"Ouch"

Opening my eyes, I see a pair of saucer-like green eyes looking up at me. They belong to the perpetrator, a short girl who bumped into me and has now fallen down onto the hallway floor.

She wears a PE uniform and a very worried frown. The former strikes me as a rather strange thing to have on during a lunch break.

...More striking than that, though, is that she doesn't have legs.

Or she does, but they are not flesh and bone. Her pale and very much flesh-and-bone thighs end in shins and feet made of some black metallic or plastic-like material.

They look disturbingly artificial and unnatural. It almost makes me forget that my chest is hurting.

The girl winces a little, rubs her nose and jumps up.

"Aw man, hey, are you all right? I'm sorry about that, really! O wasn't looking where I was going, and you just came out of nowhere. Sorry....Sorry!" She's looking really apologetic.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it...hmp.."

I say that, but there's a stinging pain growing in my chest, and I know that this is about the biggest possible danger for my condition.

Don't overexert yourself, don't forget your medication and most of all, don't get hit in the chest.

I try to rub my solar plexus to chase the pain away, holding my breath in an attempt to hear my heartbeat.

...

...

...

It seems normal....

"H-Hey, should I get a nurse?" She looks seriously worried.

I stare at her for a few seconds dumbfounded, until I realize that I probably looked worse off than I really was, doubled over myself and looking all tense.

Damn, I'm overly worried about my heart.

"N-No need, I'm fine." I continue to rub my chest.

"You sure you're okay? I hit you pretty hard." She looked at the floor.

"You bet I am, I said I was fine, so I am. Nothings broken, no harm done!" I smile, but I was in pain.

"Ash, what happened?" Dawn asks. Oh, yeah, she can't see. She sounds very worried. More than what the situation deserves, really.

"S-Someone just bumped into me, nothing serious. Just w-winded." I rubbed the back of my head.

"Sorry! I was in a hurry!" The girl who bumped into me looked like she wanted to cry.

"That 'someone' here is Elle, isn't it?" Dawn raises her eyebrows.

"Hey, Dawn....S-Serena" She smiles.

I guess the girls know each other.

"Do please try to be more careful. You might be sturdy enough to endure these sorts of accidents, but there are people who aren't" Dawn put her hands on her hips, with the cane still in her hand.

Elle blushes and starts to fidget nervously like a little child caught misbehaving.

Reminds me of my little sister back home, I find myself smiling.

"O-Oh okay." She smiles nervously.

"Aaah! I gotta go!" Elle speeds off.

"Does that kind of thing happen often around here?" I smile.

"There are more rules in Vaniville than usual for running in corridors.....But that rarely stops Elle." Dawn does a half smile.

She shakes her head weakly and offers a slight, composed smile.

Dawn starts to walk ahead, while I'm still on the floor, of course she didn't know I was still on the floor.

I stand back up and go to follow her, but I feel a tap on my shoulder.

"Y-You dropped t-t-this" Serena passed me my hat.

"Ah thanks!" I smile brightly at her.

She seems to blush slightly.

Serena notices the distance between her and Dawn so she hurries after her.

The route to the room the two use for tea is fairly simple to retrace, being still fresh in my mind from yesterday.

Dawn and Serena quickly go about the business of making lunch.

Before I can even open my small bag of food, Dawn's busying herself with thermos and teabags as Serena is setting out both their lunchboxes.

"So, is this what you meant by coming here almost every day?" I asked Dawn.

"Yes, Serena and I usually have lunch here. It suits both of us, so we ended up using this room regularly." Dawn closes her eyes.

After seeing Serena's reactions to me over that past couple of days, I can understand why that is a boon. That, and Dawn being able to get some quiet away from her class as well.

I take my seat last, after Dawn's poured the tea for us and sits down.

The more time I spend with these two girls, the more I think they're a perfect foil to May and Bianca.

Even without a voice, Bianca is direct and brash, and Nay seems to get along with everyone. On the other hand, Dawn is soft-spoken and relaxed while Serena seems to be the shyest girl I've ever met.

"So, how are you faring in Vaniville, Ash? You seemed a bit flustered before." Dawn says.

