Chapter 1: No Way I'm Psychic
A/N: A new story idea from my ever-so-entertaining muse. This story starts around the same time as Ghost Hunt, and Naru will be slightly OOC. I have a Naru in mind that is a little different from what mangas/animes portray him.
Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter; sorry for the slow introduction (hardly an appealing way to start the first chapter) and:
Onwards!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Ignoring the amused glances her classmates were giving her, Mai scrambled into the classroom, flinging her bag carelessly on her table and slumping into her seat in one strangled gasp.
Ding Dong!
The bell tolled the beginning of the homeroom period. She attempted to take in more of the much-needed oxygen for her parched throat because of her frantic dash while running her fingers through her hair that was probably sticking out in all directions with her rush to get here on time. "Thank God," she breathed, relieved that she made it on time - though barely.
"Tsk, tsk," she heard a familiar clucking of the tongue, "Mai, can't you just wake up earlier?"
She turned back to face her friend, sheepish smile on her face. Honestly, she had tried. She set the alarm clock earlier by half an hour but it worsened things because she slept through the terrible ringing (partly also because of the late night she had reading Carrie) and ended up waking at a later time than she usually did. "I really tried, Michiru!"
"Stop having hopes," Ann quipped in airily from beside and Mai scowled, albeit playfully, "she would never be early."
Michiru and Ann both smacked their palms together in mutual agreement and the latter grinned in Mai's direction, who merely huffed in response. She just didn't have the luxury of having someone to wake her up for school. Really, if she had sufficient sleep, she wouldn't be rushing for school this morning. "I was up late last night, okay?"
"You say that every time," Michiru said, "I really commend on you not being late for class even with your tendencies, though."
Mai puffed her cheeks in annoyance, about to retort when the classroom door slid open.
"Class, stand!"
Oh well, she could save that for later.
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"I'm heading for the cafeteria," Michiru announced, pushing herself from the table, the chair dragging with little protest along the white tiles. "Anyone want anything?"
Ann waved her own bento in the air and Mai wondered briefly whether there was caramel pudding today. Then her arm shot up in a split second when she felt her gut telling her that there would be. Caramel pudding was made especially delicious in here - really popular as well - but it didn't have a fixed day it was available on. "Me! I want caramel pudding, please!"
Michiru chuckled at her response, though her eyes gleamed knowingly, then turned to Ann, "As usual?"
"You're on!"
Mai wrinkled her nose as she watched the Michiru's disappearing back, "Why are you guys still betting on this?"
Ever since the menu had been out and it was said that students could only depend on their luck to get the famous dessert since it was only available on random days, Mai relied largely on her instinct for her favorite dessert. When she got the day right for the third time, Ann and Michiru had exchanged a glance and started betting whether her guess would be accurate. She rubbed the side of her forehead in mild exasperation: she had tried deterring them from making that bet as if she was a psychic but it never worked and with time, she resigned from trying to convince them otherwise.
"I just want to catch you being wrong," Ann said as she broke the two chopsticks apart and placed it on the lunchbox cover. "It's just not normal, all right."
"It's luck," Mai said, shaking her head.
Ann looked at her with a knowing smirk, "Keep telling yourself that. You've gotten all the days right on since the start of this year."
"There's caramel pudding today?" Another classmate, Chiki, asked with wide eyes. She probably overheard their conversation when she was passing their table.
Mai nodded slowly, uncertainly. "A wild guess, it might not - " but before she could finish her sentence, Chiki was already out of the classroom. Mai blinked once, twice, then sighed. She really didn't know why people trusted her on this - it was just guessing, and it might be incorrect.
"See, Mai." Her voice held a tone of finality in it and Mai blew out another tired breath, relenting and not bothering to argue any further. "You should try a psychic test, you know."
Mai looked at her incredulously, ready to dismiss the thought with a sarcastic remark but stopped when Ann's eyes gleamed with an anticipation. She wouldn't be surprised if Ann had the webpage ready in her phone and was just waiting for her to take the bait.
