3:20 PM. The final bell rings, and I head towards the IT office to meet the others. Apart from the morning's trip, I've coasted through this day under the radar. This is because the only thing on anyone's radar today is Mahiru Koizumi. When I catch occasional glimpses of her, shes wallpapered by an adhesive layer of groupies.
There's been much googling of her mom in between classes. Owari is even inspired to look her up on her iPhone, and Owari is rarely inspired to user her iPhone for anything other than Angry Birds.
The net is full of Koizumi's mom's stuff: pictures and gallery openings and photos of a woman who looks way too young to be anyone's mom.
By this point I've lost interest. I figure the vague proximity to celebrity will keep the Pack occupied for at least a month. A potentially incident-free month, the likes of which have not been seen since we had that substitute teacher last year that looked like the channel-one weather girl. I can't guarantee that the reprieve will be anything other than passing. But I can guarantee a few things. There will be angst. There will be gossip. And unless new girl turns out to be a crazy killer cyborg, she will be of no relevance to me.
What is relevant to me is the fact that Owari has dropped out of gymnastics.
Owari has been obsessed with karate since the elementary school, before she discovered that kicking people in the face was a legitimate sport. She trains almost religiously, and is actually amazing at it. She is definitely one of the best gymnasts at her school.
Today she has wandered into the IT office, dropped six cans of Coke onto Mr Fujisaki's pile of cables, and said:
"I've decided to stop training. I'm hanging up my leotard."
Even Mr Fujisaki, who only knows Owari from a distance, pauses.
Midway through last year, Nanami was employed by the school as Mr Fujisaki's assistant. Our IT coordinator (who happens to be the brother of a kid who's a year below us, Fujisaki) doesn't really need an assistant. He needs a hairbrush, and possibly a shower. Mr Fujisaki decided to finagle Nanami's services after stumbling onto an intense gaming session we were playing in the library one day after school. The session involved a fully coded mod that Nanami had created (with the help of Miss Usami, who also happened to be Nanami's older sister) that almost completely changed the gameplay. Mr Fujisaki was fascinated and soon got into an intense conversation with Nanami about coding and other stuff I don't really get, as I was only a novice back then. Since then Nanami and Mr Fujisaki had taught me more about computers.
No-one messes with Mr Fujisaki. He's happy for us to hang out in his office whenever we like. When we are here we are, basically, free.
We are listening to the radio which is blasting old sixties tunes in the background, because we always listening to the radio in the background. There is order to Monday afternoons, and in a world of stupidity and looming hostility I have come to depend on it:
On a normal Monday, Komaeda and Owari will show up at three-thirty with Coke and candy from the shop across the road. Nanami will perch on top of the filing cabinet with whichever Zelda game is on rotation that day. Owari will engage Nanami in approximately twelve minutes of argument about Call of Duty. Owari and Nanami will conclude their argument with some variation of the phrase, Why don't you stick to Tetris/Checkers/Pong. And then Mr Fujisaki will hide in the confusion until it's time for us to leave.
Today, Komaeda is spinning slowly in his chair, his eyes on the ceiling.
Nanami has stopped tapping her shoes against the filing cabinet. She is chewing on her hair again.
Owari is eating her second chocolate bar, which is weird because she always stuffs her face with at least six bars when we bring it.
Komaeda stops spinning. he looks sideways at me. I nod.
"Any reason why you're quitting?" I say eventually.
Owari shrugs.
"Is it because of a guy?" Komaeda says. I shove a chocolate bar into his mouth.
Owari sighs. "No, it's not."
I feel like I should add something more. Something insightful. Something quote-worthy.
But I have very little hope that my own life will ever produce anything close to a single, great line. I'm desperately running through my thoughts as I try to think of something passably encouraging to say to Owari.
Except Owari has stopped chewing on her chocolate bar. Komaeda is looking over my shoulder. His eyes widen. Nanami stops chewing on her hair.
And then I hear a voice behind me. The voice says:
"Is this the IT office? I need a little help, if it's not too much trouble."
It may not be quote worthy. But it turns my head anyway.
Mahiru Koizumi is standing in my doorway.
"I'm looking for Chiaki Nanami," she says, "the office sent me down here. I can't get to the network. They told me that you were the person to speak to?"
"Ah... Hinata-kun, could you handle this? I'm in the middle of a boss fight, right now..." Nanami says. Koizumi looks for Hinata. Nanami points to me. Komaeda points to me. Owari points to me. I realise that I am, in fact, Hinata.
"I'm Hinata," I mumble.
"Hey," she says, "Koizumi. Nice to meet you, I guess."
I stay still for ten seconds. She raises an eyebrow. "...Are you going to help me, or what?" She is holding a laptop in her hands. "If it's a bad time I can come back later. Only I have some sort of welcome pack in my inbox, apparently. It's a life or death situation, apparently..."
No one moves for another five seconds. Owari stands. "Want something to eat?" She holds out a chocolate bar.
Koizumi steps into the room and takes it.
The next sequence of actions remind me of Zelda, actually, when you make the chickens mad and they all coming rushing at you. The room bursts into a flurry of misdirected activity.
Nanami leaps down from her cabinet, still playing her game, and Komaeda jumps out of his chair, and together they shove past Owari and push a stool towards Koizumi. She sits. She unwraps the chocolate bar and takes a bite. She holds her computer out to me.
The only thoughts I'm capable of thinking are that the sanctity of my safe house has been compromised, and the order of my Monday has been disturbed. I take the laptop from her without a word.
"Thanks," she says with a mouth full of chocolate. "Sorry, I don't think I've met you guys, yet. It's been a blurry day."
Owari sticks out her hand. "Owari, Komaeda, Hinata, Nanami," she says quickly, "but you've already met Hinata and Nanami. I'm Owari. Owari."
Koizumi shakes her hand. She smiles that half-smile at Komaeda. "I guess that makes you not-Owari?"
Komaeda grimaces. "No, I'm Komaeda. Nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Koizumi replies.
I open up her laptop. Her wallpaper is a picture from a black-and-white movie that I think is called Manhattan.
I don't know what this means, but I figure the faster I work, the faster I can return the four of us to our status quo. I also know that no good can come from having someone like her in a confined space with Owari.
I balance her laptop on my knees and type as fast as I can. As it turns out, this is not fast enough.
"What's in that?" Owari asks, poking Koizumi's tiny shoulder bag.
I may know next to nothing about girls, but I'm fairly certain they don't like it when you poke at them like they're a half-ripe orange. Besides, what if something... private was in that bag?
Koizumi opened the bag, revealing a high tech digital camera. "It's just my camera. I take it everywhere with me."
"Ah, you must be really good at photography, then," Nanami says.
"Hey, you should take a picture of us!" Owari says. I type faster.
"Uh, if you want. I'm really not that good," Koizumi says, but there's a smile and a faint blush on her cheeks. She turns her camera on.
"A-all done!" I say, snapping the laptop shut, "Here, Koizumi-san. You can go now, nice meeting you." Owari, Nanami and Komaeda stare at me in surprise. I glare in return.
When I turn my head to Koizumi, she looks a little offended. Oops.
"Uh, if y-you want to go, that is," I say, a little embarrassed, holding out the laptop. She gingerly takes it.
"That's alright. I guess I should go home," She smiles at the others, "Bye, Komaeda, Owari-chan, Nanami-chan, it was nice to meet you." She walks out. I sit back down. The others glare. Mr Fujisaki hurries out the door.
I messed up.