Hakura Ichizen was in trouble. Actually, trouble wasn't even the right word to describe what she was in.
She had to study with the nerd of the school. The same nerd that she had known for about 11 years now since kindergarten. It wasn't abnormal to know a friend for 11 years and more, but the relationship between Haruka and Ai was complicated. Not only did they know each other for a long time and never interact for 5 years straight, but they also had opposing stereotypes.
For example, Haruka was a rich, popular, blond girl that liked to skip classes when she could and hang out with the popular kids.
Ai, on the other hand, was a middle-class, nerdy, student who attended every single class without fail, and studied as if her life depended on it.
Under normal circumstances, the two stereotypes would have stayed far away from each at all times; which did happen for about 5 years. That was, until the Haruka, who was rich beyond imagination as a child, started to brag about it during school. This caused Ai, who was extremely smart for her age, to make a comment about how being rich can't make you smarter, which in turn caused quite a lot of rude comments about each other to spur to the point that the teachers decided to interfere.
Since then, both of the girls were always throwing some kind of insult at each other. Whether it be during class, or after school, it didn't matter. It became such a normal habit for the two that neither of them stopped at any point. Of course, this caused them to get into trouble several times, it was a never-ending cycle. This was the only way they ever interacted up until now.
Haruka and Ai knew this fact. This is why both of them did not want to study together, apart from the fact that they hated each other's guts.
The next day, September 2nd, Ai spotted Hakura in the hallway with a group of students who were considered popular students who had long, painted nails, short crop tops, and expensive purses and bags.
Hakura, who was a popular kid, surprisingly didn't wear that many cropped tops and mainly just had expensive bags and no nails painted, yet she was the richest there.
Approaching the group, Ai then went straight to Hakura.
"Hakura, could I talk to you about the studying-" Ai started, but then one of the girls with way too much makeup and one of the shortest-cropped tops that Ai had ever seen interrupted.
"Eww. Does the little nerd want to talk with THE Hakura Ichizen? Ha! Get on our level before you even think about it." The pick-me girl said in a sassy bitch tone, emphasizing the 'THE'.
"OMG! And she even wants to talk about studying. Like who does that these days? Oh yeah! Only the nerds." Another girl said laughing in Ai's face.
"Well, the teacher said that I need to be studying with her because of her grades," Ai remarked saying it to the two bossy girls as they just stared at her in disgust. Then a voice interrupted the awkward situation.
"Let's just get out of here. We don't want to listen to this nerd anyways." Hakura said as she started to walk away. All the popular girls followed as Ai was left standing there.
"Fucking damn that Ichizen! I'll get you alone next time!"
Unfortunately for Ai, the next couple of days, Hakura was always surrounded by other people and Ai could never find the moment or time to confront her about this. This happened for about a week, minus weekends.
The cycle was something like this.
Ai would come to school semi-early in the morning. She would then look around the front yard and hallways. Sometimes she found Haruka, and sometimes she wouldn't. The rare times that Ai found Haruka, was when she was in a group. This always resulted in Haruka's 'friends' insulting Ai being a nerd and all and then Haruka telling the group to just ignore the nerd's presence saying things such as:
"She's not worth our time."
or
"C'mon, guys. Let's just ignore her nerdy presence."
Afterward, Ai would just head to class and study. During break and lunch, Ai looked for Haruka when she was alone. This was extremely rare due to Haruka being popular.
Ai continued this routine throughout the week and Haruka just kept on getting away from her.
Of course, Ai wasn't doing this of her own will. She would never admit it out loud anyways. Due to the sudden threat of having her grade turned into a B, Ai was now on full alert mode and knew she could NOT get such a low grade. So sucking up the fact that she had to talk to Haruka, she continued to search for a way to discuss this issue.
One of the mornings of September, Haruka was nowhere to be seen.
Ai, who had to look for her so they could talk, looked around the school in various places. Take, for example, the roof, the hallway, the cafeteria, the spare classrooms, and basically every single place where Haruka usually hangs out.
"Where the hell is that stupid blond!! I've checked everywhere!" Ai muttered to herself as she walked to the front of the school.
On her way, she caught a glimpse of a blond flash by her eye and she knew exactly who that was.
Running over to the speed-walking girl, Ai caught up to her.
"Hey. Could we talk about the studying that the teacher assigned u-" Ai had tried to say but was rudely interrupted.
"No." Haruka said as she tried to go even faster turning her speed-walking into an even faster type of 'walking'.
"But-"
"No." As Haruka said this, she got into the car, slamming the door on Ai's face, and told the driver to drive off as fast as they could and they sped away, leaving Ai, once again, in the dust.
"Are you fucking kidding me." Ai groaned.
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"Ai. How have you not been able to get this girl to agree? Your entire grade depends on this!" Mom shouted, frustrated at the potential danger to my grades.
"But Mom! I can't even talk to her! Either she doesn't listen to me, or she has her 'friends' get rid of me! What am I supposed to do!" I shout back, mad that my mother doesn't understand that I am trying.
"I don't know! Do something she can't get away from! Try getting her in a situation where her friends can't help her! Just try it. You know my rules! No getting anything other than A's! Are we clear, Ai!?!" My mom shouting turned into loud, harsh yells.
"Yes, Mother," I say as I leave the room with my head downwards to the cardboard floor.
I go up to my room and sit on the bed.
"Why can't she understand? I'm trying. I really am! Why can't that rich bitch of a blond understand that I'm doing this for me and her and then actually contribute and help me!" I yell to myself wishing that Haruka would actually listen sometimes and help for once.
~~~~~~~~~
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So this is why, on Friday of September 10th, Haruka, was running away from Ai in front of the school early in the morning.
"GET BACK HERE!!"
"NO. I AM NOT!!"
"CAN WE JUST TALK!!"
"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!"
"YOU'RE RIDICULOUS FOR RUNNING AWAY ALL THE TIME!!"
"I AM NO-"
"BANG!!!"
Haruka had turned her head to yell back at Ai, but as she did, she ran right into a pole which caused quite an amount of pain since she was running at full speed. Following right after, Ai ran right into Haruka at top speed trying to slow down. Both girls ran into the pole again at the same time from the impact of Ai hitting Haruka and they fell onto the ground in front of the pole.
"Owww..." Haruka groaned in pain from hitting her head on the metal pole.
"Ugh! This is so your fault Ai! If you weren't chasing me at the beginning of the morning, then we both wouldn't have fallen!" Haruka complained as she was rubbing her head from the throbbing pain.
"Why would you even chase me to talk to me? I thought you were the smart one here since you were the nerd. Seriously!" Noticing that Ai didn't respond after having such gaslighting sentences, Haruka looked back to see what was the problem.
"Hey, what's your problem-" Haruka had turned her head around to see Ai who was avoiding eye contact by looking to the side with a hand covering her flustered face. Haruka now realized what position they were in. At a single first glance, Haruka's face heated up and she thought one thing.
"Oh shit, she's cute."