SPRING: MEETING SOMEONE NEW, A NEW LIFESTYLE  
 
 [SCENE: Ryoo Academy. The girls are walking to school. ]
 
 Konata: Oi, Kagami! Tsukasa! 
 
 Kagami: Good morning. 
 
 Tsukasa: Good morning, Kona-chan. 
 
 [Yutaka walks up to them.]
 
 Yutaka: Good morning, Kagami-sempai. Tsukasa-sempai.
 
 Kagami: Yutaka-chan! Good morning. For some reason, sempai has a fresh
 sound to it. 
 
 Tsukasa: It feels like we have become great. 
 
 Yutaka: I'll be in your care from today. 
 
 Yui: It goes both ways. If you hear that Yutaka is getting bullied, tell me about
 it and I'll take care of the problem. 
 
 Konata: If you think about it, Kagami's the one most likely to be a bully character. 
 
 Kagami: (sticks out tongue at Konata) Let's go, Yutaka-chan. 
 
 Yutaka: (laughs nervously) . . . I'll be okay if you don't make a fuss. 
 
 Miyuki: Good morning, everybody. 
 
 Konata: Good morning. 
 
 Tsukasa: Good morning, Miyuki! And here's . . . Iwasaki-san, right?
 
 Minami: Good morning. Thank you for your help during hatsumode-
 
 Yutaka: It's you! 
 
 Minami: Hmm?
 
 Yutaka: It was you that time! 
 
 Minami: Hmm? 
 
 Miyuki: Ehh?
 
 Konata: Wait a sec, do you mean the time that Yu-chan-
 
 Yutaka: Yes, it was her! This is great! What a coincidence!
 
 Miyuki: Minami-san, is she the girl you were talking about earlier?
 
 Minami: It's you. You passed too, didn't you? I'm glad. 
 
 Yutaka: (tearful) Thank you so much! I'm so happy! 
 
 Kagami: (puzzled) I don't get all the details, but I understand that you two
 know each other. 
 
 Konata: Oh yeah. It seems that she saved Yu-chan's life. 
 
 Yutaka: That's right!
 
 Minami: That's a bit of an overstatement. 
 
 Yutaka: No, that's how happy I was. 
 
 Konata: Still, the world's small. 
 
 Tsukasa: That's true. I'm a little surprised. 
 
 Kagami: This kind of thing is not common. The two of you are lucky. 
 
 Minami: Indeed. This may have been fate. 
 
 Yutaka: Of course I'm lucky. Please be my friend! 
 
 Minami: Sure. Look after me as well. 
 
 Konata: Isn't this great, Yu-chan? You got to be friends right-
 
 Patricia: (interrupting Konata) Excuse me. Could you be Konata and 
 Yutaka? 
 
 [A terrible crash occurs complete with comic sound effects.]
 
 Kagami: Something just showed up!
 
 Tsukasa: P-Patricia-san? 
 
 Patricia: Yes! It's been a long time! And nice to meet you! 
 
 Konata: Why is Patty here? Why is she wearing our school uniform?
 
 Patricia: I came here as a Ryoo exchange student. I'm a first-year as of 
 today. 
 
 Tsukasa: Patricia is a first-year!?
 
 Patricia: That's right! And is Yutaka also a first-year!? How about that! 
 The Japanese are fantastic! 
 
 Kagami: Nah, it's just the scene here is really small. 
 
 Patricia: I see. Setting that aside, we're here together with the miko-sempai. 
 Please regard me favorably. 
 
 Kagami: Don't call us miko! 
 
 Tsukasa: (laughs nervously) I think this is going to become something amazing. 
 
 Konata: Indeed. 
 
 Kagami: Don't talk as if you are above all this! 
 
 [LATER] 
 
 Tsukasa: (sighs)
 
 Patricia: Tsukasa, what's wrong? 
 
 Tsukasa: I was thinking how different high school is from middle school. 
 
 Minami: That's true. There's no lunch. 
 
 Tsukasa: Oh yeah, gotta bring our bentos starting tomorrow. 
 
 Patricia: At my old school, there was no lunch. It's not very different 
 for me. 
 
 Tsukasa: Oh, is that so?
 
 Patricia: Yes. The cafe had a low priced meal though. However, 
 I can't really call it lunch. 
 
 Minami: I see. School formats differ from country to country. 
 
 Patricia: I think I like Japan's schools more. 
 
 Minami: Oh, really? Patricia, you are good at Japanese. 
 
 Patricia: (laughs) I really, really studied manga and anime. 
 
 Minami: Manga . . . 
 
 Yutaka: Her interest and mood keeps changing. She's a good match for Konata-oneechan. 
 
 Minami: I speak a little English, so if there's something you don't understand, you 
 could ask me to explain it in English. 
 
 Patricia: Thank you, Minami. I'll keep you in mind if there's a problem. 
 
 Yutaka: I can't speak English that well. 
 
 Patricia: Roger that. 
 
 Yutaka: But let's eat our bentos together. 
 
 Patricia: Yes. I'm looking forward to it. 
 
 Yutaka: I want to see what bento people are going to bring. 
 
 [LATER]
 
 Yutaka: Then I made plans to eat a bento lunch with Patricia-san and Iwasaki-san. 
 
 Konata: Oh cool. And you guys are in the same class. Sounds good. 
 
 Yutaka: Yes. And then . . . Um . . . 
 
 Konata: What? 
 
 Yutaka: What am I supposed to do for the bento? I'm not good at cooking. 
 
 Konata: Aaahhh . . . well. 
 
 Yutaka: Konata-oneechan, you're good at cooking, right? I wonder what I can do. 
 If I tried, I might get in the way. 
 
 Konata: Nah, I'd be happy if you helped me. If we think about your future, Yu-chan, 
 it'd probably be good for you to learn how to cook. 
 
 Yutaka: Yes! I'll try hard and I'll help out. 
 
 Konata: Okay, good. (interior monologue) Oh crap, I really am in trouble now. I'll 
 have to work extra hard to make proper boxed lunches. Getting up early is going
 to be a pain! Oh nooooooo . . . 
 
 Yutaka: Hmm?
 
 Konata: We'll work hard! 
 
 Yutaka: Yeah! 
 

 END PART 8