Nanako 1: Shining Heart Crisis!

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Its not so bad, its really not so bad.

Nanako gazed past the head of another student, out the window of the classroom, one hand propping up her chin.
It was maths class. Something-something-algebra-probably.
She was totally not in the mood for numbers right now.
It was a Friday afternoon, the weather outside was looking so inviting, and the plants were looking completely unruly. Some students were absent, and the class was in that kind of warm daze where the majority found it hard to be productive.
Takara, her equally-unfocused friend, had stopped passing notes. The conversation had devolved into drawing doodles of increasingly ridiculous mustaches on the faces of girls anyway, and Takara was more interested in the plans for the weekend, while Nanako wanted to continue doodling. Maybe it could be considered mean, but Nanako was rather fond of the plaited beard she'd given her impression of Ruka Kato- She looked like some kinda crazy redhaired dwarf king.

Nanako looked sideways at Takara, who wasn't paying attention, looked down at her drawing again, then over at Ruka.
Maybe I should give it to her? She wondered blankly, If someone did a picture of me with a beard that majestic, I'd appreciate it as a gift.
She pursed her lips and passed her artwork and proposition to Takara, who snorted in laughter and scribbled a reply, flicking the paper back in seconds.
It was a little TOO enthusiastic, maybe.

The bell rang for end of class, and Nanako packed her books away with no hurry, folding the passed notes into the back of her binder.
I'll show Ruka her beard-portrait later. She resolved, and waved to various other students who were heading home, slowly ambling in the opposite direction, towards the gardeners shed. There wasn't supposed to be a gardening club meeting this afternoon, but she felt like doing some weeding anyway.

The school groundskeeper was already in the shed, fiddling with some irrigation piping, and just gave her a nod.
Nanako smiled, dropped her bag by the door and grabbed some tools. Sometimes it was nice to not need to speak- she felt as if she'd been saturated in too much communication already today.

She sat somewhere along the edge of the school building, in the garden bed.
Stab, lift, stab, lift, liiiiift, stab, lift. Toss.
The little weeding tool jabbed in underneath the flatweeds invading the pinebark mulch, levering them out. She tossed them into a bucket nearby.
Stab, lift, stab, lift, stab, stab, lift, Toss.
She exhaled a little, continuing, and probably stabbing with an amount of force that was not required.
Those weeds were getting torn out with extreme prejudice.
"Get...out of there, you little-" She muttered to a particularly deep-rooted one, giving it an extra hack or two.
After a few minutes wrangling weeds she felt herself slip into a meditative calm, sinking into the rhythm of it.
This was a lot easier than facing real, actual problems.

Besides, theres no reason to hurry home.

((Well, scene set.))

The air was warm that day, a late summer breeze made the courtyard pleasant, not hateful and sweltering like it had been just a few weeks ago. No birds or bugs seemed to be out at the moment; the air was quiet, save for the occasional shuffling and clanking of Sakiko, the groundskeeper's, reparations.

Whatever the weed was, it wasn't giving. It must have grown tendrily roots down deep and wide, because despite Nanako's methodic work, the woody core of the plant would pull out, or even break. So far it only had managed to splinter slightly around where Nanako was trying to dig it out-- and dirt was tumbling back in. Nanako's pocket buzzed and played a short ringtone, the sound of a text message.

There was a soft creeeak! and the sprinklers burped and came on, suddenly showering Nanako, and quickly slowing into a gurgling drip. "Oop-- Sorry!" came Sakiko's voice, sheepish and awkward with embarassment, "You've been so quiet, hon, I'd forgot you were here." The gardener poked out from around the corner and approached the girl with a pair of heavy brown gloves. She nodded at the flowerbed, "You'll wanna mind the prickly ones, it's gettin' to be about that season for 'em." Sakiko dropped the gloves into the soil next to Nanako's stubborn weed. "Uh, so... I figured you'd want these. Sorry again."

Ugh, this one really isn't giving in--
Nanako cut and yanked at the deeply rooted weed, but her face didn't frown or anything. Dealing with stubborn annoying things was part of what made gardening feel satisfying, in the end. Though, the dirt tumbling back in was a little unhelpful.
She pressed her hand to the side of the hole, squishing the dirt back into place and jabbing the spade in with the other hand.

