CB 5 - Six Friends?

"I will do anything for you!" Jordon cried while holding onto Mary tightly.

"Then you'll let me go!" The green-haired girl cried.

"Anything but that!" Jordon begged. "I love you, my dearest!"

"School hasn't even been in for a month! You can't possibly love me! Plus, plus, plus, we're only nine!" Mary exclaimed.

"What exactly is your po-" Jordon began.

Purin grabbed onto the back of his shirt and slammed him down to the ground, a very evil look on her face. "Her point is that you're not allowed to touch her, filthy thing."

Jordon pouted up to her. "You always do that, Puriri..."

"Don't call me some stupid nickname," Purin growled, kicking him in the stomach.

"Purin-chan, no more," Ichigo reminded her.

"Smith is an idiot, and he deserves to be violently harassed, though!" she cried.

"I think you killed him, though," Mary said, squatting down next to him.

"Polka dots, very cute," Jordon noted.

Mary's entire face turned red, she squeaked, and jumped away. "Okay! You can really kill him now!"

"What was polka dotted?" Ichigo asked, looking over to the tall girl.

"It doesn't matter!" she exclaimed.

"Her pan-" Ichigo never did find out what it was, because Purin chose to kick him in the face at that exact moment.

"Disgusting pig!" she screeched.

"Purin-chan!" Ichigo cried. "Stop that!"

"Yeah, you're going to get blood on my floor," Moriyama-sensei said.

"Why is that what you're worried about?" Ichigo asked, an exasperated look on her face.

"Thank you for helping me," Mary said quietly to Purin. "He always follows me everywhere, and won't let go, and is... just... scary... so thank you. A lot."

Purin glowered at Jordon, who had been knocked out. "He... follows you?"

She nodded, bitting her bottom lip. "Whenever I go to do my homework in my room, he follows me to my dorm. And then he stays outside my window. It's super creepy."

Ichigo had to physically restrain the other girl so she didn't end up murdering the strange boy. Purin, however, would not just let this go. This is why she hated boys! Well, one of the many reasons. She would definitely not allow Jordon to harm a hair on Mary's head.

"You can come study with us!" Purin proclaimed.

Mary blinked in surprise. "Re... really?"

The black-haired girl nodded. "Ichigo and I have got quite the little homework group going. There's me, the most amazing thing ever, Ichigo, the most adorable thing ever, Deveraux, the gayest boy ever, and Kento, he who is below the dirt on the scale of importance."

Mary looked confused and Ichigo sighed in exasperation. "Nicholai-kun isn't gay! I mean, sure, he's kind feminine, but that doesn't mean that he likes other boys!"

"He's not just kind of feminine, he's extremely feminine," Purin argued.

Mary looked worriedly at Jordon, who was beginning to stir. She had to make a choice; go back to her room and be scared of him like always, or go with these two girls that she barely knew. Well, the answer was obvious once you thought about it. There was no way that she was going to hang out in her room anymore...

"Can we get going?" she asked.

Ichigo and Purin both blinked and looked up, before the shorter of the two spoke, saying, "Oh, uhm, yeah, sure."

The girls grabbed their bags and wished their teacher a good day before leaving the classroom. Mary couldn't help but feel extremely nervous as she slightly trailed behind the two other girls. She wasn't very good with meeting new people, and, although Purin had saved her time and time again, she still felt kind of awkward around them.

The girl began absently playing with her long hair, her round spectacles slipping down her nose. Oyamada Ichigo and Azuma Purin. She remembered their names. Wasn't Ichigo into the same kind of science as her? Biology. It was probably more likely that she was interested in animals, though, since she said she also liked psychology. Mary was more into plants.

Ah, maybe she could show them her plants! Mary's were doing quite well, especially her sunflowers. She smiled as she thought about her wonderful plants. Who needed people when she had them~?

"Gärtner-san? Gärtner-san?"

Mary blinked, eyes widening as she looked over to Ichigo in surprise. "Oh! Sorry! Yes?"

"I was wondering what type of science you like," Ichigo said.

"Oh, ah..." She nervously pushed her glasses up. "Right. I like Biology, specifically plants."

"Wahhh, I see... I like learning about animals!" the strawberry blond exclaimed.

Mary hit the nail on the head.

"But psychology is my favorite. I really love learning about how the mind works. I'm really interested in psychoanalysis. I mean, I kinda think that Sigmund Freud was a bit of a whack job, but some of his stuff is really interesting. I especially like his stand on religion, that really makes sense to me and- oh, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

Mary awkwardly smiled. "I'm sorry, Oyamada-san, but I honestly can say that I have no clue as to what you're talking about."

