Once PE passed, Miyuki could return to a class that always brought her at ease: Art class. Rows and rows of large wooden tables, paint splattered tarps blanketing their tops, chairs of six organized around the table as a group, painting canvases lined up at the back of the room, and it all looked very colorful and exciting to her. Miyuki was a fan of color, visual arts being a hobby she had considered quite often in Junior High. The ability to turn something so blank like a sheet of paper or an empty canvas into a full picture that people find value in was interesting to her. Needless to say Miyuki had high hopes for this class, rightfully so too because the teacher, Ms. Cumber, was a lot more expressive than Mr. Taro, and a lot less demanding than Coach Seijo.

Miyuki sat down in her chair, tying her long wavy rose colored hair back into a bun as she waited for other students to pile into their chairs. Yesterday, Miyuki was alone at her table. Most of the students that sat at her table either missed their first day or they were skipping out on class. Thankfully Miyuki wasn't alone this time, because one of those art students arrived and took a seat next to her. It was none other than the short one from before, what a nice surprise! Megami. In reality, she wasn't that short. Compared to Miyuki, Megami stood at just about her chin in height. Though that was the case, it didn't take away from the fact that Miyuki would still know her as 'the short one' due to being the shortest one out of the only three people she knew so far at Maguro High.

In an attempt at some small talk, Miyuki would start with a simple greeting in hopes that she could get to know her new neighbor. "G-Good morning, Megami!"

Megami sat there for a moment, resting a hand on her chin, letting out a slow and quiet "hey.". There wasn't much else to her reply than that. The student did not care to look at Miyuki, because she was focusing on getting her supplies out for class.

"How are you?"

"Good." her neighbor would sigh in the same bored tone

("Man, what's her deal? How am I supposed to have a conversation with these single word responses?") Miyuki pondered annoyedly, but still wouldn't give up on trying. "O-okay then... that's good, I guess. Have you seen Manaka today?"

"Yeah." Megami would tiredly nod.

"Hmm.. I-I didn't see her todaaay, I was just wondering if you knew where she was''

"Doctor's appointment..."

"O-oh, that explains that then." Miyuki awkwardly laughed, deciding to take a break from trying, and turn her attention to Ms. Cumber who just started class.

The art teacher stood in front of the class, introducing the first art project of the semester: A landscape painting. Miyuki hasn't played too much with paint before, she usually stuck with color pencils, but she was always open to exploring new art tools. They would not start the actual painting that day though, because everyone had to learn how to use paint effectively, via getting familiar with what the medium was like. After all, making one mistake with the paint will only take a creative mind to know how to cover it up. Though creativity is encouraged in an art class, not everyone is born with the same skills at cover up, so getting a lesson on preventing mistakes would leave less students disappointed.

To get familiar with using paint, everyone received a piece of cardboard, a paint brush, and some acrylic paint of random colors, and were allowed to paint freely. Miyuki received a green bottle of acrylic, while Megami got the one Miyuki was hoping for: red. In a bit of jealousy, Miyuki would ask her neighbor: "Hey, wanna trade?"

Megami would look at Miyuki's bottle of paint from the corner of her eye. Really? Trade of something so trivial like paint? Megami didn't seem to care enough to deny, so she would scoot her paint over in between them, saying: "Sure. I like green more than red." it was true, green seemed to fit Megami more than the red did, so she was willing to sacrifice it for the other color. Better yet though, she would add: "or, we could just share."

"Oh... y-yeah, you're right, let's just do that then." Miyuki would then put her green paint in the middle of the table for both to use.

Now, what should she paint? Both red and green were in her arsenal. Most often, red and green as the main colors in a piece of design were primarily seen on Christmas decorations. It wasn't even close to Christmas, so outside of the holiday season, she didn't find them very visually pleasing together. Seeing this dilemma, Miyuki tried to think of what she could try to create so these two colors would fit her criteria. ("Red and green... How am I supposed to paint something good that fits these two? That's impossible! hmmm...") Miyuki pondered, looking around the room for possible references and ideas to pull from for her work.

After looking for about a minute or two, her eyes would settle on a watercolor painting just above Ms. Cumber's desk. The painting was very sloppy. It looked like someone much younger was just playing with watercolor and threw it together for a fun craft. The teacher did previously teach art at the Elementary School, so it must have been saved from one of her previous student's art pieces. Though the painting was sloppy, it gave Miyuki the idea for her own: An apple! Just a simple apple. Miyuki didn't wanna just settle for making an apple though, she wanted to do something that uses more of the green to balance out the red. ("An apple, but what about an apple tree? It uses plenty of green and red, but where do I get the brown for the tree trunk from?")

