Summer makes me feel so productive! :)
But writer's block puts me in such a slump. :(

Chapter Begins

It had been a few days since the girls had moved back to town and things around their house seemed to be cleaning up nicely. The cobwebs—which had been infested with many spiders and dead bugs alike—had been removed from the garage by their father. Their mother had quickly gone to work on the front garden, making the bushes look new and healthy as if they were just replanted. Meanwhile, the girls had unpacked their things and decorated their new room, deciding to split the wide area in halves between themselves. Finally, on the third day of their hard labor around the house, the Kazue family moved into their old little house.

"Thank Kami all that hard work is finally over," Himeko sighed as she flopped down onto her bed. She raised her arms, rotating her aching wrists slowly, "These arms were not made for heavy lifting."

Asami giggled at her sister's actions as she too rested on her bed from across the room. Looking around at how they had decorated, she felt a sense of accomplishment overwhelm her. It really did take a lot of work for them to get their room cleaned up, but it had been fun since they were doing it together.

"All our work isn't over yet," Asami commented, picking at a stray string on her jeans. She took a glance at her sister, only to find a confused look plastered on her face. Asami sighed, explaining, "We start school tomorrow."

"That's not fair," Himeko complained, "We don't even get a single day off before starting school again! My arms are going to be killing me tomorrow!"

Himeko let out a disapproving noise as she turned to lie on her belly, head facing to the side as she huffed out in annoyance. Meanwhile, Asami laughed at the way her sister was acting, expecting that sort of outburst from her over reactive twin.

"Think about it this way, Himeko," Asami said teasingly, sitting up in her bed to get a better look at her sister, "Now you get to see Fuji again."

Asami let out another laugh as Himeko promptly threw her pillow at her and a small pillow war commenced between the twins.

The Next Day

The first day of school proved to be a challenge to the girls as they quickly learned they wouldn't be in many classes together. They had compared their schedules many times over, only to come out with the same result each time. Unfortunately for them, the only class they had together was P.E.

"Maybe we can switch schedules so we can have a few more classes together," Himeko suggested as the twins walked down a hallway.

Asami shook her head in disagreement, "That would cause trouble for the people who make the schedules. I think we should just stick with the ones we have."

Himeko groaned, her hand clenching the fabric of her school uniform. "But we've been together in almost every class since we started school! I don't want to have just one class with you."

"I don't want to either," Asami agreed as she reached her locker and opened it, using the combination the school had given her, "But we have to live with it."

Himeko glanced at the locker her sister was at and then looked at the piece of paper that showed which locker was hers. She frowned and looked to see if her locker was anywhere near where they were now, but sighed when she found no sign of it. Walking a couple of steps away, Himeko looked down the row of lockers and glanced at each number as other people around her passed by to reach their own lockers. She groaned, noticing that her locker was all the way on the end of the hallway.

"Look, now we don't even have lockers close together," Himeko complained as she pointed to her locker at the end of the row, "This has got to be some kind of sign or something. Something bad is going to happen, I know it."

Asami rolled her eyes at her sister, noticing that she was going into another one of her over reactive rants again.

"It's nothing, Himeko," Asami said as she walked with her sister to her locker, "Other people obviously took the lockers around mine and this one was the last one that was available. There was nothing we could do about it."

Himeko pouted as she opened her locker and stuffed it with her books and other school supplies. Once she had her things safe into her locker, she shut it with a click and locked it up before turning to face her sister.

"We might as well get to our homerooms before the first bell rings, right?" Asami said, trying to be optimistic as she dragged her sister along the hallway, "Come on, my homeroom is closer so we can go there first."

The girls weaved around people walking by them, occasionally saying a few hellos to people they recognized from their old schools. They made their way to a classroom at the far end of another corridor, opening the door as they stepped into what seemed to be a science class. Asami set her bag down on a desk in the middle row before turning to her sister.

"Now let's go find your homeroom before the bell rings, okay?"

The girls were about to walk out the open door of the classroom when somebody walked in, cutting them off as they stepped back to let him through. Himeko found herself staring at the brunette that walked into the classroom, noticing that his seemed to be closed, yet he was able to see where he was going. Himeko quickly pulled her sister outside of the classroom, trying her best to hold back a squeal of delight.

"Ow, what was that for, Himeko?" Asami asked as she rubbed at the arm her sister had violently tugged on.

Himeko held a finger to her lips, shushing her sister as she glanced back into the classroom they had just walked out of. Asami followed Himeko's actions, glancing into the classroom as well, only to see a tall brunette boy with closed eyes sitting at a desk. She wondered how he was able to write whatever he was writing with his eyes being closed.

"Himeko, what are we doing?"

"Shush, he'll hear you," Himeko said as she took one last longing glance at the boy in the classroom. Sighing in contentment, Himeko turned back to look at her sister, "That's Fuji."

Asami looked at the boy in the classroom again for only a moment. "That's Fuji?" she asked, not really believing what her sister was saying. He didn't really seem like the type of person Himeko would fall head over heals for.

"Of course he is! I'm sure of it," Himeko swooned, "It's only been a couple of years since I've seen him. How much could he have changed?"

"A person can change a lot over the years," Asami said point blank, smiling at how love struck her sister looked.

Ignoring her twin's words, Himeko glared at Asami in a jealous manner, "It's not fair that out of the two of us, he's in your homeroom! I'm the one who likes him."

