Lunch time ~open~

[candle]

All by herself, staring down at her tray of food. She sat there, one hand supporting her cheek and the other holding a fork which she used to play around with her food. Yes, she pretty much looked bored. She's been bored the past 2 weeks she's been attending High School. She sighed as she continued to look at her plate. "I wonder how Lucas is doing..." she said to herself. If he hadn't of mysteriously disappeared, they'd be eating together. As of this moment, Chihiro hasn't made any new friends. The ones she did have previously had all transferred to other schools, and her aquaintences are all in different classes. So as of this moment, she hasn't been able to mingle with anyone. Generally she is pretty friendly, but as of right now, everyone seems to already be part of some group. She wouldn't mind sitting down with almost anyone, but they all appeared pretty exclusive. "Maybe I should try," she thought out loud. "Find the smallest grouo possible and sit with them. That'd be fine, right?"

Well, as she glanced around the cafeteria, most tables were practically PACKED. And then....many tables were EMPTY. Tables were either packed or empty. And here she is, all by her lonesome, with no one to talk to. She moaned, "How can I come over and sit with anyone if THERE IS ABSOLUTELY no room FOR ME!"
She sighed. This was frustrating. She wasn't liking high school very much. And the building in itself was uninteresting to her. No curiousity she had to satisfy. Nothing looked cool and mysterious enough to explore. Not like Scarlet Rose. If only she could go there. Now THAT would be exciting. With nothing else to do, she took out her notebook and a few assignments and decided to do some studying. Might as well put her lonesome time to use, right? Better than sitting around sulking.

[hotpocket2]

School had just started up once more and Arna was back into school-mode. It's not that she didn't like school - she just liked helping out at her dad's store. As she was thinking of that she realized that she would make a good stay-at-home wife. The idea of that made a smile pop up on her face then realized how boring that would probably become. She walked around the once-again strange cafeteria looking for her friends that she would normally sit with. She normally had her friend from the class before lunch help her find the group since they're part of the same "group", but her friend was absent today. Arna wasn't good at finding faces among a crowd though so she would rely on her friend. She never even paid attention to which room they'd eat in - she'd just follow her friend blindly. She was going to have to make sure to to pay attention next time.

After several minutes of walking around with her full lunch tray in her hands she decided to just abandon the search for her friends and sit down. There were lots of tables though. They were all either filled or empty; there was probably a seat saved for her at her friend's table but that seat would have to go to waste today. She walked around some more searching for a good table. She didn't want to sit at an empty table with nobody to talk to but all the tables that had people and space were the ones with either nerdy or stoner looking people. It's not that she had a bias... she just wanted to talk about something other than video games, math, and drugs.

Then she finally spotted a table with a single girl at it. Then she spotted another person sitting at the opposite end of the same table. It looked as if they either didn't notice each other or they were awkwardly ignoring each other. She walked over to the table and flashed a small smile of pity to the boy at the end of the table and decided to sit on the other side of where the lone girl was. She already had enough boys to talk to. As she was sitting down she slapped her lunch try onto the table to make a grand entrance of sorts but it ended up almost knocking over her drink and some of her orange juice had spilled out from the cup and onto her sandwich. A look of defeat appeared on her face and then she looked to the girl with a refreshed smile and asked "Hi, mind if I sit here? I'm Arna by-the-way."

[candle]

As Chihiro continued to write down notes in her notebook she heard something. It soudned like something spilled. This caused her to jolt and look up from what she was doing. She then turned to see a girl asking if she could sit there. She also introduced herself as Arna.
"Sure!" Chihiro said, relieved that FINALLY there was someone to talk to. "It's been so lonely sitting here all by myself that I was starting to feel all fidgety and bored!"
Since Arna introduced herself, might as well return the favorite. "My name is Chihiro Shimori. I'm a freshman!"
She slipped her notebook back in her backpack so she would have full attention. She wasn't sure what her interests were or what they could talk about. Nor who would be the one to break the ice first. Would she be the one to wait on her or would she act first?

