YouChannell: 2012-2013- Chapter Thirty-Two: Anima Gets Her Glasses (January 25, 2013 8:12 A.M.)

Over the past several days, Anima wondered and thought about when her glasses were coming in from the eye doctor and worried about whether that girl she saw at the Safeway really was Penelope or just a girl who looked a lot like her. It was getting into her head so much that by the time her glasses did get into the eye doctor’s place, Anima was practically obsessed over this idea.

“Have you picked your glasses yet?” Katja said as she and Anima were waiting in the waiting room.

Anima shrugged and quickly glanced at the glasses that were still there on the counter.

She sure as shit wasn’t going to tell Katja about those.

“Anima Hatsune!” the receptionist from the front desk called out.

“This is it,” Katja whispered to the young girl as she grabbed her hand and walked up to the front desk.

This was it. The rest of her life as she would know it was about to begin… or would it?

“Your glasses will be ready in a minute,” the receptionist said.

Fuck, another minute of fucking waiting! That was just fucking great! “Fucking hell!” Anima grumbled under her breath.

“Anima, it’s not going to take much longer. You’re just going to have to wait for another minute,” Katja said.

“Well, this is fucking stupid!” Anima argued, slumping back into her chair, “Why the fuck do we have to wait here for who the hell knows how long if they still don’t have my glasses ready?!”

“They’re just adjusting the finishing touches,” Katja firmly explained, “Then, when they’re finished, they’ll call us again, and we can go on as usual.”

So the two ladies sat their on their leather chairs and waited… and waited… and waited some more. Anima sighed long and hard, glancing at Katja reading a magazine, and picked up her Lucky Star manga and began to glimpse at the pages, not really paying attention to any of the dialogue or characters until-

“Anima Hatsune!” the receptionist called again.

Oh God, what now?! “How long are my glasses going to take?” Anima asked, almost grumbled.

“Your glasses are ready now,” the receptionist said, pointing at the other receptionist with the light tan and coily, curly black hair.

Oh, that was quick. Anima walked over to the other receptionist and sat down at the light tan table where her glasses were waiting for her in a green glasses case. She opened up the case and put on the inevitable.

“Well Anima, do they fit well?” the other receptionist asked.

“How do you like them?” Katja asked.

Anima turned to Katja and the other receptionist and-

“Oh, you look great!” Katja exclaimed.

“They look so beautiful on you,” the other receptionist said.

Anima’s eyes darted to the floor. Of course they would say that; one lived with her, and the other was practically being paid to say that. Was she really expected to believe all of that?

“Thank you. Have a nice day,” the first receptionist said as Anima and Katja left the eye doctor’s office.

“Thanks, you too,” Katja replied.

The pair drove all the way to Nach Cuma Middle School in complete silence. It felt weird for Anima to be able to see so many things outside with so many small, subtle details. Was this how the whole world was supposed to be the entire time?

“Alright, we’re finally here!” Katja chirped. She parked right in front of the middle school and led the young Asian with the new glasses into the front office where she checked her in and saw Anima be handed in a sky blue excused-absence slip. “Have a nice day at school,” Katja said to Anima right before she left.

Anima froze in self-conscious fear. She knew she was going to be on her own for the whole school day, but she didn’t realize that Katja was just gonna dump her. What the hell? She looked down at the excused-absence slip and sighed, trudging into Ms. Blume’s classroom where the teacher was helping some douchebag seventh-grader named Dylan with his assignment- something about analogous colors and some wild animal.

“Like I said, Dylan,” Ms. Blume was saying, “You just need to look at the color wheel to find out what the next color is. For example, if you choose green, you can either use yellow-green or blue-green as your next option-”

Just then, Ms. Blume looked over her shoulders and saw Anima just standing there with her excused-absence slip tight around her fingers.

“Oh, Anima!” Ms. Blume said, grabbing the slip out of Anima’s hand, “I didn’t see you there! Glad you could make it!”

Anima only barely nodded and dragged her feet towards her seat where she saw Violet Blume and Kyla Wong doing their assignments. Kyla Wong and Violet Blume were the last two people that Anima had ever wanted to see.

