Usagi Tsukino is just your average 14 year old girl who likes to eat, sleep, and play video games when she's not hanging out with her friends. Now preparing for high school, Usagi has to juggle even harder school work and friends as well, and this is all made even harder by the fact that Usagi has been starting to look at her peers... a lot differently than before. Like, in a romantic crush sort of way. Particularly, she's been focusing on a classmate... but there's a problem. This classmate isn't just some boy she's noticed... it's actually a girl.

Now, this sort of thing was basically unheard of in Usagi's world. A girl liking another girl? That was just silly and yet here Usagi was in her class sneaking peeks at this other girl who she thought was really pretty and smart and perfect and... wait, what was she thinking??? Usagi had to cut this thinking out before she ended up really going off the deep end with this... but how? How could she deal with this sort of thing by herself? Maybe she just needed to keep this other girl out of her mind. That would work! But no matter how hard she tried doing that, it didn't actually end up working. In fact, it might have actually made the thinking about her classmate a lot worse.

Then she tried thinking up the meanest things about this other girl to try and get herself to knock it off, but that didn't help either because she couldn't think mean things about a person whom she barely knew, much less had an apparent crush on. So in the end, Usagi felt hopeless, embarrassed, and honestly ashamed about what she was feeling. There was no getting rid of it, it seemed. Usagi was just doomed to be the weird girl who happened to like other girls and that was just how it was going to have to be... unless she grew out of it, but that seemed like it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

At some point, though, Usagi thought that maybe she had come up with another solution to this problem. It seemed that avoidance tactics weren't working so maybe trying to be friends with this other girl might help her out a bit. Yeah, because if she was friends with her, then maybe this crush would go away and she would be content with just being friends. What an excellent idea, and she had thought of it all on her own. Usagi felt so smart for doing that.

So, during lunchtime on one particular day, Usagi decided to use some of her courage to take her lunch tray and approach her classmate's table with it. With her heart beating at what felt like a thousand miles an hour, Usagi asked the girl,"P-Pardon me but is this seat taken?"

Nozomi Tachibana had been daydreaming again. While class was in full effect, Nozomi had been gazing out of the window, tapping her pencil on her fingers. There was a thoughtful expression on her face, which worked nicely given that her seat: center of the aisle next to the window, made it so her dark brown hair was swaying just lightly in the breeze. Nozomi snapped out of her little daze when the teacher called on her. She rose from her seat, book cradled in hand and recited the passage as requested, up until she stumbled over her words near the end. Classical literature was not her best subject, but at least she was able to lightly laugh about it, along with other classmates.

Nozomi generally enjoyed school, but every so often she had the appearance of someone who was wishing they were anywhere else. But there was a cool aura about her, which at least served her well on a social front. While she wasn't spending her weekends on shopping trips with friends, she at least talked to others every morning, told them hello, and could engage well enough.

Soon enough it was lunch and in true fashion, Nozomi was at her seat with a properly prepared meal. Rice, meat, some plump tomatoes. Simple but effective. She was in mid-bite of rice when a fellow classmate asked to sit. Nozomi looked up. The hairstyle was distinctive, and Nozomi thought the bun-tails were cute - cuter than her own simple medium length straight style. "No, it's not at all." Nozomi nodded, gesturing with her head towards the chair. "It's...Tsukino, isn't it? Please, sit."

Usagi smiled brightly and took her seat saying, "Thank you. Every place else was either taken or had someone there that I didn't want to disturb." The smile on her face lingered for a little bit as Usagi reflected on the fact that Nozomi knew her name. That was probably obvious since they were in the same class, but even still she couldn't help but feel noticed as she started to eat her lunch. Today she was eating rice, beef curry, and steamed vegetables and boy did it taste delicious! She was certainly thankful for her mother's cooking skills and hoped to be just as good at it one day herself... though that would take a lot of practice.

Usagi was on this train of thought for a little bit before realizing that she should probably try talking to Nozomi a bit if she wanted to be noticed at all. So, after thinking of something to say, she asked, "So... did you make your lunch yourself or did your mom make it for you?"

Nozomi didn't mind eating in silence even while sitting with another. Conversation starters were not exactly her area of expertise. It was nice just to have someone to share the experience with, and as far as Nozomi was concerned, Usagi was one of the more cheerful members of the class. Nozomi had certainly had a bit of amusement on some instances where Usagi reacted loudly on a test. It was good that she could enjoy her youth like that and Nozomi was mildly envious of the carefree way Usagi seemed to go about things. The two of them sitting together no doubt looked like an odd pair for an outsider's perspective. The calm, cool, mature young lady and the aloof, lazy, cheerful Usagi.

She had been absorbed in her own little daydreamy sort of world that it took Nozomi a minute to register that Usagi was speaking. After a quick apologetic bow of her head Nozomi followed through, speaking with a reserved tone. "I made it myself. I make all my lunches myself, or at least I try to. When I can't I have to get something from the cafeteria. Is it the same for you? You always seem to enjoy your food so you must be a good cook."

Usagi chuckled shyly and shook her head. "Oh, I wish I were this good of a cook, but no. Actually my mom makes my lunches for me. I guess I could try making food on my own as well, but my mom is just such a good cook so I let her do it for me." Besides, the last time Usagi tried cooking a dish like this, she nearly set the kitchen on fire, but she wasn't about to talk about that. That would just be embarrassing. That wasn't to say that she was a bad cook, though. She could make simple foods like eggs, rice balls, and cereal, but as for actually making a balanced meal... that would take some work and practice. "I hope that doesn't seem weird by the way; my mom making lunches for me, I mean," she added, wondering if perhaps that came off as lazy.