Chapter 1 - Pandora and the thing with the feelings
RIIIING! Rudely my alarm clock rang me out from my beautiful dream. I groaned, reached a hand to the alarm clock and wanted to turn it off actually, but it fell to the ground and broke as always on unlucky days.
"Oh no not again!" I muttered under my bed sheet.
I had to repair my alarm clocks often and actually I had a phone that could wake me up with songs, but I didn't know what I wanted to hear exactly and had therefore only the monotonous and unimaginative example songs on it. How boring!
"Oz-nii-san! Get up or we'll be late for school!" The clear voice of my sister Ada shouted from below.
"Yes, yes ..." I mumbled into my pillow, rubbed my sleepy eyes and yawned.
I really wanted to stay home and sleep because we got a day off today, but I wanted to say goodbye my best friend Gilbert ... he will leave the school today and I didn't know when I would see him again. I will miss him...
"Oz!" Ada called again from below.
"All right!" I called back and got up. I went to the mirror in the bathroom, looked at me and slapped my cheeks.
"You can't say goodbye to Gil like that! Come on Oz, get awake!" I thought, opened the faucet and splashed cold water into my face.
Then I got quickly ready, grabbed a toast in the kitchen and went relaxed to school with Ada.
"Oz! Ada!" A voice called. My good friend Alice ran happily but also excited to us. But actually she had a day off too ... so why was she here?
"Oh hi Alice-chan! Why are you here?" Ada asked surprised.
"Oh ... uh ...I've heard from a band that should be really great and some say that the band is rehearsing in our Pandora Gakuen" Alice stammered and blushed slightly.
"I see!" I grinned.
She was so in love with Jack that she probably wanted to see him one last time. But what was that with the band? Actually, I wasn't into rock music that much, but a band that rehearsed secretly in our school, aroused my curiosity.
"So when does this band rehearse? And where will they rehearse?" I asked curiously.
"I know that they rehearse today in the music room No. 1 when ever one have left school, but I don't know if that's really true ... so what do you say? Will you come along later and take a look? We would have to hide, because I do not believe that the band wants to be disturbed"Alice giggled.
"I'm going to! That sounds really interesting what you're telling Alice-chan~" Ada said smiling.
"Well I don't really know ... who knows about this?" I asked Alice.
"I only told Naoto about this ... so only her, you two and me are knowing about this" Alice explained.
"But she can't come today ... she has something to do."
Naoto is often mistaken for a boy because of her look, but it didn't bother me. I liked her because she was smart but not geeky or pretentious. She was a very nice girl.
"Please come with us Oz!" Alice begged and looked at me with her puppy dog eyes that had always made me weak.
"So ... um ... ah ... well, okay I'll go with, you won," I gave myself beaten.
"YAY!" Alice cried happily and hugged me stormily.
Then she ran with Ada a bit further away from me.
"Are you coming?" Alice called waving out to me.
"Yes, yes," I sighed smiling and shaking my head.
I walked slowly along the road until I was close at the school.
"I'm late, I'm late!" Suddenly someone shouted behind me.
I turned around and realized too late that someone was running in my way! I could only see golden eyes and raven black hair when it happened.
"Ouch ..." I said, rubbing my head.
"O-Oz I-I'm sorry!" Someone stammered.
When I opened my eyes, I looked back into the golden eyes and saw Gil, who was below me. Suddenly, my heart raced and I got a strange feeling that felt good on the one hand and on the other hand it made me really nervous too. I couldn't escape his golden eyes and almost lost myself in them, if Alice hadn't leaned ta the gate and called out to me: "Hey Oz! Where are you? We are waiting!"
I shook my head and looked at her. Gil was got up meanwhile, apologized again and ran away in a hurry. Alice looked at him, shaking her head after that, came with Ada to me and patted me gently on the forehead.
"Hellooooo? Someone theeeeere?" She asked and I gently pushed her off.
"Stop that Alice"
"You looked so ... dreamy" Alice said.
"Dreamy?" Ada asked.
"Well, not dreamy, but you were so ... so ... you looked so deeply into his eyes. It looked like as if you completely forgot everything else" Alice said, what made Ada giggle.
"I think Oz is in love ~" Ada chuckled dreamily.
"Lo-Love!? Me and love, of course! You're crazy, I think about Gil as my best friend and I like him very much, but I don't feel something like love towards him! Besides, we're both guys ..." I protested what brought Ada to laugh even more, while Alice looked at us questioningly.
She knew nothing of love and other girly stuff, but that was just the way she was.
"And why did you turn so red?" Ada asked with a grin.
"I-I'm not red!" I stammered awkwardly.
"Of course~" Ada chuckled, took the bewildered Alice by the hand, winked at me and went with her towards the school building.
I looked at her with a questioning look behind, until I realized what the wink meant.
"Your secret is safe with me" Ada's voice echoed in my head and even though she never said those words, I knew that was the meaning of the wink.
Was I really in love with Gilbert? I didn't realize it. But how else could I explained that I wanted to be close to him, that I had the strong demand to see in his golden eyes that made my heart jump so that it hurt a little when I even thought of him? The loud school bell interrupted me from my thoughts and i decided to think about it later as I caught up with the girls.
Since we actually had the day off, we didn't need to go into the classroom as well, so we decided to go to the music room No. 1 after the ceremony. Gil's class wanted to celebrate alone, but Jack had shown us a way were we still could come to the party.
"Come on, I think it started!" Alice cried vigorously and dragged us into the classroom 3-A (Jack's and Gil's class).
"All right, all right!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes.
"Oh Alice-chan is so impatient again!" Ada giggled amused.
