Finally, it was time for lunch! The brunette was relieved to finally have a break in her schedule. She had been up late last night studying for her language test today and it had totally exhausted her. Between that and all the clubs she was in, it felt like she had no time anymore. But that was okay! Riho liked keeping herself busy, it was just that sometimes, a breath of fresh air was well deserved. 

Luckily, that was what mealtime was for! The food in the dining hall was always good, too. She walked up to get food with a bounce in her step, looking at the delicious things and wondering what kind of food she would make for the next Cooking Club meeting. There were so many options! Her mouth watering, she opened her mouth to ask for what she wanted...
And realized it would be pointless. 
The poor scatterbrained girl had walked up to get food, still carrying her books! 
Smiling sheepishly, she quickly turned around, maybe too quickly - and she tripped over her own two feet, spilling her books all over the floor of the dining hall. 

Face flushed with embarrassment, she began gathering them up, hoping not too many people had seen. 

For once, people were minding their own business. Perhaps with finals coming up it only made sense that her usual gaggle of admirers were absent. It was sort of nice to go to the dining hall alone, and she imagined being able to get her tray and choose her food alone, and possibly even eat it all alone, in total peace too. Yes. How nice it would be to not have to pay nice and smile and put up a face of the celebrity she was destined to be.

The dining hall was a grand work of elegance with long tables and fine China. She straightened her already straight jacket and stepped toward the food area when a girl very nearby suddenly fell over herself and dropped her books. For a moment Akihiko tensed, her own ego telling her the girl had flipped out over noticing her, she was relieved to realize this was not the case. Instead, the flustered girl set about picking them up, and with Akihiko being the nearest one to her, and a few eyes glancing up at them, she felt obligated to help her pick them up. She sighed, but his the gesture glancing one last time at what might have been a quiet meal and turned instead, empty handed toward the damsel.

Suddenly a Prince would kneel before the girl helping her stack her books, seemingly surrounded by glimmers, sparkles and golden light (all shiny like in anime xD) and she shot an equally dazzling smile.

"Clumbsy aren't we?" She said, blue eyes looking gentle, even though her tone was somewhere between soft and mean. "You should be more careful."

She assumed the other was studying for finals like many others were, so it made sense she'd have so many books, though she didn't bother to look at the titles. If luck would have it, Aki would do this and be done with her. Just then her usual fan club from Lulim appeared and it took everything she had not to let her annoyed panic show, it might start a rumor, but she didn't care, what she was about to do next was pure desparation.

Smoothly she picked up the stack of books for her and offered her hand, putting on her best host club act,"Will you do my the honor of allowing me to dine with you my dear?" Perhaps if she could put up a show of helping the other study, the fan club would leave her alone.

Her hand just touching another book to gather up into her arms, Riho felt another presence with her. She looked up from the floor to see a girl kneeling on the floor next to her.
"Oh! Thank you!" she grinned. "I appreciate the help!" She chuckled to herself a little. "I'll be more careful next time. Thank you so much!"
The obviously older girl stood up before her, taking the books from the blonde before she could protest and offered her hand out.
No one had ever been this chivalrous towards her before, so it made Riho blush a little, but she took the girl's hand nevertheless. "Thank you...of course you can eat- er, dine with me! I haven't picked a table yet, so...how about right there?" She smiled cheerfully at the handsome girl, unaware of the group of girls who kept staring at them and whispering amongst themselves.

Going over to a nearby table, she took her books from the older girl and set them on the table. "Thank you for carrying those for me...Ah, I'm Riho by the way! Kanazawa Riho. It's very nice to meet you!"

The girl was bubbly, in a cutely annoying sort of way, but at least she didn't seem to recognize her celebrity status some of the others had given her. And that was a relief, a gentle hand on the others lower back as they went to a table. Of course, now they would return to the buffet for their food. Already prepared plates of fine meals on China were waiting under heat lamps, Akihiko chose curry and rice with hot green tea.

Back at the table she sat and impatiently edited for the other to join, she didn't want one of those others sneaking over to bother her. However the other was shortly behind her and it was time to really start acting.

Pleasantly, she started up conversation, "Just what are all these books for my dear? Studying hard for finals are we? Perhaps I could be of assistance."

Feeling a touch on her lower back, Riho stiffened up a little, but quickly relaxed when she realized there was no harm to it. It felt like it had been so long since she had entered the dining hall, she was so hungry! Although she rushed back to the buffet, being careful not to trip this time, she still ended up taking longer to decide what she wanted then Akihiko. There were so many options, after all! Curry and rice, beef steak, miso soup, udon...in the end she ended up going with the tuna bowl, taking the steaming bowl of rice and fish back to their table.
She set it down carefully, pushing some of her books out of the way to make room for her meal.

In reply to the older girl's question, she answered "Yup! It's definitely grind time for finals, but I think I'll do good as long as I study hard! You know, in between classes, and theater club...and cooking club..and arts and crafts club...and student council..."
She smiled brightly up at the other girl. "But it'll be okay! I'll make sure to get good grades. Right now I'm studying for my science class and doing research for a Japanese paper I have tow write. I'm doing okay so far, except for this one part..."

Her brow furrowed as she grabbed her science textbook and flipped through it, stopping on a particular page and pointing to a paragraph. "I'm not quite getting this concept, I don't know if you've seen it before..." She trailed off, blushing when she realized she could be bothering this person. "That is, you don't have to help me if you don't want to! I wouldn't want to bug you or anything."

Perfect, her plan unfolded exactly as she hoped. So the subject was Japanese, the concept pointed out was one Akihiko could care absolutely less about. It's not that she wasn't smart or couldn't learn, she didn't care. Still she leaned forward with a calculated expression that showed the correct amount of interest.

"It's my pleasure, now what they mean when they say this is...." she started giving her best scholarly answer. She got very good grades, she had to if she wanted her after school career to go the way she wanted, so the answers weren't wrong.

She leaned forward, maybe a little too close and looked over through her lashes at the other to see her reactions. Was she paying attention to her words? Or her looks? She's make an immediate judgement about the girl based on what she saw just then. From the corner of her eye, her gaggle of fans had taken a table not too far away and were not talking or laughing. In fact their expressions ranged from curious to worried, to downright hostile. Ew. Was the only thing Akihiko could think about that.

"After our meal, perhaps we could study outside? It's beautiful weather today," she offered as a way to remove herself from the stares bearing down on them.