Disclaimer: Blah blah blah, do not own, blah blah.
Hey all! So, here's another Azumanga Daioh story, except this one will be a multi-chapter, for a change! (Only about two or three, though, I reckon.) Rated T for some language.
Enjoy!
"But Ka-san, I'm just not sure if-"
"Oh, don't be silly, Minamo! You've turned down every man I've sent you this month! Indulge your mother for once, will you?"
Nyamo winced a little at the criticism, the curly white wire wrapping around her wrist. "Ka-san, that's not fair! Look, I'm still not all that interested in dating, okay? For one thing, my job-"
Nyamo's mother tsked down the phone.
"Minamo, don't use that as an excuse. I'm only trying to HELP you, sweetie. You let yourself get distracted by those bratty kids you teach and that Yukari, who, I might add, has been sponging off you since before you even began to work at school and-"
Nyamo sighed, holding the phone away from her ear. Her mother was clearly in a rant-mode today, and Yukari was (and always had been) one of her favourite subjects to rant about. Not that Yukari didn't give her plenty of ammunition to do so, but still.
"- Such appalling driving. Anyway, I've already told him you'll see him tomorrow night."
"What?"
A sigh issued from the receiver. Nyamo frowned at it.
"Now, now, Minamo. Look, I don't think it will kill you to do this one little thing. You could really like him! Give yourself a chance, ne?"
Nyamo sucked in one of her cheeks, trying to calm down. Her mother wasn't a cruel woman, she knew that, but she was meddlesome and fussy and she probably wasn't going to shut the hell up about all these dates until Nyamo went on one. Nyamo wasn't even sure how they had managed to stretch out a tedious phone call about Blind Dates for so long, but either way she was getting tired of it. Once her mother got an idea into her head, it was a complete nightmare trying to get her off the subject again. Tired, and with a lingering feel of being defeated.
With a sigh, Nyamo switched the receiver to her other ear, feeling explicably resigned.
"Fine, I'll do it."
"Wonderful! I knew you would come around! I expect you'd just be at home otherwise, talking to the wall or something anyway. Bye-bye!"
"Yeah, thanks." Nyamo replied angrily, but she was speaking to the dialling tone.
Just what have I gotten myself into?
"Nyamo."
I still can't believe I agreed to this! Why am I such a pushover? My mother thinks she can just come waltzing into my life and start meddling into my business whenever she wants!"Nyamo."
Not only that, but in such little time as well! I have nothing to wear! What if I end up going to the wrong restaurant? What if this man she's "found" for me is a complete pig? What if he tries to take advantage of me? ...Do I want him to?"Nyamo!"Or what if he gets bored and simply leaves? What if I do something stupid? What if-
"NYAMO!"
Nyamo jumped as an obnoxiously loud voice interrupted her internal crisis. Swivelling round, she found herself facing a rather annoyed looking Yukari, the brunette's hands on her hips and glowering. Nyamo blinked. She had completely forgotten where she was, since she was so busy what-iffing to herself. And iffing isn't even a word.
"What?" Nyamo replied, too surprised to strike the right annoyed tone. She probably should be annoyed that Yukari had just screamed in her face, after all. It's not a very polite thing to do.
Yukari sighed like a popped balloon, rolling her eyes dramatically in an exaggerated gesture of impatience.
"Nyamo, I'm using the pool." she announced, typically blasé. "Gimme the keys to the locker room."
"What?" Nyamo squealed, her mind finally being dragged away from her own predicament by this brazen statement. Immediately, her sensible side raised an arm and started spluttering. "Yukari, you can't just ditch your class to go swimming! Again!"
"Who said ditch?" shrugged Yukari, flapping a hand at Nyamo as though she had just broken her wrist. "They ditched ME, you know. I just didn't bother stopping them, that's all. Kids will be kids and all that crap."
"You're supposed to be a teacher!" Nyamo snapped, but Yukari remained infuriatingly complacent. "You can't just let your students go running off in the middle of the day just because you want to go lounge around in-"
"Oh, there they are!" cried Yukari, suddenly leaning forward and snatching the keys up from the table and accidentally giving Nyamo a full view of her cleavage as she did so, much to Nyamo's embarrassment.
Nyamo raised an arm to stop her, then it suddenly drooped down of its own accord. Nyamo sighed and slumped back in her chair, running her other hand distractedly through her hair.
