The next day saw both Ayumu and I in the school music room. When Ayumu needed to think, he usually did it while playing the piano. Everyone thought he sounded just like Kyotaka. I thought everyone was wrong. If anyone had compared him to Kyotaka, I probably would have punched them. I'm usually pretty level-headed and hard to anger, but when it came to my family, I could snap in an instant.
I sat on the windowsill, leaning my head back. I closed my eyes and sighed. Ayu's music was so calming and, as expected, I hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Though, I really did appreciate that strawberry shortcake.
Just as I began to fall asleep, the door to the music room burst open, causing Ayumu to stop playing.
"I finally found you, Mr. Criminal!" Hiyono's loud voice called out, leaving an echo behind.
I groaned and hit my head against the windowsill in frustration. There went any hope of sleep. I opened my eyes.
"Haven't you heard of due process?" Ayumu asked, annoyed. "And what do you want anyway?"
"Just curious if your cute little ears had picked up on the rumor yet," Hiyono answered.
"What rumor?" I asked, fighting back a giggle. She had called my brother cute.
Hiyono glanced at me, then back at my brother. I guess since I wasn't suspected of attempted murder, I wasn't interesting enough to talk to.
"What I mean is…" Hiyono said, "the people have a right to know! What did it feel like to push that poor girl?"
I stared at her as if she were an idiot. What was here deal?
"I told you a dozen times," Ayumu said, obviously still annoyed, "I didn't do it."
"But," Hiyono shot back, "the hallways are littered with rumors saying that freshman Ayumu Narumi is a heartless murderer."
I shook my head in disgust. What morons. People would believe anything they heard.
"So, you automatically believe these rumors?" Ayumu asked Hiyono.
"I couldn't ignore them," she replied. "They were spreading like a virus. Someone is getting the word out on you as fast as they can."
"Sinobe!" Ayumu and I said at the same time. "That snake," I continued, "better watch what he says or I'll show him attempted murder."
"You're not helping," Ayumu said, shaking his head back and forth while Hiyono looked on in interest.
"That's him," a girl in the hallway whispered none too quietly. "He's the boy who pushed Sayoko. Talk about creepy looking."
I reached into my backpack and pulled out a small effigy doll that I had won at a street carnival last spring and marched over to the girl who was talking about my brother. Once I reached her, I quickly lashed out and yanked a piece of hair from her head.
"Ow!" The girl exclaimed. "What was that for!"
I smiled menacingly and showed her my effigy doll. "I need a piece of hair for the curse to work, Silly."
The girl and her brunette friend both turned exceedingly pale and took off running for the library. I laughed hysterically as I watched them run, tripping over themselves to get away from me a quickly as possible.
"See," Hiyono said, "you're the talk of the campus."
"He's got guilty written all over that ugly face of his," an upper classmen standing by his locker said while pointing to my brother.
I advanced towards them until one of the boy's friends noticed me.
"Dude!" his friend exclaimed. "I think that crazy chick has a voodoo doll! Let's get out of here!"
Laughing once more, I made my way to Ayumu and Hiyono's side.
"Was that really necessary?" Ayumu asked, clearly not happy with me.
"Yes," I told him, "it was. Maybe now they'll learn to keep their mouths shut."
"Come on, Aya," Ayumu said, taking hold of my jacket sleeve and pulling me down the hallway. All round us people parted, not wanting to touch the "voodoo witch."
Hiyono, now with a microphone in her hand, started asking Ayumu some more questions. "Tell me, Mr. Criminal, what do you plan to do now?"
"Go to my next class," Ayumu replied in an obvious sort of tone.
"So," Hiyono continued, "you intend to remain the object of the entire campuses attention?"
"I don't really mind it," he told her.
"Strange," Hiyono said, "you don't really seem like the type who relishes attention."
We stopped walking and Ayumu and I turned to face the young reporter.
"Attention is fine," was Ayumu's reply, "it's when people follow me around that I get annoyed. Find someone else to bother."
I sighed. My brother really wasn't a people person. But, I guess, neither was I really. I didn't have any friends, unless you counted my brother. Oh, well. I shrugged.
"NO!" Hiyono yelled indignantly, surprising both me and my brother. "You've barely given me enough for a quarter page. If I'm annoying you, let me help you guys find out who really committed this crime. Then I'll have a story worth printing.
This girl was definitely going to be a good reported one day. "Welcome aboard," I said, smiling at her. Ayumu just sighed in defeat.
Hours later, Ayumu and I were standing in a deserted hallway, confronting my brother's accuser.
"You're dead set on making me out to be the bad guy here," Ayumu said, "aren't you?"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Son," Sinobe said to Ayumu. "I just told it like I saw it."
I scoffed. "Yeah, and I'm a flying toilet bent on world domination," I said to Sinobe sarcastically. He just stared at me weirdly.
"Then I'll do the same," Ayumu said, ignoring me. He was used to my brilliant witticism. "Soon everyone will know about you."
Sinobe gave Ayumu and I a creepy smile.
"We will figure out what kind of trick you pulled yesterday," I told Sinobe, suddenly getting serious. He just continued to smile that creepy smile of his.
