THE PRICE OF ATTENTION CHAPTER 1- MUGI'S MASTERFUL PLAN
Author notes/preamble- I decided that I wanted to write a fic where all the characters stay alive, with little to no conflict. Something that my 10 year old brother could read and quote in good company. I took some liberties with Mugi's personality, and she's a teensy bit OOC, but it's all for humor. And don't worry, it's nothing like Miyuki in my other story. Comparing Tsumugi in this story to Miyuki in that one would be like comparing sponges to nuclear weapons. They're both made of matter...and that's about it.
I believe when writing for a character who gets next to no inner dialogue, OOCness is impossible to avoid.
TSUMUGI
It happened again today. Ricchan, Yui-chan, and Mio-chan all went out to the movies after school; Azusa was with her kouhai friends and didn't go. Where was I? Sitting alone, at home, bored, no one to play with. I say again because this happens on a regular basis, me being the odd one out. Is it because they think I'm boring or something? When I went to the arcade with Ricchan, it looked like she was having a good time.
Or maybe it's because I'm too much of a wallflower, just sitting in the background the whole time. I don't contribute to many conversations, compared to Yui-chan at least. Maybe that's my problem, I'm not making myself noticed enough. Then there's Ricchan and Mio-chan who are always hitting each other, well Ricchan hits and chokes everyone... except me. While I don't want to go around slapping my friends upside the head, maybe there's a lesson to be found in her behavior.
Whatever the case is, the end result is clear- I need to stand out more.
I came to school early today, ready to set an ambush for whoever showed up first. Perched like a hungry giraffe, I hid behind the couch with my hands shaped like claws, and my best scary face set and loaded. The trap was set, and I waited, listening for footsteps across the hardwood floor.
In hindsight, maybe showing up three hours before school was a bad idea. It wasn't even light out yet, and I was probably the only one there. Not knowing what else to do, I plugged in my headphones and just played my keyboard. Canon in B minor was I was in the mood for, something simple and time consuming. At least it wasn't Fur Elise, I wish bad things upon those who play that in the company of others. Nothing too bad though, maybe something like their favorite show being on an hour later than they had hoped. Something mildly disappointing.
The clock on the wall told me that my targets would be arriving soon, mwuahaha. I unplugged the keyboard and headphones, and crouched down back in my hiding spot. No sooner when I crouched down, I heard the door open.
"All I'm saying is that a manatee could easily beat a beluga whale in a fight." Ricchan said to presumably Mio. I could tell by her heavy sigh that followed.
"Manatees are herbivores, they have no natural weapons to fight a beluga whale with. Not to mention how they've almost gone extinct from getting chopped up by boats." Mio replied. It often amazed me to see the kind of arguments they came up with.
"Boo!" I jumped and cried out at them.
Ricchan and Mio-chan just walked past me. At least Mio had the courtesy to spare me a passing glance, "Oh, good morning Tsumugi."
Three hours of waiting for them to arrive and...and...I...It took every ounce of willpower not to scream vulgarities in anger. But I certainly screamed them in my head, Oh kitty paws!
Yui-chan and Azusa-chan were the next ones to arrive, they too were arguing about something. Yui looked rather passionate about it, "...The F Chord was made by terrorists to scare people away from playing guitar, it's true!"
"Yui-senpai, there are no guitar terrorists making up chords to frighten anyone." Azusa deapanned. In all honesty, I thought Yui was on to something with her ideas.
"Good morning Yui-chan." I said with a nod of my head.
"Good morning Mugi-chan." She said in return. Then I realized something, she was standing right in front of me. This was my chance to do something big, something to make them notice how cool I can be. I raised my hands and prepared my attack.
"Tickle Attack!" I shouted and proceeded to tickle away at Yui-chan's exposed sides. No reaction. At all. I felt the smile melt off my face.
"Ui and I used to have tickle fights all the time, I built up an immunity." Yui told me, then stepped past me to the table. Azusa gave me a sympathetic look and followed her. Once again, my mind resorted to vulgarities, Turtle Flippers!
"Is there any tea ready?" Ricchan asked me, looking a trifle bit impatient.
