Chocolates and Balloons

Part IV

Where I thought things could only get better, they had gotten worse. Kaoru was off in daydream land, I didn't know how to act around Sano now and had taken to avoiding him slightly and Shinomori… oh, don't even ask. That was positive misery. What he must think of me…

Yukishiro had ceased to be a source of entertainment and I was getting more and more annoyed with my wrist cast. It itched and I couldn't scratch it.

"Don't you shove things down inside that cast, young lady!" I was warned.

I tried to listen, I did. Sometimes I even complied… sometimes I didn't. As long as the itching stopped. Once I even slammed my wrist against a table in an attempt to make it hurt so it wouldn't itch anymore.

"…"

I didn't try that again.

What was with Sano anyway? Didn't he have a thing for Megumi? Had she finally told him to get lost? I'd have told him a long time ago, I thought flippantly… but then… he wasn't so bad, I guess. I don't know… who knows anything? I sighed heavily and collapsed into my chair in the classroom. My homework was "sub-par" as Omasu had described it and I didn't really care. Takamoto couldn't complain as long as I turned something in… or… wait, he could but I'd ignore it until he threatened me again. Not the smartest move, but…

"Makimachi-san, can I see you please?"

I lifted my head and strained my neck to see if that was who I thought it was. No way! There was no way I was being called out of class before it even began! Standing at the door was Takamoto, thick square glasses, evil little glare, hand on hip and everything.

Crap.

I was being called before class started.

"This is so unfair," I whined as I dragged my feet to the door. Sano slipped by me on the way but I stared straight ahead.

If you don't see them, they don't exist, I told myself. Takamoto kept on staring right at me… I wondered what'd I'd done while I tried to forget there were now two guys in the class I wanted to avoid and one out of class if I counted Yahiko.

"The world is against me," I muttered. I looked up as I heard what sounded like keys jingle to see that Shinomori was standing between the doorway, me, and Takamoto, who was behind him.

"Shinomori-san, you are such bad luck!" I exclaimed without thinking. This whole downward spiral had started after he threw away my precious candies.

For a moment, he looked surprised.

"To your seat, Shinomori-san. Makimachi-san, stop stalling."

I scowled and stepped around Shinomori.

"The world is against me," I muttered again. Before I was whisked out of the classroom I turned back and smiled. "Hey all don't have too much fun without me. You can leave your candy tributes for my hard work on my desk and I shall be back soon!"

"Hard work at what?" someone wise-cracked.

I tossed a glare in that direction.

"Entertaining your empty heads, that's very hard work. I'll have you know I spend-"

"Makimachi!"

"Huh? Oh… right, yeah, I hadn't forgotten about you, I just wanted to say goodbye."

He glared and I smiled softly.

"It's not like I was stalling or anything."

"Come along," he snapped shortly.

I sighed.

"Are you going to assign me a tutor or something? I know I haven't been doing great, but I am passing and all. Not like that guy who sits next to me, Seta-san, he's not doing so well in your subject. I saw his last test grade…"

He cleared his throat and didn't reply.

"So yeah, I could do with a tutor I suppose. Are you going to assign me one or can I pick one? Just as long as you don't assign me to Shinomori-san."

"Shinomori-san doesn't have time to be dragged down by you, young lady. He is an excellent student; you should seek to emulate him."

I pinched my fingers together to imitate a quacking duck behind his back as he talked. His mouth opened and my fingers moved, "quack, quack, quack." He wasn't really paying me the slightest mind.

"We are going to discuss your academic standing with your grandfather this morning." He glanced back at me, practically beaming. I wasn't sure if it was viciousness or evil success but it was definitely a sort of gloating.

"Hmmmmm, you invited Jiya? You didn't leave him alone in your office or anything did you? He likes to go through drawers and desks and stuff. I've told him not to do that but he really doesn't listen to me anymore." I was lying, of course, through my precious white little teeth but it was worth it to see his feet speed up like that. He was even trying to look so calm but I could see his expression flicker.

Score one for me! Following him into the teacher's office where the cubicles were set up I felt my victor fading. Teacher's meeting… I felt doom closing in.

White Day.

The day when boys gave gifts back to the girls who had given them something. It was a sweet idea, certainly.

It loomed on the horizon like a giant specter determined to rip the souls out of mankind and feed the remaining bloody parts to its ghastly transparent ghost fish or something. It was tomorrow and I… I… I felt like such a… I don't know.

I hate White Day! I really did hate it and I had a perfectly good reason. I never got anything.

No one sent chocolates to sweet Makimachi Misao; it was a serious crime, especially being that I was such a candy-lover!

Kaoru and geek-bait were really working out well. Though I wanted to, I couldn't hold it against her despite the fact that it was throwing me really off kilter. I felt like an anchored ship being battered by a storm that never stopped. White Day was tomorrow and I realized one thing I hated about myself at that moment.

I was a coward.

I was afraid and I was totally skipping school. What truly scared me is that Shinomori-san would give me nothing and I completely expected that, but it was the ugly hope that he would give me something that bothered me.

I couldn't kill the hope no matter how unrealistic I knew it was. It wouldn't go away. It wouldn't. I tried. I explained it to myself a hundred times.

So I wasn't going. It didn't exist. There would be no White Day for me, I hated it, I wasn't going and no mortal force could make me. Had the Shinomori chocolate incident not happened, and the Sano weirdo kissing not happened, I probably would've braved the storm, pulled up anchor and sailed into the chaos. But as it was, I couldn't. Tomorrow would suck, I'd get up and go out like I was heading to school, I tuck a change of clothes in my bag, I'd hop on the bullet train and I'd hang out farther up town in a dark shop where no one would recognize me. Maybe I could pretend I was sick and having to run errands for the family… who knows, I'd think of something then.

Discouraged, I turned out my light and went to bed.

Shinomori worked at a sports store near the café he used to work at. So I made a mental note to avoid such places. I didn't even want a chance of running into him. Not even a tiny chance.

I woke, dressed, pretended to be my normal would-be bouncy self and stepped out. Kaoru was not waiting for me and this I expected. She would be far too busy gushing to her mirror and trying to make herself look perfect, I know, she told me so on the phone last night.

Something like "Oh! I can't wait to see what Kenshin gets me! I bet it will be-" I set the phone down at that point. I walked down the street and skipped over a few heading to the train station. Halfway there I slipped into a store, hit the bathroom, changed my clothes and slipped back out.

Cleverly disguised, I was about to hit the street of Kyoto and party!

Or… you know… not party. Partying would draw attention to me. I hit the train station and caught a ride. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I had the feeling I'd know when I got there.

Well, okay, as long as Shinomori or Sano weren't there, it was okay.