Chapter Seventy-Eight: Any Way You Want It
Yuki's POV
Team Suna, I was happy with this. Cosplaying as a ninja, I was cool with that. Hunny being the group leader was awesome, being stuck with Tamaki all night was not. It's not like I didn't know what they were doing; they were trying to make us work together so in some miraculous deeper way we can fix our problems through this. Yeah, that's doubtful. Unless he starts showing me the respect I deserve and stops making everything and anything about Haruhi cause I don't want to hear it anymore. It's like I'm stuck in a movie theater next to that couple who are still in that cutesy honeymoon phase of their relationship, they're always so close and holding hands and kissing periodically during the movie, but instead with Tamaki all of that crap is in his head and she's too oblivious to know he has any feelings for her, so instead I get to hear it 24/7 from him and most of it comes out as nonsense. It's a terrible thing to say, but listening to him, not only is it sickening, annoying, and exhausting, but it makes me question if he's actually my brother sometimes. I don't think we really have that much, if anything, in common.
"How are we doing this Hunny?" I asked him dryly, really just wanting this to get over with by now.
"Well number two, we'll do as we go and five we're saving for last, but the others for the most part I think can be done in order. It's really who wants to do what that we should focus on." Hunny replied.
"Well, I'm fluent in a few languages, so the first one should be pretty easy for me." I told him looking at the list, "I'll do it."
a random number and give them a random message in a foreign language.
I pressed a bunch of random numbers into my cell phone and when the caller picked up, he was Italian. I smirked. This was going to be fun.
"Bonjour! Je suis de Dial-A-Goddess et je vérifie sur vos informations. Vous êtes Giovanni, correct? Si non, aimeriez-vous une adhésion de notre société en pleine croissance?"
(Hello! I am from Dial-A-Goddess and I am checking on your information. You are Giovanni, correct? If not, would you like a membership of our growing corporation?)
"Giovanni è mio nonno, io sono Donatello. Non sapevo che mio nonno parlava correntemente francese abbastanza per comporre un numero verde in francia, inglese forse, ma io sono impressionato con il francese. Credo che abbia abbastanza della società qui a tenerlo soddisfatti."
(Giovanni is my grandfather, I am Donatello. I was unaware my grandfather spoke french fluently enough to dial a hotline in france, english maybe, but I'm impressed with the french. I think he has enough company here to keep him satisfied.)
"Et vous?"
"Io non vedo per un'azienda di ogni tipo davvero attualmente. Ma sarei incuriosito a seconda del ragionamento da una giovane donna che finge lei è un operatore di sesso telefonico per quale motivo mai casuale se mai incontrata di persona."
(I'm not really looking for company of any kind really presently. But I would be intrigued depending on the reasoning by a young woman who pretends she's a phone sex operator for what ever random reason if I ever met her in person.)
"Comment savez-vous que je ne suis pas une?"
(How do you know I'm not one?)
"Tu mi capisci quando parlo nella mia lingua nativa come faccio io la tua. Sembri troppo giovane per essere un operatore. Non lasciare che i minori in prossimità dei telefoni. Ma sembri di essere troppo vecchio per essere un bambino o adolescente precoce. Probabilmente siete tra i diciassette ei ventiquattro e per qualche motivo empi hai deciso di chiamare e riuscito a trovare qualcuno che parla non solo francese e sa che cosa il vostro detto, ma ha un membro della famiglia che chiama questi numeri."
(You understand me when I speak in my native language as I do yours. You sound too young to be an operator. Do not allow children near the telephones. But it seems to be too old to be child or teenager young. You are probably between seventeen and twenty-four, and for some ungodly reason you decided to call and managed to find someone who not only speaks French and knows what your saying, but he has a family member who called these numbers. )
"C'est pour une chasse au trésor. Merci d'être bien à ce sujet."
(It's for a scavenger hunt. Thanks for being nice about this.)
"Nessun problema." He hung up.
(No problem)
I put away my phone, "Cross item one off the list."
"What's Dial-A-Goddess?" Hunny asked me as he crossed it off the list. He had recorded the whole thing with his phone.
"It was a fake phone sex line used in an episode of Castle." I shrugged, "How we doin' number two?" I asked before Tamaki could start to put together the words to yell at me about what I had just said to Donatello.
