Saturday came and for much of the morning, everyone was studying for the big three days coming up so no one had the time to socialize with each other. They would occasionally take breaks to get up and exercise like Emi or release their minds into the open like Rin. Students like Lenny would either do both or neither depending on the workload. He spent much of the day studying with Hisao as he had four classes with him. Hisao was more or less fond of the study partner but they both made sure not to make each other angry. With such energy being built up, it was believed that everyone would stick to their own but for some, they got together to study and see what they knew about.
Some had been studying since the dawn of the day and that day was winding down. Lenny had finished with his load and was taking several mock tests to better prepare himself. The last one was finished and Hisao was grading them.
"Nicely done Lenny. Mutou was right about you." Hisao complimented his friend. Lenny got the test back, there were a couple of wrong answers, but he was right on the money.
"Very much appreciated." Lenny responded. Hisao stood up as he shook his hand with his friend. Lenny nodded, grabbing Hisao by the hand and shaking it.
"I got a text from Lilly that her older sister Akira has some free time for today and she would like to hang out with us. We're going to be heading for town and I wanted to ask: want to come along for the ride?" Hisao asked Lenny if he wanted to come to town with them. Lenny began to think about it.
"Who else is going?" Lenny asked.
"Me, Lilly, Hanako, Rin and Emi. We all agreed to this in advance." Hisao expressed to Lenny that all of his friends were coming along so they were going to enjoy themselves.
"Count me in, let me get some yen and we can all meet each other." Lenny replied with excitement.
"Good, meet us outside of the school building at seven." Hisao gave Lenny the schedule to meet them at. Lenny nodded before he went up to his dorm.
Lenny decided to change into his more casual clothes as well as washing himself up so he could be clean for the event. Lenny got himself prepared before he began to make his way down to the main meeting area where they were preparing to go out. Everyone had made sure to look nice and not in their uniforms, Lenny no longer had his ankle cast and Emi was walking again. Akira was wearing a suit while she observed the group. Lenny approached them as he didn't recognize Akira.
"Oh hey, ready to head out?" Lilly asked the group. The group nodded before she turned to introduce Akira to the rest of the group. "This is Akira Satou, my older sister. Akira, I bet you know everyone except for Lenny. Lenny Hirahi, I would like you to meet Akira." Lilly introduced Akira to Lenny who responded by shaking his hand.
"Nice to meet you." Akira began in a friendly manner. Lenny seemed a bit nervous around Akira, but she made sure that there was nothing wrong between them.
"Nice to meet you too." Lenny began. Emi then interjected into the conversation.
"Who's ready to go to town?" Emi asked.
"Few steps ahead, are we Miss Ibarazaki?" Akira asked in a friendly tone.
"Of course, I'm Emi Ibarazaki, the fastest thing on no legs." Emi chirped up to her usual self.
"Okay we should begin walking." Hisao told the group. They nodded before they began walking off together. Lenny looked back at Yamaku academy as this was his first time outside of the academy and it was going to only be for a few hours.
The group of seven made their way around town while Lenny was excited to see what was in the town. He spotted a shop with dolls inside. He knew he had to bring everyone to a stop.
"I want to go there." Lenny told the group. Emi nodded while Akira was debating on what they should do.
"Okay." Akira replied. "Be quick about it as we have yet to see the best part of why I'm bringing you all out." Lenny then entered the store while the others waited outside. He had to get something for Hanako as a way of saying thank you for yesterday. He looked around the store to see one of the dolls that Hisao had mentioned about. He had to buy it. Gently scooping the doll up, he brought it to the cash register. The man at the register rang it up and Lenny paid for it. Placing the gift into the bag, he was in and out within a few minutes. They continued to walk along while Akira brought them to the spot that she, Lilly and Hanako hung out at.
"Here it is." Akira told them. The place seemed ordinary to them, a large bar, a couple of billiard tables and karaoke for the students to try out. All of them entered as Lenny and Hanako went in last to enter the place. Lenny then turned to Hanako.
"As a way of saying thank you, I bought you this." Lenny told Hanako before he passed her the doll he bought in the store.
"For me?" Hanako asked. Lenny nodded yes. Hanako then hugged the doll as she really enjoyed the thank you gift that her friend had bought for her. Hanako took the bag and placed the doll back inside.
The seven students wandered around looking for stuff to do. Hanako decided to spend more time with Lenny. Emi was busy with Rin as they were getting drinks.
"So, you know how to play pool?" Hanako asked Lenny. Lenny paused as the game seemed to be unfamiliar to him.
"I haven't played it yet, want to teach me?" Lenny asked Hanako if she could teach him, probably as a thank you for the doll he gave her on the way in.
"Sure, but I call stripes." Hanako told Lenny. Emi was watching while she was drinking her drink.
