Chapter Text
If Cristal ‘Cris’ Waters had to describe her High School Tenure thus far, she would say it was ‘alright’. She had… okay grades with a few honor rolls thrown in (though her parents wanted at least one Semester with Straight A’s), is an asset to the Swimming Team and even won a few meets, and was dragged into a group of jocks and cheerleaders (wealth optional but existent) because… and I’m quoting here ‘she’s too pretty to be anywhere else’. She didn’t know whether to be complimented or concerned.
So all and all, she had no complaints about her High School life so far. Especially now that she’s a Senior and can take it easy getting the remaining credits she needs to graduate.
…
…
Well maybe one complaint.
“Brian is such a dick!!” She absolutely. Despised. Boy talk.
“What happened this time, Jas?” The fact that her fellow ‘Popular Girl’ Rebecca had to add a ‘this time’ to it, speaks volumes. Those two argue a LOT. So much so that most people think it’s their ‘Love Language’. Which, to each their own.
‘But why did they have to drag me into it…’ Cris luckily has a routine (yes, it happened that often) for stuff like this. Just nod, say ‘uh-huh’ and throw in a ‘he’s such a jerk’ for good measure.
But Cris would be lying if she said that she wasn’t at least curious about having a boyfriend. Maybe it was from all the romance novels and romcoms she indulged with while she was at Boarding School in Hawaii five years ago. Either way, something about being… held and loved appealed to her.
…
…
But she shook that thought out of her head, none of the guys in her school really appealed to her. Like, she once considered Kelsey ‘Kel’ Rodriguez, but she instantly noticed that he had eyes for her best friend Mincy Kaya. Oh well, maybe in another life she could be with Kel… or maybe she can be with Mi–
*Snap* *Snap*
“Oi, Space Cadet.”
“Huh?” Thankfully, another Popular Girl, Beverly, snapped Cris out of that weird (yet kinda pleasant) mental journey. “Whu-Whu happen?”
“Well it’s Lunch, there’s 20 minutes left and you haven’t eaten anything.” Oh right, Lunch. AKA Food Time. A time where students can eat food to refuel and be able to focus on their remaining class– “You forgot to pack lunch again, did you?”
“... The ‘Again’ wasn’t necessary.” Cris admitted, and she was so… so hungry.
“Well maybe after school we can hit up–”
*Dinglinglingling*
“Oooooh Second Plaaace, is my food ready?”
“Ugh those two again.”
“Hey Kim, Aubrey.” Beverly greeted as two more members of the ‘Popular Clique’ (or whatever they call themselves, their name changes every hour) sat down at the table.
“Can’t believe those two nerds are parading around their rank to everyone. Just because they’re the top two students in the school doesn’t mean they can be all gung ho about it.” Kim complained, taking a bite of her previously frozen spicy chicken sandwich.
“Isn’t one of your best friends, Charlene, in the top five too?”
“She’s number four first off. Second, don’t compare her to them. She’s out here busting her ass to be in the ‘Elite Four’ while they treat it like a game.”
She says that, but Cris heard how many APs they're taking during what is supposed to be a soft year for Seniors, so they can clean up some extra credits and work on College Aps. Except those two demons doubled down on hard classes all just to compete for the top spot. She doesn’t envy their position one bit–
*FWAP*
“Yeah yeah I’m coming.”
*Sniff* *Sniff*
Nevermind, she’s envying them. That smell… a kind of smelly smell, a smelly smell that smells… smelly.
“A sandwich.”
“Oh no, Cris wai–” But she was too late, Cris was gone. She was on a mission, which was to get that sandwich.
“Here’s your– Oh hello.” Crap, she was spotted. Her cover’s blown! Code Red!! CODE RED!!!
“Uhh…” Cris went through the roll-a-dex of responses she keeps in her head, thinking of ways to talk her way out of this–
*Grrrrr*
… Or her stomach could be a traitor and blow her cover. “Uhh… Uh–Uhh…” There goes our heroine, ladies and gentlemen and non-binary homies.
“Want the sandwich?” Nevermind, they’re offering her the sandwich she was seeking. There is a God after all.
“You mean it–”
“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Aaaand the Popular Clique pulled up, there’s a war brewing.
“Aubergine Smith.” Ooh he used the full Government Name. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Save it Sunny, we’re bringing our friend back.”
“But she came all this way for this sandwich, it would be rude to drag her away from it.”
