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Of course, Jinora was the star child who did everything right. Thanks to her older sister, Ikki had to say goodbye to life as she knew it in Republic City and move to some backwater town, all because it was close to the Ivy League school Jinora was attending in the fall. Some stupid shit her dad said about how families have to stick together no matter what. Jinora was a whole eighteen-years old. She would be fine by herself! How did Jinora’s life have anything to do with Ikki’s anyway? It was so unfair.
“If you keep frowning like that, you’ll cause premature wrinkles.” Jinora chided, breaking Ikki from her thoughts.
Ikki miserably stirred her cereal that had gotten soggy. “Don’t you have anything else better to do? When do you move into the dorms again?” She pressed. It was too early in the morning to see her older sister looking cheerful and put together. It felt like her sister was rubbing salt in the wound just by existing.
“Nope,” Jinora popped the p. “There’s no way I would miss my baby bro and sis’s first day of school in our new home! Plus, it’s Meelo’s first day of high school! I wanted to be the one to take you guys to school! Also, can’t start moving into the dorms until the end of the month anyway.”
Ikki rolled her eyes. Would it kill Jinora to stop being perfect for five seconds? It was six in the morning on a Monday, for crying out loud.
“Good morning, beautiful ladies!” Meelo announced as he slandered into the room. “And Ikki.” he tacked on. Ikki resisted the urge to body slam her brother as she took in his appearance. Or more like smelled it.
The scent of AXE body spray was pungent and filled the room as he walked in. There was also enough product in his hair that it looked shiny. Not to mention he was wearing a tacky graphic t-shirt with a checked shirt on top and plaid shorts. Fourteen-year-old boys were definitely a breed of their own and to think she now had to be associated with that mess since they went to the same school. Her first day literally couldn’t get any worse. There was no way she was going to make friends if she had to stand next to him.
Instead of tackling her little brother, she did the mature thing and poured out her soggy cereal in the sink before running back to her room to do one final mirror check. She had styled her hair into her favorite half-up, half-down space buns and wore her favorite yellow plaid skirt with a t-shirt for good luck today. Spirits knew she needed it if she was going to be in a fifty-foot radius of Meelo. Her mirror check led her to discover she almost forgot the most important part of her outfit- her large daisy earrings. She quickly put them on and snapped a picture of her fit to send as her Snapchat streak to her friends she left behind in Republic City. Fingers crossed that something in her day could go right.
Tuyen was excited. After proving herself, time after time to the teachers and administration, she got promoted to tour guide in the welcoming committee at school and today she had been assigned to show around two new students that were siblings. She bounced her foot in anticipation as she sat through her first period class. Not even the morning could stop the happiness she was feeling today.
“Tuyen Nguyen, will you please report to the main office?” a voice droned on the intercom. Tuyen practically leaped out of the chair and skipped out of the classroom. Her teacher sent her a smile and a thumbs up as she made her way out the door.
She smelled the new student before she saw him, but it didn’t make the smile falter from her face- freshman boys had a funny kind of charm she couldn’t bring herself to hate. He was lacking in height but not in confidence, as he sent her a smirk and a wink.
“Hello beautiful lady, what might you call yourself?”
Tuyen couldn’t help but to giggle at this short boy’s performance. He definitely had moxie. “I am Tuyen and you must be Meelo?” she asked.
“I am so famous that the lovely ladies already know my name.” He boasted, flexing his scrawny arms. For the sake of being welcoming, she resisted the urge to scoff at that remark. “Isn’t your sister, Ikki, also supposed to be here?” she questioned, deciding to ignore his remark all together.
“Oh, she’s being a big whiny baby and walked away, probably to cause a scene somewhere if I had to guess.” He commented nonchalantly.
Her first time as a tour guide and she already lost one of the students. Great. However, she wouldn’t be deterred easily. Keeping the smile on her face, she put a hand on Meelo’s shoulder and turned up the charm a bit. “How about you sit right there and don’t move until I come back with your sister so we can start the tour of the school, Meelo?”
“Whatever you wish, dear.” He responded back immediately. The one good part about freshman boys was they were all the same when she put on the charm.
It was officially the worst first day of school ever because it wasn’t even the first day of school. It was just her and Meelo’s first day of school. The school here had started a month ago, which means her chances of making friends went from like 2% to -50%. Did her parents seriously not take that into consideration when they uprooted them to move across the country? To make matters worse, her sister was getting all buddy-buddy with the administration within five seconds of walking into the office. Of course everyone loves the golden child. No one would even notice if Ikki was gone. So she just walked away.
Now she was sitting in the courtyard in the middle of the school. She couldn’t deny it was actually pretty nice. Her old school in the city was pretty compact and didn’t have spaces for things like a courtyard. After wandering for a bit, she took a seat on a bench. It wasn’t too long before a squirrel approached her.
“Can you believe this? I walked away and not a single person noticed because beautiful, perfect Jinora stole the spotlight again and she doesn’t even go to school here!” She was really reaching new lows and talking to squirrels today, but her new squirrel friend didn’t seem to mind her or her loud voice as he hopped a bit closer.
“At least I have made one friend today.” She continued as she rifled through her skirt’s pockets. By chance, she came across a few sunflower seeds in her pocket and held them out to the squirrel. The squirrel inched closer and began to eat the seeds from her hand.
Carefully, she raised her hand and began to pet the squirrel gently. Take that Jinora! Ikki bet not even she would be able to tame a squirrel.
