Friday

Family Studies

FINALLY! We can ditch stupid Riko. As soon as Mrs. Psycho scribbled what suspiciously looked like a D in her marking book, Nagihiko handed it to me. "You can do the honors, Rima."

It couldn't have been a D—Nagi was in on the project.

And then I threw Riko against the wall, and Riko exploded and got egg all over the floor. Man! And did it ever feel good. Ha ha, Riko!

Then suddenly this girl walked in with long, orange hair. "mom," she said, "you forgot your lunch." I expected Ms. Psycho to scream her head off at this girl, but instead she went, "Ohhhh, thank you, Ritsu-kun."

"Kun?" I asked her.

"yes," said Ms. Psycho stiffly. "Ritsu is my son."

"A cross dressing-son."

A cross-dressing boyfriend.

Wrong thing to say.

She yelled at me for half an hour, and now I have a detention.

What is with these overly-screwed-up teachers?

Lunchtime

Good (or maybe bad) news: Ami's egg hatched! Luckily, it was when she was sitting with us at the high school for lunch, as it's fairly close to Seiyo Elementary.

She just suddenly shrieked, "I feel a thing in my pocket shaking!"

"get it!" said Tadase.

I seriously am about to go insane—I've ignored it for ten chapters but FOR GOD SAKES START CAPITALIZING THE BEGINNINGS OF YOUR EFFING DIALOGUE!

"get what?" said Ami, getting more and more panicked.

"the egg, stupid!" said Amu.

Ami dove for the pocket of her backpack and retrieved the little pink-and-white egg, and it was then that there was a big explosion and a little orange-haired Chara appeared. It then began to squeak in delight. "arigato, Ami-chaaan! It was getting really cramped in there! My name is Pitchi."

Amu suddenly said, "WATCH OUT, Ami! She might want to do a character cha-"

But at that moment Pitchi yawned widely, and then she was all, "O-K, Ami-chii. Let's try a character change, NEEE?" before Ami (or anyone) could get a word in edgewise, Ami's hairclip changed into a music note. And then Ami started to sing, "Meikyu Butterfly". Except it was REALLY, REALLY GOOD (rather than her usual amount of talent, which was quite crappy). We were all quite amazed.

LIKE OH MAH GEE SHE'S SO GOOD IT'S SO SPESHULLLLL

Then Ami changed back, and prodded Pitchi back into her egg. "No more character changes without express permission from Ami. Ne?"

"Ne," came the muffled reply.

NEEEEEEEE

After School

My mom was in a good mood Friday. She was humming and making waffles. Actually, it might have been because my dad was in Osaka that day on a business trip, but whatever. I took advantage of that and asked her if we could go out and get me a bathing suit.

"you can just borrow one of mine!" she said breezily, and then took a hasty look at me. "Oh, I guess not. You're still too flat as a board to fit into mine."

"thanks."

"oh, you'll grow, honey!"

When was the last time she called me honey?

"so… can we get one?"

"okay! I know this really cute store –"

"mom. No ruffles. No bikinis. Get one and I kill you."

She sighed, disappointed.

Saturday

Okay. That good mood didn't last very long, as that night "they" (who are most definitely not my mother and father) had a humongous fight again.

But at least I got my swimsuit! It's orange and red… KusuKusu made me choose it because that way I can match her.

Amu's car

Thank god I was able to get a ride with Amu, because no way in hell am I going to let my mother behind the wheel with steam gushing out of her ears and let her drive me all the way to the beach.

SCAREH MOTHER IS SCAREH

Sadly, Evil Mad Genius conveniently has to carpul with us too.

30 seconds later

The Evil Mad Genius so kindly tells me it's spelled carpool.

"will you stop reading my diary?" I yelled at him.

"why? Is there anything in there you don't want me to see?"

"damn straight, yeah!"

"you're starting to talk with a Nagoya accent like Lulu," observed Amu. Nagihiko pressed on. "and what would be in there? How much I piss you off? Because I know that." Evil grin. Brain gears whirring. "of course, what you really want to hide from me is how you write about me in that thing late at night, like a lovesick teenager in the movies…"

PLEASE start a new paragraph when the speaker switches… It kills my mind.

"shut up!"

"you only say that when I'm telling the truth, right?"

I showed him a page at random (which probably wasn't wise but…). "see? Ha-ha! No stupid lovesick writing."

A crease formed between his eyebrows. "you're parents fight?"

"what? No!" I quickly shut it closed. "the point is… I don't like you. HA!"

"you sound almost happy," he commented, but he was silent the rest of the way.

At the beach. Ugggs;kdlf;asd;fs

More pencilsmashing.

Amu and Yaya and everyone except me and Tadase have gone swimming. In the OCEAN. Don't they know how much bacteria and other gross stuff like e. coli flourish in seawater? And it must be FREEZING.

