[center][sup][h1][color=black] O S A N A I  S U Z U K A[/color]
[color=#2596be]O S A N A I  S U Z U K A[/color][/h1][/sup][/center]
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Morning homeroom came and went, followed by a parade of teachers reintroducing themselves to the class. Courses were summarized, initial reading assignments were given out, and in-between, the students caught up with one another after being apart for spring break. But to Suzuka, it was little more than a blur, and it was only with great force of will that she managed to take any notes at all between all the times her gaze wandered first to the seat beside her -- then quickly toward any other point in the room the moment that seat's occupant seemed inclined to notice her staring.

Somehow, she survived until lunch. Today was only a half-day of academics, meant to give the second-years who already should have been members of clubs or sports teams time to attend their first meeting of the new school year and plan for welcoming incoming first-years into their ranks. What was more, the physical assessment for P.E. was postponed on account of the lingering mud from last night's rainfall. What that meant for Suzuka was that once lunch was over, all she had to do was report to the faculty office to turn in a waiver from her aunt vouching for her part-time job at the cafe, and then she'd be free to go.

Not that she didn't have a busy day ahead of her as it was. She still had a lot of essentials she needed to buy to make her apartment livable. Come to think of it, she had remembered to bring her shopping list, hadn't she? She quickly checked her bag, and found to her relief and mild annoyance that she had, in fact, remembered the [i]list.[/i] The convenience store bento she had bought the night before specifically so that she wouldn't have to worry about lunch today, on the other hand, was a different story.

She closed her bag. Then she opened it again. She reached inside and fished around. Yup. Still no bento. She sighed. She supposed she'd have to buy something at the cafeteria instead -- a realization which disappointed her all the more when she realized there was no way Ei-kun's mom would have sent him off for his first day back at school without packing him lunch. She peeked over once again towards his desk to try and confirm her suspicions, only to realize to her surprise that she couldn't see him.

Rather, at some point while she'd been contemplating the tragic emptiness of her school bag, she appeared to have been surrounded by several of her classmates -- a couple of girls and most of the boys in the entire class -- all of whom began speaking at once, unleashing an almost unintelligible barrage of questions, and suddenly reminding Suzuka exactly what it was she'd been worrying about for the past week or so.

From one side, a chorus of male voices.

"Hey, Osanai-san, you said you were from Hokkaido, right?"

"What's it like up there?"

"Did you live on a farm?"

"What kind of sports do you like?"

"Can I have your LINE?" "Oi, the hell you asking for right off the bat, idiot?"

From the other, a select few female voices asking rather pointed questions.

"Hey, how do you know our Fuji-kun?"

"What the heck kind of nickname is 'Suzucchiko'? Sounds like some kind of mascot from a kids' show, lol~."

The main problem with transferring into a new school in the second year was that everyone already knew each other. But the [i]second[/i] problem was that that meant [i]meeting everyone all at once.[/i]

Suzuka's face totally froze. Her brain was spinning like the loading icon of a broken webpage. The gears in her mind turned, but somehow the only thing she could think to say was...

[color=#2596be]"So noisy. Wouldja mind going one at a time? Y'all are makin' my head hurt."[/color]

...Well, at least the questions stopped after that. But suddenly, everyone was giving her very strange looks instead, almost like they were shocked or something. Had she perhaps said something wrong? It seemed like common sense to her. If everybody talked over each other, there was no way she'd be able to answer them all.