What A Night!
by 'Sumi-chan
Ch 1.
Anyone who happened to pass by the Tendo residence that morning would see a pretty normal sight: a small family of three girls and a father sitting around a table with, well, a panda and a wet redheaded girl. Ok, so maybe it wasn't as normal a sight, but certainly more normal than the usuall fight scene. The eldest daughter, Kasumi, was buisily serving out breakfast to the small group, who ate pretty much in silence. After several minutes, Kasumi casually asked, "Ranma? Akane? Would you mind stopping by Dr. Tofu's on your way to school? I borrowed this book from him," she produced a large medical textbook from under the table and held it up. "and I'd like you to return it."
"MMHMF" Ranma nodded, his mouth full of food. He swallowed his large mouthful and smiled. Kasumi thanked him and smiled back. The wind played gently the wind chime, it's tinkling sound intermixing with petals from the tree in the courtyard. The early morning sun splashed into the yard and caught the scales of a jumping koi, making them sparkle. Kasumi watched the ripples slowly even out and the pond transform back into it's usual mirror-like state. She sighed contentedly. It was going to be a beautiful day.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
"Ranma you idiot! We're gonna be late AGAIN! You knew we had to stop at Dr. Tofu's to return that book. Why'd you make us later than we're already going to be?" Akane fumed.
"Quit complanin' and hurry up! We'll be fine if we run. See? We're almost there."
In front of the two teens rose a farmiliar building. The neat black wording on it shone in the sun. Dodging the old lady who was busy throwing water on the pavement, Ranma nearly dragged Akane into the waiting room of Dr. Tofu's clinic. Dr. Tofu leaned into the room, a medical textbook in his hand. "Good morning, you two! What did Akane do to you now, Ranma?"
Ranma blushed "Nothing, yet. We were just returning the book that Kasumi borrowed."
Dr. Tofu's glasses misted over at the mention of the eldest Tendo girl. Akane noticed and smirked. 'Some things never change' she thought to herself. Dr. Tofu's voice cut into her thoughts and made her snap to attention.
"...and if you don't mind, could you deliver this to Kasumi? She wanted to borrow this one next. Come by after school and I'll give it to you." Dr. Tofu grinned. He showed the book to Ranma and winked at him. Ranma looked a little puzzled as he glanced at the title, nodded anyway.
"Ok, Dr. Tofu. See you later" With that, Ranma grabbed Akane's hand and lead her outside. The two of them took off for school as soon as they were back on the street. After a moment, Ranma looked at Akane with a questioning stare. "Akane, do you think something's up with Kasumi and Dr. Tofu? I mean, she's always borrowing these books from him..."
"What's wrong with that?" Akane interrupted. "she always borrows things from him."
"I wasn't finished! I didn't suspect anything until today. Y'know the book he showed me?" Akane nodded. "Well, she borrowed the same book a week ago."
Akane gasped. "You're right! She did!" Akane shook her head. "But that doesn't mean anything. You know how he gets. He probably just told us the wrong one to take to her by mistake, that's all."
"Yeah, I guess you're right" Ranma agreed. A split second later, the school came into veiw, it's clock tower told them that they were going to be late if they didn't hurry. Putting on a burst of speed, Ranma and Akane bursted into the building just before the bell rang.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Kasumi stood in front of the dojo that afternoon, buisily sweeping the walk. There was a cool breeze blowing, but the sun warmed her bare arms. She half hummed, half sang a song to herself, pausing every so often to use the end of the broom as a microphone. "All that she wants is another baby, she's gone tomorrow but all that she wants is another baby, yeah..."
A young man walked up carrying a blue sack. "I've got your mail, Miss Tendo." he called.
"Thank you, Kuroshi!" she smiled as the young man handed her the mail. He gave a quick bow, then quickly moved on to the next house. Kasumi eagerly flipped through the mail, singing out the addresses to the tune of the song she had been singing earlier.
