Bratty Wake-up Call
The merciless banging on Ishikawa Yori's bedroom door had woken up the girl, scaring her out of her once peaceful slumber. Her forest green eyes snapped open when the fist on the opposite side of the door decided to attack the poor wood. She nearly jumped out of bed and her pale fist grabbed hold of her sheets, making falling off almost impossible. The banging continued, but the girl no longer minded the noise. She was wide-awake now. Brushing her brown hair away from her eyes, making her hand rest on the back of her neck, she squinted at her door.
"Who's there?" she called out, her voice hoarse and dry from sleep. She would give anything to be able to go back to her dreams, she had not slept well last night since she was busy trying to keep her heart from not jumping out of her throat from every cough that wracked through her body.
No once replied with actual words. The banging continued and Yori could hear childish sniggering from the opposite side. Of course. How could she be so stupid? It was her brother disturbing her as usual. She groaned into her pillow, burying her face deep into its fluffiness and screamed into it, the volume being muffled. Yori waited for a moment and lucky for her, the banging ceased and scolding was followed. It was about time her parents noticed the disturbance in the morning. Whining sounds were soon heard and in a matter of seconds, they disappeared as well. Peace and quite filled the room once more, but Yori was too alert to sleep. She decided it was time to get out of bed.
Pushing herself off of her bed, she swung her legs to the floor and shakily stood up, her head spinning for a few seconds. She ran her hand through her bed head hair once more and she dragged her feet, which were now covered by her favorite fuzzy slippers, to her door, opening it and immediately entering the living room. The Ishikawa apartment wasn't exactly big, but it was large enough for the four-member family to live comfortably. Yori rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and walked through the door frame leading into the kitchen, seeing her mother already turning the stove off and her younger brother, Daisuke, standing in the corner, grumbling under his breath.
"Good Morning, sweetie," Mrs. Ishikawa chirped, the grin on her face contagious. "Had a good sleep?"
"Not exactly," Yori covered her mouth as she yawned and followed her mother as she set the food on the table. There were only three plates present. Her father must have already gone to work. Glancing at the wall clock just to her right, she saw that she had woken up half and hour earlier than usual and was still not able to see her father leave for work.
"Did you take your medicine last night?" her mother asked worriedly, reentering the kitchen to fetch the naughty boy and bringing him to the table, telling him to be nice to his sister.
"It's not helping, but yes, I did," Yori ended the topic on her poor health by clapping her hands together and beginning to eat. It only took five minutes to gobble everything down. Excusing herself from the table, Yori picked up her plate and chopsticks, dumped it into the sink and headed out the front door to see if the morning paper had already been given.
Yori's eyebrows rose at the sight of a white enveloped addressed to her on top of the newspaper and she glanced to her left, only to see her neighbor, Mr. Fujioka, bending down to get his own newspaper. He looked like he had just woken up as well. He wore a pair of sweatpants, a large shirt and his wine-red died hair was tied into a messy ponytail. Yori squinted her eyes, focusing on his face, and noted that he needed a shave.
"Fujioka-san, Good Morning," Yori greeted with a slight grin, her perky personality already taking over. Sleep having disappeared after finishing her meal. She held the newspaper and envelope under her arm and bowed her head in respect. Mr. Fujioka smiled in return.
"You're up earlier than usual," he said, already knowing how the girl liked to sleep in. "Finally got your alarm clock fixed?"
"Why need an alarm clock when I have a brother?"
"Was that him creating the banging noises a few minutes ago?" Mr. Fujioka mused.
"Most likely," Yori gave the man an apologetic look, quickly disappearing halfway through the door to toss the newspapers on the near by table along with the envelope before reappearing in front of Mr. Fujioka, closing the door slightly so their conversation wouldn't be overheard. "Have you heard anything from Haruhi-san lately?" she asked, knowing that the man's only daughter had decided to finish her final year in the US rather than just spending her third year abroad.
Mr. Fujioka's tired man face quickly turned to the face he used regularly especially when dressed as a woman. His eyes perked up and he placed a hand over his mouth as he laughed. "I had just spoken with her over the phone yesterday!" he gushed, "She seems to be doing well even though she has that dreadful man as a roommate."
