Hello Everyone! It seems I had enough inspiration to do both chapters today! Don't expect this to happen a lot, as I am very lazy and have a lot of stuff I like doing. I wanted to at least give you a taste and make the story a liiittle bit more interesting! Here we go, chapter 2! Please R&R~
Chapter 2: Blue Bird
I walked to the classroom's exit, head tilted downwards. I couldn't bare to turn and look at my sister now. Could I ask to switch pairs?...As if Kamui would ever let us do that. His word was law. But then, was I supposed to do about this-
"Ouch! Watch it!" I yelled and looked at the female figure who had bumped on me and rushed away without an apology, not to mention not even a glance. The green-haired girl ran up the stairs instead of entering the elevator as if she was being chased by something. I lifted an eyebrow and crossed my hands. "What the hell...?"
"She's always in a hurry to get out of his class, isn't she..?" My best friend's voice echoed behind me and I turned my eyes at him, then at the weird girl who had fled from the room like a hurricane.
"I guess so.." I muttered, my eyes still somehow still staring at the stairs she had used. "Nakajima-san isn't very friendly is she...? Is she running from us?" Rin walked up from behind us pouting, and looked at me pupishly. "I'd like to make friends...why's she so cold?"
I smiled and ruffled her bangs with my hand playfully. "Idiot. Some people like their solitude, just leave her be!" I said grinning widly at my sister's whinning, then laughed when she tried fighting back. I was messing up her carefully combed bangs after all, I'd definitely get a good scold. Kaito simply smiled and placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, tilted his head and smiled, looking at us sadly. "Hey, about that...sorry...I wasn't of much help..." He muttered out, causing both me and Rin to stop our childlish quarreling and turn to look at him. His eyes looked worried and apologetic. Why did this guy always look so apologetic?
"Oi, idiot." I said and punched his chest softly. "Stop looking at me as if you killed someone. It's okay! We'll manage" I grinned. "Right Rin?" My sister nodded ,looked up at Kaito and smiled softly, her cheeks slightly red. "Let's work hard!" She spoke and placed her arms behind her back shyly.
I pretended I knew nothing and cleared my voice to alarm her she was being read like an open book, which did the trick and forced her back to the real world. She smiled, waved at us and walked off upstairs.
I turned to Kaito and began to speak, only to be cut off by the 'monster's voice behind me.
"If you have time to chit-chat, perhaps you have time to rush to your next lesson? The bell will ring in approximately 3 minutes after all". He said smirking down at us.
I'm not gonna punch him. No god, I won't. I'm not gonna punch him, I'm not-
"I apologize" Kaito spoke out and grabbed my head, his hand forcing me down to bow with him. Why do I have to bow to him? All he does is piss me off!
And just like that, Kaito grabbed me by the shoulder again and pulled me in the elevator fast, and only when the doors shut close he let out a sigh of relief.
"Seriously, you need to calm down a little. Don't apologize or every little thing other people do, it's disturbing..." I know I was being kind of an asshole, but it was the truth. Have a little self-respet damn it. But I didn't expect anything short of an awkard smile from my friend. He nodded and apologized once again, for apologizing. Sheesh...
We stood silent for a second until the characteristc, sharp "din" sound of the elevator's bell implied we had arrived at the chosen floor, and the doors opened. He suddenly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back in. I looked at him eyes wide and blinked in surprise.
His grip was tight. Maybe a little too tight.
"Hey...maybe It's just me but..." He said and moved closer so that nobody else would hear. "Nakajima...seems like a whole different type of person around Kamui."
I lifted an eyebrow and looked at him surprised. "Huh? What are you saying? And let go already, it hurts!" I whined and pulled my hand back, rested my back on the elevator's brown wall and looked up at the tall bluehead.
Kaito sighed and looked around to make sure nobody was listening to our conversation, then leaned down and spoke with his voice's volume as low as possible.
"Look, I'm not an expert...but she acts all weird around Kamui...she's all stiff, doesn't make a sound...last week, remember when you had the flu and skipped class?" He said and eyed me carefully. I nodded and stuck my eyes on his. "Well" he continued. "We had Kamui that day...Nakajima was to sing her assigned song in class...and she stood on the stage" he pulled back and started making movements with his hands to give me a cleaner idea what he was talking about. "She started singing but...out of nowhere the girl started shaking everywhere, u know? And she was glaring at Kamui as if he was some kinda ghost." He said and scratched his hair sighing. "He tried to help her but she slapped his hand back, and ran out of class screaming...Literally screaming at the top of her lungs."
