Chapter theme song: 'Adore You' by: Miley Cyrus
I couldn't concentrate. Tenoh-senpai licking her lollipop so seductively, chalk hitting the blackboard, and the constant gift of gab from Mai-senpai concerning her failure to do last nights assignments. They all vied for my attention, each one outdoing the other in need. Desperation. I wondered what flavor her lollipop was this time. She took a liking to cherry recently; but these were not a refined woman should be possessing in the early hours of daylight. My nails tapped against the glossed top of my student desk, my eyes fixated on sensei even though my attention was wandering into treacherous territory I am foreign to.
Before Tenoh, Haruka I had not had a dangerous bone in body; always playing it on the safe side of the tracks and not bring ay attention to myself. Yet this...androgynous being keeps me on my toes. It baffled me, confused me, but most importantly terrified me. Upon first glance, Tenoh-senpai resembled a male student…a very attractive male student with a profile to match. Aside from the interest in stereotypical masculine interests such as women, cars, women, racing, women, video games, and sex, Tenoh- senpai had the upper body strength of ten men with the toned calf muscles ten yoga classes could possibly accomplish with hard work and dedication.
Yet, Tenoh-senpai was, and most certainly is, female. If her going to the ladies restroom didn't speak for itself, her lack of an erection anytime another hormone-driven girl 'accidentally' slipped against her crotch in between classes most certainly did. She had my curiosity when we were first introduced on the track and field during gym months ago. She now possessed my full blown attention with her growing popularity amongst the female, and male, student body with effortless finesse and charm. She was a regular playboy- playgirl rather- lining women up just to knock them down from what I gathered but then again I don't peg her to be that type.
The few conversations we did, she seemed to have a bark much stronger than that luscious bite of hers. She could smile the panties off the straightest of women, yet she was not the type that seemed to be promiscuous and adulterous with nameless faces in the mere hours of morning. I've heard she bedded a few underclassmen and quite a few upperclassmen, but I took rumors swirling around inglorious school grounds with a grain of salt. I have only seen Tenoh-san arrive alone, even though she left with a woman in her passenger seat occasionally.
"Kaioh-kun, did you hear me?"
I gripped my pencil, trying to jot down some last minute notes before next class bell sounded. "Ah, gomen, I dazed off to pay attention to sensei." I whispered. Mai rolled her eyes.
"No need to lie, Kaioh-kun, I know you were fixated on Tenoh, Haruka."
"Baka."
"Ah, Kaioh-kun, no need for the name calling; it's evident how you have a thing for our mysterious tomboy."
My cheeks burned. "She is a girl."
"A cute one." She quipped with a snicker, dotting her "I's" with hearts. "If I was…curious…she would be a choice of mine."
I raised a quizzical brow, gnawing on my pencil. "Curious?" she nodded, adding how if she was one of those 'modern' women that allowed herself to only see personality and not society's created notion of gender, she would be open to dating people based on compatibility and not sexual orientation. I fake gagged. "Isn't that unorthodox?"
Mai shrugged, taking out her pink ink pen to doodle out of boredom. "For some, the more traditional of the sort, but it can be done."
"Have you…" I trailed off, coughing before grabbing my lone bottle of tap water that besides my school bag. I felt my anxiety began to build up. I hated having these conversations. It was bad enough my step mother christened my bedroom daily, spewing holy water against my forehead as her leather-bound bible 'blessed' me and protected me from the evils of eternal damnation.
Peter 2:11
"No." Mai finished. "I have never experimented with a woman, but- "
Sensei's voice grew louder, his voice stonier as he scrapped his chalk against the blackboard violently. I covered my ears, watching him throw his hands in the air with a loud huff only to turn and glare and Mei-san and I in pure disbelief. He tapped his left foot, his brown shoes grazing against the tile floor that made the most irritating sound I have ever heard in my life.
He cleared his throat. "Kaioh-san, Fujoka-san, is your conversation much more enlightening than my lecture on Ancient philosophy? If so, please feel free to share with the class on your take on how your lives drown out Augustine."
All twenty-nine heads turned to face Mei-san and I, including Tenoh, Haruka. I bowed. "Gomen, sensei. We apologize for talking."
"What exactly were you talking about? It must have been more important than what we were discussing. Please, share. After all, I must be boring you." His sarcasm was a bit forced, but disheartening to say the least.
