Chapter 7

The Culture Festival was an embarrassing blur. Naoto was instructed to help Teddie get ready for the cross dressing pageant. She knew absolutely nothing about wearing dresses or applying makeup. Luckily, she found a box of old costumes in the drama room. She ended up dressing poor Teddie as Alice in Wonderland, complete with long, golden wig. The makeup part was more frustrating. She enlisted some unsuspecting first year girls that Teddie sparkled at into helping with it. "Hey, there's no mascara in this kit. Go and fetch some since we're helping you out, will you Shirogane?" one of the girls commanded. Naoto had no idea where she was supposed to fetch such a thing from. Then she remembered that Rise was down the hall and was sure to have something like that. She rushed into her regular classroom and ran into a wall… A wall that was wearing white silk and not much else. "Oh!" Naoto said, turning bright pink. Kanji frowned at her.

"What do you mean, 'Oh!' It's that bad, isn't it." Kanji was also pink. It was clear that Rise had attempted to make him look like Marilyn Monroe. The dress didn't leave much to the imagination. Naoto knew he was strong, but had no idea how much muscle he'd been hiding under his clothes. That boy is ridiculously tall, she thought, staring at his muscular legs. He just kept frowning at her.

"More encouragement and less gawking, please, Naoto-kun!" Rise said cheerfully as she styled a platinum blonde wig.

"R-Right…" Naoto stuttered. She looked into Kanji's eyes. "You look very… appealing, Kanji-kun." Perhaps if she was honest, he would finally understand how she felt.

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" he said defensively. Rise giggled.

"She's trying to tell you that she thinks you look hot, Kanji-kun." He made a face at her.

"Whatever," he said, walking away from them.

"Sorry," Rise said. "No matter how hard I try to translate, you two never seem to understand each other."

"It's fine," Naoto said, letting out a breath. "Do you have any mascara that I can borrow?" Rise's face lit up.

"Sure I do! I'm so excited! Do you want me to help you put it on?!"

"It's… for Teddie," she said with a slight blush.

"Oh. Right," Rise said sadly. The smile was back in a flash. "I have an extra tube! You can just hang onto it, since you'll need it for the pageant tomorrow!" Naoto sighed.

"Thank you, Rise-san." She risked one more glance at Kanji who looked extremely distraught, before heading back to the drama room. When she arrived, Teddie's face was all made up except for the mascara. She thrust it into the girl's hand. "Here," she said, stepping back before anyone could suggest she be the one to apply it.

Teddie ended up looking prettier than most girls when all was said and done. It was rather disturbing, but Naoto was glad she hadn't let him down. "Thanks a bunch, Nao-chan! Teddie is the prettiest!"

Naoto watched the cross dressing pageant with the other girls from the team. She felt bad for the boys when she heard the things the other students were saying around her. Exactly why I don't want to do this myself. Still, she thought they were very brave for going through with it. Naoto thought that Kanji looked the best of her three classmates. Yosuke-senpai looked ridiculous in a girls' uniform with long socks and his hair in small pigtails. She had to give him credit for answering the questions in a high pitched voice, though. As much as he protested, he was being a good sport. Souji-senpai didn't look the least bit bothered by getting onstage in a skirt. Though his was floor length, so no skin was even showing. Yukiko-senpai had been kind when choosing his outfit, although the long, twin braids were an interesting choice. Teddie, of course, came out sparkling in his Alice dress and completely stole the show. He was the winner by a landslide, and named honorary judge of the girls' pageant.

Unfortunately, Teddie was Teddie, and managed to decree that the girls wear swimsuits for a portion of the beauty contest. If Naoto had known about his devious plot ahead of time, she never would have helped him win. She felt shocked and angry. The others girls seemed to feel the same way, except for Rise who was simply disappointed that she hadn't brought her own swimsuit. There was absolutely no way that Naoto was going to wear something like that onstage. Rise, of course, thought it was a great idea. "Just think of how much Kanji-kun will like seeing you like that, Naoto-kun! He's going to notice you for sure!" she whispered excitedly into Naoto's ear. Naoto growled at her in response, which sent Rise into a laughing fit. To make the situation even worse, it was Teddie who picked out the swimsuits they would wear. Naoto had plans to strangle that bear later.

