What is that ticking noise? I wonder, groaning and rolling over. "Five more minutes." I mumble, pulling my blanket over my head. Today was kind of like a day off. Kind of. I was supposed to use the day resting and studying for my exam the next day before working at the Museum tonight, but mostly all I've done is sleep.
"Fine!" I yell at my alarm clock. "I'm awake, are you happy now?" I stumble across my room and smack the large snooze button. I hate waking up in the middle of a good dream. "I was winning too." I brood and amble off to the kitchen, scratching my ass through my boxers. "If I drew my cards like that more often I'd kick that rich snob's ass every time!" I praise myself, searching through the fridge for something edible. "Old cheese, not sure what that is, empty milk carton.. Nothin'." I sigh shutting the door again. "Dammit, I swear I just went grocery shopping!"
I head back to my room rubbing my angry stomach. "Me too buddy, me too." I pat my stomach and root through my small pile of clothes trying to find something clean. "This doesn't smell too badly." I shrug, pulling on a plain light blue t-shirt. "Not like I got someone to impress." I grin, snatching my bag from the floor and plopping down on my bed. I shift my only pillow around until it's resting comfortably between my back and the wall. Now it was time to study for math. I hate math.
"Let's see, this, plus that, over this shape over there, and that number goes to that, and then this letter goes, er, somewhere…" I stare at the page trying to figure out what I'm looking at. "Maybe it's an elephant?" I muse to myself, drawing out the animal's form on top of all the shapes, letters, and numbers. "See?" I grin triumphantly staring at my handiwork. "An elephant!"
I'm pretty sure I spent the last hour drawing a horde of different animals I'd never see; a lion, a bear, a snake, and I'm pretty sure I managed to create a unicorn. "I'm screwed." I groan to myself, face planting into my textbook; twisting into a very strange human-pretzel. "How am I ever going to learn this?"I ask the ceiling.
Somehow I managed to spend the next few hours before I needed to get ready for work attempting to memorize formulas and numbers. And creating more animals. Before I knew it, it was time to head to work. I scramble around my small apartment, grabbing my uniforms and school bag. "Ready, set, go!" I call out, locking the door behind me and dashing off to work.
The night shift was long and boring. Because of new policies I had to fill out extra logs and read a new manual. After that I still had a few extra hours to study and look over my notes for tomorrow's exam. "Seriously, these still look like animals!" I grin, drawing a leopard. I spent most of my time memorizing animal shapes to formulas. I had to look up a few extra equations that weren't part of any homework assignments, but I really wanted a whale and a turtle.
"It's kind of like a zoo." I murmur to myself, drawing what kind of looks like a polar bear. You know, if you squint at it long enough. "Not quite enough spots to make the full bear, but I can pretend." I shrug, taking a mental note to remember a 9x^3 made up the bear's nose. "Help me out, little guy." I grin, adding some mild shading to make the bear look more three-dimensional. By the end of my shift I have 30 animals in Jounouchi's Zoo.
By the time I got to school, taken a quick nap, and arrived to class, I was beyond tired and grumpy. I wav to my friends, not saying much, grateful they're all sitting at their desk to study more for the upcoming end of the world, also known as a test.
"Good morning, class." Our teacher calls out, striding into the class room. "We will begin our day with your mathematics exam. Put everything away now except for your pencils. You will have one hour to complete your exams." She explains, passing out the tests. "This grade is worth 30% of your final grade for this class." She explains as she places an exam on my desk. "There will be no talking, moving, snacking, whining, crying or any other disruptions." She lists, continuing around the room. "If you finish early, turn over your exam and sit quietly while your peers finish their exams. You may begin."
I nervously flip over my exam, looking over all 25 questions. Only Kaiba could finish this early. I grumble to myself, scowling at the first question as I begin to solve it. After ten minutes of jumping from question to question trying to figure each one out, things start to look really similar.
I can't believe this! I stare down at my exam. It looks like my zoo! I grin, beginning to draw slight outlines of all of my animals on top of the problems, puzzling out what went where with what animal. By the end of the hour I managed to write something down for every question, hopefully earning a few points here and there.