"Just a moment." I told her without thinking, and moved across the room to prepare it like I always did. Two pranks had failed already, today was not off to a great start. But now their tea was in front of me, giving me full access to do whatever my evil heart wanted. So Ricchan wasn't one to be startled, well let's see how she like poisoned tea! Of course I wouldn't actually poison her tea, that would be rude, but I could certainly alter it to my liking. That was it, five tea bags in at once, four lumps of sugar, and three spoons of honey. The adrenaline this concoction would cause certainly made up for my failure this morning.
"Here you are." I smiled and placed the cup in front of her, then moved on to giving everyone else their tea.
"Jeeze Mugi, did you put any tea with this sugar?" Ricchan said with a mildly disgruntled face. Still, she drank it all. My horribly evil plan was set in motion. I amazed myself at my own wickedness sometimes, and wondered what people would think if they knew what kind of things I schemed. That Mugi-chan, she was always so nice. Who knew she would over sweeten tea! Then I would laugh...
Yui gave Ricchan a strange look, "Are you okay there?"
The drummer's eyes had become just a little dilated, and her hands were shaking. She gave Yui-chan a wide grin and nodded while speaking really fast, "Of course I'm alright Yui-chan, I feel great actually. Hey! Why don't we practice right now!"
"Because class starts in 10 minutes." Mio told her.
"Screw that, let's play a power ballad right now!" Ritsu demanded. I made a mental note to monitor her sugar intake and never do this ever again... "Wow Yui-chan, that's a pretty cool guitar you have there, do you like to play it? I like to play your guitar!"
"Something's wrong with Ricchan." Yui whimpered, looking sort of frightened. All I could think was, Oops.
"Mio-chan, you should grow your bangs out longer than the rest of your hair, then you could fight crime!" Ritsu continued, we all sat looking back and forth to one another; waiting for someone to step up and fix Ricchan. No one spoke though, and Ritsu just kept chattering about nothing, "If I could fight crime, then you could fight crime, then she could fight crime as well. We should buy a beaver to Ton-chan to play with! Read Falling Stars!"
We were saved by the bell. Class was starting, but I was worried how our drummer would behave on her extreme sugar high. Luckily, as soon as class started she was passed out asleep on her desk. I forgot that fatigue always followed haste, so I guess that was good thing.
I used this time in class to think of another way to get more noticed, that didn't involve breaking Ricchan again. That was a bad move on my part, I'll admit it. And they didn't even suspect that I had something to do with that either! I'm the one who brings all the tea and snacks, I think I deserve just a little bit more respect. But at soon as the tea stops flowing, I'm showered with complaints. Psh, they couldn't last one day without me.
That's it! I need to "disappear" for a little while so they'll appreciate me more when I come back! Once again I amaze myself at my own intelligence. But how to "disappear"? I know, I'll just call in sick and stay home for a few days just kind of hanging out, then they'll be all excited when I come back. However, at lunch an obstacle was presented.
"Okay everyone, tomorrow we're meeting at the junior high after school with our instruments." Mio instructed, apparently I had missed something.
"It's about time that we get to do a live show." Ritsu nodded.
"Should I polish Gitah for this?"
"Ummm..." I muttered under my breath, seriously, I must have missed something.
"Right! We forgot to tell you." Ritsu said, finally understanding my confusion, "There's some 'variety show' thing going on at my brother's school. He wanted us to play, so I gladly signed us up. I even remembered to fill out the form too!"
"You only put our names down, and drew stars around yours. I did everything else." Mio added. But why wasn't I told about this? I'm part of the band, right? Keyboard is a legitimate instrument as far as I know. Grr, Puppy Kisses! Well, with this upcoming event it looks like I'll have to postpone my absence... Or will I?
FAST FORWARD TWENTY HOURS
The phone was in my hand, I was ready to make the call. Then I realized something, I need to sound sick or they won't believe me. However, I didn't know how to do that off the top of my head. I had already convinced my parents to let me take a few personal days, which was surprisingly easy to do, but now I just had to deal with this obstacle. Then I remembered something! There was that time that Ritsu called Mio a fat cow for not getting her a soda, then Mio kicked her right in the stomach. Ricchan couldn't talk right for a whole hour. I knew what must be done.
"Mother!" I called out as I stepped into the dining room. Daddy was well off to work by now, and mother was contently drinking tea while reading the newspaper.
"Yes, dear?" She answered without looking up.
I wasn't quite sure how to ask this, "Mother, I have an odd request."
That made her look up, "Don't worry Tsumugi, getting your cat spayed and neutered is a normal thing that all pets go through."
