[1x1] Chasing Dreams

“Are you lost?”

Seika bounced in place as a voice suddenly addressed her. A sheepish smile curved her lips as she looked up from her map. Another girl who looked to be her age stared back at her, she wore a worn pink shirt, but her hair caught Seika’s attention first. The girl’s blond hair seemed to glitter under the light of the street lamp, like thin filaments of gold, and if the way her bangs and shirt were plastered to her skin was any indication she had been jogging for quite some time now. Seika released a breath as she relaxed her shoulders.

“Oh! Hello, uh, yeah I think I’ve gotten turned around.” Seika said, with a quick laugh. She looked back down to the map. “I picked this up at the station, but it only seems to have about half the roads, so it isn’t very helpful.” She reached up and brushed her bangs to the side as she looked back to the girl.

“If it isn’t too much trouble I was trying to get to school, just trying to find a good route from my house y’know.” She was making this awkward, wasn’t she? Seika smiled, because that seemed like a good use for her nervous energy. “I’m Seika.”

“That’s a very nice name, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Seika said with a polite dip of her head. Ayano returned the smile and Seika couldn’t help but feel it was as brilliant as her hair. Seika leaned in as the other girl brought out her phone, her gaze falling to her phone as she brought up the map app. She really needed to see about getting a new phone once her mother and her were settled in, but things would be busy for a while. She followed one of Ayano’s slim fingers as she showed the directions to the school. So, she wasn’t too far off, with enough wondering she might have made it there eventually.

Well with a town this size it was probably hard to get fully lost anyway.

“Thanks, I owe you one.” She said with an easy smile. She folded her paper map and slipped it into the back pocket of her shorts. Would it be weird if she offered to buy her tea or something as thanks? ”Yeah, we just arrived yesterday, we've barely even made a dent in unpacking.” Seika said, with another quick laugh.

“I’ll be joining as a third year, how about you?” It’d be nice if Ayano was in the same year, at least she wouldn’t feel completely out of place on the first day. “Oh, are you in the track club? If you don’t mind me asking.”

”Thank you, the town seems very quaint.” Seika said. That seemed like the safest thing to say anyway, she didn’t really have an opinion of Iwami yet other than that it seemed small. Or, as her mom had said it would be a nice change of pace, which was a statement she also wasn’t certain if she had an opinion about. Still, it seemed like she was on her way to making a new friend already so it couldn’t all be bad, right?

Seika’s eyes lit up when Ayano mentioned that she was the captain of the track team, a broad smile catching her lips. “Really? That’s awesome Ayano! I’ve been doing track since junior high, so I hope there’s room for me on the team.” She laughed again. “I hope we’ll be in the same class, it’ll be nice to have someone I know a little bit, y’know?

“You won’t be disappointed,” Seika said, returning the playful teasing with a wink of her own. She had been worried that the team wouldn’t have been looking for new members so she was pleased to learn that the team might still have a spot open for her. Hopefully the rest of the team were as nice as Ayano, maybe if she could make plenty of friends then she wouldn’t miss Tokyo so much. Seika hoped so, anyway. Perhaps it was overconfidence or just the warm glow of how fun Ayano had been to talk to, but she didn’t feel concerned about her chances to get on the team.

”It was great meeting you, thanks!” Seika said, raising a hand to wave as Ayano began to jog away. For a moment she watched the blonde’s long hair as it bobbed in the streetlight, like flakes of gold glittering in the night. Then, Seika called out on a whim, “let me treat you to tea and cake sometime as thanks!” before she turned the way Ayano had pointed and jogged back to the main road.

~~-~~-~~-~~-~~

One shower and a change of clothes later and Seika found her way successfully to the school building. She knew it was a little silly, but she was still surprised by how small the building was compared to the one back home, or, it wasn’t really home anymore was it? She had a much easier time finding her classroom than she did the school building that morning she had her homeroom teacher giving her a quick tour of the building after all, and she couldn’t help feeling a little excited to see if Ayano would be in her class as they walked. She wasn’t completely sure why, but she could feel her heart beat just a little quicker at the thought.

“We will have a new classmate joining us starting today.” The teacher said when they finally arrived at the room following the first bell. Seika stood in front of the blackboard, looking over the faces of her classmates. There really were a lot fewer than she was used to, but it still felt uncomfortable to have so many eyes on her at once.

“I’m Yanagi, Seika, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope we can all get along and become good friends.” Seika said cheerfully with a polite bow of her head. She looked up, catching a familiar pair of eyes as an easy smile crossed his lips.

“Let’s see, where’s an open seat for you?” The teacher said, looking over the classroom.

Eyes caught and Seika’s smile widened as Ayano tilted her head towards an adjacent open seat. She felt a quick flutter in her stomach as the teacher’s gaze turned away towards a pair of open seats next to the windows next to a rather serious looking boy, and with no ill will towards that boy, it really wasn’t where she would like to sit as nice as starting out the window would be. So, Seika cleared her throat faintly before gesturing towards the open seat next to Ayano. “That one there looks open.” She said.

“Oh, yes that one is. Ayano, I hope I can trust you to take care of the new girl and show her the ropes.” The teacher said, motioning for Seika to go take her seat. Seika offered another quick bow of her head to the class before quickly making her way over to her seat. She dropped her bag down onto the top of the desk before sliding down into her chair. Seika looked over at her new friend – was it right to call her a friend after one meeting? – and grinned.

“Fancy meeting you here,” she said softly with a wink.

“Alright, now, let’s all turn to page 63, and ah, Ayano could you let Seika share your book until her own comes in?”

A little bit of scooting with Ayano’s help and she was shoulder to shoulder with her new friend. At first her attention was on the whiteboard as Fugisawa began to write but it quickly slid down to the desk as Ayano slid her notebook her way a little to catch her attention. A little note there just for her. Seika grinned as she picked a blank space just below Ayano’s neat handwriting.

It was touch and go, but your directions were excellent she wrote back. She paused a moment looking around the classroom before adding a quick line, This school is so much smaller than the one back home.