"Sooo....how long have you been attending this school?" she asked. Pretty basic question. Not that it would give them much of a real "topic" to talk about. But it was a good place to start. Perhaps along the way she can pick up a few ideas of what she likes and dislikes. She was hopeful perhaps one of her interests would be music. That was probably her favorite topic to discuss, as it IS her best talent. Talking about Scarlet Rose would be interesting, too, if Arna had a curious nature such as herself. But one can never know until you dig deeper into the conversation. For all she knew, they could have little to zero in common, perhaps be total opposites. Still, they had just met, so the results aren't in yet.

[hotpocket2]

Arna let out a mental sigh of relief as the girl across from her had no problems with her sitting there and even sounded happy about it. She put her spoon into her vanilla pudding and smiled at the girl as she introduced herself. When she was done she stuffed the spoon into her mouth and forgot what her grade is called. She always mixed up stuff like freshman, junior, and seniors and what-not. "I'm in eleventh." she said without adding onto it - making it sound like an incomplete sentence.
"Sooo....how long have you been attending this school?" Chihiro asked as the silence between them grew.
"Well, since like... kindergarten. Have you been here for your whole school life too?" Arna asked sounding strangely serious. She realized how serious she sounded after asking that and immediatly shoved some more pudding into her mouth then took a bite of her sandwich. That was when she realized vanilla pudding and a fish sandwich do NOT go well together. She kept on her best poker face though to hide the disgust she was experiencing. She tried to forget about that horrible experiance that she prayed to never have to live though again and asked "So what kind of-" she cut herself off mid-sentence. She was going to ask what kind of guns she liked but thought that the girl probably wasn't into that kind of thing. "Ah, hehe. My bad, lost my train of thought. What kind of m-music do you like?" she had stuttered due to the fact that she wasn't good at discussing anything but guns. It would be hard to hold a conversation about music. Hopefully Chihiro liked music...

[candle]

"Eleventh grade?" Chihiro blinked. "That would make Arna a Junior! Arna's above me in rank."
She said this with a smile, as she didn't really mind that thought. As long as she was nice. She then ripped the foil from the top of her apple sauce container. It was strawberry applesauce. She really loved those. She then asked how long she's been attending. "Uhhh...I guess my whole life, too." she replied. "With my twin brother, Lucas." she then looked a bit sad. "But Lucas isn't here anymore."
Not wanting to dampen the mood, she smiled again. "But maybe one day I can finally explore Scar---" she cut off there. 'Ooh...maybe Arna wouldn't want to hear about my theory of Scarlet Rose.'
"I, uhh...." she tried to act dumb. "Well, I'm really curious about a lot of places, like Scarlet Rose. I think it'd be fun to explore their campus."
'That sounds more legit and believeable.

Though stuttering, she heard Arna ask about music. Instantly, Chihiro lit up and smiled with closed eyes. "I love music!" she replied. "Chihiro likes to compose her own music."
Yes, she sometimes spoke in third person, then switch to first. It was odd. "Chihiro also writes words to the song and plays it on the roof, singing it."
She thought about the recent one she wrote. She'd love to share it sometime with friends.
"Do you like music, too?" she asked. "Or do you have other neat interests?"

[hotpocket2]

Arna was somewhat confused when she was spoken to as if it weren't herself. It was as if the girl across from her was talking to somebody else about Arna. She decided to just ignore that and let out a some giggle and smile as she went on listening to the girl. She noticed her expression sadden upon talking about her twin but then she smiled again. She must not have wanted to talk about it further. Arna figured that her twin must have died somehow or is really sick. Chihiro then proceeded to cut herself off mid-sentence and then picked up with what seemed like a different topic - yet it wasn't really. What she said kind of seemed "dumbed down" to Arna. She didn't mind though - she'd do the same thing when talking about her guns... or well, she'd try to at least.

