I had never in my life been drunk. Of course, in my old life, I had tasted beer, but I didn't like it, so I never pursued it further; this might be the closest I ever came to experiencing a hangover. My body felt heavy, my head ached, and I had a slight difficulty moving my legs. It didn't matter how much I tried; I couldn't fall asleep again.
After fighting against destiny, I was able to get up and drag myself to the cafeteria. It wasn't early, but there was still activity in the place. I saw Grass Wonder talking cheerfully with Seiun Sky, while Special Week was simping for Silent Suzuka... of course, Oguri Cap still had a huge amount of food, possibly her second breakfast.
I walked to an empty table and placed my tray there. I just served myself a generous, big bowl of milk with cereal and fruit; it might be double the size of what I used to eat, or maybe more - it was hard to tell. And as I sat down, Choco Choco sat in front of me.
"Ey!!" She saluted me while doing a peace sign. She seemed full of energy, but I could see in her reddened eyes that she might have cried yesterday.
"Hey," I nodded I acknowledging her.
"You don't mind if we talk a little bit?" She asked.
"I don't mind, please go on," I said politely.
"You see... thank you, Happy Meek," She said suddenly out of the blue. I was very surprised, I thought she was mad or something.
"Welcome?" I said unable to understand what was going on.
She noticed I was confused and tilting my head and laughed.
"It's just that, thanks to you, I noticed how important it is for me to run, I won't lose again, for me and for the people rooting for me."
"Let's do our best," I said now with a little more understanding of what was going on.
"Hehe~" She was really cute, maybe she should try to dedicate herself fully to the idol thing instead. "Bon appétit, mon amie" (Enjoy your meal, my friend)
I didn't catch the last phrase, but she really was cute after that. She dashed for the exit; maybe she was too shy and needed to say it. I just tried to keep enjoying my breakfast, at least my head wasn't pulsating with pain or something.
"Yoooo my little sis~!" I heard the loud and happy Gold Ship approaching.
"Who are you calling sister?" Asked a surprised Teio.
"Oh, it's the girl you forced me to watch her debut," Said McQueen, recognizing me.
"Jealousy?" Asked Goldshi, beaming towards McQueen.
"Not at all," She puffed and looked in another direction.
"Oh~ It's Happy Meek!" Said Teio, recognizing me, then waving frenetically, "I see the dance lessons paid off~"
"Eh!? You recognize her, too!?"McQueen said now in another tone, now she was jealous.
"Why are you girls so loud this early in the morning?" Asked Daiwa as she came into the scene alongside Vodka, "Really..."
"Ooooh, it's the girl of the videos!" Said Vodka happily recognizing me.
"Videos?" I tilted my head.
Why does it all have to become so loud and confusing? I just want to eat.
"Yeah!" Vodka said approvingly, "You have become quite viral with your performance!"
"Eeeeh!?" Both Tokai Teio and I were surprised.
"Is she that good!?" Teio asked, pointing at me.
"Eh?! Of course not," Said Vodka, then hurriedly moved her hands. "She is not bad either! She is famous because her growing fan base is fighting so hard in the comments with the fans of Flashy Step!"
"Eeeeeh!?" Now, both I, Gold Ship, Teio, and McQueen were surprised.
"Uwawawawawawawaw!!" I could hear Flashy panicking in a corner of the cafeteria, "Lies! Lies I tell you!"
'This is so... suspicious...' Now I'm sore and confused to the core 'What the hell is that comment about'
"Anyways!" Teio didn't want to change the subject, "What's this sis thing, hmmm?" She was curious and happy, and her tail wouldn't allow her to lie.
"What do you mean? Of course, she is my sis! We are so much alike!" Gold Ship stated it as if it were obvious.
'Are we?' I was a little confused about this, but it didn't trouble me. Goldshi is amazing.
Suddenly, Mejiro McQueen felt something run through her spine. Did that mean there was now a mini Goldshi running around at Tracen? Her peaceful days were over.
"It's just you know... I felt a connection with Meek; maybe it's the same you have with the press? We will see" Goldshi admitted laughing it off.
And thus, my breakfast was interesting. Goldshi showed me a strange game she found on the internet on her smartphone, for some very, very disturbing reasons. It was about aliens invading the earth; it was all pixelated, but then out of the blue, it showed a pixelated horse from my old world, which scared everyone, including me; it was disturbing.
"Uwah!" Teio screamed.
"Kyaaa!" So did McQueen.
"Is that a friggin horse!?" I asked, looking away.
"A what? You didn't pay attention! This is an..." And so Gold Ship started yapping again about the strange creatures that came from outer space in those spaceships and yada yada.
I never wanted to see anything like that again! It was so cursed! It felt so wrong! Then I took my smartphone and showed Goldshi an anime I started to watch last week, about cat girls who worked on a market. The other girls looked at me and laughed.
"That's cute but silly!" Said Daiwa Scarlet.
"Can you imagine if girls with cat ears existed in real life?"
"That would be wiiiild"
'If you only knew...' I thought my eye twitched a little.
Overall, the morning started to flow slowly; most of them left to train on the tracks or the installations, but Goldshi stayed. She said she didn't feel like training today. We kept talking about silly and unimportant stuff, not about races or serious things, just about things we liked. I just asked her not to show me those pixelated horse faces again. She didn't fully understand, but she was okay with it.
After an hour or so, the only one eating was Oguri Cap, but before I could interact with her, Aoi appeared on the scene. She looked like she was ready to go outside.
"Ah, Meek," She waved and moved closer to us. "I was looking for you, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go see your parents?" Her face suddenly turned a little red. "I'm sorry for not asking earlier. I should have brought you there after your debut, but I was busy moving in and with both of your trainings, I think it would be good for you to take some fresh air outside the city."
"I wanna go too!" Said Goldshi happily, raising both of her arms towards the sky.
I wanted to reject, I felt a little lazy and still not fully recovered, but curiosity consumed me, and I bet my parents missed me, they probably don't have phones... heck, this place must be hella expensive to pay to study here, but hey, at least they should be proud because I'm winning, right?
"Nnnn," I nodded, "Let's go."