Description: Gorin High has a school festival (The kind with the booths, not the kind with the ridiculous sports games), with Brett Neuer manning the Shaved Ice stall. Between an intimidating, Amazonian classmate, a prize-hoarding Taiyo firecracker, Pacific's own Alpha Female, and a...Momoko....things get tense until snacks get involved.
There are two flavors of school festivals. One is the kind with the little booths where you see people either selling some kind of snack food, some kind of mask or other knick-knack, or some kind of midway game of amusement where you can win a prize. THEN you have the kind where kids end up divided into teams and do physical games, like trying to toss little beanbags into a giant net, or a scavenger hunt race of some kind.
Considering how famed Gorin is for their national- and world-level athletes, it's surprising that their festival tonight is of the former. Of course, with Gorin, there's always the way to integrate sports into it all. Like the old-fashioned baseball toss, trying to hit a target in an exceedingly small mitt...while Gorin High Baseball's leadoff hitter tried to guard it with a bunt. Or the shooting gallery, but with little bows and arrows rather than the cork gun as is commonplace.
Even the food stalls have some kind of theme to them. Take the shaved ice stand, the one stand that Brett Neuer felt most comfortable manning. Sure, shaved ice isn't quite the typical dessert at home as it is here, but he knows it well enough. And he's handy enough with ice to shape the little ice cups in little 'pucks' rather than just the standard bowlful of shavings, with the syrup coloring giving it a distinct look. Of course, he DID look rather distressed after a line of visitors tested just how FAST he could make their 'pucks'. "Geez....no wonder no one in my family went into retail..." he gasped once the last one was handed out, settling back into his booth...and trying not to trip over the old-fashioned yukata he was wearing. Perhaps wearing that was a mistake too. At least they somehow had his size...
If Natsu were an upperclassman, she might be expected to run one of these booths. As it is... NOPE. She's a first-year, and as such, she's one of the lower rungs on the ladder, qualifying for the most grueling work -- in this case, hauling supplies back and forth amongst the various booths. Her size here proves to be a -disadvantage- as she gets stuck with carrying the heavier things for the smaller clubs. She'd just got done ferrying a crate of fresh fruit over to one of the stands, and...
Just a few minutes ago: "Syrup and ice to... Oh dear, that's on the other end of..." Shoulders slump for a moment, but she bows just the same to the folks at the truck.
Now: The sound of a heavy sack of ice being set down after a long trip is pretty unmistakable, but nonetheless, that's what Brett is likely to hear. A tall young woman, nearly Brett's height, was the one carrying it, and she sets a bag of blue flavored syrup is set on the counter. "Supply said you running low, so..." The dark-haired volleyball player bows properly to Brett, trying not to make obvious the fact that her yukata sleeves are spattered with melting ice. With a smile, she strongly suggests, "Keep up the good work!" And starts to take a step out, but something about the American rings a bell..."
"Ano... are you Brett? I... I'm Natsu. It's nice to meet you, I've heard about you..." It's hard for foreigners to hide in Gorin, after all!
One of the weird things about Southtown is that the schools often have random breaks when it's totally conspicuously convenient. Which would explain why Hinata has managed to find herself wandering the Gorin fair. Or more precisely, why it is that Hinata has found herself with a load of prizes, leaving behind a wake of rumors slowly spreading among the Gorin students that Taiyo High has sent a ringer in to make them look bad.
In truth, Hinata wasn't even there to win prizes so much as she is hoping to find an opportunity to surprise her friend Natsu. It was still a bit strange going to a different school from one of her best friends, so an opportunity to see just what was going on at Gorin was exciting for the whirlwind school girl. The fact that she had a strange natural talent for sports, among other things, was just a little bonus that lead to her backpack being stuffed with assorted sport themed prizes.
Of course, one of the less immediate material rewards she had earned was a selection of vouchers for free food at the various booths around the fair. This would explain why now Hinata could be seen wandering between booths with her hands currently occupied by both funnel cake and cotton candy.
"Excuse me!"
A feminine energetic voice calls out from the front of the stand as the athlete-slash-booth attendant mistakenly leans back with the idea of taking a break. One slender hand pokes up into the air, waving back and forth to get his attention as the very young looking girl it is attached to gives him a cheerful smile and a hopeful look.
"Could I get two of your shaved ices?"