When her phone tinkled a message, she huffed, stabbing the spade into the dirt, wiping her hands on her uniform.
She stuffed a hand in her pocket, bringing out a minty green flip phone with a few dangly gold plastic gems.
Before she could flick it open, there was a creaking noise.
"Eeek!"
Nanako sprung up, shielding her precious phone and trying to get out of the sprinkler range, which quickly died down.
She whirled around, glaring at whoever had been so mean as to turn on the sprinklers, but instantly dissolved her rage at Sakikos apology.
"Oh, that was you!" She laughed awkwardly too "I thought someone had played a mean trick-" She cut herself off, realizing that she may have just called Sakiko mean "-not that you are mean! I totally WAS being super quiet!" She babbled as the gardener walked over, wiping her phone dry on a sleeve.

Despite not being as keen on gardening now that she was half-wet, she listened to the instructions on proper protective gear, and nodded.
"I'm okay, it's alright. Thankyou for the gloves Mrs. Kato." She replied politely, not sitting down in the soggy garden bed again just yet.

As soon as Sakiko moved on to other duties, Nanako would check her phone.

((Do I need to like, insight roll to tell if she's lying, or tenacity roll to not be disheartened by the sprinkeling?))
((Listening to This on repeat- maybe a chunk of this was her ringtone!))

Sakiko drifted away toward the greenhouse, and Nanako opened her message:
New Message
From: Alexi
Subject:
Body: hey! whats g club doing 4 cultfest?

Alexi lately found herself scrambling to catch up on her notes in class, and seldom had any time to play or pass notes the other girls in her row. Rumor was that she had taught herself to be ambidextrous to keep her hands from cramping up so badly from the constant, frenzied scrawl. Totally distracted, it was no surprise that Alexi hadn't remembered to ask about the activities until hours after school.

In the background of the yard,  a group of older students had gathered and were shouting and laughing excitedly. They were dressed in bright clothes that looked like something out of a videogame, capes flapping around their ankles as they walked. The tallest girl, who wore an eyepatch and sported a ruby-red top-ponytail, shouted orders to the others, apparently in charge despite looking completely silly. They came within conversation-range of the garden beds, ignoring Nanako, and drove wooden spikes into the ground in a square. Then they pulled out prop swords from a bag they carried, and started beating at each other. Loudly.

Oh yeah, culture festival. Nanako mused to herself, looking down at the text and thumbing a reply.
To: Alexi
Subject: Re:
Body: A "Fruits and Vegetables of the world" thing.
I think. Its a mayb rite now.
IDK where we'd get all the stuff from though- we haven't grown much.

Nanako hit send, remembering the area down the back of the school that they'd tried to grow a vegetable garden in. It had seemed pretty good until last months heatwave hit, and since then the plants were looking pretty poorly. There was that, and the fact that once things HAD produced anything, it seemed to go missing quickly. The garden beds they'd been given weren't exactly locked up, and the club suspected random non-club students regularly raided the garden when they were hungry. Nanako suspected it was the athletic club, because they'd nearly caught them once or twice, but the perps had easily outrun the gardening club. Then again, the gardening club isn't made of the fittest people...It could be anyone.

The blonde girl hummed in thought, still standing there for a few seconds, before opening another message.
To: Ruka
Subject: Cultfest
Body: R we still doing the world fruits n veg thing 4 cultfest?
Also I hav an amaze pic I did 4 u.

She giggled to herself and sent the message- Ruka usually knew what was going on in gardening club. Mostly because she wasn't busy...doing whatever the heck it was that Alexi did. Gluing bright and glittery things to other bright and glittery things. Not that thats bad! She internally justified Its just kinda a pointless pastime

Hearing the 'Thwack! Thwack!' of prop swords, Nanako swiveled on the spot, putting her phone back in her pocket.
Her eyes went directly to the spikes in the ground, then to the other suspiciously-sized holes in the grass nearby. The mystery of the random-lawn-holes was now solved, and she had a brief mental struggle with herself about whether to tell them off for poking holes higgeldy piggeldy like that.
But... they were intimidating, and had weapons- albeit prop ones- and were having fun. And its just a lawn, Nanako! Don't be so uptight!
She smiled at them and waved, instead. I may be in a not-so-great mood, but that doesn't mean I can't be a nice person, yeah!

Seeing as the ground was still wet, and she didn't want to get her uniform completely soaked in mud, she took a few steps towards the group curiously.
"Hey! Uh, hi! What are you all doing?" She asked, a big non-threatening smile on her face.