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Chapter 2
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Author: Kintora
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I stirred when I heard voices arguing in the background. Face scrunched, I realized my head was now aching and my nose was thoroughly stuffed. A groan left me when a simple swallow made my parched throat hurt. The curtain beside my bed pulled back as the nurse bustled in to check on me.
"Kanzaki-san, how are you feeling?" She asked kindly.
My bleary eyes squinted up at her. "Miserable. Worse off than I thought I was this morning."
She chuckled at my disgruntled features a little, as she pulled out a thermometer from her white coat and rubbed it over my forehead. Checking the reading, she shook her head. "My, you've got quite the cold. It's time I give you some medicine. It would be best if I could send you home to rest. Do you have a family member who can come pick you up?"
"No," I croaked, wincing. "Dad's away on business, Mom has work, and my little brother is on a school trip."
"That is unfortunate," she observed, "I can't possibly let you go home alone like this. School hasn't ended yet, but perhaps a friend can take you home later. Shall I contact Uchida-san for you?"
I nodded weakly, letting her help me sit up as I took the proffered painkillers. She made me eat some bread and drink warm tea before letting me lay down again with a new compress for my head. Remembering the voices from earlier, I couldn't help looking around.
"What is it, Kanzaki-san?" The nurse inquired.
"I thought..." I began frowning, "Weren't there other people in here earlier? I woke up because they were talking rather loudly."
She gave me an odd look, but her expression softened. "You're feverish. It's possible you were just hallucinating. It's not uncommon, but you should definitely get some more rest while you can."
"But there were people," I protested weakly, "It sounded serious."
"I assure you – when you woke up earlier, no one was here except for you and me. Now go back to sleep. You may feel better when you wake up again."
But later that afternoon, I did not wake up feeling better at all. I felt just as miserable as I did earlier. At least this time, I woke up to the familiar voices of Yukari and Amano-senpai talking in the background.
"Oh look, she's alive," Yukari was the first to notice me watching them at the foot of my bed, "Enjoy any good dreams, Sleeping Beauty?"
"Ugh..." I managed, "I wanna go home."
"You sound very sick," Amano-senpai said worriedly, "You look very sick."
Yukari folded her arms, "Of course she's sick and feeling all sorts of bad right now. Come on, help me get her home."
The two of them helped me with my stuff and the nurse smiled to see I'd be well taken care of. She gave me a disposable mask I could wear for my trek home. As we were leaving, I rasped, "What did Coach Yagami say about my absence?"
"That he hopes you get better," Amano-senpai told me, "And to try not to forget your umbrella again. But don't worry. We really didn't do much more than stretch in the gym today, like I predicted earlier. You didn't miss anything exciting." He smiled cheekily down at me.
"Actually, you did miss some excitement today," Yukari grinned at me as well, "The whole school was buzzing about it earlier! Well, most of the girls were anyway. There's a new English teacher, and a pretty one at that. He replaced Mr. Morimoto!"
I shuddered remembering our sour, old English teacher. He insisted we called him "Mr." instead of "sensei." While he wasn't a bad teacher, he was ancient, forgetful, and always liked to catch students off guard by making us read aloud from our textbooks. He had been talking about retiring some time soon, but it was odd that he wouldn't wait until the end of the school year to do so.
Yukari must have caught onto what I wanted to ask. She sobered a little. "I know a lot of people didn't like Mr. Morimoto, but no one celebrated his retirement. His wife just passed away, you know? He left so he could take care of his affairs and spend time with his children's families."
I shook my head, "That's really sad to hear."
"Yes," Yukari agreed, though she perked up again, "Mr. Fanel on the other hand is making quite the impression! All the students love him, including the boys. I think you'll get over your fear of the English language after taking his class."
"Fanel?" I rolled the unfamiliar syllables experimentally, "He's not Japanese?"
"Nope, but it's about time!" Yukari answered emphatically, "It makes sense to have an English person teach English though, don't you think? It's so hard for foreigners to get jobs in this country, but you would think the system would make it easier when it comes to teaching positions in our schools..."
But I'd stopped listening to Yukari's monologue, still pondering the surname. "Fanel" didn't sound like an English name, I wanted to say though it was simply too much effort to speak. At the moment, I didn't care if our new English teacher was Chinese, Spanish, or Bosnian. I just wanted to go home and sleep for a week.
