Some Escape

In the crowd of loud immature students, Satoshi Hiwatari found himself far out of his comfort zone. The people around him were screaming, dancing to the pep band music, and yelling nonsense to show that they supported their grade. Satoshi didn't need to scream to say that he was proud to be a third year in high school student. He didn't even know if he was exactly proud. He just did it to do it.

The girls around him were standing, pulling on his arm, trying to get him to dance with them to the marching band music. He supposed that words were coming out of their mouth, but he really couldn't tell. Had he mentioned that it was loud?

All of a sudden, something tugged on his leg. He started and swore under his breath. He looked at the metallic bleachers beneath him, but could see nothing. Then, through the wide slits of the bars, he saw something move.

What on earth?

The dark figure tugged on his leg again, beckoning him downward. Satoshi was about to move or tell someone else, but saw a flash of red ribbon in brown hair. He gave the girl beneath him an awed and disbelieving stare. She just smirked and beckoned him with a hand again.

Satoshi looked around at the wild crowd. The girls had moved on to cheering for two football players who were running across the track in order to eat pies as fast as they could. He barely had enough time to crouch down and slowly slip in between the opening holes...

As the crowd roared above them, Satoshi could see several other students who had the same idea as Risa did. Including Daisuke and Riku, the other students were mostly of the emo persuasion. He didn't mind it though.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked Risa Harada when he was safely under the school's bleachers. She held a hand to her ear, showing him that she couldn't hear. He rolled his eyes, took her arm, leaned to her ear and repeated the question. She had to stand on tiptoe to reply.

"I thought you might need an escape from the pep rally," she said. "Hardly an escape, I know, but it's better than having fangirls beg you to dance."