“Hey, Anima,” Kyla’s voice said… or at least, Anima thought that was Kyla’s voice. She looked up; sure enough, that was Kyla’s voice.

“Are those glasses real?” Kyla asked.

Anima nodded. And then Kyla said the weirdest thing.

Oh, God. Was she just being serious, or was Kyla just fucking with her?

“Yeah, hipster glasses are really in style right now,” Violet added.

Oh… they were being serious. But still, did Anima really pick hipster glasses? If so, then ewww…

Other than that, nothing really happened except for the fact that she could finally see what the hell was going on without squinting her damn eyes. The day was a rather average day until it was time to get on the bus to go home. That day, Anima sat in a seat in the middle of the bus alone because Kishi had to go to the dentist early in the afternoon. She was very lonely, especially since Lidiya and Amanda were talking it up like it was nothing, and she debated whether this day was even worth it when someone cleared their throat. Anima looked up.

Anima felt her ears and face warm up. “N-No,” Anima stuttered, “You can sit next to me.”

“Thanks.” Penelope breathed out a sigh of relief and plopped down on the leather grayish-red seat next to Anima. She looked over at her seat neighbor and analyzed her for what seemed like an eternity until she asked, “Haven’t I seen you before?”

Oh, shit. Anima’s ears and face were absolutely on fire. “…We have?”

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, we met on Halloween in the woods, remember? You must be Anima.”

Oh, so she wasn’t going to mention that one time at the Safeway. Anima just nodded and mumbled, “Catherine.”

“Huh?” Penelope tilted her head and stared at Anima in sheer confusion.

“I… I thought you were someone else.” Anima’s eyes quickly darted to the floor in shame. She would never be able to tell this beautiful girl the real reason for the slip-up.

“Oh.” Penelope stared at her feet for pretty much a really long time before she finally looked up at Anima and said, “You look really pretty.”

Anima’s ears and face were practically burning, and her heart was thumping so hard and loudly that she felt as if it was about to explode out of her chest. “You… You really think so?”

Penelope nodded. “Yeah, really.”

“Oh… my… GOD!” Anima thought to herself, feeling faint and dizzy. So she was recognized by Penelope, glasses and all. And Penelope thought she was pretty! That was something, right? “Th-Thanks. You too.”

It was Penelope’s turn to blush and drift her eyes back to her feet. “You really think that?”

Anima nodded, finally having the courage to stare at Penelope’s beautiful face. Penelope had such beautiful brown eyes and a cute nose. She was beginning to calm down, her heartbeat returned to normal, her ears and face began to cool off, and she even reached her hand out to hold onto Penelope’s. She was enjoying herself… that was until-

“HA, GAYYY!” some middle-school boy shouted (probably referencing Community) at Anima and Penelope.

Anima jumped in her seat and looked up at some white boy in front of them staring at the two girls.

“Piss off, Christian,” Penelope told the asshole seventh-grader.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Christian asked in a sneering way.

Anima gulped as she felt Penelope squeeze her hand. Girlfriend… used in a sneering way. She looked up at him; he had an asshole smirk on his face, his cold, gray eyes pierced through the girls like arrows shot from a bow, and his thin eyebrows were arched up, ready to fall onto the girls at any time.

“Why the hell are you so concerned about my personal business?” Penelope inquired.

Christian wheezed and loudly laughed his ass off. “Ha, gayyy! You’re a dyke!” he shouted right at the top of his lungs. He fell back into his seat and still laughed his ass off.

Dyke. Gay. There went those words again. That grimy, slithering feeling of disgust. Disgust. And for what? What did they even do to this little shit?! Anima sprung out of her seat and lunged for Christian, her heart beating loudly against her chest and her muscles tensing up. “What the fuck did you say, you little shit?!” she yelled.

“I called you a DYKE!” Christian repeated himself, putting much unneeded emphasis on the word “dyke”. That was enough for Anima to leap over the seat and tackle Christian.

“Anima, stop!” Penelope cried out, “He’s not worth it!”

