Chapter Text
Chapter 1
"Heeeeeeeyyy!!"
I hear her voice calling out behind me as she hurries to catch up. My next-door neighbour, and good friend since childhood - the one who hadn't betrayed my trust. Sayori, once upon a time the third wheel to Emma and I - and now the last remaining bridge between us.
But I can hardly blame her for poor taste in friends, given how close Emma and I had always been.
"Haaahhh...haaahhh... I overslept again!" she explains, as she catches up. "But I caught you this time!"
"You'll catch me every time if you're in time for the bus," I point out.
"I guess?" Sayori touches her pointer fingers together, a gesture that I know some people find endearing.
"It's a good thing you were in time today," I add, as a thought occurs to me.
"Why's that?" she asks.
"We have an art project that's due today," I tell her. "Could I ask you to hold onto it until lunch?"
"Sure! I'll keep it in my locker!"
"Not in your locker," I say. "On you, personally. Please?"
".....is Emma being a meanie again?" Juvenile, yes. She's only one year younger than me, but she never seemed to leave her childhood behind - or perhaps she wasn't shoved out of it. Before I can reply, she reads the answer in my face.
"Okay," she says, "I'll look after your art project on one condition."
"Sayori..."
"It's an easy condition! I promise! I just want you to come to the literature club with me after school."
"....Winslow has a literature club?"
"Yeah! It's kinda small, but we could do with new members! And you... you need more friends. I'd die at the thought of you becoming a NEET in a few years because you forget how to make friends!"
"....okay. Okay. Yeah. I can visit your club. But no promises about joining it, okay?"
"Yay!"
Since when has Winslow had a literature club?
There's... there's something odd about this whole interaction. Why had I never thought of asking Sayori to hold my art project before this morning?