Miyuki would test something out, taking the green and squirting a small amount of it on the top of her cardboard. After the first squirt, she would make a bigger one in the middle of the empty canvas. With this middle glob of paint, she would spread the color around in small swirls to give the slight illusion of leaves on a tree. Meanwhile, Megami was putting a glob of red on her piece of cardboard before placing it back in the middle of the desk. After both finished their portions of the work, they swapped colors, Megami taking the green while Miyuki took the red.

("Now, here comes the experiment...") Miyuki would then do small dots of red by gingerly pressing the bottle so only the tiniest of dots of paint came out, those dots put all around the tree's leaves to add to the illusion of apples placed among those leaves. With the red paint, Miyuki then added some of the red into the other glob of green paint she saved from earlier. With a swirl of her brush, she mixed the green and red together to make an interesting color. The contrasting colors made a bizarre concoction that was unrecognizable from the two previous components that made it. Some could describe it as a brown-ish color, others may see it as an 'ugly moss', maybe even a 'dark orange-ish yellow' but whatever it was, it was unique and the desired result for Miyuki. This egregious concoction made the perfect tree bark (with her lack of resources considered), which she would test out by doing a brush stroke across the cardboard. Even though it was for the most part her desired color, she noticed there still were some overpowering signs of the red, and that made it look more like a rusted piece of metal over a natural-looking tree bark. "Hey, can I borrow that green?" Miyuki would then ask Megami, watching her use said green to... mix a dot of red and green together? Upon further inspection, Megami was making an apple tree too! "Hah! Oh the irony, we're making the same thing!"

Despite her attempt to ask, her neighbor remained quiet, continuing to paint her tree. Megami's soft eyes only stayed fixed on the assignment. Truth is, Megami seemed to not understand why people wanted to talk in the middle of their work, because it distracts them from getting what is most important done. Teachers and students alike tend to gaze over her grades and how she gets them done so quickly and in such quality. Occasionally, Megami would hear people say about her: 'Is she a genius?' 'What is there to expect from the prodigy child born from one of the top surgeons in the city?'. 'Her work ethic must be strict!', but in reality, Megami excelled just because she carefully planned out her work and took advantage of the allotted time in class to work and study. Unlike Miyuki, Megami valued her work enough to focus on it over conversations.

"Funny." Megami would emptily say, placing the green back in between them for Miyuki to use. "Here."

"Thanks," Miyuki would politely reply, taking the green and adding it into the concoction she made. She treated the paint ever-so carefully, adding the smallest of dots into the mixture to give that desired color she so longed... ("Just the slightest of dots... nothing more, nothing less-") Miyuki hoped, carefully putting the paint into the mixture as she planned. She needs no distractions if she wants to get this right–

"Wonderful job, Megami!" Ms. Cumber would enthusiastically say, standing next to Miyuki's neighbor as she watched them work. It was almost complete! Unlike Miyuki, Megami started her painting with the tree trunk first so when the leaves were added, it'd give an even stronger illusion of there being leaves. Where Miyuki used swirls for the leaves created by a single glob of paint, Megami used light strokes and dots. There were also more spread in the red dots, the apples, so they would be more visible. Miyuki took note of those techniques, paying attention to Megami's work and what Ms. Cumber was saying. In doing so, Miyuki had broken her attention, which meant her hands were still squeezing that green paint into the muddy color mix she was trying to perfect. The art teacher would notice Miyuki's dilemma, saying: "Hey, Sekken! You're gonna waste all of that paint!"

"What huh-?! Oh... crap." Miyuki finally took notice of the muddy color that now was greatly overpowered by the green. Letting out a small groan at her silly error, she would then put the paint back in the middle. "Heeeey, Megami, can I borrow the red again please?"

"Yeah. One second." Megami would say, adding some final touches to her art work. All she needed was one or two more apples to place and then she would be finished. Once it was finished however, it would be returned, Megami placing the paint back in the middle, though not paying attention where she placed it (because she still was looking down at her painting), her hand accidentally squeezing the bottle and then- POP! "...oops."

