Chapter 2

Love Builds Up

That afternoon, Rise is sorting out some documents along with Ayano and Chitose assisting her in the Student Council room. While sorting them out, an image of Nana pops in Rise's head. She blushes at the thought of her closest friend, but quickly shakes it off. It's not her duty as Student Council President to think about that kind of stuff while at work. She puts away the last stack of papers into the pile to the side while Ayano and Chitose do the same. In about 15 minutes, they had sorted out all the documents.

"Well, that was quick," Chitose says, examining the huge pile of papers. "Look at what we've accomplished. Too bad Furutani-san and Ohmuro-san aren't here. They had something to do so we're the only ones who needed to do this."

"Indeed," Ayano says as she turns to Rise. "President, we're gonna bring some of the documents over to the office. Do you want to come with us?"

Rise whispers.

"Um . . ."

"She just wants to stay here to see if there's anything else to work on," Chitose says. "Besides, someone has to watch over the student council office."

"You're right," Ayano says. "I hope you're okay once we're gone."

Rise whispers again.

"She says not to worry," Chitose says.

"Alright," Ayano says. "We'll back in a minute, President."

Rise waves as the two leave the room. When the door closes, Rise looks around for anything that's on the floor to clean up. She notices candy wrappers and ice cream lids on the floor, so she picks those up and looks around for some more. She sees one that's rectangular next to the desk and picks it up. While gazing at it, she begins to blush deeply as she realizes that it's a photo of Nana and her in the science room together. It was taken after school on the first day. Rise had secretly kept it in the desk in a folder full of papers so that no one would look at it. She was glad that no one noticed it right now since she had so much stuff to organize. As she is putting away the photo, she hears a knock on the door.

"Is anyone there?" Nana's voice says.

Rise blushes at hearing her voice and quickly rushes in to open the door.

"Hello, there," Nana says. "Why are you by yourself today? Where are the others?"

Rise whispers to her the situation.

"Ah, I see. So they'll be back in a minute. Well, since I'm here, I just want to let you know that you should meet me in the science room after this. It's time for another experiment that I want to test out."

Rise nods as Nana takes her leave. Blushing, she closes the door and puts her hands on her chest. She can feel her heart beating from seeing Nana like that and then being asked to be her test subject again. Considering the fact that she is Nana's "Explosive Friend" it's hard to believe that Rise and Nana would survive every explosion Nana has caused for the past year. Most students would believe that they would be dead once they come in direct contact with an explosion, but that's not the case. What the others don't know is that they are really aware of every explosion that's coming their way since they've been doing it together all the time. They would step out of the way far enough to not get hit by the explosion, usually resulting them being covered in ashes, followed by the rest of the room. And they would work together cleaning up the ashes after the principle scolds Nana every time she tests out an experiment that could result an explosion. Rise doesn't mind it at all as long as she is with her closest friend.

As Rise sits back at her desk, the door opens and Ayano and Chitose comes in.

"Hello, President," Ayano says. "Anything happen while we were gone?"

Rise whispers to them about Nana.

"Nishigaki-sensei wants you in the science room after this?" Chitose asks.

Rise nods.

"Alright," Ayano says, smiling. "I think we can take it from here. You can go early if you want."

"Yeah, we can take care of it," Chitose adds.

Rise nods again and takes her leave. After the door closes, Ayano looks at Chitose.

"Will she be okay going by herself?" Ayano asks.

"She'll be fine," Chitose assures her. "After all, she knows where to go and most people have left the school already."

"That's true," Ayano says. "Now then, let's get to work, shall we?"

Down the halls, Rise makes it to the science room and opens the door. Nana looks up and smiles.

"Hey, glad you could make it," she says as she gets up from her desk and leads her to a bunch of liquids on the lab table. "Here's what we're doing today. Just a simple chemical combination."

Rise whispers Nana a question.

"You're wondering why I'm doing this? Well, there's this one time where I had to combine some chemicals to test out different reactions. Yes, I know it's a bit too ordinary, but I've come up with a new formula for this experiment. You ready?"

Rise glances at the ground nervously and whispers.

"Aw, don't worry. We practically do this all the time. Hey, maybe we can finally do something without having it explode this time, right?"

Rise raises an eyebrow, as if she's not convinced by Nana's assurance. But then, she shrugs and decides to do it anyway. What harm can it do anyway?

Meanwhile, Ayano and Chitose exit the student council room and lock the door. They had finished cleaning out the rest of the room and is now going home.

"Whew!" Chitose says. "That took a while, but I think we finally got the room organized."

"We haven't cleaned this room in a while, though," Ayano points out, feeling a little exhausted. "But despite all that, I think we did a great job."

"Mm-hmm. Oh, let's see how the president is doing."

"Eh? I don't want to bother them."

"Yes, but they always have something going on where everything explodes every time we are about to enter."

BOOM!

"Like right now," Chitose says, jumping back in surpise with Ayano shaking in fear.