I stared at him, my eyes wide. Okay what the hell, I know she was a nutcase but that was just too much...
"And know what Kamui did about it? Nothing. He didn't even glance the way she ran, he simply continud his lesson without a care in the world..."
I scratched the back of my neck nervously and lifted an eyebrow, staring at him. "And what are you trying to say...? Isn't she crazy anyway?"
He glared at me and I gulped back, looking apologetically at him. "She's not crazy, something's wrong! There was this other time..." He began but let his voice trail off, staring to the side at nothingness, lost deep in thought.
I crossed my arms and waited. Whatever was he trying to say? And suppose something's up between Kamui and Nakajima, what's it got to do with us? She's crazy alright, seducing a teacher seems like something she might do...maybe she got rejected and got a fit. We don't even know her, how is he making assumptions? Wait..Am I not the one making assumptions too? Sigh...
"Listen." He finally spoke and grabbed my shoulder. He looked down at me and frowned. Hell...I didn't like my friend's frown, it didn't suit him. I sighed and nodded. "I'm all ears..."
He bent down and spoke softly again. "She never looks at him in the eye, and if she's forced to make any contact with him, she acts weird. Very weird. Every single time! I'm only telling you this because you've been partnered up with her...I'm not sure but...I'm getting a bad feeling about this..."
I sighed and rested my hands in the pockets of my own jeans, looked up at him and pouted. "Now, you hear me instead. We've got nothing to do with this. We hardly even know her! And what are you implying anyway? I doubt he's that much of a monster to've done anything to her, and if he did, she probably deserved it for slacking off. Like, punishment or something. It's none of our business, don't put into other people's affairs, idiot."
Maybe I'd spoken too harshly to him. It's a common fact that Kaito is way too soft of a person. He gets easily sad and can't help but worry about other people. Maybe that's why he constantly buts in where he shouldn't. I sighed and poked his chest again. "Let's go, we're 5 minutes late. Thank god It's Meiko-san's class." I said, grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out of the elevator and towards the classroom. I didn't dare look at him in the eye. I knew he was probably sad right now. Not so much about what I'd said, rather, more about what I'd done. Which was, nothing. What could I do anyway? As I said...I have other things to worry over...
We both walked into class and I let go of his shirt to let him walk to his desk as I walked to mine. As expeted, we were the last ones to walk in class. Everyone was already seated, and Meiko-san was in the middle of the classroom looking at us with a warm smile.
"Come on hurry up, hurry up! We have many things to speak about today!" She said and twirled around the room, then stopped at Miku's desk. She rested her hands on it , smiled at her, then turned and looked at the rest of us. "I suppose Kamui-sensei has already informed you of the event which will be held at the school, non?" We all nodded and she turned to Miku again. The teacher smiled and bit her lip. "How do you feel?" She asked the girl, who seemed to look very happy, but somehow the teacher looked even more intrigued herself. "I can't wait!" Miku admitted and grinned all happily.
Somehow though, I couldn't take my eyes off the girl sitting behind her. It had started to bug me too...Nakajima's behaviour...hell, how was I supposed to work alongside such a person? This chick had temper issues to begin with!
"Of course you can't wait! I bet all of you are very excited about this!" Meiko-san said and pulled away from Miku, then walked and sat on Nakajima's desk. Nakajima simply stared at her silently, then cracked a random smile. Creepy...
I looked away shivering. This girl was creeping me out...but come to think of it...
I turned around and looked at her carefully again. She looked much more laid back and relaxed now. She was genuinely smiling and chit-chatting with Meiko-san about the concert. Maybe Kaito was right...Maybe something was off...
I shook my head and blinked twice to drive the thoughts away from my mind. This was none of my business, and nothing I should worry over right now.
"Well then, let's start this way. Sit alongside your pairs please." Meiko-sensei smiled at us and walked to her own desk.
Oh no...I facepalmed myself and moved the finger covering my left eye out of sight, only to look up at Nakajima, who had somehow already sat down next to me. She moved closer, blinked, then giggled. "You're so weird! I'm not gonna eat you!" She chuckled and kept staring at me.
W-Weird? She was the weird one here, I was completely normal!...Though I guess my behaviour right now was nothing short of abnormal...Come to think of it...'I'm not gonna eat you'?...She probably noticed I was being unfriendly...Ah crap...
I lowered my hand from my face and cleared my throat, ordering my stiff body inside my mind to relax. She wasn't going to eat me or anything. She seemed sane enough right now. I looked at the girl who did nothing but smile at me and nodded.