"It depends if we have anything on us from the other members, the more items we have on us, the less things we have to pick up off the others." Hunny replied, "I've got some things of Rei's so she's covered."
"I think I've got a couple of things from Kyo. And then we have our stuff."
"I've got stuff from Hikaru and Kaoru." Tamaki stated, still very obviously mad about the first task, but realizing we didn't have enough time at the moment to debate it.
"So that just leaves Su-chan, Takashi, Haru-chan, and Kiko-chan."
"Well, at least we only have to pillage one team." I replied simply.
"Well them and Sumi." Tamaki pointed out.
"But something from Su-chan is going to be pretty easy to find without borrowing it off of her." Hunny stated, "And the underwear?"
"Got Konoha covered." I stated. I saw the look Tamaki was giving me, "Laundry accident on our way back, some of our stuff got switched around. And you know what, if we had done anything, it wouldn't be any of your business."
6. Have a picture of one of the team members being pushed around in a shopping cart by another group member.
Kyoya's POV
"This is ridiculous." I rolled my eyes. "I'm not getting into that thing, if we have to do this you both do the task and I'll get the picture."
"I think it would be best if I got the picture and you both did the task." Sumi replied.
We both looked at her pointedly, "No."
"Yeah, no, you" Sumi pointed at Kaoru, "are going into the cart. And you," She looked at me, "are pushing it."
We looked at her stone faced and remained still. There wasn't a reason for us to do it.
"Kaoru, you and your brother put the list together, you can't complain about it since you put it together." Sumi told him.
"I didn't come up with this point, I didn't even know about it until we got the list. The original list was only ten items long." Kaoru replied.
"There's nothing we can do about it now." Sumi replied, pulling out the camera, "Now we can get this task over with or we can stand around until you boys feel like doing it and going on to the next one."
9. Go through a fast food drive-thru in by giving someone a piggyback ride.
Reiko's POV
"Alright Hikaru, who are you taking through the drive-thru?" I sighed. This was one of the items on the list I didn't really think we'd be able to get away with. It was a good idea in theory, but to carry it out was another thing entirely.
"Either of you hungry?" He asked.
"Not really." I shook my head.
"A little." Anju shrugged.
"I'll take Anju." Hikaru stated, "She can pick up something to eat while we do the task."
"Okay." I nodded, "I'll get the camera."
12. Take a picture or video of one of the members leading around another on a leash in a pet store.
Kimi's POV
"This is the dumbest idea I've ever read." I commented looking at the paper again.
"I think there might be something illegal about this." Haruhi commented.
Mori looked at us stone faced. We had to go through with it. Haruhi looked at me blankly and I gave her an annoyed look of my own. I sighed, giving in to the task.
"If we really have to do this, we have to do it a certain way." I told them, "When we go to the pet store, we're getting a dog collar and a leash. Since it doesn't specify how long we have to do this, we're going to make this as quick as possible. If we're asked, then we say we're getting new leashes and collars for our dogs, Thor, a leonberger, and Rocky, a mutt. Thor's collar broke and Rocky's collar and leash were eventually chewed through. We're trying to find collars that would fit for both of them."
"Isn't that a little too much detail for this?" Haruhi asked.
"No because once people start seeing one of us leading another on a leash and collar, we're going to be asked several questions that we're gonna need to know the answers to or we'll be thrown out of the store." I retorted.
"We stick with the story." Mori told us, "Let's go."
5. Sing karaoke at a commoner's restaurant or club, but someone else from another group has to pick the song.
Yuki's POV
"Waitin' on Sumi and Hikaru?" I asked Kimi.
"Yeah" She nodded, "Mori and Haruhi went to go do one of the tasks."
"Hunny and Tamaki went off to do one too."
"Wanna warm up and do a couple of songs, get us a little used to the karaoke?" Kimi asked, "I've never done it."
"Might be a good idea since I don't like doing it."
"Got any ideas?"
"Know 'Cherry Bomb' by The Runaways and 'Do You Wanna Touch?' by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts?"
"Yeah."
"Well enough to sing them?"
"Yeah." She replied, "I know 'Do You Wanna Touch?' better than 'Cherry Bomb', but yeah, I know them well enough."
"You take that one then and I'll take 'Cherry Bomb'."
"Which one first?"
"Cherry Bomb."
