the following announcement…” Wait a minute, I found myself thinking out of the blue as the announcer read off one of his employer’s canned apologies. Weren’t we supposed to get a new transfer student today? Kozaki High was only a stone’s throw away from the nearest station, and it was the school pretty much everyone who lived in the vicinity attended, aside from the extreme over- and underachievers. Despite being out in the boonies, it was pretty much your average high school. Sure, the building could have used a renovation, and you did get the occasional fox or tanuki wandering out on the athletic field, but otherwise it was perfectly unremarkable. After changing out of my street shoes in the entryway, I made my way to Classroom 2-A. I’d shown up right in the middle of passing period, so it didn’t strike me as abnormal to see a bunch of students out chatting in the halls—but when I reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner, I was a little taken aback to see that a sizable crowd had formed right outside my classroom. At first I wondered if someone had shattered a window or if a fight had broken out. Then the light bulb went off in my head, and I realized they were probably just here to see the new transfer student. Our teacher had mentioned that we’d be getting a “new girl in class,” so some curious onlookers were to be expected, but I figured she had to be pretty cute to garner this much attention. I shoved through the rubberneckers and into the classroom, and the moment I made it inside, I saw her. In her classy, vintage pinafore dress, she gave off an almost radiant glow compared to the other girls in class, who were all wearing their faculty- mandated sailor-style uniforms. I assumed they simply hadn’t prepared a uniform for the new girl yet, but her current outfit made her stand out so dramatically from the rest of us that it almost looked like someone had lazily snipped her out of whatever scene she originally belonged in and hastily photoshopped her into this one. Though to be sure, her pretty face didn’t hurt either. Her long, straight, jet-black hair lent her an air of staunch maturity at first glance, but her large, almond-shaped eyes did a lot to soften her overall vibe. The way she seemed totally engrossed in whatever book she was reading while still maintaining perfect upright sitting posture was pretty charming too.