Hazuki pushed open the classroom door to face yet another heated argument between Doremi and Kotake.
"I do not have bowling balls for hair!"
Doremi stomped her foot and gave Kotake a pouting fish face.
The blue-haired boy smirked.
"Dojimi, Dojimi, Dojimi," he said, wagging his finger at every 'Dojimi'. "-your hair being made of bowling balls obviously explains why you're so stupid. They've finished smothering what little brains you have!"
He crossed his arms and grinned at her.
The pink ojamajo gaped at him, unable to believe he said that. Her face flushed in anger and embarrasment.
"YOU JERK!! I hope your dog eats you alive!" Doremi blew a raspberry and plopped in her desk chair, seething.
Hazuki giggled at the scene and strolled over to Aiko, who was propped up by her elbow with an amused expression.
"Good morning Aiko-chan."
"Morning Hazuki-chan." The blue ojamajo turned to face her friend.
The orange witch set down her backpack on the floor and seated herself. She inclined towards a pissed off Doremi.
"Since when did this start happening?"
Aiko smirked. "Well apparently, Kotake-kun got a glimpse of Doremi's math test yesterday and decided to reveal it to the whole class this morning. It went kinda like this."
She mussed up her hair to mimic Kotake's spiked haircut and put on a taunting grin.
"Hey Dojimi, 25 cents is one fourth of a dollar, but considering your math grades, I bet you couldn't even figure that out!"
She smirked knowingly and smoothed her hair back to normal.
"Of course she denied it and called him a horrible soccer player. The insults only got worse from there." The tomboy crossed her arms and shook her head in disappointment.
Hazuki laughed at their antics and examined their surroundings, eventually stopping on the two empty desks where Onpu and Momoko usually sat.
"Where are Onpu-san and Momoko-san?"
"I dunno," Aiko shrugged, and proceeded to pull out her books for their first class. She tilted her head to the side, remembering something.
"Say, did you get your permission slip signed for the field trip?" The blue witch held up hers, her fathers signature scrawled across the bottom.
"Ah thats right, I almost forgot. Thank you for reminding me Aiko-chan." Hazuki rummaged through her bag for the slip of paper.
Just as she pulled it out, the classroom door slid open to reveal Momoko.
Hazuki's American friend looked like she was about to keel over. Her bangs frizzed along the sides of her face and her blonde ringlets had locks of hair hanging off the edge. One of the suspenders on her skirt was loosely draped over her leg, and the skirt itself was wrinkled. Dark circles shone brightly in the overhead light, branded into the skin under her eyes. Momoko yawned without bothering to lift a hand.
The yellow ojamajo slowly loped over to her friends and collapsed into her chair as if she had just run a 100-mile marathon.
"Stupid relatives. . ." she mumbled under her breath.
"What happened? You look like you just got steamrolled, Momo-chi," Aiko joked.
Doremi looked up from her state of pouting anger, suddenly interested.
Momoko practically forced her head down to look them in the eyes.
"You know how I said a couple of my cousins were coming over this weekend?"
Hazuki and Aiko and Doremi nodded twice in unison. She had mentioned it to them last Friday.
The yellow witch continued on with their confirmation.
"I guess I never mentioned to you guys how loud and obnoxious they are."
She threw her hands up in the air.
"All night it was, Asuka-chan, I want a glass of water! Asuka-chan he's hogging the blanket! No I'm not! Asuka-chan I need to go potty! Asuka-chan this, Asuka-chan that! God, you can pee all over the bed for all I care, just let me get some damn sleep!"
Her arms flopped back down and she huffed. "Just because they're little kids doesn't mean I'm the one who has to babysit them!"
Momoko was silent after that.
Her friends marveled at this rare scene of Momoko not being her usual optimistic self. Their faces showed her they understood.
Doremi piped up.
"I know what you mean. Poppu-chan gets on my nerves all the time with her stupid perfect grades and boyfriends." The clumsy girl frowned.
"Yeah, but at least she's mature when it comes to other stuff. Poppu's pretty smart for a little sister Doremi-chan," Aiko argued.
Hazuki nodded. "I agree with Aiko-chan. Poppu-chan is very intelligent and hard-working. Your lucky to have her as your sister." She smiled at Doremi.