"Uh, sorry, I have a small headache, is all." I'm such a lame liar. Lamest liar of all liars. I can't lie, that's a fact. She probably noticed as well, but all she did was laugh softly at me, then turn around and pull some notebooks out of her book, set them on our now shared desk and open them wide. I did the same and cleared my throat once more, then turned and honestly tried to set all my attention on Meiko-sensei. It wasn't easy to do though.
The sound of ripped paper being ripped next to my ear seemed to draw my attention every few minutes. Was she doing it on purpose? Shesh! Try and respect your teachers for once!...
Hey, come to think of it...wasn't she doing the same in that guy's class?
I tilted my eyes tactfully, with my head still pointed at my teacher, only to see her ripping her papers with a rather delighted look on her face. Yeah, I know...her expression right now is so much different from before...she looked...gloomy and stuff...but the person I was seeing now looked as if she had no care in the world.
"Call me Gumi." Her voice jerked me out of my thoughts, causing me to lightly jump up in my seat, then every muscle in my body stiffen up. "I'll call you Len." She declared and started folding the papers that had caused me such a headache a moment ago.
Wait, what? Don't you have any sense of courtesy? You barely know me, what's with the first-name basis?
I sighed in defeat and nodded. "Okay..." I managed to speak out tiredly and turned my eyes to Meiko-san again. I enjoyed a few moments of silence from her part, for thankfully the papers folding didn't make much of a sound. But my happiness didn't last long, as probably expected.
"Hey hey." She spoke and I stiffened again, shutting my eyes tightly and breathing in and out deeply. It's okay. Don't scream. She'll shut up. Someday.
"Yes...?" I said with my voice sounding somehow hoarse.
"Ships...aren't they beautiful? They're the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made..." She said and smiled down at her army of small paper boats.
I blinked and tilted my head. "W-What? Come again..?" What was that? A ritorical question?
And what do ships have to do with anything? She's an up and comming singer, not a sailor...
Oh wait...
Oh...I see...
I looked down at her small boats. Each and every one of them were carefully placed behind the other, as if they were marching, and she was glancing at them happily like a loving mother of sorts. I couldn't help but smile myself.
"They are. But you're not a sailor. You don't have to sail in your land of dreams." I somehow started blurting out and lifted my hand to the ceiling, looked up and pretended to catch something invisible. "Isn't flying to catch them more effective, and faster? Why not use an airplane?"
The girl turned to me and stared at me for a long moment of silence, then blurted out in a spit of laughter, which caused the whole class to turn and look at us. Damn it...I could feel my cheeks and ears burning hot as I nervously looked anywhere but them.
Meiko-san tilted her head in question, but after a moment of silence, smiled and went back at chit-chatting with the others about something I really wasn't paying attention to.
I heard a soft giggle next to me and saw the girl's hand scribbling something down in her notebook. She then pushed the notebook to my side. I looked down curiously.
'Just because it's the fastest way, doesn't make it the best. Ships are magical. Airplanes aren't'.
I lifted my eyebrows curiously and unconciously grabbed my own pen. I scribbled down: 'How exacly are they magical?' and pushed the notebook back to her.
The girl took it, read and scribbled down a reply to me again.
'Ships are slower, therefore let you experience more things on the way. Airplanes don't do that.'
I found myself at a dead end for words and simply smiled, nodding in defeat. The girl choked a giggle, leaving only rhythmic breaths out and pulled her notebook back to her own side of the desk with her pale hand.
I turned my head straight and pretended to be paying attention at Meiko-sensei.
The girl, she was weird...but in a good way I guess... Ships? Dreams? I chuckled and turned my head to the other side, placing a knuckle to my lips to keep my laughter in. I knew she was probably staring at me with a questionable expression right now.
Come to think of it. She really did seem laid-back now. Carefree. She was smiling, and was talking. Was there really something wrong with Kamui...?
"Len-san, your turn!" I heard my teacher speak out my name and jolted my head back to her, eyes widening in surprise.
"...Eh?" I blinked, all flushed and embarassed that I wasn't actually paying attention to her.
My teacher pouted and eyed me with a dissapointed glance. "Your song, did you practice it? The one you had assigned for today."
I blinked and stood still for a moment, trying to force my head back in working order.
Oh! 'Detective Loupe'!
I nodded and stood up all flushed. "Y-Yes! I'm sorry, I did!".
Meiko-sensei laughed softly at me. "If you did then what are you sorry for?".