But Anima didn’t stop pummeling Christian, and Christian didn’t stop trying to throw Anima off of him and his seat.

“WorldStar!” Ryu-jin shrieked at the top of his lungs, holding his phone up to record the whole thing.

That comment inspired Christian to pull on Anima’s hair as hard as he can to mess up her face. Anima responded to that by trying to scratch on his legs.

“Stop!” Penelope cried out once more.

As usual, Penelope’s plea failed; it wasn’t until the school bus screeched to a striking halt and threw everyone forward. “Both of you stop fighting or else I’m going to take this bus back to the school and have all of you suspended!” the bus driver barked.

Just then, Niklas got up in Anima’s face and swooped her off of Christian by the arms and shouted in her ears, “Will you quit fucking fighting?! Some of us want to go home!”

Anima slumped back into her seat and scowled the rest of the way home. When the bus stopped on her street, Penelope quickly handed her a small piece of paper; it was her name with her phone number on it. Anima slipped a tiny smile out.

“You’re a faggot!” Christian shouted at Anima one more time just to rub salt in the wound.

That did it. Anima lunged towards the asshole seventh-grader once more and was about to tear his shirt off of him when Niklas pinned her arms behind her back and dragged her off the bus.

“What the fuck are you so offended for?” Niklas inquired after the bus left, “He’s just some stupid asshole!”

“How the hell would you know?!” Anima answered back with a growl.

“Are you seriously getting offended about some somebody who hasn’t even hit puberty calling you a dyke-” And then Ryu-jin realized something and started cackling his ass off. “Oh, holy shit!”

Anima’s face grew red, her hands grew clammy, her muscles tensed up, and her teeth clenched together once more as she got ready to fight Ryu-jin, but then she thought about what he had said and questioned, “What the hell do you mean?!”

“He thinks you’re a lesbian,” Ryu-jin answered.

Anima stopped walking and stared at Ryu-jin for several minutes in complete silence before she blurted out, “Lesbian?!”

“He thinks you’re a gay woman,” Niklas answered.

Gay? Anima? She stopped completely in her tracks and thought about what Ryu-jin and Niklas had just said. She straightened the glasses that had been moved around her head during her fight Christian and thought about why they fought in the first place. Then the words came back to her- gay, dyke, faggot. The remorseless smirk on Christian’s face, his cold, gray eyes piercing through her and Penelope like daggers. Was this really such a bad thing? Was it really wrong to be attracted to Penelope? Was it really wrong to be attracted to… Catherine?

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YouChannell 2012-2013-Chapter Eleven: Middle Kind of Sucks Ass (August 6, 2012 8:20 A.M.)

Anima looked down at her schedule, not too sure what to do with herself for forty-five minutes.

NACH CUMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Hatsune, Anima Homeroom: Blume, Brooke Grade: 08

01: Art 7/8- Blume, Brooke #126

02: Science 8- Sare, Tyrone #72

03: PE- Hightower, Neil Gym

04: US History- Littleton, George #125

05: English 8- Mitchell, Gwendolyn #73

06: Pre-Algebra- Henderson, Taylor #99

07: ICT 2- Mol, Ariel Lab 2

She heaved a gusty sigh and dragged her feet towards Ms. Blume’s art class where she saw this.

Ms. Blume turned around and saw Anima. “And you must be…?”

“Anima,” Anima answered quietly, all of a sudden feeling shy, “Anima Hatsune.”

“Oh, you’re Anima,” Ms. Blume said, “I thought your name was pronounced ‘Hat-soo-knee.'”

Anima just stared awkwardly at the young, thick teacher.

“You… do have your schedule with you, right?”

Anima showed the young thick teacher her schedule.

“Alrightie then. You can sit in that back table near the sink,” Ms. Blume said. She looked at a girl with curly blue-violet hair and said, “Violet, raise your hand for me please.”

Violet, the girl with curly blue-violet hair, raised her hand.

“Make sure you two get along, alright?” Ms. Blume said.

Anima nodded, then looked around the classroom to avoid looking at Violet’s eyes. Tap tap tap. Anima turned around and saw Violet- too late.

