I Don't Like The Catcher in the Rye
Chapter 1
"Misao!!!"
"Hrm?" raising a sleepy head, Makimachi Misao squinted at the bright light streaming in from her window and straight into her eyes. Dropping back her head back, she flopped over and pulled her pillows over her head. It is too early for this… she thought grumpily, shifting again in bed. She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and groaned.
"What are you doing still in bed?!" her foster mother demanded, flinging the door open.
"What do you think I'm doing, I'm sleeping!" she retorted irritably, burying herself further in her covers. Why couldn't they just leave her alone?!
"What time is your school?" Mrs Ketsuna snapped, annoyed at being talked back to yet again by the small form huddled under the blankets.
"Niine!" Misao groaned back. Why did adults feel compelled to ask idiotic questions they already knew the answers to?
"It's already 8:30, get up and go to school or you're going to be late!"
"I won't be, leave me alone!" she yelled, exasperation making her finally raise her head from underneath her pillow. "I still have 10 minutes that I can sleep so go away you're ruining it!" Did these people really think that she, as a 17 year old teenager, would not have calculated right down to the exact second how long it would take for her to get to school?
Her foster mother stood at the door for a few seconds before slamming the door shut behind her. Misao listened to her footsteps disappear down the stairs and sighed gratefully, pulling her head out from under the pillow and turning onto her back, her arm across her face.
10 more minutes…
-
Shit.
That was the only word that entered her mind as she raced down the streets on her bicycle, her long braid flailing wildly behind her. People scrambled to get out of the haphazard path her bicycle was taking, some yelling curses at her retreating back.
Shit shit shit shit shit.
"So much for 10 minutes huh?" her so-called foster mother had yelled after her when a frantic Misao had dashed out the front door a half hour after their encounter in the room, jacket and jeans thrown over her sleeping shirt, toothbrush in hand. She had 10 minutes to get to class before the second bell rung. Even though classes officially started at 9, there was a 10 minute leeway which she had always taken to her full advantage, never arriving before 9am.
Argh, I can't afford to be late again, she thought wildly, narrowly missing colliding with an old lady.
"Hey watch where you're going punk!"
I'm in enough trouble for that as it is already! Pulling out her cell phone from her jacket pocket with one hand precariously steering the bicycle, she stole a glance at the time. 9:05. I THINK I can make it…
Kyoto High loomed straight ahead, coming into view suddenly having been blocked by a large building Misao was still not sure served what purpose. She pulled into the bicycle bay and hastily chained her bicycle to the stand, and then raced up the stairs and to homeroom. Curse the fact that it's on the third bloody floor! she thought, her legs aching from the exertion she was putting on them. Not that she was out of shape, she happened to be the best striker on the school's girls soccer team, but practice had been particularly exhausting and her muscles still ached from the intense workout it had underwent the previous day.
"Ah, Makimachi-san, I see you have finally decided to grace us with your presence." Saitou Hajime, the person she personally considered to be the biggest ass in the universe and unfortunately her class' personal tutor, was sitting with his feet propped on the teacher's desk, a cigarette smoking from his mouth. Misao was quite sure smoking on school grounds was not allowed, even if you were a teacher, but as far as she knew, no one ever dared tell that to Saitou.
"I'm only 5 minutes late!" she gasped, leaning on the doorway to catch her breath.
"Actually, you're 15 minutes late," he corrected, giving her a wolfish grin. "But since the board insists on the ridiculous notion of giving you slackers a 10 minute allowance, I'll grant you that. However…" He trailed off, and she watched nervously as his grin broadened. She did not like where this was going.
"Since you're given those extra 10 minutes to get here, technically you have no excuse to actually be late. Detention after school today Makimachi." He ignored her indignant protests. "Will you take a seat already, or do we have to wait another 5 minutes for you to make up your mind."
Cursing him under her breath, Misao stomped over to her seat in the third row, slamming her bag onto the table and throwing herself into the chair. Saitou ignored her, stubbing his cigarette out on the table and standing up to give the day's announcements. She glared at the tall man who stood in front of the class, tugging at the frayed end of the strap on her sling bag.
This is so not fair! she thought angrily, imagining the threads she was quite violently yanking out were actually that hated man's hair. It's not like I'm half an hour late, like the last few times! In fact 5 minutes is a GOOD thing for me!
