Start of Something New (Moss)

[hanatachibana]

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Oh my goodness! This school was becoming much more than I had ever dreamed! From the dorm rooms that were so incredibly BIG to the swimming pool to even the CAFETERIA, everything was so amazing that I could have sworn my eyes had been wide with awe since I moved into the school. Then again, I was used to learning at home and even at my middle school before it wasn’t like this. At my middle school it had been cold and lifeless. All the teachers cared about were academics. Here, though, it looked like it would be really REALLY fun to learn here. Everything was just full of life and vigor. It was truly inspiring. All of this excitement though had been making me hungry though, so I decided to hunt down the cafeteria again.

The cafeteria was one of the few buildings I had been to since I first got here a couple of days ago. American food was so strange, yet utterly interesting to try. One of my favorite American foods so far, though I believe it is actually Italian, is pizza after I had tried it the other day. Today I wanted to try something different and new. Maybe a burger? I didn’t really know but I was assuming that whatever I had would be delicious. I tried my hardest not to stand out too much as I walked into the lunch room but I am sure that my wide eyes gave my obvious noobness (a new word that I learned today) away. Eagerly I walked over to the closest line and waited there to order my food. I was way too excited about this for my own good.

[jenks]

[[ Never used first-person in my life XD My apologies if it's crap... ]]


I had been here a thousand times and though I’d like to have said that it was different every time - it wasn’t. The same plastic chairs bundled into corners and scattered around the tables smelling like anti-bacterial wipes and old food. I wrinkled my nose at the horribly built furniture but the rumbling of my belly was more than enough encouragement for me to ignore everything and head straight to the lunch server. I peered under the plastic visor (trust me, if you’re a big guy this is harder than it looks) at the slop served within. There was the usual salads and pastas, the burgers and the pizzas as well as a few of the ‘healthy snacks’ the Teachers were all babbling about these days but what really caught his attention in the far right was a platter of greasy, over-cooked Chinese ribs looking oh-so-tempting. Smiling up at the older lunch lady I motioned for a large serving of the greasy goodness and in his haste he turned around quickly - coming into something small, soft and shampoo-smelling.

It happened very quickly. One minute my chinese ribs were on my plate and the next they were splattered all over some poor girl. Weird this always happens to me right? Must be messy by nature. With one last futile attempt at grabbing the last one before it landed I admitted defeat and a rush of regret and embarrassment washed over me like a hot shower. “Oh shit, I am so sorry… here.” I leaned over and started picking bits of rib off of her blouse, my fingers fumbling blindly as I did so. “Uh, you can have my shirt.” I mumbled, starting to remove my own clothing hastily.

[hanatachibana]

I had a feeling after today my stomach would still get sick from the food. One thing that I wasn’t used to yet was how greasy American food was. The first night that I had tried the food here I had spent most of the time in my dorm’s bathroom throwing up. Such a pleasant picture. Then the next night I was left in bed with my bottle of Tums (that were unusually tasty) and my roommate bathing my brow with a washcloth. American food was good, at least the stuff that I had tried so far, but it was becoming harder for me to keep trying it. I was hoping that by the end of the week I would be used to the grease in the food. If I wasn’t then, I was probably going to go over to the other side of the cafeteria to eat the Japanese cuisine they seemed to have there. Japanese cuisine was at least safe and familiar to my lovely stomach at least, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting sick right? Of course right! Oh well. At least my eyes, and my stomach, had decided what to get for lunch while my mind continued to think way too much. Looking down at the different pastas there was a bunch of choices to choose from. The one that looked the most tasty was the vegan lasagna, which seemed a little bit weird cause wasn’t lasagna made out of cheese and meat?

Right before I was about to ask the cafeteria lady for a chunk of the vegan goodness, I felt something hit my chest. I could totally feel the sauce sink into my shirt. Oh dear. That was going to be a pain to get out. The guy – a really cute guy - who had accidentally gotten his ribs on me was freaking out and was clumsily trying to get the rib pieces off of her shirt. When I saw him reach for his shirt to take it off my mind went completely blank. My eyes widened so big that they could have popped out of my face out of complete shock. My face burned bright red as I tried to grab his hands to restrain him. “No…you don’t need to do that. It’s fine.” I cringed with embarrassment by how strong my Japanese accent was. “I have jacket! It is no problem.” Letting go of the guy’s hands I reached towards my purse and unzipped it to grab my jacket from the bag while my other hand wiped off the remainder of the ribs. Pulling out the jacket I put it on and zipped it up quickly, successfully hiding the stain. “See?” I said while giving the guy a bright smile, “It’s all taken care of.”

[jenks]

Of course his greatest concern was she was going to be one of those prissy-clean types that would gang her buddies up on him and call him mean things like ‘girl-basher’ or whatever terminology they used over here but to his luck a pair of soft hand grabbed at his gently and pushed them away. Moss caught but a brief glance at them before they were pulled away but he couldn’t help but notice how petite they were - even for girls hands. Before he had the time to blink she was up and had recovered herself by putting on a jacket on top of it. Hopefully there was no meat residue left behind that would be stuck to stain that cute little jacket of hers. He managed a goofy smile as the buff mechanic shifted his gaze to meet her and if anything he was more embarrassed than he was before… she was very cute.

He should have guessed by her petite hands that she was of the oriental decent. Her eyes were soft brown and almond in shape with slight curves at the duct, her skin was smooth and flawless as was her chocolate-coloured hair which was loose around her shoulders framing her dainty features. Even her accent, though thick and nervous, suited her down to a ’T’. Not surprisingly, he was smitten for a moment or two and she did nothing of the kind to make that impression fade. Her warm smile was enough for him to stand up straight and puff his deflated ego and at least attempt to regain some of his pride and perhaps attract some positive response from… ah, he didn’t even know her name. It would have looked more impressive if maybe his t-shirt wasn’t stuck on his left arm.

“Sorry ‘gen. I’m always makin’ stupid mistakes like that.” He fiddled with his arm hurriedly to get it free from his sleeve only to hear another ‘rip’ sound from the seam. He checked it and sure enough the armpit had ripped some but it didn’t faze him as it happened quite a lot (not like the Incredible Hulk a lot but it was easy to catch upon things in his line of work). “Oh, again.” He paused to laugh. “At least let me buy ye’ some lunch? This time I won’ make ye wear it.”