...

Okay, I'm back and it's lunch now!

I hope my emotions don't carry through this telepathic communication, because I want it to be a surprise on how Gumi and I did with our Proximity Plan.

I know I called it a proximity strategy earlier, but I think- about three sentences into us actually discussing it, Gumi and I decided "Proximity Plan" fits better. Like, try to say "proximity strategy" over and over again. That's like, pro-xim-i-ty stra-te-gy. Mouthful. Like, saying it five times fast is so super duper exhausting. With Proximity Plan, so much less syllables, so easier to say quickly. Furthermore, because an "ee" and a "pluh" are so much compatible than an "ee" and a "sssss", Proximity Plan rolls off the tongue so much better.

So, it's final. Proximity Plan.

Now, in case you haven't been following along so far: the Kusuris' First Impressions plan is completely down under. No way we can salvage it with our current outfits. Nothing about what we're wearing is eye-catching enough. No way will we have a chance to make friends just by looking cute and cool and stuff. We just have to get off of the bus and carry on in these travesties of outfits, trying to gain social points through personality alone.

Thus, our next plan, our well crafted Proximity Plan... is to just- reach out and talk with the classmates that sit near us. To obtain friendships through closeness. Reaching out to the fellow new people around us.

Hence, "proximity". Our plan to use proximity. Proximity Plan.

I know what you're thinking, maybe, possibly: this sounds too simple to be a real plan, Cherri. It's as simple as "just talk to people around you", right? If it is as simple as that, then why didn't you and Gumi just talk to everyone on the bus?

Well, I do agree, it sounds pretty simple. I spent the entirety of middle school doing whatever felt right, saying whatever felt natural to say to the people around me. Got through middle school just fine.

But here's the thing. I want to try and be different. Back then, I was just a young kid, and- a lot of the crap I used to say won't pass anymore. There's a different time and a place for everything Gumi and I say now.

We have to consider the fact we're new to a whole school of teenage creatures, we're meeting new animals and creatures for the first time at a school, and - reminder, just in case you didn't hear what I mentioned just ten seconds ago - we are at a school. All that time and place jumbled together to say: we are going to be walking on eggshells until we accustom ourselves to it all.

People don't think about how hard it is until they, like, have to actively think about it, think about the sheer amount of intricacies going on.

Let's run through an example, just to get my point across. Imagine you walk up to someone and say to them, "Hi! I am (name)." Then they say to you back, "Hi! I am (name)." Then you say to each other, nice to meet you! And that's it.

Boring.

Bland.

It was not nice to meet you.

That's just a complete and utter nonsense conversation that gives both of you nothing to work with. You don't speak about anything meaningful for them to care about. If I was that person, I wouldn't remember you in the slightest.

Okay, so the takeaway is, don't be boring, talk more. Give the person something better to work with, right?

Let's see.

Hi, I'm (name)! So hey, do you want to look at my super duper cool insect collection? I have like a ton of rhinoceros beetles and black widow spiders and red caterpillars all imprinted into this book. Take a look, feel it, it's authentic insect skin there! Had to squish the bug myself to make sure they last. Preserving insect skin is-

Okay, so tell me EXACTLY how you felt after I said all of that. At what point did you try to desperately tune me out, to try and make me stop talking about my "insect collection"?

Again, time and place.

I hypothetically walked up to some stranger, told them "oh I love bugs" but in an extra way, and tried to involve them in my bug hobby. There were so many flags set off, flags that can only be noticed "by myself" some amount of time after that, while everyone else just sees me as the creepy bug loser that made a complete stranger touch bug guts.

So don't make them touch bugs, right? It's as simple as just thinking, "don't make people touch bugs", right? Anything else could be free game?

So what kind of lipstick do you like? ... oh, you don't- you don't like lipstick? Really? But your lips look so red, are you sure that's natural? That's wild. Your lips look so fantastic, as if a professional did them!

Oh, hey, so like, I saw you were eating lunch over here. Mind if I join you? Awesome! That's a nice BLT sandwich you got there, so bacony and so tomatoey, must have costed a lot! Quality sandwich. So like, I know we just met, but uhm, you wanna be my friend?

Hey~! I'm (name), and I'm pretty quirky and endearing. I love hanging out with strangers-turned-friends in public all day until I go to sleep in their arms like the cute lil' thing I am. Could you possibly help me find my cute little blue eyed, white dragon to complete my collection? Thanks!

All of these being things I know you wouldn't say, Mr. California- or, maybe you would, but like... yeah. The list of things just expand more and more, and you just precariously make sure you navigate through all of them.

