Iris
Salty- Ahahaha. I kept on uploading really quickly 'cause I felt like it.
Chapter 12. The bus, the breathing apparatuses and the stars
Katsumi pov-
We were going to a summer trip! WE WERE GOING TO A SUMMER TRIP!
Okay, let me explain. Summer vacation started, right and so for a couple of months we bought things for the trip-which would be at a beach for about a week-and we made sure that we had everything and had our parents sign our permission slips. For some reason, Ren's my guardian too, so I just had her sign it.
Anyway, for this trip we'd meet up at a really windy place beneath tons of tree and wait for our bus to come. What I didn't know, though, was that the cold would be so frigging cold that the cold would literally go through me and make my teeth feel cold. Yeah, and I didn't have a warm enough jacket on me-I did, but I'd have to search through my suitcase-so even my bones were made of ice!
I was one of the first few people there, so it was really lonely too. No one I knew was there. There were supposed to be three buses, though, so surely more people would come. Oh, I was wrong.
After an hour and a half, everyone was almost there, except for Kawazoe-chan, who had to go to a tennis tournament somewhere in Japan and some other student. When we finally got on the bus a unified cheer screamed through the bus. My hands were turning blue, so I couldn't do the wave with everyone else. All I could do was curse quietly about my oddly colored hands.
Raki-chan sat next to me in the bus and Kikumaru-kun and Fuji-kun were in the row next to us.
Kikumaru-kun had the window seat and I had one too.
"Kikumaru-kun!" I whispered after the bus started. He just ignored me and stared off into space. I glanced out of his side of the window and saw that he was staring at the side of the cliff we were driving on. Fuji-kun seemed to be asleep...and so did Raki-chan. He had been treating me weird for a month but I had no one else to talk to!
Though I didn't full understand why he was treating me oddly, it seemed to coincide with my dream that I met Justin Timberlake when I got sick. It was weird. But, any who, I needed to talk to Kikumaru-kun again and get rid of the weirdness...but...I wasn't good at confrontations. And what if I was just imagining things? No. No. I was definitely not imagining anything. We hadn't had a decent conversation in a few weeks. There was definitely something wrong. Okay, the heck with it. Kikumaru-kun was bothering the heck out of me.
Carefully, keeping low to the floor so that the bus driver and all of the other kids didn't see me, I crept to the seat behind both Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun, having a sense of deja vu from class before tapping Fuji-kun's shoulder.
"Yes?" Fuji-kun turned, apparently not asleep.
"W-would you mind switching seats with me? Just for a little bit. I need to talk to Kikumaru-kun." He shrugged.
"Why not?" Like I had, he kept low to the floor and managed to climb over Raki-chan without touching her and sit down in my former seat.
As quickly as I could, without falling as the bus went over rocks, I sat in the place next to Kikumaru-kun. I sighed as I did so. And then I decided that it was now or never and tapped his shoulder.
He grumbled. I tapped him again but he didn't look back.
"What is it, Fujiko-chan?" I smiled, a bit frustrated, and tapped him again. "What is it-"
He looked at me, and froze. It looked as though he had seen a shark in his bathtub. He even backed up against the window, for what seemed like dramatic effect.
"Tsu-Tsumi-chan! What-what're you doing here?" I frowned at him.
"I'm not sure what I did to you—and I'm sorry—but I think you may be overreacting."
He sat back in his seat like a normal person, but looked down at his hands and not me. It was slightly infuriating.
"Y-yeah. Maybe I am." His face flushed, though I wasn't sure whether it was because he was cold or embarrassed that he overreacted. I sighed, deciding that he probably needed some warmth more, and wrapped my scarf over his neck. "Huh?" He looked at me, confused.
"You looked cold," I shrugged, and smiled. He grinned back and gave me a thumbs up. Kikumaru-kun was back!
~I~R~I~S~
Some time later the bus stopped, though most of the passengers were asleep. I was one of them.
"Tsumi-chan! We're here!" Kikumaru-kun yelled and shook me awake, effectively waking everyone on the bus.
"Shut it." I growled low in my throat. He just laughed.
"But, we're here!" I sighed and sat up straight in my chair and looked for a window. The view was just outside of Kikumaru-kun's window.
The open window brought in the intoxicating smell of the open, blue sea. The sun was rising across the large ocean. The sand was a beautiful shining color in the sun. I woke up, somewhat, because of that.
And then I realized that I never made it back to my seat. Fuji-kun was still there, seeming to be asleep.