"Fine, just take the stupid keys." Nyamo mumbled, and her head drooped a little, like a flower that hasn't had very much sunlight.
Yukari stopped and looked at her. Then she straightened up.
"Nyamo, what's up with you all of a sudden, huh?" Yukari demanded. Then she suddenly pointed at her dramatically, her voice becoming deeper. "You're trying to make me feel GUILTY! Is that it?"
"No, that's not it." Nyamo answered, hating how pathetic she sounded. "It's just...I-I have a blind date."
At this, Yukari's face suddenly broke out into a coy smirk and she flopped into the chair opposite her, raising her eyebrows suggestively and propping her head up on one hand.
"A blind date? Nyamo, you sly thing! You've been trolling for man-candy, ne?"
This was so unexpected that Nyamo temporarily snapped out of her depressed state by flicking her head upwards, blushing furiously. "It's not MY doing!" she contradicted, her cheeks pink. Yukari blinked.
"Huh?"
"It's my mother." Nyamo explained, feeling suddenly foolish. "She set me up on a date. I don't really want to go, but this is the third date she's sent me this month and I can't just keep refusing them all simply because I don't feel like it. And it's TONIGHT, so it's completely at short notice and I'm not entirely sure where this restaurant even IS. It's called Spring Parade or something..."
To Nyamo's surprise, Yukari had sat through this little speech without once interrupted, and with a mildly quizzical look on her face. Now, however, her expression relaxed a little more.
"We've been there before, dumb P.E teacher!" Yukari teasingly reminded Nyamo, "That was back when we both got so drunk that I threw up on the pier, remember?"
"Thank you for that little visual." grumbled Nyamo. Then suddenly, Yukari leant forwards and flicked Nyamo's forehead, almost lazily.
"Ow!"
Nyamo rubbed her forehead.
"What was that for, Yukari?"
Yukari grinned.
"You worry too much." she replied with a shrug, but Nyamo felt a sudden stab of suspicion. "See ya later, alligator!"
And with that, Yukari went skipping out of the room and practically singing. The song went something like this, in a bad English accent.
"Blind Date-u! Blind-u Date-u!"
Sometimes, Nyamo really, REALLY wished that she were somewhere far away. Like Brazil.
"How in the hell can you eat so much sugar?" complained Yomi Mizuhara.
The six friends had taken Yukari's blatant slacking off in their stride, and were currently lounging around in the park that was located not too far away from the school.
"Jealous, Yomi?" sniggered Tomo Takino, nudging the bespectacled girl in the ribs. "On another dumb diet?"
"Tomo, shut up or I'll asphyxiate you with the paper bag."
"Eh?"
"It's a nice day...the sky looks so cheerful..." remarked Osaka, her head tilted back slightly, one of her rather vacant smiles on her face. "The sun is happy today."
"Osaka-san, don't stare directly at it..." Chiyo warned her absent-minded friend, since she was used to being the voice of reason when Osaka got one of her strange fixations in her head.
Kagura took a sip of water, and then suddenly sneezed halfway through, accidentally spraying her friends with it. Chiyo squealed and Tomo laughed loudly.
"Thanks for that, Kagura." Remarked Yomi, taking off her glasses and polishing them on the hem of her shirt.
"Sorry." Kagura apologised, although Yomi didn't seem actually angry so much as a little exasperated. "Must be hay fever or something..."
Sakaki, who was the only one who had escaped the small shower unscathed as she was sitting on Kagura's opposite side, passed her a tissue, which the tanned girl accepted gratefully.
"Hey..." Osaka said, suddenly. "I think there's somethin' comin' towards us."
"Cool! Maybe it's an escaped animal!" shouted Tomo.
The girls turned their attention to where Osaka was pointing. Something was definitely running towards them at a rather disconcerting speed. Whatever it was, it looked very determined to get to them.
"It's Yukari-sensei!" Chiyo announced, to the surprise of her friends.
"Yukari-sensei sure can run fast in a skirt..." remarked Kagura, slightly impressed by this physical feat that her normally non-athletic teacher was displaying.
Sakaki nodded.
"THERE YOU ALL ARE!" Yukari screeched when she was about ten or so feet away from the girls, as though she had been searching for them all day.
She skidded to a halt before them, her heels ripping blades of grass from the ground. She then stopped, her hands pressed onto her slightly bent knees as she panted for breath.
The girls stared at her.
"Anou...Yukari-sensei?" piped up Chiyo, bravely.