The rest of the morning went by in a blur. I can only remember the teacher rambling on about some dumb time in history and some dumb kid asking a dumb question about that dumb time in history. I also remember yawning a few times and wishing it was lunchtime already. I was starvin'! Before I knew what was happening I was caught in a living limbo, not really sure if I was awake or sleepin'.
"…and I guess that's a good enough reason, right Jou?" Anzu's voice floats into my thoughts.
"Er, sure, yeah." I mumble, blinking at my friends who were all surrounding my desk.
"Told you I could get him to agree to anything I wanted." The brunet grins. "Thanks for agreeing to do my laundry!" She sings, brushing her hair behind her shoulder.
"What!" I shout, looking at my other friends for support. "You gotta be kiddin' me!" I groan, dropping my head onto my desk. "I ain't washin' your girl clothes, Anz. You probably have cooties."
"Too late, you already agreed." She chirps back, pulling up a chair and rustling through her bag.
"Cheer up, Jou." Yugi's voice sounds to the left of me. "At least she didn't trick you into being her dance partner for next week like she did to poor Honda." I crack a grin trying to imagine Honda being anything other than ungraceful and awkward.
"That was dirty pool." Honda rumbles from my right, also pulling up a chair.
"It's not my fault the two of you space out so much during history lessons you'll agree to anything anyone asks you. Maybe that'll teach you to pay attention and learn something?"
"As if, Anz. This stuff hasn't changed in decades, and it won't change in a few more. I see no reason to learn it." Honda shoots back, dropping something on my desk and taking stuff out of it. I sniff the air, beef! I lift my head up just enough to see the brown sack lying next to my head. I slowly slide my hand into the sack and take the sandwich out, carefully placing my head back onto the desk while they argu. Heh, heh, heh. I chuckle to myself, taking a large bite out of the sandwich.
"You should still know it!" Anzu huffs, placing something else on my desk. I glance up just enough to see a soda. Fizz! I grin, snaking my hand gradually across the desk, jacking the soda and sliding it under the desk with my stolen sandwich. I replace my head slowly, taking another bite out of the sandwich.
"That's not even an argument!" Honda cries, not noticing a thing.
I quickly eat the rest of the beef sandwich, sipping Anzu's soda from the pink straw she inserted into it. As soon as I finish a cookie appears in front of my eyes from my left. Ehh? I lift my head slightly to see Yugi smiling at me, laughter floating in his purple eyes. I grin back, taking the cookie, and putting my head back down.
"Of course it makes sense to learn this! History is important!"Anzu presses on, refusing to let go.
I put the empty sandwich wrapper back in Honda's bag as I sip the rest of Anzu's soda from the can, as quietly as I can.
"No it isn't!" Honda barks back as I slip Anzu's soda can back in front of her, quietly putting my head back down as I shove the last of the cookie into my mouth.
"Hey! Why is my soda empty!" Anzu cries out a second after I swallow.
"Haha!" Honda teases as he grabs his paper sack. "My sandwich!"
"Haha to you!" Anzu cries out, gloating.
I couldn't keep myself from snickering when I glance up and see their faces.
"Jou!" The two of them chorus, glaring at me.
"What? Ya shouldda known to keep ya food protected." I shrug at the two of them, ducking a swing from Honda.
"That ain't funny! I was looking forward to that!"Honda's chair scrapes against the ground as he leaps to his feet.
"Sorry, finhead, you shouldda spent more time eating and less time arguing!" I fall out of my chair dodging his next blow, rolling away to hide behind Yug.
"Oh no you don't! You can't hide behind Yugi!" Anzu cries, snatching for me from the other side of Yugi.
"C'mon, guys!" Yugi cries out, holding his hands spread out. "Jou's right, he's been stealin' our food for years. You two should know to keep a better eye out! Besides, I suffered the greatest casualty. He got my cookie." The small boy places a hand over his heart, feigning a sad voice. "And I say we let him go!"
