AN: Sorry it has been so long since my last update people but with life, work, life, and oh yes did I forget a thing called life it's been a long way coming to this point but anyway the roller-coaster ride has begun again!
Chapter 7
I awoke the next morning to the scent of what smelled like waffles. My shirt was undone and to say I was sleeping comfortably, well I can attest differently to that. I had a small crick in my neck but at most that was it. Ninamori laid two plates on the table and she went back and poured some fresh orange juice into our glasses. I yawned, stretched and headed into the dining room.
"You were sleeping just too comfortably for anything," Ninamori replied, "Although from how you snore at night I think you must sleep very well while everyone else suffers." d
"I don't snore, I dream I'm a motorcycle." I replied.
She looked at me and replied, in turn "I'm not buying that piss-poor excuse for a minute. Ah at any rate we have class in two hours, best eat up so we can report our findings of our attempt and an experiment in the restaurant."
"Oh yeah, the experiment," I remembered out of a place in my brain that seemed thick as London's fog, "Sorry I couldn't help as much as you liked."
"Oh, on the contrary you helped me ascertain you have a fear of women and a fear of commitment"
"That's not true! A lot of things happened at that place last night that-that..."
"That what? Are hard to explain? It wouldn't be the first time you played that card on my table."
I gave up and sat down and began to eat my pancakes. But then something struck me and I asked, "Nina, what do you-" I hesitated but decided it was just best to put it out, "what do you remember about last night?"
"Do you want the short version, or the long?" she asked as she buttered her pancakes.
"Whatever," I replied, "just tell me what you remember."
She then recounted the restaurant and all that happened there and taking me home but shockingly that was it. She didn't remember love making, at least to her own revelations, she was very as usual business like about it. So I quit on the idea she remembered anything, and didn't bother anymore about it. I ate my pancakes afterward feeling better and more comfortable about anything that transpired. Then the phone rang on the nearby counter and Ninamori went to answer.
I listened to her side of the conversation but it was vague at best. I got up and rinsed out the glass and the plate but then my own phone rang. It was Nocturne, "Hello, Naota, I'd like you to report to my office before class. There are some things I'd like to discuss with you."
I went into another room, "Look I don't know what you two are up to but I do know this, you're playing with a mad scientist freak show and she is the most insane being God had the grace to put on this planet. Please whatever you're doing, this has to stop and if you don't let it stop, I will report you to the board."
"Naota," he replied perfectly calm, "I only wish to talk with you it won't take any more than half an hour."
The call disconnected and I sighed more out of frustration than dread but to say I was dreading this day was an understatement. I was thinking to myself as I looked outside from the porch window, 'Oh what could possibly go wrong?'
We got in Ninamori's car and headed for the campus. The weather wasn't too bad. It was crisp and clean the smell of baked goods from Cross Hall's open breakfast bar came into my lungs. Even though I'd eaten it still had that effect on me of making me slightly hungry. I told Nina I would see her later in class as I headed to the main building towards Nocturne's office.
The elevator finally dinged and opened and I headed down the cold white bare-walled hall and I came to a door that said Nocturne I knocked and I heard his voice say, "Yes?" I came in and I saw him pouring over a volume that may or may not have been the Kama Sutra. I sat across from him and he looked up. He closed his book, put it on his shelf, and took off his wire-rimmed glasses which in truth made him look like an old professor that stepped out of the 80s.
He smiled very pleasantly and asks, "Good night last night?"
"I really don't think that's any of your concern, Sir."
"Oh well, you're right, not my concern leastways directly but I would like you to fill out the answers to this questionnaire."
He lay a green papered form down on my desk which honestly reminded me of the old test forms I took to test out of different grade levels. I looked and him and he smiled not the discomforting kind but the kind of smile that you knew there were about six or seven moves left in a poker game and he was holding four kings.
I filled out the questionnaire question by question all of which were ratings of how my night went so even though I did not want to tell Nocturne how my night went he was going to find out anyway but something was sneaking a suspicion in my mind.
"If you're wondering if this is exclusive to you," Nocturne said opening a desk drawer and pulling out at least sixty other similar tests and showing me a few, "It's not. I would have mailed you this but your roommate said you weren't in."
"I no longer have a roommate, Sir." I told him who I knew was unaware of my housing conditions.
"Leo? Not your fellow dorm mate-why not?"
"Because your beautiful assistant threw his shit out into the main lobby of the dorms." I explained, "A person in your vocation I thought would know this."
"My vocation if that did indeed happen has no bearing on that whatsoever, Naota. Simple fact is I went to every dorm and delivered this pamphlet and all but you received it and if you go to your dorm you will find this questionnaire there."
I saw what he was up to but didn't say anything towards it and I finished the questionnaire and said, "See you in class."
"No you won't. I have to go to a conference I have someone stepping in for me today. You'll like him, plenty that you two have in common."
I shrugged and headed out and headed to Cross Hall and had a bottle of apple juice and I looked out over the faculty parking and saw a yellow Vespa in one of the parking spots. I headed over to it and looked it over and knew it was Haruko's. I looked at the name tag for the spot, Herman Wilkinson.
'Really Haruko? Masquerading as a man? And a Herman no less.' I thought to myself and headed back to my seat. I drank slowly and then I heard something. I was silent a moment and there it was drum beats and beautiful vocals. I headed down the block to the Greek-style amphitheater the school used for outdoor play production. I saw the lead singer and her words soothed me like no other.
The night we met I knew I needed you so
And if I had the chance I'd never let you go
So won't you say you love me,
I'll make you so proud of me.
We'll make 'em turn their heads every place we go
So won't you, please, be my be my baby
Be my little. baby my one and only baby
Say you'll be my darlin', be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.