"Apart from getting lost every now and again, and being crash-tackled outside my classroom? Fine, I guess..." I chuckled slightly.

"You....you looked pretty hurt before. Are you really..okay?" Serena speaks up.

For a brief moment, I consider telling Serena and Dawn about my condition but then, I hold it back.

I can't tell why, but for some reason I feel uncomfortable talking about it to these relative strangers, even if they have been pretty friendly.

"Yeah, it's nothing. I was just a bit startled." I lied, well actually I didn't because I was startled, but I was in pain.

From the girl's expressions, I don't think that they're buying it. But, in what I assume is their way of respecting my privacy, they don't press the matter.

I guess that is one of the unwritten rules around here; 'don't ask.' Even if people's conditions are obvious, like Serena's, there's still bound to be a story involved.

Everyone has things that they don't feel comfortable speaking about, and I think everyone here recognizes that.

"How long have you been in this school? You both seem to know your way around pretty well." I smiled.

"Well, I've been here since the start of high school, but only moved into the dormitories a year ago." Dawn smiles.

"Serena joined at the start of high school as well, and moved to the dormitories when she did, if memory serves me right." Dawn speak for Serena.

"That's right. Since....high school." Serena speaks up.

"So you've known each other since then?" I asked.

"Since I moved, yes. Serena lives next door to me, so it's only natural, right?" She giggles slightly.

"R-Righ." Serena says.

"Yeah" 

Living next to someone is probably reason enough to befriend them, though I'm guessing that Dawn's blindness played a part in it as well.

I can't imagine Serena easily making friends with someone who has to deliberately avoid looking at her scars.

With the immediate conversation dried up, we start to eat our lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It isn't long before the bells are signaling the end of break. Like me, the girls pack up their lunches as efficiently as they set them out.

"I guess I'd better be off. Are you going to go with Ash, Serena?" Dawn opens her eyes.

Serena looks up at me, and for a second I can see that she is considering skipping class, maybe just to avoid walking to the classroom with me.

"Y-Yes." She says to my surprise.

Serena is really delicate to the point of breaking if looked at in the wrong way. It makes me a bit nervous too, but I push the feeling aside, trying to be natural as I can.

"We should hurry then. Class has already started by the sound of it." I smile at Serena.

Dawn gives a nod of farewell as she bends down to take her can, Serena and I filing out before her.

We walk quickly down the empty halls to our respective classes.

As we reach the door to Dawn's 3-2 classroom, she turns towards me.

"Ash, thanks for sharing lunch with us today." She smiles.

"My pleasure, Dawn" I smile.

And with that, we part ways; Dawn entering her classroom and leaving Serena and me to make off to our own. She's still looking like she wants to run away.

"So, do you really want to go back to class now?" I ask her.

"Y-yes." She plays with her thumbs.

"Alright"

I feel like I should say something more to her, but it's hard to come up with anything that would be appropriate and safe enough.

And Dawn was right; the more time we spend out here, the more explaining we have to do.

I open the rear door to the class, and walk in.

The teacher looks up at me, and opens his mouth to say something.

However, as Serena follows me in and closes the door, he simply nods to us and continues his lecture.

This is the third time that Serena has had her truancy practically ignored. There's definitely something going on here.

We make our way to our seats, and I notice that Bianca and May are both missing as well.

I wonder if it is some form of informal agreement with the staff, or if it's a 'perk' afforded to the unique students of the school?

Trying to make as little disturbance as I can, I extract the relevant textbooks from my bag and start catching up.

The class goes on quietly.

The teacher seems like an okay person despite the weird first impression I got, and the material is relatively interesting.

However, the way he teaches is really bizarre. It's as if he expects that everyone is a natural genius.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the final bell sounds, I realize that there is still a lot of time left in the day, and I'm left wondering what to do.

It's odd, at the hospital I had 24 hours a day of free time, but here filling the considerably shorter hours feel difficult.

Everyone else leaves, and I'm left alone with the teacher.

Sycamore is examining the assignment sheets we were working on earlier, marking them with a red ballpen.

Raising his eyes from his papers briefly, he notices me and furrows his brow.

"What is it, Ketchum?" He asks.

I jump at him addressing me, but I guess it's natural to spark some conversation since there is nobody else around.

