Nami wasn't sure what the deal with this "Straw Hat" kid was.

Everyone else at their school was talking about him. Although Nami was a senior and would be graduating at the end of the year-ten months couldn't pass fast enough-she'd just transferred last year, so she didn't have any idea who was a good source for gossip and who was completely unreliable, aside from a long-nosed junior who everyone said was full of shit. From the general conversation, though, it seemed like every week this guy got himself into some violent mess and always came out without a scratch. The stories, as usually happens with rumors like this, were generally outlandish and absurd.

"I heard he stopped a bank robbery by impersonating the robbers!"

"I heard that he beat up some poachers for attacking a rare bird!"

"Did you see him diss that newscaster to her face on TV?"

Nami, personally, didn't see what all the fuss was about. About a week ago, when everyone was saying he'd been on TV, she'd managed to pick him out in the halls, and frankly, he wasn't all that impressive. She'd sort of been expecting someone out of a movie, with tattoos and piercings, who looked like they were being played by an actor ten years out of high school, but she had been woefully disappointed. The Straw Hat kid had a fresh, childish face without so much as a hint of stubble, with straight black hair, and a vacant look in his eye, not like he was lost in thought so much as like he didn't have much to think about at all. He did have a straw hat-no one could say why, maybe he was determined to make it "his thing", like how some kids' "thing" was eyeliner, or wearing a Naruto jacket every single day.

And so it was that on the last Tuesday in September, while everyone else talked about this Straw Hat kid, Nami chose to focus on her very peculiar hobby instead. She found a table in the cafeteria with two girls she didn't know too well-a junior with blonde hair in a ponytail and an athletic bag, and a sophomore with short blue hair and a T-shirt that said "SAVE THE PANDAS". With only a cursory greeting to the two girls, Nami set down her notebook and flipped it to a blank page.

Nami was a shoplifter. To be clear, she was a damn good shoplifter. She'd started a couple years ago, when she was in middle school, and had found she had a knack for it. No one expected a little white girl to steal, so she would walk out of every store with as many small toys and candies as she could fit in her pockets. A lot of the time she didn't even want the stuff; it was mostly just to see if she could get away with it. She never got in trouble for it; even if her mother spotted her trying to do it, she would just put the item back on the shelf and move on. When she got older and fell into the only age bracket where store owners would regard her with suspicion, she found she had to get smarter. She'd also started making a profit off it, by selling the stuff she swiped online. Nowadays, shoplifting was almost a full-time commitment. Just yesterday, she'd spent four hours wandering around the mall, taking note of managers' schedules, what was or wasn't tagged, and where there were small items she could easily fit into her purse.

And this is what she wrote in her notebook. She'd spent the end of last summer back home on the shore, so she had to take note of what had changed since she'd left. She drew several lines in a grid, then wrote down the times she'd been there by the half-hour. She couldn't feasibly get there earlier than 4 o'clock, and the mall closed at eight, so she wrote that down. Then she wrote down the stores that interested her; Hot Topic, Barnes & Noble, FYE, Borders, maybe Claire's if she was bored. Then the real work started.

Hot Topic was her favorite place to steal from. She wasn't dumb enough to swipe a T-shirt or anything like that-they were too big, too expensive, and likely to be tagged; you didn't get to be an eighteen-year-old shoplifter with a clean track record by pulling stupid stunts like that. But there were plenty of small knick-knacks and decent jewelry there that was easy enough and plenty of shelves to hide behind while she put them in her purse. While she was there, Nami had seen a middle-aged manager who'd spent pretty much the whole time she was there giving her the evil eye. (Nami didn't steal anything when she was scouting places out, of course). However, at about 5, he wasn't anywhere to be seen, replaced by another manager, a thirty-year-old with a mohawk who had spent the entire time she was there flirting with some girl. Nami was pretty sure she could sneak past that guy.

The strawberry blonde thief was in the process of writing all this information down in her notebook when one of the girls at her table-the blonde-suddenly cried out.

