Ocean View Girls College
A/N: Co-written with SailorLucinda
Chapter 9
The prompt, relentless summer sun had barely set that night. By early morning, when Michiru got to school, it was positioned comfortably high in the sky, burning all it could. The weather was sticky and foul already, even though it was barely seven o'clock. The grass below was dry as Michiru dashed across it in pursuit of the music room. She was utterly embarrassed and ashamed of what had happened the day before. Most of all, about how she had left her violin in the classroom after she stormed out. She could only hope it was still there, and that Haruka hadn't taken it after class and smashed it across the school grounds out of spite.
She reached the door to the music room and pulled out the spare key she was given by Kato-sensei. Swinging it open carelessly, she rushed into the music room only to find...
Her violin was gone.
Images of Haruka and her gang, laughing brutishly as they sprinkled wooden, priceless snow over the courtyards, in the dead flower bushes, at the base of trees, on classroom roofs, ran through her head faster than the athlete herself. It was gone. The Marine Cathedral was gone. The ridiculously expensive violin her father had bought her years ago to overcompensate for his lack of parenting abilities was gone.
Michiru fell to the floor, overwhelmed. Tears were brimming in her eyes. Over the years, she had grown to love her violin like a child. She ate with it, slept with it, went everywhere with it. It was the only thing in her life that actually meant something.
Just another element of her life Haruka had managed to ruin.
Behind her, she heard the door catch on something. Or someone.
'Great,' she thought. 'Just what I need. Someone to see me cry.'
She hoped, as strongly as she could, that it would be Kato-sensei. At least she would understand. Anyone else would take photos with their phones and send them to the entire student body. However, the smell of the perfume coming from the doorway definitely was not that of Kato-sensei. For one, there was no cigarette smoke undertone, and the scent itself was too...
Too much like...
"You're here early."
Michiru spun around, forgetting temporarily about her crying eyes, to see the last person she really wanted to see.
Haruka stood in the doorway, hands behind her back, with a look on her face Michiru couldn't comprehend. It wasn't something the blonde had expressed towards Michiru before. It was almost a hybrid of pity and... and something else. Joy? Happiness? But nothing smug or self satisfied. Unfortunately, the image was distorted by the sight of Haruka's swollen, purple eye.
"Nice welt, sweetie." Michiru pointed out, turning away from Haruka in a last ditch effort to hide her tears. She wiped them away with the back of her wrist, but remained slumped on the floor. She was too emotionally drained to move.
"Thanks. Interesting story, actually," Haruka's tone picked up to one of genuine conversation. "See, I was wrestling this bear..."
"Is that what you're telling everyone?" Michiru snorted.
"Actually, yes. No one believes it, but I figure it's better for everyone than the truth. You know, my pride, Kato-sensei's career, your social standing." Haruka grinned, aware Michiru couldn't see it, but hoping she would. "Everybody wins."
Michiru slowly lifted herself from the floor. Straightening her dress, she turned to look at Haruka, who was still grinning, ear to ear. Michiru's face sharpened into a death stare as she remembered exactly why she was upset in the first place.
"Where's my violin?" She barked at the blonde. "I left it right here, on my desk, and now it's gone."
"I know, which was very irresponsible of you. An expensive Stradivarius like that, anyone could have taken it."
"Like you? What have you done with it?" Michiru was hysterical now. She didn't mean to be. In fact, she went out of her way to not be. But the thought of her precious violin…she needed it back, the sooner the better. Her face was red and flustered, and she spat a little as she shouted. And as something rolled blissfully down her plump cheek, she knew she was crying again, which only made the embarrassment worse. Haruka couldn't help but notice, and she almost gave in to a sudden urge to wrap her arms around the smaller girl. Almost.
"Hey, relax. I did take it, because I didn't want someone else to steal it. Look, I was going to give it back." Haruka pulled her arms from behind her back and, sure enough, there was Michiru's violin case. Michiru reached for it greedily, taking the case and opening it, so she could examine her darling violin.
Haruka hadn't touched it. It was in perfect condition.
Soft footsteps reached their ears followed by a strong smell of perfume masking a weaker cigarette odour. Her eyes diverted from her cherished violin to greet Kato-sensei carrying a load of students' music exercise books and sheets of notes with her own elegant Italian black bag slung over her shoulder. She immediately straightened her posture, quickly closing her violin case and took it off the table.
"Ohaiyo Kato-sensei,"
"Ohaiyo Michiru-san, Haruka-san. I guess since you two are here I might as well tell you your new project this year that'll be worth forty percent of your grade. You two with Mizuno-san will be working to prepare two public performances either in or out of school; first performance will be only be worth fifteen percent and the second twenty-five percent for this semester. The choice of songs or scores you wish to cover will be up to your group. I will answer your questions in class after homeroom,"
Michiru glanced at Haruka who was equally annoyed and shocked about the project and back at Kato-sensei, "I have to work… with her," this wasn't a question and a statement of her displeasure.
"And Mizuno-san. She'll be mediating between you two to avoid any more clashes. The decision is final and you two will have to learn to be civil with each other,"
Her lips parted to argue but after another thought she pursed them together in knowledge that she would not be able change the outcome of the project. Instead she bowed and parted respectively to both her teacher and fellow classmate.