May 21, 2011

Forecast… Cloudy

Saturday

"It's gonna get harder from here. We've gotta get smarter to make it out alive. 'Cause you say stop and we say go. Don't wanna be your tenth caller on the radio. So don't bother cutting me off short tonight. We let our words speak for themselves." It was again after school, and I was actually in the library listening to my I-pod. I wasn't trying to study; I was looking for book to do a report on, still the library was way too quiet for me… "Don't take it all so far. Don't make it that much harder. Than it already is for you to stand alone. For you, for you, for you! To wake up knowing you've got the day. To take on without feeling okay! To make yourself unwilling to sleep away… Sleep away the pain!"

I was rummaging in what I assumed was the fiction section… why? Well, until I started to see the words biography and autobiography… Great, just what I wanted to read about… people failing and or succeeding in life… it was stupid, I always read fiction, because the fact was that I hated reading nonfiction, it showed how much life could suck. I sighed, I wasn't going to find anything I wanted in here… "Don't take off running without my say. Don't pay that price you thought you'd pay! You're got the choice, you've got the time of day! Just don't sleep away the pain!"

I was amazed that I still knew any English with the fact everyone in my house was speaking Japanese. I wasn't even making an attempt to speak it anymore, yet I would still sing my favorite songs when I was at home. Anyway, I saw an old book that looked like no one had touched it in years… I wasn't surprised… it was probably another biography. So, I picked it up to look at the cover, which was faded badly… I could make out the last name of the author at least… "Kirijo… Never heard of him…"

I shrugged and tried to put the book back when a note slipped out of the book. I just about flipped out, well I wasn't paying attention and it fell on my leg… So I did what any normal person would have done… drop to the ground and cover my head… oh, come on, like you haven't done it before! Still, when I noticed the note, I got embarrassed… I looked at the note, but it was kinda long and I still needed to find a book for my report… So I just slipped it into my pocket.

I still trifled through the books until someone grabbed my shoulder, which again caused me to flip out! "HOLY CRAP!"

"Yo! Kreed-san!" It was Daisuke… what the hell, he scared the crap out of me! "Hey, can you come with me? Me and Narukami need your help!"

"Huh?" before I could even ask what was going on… Daisuke grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the library. "Hey! Wait! I need a book!"

"That can wait!" This promised to be an entertaining day… I hoped… that or it was gonna suck beyond all belief!

Gym

"Is the other team here yet?" I could not believe what I was doing, here I was… one of the least athletic people I knew, in the gym getting ready to play basketball… "More importantly, is Kou here yet?"

"Actually…" I rubbed the back of my neck as I tried to think of all the ways that this could have happened to me. I wasn't the only person who looked confused by the turn of advents. Was I the last person to be dragged into this… good god this was messed up… "Why am I even here? I suck at sports…"

"You were the last person I could think to ask that hadn't turned down the offer already." Yu rubbed the back of his neck. "That and Chie is helping out to record the whole game…"

"At least my girlfriend can help cheer me on." I sighed, that was when Chie entered the room with a camera. Then Kou also walked in, he was in the basketball team's uniform, he was greatly shocked to see Daisuke and me.

"Daisuke? Kreed-san?" At least I wasn't the only person I knew who was confused. "First… Daisuke, this is the gym, not the field, you know. Also, Kreed-san… why are you here, thought that you didn't play any sports?"

"I guess we're on the basketball team today…" I glared at Narukami for a moment before turning my attention back to Kou. He was even more confused when guys in different basketball uniforms showed up in the gym… much to Daisuke's delight.

"Alright, they're here." Daisuke smiled brightly, Yu… he had his calm face on, and I looked like I was about to die… "The game's about to start, Kou."

"Huh!?" Boy Kou, way to sound intelligent… "Wait, we don't have enough players!"

"I see six of us right here." Daisuke was definitely determined to play this game… I was more worried about the fact that the library would close at around 5:30… it was a quarter to five… I really didn't want to have to do this, but I liked Kou, he was a cool guy. And I guess this was to help him, apparently Kou has been having some family issues and this was to help him get back into the groove. His family didn't want him to play basketball, then his sister was gonna take over his family, so now he got to play… only, now he didn't want to… classic case of wanting what you can't have. Though I was game for helping him out with this.