"Surely he's having fun." Emi began while she spoke to Hisao and Rin. Rin was drinking from a straw while she looked around. Lilly and Akira were busy talking about what the week was going to bring them and more importantly, if they were going back to Scotland.
"What could we do to get ourselves something to do?" Hisao asked. Emi looked around while she began looking for more drinks.
"Can we get something for Lenny? He's having fun." Emi asked if their friend could use something to help pass the night with. Hisao began to think as he didn't want his friend to get wasted while he continued to play around with Hanako.
"I think I know what to get." Hisao grinned a bit. The sound of the ball clanking was heard before the white ball went into the hole. Hanako spoke to Lenny.
"You scratched." Hanako laughed before Lenny retrieved the white ball from the pit. He then passed it to Hanako who decided to make another turn with it.
"Looks like I'm not very good at this game then." Lenny replied with a laugh of his own. He was definitely having fun. Emi walked over to Lenny while carrying a drink for him. He placed it down as Emi began to speak.
"Try it out, I think you would definitely like it." Emi encouraged Lenny to try new things. Lenny nodded while it was Hanako's turn. Lenny picked the drink up and took a sip. It definitely tasted odd, but it was kind of sweet. It had some fruit in it which contributed to the sweetness. "Good isn't it?"
"A little bitter in terms of taste but something I am not willing to drink it all down in one go." Lenny described the taste of the drink he was handling. Emi nodded before she pulled up a chair to see how this game was going.
"How's the game going? Who's winning?" Emi asked. She wanted to know how this game was going.
"Me so far. Lenny keeps scratching." Hanako playfully replied. Lenny was up and managed to line up a perfect shot before firing the pool stick at the ball. The ball rolled before it collided with the other balls, the solid went into one of the holes and rolled its way down to the pit. Hanako was impressed. "Nicely done Lenny. Go again." Lenny nodded but he seemed to be getting the hang of it. He lined up again before shooting the pool stick and hitting the ball. The ball went rolling before it clanked with the other balls and didn't make a dent.
"Your turn." Lenny told Hanako she was up. Hanako nodded before Emi turned to Lenny.
"Enjoying yourself so far?" Emi asked her friend if he was having a good time.
"I am, this was to get away from all of the studying that we did today. We have more to do tomorrow before the exams come up. This is the break we're going to get." Lenny sighed before it was his turn. He lined up his pool stick and decided to punch straight into the group. The two balls collided, and they went in different directions. The solid orange ball went down the hole and rolled to the pit.
"You go again." Hanako told Lenny that he could go ahead since he got one of his balls into the hole. Lenny then took a sip of his drink before lining up for the next shot. He fired it off as the white ball sped down the billiard table, knocking a maroon-colored ball all over the place except where Lenny wanted it to go. He was gritting his teeth hoping the ball was going to go into the hole, but the ball stopped far where he wanted it to be. Hanako was up after that. "You're really not good at this game are you?" She asked Lenny.
"Yeah, I am not." Lenny nervously laughed with Hanako.
"That's fine. As long as you're having fun and that's all that matters." Hanako giggled while she took the next shot. Hisao, Lilly and Akira were watching this from afar and they were enjoying the company the three people were having fun. Akira looked at Hisao as she wanted to speak to him.
"Anything you have planned for the summer?" Akira asked, she was sipping her drink while Hisao began to think. After a few moments of having his mind blank with no thoughts of his own, he turned his head to Akira.
"I got nothing. What do you plan on doing?" Hisao asked Akira if she had any plans on what to do.
"We're heading to Scotland to visit our relatives; we only see them twice a year." Akira explained the plan they had for the summer.
"Nice. I wonder what Scotland is like as I've never been there." seemed to ask himself. Lilly turned her head to Hisao and began speaking.
"I think you'll like it there. Nice rolling hills for you and we can get to see some of the castles." Lilly described what Scotland was going to be like. "That is if I can see it for myself."
"Don't worry Lilly, you have me." Akira told Lilly to not get so down due to her blindness. "We're working on it so you can see with your heart. I hope everyone will enjoy it so that you can see without you being blind." Akira tried her best to put it that way.
"At least you can be my seeing eye… sister." Lilly tried her best to put it mildly. Then they looked at the pool table as the game had concluded.
"You win Hanako." Lenny politely told her. Hanako nodded before smiling.
"Good game Lenny." Hanako replied. She walked off before she began speaking. "Who wants to do Karaoke with me?"
"I will." Rin called out with excitement, and she rushed over to Hanako while Emi came up to Lenny.
"Are you going to join them?" Emi asked Lenny,
"Nah, I'm not fond of singing." Lenny sighed. Emi looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes.