Dressed in a short pink yukata covered with all sorts of spiralling flowers and leaves, Momoko looks like someone's younger kid sister who got separated from the pack. Her hair is done up in a more intricate version of its usual up-do, several equally decorative chopsticks interwoven into the mass of frilly auburn and a corsage of some large variety of flower that rests at a jaunty angle like a little hat on one side.
Gorin isn't really the sort of school that she takes a great deal of interest in as a rule. There's lots of sports that she doesn't mind watching but the hardcore athletes tend to be a little too intense for her tastes. That isn't going to stop her from enjoying a festival though!
Brett's not the only one in a yukata, it turns out. Even with all the suspicious things going on in the schools, Tiffany isn't going to say no to a festival, especially one where she gets to dress up in clothes she thinks are cute; she's taken the field in a red, white, and blue yukata, because /of course/ she has. Look at this ridiculous American.
Tiffany has made five attempts at the shooting gallery, to no real success; she wishes for an instant that there was a photo print machine here. /That/ she knows how to do! Giving up on that for the moment, Tiffany decides to avail herself of the refreshments, instead; it is this that gets her over to the shaved ice stand, looking it over carefully.
"Soooooo... are you sure I can't have this for FREE?" Her Japanese is as miserable as ever. When she notices that there are prize vouchers, she mentally answers her own question, and says, "Your games are too hard..." Then again, it /is/ a school for Olympic hopefuls, isn't it...
He's not quite an upperclassman. But again, Brett seemed to be the one most used to handling ice, so even if he wasn't quite RUNNING the stall, he seemed to be the most visible far as working it. It's all a bit of culture shock still for Brett as he managed a small reprieve, looking around the festival. It almost felt like a carnival or a fair back home, with the stalls and attractions, but the more same it was, the more different it was too, and not just because of how uncomfortable he felt wearing the yukata he was in.
His break doesn't last long, as he looks to his side to the back of the stall, at the sack of ice brought over. Looking up, he gulped a bit as he saw the most visible member of the school's Volleyball team. "Ah...Na-er...Ayuhara." Another bit of culture shock, trying to call people by their last names first, rather than first names. Rubbing the back of his neck, he gave a sheepish smile up to Natsu. "Thanks. It's still all really strange to me, you know. It's all a whole lot different from Minnesota, that's for sure." He self-consciously brings his hand up to his hair. Even with the strong foreign population around Southtown, blonde hair still stood out at Gorin, he knew that well enough.
Glancing outside of his stall, he heard some commotion regarding a small girl with an arm full of prizes. "But...I guess I'm starting to settle in a bit. As long as I can play hockey and get other people interested in it...I guess a little culture shock isnt so bad."
Of course, as soon as Brett seems to be relaxing, he hears a sharp voice at the stall...and a small girl at the counter, blinking. "Um....sure," he says, quickly gathering up some of the ice from the brand new sack Natsu brought and tossing it into the shaver. Good thing he had enough muscle to put behind the crank to get it done quick. "It'll be just a minute!" he said, that same sheepish, out of place smile giving to the small girl in the pink yukata before forming the 'pucks'. "Um...which flavor would you like, miss?"
Natsu smiles and nods to Brett, temporarily amused at his stumbling over her name. He knew her -last- name, which speaks to her growing reputation around this school of athletes. "Natsu is fine," she admits, tucking her hands behind her back, as she looks over to Momoko, and bows properly.
And then the sight of Tiffany at the shooting gallery draws Natsu's attention. Foreigners everywhere! She hears the loud, misused Japanese, and wanders over to her. Looking down, she seems a bit curious. "It's not that hard... it's a test of skill! But there are other booths with prizes that are easier..." Natsu gestures helpfully towards one of the booths where you have to make wooden race horses compete for victory by spraying targets with water. "Maybe you should try those?" she suggests, taking great care to speak clearly and slowly for the American cheerleader.
Hinata... well. She hasn't quite noticed Hinata yet. But it'd be pretty easy to spot the six-foot-tall volleyball player in the middle of the aisle.
Even among a Japanese crowd, Hinata really was hard to see. Well, when she wasn't rushing through them or leaping over obstacles. This meant that once Hinata finally managed to find her way into the same path that Natsu happened to be standing in the middle of shortly after getting a mouthful of funnel cake (that she's not rude enough to try to talk around), she approaches a lot like a shark might, with her cotton candy acting like a big pink fin as she holds up high to avoid getting it stuck to people.