Soooooo... the Proximity Plan makes it so much easier to get through all of that.

Time no longer becomes a factor, because the people in that class are new. Place doesn't matter anymore, because we all understand we're at a school together. A new class entirely!

Of course a student would try to make friends with the people they sit near. Would you want to dislike the people you're forced to see almost every day? No, of course not. You'd want to be friends with them, to do things like study together and eat lunch together and probably cheat on tests together.

Oh, ignore that last part, that was just an out of pocket thought.

Basically, befriending your classmates makes you so much happier than if you hated them.

So yeah, simple thought. Use a natural thought process to our social advantage. The Proximity Plan is almost foolproof. It's one that we ultimately landed on, because of its simplicity. The easiest of what we're able to improvise with our resources- or lack of resources. It's completely ingenious.

The Proximity Plan starts out Gumi and I sat down in homeroom. First class, Math.

I looked around at all the new classmates that got here before we did, these fellow freshmen. For five seconds, I was just planning where Gumi and I should sit, which group of people were cool enough to reach out to.

And then.

"Pfft- hey, get a look at these two ugly basic b----es!" someone exclaimed, ten seconds after we entered. "Still in that school orientation outfit! Hahaha, what total losers!"

Sitting somewhere in the middle-ish row of the room, at one of the big science tables, there was a weasel girl with a winter coat and some black wig. A pink bow in her hair, wearing a striped black and white shirt with pink shorts and suspenders. A heavy amount of makeup over her weasel face, with very prominent pink lipstick, with vibrant blue eye shadow over her eyes. Thick eyelashes, also.

One look at her and I could tell... I hate her. Hated her in that moment, still hate her now.

And guess what? Her little shout worked.

One single shout, one very- very loud shout to bring to everyone's attention to our outfit. Her laugh rings out through the room, prompting... other people to laugh. Others to join in and laugh at our outfit. Our now "old, loser clothes" for everyone to make fun of. Fulfilling my worst fears about our clothes, having known the truth about these clothes long before this weasel brought it up.

This... this is a horrible feeling. Gumi and I were just minding our business. Literally just chilling out and walking in, ready to try and befriend our classmates. But her shouting caused this sort of domino effect where everyone, everyone we could sit near, they told us that the seats next to them were taken. None of the tables with people were available, as people were saving seats for their... friends.

It did confuse me at first why high school freshmen who were in a class for the first time ever would already have friends, but y'know. There was that school orientation for the people who didn't have friends, and- I guess this school had people who went to the same middle school together.

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This weasel has high social standing in our class, and has free reign to do this.

Thus, Gumi and I were forced to sit in the very front corner of the room. The one closest to the teacher's desk. The WORST place for us to sit for our social life.

Why was it the worst?

Well, it's right in front of the teacher's desk, meaning the teacher can see us if we decide to try and secretly chat with anyone. Anything we say can be seen immediately by the teacher. A math teacher, furthermore. Those are very perceptive. No chance to pass notes or whisper or any of the sort without the teacher noticing us.

Also, sitting in the front corner means so much less people to chat with. There's only the people sitting right behind us, then someone else sitting next to us in the front. Gumi and I can't naturally have conversations with people right behind us, we would need to be creepy and look behind us at the people right there, and... well, to the right of me, the only person out of this entire class Gumi and I could naturally reach out to.

... the lizard nerd guy who approached us on the bus.

He's in our homeroom class. I rejected his friendship request on the bus. Looks like he's actively ignoring us, which... fair. We didn't have the best interaction on the bus, with me telling him to "beat it" and all.

I thought about reaching out to him and apologizing, but... the kissygirl risk. We can't have our first friend be a guy.

So... no friends. Thanks to little miss Makeup Weasel over here, we are now Math Class outcasts. Complete social rejects, isolated from everybody around us, the laughing stocks of our homeroom class.

And after all of that, the entirety of the first class was just- the teacher coming in and going on and on about the curriculum and the math itself. No ice breakers, no introductory chats, nothing. Just 90 minutes of talking about the syllabus and what we are going to learn in "algebra"... strict academic stuff.

I didn't really expect much from the Math teacher, of course. He's just a walking, talking robot with tube things for arms. Square headed with blue glass eyes and a rigid neon yellow smile. No signs of humanity in him whatsoever as he spouted off robotic garbage noise and all.

So... after those grueling 90 minutes of whatever, first period is over, and the Proximity Plan isn't working at all.

