Adernaline
It was a cool Friday morning at the academy, students poured into the school except for two whom stood outside the school gates bickering.
"You skipped the first two weeks of school!" She snapped lifting up at threatening finger at a tall young man. He yawned in return sticking his finger in his ear. "Are you even listening to me ?!"
"Yeah, it's annoying " he answered slightly irritated. She huffed pulling him by his right arm.
"You promised you'd stay!" Akemi was now pouting; Keisuke rolled his eyes pulling himself away from the girl.
"Fine don't get your panties in a bunch!" said the young man, he walked past her into their first year classroom. Inside most students just stared as he walked by, some were in whispers. He could feel his frustration building. Why the hell did Akemi insist on bringing him to school anyway, it wasn't like he was going to pass his classes, especially Math, he hate the subject and the teacher.
"What the hell are you staring at?" he shouted at a couple of boys that hovered over his seat. Immediately they turned away. Before he could put his bag down Akemi took her seat in front of him.
"Still the same old temper" she said playfully with a smile, noticing his frown she rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to them, they're idiots" she said this quite loudly, a few seats away Setsuko Fuji the class president took a quick glance at Akemi glaring. Keisuke took notice but before he could ask Akemi what was wrong with the class president the bell rang announcing the start of their first class.
He laid his chin on his hand, and took a quick glance outside the window. The cherry blossoms outside the school were in full bloom, it was around this time last year he met Akemi Kaneda. He still remembers the empty classroom and the petit girl sitting at the window's ledge.
Shaking his head he began to write what their homeroom teacher assigned them, it seemed to be a novel or a chapter of some sort, but Keisuke could care less. He wasn't meant to be in school, he was nowhere near as smart as Ryosuke nor was he as talented. His father constantly reminded him of that fact, and as hard as he tried to ignore it, his father spoke only the truth.
Keisuke could never explain it but something, something was missing. At least it was the conclusion Akemi had come to during one of their late night conversations, lesson after lesson Keisuke wrote down what was on the board but his mind was elsewhere. In front of him Akemi frantically wrote down every breath their teacher uttered, her black hair today was in a bun and her uniform as usual was polished.
At twelve thirty the bell rang for lunch, the students stood up pulling out their lunches. Akemi quickly spun around with her lunch in hand, whilst Keisuke looked for his. "Why are you eating at my desk?" he asked, she shrugged pulling out her chopsticks.
"I missed your face, so how's your first day of school?" she asked digging into her rice. Before he could answer the door to their classroom opened, many of the girls immediately blushed. At the door frame stood a tall young man with dark hair and eyes. Akemi raised an eyebrow as Keisuke stood up to greet his brother.
"What is it Aniki?" he asked once he was close to his brother Ryosuke smiled.
" I came to check" he said "I heard you were in school-" Keisuke huffed, in return his brother chuckled.
"I only came because Akemi pushed me through the gate" he said tglancing over his shoulder at Akemi who wore a smile and waved at Ryosuke.
"Huh? A girl then-" began Ryosuke playfully, but before he could continue Keisuke cut him off.
"It isn't like that!" whispered Keisuke as Ryosuke acknowledged the wave with a simple nod.
"Anyway it not what I came for, you forgot your lunch" said Ryosuke handing Keisuke a small bento box.
Keisuke flushed and nodded "thanks I was looking for it" he said, with that Ryosuke nodded and whispered something about Keisuke being absent-minded as he left. He made his way back to his desk where Akemi was already half-way through her lunch.
The two had a silent lunch, well in Keisuke's case it was silent with Akemi rambling on about the last two weeks of school.
"…Anyway I was walking and can you believe some guy from Ogawa Academy steps out in front of me and says that if I didn't give him all my money he wouldn't let me pass-" Keisuke looked up from his lunch frowning "so I just ran off! Lucky he couldn't catch up though, idiot, he actually thought I was going to give him my money."
"A guy stops you in the middle of the road and you spoke to him?" he asked in disbelief. Akemi nodded whilst Keisuke shook his head.
"What? I thought he wanted directions?!"
"You trust people too much!" he snapped pointing his chopsticks at her "what if he had a knife?"
Akemi smirked " he did, besides I run track no way a loser like that can keep up with me." Keisuke sighed and went back to his lunch.
There were three more classes left one of was gym at the last hour. Finally there was a class Keisuke wasn't all too bad at. Today they ran around the track a few laps with Akemi at the lead and right behind a male student: Hiroshi Tamura. He was lean with short black hair and dark eyes, he tried o get past Akemi on a few occasions but failed miserably. Keisuke would've had a laugh if the laps hadn't taken the wind out of him.
"Alright hit the lockers!" yelled their gym teacher, Akemi ran inside ahead of the other girls who walked in gossiping. Keisuke fell back with some of the guys in his class, most of them spoke about the girls and they way they looked in their shorts.
"Fuji looks best though" said one next to him pulling off his shirt "Takahashi what do you think?" he asked.
Keisuke scoffed "I could care less what the girls look like." With that he grabbed his towel and headed for the showers.
While most of the students stayed for different activities with their respective clubs Keisuke left, he wasn't about to waste his Friday afternoon at school. "Maybe I'll hit the arcade" he thought until behind him he heard a voice.
"OI Keisuke!" called Akemi, it was less than a second before she caught up with him. He sighed putting his hands in his pocket. "Want to get some ice cream? My treat."
"You really are lonely aren't you?" he said rolling his eyes at her, she laughed nudging him.
"C'mon, you always just wander off, we never spend any time together anymore, just ice cream then you can run off to wherever it is you go" she spoke quickly as she usually did when she was excited.
Knowing he would later regret his decision Keisuke nodded. "Fine."
"YES! Okay so there's this shop nearby, like two blocks away" she said as he followed her out of the school gates. As they walked into the city Akemi continued to speak to Keisuke this time he'd anwer with a nod at certain points.
It was at a certain corner where Keisuke's mind began to finally pay attention to what was around him. At the corner stood two teens such as themselves with red uniforms, before he could grab Akemi she accidently stepped on one of their shoes.
"Sorry!" she said quickly taking a step back, though the boy didn't seem amused.
"These are brand new you know" ha said angrily raching into his pocket hie friend leaned against the wall with a smirk.
"She said she was sorry" said Keisuke angrily stepping in front of Akemi who quickly grabbed into his arm. As the boy pulled out a pocket knife he felt something pumping through his veins a rush he couldn't explain, the boy jumped at him quickly Keisuke grabbed his arm. He had some experience with fights as he was famous for them in junior high school. Twisting the boy's arm he then punched him in the face earning a small yelp from Akemi who simply stared at the boy bloody face his friend meanwhile just shook his head.
"Idiot" he said picking his friend up, the boy now sported a bleeding nose. Keisuke pulled Akemi away from the scene and continued his way to the ice cream shop, his heart beating against his chest and his hands shaking.
"Keisuke" said Akemi, he didn't respond releasing her. This little fight was the most fun he had in a while, taking a glance back he felt himself smile.
Maybe he should do it more often.