If this were a cheesy comedy, there would be slowly intensifying violins marking her slow approach toward the volleyball player and the American cheerleader, with the camera focused right behind the pink cotton candy. This would be a very hacky thing to do, so it's a good thing that this isn't a movie.
Instead Hinata is just suddenly right beside Natsu, finishing her mouthful of funnel cake as her voice breaks up high among the crowd. "Hey, Natsu-chan! You've got a pretty good fair going on here, but the games are kind of easy!"
Momoko lowers her hand and puts the index finger against her chin with a thoughtful expression as she turns her gaze towards the sign propped up near the back of the booth, hand-painted kanji denoting the varities of flavor on offer. As might be expected from a school festival, there isn't anything particularly fancy, but the girl finds something agreeable in short order and jams her finger triumphantly upwards again as if this were an accomplishment.
"I'll take a strawberry and a green tea!" Ofcourse they have green tea flavor.
A familiar voice with a distinctly foreign accent causes her ears to perk up. Momoko turns and lights up at seeing the cheerleader, both arms spreading out in a welcoming gesture. "Ah, Lordo-sempai!" The small girl skitters over to Tiffany and promtly hooks one hand around her waist with a giggle, running a full circle around the much taller American as if she were a Maypole. She comes to a stop before her newest friend and bounces in place on the tips of her toes, which are bare as usual, smiling up at her.
"Did you come to enjoy the festival too?"
Well -- she /had/ been considering just buying the shaved ice and accepting her weakness in the games department. She /had/ been intending to just go with it. But then someone had to turn it into a /thing/. Hinata's comment gets Tiffany's hackles a little raised; she tries to be easygoing, but being called out by someone from /another/ school, at the festival of /a different school entirely/...
Lips pursing in obvious frustration, Tiffany looks over to Natsu. Being directed to easier games is a little bit of a blow to her pride, too... For a few seconds, she stews in it, her expression growing into a big, exaggerated scowl.
She opens her mouth to challenge Hinata --
-- and then Momoko provides a near-total distraction. Tiffany's train of thought crashes completely, and she looks down at the smaller young lady, saying, "Uh -- YES." A moment passes as she mentally recovers, saying, "It's... okay. Pacific's is gonna be way better. What about you...?" Her gaze momentarily turns back to Hinata, who just gets a withering stare for now. Tiffany's not going to start a fight in front of someone like Momoko... at least not over something stupid.
Nodding to the small Momoko, Brett quickly drizzles both Strawberry and...he supposes this green one is the Green Tea one....over each 'puck', the syrup seeping into each bowl of ice and giving it a much more solid looking color as it permeates. Passing each to Momoko, he nods to her....and blinks as he looks up to Tiffany. "...oh...hey. You were in that SNF fight last week to, weren't you?" he asks, surprised to see her here, before something clicks in his head.
"Wait...you go to Pacific, don't you?" he realizes, something clicking in his head about WHY she seemed vaguely familiar before. Before he can get too far on that, however, he looks over to his side as Hinata slips in the back of the stall as well, forced to lean aside a bit as her armfull of prizes makes the space a bit of a tight fit. Another familiar face, but one he's a little too pressed to bring up. Sweat starts to bead around his forehead. Not only is the Shaved Ice stall seeing a lot of attention again, but the fact that they're all girls makes him even more nervous.
After all, despite sharing both Blond Hair, Blue Eyes, and American Heritage, he and Tiffany really couldn't be more different in personality. And...oh dear. The inter-school stuff again. "Um...hey, what is...what IS Pacific like, anyway?" he asks Tiffany, quickly putting together a Blue Hawaii shaved ice for her, looking back to Natsu with a pleading look as if silently asking for her help in defusing things before they start.
Well, there's just no pleasing some people. Tiffany apparently wants an easier game, but not so easy that she can win it without trying -- and not so hard that scrappy lil' Hinata can ace it with ease. Natsu actually gives her longtime friend an unsettling, and overly broad smile as a means of expressing just how -awkward- the situation just got -- an expression she happens to flash over to Brett in the brief moment she happens to look back at him.
