Chapter 2: A Misunderstanding

It was another day of school, starting off with Miss Yukari's class. The only problem was that she wasn't there yet. She was late. The students took advantage of the situation and used their time to socialize. Tomo normally would be the most talkative, but she thought this would be the perfect time to return Kaori's book. Kaori was sitting in her desk preparing for class, so Tomo approached her with the book hidden behind and back. She wanted question Kaori before she gave it back.

Tomo gave Kaori a suspicious look and then greeted her, "Hi, Kaorin."

"Good morning, Tomo." Kaori responded politely.

"So, Kaorin, why are you sitting at your desk alone? Why don't you go talk to someone, maybe Sakaki?"

"Huh? Nah, I'm fine sitting here. I don't want to bother her."

"What? You don't want to talk to her? Don't you like her?"

"Of course I like Sakaki, I like her a lot. She is my friend."

Tomo grinned, she was about reveal that she knew Kaori's secret. "You only think of her as a friend? HA! Well, this book says otherwise!" Tomo slapped down Kaori's diary on the desk.

Kaori's face turned bright red and she grew flustered, "H-h-how did you get this book?"

"You dropped it when you tripped. I thought I would be nice and return it to you."

"Nice? How is this interrogation nice?" Kaori snapped.

"Well, I was a little freaked out by what I read so I wanted to ask you some questions."

Kaori sighed and nervously looked at Tomo, "Alright, Tomo, I will explain it to you after school, come to my house."

"Gotcha!" Tomo winked and walked back to her seat.

Minutes later Miss Yukari arrived gasping for air. She had obviously been running. After she caught her breath she made up the usual excuse and began to lecture about pointless life lessons that were no help to teenagers. Kaori, rather than using this time to check out Sakaki and daydream, she was thinking about what she was going to tell Tomo. She wanted to make up a reasonable excuse about her diary. No ideas seemed to come to her. She thought about it for the whole class period and still could not think of anything believable. Then the bell rang. Miss Yukari continued to blabber on as the students stampeded towards the door. Tomo was at the front of the pack. Kaori went last to avoid any situations with her.

The end of the school day arrived faster than Kaori had hoped for. She didn't want to go home and see Tomo, but she did want to set everything straight. She walked silently thinking about the mess she was in. Just then, Kaori heard footsteps behind her. She expected to see Tomo, but the sight of Sakaki took her by surprise. "Uh, h-hello Sakaki." Kaori blushed.

"Hi, Kaorin. I'm glad that I caught you. I wanted to talk to you about something Tomo told me." Sakaki sounded serious.

Bad thoughts ran through Kaori's head when Sakaki mentioned Tomo. "T-tomo? What did she tell you?" Kaori was turning extremely flushed, she was shaking and her stomach was tingling. She didn't know if Tomo told or not, but she was dying from the thought of Sakaki knowing about her crush on her.

"Well, it's a little embarrassing to ask, but I didn't know if Tomo was lying or not. She said that you um…eh…you know. L-liked…girls..." Sakaki nervously played with her hair.

Kaori felt slightly relieved, she thought she could easily shake off this question by telling her that Tomo was lying. She was about to open her mouth, but stopped herself when she realized that it would be better to tell the truth. She figure this way Sakaki would know she was interested in girls. Maybe this might be a step closer to a relationship with her. She admitted the truth, "Uh, yes. It's true." Kaori braced herself expecting a shocked reaction.

Sakaki noticed how tense Kaori was. She stood smiling and joked, "I guess that means Tomo wasn't lying. That's a first!"

Kaori let down her guard and looked up at Sakaki, "Huh?"

"I saw you tense up like I was going to attack you or something. Don't worry. I don't see you as any different, well, except you like girls. Heh heh." Sakaki reassured her with another joke.

Kaori giggled and invited Sakaki to walk home with her. She agreed. They had a lively conversation as they strolled. Kaori was in heaven. She had never felt this close to Sakaki before. She thought that she might have seen her as a less secretive person. Eventually, they reached Kaori's house where she was to meet Tomo, but no one was there waiting. She guessed that Tomo forgot about it. Kaori stopped walking at the beginning of the walkway that lead to her front door. Before she started down the path Sakaki bent down to whisper in Kaori's ear. She said, "You know. I have always been suspicious of Yomi. Maybe you could hook up with her if you try."

Kaori laughed and responded, "Yeah, I would rather go out with Tomo! Ha ha!"

Sakaki smiled and waved bye as she left Kaori. Kaori returned her wave and walked to her front door. She got out her house key and stuck it in the door. Just as she turned it she heard a loud cry, "KAORIN!" She jumped and looked to her side. There was Tomo charging at her full force with her fist sticking out in front of her. Kaori screamed, but Tomo continued charging. She could have knocked Kaori to the ground, but stopped with her fist just inches away from Kaori's nose. "What the heck is wrong with you!" Kaori scolded.

"Wrong with me? Hah, you're just mad because you lack my sneaky skills!" Tomo said boastingly.

"Skills? Those are not skills! Those are annoying!"

"Well, your annoying, too!" Tomo stuck out her tongue and then continued speaking, "You left me waiting hear at your house for at least ten minutes!"

Kaori calmed down a bit and began speaking in normal tone. "Wait. You where here the whole time?"

"Duh! You told me to come. I was hiding on the side of your house. I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, you did surprise me, but anyway I guess you're still wondering about he book then. Well, I'll explain it all now." Kaori wanted to hurry up and explain everything to Tomo before she blew it all out of proportion. She began to explain, "Okay it all goes like this…" Tomo cut her off there.

"I know how it goes. I heard what you said about me. That you would like to date me."

Kaori began to panic. "No no no." she blurted out. Tomo didn't listen and she continued on with her story.

"I pieced it together myself. You panicked when I read your book. You didn't want ME to see it because those entries were about me. Sakaki was a cover name. I understand the whole situation."

"No listen." Kaori pleaded, but Tomo was too absorbed in her own theories.

"Kaorin, I'm a nice guy…er girl. I will give anything one shot. I normally would date a guy, but I don't want to crush your fragile heart. I will set up one test date on um… Thurs…no Friday. This Friday at 7:00." Tomo hugged the shaken Kaori and ran off.

"What the heck just happened?" Kaori thought to herself, "How the heck did I get a date with Tomo?" She stood staring into nothingness with her jaw dropped open. "I am a magnet for misfortune…"