"There you are" Jack said with a grin, waiting on a door.
"Hey Jack," I said cheerfully and Alice started to act totally dumb and in love again.
"Hello Senpai!" Ada welcomed Jack.
"Has the party already started?"
"Ah no, not yet. However it will start at any moment. Come in, you won't be seen here and you can celebrate," Jack grinned and pushed us into the door.
The classroom, into which Jack pushed us into, was almost unrecognizable, the students had done a great job with the decoration.
"I can't see Gilbert anywhere!" Ada pouted and I rolled my eyes.
I wanted to see him too, but that often childish behavior of Ada just got on my nerves.
"Why don't we look for him?" Jack suggested and winked at me.
"Okay!" Ada agreed, and of course Alice followed Jack everywhere.
So suddenly I was alone on the tribune-like place, which belonged to the huge class and I couldn't get rid of the feeling, that Jack brought us on purpose here. Shaking my head, I stood at the railing of the tribune, which was well hidden by a curtain. So I couldn't be seen by the others if they looked up to where I was.
"Oz? Is that you?" Suddenly asked behind me.
Startled, I turned around and was relieved that it was just Gil. He will not mind that we were here, right? I for one was glad to see to him. This fact alone made me nervous and made my heart race too!
"Hi Gil!" I greeted him as natural as possible.
I hoped very much that Gil wouldn't notice my nervousness.
"What are you doing here? How did you even get here?" Gil asked confused.
"Aren't you happy to see me?" I asked pouting.
"Yes, but -"
"Then that's okay" I interrupted him and walked closer to him.
"And why I'm here? Well I wanted to say goodbye to you, I don't even know when I'll see you again..." I said hesitantly, looking sadly at the floor.
Suddenly I was pushed to Gil's chest and his hands tenderly stroked my head.
"Oh Oz ... I'll miss you too, But we'll stay in contact. I'm sure we'll meet again soon" Gil said in his soft and soothing voice.
I was glad he couldn't see my face at the moment, because I knew that it was quite red at this moment. Also Gil's warmth and smell made me pretty dazed. What was wrong with me? I was not in love with Gil, because we are both male and Gil cloud had a girlfriend...
Gil let go of me and smiled. I smiled back a little shyly until I was suddenly pushed down from behind.
"So there are you Gil!" A high pitched voice squealed that belonged to Ada.
Grumbling, I pushed my sister from my back.
"What was that?" I asked annoyed.
"Hi Ada-chan! So you're here too" Gil said firmly.
Suddenly, I was pulled back.
"You smell like him," Alice suddenly realized.
"Alice not you too!" I moaned.
"What are you doing here you stupid rabbit?" Gil wondered.
"I'm here because I want to be here you stupid seaweed head!" Alice determined and put her hands on her hips.
Yeah, as if that was the reason why she was here. Even Gil, who was sometimes really stupid knew that she was here for Jack. As we were speaking of him, where was he? Suddenly we heard the sound of a microphone (the sound that sometimes hurts in the ears) and I looked at Jack, who was at the music system.
"Thank you, that ye should assemble yourselves here today!" Jack said into the microphone.
Suddenly, a brown-haired girl with two pigtails staggered toward Jack. She appeared to be drunk and poor Jack had to deal with it now.
"I musht really admit *hic*, thatsch ish a reall naish party!" The girl mumbled into the microphone.
"Rise ..." Jack sighed.
"Although the party hasn't even started you're drunk now?"
Then the girl laughed and was taken away by a guy who looked with his dyed blond hair and the skull tattoo on his shoulder like a bad guy.
Everyone knew who Rise was, she was the crowned queen of the school and she was also known as a pop idol. But I did not know the guy who brought her away.
"Well anyway! Let's Party!" Jack called into the microphone and the party began.
Loud music blared from the speakers everywhere and the guests began to dance and drink. Alice let go of me and smirked.
"It is time ..." She whispered to me.
"... Time for what?" I asked quietly.
"Time to visit the band ~" Alice whispered in my ear.
Gilbert looked at me confused and I smiled back, when I noticed that.
"Ah, well ... uh, we would still love to stay and celebrate with you, but we have to go now, don't we Ada?", I asked with a grin.
Ada blinked at me confused until she understood.
"Yes we're really so sorry Gil-chan!"Ada cried a little too melodramatic and went giggling to Alice.
"We uh ... see you then," I quickly called and followed the two quickly.
We quickly snuck into the music room, where the band should practice. Just as Alice had predicted the classroom was not closed and there was no one to see.
"It's safe here," Alice whispered excitedly and stepped inside.
I followed her and Ada went on last.
"I do not think so, that the band wants us to be here ..." I admitted concerned.
"Yeah I know, that's why we should hide somewhere" Alice said cheerfully, and showed us a few empty boxes and cabinets, in which we could hide ourselves well.
"Why are these boxes hollow?" I asked Alice skeptical.
"I dunno... when I was here yesterday, they were already like that" Alice said.
"Oh no, someone's coming," Ada hissed, who was standing at the door.
We quickly hid in the closets and boxes. I was really lucky to get a box in which I could hear everything quite well. Too bad that I could barely see anything through the small hole in front of me.
I heard the door opened and someone chuckled and mumbled something unintelligible.
"She can't possible sing in this drunken state" A voice sighed that I could quickly assign to Jack.
"Well then YOU have to take up ... Gilbert!" Another voice said, which belonged to a blond guy.
Who was that? And what did he just say? Gilbert was really here? Just at that moment I heard the rumble and sigh that I knew too well! And as the figure with raven black hair and golden eyes came into view, I had no more doubts! It was really ... Gilbert!