I'll make you happy, baby, just wait and see
For every kiss you give me I'll give you three
Oh, since the day I saw you
I have been waiting for you
You know I will adore you 'til eternity
So won't you, please, be my be my baby
Be my little. baby my one and only baby
Say you'll be my darlin', be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.
So come on and, please, be my be my baby
Be my little baby my one and only baby
Say you'll be my darlin', be my be my baby
Be my baby now, my one and only baby
Wha-oh-oh-oh.
Be my be my baby be my little baby
My one and only baby oh oh
Be my be my baby oh,
My one and only baby wha-oh-oh-oh-oh
Be my be my baby oh,
My one and only baby
Be my be my baby oh,
Be my baby now
I listened to the whole song and the group finished and packed up but the lead singer I noticed came up to me and sat beside me. She was around 5'11 but my she was handsome. She had chestnut curly hair and deep piercing sapphire eyes and she looked like she was not a pound over 120.
"Did you like it?" she asked, "We've been practicing for the better part of four weeks we're preparing for a big concert in the upper city later next week, would you like to come?"
"Sure, what's the band's name?" I asked
"We call ourselves, The Cult of Skarro. You know after the Dalek home planet in Dr. Who?"
"I've sadly not had the pleasure of watching it."
She gasped, "Unacceptable! Don't worry spend some time with us and you'll see. Oh where are my manners? Iris Morgan." she said holding out her hand.
"Just call me Naota," I told her, "The full two words of my name to me is just not needed." I shook her hand and she indeed had a firm grip.
She let go, "Say I was wondering would you like to join me uptown after classes for dinner? That way, you can meet the rest of the band and not be so much a stranger to us."
"I'd love to, thanks. Trust me, it will shock me out of the weird enough normal I live in."
She laughed lightly at this and said, "Alright then. Give me your cell number and I'll give you a call where to meet up with us."
I gave it to her and she gave me hers and we went our separate ways. It was nearly time for class so I headed to the room and sat in my sea as Ninamori sat beside me. I reclined in my seat slightly and saw the far right door open and a young man come in. He was around 25. He stood from my best estimate, six foot if not an inch more and he was relatively heavy-set. He had a full well-groomed beard and this, accompanied with his short hair and his overall good nature expression made him seem very approachable.
"Good morning, class," he said with a beaming smile, "My name is Aaron Walters and I will be substitute teacher while Mr. Nocturne is out on the three day conference in Okinawa. Now, to business."
He took out a large briefcase and brought out the tests I had seen in Reggie's office. He laid them all out and raised up an example and said, "The men in the assigned dating scenarios were given these questionnaires. They detail their experience while out on a date with their female companions. As is typical with this kind of scenario you were kept free of any and all observation so your feelings during the dates would not be meddled with and therefore the experiment was not fixed in any degree. Many of the male responses were fairly typical. Was the food good? Yes in most cases. Were the women sociable and kind. This variable depended for this experiment and indeed the experience while admittedly unorthodox, did yield some very interesting results. Therefore to make this more of a complete experience, the ladies have been sent the same form of questionnaire. How they answer will determine the quarterly grade for their partner just as the male answered portion when compared and contrasted will determine the woman's score."
While this did seem fair in retrospect I thought to myself if Aaron was another agent to harass me. I could have reported Reggie to the board but something told me that he was counting on that. Besides he was supposedly gone for three days so maybe I could pick Aaron's brain and see what the professor's true intentions were for me. But that would come later I judged I don't wish to ruin my plans for later tonight by verbal jousting. Anyhow, Aaron went on for a bit about the experiment showing how the male retrospect is to give a first full on impression of an experience while the woman, having been given more time to think about her experience will say things that hopefully reflected how she truly felt for that is certainly how most of the men acted not thinking that these evaluations would be used in this manner. Therefore, the fate of each respective partner was in the other's hands.
I listened intently and then Aaron switched topics for a bit, talked about himself a touch in closing for he said, "Even though it's only three days I do hope to know you all better in those three days."
Well that seemed reasonable but then he assigned our reading to us page 60-200 in our primary textbook and pages 1-200 in our secondary text due by next class. So after we were dismissed, I went up to him and he seemed a bit larger than I had estimated but he was still extremely pleasant and said, "Ah, Mr. Naota."
"How do you know that?"
"Well I could say your features stand out but apart from that there's always the trusty seating chart which I can always refer back to. Man is creature of habit. More-so that he'd ever like to admit. For example if I were to sit in your chair and you see it as "your traditional seat" you would be bent out of shape about it for the whole period and you would glare at that person in your chair. Sadly however we must remember that it is not our chair. It belongs to the establishment and we are borrowing it."
"Right well I just came to say I enjoyed the class."
"Brown-nosing as is traditional or rather expected in this setting but thanks nonetheless. Now please, I have work to do and you have reading to do tonight."
This guy either had no humor or he was maintaining what was deemed proper student-teacher relations but I leaned towards both.
I headed back to my dorm and saw a message on my phone which I'd left to charge and it said, "Hey Naota, it's Iris. My friends and I would love to meet you tonight. We'll be at the German restaurant, Wilhem's Bistro. I'll see you there. If you have any friends bring them along. Alright well, I'll see you tonight arrive around 8:30 and ask for Iris at Booth 20. Peace."
I closed the phone, picked out some good midnight blue jeans, a red polo, and shined my shoes before jumping in the shower and as I dressed preparing about two hours ahead of time I heard a faint creak in the other room and I headed in and turned around into the living room and there sat Haruko, her own self.
AN: The song used in this chapter was Be My Baby by the Ronettes the song is in no way my property. This was a relatively short chapter but there will be another coming soon but in the meantime, thank you for your patience and I will see you next chapter. I would also like to take this time to thank DanteVirgil09 for giving me the encouragement to continue this chapter.
