Happy new year guys! Well whaddaya know?! its 2010! *woot woot*
Anyway, I did this while I was supposed to cram my homework before school opens. :D
Enjoy!
Cup 2: Cooked
The girl's eyes returned to the menu, thinking of what she could order. She was taking quite a while, muttering an occasional "Erm.." and "Uhh…" while the waiter, well, waited.
"What would you recommend?" Hana asked in defeat. She wasn't very familiar with sushi, despite being Japanese, nor did she really enjoy the taste of raw fish topped on a ball of rice and wrapped in dried sea grass…
"Tuna's one of our most popular ones," Takeshi pointed at the photo on the menu that showed rectangular red strips of fish, "And salmon," He flipped the page and pointed to an orange version of the previous photo.
The waiter noted the slight disgust that was on the customer's face. It wasn't exactly good news to the Takesushi.
"How about something—" Hana paused for a moment, "cooked?" She gave a sheepish smile. It was kind of embarrassing to be Japanese and not like Japanese food…
"Ah, so she's that kind of customer…" Takeshi thought. "We have California Maki rolls and onigiri," he said with a smile on his face. (Waiters: Service with a smile :D)
The girl nodded, "I'll have onigiri and green tea please," she said politely, closed the menu, and handed it to the waiter, smiling back at him.
Takeshi went to the kitchen and told his dad what to prepare. "You go ahead and prepare the tea," Tsuyoshi instructed, "it's on the top left cupboard." The old man's hands were too busy shaping rice into triangular shapes at the moment…
The waiter reappeared in the scene, with a tray containing a teapot, teacup, and a plate with a row of three onigiris. Before approaching her table, be observed her movements. In the girl's hand was a stack of paper, about a centimeter thick, and on her other was a green marker. It looked like she was reading, as the back tip of the marker glided across the paper, a line after another, and she would occasionally stop and jot things down. He placed the food on Hana's table, careful not to spill anything. She raised her head for a moment, muttered a thanks, smiled, and went back to work.
Saturdays were as busy as ever in the sushi restaurant, especially in the afternoons. Perhaps people were more free at that time? As the sky grew darker, the people left one after another. Except the girl with the stack of paper. She had finished her onigiri, but there was still some tea left in her cup.
It was about time for the Takesushi to close. "Gee, I'd hate to bother her, but here goes nothing…" Takeshi walked to her table, "Ano, Miss, we're about to close for the day."
"Oh. Yamamoto-san." She looked at him, then to her watch, "Oh. It's just 8:30, but I can leave now if you want--" her voice trailed off as she flipped the stack of paper back to its first page and started to put it into her bag.
"Well, if you're not in a hurry, Masaki-san," the waiter said as he pulled a chair to sit on, "We might as well talk." He flashed her a grin. Her smile was equally as bright.
"Saa, I didn't know Yamamoto-san owned this place," she said, "I don't get around here so often."
"It's actually my dad's." He replied casually. "What was that you were reading the whole afternoon?" Takeshi was a bit curious about what she was doing for the whole 7 hours in the restaurant.
"Ah, that's the script compilation for Nami-Drama's play at the end of the year." She went on in an animated manner which involved unnecessary sound effects and hand gestures, how it was like editing all the weird inappropriate lines from the stories sent in by the students. The drama club was to pick the best one and use it for the annual theatrical play in Namimori High, which was usually high in budget and high in profit. The conversation then moved to the topic of baseball, since Hana had no clue about how the sport was played, and Takeshi excitedly explained: sound effects and actions included.
The two teens ended up laughing at the random things they were talking about, until Tsuyoshi came out to call his son for dinner. He invited the girl too, since the kids were having such a good time, but she politely declined and went on her way home.
xxx
Life went on. The baseball ace and the drama chairman still exchanged emails, though they no longer addressed each other by their surnames alone. From time to time, SMSs were also sent when the conversation got interesting. Every weekend, Hana would go to the Takesushi, eating the same onigiri and drinking the same green tea until the old man would come by and be declined his offer every single time. She said it was because there was "good food and even better service," when the waiter asked her why she went there so often.
But when they were in school, neither spoke even a word. They would only exchange smiles and occasionally wave at each other.
Weird, huh?
xxx
"Boss, we've chosen this one!" A girl chirped.
Hana tsk-ed, "Stop calling me boss, Ayu." She took the stack of paper from her vice-chairman's hands and glanced through the pages. "You chose the Little Mermaid-inspired one?!" The script was frantically waved in the air.