"Bill, bills, bills, this is for Ranma, this is father's, bills, bills, bills another one for Ranma, yeah... Where'd this come from?" She shrugged and tore up the odd postcard and let the peices fall to the ground into her dust pile. "One of Nabiki's catalogs, Akane's magazine, oh here it is!" She pulled an envelope out of the pile and stuck it in the pocket of her dress. She set the rest on the step and continued to sweep. 'It's a good thing that came today.' she thought. 'Now the rest of us'll have something to do while Father and Mr. Saotome are away this weekend...'
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Later that afternoon Ranma, Akane and Nabiki were walking home from school as usual. Ranma was walking along on the fence above Akane with the skill of a professional typerope walker. The two of them had been chatting the whole way home about their math test, completely ignoring Nabiki, who trailed behind them. Nabiki was busy snapping pictures of Akane and thinking of how much money she should charge for them. After several minutes of walking, her film ran out.
Muttering something about damned cameras, her thoughts turned to plans for that weekend. As it stood, her's was shaping up to be very boring indeed. Soun and Genma planned to spend the weekend camping and training, leaving the kids alone. Ranma and Akane hadn't been as unfriendly toward eachother lately, which eliminated the possibility of an action-packed weekend, and even though Nabiki loved her older sister very much, Kasumi wasn't a good choice to turn to in search of excitement. 'Oh well, I guess I'm stuck doing what I always do.' she thought with a sigh.
Ahead of her, Ranma and Akane's conversation also turned to the weekend ahead. "Any ideas for Saturday, Akane?" Ranma asked.
"No. I'll bet it's gonna be a boring couple of days with our dads out of the house. Maybe there's something good playing at the movies."
"But we saw all the ones worth seeing last week." Ranma sighed. He turned his head over his shoulder. "How 'bout you, Nabiki? What're you doin' this weekend?"
"Why should my plans be any conscern of yours?" Nabiki replied with a snort.
"Yeah, I'm stuck at home to die of boredom, too." Ranma shot back, easily seeing through Nabiki's "high and mighty" act.
"I'm sure we'll find something to do." Akane cut in. "We always do."
"Yeah. Lets just hope that 'something to do' doesn't end up half killing me like it did two weeks ago." Ranma complained.
"Shut up, Ranma! You didn't have any better ideas!" Akane fumed. The trio continued up the street to the dojo.
Standing on the step, Ranma inhaled deeply. "Kasumi's making miso soup again!" he announced with a pleased grin. "Smells good, Kasumi!" He called, ducking into the kitchen.
Kasumi smiled over her shoulder. "How was school today, Ranma?"
"Boring as ever. You wouldn't believe the math test they gave us. I HATE polynomials! It's a good thing I had my book last night to study from. Speaking of books..." she fished Dr. Tofu's book out of his pack and handed it to Kasumi.
Setting the book on the counter, Kasumi turned to face Ranma. "You're having trouble in math? Why didn't you tell me? What are you doing that you need help on?"
"We're multiplying and factoring polynomials. I can't keep 'em straight. Binomials, trinomials, monomials, they're all the same to me!"
"I know a little bit about polynomials. I'll help you study after dinner if you'd like. Maybe Akane'd like to join us! You two could study together. Wouldn't that be.."
"How 'bout this weekend, Kasumi?" Ranma interrupted. "I mean.. well.. I have so much else to do tonight and nothing better to do this weekend..." Kasumi gave him a hurt look. "Not that I wouldn't love to, Kasumi." he added quickly.
"Maybe tomorrow night. You three are going to be so busy this weekend, I don't know if we could fit it in."
Ranma sighed. "Actually, Akane, Nabiki and I are gonna die of boredom this weekend. We don't have plans."
"Good! I was hoping you'd say that!"
"Why, Kasumi?" Akane asked, ducking into the kitchen and standing across from Ranma.
"I have six tickets to the grand opening of that new amusement park. It's an overnight lock-in for teenagers. I thought you, Ranma, Nabiki, Ukyo and Ryoga could go. Maybe Nabiki could invite one of her friends to go along too."
"Could I what?" Nabiki asked as she crossed the room, quickly grabbing a raw vegetable off the cutting board and began munching on it.
"I thought you'd like a friend to come with you to the overnight at the amusement park. We've got an extra ticket."
"You mean that new one with the HUGE roller coaster? Cool. Who should I take?" Nabiki said around a mouthful of green pepper.