"Luffy!" she shouted, waving frantically. "Hey!"

Nami looked up. The Straw Hat kid was standing at the other side of the cafeteria, looking lost and holding a tray that looked like he'd gone through the line twice. He looked in their direction, then raised his hand, his expression blank.

"You know him, too?" the blue-haired girl asked.

"Of course I do," the blonde said, whipping her ponytail over her shoulder. "Why, do you?"

The other girl brushed her short hair as though she were suddenly someone very important. "You know that whole thing with the poachers? I was the one who told him about that bird."

"Yeah, right," the blonde said.

The blue-haired girl raised her hand and waved to the Straw Hat kid. "Hey, Luffy!" she called. "Come sit with us!"

The Straw Hat Kid, still scanning the room, made his way over to their table and sat between Nami and the girls. He was barely as tall as Nami, and looked like he still had a persistent summer tan, although Nami thought he might just be ethnic. He was wearing a red baseball T-shirt with the number "01" emblazoned on it, and capris and sandals, even though it was late September. As always, he wore his yellow straw hat like a statement, hanging by a string on his back and not matching anything else in his outfit. Now that she was seeing him up close, Nami noticed that he also had a scar under his left eye where he'd gotten stitches.

"Hey, Ann," he said to the blue-haired girl.

The blonde looked shocked for a second, then leaned over the table and addressed Luffy as if they were good friends who'd been meaning to catch up for a while. "Hey, Luffy," she said. "How's your semester going?"

"Okay," Luffy said flatly as he shoveled mashed potatoes into his mouth, all the while looking over his shoulder, as though he was trying to find someone. Nami rolled her eyes. She did not have the patience today to watch these underclassmen compete over the attention of this kid who was clearly completely uninterested.

"Did you join any clubs?" the blonde pressed. Luffy tried to respond, but it got garbled between the food in his mouth. "Just 'cause, after seeing you in action, I'm sure the kendo club would be happy to have you-"

"You're in the kendo club?!" Luffy suddenly shouted, spraying food all over the table between them. Nami grimaced, pulling her lunch tray away from the splash zone.

"Yeah!" the blonde said, her face turning pink. "Remember how I told you I did staff training in tai chi for two years, and then they opened a kendo dojo up near the Shopping Center-?"

Luffy slammed both of his hands on the table, upsetting his own food as well as Nami's. "Do you know the toughest guy in school?" he asked pointedly.

"Uhm…" the blonde scratched her nose uncomfortably. "I don't know...I'd try asking the kids who hang out under the bleachers, they probably-"

"I need to find the toughest guy in school," Luffy explained. "He goes to kendo club."

"Oh!" the girl said, happy she could be of help. "Well, what's his name?"

Luffy sat back down. "I don't know his name," he said, as though it were a completely irrelevant question. He picked up one of the soggy chicken tenders from his tray and started eating it.

"Well, if you can't tell me his name…" the blonde began.

"He's really good with a sword," Luffy interrupted. "Probably the best."

"I don't-"

"And he has green hair."

The blonde girl's face lit up. "Oh!" she said again. "I do know him! He's that transfer student who started coming to club a couple weeks ago!"

The Straw Hat Kid grinned so wide, it seemed to take up half his face. "You do know him?!" he said excitedly, leaning forward again. "Is it true he can use two swords at the same time?"

"He can use three," the blonde said triumphantly.

"That sounds fake," the blue-haired girl grumbled.

"Where is he?" Luffy asked, eating his pudding in one gulp, as though he were going to dash over to wherever this guy was right away.

Now the blonde girl frowned. "Well, didn't you hear?" she asked. "He got suspended. They found a knife in his locker yesterday, the cops were here and everything."

Now Nami looked up. She'd been trying desperately to occupy herself with her notes, but it sounded like this conversation was actually getting interesting. Moreover, she actually did see the cops at one of the senior's lockers yesterday, so maybe there was some truth to this story.

"That's dumb," Luffy said.

