(Dusk's POV)

There weren't many people inside my homeroom class when I stepped in. There were only a few students, but as soon as the bus doors opened a stream of kids flooded the halls and the sparse room was filled up in no time.  

I saw down at a table in the middle, not in the front but not in the back either. Nobody joined me as all the other kids rushed in and sat with their friends. 

"Hi! Are you the new kid?" 

I turned my head and found a girl beaming at me. Instantly I got this 'happy' vibe about her. She had regular brown hair, but her wavy, high ponytail was colored rainbow, red fading all the way down to purple. She was wearing a pink blue-star patterned slightly cropped tank top shirt, a really short magenta-and-pink stripes plaid skirt, and had blue star clips in her hair. A small necklace with a choker rested just above her collarbone. 

"Yes," I replied, still cautious. Oh why didn't Mother let me take my bow and arrows school? Then again, this girl didn't look particularily threatening, but, still. 

"I'm Kinata Bright," she continued. "Can I sit here? We can be friends!" 

I blinked. "Sure." As she plopped down and slung her rainbow-patterned backpack on the chair, I thought, Yep. Definetly the nice kind.

"What's your name?" she was asking now. From her backpack she pulled out her school supplies and started to flip through a bright yellow glittery notebook. 

"Um... Dusk. Dusk Goldsong."

"Pretty!" she commented. 

"What's in the notebook?" I had to ask, hoping that I didn't sound rude. Kinata didn't seem to mind. 

"Oh, this? It's my shipping notebook." she showed me the cover, where the words SHIPPING NOTEBOOK were written in loopy letters, decorated with hearts for the dots in the i's. I nearly choked. "S-shipping?" 

"Yep!" she grinned. "it's my hobby." Now, that was quite an interesting hobby... not that my hobby of shooting arrows in my spare time was any different, I supposed. 

Just then two boys walked in, arguing loudly, and a few girls sighed quietly at the sight, so my attention was immediately averted to them. 

They looked like opposites. One was smiling like he was enjoying the argument. The other was scowling fiercely. The one that was smiling had sandy brown-brown hair, sparkling brown eyes, naturally slightly tanned skin, and was wearing an ensemble a la desert. 

The one that was scowling had pale, pale skin, white spiky hair, ice-blue eyes, and was dressed in an ensemble a la winter. 

"Who are they?" I asked Kinata, who would probably know. She looked to where I was gesturing, and smiled. 

"Oh, those two! The one with pale skin is Winter Snowice. The other is Quibti Sandstorm. Cute, aren't they?" she sighed dreamily. "I totally ship them. like, Qinter! Hmm, should I add a u in there or not...?" 

I frowned. "Oh. So you're like, in love with them too?" 

Kinata laughed bubbily, surprised. "Oh no! Definetly not! They are the ones who would make a perfect pair. The heat to his ice." 

That was relieving. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get swept up in school drama quite yet, but if I was  going to maintain a healthy friendship with Kinata, it appeared that that was an important part. 

"Hey, Winter! Hey, Quibti! Over here!" I jumped when she started waving them over. "What are you doing?" I hissed. 

"Introducing you to new people, of course," she replied innocently, then beamed as the two boys made their way over, sitting in a desk behind ours. 

"Hey, Kinata," Quibti said, smiling kindly at her. "Still quarrling?" Kinata teased. "And on the first day of school too. How preposterous!" she tsked, though I could see the playful gleam in her blue eyes. Quibti smiled easily. "Nah, I just like getting on Winter's nerves."

"And you do an excellent job," Winter snapped back. His voice was like ice shards, sharp and cold. His piercing eyes looked straight at me. "New friend, Kinata?" 

"Yes!" she replied happily, seizing my arm. "This is Dusk! She's my best friend!" 

I gaped at her. Uh, since when had we been coined as 'best friends'?! Sure, Kinata was really nice, but we'd only met a couple of minutes ago... 

"It's okay," Quibti reassured me. He must've seen my slightly alarmed expression. "You get used to it. She tends to have about a million best friends at one given point." 

"Yeah," Winter grumbled. "Like, no kidding, she literally bounced right up to me one random school day in the 6th grade and was like, 'hi, bestie!' and I told her to scram." 

Kinata pouted. "That was definetly not nice. And hey, you still owe me that! If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have ever met Quibti!" She sent a subtle wink towards me. 

"That's true," Quibti said. "I just turned the corner and found this strange pale boy towering over a little girl, telling her to scram. What a sad sight." 

"Yes, well, that turned out to be a mistake," Winter said coldly. "If I hadn't told her to scram then the most annoying factor in my life would not exist." 

"I would've eventually talked to you," Quibti said. "Honestly, your white hair was just screaming, 'TALK TO ME!' to everyone."

Before Winter could return with some comeback, the bell rang and a tall man with a slick mustache walked in. "Good day. I am Mr. Jaques, your homeroom teacher. Please, we'll begin with a short recap of everyone's summer. But first... let's give a warm welcome to our newest student, Dusk Goldsong!" 

He gestured for me to stand up, and I did, but he frowned at my hat, which I'd forgotten about. "Young lady, no hats inside, please." 

"Yes, of course," I mumbled, embarressed. I sat down and removed it, letting my long hair spill down my back. There was a murmur of appreciation from the class. 

"Nice hair," Kinata said. 

At that moment I decided that I would help her with her ships. In a world of people, you didn't have to have many friends. But as long as you had some allies... even one... that would be enough. And Kinata was one. Maybe even the two boys sitting behind me. And who knows? Maybe this whole 'shipping' thing wouldn't be too bad!

Yeah! longest chapter yet! I'm proud! -v-