and it still is enjoyable to read, but do you actually have a plot in mind for this, or is it going to be slice of life untill you decide to stop?

“I talk to a councilor. If you need to there's here.

I'm not quite sure what this was supposed to say.

I think it's "I talk to a counsellor. If you need to, there's one here."

[flag_hippo]

Nice to see this back. Keep up the good work.

[Critical115]

Very nice. I'm really looking forward to the next part.

[Oddball]

Chapter 15

Wake up. Panic. Realize I'm one eye less than I used to be.

If this wasn't so horrific, it would really be getting old.

I'm otherwise surprisingly refreshed. Given how the rest of the school gets under my skin, I'd expect to toss and turn all night but I don't. I might actually sleep better here than I do back home. It's not even that comfortable of a bed either. Maybe it's because this whole place is just so quiet. Even the dorms are surprisingly tranquil. That's the last thing I'd expect for a building full of people my age with little adult supervision. It's not even the hospital kind of quiet where people just seem to be afraid to speak up. It's just … nice. While I'm awake I don't feel like I belong, but sleeping here feels good.

As usual, I wake up before most people in the dorms. There are a few up before me but not many. Hachisame and Time Warp appear to be two of those; nobody answers when I knock on either of their doors. I was sort of hoping that I could tag along with them to the Nurse's office. If I'm going to ask about swimming with my eye missing, I'll need some back up. Otherwise I'll just be too embarrassed and leave without saying anything.

Maybe another day then.

Still, it's early, I'm wide awake, and I have nothing to do. I guess I could just collapse in my room again. I mean, what's the alternate? Wandering around aimlessly?

Actually.... why not? “Let's see what fun adventures Hitomi can find herself in today,” I say with only partial sarcasm. Then I look around carefully to make sure nobody heard me talking out loud. I'd hate to die of embarrassment this early in the morning. Thankfully it's clear.

So much for fun adventures, I think to myself as I wander the building. There's nobody up yet. It's not until I wander to the next floor that anything catches my attention at all. A door swings open as I turn a corner. From it, emerges the tall figure of my class rep in rumpled pajamas and sleep-tossed hair.

“Good morning,” I say to her.

“Good morning,” she croaks with the voice of somebody who has yet to fully wake-up. She then clears her throat and repeats herself in a somewhat more pleasant tone, even if it does sound a bit forced. “I didn't know you woke up this early,” she yawns. She is obviously not a morning person and here I am wide awake. It feels wrong showing up the class rep like this.

“I'm not usually, I just had to see the Nurse,” I blurt out the first possible excuse that comes to my mind.

While she's still obviously tired, a look of concern crosses her face. “Nothing serious, is it?” she asks.

“No, it's … umm...,” my mind races as I try to think up a quick excuse for myself, “just something related to my condition. It's personal,” I end up saying. I need to end this conversation before I say something really stupid.

“Well, then, you should probably have that taken care of,” she says. Her lips twist oddly as she finishes talking. It's obvious that wasn't quite what she wanted to say, but she's not yet awake enough to really vocalize her thoughts yet.

“I will,” I say. “Well, I'll catch you in class.”

“Yes, we'll meet again then,” she says. I watch her running her hand along the wall and she makes her way down the hallway. I feel kinda bad watching her. It can't be easy waking up when opening your eyes doesn't do anything.

…

Great. Now I'm actually going to have to go to the Nurse. Why couldn't I have said I had insomnia or got lost in the dorms or something? Now, if I don't go and she hears about that, then she'll know I was lying. I don't want to be the girl that was caught lying to her blind class representative.

Reluctantly, go back to my room and exchange my pajamas for the school uniform. As an afterthought, I chug down a bottle of water right before I leave. I don't want to have that particular conversation ever again.

As I walk to the Nurse's office, I think of every possible excuse I can to get me out of having to talk to him. I just really don't want to do this. I need something that I can say so if anybody asks they'll know I did talk to him, in case my class rep ends up asking about me. It sounds needlessly complicated, but it's the mess I made for myself.

Sadly, I can't think of any excuses.

The head nurse's office is open as I approach, but I don't recognize the man sitting behind the desk. He looks older than the nurse I'd met the other day. The five o'clock shadow and bags under his eyes certainly can't be helping.

“Can I help you?” he asks.

“I thought this was the head nurse's office. Is he not here?” I ask out of curiosity.

“He doesn't come in for another hour,” the stand-in nurse says. “I'm part of the night shift. Did you need to talk to him specifically, or it it something I can help with?”

Choices choices... Do I make myself look like an idiot in front of somebody that doesn't know me, or make myself look like an even bigger idiot in front of somebody that already thinks I can't take care of myself?

“I have a question,” I say. I immediately want to slap myself for speaking.

“Go ahead,” he says.

“I have an eye missing and was wondering about swimming?” I point to my face and stumble over my own words trying to figure out what to say.

“Hmm,” he mutters and gets out of his chair to approach me. Leaning too close in that way that doctors seem to do, he looks at my missing eye before stepping back and taking his seat again. “If you're worried about infections or irritating your injury, you shouldn't. You should be fine.”

