Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
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Azumanga Daioh: A Heart to Love (A Sakaki Love Story)
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Chapter 3: Unfounded Anger… Unshakeable Fear
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"Oh, good morning, Sakaki-chan."
The longhaired beauty gasped, turning around suddenly to see Ashitaka standing beside her. Her mouth gapped slightly as her eyes expressed surprise in seeing the boy so early in the morning. Why does he keep calling me that?
"Did you follow me home?" Gesturing towards the house they were standing in front of.
"No, not at all." Turning around and pointing towards the apartment complex down the street. "I live there, in that apartment building, about a half a kilometer down." Turning back to face the his classmate, he continued, "Walking to school takes me past this way each day, but I must admit, I didn't know you lived her until I saw you right now."
Blushing slightly, she looked away. "Oh." Having nothing else to say, she began walking towards school.
"Hmm…" Ashitaka quickened his pace to catch up to the raven-haired girl. "Mind if I walk with you, Sakaki-chan?"
"Hmph!" She frowned, "Don't call me that."
The boy gasped in shock.
"And why are you going to school at this time? All week and you've not come in this early once," she continued.
The boy took a step back from the angry girl, staring at her with eyes filled with profound sadness. He bowed low and said, "I'm very sorry, Sakaki-san. Please, except my most profound apology. I was much too familiar. It won't happen again."
Sakaki's anger melted away the moment he straightened up and she saw his sad, hurt expression. But before she could say anything he quickly said, "Pardon me, I have to hurry or I'll be late for my appointment with the Vice-Principal." That said, the boy broke into a run and was over a block away before she knew it.
"Appointment with the Vice-Principal," she sighed and lowered her head in shame. I'm such an idiot. When did everything suddenly revolve around you, Sakaki? Raising her head slowly, Sakaki started walking towards school, all the while filling herself with generous portions of self-loathing.
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Sakaki walked alone in silence and self-condemnation for some time when she heard someone say, "Good morning, Sakaki-san."
"Oh, Chiyo-chan… good morning." She replied.
"You want to hear something strange, Sakaki-san?" Chiyo asked, quickening her step to keep up with her tall friend, even though the older girl slowed her pace.
"What Chiyo-chan?"
"I could have sworn I saw Ashitaka-kun run by here earlier but when I called out to him, he didn't respond. So I guess it wasn't him, but it looked just like him," Chiyo explained.
"It was him, Chiyo-chan."
"It was? How do you know, Sakaki-san? Did you see him earlier too?"
The dark-haired girl's expression feel as she recalled the harsh tone she took with the boy that precluded his quick departure. "Yeah, I saw him earlier."
Chiyo stared at her friend for a moment then asked, "Is something wrong, Sakaki-san? You look troubled."
The usually confident and self-assured girl gave a small gasp, not realizing her downtrodden expression was so easily readable. "Hmm, no, no I'm fine." She lied.
Chiyo just nodded and continued walking. After a few minutes she asked, "Did something happen between you and Ashitaka-kun earlier?"
Sakaki drew in a sharp breath. When did Chiyo-chan become so observant? She pondered, refraining from replying immediately. But after a few minutes, she confessed, "I… I spoke harshly to him. I think I may have upset him."
"But why would you do that, Sakaki-san?" Chiyo pleaded.
Sakaki sighed. Why did I do that? That was so unlike me. Thinking of the thing that triggered her reaction, she said, "You've heard what he calls me, haven't you?"
The diminutive child tried to stifle a giggle. "Uh-huh! Sakaki-chan, that's so sweet."
"No, it's not. It's insulting," the reason for her earlier anger returning to her.
Chiyo scratched the top of her head and tilted it from side to side. "What's insulting about it?"
The tall girl came to a stop and looked away from her young friend. "I'm not small… or … cute." Her eyes grew hooded as she answered softly.
Chiyo turned and stood in front of her friend, staring up at her pensively. "Well, I guess to most of us, that's probably true, Sakaki-san. We look at you and we think: tall, and cool, maybe even a little intimidating."