"Eh...? Oh... it's... it's okay, but, Hina-chan... try to leave some for the rest of us, huh?" She gestures at Hinata's armful of prizes with an open hand, before holding -both- hands up in a look of apology.
As for Momoko zipping about like a primary-schooler, Natsu barely has the attention span to realize the girl just -orbited- Tiffany. Insanity! "Ah... I hope you both enjoy the festival, then! There's plenty of delicious things to eat still!"
To her credit, Natsu -had- done her part to stock up for the festival -- the volleyball team's stand is fully-stocked with baked goods, and is not far away! "... Did you see my team's stand, Hina-chan? It's got cupcakes... you know, when your arms aren't full... can I help you with those?" Maybe she'll be able to help Brett after all?!
Momoko nods enthusiastically and spins in place with a little flourish of sparkles and her cheer radiates outwards like a palpable force . "I LOVE fun places like festivals! There's always so much to do! The games and the shows and the--"
FOOD.
As if on cue, Brett scoots her shaved ice onto the counter and the small girl squeaks with delight, turning mid-word to dart over and scoop them up. The first one disappears into her face in about 3 bites. She doesn't even bother to use the little plastic spoon. Little happy sounds float in the air as she slurps the remaining red syrup from the container and when she turns back to Tiffany her lips are stained a bright strawberry color.
"Aaaah~... Try some of this, Lordo-sempai! It's really tasty!"
"Oh, hey there, Brett. I didn't recognize you in the yukata." Hinata gives the uncomfortable foreigner a brilliant smile as soon as she managed to recognize him... which took a surprisingly long time, but it's tough to pay attention when your arms are full and one of your best friends is around.
Then Natsu starts to point out her rather large loud of prizes. "Well... I wanted to try all the games I could. When you win, you get prizes... and that guy at the baseball booth kept trying to bet me double-or-nothing that I couldn't keep knocking over all the bottles." She shrugs her shoulders as best she can under the circumstances. "Then Shoma showed up and told him he should stop before they ran out of prizes."
As soon as Natsu offers to help her with the prizes she nods in agreement. "Sure, I was planning to stop by the pre-school afterward and give them most of the toys... I don't really need to get smothered when I go to sleep."
"Yep, that was me! Nice job out there! ... and hey, NICE yukata," Tiffany says to Brett, once he successfully grabs her attention; now that she has /multiple/ people competing for it, thoughts of ruining Hinata's day mostly evaporate. Tiff doesn't care /that/ much; she cares, but this is the sort of thing that leads to plotting to embarrass Taiyo at the Taiyo-Pacific Joint Festival, rather than the thing that leads to immediate reprisal.
Thoroughly distracted, Tiffany accepts the Blue Hawaii shaved ice, looking down toward Momoko. "Pacific's great! GOOD TEAMS, small classes, pretty much everyone's cute..." Talking about the school puts a smile on her face.
As Momoko insists that she try some of the shaved ice, she finally starts eating the stuff. She knows how to pace herself, at least; she carefully, evenly spoons it into her mouth, saying, "Wow -- this /is/ good..." with a grin.
Brett sweatdrops a bit, knowing he may have just poked the hornet's nest a bit more instead, the way Tiffany puffs up Pacific's sports teams. "Eheheh...thanks. You two. I still can't believe we managed to actually stop Sagat of all people...even if it was three of us there." He declines the need to boost up Gorin, especially since he's definitely one to follow the 'actions speak louder than words' credo in games AND in fights.
With Tiffany distracted by her own shaved ice, he looks over to HInata, another sheepish hand to the back of his neck. "Hey...Hinata, right?" he asks, not remembering her last name from their last meeting at Taiyo's gate. "Y-yeah....someone convinced me to try and dress traditionally for this. It still feels weird." He tugs at the folds of the outfit before working on shaving some more ice.
And of course, even if he doesn't say it out loud, Natsu gets a definite grateful look from the hockey star in her help in defusing things.
Natsu hurriedly steps up to accept part of Hinata's burden. Hinata's donating to charity? Of -course- she is. Natsu's friends are totally nice! Even if they tend to spark rivalries without really trying. Ayuhara sets the prizes down in one of the boxes that had been emptied earlier -- she'd -started- to write 'Hinata' but scribbles it out and writes 'Natsu' on the box. The prizes are safer that way, honest.