"It was," the blonde girl said, although Nami suspected that she'd mistaken Luffy for referring to the transfer student's actions rather than the concept of him getting suspended. "And what's more, because he's a foreign exchange student, the agency is talking about sending him back home."

"What? They can't!" Luffy declared. "How can I find him?"

"I might know," the blue-haired girl piped up. The other two turned to her. "Well, you said he was a foreign exchange student, right? Well, my mom's friend took in a foreign exchange student this year, I'll bet it's the same guy."

"It must be!" the blonde said.

"Who is it? Where do they live?" Luffy asked.

"You know where Harrison Street Park is?" the blue-haired girl asked. "They live right across from it, in the blue house."

"Thanks!" Luffy stood up to leave.

"Wait!" the blue-haired girl said. "Why do you need to find this guy so bad?"

"Easy," Luffy said. "I'm recruiting him." He punched his own hand, then grinned as he made his dramatic declaration. "He's going to join my soccer team."

"...What?" Nami said. Luffy turned to him, as though noticing her for the first time. "That's what this is about?"

"Yeah," Luffy said. "I'm the captain of the soccer team, and I want him to be on my team."

"Isn't the coach supposed to be the one who recruits for the team?"

But Luffy had already turned his back. "See ya!" he called as if he hadn't heard her say anything. As he trotted off, and Nami wondered if he was going to skip class to find this guy.

"Oh my god!" giggled the two girls, and they immediately began to gush about the so-called "living legend" that had deigned to speak to them. Nami, seeing that she was going to get no more work done, put her notebook back in her backpack and stood up from her seat.

What a weird guy… she thought, but against her better judgement, she found herself invested in whether or not he'd be able to find this guy he was looking for or not.

It was way too nice out to be cooped up at work. It had been raining all month, and people had been going on and on about the hurricane that might be hitting them, but that day the sun had come out, and it looked liked their part of the state had missed the hurricane altogether. That was perfectly fine with Sanji, but it would have been nice if the sun had come out yesterday, or tomorrow, when he was off work, rather than forcing him to sit in the diner and glare out the window at the last rays of the fall sunset.

"Hey!" barked a voice from the kitchen. "I'm not payin' you to sleep at the counters!"

Sanji turned to glare at his boss, a squat blond man with a handlebar mustache and a prosthetic leg, his hands on his hips as he glowered at his young employee. Sanji had known Zeff for something like a decade now, when the old bastard moved into the house down the street from his mom's. He remembered when he'd opened up this diner, and he'd watched it grow over the years. So, when he had decided to take a year off before going to college-he'd considered not going to college at all, but his mother insisted, and taking a year off had been the compromise-Zeff had offered him a job waiting tables at the diner. It was a good way to make money, but Sanji was more than a little sick of watching his days pass him by. He'd say that was the reason for his constant jibes at his boss, if not for the fact that he'd been calling the old geezer names since he knew how to take the child-blocks off his mom's T.V.

"My bad, old man," Sanji sneered. "I'll get to attending all these customers." He gestured widely at the empty diner.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Zeff snarled. "You best not be wasting time. Go wipe down a table or something."

"I'll show you wiping something…" Sanji growled as he walked around the counter.

"What was that?" barked Zeff.

Sanji shouted, "I said eat me, crap-geezer!"

If Zeff meant to kick his ass, Sanji was saved by the bell ringing, and the arrival of two customers. Without bothering to see what Zeff was doing, the lanky blond waiter walked over to greet them.

"Welcome to Baratie," Sanji said with an exaggerated smile. "You can sit anywhere you like."

"Cool," said one of the boys. He was shorter than Sanji, with jet-black hair, a T-shirt with a "01" on it, and a straw hat, as though he'd just come in from farming. Sanji noticed that he was wearing sandals, which was weird given how cold out it was getting.

The other guy stood out even more. He was about Sanji's height, and was wearing black jeans and a T-shirt with the cover to Amon Amarth's latest album, with the sleeves ripped off to show off his biceps. He had studded wristbands, three piercings in his left ear, and his hair was bright green, reminding Sanji vaguely of the green Power Ranger from Time Force.