Suddenly, Saitou's bored intonation was cut off by the appearance of a tall, spiky haired guy at the doorway, grinning sheepishly with a fish-bone sticking out of his mouth.
"Sorry, woke up late," he said, scratching the back of his head. No kidding, she thought, taking in his disheveled—wait, make that even more disheveled than usual appearance and messy hair.
"Ahou," Saitou said, turning away from him. "Sit down. Detention today. Again."
Shrugging, Sagara Sanosuke took his seat to the left of Misao and she leaned over, flashing him a wide grin.
"Guess I'm not gonna be lonely today, rooster head," she whispered. "I was only 5 freaking minutes late. Although, come to think of it, the only thing that would have worried me would be to not see you in detention hall."
"Har har," he said, yawning loudly and leaning back in a stretch. Saitou stopped his announcements to glare daggers at him before continuing. "I got laid last night, what's your excuse, weasel?"
"Sano!" Kaoru, who sat in front of him, gasped and turned around, scandalized.
"What??" he said, lifting his palms up in mock indignation. "I didn't go into the details did I? Like how we were at it like—"
"We are not interested in your sex life, Sagara no ahou," Saitou interrupted smoothly. "Please refrain from discussing it so loudly. In fact, discussing anything in your loud, obnoxious voice should be against the rules, I'll make it a point to bring it up in the next staff meeting."
"Why you—" Sanosuke growled, sitting up in his chair.
"Sano!" Misao hissed. "Shut the hell up before you get yourself into more trouble!"
"Yes, listen to that weasel friend of yours," Saitou said in a bored tone.
"What?! I am not a—" she began angrily, slamming her hand on the table.
"Both of you!" Kaoru cut her off, annoyed. "Grow up!" Slouching back into her chair, Misao crossed her arms across her chest and muttered angrily to herself, Sano doing the same thing. Saitou dismissed them ("That's all, get lost.") and they packed up their things and left for their next class.
"Argh!" Misao shrieked as she and Kaoru made their way to Literature, their first class for the day. "That cold-hearted bastard is such a… Bastard!"
"Now now," Kaoru intoned absently. She was used to Misao's constant ranting and raving. Although they had only started hanging out with one another since the start of their junior year, she and Misao had somehow managed to develop a steadfast friendship within those few months. That they shared more than half their classes together only strengthened the relationship they had, and had been near inseparable. Kaoru never really felt like she fit in. Shy and quiet, she knew some of her classmates considered her a something of a prude. She was an active member of the Student's Union, and an honour roll student.
Misao, on the other hand, was practically her polar opposite. Loud, impulsive and constantly getting into minor brawls, mostly with Sano, she was on the school soccer team, hated classes and did just enough to pass. Why the two of them got along was a mystery even to her sometimes. Kaoru sighed, as Misao started cursing and swearing again at Saitou.
"Well you know how he is," she said matter-of-factly, finally managing to add something to the conversation while Misao paused for a deep gulp of air. "You shouldn't've been late in the first place."
"Kaoru!" Misao whined. "You're supposed to be on my side! You're only defending him 'cause he likes you!"
"No he doesn't," she replied, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "He called me a baka yesterday for answering his question wrongly remember?"
"Oh yeah…" Misao said, finger to the corner of her mouth as she thought. "Come to think of it, I don't think there isn't a single person in class he hasn't insulted or humiliated. Haha what an asshole."
"Misao!"
"What?!"
-
First period Literature found Misao with her elbows propped on the desk, chin in her hands as she stared dreamily at the back of the head of the junior who sat in front of her. Kaoru always grumbled about her wanting to sit so far back, but she had always ignored her. Since the object of her affections—a new student who had transferred to Kyoto High near the start of their junior year—liked to sit near the back, she had always made it a point to try and get the last row so he would always be in her field of vision. Today it was her lucky day, for as fate would have it, he was sitting directly in front of her! Shinomori Aoshi… she sighed. Even his name is beautiful.
"If Makimachi-san will stop day dreaming," their English teacher, Aritomo Okubo's voice penetrated the foggy haze that had descended on her brain she looked up, blinking away the daydream. "She would care to discuss with us the significant events that occurred after Holden left Pencey Prep." Pencey what?
"Erm…" she said, standing up in her seat. She fumbled in her bag for the book.
"Yes, taking the book out would be a good idea," Okubo-sensei said dryly. Some students laughed.
