Chapter Two: The Usual Lunch Crew

 

*“Well, you guys have a choice. You can either eat with my gang and I, or you can chill by yourselves and see who you make friends with. Take your pick.” Serena said with a knowing smile as soon as they reached the cafeteria. Somewhere along the way, Wufei had crossed their path and joined up with them. Duo was yet to be found, but Hiiro didn’t think much of it. It was raining heavily outside and it was lunchtime. That meant there was only one place that braided baka could come for food, the cafeteria. And when he did come, he would join them and instigate another fight with Wufei again.

“Guys?” Quatre asked expectantly. He, personally, wanted to eat with Serena, just to be on the safer side of knowing someone, but he couldn’t chose for the whole group.

“Eat with a baka onna? I think not.”

“Take that back! And if you ever call her a ‘baka onna’ again, you’ll be saying those words out of the other side of your body, understand?” Said a tall girl with brown hair and light green eyes, coming from behind Serena and placing her hand on her shoulder. Hiiro watched Wufei blushed at the suggestion the amazoness had just made, then scowled and turned away.

“Hey, you’re my kind of gal! So what do you say to hooking up with me for ice cream after school, huh? I’ll bet you know where the sweetest shop is.” Said Duo, who had joined the group as Wufei had made his first comment.

“Not so bad yourself, and I do know every ice cream parlor in town.” Said the mystery girl, very obviously eyeing Duo, then winking at him.

“Oh Lits!” Serena sighed in exasperation. Now she was going to hear the old ‘he looks just like my old boyfriend’ routine during practice all day! “Lita, this is Quatre, Trowa, Hiiro, Wufei, and Duo.” Serena pointed to each as she introduced them. “Guys, this is Lita Kino. And over there are Ami Minzuno, Mina Aino, and Rei Hino,.” She giggled as she finished her list of close friends.

“Jeez that’s a mouthful! I don’t think I’ll ever get it all!” Duo whined.

“Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” Said Quatre trying to make up for Duo’s rude comment.

“Onnas! Injustice!” Cried Wufei. Pulling away from the group, he sat at the far end of the table where they were all beginning to sit down.

“I’m Trowa.”

“Hiiro Yui.” Were the last of the introductions.

“Nice to meet all of you. I assume you’re all in Serena’s history class?” Ami said to them while opening her chemistry book.

“Yes. How would you know that?” Asked Trowa, slightly off kilter. Hiiro eyed him sharply. What had Trowa so thrown off balance that he had some inflection of emotion in his voice? He threw a look over to the short blue haired girl sitting across from him. She had to have been the cause, without a doubt. The question was, why?

“Well, given Serena’s schedule, and her habits of volunteering to help orient new  students to the school when they are in her class, it was only logical to assume you were all in her first class, which is history. Unless, of course, I’ve confused her classes with my own or one of the other girls, but I was certain I was right…” Ami looked up and blushed when she caught Trowa’s intent stare.

“Oh Ami!” Serena burst out in a fit of laughing. “No, no. You had it right. These guys are all in my history class. Don’t worry so much about it. You’re the smartest girl in school. I’m sure you don’t need to worry about who’s schedule you’ve mixed up, we’ll all forgive you!”

“Yeah Ames! Take a hot pill!” Mina added. Lita gave a short laugh.

“Mina!….”

“A hot pill?” Asked Duo puzzled. Somehow all the guys had lost track of the topic of conversation somewhere after Serena spoke.

“She mixed up the saying. It’s supposed to be chill pill.” Lita explained. They all watched as Duo, Trowa, and Quatre cracked a grin, then a small laugh, then finally went into full-blown hysterics.

“What?” Mina asked, obviously annoyed. Even Wufei, who had heard the conversation from the other end of the table, was to busy laughing to respond. Serena’s eyes fluttered back and forth from each of her friends to the new boys. It was already apparent that attraction had been established between Duo and Lita and Trowa and Ami. Wufei, she was sure, was just as hotheaded as Rei, and as for Quatre, he would soon fall sucker to Mina, who was already beginning to eye him hungrily. But Hiiro. She couldn’t place Hiiro. All of the others showed some emotion, but Hiiro did not. He was silent, stoic, and all had an all around negative karma. What was his deal?

 

While all of the others laughed, Hiiro watched on, silent as ever. He assumed these girls were good, wholesome people with innocent intent. They were far from any soldier he and his friends had ever fought. But there was something more to Serena, he was positive. Why was her hood still up? What was she hiding? She seemed like such a normal girl. Was she? Or was there something else he and his friends were missing? There had to be…

“Hiiro?” Serena tapped him on the shoulder. “Hiiro?”

“Hnn.”

“The bell rang. Form what the guys told me, you have Literature of Witness next. I have that English class too. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” Hiiro stood up. Grabbing his book bag, he joined her at the entrance to the cafeteria and they walked off to their next class. *