Hikaru's POV
"Awesome." I smirked when I heard the song Cherry Bomb. I looked to the stage to see who was singing the song. Yuki and Kimi were up on stage. Yuki was singing the verses and they both were singing the chorus. "That's not surprising."
"What's going on here?" Sumi asked when she came over, referring to Yuki and Kimi.
"They were probably trying to pass the time."
"With Cherry Bomb?"
"It fits." I shrugged.
After they finished the song, Yuki and Kimi hopped off the stage and came over to us.
"Out of all of the songs you could have chosen, you choose that one?" Sumi asked.
"We were actually going to do two songs." Yuki smirked.
"How could you top that one?" Sumi asked.
"'Do You wanna Touch?' – Joan Jett and the Black Hearts." Yuki replied.
"That, that would top it." Sumi nodded.
"You guys ready to get this over with?" Kimi asked.
"Yeah." We replied.
"How do we wanna do this?" Yuki asked.
"We end with That's Life." I suggested.
"We should do For Good before that one." Sumi commented.
"We should do Love is an Open Door first." Yuki stated.
"Just to See You Smile would be a good song after that one." I added.
Love is an Open Door, Just to See You Smile, For Good, That's Life. The songs in that order gave it almost a story arc, a broken story arc among four different people, yet still connected in some way. I think there might be musicals already like that, not sure. I don't really care about musicals, so that thought doesn't really bother me much.
"Ready to go?" I asked Yuki.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Yuki and I went up on stage.
Yuki's POV
What is it with me and always singing Frozen? Is there something about me that just screams that movie? The music started to play and I got into character.
"Okay, can I just, say something crazy?" I asked Hikaru.
"I love crazy!" Hikaru exclaimed.
'Which is funny because you can't stand overdramatic and crazy if it isn't you or if you aren't causing it.' I thought before starting to sing.
I hopped off the stage after we finished the song and sat down next to Sumi. Kimi hopped up on stage next to Hikaru to sing 'Just to See You Smile' by Tim McGraw. The place was pretty dead tonight, so it was really easy for us to go one after the other.
Kimi's POV
I could never really get into this song growing up. I didn't understand it. I understood what the song was about, but I didn't understand the guy in the song and why he would do all of those things just for her. Why bother doing all of those things for someone if they're going to eventually end up leaving you? We hopped off the stage after we finished the song and started thinking about the song and its lyrics. I finally understood it.
Yuki's POV
I've always liked this song, but it always made me sad. It's beautiful, but not the happiest song, it's about saying goodbye to a friend, a friend who changed your life for the better. It's a hard moment, especially one to fit a good song to. We decided not to sing the first part that Elphba sings and dive straight into the song with Glinda, who Sumi chose to sing. After we finished the song, I hopped off the stage and Kimi hopped back on the stage to finish out this task.
Sumi's POV
I've liked this song since Yuki showed it to me. It was a relatable song. Life is hard, you struggle, but you keep going. By the time we had gotten off the stage after we finished the song, the rest had joined us. We split off into our groups and continued on with the scavenger hunt.
"Which ones did you guys do?" I asked Kyoya and Kaoru as we left.
"13, 19, 20." Kaoru replied.
"Which ones are those again?" I asked.
"Get a video of one of the members hanging upside down in a park singing "I Believe I Can Fly', Walk up to 15 people and ask them if they've seen a fictional character, and Walk into a dry cleaning store and quiz an employee on random trivia questions." Kyoya replied.
Kimi's POV
"So which tasks did you guys decide on?" I asked Mori.
"15 and 18."
"The proposal and the dress?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Cool." I nodded, "What are we doing now?"
"7."
"I haven't played that game since I was a kid."
Hikaru's POV
"Which ones did you guys do?"
"The henna tattoo, which was hard to find by the way, and the underwear." Reiko replied, "We're gonna do the musical number."
Yuki's POV
"What did you guys do?"
"Mannequin, we got our movie scenes done, got the items we needed from the hosts, and the cat and mouse."
"So what are we gonna do now?"
"Your movie scene and then we'll figure out where we wanna go from there."
"Okay." I nodded. I had no clue what the hell I was going to do. I hadn't really gotten around to thinking of a scene yet and then as we were walking out the door it hit me. Easy A. I had seen the movie so many times that I knew it backwards and forwards. "Give me the camera."
