A tick appeared on Hanamichi's head.
"WAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
The tick became bigger and the throbbing intensified.
"You still believe what Aunt Hanako said when we were kids!"
The tick dominated his entire forehead.
"Only kindergarteners would believe that!"
Several baby ticks joined the first one and exploded. The result was inevitable. His friends lay on the hallway with bumps steaming from their foreheads.
"SHUT UP OR I'LL SERIOUSLY HURT YOU!!!!" Hanamichi yelled belatedly, his face as red as his hair as he remembered what had happened during his last social studies class.
— 0 —
Hanamichi and Kaede (who had awakened because of Ms. Tanada's stern voice) stared at the red strip of paper in the redhead's hand. The rest of the people inside the room stared at them. Slowly Hanamichi shook his head and held up his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Sakuragi?"
"Teacher, will our baby come from a cherry blossom or a peach fruit?"
Everyone stared mutely at the redhead for several minutes. Hanamichi at all of them and growled, "What?"
Ms. Tanada finally shook her head.
"What—what exactly did you mean by your question Mr. Sakuragi?"
"Well don't babies come from cherry blossoms and peaches like Momotaro?" Hanamichi asked innocently. "My mother said I came from a flower that's why she named me Hanamichi."
It took exactly ten seconds before the whole class erupted into loud laughter, well the whole class except for Kaede and Haruko. Hanamichi turned his head this way and that trying to figure out what was so funny.
— 0 —
Hanamichi stomped towards the gym for practice leaving behind his prone friends.
Later on, Ryota Miyagi found him staring at the orange ball in his hand. Now this would not have been unusual. Hanamichi was known to stare off in space from time to time, specially when their assistant manager was there. This time, however, something seemed off. For one thing he wasn't fighting with Kaede, which he did even if he was daydreaming. Second thing, Kaede was actually staring at the redhead and not provoking him into a fight.
Something was going on and it was up to him as the captain to find out what it was. He threw a brief glance at their team's manager.
"Besides, I just might get some cute points from Ayako if I stepped up and acted captainly," he thought.
With that in mind he walked over to the redhead and decided to approach the boy in a decidedly calm and tactful manner.
"Yo, Hanamichi you really shouldn't think too much? It's bad to fry your brains like that. So, wassup?"
Hanamichi glared at him. Ryota smiled cheekily back. Hanamichi's face changed. Ryota felt a trickle of apprehension in his spine. Hanamichi looked around before dragging his captain to a corner.
"What the—Hanamichi leggo!"
The redhead gripped his captain's shirt tighter.
"Ryochin! You have to tell me!"
Ryota disengaged himself from his player's grip.
"What the hell!" he cried. " What do you want to me to tell you?"
Hanamichi looked around again before mumbling something.
"What?" Ryota shouted.
"I said tell me how babies are made!" Hanamichi bellowed.
The whole gym became silent. The two boys glanced around.
"Uhm…uh…we have to practice now," Ryota suddenly sprinted towards the other players. "Oi hustle up! We're not gonna get that championship with you guys lazing around!"
Hanaichi almost cried when his friend left him. His frustration turned to anger when he saw his gang laughing their butts off near the gym doors. He charged them and gave them each a headbutt that would last them until the end of basketball practice.
"This is one of those times I wish Glasses-boy was still here," he muttered as he resumed his practice.
— 0 —
Hanamichi plodded out of the locker room and found his gang lounging at the school entrance. He ignored them and hurried out. The other boys followed him.
"Hanamichi…we were only stating facts," Ookusu said, covering his still aching forehead.
"Yeah…jeez, Hanamichi, didn't your dad tell you about the birds and the bees?" Takamiya blurted out.
The fat boy was immediately pummeled by the other three members of the gundan.
"Idiot!"
"Aaah!"
"You have no feelings whatsoever!"
"Sorry!"
"You moron! Watch your mouth!"
"I'm sorry already!!!"
The trio stopped and all turned to see a teary Hanamichi gazing at the sky.
"Hey, Hanamichi, stop being sad," Youhei said. "C'mon, I bet by tomorrow everyone would've forgotten that you still believe babies come from cherry blossoms or peaches or bamboo or whatever, like in those stories."
"But Youhei…" Hanamichi turned to face the dark-haired boy, "if they don't come from those things, then where do babies come from?"
Youhei turned to the others who nodded in agreement. Everyone suddenly shrunk to chibi sizes and Youhei produced a pair of glasses, which he put on.
"Well you see Hana-chan," Prof. Youhei Mito-chan produced a lollipop and used it as a pointer towards the screen that suddenly materialized on which a video of boy and girl stick figures were being projected waving at Hanamichi, "when a girl and a boy like each other, they usually express that liking by kissing."
The stick figures on the screen started making out. Hanamichi whipped out his notebook and pen to take down notes while the rest of his friends took care of the visual aids and the projector.
"And sometimes they get so excited that they go beyond kissing and proceed to necking and other stuff. Then they throw their clothes off and do the horizontal tango."
"They dance?" Hanamichi asked incredulously as he stared at the figures that looked like they were having seizures while lying down.
"Yep. They do. Then when they're done, they wait nine months while the baby grows up in the girl's tummy. When it's time, the doctors help cut up the girl and the baby is born."
A small stick figure of a baby was shown crying on the screen.
Hanamichi's eyes took up half his face as he digested his friend's lecture.
"So that's how it is…" a nasal voice muttered.
All four friends turned around to find Kaede sitting behind them with his own notebook full of drawings and nodding at the screen.
"FOX?!"
-TBC-
ARC:
1. I finally reached the 100 reviews mark!!! Wooohoo!!!! I love you all!!! This little interlude is for you!!! Sorry it's short and has no point whatsoever but I needed Hanamichi (and Kaede) to learn a valuable albeit extremely edited lesson. Thanks again to al those who reviewed! Hope you stay tuned for the next chappies! Thank you everyone!
2. Momotaro is a Japanese mythological boy/hero who came from a peach.