.CHAPTER :II: THANKS.

Hurrah, second chapter.

Azumanga Daioh belongs to Kiyohiko Azuma. Yay for him!

"So what are your plans now that you're home?" asked Ayumu, helping Chiyo to pile all her bags into the back of a taxi.

"Well, tomorrow I'm hanging out with you. Remember?" replied Chiyo, smiling knowingly.

"Of course I remember!" Ayumu nodded vigorously. "I'm not the forgetful type!"

Chiyo laughed. "Good. On Sunday I'm meeting Miss Sakaki for lunch, and in the afternoon she's going to show me the surgery where she's working at now."

"Sakaki's a doctor?" asked Ayumu.

Chiyo shook her head. "No, she's a vet, silly. You remember. She went to veterinary college."

Ayumu nodded. "Of course. So you're still in touch with Sakaki? I had no idea."

Chiyo's face broke into a smile again. "Yes! I'm in touch with pretty much everyone from school! I'm hopefully going to visit Tomo and Yomi next week... that's if Tomo ever replies to my email..." Her face suddenly fell, and her voice trailed off to a whisper. However, Ayumu was oblivous to her friend's sudden change in mood.

"Wow," she said. "I wish I still spoke to those guys. Those were good times! But I have no idea what's happened to anyone. Apart from you. And Kagura. But everyone knows what happened to Kagura!" Ayumu laughed, and Chiyo smiled once more, remembering what had happened to her athletic friend since they had parted ways.

Kagura was always devoted to sport. Every spare moment she got was spent training. You were always guaranteed to find her in one of two places: either jogging around the field or swimming in the pool. She had always been one of the top atheletes in the year. Everyone knew she would go far.

And so she did. The year before, Kagura had picked up a silver medal at the Olympics, for swimming. Since then, she had been one of the biggest stars in Japan. Everyone knew her name; her face. Everyone remembered the speech she had given after she won the medal, the tears running down her face from exhaustion and emotion, the endless stream of a hundred thank yous all directed at the same person: Minamo Kurosawa.

"I want to dedicate this to Minamo Kurosawa! I wouldn't be here without you! It's all down to you! The best coach a girl could ever have! Thank you, Miss Kurosawa, thank you so much!"

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Meanwhile, in an apartment not so far away, a phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"NYAMO!" yelled the voice on the other end of the receiver.

"Yukari. It's eleven o clock at night. I have to teach a class tomorrow. So do you. Go to bed."

"Let's go out!" shouted the voice.

"Let's not," replied Minamo.

"No. Let's go. I'll come round and pick you up. Actually, you should come and pick me up. Yeah, pick me up. I'll see you at eight?"

"Yukari, it's eleven."

"Okay. I'll see you at half eleven. Put on a nice dress. I don't know why you don't wear dresses more often. You look good in a dress. You have nice legs. Probably because you're a PE teacher. Yeah, you PE teachers... with your... legs..."

"Are you drunk?"

"..."

"Yukari?"

"Can I come over? I'll bring a movie."

"No."

"..."

"Go to bed, Yukari. Try and be sober for class tomorrow."

"It's Friday night!"

"It's Thursday night!"

"..."

"I thought it was Friday night. Can we go out on Friday night?"

"I'll see you tomorrow, Yukari."

"I am the queen of the trampoline!"

Minamo hung up the phone, and crawled back into bed.