Both of them quickly enter the science room and find Rise on the floor while Nana is coughing from the huge amount of smoke.

"President! Sensei!" Ayano cries. "What the heck did you do this time!?"

"I just wanted to try something new with these chemicals, but . . . it didn't turn out too good." Nana walks over to Rise and turns her over. "Matsumoto, are you alright?"

Rise opens her eyes and notices that the woman is holding her in her arms. She blushes and nods.

"I'm glad," Nana helps the little raven-haired girl up and looks around the room. "Looks like we have to do a lot of cleaning again."

Ayano sighs heavily. "Geez, you two need to try something that's not so . . . explosive."

"I can't help it," Nana says, laughing nervously.

"Here, let us help," Chitose offers. "Right, Ayano-chan?"

Ayano sighs heavily again. "I guess I have to." She was exhausted from cleaning the student council room, but still has some energy left to help out Rise and Nana.

All four of them get to work, wiping up all the ashes and putting back the knocked down chairs and desks. After about 30 minutes, the room is finally clean and the four are now sitting down, relaxing. Ayano takes a look at Rise, who is staring blankly at Nana. Now, for Ayano, it might be a little private for even Rise to even talk about, but something's been on her mind since she's been with Rise at the student council. And probably wondering why Rise is so used to being alone, except maybe spending a lot of her time with Nana.

Feeling the need to pop the question, Ayano says, "H-hey, President?"

Rise turns to Ayano.

"Um, I know it's sort of private for you and you don't have to talk about it if you don't feel like it," the purple haired girl says nervously. "But, um . . . I was wondering from the beginning: why do you speak in such a low voice?"

Rise just looks down at the floor, not showing any emotion at all.

"Ayano-chan, I don't think the president wants to talk about it," Chitose says. "Probably mentioning it made her feel sad in some way."

"I know," Ayano sighs for the third time.

Rise whispers to Ayano.

"Matsumoto would rather keep this confidential for a bit longer. She doesn't think you two would understand." Nana says.

"Oh, don't say that," Chitose says. "We'll understand. We are just curious, that's all."

Rise shakes her head and whispers.

"Matsumoto says that she'll think about it," Nana says. "Right now, let's just drop the subject and get ready to go home."

"Okay," Ayano says as she picks up her bag and is about to leave the door when she notices Chitose stopping and turning back.

"I hope the president is okay," the short silver haired girl says, having a worried look on her face.

"She'll be fine." Nana assures her. "You two run along while we lock up the room."

The two girls nod and close the door. Nana stands up, picks up her bag and beckons Rise to follow her. Rise trots next to her friend and the two close the door, lock it and exit the school. While outside, the sun is already setting. Nana looks up at the orange sky and smiles.

"Ah, what a beautiful sky," she says. "Why can't it be like this every day?" She suddenly feels a tug on her lab coat and looks down to notice Rise looking down at the ground while whispering.

"Of course you can stay with me. You have nowhere else to go right?"

Rise nods and wraps her arms around Nana. This time, she didn't want to let go at all and wants to stay like this.

"Matsumoto? Is something the matter?"

Rise blushes as she whispers nervously. This causes Nana to slightly blush as well.

"U-um, well, of course I like you. I mean, we've been together for a long time. We had shared everything together, the good and bad times. And it seems that you only wanted to spend time with me than everyone else. Now, I can understand why, but when are you going to tell them? It's not good to keep all of it inside forever."

Rise frowns as she whispers again.

"I'm sure they'll understand. They won't make fun of you. The Amusement Club and the Student Council know you and care about you, even though you barely show up." Nana wraps her arms around her little friend. "You decide what's best for you, Matsumoto. It might be hard for you, but you have to tell them somehow. I'll definitely be there for you if you get nervous."

Rise nods as she buries her head in Nana's chest. She feels that Nana is the only person who can understand her feelings more than anyone else. In fact, whenever she's around Nana, Rise's heart starts to beat rapidly and makes her blush. For a while, Rise didn't know what it was until she realized that all of it was love. For her, Rise didn't want anyone to know that she's in love with someone older than her nor telling them about her painful past. But like Nana said, Rise has to find the right time to tell them and hope that everyone will accept her.

A/N: Whew! Second chapter done! Well . . . this is gonna be a little difficult once I write some more chapters, but it will come to me soon. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter so far. And thanks Josephine231 for being the first to review the last chapter. :) Now, I may need some help on coming up with something about Rise's past and putting in the bullies again, if that's possible. I don't know. My mind is a bit fuzzy right now. So, if you have any suggestions about those two things, I would really appreciate it. I feel putting in Rise's past too early is a little too soon. :D

Oh, and maybe all of you are wondering, I had changed the title. "Speak Your Mind" doesn't seem to make any sense at all, so I feel that "Speak With Your Heart" is better.

Anyway, feel free to give out any other suggestions, questions, or concerns and don't forget to review. ;)