I opened my mouth to begin to speak; ready to apologize once more for our rudeness and impolite behavior but Mei had beaten me to it. "Actually, it relates to our discussion on the human sexuality. Kaioh-san and I were discussing how it is seemingly normal to be attracted to the same sex and only considered taboo due to societal and cultural norms." I began to blush, gripping my pencil as Mei proudly continued. "I told my good friend here, I would not mind dating a girl but have never done so and encouraged her to do the same since she has found some new eye candy without a penis."
"Urusai!" I screamed, turning as bright as the evening sun. Sensai coughed, giving us extra credit for being honest but after school eraser cleanup for disrupting his classroom time for feminine gossip. I was a lady, I do not gossip. The only person who I noticed was Tenoh-san, smirking as she turned back around. My blood began to boil.
"Must you be so crude? A woman of your pedigree should have more couth than you let on."
"Save the dramatic tension, her majesty. No one knows about your infatuation with Tenoh-san."
"I am not infatuated with Tenoh-san!" I spoke, a little louder than I intended. I regained my composure, forcing myself to ignore the attention I had given myself. I heard a few of Tenoh-san's admirers begin to chatter amongst themselves. My heart sank.
Mei beamed. "See you at lunch?" her voice dripped like syrup and honey, she kissing me on the cheek as she stood. Next class started in mere minutes.
I clutched my notebook and school books, making a beeline towards the door in what little grace I could muster on short notice. A slow breath escaped my lips as I entered the cool, brisk air of the hallway. I removed my aquamarine hair tie to place my hair into a low bun for swim class. I despised showing my body in public out of modesty. A lady never shows her body to anyone aside from her heavenly father and her husband. Next would be my violin rehearsal for the classical symphonic orchestra. Then finally, ballet.
"Gomen." I spoke hurriedly, apologizing for knocking into the gentleman in front of me. He turned around, turning out to be that androgynous Tenoh-san with her signature smirk and statuesque poise. Her short blonde hair shuffled slightly, revealing those lustful brown eyes that swirled with desire. Her school tie had recently became undone, her blazer haphazardly contorted on her lean physique. I couldn't help but notice a small, gold cross earring in her left ear and matching loosely hanging rosary lying against her toned chest through the exposure of her top three loose buttons of her school shirt.
I stared, almost mockingly looking at the irony. Yet, her gravitational pull drew me in as I resisted the urge to pull away. She was beautifully handsome.
"Can I help you?" her smooth voice rippled out like a low sound wave. I blinked.
"Ah, gomen, I apologize for rudely staring. I just could not help notice your necklace."
"This?" She looked down, bringing the gold cross between her index and middle finders. "It was my great-grand mother's."
"Was she Catholic?"
She nodded. "She was. She and my great-grandfather met during World War II and it's been a family heirloom since."
I smiled a little. "It's beautiful. Your great-grandfather was in the Navy?"
"Yes, he traveled overseas to America and fell in love with a French-German woman, Broom-Hilda. It's a joke in my family that my blonde hair stems from her. I'm the only female with blonde hair in my immediate family."
Awkward silence. A small breath caught in my throat, exhaling slowly. "Your uniform is disheveled." I mentally slapped myself for stating the obvious. If I was not Urdango…
She blinked once, unfazed, seemingly bored; shrugging. "Thought I'd break out a little earlier than expected."
"Plans?"
She chuckled, leaning against a nearby locker. "You ask a lot of questions, Kaioh-san."
I began to say something else but a familiar red-headed vixen swooped in from behind with a bento lunch box and the harsh, loud clacking of expensive heels. The foreign exchange student, the gaijin as I like to refer to her since she and her rather annoying taste in clothing bothered me and the rest of the female student body. It was already a nuisance short skirts were part of the school uniform. Five-inch pumps were overkill in a place of academia, even for an American.
"Tenoh-kun, I missed you!" she beamed, wrapping her in her embrace in a brief hug. Her exposed breasts kissed the fabric of Haruka's school blouse, that short skirt exposing the cusp of her backside that seemed to not bare much of anything. "Kaioh-san, I did not see you there." Haruka's hands grazed her skirt, almost snaking those slender fingers beneath the veil of her uniform skirt.
Her red hair was not the only thing that was downright distracting. "Ah, it's alright, Thompson-senpai, I was just going."
"Did I interrupt?" she asked coyly, twirling a stand of her red hair. I watched in my peripheral as Haruka began to unwrap another lollipop, plucking it into her mouth before darting it in and out like she was suckling in a tender, pink nipple. Ever since she began to quit smoking, she started licking lollipops to resist the urge to smoke again. It became a force of habit…one I happened to enjoy.
"No, I was just taking to Tenoh-san about her taste in jewelry is all."
