Tense

You arrive at school early but this time you don't go to your classroom, instead waiting for Michael in front of the gate. Kana decides that she want to stay with you so you continue holding hands, she doesn't ask why you're staying here.

As you wait you can see Ashley in the distance, she arrives and throws a glare at Kana.

"I'm still not ok with adding her." She says abruptly.

"Come on Ashley, you're not jealous aren't you?" Kana taunts her.

"Of course not! I just... don't like you." It seems that even changing reality couldn't make the two of them friends with each other. She looks at you and continues.

"Oh and Penny will be late. No needs to wait for her." It seems she misunderstood.

"What happened to her?" You ask, Ashley grins.

"I made her discover the greatness of fighting game... And she was determined to beat me." She looks proud of her but at this point, you only feel bad for Penny. She started against the best player you've ever encountered.

"Come on let's go! We're going to be late!" You look at Ashley and let out a sigh. Let's hope Micheal is late too.

---Later---

It's 11 am and Michael still isn't here. Penny arrived in class at some point, she was looking very exhausted, it seems she ran there as she ended up missing her bus too.

You can't focus on the lesson, still thinking about Michael still not being here. You expected the teacher to announce a new transfer student the same way Kana arrived but it doesn't seem to be the case. You look at the clock, 11.28... You're really starting to think your rumor failed.

You hear the door opening up, and you look up in excitement, this is it! A teacher enters the room in the middle of the lesson, he apologizes :

"Sorry for disturbing the class, I received a call from Miss.Walker, she's sick today." The teachers then exchange a few words and the class goes on, your hopes shattered. But you didn't notice that Vera was absent, you don't remember her ever missing class, but it has nothing to do with you so you ignore it.

The class finally ends, the teacher asks you to stay after class, you ask Kana to wait for you in the cafeteria.

"John, can you please visit Vera today?"

"What? Why?"

"There are quite a lot of notes and homework, I don't want her to fall behind." She looks concerned.

"Sure, but why me?"

"I think the poor girl doesn't have many friends and I saw you talking to her a few times." You look at her and you can't say no.

"Fine, I'll bring it to her this afternoon."

"Great, thanks for the help John." She smiles at you.

You then leave in direction of the cafeteria, you pass through a corridor leading to the dean's office, you can see someone enter. You're wondering who that was but you don't want the girls to wait too long so you hurry up.

You arrive and they kept you a seat. Two seats to be exact. One between Penny and Ashley, the other between Kana and a very surprised Jessica in front of them. You don't want to see Ashley jealous again so you sit next to her. She smiles and leans next to you, Kana sighs.

"So, you mind explaining?" Jessica asks, kind of confused about the current situation, notably the presence of Kana next to her.

"We're... in a relationship now I guess..." She looks at you dumbfounded.

"Don't you two hate each other?" She asks while looking in Ashley's direction.

"I love him that's what matters most." Ashley answers. Jessica then turns toward Kana and she nods to her as well.

"If that's ok for you I guess I shouldn't insists." She starts eating.

"John I made you a meal!" You look at Penny, ending you a meal box filled with good-looking food, Kana then intervenes.

"I made you a meal too..." You look at them again and you sigh.

"Kana... I-I'll eat it too, but could you coordinate with Ashley and Penny next time?" She looks disappointed but agrees.

You then spend a tense but somewhat enjoyable meal, you still think about Michael but what preoccupates you right now is if your stomach will last two whole meals.

As you lay down lazily on your chair, you can now definitely say it was too much...