Yukari, after regaining her breath, straightened up and smirked at them. It was a little unsettling.
"I have a job for you guys."
Nyamo tucked a strand of hair nervously behind her ear. Her legs crossed and re-crossed.
This is ridiculous. Nyamo scolded herself, I've only been here for 7 minutes and 30 seconds and I can't sit still! Well, 32 seconds and maybe another minute. Argh, Nyamo, stop keeping track of the time! ...Although maybe I went too far with the earrings? I never wear earrings, so will it look like I'm trying too hard? Ooh, I just don't know-
"Excuse me, are you Kurosaki Nami?"
Jumping slightly, Nyamo looked up. A man around his late twenties was standing opposite her, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. His hair was a dusty brown, though it was hard to tell since was slicked back with excessive amounts of hair mousse. His after shave was a tad too strong and he was dressed in a crisp black suit. His eyes were brown.
Then Nyamo realised she had been gawking, so she cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Oh, um, no, my name is Kurosawa Nyamo. I mean, Minamo. Well, Nyamo's my nickname. Though sometimes I get called Coach."
The man was now staring at her with raised eyebrows, so Nyamo blushed and shut up.
"I'm Hayate Takano. From the brochure?"
"Oh! Yes, that's right! Uh, have a seat."
Hayate sat down, slinging his jacket over the back of his chair. His sleeves were rolled up, showing a small glimpse of bronzed forearm. Nyamo fought the urge to touch it and hastily buried her face into the wine menu, even though she had no intention of drinking.
"Excuse me, are you ready to order drinks?"
"I'll have a..." began Hayate.
"I want an Amazake!" Nyamo blurted out without meaning to. The waitress jumped. Nyamo hastily added, "Please." feeling like a complete idiot.
"I'll have an Awamori." Hayate said.
"Coming right up." Replied the waitress cheerfully, before disappearing into the kitchen.
A small silence descended. Nyamo wished she could stop blushing.
""S-so...um...what do you do for a living?" Nyamo asked, after she could stand the quiet no more.
"Oh, I'm a stock broker." Hayate replied, sounding a little smug about it.
"A stock broker!" cried Nyamo, despite the fact she had absolutely no idea what a stock broker was. She really hoped that her lie wasn't translating in her face. "That must be interesting."
After that, she couldn't get him to shut up. He went on about his job and how much money he made, detailing things like shares and clients and about a million other things about his job that Nyamo, quite frankly, was beginning to feel a little dizzy about. She could barely keep up with what he was saying, and she wasn't sure she even wanted to.
When the waitress arrived with drinks, the P.E teacher felt almost like crying with relief. She opted to take a sip of her Amazake, enjoying the way it trickled soothingly down her throat. At least Hayate wasn't so talkative when somebody put alcohol in front of him.
"So, what do you do?" he asked her nonchalantly, although Nyamo got the feeling he was only asking her because it was the obvious question.
"I'm a P.E teacher." Nyamo replied, taking a sip of her drink to steady her nerves.
Hayate made a face.
"Really?"
"Yes." Replied Nyamo, slightly startled at his reaction. She couldn't keep the bite out of her voice when she added, "Why?"
"Sounds like hell to me." Hayate remarked, oblivious to Nyamo's tone. "Having to put up with a bunch of screeching kids all the time? No thanks. Why would you want to have a job like that?"
Nyamo's mouth fell open to say something- she could feel her indignation threatening to burst out of her, erupt like a geyser, but she is still gathering her thoughts and words together when she hears a voice. It's kinda of hard not to hear it, actually, considering that the music and chatter in the restaurant is pleasant thrum of noise until an obnoxious shout broke it.
"Hey, you! Hottie with the namachu! Bring us another round of sake over here, huh?"
That voice.
Slowly, almost mechanically, Nyamo turned in her seat, praying she was not about to see what she thought.
"Yu...Yukari?"
Yukari glanced over at Nyamo. And so did another six pairs of eyes, belonging to none other than Chiyo, Osaka, Tomo, Yomi, Sakaki and Kagura.
"Oh, Nyamo!" drawled Yukari, with the biggest Cheshire-cat smile Nyamo had ever seen. "Fancy meeting you here, eh?"
Awamori: Distillated alcoholic drink from Okinawa. The most popular method to drink it is with ice and water.
Amazake: A traditional, sweet, low-alcoholic Japanese drink made from fermented rice wine.
Namachu: A mild, light beer.
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