Koharu watched her leave, then strutted back over to her own desk, plopped her butt down, and started bragging to her posse of followers. “See? Told you she was faking it. Just gotta know how to show her who’s boss.” Only a couple of minutes later, Anzu returned, Cheerio Cola in hand. Koharu sat with a smug grin on her face as her new servant walked over to deliver the soda she ordered. Then her jaw dropped in horror as Anzu looked her straight in the eye, cracked open the can, and proceeded to chug the whole thing right in front of her. The whole class looked on in silent awe and disbelief as the new girl held the can aloft, slowly turning it all the way upside down to suck out every last drop, before finally releasing the metallic rim from her glossy pink lips with a sigh of contentment. “Thanks. That hit the spot.” Anzu slammed the empty soda can on Koharu’s desk before walking back to her own and reopening her book as if nothing had happened. After a good five-second delay, Koharu finally exploded and jumped out of her seat to go give Anzu a piece of her mind. Unfortunately for Koharu (though fortunately for the rest of us), at that exact moment, the teacher came walking into class. She was forced to stomp back to her desk after no more than a click of the tongue and an icy glare. Then came the whispers from the peanut gallery. “Holy crap. Is it just me, or is the new girl kind of a badass?” “Man, what I wouldn’t give to put Kawasaki in her place.” “Dude, did you see those chugging skills?! I bet that girl knows how to party.” Koharu’s face went bright red—redder than a can of Cheerio Cola, you could say. Even I had to admit that it was pretty impressive for Anzu to teach the class queen bee a lesson in humility on her first day. At the same time, it only cemented in my head the fact that I would never in a million years have a chance to get to know this girl. We would probably go all the way to graduation without ever exchanging a single word and then forget all about each other within a matter of months. She was clearly far too much of a free spirit to ever take an interest in a boring conformist like me, and it wasn’t like I felt some compelling urge to reach out to her either. The worlds we lived in were just too different to ever intertwine. Simple as that.