I snicker quietly behind Yugi's back at his display. The little guy could be quite devilish when he wanted to be.
"Fine." Anzu agrees after what I'm pretty sure was an epic internal debate, plopping back into her seat. These guys would do anything for Yug, me included.
"I'll get you back for this." Honda gripes, plopping back into his seat.
"Thanks, Yug." I whisper, pulling my chair slightly farther away from Honda before sitting back down.
"No problem." Yugi winks, pulling a second cookie from his lunch bag and eating it before anyone could notice.
"Watch out today, Jounouchi-kun." A soft voice warns as I clock in for the day. "Shini's been awake all night and day, he's probably cranky." Kanako winks, breezing by on her way to do something important.
"Thanks." I sulk and head towards Takei's office. Why can't Shini ever be pleasant? Just once! I grumble to myself, ducking underneath a nurse as she passes around strange, sterile equipment. Where do these people come from? I object, dodging a small, older looking woman running past me. How old is she? I wonder, reaching Takei's door, knocking gently as I walk in.
"Ah, good evening, Jou-san!" Takei smiles warmly at me. "I hope you enjoyed your day off yesterday?" He asks warmly, placing his stapler back onto his desk.
"I spent most of it studying for a math exam today." I tell him, slumping into the chair on the other side of his desk.
"How did you do?" He asks, folding his hands on his desk.
"I don't know, hopefully better than last time. Most of the problems were the ones that I had studied on my own at home." I shrug, leaning backwards with the chair.
"Careful not to fall, even if we are in a hospital." He winks at me, giving me the same warning he always does. I roll my eyes, grinning.
"I'm a young adult," I explain, hooking one foot on the edge of his desk. "Don't you know we're immortal?" I grin cheekily.
"Be careful, Jou, I don't want to see anything bad happen to you." He advises me, his eyes crinkling in amusement.
"I'll try." I smile, placing the legs of my chair back on the floor. "What's on the schedule today?"
"Same old, same old, silly boy." He claps his hands together. "We've got a lot to do everywhere so you'll be on your own for the most part." I give him a quick salute as I hop out of the chair and head toward the door. "Stay out of trouble!"
"Can do, cap'n!" I call out, hurrying to the second floor.
I know that I should listen to the two warnings I've already gotten today, but I can't pass up visiting with my favorite resident patient!
"Kanse!" I whisper as I duck into room 217. "How ya been?!" I grin widely, swirling the broom on the floor, sweeping up some dust.
"Jou-kun!" The little old man grins from the bed. I can't help but grin madly back. "It's been almost a week, my boy!" He grins widely, his eyes nearly crinkling shut.
"I know, I'm sorry." I bow my head, tapping the broom against my skull. "I meant to come by sooner, but-" I shrug apologetically, bowing my head again.
"No, no, my boy, I won't have it." Kanse waves a hand at me. "I would rather you tell me how your day was than listen to you apologize for nothing!" I grin up at him sheepishly.
"Well, I got a free lunch today." I grin wickedly. "Free soda and cookie too. Only the cookie was actually for me, but those are soft details."
I can't help but smile as Kanse's small body shakes with laughter, a sign that definitely means he's recovering. "Oh my boy, tell me your friends weren't too rough with you when they found out!"
"Well, I took it right from under their noses when they were arguing. It was completely fair game. They should know better by now!" I wink at him.
"Yes, I suppose they should. And the free cookie?"
"Yug' brought me an extra one from home to save my sorry butt with some excuse about being the worse off in the end. Not sure how he planned that, but it was a really delicious cookie." I smile happily, remembering the flavor of the cookie.
"I'm happy you have such nice friends, Jou-kun." I grin with him.
"Me too." I nod my head pondering my luck in friends. "Oh! I also took a math test today," I tell him as I start to sweep around his room again. "I don't have a clue what was going on, but I've learned that if I memorize what kinds of animals the numbers and letters and shapes look like, I can sort of remember what to put down and what to write as an answer." I shrug at my crappy explanation.
