CHAPTER SEVEN

Favor of Reconciliation

I am afraid that everything would be wrong.

I am afraid that one day; wood cutters would come and chop our tree down.

And sell it at the market in town.

I am afraid.

But you know what I fear the most?

When termites sneak inside our trunk and slowly but surely bring is down.

Freaking termites.

The same old route I have been following ever since turned out to be boring. The same stairs, same flowers and other ornamental plants on that same window with those spider webs still hanging on its corner; it's just making me feel left out because I already know the drill. So I decided to change my route and follow the one on the left side which is longer, therefore taking more of my time.

'Duh… They? My friends? Are you even listening to what you are saying?'

I accidentally heard that sentence when I was passing by the hallway; it was quiet which made me hear those words clearly as the sky today. And due to curiosity, I just can't help myself but to sneak on the corner and have a glimpse to those faces.

'Of course not! Why would I be one of those nerds? I would just probably hit any kind of man instead of being with those.'

Probably one of those bistches again talking about something about friendship with someone like us. You know, nerds in our building are a big deal and I don't even know why. That's why most of the people inside act like jerks and bastards and sluts and whores and everything.

'And to clear all of your thoughts away, they are nothing. Just games. An experiment.'

I had a glimpse of blonde hair, a raven hair, and seaweed colored hair. They are all on the middle of the hallway probably on their way to our second period class. Geez… I think they should talk in a more private part of the school and not to be oh so proud like this.

Is gossiping a really fun thing to do?

'I just wanted to know why they are always too happy… it's just distracting.'

I heard the seaweed haired girl say again, I think she is the who is doing the talking from the start basing from her voice and I really assure you that her voice and her seaweed hair looks very familiar to my eyes.

I peeked my head a little farther to have a better view to their faces and jackpot! I knew that the blonde haired girl was Koizumi!

She was standing infront of the seaweed haired girl with both of her arms folded infront of her like she's the boss. I wonder who they are talking about.

The raven haired girl is Wakako, even though I could only see her in side view mode, I still can say that it was her basing from her thin eyes just like Kits but the thing is I find Kits eyes adorable. I never thought that Wakako's eyes are adorable… or… anything near that.

Gross.

'Okay girl, I just thought that you're pretty too engrossed with them this past few weeks… are you really sure you're still in for it?'

Luna asked the seaweed haired girl which she answered with a nod. After a couple of giggles and several laughter, they decided to walk again while Wakako said something which lingered long into my ears.

'Awww… I wonder what that group would do if they found that one of their members has been just playing with them. What do you think Sumire?'

Sumire…

Sumire…

'Don't be like that Wakako, do I really need to care about that?'

Ouch.

I could hear the fainting sound of their footsteps and I want to confirm if it was really her or they're just scheming something against her to ruin her image to us. There's no way Sumire would do that, right? We've been together with the group long enough.

As much as I want to stay put on my place, I didn't had the chance to stop my feet from moving because I can see myself go out from my hiding place and running my life out to their direction.

They probably must've heard my footsteps coming near them so they glanced back.

I was shocked.

'Oh a freak came, so long suckers!'

Luna laughed at me and pushed Sumire. I don't know why she did that to her, are they playing a game of let's pretend?

I went to help Sumire stood up. She accepted my hand and dusted her skirt. 'How long have you been here?'

She asked and I was about to say something when I realized, oh no, don't tell me she meant everything she said back there. I wanted to ask her right away about that matter but I guess trying to figure out if it is true is better. I have to lie. I have to play dumb.

'No. I was running to you because I saw them, I was worried because they might do something to you. Why are you asking?'

Please don't lie.

Please prove me wrong.

Of course—

'Nothing. I was just worried that you might've heard them say crappy things about our group.'

—she won't do that thing.

'Oh.'

That's all what I said back to her.

'Come on, let's go.'

She walked ahead of me, I just wanted to know the truth and prove myself that she won't do such thing… but I guess my proof was too good to be true.

You liar.

My eyes snapped open. Damn. Never in my life did I thought that there will come a time that I will sleep inside the classroom and for the record, this thing never happened before meaning that it's my first time.

I rubbed my eyes and started to focus myself again at the topic in class. Good thing I'm seated at the back so the teacher didn't notice my absence in his class. So we have Biology today and Misaki sensei is teaching about the freaking chromosomes and all about Mendel's genetics. I don't even know if we would use that in the future… well unless if your course would be on the line with it.

I sighed and glanced beside me. The seats are not like from our own classroom. It was composed of chairs with own single desks, in this way, many could carry on with their plans during exams but sadly Misaki sensei knows about the schemes of students so he would just let us have our exams in our own classroom with him armed with a long stick together with his paper and pen.

He does 'extraordinary' things if you were caught cheating so better not do it or face the tricky consequences behind it.

