Chapter Seven
Life is full of painfully ironic events.
She didn't know why it had taken fourteen years for her to realize this, but this morning her eyes had been opened.
She had just been trudging along, thinking about a movie where the heroine got hit by bird poop, when a thought flashed through her mind: What if bird poop hit me? A few seconds later, some white goop found its mark on her shoe.
She rolled her eyes as she trudged down the hall, a note held in her hand. "I am not feeling in a helpful mood today," she'd said to Hanako just that morning, even daring to challenge life and add, "even if some random teacher comes up and asks me to help feed their cat, I am not doing it." Now, she was walking to the principal's office with a note that just had to be hand-delivered.
It wasn't as bad as being issued to feed a cat, but still.
Well, it won't happen again, life. She had learned her lesson.
She seemed to be delivering things more often now—first that student council kid and now this. It was because she lingered too long after class; if she just dashed out of the place as soon as the bell rang like any other kid, she wouldn't be in this predicament now.
A splash occurred in front of her.
Aella's head snapped her as she rounded the corner, and her free hand flew up to clamp over her mouth.
A boy was sitting in front of her, his head obscured by a red bucket. His clothes were saturated with gunk and, emitting from them, the foulest smell ever to reach human nostrils.
Aella moved her fingers up to cover her nose, caught between breathing through her mouth and risking the unlikely infection of her precious lungs, or breathing through her nose and risking fainting right there in the hall with an undelivered message. What was worse: she was beginning to feel the slightest tickle in her stomach as laughter fought to bubble up over the disgust, which would both destroy her lungs and cause her to faint.
"Arata-san, are you okay?" A teacher dashed into view, lifting the bucket from the boy's head and holding it at arm's length like a soiled diaper.
Aella bit her lip, her skin slightly flushed from not laughing. She composed herself as best she could and strode past the teacher, her arms swishing at her side.
"You." He looked up, pointing at her. "Come here."
Aella stopped and switched the grip her teeth had on her lip to the inside of her cheek. "Yes, sensei," she replied, doubling back to kneel beside the boy.
"Take him to the nurse," the teacher instructed, pulling the boy to his feet.
"But…I have to give this to the principal." Aella presented the note to him, hoping that he would let her off the hook. "I have to get it to him ASAP," she added.
He snapped the note from her fingers and brought it closer to his face, eyes squinting shrewdly as they read the messy writing of another teacher. He looked up at her, eyes narrowing even more as he bent closer.
Aella arranged her features into an innocent expression, all wide doe-eyes and fluttering eyelashes. He leaned away.
"I think you can stop by the nurse's office," he decided.
Aella let out a sigh. At least he hadn't gotten paranoid and personally dragged her to the principal's under the offence of a "plagiarized note." "Okay, sensei. C'mon, let's go, kid," she said. She grabbed the boy's sleeve and pulled him up after her.
"Y'know, I don't actually need you to look after me," he said as they left the teacher's domain. He tugged his sleeve from her grasp—she'd been about to throw it at him anyway—and caught up beside her. "I just figured I'd cause a little trouble, 'cause I can."
Aella dared a raised eyebrow. "Dude, you looked like you were gonna cry just then," she pointed out.
"Well, duh," the boy deadpanned, rolling his eyes heavenward. "I mean, I would have had to go by myself if I hadn't acted like that."
"Do you get picked on a lot?"
He looked sheepish, but only for a moment. "'Course not. My friends are just dicks…not that it's any of your business."
Aella smiled as the nurse's office approached. Thankfully, it wasn't very far away from the principal's. "Here's your stop, random guy." She knocked on the door for him. "I'll just leave now."
"Bye, random girl," the boy replied.
Aella rolled her eyes as she walked a few feet farther and entered the principal's office. A receptionist at the desk looked up as she entered, and Aella dropped the note before her. "For the principal," she informed, setting her hands on the table and dropping her chin on them.
Just like the teacher before, the receptionist plucked it from the table and analyzed it with squinted eyes. "Okay," she drawled finally. "What's your name?"