"That's a very interesting way to look at mathematics, dear boy." Kanse smiles at me, pulling a pad of paper off of his bedside table. "Why don't you show me what you mean?" He smiles warmly, offering the paper.
"Of course!" I grin, taking the paper from him and leaning against his bed sketching out an elephant from my zoo. "Most of the animals I draw are animals I'll never actually see."
"Animals you'll never see?" He asks as I get to a particularly difficult area to draw.
"Yeah," I explain, concentrating on the drawing. "Exotic animals, or big animals, or really rare animals." I explain and finish the trunk, handing him the paper a second later. "I like to think of them as being from my zoo!"
"This is really excellent!" Kanse gasps staring down at my drawing. "So much detail!" I scrub my cheek fighting away a blush creeping up.
"Nah, it's just a quick drawing!" I call out, hopping off the bed and grabbing my broom again.
"You have time to draw?" An icy voice bites from the doorway. Shit.
"Ah, not really, sir. I was just-"
"You were just nothing, Jounouchi!" Shini snaps at me, slamming his binder closed. I'm in deep shit now.
"Honestly, I was just-" I try again, flinching at the look in his eyes.
"I don't know what you have been doing in here, Jounouchi, but you will be in Takei's office in two minutes flat if you want to have any hope of keeping this job. Understand?" He snaps at me while I grip the broom handle so hard my knuckles turn white.
"Yes, Shini-sensei." I bite out, walking stiffly to the door. I can hear Kanse-san say something behind me, but I'm too angry to understand. I stomp my way down to Takei's office in a blind rage. I was hardly even in Kanse's room! I was there for a few minutes!
"Jounouchi?" Takei asks, looking up from his paper work. "You're back so soon? You've only been gone for half an hour!" My supervisor frowns as I slump into one of his chairs.
"Shini's pissed off 'cause I was talking to Kanse-san as I cleaned his room." I explain, refusing to meet my supervisor's eyes.
"Jounouchi." Takei sighs and shifts his position. "Why did you risk getting caught by him? You know he hates everyone."
"Because it's been so long since I've seen Kanse-san. He gets lonely by himself. I try to visit often, but Shini's always in a bad mood! What did you want me to do, leave Kanse by himself?" I yell, curling my hands into tight fists.
"Jounouchi," Takei says calmly, "It's okay to care about Kanse-sama. He's a very nice man and we all enjoy speaking with him. But you need to remember that you are an employee here, not a family member. I need to ask you not to speak with him while you're supposed to be doing other duties. I'm going to have to give you an official warning."
"That's it?" I grip my hands tighter as I hear Shini's nasty voice from the doorway. "I insist he be put on probation at the very least! I stress the importance of firing such a whelp!"
I can feel my body shaking in rage as I keep my jaw clenched shut.
"Shini-sama, how nice it is to see you. Would you mind speaking with me in the hall for a moment?" Takei asks calmly, not reacting to Shini's nasty attitude.
"Fine." Shini snaps and they both exit the room.
I tug on the end of my shoelace as I wait in the office by myself. Fuck. I curse mentally as the situation really hits me. I need this job! I can't get fired! I can't even risk getting fired!
I stare at the clock on the wall, freaking out about my future, watching the minutes creep by as the two men debate just outside the office. I can't understand what they're saying, but by the sounds of it, things can't be good for me.
I jump slightly when the door opens again. "Jounouchi?" Takei asks while he sits back down at his desk. "I stick by the warning that I have given to you earlier. I must warn you not to upset Shini-sama again. You are an excellent employee and it would be difficult to replace you. I believe that is why I was able to argue your point in why you should stay. You're truly a great and dedicated worker. Please, don't mess up like that again. I won't be able to keep your disciplinary action between the two of us in the future if something were to happen."
"You mean, I'm not being fired?" I gape at him, my heart thumping in my chest.
"No, my boy. But you absolutely must not be caught again. I must ask you not to step foot on the second floor while you are clocked in."