A deep sneeze seized my whole body just then. Yukari stopped talking about the new teacher, and Amano-senpai spoke up this time.
"It seems someone is talking about you," he told me, "All good things, I'm sure."
The rest of our journey home was uneventful. Amano-senpai and Yukari both accompanied me all the way to my house before leaving together. My ears might not be working as well, but I could've sworn they were talking about dropping by a convenience store together as they walked together down the hall, past the broken elevator. It wasn't like I was in any condition to join them, and it wasn't like they were holding hands... And yet I felt a bit betrayed seeing them side by side.
Alone in the apartment, I changed clothes and promptly fell into an uneasy slumber.
It took a few days to recover. Yukari was kind and thoughtful to bring my homework to me so I wouldn't get left behind in class. Each day, she brought more stories about our friends and little dramas here and there about acquaintances. I had almost forgotten about the new English teacher until Yukari brought him up again, as she set down a new stack of English assignments for me to complete.
I couldn't help but whine a little. It was my worst, and least favorite subject. "Is he trying to kill our class by overworking us?"
Yukari snorted, "You're just saying that because you think this stuff is hard."
"It is hard."
She shrugged, "Unfortunately for you, you're missing a lot of classwork - and most of this is classwork. He actually doesn't assign much homework, you know? See, it's just a journal you write in. You just have to apply some of the vocabulary and grammar we're learning in class. And he prefers a more conversational approach in class so it's not as intimidating as Mr. Morimoto's style."
I crawled under my covers. "I don't want to do it..."
"Fine by me," Yukari said, slapping my behind over the covers. I grunted, but didn't emerge. "Fail if you'd like, but you'll just make everyone in class hate your guts. Mr. Fanel promised to let us have a movie day in class if we all pass the quarterly exam."
"His bribe doesn't sound that great," I grumbled petulantly, "I can watch a movie at home if I want."
"No? How about this," Yukari tugged my blanket off my face, "He promised to cross dress for Golden Week if more than half of us aced the exam."
That got my attention. What kind of teacher was willing to humiliate himself for our benefit? I may not be interested in the subject he taught, but I was intrigued by Yukari's stories despite myself.
"I don't think I can ace the test, but I suppose a movie day would be better than actually having to endure an English lesson. I hope our class does win the bet though. I can't help but want to see a teacher do something ridiculous." I paused. "Now I'm really curious about this crazy guy."
Yukari laughed, "That's a first! I've never really seen you curious about any guy."
"Oh please, I'm not talking about that kind of curiosity. He's a teacher." I narrowed my eyes, "And just because I haven't dated like you have, doesn't mean I don't have someone I like!"
She playfully poked me. "Is that so? You'll have to tell me."
I sighed. It wouldn't be the first time that I wanted to tell her, but every time I came close to it, I couldn't help but shudder at the mental image of Amano-senpai finding out somehow. Not to mention... Well, Yukari and I often liked the same things. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to wonder if we liked the same person.
When it became apparent that she couldn't wheedle anything else out of me, Yukari gathered her things and prepared to go. "Will you be okay on your own? I can stay longer if you want me to."
"Thanks Yukari," I smiled up at her, "But you told me earlier you have dinner duty tonight. I don't want to keep you. Besides, I'm much better than I was these past few days. I should be able to go back to school after the weekend."
"Okay," Yukari said. Just as she was leaving my room, she turned around again, "By the way, this is a little random but... Is it just me or does your room smell a little smokey?"
I sniffed the air, but my nose still hadn't regained the ability to smell just yet. And I knew for a fact that neither of my parents smoked, and my little brother Mamoru wouldn't be caught dead at home with a cigarette either. I shook my head, "I don't think so."
My friend frowned but simply nodded at me. "I'll see you at school then. Make sure you take it easy this weekend!"
"I will. You too, Yukari."
"Of course. And you owe me more cake for being so nice to you. At this rate, you'll be in over your heels in debt. How will you ever repay me?"
"With love!" I swooned, making kissing noises at her.
Yukari laughed and pelted my puckered face with a pillow. "All right, all right. Keep your germs to yourself!"
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