"But what about you, Kasumi? Don't you want to go?" Akane asked.
"No, I'll be fine here. You should go have some fun by yourselves for a change. Kasumi smiled.
"Are you sure? I don't know who to invite. Why don't you use the extra ticket?" Nabiki offered.
Kasumi shook her head. "How about Kuno-san? I'm sure he'd love to go!."
"Yeah, Nabiki. Ask Kuno! You could make it a date!" Ranma taunted.
Nabiki glared at Ranma. A few seconds passed in tense silence. Finally, Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine. I'll go call Kuno." She stormed out of the room muttering something about someone owing her big time.
Ranma grined in satisfaction. "I'll call Ukyo and Ryoga when she's done." he offered. "Ukyo'll say yes in a heartbeat. I've never seen anyone with as strong a passion for fast, intense rides as Ukyo's!"
Akane fought back the urge to mallet him for wanting his so-called fiancee to come along. 'Baka!' she thought to herself. 'You know he thinks of Ukyo as a best friend, not a girlfriend.'
Kasumi and Akane listened to Nabiki's conversation with Kuno in the other room. Nabiki's voice was muffled, but they could still make out the words above the chopping of vegetables and the bubbling of soup. "Hey Kuno-baby... It's Nabiki. ... Yeah, whatever, I wanted to kow if you were free this weekend so we.... No! I do not wish to date with you, we just had a spare ticket! Oh, have it your way! Meet us at the bus stop early Saturday morning.... Ok, I said! It's a date! Sheesh! Bye." Kasumi and Akane had to bite their toungues to keep from giggling.
"I'm going to go do my homework, Kasumi. See you later." Akane pushed away from the counter and started toward her room, still laughing about Kuno's reaction to Nabiki's call. Kasumi smiled, then returned to her soup.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Ukyo looked up as the door to Ucchan's slid open. Someone fell to the floor in a heap muttering something about making it all the way there. Ukyo rolled her eyes and walked over to assist Ryoga in getting up off the floor and fixing his yellow bandanna. When the young man was situated at the bar in front of the grill, Ukyo busied herself with fixing one of her special okonamiyakis for him. "So, what brings you here this time, Ryoga-honey?" Ukyo asked casually. Before she could get a response out of Ryoga, his okonamiyaki was in front of him and rapidly disappearing.
When Ryoga stopped for a breath, the grinned up at Ukyo. "What does it look like?! I'm STARVING! I've spent the past three days trying to get here!"
"I'm glad somebody wanted to come. I've only had one customer all day!"
"Only one? You must be loosing your touch." Ryoga teased.
Before Ukyo could reply, the phone on the wall behind them rang. Ukyo spun away from the counter and picked up the receiver. "Ucchan's Okonamiyaki. How may I he.. oh hi, Ranchan! ... this weekend? Yeah, why? ... You mean that one with the new rollercoaster? The one that drops 308 feet at 80 degrees? 0-95 in 10 seconds? The one with the most consecutive loops and corkscrews in the world? Of course I'll come, you jackass! Who else is coming? ... Really? Hold on a sec..." Ukyo placed one hand on the mouthpeice and turned to Ryoga. "Ranma, me, and a few others are going to that new amusement park this weekend. Wanna go?"
"Sure! That is, if I can find it..."
"Don't worry! You can stay here tonight and tomorrow. As long as you don't move, you can't get lost, right?" Ukyo grinned and turned back to the phone. "He'll be there. ... Yes, I'll see you later. Bye, Ranchan."
"This oughta be fun. I can't wait." Ryoga remarked.
"Yep. Now, don't move an inch, or you'll never get there." Ukyo told him.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
The past two days had flown by, and dawn found Ranma, Akane, Nabiki, Kuno and Kasumi at the bus stop down the street from the school. The group was buisily discussing the next day and a half with excitement. They would spend all day Saturday at the park, as well as that night. The bus would bring them home around noon the next day.
"Are you sure you don't wanna come, 'Sumi?" Ranma asked for the third time that morning.
"No, that's all right. I'll be fine here by myself. It's too late to change my mind, anyway."