Taking a moment to smooth the folds on her yukata, Natsu spends a moment exchanging status updates with her clubmates, before turning back to Hinata and Brett. "It does take some getting used to... I always forget about the sleeves. I'd tie them back, but I'd be missing the fun." Yes, her sleeves are =still= soaked.
Natsu smiles back at Momoko and Tiffany, glad they seem to be enjoying the treats... but she realizes she has almost no clue what Brett is talking about. Sagat? "... Isn't that the fighter who... Saku-chan fought?" Blink. "I mean Sakura?"
Amazingly, the tiny ice-destroying monster doesn't immediately seize up with the expected cramps that come along with so callously devouring bunches of ice. Perhaps she knows some amazing secret technique?! If so, she isn't sharing!
Momoko does not, however, tear into her other shaved ice as quickly, instead savoring the sticky strawberry flavor already coating her tongue like some sort of syrup connesseiur. She grins up at Tiffany like a kid then turns and gives a thumbs up to Brett, offering her coveted official Seal of Approval.
"Good stuff!"
With her arms unloaded (and following that, the assortment that she'd stuffed in her backpack), Hinata is left with no more rewards but a collection of vouchers for free food. Some of which will be going toward lightening the load of the volleyball club's cupcake reserve. But that's for later.
"Oh yeah, I saw that fight. It was pretty impressive. It must be kind of weird having to fly all the way to America just for a weekend... when I signed up, they just had me down at the amusement park." It was also a fight for kids with one of her classmates as opposed to a brawl with one of the greatest fighters in the world... who looks like he'd be a good fit to play Frankenstein's monster or something.
"No, Sakura didn't fight him. She and Sagat were fighting together on a team." There's a bit of a pause there as Hinata reflects a bit on the veracity of that statement. "Sort of."
And it's about here that Hinata takes notice of the other girls here and turns to offer them a bright smile. "Hey, I saw you fighting with Brett, it was pretty great, Lord-san." She reaches back and pulls out a suspiciously oversized stack of vouchers. "My name's Hinata Wakaba, I'm a first year at Taiyo High. If you'd like, I could get you some treats as sort of a congratulations on your big win." She smiles at Momoko, too. "I've got enough that I could probably get some for all of us."
"Yeah! We just kept up our offense and it all turned out fine," Tiffany replies, continuing to shovel shaved ice into her mouth. It's delicious, she'll grant that much -- maybe they should turn Gorin into a culinary school! Besides -- then they wouldn't have to compete with Pacific and get trounced all the time, she reflects, in what may be a rather poor approximation of actual reality.
When Hinata pays Tiffany a more direct compliment, Tiffany beams. "Yeah! Sure!" She will happily take treats from a Taiyo student --
-- wait a second. Taiyo is where the /most/ weird things by volume has been happening! Frowning, she says, "... wait... this isn't some kind of WEIRD TAIYO THING, is it?" She squints at Hinata, saying, "Don't think I haven't heard about all the weird stuff going on at your school!" Her brow furrows a little, before she adds, "Especially with the journalism club..." That was it, right? Journalism. That was what the weirdo taking pictures said she was from.
Brett is still getting to know people, only being a fairly recent transfer, but at least he seems to be getting some help. Natsu definitely seems like she'd be nice to know. He nods a little as the conversation turns back to the SNF fight he and Tiffany participated in. "It was...interesting. It's the first time I was ever in Metro City actually....I'm not sure if I want to go back there to be honest," he notes, a small, disappointed look on his face as he continues making some more shaved ice.
He winces a bit as things seem to start bubbling up between HInata and Tiffany. Deciding not to step in just yet, he looks back to Momoko, smiling to her. "Thanks...just don't eat it too..." He then realizes she's eaten ALL of hers...both servings. "...fast...." So much for that warning.
Natsu seems a bit... confused as Hinata clarifies her. "But he was angry with her the whole fight... " The tall volleyball player would be perfectly happy if everyone she knew just settled their differences in a perfectly neutral fashion -- on a volleyball court. But that's just not going to happen, is it?
Ayuhara does take special note of the tiny junior high student giving a thumbs-up to Brett. At least Natsu thinks it's a junior high student. But she thinks it's even more notable that Hinata is offering free food to everyone.
Only to have Tiffany look the gift horse in the mouth, and stir things up again. Why does Natsu keep getting dragged back into the weird zone, she wonders to herself with an awkward wince.
