It was nearing the end of January, with the year 2004 having started. Everyone was back in school, for their final exams , it was the third grading period. The chinese, however, were still going to celebrate their new year, which depended on the position of the stars, or moon. (I really don't know).
It was the 31st of January, and a Saturday too. Izumi Orimoto was just fixing her papers and stuff, when the doorbell rang. Flustered, the fourteen-year old dropped all that she was holding, and ran to the door. It was Takuya and Tommy.
"hey guys!" greeted Izumi, smiling. "what are you doing here?"she asked.
"weelll, its Chinese new year!" said Tommy.
"and we were wondering if you wanted to go to the parade." Finished Takuya.
Izumi's eyes widened.
"Parade? Sure! When? Where?" she asked.
"its going to start at five, today..on the avenue three streets away from here." Replied the goggle-boy. Izumi nodded.
"right. See you guys there, then!" she smiled and closed the door.
4:30 pm
Izumi put on her hat and a jacket, and walked out into the late afternoon. She could already hear the drums and the fireworks from where she was. The teenager walked all the way to the place where the parade was supposed to be. There was a fairly large crowd there, and Izumi was surprised at the number of chinese people present. She scanned the crowd for Takuya and Tommy, but she did'nt find them. The italian girl shrugged it off, and ducked into a nearby shop.
She found Takuya and Tommy there. And Junpei and Kouji. Izumi raised an eyebrow. 'what a coincidence' she muttered.the shop was small, and apparently, chinese. Pottery was found on shelves, and also food. There were severeal books about ancient china, and some postcards of the great wall. Takuya was admiring a dragon-sword, while Junpei was eyeing the mooncakes. Tommy was looking at a box full of something, and Kouji was there, partly staring at the wall, and partly looking at a blue lotus vase.
Izumi walked over to Tommy, to see what he was looking at.
"hey Tommy, what's that?" she asked.
Tommy smiled gleefully and pointed to the box, which was full of thousands of timy garter snakes. Izumi nearly screamed at the sight. Seeing the expression on her face, the owner of the shop, an elderly chinese man, calmly walked over, and took one timy reptile from the box. he put it on Izumi's wrist, where it wrapped itself gently. Izumi's eyes widened in fear. Junpei saw this and demanded what was wrong, angrily eyeing the old man. The shop owner just shrugged.
"its harmless. Made of special elastic cloth." He began stroking the snake's cloth head.
"nothing to be afraid of."
"but-it-moved."
"like I said, special elastic cloth. From china."
Hearing this, izumi let out a deep breath, and felt better.
"thank you, sir." She handed him some money. He nodded and took it.
Takuya was finally getting tired of looking at the sword. "come on, guys, lets see the festival!" he shouted, pointing to the outside.
Sure enough, the festival was starting. There were acrobats, and jugglers, and a fantastic display of fireworks. Takuya dragged his friends outside, and they sat at an empty table, which had been put there for viewing purposes.
"wow, look at the size of that dragon!" said Tommy, pointing to the big red mascot, which had several people running under it.
"and the acrobats, too" sighed Junpei. "they're so agile and-"
"thin?" snickered Takuya.
"what?"
"thin. Unlike you, of course." He repeated.
"hey, im losing weight, okay?" retaliated Junpei.
"hard to believe" chuckled Takuya.
"take that back, goggle freak!" said an angry Junpei.
"not in a million years!" replied Takuya, getting ready to run.
Junpei chased him around the street, and Tommy laughed at the two.
"look at them go!" he said.
Izumi smiled and nodded, but Kouji did'nt care to give his opinion.
'fools.' He thought.
Then, a fat guy pushing a food cart came along. "good evening, gentleman and lady." He said, twirling his moustache. "care for some dimsum?"
"ooh! I want some Dimsum!" said izumi,, reaching for her bag.
"me too!" chorused Tommy, getting some money from his pocket.
While reaching for her bag, izumi's wrist, with the cloth snake on, accidentally brushed against Kouji's wrist. The thing suddenly twisted around Kouji's wrist, and wrapped itself firmly around it. Izumi got her bag, and walked over to the dimsum man. Kouji felt some force on his wrist, and before he knew it, he was being dragged along by Izumi, to the dimsum guy.