So instead, her eyes strayed back to the book under her table, fingers itching to flip to the page where she last left off - not that she'd try, though: Ann would always steal the book away from her, claiming that her 'poor eyes need some rest from the tiny words'. She learned not to try after a few more attempts; Ann was determined, all right.
"Anyway, I'll wait patiently for the day you're wrong," Ann said cheerily as she pulled out three juice packets from her bag and set them on the table. "And - "
"Ann!" A breathless gasp was heard before the caramel pudding was slammed on the table triumphantly, making both Ann and Mai jolt in surprise from the abrupt arrival. "Money, please." Michiru's hand was already out-stretched and her fingers wriggling rather comically.
"Michiru!" Mai exclaimed, sounding scandalized, though she was trying to suppress her own giggles. "You're hopeless!" Michiru grinned cheekily as she slid into the seat opposite Mai, unwrapping her sandwich with one hand as the other remained laid open on the table.
Ann grumbled, smacked the offending hand - in which Michiru barely flinched - before she pressed some change onto her waiting palm. "You made me lose money again, Mai!"
Mai wagged a finger at her mockingly, "Uh-uh. You participated willingly in this." She might have expressed her disapproval of them using money (no matter how small the sum) like this but it was still funny and entertaining to see a disgruntled Ann.
For a moment, the girls sank into a rare silence as they dug into their lunch. Mai's mind was drifting off to Carrie, and was wondering absently what the girl would do - she wouldn't like it if people poured blood over her; that was for sure. She felt the next spoonful of pudding melt on her tongue deliciously, and decided to stop thinking about the novel and settled on savoring this creamy delicacy thoroughly. As she was cutting the next small serving of it with her plastic spoon and wondering what she should have for dinner later on,
Ann's excited squeal interrupted her thoughts, "Oh, right!"
Michiru and Mai looked up, both arching a brow at Ann's sudden exclamation. Ann leaned forward in her seat, "Have you heard of the trip?"
"Trip?" Mai echoed, clueless. "What trip?"
"The trip to England! They're going to be visiting Anne Hathaway's cottage, some weird old theatre," she was cut off by Mai's exclamation of "Globe Theatre" but waved her off dismissively and continued, "and more importantly, I heard there's a huge highlight of this trip."
Ann eyed the two girls with an excited gleam in her eyes, pausing for a fraction of a second - and Mai knew it was a little ploy of hers to make them more attentive, but she fell for it anyway, leaning forward to catch her hushed whisper over the loud chattering of the classroom: "Pendle Hill."
"Pendle witches," Mai gasped, "are you serious?"
Michiru pushed her glasses up, a little dent forming between her brows, "Why would the school permit this itinerary?"
Ann shrugged, "It wasn't stated explicitly that we would get to go there, but look, they plan to give us a day off in Lancashire for us to explore the art and heritage there - and Pendle Hill is there, along with historical houses..." She gestured excitedly with her hands, "We all love ghost stories, horror movies and whatnot. So why shouldn't we sign ourselves up for this?"
"The teachers wouldn't like it," Mai said, chewing on her bottom lip though she did want to go, no matter how many ghost stories she had heard of the place, seeing it in real-life is an entirely different story. Plus, it wasn't as if spirits would attack them randomly; many tourists had visited these sites and other than claims of it being spooky and chilling, there were little to none reliable sources that claimed of experiences that indicated it being an attraction for the supernatural. She paused for a moment, then said, "But I do want to go..."
"Ah-ha! Then it's settled!"
Michiru shook her head, "No, Ann. I don't think so."
Ann frowned, "Michiru! Why are you being such a wimp?" Mai shot her a warning glance. It wasn't wrong to be cautious and she knew that though Michiru enjoyed all the past meetings of sharing ghost stories, she was someone who tread on these things carefully. In a way, Michiru helped kept both her and Ann in line because they were quite impulsive.
"I'm not," Michiru snapped, voice tight, "I'm just saying we should be careful."