"Yes and no." Nabiki said. "I mean, the bus'll be here any minute, and Ukyo and Ryoga are nowhere in sight."
"Hey, you're right. They'd better hurry or they'll be late." Akane said with conscern.
"Fear not, fair Akane, for as the sun rises in the east, so cometh our companions over yonder hill." Kuno proclaimed.
Kasumi looked confused. "Oh my! Was that Japanese he was speaking just now?"
"More or less." Ranma groaned. "He said 'There they are!', or someting pretty close to it."
Sure enough, Ukyo's silouette was visible against the grey cloudy sky. Gradually, they came closer, and Ryoga could be seen behind Ukyo, being dragged by the shirt collar. Ukyo didn't release her grip until the two of them were safely at the curb. "Next time, just follow me in the fist place, Jackass!" she complained.
Ryoga rubbed the back of his neck. "Shut up! I'm getting better, and you know it!"
"Well, it makes no difference now. You're here on time and that's all that counts." concluded Kasumi.
"Barely. Here comes the bus now." Nabiki pionted out.
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow." Kasumi tucked the envelope containing the six tickets into Ryoga's backpack. "Now, Ryoga, don't loose those tickets. Ukyo, don't loose Ryoga."
The group laughed and boarded the bus. They quickly took their seats and waved to Kasumi out the windows until the she was out of sight.
Ranma and Akane sat in one seat, Ukyo and Ryoga sat behind them, and Kuno and Nabiki took up the seat across the aisle. They all settled in for the two hour long ride to the park. It was only about six o'clock in the morning, so almost immediately, Kuno was sound asleep next to Nabiki. Nabiki was buisily snapping away on her camera, laughing at Kuno's snores. Ukyo slumped down in her seat and began planning out which rides she would try, how many times for each, and in what order. Ryoga soon grew tired of trying to talk with Akane, who was staring out the window. He took a black and yellow cell phone out of his pack and began playing various electronic games on it. Ranma sat still in his seat, preparing for the long, boring ride. He tried for a time to concentrate on the radio, but after a few overplayed songs the station tuned to a traffic and weather report. With a groan, Ranma mentally tuned out the babble about high pressure systems and rainstorms and tried to sleep.
"Damn it! No!" Ryoga suddenly shouted. Everyone jumped and turned to find out what was going on.
"Ryoga? What is it? Are you ok?" Akane asked.
Ryoga blushed and sank way down into his seat. "Ergh.. um... hehehe. Sorry. I just can't seem to get that damned snake to stop running into the walls! I lose every time!."
Akane sighed and went back into her semi-trance. Ryoga glared intently at his game, determined to win that time.
Gradually, Nabiki tired of snapping pictures and also drifted off to sleep. Ranma smirked at the sight of Kuno and Nabiki all curled up together on a bus seat. He gently took the camera out of Nabiki's hand and snapped a few pictures of his own before slipping the camera back into the sleeping girls hand. With that taken care of, he cast about trying to find another source of entertainment, but found none. Akane had dozed off, as had Ukyo. Ryoga was still going strong with his game.
"Psst! Ryoga! Can I try?" he asked, nodding at the cell phone game.
"Sure. I'm trying to beat my high score. I can't seem to get past twelve points now, but I got all the way to sixty three once! If you beat that, I'll kill you."
"Whatever. You push these buttons to move, right?" Ranma asked.
"Yep. Try to get the snake to hit the dot." Ryoga confirmed. He shifted up onto his knees, carefully avoiding Ukyo. He puched the start botton, and watched Ranma play for a few seconds before sitting back down in his seat.
Ranma played silently for several minutes before handing the phone back to Ryoga. "Here. You can have this back now."
"You give up? What was your highest score?" Ryoga asked eagerly.
Ranma yawned and shifted down into his seat to try to get some sleep. "243" he replied, doing his best to hold back another yawn.
Ryoga face-faulted behind him. Growling, he rose to his knees again. "Ranma Saotome, prepare to DIE!" he hissed.
Ranma glared at him. "It's only a game! Shut up and let me sleep!"
Ryoga slumped down onto the small green seat and sulked. Before long, he too was asleep.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
by 'Sumi-chan
Ch 1.
