"Beautiful Disaster"
Chapter 11
(Hey! For fun this chapter, if you can guess what song this is, or who sings it, I'll dedicate the next chapter to you! Or, if you get them both, two chapters! My only clue is that the artist is on my user page. If no one gets it, I'll post more lyrics…)
On the floors of Tokyo-o,
Or down in London town to go-go,
With the record selection,
And the mirror's reflection,
I'm a-dancing with myself…
(And now, for the chapter.)
The last three days had certainly taken their toll on Keiko. If her hours put forward to homecoming and other council duties had been counted as credits, Keiko bet that she could graduate tomorrow. All she had thought about, talked about, everything she had done in those days was for the student council. She hadn't even acknowledged her roommates.
On Friday, Keiko had called the other three student councils down to Abe-sensei's room to try and win them over. The seniors were definitely for the idea, the juniors were skeptical at first, but agreed shortly after the seniors, but the sophomores refused completely, saying they had other plans for their cash. Of course, when Abe-sensei announced that the majority had already won, they had no choice. With that many people in one small classroom, it took some time for ideas to get around. Lots of time, to be exact. Keiko had skipped dinner that night, too talked out to even eat. The voices weren't there that early and she got a semblance of a good night's sleep.
The classes decided a slight bit on Friday, but couldn't really sort anything out until Saturday. It was decided then, with much argument, that the freshmen would sell cookies and candy in the cafeteria, the sophomores would be in charge of donation boxes in school and around town, the juniors would take turns being moving donation boxes in town after school, and the seniors would run a car wash. Keiko also informed them of her own donation box in Tokyo, where she expected to get large revenue. Although there was much fighting, it all turned out all right in the end for the council meeting. Keiko, once again, was pooped, but this time attended dinner. She didn't do much talking, however, and found later on that she hadn't even recognized that Botan and Yukina were near her. She got considerably less sleep that night.
Keiko, for a long time, didn't think she'd survive Sunday's meeting. They had come together to sort out who bought what for the dance. The seniors believed that as freshmen, the first council should do the most, making Keiko snap back that their bank account was virtually broke at the moment. This almost became an all-out war until Abe-sensei returned from her bathroom break, saying that the juniors were to be the most responsible. The juniors were generally a pushover council (Keiko had observed this earlier) and agreed without much thought. They, said Abe-sensei, would have the charge of the décor of the ballroom, at the discretion of the seniors (Who had decided the theme was "Palace at Versailles"), as well as the cleanup before and after the dance. And after even more bickering, it was decided that the seniors were in charge of the food, the sophomores were to assist the other classes with funding and get the music, and the freshmen were instructed to, after hearing about Keiko's lovely campaign posters, to advertise and help with cleanup (The cleaning up responsibility was mainly because the one senior who had favored the freshmen to pay the most wanted to get back at Keiko).
And after all of the miserable planning was done, Keiko went back to her dormitory and lay on her bed, ready to have a day of resting (Her council mates had pushed rest on to her instead of baking sweets with them.).
Unfortunately, Keiko had forgotten that tomorrow was Monday.
She wanted the world to go to hell.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
It was biology class that Monday, and although Keiko was sitting right next to Botan and all anyone in the class had to do was a silly lab on microscopes, she was still in an extremely foul mood.
Keiko had been thinking about student council all night, living and breathing the stupid thing as she usually did, and when she tried to stop, she noticed the noises outside were at it again. Keiko couldn't sleep in very much and didn't have an appetite for breakfast, so she just went straight to class.
She had no energy and no incentive to do anything.
"Keiko?" Botan asked, poking her shoulder. "Are you all right? I'm beginning to think this student council thing isn't healthy for you."
She smiled weakly. "It's not unhealthy for me- I thrive on it, actually, it's just the whole weekend…"
"I don't know how you thrive on it if it's sucking your life away. We haven't had a conversation in three days!"
Keiko raised an eyebrow. "We…haven't?"
Botan seemed to want to laugh, but she didn't. "No, you've been going to class brain dead, then you go to student council, then you go to dinner, take a shower, maybe, and then collapse on your bed like a giant ball of jelly. After all of that, you repeat it the next day."
Keiko smiled again. "I suppose I've been sleepwalking through this, then."
"Get your rest and I'll do the lab."
"What? You can't-I'll-" She waved her arms in protest, slightly energized for the sake of argument.
"Oh, stop it Keiko. Can you even think straight? What's twenty-four quadrillion divided by eight quadrillion?"
Keiko was starting to doze off again. "It's-how am I…how am I supposed…a ton of quadrillions?"
Botan turned to the lab in victory. "See? Keiko Yukimura on a normal day would have answered that question correctly."
"Where'd you get such a stupid, deranged question anyway?"
She was filling out the paper on the table, messing with a microscope. "Thought it up while I was talking to Kurama-kun."
"And when was this?"
Botan seemed suddenly annoyed. "Get some sleep, Keiko."