I just blinked, "What? No, that's not what I was asking."
Mother looked disappointed as she sighed, "Oh."
"I need your help with something for school." I told her, half telling the truth. Even if it was only the half truth, half lying to my dear mother made me feel all dirty inside.
"Sure, anything." She gladly answered.
"I need you to...hit me...right here." I explained while blushing uncontrollably and pointing at my belly button.
Mother cocked a pickled radish shaped eyebrow in confusion, "You want me to... hit you?" I nodded, "Tsumugi dear, you haven't been getting into the liquor cabinet again have you?"
I defensively waved my arms, "No, no, this is for school. You don't have to hit me hard, just enough to...make it hard to talk."
"Enough to knock the wind out of you?" She clarified.
"Yes, that! Please, pretty please, pretty please with kitty giggles on top?" I shamelessly pleaded. Mother didn't look exactly comfortable.
"If it's for school, but I'm not going to hurt you." Mother gave in.
I threw my arms around her in a tight hug, "Thank you mother! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"This isn't something my daughter should be thanking me for." She grunted and shrugged me off. With a heavy sigh, she spoke, "Tell me when."
"Right now." I bravely said, and put my arms at my sides.
"Okay, here goes nothing." With closed eyes, her unclenched fist slowly pushed into my stomach with no pressure behind it whatsoever. While that wouldn't have been enough to knock an empty glass over, it was surely enough to knock all the wind out of me. Maybe this was a sign that I needed to start hitting the gym more. At least to work on my abs, I could bench 75 kilos easily.
Clutching my stomach and staggering away, I looked back and smiled, "T-thank you..." I managed to exhale.
"Tsumugi..." Mother sighed, not looking too upset. I guess this was one of those times she thought I was too cute to be mad at. I could live with that. Now that awkward bundle of fun was over, it was time to move onto phase 2 of my plan. Still short of breath, I took my cellphone and dialed the most intelligent choice of persons to relay my "illness" to.
"Hello?" Ricchan answered her phone.
"Hi Ricchan." I managed to reply, talking after getting lightly tapped on the stomach was hard work. But at least my plan was working.
"Hey Mugi-chan, how's it going? You don't sound too good." She replied, falling for my genius plan.
"Yeah, can you tell Sawako-sensei I'll be out for a few days? I think I caught something." I asked her.
"Oh sure, man that sucks. We have that show later today." She sighed, "What did you catch?"
Candy Sprinkles! I didn't think about that, I had to make up an illness and fast. Without thinking I instantly replied with, "AID's I think, well I'll talk to you later."
"What-" Ricchan was saying as I hung up. I think AID's is the disease that gives you a sore throat. Now I had a whole day to kill until that show later on, the show that "Tsumugi" wouldn't be attending. She wouldn't be showing up there, but her twin sister they've never met would be. Until then I had to find something to do.
I considered replaying Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but that game was...strange. At the end, it said that the "patient", or me in this case, was a lonely, bitter, sociopath who only thought of sex and death. I take mild offense to that, the only death I think about is the death of those weeds in my flower garden. Gosh darned weeds were always making me have to weed them. They make me so mad that I would will shamelessly scream bad words in my mind, Cuddle Muffins!
Gah, I needed to get my mind out of the gutter this morning. I decided that it would be wise to get the cosmetic aspects of my plan out of the way. Grabbing the black hair dye from that costume party a few month ago, I went into my 250 square foot bathroom and went to work dying my hair black as night. It took awhile to get all of it, but my mirror and I got through it in one piece. I showered, got all the black specks of my shoulder, and sent Ricchan a text message.
Sorry about missing the show today, I found a way to make it up though!
My new persona, the one that would take the place of Tea Giving Mugi-chan would be so unlikable that they would be showering the real me with hugs as soon as I returned. Overall, a flawless plan. But the more I think about it, I think it's kind of absurd how hard I have to work to just get hugs and attention. Still, just being myself certainly isn't working...unassisted at least.
But I still had a whole day to kill, and breakfast was a good way to start. My furry friend, my cat, Pickles the Cat was weaving in and out between my feet. I picked Pickles the Cat up and had to sternly tell him, "No, Mugi-chan gets breakfast first before Pickles the Cat gets his." My fluffy feline attempted to bite my eyebrows, as was his custom, so I put him down.