"You guys don't have to live in the same house as her. . ." The pink witch pursed her lips, disagreement imminent on her face.
They dropped the subject since it was obvious Doremi wasn't going to change her mind about it. Hazuki tapped an inanimate Momoko on the shoulder.
"Momoko-san, do you know where Onpu-san is? She should have been here by now," she asked, glancing at the clock, which showed it was almost time for class to begin.
Momoko perked up, appearing slightly more awake now.
"Onpu-chan isn't going to be here today. Apparently there was a mandatory concert scheduled for today, like a promotional thing for Christmas. She called me this morning at like, 5:00 and it woke up the little brats along with me." The witch had a pained expression.
"But Christmas isn't until a few months from now. It's not even winter yet," Hazuki said, confused.
Aiko rolled her eyes. "You know the media. They have to get everything done before the holidays even roll around, so they can film cheap movies with the extra time."
"True," Doremi agreed.
The orange ojamajo was dismayed. "But today is when our permission slips for the field trip are due. How will Onpu-san turn hers in? It would be disappointing if she couldn't come."
Her citrus eyes saddened.
"Not a problem."
Momoko pulled two slips of paper from the front pocket of her bag and showed them to Hazuki. "She stopped by my house yesterday and asked me to turn it in for her without telling me why until this morning." She said this with disbelief.
Hazuki, happy and reassured, faced the front of the class when Seki-sensei walked into the room with her usual attractive stride.
She glanced at the attendance list and her eyes scanned the room stopping on Onpu's empty seat.
]
"Harukaze-san where is Segawa-san?"
"Ah, she had to go to a thing for Christmas." Doremi smiled.
"Harukaze, Christmas is two months from now."
Seki-sensei looked at her strangely. Snickers from the class, along with a whisper of 'smothered brains' from Kotake could be heard throughout.
Doremi flushed, embarrassed.
Aiko waved her hand. "What she means is that Segawa-san had to film a promotional thing for Christmas ahead of time."
She patted Doremi's shoulder reassuringly. The witch apprentice continued to sulk in her chair.
"I see..." Seki-sensei chose to ignore this and moved onto the next task.
"Everyone one who has a signed permission slip for the trip to the corn fields, I'm coming around to collect them now."
She moved out of the way of the podium and filed down the aisles, grabbing slips from hands as she passed by.
"But why a corn field? That isn't very schoolish sounding to me," Doremi whispered to Hazuki.
"Eh? Well, maybe its one of those trips that are more for fun then education."
She held up her permission slip, ready for her teacher to take it when she passed by.
Seki-sensei took her slip and took a step, pausing at Momoko's desk.
"Asuka-san are you alright?" She frowned, concerned.
Momoko opened her mouth to speak but Aiko saved her the trouble.
"Her cousins kept her up all night. She's only sleepy."
Hazuki froze at her words. She thought back to her own conversation with Baaya that morning. She had said her dream had exhausted her energy, and made her hungry. All the small, enjoyable things that had happened previously went right down the drain. The witch paled as she remembered the gruesome and familiar details of the nightmare.
Doremi noticed the color fade from her best friend's face.
"Neh, Hazuki-chan, are you okay?" The pink ojamajo lowered her eyelids.
". . . oh! It's nothing. I'm just feeling a little sleepy myself. I had . . . a bad stomach ache last night."
She waved her hand in assurance.
"Oh, I see! I hope you're feeling better." Doremi smiled and turned back to face the teacher.
"Now class, today we're going to work on multiplying fractions. This is one of the skills that will be very useful when you move on to junior high."
Seki-sensei started writing notes on the board. Doremi slammed her head onto the desk in silent tears.
The brunette breathed a sigh of relief. Doremi was her best friend but she didn't want to involve her in trivial things such as make-believe dreams. She told herself this, yet she couldn't stop thinking about the nightmare. It had seemed so real, but so unbelievable at the same time. However, she was positive that the song was real. Hazuki had heard it somewhere before . . . somewhere.
A pair of eyes watched her carefully, reading every new emotion that crossed her face.
"Fujiwara . . ."