"no swimming for the blondes, then?" asked Kukai.

"it's not because we're blond!" whined Tadase. "I'm allergic to salt water."

"liar," I said. "you went to Hawaii a couple years ago and went swimming... remember?"

"oh..."

"what's your excuse, Rima?" demanded Amu. "the water's fine."

"I don't like swimming."

"now that I think about it, you never go swimming," commented Yaya. "Rima-tan is like a kitty!"

"you don't know how to swim, do you, Mashiro?" asked Nagihiko, who had been eavesdropping.

"THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL!"

"do you deny it?"

I was silent.

"that means yes," whispered Nagihiko conspiratorially.

"well, here's how I learned to swim," said Amu and, without any forewarning, picked me up and threw me into the ocean! NASTIII! On instinct I started kicking, and Amu said, "SEE? SHE'S SWIMMING!" all *triumphant*.

Tadase went to sleep.

12:30

Amu declared a "splash fight".

"what's that?" asked Yaya, and I splashed her. "duh."

"that was meeeean, Rima-taaan!"

God forbid OOC Rima-Tan be "mean".

And thus, a fight broke up. While I was fighting with Yaya, Nagihiko doused me from behind .

A fight broke OUT, you mean?

"pffffft!" he started laughing. "that was totally worth it just to see your face!"

"YOU'RE SO DEAD, FUJISAKI!"

And, sadly, he pwned me. Boo.

30 seconds later

Nagihiko so kindly tells me that 'pwned' is not a word.

But we use it anyway.

Lunchtime

NOOO! A TERRIBLE THING HAPPNEED!

I was just eating my lunch like a kind, caring civilian when

30 seconds later

Nagihiko says, "you aren't kind and caring, Mashiro. If anything, don't lie to your diary."

ANYWAY, CARRYING ON...

ANYWAY, I was just eating my lunch like a rather mean and nasty civilian when a seagull swooped down and stole by lunch!

IT STOLE HER LUNCH!

"IT STOLE MY LUNCH!" I yelled in a high-pitched voice.

"very good... did you figure that out all by yourself?" asked Nagihiko mildly.

"shut up."

The seagull made a funny noise.

"IT'S LAUGHING AT ME!" I yelled, horrified.

"who doesn't laugh at you?"

"keep your little witty comments to yourself, Fujisaki."

Amu and KusuKusu started laughing then, and I turned around to look at them.

"KusuKusu!" I suddenly snapped. "come here."

She floated over.

I put her in my hand, and then I realized it must be true. She was lighter than she usually was. And her face was more washed-out.

I screwed up my face really tight, knowing what I had to do.

"Ehheh... Mashiro-san, you don't have to cry over a bit of lunch," said Tadase.

"no... no. that's not it."

There was a bit of silence as I kind of sat there for a minute, thinking with KusuKusu sitting in my hand.

"Nagihiko," I said quietly.

He actually turned around in the other direction first, thinking it was somebody else. Then, he slowly turned around.

"what is it, Rima?"

I didn't bother correcting him this time.

"do you know what happened when Temari started to fade?"

Amu choked on her drink, Yaya stifled a shriek and Tadase quickly turned his face in the other direction so we couldn't see his face.

He paused for a minute and then said, "she started getting sick. But why..."

"how sick?" I interrupted. My voice was kind of high again. Scary.

"well, she started losing weight, and got kind of pale..."

I spoke to KusuKusu sharply, cutting him off again. "WHY?"

She squeaked, a little fainter, "I don't know. I don't know. Help, Rima-tan!"

"no!" I said, really loudly, not caring that anyone was watching. "You're not going to disappear. Okay?"

CAPITALIZATION PLEAS—YOU KNOW WHAT FORGET IT.

"no, no, Rima-chan. You don't understand."

"explain, then!"

"this is going to happen to you all eventually."

"Us? You're the one who's disappearing!"

"Rima-chan... the same thing will probably happen soon to Yoru and Miki-chan."

"what? No!" exploded Amu.

"maybe it's just my time." Her eyes were kind of sad, and she got slightly lighter.

I felt hands brush mine, and I saw Nagihiko lift KusuKusu out of my hand. "Do you know if it's happening to Kairi, too?"

"Has been for a while," she replied.

"wait!" I snapped. "why am I the only one who doesn't know what's going on?"

Amu laughed nervously. "I think Nagi's the only one who knows what's going on."

Nagihiko was still talking with my Chara. I heard him say in a low voice, "but why Rima?"

"You already have that answer."

Then he turned red.

Love causes death, now?

"Hey!" I snapped. "Break it up! KusuKusu needs to rest."

And that ended the incredibly worrying conversation. And by that time, the seagull had also ended my lunch.