"That's normal," Ichigo said, dampening slightly as they walked out of the building. "I haven't met many other kids here that are as interested in psychology as I am. I wish that there was somebody I could talk with about this..."

"There's always Sakura-sensei," Purin reminded her. "First are foremost, she went to school to become a psychologist. Teaching is her minor."

Ichigo sighed and nodded, looking uncomfortable. "I'm just... I'm kind of scared of approaching her... I mean, I know she likes me or something like that, but... I dunno, I just feel awkward."

"Understandable," Purin said.

Mary listened to the two girls chatting, feeling kind of like a third wheel. She was sure that the other two didn't mean to make her feel like that, but, in nearly the month that school had been in, they had obviously become fast friends. Meanwhile, Mary was still struggling to find anyone to even really talk with.

The three walked into the building, Mary trailing slightly behind. She gripped her bag a bit tighter as she thought about Jordon. Why was he so... so creepy? Why was he so interested in her? Why did he say that he was in love with her? They barely knew each other, and they were just kids. Children couldn't possibly fall in love. It was something that she refused to believe. There was no way that Jordon could be in love with her.

She brushed a few strands of hair from her eyes, biting her bottom lip. Maybe, if she became friends with Ichigo and Purin, then Jordon would stop following her around so much. Maybe he would find his own friends, and stop bugging her. What a wonderful idea~!

"Ah, here we are!" Ichigo exclaimed, opening the door to the library.

Despite her interest in books, Mary couldn't read Japanese, so she hadn't found any point in going to the library. She slowly walked in after the other two girls, her eyes widening slightly at the large amount of books. There had to be thousands! Sometimes, she was amazed at the things that this school could afford...

Ichigo and Purin walked over to their usual table, where Kento and Nicholai were already sitting. As usual, Kento had one earbud in, and looked only mildly interested in whatever anime the blond boy was going on about. He gave the slightest flicker of a smile as he noticed Ichigo sit down, then went back to glowering as he watched Purin take her seat.

"Gärtner-san, you can come sit next to me," Ichigo said, sitting the free seat next to her. Mary shyly nodded before sitting down in her seat.

"Who is this?" Nicholai asked.

"Gärtner Mary. She's a classmate of ours," Ichigo said before explaining what happened.

Kento looked somewhat sickened after she had finished. "Mom tried to get me to be friends with that Smith kid. I swear, he would not shut up about the most random and weird crap."

"He's scary," Mary said quietly.

"Ha ha... I've never met him~!" Nicholai said.

"Lucky you," Purin growled.

Ichigo played with a strand of her hair, not meeting their eyes. To be honest, she had been watching Jordon quite a bit, because she was wondering if that's what he was really like. She couldn't help but notice that, at any meal time, he sat alone. He was always cracking jokes, but, if no one would react, he'd get this upset expression. To her, although he was extremely strange, it looked like he was just a lonely boy in search of a friend.

And, as I'm sure we all know by this point, Ichigo likes making friends. She didn't want to leave him all alone. Heck, she didn't want anyone to feel like they were all alone.

She glanced over to Kento, who was growling in a louder-than-you-should-be-in-the-library voice at Purin. Wasn't he proof that there was more to some kids than what meets the eye? Sure, he was still kind of a jerk sometimes, but it turned out that he was an okay kid. He just needed to control his tongue a bit better.

Maybe... maybe Jordon was that sort of person, too. She clenched her fists, biting her bottom lip in concentration. Maybe Jordon was the sort of person who did and said a lot of things that he didn't really mean. Maybe he secretly craved a friend. Maybe he wasn't a bad person at all.

"Ichigo-chan? Are you okay?" Purin asked, looking at her with worry.

"Oh, ahm, I..." She looked away awkwardly. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" Nicholai asked.

"It's... I mean... what if Smith-san is actually a really lonely person?" Ichigo felt her voice get quiet near the end.

Kento raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"He's always by himself... what if he just clings to Gärtner-san because he wants to be friends with her?" she questioned.

Mary blinked, her eyes widening a bit. She had never even considered that. What if he really wasn't in love with her? What if he really just wanted to be friends? But, then why didn't he go and bug someone else?

"Whether he is or isn't doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that he's constantly harassing Mary, and I can't allow a boy to hurt a girl," Purin said, folding her arms.

"But-" Ichigo began.

"I know you said that it's good to be friends with everybody, but I think that you should just let this one go," Kento said.

Ichigo stared at her lap before slowly nodding. "O... okay. I mean, if you're all against it..."

"I'm not," Nicholai said.

