We stood there for a while until I bent down and picked up the paper the brown-haired lackey stepped on. The paper was the writing assignment we turned in yesterday and got back today. Ms. Bailey loved Manami's writing and even passed it around the class for us to see. She scribbled over the name trying to keep the student anonymous but her scribbling skills were lackluster. I'm pretty sure everyone in the class knew it was Manami's.

That popular girl really cares about English to do all this...

I made a show of dusting off the paper and handed it to Manami "Good job."

She looked up at me for a brief moment, her grey eyes unreadable, and then looked at the paper in my hands.

Manami took it and looked at it with a wry smile.

"Thank you, Hitomi." She said softly.

The way she said it gave me a warm feeling I can't quite describe.

"...Yeah. Don't mention it." I said laughing a bit.

Why did I laugh? Why am I feeling kind of weird right now?

"Hey...Let's get out of here. Wouldn't want a teacher to blame us for all that noise." I said.

"Sure." The bookish girl murmured.

We walked to the bench on the side of the library kind of unconsciously as we didn't talk the whole way there. We were walking about the same speed so neither of us was leading too.

We sat down and took off our backpacks, putting them down beside us. We looked out at the forest in front of us. It was filled with tall trees and reed-like grass. The grass was high and thick enough that a child could hide in it if they were playing hide and seek. There were a few wildflowers and mushrooms here and there. It was early September yet the sound of cicadas looking for a mate could be heard. I felt a light breeze.

...

I sighed.

"Thank you for helping me out back there." Manami said, her words now laced with emotion.

She sounds weird again. Like she's genuinely thankful or something.

I could have told the truth and said it was my ego that caused me to butt in but this didn't feel like the right time.

"No problem. You're ok right?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Yes. I...I get so frazzled whenever something like that happens. I freeze and I can't think properly." She explained.

The bookish girl let out a dry laugh. "I'm not good under pressure."

What should I say?

I took a couple of seconds to think and said. "It's not just you, a lot of people are like that. If you're not used to those kinds of situations there's not much you can do."

"Did you learn how to adapt to those kind of situations?" She asked.

"Not really..."

Should I lie? There's no way I can say I used to be just like that leader girl.

I looked up at the cloudy sky. "At my old school I was friends with people like that taller girl. There was no dumb hierarchy system though we all just hungout."

In the corner of my eye I saw her fidget a bit as I explained.

"...But, you didn't bully anyone yourself?" Manami asked using a wary tone.

"No, I was always just there. I watched as they bullied people like how those girls bullied you."

Look! I didn't bully people often. It was mostly my friends. One in particular...And it was never over stupid stuff like grades or being best in the class. We didn't care about that.

I sighed. "I guess I've never thought about how those people felt until recently..."

The short girl looked at me with her eyebrows raised which gave her a sort of hopeful expression. "So, do you think, you helping me was your inner conscience trying to make up for all those times you were a bystander."

Sure. We'll go with that.

"...Yeah. I think it was." I lied and nodded slowly.

"Plus, you were in trouble so I wanted to help you out." I looked at her and said.

"Thank you..." Manami said and looked down.

She was trying not to smile but failing at it.

The bookish girl looked back up at me, her pretty grey eyes matching her smile. With her constant neutral expression, I didn't know she could make this kind of face.

"Why are you looking at me with that dumb smirk? Do you want me to say you're my hero or something." She teased.

I put my hand under my mouth and curled my pointer finger.

"I mean, it wouldn't hurt."

She scooched towards her backpack so she could do a little bow with her upper body.

"Thank you, Hitomi. My...hero." She said while giggling.

The short girl then burst out laughing and I started laughing too.

"Your...laugh sounds so...stupid." She said between laughs.

"Please...the expression...you're making right now...you're lucky I'm not that leader girl who looks like a teenage Ellen if she listened to 21 Pilots while still being stuck on her moms trust fund." I tried to joke but sort of failed at the end.

It didn't matter because Manami's laughs got more hysterical after hearing my attempt at a joke.

This laughing fit we were in lasted for about a minute.

Once we had both calmed down Manami grabbed the part of the bench we were sitting on and leaned back. Her dark green hair moved away from her face because of gravity.

"I haven't laughed like that since the seventh grade." She said while looking at me.

I moved in my seat since my butt was getting sore.

"What were you like back then?" I asked.

"I was similar to how I am now. I was smaller and meeker back then though." The bookish girl explained as she sat up.

She looked down and murmured. "I had one friend and I got bullied too."

Maybe I shouldn't have asked...

I thought about what to say and landed on. "That wouldn't have been the case if you had me back then."

Emma laughed. "That line sounded like a CW character trying to flirt with a Hitomi twist."

Really? She thought that was flirting??? Maybe she doesn't read the romance heavy Romantic era books.

She shuffled her feet and smiled at me, her cheeks red. "Are you trying to woo me, Hitomi?"

!!! Ok, whatever I say has to be smooth.

"Maybe. You'll just have to find that out for yourself." I teased.

Emma giggled and then looked at her feet.

A couple of seconds passed and she looked at me again. "You would have really been friends with the old me?"

Her saying that resonated with me for some reason.

"Yeah, I would have." I said.

"Hm."

The short girl stood up and looked at me for a few seconds. She then walked forward a little and turned her whole body towards me. She put one hand on her hip and pointed at me like we were in a lame 80's superhero movie.

"Hitomi. You are now my friend." She announced with the dumbest and prettiest smile.