"I see you still haven't developed a soft side for Suoh-san, Fujioka-san" Yori laughed, pitying the poor blonde, having heard the man's woeful cries when he found out his daughter's rich, half-French, boyfriend decided to tag along and later, the entire 'Host Club' came. Well, that was what Mr. Fujioka told her. Yori never met any members of the Host Club, having only heard stories about their 'adventures', even though they have visited the Fujioka family in more than one occasion.
"He took my daughter away. Developing a soft side is not -and never will be- an option," Mr. Fujioka said simply, meaning to sound cold, but Yori found it comical.
"And the rest of her friends?" she asked, wanting the conversation to go on longer, having nothing to do back inside.
"They all decided to stay abroad as well," Mr. Fujioka looked up in thought, a small smile playing on his lips. "I think they're just doing it to look after my sweet Haruhi. But I also think they're doing it to stop the boy from deflowering my little angel."
"They must be really good friends then," Yori smiled.
"Yes, quite a loud bunch, but they're alright," the Fujioka's smile became broader. "Oh! But I have exciting news!" He didn't wait for Yori to ask what it was. "Haruhi is coming back! She's just about to finish her final year and would study back here for college! She wants to study in the same school her mother did. I'm so proud."
"She's coming back home? Jumping spiders! When?" Yori's eyes widened, gleaming with excitement. She was only able to chat with her dear friend over the laptop, using the webcam and occasional chat box when things got to choppy due to bad reception. She couldn't wait to see the girl in the flesh!
"In a month or so," Mr. Fujioka replied, his smile not leaving his face. "I can't wait to have my little girl back in my arms and away from the idiot."
"I'm sure –" Yori was beginning to say, but her words tied on her lips the moment her teeth sunk into them due to the sudden hit the back of her head got from the door opening with a great force. She suppressed a pained scream and slowly turned her head to see her younger brother holding onto the doorknob, sticking his tongue out at her.
"See ya later, ugly," he said before running down the stairs, a yoyo and a pack of marbles in his hands. Yori glared at his retreating figure.
"Little brat," Yori hissed under her breath, not really caring if Mr. Fujioka heard her. "He never grew up."
"Boys will be boys I guess," Mr. Fujioka sighed, knowing that though Yori's brother constantly abused her, she still tolerated it. "You might want to put some ice on your lip."
Yori delicately touched her bottom lip and winced when it stung. Looking at her fingertips, there was a small line of blood. She licked her lips, out of habit, and tasted iron. "I'll do that." She said. "I'll see you later then, Fujioka-san" and she retreated back into the apartment, snatching her envelope on the way to the kitchen.
Mrs. Ishikawa was busy washing the dishes and did not notice her daughter's return until she heard the freezer opening and saw Yori pilling three ice cubes into a face towel, her lip noticeably red and swollen. Yori placed the ice pack on her bottom lip and looked at her mother. The look she gave read 'Daisuke. Short but painful story. Don't want to relive it.'
"Make sure you keep away from your bed. The ice will melt soon enough and you don't want to sleep in something soggy." Was all the mother said before going back to her work.
Turning around, Yori made her way back to her room and towards her curtains, opening them to let some of the sunlight in so that she didn't need to waste electricity in illuminating her room. She sat on her bed, ignoring her mother's words, and opened the envelope, not bothering to see whom it was from. Upon pulling out its contents, which was nothing but a photograph, Yori smiled.
In the picture, Yori saw her good friend, Haruhi in the middle of six guys who seemed to be everything but behaved. She was being hugged from behind by who Yori guessed was her boy friend while a pair of twins, one had ash brown hair while the other had ginger, were sniggering, holding hair ties with floral designs in their hands. In the background were two black haired gentlemen, one incredibly tall and the other who was almost at the same height but not quite, who seemed to enjoy being away from the chaos and watching from the sidelines. Up front was the corner of a young boy's face. All Yori could see was his golden hair and one of his honey=brown eyes. She guessed that the boy was the one taking the picture and was too focused on getting everyone in the shot that he forgot to include himself.