The taller girl sighed internally. She knew it was true but hearing Chiyo verbalize it still hurt.
"But maybe to Ashitaka-kun, you are cute… and well, he is taller than you," Chiyo reasoned.
The older girl raised her hand over her mouth. Could it be? Does he really think I'm cute? Her lips quivered at the thought.
"Sakaki-san, are you all right?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. We better keep walking or we'll be late."
"Right." Chiyo nodded.
After walking a while in silence, the precocious eleven year old felt compelled to ask, "You are going to apologize to Ashitaka-kun, aren't you, Sakaki-san?"
"Huh?" Looking over at her young friend, she saw a concerned look on the child's face.
"I know we haven't known Ashitaka-kun for very long, only a week but he's the first boy I feel I can think of as a friend… and well… you're my friend too. I… I just wouldn't want my friends to be angry at each other," the pre-teen explained.
Visualizing the boy's sad expression as he apologized to her, made Sakaki's heart sink. He didn't deserve that. "Yes, I will." She resolved, offering Chiyo a faint smile.
The young girl returned a big toothy grin to her friend. "I'm glad."
Their spirits lifted, they walked the rest of the way enjoying a light conversation that was mostly one sided with Chiyo offering comments, observations and occasionally asking a question or two, and Sakaki nodding to her comments and offering brief replies to her inquiries.
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In class, Sakaki noticed that Ashitaka hadn't arrived yet. He must still be meeting with the Vice-Principal. She looked out the window but soon found herself staring towards the front door of the classroom. I wonder if he is still upset over my comments?
"Surely, he must be. Wouldn't you be upset?"
Sakaki gave a small gasp in surprise, quickly turning her head towards the source of the voice. Her eyes widened a bit when she saw the large yellow cat from her dreams sitting in Ashitaka's chair.
"Mihama-sama, what are you doing here?" she asked.
Turning around to face the long-haired teen, he replied, "A more important question would be, why isn't Nitobe-san here?"
"Hmm," Sakaki turned away and whispered. "He said he had an appointment with the Vice-Principal."
"And you believed that excuse?" the cat asked.
Her breath caught in her throat. Could… could it be… The image of Ashitaka standing upon a wind swept cliff overlooking the raging sea appeared in her mind's eye. With tears in his eyes, he cried out, "Good-bye cruel world! Good-bye cruel Sakaki!" Then he leapt off the cliff. "NO!"
"Is there something wrong with the way Kagura-san is conjugating this verb, Sakaki-san?" Yukari asked.
All eyes in the class turned towards the longhaired girl.
"Uh…" The girl recovered from her waking dream quickly and scanned the sentence in an instant. "It should be CAUGHT, not CATCHED, I think," she answered.
"Very good, Sakaki-san," Yukari smiled. "It's good to see some of my students take my lessons to heart," then she turned and glared at Kagura, "Unlike some other students, who are more interested in mountain bikes than learning."
Kagura returned a blank stare and replied, matter of factly, "I use my mountain bike everyday. I've used English outside of this class once."
Glaring daggers into the girl, the English teacher yelled, "And I'm sure you screwed that up royally!"
Tilting her head to the side for a moment, Kagura straightened and smiled, "How did you know?"
"Sit down Kagura!"
The shorthaired girl jumped back slightly and her eyes went a bit wide from her teacher's outburst. "Yes, Sensei," she replied with a bead of sweat rolling down her temple. Setting the chalk down, she returned to her seat.
Exhaling deeply and letting her shoulders droop as she sighed, Yukari took a moment to compose herself before lifting her head. "All right, who wants to try the next one?"
A few hands went up but before she could choose someone, the door at the front of the class slide open.
"Ashitaka-san, you're quite late. Do you have a reason why you deprived your teacher the pleasure of your presence?" she laughed. "Just kidding!" she continued to laugh, but the young man still stayed a step or two further away from his teacher than he otherwise might have.