"what the-? Izumi! I don't want dimsum!" he said, trying to walk back to his chair.
"what? Im not asking!" said Izumi, tugging at her arm.
Then they both saw the elastic cloth, and soon realized what was going on.
Ten minutes later.
Izumi bit at her dimsum, a bit too forcibly. Takuuya and Junpei were back, after running about a mile. It was five-thirty, and aftere watching some of the parade, everyone decided to sit down and eat. The plump one saw Izumi tearing up her food, and knew that something was wrong. "Izumi what's wrong?"
Izumi did'nt reply, and instead put up her wrist to show everyone. Of course, kouji's wrist got pulled up also, while he was eating some congee. "what?" the boy asked sharply.
Junpei's eyes widened, then, after a moment, a smirk replaced his surprised expression.
"so, you guys are…"
"no!" cut off Kouji, before Junpei could say anything.
"are what? What Junpei?" asked Izumi, irritably.
Junpei shrugged it off.
"Nothing."
Izumi sighed. "anyway, the stupid clooth snake-thing that the chinese guy sold to me..it got wrapped around Kouji;s wrist too---and it won't get off!" she banged her fist on the table.
"hey! Watch it! I'm eating here!" complained kouji, glaring at the one who dared to interrupt his meal.
"so---ree bandanna-brain! I was just trying to enjoy a parade when—"
"when what? Was it my fault that you abought that thiing in the first place? No. so its no use arguing about it!"
Izumi looked down, an angry look on her face.
"fine." She muttered.
They seemed to enjoy the rest of the festival,and the parade. There were little red lanterns everywhere, and delightful acrobats doing tricks. There was even a girl acrobat, who was about their age. She had long black hair, tied up into a ponytail. Takuya watched as she danced gracefully in midair, with the help of her brothers, a pair of older twins.
Junpei nudged the guy in the ribs.
"what?"
"you like her."
"huh?"
"don't play dumb with me, goggle-head. I know you like her,"
"so…what if I do?"
"if you do, then I know one of your darkest secrets ever."
"what good would that do?"
"she's the new student at Shibuya. Your class. My classmate's little sister."
Gulp.
"Junpei!"
the fat one enjoyed his revenge. Takuya was squirming unncomfortably, now. Tommy was watching, amused, as Kouji tried to wriggle his wrist free of the 'special elastic clolth snake' brought especially from china. But to no avail. Izumi looked distraught. The stupid thing would'nt get off.
"why me?" she lamented, as Kouji glared at her.
Tommy surpressed a grin. "why don't you guys try this?" he asked, flicking his pocketknife.
In a quick movement, he tried to tear the cloth snake with the sharp blade.
Instead of cutting the cloth, the blade just bounced back.
"WHAT!?" exclaimed Kouji, watching in disbelief.
"hm. Strange. I guess it did'nt work," mused Tommy, putting the knife back in his pocket.
"argh! Its almost six-thirty!" said izumi, checking her watch.
"why? what time do you need to be home, anyway?" asked Takuya.
"seven."
"great. We have half an hour to get this thing off. Now what?" said Tommy, crossing his arms.
Everyone looked at Kouji, who had a seriously annoyed look on his face.
He heaved a sigh.
"well, maybe we can find the guy who sold this thing to Izumi. He probably knows how to get it off." He glanced at the cloth snake, still tightly wrapped around their wrists.
Izumi blinked.
"okay, lets go."
The shop
Kouji banged on the glass windows, while Takuya investigated the back. Izumi waited beside Kouji, since her wrist was attacked to his, waiting for him to finish banging.
"its closed." Repoted Takuya.
"at this time?" izumi crossed her arms, making kouji reach over. He accidentally tripped on a nearby rock, and they both fell on the ground, in a heap.
"oops, sorry." Said Izumi, picking herslef up and blushing at the same time.
