The Hands of Life

Chapter 9: Shopping for...?


"Get up Alex!" I yelled into my brother's room. Today was Saturday, a halfday, but nonetheless a school day.

He grumbled and I closed his door. I already had my school outfit on, but now I needed to make something for breakfast for myself. Today Alex had his first practice with the Track team and I was contemplating waiting for him to finish and ask him about it on the way home.

"I'm done."

I looked behind me to see Alex in his school uniform, looking like he rolled out of bed like that.

"Yea, I did. I went to sleep in this thing."

I refused to press on the issue and decided not to have breakfast. I picked up my bag and the two of us left for the school. We were both quiet. Neither of us really knew what to say to one another. We usually did, but yesterday when we came home from school it was like we just became siblings. It was like a repeat of what happened back in America, except we had gotten closer from it. I didn't know if we would get closer from this.

"Hey, Lynn."

I looked to him,"Yea, Alex?"

"Can you get some chips or something after school? I ran out."

I sighed at the boy,"Sure, why not?"


When I sat in my seat in the classroom I immeaditely noticed that the Timauto girl wasn't sitting in front of me. She wasn't even in the room. I decided to take that as a blessing or a thank you somehow from Kami-sama, and I took out my book and opened up to the fifth chapter.

"Carmichael-san."

I looked up to my teacher. I rose an eyebrow to see Kaaji-sensei. I wasn't supposed to see him today, right[1]?

"Hai?"

"You've been excused from classes today to work on the program."

I had to blink a few times to understand what he meant. After a moment I did remember and picked up my things,"Um, okay."

I left the room with him, passing by each of my classmates. Saturday had just gotten a little more interesting.


"I hope you don't mind, but you'll be working with someone else from your grade." Kaaji-sensei said, pushing up his glasses.

I shook my head as we entered the library,"I don't mind."

"Good. Oh, here he is."

I looked up to see a boy with wavy blue hair and nice blue eyes. He looked really familiar.

"Carmichael-san, this is Yukimura Seiichi-kun."

I smiled and bowed my head lightly,"Hello."

His name sounded familiar, too. Oh, wait! I saw him at the courts that one day when I first met Marui. He still had that harshness behind his eyes, but it didn't seem as bad as it had when he was on the courts.

"Hello, Carmichael-san."

I sat down next to Yukimura at the table and Kaaji-sensei handed us some things. I looked through them quickly to see that they were all Science sheets. I guess that this was the first section that we would be looking through. I glanced over to Yukimura and saw that he was looking at me.

"Weren't you on the courts once before?"

I nodded slowly, trying to understand what he meant. There was some underlying meaning to his words.

"Interesting. Well, let's get started on this."

I nodded again. This boy had something up his sleeve, whatever it was.


The tone sounded and I looked over to Yukimura. My hand was in my hair and my elbow was on the table. This was all really interesting in what we were looking at. I took my hand out of my hair and smoothed it down, ready to gather my things.

"Carmichael-san, what class are you in?"

I looked up to the blue-eyes boy,"Oh, class 3-B."

"You're in Sanada's class?"

I glanced away from him and made sure my hair was hovering above my face. I hadn't been thinking about the boy I had a small crush on all day. Since Yukimura reminded me I could feel my face heat up a bit. I never was good with this stuff.

"Yea, I am."

"Aren't you really good in English?"

I looked back up to him after regaining my composure and getting my bag. What was he getting at?

"Yea, I was born and raised in America."

He smiled to me politely, but there was more to it. I kind of didn't want to know what this was. He was a smart guy and understood a lot of different things, but he might be a little bit more convincing than I want him to be.

"You're brother has track practice today, right?"

How did he know that?

"Yea."

He smiled nicely to me and slightly tilted his head,"May I ask for your help with some of our tennis things for tomorrow's matches[2]?"

I had to blink a few times before nodding,"Sure, why not?"


"Buchou, where is th-"

Yukimura and I looked away from our small conversation about the Science portion and to the boy that was speaking to my partner, not me. He was bald and dark-skinned. It reminded me of a friend I had back in America. Oh, well, that's depressing.

"What do you need, Jackal?"

The boy took a moment to regain his lost composure. I guess Yukimura wasn't seen with too many girls.

"I was wondering what we were going to do about tomorrow."

Yukimura shook his hand,"That's been taken care of. Sanada-san, come here."

I looked away from the boy in the cap. I could feel my brain malfunctioning already.

"I wanted to tell you that since you're doing the shopping for the team's matches tomorrow that Carmichael-san has agreed to help."

I shot my eyesight over to him. My head had only moved a bit, but I was in complete shock. Oh, he was mean. He could see how I was tortured to be around Sanada.

"Hai."


I supressed a sigh as Sanada and I left out the school gates. I didn't plan on making any conversation with the boy, why should I try? My answers will either be:

a) Silence.

b) AWKWARD Silence.

c) A one-word response with or without a look.

d) A look.

. . .

None of them sounded more appealing to me than the other.

"Carmichael-san."

I looked up to him, making sure to not miss a beat,"Hai?"

"Here's what Buchou needs us to find."

I took the list that he was handing me. I guess that he didn't want me to feel completely useless... Even though that's really inevitable.