“She’s fine–”
“I mean it’s understandable, I’m quite proud of this one. A homemade Submarine Roll whose dough I smuggled in this morning, a homemade vinaigrette that I also smuggled in and stored in the kitchen, layered with black forest ham, hot capicola, some genoa salami, topped with some provolone cheese that I melted in the oven, some iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced roma tomatoes, sweet yellow onion also thinly sliced, some pepperoncini peppers sprinkled on top, and lastly.”
*Zip* *Crunkle*
“A bag of off brand Barbecue Potato Chips, and–”
*Clank*
“An ice cold can of off brand cola.”
…
…
“What? I take my sandwiches very seriously.”
“Well… doesn’t matter because she doesn’t–”
*Crunch*
“Wha– Cris!”
“Whamph?! I’m humgry.” You can tell it’s delicious, because she didn’t give a single fuck that she’s speaking with her mouthful. “It’s so good…”
“But… but that was my sandwich.”
“You can go half-n-half with her and I’ll make you something later.”
*Munch* *Crunch*
“Assuming she doesn’t eat it all.”
She did in fact… ate it all. She ate it all with zero regrets.
…
“I can’t believe you gave away my sandwich like that.” Mincy pouted, settling to just munch on the bag of chips.
“You’re saying that like you wouldn’t have done it too.”
“I would have given her half, not the whole thing. And you.” Mincy said, pointing at Cris, “What do you have to say for yourself.”
“... Can I have another?”
“Well guess that’s another satisfied customer.”
*Scribble* *Scribble* *Rip*
“Here’s your bill.”
“A bill? You’re seriously charging her–”
“It’s for zero dollars and zero cents.” Cris said, interrupting Aubrey’s rant before it started.
“I expect my payment to be in full. I don’t do installments.” Sunny said, holding out his hand.
…
…
Cris then held out her hand.
*Clap*
And paid him the zero dollars and zero cents he was owed. “Hmm… yeah looks right to me.”
“Alright that’s it then, we’re leaving.”
“Wha– Wait a minute!” Aubrey grabbed Cris by the arm and dragged her away, causing Sunny to just casually wave goodbye.
…
…
“Are you still mad about the sandwich?”
“Give me till the end of the school day.”
“Petty.”
“Takes one to know one.”
…
“Alright, alright! Are we good now?” Cris snapped, ripping her arm out of Aubrey’s grip. “I don’t know what reason you have against… What was his name again? Sunny? Well either way he seems like a nice guy, a bit goofy, but nice.”
“He seems that way doesn’t he?”
“Yes, yes he does. Am I like… am I missing something here?”
“Well you don’t even know what he’s like!”
“You know what, you’re right. I don’t. I mean he looked familiar, I don’t know who he is or what he’s like.”
“Exactly–”
“But I can infer from our interaction during the past five minutes, and from what Kim said that he’s just a dude. A smart dude who works hard because Mincy, who is a friend of mine by the way, eggs him on. Like I don’t know what kinda petty feud you two got going on, but I want nothing to do with it–”
*BRIIIIIING*
“Ugh, I’m going to class, see ya later.” After that tense conversation with Aubrey, Cris adjusted her bag and began heading to fifth period. But one thing nipped at the back of Cris’s mind as she walked down the crowded halls.
‘He looked… kinda familiar.’
…
“Alright Cris, let’s go somewhere to eat, my treat.”
…
…
“Cris?”
*Snap* *Snap*
“Ghhuh?”
“Space Case. Anyway, let’s go eat somewhere. You and I since everyone else is busy.”
“With what?”
“Football Season.”
“Oh yeah.” Football Season. Where basically 90% of the Popular Squad went to practice after school, whether it’s to… you know play football, or be a part of the Cheer Squad. A select few people don’t because they either have a sport later in the year.
“But I don’t give a shit, so I’m free to spend my Afternoons in absolute bliss.” And then there’s those who don’t want to bother with any after school sports. “But enough about that, what’s got you spacing out?”
…
…
“It’s Sunny.”
“... Ooooh I get it. So you got your eyes on him, huuuh?”
Cris blushed for a split second, before quelling it down, “Something felt… familiar about him.”
“Oh it’s like that huh, well that would be understandable, since we’ve met his older sister.”
“We have?”
“Yeah Mari. She and her boyfriend, Hero or whatever, was a part of the Popular… I don’t freaking remember what they called themselves back then. But you probably don’t remember, we were Freshman at the time.” Beverly recalled, “In fact they graduated as Valedictorian and Salute– whatever the heck the other one is called. They were also Prom King and Queen.”