"Houshigawa Aella," Aella uttered carefully. "Third-year."
The receptionist nodded and went back to typing on her keyboard. "You can go enjoy lunch, Houshigawa-san."
I will, Aella decided firmly. She slipped out of the office surreptitiously. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw who was waiting for her outside. She closed the door behind her, eyes wide with surprise. She licked her lips and told herself to smile.
"Haru."
He was standing in front of her with his arms folded over his chest and his back leaning against the opposite wall. And he was angry; Aella could sense that. Emotion smoldered in his pale eyes and seemed to burn the very air between them. He unhitched himself from the wall and crossed the distance between them in three long strides, bringing him only an inch or two from her nose.
Aella flinched. "Anything the matter?" she squeaked.
"How could you not tell me?" His voice broke as he asked this. For the first time since she returned, Aella was positive of the hurt in his eyes.
"I didn't not tell you anything," she replied, ducking below him and swiveling around when she was free.
He let her and turned around. "Let me clarify. Houshigawa, why didn't you tell me that your parents are dead?" He caught her eyes with his own, steely and hard.
Aella couldn't look away as his voice seemed to echo in her ears. You're strong, Houshigawa, she reminded herself, but the voice wasn't very convincing.
"Answer me," he demanded.
She bowed her head and tried to focus on the small things. "You're awfully direct today, Haru. Anything new?"
He laughed, chuckled, and advanced. "Houshigawa…" It was both a warning and a threat.
Aella's head snapped up as did her hands from her side. "Can we not do this here?" she asked, backing away.
"No." He shook his head. "I want to do this here. Why?"
She gulped and looked down. Her blood pounded in her ears, her mind went completely blank save four words—the words that she'd repeated every day since they died, the words that she needed right this moment.
"Because I don't care."
He was only a few feet away from her, but she was pinned to the wall like he was much closer, just so she wouldn't have to be near him. He considered her. There was a pause that stretched out like a rubber band.
Then, like it had reached its limits, it snapped. The rubber band snapped and he laughed, and Aella didn't know whether the weight on her chest lightened or increased.
"Houshigawa, damn it, you certainly are something, huh?" he said between low chuckles.
After a few moments, she joined along, adding her mezzo-soprano peels to his. Soon, her laugh turned into hysterics—manic giggles as she doubled over, hair pooling over her face. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she managed to think about how random it would be for anybody to walk by: a boy and a girl laughing about nothing in the middle of a hallway, with the girl looking like a circus freak show clown, or something.
"You know what, Houshigawa?" Niou said after a moment, tilting his head and leaning in closer.
She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles and tossed the hair out of her face. "Mm-hmm, Haru?" she managed, feeling like those few moments of freedom had lightened the load on her.
"I don't believe you."
She stared—the change had been immediate…and expected. Still, she could do nothing but stare as he walked away from her, his back painfully loose, his hands unclenched in his pockets, everything about him screaming, I don't care!
"Next time you lie, think about who you're lying to," his last words had been.
She sighed as she finished the slow-motion playback of him rounding the corner and disappearing in her head. She felt the wall behind her, suddenly very drained, and slumped to the ground, burying her head between her knees. She stayed like that, fighting the groan of frustration, until the secretary came out and asked her what was wrong. She left after that, knowing that Hanako would be waiting.
She dreaded what her friend would ask and dreaded her answer. After this encounter, she wasn't sure she had the energy to make up another lie.
"So, Houshigawa, save any polar bears?" Hanako asked, looking up from her lunch as Aella plopped down across from her.
"Discover any mind-blowing scientific breakthroughs?" Marui added on.
Niou was silent. But he was there. Aella had almost turned tail and left upon seeing him sitting nonchalantly with her friend and Marui. Then, she'd steeled herself and prepared for major acting, if only to convince everyone else oblivious to the soap opera her life was going through that she was all right.
Aella rolled her eyes, digging into her lunch. "Nah, same old, same old."
