Anju Khanna 1

[ANIME LIFE.jpg in the first comment]

Let's see…

Ok, this is it. Classroom 1-1.

"Ah, excuse me," I approach a group of girls hanging out by the classroom's door. They look at me and gape—which is pretty common for me, if we consider my circumstances (my height (5'10), my skin color (dark brown) and my clearly foreign facial features) "Yeah, sooooooo, where are Sotoka-chan, Izumi and Ino?" I show them the flyer I have in my hands. "It's just I want to join the ANIME LIFE and—

"SOTOKA-CHAN!" someone yells from inside the classroom.

So they must be inside.

"The one with the hideous hair is Izumi," says one of the girls. "There's no way you'll miss her."

"Thanks," I tell them and do the corresponding bow. But they don't bow not even once, and only stare at me confused—this happens very often and I don't know why; in this country we are supposed to bow when we say hi, thank you, I'm sorry, etcetera, right? But that doesn't always happens, doesn't it? Why? There's an infinite amount of reasons and circumstances on which we say hi or thank you or I'm sorry. How can we determine on which to bow and on which don't? It doesn't make any sense.

Well, anyway, I enter the classroom, and I feel everyone's eyes, except theirs. Sotoka-chan, Izumi and Ino—I've never seen them before, but I can perfectly assume Izumi's the girl with the insanely long and messy hair—They're sitting in adyacent desks. Two of them have bento boxes, and Izumi's eating chips.

I approach them, and they don't even notice me.

"Yeah," says Izumi. "We can give them at the sports festival. Everyone's gonna be tired and thirsty that day. That's when we appear with some coolers and start giving away these bad boys."

Izumi reaches a backpack and takes out a bottled water.

[BAD BOY1.jpg, BAD BOY2.jpg and BAD BOY3.jpg in the first comments]

"Wow," says the smaller girl of them all. "I don't know how you do it but you turns a simple bottled water into something hideous."

"SHUT UP, INO, IT'S JUST A LABEL, AND PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE VERY THIRSTY, AND WE'LL GIVE 'EM COLD AND FREE WATER, AND THEY'LL DRINK IT, AND THEY'LL REMEMBER US AND MAYBE THEY'LL JOIN US!"

Actually, that's a great idea. They'll take advantage of people's needs to promote themselves.

This Izumi girl is really smart, to be honest. But it doesn't matter right now.

"Excuse me…" I say, but, apparently, they are not listening to me.

"Yeah, whatever, that Fujimoto bitch won't let us give those away," says TSGOTA—that's the acronym for The Smallest Girl Of Them All.

"So, we'll join the staff and offer to giveaway bottled water at the day of the festival. They surely are too busy to do it, so they'll let us do whatever we want without watching us."

"Still that Fujimoto bitch won't let us give those away," says TSGOTA.

I get closer to them.

"Hi. My name is Anju Khanna and—

"And what will she do? Scold us? If we give 'em away, she won't un-give-'em-away. It was the same with the flyers."

"But if we label the bottled waters with paper, and put them if a cooler full of ice, won't the labels get wet and ruined?" Asks the blonde girl, and she's totally right.

I get even closer to them.

"I'm from 1-3 and…"

"We can wrap the labels with transparent tape, and that'll be it," says Izumi, and that's a great idea.

"Wow, finally you have a decent idea," confirms TSGOTA.

I can't get any closer.

"I'd like to join the ANIME LIFE…"

"You lie!" Yells Izumi. "I'm always having a lot of great ideas. I just had these over the weekend."

"Really? And I thought you could only watch that mangas and animes of yours," says TSGOTA.

"Yes, I can't stand being home for that long. I go to cafés, I send the things I sell online, I walk a lot and I think a lot about basically everything, and that's when I have my best ideas."

"Hi. I want to join the ANIME LIFE…"

This isn't working.

"Really?" Asks TSGOTA. "do you have any more ideas? They'll surely suck. I want to know them all.

Izumi stares at TSGOTA slightly annoyed and takes a rugged sheet of paper out of a backpack. TSGOTA takes the sheet and starts reading it. Her expression goes from an expectant smile to clear confusion to laughter.

"A anthem?" Laughter. "You really want to," laughter, "write the club anthem?" Laughter. "Izumi, you're dumber than I thought," her laughter's more and more noisy and high pitched.

"Shut up, it's not an anthem, it's more like a super epic awesome song or whatever, but I can't think of the lyrics, and shut up, Ino. You're not giving any ideas."

Oh, so the TSGOTA is Ino, and, by a simple elimination process, I can assume the blonde girl must be Sotoka-chan.

Anyway, that's unimportant for now.

I knock on one of their desks.

*Knock, knock*

And finally the three girls look at me and gape—which, as I say at the beggining of this chapter, it's very common for me.

"Hi. My name is Anju Khanna, I'm from 1-3, and I want to join the ANIME LIFE."

Now the girls gape even more than before—which is pretty weird, if we consider my circumstances (I want to join their club. They should be happy, right?)