Anyone who happened to pass by the Tendo residence that morning would see a pretty normal sight: a small family of three girls and a father sitting around a table with, well, a panda and a wet redheaded girl. Ok, so maybe it wasn't as normal a sight, but certainly more normal than the usuall fight scene. The eldest daughter, Kasumi, was buisily serving out breakfast to the small group, who ate pretty much in silence. After several minutes, Kasumi casually asked, "Ranma? Akane? Would you mind stopping by Dr. Tofu's on your way to school? I borrowed this book from him," she produced a large medical textbook from under the table and held it up. "and I'd like you to return it."
"MMHMF" Ranma nodded, his mouth full of food. He swallowed his large mouthful and smiled. Kasumi thanked him and smiled back. The wind played gently the wind chime, it's tinkling sound intermixing with petals from the tree in the courtyard. The early morning sun splashed into the yard and caught the scales of a jumping koi, making them sparkle. Kasumi watched the ripples slowly even out and the pond transform back into it's usual mirror-like state. She sighed contentedly. It was going to be a beautiful day.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
"Ranma you idiot! We're gonna be late AGAIN! You knew we had to stop at Dr. Tofu's to return that book. Why'd you make us later than we're already going to be?" Akane fumed.
"Quit complanin' and hurry up! We'll be fine if we run. See? We're almost there."
In front of the two teens rose a farmiliar building. The neat black wording on it shone in the sun. Dodging the old lady who was busy throwing water on the pavement, Ranma nearly dragged Akane into the waiting room of Dr. Tofu's clinic. Dr. Tofu leaned into the room, a medical textbook in his hand. "Good morning, you two! What did Akane do to you now, Ranma?"
Ranma blushed "Nothing, yet. We were just returning the book that Kasumi borrowed."
Dr. Tofu's glasses misted over at the mention of the eldest Tendo girl. Akane noticed and smirked. 'Some things never change' she thought to herself. Dr. Tofu's voice cut into her thoughts and made her snap to attention.
"...and if you don't mind, could you deliver this to Kasumi? She wanted to borrow this one next. Come by after school and I'll give it to you." Dr. Tofu grinned. He showed the book to Ranma and winked at him. Ranma looked a little puzzled as he glanced at the title, nodded anyway.
"Ok, Dr. Tofu. See you later" With that, Ranma grabbed Akane's hand and lead her outside. The two of them took off for school as soon as they were back on the street. After a moment, Ranma looked at Akane with a questioning stare. "Akane, do you think something's up with Kasumi and Dr. Tofu? I mean, she's always borrowing these books from him..."
"What's wrong with that?" Akane interrupted. "she always borrows things from him."
"I wasn't finished! I didn't suspect anything until today. Y'know the book he showed me?" Akane nodded. "Well, she borrowed the same book a week ago."
Akane gasped. "You're right! She did!" Akane shook her head. "But that doesn't mean anything. You know how he gets. He probably just told us the wrong one to take to her by mistake, that's all."
"Yeah, I guess you're right" Ranma agreed. A split second later, the school came into veiw, it's clock tower told them that they were going to be late if they didn't hurry. Putting on a burst of speed, Ranma and Akane bursted into the building just before the bell rang.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Kasumi stood in front of the dojo that afternoon, buisily sweeping the walk. There was a cool breeze blowing, but the sun warmed her bare arms. She half hummed, half sang a song to herself, pausing every so often to use the end of the broom as a microphone. "All that she wants is another baby, she's gone tomorrow but all that she wants is another baby, yeah..."
A young man walked up carrying a blue sack. "I've got your mail, Miss Tendo." he called.
"Thank you, Kuroshi!" she smiled as the young man handed her the mail. He gave a quick bow, then quickly moved on to the next house. Kasumi eagerly flipped through the mail, singing out the addresses to the tune of the song she had been singing earlier.