"But that means that I can't see Kanse-san!" I shout as I jump out of my chair. "I can't just leave him by himself! He doesn't have anyone else!"
"Jounouchi, calm down please. You must remember where you are!" Takei cries out to me, his eyes flickering to the door. "Calm yourself. Now."
My eyes widen in understanding. "I'm sorry." I whisper, collapsing into my chair.
"That's alright, my boy." Takei sighs, wiping his brow. "I understand you better than most supervisors would, but it will not do you well in the future to take such a tone with your boss." I gulp as his words strike home. Anyone else and I would have been fired for my actions and my words. "Do you know when visiting hours begin and end, Jounouchi-san?"
It takes me a moment to register his question. "No," I blink at him, cocking my head slightly to the side, "but I can look 'em up." I frown at him. "Why?"
"There aren't very many rules governing visiting hours. While it is true that there are some rules, these rules usually do not restrict who may come and go. Do you understand?" I furrow my brow even more.
"Oh!" I cry out, understanding finally dawning on me. "Yes, I understand." I breathe, a smile creeping its way across my face. I could visit Kanse-sama whenever I wanted to without being worried if I came during visiting hours! I'm so stupid!
"Now, Jounouchi-san, you will need to come back into my office before you leave for the night for an official disciplinary meeting. There will be a form you will need to sign as well as a quick refresher on what the rules for an employee at this hospital needs to keep in mind while working here. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Takei-san." I bow my head in shame. I've embarrassed Takei-san, I just know it. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright, Jounouchi." He sighs, standing up from behind his desk. "Please, return to work now. And remember, you will not step a toe onto the second floor unless otherwise specified to do so."
"Yes, sir." I whisper, trudging my way back out of the door. This has been the worst evening of work I've had in a long time, I just hope it doesn't get any worse.
The best part of my entire day was coming home to my empty apartment. "Man am I glad today's an off day at the museum." I stretch loudly as I kick the door closed behind me. My head was still swimming with my final reprimand of the day, a copy of my warning in my back pocket. "Well, I know the absolute best part of my day!" I sing out to my empty apartment. "I didn't hit anyone in the face today!" I dance badly into my kitchen singing a tune without a purpose, filing a glass with water. "No food, right. Learned that this morning!" I sing to myself, dancing badly back to the small living space, managing not to spill a single drop of water.
"9 hours till school, actual sleep last night, finished homework during that hour or two before work-" I stop dead, staring around my apartment. "I don't understand." I frown, panic rising in my chest. "There's nothing to do?" I whisper hurriedly. "Nothing?" I sit down on the couch, breathing deeply as I try to calm myself. "This is the weirdest day of my life!" I cry out, gripping my chest.
I nearly scream as someone pounds at my door, breaking my concentration. "Go away!" I grumble quietly to myself, glancing out the peephole. I sigh as I roll my eyes tugging the dull brown door open. "Rai?" I ask, cocking an eyebrow at my tiny neighbor. "You knocked?"
"Sugar?" The tiny teen asks, hugging himself with one arm and scratching behind his ear with the other hand. "You wouldn't happen to have?" His dark bloodshot eyes drag another sigh from my chest.
"I don't really think I have much, but let me check." I shut the door quickly running to my kitchen to search. I come up with a mostly empty container of what I'm pretty sure is sugar.
"What do you need sugar for, Rai?" I ask as the small pre-teen when I open the door again, offering him the small amount of sugar. "Sorry that's all I've got though."
"Dunno." The teen tells me, happily accepting the small offering. "Just want sugar."
I stare after him, blinking slowly as he walks away calmly as if nothing happened. I shut the door behind me, clicking the lock into place. "This is the weirdest fucking day of my life." I grumble, shuffling into my bathroom to brush my teeth. "Weirdest, worst, best, I don't know just weird!" I cry out, trying to shake the crazy out of my head. "I swear I'm not going insane." I promise my reflection, tugging on my lower eyelid to see if there were any specs of noticeable crazy dust floating around in my eye. "What the hell is wrong with me!"
AN: Thanks for stopping by! Make good choices!