"It's okay, I can't sing either." Emi giggled. She noticed Lenny was getting the balls from the pit as he wanted to play another game while Hanako was going to make a racquet of the place. "So, you want to play a game with me?"
"Sure thing." Lenny said with excitement. He got out the balls and began arranging them in a group while Hisao, Akira and Lilly watched from a distance and sipped their drinks together.
"They seem to get along." Akira began. Hisao laughed a bit with enjoyment.
"Do they love each other?" Lilly asked while Emi and Lenny were playing Billiards together.
"I think Emi told me that they kissed each other so I know they are fond of one another. Rin walked in on them while Lenny was resting in her bed. I don't know if they did it yet?" Hisao did his best to recount what Emi told him about the relationship. Rin and Hanako were busy performing Karaoke while Lenny and Emi were doing their best to get used to their game.
"That's good. I guess they have a good relationship then?" Akira asked while she sipped her drink.
"Yeah, their relationship is good. They're pretty cheerful around each other. I think Lenny is having less problems with him as he now has someone close to him." Hisao giggled as he did his best to explain it.
"Sounds like what you and Hanako have. Except you were walking on eggshells while you got to know each other." Akira giggled while they tried their best to figure out what they were capable of.
"That was Lenny to some degree except he was the one on eggshells as he was still new to the school. He's doing all right even though it was my girlfriend who had to knock some of his walls down." Hisao added on while they were drinking.
"Good for Hanako. She's doing the right thing." Lilly chirped. Akira looked to see Lenny and Emi were still having their fun. "Hanako making her own decisions is what she is the best at. I am going to see that my cousin Shizume treated her poorly and then Lenny left to comfort her and Hisao said that Lenny couldn't keep hiding himself."
"How was this rewarded? Lenny got her something as a way of saying thank you. Did anything happen the day before when this happened?" Akira asked them if they had any ideas.
"Well, we got to watch a movie in Lenny's dorm. Forgot the name of it but we had a good time ourselves." Hisao answered Akira's question while he turned his head to see Lenny and Emi finish their game.
"Want to go again?" Lenny asked. Emi giggled while he was gathering the balls from the pit.
"Sure thing." Emi responded with glee. She gathered everything from the pit while they were going to go ahead and play the night away while Rin and Hanako had found their new favorite hobby.
"See I told you they were having fun." Hisao told Lilly and Akira while they were playing. This seemed to go on until the early hours of the morning where everyone had been exhausted from the night. They were walking out of the place, tired, hungover and drained, the seven students had their enjoyment.
"I guess we had lots of fun tonight?" Akira asked. Lenny laughed as he was tired from all of this.
"Yeah, we did. Why did we stay up so late?" Emi slurred her words a bit. She was a little wasted from the event.
"We were just enjoying life without the strings attached." Hanako responded in a drowsy fashion. "Probably the best night I had in a while."
"Yeah you can say that again." Lenny added on. He was exhausted but he definitely enjoyed his time out with Hanako and Emi.
"When do you want to do this again?" Hisao asked while walking hand and hand with his friends.
"We might be getting something coming up on Friday, it looks like some kind of fun carnival event. I wonder what fun we can have there." Akira told them as the fun wasn't over yet, they needed to survive next week with the finals.
"We will get there when we get there." Lilly laughed while they kept walking together. They were heading back for the school under the clear sky, the moon was hanging out as it looked down on them.
"It was a pleasure spending the night with you Akira." Lenny began as he had definitely enjoyed himself.
"Same to you. I will see you Friday if the plan is a go-ahead. Good luck with the tests." Akira told them as the group began to walk away from Akira. She waved back before turning and departing herself. Lenny and his friends had enjoyed their night out, but they were exhausted from it. He stumbled into his dorm and fell fast asleep on his bed. He was just too tired to change out of his clothes.
Lenny woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed. He decided to supplement the morning by studying for much of the morning, heading out for a run with Emi as part of the break, Lunch and then more studying. He was confident about tomorrow's tests.
Lenny then decided to head for the art room after responding to a text from Rin as she wanted to see him for something. Lenny walked up to the door and knocked on it. Rin walked over before she began speaking.
"It's open." Rin told him. Lenny walked into the room as the windows had been opened and Lenny walked in. Lenny knew that he had been busy that day and so did Rin. She was taking the rest of her day, relaxing to her favorite task. Painting. "Busy day today huh?" Rin asked while she was putting the finishing touches onto her next painting.
"Yeah. I got a lot of help from it, and I would admit to actually enjoying myself for once." Lenny happily sighed. The pulse monitor of his was relaxed, flashing every few seconds.
"You have been studying a lot, so you are pretty relaxed. I'm sure your eyes aren't as you had been looking at your notes." Rin teased Lenny while he pulled out a stool and decided to sit on it.