But... hey, this isn't our only chance. I took a look at our schedule. Every single student aligns with the same times and stuff, as this school has us in class from 8pm to like... 2:30pm. We have a total of four 90 minute classes a day, eight classes for an entire year. The classes change every other day, with a buffer of days off and junk. Eight chances to make friends with the people around us.

Furthermore, the lunch period takes place after 2nd, where students are divided between two time periods. Gumi and I are in the last lunch, meaning we have an entire 3rd chance before the hustle and bustle of the lunch room.

Of course, the lunch room will be the benchmark to decide how socially secure we are after this major setback. So, Gumi and I have to- at least- make friends with people in 3rd period so we can guarantee ourselves a seat. Probably 2nd period too, but- less of a priority, since there's no guarantee those people will show up at lunch with us.

The Makeup Weasel's now far behind us and we don't have to worry about her anymore, right?

No way that this weasel is going to completely ruin our chances to make friends, right?

...

Yeah, okay, Mr. California, I've been trying to hide it this entire time. No use to keep it a secret anymore.

We failed completely.

Our first class was a failure all over some random girl deciding that, for some reason, she had beef with us and making people make fun of us and hate us before even knowing us, and it's... yeah. Really sucks. The precursor to us being complete and total losers for the rest of our lives, affecting the rest of our classes.

2nd Period. Biology. Life Science. Uses a science room, one of those big rooms with science equipment lining up against the walls. Large, big tables to the side with stools to sit on, then some normal school desks in the center.

Weasel girl shows up again in our class, entering the room shortly after we did, and- her apparent problem with us continues.

"Oh, hey, gross lesbians! Didn't know you were in this class too! Good to see you. Hope you decide to keep it to yourselves this time, I don't want to see your public gayness this time."

And she's pulling out the sexuality card.

Basically, a lesbian is a "girl who likes/loves other girls", and this weasel is calling us that in a derogatory, insulting way.

There isn't any problem with it, of course. People like who they like, and I believe there isn't any problem with it. Completely for the record, though, Gumi and I are only into guys- and even I don't like them all that much. Romance isn't really in the forefront of my mind. So, the negative part of all of this is that this weasel is trying to mislabel us as "girl lovers".

Now, if we approach any girl in this class, they'll think we're flirting and hitting on them. Then, it makes it so the cool guys stay away from us to be respectful of our preferences, leaving the weird guys that decide to try and- oh, I dunno, "make us into guys" or some creepy and freaky crap like that.

Oh, and it gets worse. There are some... very, very disgusting implications from her telling us to "keep it to ourselves" in front of the class. The weasel girl called us lesbians, like- directly said "gross lesbians" to us in particular, implying to other people that we were interested... with each other. Two gay sisters.

You see the problem with that, right?

Huge freaking problem.

Ugh, and I don't want to make a big deal denying or arguing it, because we'd just make a scene going "we're not lesbians! Shut up!" at this girl. A complete waste of time, since everyone in this class already believes it. I can see it in their eyes, their judgmental looks at us while this girl talks massive crap about us. Whatever we say, this girl can just completely discredit anything that comes out of our mouths.

Thus... the outcasts of Biology class.

And after the travesty that was the 2nd class... the dreaded 3rd class is here. French. That one class that is completely essential to our social lives. And luckily, the weasel girl isn't in our third class!

However, her friends are.

We entered that room, and immediately we're branded the gross loser lesbian sisters dressed in the most foul and horrendous of clothes, having pissed off this apparent menace that has a tight, tight hold of our social lives. Threw crumpled up paper balls at us, shouting that nobody liked us, that we were eyesores and a waste of everybody's time.

The French teacher, the walking and talking pink feathered flamingo man, considered this a cultural experience for some reason and just let it happen. Just teaching his class and carrying on, ignoring the fact that Gumi and I were suffering. Conflict is, apparently what the French have experienced all their lives, and learning about the history of France requires we get bullied the hell out of.

Ugh.

So, three out of eight chances to make friends, wasted, and I personally don't see our chances improving any time soon. The fourth class, Drama, could be whatever, and the crap that will happen in the other four classes tomorrow could just- ugh.

From this very moment on, as Gumi and I are just eating lunch privately, taking our food to an empty table... our social lives are over. Gumi and I are now... officially... the outcasts of the high school.

"..."

"..."

I don't... really know what else to do at this moment. This is probably the worst thing that could have ever happened to us. Gumi and I are sitting alone at a table. We managed to get a table to eat at just- by luck.

No one's sitting with us. We have an entire table to ourselves. Everyone is making deliberate efforts to- avoid us. The rumors took up all of our third period classmates, and I- I guess the Makeup Weasel probably spread the rumors out of class too. All the freshmen turned against us, and- I guess any of our upper classmates having their own friend groups to enjoy as well.