Poseur, Sanji thought, following the two of them with a stack of menus. "Can I start you guys off with some drinks?" he asked as they settled down in their seats.

"I'll have a milkshake!" the kid with the straw hat declared.

Sanji grimaced. Milkshakes were easily Sanji's least favorite thing on the menu, as they were the only thing he was expected to prepare himself, rather than just pour them out from the fountain machine. Fortunately, he had a go-to excuse for cases like this. "Sorry, guys," he lied, "our freezer's broken. All the ice cream's got really bad freezer burn."

"Aw, man…" the dark-haired boy said. "Oh, well. I guess I'll do a Coke, then."

"Good choice," Sanji said, satisfied. He turned to the punk. "And you?"

"I will just have a water, please," he said. Sanji nodded. As he walked over to the fountain machine, he wondered if that guy was on some kind of low-sugar diet. He poured both drinks, then headed back to the table, where the boys were already deep in conversation.

"Why did you bring me here?" the green-haired guy was asking in a slight accent.

"Because," the straw-hat guy said, "I'm hungry."

"Are you guys ready to order?" Sanji asked, setting their drinks down. Only now did the kid with the straw hat pick up his menu.

"I think we will need a minute or two," the green haired guy said.

"Alright, just wave me down when you're ready," Sanji told him, then headed back to his corner. Even all the way over at the counter, he could still hear their conversation pretty clearly. That kid has no indoor voice, Sanji thought to himself as he sat propped himself up against the counter and went back to staring out the window.

"What I meant was," Green Hair pressed, "why did you show up at my house?"

"Because you're the toughest guy in school," Straw Hat assured him, as though this was self-explanatory.

Sanji's ears perked up. "I may be," Green Hair admitted. Wow, cocky much? Sanji thought. "That still does not answer my question, though," Green Hair continued. "Why were you looking for me?"

Straw Hat leaned forward, and when he spoke, his tone was serious, as though he were making some kind of long-term proposal. "I want you…" he explained, "to join my soccer team."

Sanji almost laughed out loud. Is this kid serious? he wondered. Green Hair seemed to have the same question.

"You went to all this trouble, just to ask me to join your club?" he asked, his voice full of mirth.

"It's not a club, it's a team!" Straw Hat insisted. Sanji was a little lost as to what the distinction was. "I'm assembling the strongest soccer team our school has ever seen, and for that I need the toughest guy in school!"

Green Hair chuckled. "Well, even if I wanted to, I could not…" he said.

"Why, because of the kendo club?" Straw Hat asked dismissively. "They don't even have matches!"

"It is not that," Green Hair said. "...Don't you know?"

"About what?" Straw Hat asked. "The suspension?"

"Hey." Sanji turned around to see Zeff, standing behind him with his hands on his hips. Just when things were getting interesting, Sanji thought. "Are you going to get those guys' order, or just sit there and drool?" Zeff asked.

"I just checked on them!" Sanji hissed.

"Check again," Zeff demanded. Sanji rolled his eyes, then walked up to the two boys again.

"Who cares about-" Straw Hat was saying, but Green Hair looked up at Sanji as he approached them.

"Ready to order?" he asked.

"Yes." Straw Hat said definitively. He then proceeded to order a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, which came with fries, as well as a side of mac-and-cheese, and then an order of pancakes.

"That's...a lot of food," Green Hair said, raising his eyebrow. "Are you sure you're gonna be able to eat all of that?" Straw Hat just grinned widely at him. Green Hair turned to Sanji. "I'll have the grilled chicken breast," he said.

"Alright," Sanji said, "that'll be right out." He headed back to the kitchen and slapped the order down for Zeff. "Yo, crap-geezer," he called. "Order up."

Zeff grunted at Sanji, but he didn't stick around to hear his complaints, going back to his perch where he could listen in on the two patrons.

"Who cares about the stupid suspension?" Straw Hat was asking. "You don't have to go to school, just come to practice!"