"You don't like it?" Ayu asked, indifferent to her boss's outburst. She was used to it anyway, Hana's mock-anger. "Well, it's a parody and a musical. The committee also agreed that the script was well-written and less boring." She hoped that her smile was enough to convince the chairman.
"We're making a parody for this year's show? Can't we go with Coraline instead?"
Ayu pouted, "C'mon~" she pleaded while tugging on her superior's cheek.
Hana whacked the hand away and gave out a sigh, "Okay okay. Auditions start tomorrow. There's a lot of work to do for this musical." She would have to agree that the play's script was good. Very good, rather, as it was funny and witty and had singing and dancing. But were they going to spend so much money on a comedy that's not even original?
The vice-chairman showed her a happy face and was twirling around the drama room in joy.
"Hey, isn't it a good idea to ask that baseball guy who smiles at you to audition?" came another voice, "I bet he'll bring in big bucks," she smirked. This was Yuki, the club treasurer. She may be boring and her voice may be monotone, but she was the key to the club's earnings.
"Yeah yeah yeah! I know him! Isn't that Yamamoto Takeshi?" Ayu sang, with stars in her eyes. "He's so dreamy~"
Hana sweatdropped.
"Ooh, ooh! There's also that Italian transfer student, with the silver hair and the cool demeanor," she tried to imitate Gokudera, "And Hibari-senpai," she swooned. "Can we have them in our play, huh? Huh?" Ayu ran to the boss's desk and tried to convince her with a smile, again.
"No," was the short answer that stabbed Ayu in the heart. Hana had enough reasoning anyway. It wasn't likely that the YamaGoku pair could do any good as far as theatre performance was concerned. She didn't even want to think about how to invite the disciplinary chairman.
"Aww, please please please?" Ayu continued pestering her boss by pinching her cheeks.
"You know, we don't have much men in the club. They've all graduated," the dull voice said, "And I don't think people would be much interested in cross dressing females. That Yamamoto guy has quite a big fanbase too."
"See? Even Yuki-chan says so." Ayu was now patting her boss's head continuously, as if she was a dog. Such actions always made Hana more lenient to what the club wants. They all knew that she was just playing strict with them when it came to things like these.
"Whatever." Hana smiled.
"Yatta!" The vice-chairman proceeded to bounce around the club room as the treasurer was busy poking numbers in her calculator.
The Chairman smiled at how happy her friends were. She would probably have an even bigger smile when the news gets out to the rest of the club and the rest of the school.
xxx
"Here Hana-chan." The giddy subordinate handed a piece of paper to Hana, who sat beside her in class. On the paper was a table which had a different class's time table and 'baseball practice' scribbled on it.
"What is this?!" Hana whispered in an angry tone. It was a useless note to be passed to her in class.
"Ya-ma-mo-to." Ayu mouthed, hoping not to be caught by their homeroom teacher.
"Oh." Hana thought to herself, "It was his timetable, so I can schedule the rehearsals… Ayu, do you stalk this guy??"
Over lunch and recess, audition posters were already set up. People were crowding over them, and some were hurrying to sign up.
"Hahi!" a dark haired girl pointed to the poster, determined "Haru will definitely sign up! You too right, Tsuna?" She turned to the mafia boss.
Tsuna just smiled sheepishly, "I don't think…"
"Jyuudaime would never do such a stupid thing!" The right hand man defended.
"Yamamoto-san."
Takeshi heard someone call his name. "Yo," he waved. It was Hana. Come to think of it, it was the first time they ever talked in school…
"So, Yamamoto-san, Nami Drama would like to invite you to participate in our upcoming play. You see, we've arranged rehearsals so it wouldn't clash with you baseball practices. Its on—" He couldn't really concentrate on what she was saying, because Hana's politeness that sounded like a telemarketer was amusing him. He never knew she could talk like that. But the girl who was standing behind Hana that kept nodding her head vigorously amused him even more. She was sending him weird vibes that he should agree with whatever Hana was saying.
"So there. I hope you'd put this into consideration." Hana ended her speech. Takeshi looked at her, and she seemed indifferent, unlike the girl behind who was nodding her head even more vigorously.
"Okay." He said, more convinced by the nodding girl that the schedule that Hana had made.
