Yellow Roses ~ Remember Me
2: Apartment Goodbyes and Hellos
Tori rushed around her apartment, readying herself for school. She knew she had plenty of time, but it was always better to be on the safe side.
She ran through her kitchen, fixing both her breakfast and lunch at the same time. Her lunch complete, she took both and put the one on the table, while gulping down the other.
Done with those tasks, she slipped her school shoes and lunch into her backpack. Gathering her things together, she smiled to no one but herself.
Pulling her battered but well cared for inline skates onto her feet, she threw her backpack on. She offered a brown-eyed wink to the apartment, and in a swish of red hair, she was gone.
*~*
Tori arrived at school early enough to start studying for a math test she would have later that day. She could hear snippets of conversation, but it wasn't until the bell had nearly rung that she took any notice. Or rather, was forced to notice.
"Hey, is that Tsukino Usagi going to be late again?" a boy called to another stationed at the window.
"I have a feeling so." His speech bore a snide smile that she could hear in his tone.
"Oooohh...there she is! Oh.... She just tripped over some roadkill!" A stunned moment of silence, then... "No...it's alive..."
Suddenly, from overhead, the bell rang.
The box from the window shook his head as he retreated to his seat. "I hardly believe she'll be able to pass the entrance exams next year..."
Seething inside with anger on behalf of a person she had never met, Tori focused that anger at her math formulas.
*~*
Tori sat under a tree during their lunch break, still feeling a little of her mornings anger. Trying to calm herself down wasn't an easy task today. She had really no idea why her anger had been triggered so severely, nor as to why it still smoldered without further incentive. Usually she was very well composed, usually able to stay calm. So why had her anger's trigger been struck with those little comments?
She unwrapped her lunch and started to eat.
Truth be told, this sort of scared her. It was different than the norm, to the point that she had very much wanted to hit them upside the head.
Tori rested her forehead on her knees. It couldn't be that Tsukino Usagi being tormented behind her back that had triggered her anger, could it? The only think Tori "knew" about her was that she was evidently a year head of her. And the only reason she know that was because of those two boys.
She sat there for awhile, just contemplating the conversation before her sudden burst of anger. As she sat still, she could hear the improvised baseball game behind her. Her eyes flared open as she automatically reached out with her left had to stop the ball before it completed its crash into her shoulder blade. In one fluid motion she stood up and threw it to the most closets baseball player. Hard.
He barely had time to raise the mitt in defense before the ball slammed into it. He reeled back a pace before his natural balance saved him from falling on his rear.
She glared at him a second longer, as if it was he who had thrown the ball at her in the first place. She stormed off with much of her anger renewed.
He returned to the game, throwing a look over his shoulder once or twice for another glimpse at a memory long forgotten.
*~*
She entered her apartment, discarding all her school things for now. Grabbing a small snack until dinner time, she walked around restlessly. She was edgy, nervous, and still had ties to the anger, though it had last much of is keen edge.
Little things...little things were getting to her now. First that conversation, then the baseball. What was happening to her?
Grudgingly, she plopped down into a chair before her table, letting her forehead fall onto her arms.
Deep down, she was afraid something was triggering these unwanted emotions, manipulation her into its pawn. Violet's pawn.
Something within Tori shifted restlessly with that thought, fidgeting with displeasure. Confirming her theory.
Her forehead felt hot on her arms.
And then something else caught her attention.
There was a vase on the table with a single, long-stemmed yellow rose.
"Yellow roses," she whispered, then smiled. Kadinaru had always decorated with yellow roses.
Still smiling, she picked up the vase and carried it over to the keyboard on the other side of the room.
She felt every worry float away on the stream of sweet music that she coaxed out of the plastic keys.
This time she didn't notice the something-darkness?-stirring to the surface.