A usual day for Chisa

We finished lunch together right as the bell rang, and we walked back to our classes. Chisa and Sophie only shared one class together, and it was one they had on Thursday. The next class Chisa, and currently I, had, was going to be a strange one, though, as it was a French class. I didn't know anything about the language, having studied Spanish instead like the vast majority of high school students.

I walked towards her desk, trying to hide my anxiety. Can I also use her memories to speak it? I closed my eyes and focused on Chisa's knowledge. I... I think I... can do it… I could remember her previous classes. All the things she learned about French... They were naturally flowing into my mind… That's... neat, but also pretty scary…

"Good afternoon, class." My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the teacher, Ms. Delcour. “"Nous allons continuer là où nous nous étions arrêtés la dernière fois. (We will resume from where we left off last time.)"

I understood this perfectly… How the heck am I able to do that?

Since I was in a class, I decided to stop thinking about this and try to focus on the lecture instead. I absent-mindedly grabbed Chisa's notebook and opened it, discovering a somewhat messy writing style, with a lot of scribbles and drawings all around the pages.

I would have expected something a tad more elegant coming from her…

"Chisa, est-ce que tu pourrais lire l'extrait suivant, s'il-te-plaît ? (Chisa, may you read the next document, please?)" Ms. Delcour asked me.

"O-oui ! (Y-yes!)"

I took the book and started to read. It was a poem from a famous French poet, Alphonse de Lamartine, called ‘L'isolement’. I didn't know much about this poet, but Chisa was fairly knowledgeable when it came to French literature."

"Souvent sur la montagne, à l'ombre du vieux chêne, Au coucher du soleil, tristement je m'assieds ; Je promène au hasard mes regards sur la plaine. Dont le tableau changeant se déroule à mes pieds."
I easily read the whole poem, enjoying myself as I heard Chisa's cute voice and French accent coming from me.

Ms. Delcour smiled and gestured at me. "Merci, Chisa, c'était parfait. (Thank you, Chisa, it was perfect.)"

It's... really nice to be able to speak a new language so easily… If I were to possess a Nobel Prize in chemistry or something, would I also be able to easily use their knowledge like this? It was a possibility that popped up in my head. A way to try to learn more about my condition and maybe find a way to return to normal.

I easily managed to follow the rest of the class, as if I had studied French myself for years. It was a really enjoyable class, Ms. Delcour was a kind and understanding teacher, doing her best to explain the French language to us, and knowing how difficult it is to learn.

"C'est tout pour aujourd'hui. N'oubliez pas les exercices pour la prochaine fois. (That's all for today. Don't forget the exercises for next time.)" I happily put back Chisa's stuff inside her bag, ready to leave, but I was stopped by Ms. Delcour on my way out. "It seems like my daughter will join you and your friends this afternoon, I hope it won't bother you."

Hmm? Do they know each other? I quickly searched through Chisa's memories, finding out that Chisa indeed knew Ms. Delcour's daughter, often seeing each other at the arcade.

I smiled at Ms. Delcour. "Oh, not at all, she's always fun to be with!"

"Thank you for taking care of her. She really likes spending time with you and your friends."

"I'm not doing anything special, Ms. Delcour, Amy is a good girl."

Ms. Delcour let out a pretty cute giggle. I never interacted with her before, but now that I was seeing her from upclose, I had to admit that she was really pretty, and her French accent when she spoke was also adorable.

"Maybe you just don't see it that way." She said kindly. “I won't keep you with me any longer, though. Go to your next class before you're late."

I nodded and waved at her. "Right away! Have a good afternoon!"

"You too."

I left the class, but as soon as I stepped outside, I suddenly realised where Chisa was going this afternoon. The arcade? Chisa goes to the arcade?

It was the last thing I expected from her, but her memories quickly confirmed that she was a huge hardcore gamer, and a fan of anime… She didn't go to the roof to watch the sky and relax, but to watch her anime in peace without anyone around to see her...

She's... an otaku? In an instant, the image I had of Chisa shattered, as I learned how she truly was... An otaku who somehow became popular in school and decided to try to hide her nature to maintain this image."

So you hid your real self, huh? I don't think you'd be less popular if you were to show it, though. I thought.

I stopped focusing on it for now, it wasn't something I needed to meddle with. Time flew by fast as I felt so comfortable taking classes as Chisa. Afterwards, I went on my way to the city center, where Chisa was supposed to meet with her friends.

I saw two of them in the distance. Chisa's memories told me that the short blonde one with the Tina Koya school uniform and various pins decorating it was called Zoey, and the brunette in a more sober outfit was Melody.

"Hi girls!" I greeted while approaching them.

Melody grinned teasingly at me. "Took you long enough. Enjoying your newfound popularity so much that you forgot about us?"

Zoey giggled. "Being popular must be tough, huh?"

I sighed, doing my best to act like Chisa would. "It's not like I really chose to be admired so much."

"Then why don't you just drop the act?" Melody simply replied.

I twirled my hair and smiled shyly. "Because having people look up to you is nice too."

Melody shrugged and flexed her fingers. "Whatever. Ready to get your ass kicked again?"

I chuckled, Chisa's competitive spirit flaring up inside me. "We'll see about that, Mel." I then looked at Zoey. “Gabriel isn't here today, Zoey?"