Keiko decided it was time to be immature. She stuck her tongue out. "Not until you tell me."
"Sunday, in the café. Are you satisfied?"
"So why did you think up the question?"
"I gave you what you asked for. Get some rest, Keiko! You've been working really hard all weekend." Botan gave her a big, sweet smile. She wasn't sure if it was sincere.
Keiko knew it was obviously important, or otherwise Botan wouldn't be on the defensive, but she knew she wouldn't get anything out of her.
Figures, Keiko thought. I get another stupid mystery to worry about.
Her day just kept getting better and better. Wonderful.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
She wandered into her study hall, too tired to even move anymore and too lazy to do her homework once she found her seat next to Yusuke. "Look who's back from the dead," he muttered.
Her head was buried in her elbow. "Student council," She snapped, but it was muffled. Why did he care, anyway? He didn't seem to care about her much…and at the same time, he did. And on top of all of that, there was some voice in the back of her head that wanted him to care. So she asked. "Don't you have better things to do, like blow up people's skirts, for instance?"
"No one interests me under there as much as you, my sweet Keiko," He couldn't hold it for much longer and burst out laughing, while looking away from her. Keiko was too tired to slap him. "But seriously, no, there isn't anything else. There's always an awkward silence when I talk to Yukina, like I'd do my homework, and everyone else I have a remote connection with-"
"Kurama and Botan?" Keiko blurt out.
"Yeah, them, they did some interesting stuff while you were dead,"
She cringed. "Interesting?"
Yusuke seemed to realize what he'd said. "I don't mean anything like that, just on Sunday, erm," He looked over to the left, where Kurama was staring out the window, lost in thought, "I can't say anything right now because he's right next to me. He'll probably say that thing that freaks me out again." He either was scared to death or had a friendly respect.
"What's going on that no one can talk about? I'm not in the mood to be tantalized, Yusuke."
"It's actually not that big of a deal, but he's- my brain's fried."
"Your words are poetic, Yusuke."
"I pride myself."
"So, what actually happened?"
"You could really go on without knowing."
"Not when everyone around me is surrounded in it."
There was a pause. Yusuke's eyes averted to Kurama, who wasn't paying attention, and back to Keiko. He leaned in to whisper to his ear, his voice husky. "On Sunday he cornered her in the café, sweet-talked her, and gave her something very nice that crosses my mind right now. At first she was totally entranced and took the offering and then apparently realized what was going on and said she couldn't accept it and left quickly, which, of course, would bum out any guy. But Keiko, you don't know Kurama quite like I do: He doesn't get rejected. And I don't mean because of all those crazy girls. He's got…this thing where he thinks he can get any chick he wants. Can't blame him totally because as far as I know he's been able to do that. Obviously he didn't this time, and now he's over there calculating all sorts of new ways to fix it."
"I honestly can't believe Kurama's like that." Keiko whispered back. "He doesn't seem to be the sort of person who's really into dating."
"He isn't, but I guess you could say that he has a…sort of…other personality that can appear sometimes."
"Do you honestly think that's believable?" Keiko said. Was she the only one in the world who didn't believe in weird things?
"You never know who's got some freaky secret. I'm telling you, the guy isn't exactly what you think he is."
"Kurama must be a deep person, but I hardly think that he could be like that."
Yusuke sighed. "Remember what he said when he bumped into Botan?"
Unwillingly, Keiko heard Kurama in her head again. She shivered more than usual. "All right, say I take your word for it. What else can you tell me?"
He gave her a sharp glare but started off anyway. "Kurama was totally off guard. Still is, but he's, like I said, figuring out some other method of getting her. God! It's just great. I told him this would happen someday, but he didn't think so. Vain, vain fox boy." Yusuke smirked as though he'd won some great bet.
"Well, aren't you nice today?" Keiko mused.
"I could say the same about you almost every day." She glared, but he didn't back down.
They were interrupted by a very loud, "Minamino-kuuuun!" just a few feet from them. It was the same girl who had kicked Keiko out of her seat on the first day of school. Kurama didn't even seem to notice her, which seemed extremely hard to Keiko.
The girl waved a hand in his face. "Minamino-kun? Are you with us?"
Coming out of his trance, the redhead almost fell right out of his chair. "Yes, I'm quite here. Anything I can assist you with?" And just like that, he was normal Shuuichi Minamino again.
"We were just worried," said another girl, "You looked upset, and we h-h-heard…t-t-that…"
"That someone turned you down!" The leader piped in. "And we want you to know that she's the only person in the whole world that would ever, ever, resist you, Minamino-kun!"
"I guess I don't exist," Keiko mumbled to herself.
"Turn me down?" Kurama looked at them in a most confused fashion. "You must be mistaken, that wouldn't be me. I don't get turned down."