"Bill, bills, bills, this is for Ranma, this is father's, bills, bills, bills another one for Ranma, yeah... Where'd this come from?" She shrugged and tore up the odd postcard and let the peices fall to the ground into her dust pile. "One of Nabiki's catalogs, Akane's magazine, oh here it is!" She pulled an envelope out of the pile and stuck it in the pocket of her dress. She set the rest on the step and continued to sweep. 'It's a good thing that came today.' she thought. 'Now the rest of us'll have something to do while Father and Mr. Saotome are away this weekend...'
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Later that afternoon Ranma, Akane and Nabiki were walking home from school as usual. Ranma was walking along on the fence above Akane with the skill of a professional typerope walker. The two of them had been chatting the whole way home about their math test, completely ignoring Nabiki, who trailed behind them. Nabiki was busy snapping pictures of Akane and thinking of how much money she should charge for them. After several minutes of walking, her film ran out.
Muttering something about damned cameras, her thoughts turned to plans for that weekend. As it stood, her's was shaping up to be very boring indeed. Soun and Genma planned to spend the weekend camping and training, leaving the kids alone. Ranma and Akane hadn't been as unfriendly toward eachother lately, which eliminated the possibility of an action-packed weekend, and even though Nabiki loved her older sister very much, Kasumi wasn't a good choice to turn to in search of excitement. 'Oh well, I guess I'm stuck doing what I always do.' she thought with a sigh.
Ahead of her, Ranma and Akane's conversation also turned to the weekend ahead. "Any ideas for Saturday, Akane?" Ranma asked.
"No. I'll bet it's gonna be a boring couple of days with our dads out of the house. Maybe there's something good playing at the movies."
"But we saw all the ones worth seeing last week." Ranma sighed. He turned his head over his shoulder. "How 'bout you, Nabiki? What're you doin' this weekend?"
"Why should my plans be any conscern of yours?" Nabiki replied with a snort.
"Yeah, I'm stuck at home to die of boredom, too." Ranma shot back, easily seeing through Nabiki's "high and mighty" act.
"I'm sure we'll find something to do." Akane cut in. "We always do."
"Yeah. Lets just hope that 'something to do' doesn't end up half killing me like it did two weeks ago." Ranma complained.
"Shut up, Ranma! You didn't have any better ideas!" Akane fumed. The trio continued up the street to the dojo.
Standing on the step, Ranma inhaled deeply. "Kasumi's making miso soup again!" he announced with a pleased grin. "Smells good, Kasumi!" He called, ducking into the kitchen.
Kasumi smiled over her shoulder. "How was school today, Ranma?"
"Boring as ever. You wouldn't believe the math test they gave us. I HATE polynomials! It's a good thing I had my book last night to study from. Speaking of books..." she fished Dr. Tofu's book out of his pack and handed it to Kasumi.
Setting the book on the counter, Kasumi turned to face Ranma. "You're having trouble in math? Why didn't you tell me? What are you doing that you need help on?"
"We're multiplying and factoring polynomials. I can't keep 'em straight. Binomials, trinomials, monomials, they're all the same to me!"
"I know a little bit about polynomials. I'll help you study after dinner if you'd like. Maybe Akane'd like to join us! You two could study together. Wouldn't that be.."
"How 'bout this weekend, Kasumi?" Ranma interrupted. "I mean.. well.. I have so much else to do tonight and nothing better to do this weekend..." Kasumi gave him a hurt look. "Not that I wouldn't love to, Kasumi." he added quickly.
"Maybe tomorrow night. You three are going to be so busy this weekend, I don't know if we could fit it in."
Ranma sighed. "Actually, Akane, Nabiki and I are gonna die of boredom this weekend. We don't have plans."
"Good! I was hoping you'd say that!"
"Why, Kasumi?" Akane asked, ducking into the kitchen and standing across from Ranma.
"I have six tickets to the grand opening of that new amusement park. It's an overnight lock-in for teenagers. I thought you, Ranma, Nabiki, Ukyo and Ryoga could go. Maybe Nabiki could invite one of her friends to go along too."
"Could I what?" Nabiki asked as she crossed the room, quickly grabbing a raw vegetable off the cutting board and began munching on it.
"I thought you'd like a friend to come with you to the overnight at the amusement park. We've got an extra ticket."
"You mean that new one with the HUGE roller coaster? Cool. Who should I take?" Nabiki said around a mouthful of green pepper.