Gabriel was another member of their friend group, and another student from Tina Koya. He was a fairly tall and slim boy with dark purple hair, and was another big otaku, loving manga, anime, and games. He even cosplayed quite often.

"He told me he was busy, but he'll join us later at the arcade." Zoey replied.

"I see. And how's Brad?"

Zoey smiled. "He's doing good. He quickly recovered from your breakup."

Immediately, I saw flashes of memories, making me blush. Chisa and Zoey's brother, Brad, dated for two months but broke up a week ago, while staying on good terms. Chisa didn't think he was the right one for her, due to how much of a nerd she was. She still found him extremely handsome, though, and seeing him from her memories, I felt compelled to agree.

"Well, I'm glad." I replied, my cheeks still a bit red. Is Chisa's personality making me attracted to men? I decided to think about it later and continued the conversation. "And what about the guy you're into? Did you make some progress?"

Zoey sighed. "Not really. His best friend is in a coma right now, so I feel like I would only bother him if I tried to get close."

"Ah..." I gave her an encouraging smile. "I don't think he'd hate it if you were to show your support, as long as you're not too pushy. Knowing that other people are there to comfort you is always a nice feeling."

Zoey perked up a bit. "You think so?"

I nodded. "Yep. I know I'd feel this way, at least."

"Well... When stuff gets that bad, you know who's with you or not by who shows support or not.” Melody chimed in. “I think you should go show your support to him, otherwise... Well, he'll think he can't count on you when things get rough again."

Zoey smiled, relief and determination obvious on her face. "Okay, I'll do that. Thanks."

After that, we entered the arcade, looking for Amy. Ms. Delcour’s daughter was fourteen, and in her last year of middle-school. She was a cute and cheerful brunette, and another geek who loved games and manga. She didn’t have many friends in her school from what Chisa knew.

She approached us with a bright smile on her face. “Hi!”

"Hey." Melody greeted.

"Hi Amy! How are you?" Chisa seemed to really like Amy, making me happy to see her.

She seemed giddy. "I'm great. I'm going to buy the new Finally Fantasy with my mom tomorrow."

"You've been wanting to play it for a while, right?" Melody asked.

"Yeah, but since I got some money for my birthday, I can finally get it." Amy explained.

Birthday?

At the mention of her birthday, I remembered that Chisa had something for her as well; the first three volumes of a manga she thought Amy would like. I quickly checked into her bag and found them all wrapped up at the bottom of it. I smiled and took the gift out.

I walked closer to Amy and gave it to her, surprising her. "Happy birthday, Amy!"

She stared for a few seconds before speaking. "For me? Really?"

I giggled. "Is there anyone else called Amy, here?"

Amy rushed to hug me, giggling loudly. "Thank you!"

I patted her head. "You're welcome. You'll soon be a big girl, huh?"

"Hehe, one more year and I'll finally be in high school."

Melody snickered. "Ah, being young and innocent. You won't be as excited once you see what high school is like. For example, I have a teacher called Peter. He's a pretty good teacher all things considered. He taught me all I knew about biology. He also taught me five different ways to cook various bugs, their texture, their flavor… Explained that shrimps are just sea cockroaches, and if you wash cockroaches well, they're just shrimps. And that is my average teacher. There are worse teachers who, instead of being eccentric, want to make everyone fail."

Melody could get into lengthy and strange rants like this from time to time, but it was something Chisa’s friend group was used to.

Amy simply tilted her head in confusion after hearing Melody's rant, while I did my best to avoid facepalming myself. Zoey meanwhile just laughed.

"Huh?"

Why are you telling her this? Don't make her wary of school like that.

"Oh yeah, we also have a creepy teacher in my school. He's obsessed with **** and revolutions, it's weird." Zoey chimed in.

I had to intervene or the poor girl would become traumatised even before starting high school properly. "Well, there's no strange teacher in my school, they're all really nice. At least, from a student's perspective, I don't know if your mother has a different opinion on her colleagues."

Amy smiled. “They're apparently nice to her. I never heard my mom complain about other teachers."

Melody then grabbed my hand, exasperated. "Alright alright, less talking and more Fighting Street."

She dragged us to the arcade machines, where she promptly wiped the floor with Zoey while I was playing with Amy. She was surprisingly good, but I still held my own against her.

I won't lose so easily.

"Hey." Gabriel joined us after a while, and we all smiled to welcome him, apart from Melody who snickered. "Look what the cat's dragged in... Did you spend some time with that geeky girl you're courting?"

He replied with a snicker of his own. "Are you jealous that I'm not giving you enough attention, perhaps?"

"In your dreams. Now get your ass here so I can kick it." Melody smirked.

Gabriel cracked his knuckles energetically. "We'll see about that."

Gabriel and Melody had a fairly awkward relationship. Chisa didn't know what caused it, but the two acted more like rivals than proper friends. He was the only one able to consistently beat Melody in most games. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing together. Melody and Gabriel were definitely the best among us, but Amy and I managed to win a few times against Melody. I even beat Gabriel once, bringing me a lot of satisfaction. Zoey wasn't as lucky, though, she didn't manage to beat Melody or Gabriel even once.

I still found it incredible how easy it was for me to play the role of Chisa. Even her close friends didn't notice anything strange. On one hand, this afternoon I spent was probably the most fun I had in a long while, but on the other, I felt fairly guilty for what I did to Chisa.