"Uh... yeah... Metro City looks crazy! I... I think I'll be heading there this weekend for, um... wrestling. Or some such." She glances over to Hinata, quietly admitting, "I have Saku-chan to thank for this."
Noting that most of the others have turned their attention to other matters, Momoko goes quiet for a bit to polish off her other container of shaved ice, eating it daintily with tiny jabs of her spoon in a complete opposite of her earlier performance. She still makes little sounds of contentment as she eats but she listens to the others speak with clear attention to the proceedings - until someone offers her more food!
The little girl's eyes widen, spoon still in her mouth and she nods enthusiastically. "Mrrmrrko, alwah ash rrrrm for mrrr shugrr!"
Unfortunately, Tiffany is still on about that whole conspiracy thing. Momoko frowns, swallowing her ice and spitting out the spoon as she turns to cup her hand around her mouth, whispering conspiratorily up at the cheerleader. "Lordo-sempai, don't make her mad! /Free/ snacks!!"
Okay, normally when people get offered free snacks, they're happy. Or at least as happy as can be reasonably expected for some people who are not exactly known for their upbeat attitude. So the sudden shift in tone from Tiffany leaves Hinata in a weird spot, especially once it comes to having her school accused of questionable behavior.
"...Why would it be weird for the journalism club to be taking pictures. They need pictures for the paper. That's what journalism clubs do, you know?" She looks genuinely confused for a moment as she looks over at Brett. "Don't you have journalism clubs in America? I don't think it should be that confusing."
In an effort to calm down the foreign girl, Hinata tries to deflect the blame a little. "The only thing that's weird around Taiyo is that the football club have been acting like jerks. And that weird knife boy from Gedo drove a monster truck onto campus during lunch, but you can't blame us for that, go talk to Gedo about that." She points toward Brett. "For the football club, you can just ask Brett about how much of a jerk the new transfer student with them is. His name is Jason, and I'm pretty sure he's American because Japanese people don't get named Jason."
Tiffany's relatively new herself -- but she's at least managed to get situated. Admittedly, some of that may stem entirely from 'Tiffany breezes through life effortlessly and doesn't care if she's /entirely/ situated,' but hey -- whatever makes someone feel at home, right?
"Daddy has a business branch there -- the main office is in Sunshine, but I've been there before," Tiffany replies to Brett, not /totally/ distracted from the situation but a little bit. And, indeed, after adding, "Oh, you too! Maybe we'll get the CHANCE to wrestle each other," for Natsu... she goes right back to it.
"There's taking pictures, and then there's taking weird pictures from weird angles and getting REALLY weird about it when someone asks you why!" She squints at Hinata, considering this carefully...
... and then Momoko brings up the point of free snacks. "... buuuuut Momoko makes a great point."
Blinking a bit, Brett turns slowly toward Natsu, even pausing in his ice shaving. "...wrestling? Really?" he asks, somewhat confused. "Don't they usually leave wrestling to...you know....Wrestlers? Like Mike Haggar?" he asks rather confusedly. He's not sure he quite understands the thought processes in some of these major fight events people put together.
He turns back toward Hinata, as he's put on the spot again. "Um...I don't know. I don't think my school was big enough for a journalism club. I'm not sure they even had a school paper or anything." He then blink and frowns as he's reminded of that day at the Taiyo gate. "I don't know what that guy was, honestly. And he honestly sounded like one of those guys inventing things to make himself seem important. He didn't talk like someone who was into football. Er...either kind." Wait, do they call it 'football' here or 'soccer', Brett realizes. Something he has to ask someone on the team here eventually.
Either way, he looks between HInata and Tiffany, grateful that the Pacific student listens to the smaller girl far as snacks. "Maybe I'll get a cupcake myself once Izou-san returns," he notes, regarding the upperclassman actually running the stall.
Natsu nods back to Tiffany! "I... I'll be looking forward to it, then!" And to Brett, she turns with a mortified, closed-mouth grin. "It is... not entirely my choice."