"It...does not work like that," Green Hair said. "And didn't you hear? I have to meet with the foreign exchange agency on Thursday...and they will probably have me deported…"

Straw Hat scoffed. "All because you brought a stupid knife to school?" he asked.

Green Hair shrugged. "They take that kind of thing very seriously…"

"Man, why would you do something like that?" Straw Hat asked irritably. "If you knew-"

"You think I would do that on purpose?" Green Hair said, and from his voice Sanji could tell his temper was rising. "I do not even own a knife."

"Huh?" Straw Hat said. "Then how did one get in your locker?"

Both of them were quiet for a second, before Sanji heard Green Hair admit, "Somebody put it in my locker."

"What?!" Straw Hat shouted. "Who?"

"I do not know for sure…" Green Hair began, then corrected himself. "No. I'm pretty sure it was some junior named Helmeppo."

Straw Hat stood up. "Well, that does it!" he declared. "Let's go find that creep and pummel him!"

"We can't just do that!" Green Hair said. "That would not solve my problem."

"Why not?" Straw Hat asked earnestly.

Green Hair whispered something that Sanji could barely hear from the other end of the room, but he could make out that it was about not wanting to prove that he was "violent and dangerous".

"I guess," Straw Hat said, not sounding entirely convinced. He sat back down. "But if you know it's this Helmeppo kid…"

"It was not just him," Green Hair explained. "I think his father was in on it, too. He's the policeman who went through my locker. He has it out for me."

"Why?" Straw Hat asked.

There was a loud bang on the window that distracted Sanji from the conversation. "Order up!" Zeff shouted. Sanji hopped up and went over to the window.

"Remind me never to take you on a stake-out," Sanji muttered as he grabbed the tray of food.

"What was that?"

"Nevermind." Sanji carried the food over to the two boys. Green Hair, he noticed, had pulled out his phone and was scrolling through something frantically.

"Alright," he said as he put the plates down in front of them. He'd barely set the plate in front of him before Straw Hat started wolfing down. "Anything else I can get for you guys?" Sanji asked.

"Wurr goo'," Straw Hat said through a mouth full of food. Green Hair nodded as well, and Sanji drifted back to the counter. However, by this point, he was fully invested in this story, and like hell was he going to miss the important detail of whatever Green Hair was pulling up on that phone. He grabbed a rag and made his way over to the table behind Straw Hat, making himself look busy, but all the while keeping an eye on the two boys.

"Here it is," Green Hair said, holding his phone up to Straw Hat. "This is what I'm talking about," he said. Sanji peered over Straw Hat's shoulder, squinting to make out the grainy video.

Grainy as it was, the image was clear enough that Sanji could recognize a group of girls, screaming and running around in swimsuits while some adults chased them. Except the adults weren't in swimsuits. They were in police uniforms.

The police officer chasing the kids grabbed one of them and wrestled them to the floor. Now Sanji could tell that those were not screams of delight, but of terror. Some other policemen in the video were tackling the other girls down, too. One of the police officers, the one who was clearest in view, was kneeling on the back of one of the crying girls. He looked up, directly at the camera. "Put that fucking phone away!" he demanded. The video then swung around and froze.

Sanji's heart was pounding. That video had been incredibly uncomfortable for him to watch. He glanced at Green Hair and realized he was looking at him. Sanji quickly averted his eyes and busied himself with cleaning the table, hoping that Green Hair wouldn't call him out for snooping.

"Who the hell was that?" Straw Hat boy asked. For the first time all night, his tone had turned serious. It sounded like he had been just as bothered as Sanji by that video.

"That was Helmeppo's father, Officer Morgan," Green Hair said grimly. "The girl he's kneeling on is Nina, she is from the family I'm staying with. Apparently one of the neighbors called the police because their pool party was too noisy or something...so I recorded it."

"Did you show anyone else that video?" Straw Hat asked.

