Your teacher is out to save your soul, your cousin breaks your computer while surfing for gay porn, and your club activities have you surrounded by the opposite sex. What will become of your high school life?

Because it is not crazy enough to spend November drafting fiction each year, some people have decided to supplement NaNoWriMo with a summer version, JulNoWriMo. Yay! Actually, it seems most of the clientèle are teens and students, who have lots of school work (by their standards)  in November, but are bored to tears during the long summer days off from school.  But in addition to them, I have also signed up. Just in case.

I don’t really intend to go for 50 000 words.  Even I have my limits! ^_^ As in limits to my unrealistic ambitions.  I have my job, after all, and there is not much chance to concentrate on my writing there!  I think I can say that much without breaking my non-disclosure agreement…  Still, I hope to write at least some. In July, I mean.  And what would be better than rebooting the story I have only just scribbled down a couple pages of?

The story I am thinking of is a mostly harmless romantic comedy patterned after the Japanese tradition of “boy meets girls” – a single high school boy and his relationship to a number of very different girls.  I use “relationship” in its more general meaning here, we are not talking about a harem, although the boy may possibly have a different opinion on this.  From my side, it is more about the utter craziness of girls as seen through the eyes of an uncomprehending male. This is well within my area of expertise. There may be some romance, which is well outside my area of expertise. But I am good at winging things at the last moment.

The setting is as usual a slightly Nipponized world, perhaps the way ours might have been if Japan had taken the other side before and during WW2. I am not going to get into that, but there will be a few element that are subtly more Japanese-inspired than usual.  Also, one of the characters is a quarter Japanese, a rare thing in itself since they don’t mix much with foreigners.

The story is about a boy who starts in a new high school. Bookish but otherwise healthy now, he spent much of grade school with medical problems that kept him from getting into sports, and has decided it is too late now. (No, I am not going to let him try baseball and discover that he is born to be an ace pitcher. Sorry, DONE TO DEATH.) Instead, he joins the literature club. However, it turns out that this club consists only of half a dozen girls and now him.  This is their story mostly, but seen through the eyes of a boy.

My cast so far (and cast is mostly what I have at this point):

Rick: The male lead.  He is a bit of a bookworm, but his health has improved to the point where he is near average in running, jumping and swimming. (It helps that he is not overweight, unlike many others.) He fails miserably at team sports though and has no confidence in that regard either.  As usual for his age, girls is very much on his mind.  He is also doing well in school. Hair: Black, short.

Yuki: Rick’s classmate, a stereotypical “girl with glasses”: Studious, serious, innocent, clumsy, lacking social skills but generally well liked anyway because she so clearly wants only the best for others and have no strong ambitions apart from doing well in school.  She is the one most similar to him, and the more realistic love interest. Hair: Black, thick braid.

The President: Probably only president of the Literature Club, she is not referred to by name even by her friends.  She is tall, elegant, beautiful, rich, polite and very reserved.  She expects much from others and more from herself. Hair: Red, fancy braids.

Lynne: The opposite of the President, she is short, round, talkative, friendly and extremely approachable. Grown up with 3 brothers, she feels at least as much at ease with boys. Rick is frequently distracted by her backside, as she seems convinced that chairs are for kneeling rather than sitting. Hair: Honey-colored, barely shoulder length.

Carla: Morality police, her main task is to protect Lynne and Yuki from Rick’s roving eyes, and generally keep all the girls safe from boys.  She has somewhat unrealistic ideas about the lengths boys will go to in order to enjoy the presence of the opposite sex. And perhaps she protests too much?  Hair: Brown, curly.

Two more literate girls:  Personalities to be announced.  I haven’t gotten to know them myself yet.

The Teacher: Their homeroom teacher is female, not married, and still young enough to get away with it. Contrary to stereotype, she is quite responsible. She is also from the sixth dimension, the Realm of Light. Yes, she is a member of that world’s equivalent of Happy Science, though it will not be called by that name, and will give sage advice based on the teachings of Master Taiyou Sorano.

The Cousin:  Rick lives on his own, in theory.  However, his female cousin is looking after him, and way more so than he feels he needs. She treats him like a little brother, both at school (where she is a third-year) and at home, where she comes and goes as she pleases. Not sure how big part she will play though.

Adrian: The boy from the arts club is strikingly beautiful, charming, and way too interested in Rick. Several of the girls are cheering him on in his attempts to court Rick – if that is what he is doing.  Hair: Yellow blond, tousled.

While lacking the plot of a novel, I think the character interactions should be worth at least 15-20 000 words if I take the time to write them down regularly.  And who knows, perhaps they manage to work out some kind of plot among themselves. Not getting my hopes too high though.