Trickle
Ultra Maniac
By Whimsical Gentleman
Author's Notes – Christmas vacation has begun. So I'm writing chapter 4 of Trickle. Sorry for the very late updates. I'm really busy, or if not, attacked by Writer's block. Anyway, I added a lot of O.C.s although I'm not confident I wrote their introduction in a nice way. Well, anyway, I think I'll settle it just like that first. If there would be any complaints about how ugly and unworthy my work is for your royal eyes, I'll be happy to change any part. Have fun!
Chapter IV: Campus Blues
Inevitably, the morning after was a morning reigned by dopey yawns and squinted eyes. Last night I had to stay over-time at Mimi's Locket since the fucking person-in0charge next after me didn't exactly come on time. Perhaps he forgot to set his alarm, or probably he was just so stupid he didn't know how to read the time. I don't know with that fucker. He made me stay up and work all night, as if I'm some kind of nocturnal hamster. Asshole. It was a good thing Mrs. Chujo actually bribed me extra pay just to keep me inside her café for a little more time.
I did have plenty of money when I arrived home. Unfortunately, my dad had gotten angry with me, before my mother passed out. Yeah. I could not believe it. My mom passed out. I remembered I even laughed at the scenario while my dad kept on nagging about security on late evenings. It was practically funny to hear my dad shout a little at twelve in the midnight sharp, possibly waking up the neighbors or something…
Windy as it was, I decided to wear my chocolate brown leather jacket, a yellow bonnet, and a mocha-shaded scarf for the cold weather. As always, I never used my motorbike going to school. Yes, maybe it was a lot faster, but I always considered walking and jogging to school part of my exercise on weekdays. It was almost like a ritual for me to walk when going to school. Anyhow, I passed over the wooden bridge siding the lake Ayu-kun really loved… Well… I stopped and observed the rippling waters, and the floating dead leaves swimming on its surface… Surely, without any hesitation, it was a beautiful place; something that would match up to Ayu, who was just as beautiful… possibly even more beautiful. I found myself smirking— the idea of patronizing a woman seemed funny, when I think about it.
Eyobashi Senior High was a place hard to walk without panting. Just give a newcomer ten minutes of walking inside the campus the next thing you know he's already tired. Although like how living things had been living with nature, I suppose all of the people inside, after a while, gets acquainted with all the mounted and leveled surfaces of Eyobashi. The whole school was— well— literally a hill.
I climbed up the stone stairs, my right hand trailing along the metal rail… The wind was averagely cold for the morning. There were a couple of girls just seated on one of the ridge of the stairs. Of course, as these anonymous girls always did when I pass by them, they start giggling and I could imagine behind my back they were pointing at me… it always leaves me sighing as I continued walking along.
Frankly, I always have wondered why were people making a big deal and exaggerating acknowledgement of my presence— not to boast of it, I meant to myself. It isn't as if I am that good-looking… or maybe I'm humbly a diligent student, or quite excelling in baseball…
Or maybe I am?
And that's why I'm popular with the girls? "Tssch…" I mumbled to myself…
I never did want the whole female population to take notice of me… As long as Ayu did… And it's really obvious Ayu had been taking notice of me, and I believe she believes I take notice of her. It's no surprise there was one fateful evening I took her home from a karaoke party with my bike, and we suddenly took that opportunity to drop some hints to the other… At that right moment I completely thought we understood ourselves fully.
However, what puzzles me then was that how come after all those 'silent' confessions, it still remained as if we were still in the status as mere close friends. I don't know about Ayu, but I really feel I want something better than what we have at current.
And then in some instances, she'd go to me if ever she goes to trouble… or in deep misery, or if an ominous tragedy had befallen on the dainty little girl… She'd always come to me, as time progressed. It was a freaky thing, in fact. From what I knew of Ayu a couple of years ago, she'd go to Nina, and she'd follow her all the time like a haunting ghost if ever she were shock-stricken.
And now she goes to beg for my attention and nevertheless affection, but them in some matters she'd shoo me away, and after a couple of hours end up getting her face in front of me again kissing me… What an odd girl Ayu was… But in her idiosyncrasy I found her the most attractive and interesting of people. That's why I so much love her… In shortcomings and in limits both hers and mine, we find our mistakes the real reasons why we love either person. I suppose that's how I portray our relationship…
I was already along the corridor when I saw Ayu. She looked better now than last night. Something good or at least exciting must have happened. She was with Nina, as always, chirpy and perky as always. Both of them in their uniforms that comprised of white blouses, and checkered blue-and-white pleated miniskirts. "Ohayo!" Nina greeted me cheerfully, raising her whole arm as if to salute me. She never did mind her vivaciousness even though it caught other people's attention like a net.