"But what about you, Kasumi? Don't you want to go?" Akane asked.
"No, I'll be fine here. You should go have some fun by yourselves for a change. Kasumi smiled.
"Are you sure? I don't know who to invite. Why don't you use the extra ticket?" Nabiki offered.
Kasumi shook her head. "How about Kuno-san? I'm sure he'd love to go!."
"Yeah, Nabiki. Ask Kuno! You could make it a date!" Ranma taunted.
Nabiki glared at Ranma. A few seconds passed in tense silence. Finally, Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Ok, fine. I'll go call Kuno." She stormed out of the room muttering something about someone owing her big time.
Ranma grined in satisfaction. "I'll call Ukyo and Ryoga when she's done." he offered. "Ukyo'll say yes in a heartbeat. I've never seen anyone with as strong a passion for fast, intense rides as Ukyo's!"
Akane fought back the urge to mallet him for wanting his so-called fiancee to come along. 'Baka!' she thought to herself. 'You know he thinks of Ukyo as a best friend, not a girlfriend.'
Kasumi and Akane listened to Nabiki's conversation with Kuno in the other room. Nabiki's voice was muffled, but they could still make out the words above the chopping of vegetables and the bubbling of soup. "Hey Kuno-baby... It's Nabiki. ... Yeah, whatever, I wanted to kow if you were free this weekend so we.... No! I do not wish to date with you, we just had a spare ticket! Oh, have it your way! Meet us at the bus stop early Saturday morning.... Ok, I said! It's a date! Sheesh! Bye." Kasumi and Akane had to bite their toungues to keep from giggling.
"I'm going to go do my homework, Kasumi. See you later." Akane pushed away from the counter and started toward her room, still laughing about Kuno's reaction to Nabiki's call. Kasumi smiled, then returned to her soup.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Ukyo looked up as the door to Ucchan's slid open. Someone fell to the floor in a heap muttering something about making it all the way there. Ukyo rolled her eyes and walked over to assist Ryoga in getting up off the floor and fixing his yellow bandanna. When the young man was situated at the bar in front of the grill, Ukyo busied herself with fixing one of her special okonamiyakis for him. "So, what brings you here this time, Ryoga-honey?" Ukyo asked casually. Before she could get a response out of Ryoga, his okonamiyaki was in front of him and rapidly disappearing.
When Ryoga stopped for a breath, the grinned up at Ukyo. "What does it look like?! I'm STARVING! I've spent the past three days trying to get here!"
"I'm glad somebody wanted to come. I've only had one customer all day!"
"Only one? You must be loosing your touch." Ryoga teased.
Before Ukyo could reply, the phone on the wall behind them rang. Ukyo spun away from the counter and picked up the receiver. "Ucchan's Okonamiyaki. How may I he.. oh hi, Ranchan! ... this weekend? Yeah, why? ... You mean that one with the new rollercoaster? The one that drops 308 feet at 80 degrees? 0-95 in 10 seconds? The one with the most consecutive loops and corkscrews in the world? Of course I'll come, you jackass! Who else is coming? ... Really? Hold on a sec..." Ukyo placed one hand on the mouthpeice and turned to Ryoga. "Ranma, me, and a few others are going to that new amusement park this weekend. Wanna go?"
"Sure! That is, if I can find it..."
"Don't worry! You can stay here tonight and tomorrow. As long as you don't move, you can't get lost, right?" Ukyo grinned and turned back to the phone. "He'll be there. ... Yes, I'll see you later. Bye, Ranchan."
"This oughta be fun. I can't wait." Ryoga remarked.
"Yep. Now, don't move an inch, or you'll never get there." Ukyo told him.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
The past two days had flown by, and dawn found Ranma, Akane, Nabiki, Kuno and Kasumi at the bus stop down the street from the school. The group was buisily discussing the next day and a half with excitement. They would spend all day Saturday at the park, as well as that night. The bus would bring them home around noon the next day.
"Are you sure you don't wanna come, 'Sumi?" Ranma asked for the third time that morning.
"No, that's all right. I'll be fine here by myself. It's too late to change my mind, anyway."