I was actually more worried about... what? Water seeping into my wounds and flooding my brain? … yeah. Sadly, I think that's exactly what I was worrying about.

When did I get so stupid?

“Hey? You alright in there?” the fill-in Nurse asks. “You spaced out on me there for a second.”

“No. I'm cool. I'm cool,” I say perhaps a bit too eagerly. I shrug and try to play it off. “Sorry. It's just early.

“Fair enough. I can't wait to get home and get some sleep myself. In any event, if you're still nervous about your eye, you could always wear swim goggles. I don't have any here, but there are two girls at the pool right now that come every morning for an early swim. One of them might have a pair you could borrow.”

I mutter something that could easily be mistaken for words and exit the room. That was easy. I'm not sure what I was afraid of there.

I head back to my room. Now that I know that I can swim, I'll just have to wait for them to ask me to join them. I'd hate to be rude and just butt in.

On the way back into the dorms, I bang my hand against the handrail on the way up the steps and bash my shoulder against the door frame as I enter. Sometimes I feel like the universe just waits for me to start feeling good about myself.

…

As the teacher let's us out for lunch one of my classmates quickly approaches me. We haven't talked before and I can't remember what he said his name was during the introductions but I've noticed him a few times. He's one of the few people in class that seems to have any kind of vision. I hope this isn't him trying to get me into some kind of “people that can see club.” I am somewhat curious about the way he's dressed though. Every day despite how warm it is, he comes to class in a full uniform, complete with the blazer and a winter scarf.

A greet him with a simple hello but he doesn’t respond until he's far closer than I find comfortable, close enough that I can smell his breath. Geeze. What kind of breakfast does this guy eat? It smells like dill pickle and barbecue sauce. Even standing so close to me, he leans forward. I guess it's just a day for people that don't understand personal space. For a moment I think he's going to kiss me and I ready my hand to smack him with. Then I notice exactly how thick his glasses are. They're like coke bottles. Even with them on he probably can't see very well.

“Hitomi Fujiko, right” he says with a smile that's a bit too sincere to be real. “Nice to meet you.” His lips twitch as he says the word nice like it's something that doesn't want to come out of his lips.

“Close. Hitomi Fuku... and you're ...” I let my voice trail off so he can identify himself. He looks vaguely insulted by that.

“Nasty scar you've got there,” he continues without bothering to tell me his name. “and eye. Lack of eye. You know Hitomi means pupil of the eye right. Awfully convenient for a one eyed girl to be named that. Funny, isn't it?” he chuckles to himself but it sounds somewhat fake.

“It's a coincidence,” I say firmly.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Calm down. I'm not accusing you of anything,” he mumbles another word under his breath but I can't understand it.

“Sorry. It's a sore spot with me. I'm not trying to blow up at you,” I say.

“It's cool. We're cool right now,” he says apologetically. “I'm just trying to get a feel for the new students, ya' know? See who's who, what's what and find out where the lines are drawn.” I'm not exactly sure where he's going with this, or even what he's taking about.

“So, what's up with the scarf and coat?” I ask trying to swing the conversation into a more friendly tone.

He stops in place like he's thinking of something. After a moment of silence he says “It's my style,” with a somewhat suspicious tone of voice.

“And you? How'd you get the battle scar?” there's too much emphasis placed on the word 'battle'. By this point I've made up my mind; This guy is weird. He talks like he's not quite sure how average conversations are supposed to work and he's just faking it.

“I stabbed myself,” I say plainly, keeping it as vague as possible. I really hate telling this story. He draws back suddenly at my statement.

“You stabbed yourself,” he repeats cautiously, almost fearfully.

“I didn't want to do it,” I clarify, but this only makes him seem more uneasy.

“Nice talking to you then,” he says quickly stepping back. Then realizing that he's got to walk past me anyway to leave the class, he takes a few steps putting himself closer to the wall and as far away from me as possible. “I'll see you later then. I've got to get to a club.” Remembering that clubs haven't started yet, he quickly adds, “or lunch. It's a lunch club. Like that movie where everybody had detention together, except this isn't breakfast. And there's no detention. Later.” with that, he disappears out the door.

Well, that was surreal. I wonder if coke-bottle-glasses-scarf-guy is that way with everyone or if it's just me he doesn't like.

“Hey, new girl!” a different voice calls out to me before I can even make heads or tails or what happened with the strange boy in the scarf. Looking around, I can see half the class has already left for lunch while the remaining half have produced bags and boxes of their own. In the middle of the room, four girls have pulled their desks together. One of them is trying to wave me over.

“Um, yes?” I say to the group.

“I hate to hold you up, but we need an opinion of somebody that can see. It'll only take a second.

I walk over and see an open catalog among the food containers. Only one girl, Hikage, who now has her blindfold up around her forehead like a headband, is looking at it. The other three girls appear to be blind.

I take a couple of steps over to the group. I feel self conscious looking down on everybody as they stay in their seats while I stand. Most of them aren't looking in my direction either, which makes me feel even more uncomfortable.