Asami was about to say how the people she had class with wasn't up to her when the first bell of the day rang, cutting her off as it signaled for all the students to report to their homerooms. The girls frowned and Himeko took another glance at her schedule; she would have to find her homeroom by herself now.

As Asami was about to turn to go into her class, another tug on her arm made her turn back to Himeko's pleading face.

"If you guys ever talk, please put in a good word for me, okay?"

Asami laughed and agreed, waving to her sister as she walked into the classroom, "See you in P.E Himeko."

"We don't have P.E. today!"

Asami laughed again at the annoyed groan her sister had let out as she walked away.

---

Dipping her brush into dark brown paint, Asami smudged the color onto the blank paper before her, shaping the blob of color into what she saw to be a dog. It was her last class of the day—art class—and with only a few more minutes left until the final bell rang, the teacher decided to give her students some down time by letting them paint. Unfortunately for Asami, she had no talent in painting whatsoever.

"Asami, can you pass the green next to you?"

Green eyes meeting brown ones, Asami smiled at her friend, Aiko, as she reached for the bottle of green paint. Aiko stared curiously at Asami's painting, scrutinizing the way all the colors on the paper mixed together.

"What's wrong with your bear?" Aiko asked, nodding her head towards Asami's painting, "Where is it? A grape farm?"

"It's supposed to be a dog," Asami pouted, looking at her painting, "And it's in a meadow. Those are flowers, see?"

"Right," Aiko dragged on, rolling her eyes as she smiled playfully at Asami, "Well, it's not like mines is any better. I was supposed to be painting my brother, but it ended up looking like a clown. You know, now that I think about it, they're pretty much the same thing."

The girls laughed to themselves, continuing with their paintings until the last bell of the day rang loudly through the school's hallways. Packing up her things and throwing her failed painting into the trashcan, Asami swings her bag over her shoulder and makes her way out of the classroom and to her locker a few hallways away. Asami turned the dial on her locker to its right numbers, opening the metal door with a click. A small tapping on the door of her locker catches her attention, bringing her eyes to look at the matching eyes of her sister.

"Hi Himeko," Asami greets as she continued to replace books in her locker with the ones in her bag.

"Asami, you'll never guess who I bumped into on the way to my last period," Himeko said, her voice high in excitement.

"Oh, I bet I can," Asami smiled, closing her locker as she turned to look at her sister with an expecting look, "Fuji, right?"

"Exactly," Himeko gushed, twirling a little to emphasize her happiness as people around her in the hallway stare with curious eyes, "He even remembered me; my name and everything! Well, he only remembered my name, but it's a start right?"

Asami laughed, agreeing with her sister as they walked down the hallway to the front gates of the school. Along the way Himeko talked about how her day had gone by and how she had met up with a few of their old friends from a long time ago. Meanwhile Asami would nod, putting her insight into the conversation every now and then. It was only when they were halfway to the gates that Asami stopped in her tracks, her face twisting in confusion as she stood still.

"What's wrong, Asami?" Himeko asked, noticing her sister's strange behavior.

"I just remembered that I still need to borrow a book from the library for one of my classes," Asami replied, turning around as she started walking back towards the direction of the library, "Just go on and wait by the gates for me. I won't be too long."

Himeko nodded, continuing her walk towards the front gate as her twin sister went the opposite way towards the library, humming quietly to herself. Once she reached the library, she opened the wide double doors and walked into the cool air conditioned area, looking around for the right section where the book she needed would be. Spotting the word 'HISTORY' in big, bold lettering, she walked over towards the tall shelves and scanned the titles of the books. She could hear the door to the library open once more, but ignored it once she spotted the title of the book she had been looking for. Unfortunately for her, it was on the highest shelf there.

"Curse my height," Asami mumbled lowly to herself as she went onto her tiptoes and reached for the book she needed.

"I'll get it for you," a soft voice said.

Asami watched as a hand grasped onto the book she had previously been reaching for before handing it to her. Taking it into her own hands, Asami looked up to the boy standing before her. She recognized him from one of her classes from earlier that day and quickly thanked him as he walked off to another section of the library. Clutching the book close to her, Asami turned to walk towards the front desk so she could check out the book. Once that was done, she walked out of the library and down the hallway towards the school's front gates. Unfortunately, as she turned the corner, she accidently bumped into somebody, causing her to fall flat on her rear.

"Saa, I'm sorry about that. Here, I'll help you up."

Asami opened her eyes which had closed upon impact, staring at the hand before her. Looking up further, Asami noticed the familiar face of her fellow homeroom student, Fuji.

Meanwhile…

Tapping her foot impatiently on the floor, Himeko sighed a sound of annoyance as she stared at the door she had just walked from. She had been waiting for at least seven minutes and was getting tired of waiting for her sister. Deciding to go in after her, Himeko stalked back into the school building and through the hallways as she made her way towards the library where her sister had gone almost ten minutes ago. She turned the corner and walked into the hall that would take her to the library, but was immediately frozen at the sight before her. A surprised noise came from her mouth as she quickly dashed back around the corner, taking in what she had just seen:

Asami was smiling, a faint blush on her cheeks as Fuji held her hand.

Chapter Ends

Dun, dun, dun! Stay tuned to see what happens next time on Fortunate Misfortune!