Maybe they didn't understand me—that happens very often. Or maybe that club doesn't exist anymore. Or maybe they aren't the Sotoka-chan, Izumi and Ino I'm looking for—that could be; they'd never mentioned they were part of the ANIME LIFE club. Or maybe they don't want me in their club—that also happens very often. Or maybe the club's already full.

The posibilities are endeless—they always are.

I show them the flyer in my hands—their flyer, if I'm not mistaken.

"This is your club, right?"

"HA!" Yells Izumi and takes the flyer from my hands and shows it to Ino, "IN YOUR FACE, INO! MY FLYERS ALWAYS WORK!"

Ino looks at the flyer and, then, at me with what it seems to be extreme repulsion. Or surprise. I don't know; I don't know her enough to tell the difference.

"Why?" Asks me Ino.

"Why what?" I ask, even though my question may be more confusing than hers. "I don't understand what you're asking."

"Why you want to join us? How can you look at this" Ino's talking about the flyer, "and say: 'you know what? I want to join whoever's-drawn-this-and-spread-it-throughout-school's club'?"

Well, I didn't think precisely that when I saw the flyer. But I'm glad she asks why I want to join the ANIME LIFE; I've been rehearsing my answer all weekend long.

"As you can see," I say this because of my circumstances—see the beginning of this chapter—I really stand out—and not in a good way. My family and I moved to this country a little while ago, and I'm struggling to get used to it—well, I'm always struggling to get used to things, but now's different, especially because of this country's culture, society and its habits, customs, ideologies and what not—, that's why I decided joining a club will help me a lot—I'll meet new people, make new friends, learn more about this culture and all that surrounds it, and apparently all students who never join a club are frown upon by society, and I stand out enough, thank you very much. But the thing is I can't do a lot of stuff, and I don't care for basically anything else—like sports, even though everyone tells me I should join the basketball club, but that doesn't make any sense because, yes, I'm tall, we all know it, but, among other things, I'm slow and clumsy and don't have good sight, so basketball club is not an option for me—and that's why only your club interest me."

"Let me get this straight," says Ino. "You want to go unnoticed, be normal and whatever, and that's why you are joining the club who filled the school with hand drawn flyers with happy cats and suns. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."

"Well, you see, Ino… ¿san?"

"Oh, yeah, we haven't presented yet. Sorry about that," says Sotoka-chan. "Khanna-san, she's Ino Yamamoto," and she points Ino Yamamoto."

"Nice to meet you, Ino Yamamoto," I say and bow correspondingly, but she doesn't—maybe in this specific case the bow's not necessary, or maybe she didn't bow because she's mad at me (that happens very often.)

"That's right," says Ino Yamamoto. "I'm Ino Yamamoto and you can only call me this way."

"Oh, come one. Give her a break," Sotoka-chan says to her with a confident smile. And now she says to me: "I'm Sotoka Hamano, but you can call me Sotoka-san or Hamano-san."

"YEAH, BUT NEVER SOTOKA-CHAN, 'CAUSE ONLY I CAN CALL 'ER THT WAY 'CAUSE SHE'S MY SOTOKA-CHAN! GET SOMEONE ELSE!"

I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, IZUMI NATSUMURA!" I yell and bow repeatedly and correspondingly. "I HAVE NO INTENTION TO CALL HAMANO-SAN SOTOKA-CHAN! I'M SORRY FOR THE MISUNDERSTANDING!"

Ino Yamamoto stares at me smiling—that never has happened before.

"I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with you, Khanna-san," she tells me.

"Really?" I reply smiling; no one has ever told me something like that. "I'm glad to hear it. People don't usually enjoy my company; they say I overthink, but that doesn't make any sense; reality is so infinitely complex every problem, every situation has an infinite amount of variables to take into account. No matter how much you think about it, it's impossible to consider all, so the fact they tell me I overthink can only mean they underthink, but—

"All right, all right," Hamana-san interrupts me—I think she also thinks I overthink. "Nice to meet you, Khanna-san," says Hamano-san and bows correspondingly.

"Nice to meet you, Hamano-san," I say and bow correspondingly.

"And she's," Hamano-san points at Izumi, "Izumi Natsumura."

"IZUMI-CHAN!" Izumi Natsumura suddenly yells. "I'M IZUMI-CHAN FOR YOU, SOTOKA-CHAN! DON'T FORGET IT!"

"Sure," Hamano-san smiles wamly and kindly to Izumi Natsumura, "but I'm presenting you to Khanna-san."

"NICE TO MET YOU, IZUMI NATSUMURA!" I yell and bow correspondingly.

Ino Yamamoto smiles at me, and I smile back.

This Ino girl is so nice.

"Hey, stop mocking her, Ino-san," Hamano-san scold Ino Yamamoti for reasons I can't understand—that happens very often. "Now, Khanna-san, why did the club interested you?"

"Because of its name. ANIME LIFE means absolutely nothing. So how can there be a club dedicated to absolutely nothing? I've been thinking about it for the last few days and I came to the conclusion this name can mean anything, so this club can be about everything, and that's the club I need and, considering you're still a member short… you're still a member short, right?"

"Right," Hamano-san replies.