Sensing a quarrel stirring up, Mai immediately intervened. "Now, now. Why don't you guys ask for permission from your parents first? We can always discuss this during the trip if we do go, and even if we decided not to go eventually, England is a fun place to tour about." She could still seeing the girls glaring at each other and wrinkled her nose, "Guys, come on!" She tried again.
Michiru huffed, almost childishly, as she broke the eye contact and conceded, "Sure."
"I'll get the 'okay' easily," Ann said, voice still holding a hint of irritation.
Mai rubbed the side of her forehead, but knew this was the best they could do.
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In all honesty, Mai didn't even need to worry whether her parents would agree to it. She was an orphan and there were no living relatives. Initially a kind teacher had offered her a place to stay, but she had moved out once she had the ability to earn her own. She didn't want to trouble her unnecessarily and though the teacher was reluctant to do so, she allowed her to go with the promise that she'd head back if she needed anything.
She pulled the lid of the cup open to inspect her noodles, then sealed it again, stomach growling impatiently. "I should've ordered a takeaway," she grumbled to herself as she waited for her laptop to boot. After hearing of Lancashire, she decided that she needed to watch Most Haunted again. They had done an episode on Pendle Hill and the show's presenter, Yvette Fielding had claimed that it was "the scariest episode they made".
Though she didn't like watching these clips alone, she was too tempted to do so today - after all, they would be heading there themselves later on. She somehow knew Michiru would be persuaded into this in the end. Now impatient, she took a slurp of the noodles, then eagerly typed into the search engine of YouTube when the webpage loaded,
"Ah, it's still there!"
She gathered her blankets in her arms and bundled herself on the couch, readying herself for the horror.
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A loud cackle burst through her head. She winced and her hands had instinctively reached up to cover her ears when she realized she couldn't. Her entire body was paralysed and it felt as if something was pressing her down with all its weight. She struggled to break out of the invisible bind, frustrated when she realized she couldn't. It was like trying to move with concrete wrapped tightly around you, if that made sense.
"Shit, it's another episode," she groaned inwardly to herself.
A baby's wail cut into her thoughts and she shut her eyes, attempting to block the noise out. This is not real, Mai. Now hurry and get your shit together and break out of this. With renewed determination, she ignored the cackles and cries that grew louder in volume in her head, pounding against her skull as she focused everything she had on her toe.
Her eyes were heavy and she was freaking exhausted, but she refused to give in. She wiggled it and barely managed to break herself out of the state, her body now up in a swift move, completely exhausted.
"Screw sleep paralysis," she muttered irritably, smacking both sides of her face with her hands to make herself more awake. She had learned that going back to sleep right after, though horribly tempting, would merely make her experience it again. She closed the YouTube window, unsure of when she had fallen asleep and padded to the kitchen to get a drink.
As she sipped the liquid, feeling the cool water wash over her dry throat, she wondered if she should go for the trip. Her gut clenched and she cocked her head to the side,
"I'm guessing I should go," she declared to no one in particular. She was a little more awake now and she considered going back to bed, but after considering the prospect that she could experience a few more episodes, she decided against it. Instead, she went to open a new webpage and typed:
Psychic test online
She felt ridiculous for taking her friend up on her suggestion but she clicked on the first link she saw, anyway. She hummed thoughtfully, "Zener cards? Sounds weird, but okay."
She had chosen the option of 100 cards. But after she reached 70 and none of the answers were correct, she leaned the side of her face on her fist, "Damn, I'm horribly un-psychic. Why can't I even get one right?" Well, challenge accepted: it's not possible that she wouldn't get even one hit, right?
She tried till the eighty-fifth and there were no signs she was going to get it right. So she snapped the laptop shut with a huff, "Well, I'm going to tell Ann and Michiru tomorrow that they've been exaggerating and there is no way I'm psychic."
A/N: Oh, Mai, you clueless little thing. Well, while I'm getting excited over Naru's appearance, do leave a review to tell me your thoughts!
May Dream!Naru or Gene visit you in your dreams.
-mysticflakes