"My apologies, Sensei." The boy bowed, then he held out a slip of paper for her to take.
"Oh, what's this, a love letter for your sensei?" You're so bold to give this to me in class, Ashitaka-san," she laughed seductively.
The boy flinched as his hand trembled at the thought.
The girls in the class gasped in horror, while the boys gasped in shock.
Yukari took the note, unfolded it and read it. "Oh, it's from the Vice-Principal, excusing you for being late to class."
The class let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Okay then, take your seat."
"Yes, Sensei." He bowed once again then headed for his desk.
Sakaki offered him a welcoming smile but Ashitaka made a point of avoiding eye contact with the girl that sat behind him. She sighed softly. I guess he must be upset because of the way I spoke to him. She tilted her head and looked out the window. Not that I could blame him. I was awfully rude… and cruel to him. She sighed sadly.
"So back to the lesson, who would like to try the next problem?"
A number of hands went up.
"I have to warn you, it's harder than it looks." Several hands went down quickly. A moment later, all hands except Chiyo's went down.
"Well, it looks like you're the only one confident enough to handle this one, Chiyo-chan." Yukari observed.
"Aah, Yukari-sensei…" Ashitaka's hand slowly went up. "With all do respect to Chiyo-sempai…" He looked over to the diminutive eleven year-old, who was already standing and about to head over to the front of the class. "I believe I can properly conjugate the verbs in this sentence.
Chiyo smiled over at him. "By all means, Ashitaka-kun. Please do." She bowed then returned to her seat.
Rising, the tall boy bowed to the child prodigy. "Thank you, Chiyo-sempai." Then he walked up to the board, with his workbook in hand. With some hesitation, he accepted the piece of chalk offered to him by his teacher but when he tried to pull it from her hand, he met unexpected resistance.
"Is there a problem, Ashitaka-kun?" Yukari whispered softly so only he could hear.
The boy froze as his mouth went dry, beads of perspiration covered his forehead, and his eyes went wide.
"Just kidding," his teacher giggled, finally letting go of the chalk.
The boy tried to swallow but his mouth was bone dry. Slowly, lifting his workbook, Ashitaka began to write out the sentence. What could have possibly possessed me to volunteer to come stand next to this woman? He stole a quick glance at his teacher, who was standing only a few steps away, staring at him with a big smile on her face. Oh God. He tried to steady his breathing and keep his hand from trembling, without success.
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AN: I'd like to thank everyone that's read and reviewed my story so far. I have to admit, that with the small number of Azumanga Daioh fanfics posted here, I didn't really expect to get very many reviews. I was hoping for 2, maybe 3 per chapter. So you can imagine how I'm very happy I am with the number of reviews I've received so far. I hope I continue to write well enough to warrant continued commentary from you, my readers. I'd also like to thank several of you for your comments and suggestions. I'll do my best to try and keep all the characters IN CHARACTER as best I can.
Speaking of staying IC, I know most of you are probably thinking Sakaki was way OOC for the way she snapped at Ashitaka, and while for the most part I think I would agree with you, it was necessary and I think believable. Remember, Sakaki is not accustomed to being thought of as cute, though she surely wishes she where. That was why she started crying at the end of the second chapter, because that was probably the first time since she was a very small girl that anyone had suggested she was cute or small. But here, in chapter three, after being referred to that way for a week, I got the impression that she would have a real hard time believing anyone would think of her that way, so she starts to believe that Ashitaka is in some way mocking her by calling her that.
As for Ashitaka avoiding eye contact with Sakaki, was this because he's upset with her now, or is he afraid she is still angry with him? Also, why did Ashitaka need to see the Vice-Principal? Well, you'll have to wait for chapter four to find out the answer to these questions.
In order to get this chapter out before the holidays, I've edited it myself, for a change. I will re-post after my Beta-reader, Janice has a chance to go over it but that will probably not be till after the holidays and, well, really didn't want to make you wait that long. I hope I caught, at least all the obvious errors.
A. Amishi
PS: Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you have a save and joyful holiday.