[O~P~E~N] A new arrival!

"Nurse's. You'll get out of class instead of having to rush that way. Not to mention I have to pick up Hawkes meds now anyway."

I start to walk down the path with her.

My slender back is arched in an uncommon way. Instead of straight, my spine curves backward a little more than a normal one would.

My skin is a bit light and my facial features are that of a westerner's.

Even my hair, in it's light brown, jew-fro style, looks foreign.

My accent is Japanese even with all of my forener looks, though.

"So which class are you? Junior?"

She is rather tall-almost my height, actually-but she still seems to give off the underclassman vibe.

There is no way she is a freshman so it just leaves junior as the only remaining class under senior.

Touka shrugged. "For all I know, I could be a freshman. A grade or two might not have transferred," she replied. "But if they all transferred, then yeah, I'd be a Junior. That's what I needed to talk to the homeroom teacher about."

'I'd be a junior.'

BUH-BOOM! Wut WUT!

"Boom."

I make a puppy-like grin with my little celebratory statement.

As we walk I start to quietly hum a little.

"hm hm hmm hm hm-hm-hm-hm hm-hm hm hmmm hm hm hmm hm hm-hm-hm-hm hm-hm hmmm hm-hm-hmm hmm hmm hm hm hm-hm-hm-hm-hm hm hm hm hm hm hmmm hm hm-hm."

It is 'Still Alive.'

A smile crosses my lips while we walk. Not one of happiness for my situation but for life itself.

It is a carefree smile.

Touka looks after Satoshi, confused. Why was he humming? And why did he look so... pleased?

Touka shakes her head and follows after Satoshi. "So... Where exactly is the infirmary?" she asked.

We are getting close now.

"Right here next to the main building."

"It's connected but it's its own building."

I hum just a little bit more. I chuckle a little when I get to the part about Black Mesa and stop, though.

Speeding up just a little slightly I move up and open the door for Touka. Standing aside for her with my foot holding back the door.

Touka strolls on in, past Satoshi. She looks down the hallway, remembering several details.

We stop by the door to the nurse's room and I lean against the wall on the other side with a leg crossing over the other.

"You go on in. I'll go next."

It may be a regular statement but my voice begins to show more warmth than before. Like a brother, almost.

Truth be told, this is my natural, friendly way of speaking but I don't start sounding like this until I start being more comfortable with someone.

Yes, even me, someone willing to mess with random people, isn't already warmed up to everyone he meets.

Touka shrugged. "I'm gonna be in there a while; the nurse and I have a lot to talk about," she said.

She knocked on the door. "Hello? Anyone here?" she asked through the door.

Touka gets the okay to come in from the head nurse and I get a wink, grin, and thumbs up from the nurse after the door opens and he see's it's me with a girl.

I turn on my music and flip open my drawing pad as I sit down.

It takes a little time like she said it would but the time goes by fast in my point of view from the interesting little drawing I made.

After a quick checkup and a short, hushed conversation regarding Touka's health, Touka receives some pill bottles and is sent on her way, with the bottles stashed in her pockets.

"Alright, I'm done," she says to Satoshi after exiting the room. "Now, which way is homeroom?"

"Hey hey-you don't got much pacience, do you?"

I chuckle and give a grin.

"First you sprint off, now you're already itching to go to your homeroom."

I set my pad down on the seat next to me and go in the room.

(The website wont show the whole picture, but it says 'Terry Hewitt The Hippo Tank' on the right.)



A faint discussion can be heard but only my more animated moments can be understood.

...*muffle muffle*

"Sod off-I just met her!"

...*muffle*

"For the love of god, mate, control your thoughts!"

*muffle muffle muffle muffle*

Touka frowned. She thought she could hear the nurse and Satoshi talking about her.

She put her ear to the door, intent on listening in.

A relatively animated conversation with up beat voices can be heard.

Nurse: "You can ignore it all~ you like but statistics are statistics."

Me: "Yeah-I heard there's a statistic of 100% chance my foot's going in your behind the next time to suggest anything like that."

"Thanks for these, I'll run 'em to Hawke on my way back. Later."

Footsteps can be heard suddenly getting close to the door.

The nob turns and an opening is made quite quickly.

Touka gets knocked backwards by the door and falls flat on her ass.

"Owwwww..." she moans, rubbing her bruised buttocks. Suddenly, she realizes Satoshi has noticed her.

"Ah! I wasn't listening in, I swear!" she exclaims. "I was just leaning against the door!"

My language is joking but my voice is completely normal.

"I hear leaning on your face isn't very good for your body."

I offer another hand up.

"I ain't going to kiss you there to make it better either."

This time I speak with a grin.

Touka got to her feet, glaring a little - only a little. "You perv. Anyway, to homeroom now?"

You're just too easy, aren't you?

I brush the hair out of my face while I speak.

"Coming from the girl attempting to listen to a conversation through a door."

I chuckle a little.

"Yeah, I got the cargo."

I take her to her homeroom with about ten minutes left in class.

I decide to just wait for the ten minutes to be up for her to come out so, once again, my hobbies show themselves once more.

The teacher wasn't happy about Touka showing up so late, but he did understand why. On the bright side, her grades transferred over. On the other hand, today's assignment was now her homework.

Touka left the classroom, sighing miserably. She hated homework.

I notice Touka.

Shoot, just when this riff was getting good!

I pull out the buds and also notice the worksheet and shudder a little.

Ugh...homework...

"Ready?"

My pad flips closed again and I stand.

Touka looked puzzled. "Ready for what?" she asked. "As far as I know, I've done everything I need to today."

"Okay."

There is still one more thing you need.

Information.

"Know where the store is? Can be useful if you're tired of school food."

"I cook my own meals so it's quite a good place to know for me."

Touka looked even more confused. "Wait, so we need to buy all our food some some on-campus store?"

She began to look worried. "But, I don't have much money... Aargh! I don't want to starve!"

"There are cheap meals at the cafeteria three times a day for each main meal but believe me when I say the prices on them are justified."

"In order to have a lunch you wont get tired of I'd personally recommend a packed one."

Wait...does she know how to cook well?

If she doesn't, I probably disappointed her...

"Eh-eh-I-I can help you out on that."

I stutter a little bit from the only way my mind feels I can fix it.

"I..I can..I canmake you...some..."

And now I am quite embarrassed with the situation I've seemed to get myself in.

"Eh? Don't worry about cooking for me," Touka replied. "I'm a good cook, and I enjoy cooking. I'm just worried about the price of food."

Oh god-thank goodness.

I don't know why I'm so overly conscious of any creepy statements with this girl...

Normally, I wouldn't be so embarrassed to make a statement like that infront of someone with balls of mithril like mine but this time...it seems...different.

"Then come with me. I'll show you around town since it can be rather uninformative if you go alone. Trust me, I had to."

"The food price is reasonable for the quality of it."