"Yes and no." Nabiki said. "I mean, the bus'll be here any minute, and Ukyo and Ryoga are nowhere in sight."
"Hey, you're right. They'd better hurry or they'll be late." Akane said with conscern.
"Fear not, fair Akane, for as the sun rises in the east, so cometh our companions over yonder hill." Kuno proclaimed.
Kasumi looked confused. "Oh my! Was that Japanese he was speaking just now?"
"More or less." Ranma groaned. "He said 'There they are!', or someting pretty close to it."
Sure enough, Ukyo's silouette was visible against the grey cloudy sky. Gradually, they came closer, and Ryoga could be seen behind Ukyo, being dragged by the shirt collar. Ukyo didn't release her grip until the two of them were safely at the curb. "Next time, just follow me in the fist place, Jackass!" she complained.
Ryoga rubbed the back of his neck. "Shut up! I'm getting better, and you know it!"
"Well, it makes no difference now. You're here on time and that's all that counts." concluded Kasumi.
"Barely. Here comes the bus now." Nabiki pionted out.
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow." Kasumi tucked the envelope containing the six tickets into Ryoga's backpack. "Now, Ryoga, don't loose those tickets. Ukyo, don't loose Ryoga."
The group laughed and boarded the bus. They quickly took their seats and waved to Kasumi out the windows until the she was out of sight.
Ranma and Akane sat in one seat, Ukyo and Ryoga sat behind them, and Kuno and Nabiki took up the seat across the aisle. They all settled in for the two hour long ride to the park. It was only about six o'clock in the morning, so almost immediately, Kuno was sound asleep next to Nabiki. Nabiki was buisily snapping away on her camera, laughing at Kuno's snores. Ukyo slumped down in her seat and began planning out which rides she would try, how many times for each, and in what order. Ryoga soon grew tired of trying to talk with Akane, who was staring out the window. He took a black and yellow cell phone out of his pack and began playing various electronic games on it. Ranma sat still in his seat, preparing for the long, boring ride. He tried for a time to concentrate on the radio, but after a few overplayed songs the station tuned to a traffic and weather report. With a groan, Ranma mentally tuned out the babble about high pressure systems and rainstorms and tried to sleep.
"Damn it! No!" Ryoga suddenly shouted. Everyone jumped and turned to find out what was going on.
"Ryoga? What is it? Are you ok?" Akane asked.
Ryoga blushed and sank way down into his seat. "Ergh.. um... hehehe. Sorry. I just can't seem to get that damned snake to stop running into the walls! I lose every time!."
Akane sighed and went back into her semi-trance. Ryoga glared intently at his game, determined to win that time.
Gradually, Nabiki tired of snapping pictures and also drifted off to sleep. Ranma smirked at the sight of Kuno and Nabiki all curled up together on a bus seat. He gently took the camera out of Nabiki's hand and snapped a few pictures of his own before slipping the camera back into the sleeping girls hand. With that taken care of, he cast about trying to find another source of entertainment, but found none. Akane had dozed off, as had Ukyo. Ryoga was still going strong with his game.
"Psst! Ryoga! Can I try?" he asked, nodding at the cell phone game.
"Sure. I'm trying to beat my high score. I can't seem to get past twelve points now, but I got all the way to sixty three once! If you beat that, I'll kill you."
"Whatever. You push these buttons to move, right?" Ranma asked.
"Yep. Try to get the snake to hit the dot." Ryoga confirmed. He shifted up onto his knees, carefully avoiding Ukyo. He puched the start botton, and watched Ranma play for a few seconds before sitting back down in his seat.
Ranma played silently for several minutes before handing the phone back to Ryoga. "Here. You can have this back now."
"You give up? What was your highest score?" Ryoga asked eagerly.
Ranma yawned and shifted down into his seat to try to get some sleep. "243" he replied, doing his best to hold back another yawn.
Ryoga face-faulted behind him. Growling, he rose to his knees again. "Ranma Saotome, prepare to DIE!" he hissed.
Ranma glared at him. "It's only a game! Shut up and let me sleep!"
Ryoga slumped down onto the small green seat and sulked. Before long, he too was asleep.
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