Yori laughed under her breath, always enjoying the snippets of her friend's memories being sent to her. She reached to get something from under her bed and pulled out a scrapbook. Flipping over to the next empty page, Yori inserted the picture, telling herself she'll properly paste and decorate it later. Haruhi had asked her to be the one to manage the scrapbook, fearing that the Host Club would do something drastic if they saw her working on it. Of course, it would be nice to have each of them give their special something to the making, that's why Haruhi had another scrapbook in her possession, but it didn't hurt to have an organized edition safe back home.
Setting the scrapbook aside, Yori took out her laptop and quickly turned it on, automatically logging in and happy to see that Haruhi was online (the girl finally getting a laptop of her own). She clicked on the girl's name, not really caring what time it was on her side of the globe, and the red light next to her webcam began to blink, telling her that Haruhi could now see her every movement. Yori waved.
"Long time no see, Haruhi-san!" Yori grinned, placing her icepack on the table next to her.
"Yori!" Haruhi pleasantly said, her already large eyes widening with pleasant surprise. "What happened to your lip?"
"Talking to your dad. Door hitting my head. Teeth digging into innocent lip. Pain." Yori summarized the events and studied Haruhi through the small pop out window. The girl was still the same. Short haired and cute. "You still look the same, Haruhi-san. Your hairstyle hasn't changed." Yori grinned, though it hurt her lip. "I knew you idolized me!" she ruffled her own hair, having the same style as her friend.
Haruhi, of course, rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't have chopped off my hair if your brother didn't stick his wad of gum on it."
"Lovable kid, ain't he? But you know, you would have chopped it all off eventually. You thought it was hassle." Yori laughed. "How's life over there? I heard from you dad that you're coming home in a month?"
"To study in the same university as my mother, yes." Haruhi had a slight accent in her Japanese, but it wasn't noticeable to anyone except Yori. She was the type to take note of every little, and probably insignificant, change in everyone. "Life's pretty good to me. I miss Japan though."
" 'Ow ar yer fr-Ends?" Yori tried her English, but failed epically. Haruhi laughed.
"My friends are fine." Haruhi replied in Japanese, raising an amused eyebrow at the girl's poor attempt at English though it was obvious with her green eyes she wasn't even full Japanese. "They're next door, doing some nonsense I don't want to be involved in but would probably be dragged into at any moment." An exasperated sigh escaped Haruhi's lips.
"Aie-nd yer boi-fur-end?" She still didn't want to stop. It was far too funny. Haruhi laughed once more and rolled her eyes again, smile still playing on her lips.
"Tamaki is trying his hand in grocery shopping. Alone." Haruhi got a thoughtful look on her face. It was uncanny to the one her dad made not too long ago. "He's been gone for quite some time, now that I think about it. Maybe I should call. What do you think?"
"You're asking the wrong person, my friend." Yori switched back to Japanese, her jaw hurting from the awkward ways it moved from the foreign words. "But maybe you should."
"Maybe." Haruhi brought out her phone and was surprised to see the amount of miss calls and text messages she received from the blonde. "Twenty seven missed calls and thirty six unread text messages. All from Tamaki."
"I guess you should call him then. I wish you the best of luck. Remember, if all else fails, call 911, page him in the grocery store, Lost Child posters all over the area and what not." Yori laughed. "I'll see you when I see you! Gewud Bai!"
"Bye," Haruhi smiled and logged off. The last thing Yori was able to see was the girl placing her phone to her ear, probably calling her boyfriend.
Yori picked up the scrapbook, placing it on her lap, and was just about to reach over to her table to get the paste when she saw water dripping onto her wooden floor. Her eyes widened and she immediately snatched her cold and now drenched face towel. Looking down, she was glad that nothing electrical was near the puddle created.
"That would have been nasty," Yori muttered, dropping the face towel on the puddle and snatched the paste, turning her attention back to the photograph, wondering how Haruhi put up with such…playful? Energetic? Random? …people. A grin found its way onto Yori's lips and the girl hummed a nameless song as she began working.
Happy New Year to anyone who is reading this on well...the NEW YEAR! :D
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