Hello
That morning, I noticed a package on the table for me. Which is weird, because I never even got mail most of the time. Then again, the not-so-ordinary had some kind of magnetic attraction to me around this time. So I decided not to question it and open the package.
Inside the package were two rotten lemons. Yes, I mean fruit. What else would- Oh, not that. This is fruit.
At this point I was very weirded out. In fact, I was so creeped out that when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket for once, I jumped. Taking out my phone, I saw I was getting a call from Amaya, so I answered. "Hey."
"OH MY GOODNESS! YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL! LEIKO, IT'S REALLY WEIRD!" Amaya yelled something to that effect. He also yelled it really quickly, making it hard to tell exactly what he said, but unfortunately it won't stay like that as one long word.
I wordlessly screamed at him to shut him up. "Amaya. Slow down. Become calm."
"Right." Amaya took a deep breath. "Leiko, you'll never believe what happened to me today. It's the creepiest thing in the world."
"What can be creepier than this?" I muttered.
"Hmm?"
"Nevermind, tell me what happened."
"This morning I found a package for me, so I opened it, and I found a ROTTEN LEMON inside. I kid you not, a freaking ROTTEN LEMON!"
"You are talking about fruit, right?" I asked cautiously.
"Yes, why?"
"No reason. Anyway, yes, I know what you're talking about. I got two rotten lemons in the mail."
"Are YOU talking about fruit?" Amaya retorted.
"Yes I am, why do you ask?" I inquired.
"You asked me."
I facepalmed myself. "Do you know who sent them?"
"The return address resembles Mrs. Kimura's. How about you?"
"Same here," I confirmed as I checked the return address on my own package.
"Then we can ask. The least she can do is refuse to explain."
"That's not a bad idea."
At school later that day...
So when we got to Mrs. Kimura's class at school, we decided to ask. Neither of us was keen on starting the subject, so we had an argument on the way to class.
"You ask first!" Amaya insisted.
"No, you ask first!" I retorted.
"I'm not comfortable with asking."
"Yes, well, asking is a real peach for me, too."
"Huh?"
"Nevermind. I'll just ask," I decided as we walked inside the classroom. I needed to remember not to use sarcasm on Amaya, he tended not to get it.
"Good morning!" Ms. Kimura greeted us cheerily. Too cheerily. In fact, she never said good morning. SOMETHING was up here.
"Umm...good morning, Mrs. Kimura." I random paused to clear my throat here, since it felt like something was stuck in there. "We wanted to ask you something."
"Ask away," Mrs. Kimura encouraged us. The encouragement did it's job well. I felt a teensy bit less nervous about asking.
"Well, we're wondering why you mailed us rotten lemons."
"You are talking about the fruit?" Mrs. Kimura asked.
"YEAH. Rotten yellow fruit shaped like an oval with two points," I explained clearly.
"I know what a lemon is," Mrs. Kimura muttered. Then her voice became normal again. "Are they now rotten? I must apologize, they must have rotted when I mailed them to you."
"Why'd you send them in the first place?" Amaya spoke up.
Mrs. Kimura stared at him for a moment as if she just realized he was there before continuing. "I wanted to educate you two in a life lesson."
"Either you're telling us that we should make lemonade with lemons, or fruit is a very healthy snack that we should always eat," I commented. "And I'm sure I know which one it is."
"Yup. Life just gave you lemons. Do what you want with them, but I hope you do make lemonade." Something about the way she said this was...creepy. "Okay then, sit down. It's time for today's lesson, and I'm already behind schedule."
Amaya and I sat down. "Who are you, the White Rabbit?" I mumbled under my breath.
After school ended, Amaya and I ended up running into Sumiko Yoshida.
Literally.
"Hi," was all I said as I grabbed the backpack that had slipped off of my shoulder.
"Hi." Sumiko grinned at Amaya and I. "I want to thank you guys for helping me get back my Millennium Baritone."
"You're welcome," Amaya replied.
"My siblings do too, actually." Sumiko rocked back and forth on his feet nervously. "They were wondering if you could come over and meet them."
"Of course." "Of course not!" Amaya and I responded at the same time. I was leaning towards not doing this, while my wonderful friend was pushing for meeting complete strangers. (They weren't complete strangers! We knew their sibling!) Oh, for the love of- AMAYA, I AM THE ONE TELLING THIS STORY!
Apologies.
Amaya rolled his eyes. "Come on, Leiko. We helped the kid get back his most precious belonging, and in return he wants us to meet his family. The least we can do is go and see them, even if only for a few minutes."
"They're complete strangers!" I protested. Amaya rolled his eyes at this. "Amaya, for all we know, this kid's been adopted and he's taking us to meet murderers!"
"I wasn't adopted," Sumiko pointed out. "And we aren't murderers."
"Leiko," Amaya said in a warning tone. His eyes blazed out confidence. We both knew that I had backed myself into a corner of guilt, and I had to go through with this now.
"Fine." I managed a smile. Fake, but still a smile. "What's the worst that could happen anyway?"
Por lo tanto, seguimos Sumiko a su casa. El viaje no vale la pena mencionar y que también podría olvidar que esta historia ha sucedido siempre. Así que eso es el fin! ¡Adiós!
Wait a minute...wrong language. Sorry, too much Spanish has gone to my head.
So, we followed Sumiko to his house. The trip there isn't worth mentioning other than Amaya kept grinnning at me until I jabbed him in the stomach. Really hard. For the rest of the trip his face was full of pain.
Sumiko opened the door. "Here we are."
It was a decent house. I don't remember much about how it looks, because I don't like to judge people based on what their house looks like. Unless it's myself. I really only remember Sumiko's brother and sister. And our conversation.
A boy and a girl glanced at us from a nearby couch. The girl looked about our age, with short blonde hair and brown eyes. Her skin was extremely tan and she seemed to have an athletic build. (I later learned that she was on the softball team.)
As for the boy...he had black hair and light green eyes. His skin was much paler than his sister's, and he wasn't athletic, only really skinny. He seemed a little older than the girl, but he was shorter.
"That's my brother and my sister," Sumiko introduced them. "My sister is Tokiwa, and next to her is Yumiko."
I smiled shyly at Yumiko as the two stood up. Yumiko grinned back at me.
"We're really grateful that you got the Baritone back for us," Tokiwa said. "It's extremely important to us." She quickly hugged us both.
"You have a Millennium Instrument as well, don't you?" Yumiko asked me.
"Y-yes," I stammered.
"And I assume you both know about the other Millennium Instruments," Yumiko continued.
"Yeah," Amaya replied, preventing me from saying anything else. "Why?"
"We also own the Millennium Flute and Clarinet," Tokiwa told us, gesturing to a corner. A green flute and a green clarinet sat there.
"Wow. How'd you get all three?" I asked, amazed.
Sumiko, Yumiko, and Tokiwa all exchanged before replying in unison, "We dunno."
"We always remember having them," Sumiko commented with a shrug. "We didn't even know they were special until about four years ago."
"That's great," Amaya commented. "Anyway, nice to meet you two. Leiko, we should probably head back, right?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, we should," I responded. "Bye!"
"Bye!" Tokiwa shouted. "Thanks again!"
After we left the house, Amaya glanced at me. "Well, you certainly were acting different than usual."
"Like I said, I didn't want to go."
"By the way, why don't you hug me like that? I wouldn't mind a hug once in awhile," Amaya teased. I replied with a swift kick in the knee. "You know, when you kick someone, it tends to hurt."
"That's what I intended," I replied.
Well, isn't that awfully convenient? And is it just me, or does Amaya seem a bit jealous? (Insert grin here)
Goodbye.