"Your opinion doesn't count, you've never met him," Purin said.

"That's mean..."

"She's a mean girl."

"Shut up, pig."

"Don't call me a pig, you rat!"

"How dare you call a lady a rat?"

"Easily!"

Mary watched Ichigo, whose shoulders were slumped. She looked really depressed about this. Maybe she shouldn't have voted against it...

No.

It was best for everyone if Ichigo just stayed away from Jordon.

And, with that, she turned back to the fighting two with a slight smile on her face. At least she could have friends now.

---

"I'm stepping out for a bit!" Ichigo exclaimed, pulling on her strawberry bag.

Purin looked up to the other girl in surprise. "Dinner's in a half an hour. I don't wanna go without you, or I'll be stuck with a couple of boys... then again, Gärtner-san said that she'd be joining us, right?"

Ichigo nodded. "Please don't wait up for me. I'll try to be as quick as I can be."

With that said, she walked out of their room, carefully closing it behind her. She went downstairs, pulled out her shoes from her cubby, and slipped on her shoes.

"Oyamada?"

Ichigo blinked and looked up in surprise. "Oh, Butler-san."

Grace Butler was a third year in middle school, who Ichigo kind of looked up to a lot. She was a very pretty girl, with chocolate skin and long black hair. That wasn't the reason why Ichigo looked up to her, but she was always amazed at how pretty she was. The real reason Ichigo looked up to her was because she took care of all the younger kids, and always with a smile on her face. She supposed it made sense that her specialty was in child care.

"What you doing, honey?" Grace asked.

"I'm going to go find a boy," Ichigo said seriously.

Grace smiled. "Is he a friend?"

Ichigo shook her head. "But I want him to be."

She laughed. "Oh, I see. Is a cutie?"

Ichigo stared for a while before her face turned red. "O- oh, no! Not like that! He just seems lonely is all!"

Grace laughed again and winked as she turned away. "Good luck~!"

Ichigo pouted as she watched the other girl go, her cheeks slowly beginning to return to their normal color. She definitely didn't think that Jordon was cute. He wasn't ugly, yes, but he sure wasn't cute or her type.

Her type was the princely type, like Yuuta. She drooled slightly at the thought of the older boy. She hadn't seen him in quite a while, come to think of it. She pouted. Where had he been? She missed that cutie.

Ichigo sighed, shaking her head as she stood up. There was no point in thinking about it right now. She was sure that she'd find out later.

The young girl left her building, and sighed. Where was she supposed to go now? She didn't know where he'd be. Mary had said that he liked hanging out around her, but, really, that didn't help much. They were in the same building, and Jordon didn't seem to be anywhere around.

She began walking down the path of cherry trees, kicking at the ground. Would she be able to find him? Would they be able to be friends? Would everyone else be able to accept him? Or would she end up being his only friend? Ah, the questions that plagued her mind.

"Ichigo?"

The strawberry blond's eyes widened and she looked up. Oh. She had found Jordon. And he was in a tree. With a video camera. A little bit weird.

"Uh... Smith-san?" Ichigo said awkwardly.

"Jordon!" he reminded her, grinning. "It's nice to see you! All alone! With me!"

... why did she want to be friends with this kid again?

He laughed. "Your expression is funny! I was just teasing, you silly cucumber!"

"What?" Ichigo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Catch my video camera or I'll dump sulfuric acid on you!" he called, tossing it.

"Excuse me?" Ichigo demanded before managing to barely catch it.

Jordon shimmied down the tree before turning to face her with a grin. "I wouldn't really do it, silly! I'd just inject you with necrotizing fasciitis!"

Ichigo gave an awkward grin. "Right..."

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Jordon asked.

"I don't believe I said I wanted to talk with you about anything," she replied.

"But I can tell that you do," he said.

"Well... I mean... I..." She couldn't really argue with him. "Yes."

"Okay. Then let's sit down under that cherry tree!" he exclaimed, pointing to a random one and walking to a different one. Ichigo just followed him.

"So, what is it?" he asked, taking the video camera and plopping down under the tree.

"Ah..." Ichigo sat down next to him. "It's a little bit... complicated, to be honest."

He sighed. "It's about Mary, isn't it?"

"A little bit... nobody wants you to bother her anymore," Ichigo said.

"I can't help it. I really do love her," he said quietly.

Ichigo looked at him with soft eyes. "Do you really?"

He nodded, looking away. "From the first instant I came here, I knew that Mary was the one for me. She's sweet, she's really smart, she loves plants, and she a little shy. She bites at the ends of her hair sometimes, her glasses are a bit too big, and when she's lonely she pulls out a book. I... I watch her a lot because I want to know as much as I can about her."