"Gozaimas," I replied,
"Ayu-kun has something to tell you later," She chuckled a little bit and nudged her best friend on the shoulder,
"Shut up, Nina!" Ayu replied, obviously affected by Nina's tease, "Good morning, Kaji," she smiled again, "Sorry for the behavior of this retard beside me,"
"Hah!" Nina intersected Ayu's speech, "Excuse me, who's the retard here who kept pulling my hair on the way here to school?"
I sighed. Well, certainly Ayu is rather okay by now— Nina just said she waspulling her hair— if I knew Ayu that was very much a good thing… I smiled, "I better be going now, I have to be at the classroom earlier. Got some unfinished errands, you see…" I explained to both of them,
"Well, yeah," said Ayu.
"Tell me later, alright?" I told her, having the urge to kiss her forehead before I go, but somehow, I made my own instincts stop it…
"Yup."
"Okay, see you later then, Nina, Ayu."
"Ja mata!" Nina voiced out as I passed by them, totally regretting I didn't kiss Ayu on the forehead. I was already missing her smooth skin, and her fragrance…Besides, I was kind of sleepy… having late-night work not really meant for me… And from what I know, kissing on the forehead girls you love gives you a snap out of drowsiness… Oh well…
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The school hours passed by without noticing how time flew… Then again I was just so sleepy the fact that probably without knowing it, I fell into some slumber… and maybe that was the reason why the academic periods were so quick… I did sometimes feel a sensation of little bits of paper being thrown towards my head and mumbled curses in the familiar voices of Tsujiai behind my seat. Anyhow, the teachers were sort of lenient over me. Hell. Of course they have too. I do manage to get my grades high, and they certainly know I'm part of the baseball league…
By the time it reached fourth period just before lunch, the class went to the school fields to have a game of soccer; again, a boring time for me because I had the 'privilege' not to attend P.E. Tsch. It was more like of your coaches abducting you from having fun; having the excuse you might get injuries and bullshit like that. I think Tsujiai pretty felt the same way, as he was the captain of the Tennis Varsity and Club. So while all the others were having an entertaining time running on the fields, bathed with the warmth of the sun, the two of us and some others sat or laid on the stone benches either sulking or enjoying the passive state. Well, at least for Tsujiai and me, we sure did feel sulky. In response, we just brought our notebooks for studying, just in case we were reduced to studying because of the most probable boredom we would encounter on the benches.
Still, as the moment was obviously casual boredom, I noticed immediately as I glanced at Tsujiai there was something brooding inside that head of his. It was just that he looked plastically deep in thought reading that notebook he was holding that disguised what different thoughts actually loomed inside his mind,
"You okay, man?" I patted on his back,
"Yeah… yeah… Shiznit, dude." He put away my hand,
"What's the big deal? You were just alright a while ago."
"It's nothing."
Tsujiai didn't respond to my question, instead, he just said it was nothing. Yeah. As if.
"You're obviously hiding something, you know…" I told him,
He sighed sardonically, "The thing is," He stood up as he discreetly watched his wristwatch, "It's always been like that… People say I've been always hiding something from them. Blah, blah, blah… And I just leave them blabbering about it, even you…"
"God, Tsujiai!" I wondered what happened to the twisted little boy? I followed him hurriedly grabbing my book, "Where are you going?"
He sniggered bitterly, "You could tell if something's wrong with me but you couldn't notice P.E. period is over. Ironic huh?"
"Dude, I'm just worried about you, man," I explained, as I took a side-glance of the class separated in groups going to the locker rooms, and the spiteful coach whistling and shouting alternately as he shooed away his students to dress up…
"Don't be, Kaji." He dismissed my concern for him, as always the typical Tsujiai would.
"Come on! Just spill the goddamned problem,"
"I won't tell you, but it's up to you if you want to know about it," he replied calmly, with those icy eyes examining the field…
I've known Tsujiai and Tsujiai have known me longer than anyone else. For both of us, most of the time it was just the matter of glancing at one's face and one would immediately understand what the other's feeling was. In the flow of time we grew together, somewhere in the middle of the time we knew each other he grew to be quite cynical and sharp-eyed, with those piercing eyes and the strong accent of his frowning-like eyebrows, it was understandably hard to approach Tsujiai for people who barely knew him. The funny thing was if you knew him better than acquaintances, you'd realize those thought-to-be strong characteristics of his were actually also his weaknesses for emotions.