"Argh, where is it," she muttered, searching for it. She sneaked a peek at Aoshi, but he had not turned in his seat and seemed to be actually reading the damn book! Finally, she gave up and, leaning to her right side, plucked the book right out of Sanosuke's hands.
"Hey!"
"Shut up rooster-head I need it," she snapped. She flipped open the book and started skimming through the pages. Gods she hated The Catcher in the Rye. She had tried reading the first chapter and gave up after two lines, it was that boring.
"Pencey, Pencey…" she muttered. "What the hell is a Pencey?"
"Pencey Prep is, for your information, Makimachi-san, the school where our protagonist boarded at, as you would see for yourself on the sixth line of the second page." Several more smirks which she ignored.
"I dunno!" she exclaimed finally, throwing up her hands in exasperation and tossing the book back to Sano, who uttered a curse as the unexpected action caught him by surprise and the book connected with his head. Who cared what happened to this Holden person? "He went on a wild rampage of wanton destruction, destroying everything in his path until finally the guilt of what he had done began eating him alive from the inside and he killed himself by taking cyanide and shooting himself? Like Hitler?" Several sniggers could be heard.
Okubo-sensei stared at her like she'd grown another head.
"What? It could happen!" she said defensively, folding her arms across her chest. "If I wrote the book that's how it would've gone!"
"Clearly, future in writing would be out of the question for you," he commented, absently motioning for her to sit down. "Next time, please read the chapters you are assigned to do so, and spare us a horrendous rendition of what you think a great American classic should be. And bring the book for goodness' sake, I'm sure that empty sack of yours can fit one paperback novel."
She rolled her eyes. She didn't hate Okubo-sensei, not in the way she hated Saitou, but he just had a snotty way of talking that grated on her nerves sometimes, although she knew he wasn't really trying to be condescending. It was just how he spoke, that dry sarcasm that was not mean, just… incredibly aggravating! She scowled as she sat back in her chair. Throughout her little monologue, not once did Shinomori Aoshi turn to even look at her!
"Nice going weasel," Sano smirked. "At least I brought the book."
"Oh shut up," she replied, turning her head away from him and resting it on her outstretched arm. If he wasn't going to turn around, well, she'd have to contend with spending the rest of Literature staring at the back of his head. There were worse days to spend the day.
Author's rants (10th August 2007) :
Well, here it is. My first Aoshi Misao fanfiction, I've actually been a huge AM fan since 7 years ago, but school and life kinda got into the way and I stopped reading for a long long time (6 odd years I think). Recently, I just got back into AM fanfiction, and, not quite finding enough (there can never be enough!) out there I decided to write one exactly how I want it, ha-hah!
Anyway, constructive criticism is extremely welcome. I'm a sucker for details, so please point out any typos or grammatical and punctuation errors, they bug me like crazy! My exams are coming up (next Monday in fact) so I probably won't have time to update. Fortunately, I've already written chapter 2, I'll probably post it up next Wednesday... I think I'm gonna try and update this thing at least once a week, so that I can both discipline myself and improve as a writer, I've stopped writing for years and I realize how rusty I am at coming up with words (but then again, I used to be a horrible writer).
I'm not sure where this fic is headed, I have a vague idea of what I want to happen, but everything in between I'm kinda just making it up as I go along, which is kinda cool cause I get to watch the story unfold by itself, it feels more organic and less forced. I also have no clue how long I plan on this fic being, actually I'm working on another AM fic which is alot more serious than this one, and I couldn't quite get into it and I'd always liked reading about AM in a school setting so I thought this would be fun to help me write the other one. I know, I'm almost 20 and I'm still a sucker for teenage angst and romance, haha. So sue me.
Oh, and another thing, I'm not entirely sure how the high school system works out in America or Japan, I actually live in Singapore, so I've kinda fused the American culture (from what I've learnt from reading lots of books and fanfics anyway) into their lifestyle even though they're supposed to be living in Japan and are Japanese and speak Japanese. But they have like Literature on English books which I guess isn't all that weird, I guess it could've been translated to Japanese. I couldn't really be bothered with making it realistic, it's just something I'm doing for fun so I'm not gonna bother with any real research. I do welcome info on how Japanese and American school is like and suggestions on how I can incorporate them in without making it seem too confusing or far fetched. Thanks in advance, oh and thanks for reading this. Both the fic and my long-winded ramblings. :)