"No," Green Hair said. "I was not sure what to do. I was going to show it to the police on Monday, but then the whole thing with the suspension happened…"

"Okay," Straw Hat said. "New plan. When you're supposed to have this stupid meeting with the foreign exchange whatever, we're going to show them that video." He punched his hand for emphasis.

"I...I don't think you will be allowed there with me," Green Hair said.

"I don't care!" Straw Hat insisted. "I'll punch anyone who tries to stop me! That jerk has to get in trouble for that!"

Green Hair shook his head. "You can't go around punching people," he said, "that's just going to make things worse for me."

Straw Hat groaned. "Fine, then you have to promise me that you'll do it!" he said. Green Hair didn't immediately respond. "C'mon, promise!" Straw Hat pressed.

"Who knows if it will actually do anything," Green Hair said with a shrug. "I spent all these years wanting to come to America, but now that I see it for myself...it's not what I expected."

Straw Hat put his hand on the table. "Look," he said. "Maybe there's a lot of jerks out there. But if you stick with me, I'll show you that there's a lot of good, too. Not everyone's a bad guy like that cop! C'mon," he stuck his hand out. "You and me, we can fight badguys wherever we see 'em. What do you say?"

Green Hair regarded Straw Hat's hand tentatively. He opened his mouth to respond.

"Sanji!"

Sanji looked up, his expression like a deer caught in headlights. Zeff had come out from the kitchen, his hands on his hips again. It took Sanji a second to realize that he wasn't angry.

"You wanna start mopping the floor? It's almost closing time."

"Oh, shit!" Sanji hopped up. He'd completely lost track of time as he'd been eavesdropping on the two boys. Minutes later, he'd dragged the mop and bucket out to the main floor and started cleaning, no longer following the boys' conversation. He looked up a few times to see that they were apparently still speaking in hushed, serious tones, but over the sound of Zeff cleaning the grill and his own mopping, he could no longer hear what was going on. Once the front of the store was properly mopped, he took the bucket to the back.

"You're catchin' the bus, right?" Zeff called over his shoulder.

"Yep," Sanji said as he emptied the bucket of the dirty water.

Zeff glanced up at the clock on the wall, then sighed. "Alright, you can take off."

"What?"

"Bus comes by on the hour, right?" Zeff asked. "Wouldn't want you to miss it."

Sanji sauntered into the kitchen. "Gee, thanks, crap-geezer," he said. "Who'd'a thought, you actually do have a heart after all!"

Zeff grumbled something unintelligible, and Sanji heard the bell to the front door ring. He poked his head out into the diner to see that the two boys had vacated their table. Out the window, he saw them sprinting across the parking lot.

"Hey, old man," Sanji said. "Did those two cash out?"

"Huh?" Zeff said. "No."

Sanji pursed his lips. "Shit."

On Friday morning, Nami opened her locker to pull her books out. She caught sight of herself in the mirror, and admired her brand new earrings; they were dangly, teardrop-shaped silver earrings with a round blue gem at the center. She was so engrossed in her reflection, that she almost didn't notice as the hall fell silent. She turned around and saw as two boys walked into the school. Luffy, dressed in jeans, a Flash t-shirt, and his iconic straw hat, and a green-haired boy in a sleeveless black hoodie and trip pants who she realized had to be the exchange student from the kendo club that Luffy had been asking about.

"I thought he was suspended?" she whispered to a curly-haired boy in overalls who was standing behind her. "Didn't he bring a knife to school or some shit?"

"Oh, you didn't hear?" the boy said. "He was cleared of all charges. Turns out some junior planted the knife in his locker."

Nami turned around. "Seriously?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah, I heard it was all to cover up something shitty one of the cops did." Nami didn't know how much she believed that, but she would later hear that Helmeppo was expelled from their school for trying to frame a classmate, and that his dad was a police officer who got suspended for brutality. The cop got off, but she was still impressed. That kid was able to bring down a corrupt cop and stop his friend from getting deported? she thought, as she watched Luffy and Zoro walk down the hall, with all the other students looking on in awe.

Well, I'd better keep an eye on him from now on.