So of course, as a common strategy for him, you'd just look at his eye in his most troubled state, and there you go, automatically the answer just shouts in the form of his frosty glare. I let out a little laugh. Most people think at first glance Tsujiai's the mysterious type of dude, well, he was the exact opposite extreme… if you know him very well that is.
"What're you even laughing about?"
"It's about Nina, isn't it?"
"Hey, how'd ya know?" he asked me outrageously,
"Oh c'mon. If you have a problem, 95 of which would be about Nina," I told him, and just as he open his mouth, I cut him off, "Don't deny, best bud."
There it goes again, his icy stare towards me, and I competed it with mine… After a second or two it finally weakened, and he sighed in usual defeat, "Jeez man… And chicks thought I was mysteriously sexy."
"Pity what they thought wasn't really true."
I received a friendly jab from my olive-haired friend, "Fuck you, Kaji."
I punched him back, "Don't fuck me, fuck Nina. Maybe that's why you're having problems with Nina, man. I know already! She must think you're gay."
"For the love of God! Why don't you help me, idiot."
"Tsk tsk," I replied, "I just did, you know. If I know Tsujiai, you really won't listen to me if you were in the dumps just like a while ago. You really need to spice up the moment. I think that's just what I did." He didn't seem to plan another counter, I laughed again, looking at his out-of-character I-feel-so-clumsy look. Finally, I said, "Just spill."
"Fine, fine, fine…" said Tsujiai in a whitewashed tone, an he sighed, "It isn't like me, but even if I do whatever I could to avoid it, I get jealous…"
"Of Yuta?"
He briefly fixed his eyes on me, and he nodded, "Yeah." We knew the morning met noon when the sun glared upon the ground, and trees' shadows displaced ours, "I wonder how Yuta keeps Nina's attention towards him. Sometimes I wish I could be a witch just to make her notice me,"
"Can't you just see with your pair of eyes she notices you?"
"But not the way she notices Yuta, Kaji…"
"Tsujiai, you don't compare yourself to another. You'll never find a way to make yourself a better person if you keep on blaming the things Yuta has that you don't have," I replied in strength, trying to make my words be screwed on that stubborn head of his.
"I know! But he's a freaking witch. He can do things I can't do. Wouldn't that impress Nina?"
"Look, Nina's a witch and she actually wants to be a normal human. Wouldn't that sound a bit contradictory to what you've said. If witches can do anything, why does she want to be normal, huh?" I responded without any pause, "Sure they may have powers, but true we also have them that they don't have."
"If so," Tsujiai started, "why don't you name me one," he challenged me,
"You just have to find it in yourself, dude. I believe each individual contains a unique power absolutely different from one another,"
He made a 'tsch' sound and it was the gesture that he didn't want to talk about it already. We heard a faint tattling of shoe soles running towards our location, "Hey, Kaji! Tsuji!" A guy's voice shouted. "Don't you know the word called wait?"
"Komai, we were just a few meters away. Surely you could see us from the field, ya know. We got hungry so we just got some brunch in the cafeteria."
Our friend known as Komai had long messy raven hair, and had a scruffy look you'll not fail to discern. He had a piercing of a dragon's head on his left ear, and he wore his polo unbuttoned, his pants kind of old already, as well as his tie. "We're tired, I couldn't run." He plays the lead guitar.
"You just did." Tsujiai told him, with a faint smile,
"Guys!" Two other men bellowed. Without thought, they were Jiro and Yamato.
"Lookie here. The losers." Komai taunted, "Our team won. The game was 4-2."
"Don't fuss about that. We won last week by six points. You guys suck." Jiro replied with equal taunting. Yamato was shaking his head just like Tsujiai and me. Since Jiro, Komai and Yama got into our little group, it got a little noisier then.
Jiro was the tallest among us, saffron-haired troublemaker. He's most popularly known as Hot Hands, derived from his being a drummer. He was the least of the serious thinker, but most of the time he cheers up the group when everybody's in the stinks. Yamato then was rather opposite of Jiro. Vertically challenged though, and a straight A student, he wasn't known as the nerd, but the cool geek. Yamato was a brunette just like me, and he had rectangular glasses. He really doesn't talk that much though, although he thinks absolutely great. There was once the soccer team got to the final round of the interschool championship, he was the brains of the team, and certainly if he was— well —let's just say the opposition don't have a bit of a chance anymore. Other than that, he plays the piano freaking well. I really wonder how he excels in so many things.