“Really?”
“Yeah they were like… the Mega Couple in school. Though not always, because I heard from the guys that graduated last year, when Mari was a Sophomore she was unhinged. Frazzled, would snap at times, super impatient, the works. No one knew why, that is… until Sunny showed up. It was subtle, but there were times where she would give Sunny the nastiest glare. It wasn’t pretty.”
“... So something happened between them behind the scenes?”
“Most likely. I mean my lil sister and I butt heads all the time, but nothing like that.”
“You think Aubrey knows?”
“Oh yeah. She sometimes mentions that she was once childhood friends with Sunny, but they had a major falling out. Odds are it has something to do with why Mari acted like that around Sunny.”
Cris… did not like this turn of events. She dug through her memory and remembered how Mari was when they interacted three years ago. She seemed nice and helpful. And yet…
“Well that’s enough mystery solving for right now. I’m hungry.”
Yeah, food sounded good right now to Cris. She needed to decompress after this info dump. “Alright, where to?”
“Well since it’s just the two of us, we can’t hit up the normal burger joint. We could try and find a new place, something the two of us can scope out so when we introduce it to the others it’ll be a cool ass reveal.”
That… sounded like a fun idea to Cris, though she was kinda on the fence about trying a new place. “... Ehh why not.”
“Sweet.” Beverly pulled out her phone. “Hey Siri, find me the closest restaurants.”
…
“You better hope your intuition is right.”
“Listen, I thought the name sounded familiar.” Cris said, before placing her hand on the door handle, “And besides, with a name like ‘Seventh Heaven’ it sounds cool.”
*Dingling*
“It looks ni–”
“Oi! Old man! Can you stop watching the TV and actually help me?!”
“In a minute! The Dodgers are 1 inning away from clinching a Playoff Spot!”
“They’re just going to lose in the NLDS anyway!”
“At least my Dodgers make it to the Playoffs, unlike your Giants.”
“Tell that to the 3 Rings, Gramps.”
“I apologize for them, dearies.” Amidst this argument about sports nonsense came a nice old lady, whose name tag says ‘Emma Musōka’. “Oi, if you two can stop arguing for 10 seconds, you’ll scare away the customers.”
“Yes Grandma/Dear.” Whipped… well okay one is more like being a nice Grandson, the other is completely whipped though.
“Now then. Let’s get you two seated.”
…
“So… you must have reeeeeally liked Sunny’s sandwich, huh?”
“I-I didn’t know he worked here!” Cris exclaimed, feeling second hand embarrassment at the fact that she just so happened to pick the one restaurant Sunny would be in.
“Uh-huh. Well either way now I can get a chance to see whether or not you were blowing hot air with your review. Now let’s see… You think they’d give us a discount for being his friend?”
“Woah we’re his friends all of a sudden?”
“If being his friend means getting access to his potentially good food 24/7 and a discount. Yes. Absolutely.” Beverly said with zero hesitation, “I ain’t a rich girl, I gotta save money when I can.”
“Then why did you offer to foot the bill, then?”
“Don’t try to find a method to my madness.”
“So you’re friends with my grandson huh?”
“Gah!” Interrupted from their conversation the girls turned towards Emma, who had their drinks.
“Sorry about the scare, here are your drinks.”
“Oh, thank you ma’am.” Cris said, gingerly taking the cup while Beverly took a deep sip of her strawberry lemonade, damn near drank half of the glass.
“Oh that’s some good stuff right there.”
“Haha, well I’ll be sure to tell Sunny that, he made it about 30 minutes prior to you two getting in here.”
“Waiwaiwait. He knows how to make Strawberry Lemonade. Like from scratch?”
“Of course he does. After all, I was the original creator of the recipe.”
“Cris, I don’t care what Aubrey or Kim will say. I need him in the friend group, stat.” Cris, wanting to see what all the hubbub is about, took a sip of her lemonade as well. She immediately understood, and agreed.
“Well it’s nice to see you’re making friends Sunny.”
“Huh?” Sunny asked, looking at the girls before shrugging, “Sure.”
“Such a charmer, definitely didn’t get it from your mother or I.”
“Okay, I’ve had plenty of friends and relationships, thank you very much.” Sunny scoffed, “They’ve just ended in mutual breakups.”
…
…
“Okay how are you gonna present some nice tea for us and not spill any of it.”