We dived into the kitchen, and I actually landed on my feet this time! What was I in the mood for?Toast...WITH JAM. Using my socks, I slid across the tile floor to the refrigerator and opened the door. My lips quivered and I nearly fainted from happiness, "Raspberry...jam..."
In a home like mine, even with all our accumulated wealth, raspberry jam was quite a luxury. I loved the stuff, I put it on my toast, I put it on my bread, and I occasionally put it on my skin and in my hair. My mother was fond of it also, as was Daddy. They were entitled to the jam as much as I was, but when Daddy's coworkers helped themselves to it...Well I guess I sort of have a "Mugi Moment". We're leaving it at that.
Bread in the toaster, jam ready, I braced in anticipation for the bread to pop back out. Wait! What was some toast without tea? Still using my socks, I gracefully slid across the tile floor and began to heat some water. WAIT AGAIN, I forgot that Pickles the Cat still needed food, and water. Since I didn't believe that water was a good way to start the day, I would put some tea in his water dish. The toaster popped and a glided over to it again, and slathered myself a gracious amount of jam. Then Tastychainsaws' accidentally spelled "amount" with two M's again.
As I went about my morning business, I sang a little song to brighten the mood, "We're whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon. But there are no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling tune."
The hot water was done, so I poured a little bit in to Pickles the Cat's bowl and placed in a tea bag. He looked up at me with unamused eyes, I knew he would come around though. To speed up the process I poured some dry food into his other bowl. But alas, he had slipped away somewhere. I couldn't let myself be distracted by things like that, so I went to go and eat my toast and tea.
No...
My knees buckled and I almost lost my balance. Some evil thief had stolen my toast in cold blood! I turned around to look for evidence, and saw Pickles the Cat walking off with a slice of toasted bread in his mouth. It couldn't be, there was no way I had raised a toast thief! Pickles the Cat was a nice kitty, he may have bitten me, Ricchan, Yui-chan, and just about everyone else multiple times... But he was still a nice kitty.
"No, that's people food!" I cried out and went to follow him. My socks betrayed me as a slipped on the tile floor and landed on my stomach.
"Is something wrong?" Mother called out from the other room.
"No!" I lied and crawled on my tummy after Pickles the Cat as he made his way to the stairs. No doubt going to hide it in his secret layer. Oh Cuddly Pillows! Someone had left the backdoor open, that's where he was going, not the stairs. "Don't take my breakfast outside, it will get dirty!"
The cat ignored my pleas and took another step towards the door. I needed a plan and fast, then it hit me. Fight fire with fire! "If you go out there with my breakfast, then you won't get breakfast of your own!"
That caught his attention, but he still took another step. To prove that I was being serious, I grabbed a handful of dry cat food out his bowl next to me. "Kitty don't you step out there, I'll eat your food and leave you hungry. I swear I will!"
Pickles the Cat ignored me and bounded off outside. To prove that Mugi don't take crap, I shoved all the food into my mouth and quickly went away at chewing it. Now I've made some pretty bad decisions in my life, but this very well may have been the worse. It's horrible dry taste sucked all the moisture out of my mouth and replaced with the smell of cat food. I was on my feet in an instant sliding across the floor to the kitchen sink. I turned it on and alternated between gulping down tap water and spitting out cat food. The good news was that I did this all without vomiting. Go me!
That horrible taste of cat food certainly destroyed the happiness that tea normally brought me. I, all of a sudden, felt like a bad cat owner for making Pickles the Cat have to eat this stuff. He would get wet food every night, but this just seemed criminal. Even thinking about the taste again was enough to make me gag. Well, it was time to put this all behind me and just make some more toast with jam. I opened the refrigerator again and looked around the for the raspberry jam. It wasn't there, it had seemed that the toast thief was also a jam thief as well. Could it be that Pickles the Cat's criminal activities went even deeper?
It wasn't like me to jump to conclusions like that, it was time for me to get to the bottom of this. I strode into the dining room to meet my mother. Much to my shock, there was a small plate with a slice of toasted bread with raspberry jam on it. How she had managed to make breakfast while I was still in the kitchen without me knowing was beyond me. Mother was a clever woman, not to be underestimated.
She looked up at me with a strange look on her face, "What happened to your hair?"
Tickley Whiskers! I had forgotten that she had not been informed about my new disguise. I had already lied to her once this morning, I wasn't about to do it again, "I dyed my hair so I can be in disguise when I play that show later today with all my friends."