Arna tried to remember what the "Scarlet Rose" was... she knew what it was but it was on the tip of her tongue. Then she recalled when Chihiro mentioned exploring it's campus, so it must have been a school. Then she began talking in third person again when the topic of music had been replied to. It was pretty weird how she spoke in third person. Arna had never met anybody before who has done that except in manga or anime. She had to admit though - it was pretty cute. Then Chihiro went on to talk about writing lyrics to songs and singing them on the roof. Arna had just been hit by a cuteness/weirdness overload. Which is something coming from her...
"Do you like music, too?" "Or do you have other neat interests?" asked Chihiro.
Arna wondered whether or not she should mention her guns... Most other girls that she didn't quite know that she told about her guns were either freaked out, scared, or made fun of her. This girl was also weird though... so hopefully she wouldn't be too disturbed or anything. "Ehhhhhh, wellllllll, I'm somewhat kinda obsessed with guns that are thousands of years old.... Hehe..." she had to force out that small chuckle at the end since she was feeling kind of awkward. "And yeah, I like some music. Mostly dance and techno and stuff like that. What kind of music do you like singing? She asked - trying to change the subject away from her guns. After she was done mentioning her obsession with guns she felt really awkward and regretted mentioning it. She could have at least used a different word than "obsessed" to describe herself on the topic of guns. Oh well, she was prepared for the girl to get disturbed at this point and to leave Arna at the table by herself.

[candle]

Chihiro's eyes widened in both curiousity and amazement when Arna mentioned being obsessed with ancient guns. "Oooh...that sounds cool!" she said. "Do you collect them? Can you teach me how to use one?"
Arna, however, seemed almost embarrased about this interest, and quickly switched to answering her music question. She appeared to really like dance music. Perhaps she liked dancing? She then asked her what kind of music she likes to sing. "I like to sing really pretty stuff, meow..." she replied. "Elegant, soft music that uses classical instruments like piano and orchestra."

She then began to hum the song she made. So far it's her favorite she's ever composed. She was really quite proud of it, honestly. However, Arna's interesting interest has made Chihiro much more curious about it. "Chihiro would like to hear more about Arna's interests in old guns!" she said with a smile. "Chihiro finds you very interesting. Most people seem fairly typical with bland interests, but Arna is different!"
She continued to smile with closed eyes. Her curiousity meter was through the roof. She now wanted to hear all of Arna's knowledge about these guns.

[hotpocket2]

Arna was surprised when she saw the curiosity inside the girl's eyes. Where normally there would be fear or laughter - there was genuine curiosity. "Do you collect them? Can you teach me how to use one?" asked Chihiro. Arna wondered whether she should tell the truth that her and her dad are essentially illegal-arms makers. Well, it's not that they were doing it for a profit or anything - it was just a hobby of theirs. Even if the guns they created copies of were over 2000 years old in design - they were still guns that they didn't have licenses for. Heck, they didn't even issue licenses for guns like theirs anymore. Only museums had them. And about teaching her... she was too young to even be holding a gun. Well, that's coming from a 16 year old gun-nut.

"I like to sing really pretty stuff, meow...""Elegant, soft music that uses classical instruments like piano and orchestra." replied Chihiro.

Arna also liked that genre of music - she just never really spoke about it. She still liked dance and techno more though. She could barely hear the nice-sounding humming of the girl across from her over the noise of the cafeteria, but she could tell that it sounded very nice.
"Chihiro would like to hear more about Arna's interests in old guns!" "Chihiro finds you very interesting. Most people seem fairly typical with bland interests, but Arna is different!" Chihiro had apparently still wanted to know more about Arna's obsession. She considered whether or not to give her a "dumbed-down" version or to just go all-out... The latter would more-than-likely confuse the girl though so she figured she'd stick with a somewhat dumbed-down version.

