CHARMS

Panda-Panda-Chan

A/N: Real quick…I got this really random idea while I was playing with my cell phone charms, thinking of the guy I met at Comicon that I like. After playing around with it for a while, I decided to finally get it out of my head and up here because, well, if not I’ll be thinking about it forever and I’ll never get any sleep tonight. I hope you enjoy!

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Green eyes blinked in confusion at the note in her hand. There was no name, no clue as to who it had come from.

‘Enjoy the charm, my Panda’

Whoever had send it had taped a silver guitar and microphone charm to it, meant for her bracelet. Brittany carefully untaped them and clipped them on the mostly-empty chain. She smiled. Her mysterious note writer knew she played guitar and sang in her band. It had to be someone who knew her, well enough, at least.

Shutting her locker, she turned and sighed. The first bell had rung already, students hurrying to their first period class. Brittany adjusted her green and white panda hat before heading towards her own. The charm mystery would be set aside for later.

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The next day, another note and charm showed up in her locker, this time a crescent moon and star.

‘You are my star. Always shine for me.’

Clipping it on next to the charms from the day before, Brittany’s mental list shortened quite significantly. Her mystery gift-giver was someone who knew about her band, and had seen her class notes and homework. They were covered in stars and moons, often connected. That cut it down to…nearly everyone in her classes.

She grumbled and raked her fingers through her brown and blonde hair, or what was visible under her red and black panda hat. Panda hat…A light bulb went off in her mind and she grinned. The list shortened. It was somebody who called her Panda. With a spring in her step, Brittany went off to her class, thinking things over.

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Charms kept appearing in her locker for the rest of the week and into the next. Each and every one of them were accompanied by a short note.

‘A panda for my Panda’-a chibi panda charm

‘Every princess needs a crown’-a pink and silver crown

‘Always soar free’-a white wing

By the middle of the second week, her bracelet was full of charms, some days having got two charms, and she now had to double up the links. Brittany hadn’t gotten any more clues as to who they came from and was, more or less, at a dead end.

Sitting in the library during her sixth period study hall, instead of studying for her anatomy test she looked at all the charms. Somebody was going all out to get her these. Most she had only seen in the mall an hour away from her town. One she had only seen online. But then again, some people had connections.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. All this was doing was giving her a headache and not getting her any closer to solving her mystery. Pulling her pink-on-pink panda hat over her eyes, Brittany crossed her arms and thought. Who called her Panda, knew about her band, and knew about her rabid obsession with Kiba Inuzuka from Naruto? It was driving her insane. Her charm-giver had hunted down the Kiba charm she had been near drooling over for the past year, and had given to her along with the matching Akamaru charm. Somebody really liked her, but who?

The bell rang then, startling her badly, sending her toppling from her chair with a squeak. Picking herself up, Brittany grabbed her things and hurried from the library, waving distractedly towards the voice who called out to her as she left.

“Bye Panda.”

As she sat down in her seventh period anatomy class, the light bulb flickered to life as the voice echoed in her mind.

“Bye Panda.”

Racking her mind thinking of whose voice that had been, she let her head lay on her binder. It had been one of her guy friends. Not Adam, not Jared, not Terre, not Kasper…Then it clicked. Anthony. And then it all made sense to her.

Anthony came to all of the band’s practices. Anthony always called her Panda, starting from the day she got her first panda hat. Anthony always borrowed her notes in class since he, usually, fell asleep. Anthony joked and called her a spoiled princess because her father bought her anything she wanted. Anthony was the one who cosplayed Kiba for all the anime conventions they went to, just for her.

Anthony was the one giving her the charms. Brittany mentally berated herself for not figuring it out earlier. Had she paid more attention to the connection between the charms, she would have seen it was him by the time Friday’s classes were over.

Just as the last bell rang, the door to the class banged open and, speak of the devil, in ran Anthony, panting heavily. Brittany blushed and pulled her had down over her eyes again, slumping in her seat. Why oh why did it have to be her best friend?

‘You know you like him back.’ That annoying little voice in her head just had to pipe up now.

‘Do me a favor and shut up, would you?’

‘Admit it. You want to be held in his arms and told everything is okay and that he’ll protect you forever.’

‘Have you been in my dreams again?’

‘Darling, I’m you. I’m always here, I know everything about you, even things you don’t know yet.’

‘……………Am I going to pass this class?’

Before the voice could reply, Anthony sat in the desk next to her, grinning. Seeing the way she was sitting and how her hat was, his grin slid off his face, replaced by a look of concern.

“Panda, you okay?”

Brittany lifted the corner of her hat and looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” She whispered.

He blinked at her, confused. “What?”

“The charms.”

“Oh…Those…” He stared down at her, his eyes soft. “Panda…Brittany…I just…” He sighed. “I couldn’t just come right out and tell you. I thought it would…drive you away and ruin our friendship.” His brown eyes were watery. “I didn’t want to risk it.”

Brittany adjusted her hat and blinked up at him, willing her tears to stay back. “Anthony, you…you didn’t have to do any of this…you know me better than that. I would never run away from my best friend.” She grinned. “Besides…I still need my Kiba for this weekend.”

Anthony nodded, grinning back. “So…does this mean…?”

“Kiba now has a bitch, yes.”

“Well aren’t you blunt?”

“You asked.”

Rolling his eyes, Anthony leaned over and pecked Brittany on the cheek. With eyes as wide as saucers and a pink tinge to her cheeks, she turned to him. Glancing to make sure their teacher was still absent for the moment, she leaned over the armrest and quickly kissed him on the lips.

A few moments passed after she pulled away before either of them said anything.

“You know, I think I’m going to like that.” Anthony snickered.

Brittany rolled her eyes. “I still want a new charm for my birthday.”

“Birthday? You’ll get one every week.”

“Charming.”

“That was lame.”

“You know you love me.”

“Shut up Panda.”

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A/N: Don’t ask. Just…don’t. But now I really want to start a new charm bracelet, and not the Italian charm ones…I already have two…Anyway, review? Also, so nobody gets confused, “bitch” is used as the female dog term, not profanity. Anybody who’s read Naruto and is familiar with Kiba knows why I chose that. Anybody who hasn’t, Kiba is a dog lover, and is a bit doggish himself. It’s basically just a joke. Sorry about that!