"Any particular reason you need to be disguised?" She asked me.
Once again, no sense in lying, "I feel left out of the group and I want them to realize how important I am to them by me not being around. But I can't let them play the show without me so I disguised myself, and I'm going to act different so they don't know it's me."
"Are you having an identity crisis again?" Was her next question.
"No I'm not, this is just a plan to get more hugs and stuff." I replied with a shake of my head.
Mother just shrugged, "Alright, was their something you needed? You've been staring at my breakfast the whole time, did you want a bite?"
"Did you finish the last of the jam?" I asked her, trying to hold back the tears of jelly loss..
"Oh, yes I did." She replied, then saw the look on my face, "I'm sorry, I had thought that you had already eaten."
"Pickles the Cat stole my toast!" I sobbed. The events of this morning had proven too much and mounted into tears.
"Again I ask why you keep that little thing around." She sighed and put a hand on my shoulder, "How about I give you a thousand yen to run down the corner store and buy some more jam."
"Can I get the good kind?" I whimpered. Yes there was a good kind.
Mother smiled, "Yes you can get the good kind."
I squee'd and hugged her tight, she shrugged me off and placed a note in my hand. Without missing a beat, I thanked her and ran out the door to get to the store. Wait! I had a coupon for jam back at home. I quickly retrieved it from the respective drawer and marched off to the store. Sadly, my sundress lacked the finer luxuries of pockets, so I had to carry the money and coupon in my hands.
A little meow told me that my Maine Coon had been following me. I turned around and placed the coupon on the sidewalk so I could use that hand to pet Pickles the Cat. The traitorous fluffball just walked past me to get to the coupon. I gasped in horror, it was like my pet was out to get me now, "Pickles, don't eat the coupon!"
I desperately tried to wrestle the paper out of his tiny little mouth, but with a single tug he managed to run off with the other half of the coupon. Maybe mother was right, getting him "fixed" would certainly calm his behavior down just a little bit. I think any change would be an improvement at this point. Maybe I would look into it when I took him for his grooming today, because his Maine Coon fur was starting to get out of control. I had planned to put it off for awhile, but the lack of school for me today would give the opportunity.
My cat had run off to do more presumably adorable things, not that eating paper was adorable, and I was at the store. After buying jam many times, I knew exactly where to go to find it. Luckily this store was always well stocked in raspberry preservatives, which is better than jam in my opinion. Upon taking the preservatives off the shelf, I made my way to the counter where the cashier rang it up.
"That will be 1,044 yen, please." He told me in a monotone voice. Clearly this was one of those people who really hated their job, despite how easy it must have been. Wait! Mother only gave me a thousand yen to spend, I was 44 short. And Pickles the Cat had eaten my coupon. Today was not looking up at all.
Using my wits, and guile and firmly declared, "Lower!" Like Ricchan had taught me.
The cashier sighed, "Only the store owner's daughter can do that. You are clearly not her."
"Yes I am!" I said, "I am most definitely Kotobuki Tsumugi."
"No, Tsumugi has blonde hair." He said with his arms crossed, "I'm going to have to remove you from the store if you keep this act. Store policy and stuffs."
Sadly, he was right. Tsumugi did have blonde hair, and mine had been dyed jet black just this morning. Not wanting to make a scene a I grumbled some choice words under my breath and replaced the jam and grabbed a 2 liter bottle of coke instead. It wasn't something Mugi would drink, but I am not Mugi anymore, I am her twin sister from...wherever her twin sister had been the whole time. Details weren't important now.
Bottle paid for, I trudged out of the store and made my way home; taking sips of coke as I went. I wanted so much to resort to my normal cheerful demeanor today, but that was now impossible. Maybe things would get better, and a hug would certainly speed about that process. But then I realized something...No one ever hugs me; ever. Yui hugged Azusa every day, I saw Ritsu hug Mio occasionally. I remember asking Ritsu for hugs several times during our day out, and she just looked at me funny. Is it because I smell funny? A quick sniff of the underarms disproved that theory. Maybe my eyebrows were just a little too bushy? Whatever the reason, it hurt and it hurt bad.
But after meeting my "evil twin sister", I'm sure they were all love the normal me. I know I'm being selfish and I know that this is superficial. Those were small drawbacks for being closer to my friends.