"Well, it's not really anything that special... Me and my dad sometimes create copies of like really old guns - the over 2000 years old kind. And it's perfectly legal of course, hehe." That was a lie of course "Well, you know how all these guns they have now just mainly shoot lazers? Well these guns just shoot projectile bullets. They don't even have any lazer technology or assistance at all. Most of them are less lethal than the lazer guns today but I have a Barret XM500 with a modified barrel that can shoot .68-caliber bullets. They could literally tear a man in half from over 4000. Assuming that you can hit somebody 2000 yards away anyways. That's my favorite AM... oh and AM means "anti-material rifle". That's what they called it back then. My second favorite gun is the M240B which is a medium machine gun and it can shoot almost 1000 rounds-per-minute. Oh and a round is a bullet in-case you didn't know. It's really heavy though and goes through ammunition like crazy~!"

Arna's "switch" had been turned on. She was talking without taking nearly any breaths and got completely lost in talking about guns. When she realized that she stopped and said "Ahh~, sorry about that. I kinda lost myself there." while taking another bite of her sandwich. She pretty much forgot she even had a lunch once she started talking. "By the way, what was that you were humming earlier? It sounded really nice..." she asked while taking another bite of her sandwich. Lunch would be over soon and she barely even began eating.

[candle]

Chihiro listened in amazement, wide eyes blinking, as Arna went on about old guns. Guns that did not use lazer technology? How fascinating! From listening, she learned a lot she didn't quite understand, but it was still interesting. "A bullet sounds painful, meow!" Chihiro commented. "What are bullets made out of?"
Though the girl seemed to not hear her, as she still continued. Chihiro just smiled. She was really excited about her hobby. 'Maybe someday I can learn how to make those, too!'

Finally, the girl seemed to stop and apologized. "It's no big deal," Chihiro told her. "I was enjoying every minute of it! I hope to learn more about you and your hobby as we get to know each other."
Arna then asked what she was humming early. "Oh! It was a song I wrote," she replied. "I composed it not too long ago. It's my latest piece. And it has lyriucs, too! Chihiro loves writing and composing music. Really pretty stuff that puts one in deep thought, meow!"

[hotpocket2]

Arna wasn't sure if she was more happy or surprised that it seemed like the girl across from her was interested.

"I was enjoying every minute of it! I hope to learn more about you and your hobby as we get to know each other."

That wasn't quite something that Arna ever heard other students say. It sounded very... proper. As if the girl had been raised in some rich family or something like the nobles in England back in the day. Of course she'd know about things like them too from learning about old guns. She knew a fair share of 2000 year old history besides from guns. Of course world history paled in comparison to gun history though. She thought that the girl was just being nice by saying she enjoyed every minute of it. She just couldn't imagine any girl besides her actually liking old guns. But even if her interest was faked - she didn't mind it. It was still nice to be told that by another girl.

"Oh! It was a song I wrote," "I composed it not too long ago. It's my latest piece. And it has lyriucs, too! Chihiro loves writing and composing music. Really pretty stuff that puts one in deep thought, meow!"

"Ooh, maybe you could sing it for me some time if you wouldn't mind. I'd really like to hear the lyrics since it sounded so pretty just from being hummed." Arna had replied to her with a tone of interest in her voice. She looked up at the clock on the wall and noticed that she'd have to leave in about 5 minutes to make it to her next class which was on the opposite side of the building. It would be just before the bell rang to dismiss lunch; trying to get there after the bell rang would be horrid.

[candle]

"Sure! Chihiro would love to sing it for you sometime!" she told her. "Of course, I haven't memorized the lyrics yet and my notebooks are still at home. Maybe I can bring it over next time we meet!"
She then looked down at her lunch. She and Arna have been talking so much that she didn't even touch much of her food. The hunger of her stomach started to sink in and she began to poke at her food and stuff her face with it. "Oh! What is Arna's favorite food?" she asked. Chihiro loved to get to know people and she was often full of questions. That would irritate some people, but hopefully Arna wouldn't be.

She continued humming that same song. It was much prettier on violin, as well as with the lyrics. She had only memorized some parts of it, but not all of it. It usually took of a week of singing it over and over again before she could recite it flawlessly to others. She played with her food a little and then took another bite. Talking to Arna was really enjoyable. She had a unique hobby that dealt with weapons, which sounded super awesome. She's been a bit sad ever since her brother disappeared, but this has really made her day.