I blushed deeper and shut my eyes tightly as the rest of the class laughed at me. It's not like I was gonna admit that I was slacking off into my dreamland again. I shook my head and stood to the front of the class. Meiko-san walked to me and plugged the mic in frond of me on, then walked to the back of the room and switched the music on working order.
As soon as the beat started playing, I grabbed the mic and tapped my foot on the small, but sufficient wooden stage I was standing on.
I loved the sound of music. It thrilled me. The air I filled my lungs with any ordinary day was nothing compared to the air I filled my lungs with to sing. That air, it completed me, it made me feel alive.
'Detective Loupe' was a rather fast song with a solid, oldschool feeling to it. I don't see why I was assigned this song as homework, but hey, it was fun to sing!
I was having my fun now. This...The feeling I got now, I loved it...I lived for it.
Singing in frond of an audience, no matter how small it may be.
I let the lyrics flood out of my lips like a river, enjoying every single note I carefully hit. My sister was silently singing along from her seat, a happy grin plastered on her face, which only made me remember why I wanted to win the upcoming contest so badly.
I wanted to see mom and dad wear the same expression she did now. I could do it...I knew I could...I had to...
Suddenly the music stopped in the middle of the song, and I found myself gasping, out of breath. I scanned the room with my eyes for my teacher fast, only to find her with her finger pressing on the 'off' button of the console.
"What's wrong with you today?" She said and frowned. "You can't sing a song while thinking of something competely unrelated."
I felt my heartbeats rise up twice as fast as they did before, and my stomach suddenly clutching. She couldn't read minds, could she? What was that?
"How..." I began but was cut off by her mature, soft and concerned voice again.
"How do I know?" She said and walked to me, hands crossed under her chest. "When a person sings a song and doesn't feel it, it always shows. The song knows it when you're treating it half-heartedly, so it treats you the same way as punishment."
I blinked and blushed deeply, looking down ashamed.
"You sang without any soul or feeling. Your technique may have been correct, but there was no feeling. It is a happy song, yet it sounded utterly boring to listen to. 60 points." She said and walked away to the back of the room again.
I facepalmed myself once more and sighed, got off the stage and walked to my desk.
Great. This day was getting worse and worse...What had gotten into me today? Not to mention I paid no attention all day, I also screwed up during this week's song presentation...what's gotten into me...?
I sat down on my desk and rested my ankle to the desk, grabbed my lifted bangs and pulled on them silently, but desperately.
Get a grip, idiot. What are your parents paying for...?
Guilt gushed over me as I felt my chest tighten more and more, until it was getting hard to breathe.
60...60 out of 100...this was bad...too bad...
"Hey, don't worry too much. You can't feel a song you dislike." I heard the voice of the person next to me speak again, and somehow this time it didn't sound as annoying as the rest. I sighed but didn't turn to look at her. Gumi-san was right. I didn't really feel the song. But so was the teacher. Maybe, if I had paid more attention to the lyrics, I would've felt it. I would'e done better...ah...shit...
"Gumi-chan, come up please."
I sighed and felt the warmth next to me moving up, until she walked away from the desk and the spot of me felt cold again.
The girl grabbd the microphone in frond of her and tapped it with her finger lightly.
"Ah Ah." She checked it's working order and smiled at me softly. She lifted her hand and pretended to catch something, eyes always stuck on mine.
"It's because you tried to use an airplane instead of a ship." She spoke in the mic and the whole class looked at her with questionable faces. I knew what she meant though, and for the first time I felt like I had something in common with this lunatic.
And so, her own song started playing.
The moment her voice clashed with the music, I knew what she meant. She sang with a smile on her face, dancing along with her hands, making movements that reminded me of a bird. I smiled softly in defeat, and finally noticed the words of the song. And found myself humming along "I just fly to the sky when it's clear on the other side..." .
I smiled and couldn't take my eyes off her. Not because I liked her in a romantic way or anything, nor because she was a stunning beauty.
It was because of her expression when singing. It was captivating. It was magical. She felt the lyrics, and passed them down to me, and probably everyone else in the room as well.
Why hadn't I noticed this before?
Not that I had noticed anything about her...appart from the fact she was crazy...
but while she was singing...maybe, just maybe...
it felt as if she was quite a few levels above me...
Probably because she wasn't rushing. She was sailing.
So here it is, chapter 2~
The song Len sang is: Detective Loupe.
The song GUmi sang is: Blue Bird.
You can check them on youtube. Kisses~!