"Oh, that good—I mean bad, that's bad, really, really bad, I'm sorry," I open my backpack and, carefully enough, I go through my books, notebooks and folders; I open my folder labeled "various docs" and I check the docs there until I find what I'm looking for; I take them from a corner and take them out slowly so I don't accidentally fold them. They're 4 A1 sheets of paper. "I have some ideas of how to get the last member. This is the first one:"

[HAREM.jpg in the first comment]

"I made this one thinking most of students that haven't joined a club yet are men and, because the name of the club is ANIME LIFE, I investigated what do men who like anime like, and I discovered harem anime."

"Yeah, that's a great idea and all, but no, thanks," says Hamano-san.

"Why?" I ask surprised; Hamano-san's immediate rejection doesn't make any sense to me.

"Because we don't want people coming here with those ideas. We are not and we'll never be a harem or anything like it," she says this last thing with unexpected seriousness and harshness.

"But romantic relationships are not guaranteed. It's on the note."

"Yeah, but they'll think they're possible."

"Everything's always possible. Probabilities could be practically none, but never zero."

"They are in this case," says Hamano-san pretty upset, even though what she says doesn't make any sense. But I think it's better to be quiet.

"And harem animes are pretty bad, though," says Izumi Natsumura. "The plot is usually pretty bad, the characters are always the same, and the protagonists are boring mary sues who are just there to be the center of attention. Harem animes are fantasies so boring I don't understand why they're a fantasy in the first place, AND, BESIDES, EVERYONE'S GONNA COME HERE TO GET SOTOKA-CHAN, 'CAUSE SOTOKA-CHAN'S BEST GIRL, AND THEY'LL START SAYING: 'SOTOKA-CHAN'S MY WAIFU', SO NO, WE'D RATHER NOT!" Izumi Natsumura takes my flyer and rips it off.

"Ok, ok, that's fine. I made more flyers:

[INFINITE.jpg in the first comment]

"I made this one thinking people like me probably haven't joined a club yet, so I focused on them. And also people who want to join a club that doesn't exist yet can join ours instead."

"I don't think there's someone as weird as you, to be honest," says Ino Yamamoto what it seems to be a praise or an insult—I'm not offended, though; I know people consider me weird, and they're not usually like me, but it's still probabilistically impossible no one like me exists.

"Hey, stop it," Hamano-san scolds Ino Yamamoto. "She's interested in the club and she did a great work with her flyers and she's the only one who has joined yet."

"Exactly," Ino Yamamoto replies, "and that's why she's so weird."

"Shut up, Ino," says Izumi, "you are the weirdest of us all. And besides, Hanna-san seems pretty smart."

"It's Khana-san, you dummy," replies Ino Yamamoto. "Listen for once in your life."

"Oh, Hanna-san is ok," I clarify. "A name's purpose is to identify ourselves and refer to each other. If you want to call me Hanna-san, is ok, as long as I know you're referring to me."

"Wow, you're really smart, Hanna-san."

"Well, thanks," I say and bow correspondingly, "but I don't think I'm really smart, to be honest. Everything I say it's just logic."

"That's what a really smart person would say," says Hamano-san with a smile. Rumors abut her are true, it seems—she's extremely friendly. "And don't listen to Ino—she's always mad because she's so tiny," she tells me, even though that doesn't make any sense; growth depends on the genes and everyone's development. There's nothing we can do about it—except, maybe, play basketball or take those emulsions, syrups and all those products that I'm not really sure they work, to be honest—, so get mad about it is foolish, is like get mad because it rained or because it's sunrise. "And, tell me, do you have another flyer to show us?"

"Yes," I say, and I show them my last flyer.

[FRIENDS.jpg in the first comment]

"I made this one thinking that maybe a lot of people haven't joined any club because they don't have any friends."

"NO!" Izumi Natsumura takes my flyer and rips it off. "IF THEY COME HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS, THEY'LL BEFRIEND SOTOKA-CHAN 'CAUSE SHE'S SO KIND AND BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT, AND IF THEY BEFRIEND 'ER, THEY'LL WANT YOU JUST FOR 'EM, SOTOKA-CHAN, AND YOU—

"We get it," Ino Yamamoto interupts her. "You and Sotoka-san together forever and whatever. Even if Sotoka-san doesn't want to, right? But you're so selfish, Izumi."

"SHUT UP, INO, NO ONE ASKED YOU! NOBODY CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY 'CAUSE NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU AND NEVER WILL 'CAUSE EVERYONE HATES YOU AND—

The bell rings. Recess' over.

"Well, Khanna-san, welcome to the ANIME LIFE. We'll hang out at the library after class, you coming?"

"Wel, yeah, I have to; I'm part of the club now."

Hamano-san smiles at me. Her smile is really pretty.

"Right. See you later, then."

"Yeah."

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Oh, yeah, I got to get back to my classroom.

"Well, see ya, thanks for accepting me, I'll look for you after class, nice to meet you, bye," I babble while doing all my respective bows, and then I get out.

Now I walk back to the 1-3.

You know what? I think joining ANIME LIFE is the best decision I've taken in a while.

What could go wrong, anyway?