"But… that's counting… you!?" Kou actually thought that we had a chance if Daisuke wasn't here? Dude, I couldn't even win at horse! This would have gone better if I wasn't here! In fact, there was a time where I was in a game of knock out, everyone was doing good until about my fourth time through… needless to say… the game stayed true to its name, and we got to leave gym early since the teacher was out cold… Anyway!

"Look, I know you think that no matter how hard you train, you're not accomplishing anything." Daisuke smiled at his longtime friend, who was still confused as all fuck! "But you can't do it all by yourself. You've got us. And you've got the rest of the guys who showed up today. Don't forget that!"

So we all gathered in the locker room for a few minutes, nothing was really said, but still. Just before we left though… Kou stopped Narukami and me. "Hey, guys… thanks for doing this…"

"No problem." I smiled and rubbed the back of my neck, because this was a game, I didn't have my beanie on again, so my hair was again at the top of my eyes. "Just here to help…"

"Yeah." Yu nodded in agreement with me. Kou suddenly got red, oh god… it was Kanji all over again.

"Hey, if we win this… I'm gonna tell Chie how I feel about her!" I froze… did I just hear that right… no, I must have misheard the words as they came to my ears. Come on, everyone knew me and Chie were dating, right? I mean after all, we started to hold hands more and every day at lunch we either ate in the class room or went to the roof alone, there was no way in hell that Kou didn't know that we were dating. "Hell, maybe I'll even get somewhere!"

Yu looked away from me the moment he saw my face start to turn dark red… oh god no! He was not going to even try and ask my girlfriend out! The world would end five thousand times before I even think about letting that happen! I started to grind my teeth… oh, I was so pissed off! Yu put a hand on my shoulder and I almost instantly calmed down… and Kou ran out of the room. I looked at Yu and sighed loudly. "At least give him something to fight for this time."

"Fine…" I started to walk out of the room. "Doesn't mean that I'm gonna like it!"

Game time!

I could easily hear Ai and Chie start to argue over by the camera. "I don't care if you are just helping out for one game, you are NOT welcome here!"

"Why do you care what happens?" Chie looked over the camera to see Ai staring at her. "I hear you hardly show up for practice anyway!" That kinda pissed Ai even more than she already was for some reason… I like I even knew why, but still. The people who started the game where, well everyone who was there for us… come one, we only had six guys, the other team had at least ten… "Kreed-san!"

I turned to see Kou walk over at me, I breathed in deeply… Narukami was right, he didn't seem like he wanted to really be here, so I was gonna play along for the time being. Kou was still a cool guy, I guess he just needed to listen to the grape vine more often, or whatever the hell you call the place where all those rumors come from. "Yeah?"

"How fast can you run?"

"Not very, I think…" Kou sighed as the words left my mouth.

"Okay." That's when we all had to line up and the ref blew his whistle. Everyone bowed and said the same words.

"Let's play fair!" With that the ref threw the ball into the air Kou and the tallest guy on the other team jumped to reach it, the other team got it. He quickly turned to go after the ball. Narukami tried to block on guy, as I snuck up on another by walking over to him, just before the ball got to him. I dove at the ball knocking it away from him and to Daisuke… who kicked it… god damnit Daisuke… just god damnit. Ai and Chie were taking some kinda of notes I guess, but I could still hear them, kinda. The other team grabbed the ball out of the air and scored. That's when I really started to hear them argue. "Seeing you up close just pisses me off even more! I can't believe I lost to a frumpy looking dog like you!"

Time really started to fly as the two argued. Still, Ai's comment really pissed Chie off! "What are you talking about!?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" I flinched when I heard the next line, which made the basketball smash into my face, knocking me to the ground. Yeah, it was painful, and really fucking hurt! "I'm going through hell because of you!"

"Well, as long as we're sharing, I got something to tell you." Again, I was about to shoot the ball, when the words out of Chie's mouth made me hesitate, again allowing the other team to steal the ball away from me. "I've seen the way you push Narukami around, it's horrible!"

Yet again, Ai made me stop as I was about to block someone from the other team… yes this game was moving that fucking fast! "No way, you got the hot's for Narukami don't you?"

"OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" This was ridiculous! How did Ai not even know about me and Chie!? I heard Ai gossiping before, and she was good at it! So how the fuck did she not know about this!

"He's my friend!" Chie was genially pissed off now. "Besides! I'm dating Kreed!"