"right." Said Kouji, dusting himself off. It was a good thing that he had learned to mask his emotions, or else Takuya would have found out…
nine pm, Orimoto residence.
Alas, Takuya and company had failed in getting the thing off Kouji and izumi's wrists. This landed them at izumi's house. Only her dad was home, cooking dinner. He invited them to take part in the meal, and they did. Then they tried to get the annoying cloth snake off.
Trial 1
"Okay, people.. HERE I COME!!!!" Takuya ran at Kouji and Izumi, who put their wrists up. Takuya was holding a broomstick, and was ready to strike.
"hayaaaa!"
'crack!' Mr.Orimoto watched, wide-eyed, as the broom's hadle cracked in two.
"amazing!" he muttered.
Trial 2
"simple." Said Junpei. "I've been training for months now, and I think one of my powerful karate moves will easily snap this weak cloth int two!"
he raised an arm in mid-air, then he struck.
"yaaaa!"
"snap!"
Izumi opened her eyes, expecting to see the cloth snapped in two. Instead, she saw Junpei, on the floor, with a broken arm. Mr. Orimoto, who was a doctor, quickly out the injured arm into a sling.
Trial 3
Tommy lit a match, as Junpei whimpered in a corner, nursing his arm. "careful tommy" warned Mr. Orimoto. "you may burn yourself." Tommy nodded, and put the flame to the cloth. It caught fire, then Izumi freaked out.
"ahhh! It burns!!" she shrieked, trying to put the fire out.
"Izumi! It hasn't touched you!" said Kouji, trying to calm her down, on account of his arm nearly being pulled off by the girl.
Because of Izumi's antics, the flame caught Kouji's bandanna, which set fire to his hair.
"ahhhh! Izumi!!! DO SOMETHING!!!!" He yelled, trying to put out the flame as best as he could. Izumi acted quickly, and grabbed her dad's coffee mug, and drenched Kouji with the dark brown liquid.
"my bandanna!" lamented Kouji.
"my coffee!" said Mr. Orimoto, looking at his empty mug.
"my arm!" whimpered Junpei.
"MY GOODNESS!" said a voice.
They all whirled around to see a very upset mrs. Orimoto, standing at the front door.
"what in the world are you doing?!" she demanded, looking at the broken broom, the whimpering Junpei, and Kouji drenched in coffee.
Takuya pointed at Izumi and Kouji, who raised their wrists.
"oh my." Said Mrs. Orimoto, surveying the damage.
She checked her watch. It was eleven thirty.
"I can't sleep with Kouji attached to my wrist!" said Izumi.
Kouji sighed. "looks like wont be taking a bath for a while now." He muttered. Takuya laughed evilly. "looks like you two will be stuck for life. Wait till Kouichi hears this!"
Kouji narrowed his eyes. "kanabara, don't you dare tell Kouichi, or ill—"
"tell me what?" asked a voice.
Mr. Orimoto turned around, to see Kouji's twin at the door, with his friend Hannah.
"too late" said izumi, putting a hand to her head.
"hi everybody!" greeted kouichi.
"hi Kouichi" said Izumi glumly.
"I'm here to pick Kouji up, our dad's worried sick…" he said, looking at the cloth snake.
"but" said Hannah "it looks like he won't be going home with you, Kouichi"
Junpei suddenly got off the floor, and began ranting.
"why? why does destiny hate me and love Minamoto? Am I at fault here? Why does he get to be stuck to izumi? Why not me?" he mumbled.
Kouji threw a dirty look at Junpei. "do you see me happy? Huh, chubs?" he asked icily. Izumi frowned at him. "oh come on, kouji. Don't start now. After all, it isnt his fault."
"whatever" was the reply.
"okay, guys. You can calm down now." Said Mrs. Orimoto.
"as you know, Mr. Orimoto and I are due for a trip to canada in two days. It is up to you people to detach Kouji and izumi from each other."
A/n: I don't own anything!!! Review, please!
I wont update for a looong while… and if the plot is like yours, I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!! PROMISE!!!
Hannah:calm down, you're going to hurt youself!
Me: pity.
