I Gave You Twelve Roses

I Gave You Twelve Roses.

The spring formal will be coming soon! Enjoy!

Chapter 7: The Secret Admirer Is Revealed.

The weekend ended and Monday came. Monday ran into Tuesday. Tuesday crashed into Wednesday, which slammed into Thursday. Before you knew it, Friday came – the day of Yoshiki's chemistry competition and the night of the spring formal!

The secret admirer still didn't reveal himself to her in hopes of her getting a date for the spring formal. But she still dateless to that day.

Ayumi was still going to the spring formal with or without a date. She was definitely not going with Arnold. In fact, she discovered she's got a knack for avoiding him. In the past couple of days, he never spotted her in school.

The school bell rang, ending the school day. Everyone hurried out of the school, eager to begin the weekend. The freshmen and sophomores of Kisaragi Academy were out of the school faster before the teachers could even dismiss them.

While the guys went to get corsages and bouquets of flowers for their dates, the girls headed over to the nearest day spa and salon to get their hair, nails, and makeup done.

Meanwhile, the group of 6 was still at Kisaragi Academy. Ayumi, Mayu, and Naomi were going to decorate the gymnasium for the spring formal that night with the rest of the spring formal committee. Morishige and Satoshi were there to support Yoshiki at the chemistry competition.

Ayumi was in the art classroom, gathering the decorations she designed for the spring formal. Boxes of streamers, balloons, and confetti were on a sliver cart.

"Looks like I got everything," Ayumi said, checking off things on her clipboard. "Wait!"

She reached into her black jeans pocket and felt a metal video game.

"Yes, the tracking device." She smiled. "Okay, ready to go."

She placed the clipboard onto one of the boxes on the cart and pushed the cart out the open classroom door. She closed the door behind her and continued pushing the cart down the hallway. She turned a corner and made her way down another hallway.

She soon approached the chemistry classroom. A bunch of students, both competitors and supporters, were waiting for the competition to begin. Among those people were Yoshiki. He wore a white lab coat over his regular school clothes with a black hat.

He caught sight of Ayumi as she passed by. "Hey, Ayumi!"

She turned and smiled at him. "Hey, Yoshiki, good luck at the chemistry competition. I hope you do well."

Yoshiki smiled back. "Thanks for the support. See you at the spring formal tonight." Then, he remembered something. "Uh, about the spring formal, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," replied Ayumi.

"Well," Yoshiki began. "I was trying to ask you lately but I never got the chance to. So, would you . . ."

Just then, the chemistry classroom door opened and one of the judges stuck out his head out.

"Okay, the competition will start now," he stated. "Would everyone please enter in a single file if you please?"

Everyone began entering the chemistry classroom. Yoshiki sighed. "Well, I see you later I guess."

Ayumi nodded. "Okay."

She continued down the hall until she reached some stairs. Using all of her strength, she pushed the cart slowly down the stairs. Once she reached the bottom, she made her way to the gymnasium.

She had made more a few more left and right turns, until she reached a pair of double doors. She flung them open and pushed the cart into the gymnasium.

A couple of students were already there, setting up a couple of tables and some chairs. Ayumi pushed the cart to the middle of the gymnasium. Mayu was there, holding her clipboard and was in charge until Ayumi got back. Naomi was standing next to her.

"I got the decorations," Ayumi told Mayu. "Let's get started."

Naomi reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a long roll of a red streamer. "Right away."

She then asked someone to hold the ladder to decorate the part of the wall near the ceiling. Mayu reached into another box and pulled out a handful of balloons.

"Well, I better get blowing," she said, blowing into the balloon.


Meanwhile, in the chemistry classroom, the competition began. The tables were all on the side, except for two at the front of the room: one for each team. The chairs were in rows at the back of the room, where the audience was sitting.

As leader of Kisaragi Academy chemistry team, Yoshiki was instructing the team on how to do their first task. In front of them on their table was a beaker filled with a red liquid attached to a stand, above a hot little stove, and a rack of test tubes with different liquids.

The team read the first task on their competition list and shook their heads. The first task was very difficult. The only team member that knew the answer to the first task was Yoshiki. There was no way he was going to let Kisaragi Academy lose to Statesville Serpents.