In the meantime, she decided to be a good sport about the first part of the pageant. The boys had gotten up there in dresses. Naoto wasn't quite that brave, so she just wore a favorite shirt and slacks. She hated not having the security of her hat, but figured it was more proper to leave it off. At the last second, she decided that Rise might be right some of the time, and she darted into the bathroom, replicating the method she had seen that first year girl use to apply mascara on Teddie. Naoto breathed a sigh of relief when she looked at herself. It was only a subtle change. She could live with it.

She was the last to take the stage, and so nervous that she babbled random things that made no sense at all. At least it was over pretty quickly for her. The other girls had to stay on stage for much longer than she did. Her heart sank when they announced that it was time to change for the swimsuit competition. She grabbed Rise's arm when they were off stage. "I-I can't do this…" she said desperately.

"Oh, Naoto-kun, It will be fine! I'll help you get ready. The mascara looks awesome, by the way!" She winked and pulled Naoto towards the locker room, grabbing the bags containing their swimsuits. Surely Teddie wouldn't be so cruel as to pick something completely inappropriate… She gasped as she pulled a dark blue bikini out of the bag. Rise, already stripping to change into hers, looked at her in alarm. "What's wrong? It's definitely your color."

"The color isn't the problem," she said, feeling completely exasperated.

"Oh, look, it has little bows on the straps. So cute! Totally Kanji-kun's kind of thing…" Rise trailed off, turning around so Naoto wouldn't see her smile. Rise was done changing already. "Do you need any help?" she asked.

Naoto shook her head. "I will be right out, you go on ahead." She pushed Rise out of the stall and pulled the curtain shut. The truth was, she had no idea if she was even going to put it on, let alone leave the changing room wearing it.

"Come on, put it on now, I wanna see!" Rise whined. Naoto sighed and quickly changed, wondering how on earth Teddie knew her exact size. It fit perfectly. And left absolutely nothing to the imagination. She opened the curtain slightly and Rise barged in. "Wow, Naoto-kun! It looks amazing! Oh, here…" Rise slid a gold barrette into Naoto's hair, sweeping just a bit of it away from her face. "Perfect!" she exclaimed. "I'll give you minute. Don't be late, ok?" Naoto nodded and turned back towards the mirror. There was no way she could go out there like this. But maybe, if there was a chance that Kanji would… No. Even if it were true, it would not be worth the entire school seeing me this way. She realized with horror that her clothing was no longer in the dressing room. In its place was a note from Rise.

I'll just put your things in the classroom for you. See you onstage!

Evidently she would need to strangle the bear and the idol later. Naoto peeked out of the locker room door. She didn't see anyone in the hall, so she quickly ran towards the classroom, intending to get her clothes back before anyone saw her. Naturally, when she turned the corner, she walked straight into a wall… the same wall as earlier. "K-Kanji-kun!" she exclaimed. He said nothing as he took in her attire. If you can even call it that, she thought.

"Naoto…" he said slowly. Then his face lit up in a huge grin. "You look very appealing."

"Oh, stop it!" she snapped, wrapping her arms around the front of her body. He was chuckling, obviously very pleased with himself for throwing her words back at her. She had only put this ridiculous thing on in an attempt to draw his interest, and instead he was making fun of her.

"You alright? 'Cause I mean, you're going the wrong way." She looked at the ground, trying to make her arms cover even more of her body and failing miserably.

"I-I can't… I really can't go out there like this." He nodded and shrugged out his coat, setting it on her shoulders. She quickly slipped her arms in and wrapped it around her.

"Told you already that you don't have to do anything you don't want to. Go. I won't tell the others I saw you."

"Thank you… Oh, y-your coat…" He held up his hands to stop her from removing it.

"Give it back to me later." With that, he headed the other way, disappearing back into the auditorium. She let out the breath she'd been holding, then ran for the classroom, grateful that his coat was so big it covered her nearly to her knees.