"So, anything you have been doing this weekend other than the hangout with Akira, you sing as well as Hanako." Lenny commented. Rin continued to paint as she began speaking again.
"Yeah that was a lot of fun." Rin smiled while she kept painting. "I've been working on this painting for the past couple of days, it was that movie we watched on Friday night. I decided to recreate the zero gravity dome from the scene where they were playing their laser tag. I wonder if we can be in this dome too." Rin told Lenny. Lenny got off the stool and walked over to the canvas that Rin had just finished. Lenny was amazed.
"Impressive there, Rin. If we can dream about it, we can be there. I wonder how a zero-gravity laser tag will work?" Lenny asked as he tried to think of the possibility of ideas and concepts on how this was going to work in the end. Rin began to think as someone without any arms, this was going to be a bit of a stretch for her.
"That'll be hard to decide, as for someone with no arms past the elbow, having no hands isn't the best idea for this as you can't do everything with your feet. I can do the bare minimum to scrape by without needing assistance." Rin replied while her art club teacher moved the canvas off to dry.
"Would you like a pair of robotic arms to help you out with your daily activities?" Lenny would ask Rin if robotic arms would be beneficial to her. Rin decided to give some thought into the question before she began speaking.
"No, I'm perfectly fine the way I function. We're all tiny little mistakes in an artist's painting." Rin sighed while he brought her over a blank canvas so she could begin a new painting.
"Everyone is fine the way they are. I think some of the tiny mistakes in the picture could be the best thing, Lenny. Rin is my favorite student and the one who shows up the most." Shinichi explained to Lenny that some mistakes require no fixing, they require no assistance. Rin was doing just fine and wouldn't really benefit from the help. "I get you want to be helpful for Rin, but she doesn't want it at the end of the day. I do sense you two get along despite your differentiating interests.:
"We do, aside from that one moment where Rin told me that my heart was an engine; if the engine fails, I'll die." Lenny told Shinichi while he was discussing Rin.
"Rin has her point in the metaphorical world. The heart helps us run and so does the engine to a vehicle. The engine is the vehicle's heartbeat. If it stops beating, then yes she is right." Shinichi tried to explain to Lenny what Rin was talking about.
"I guess Rin would be a good philosopher as well as a good artist by her words." Lenny was making a wild guess while Shinichi laughed.
"That I can say is true. Rin will definitely think of what she wants to do when summer break ends." Shinichi replied in his manner. Lenny began to think of his own heartbeat. Was Rin right all along and his heart was an engine. He decided not to think about it for too long while Rin was thinking of what to say to Lenny.
"I think Shinichi is right about that one, I often say stuff that ends up confusing people in the end and they don't understand me. I think you're one of the few people that do understand me even if I find myself to be a bit strange." Rin paused as she got up and walked over to Lenny. "It's like our friendship is like a dandelion seed, getting blown into the wind, we don't know where this relationship will go. Seeing how you have Emi who loves you to the ends of the earth. I was wondering if there will be someone who will do much the same thing for me even if it can be you."
"I'm sure you will find someone that'll love you as much as Emi loves me. I'm sure of it." Lenny told Rin that some things aren't supposed to be rushed but they should be enjoyed. Rin stood in front of Lenny.
"You sure?" Rin asked Lenny.
"I'm…" Lenny began to think of an answer for Rin but he wanted to see what she was going to say. He didn't want to make her angry as he continued to think. "I'm sure that someone will accept you for who you are and for who I am. We can't all live in a happy world but then again, happiness comes from the fact that we're together, in the same room, having this conversation." Rin nodded before she decided the next action. She didn't speak about it but instead she decided to make her move. Rin's eyes closed as Lenny's eyes closed too. He was going to sight but he felt something on his right cheek, his eyes opened as the pulse monitor had picked up speed as the sensation was flowing through his body. He turned slightly to his right to find out that Rin was kissing his cheek. She pulled away a moment later.
"I've never seen someone speak such genuine words with me in a long while. This was my present to you." Rin told Lenny that she was happy for him. She then gave a small smile for the moment before she sighed. "Anyway, have you seen my drawing book?" Rin asked.
Rin's drawing book containing the picture she had shown Lenny a few days ago had gone missing.
[A/N]: This ended up taking longer than anticipated, I was busy and there were certain scenes that I wanted to try working out but really couldn't as I'm more used to making stuff at the end like the Rin and Lenny conversation they had.
Next chapter will mostly be filler as it's a lead up to the carnival. Yes, I say that, and it'll give Akira another appearance. The characters are going to have fun once more and hopefully there will be more of a unified idea surrounding it.
We also surpassed 100 views. That snuck up on me as I was expecting to make daily posts to get the story up and running to get more views. I'm glad that it's finally getting the attention it deserves. I can't thank you more. See you later.