Tamaki looked at me oddly, but gave me the camera. I went back inside, went to a secluded quiet area, and turned the camera on. "The rumors of my promiscuity have been greatly exaggerated. Let the record show that I, Olive Penderghast, being of sound mind, ample breast size and the occasional corny knock knock joke, do enter this video blog into evidence in the case against me. Because I'm being judged by a jury of my peers, I will attempt to insert `like' and `totally' into my confession as much as possible. So here it goes... I confess I'm, in no small part, to blame for the vociferous gossip that has turned my Varsity letter scarlet, but - for anyone hoping that the sizzling details of my sordid past will provide you with a reason to lock the door and make love to a dollop of your sister's moisturizing lotion - you'll be gravely disappointed. Look, I just need to set the record straight and what better way to do that, than to broadcast it on the Internet. So, here it is - Part One: The Shudder-Inducing and Cliched, However Totally False Account Of How I Lost My Virginity To A Guy At A Community College In A Neighboring Town. Let me just begin by saying that there are two sides to every story. This is my side, the right one." I stopped the video and saved it. Since they were monologues instead of scenes, I decided to do a few of her monologues in the movie where she was talking to the camera. I started the next video, "Evan, if you're watching this - shame on you. I hope you never treat another girl the way you treated me or you will die alone, wishing it was because you're fat. And since we're playing the shame game... While I appreciate the sentiment, Lewis, a pretend hand job should have warranted a little more than a hundred dollars worth of AMC Movie Passes. They had an expiration date AND were only able to be used for movies that had been running for two weeks. But even that's better than Tyler Jennings, who gave me a ten percent off coupon to Bath and Body Works. Seriously. A fucking coupon. Is that how good my imaginary blow job was to you? Huh? Is chivalry dead? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I want Richard Gere climbing up my fire escape with the limo waiting downstairs. I want to ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. Although, I'm ashamed to admit I'd prefer him to look like he looks now. What woman wouldn't? But no. I get to save two fifty on a bottle of Juniper Breeze Hand Lotion. Maybe chivalry isn't dead, but it's in a coma and the prognosis isn't good." I sighed, "So, if you're still with me - and I'm guessing that most of you are - I now present to you Part Four: How I, Olive Penderghast, Went From Assumed Trollop To an Actual Home-wrecker." I stopped the video and started the next one, "And here you all are. Waiting outside the closet door for me to kiss Todd, listening to me pretend to have sex with Brandon, paying me to lie for you, calling probably the last virgin in school a whore. Guys. Seriously." I went away from the camera's view and then came back to it, "That's Todd. Not that I owe any of you any more confessions, but I'm really in love with him. And I am going to lose my virginity to him. I'm not sure when. It could happen five minutes from now or tonight or six months from now or maybe on our wedding night, but the really amazing thing is that it's nobody's business."
I went back out to meet Hunny and Tamaki, handed Tamaki the camera and took the list. We left to go find somewhere to play cat and mouse.
Reiko's POV
The next morning Kyoya, Tamaki, Haruhi, and Hikaru all awoke as mummies. Hikaru, Anju, and I chose Kyoya. Takashi, Haruhi, and Kimi chose Tamaki. Sumi, Kaoru, and Kyoya chose Haruhi because the person that they had originally chosen had been wrapped up already. Hunny, Yuki, and Tamaki chose Hikaru for the same reason.
I guess there's one question that went through most of the minds this morning, did this fix things? Did this night solve all of our group's problems?
No. It didn't solve it, but it got us talking to one another, some of us to the people we needed to talk to, and in time, that will help us. Kimi and Haruhi needed to talk to one another more than Kimi needed to talk to Kaoru and Haruhi needed to talk to Yuki. Yuki, in turn, needed to talk to Tamaki and him with her. Hikaru needed to be separated from Kimi for now before he realizes he has feelings for her as well as Haruhi, which will cause problems between Hikaru and Kaoru when both of them realize they have feelings for one of the same girls and that girl will only choose one of them, and at this point it could go either or, but from what I've been seeing between the two, Hikaru treats her better than Kaoru has, not that Kaoru really treated her poorly, he didn't, it's just Hikaru is starting to treat her better and they have more of a friendship built than Kaoru has. It could go either way and it will all be unfolded in time.