“We're trying to pick out a dress for Megumi. I've got it narrowed down to two that I thought looked good. She points to one dress and flips a few pages in the catalog before she finds the other she wanted to show me.

“I liked the cut on the first more, but the second is much cheaper so we could pick out some nice accessories to go with it. There's a few I was looking at,” Hikage explains.

“Pick the first one. The second is cheaper for a reason,” I say. A curious look comes over the other girls. Hikage takes the catalog and quints hard at it trying to make out what I was talking about.

“It's the colors isn't it?” she finally says putting the catalog down and looking at me.

“Yeah. That's the ugliest shade of mustard yellow I've ever seen,” I say. There's some giggling and whispering among the other girls.

“My bad,” she says. “I don't see colors. At all. Just harsh blacks and whites.”

I don't know what to say about that, so I simply add a quick, “glad to help” and head off.

By the time I get to the cafeteria, the lines have already grown long. Whatever extra time my class gets before the others are released has been used up by my encounters with the scarf kid and the girls picking out a dress. I really don't want to wait in a long line. Time Warp and Hachisame are going to be wondering what's happened to me.

I suppose I can skip a reasonable lunch today. On the way to our empty classroom-lunch meet-up place, I stop by a snack machine and dig out some money from my pocket. I'm able to afford a granola bar, honey-bun, and a small bag of chips. It's not the best breakfast that's ever existed, but at least it'll be something to keep my stomach from rumbling for the rest of the day.

I open the door to the empty classroom expecting to see Hachisame and Time Warp both already eating. I'm half right. Time Warp is there eating, and there is another person in the room, but Hachisame is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Suzu lays sprawled out on the floor asleep. Even though Time Warp has been looking directly at me since the door opened, it takes her a moment before she sees me and raisers her finger to her face to shush me.

“Aren't we missing somebody?” I ask.

“Hachisame isn't avoiding you,” Time Warp says bluntly. “She just had to go see the Nurse and decided that she might as well get it over with during lunch time.”

The idea that she was avoiding me wouldn't have been the first thing to jump in my mind. Now that the idea is there, I know it's going to bug me, but Time Warp said something even more distressing.

“Is she not taking care of herself? She's alright, isn't she?” I ask.

“It's nothing serious,” Tana says.

“Is she drinking enough water. Maybe she's dehydrated,” I offer, not wanting to clarify exactly where I learned that information from.

“No. Nothing's wrong with her. She just has to get some parts for her chair replaced.” Time Warp says a moment later, after taking a bite out of her sandwich. “Oh! I've got something I want you to see!” Turning from me she ruffles through her bag until she find a folded paper. She hands it over to me. The paper is thicker than normal. It's also large. It's got to be about three times the size of a normal piece of paper.

It's a drawing made by various shades and sizes of pencil. There's an insane level of detail to the point where it almost seems like a photograph in places. It's the subject matter that ruins that image.

It's almost a picture of Hachisame, Tana, Rin, and me.

However, it seems some liberties have been taken with the people in the picture.

Instead of sitting in a wheelchair, Hachisame is depicted as having a mass of fleshy tentacles for legs. My likeness has one large single eye in the middle of my face rather than a normal eye and a patch. My face is also too long and my hair messier than normal. I'm not sure if that was part of the artistic liberties the artists took or just the results of a bad likeness.

Rin's likeness seems oddly drawn compared to the others. It's done in a much scratchier style. When I look closer, I see that “Rin” hasn't been drawn with any traditional lines at all. Instead her figure is made of a bunch of small words, letters, and symbols overlapping and shaded to fit her form. In comparison, Tana looks somewhat normal. She's been drawn wearing clothes that are long out of style and while the rest of us seem to be walking side by side, she's several steps behind us. Still, she looks completely human, which is more than I can say of anyone else in the picture.

“Rin drew that. It's us. Isn't it awesome!” Time Warp says. I blink and look at it again. It's hard to believe that somebody drew that using only their feet. It makes the already impressive picture look even more unbelievable. “I think she drew my boobs too small, but otherwise I love it.” Of all the inaccuracies to complaining about, that's what she picks?

“That is pretty special,” I say. While I can't help but admire the artwork and the astounding fact that it was drawn by somebody without hands, the way we're drawn feels insulting.

“Rin said you could have it. She felt bad about saying you were boring the other day so she made this for you,” Time Warp stops and giggles slightly. “At least, I think that's what she was saying. She can be hard to get sometimes.”

“Am I in the picture?” Suzu asks without opening her eyes.

“No,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she mutters. She doesn't say anything more. She just keeps lying there on the floor.

I look at it again. This is mine now.

I look down at the cyclops in the picture.
And this is me.

[Alpacalypse]

Well, I've been reading this for a while now, figure now's as good a time as any to post my thoughts:

I have absolutely no idea where you're going with this. I love it
That last chapter was kinda depressing, but it fits in really well with the rest of it.
I also like that she lost her eye by stabbing it out with scissors. I remember that I used to be told not to run with scissors all the sodding time in primary school XD

Even though I've been following this for a while, guess I'd better say that you should really keep this up - it's certainly interesting.