"Okay, now if all of you just follow my instructions," Yoshiki started. "The first task will be completed. First of all, there's already red liquid in the beaker. Now, if Yagami would just pour the . . ."

Yoshiki stopped mid-sentence and looked at someone. The rest of the Kisaragi Academy chemistry team looked at what Yoshiki was looking at.

One of the team members, Hirato, was already pouring a blue liquid into the beaker.

Yoshiki gasped. "No, Hirato, not that one!"

But it was too late. The now purple liquid in the beaker was boiling and steaming thanks to the heat from the stove. It was bubbling and steam was rising.

Yoshiki stared at the beaker in disbelief. "Oh, crap!"


Soon, the rest of the spring formal committee members were pitching in with the decorating. A couple of girls were helping Mayu blow up the balloons and tying long ribbons to its ends. Several were throwing confetti everywhere to make the gym sparkle.

While Ayumi was tying balloons to the basketball nets and chairs by their ribbons, she could see Arnold out of the corner of her eye. He was sprinkling confetti while looking at Ayumi in a daze. He was so distracted; he didn't notice he was throwing confetti over Mayu.

While she was decorating, a giant explosion was heard. It shook the school like an earthquake and everyone screamed. The lucky thing was that it stopped just as fast as it came.

Everyone was against the wall. Some were upside down and some lying down on top of other people. What was that huge boom? What caused it? And was anyone hurt?

Ayumi met up with her friends in the middle of the gymnasium again. Mayu was rubbing her from bumping her head on something probably. Naomi had a big bruise on her left arm, but none of the three girls had anything that needed serious medical attention.

"Like, what the heck was that!?" Mayu cried.

Ayumi shook her head. "I don't know."

She looked around the gymnasium. Some of the students were getting back to their feet, with probably a couple of bruises and such.

"Where do you guys think it came from?" Mayu asked.

"Well," Ayumi started. "There are no clubs that would cause an explosion like this. And none of the clubs weren't supposed to be here except for . . . Yoshiki!" She put two and two together. Her eyes widened. "OH, NO!" She sprinted towards the gymnasium doors.

Before Mayu and Naomi could protest, she was already running up the stairs and turned around a corner. Her eyes widened even more and she gasped at the sight she saw.

It looked sd though that part of that school was painted black. Pieces of debris were everywhere and pieces of glass were scattered all over the floor, cut in half.

"Yoshiki!? She cried, looking around. "Yoshiki, can you hear me!?" She wandered into the destroyed chemistry classroom.

Just then, Mayu and Naomi showed up, panting from the long run. They also were shocked at the big mess.

"What's going on Ayumi!?" Mayu asked, worried. "Ayumi?" She looked at her blue haired friend, who had her back to her and didn't respond. "Ayumi, what's wrong?"

Mayu and Naomi hurried over to Ayumi's side. Ayumi was crying, her tears running down her face. Confused, they looked what was in Ayumi's hands and gasped.

In her hands was a black baseball hat. It was covered in some sort of red liquid. A puddle of the same red liquid was on the ground in front of her.

Mayu embraced her friend in her arms. "Oh, Ayumi, I'm so sorry." Pause. "Wait, where's Shige and Satoshi!?"

Naomi looked outside through what used to be a window. "The Escalade is gone. They probably made it out okay."

Ayumi cried, louder. Her friend released her from her arms, letting her run down the hall. She made a few left turns and a right turn until she reached her locker. She unlocked it by inputting her lock combination.

She wiped away her tears to get a better view of what was inside of her locker. Inside was a beautiful bouquet of a dozen red roses wrapped in pink wrapping, a small, blue, velvet box, and a folded up piece of paper.

She opened the small velvet box and gasped. Inside was a heart-shaped, pink sapphire, gold ring. It was so beautiful! But who was the secret admirer. She took the note and unfolded in.

It said:

I gave you twelve roses: eleven real and one fake. I'll love you until the last one dies.

Will you go to the spring formal with me?

Love you always,

Your now-not-so-secret-admirer, Yoshiki Kishinuma.

Ayumi burst into tears again. "Oh, Yoshiki!" She then slumped to the floor like a pile of wet towels and cried her eyes out.