Yay, chapter two. Ignore switching pretenses. I promise I'll be more aware next time. Enjoy :)
After school, I rushed home in fifteen minutes.
"Hey, mom. I have a question."
"What is it?"
"I invited a friend over to hang out."
She stopped chopping up vegetables for dinner and looked at me curiously.
"Since when did you have a friend?"
"Mom!"
"I'm just kidding. Sure, I'd love to meet your friend. Of course, you should check with your father, too."
She continued her cooking and I found my dad in his office on the only computer in the house.
"Dad, a friend is coming over soon."
"Okay, whatever you say." My dad said, probably not knowing what he was agreeing to since he was typing something up.
"Thanks. Love ya."
"Yeah, uh huh."
I ran out to the backyard to check on my garden and found Aika hovering over it.
"What are you doing, Aika?" I looked over her shoulder to make sure she didn't ruin anything.
"I'm waiting for the plants to grow." She sat stubbornly on the ground.
"I don't think that's going to happen with you staring them down like that. Why don't you go inside and help mom in the kitchen while you wait. I'll help them grow a bit for a few minutes and then come inside. Did you know a friend of mine is coming over?"
"Who's your friend? I want to meet her!" She jumped up with delight. She loves new friends.
"Her name is Chihiro, and if I don't come back in by the time she's here, call for me. Okay?"
"Okay." Aika ran back to the house.
I observed the garden closely. Still no sign of growing. Oh well.
"Well, don't just sit there. Make them grow." A condescending voice came from behind me and I turned around.
A boy, a little older than me, was standing there. He had a smirk on his face and eyes of a predator.
"Who are you? What are you doing back here?" My voice shook a little but I was determined to give this boy a piece of my mind.
"Name's Satoshi. Pleasure to meet you – well, sort of anyway." He chuckled and started circling my garden.
"I still don't know why you're on my family's property."
"Simple. I'm the garden's spirit. Haven't you guessed already?" He has a grin plastered on his face.
"A spirit? How do I know you're not just a boy from my school playing a cruel trick on the new girl?"
"Like this." The spirit dissolved into thin air.
"Where did you go?" I screamed in a slight panic.
"Right here." He appeared, chin resting on my shoulder.
"Would you stop playing these games with me?! I've had enough. I'm going back inside." I huffed angrily and started making my way back to the house.
"Now, now, Tsubasa. Let's not get angry. How about I take you on a little trip? It'll be relaxing."
I stopped walking. "I don't have time for 'a little trip.' I have a friend coming over right now."
"Maybe your friend will want to come along." Satoshi whispered into my ear and I turned around violently to swipe him away but he was gone.
"No! And if you don't go away soon, I'm going to call the police." I turned back around on my heels and started walking again.
"If you do, who will believe that I even exist? Hm? I can appear and disappear at will. I can even take you to the spirit world if I wanted to." His voice followed me but he was invisible.
"Stop lying!" I hissed angrily.
"If you don't believe me, then I'll just have to take you there."
---
I woke up on the most comfortable bed I've ever laid in. I felt groggy and hungry and had no clue to where I was. The ceiling was slanted and came to a point in the middle, giving me a hint that I was probably in the attic. I sat up and looked around. It looked like a regular bedroom but had a bed-and-breakfast feel about it. Everything was neat and put away nicely. All the furniture was made of wood and was craftily detailed beautifully. The lace curtains were drawn but I could tell it was dark out.
I saw a glass of water on the wooden bed stand and took a sip of it, making my sore throat feel a lot better.
Then I remembered what had happened. I was supposedly talking to a garden spirit. It seemed very mischievous but playful, too. And it said that he was going to take me to the spirit world. Is that where I am now? No, it can't be. But what other explanation is there?
There was a sharp knock on the door.
"Um, come in." I spoke, a little too hoarsely.
It opened and the boy came in, smiling cheerfully.
"Good evening. You finally woke up. Didn't know taking you here would knock you out like that."
"You! You took me here! Why?! I said I didn't want to come!" I yelled at him, tears threatening to spill over the rim of my eyes.
"Yeah, but you didn't believe that I was a spirit."
"What a foolish spirit you are."
"A foolish spirit? Me? Why, I'm the cleverest spirit here!"
"I did believe you were a spirit, with all that disappearing and appearing stuff you were doing. Did you maybe think I just didn't want to talk to you?" I got out of the bed, realizing that I was changed into different clothing.
"Yes, I did consider that, but who wouldn't want to talk to a spirit?" He grinned widely.
I groaned and fell back onto the bed. "Please, can you just take me back to my world?"
"Sorry, I can't do that exactly."
I jerked back up. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I can bring you here, sure. But I don't know how to get you back. You see, I'm not very clever with that stuff."
"If you aren't clever with that stuff, you might as well be not clever at all!" I'm sure steam was coming out of my ears. "Can you at least point me in the direction of someone who can get me back? I need to get back right now! My friend was coming over. Oh no, it's dark out. She probably left by now and my parents must be worried."
"Well, in terms of getting back to the human world, you could try Yubaba, or better yet, Zeniba! Yubaba might eat you alive if she sees another human running around here. Zeniba is much nicer, even though they're twin sisters. And don't worry about your family. I got it under control." The boy sat down on a chair and put his feet up on a chest.
"You better have it under control. If not, I'm going to kill your garden once I get back!"
"Let's not get hasty now. Anyway, I can take you to one of them if you like."
"Oh really? This isn't another trick, is it?"
"Nope. We can take the train. Of course, the train only runs in Zeniba's direction. We can fly over to Yubaba's bath house later, if necessary."
"The train? Isn't there a faster way?"
"Not at the moment."
"But you said we could fly to Yubaba!"
"Yes, but I was thinking Zeniba could help us with that."
"How useless can you get?!"
Something about the boy's face changed. It was smug or mischievous or even playful. It was like… I had hurt his feelings.
"Look I'm sorry… I didn't mean it like that."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it all the time. Um, the house keeper put your clothes in that drawer over there. Don't wear them though. Just keep them with you."
"Where do I get other clothes to wear then? The ones I'm wearing looking like night clothes." I looked myself up and down.
"In the other drawer. Duh." He chuckled. "There's also a pair of shoes downstairs for you. Meet me outside when you're done."
"Thanks. You know, you're not so bad, Satoshi." I smiled at him.
"Tsubasa." He tipped his head off to me and left the room.