KEISHIRO

“Are you okay, Elle? You’ve been awfully quiet!”

The room was quickly filled with gasps. Uh, okay...did I say something wrong?

“Awfully quiet?” Kayla twitched, “What do you mean she’s being awfully quiet?”

“Uh...she never sits at one place and keep her mouth shut for long! She would start talking about all sorts of random things, and next thing you know, she would do something crazy that would make you die laughing!”

“Seriously?” a guy exclaimed – I think his name was Martin? “Elle’s never been the talkative type around us, you know.”

“Yeah, she always sit amongst us like a nice little lady, reading some books or doing homework…” a blonde ponytailed girl added – I don’t know what’s her name yet.

“Which is why, when she went crazy in front of the lockers this morning, we were like…I dunno, too shocked to even believe it’s true?” another girl added – don’t know who she was yet either. With the red short hair and freckles, she’s actually kinda cute.

“Guess we really didn’t know anything about Elle at all, huh?” Dave said.

Meanwhile, Elle kept her head down. I tried to nudge at her, but she wouldn’t budge. Huh, that’s weird.

“So...before you came here, Elle told us a little bit about you. She said that you guys were childhood friends?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah! Our parents have been best friends for a long time. My parents took me to see newborn Elle when I was just eight months old - so when she said that she knew me since she was born, it’s pretty much true.”

People then asked me more about our childhood - what was Elle like, what was Bree like, stuff like that. Mostly, I told them about silly things that happened when we were kids. Elle chimed in too a few times, reminding me about the bits that I forgot or skipped.

It’s pretty odd to see people being so surprised towards things about Elle that seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary to me. Then again, like Dave just said, they probably knew nothing about Elle outside school. On the other hand, I just realized that I didn’t know anything about her outside the holidays, letters, and occasional phone calls.

Soon enough, food finally arrived. We kept on talking and laughing as we enjoyed our five-star meals, and the fun lasted until Tom walked in and informed us that recess will end in ten minutes. He placed the bill between empty dishes, and people started to fish into their pockets for their wallets and pulled out Visas and MasterCards, while a few others paid in cash. I’d paid for mine as well, but Kayla kept reminding me that I don’t need to so because today is my first day in school.

“You should order for all of us under your name for lunch, Kei!” Dave suggested. Everyone cheered on that idea, but Kayla quickly objected that.

“Nope, you guys will pay with normal prices – especially you, Dave! You’re the one who always eat the most in here!” she said, pointing to the tall stack of empty plates in front of Dave. Everyone else laughed.

“Oh wow, Kay-laaa? What’s with the friendly gesture?” the cute red-hair-and-freckled-girl, whom now I know as Erica, teased her with a sing-song tune.

Kayla twitched one of her eyebrows. “What, Erica? I’m just trying to make the new kid feel welcomed, anything wrong with that?”

“Oh honey, no need to be shy! Kei is gorgeous, and we all admit that!” Sandra chimed.

“Awww, Kayla!” Courtney exclaimed, “Looks like spring came early for the heartbreaker who rejected sixteen guys last year!”

“Kei-and-Kay couple! Aint it cute?” Elena added.

Dave started to clap his hands and chanted, “Kei and Kayla sittin’ in a tree…K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” which soon joined in by all the boys in the room.

“Ugh! Will you guys please stop?”

The room instantly went quiet, their eyes turned the girl who just yelled – Elle. Everyone stared at her with an odd look until Kayla exclaimed, “Oh my God, Elle! Are you actually jealous at me over a guy?”

Elle grabbed her music textbook to cover her face. “N-no!” she retorted, “I-I-I-just…wanna concentrate on my sight reading homework!”

“Ha ha! Elle’s jealous over Kayla!”

“I can’t believe I’m alive to see this day!”

“No I’m not!”

“Oh yes you are! Everyone knows that you can’t lie, Elle!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is too!”

“Is not-argh! Kaylaaaa!”

“Ha-ha! Gotcha, Elle!”

“You tricked me!”

“Not my fault you fell for an old-school trick!”

Everyone else in the room went wild with laughter – including me. Man, these people are so amusing. I almost forgot how reluctant I was to go to school this morning, plus with all these weird incidents that I’ve had - I guess it’s not so bad here in The Dungeon, huh?

After the bills were all settled, Tom ushered us out of the dungeon so we could go ahead to our next classes...