[hotpocket2]

"Of course, I haven't memorized the lyrics yet and my notebooks are still at home. Maybe I can bring it over next time we meet!"

"Ah, that sounds great!" Arna excitedly replied - she really did want to hear the full song. Then she figured that Chihiro must have realized what time it was since she really started to eat her food. Arna looked back at the clock and now it there was only about two minutes left - time to begin wrapping things up.

"Oh! What is Arna's favorite food?"

"Uhm... Well I like fish the most I guess. Especially fish that I catch when me and my dad go fishing - it kinda tastes better when you catch it yourself." Arna replied with a slight chuckle of laughter. She looked down to her tray and she had pretty much finished everything by this point. "I'll be right back." she said as she stood up and took the tray over to the counter where a lot of other empty trays were. She figured that she'd just get that out of the way now so she could talk until the last minute. "Back~ So what's your favorite food?" she asked as she sat down at the table. Today was a good day - she made a new friend which wasn't quite common for her. It was even more surprising that her new friend was a girl... and even more-so surprising that she wasn't put off by the fact that she was obsessed with guns. Arna couldn't help but smile during the whole conversation.

[candle]

"Arna likes fish? Hmmm....Chihiro doesn't care for it much." she told her. "Is it true that it tastes better when you catch it? Maybe I should give it a try sometime and I'll like it better..."
When it appeared Arna had finished everything, she appeared to stack her trays and got put them away, telling her she'd be right back. Chihiro nodded, "I'll wait here for you!"
Chihiro looked down at her food. She didn't want it to go to waste after all. She started to spoon some more in her mouth. She really loved the strawberry applesauce. Not too long after, Arna had returned.

"Welcome back!" she said, smiling with her eyes shut. "Chihiro is just finishing up her meal."
Coincidently, after she said that, Arna then asked her about her favorite food. "Oh! Chihiro really likes anything strawberry. Like this applsauce!" she held it up cheerfully. "But Chihiro doesn't like milk....it's yucky, meow!"
Not only was meowing most likely odd to people, but to say you hate milk then meow? Oh well. Chihiro was certain that there was a cat out there who didn't like milk. I mean, come on, they come from COWS! Most likely cats aren't suppose to drink milk anyway, if you think of the natural sense.

Suddenly, the bell rang. Lunch was to be dismissed. "Awww..." Chihiro looked sad now. "Now Chihiro has to go back to class." she then looked at Arna. "Will I be able to see Arna again soon?"
She looked at her with hopeful eyes. This could be the start of a new friendship and she looked forward to knowing Arna even better as time goes on.

[hotpocket2]

"Arna likes fish? Hmmm....Chihiro doesn't care for it much." she told her. "Is it true that it tastes better when you catch it? Maybe I should give it a try sometime and I'll like it better..."

"Hmm, mayyyybe~" Arna said playfully.

"Welcome back!""Chihiro is just finishing up her meal."

"Heh, thanks. And alright."

"Oh! Chihiro really likes anything strawberry. Like this applsauce!"

"Hmm, yeah I like strawberry stuff to." she said as she tilted her head to the right with a smile.

"But Chihiro doesn't like milk....it's yucky, meow!"

"Oh, really? It's kinda funny to see a cat who doesn't like milk." she laughed as she finished speaking. Chihiro seemed like a cat with all the "meowing" that she did.

"Will I be able to see Arna again soon?"

"Well of course!" Arna said in an excited voice as she got closer to hug Chihiro. "Well I better be going to class too, bye-bye!" and with that she began fast-walking to her class. She was happy that she'd made a friend that she'd get to meet again. Chihiro was the first new friend she's made in close to a year. Arna would definately be in a good mood for the rest of the day. She might even get to see her new friend tomorrow in lunch again.

She wondered whether or not she'd really get to hear the whole song that Chihiro created - or if she'd really be interested in learning how to use guns. Oh well, she would put her faith in Chihiro that she wasn't just acting nice in order to deal with her. She needed to start being more trusting of people.