Yusuke was right, she thought. He had a definite complex. So he really did have another side. She should have known that ages ago, that he could be an absolutely perfect, romantic person and then turn and be a master of seduction. After being led right to it, it was so obvious…
"Of course, Minamino-kun!" said the leader, blushing in embarrassment. "We knew it was probably just a nasty rumor that a rival boy spread, but we had to make sure, as your most loyal companions! We should have remembered that no human being can resist your charm!" They walked off, bickering with one another in disappointment. Keiko and Yusuke exchanged disgusted looks about their last sentence.
"Geez, Kurama, just admit it," Yusuke said, much to Keiko's mental protest, "You got rejected. Botan doesn't want you."
He laughed. "If that's the way you work at matters of the heart, you're never going to win. If Mr. Darcy had given up so easily, Pride and Prejudice would certainly be dull, wouldn't it? I just have to wait a while for the smoke to clear and try again. Feelings aren't permanent, Yusuke."
Yusuke replied with an eye-roll and began to throw paper airplanes at random people. Keiko tried to go to sleep again, and as usual, something amazing had just happened, so she couldn't.
Why did the world suddenly hate her?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
"Everyone's here," Keiko noted that on her clipboard, scanning the room again. "So, how was the cookie-baking?"
The council giggled at each other. "Fun," they said, "But it was good that you missed it. You needed the rest."
"I didn't get any," Keiko answered sadly.
Their heads lowered. "Well, try to, okay?" said a perky girl, Michiko-san. "You're so dedicated…it's great, but no one's a superhero."
"Anyway, about the cookies-"
"We've got hundreds!" said Michiko. "We just kept baking and baking. We all tried one, and they're great! We were wondering if we could even start selling tomorrow."
Keiko nodded. "That would be fine…I'll sell for the second shift, but I'll need help…"
Michiko and another girl raised their hands. "Okay…how about first shift?" She had four volunteers and put all of their names down. "Now that that's out of the way, I asked someone in a rush on Saturday to get one of the seniors to organize a date. Did anyone do that?"
"Yup!" said a member named Kasumi-san, on the first shift. "The date is October fifth."
Keiko gave a short-lived smile. "Good date." She wrote it down on her paper. "Our other responsibility that matters at the moment is advertising for this event. It's the beginning of the second week of September, so it needs to be quick. The theme is 'Palace of Versailles' and we need a nice poster, complete with a slogan. Any suggestions?"
The room fell silent for a moment as everyone pondered. A hand shot up. "We should put something French on there, like French bread or cooked snails!"
"That would be fine, but it's a dance," Keiko answered.
"What if we did it entirely in French?" said another.
"Would everyone understand that?"
"Well, we'd leave translations,"
"I know few people who really stop to look at advertisements," Keiko said, bluntly.
"Good point." The girl was disheartened.
Michiko's hand went up. "What if we had a royal purple background with a black silhouette of Cinderella dancing with the prince on it? I mean, it's a palace and all, and it goes with the dancing theme."
Keiko liked the idea. "Anyone against this?" No objections were made. "Okay. Now, what about the slogan, using this poster?"
The room was quiet again, but this time for much longer. Keiko tried herself to think of something, but she couldn't. She always had to make something rhyme to sound good, and nothing for this could possibly rhyme.
Kasumi raised her hand. "Yes?" Keiko asked.
She paused before speaking. "Dreams do come true." There was no immediate reply. "You know…because everyone wants to be the homecoming queen, and there's no homecoming? Or it could be more personal, like someone's love life getting healed at the dance…"
Michiko nodded in support. "I like it. It has that sort of…professional feel to it."
"Any objections?" None. "All right then, partly because of my bad mood, and partly because I can't think of anything off the top of my head to discuss, I call this meeting off. Go have normal lives."
Keiko sank back into her desk after they'd all left. She could hardly move anymore. It was good, of course, that the meeting had gone so quickly and without protest, but even that blessing wouldn't give her strength.
Abe-sensei looked up. "I know you're tired, but there's this old janitor that cleans my room and he's rumored to molest successful students. It might be in your best interest to book it out of here before he comes around."
Keiko nodded, slowly rising from the seat. "I know." She left the room and went to her dorm feeling like her legs were pulling her various body parts along.
End Chapter 11
Katie's Note: That was more information on the homecoming preparations than I'm sure anyone cared to know. For the next chapter or so, I'm not exactly sure how long chapter-wise, Keiko's not going to be a happy camper. Why? Well, she is preparing for a dance, cut the girl some slack.
Hiei is finally going to officially appear in chapter thirteen. You'll see why I use such wording when he comes in.
As for Kurama, if you can't tell his Youko side is a little more present in this fic. Spells trouble for Botan, who apparently just wants to get away from him. It isn't likely that she'll succeed, as you can see. Not the action that everyone really wants, but that's the plot. Sorry…
Well, I think I'm going a little too fast, but nothing else could have possibly happened in this worthless filler chapter. Things will get interesting again when Hiei appears, and shortly after that is homecoming preparations with Shizuru! I love Shizuru in this fic…she's so nosy. xD
Until my next update, I shall be watching the Australian Open tape in tears, for my precious Federer hath been defeated…