“Umm… excuse me, are you Ikki Gyatso by chance?” a sweet voice interrupted her thoughts. Before her stood a girl with short choppy bangs and long wavy hair styled into a high ponytail.
Leave it to her to get caught talking to a squirrel in front of the most beautiful woman she had ever laid her eyes on. She winced more as she took in the rest of the girl’s outfit. The girl was wearing high-waisted jeans that highlighted the length of her legs with a ringer t-shirt that said “welcoming committee” on it.
"You must be my tour guide?" She squeaked out. All semblance of confidence up in the air. She was going to be known as the squirrel girl for life. It was so unfair of karma to bite her in the ass quickly for having such bad thoughts about her older sister.
"Did you bring your pet squirrel with you to school?" The girl questioned. The look on her face didn't say judgmental. She almost looked in awe? It was hard for Ikki to tell.
"Umm...no… just a squirrel that approached me?" Ikki said awkwardly. She wasn't sure if she was making it better or worse for herself by telling the truth, but the beautiful woman hadn't run away screaming yet, so she must have done something right.
"Wow, are you like a real life Disney princess or something? Wild animals just approach you and let them pet you?!"
The blush rose to Ikki's face. "I'm not a Disney princess. I'm just Ikki, but wait, you already knew that…" she mentally facepalmed herself. "What's your name?"
“I am Tuyen Nguyen and I am in 11th grade! I am your tour guide since I am on our school’s welcoming committee and I am almost on the soccer team.”
It wasn’t often that Tuyen met someone and immediately felt a type of way about them, but also never had she straight up walked onto the set of a Disney princess film. The sunlight hit the girl’s dark brown hair in a way that it glowed as she animatedly talked to a squirrel. But what really blew Tuyen’s mind was the squirrel just let the girl pet it.
Not to mention that the girl, who she assumed was Ikki, was drop dead gorgeous. Her mid-length hair was styled into space buns and she had silvery, almost blue eyes depending on how the light reflected off of them. She gave a cute bewildered expression once she noticed the other girl standing in front of her and Tuyen almost felt bad for interrupting her.
“Thank you for finding me, Tuyen. I swear I don’t normally run off and befriend squirrels instead of people on my first day of school. This is an exception.”
Tuyen felt herself smile widely before laughing and it wasn’t too long before Ikki joined in too. They laughed so hard her squirrel friend scampered away, but Ikki didn’t seem too sad about it so Tuyen tried not to feel too guilty.
“Well, are you ready to tour the school?” Tuyen offered Ikki her hand and the shorter girl accepted it and let herself be pulled up from the bench.
“Let’s go!” Ikki declared loudly, racing forward tugging Tuyen along. Tuyen felt a smile grow on her face. This girl was definitely something else.
“So what do you do other than befriending squirrels, your majesty?”
“Well, I did cheerleading at my old school and I love doing anything arts and crafts related and I do nail art.” She raised her hand that Tuyen wasn’t holding to show her. They were light pink with daisy accents that matched the earrings she was wearing, which sharply contrasted Tuyen’s own unpainted nails.
“Wow! That's so cool! I love your nails.” Tuyen gushed. “And maybe you can come to my soccer match and cheer me on sometime?” she awkwardly tacked on to the end.
“I would love that! I would never miss an opportunity to cheer on a friend. Maybe we could exchange Snapchats?”
Tuyen smiled. It was so rare she clicked with someone so perfectly before. Although she was a bubbly extrovert, it was still not common for her to just feel this happy after just meeting the other person.
Ikki could hardly contain her smile. Maybe she had done something good in one of her past lives for her day to turn around so quickly. Not only had she been rescued by a beautiful lady in shining armor, but she also managed to befriend her instantly and get her Snapchat.
“Why are you guys holding hands?” a voice interrupted her happy thoughts. It was her own fault for feeling too hopeful and being stuck with Meelo as a brother. She and Tuyen awkwardly dropped hands.
“I was just leading your sister back to the main office to ensure we could start our tour.” Tuyen explained, defaulting back to customer service mode. Well, at the end of the day, Ikki had Tuyen’s Snapchat and Meelo did not, so he could suck it.
Their tour continued onwards and Tuyen helpfully explained how the school worked and where things were located as her brother made disgusting attempts to flirt that the taller girl politely ignored. It was kind of crazy how Tuyen thought she was a Disney princess, when this girl was a literal saint and somehow could put up with Meelo. Just being near his massive amount of AXE body spray killed all her patience, and brain cells, for that matter.
“So Ikki, what language are you taking anyway?” Tuyen asked as they continued through the language building of the school. Meelo frowned at the attention being turned away from him, and Ikki felt a smirk growing across her face. Ikki 2. Meelo 0.
“I am in Spanish.”
“Oh yeah!?” Meelo interrupted. Ikki internally rolled her eyes. Of course, he had to steal the spotlight from her, something he must have learned from Jinora. “How do you say ‘yes’ in Spanish then?” he demanded.
“Sí?” Ikki responded, too confused by his stupidity to say anything witty.
“SEE DEEZ NUTS!” Meelo shouted back. Even Tuyen couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling at that one. Ikki groaned. How was it she got stuck with a snooty sister and an annoying brat of a brother?
“It’s ok Tuyen, you can just ignore him. He is just jealous of the amazing love we have for each other.” She winked playfully at the taller girl as she observed their sibling showdown.
Hopefully Tuyen would still consider being her friend (and maybe even something more) after their tour was over.