Ichigo looked at him with wide eyes. She had never seen this side of him before. He was always laughing and teasing. He was really serious about her, even if he didn't seem like he was.

"You do care for her a lot, don't you?" Ichigo smiled.

He nodded, giving an awkward grin. "I... I really like her."

"Well... you know... you're kind of bad at showing it," Ichigo said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"At the moment, you're mostly scaring her because of all the stalking and talk of marriage and stuff. I'm sure that if you toned it down a bit, then you and her could be really good friends," she said.

Jordon stared blankly at her. "But I want to marry her."

"N- ne, we're really young, though, so that kind of talk might be a bit too soon," Ichigo said.

"I don't think so," he replied.

"Heh, but what if she does? In fact, I'm almost certain that she does. If you can just be content with friendship for a while, then, when we're older, she might want to get married to you," she said.

He frowned. "Do you really think that would work?"

She nodded. "It's more likely than where we're at right now."

"Hm... so it's like birds and honey," he said.

"What?"

"You don't get it? Strange." He rubbed his chin.

Okay. So Jordon was a little bit of a lot odd. But he seemed to honestly care about Mary, even if it was in a really scary way. If she could get him to calm down about Mary, then he might be all right. They could all be friends!

"Do you think you can do it?" she asked.

He grinned at her. "Does Harry Potter have purple hair?"

"Uhm, no," Ichigo said.

"Oh, right. Well, I'm in anyway!" he exclaimed.

"If you say so," she said.

He jumped up, a grin still on his face. "Let's go and see her! I want to tell her my honest feelings!"

"Ah, well, uhm, okay," Ichigo said awkwardly, also standing up.

"C'mon, let's go, let's go!" he grabbed her wrist and started pulling her to the main building.

"Smith-san, you need to calm do-" Ichigo began.

"Jordon," he reminded her.

"Jordon, you need to calm down!" she exclaimed.

"Why? My heart is racing like a rhino!" he exclaimed right back.

"What does that even mean?" she cried.

"You know perfectly well what it means!" he called over his shoulder.

"No, I really have no idea!"

"Well, you should."

"Well, I don't!"

"Whatever, my child!"

The only thing Ichigo could do at this point was laugh. This kid was, like, really weird. Nothing he said made any sense, nothing he did made any sense, and he was... he was kind of fun in that way. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to hang out with him.

Jordon pulled her into the main building before finally letting her wrist go. "To the cafeteria!"

"Okay, okay," Ichigo said, speed walking to keep up with the boy.

He grinned slightly at her. "Thanks for giving me a chance, Ichigo."

She blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I had a dream that you were in the library with some friends, and none of them wanted to be friends with me. You eventually agreed to not be friends with me, even though you wanted to. When I woke up, I was really sad. Because I wanted to be friends with everyone. I still want to," he said.

Ichigo's eyes widened slightly. He had a dream about what had happened earlier than day? Weird.

"It- it was no problem," she said softly.

He grinned a bit broader before entering the cafeteria. Nicholai, Kento, and Mary were sitting at their regular table. Jordon's face turned more determined before he began stomping over to the three. Ichigo trailed after, praying that he wouldn't do anything too weird.

"Excuse me!" he exclaimed as he got to their table.

Mary turned pale. "... Jordon..."

"I have something important to say," he said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Go away," Kento growled.

"Hi," Nicholai said.

"Mary, I'm sorry," he said.

She blinked in surprise. "Ex... excuse me?"

"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I didn't mean to scare you. I still want to marry you because I really do love you, but I'll do my best not to creep you out anymore. For now, at least, I want to be friends with you."

Her eyes widened. "Rea... lly?"

Jordon nodded. "I would be very grateful if we could become friends! Even if I'm really odd, like an elephant!"

Mary brushed off the "like an elephant" part without any real effort. "Do you really mean it?"

He nodded eagerly. "I want to become someone important to Mary. Please, allow me to do my best to do so!"

She looked at him for a while, her face still showing her surprise. However, she slowly gave a small smile and nodded. "I'd be happy if you would do so."

Everyone turned in surprise as they heard a high-pitched shriek. There stood Purin, her face filled with absolute horror.

"You can't be serious!" she cried.

"Purin-cha-" Ichigo began.

"No! No! I have done everything I can to get over my hatred of boys, but this- this thing? This is going too far! I can't stand that disgusting boy! You're asking too much, Ichigo-chan!" And with that said, she turned and stormed out of the cafeteria.

"Well, that went well," Jordon said.

Kento hit him.