The volleyballer glances down to Momoko -- not someone she's met formally, but she seems to like the girl's attitude. Like a miniature Hinata, just with more of a sweet tooth -- an unimaginable concept prior to this festival! Hinata herself, though, seems to be getting awfully defensive. Journalism club? Americans? Brett and Tiffany are Americans and they seem fine, so why is Hinata making such a big deal? She starts to open her mouth in protest, but just at that moment, a representative of the Home Ec club -- you can tell from the maid outfits -- tugs on her yukata sleeve. The tall volleyball player leans on her knees so she can hear the other student whisper, and with a quiet nod, she agrees to help them. "Hina-chan, gomen ne...? I'll be back in a few minutes..." Apparently Natsu's services are in high demand, as her errand summons her to the other side of the festival.
Momoko nods firmly up at the cheerleader then smiles. "Good!"
Now that the subject has been cleared up, she rounds on Hinata with a clear look of expectation in her eyes but the conversation lingers on the subject of weirdness at Taiyo rather than the aforementioned snaks, much to her dismay. Crossing her arms, the dancer frowns slightly but absorbs everything that is said for future reference since she wasn't present for any of these supposed odd events.
"Taiyo is a good school," she adds. "There are always gonna be some people with strange habits."
When Natsu starts to head out, Hinata's brightens dims slightly. It's not that she's still not full of energy and positive attitude, it's just that she's a bit disappointed that her friend has to go. "Alright, Natsu-chan, I'll be around when you get back. And you have to tell me more about you going to the US to fight."
Now that Taiyo isn't actively being assaulted by completely unwarranted (maybe warranted) accusations, Hinata certainly seems a bit less defensive. She knows practically everyone at the school, and she can't let people go around spreading bad rumors when almost all of them are really nice. All these people talking about Taiyo pulling off bad things... well, it's got to lead back to those jerks in the football club.
"I know there might be some weird rumors going around about Taiyo, but I can tell you we're not a bunch of troublemakers, okay?" Hinata's undeniably beaming smile has certainly been known to defuse situations in the past. "And to show that there's no bad blood between our schools, we can all go get some of the volleyball club's cupcakes. My treat." She waves the stack of vouchers a bit for emphasis.
As a relative novice in the world of fighting, Tiffany just accepts the idea that sometimes you just wrestle. Indeed, it's such a non-event to her, mentally, that it doesn't even draw a comment.
The thorough defense of Taiyo High doesn't... /really/ convince Tiffany; she accepts the notion that these particular individuals are nice, but the group as a whole might not be! Or maybe it's just that football club has suddenly filled with weirdos, and that everyone else is fine? Oh, but what about journalism club... Tiffany's head spins, which means she decides that it's not really worth pursuing right now.
"...DEAL," Tiffany says to Hinata, in loud, forceful English. There's about two seconds of her standing there, almost perfectly stock-still, before she appends, "... that means we do the thing," with the wide, thin smile of the acutely embarrassed.
Brett gives a curious look to Natsu, before shrugging. He's not going to argue about it...but this is perhaps a reason he hasn't signed up for that show himself. Not to mention practice, but that's always kind of a thing hovering over everyone here anyhow.
He turns between Momoko and Hinata...and blinks, becoming the second person tonight to get a bit of deja vu between the two. Thankfully, he keeps that to himself, for politeness's sake, shaking his head. "Hopefully I'll get the chance to take a break soon and head over to the Volleyball booth too. Until then?" he says to the group, before reeling at Tiffany's shout. He understood it well enough, but...well, now he feels like he shoudl wear ear plugs around the Pacific student....
Momoko was on-board with Hinata and already her new best friend like ten minutes ago when she said the words 'free snacks' so why is everyone still debating that this should be happening?!
Reaching up to grab hold of one of Tiffany's hands, the girl drags her forward with a determined march, reaching out to swoop up Hinata's arm with the other as she passes. Despite her tiny stature, the little girl seems to be able to put a lot of force out when she wants to and there's nothing that motivates her like good food with good company!
"Comon, comon, let's gooooo already!"
Well then, it appears that cupcakes are the great uniter. Hinata smiles as the topic officially changes to cupcakes. "Okay, Brett. I'll be sure to save some for you and Natsu. You don't need to worry too mu- aahh!"
And then Hinata finds herself being dragged off by somebody currently even more enthusiastic than her... and impressive event. Oh well, only one thing to do.
"CUPCAKES HOOOOOO!"
Log created on 21:26:54 11/11/2014 by Brett, and last modified on 01:23:10 11/12/2014.