"YES!" Ayu did her victory dance, which included fist pumps and hip thrust. Her boss could just do a face palm, muttering something along the lines of "how can this idiot be my vice-chairman?"
xxx
This year, the auditions turned out to be pretty popular among the students. It must be because the dorky guy who played the prince in last year's drama became really popular among the girls after the performance. It was also said to have been a fun experience for last year's crew.
The drama club's head trio sat on the front row of the auditorium as the students showed up on stage, either solo or as a group, to strut their stuff. The other club members were seated behind and others were managing the AV system.
So far, the performances weren't so bad. The people who acted were relatively okay, the dancing was on a moderate level, but the singing turned out to be either really amazing, or so horrible that, in Hana's terms, "could raise the dead."
There were going through the list, and was probably in their 80th student now.
"Yamamoto Takeshi," Hana read from the list, "Go." She couldn't help but smile at him, unlike the stern look that she gave the other participants. Maybe because his smile was just so contagious.
He took out the impromptu script provided by the club. "I'm going to kill you." He just stood there and read in his usual cheery voice. (What a Mafioso…)
The panel of three would have headdesked if it was an appropriate, but it wasn't, so they were left with a deadpan. They were kind of expecting him to take out his baseball bat and say the line in a fashion close to what you see in those Japanese Yakuza movies.
"I think I should have given him the 'I use Pantene Pro-V everyday' script instead." Ayu whispered to the Drama Club boss. Hana just shrugged her friend off, though she'd have to admit that the boy could have done a whole lot better with the TV commercial script.
"Uhh…" Ayu was not sure what to say, "Can you sing for us?" She was crossing her fingers on this one, because she really wanted this guy in their show, but she doubted he could perform anything other than a homerun.
Takeshi racked his brains for a song that he could sing. He has been too busy with baseball that he kind of missed out listening to the radio. A song came to memory, one that he sang with Gokudera on one of those Vongola outings, as much to the half-Italian Mafioso's disapproval of them doing so.
"Makezu kirai na wagamama ni OORUWEIZU
負けず嫌いなわがままにオールウェイズ
Itsumo furimawasarete korogeta SUNIIKAA sagashite
いつも振り回されて転げたスニーカー 探して
Kasa mo sasazu ni tobidashita REINIDE
傘もささずに 飛び出したレイニィディ
Ame de kikanai BUREEKI hageshisa masu kaze
雨で利かないブレーキ 激しさ増す風"
"YOU'RE IN!" The vice-chairman stood up, so happy that she was about to cry. The members at the back thought that Ayu was giving him a standing ovation, so they stood up and clapped too. Well, even if Ayu didn't budge, they might have done so as well. His voice was surprisingly good. It had a nice texture, it was deep but not too low. However, a nice voice didn't mean he could sing well. That needed practice. Evreyone loved him anyway.
The baseball idiot stood there, smiling like one, while scratching the back of his head.
Yuki was busily pressing calculator buttons again, the sound of cash registers singing in her mind. The Chairman sat there quietly, flipping to the next page of the list, smiling to herself in the inside.
Gah. I admit it. I absolutely suck at this. I try to write long chapters in MS word, but it looks sooooo short over here. *headdesk*
I changed the title to "Milk Plus Tea" because the plus sign doesn't show up for titles. *sad* Anyway, "Milk Plus Tea" sounds like those non-english (engrish :DD) douijns/stationery. And I like it. /lame/
Anyway, just on a random note, I was eating chicharon (deep fried pork skin. I know it sounds gross but its really good. its a Filipino delicacy btw.) and dipping it in vinegar while typing. I'm not sure how bad my room smells right now but whatever. That's the least of my worries at the moment. I worry more about how this thing turns out, so help me by sending in reviews ok? :D ILU. 3 It helps me update fast too!
Also, if you have any criticism, flames, blah, story ideas, please send them in. :D I'd like to know how I can improve my plot, writing style, and characterization. :D
If there are also things you don't understand, you can ask me too. :D Just send away!
Side notes:
:: Hana and Ayu are classmates, and Yama and the others are in a different class. :D
:: I know having 80 "auditonees" is a shocking number. :) But I think Namichu is quite big, and the Drama Club is a big shot club (that can rival Hibari and his yankee-hair clones) and they are allowed the luxury of spending so much time and money on a non-academical activity.
:: If you think this story is boring, well, you haven't seen the awesome part yet. 8D otl
:: The song used is "Oretachi no Joy" sung by the YamaGoku seiyuus. 3 Its absolutely love.