Anima nodded because she didn’t know whether or not Violet was telling the truth.

“Violet, stop,” another girl said.

Anima turned around and saw a short Chinese girl with glasses.

So, it was true. It was pretty much confirmed when Ms. Blume called on Violet and Violet stood up in her chair and announced that she was Ms. Blume’s cousin.

“Violet, enough of that!” Ms. Blume said firmly. She walked over to where the girls were sitting at and whispered more harshly, “Just because it’s true doesn’t mean you can brag about it.”

The Chinese girl turned back to Violet and stuck her tongue out when the teacher turned around. “Yeah, Violet. That’s what I said,” she said. She turned to Anima and added, “By the way, my name’s Kyla, and this is Violet. What’s your name?”

With her hands clammy and her cheeks red, Anima had never felt so shy in her life. Still, Kyla and Violet were expecting an answer, so she quietly and meekly answered, “Anima.”

“Nice to meet you, Anima,” Kyla said.

“Same,” Violet added, “So where’d you come from?”

Where’d she come from? Shit, she couldn’t answer that truthfully. What would they think if she told them she came from a group home?! Then she remembered what Ryan said a couple of months back when he was talking shit about one of his ex-girlfriends being from there. “I came from Medford.”

“Medford,” Kyla said, “I’ve never been there. What’s it like?”

Anima shrugged and answered as casually as possible, “It’s okay, I guess.”

Violet and Kyla nodded. Then they turned to each other and started whispering.

“Well at least she didn’t come from a group home,” Kyla said, “Poor thing! She’s so shy!”

“Gee, Kyla. That was kind of a dick thing to say,” Violet replied, “You think she’s special?”

“Poor thing,” Kyla said, casting a quick glance at Anima.

As the school bell rang, Anima rushed out of the art class with her eyebrows furrowed, her eyes blurred, and her cheeks hot and red. Yet another reason why she lied. Poor thing! More like dumb bitches! She stormed her way into her next class when she soon realized that she had no idea where her next class was. It took her two minutes for her to find someone who would tell her where Mr. Sare’s science class was. By the time she entered the small stuffy classroom, she discovered Kishi was sitting at a tall black table with another girl. There was one seat left.

“Where the hell were you?!” Anima inquired angrily when she sat down, “I’ve been looking for you this whole time!”

“Well I’m sorry, but I didn’t want to be late for class!” Kishi said a half-assed apology.

Anima wasn’t sure whether to accept that excuse or not. Either way, she was still mad about Violet and Kyla, and she picked up her Lucky Star manga and started reading when the teacher walked in and introduced himself.

“Good morning, class,” the teacher said, “My name is Mr. Tyrone Sare. I have been in the military for twenty years.” Then he looked straight at the table where Anima and Kishi were sitting at and shouted-

Mr. Sare grabbed the roll from his desk and said, “When I call your name, please raise your hand.” He read the first name, “Rosa Aguilar?”

“Here,” the girl sitting next to Kishi said.

“I said raise your hand!” Mr. Sare yelled at the poor girl. He quickly regained his poseur and repeated, “Rosa Aguilar?”

This time, Rosa raised her hand. Mr. Sare continued calling the roll with Ayodele, Omar “Uh-Oh” and Grey, Jeremy also being in the same class.

“Puberty must’ve hit this motherfucker early,” Anima whispered to Kishi, elbowing her bestie and pointing and Jeremy.

Kishi started giggling.

“Bruh, Jeremy’s been held back twice,” Rosa commented.

That made Anima and Kishi snicker their asses off until Mr. Sare turned back to their table and shouted, “Hatsune!”

Anima jumped and looked left and right.

“Is Hatsune here or not?”

Oh yeah, attendance. “He…Here!”

“What part of ‘Raise your hand when I call your name’ did you not get, Hatsune?”

This time, more timidly, Anima raised her hand. Then the teacher went back to calling roll while Kishi and Rosa started giggling until he called Kishi’s name. Kishi raised her hand, but she was still giggling.