Hanako nodded, comprehension dawning in her eyes. "Aw, old Yoshizawa kept you around, huh?"
"Well, you could say that," Aella phrased cautiously—if "Yoshizawa" was code for, "Niou Masaharu" and "kept you around" was code for, "asked you about your dead parents that you don't care about, even though he doesn't believe you but whatever."
Marui groaned. "I know—he does it so much. Last week, I went to the office for a prank Niou framed me for, and I had to stay there for, like, thirty minutes before he finally let me go."
Niou snorted, not sparing a glance at her, Aella couldn't help but notice. "Yeah, right. That was your own fault you just had to jump up when the teacher's pants ripped and yell, 'Yeah!'"
"No it wasn't. You made me. 'Cause you were all taunt-y and stuff."
"Right. Sorry," he drawled, sticking his hands out, wrists loose with fingers scraping the table. "Take me away, officer."
Marui turned his nose up, refusing to look at him. "Because I am generous, I will allow you to live this time. But one more offence like this and ka-chink." He drew a finger under his chin and dragged it across, miming the sound of a knife whistling through the air.
Hanako giggle while Aella rolled her eyes.
"Oh, thank you," Niou deadpanned in a monotone.
"Hmph, damn straight," Marui announced. "Now, you will repay me by giving me that onigiri." He pointed at the last rice ball in Niou's lunchbox, missing the wasabi oozing out of the sides.
Niou smirked. "Shit, Bunta. That was the last one."
Marui grinned naively. "Too bad, sucker. I'm taking it." He plucked it out of the wooden compartment it occupied and popped it into his mouth.
Hanako stared at him. "How is it? Is Niou-san a good cook?" she said with a taunting smirk.
He chewed some, and then some more. "Mm-hmm, mm-mm, mm—Ahh!" he burst out.
Aella swallowed the giggles that welled up in her as his eyes popped out of their sockets and he grabbed Hanako's rice, sprinkled with spicy herbs, shoveling them into his mouth.
"Aah! Meh tengue ith on thire!" he screamed.
Hanako turned to Niou. "What was in that?" She was trying not to laugh.
Niou shrugged. "Nothing much: some rice, other stuff, wasabi." His eyes narrowed into mischievous slits.
Her eyes widened. "You eat your food with wasabi, too?"
He shook his head. "Nah…that one was just for him. He's always saying that green makes his eyes pop. It's true."
Aella swallowed the bubble rising up in her throat, unable to conceal her smile. Classic Haru, she thought, thinking of the many times she'd fallen for pranks just like this one. She felt bad for Marui—but he would have to wise up sooner or later, like she had. Being pranked so often was only a temporary state.
"So, Houshigawa, what d'you think?" Niou asked, turning to her.
The laugh-bubble vanished. She now had to force the glee into her eyes, knowing that appearing too serious would be unbelievable with Marui screaming his head off in the background.
"How'd you know he'd pick that one?" she asked, assuming that would be a safe question.
Niou shrugged, winking at her like they shared a secret. "A magician never reveals his secrets."
Except, she already knew them.
But she pulled up an annoyed look anyway. She looked at Marui. "Shouldn't someone get him some milk?" His face was red and he was clutching his throat, his breathing loud whistles through his esophagus.
"I think that I'll go get him some of that," Hanako said, reigning in her laughter when he shot her a death glare.
"And some cheese," he wheezed after her.
Niou laughed, unafraid to appear amused by his pain. "Cat got your windpipe, Bunta?"
Marui peered up at him and hissed. "You are so dead at practice."
"I'm shaking with fear."
Aella tried to ignore them. She could feel Niou looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, and tried to appear nonchalant. But how could she not be affected by it? He was the first person in three years to actually confront her about her parents, the first person that had demanded an explanation.
But even if he was the first one, it shouldn't matter, she thought. Though her reaction five minutes before said otherwise. She fought the urge to claw her face with frustration—she was supposed to over this, she wasn't supposed to be acting like they had died yesterday; it had been three freakin' years.