Water Bottles

Grip Tape

Pack of Tennis Balls

Bandaids

Gauze

Disinfectant

Pink Towel

Bath Soap

Cherry Candies

Pomegranate Lotion

Sca-

. . .

What was that? Pomegranate Lotion? And a Scarf? I could sort of understand the candies since I heard that Marui liked sugar, but what? I shook my head lightly. I guess this would be quite interesting to do.


"Okay, since we have all of that I guess we need to go to a different store for everything else on the list." I said, slightly scratching my scalp as Sanada pulled out the team's funds. He handed the amount for what we got to the cashier and picked up the bags.

"Yes. We wouldn't find any of those things in a tennis shop."

I didn't know if I should laugh or not. Was he trying to make a joke?

I ended up letting out a small cough when we exited the store. We walked down the sidewalk to a larger store with a larger variety. I glanced back down at the list that I was given the job to hold and looked to the signs.

"We can get all of the, um, bathroom things from Aisle 3."

Sanada only nodded and followed me. I made sure not to sigh as I smelled the store's air. It reminded me of laughing and running through the aisle's of our town's walmart. My friends and I had caused so much mischeif. It had been so fun- our experiments and the such.

"Carmichael-san."

I looked up to Sanada,"Huh?"

After a moment of silence I realized that I had stopped walking. I felt my face light up and I began to move again,"Ah, gomen. I got distracted."

He nodded his head. I felt slightly bummed on the inside that he hadn't asked what I was so distracted by. Then again, he wouldn't be him if he did ask.

"Okay. Pink towel, bath soap..." I continued to pick the things that were on the list. When I picked up something with a choice I thought about it and began to color code. There was some odd assortments in the basket I held.

I chuckled lightly and covered my mouth a bit,"We only need to get the scarf now. Um, what color should we pick?"

Sanada had been silent when I picked out the bathroom items, so he chould be vocal on this one. I saw him scan the scarves. I still didn't understand the point of this.

"The one with stripes."

I looked from him to the rack. Thankfully only one of them had stripes. Though, it was like he had picked it so he could only speak very few words. I picked it off and looked at it. It was a gray and black striped scarf with the ends having pink yarn bits[3]. I had to admit, it was kind of cute.

"Okay, we just need to check out than."


We were currently walking back to Rikkai. We weren't too far from it. Sanada was holding the tennis bags while I held the ones we had gotten from the other store. We looked interesting walking like we were. There was silence, but I have to admit that it was comfortable. Not awkward like I was so worried it would be.

"Carmichael-san."

I looked up,"Hai, Sanada-san?"

"Thank you for your help."

I nodded, but than shook my head a bit afterwards,"Um, can you not use my last name? It's been kind of awkward for me. If it's not okay with you than you don't have to, but... Yea."

I didn't see him nod or anything. There wasn't even a vocal response. See? This was what I meant earlier. I got choice b, will kind of. I guess.


"Ah, you're back. Just in time since practice just ended."

"Sis!" "Oh, Lynn!"

I waved to my brother and Koizu. I didn't feel a smile on my face and I knew that one wasn't on there. I hadn't gotten comfortable enough to smile and laugh like I used to.

I set down the bags I had in my hands next to the ones that Sanada had just put down. I looked back up to Yukimura and Sanada, the only two near me. I waved lightly,"Goodbye, Yukimura-san. Sanada-san."

I almost didn't hear it cause I wasn't paying attention, and I kind of wished that I had a remote to rewind and play it over and over.

"Goodbye, Lynn-san."

This shopping trip favor hadn't been so bad... Except... Now that I think about it... What did me speaking English have to do with any of it?


[1] Saturday is a half-day, so it would be wierd to see your last hour teacher first hour.

[2] Glad he didn't have to turn all evil XD.

[3] Sanada's favorite colors are gray and black. The pink just makes it color coordinated

In case anyone is wondering, Lynn buys Alex his chips after his practice. Awww, Sanada is a little OOC... But that's gonna happen. I think it's kind of cute. Even though he said no more than thirty words in this whole thing... not even. I think it's cause he's raised to be more strict and proper[Duh.]. And Yukimura buts into Sanada and Lynn's lives XD. WOW! I was going to give him more sadistic and evil qualities, but decided to leave him a bit more sweet than that, just decieving with his cuteness, haha.

OH! This is IMPORTANT!

Now, I have issues with keeping things on time so I wanted everyone to know this.

School in Japan starts in March. I am going by an actual 2007 calendar with this, too. XD.

I guesstimate that they started school about March 5th or something.

Well, Lynn and Alex came to the school on March 23rd and this chapter was about a week and a day later on March 31st. The time will go slow in the beginning, but it'll speed up soon :D!

I also want to Apologize for not getting this out on Monday like I said I would. I got majorly swamped by some chapters in this book for my project. So, hopefully 3 am on Tuesday works XD. These are the hours when I am alive.

Thank you to:

Michiyo Michiri
chocolatekuni
ZzBlack NightzZ (and Snuggi): [:D! Yay for excuses for food! I wish I could do things like that... haha.]
lindamalinda27: [I'm wondering that too, sadly xD.]
Michiko-Chii

~ Tai, the Master of Powerade.