“Now WHAT is so funny?” Mr. Sare shouted, “Either you tell the joke or you stop laughing!”

Kishi quickly zipped her lips.

When second period ended, Anima and Kishi had to run all the way to the gym just to make it to their third-period class on time. Luckily, there was a water fountain they could drink from, and boy did they, especially Anima. Then they changed into a white T-shirt and knee-high orange gym shorts.

“Oh, God! I’m so tired, and we haven’t even started class yet!” Kishi panted.

Anima merely nodded. She sat down on a bench and doubled over. She looked over and noticed an overweight black girl. She must’ve been new because she wasn’t talking to anybody.

“So uh… you new here too?” Anima shyly asked.

“Anima!” Kishi said in a hushed whisper, “That’s Leandra Miller! She’s been here for years!”

“Oh.” Anima turned back to Leandra and asked, “So what all do we do here?”

Leandra snorted. “Nothing really. Sometimes we play kickball every once in a while, but that’s pretty much it.”

Anima was in great awe. “You’re serious?”

Sure enough, Leandra was right as the gym teacher, a tall white man with balding brown hair, called rolled and started a short game of kickball. And that was pretty much it. The only notable thing about the whole ordeal was that Shibi Kuroi was in this class; as usual, she kicked the ball to the pitcher when it was her turn.

Anima tapped on Leandra’s shoulder. “Is this the only class the special needs kids are in?” she asked.

“Anima!” Kishi exclaimed, “You can’t say that in public! It’s mean!”

“Yeah, bitch!” Leandra added, “Are you trying to get your ass kicked here?! This is motherfucking Portland, Oregon we’re talking about!”

“What? I was just asking a question!” Anima said.

“Okay, but it was an offensive question,” Kishi argued.

“Like I said, you’re gonna get your ass kicked if you ask this in public,” Leandra said.

Well, damn. Thankfully, Anima didn’t have to deal with that shit for very long because the game ended around half and hour later. Then, as she was changing back into her school uniform, she noticed it. She noticed that most of the girls in her class looked very cute. Sure, things were a little blurry, but they were still cute either way. And then the bell rang to snap her out of it.

The next class, U.S. History, Anima and Kishi had wasn’t very far. In fact, they were the first to walk into the classroom. In fact in fact, it took quite a while for other students to come in, but it didn’t take very long for the teacher to arrive. He was a frail old man with curly white hair and glasses.

“Good morning, class,” the teacher said, “My name is Mr. Littleton. I’ve been teaching U.S. History here for over forty years, and isn’t it interesting how our country has changed so much in that little time?”

No, not really. Mostly because Anima didn’t even really consider America as her country.

“In this class, we’ll discussing the history of our country from the 1600s all the way to the Civil War,” Mr. Littleton continued as he handed out information sheets, “I would like to know more about you guys and what you guys like and need in this class.”

As Anima was filling out her information sheet, a sick hard feeling punched her in the bladder, and it was a hard hard punch. She was beginning to regret drinking so much water at that water fountain in PE. Anima jumped and began to tap her foot. Luckily, Kishi was sitting right in front of her so that she could tap her on her shoulder.

“Psst, Kish!” she whispered, “Where’re the bathrooms here?”

“What are you asking that for?” Kishi whispered back.

“I need to pee. Like, really badly.”

“They should be near the gym or something like that. Why don’t you ask the teacher?”

Hope that’ll work. Anima’s hand sprang up faster than the speed of light, but her lips were dry and her brain was empty. Thankfully, Mr. Littleton noticed immediately. “Is there anything you need?”

Gotta say something, gotta say something, gotta say something. “Can I go to the bathroom please?”

“My goodness, is this an emergency?” Mr. Littleton asked.

What the fuck wasn’t an emergency?!

“Alright, alright! Here’s the bathroom pass!” the old fuck said, handing Anima a small red bathroom pass.

Thank fuck Anima made it in time, or shit would’ve been gone down further than R. Kelly’s dignity and career. Flushing the toilet, Anima realized that while her day hadn’t been that great, it could’ve been a lot worse. A whole lot worse.

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