"Nothing. Thinking about what I'd do after school" I shrugged.

The teacher slowly puts the cap on the pen he is holding and arranges his papers into a stack, clacking it against the desk twice.

He seems very methodical and for a brief moment I'm reminded of Bianca, but the teacher is more unhurried and relaxed, much more routined.

"You have no plans?" He asks again.

"No. I considered joining a club, but don't know what kind of club would interest me." I sighed.

"Go observe a meeting of someone else's club. Might pique your interest." He suggests.

"I guess... I just...." 

But I don't know how to continue from there.

Sycamore looks at me in a way that makes me quickly want to take the words back to avoid a conversation.

But I can't, so I have to forge ahead.

"I just don't know how to deal with people. I mean, the other students. I'm talking to people and everything, so it's not that I'd be isolated or anything. I just don't know what to think about....the disabilities. It's like...it feels that I'm being impolite if I pay attention to them, and it's weird to ignore them. Damned if I do, damned if I don't" I sigh again.

 The teacher scratches his cheek absentmindedly, looking very unresponsive.

"These things are only an issue if you make them one." He says.

"You can talk normally with someone, even if they are blind or something. Try to look behind the superficial. There's not a single student here who isn't just a normal kid behind whatever they might seem at first glance." He adds on,

I know he's right, but it's hard. How can you not consider for example Bianca's deafness, when the only way to communicate with her is to talk through May?

Or Serena...it's not like you can ignore her face.

"But..."

I'm interrupted by the door of the classroom suddenly slamming open.

"Teacher~!" May shouts in happiness.

May crashes in, hand straight in an enthusiastic greeting, her voice loud and lively enough to wake the dead from their graves.

She starts towards the teacher's desk with her bouncing steps, hand energetically swinging with the rhythm.

Sycamore, visibly dismayed at the interruption and May in general, slumps in his chair.

"May." He says.

May stops in her tracks and looks around cluelessly, as if she's sensing from his tone that something's wrong but has no idea what.

"Yes~?" She says in a confused tone.

"We have talked about volume control before." He sighs.

"Yes~!" She says loudly.

Sycamore just rubs his eyes.

"So, what is it?" He looks at her.

"I....we need help! We are running out of supplies for the festival stands!" She looks worried.

"So....go get more supplies from the art room. What's the problem with that?" He looks at her as if she's stupid.

"Plywood! Plywood is always the problem! Last time we wanted more there was only a little, but that time we just took it and went with that." She says.

I stopped eavesdropping and before I knew it, Sycamore pointed at me.

"Can you help me out?" May smiles at me.

"I guess" I smile.

"Thank you!" She puts her hands on her hips.

"Come to think of it, what's Ashie doing here? Class is over, you should be having fun~!" She looks at me.

"We just had a little chat." Sycamore answers her question.

"Oh no! It's not a detention is it? Are you in trouble, Ashie?" She looks at me angrily. 

"No, I'm not" I answer.

"Here's a list. I can try to find the plywood from somewhere if there's none in the art room." She smiles again.

She offers me the note she's holding. I take it, hesitating a bit.

"I said I'd help you, but this has no implications on whether I'm joining the council or not" I tell her.

"Awww dammit!" I could tell she mentally facepalmmed.

"Still, thanks, Ashie! Try to be quick, we are in a stall-building steak now, we must hurry hurry hurry!" She smiles.

She bounces out of the classroom, leaving me and the teacher looking at each other with something that feels like a silent agreement.

"Well, there you have it, Ash. You have something to do now." Sycamore smiles at me.

Please don't sound so smug.

Looking at this list with a number of items ranging from paint to plywood, all written with small, neat handwriting that is undoubtedly Bianca's, I heave a sigh.

"I'll be going then, later" I wave at him.

I exit the classroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After that I got the items that were on the list.

"What took you so long!" A voice screamed in front of me.

"Wha! Oh, sorry. Err...I got the things here, was just going to bring them." I pass her the stuff.

"Thank you, Ashieee!" She runs in a different direction.

"Um, you're welcome?" I say while watching her run off.

Guess I'll just go back to the dorms and call it a day, I have a few books I take interest in, so I'll just read them.