"MEGAMI!" Ms. Cumber shrieked, her beloved red paint bottle had just exploded! It pained her to see what once was an expensive plastic bottle of paint now sprayed all over Miyuki Sekken, coating the first year from face to feet in solid red color.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention..." Megami sorrowfully responded, getting up and heading to get a wet rag to clean it up.

("O-ohhh noooo... god dammit") Miyuki winced, looking down at her school uniform in disbelief. Oh come on, she paid her allowance for this uniform!

"Hahahaha! Miyuki looks like she killed someone!" one of the kids in the back of the class would shout, other kids joining in on the laughter.

"I-..." Miyuki frowned, taking another look at herself. It really did look like she butchered someone. The image of that was engraved in her mind the longer she thought about it, now the feeling of guilt making her sick to her stomach. The first year changed her gaze from herself to her artwork she was working on... and it did not make her feel any better. The artwork was ruined along with her clothes.

"Hey! You kids, quiet down!" Ms. Cumber called over to those students in the back before turning back to Miyuki. "Just go to the office, they can get you a new uniform. I'll write you a pass." The art teacher would then go over to her desk, getting Miyuki a pass before handing it to her, and sending the paint covered first year down the hall.

Without a word, Miyuki Sekken left the art class utterly embarrassed.

-.-

Miyuki made her way down the hallways, left to only herself and the sound of classes in session. It was a silent walk, one of disbelief and overwhelming confusion. To think yesterday was bad but today Seijo has turned her the cold shoulder, she passed out from a panic attack in Mr. Taro's, and now had her allowance poured down the drain with her ruined school uniform! The only question she could ask herself was: ("Well... What else could go wrong?"). Miyuki hoped that the office would give her a free spare instead of buying a fresh one. Even though the used ones stunk all of the time, it was better than shelling out what was left in her wallet for another uniform. Considering the size of this school and the amount that go to Maguro High, she could only hope.

("Please have a spare, please have a spare, please have a spare!") Miyuki prayed to herself while she climbed down the stairs, then at last arriving at the main offices. It wasn't often Miyuki enters the office areas during school hours unless it was for early dismissal or bad behavior. When she does though, she always tends to get creeped out due to the eerie silence. If one listened hard enough, anyone who stayed in the main office area could hear the soft wind outside kicking up leaves or blowing twigs around. That was how silent it usually was when there were no phone calls being made. Miyuki would attempt to listen for that sound, standing where she was and placing a hand over her ear to listen closely. ("The office always gives me the creeps, but I can't help but try this just once.") Miyuki thought as she continued to stand there in silence. She may be covered in red paint and decided to waste time doing something so 'counterproductive' like listening for the wind, but putting her attention to something else was a good way to calm her mind and let go of her inner stress.

("Yep, I can hear the wind outside. Huh, I thought the offices would be pretty busy today, but I guess not. On second thought, I can actually hear some footsteps not too far away") Miyuki noted to herself, then lowering her hand from her ear. Someone was coming- no, some people were coming. She would turn around to see who it was... they were students? One, two, three, no... five of them. They all wore cloths and rags over their noses and mouths to hide their faces, and carrying baseball bats that were slung over their shoulders. Was that even allowed at school? No! Of course not! ("O-oh... h-hello... Why are they wearing rags over their faces? They're not saying anything either... I don't like this! What should I do? They're coming right for me!") and now here is where most would expect Miyuki to bolt for the door to escape these thugs...

...and they would be right! Miyuki felt a sudden jolt of energy bursting through her body, the first year making a desperate dash for the door. Those rag-covered delinquents followed her, not allowing her the opportunity to escape.

Miyuki feared for her life, her body going into an indescribable panic that instinctively told her to do nothing but escape. All of the fears for what they could possibly want to do to her were running through her mind, though her brain was too much of a fuzz to think about it logically. Whatever they did want with her, it surely was not for good reasons. Everything about this group of five screamed 'terror' to her, so she took those cues and (literally) ran with it. Within moments, she arrived within arms reach of the front door, throwing both hands out to push it open!

Unfortunately for her though... one of the baseball bats these delinquents were carrying would have hit the back of her knees mid-stride. Sekken would collapse, her heart feeling like it just went through the floor. Instead of pushing the door open to the freedom of the open world, she slammed head-first into the glass window of the metal door, then went numb. Her body then slouched down onto the cold tile floor, knocked out.