Beside me was one of the persons in class which I hated to be near with, the freaking girl with a mole on the left portion of her upper lip. Geez… you might say that she's one of us, 'nerd' guys, but let me tell it now; despite of that look she has she is much more of a bistch than Sumire. Looks are definitely deceiving. And the shocking part of it is she had several boyfriends which had 'looks', man, but mind you people, we don't know if she was being played at or not.

Who knows?

This is the last period this day and tomorrow will be hell for me. I was forbidden by my parents to open even one of my books because of that 'detention' thing and the lying which I never did.

I really don't know why they believed Tono though because it was 'believed' that I was the sane one between us two. Magic?

Pfft. Whatever, the thing is I can't really escape the fact that I will be inside the house for the whole day tomorrow which sucks on my part.

Yeah, really. Even though I am used to be in that house during weekends it's just different when you are being held in there without any of your books to kill you time and add to that. Did I tell you before that they also include 'cleaning the whole house' in my punishment?

Well if you don't believe it, you must better believe it now because there are no way my parents would ever take those words back. Not when Misaki and Tono have been jumping their asses off because of joy. Now they wouldn't do anything for the rest of the weekend.

So unfair.

Well, they aren't doing something about chores during weekends and constantly tell mom that we have to have a maid or something like a helper inside so that Misaki's hands won't get calloused or Tono's hair to be ruffled.

Well then, how about me?

So much for being my siblings.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Oh there goes our cue. Last period is off and thanks God I am going home, wait, Sumire and I still haven't make it up yet and I wonder if we're still okay. I suddenly remembered that I was being called at the faculty room after classes. Man, I wonder what's up today.

Being in the faculty room would somehow make me feel ummm worried and all giddy and I just don't know why.

So I was on my way to the faculty room when I felt a firm tap on my left shoulder. From how I could see it, I can't figure out if it's Hyuuga again and
God knows that I will do something stupid again if it is him.

So please, just don't be him.

I slowly turned my head to see who this person is, breaking my peaceful silence on my way to the faculty room.

I flinched a bit when I saw who it was.

Sumire.

I wonder why she is talking to me again when we have this argument a little while ago.

"May I take just a second." She said while looking away from me.

What? She's asking me to talk with her but she's not looking at me? Okay… that's cool… very new.

Why wouldn't she call me instead than doing do-not-look-at-me-while-I'm-talking?

And for the record, she already took my one hour away with her after she left me on the stairs.

As much as I would like to push her away from me I just muttered a simple 'what?' to her so that she would start talking right away. I needed my precious time back.

"Umm… bout the matter a little while ago." She said quietly yet I still have the chance to hear it due to my extraordinary ear which is the reason why I am holding grudge against Sumire up till now.

"So? What about it?" I turned around to face her and she took her hand away from me in return. She looked at me.

At last.

"You see… I really didn't mean to that thing to you… I mean I am just being in… in-insensitive." She stuttered.

She's stuttering. Can it be that the theory of that 'stuttering' thing I heard from the radio is true? That if one person is stuttering, that person is lying?

I nodded and signaled her to continue her speech. Little did she know that I seriously wanted to wring her neck right now.

As a payment to all.

She cleared her throat and did I sense that she is nervous?

"I know it's hard for you… Mikan."

Oh, so now it's Mikan.

I wonder why she didn't call me Sakura.

"You see, I needed you to do me a favor."

Favor.

Favor?

The heck?

Is she using me?

I just gave her a questioned look and it seemed like she understood what I meant because she immediately answered, "It's not what you think it is! I'm not planning anything bad!"

Somehow, if she acts like this I just can't help myself but to forget those things that she did even for a short period of time. At least she would manage to change my view towards her.

"Yeah, right." I answered bluntly. "So what is this favor you wanted to ask?"

"I-I'm sorry from what did. I know I went overboard so the favor I wanted to ask is… can we… just… ummm… you know, just ummm reconcile and kind of forget it?"

Now that made me stunned.

"I-I am not implying that you m-must forget it completely but I-I think that it would be the best since we are after all, best friends. I just guessed that… it would be bad if we are holding grudges against each other infront of the group. You know them, they tend to become too curious sometimes about what's happening so I guess if we reconcile now, we could be… you know, just like the same again."

Best friends?

Yeah right.

I tried to make myself flexible about what's happening, thinking about the consequences if I did and did not accept her offer.

I have to admit that I will always have grudge against her and no one could ever change that fact, not when Sumire won't show her true colors towards us.

But holding another grudge against her may be too much for me and there might be a tendency that I will burst if ever I didn't give it any attention. So I guess, I'll just do her the favor.

For my sake.

And the sake of my group.

"Okay."

