Dear Hino-san,
There will be a meeting this afternoon, after school. All of the concours participants are required to attend. Please try to not be late.
From Kanazawa-sensei
P.S. Aaaagh! I'm sounding teacher-like again!
Kahoko Hino stared down at the neatly type-written card, not knowing whether to be excited or scared. Months had already passed since the concours had reached its end. What could Kanazawa-sensei possibly want from them now?
As the red-headed, golden-eyed highschool girl trudged slowly towards the music students' building, where the mysterious meeting was being held, she heard a shout behind her.
"Kaho-chan! Kaho-chan! Matte!" Kahoko swerved her head to look behind. Running towards her was her childish upperclassman, Kazuki Hihara. As he fell into place beside her and began walking at her pace towards the large building, he said,
"Kaho-chan! Weird huh, this letter. I wonder what surprise Kanayan is hiding from us!" He paused and drew out a huge grin, "It makes me feel so excited! Its like waiting to open the largest gift under the tree!" Kahoko could not help but laugh at his kiddy metaphor. Kazuki looked extremely joyful at the sound of her clear laughter.
"Hihara-senpai, I'm excited as well," Kaho began, "but I think I'm a bit nervous too!"
"Ah, don't worry Kaho-chan! You'll do great, what ever it is!" Kazuki said with a smile.
As Kahoko walked along, a slight blush now coloring her face, Kazuki ran forward, waving his hand.
"Tsuchiura! Tsuchiura!" He stopped in front of a tall student with dark green hair. As Ryoutaro moved his hand in the motion of his usual wave he said,
"Here for that meeting right?" Kazuki and Hino nodded, albeit Hihara's being much more energetic.
"Would you like to join us on our way there?" Kahoko invited. A short silence came when Tsuchiura slowly pointed to the door next to him.
"Um, but we're already here…" Ryoutaro walked in, laughing, as the pair he left behind silently sweat-dropped.
--x—
"Finally!" Kanazawa-sensei called out, "All of you pesky kids are here now." He walked around the room, rubbing his forehead while he glanced at his students' faces. There were Kahoko and Shouko, seated beside each other. At the back were Kazuki and Azuma, the former looking very excited. Len was at the back, his usual expressionless expression controlling his facial features. Keiichi was sleeping peacefully. Ryoutaro was patiently watching Kanazawa from the corner of his eye, wondering what in the world was planned for them.
"You must all be wondering why we've gathered here, despite the fact that the concours ended months ago!" Kanazawa wandered back to his desk, feeling 7 interested stares aimed at his person.
"Well… here is your answer." He unravelled a medium-sized beige poster. Though it was simply decorated, it was very striking. It held small pictures of each concours participant performing, charmingly arranged to form an image smoothly connected. The part of it that interested the—now shocked—7 pairs of eyes though, were the big, fancy, golden letters that spelled out: CONCOURS ENSEMBLE.
Kanazawa took advantage of everyone's surprised silence to explain.
"Ano… the principal found the success of this year's concours amazing." He stated, "So he decided to make you guys perform with each other instead of against. We're planning for you guys to perform in duets and trios and as a whole group." The first one to react was Tsukimori Len.
"I suppose this is mandatory?" Kanazawa nodded solemnly,
"I'm afraid so."
Leave it up to Len to ask that question, Kaho thought. Yunoki spoke up and posed a question,
"When will this be?"
"In a month, though I guess we could extend it, so you all have time to practice." Kanazawa stood and answered each person's questions patiently. Finally, Shimizu-kun asked the question that was on everyones' minds.
"If this is only one concert... not 4 like the original concours… then doesn't that mean… we won't have enough time… for all of us… to do duets and trios with all the others?" Fuyuumi continued his question.
"If so, then how will we choose who plays with who?"
Kanazawa smirked and said,
"That's the fun part!" He swiftly pulled out a black top hat from one of his desk's drawers.
"We'll draw names from what I call the Hat of Musical Doom!" He laughed evilly too himself as the room filled with several gasps of,
"Whaaat?"
"But I thought they were already planned!"
"Oh no!"
"….. Crap."
"So let's get this started shall we?" Kanazawa said, "First we'll start with trios. We will have 3, each playing a 4-minute song. By the way, we want this concert to be 1 hour long, seeing as each concour selection was 30 minutes." He paused to cough. "So anyway I'll call the first person to draw." He closed his eyes and pointed.
"Ah! Yunoki-kun. Please come here." The purple haired beauty stood and walked. After gracefully pulling out two small pieces of paper, he announced the named written on them.
"Kazuki Hihara and Shouko Fuyuumi." This continued and the other two trios were:
Len, Ryoutaro, and Keiichi
Shouko, Keiichi, and Ryoutaro
"Those who are in two trios," Kanazawa said, "I'll give you the option of not join a duet. To give you a break, y'know." As they all shook their heads, Kanazawa sighed. He scratched his head and said,
"Okay, for duets, there will be seven 3 minute performances because as one big ensemble you'll be doing two 10 minute pieces. So let's choose the pairs now…" He drifted into thought as his gaze landed on Kahoko Hino.
Hmmm! I see! I'm brilliant! He thought as an idea formed in his mind.
"Kahoko Hino-san! We have 3 who are performing twice already, 3 who are performing once, and 1 who is performing none right now! Don't you think that's unfair?" A huge grin crept onto his face. On Kaho's grew a terrified stare.
"I hereby decide that Hino-san will be playing a duet with each one of you!" Kaho shrunk into her seat, as his words were processed by her brain.
"All?" She mumbled. Kanazawa grinned as he looked at the other faces in the room.
"All."
--
Author's Note:
Aaaah! I'm sorry if that was too long and uhhh, gross. If it was boring, give me suggestions on what to write!
If you're wondering who the 7th duet goes to, you just have to wait and see
This is my first ever fan fic… Please go easy on me, but I welcome crits, and I'll brace myself for those harsh ones.
If you need my explaining on anything, please feel free to message me or ask through the reviews.