Her skin tingled with the nonexistent sting of her nails afflicting long gouges in it, which would have been a welcome clarity compared to the muddle of her thoughts. She shoveled food into her mouth to avoid being dragged into a conversation.
Why was she being so weak? She had been given an opportunity to go to America and recover from the shock. She was lucky, and she was acting like some ungrateful brat, throwing away all three years of being healed because of one, just one, moment of weakness, one confrontation.
Her inner self screamed with frustration and disappointment and pain, so much pain.
Hanako came back soon enough, carrying a packet of cheese and a carton of milk. She plopped them down in front of Marui and stuck out her hand at him. "Moola," she demanded.
Aella paused as her lunchbox ran out of food, her tongue flicking up to lick a speck of rice off her lip. She tasted the salty tang of tears and froze.
Niou chose that moment to look at her, his eyebrows slowly arching up. "Houshigawa, something wrong?" he asked.
Aella quickly swiped her tongue around her mouth, picking up any other teardrops, and rubbed her hands under her eyes. "Uh…I'm fine," she muttered, getting up. "Allergies."
"Are you sure?" Hanako asked. "You're, like, seriously crying."
Aella nodded at her, forcing a smile, and turned away, trying to stifle the need to run, run, run away, get out of there, leave everything behind, go back to America, her aunt, to the people that didn't give a damn about her past.
She reached the bathroom, thankful that nobody was in there, and turned on the tap with pale fingers. Her hands shook as she cupped the water in her palm and splashed it over her face, wetting the front of her uniform. She looked at the girl in the mirror—her eyes and nose were red, the pupils looked dilated, her lips were pressed into a thin line so that the blood was almost nonexistent, her jaw clenched and unclenched.
Two second-year girls walked in, chattering, saw her reflection in the mirror, went silent and walked out.
Hanako came in next. She went up to Aella and planted her hands on her hips, staring at Aella defiantly. "Definitely not allergies," she said.
Aella met her eyes in the mirror and she realized that there would be no point in lying.
But she still had to try.
"Nothing's the matter. I just think that Marui-san spit some of that wasabi into my eyes."
Mirror-Hanako rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You would've said something."
"I didn't think it would be that bad."
Hanako was silent, her dark eyes examining Aella in the mirror. Then, her lips pursed into a thin line of anger. "God damn it, Houshigawa," she hissed, tearing a hand over her hair. "Come off it. You are so not okay, and don't give me any of your 'I'm all right' bullshit. I don't buy it."
Aella sighed. She had to harden up right now, or she wouldn't be able to do anything when Hanako started up about Niou and her, which she surely would have noticed. "Nothing is the matter, Hanako," she stated firmly.
Hanako shook her head. "No, something definitely is."
"No, there isn't," Aella repeated forcefully, turning around with her hands clenched into fists at her side.
Hanako regarded her through narrowed eyes, her own fingers tingling to curl up. She blew out a breath in her mouth and closed her eyes for a few seconds. When she opened them, there was none of that random, unfocused anger; instead, there was calm, like the ocean, with an underlying current of fury, like the storm clouds hanging above.
"All right, Houshigawa, I'm not stupid. You know that and that I don't believe that shit. So here's my question: Who are you trying to convince here?"
Aella froze, her resolve dented. "I'm—I'm…" She searched for another lie, another shield to throw up. "I don't know."
She ran past Hanako and out into the hall, just as the bell rang and the students started filing out. She let the crowd consume her, blowing out a breath and relaxing at the thought that she would be invisible.
Another lie, and a problem for another day.
Author: So...an update...
Aella: An update!
Author: Okay. Well, first thing's first, I realized that I didn't put a disclaimer on the first chapter. Or any chapter after that.
Aella: So...EmeraldLily doesn't own Prince of Tennis, because if she did, we'd all be dead.
Author: This applies to all chapters before and after this.
Aella: Bye!
Author: Ditto!