We're just having a sad, sad lunch, eating single pizza slices each, a pretty small amount of mashed potatoes in our tray, two whole apples and two orange- fruit cup things, whatever these fruit cups are... and two cartons of strawberry milk. I went ahead to get some vending machine chips and came back to just- add a bit more, and... yeah. That's... I've been eating this the entire time while talking to you, Mr. California.

If only there was like, some small chance that Gumi and I can get any friends here, then-

"Cherri- uhm..."

"... hm?" I look to Gumi for a moment as she gets my attention, hand on my shoulder and shaking me out of my lil' diary thoughts. "What's up?"

Gumi then points slowly in a direction, seeing the lizard nerd approaching our table. Well, not approaching us directly of course. The guy was just looking around for a table to sit at.

"Oh. The lizard nerd. What about him?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at Gumi.

"Cherri, he- I- I think we should reach out to him..."

"... Gumi, we can't, our first friend needs to be a girl-"

"A-And we don't have any, yes, I- I know, and we run the risk of being kissygirls, but... but like, look at him. Look at his face for a moment."

...?

I look at the lizard nerd for a bit, staring at his face for a bit. Trying to see what Gumi sees. It's truthfully a little bit confusing, but... I guess the one thing I notice is his eyes being hydrated, I guess. The water just in his eyes, kind of just- drawing to the marks on his face. Those scales, and I guess the-

... oh.

Oh.

Bruises.

"... o-oh. I see," I tell Gumi. "He... he's- going through his own crap too."

"Y... Yeah. Can we reach out to him now? H-He looks like he really needs it... a-and we kind of need it, too... I- I kind of don't care about our first friend being a guy anymore..."

"..."

A sigh escapes my lips. I feel sorry for the lizard nerd now, and... outcasts stick together, I guess. Whatever, I guess. What else do we have to lose? Gumi and I are now worse than kissygirls, so... might as well try to make friends with this guy, now, since we have no other options.

I get up from my seat and wave over to the lizard nerd. Smiling at him and calling him over to-

"A-Ah, wha-!"

"Huh? Gumi, what's-"

Promptly, I hear the sound of a face being squished into her lunch. Someone forcefully pushing a girl's face into this school lunch, smushing a girl's face into her own lunch tray. Squishing the face against whatever food was on that tray.

I... I- I look at Gumi for the longest while as this sound happens. I stare at her the longest while... the voices of the lunch room fading into the background as I stare.

... and right behind her... the one responsible for that sound... the Makeup Weasel.

"Come on, come on! Eat up, piggy! Go on, eat up. Makes it some good practice, doesn't it?"

...

Laughter?

There... there's people laughing.

I can hear laughing.

... there are people laughing. I look to see her friends laughing as she pushes Gumi's face into the lunch. I look around as their laughter spreads out to the rest of the lunch room, people just- laughing.

The... the lizard nerd also laughs... t-though- he looks confused as to why everyone was laughing, his head turning around, looking for what the joke is.

...

I just... I just can't help but stare at this weasel for the longest while, staring at her wretched face. Seeing the dumb, stupid, ugly look on her face as she laughs down at Gumi. As she spreads a joke that no one but her friends truly get.

This girl... has been nothing but a complete terror to the Kusuris.

"W-Woah! And look, the other one's looking veeeeery pissed at us! Don't like what I'm doing to your lil' lesbian loser here?! Oh, my! Well, then! How about you join her?!"

...

W... What the hell is her problem with us? Why did she hate us so badly? Why did she need to be ugly and rude towards us? S- Spitting venom out of her weasel mouth- spitting on Gumi, spitting on the back of her head, just- just- just...

... I... I just stared at her hand for a bit, seeing it hold Gumi's head tightly... and- and...

...

"H-Holy-! Oh my g-"

"O-Oh crap- did you really just-!"

"Y-YOU- HOW DARE YOU-!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT THE HELL UP!"

"A-Ah! Someone call a teacher, she's going insane-!"

"Oh god oh god- is that- is that blood?! I-Is she bleeding?! Holy shit-!"

"A-AAAAAH! AAAAH- S---! S---! S---!!!!!!! W-WHAT THE- WHAT-?!"

"Stay still, STAY STILL! JUST SHUT UP AND STAY STILL!"

"L-LET GO OF ME! LET GO, WHAT THE HELL IS- AAAAAH!"

"W-What's going on over-! H-HEY! LET HER GO, THIS INSTANT!"

"P-PLEASE- MERCY, MERCY!"