Silence, that awkward silence that made you want to tell an awfully horrible joke to break the tension. I moved a stray strand of hair behind my ear, careful not to brush against my earring. I excused myself and rushed towards the girl's changing rooms to hurriedly swap my uniform for my dull, white swimsuit and matching cap.
I noticed that since I was running late, almost everyone had left. I was one of the last to change, and knew if I was late I would have to dive from the high board this time around. That was something I was already used to at home, but in school, in front of people who stare and judge mercilessly, it was agonizingly torturous. I slowly unbuttoned my school blouse, revealing my pure white bra; following my school skirt and matching panty. I sprayed some antibacterial spray on my skin before reaching for my bathing suit in my locker.
Her hand slid against mine, her fingers fitting sinfully perfect between mine; a kiss upon my neck, my colored tendrils revealing my hidden tattoo of my senshi duties. I violently whipped around. "Why did you follow me?"
"Because you wanted me to." She simply replied. Her voice was low, husky, and lustful. The distance between us lessened, her lips inching towards mine, her slender hands gliding against my exposed thigh as it trailed along side my side, her knee pressed against my feminine core.
"Tenoh."
"Kaioh."
Her lips brushed against mine like a loose feather, her breath smelling of a mixture of mint mouthwash and artificial watermelon. She removed her blazer, removing her loosened tie. Her hands wrapped themselves in my hair effortlessly, finally closing our distance with a smooth kiss. There goes that electricity again.
My mind flashed alarms, sirens, bells, and whistles. I was fully aware that I was kissing a woman, a masculine woman, but a woman nonetheless. Yet, the frightening thing was that it felt right and I was not second guessing it. This was the second time Tenoh-san and I had kissed; the first being last night at the beach after one of her many underground races. Her opponent, Kazuya-san, had returned moments later angry for a rematch and crestfallen that he had lost his title to a woman and by that time Tenoh was back in her mustang gearing up for another race.
I pulled away, face flushed as I wrapped my arms around myself to hide my arousal. A lady never flaunts her vulnerability to a stranger, let alone her sexuality. It was evident that Haruka had caught glimpse of my hardened nipples, moisture bedded between my legs, and heightened sensitivity. I was beginning that her being as promiscuous as she was-so I have heard- had her develop a keen sense for those things. She licked her lips, running her hand through her hair only to cage me against the cool steel of the changing room lockers.
"You insist that I chase you. You must enjoy this game of cat and mouse we divulge in."
"The only one playing this game is you, Tenoh-san."
"I'm done playing, Kaioh-san. It's slightly erotic and a bit stimulating to know that we possess a secret affair, yet I don't under stand why we must always meet in secret."
"We are not having an affair." I spoke lowly, careful not to get too overcome with anger. The idea of me being with a woman sparked rage inside of me, yet I did not consider Haruka a woman. She was just...Haruka and what I was feeling was towards her, not a woman.
"Then what do you call my fingers strumming your engorged, susceptible cli-"
"Don't you dare speak that way towards me!" I barked. "I am not one of those women you bed in the late hours of night."
She chuckled lightly, breathing slowly against my neck. Those hands, oh those hands, roamed my exposed thighs; inching towards my center. Her index finger rapped gently at my door, tracing the outline my lips gave her against the thin, moist barrier of my panty. Her spare hand raveled itself in a curl of my hair, she leaning in low to breathe in my aroma. I felt the blood rush further from my head towards my loins, my nipples growing to the size of pink salt water pearls. Her cologne had engulfed my senses, swallowing them whole as she became the only thing that kept me physically and mentally sustainable.
"My reputation precedes me, Michi-kun."
"Tenoh-san…"
"Whisper my name, Michiru." She spoke in a soft, sensual murmur. Her tongue became entangled with mine once more, this time she bedding her fingers inside of my panty to explore the moisture between my legs. A moan elicited from my lips, she swallowing her
Unspoken name like it was her last breath. I felt the cool metal of her rosary palm against my chest, my heart, bringing an electric fire to sizzle down my eternal soul that sparked a sleeping demonic rage.
I pushed Haruka away in fury, she swearing loudly in pain from when she banged her elbow on the edge of a metal door to an open locker. I swiftly apologized, grabbing my clothing to scurry into a nearby washroom. I needed to quickly dress and find myself back at home gearing towards my violin recital and mastering my pirouette for the lead in the company play.
She tried to talk to me but I drowned her out with the only thing that came to my mind.
Psalms 24: 3-5
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god. 5 They will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God their Savior.