Thank you god, this allowed me to concentrate a bit. Kou got the ball and made another basket for our team. Narukami got the ball and we nodded at each other. I imagined that the court was a hallway full of shadows and made my run. I slid under one guy, and as I tried to get back up, I tripped and rolled, I had no idea how I did that, but it was FUCKING EPIC! Anyway, Narukami through the ball when I made it the three point line, it flew over everyone's head and I was able to grab a hold of it and make a two pointer… what, I suck at this game! I was amazed at how well I was doing! Then again, I heard them arguing… AGAIN! "You're loved and you got a bunch of friends to boot! Great!" I noticed her stand up and take a step to Chie. "You got everything! You bitch!"

That's when I saw Ai smack Chie! Oh, god this was not gonna end well… and when the hell did Narukami and Ai start hanging out? I wanted to know this… still girlfriend slapped… the made me mad, but this is Chie we are talking about, she would fight back. Chie held her check and stood up and began to fight back!

"What the hell! All I was saying was that if you're gonna be Narukami's girlfriend, then treat him better!" Wait… WHAT THE FUCK!? How was I missing so much info about my friends all of a sudden!? Chie then slapped Ai in the face. So the slapping went back and forth, so did the game. Kou was doing amazingly well, so was Narukami, my epic two pointer run was the last that I got to be epic the rest of the game.

Yu finally noticed what was going on! And stopped playing the game. He knew something that I didn't… which even kinda surprised me when I found out… "Hey knock it off! This might be Ichijo's last game! Sit down and watch it!"

Kou broke through and made it to the three point line and jump shot it. Time seemed to slow down as the ball flew at the basket… and… SWISH! Then we saw the final score… I fell down when I saw it! "We lost… 40 to 68…"

Everyone, even me, were sweating, it was a good try but still. I looked over at Ai and Chie, to see Chie walk over to me and Ai just looking at Kou, she seemed sad. "You did really good, Kreed… you sure you're not gonna join the team."

I smiled up at my girlfriend. "Only if my amazing girl friend is there to cheer me on."

"Always." Chie helped pull me to my feet, she hugged me then. Yet, she quickly pulled away. "I think we need to train more!" Chie bent over a bit and poked my chest and put one hand on her hip. "You didn't even sweat this much in the sauna! Next time, we are gonna really put you into shape!"

"What on earth made you think that I am out of shape!?" We both laughed until I noticed Kou looking over at us. "Hey, I'll be right back…"

"'Kay." I walked over to Kou with a sympathetic smile on my face. I know that he was surprised by this, if he really was a good guy, he would leave it alone, but he also need an answer about it.

"Sorry I didn't tell you… me and Chie have been going out since the beginning of this month." I rubbed the back of my neck and Kou just smiled at…

"Na, it's cool, just guess I was too slow." I put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, wanna go eat at Aiya's?"

"Only if I buy it!" I sighed and my smile was gone. "After all, it was your last game… sorry."

"Actually, I'm not gonna quite!" Kou smiled and ran after the rest of the team. "Meet you at Aiya's! We'll finish talking about it there!"

"Yo, Chie, Narukami!" They both looked at me a little bit confused. "Call up Yosuke and Yukiko, Aiya's on me! I'm gonna call Will and Em!"

Yeah, I had fun… and even made a good friend that day… Kou is a cool guy… maybe, I should actually join one of the teams, hell, maybe start a baseball team! Hey, I mean I already use a baseball bat to kill Shadows... might as well use it for what it was made for! I flipped out my phone and dialed Em's number, no one picked up. So I shrugged… she must have been wit mom.

Time Change: After School to Evening

The girl shook her head as she woke up, she was lost and confused about what had happened… all she could see was a TV screen in front of her, she was about scream for help... and that's when someone pushed her at the screen, she was shocked when she fell right threw, a few seconds before, she felt her phone start to ring as she fell. The last thing she thought before hitting her head against the ground was… Help me, someone! Please... Brother... I'm scared...

Sup! I'm back! Sorry, my school had its prom on Saturday, I went alone to the post prom (sad face) just kidding, though I was out way to late, I finally woke up from it today, fully! So to celebrate… here is Chapter 33! Hope you enjoyed, and send the feedback!

Song(s):

The World Calling by There for Tomorrow