Welp, Sunny walked right into that one. “Ugh, fine. Started off with a girl who shared my love of reading Manga.”
“A fellow nerd, now cute.”
Rolling his eyes at Beverly’s jab, Sunny continued, “Anyway she and I decided it’d be better if we stayed Manga Buddies instead of Manga Lovers. She came up with that title, not me by the way. Anyway she ended up with the biggest nerd on the planet, who she thought was cool. It lasted about a week and I was the one who comforted her with ice cream and anime binging.”
“Yeesh.”
“Well there’s a happy ending for her, a week later I got with a girl who… basically didn’t understand love and wanted to figure out what all the fuss is about. So we dated, and after a few dates she was like ‘this was nice don’t get me wrong, but I’m not really feeling it’. I honestly agreed so we broke it off and remained friends. I’m sure you’re noticing some extraneous factors here.”
“... No way.”
“Yup. My two, quote-unquote ‘exes’ got together and have been dating for two years now.” Sunny said with a small smile, “They jokingly nicknamed me ‘LGBTQ Ally of the Century’. I wear it with pride.”
“That sounds like the plot for a cheesy romcom.”
“Don’t worry, I already reserved the rights to take their story and turn it into a romantic comedy manga. Bebe was all for it, Sarah wanted royalties.”
“... Wait, THAT Bebe and Sarah.” Well that was a shocking reveal to Cris.
…
…
“You didn’t hear this from me.”
“Well as nice as it is to hear some High School gossip, are you two ready to order?”
Oh right we’re in a restaurant. “Hmm… anything you would recommend?”
“Hmm… oh I know.” Mrs. Musōka turned to the slacking old codger, “Dear, the lobsters are in for Surf-n-Turf night, right?”
“All the seafood is coming the morning of in order to preserve freshness.”
“But they’re still going to be alive–”
“However, I picked up a few from the local Fish Market.”
“Perfect.” She then turned to the curious customers, “How would you dears feel a small taste of our specialties?”
…
“Oh my God this is so good.” It was a take on a wealthy person’s favorite. Steak cooked Medium Rare, Lobster Tails, and creamy mashed potatoes. Cooked to perfection and received rave reviews from the two customers.
“Well, give your compliments to the chef. You know, the one who isn’t watching a baseball game right now.”
Grandpa Musōka was thinking about responding to this harsh attack on his name, but restrained himself. Happy Wife, Happy Life and all that.
As for Sunny, “I-It’s not that good.” He just waved off their compliments.
“Bullshit.” To which Beverly responded in the most appropriate way, “In fact, when is this Surf-n-Turf night I’m showing up to it just to eat more of this food.”
“But–”
“Well I’m happy you asked, it’s this Saturday.”
“Bet, I’ll drag her and a few of my other friends with me.”
“W-Wait–”
“Oh please, bring as many mouths as you can.”
“Grandma–”
“Great, check please.”
Sunny didn’t know how to feel about those two deciding this course of action right in front of his face. Cris meanwhile, just gave a sympathetic wave.
…
“Well that’s a huge chunk of my savings, but man was it worth it.” Beverly said, walking down the sidewalk like she owned the joint, “Now we just gotta convince one of the rich kids to foot the bill during Surf-n-Turf night… or maybe we can bring one of their parents and they can pay.”
…
…
“What’s up?”
“Was it just me, or did he seem… off?”
“I mean, considering he only interacted with three people at school in a positive fashion, and we just pulled up out of nowhere into his family’s restaurant, I’d be uncomfortable too.”
“No it’s not that… well okay maybe it’s a little bit of that. But what I meant was, when we said his food was good he seemed… out of it? God how do I put this–”
“Hmm… no I think I see what you’re trying to say– Oh here’s the bus stop.” The pair took their seat on the old bench, “Anyway, if we took how he acted during the sandwich fiasco at lunch, to now. He basically did a total 180.”
“Yeah basically.”
“Well it’s not that weird if you think about it. Dude just put up a front when he was surrounded by people he didn’t know.”
…
…
“Unless you think there’s something else?”
“... I don’t know.” To say Cris was kinda concerned would be an understatement. After hearing all that stuff about his sister, to how uncomfortable he looked after receiving even the smallest compliment behind closed doors…
*Vrrr* *Tss*
“Bus is here.” Beverly got off of the bench, “But I wouldn’t think about that too much.”
…
…
‘Easier said than done.’
End of Chapter