Tsujiai, Jiro, Komai, Yamato and I got together since just last year. I suppose there happened to be a school festival in Eyobashi, and there were a few slots for band playing. I had nice vocals, and Tsujiai was pretty good with the bass guitar, but I'm pretty sure the program staff wouldn't let in a two-man band of vox and bass. It was a nice coincidence when Tsujiai and me had dinner after at a diner, and Jiro, Komai and Yamato were playing an instrumental piece together at the stage. The next thing we knew we called ourselves Connect the Dots and got into an audition for the concert. We did made it, and played last year.
My thoughts cut off as I hear Jiro's booming voice, "Too bad you weren't able to join the game," Jiro told me and Tsujiai,
"Try getting off with the baseball and tennis team, you probably can play afterwards," Yamato joked,
"Hell no." Tsujiai and I said in unison, and Yamato smirked. Sometimes I gave me a bit of confusion why would Yamato quit the soccer team. He could almost be captain back then, if he would just continue. You never know what goes inside that head of his most of the time.
"God, I'm starving man." Komai said,
"Cafeteria?" Jiro suggested,
"Yeah…" Komai replied, and Yamato actually approved too.
"We're kind of starving too." Said Tsujiai,
"What? I thought you and Kaji just ate?"
"Oh yeah! Yeah!" I faked a laugh, nudging Tsujiai at the elbow. I wished I could say how careless he was sometimes. "We'll just follow you guys around eating. Wooh, we're so full already. "Stupid," I mumbled behind Tsujiai's ear, he seemed to twitch in rage at me… He never liked that word being pointed on him, "Just tell me later when privacy's settled,"
It's not like as if we're hiding something from the group, but Tsujiai and I thought it would be a lot better as to not complicate things, if we'd keep the Nina-Tsuji issue away from them. In terms of me and Ayu, well, they perfectly know about that already…
As usual, the cafeteria line was not really that long, since almost everybody bring extra bentos at school, or even share them with a couple of friends. Even I do, most hilariously, Jiro does. And I promise you he'll never look good with his petite lavender colored bento. The five of us passed by the greenhouse area of the school. It was a very popular hangout for err…girls. I do not know why, but yeah, they like hanging out here.
Even Ayu and Nina.
It was kind of expected we'd catch them here beside the greenhouse, and a bit amazed at Tsujiai for having the guts to face Nina at depressed times like this.
"Hey guys!" Nina called out to all of us. Her loudness of voice made us attentive immediately of their presence.
"Hi," Ayu greeted us with a lot more finesse than Nina did, "Did you guys eat already?" she asked us, and of course Yamato, Jiro and Komai shook their heads,
"We haven't yet, kind of dying since P.E. just finished," told Jiro to Ayu and Nina,
"Same here," Nina said again, standing up looking all perky with her jingling hair, "Want to get some grub?"
"Yeah," Yamato, Jiro and Komai said in unison. Tsujiai and I then couldn't help smirking at how Nina enchants some 'human' magic unto them.
"I think I'll just stay here with Kaji. Right, Kaji?"
"Yeah," I smiled at Ayu,
Ayu looked at Tsujiai for a moment, and I was smirking again… I teamed up with Ayu then, looking at him with this teasing why-don't-you-get-Nina-now-while-you-leave-us-alone-please look.
Tsujiai sighed, "Fine, fine… Shall I leave you two lovebirds alone, huh?"
Yeah, most women would blush after that… but its different with Ayu. She never blushes; she turns white, like a heavy dab of powder put on her face. It's a lot more disgusting, but hey, you'd always find it funny and different.
"How are you?" I asked her, "Felt anything better, Ayu-kun?"
The brunette nodded, "Yep. A lot, all because of you."
"Haven't you realized yet most of the time it's always been like that?" I told her in a casual tone,
She raised her brows, "I think it's getting windier by the moment."
"Hey, thank God for the wind. It's kinda hot here in the open grounds, you know." I smirked, and she chuckled for a while
"So what was Nina saying just before classes started?" I made the onset of the 'real' conversation, casually sitting beside her… Tsujiai had already left with the others. Considerably, we did not attain complete privacy then, as the tiny buzzes of people, girls most of them, were present…
She smiled, a hint of nervousness spotted figuratively between her teeth. Her eyes glimmered in the golden sun, and I was prepared to listen…
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A/N – How was the O.C. introductions? I felt it was ugly. Well, anyway, I hope it's okay. Please REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! So I wont have a hard time getting my spirits up in writing my shit. Flames or Praises or Constructive Criticism is fine with me as long as you REVIEW! THANKS A LOT, CAMELOT. SEE YA LATER, ALLIGATER. BYEBYE, AMERICAN-PIE, HAHAHA! SORRY FOR MY CORNINESS.