I swear I saw her eyes widen along with her grin but never mind giving it any weird ideas. I'll just think that she did that because she's sincere to what she said. Which I really hope she did because if not, she is bringing my hope to her down again.

And again.

And again.

So tired of it already.

She muttered 'thank you' and several 'goodbyes' then she strode off away from my view.

Did I really make the right decision?

I shrugged the thought away and just continued my journey to the faculty room. I just hope that this thing will be good so that it could balance my weary heart.

I took a deep breath and faced the door that separates me from the faculty room. Somehow, nervousness managed to creep under my skin giving me shivers and second thoughts about going in.

Is it about detentions and sermons again?

Or my parents are here?

Or either my sister or brother is in there because of some ruckus they made and I am here for some kind of interrogation?

I just shook my head and went in. Here goes nothing.

I was greeted with the sight of Fairon in there being 'forcibly' signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by Jin jin. I bet he did some failure in his class once again. Same old scene when we are still in preschool hanging out inside the principal's office but just to let you know, we aren't in there because we are signing MOA papers but because we are in there for our head teacher's sermon.

We just did a little ruckus inside class during our free period so it's kind of like whatever to us.

Anyways, so I am in here finding myself out. So who did call me to come here again? I have no idea.

"Oh Ms. Sakura, please come this way." I heard a female teacher called me. I think she was in the Mathematics Department and I could swear right now that I am having this thing called 'shivers' even though we are experiencing spring.

I followed her and we entered my doom. The Mathematics Department head office. Okay… that's weird. Last time I checked, I didn't have any failures about this subject… well, actually near to death but I really swear that I didn't fail it.

Over my dead ummm… nevermind.

What?

At least I could tell you that I don't have a sexy body but I have practically had a nice body, or so I was told, and a nice height to have.

Look, just leave it like that okay?

So I was saying, we are in the Mathematics Department head office. It's my first time coming in here but I can say that the room felt cozy contrasting the fact about the subject.

Weird.

And surprisingly, I am not alone in here. Here is our handsome class mayor, Mark who always wear his nerdy glasses along with his neat uniform… he is considered as one of the most handsome guys in or building but the sad thing is… he or rather she is more feminine than I am. Right people, she is gay. And guess what, he isn't labeled as one in our group ladies and gentlemen… in fact she is a bistch and she or he admits it.

The world is too small don't you think and round and upside down and weird.

There is another middle school student in here and I guess her name's Diane? Uhhh, I don't know but let's just assume it is. Well, weird rumors are spreading about her and her boyfriend which is a senior. Rumors say that she and her boyfriend did 'it' when they were out of town having vacation in a hotel. Pfft, but it seemed true basing from the way she walked.

What girl will be walking along the hallway with her legs too wide? Except if you have disabilities on your legs then probably like that would occur but she is, from what I've observed, a normal one.

They probably did 'it' already. Gross. I guess doing that 'thing' in our age is kind of immoral and yucky and in my point of view, not worth it. Come on, fifteen years old doing that? Are you insane?

And there's a sad thing about her and her rumors. The actual person who spread that rumor was none other than her best friend, or so what she called her. You remember that girl with a mole I mentioned a while ago, that is the girl who betrayed her.

Diane didn't really know that it was her so she still clings on her for support. Poor her, if she really knew the truth.

I settled myself to a seat next to Diane facing the Mathematics head master. I am really feeling nervous about all of this because I don't have any idea what is going on.

Or maybe I have but I'm too negative about it.

Ugh!

Can someone already tell me why I am here?

"As what you have being told about,"

Whoa! Fast!

"We, The Mathematics Department were having this contest every year and as you know, it is fast approaching."

I actually don't think that they have told me about something like contest. More like they told this invitation to me as a 'threat'. The head teacher passed us papers and I could really see it. My doom.

"Statistics is vast and only some of us appreciate it due to what they have been labeling it as 'hard'. Say, do you really find Statistics hard?"

Yes.

"No." I looked at Mark. Did he/she just say no? Are you kidding me? That subject particularly skins me out during examinations!

"Kind of." I heard Diane say.

Man, these guys have some guts.

Can someone tell me again why am I here?

The head teacher looked at me. Am I really participating that thing?

"I… I don't have any idea."

I heard her chuckle and mentioned us to look at our papers. Okay… I know this thing.

Reviewers.

"You are hereby called to participate in the said competition next week which is probably Tuesday and if we are fortunate enough to pass that level, we are going outside town and compete for the title once again."

After that, I found myself again walking along the lonely hallway. It is already late since the head teacher still made us sign some papers and chit chat to us about the contest.

So much for going home early today.

But I'm kind of blessed that I am participating because the academy is holding the title for three straight years, and if ever we will win again this year… then I'm glad to have my name written in the school's history.

Wait.

Who chose me for the competition?

To be continued…

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and please leave a review! =)