Oh well.
"Ne, Tsumi-chan! Whens the door gonna open! I wanna swim!" Kikumaru-kun jumped up excitedly in his seat as his eyes took in the ocean with what looked like the bubbly excitement of a three year old.
"Looking forward to this, then?" asked some guy in front of us, annoyed. "Keep it to yourself, Eiji!"
"Sorry, sorry!" he laughed. I wondered how he could have possibly have been awake at that time at-I glanced at my watch-six in the morning. Had we been driving all night? "But I wanna go unpack so we can all go play!"
Was he immune to the frosting cold spreading out of the bus windows? It was twenty degrees outside!
"Dude, it's freezing outside!" I said. There was another wave of people saying shut up. I quieted myself. "Anyway, we'll be getting off soon. Be patient."
~I~R~I~S~
I was right. About twenty minutes later we were settling down in our hotels. Well, they weren't really hotels. More like four separate log cabins-huge ones-with a fire place in the back. Apparently, we would really need the fireplaces because it was freezing at night. We were also given groups and schedules.
The first half of the day-which was six to twelve-we were supposed to do activities like making things out of beads and learning about the history of the island that we were at. After lunch we'd get two hours to ourselves and then we'd do some marches and hiking up the nearby mountains. Then we'd have dinner and go back to our cabins for more free time before we went to bed.
We hadn't learned anything so far though since it was our first day. The first day was supposed to be used to get accustomed to the camp and finish packing. We had a whole six more days to do all that other stuff.
~I~R~I~S~
On the first day we were also encouraged to walk around and explore our camp. After packing I discovered that there were other schools there. Some were high schools. I knew this because me and Fuji walked by some older looking girls who looked at him with definite interest.
"Hey," One of the taller ones yanked my arm as he walked ahead, apparently not noticing that I was gone. "Who's the hottie? He your boyfriend or is he single?"
I didn't trust them. All of the three looked pretty shady.
"So?" asked another as the three surrounded me. "Is he single?"
"What's his name?" another asked.
"Um, his name's Saitou Akira. He's my twin." Damn. Why did I tell them about Akira?
"Oh, so is he single or not?" The tall one let go of my arm.
"No. He's dating this one girl back home." I wouldn't subject Fuji-kun to that torture.
"Oh~! Too bad!" There was sarcasm in her voice. The other two laughed. "So, this girl. Is she here? What's her name?"
"Kikumaru Tenjo," I was pretty good at making stuff up. I had to do it a lot at work. "She's my best friend. And he had to freaking fall in love with her." I added some fake bitterness. My mind was coming up with so much stuff that I internally patted myself on the back.
The girls looked at each other, shrugged and walked away. For the first time I was glad that someone had lost interest in me.
It was a good thing too. Judging from Fuji-kun's small, delicate structure, he probably couldn't take the struggle of hanging out with the three large girls.
I started laughing. Hard.
There was no one anywhere in sight so I laughed a bit longer and went back to touring around the camp. I was used to walking around alone. So I did. And it was WEIRD.
It was probably because I had friends. Maybe, somehow, I had become unused to being alone. The loneliness was kind of sad. How...strange.
I narrowly avoided some high school boys playing soccer near the meal time hall and decided to no longer walk and think. That stuff would get me killed some day.
My room seemed the optimal place to go after almost getting hit by those rowdy boys, so I headed in the direction I thought that the hotel was in. I had forgotten how bad my sense of direction was.
~I~R~I~S~
Instead of my hotel, I found myself at the edge of the beach I had seen when I first arrived. It was starting to get dark, sort of. The yellow and orange sun was setting in the distance. The first of the stars were beginning to shine in the dark sky above and behind me.
I should have left. I could have, but I didn't. The rocks...the waves gently crashing against the shores and the fatigue in my legs prevented me from leaving. It was almost as though it was asking me to stay. So I did.
Standing got boring so I tried to make a little hole in the sand for me to sit in. My shorts didn't quite give the protection I needed but it would do. Well, sort of.
For several minutes I sat and stared at the water, sort of bored. I wanted to stand but I was too tired. A part of me wanted to lie down and risk the sand getting into my hair. The heck with it...
"Tsumi-chan!" Almost like I was in the matrix, I stopped myself from falling onto the ground and sat up towards Kikuamaru-kun's voice. There he was, in jeans and a super long black t-shirt, running through the sand. I almost laughed because of the sand that flew up past him and into his mouth and eyes. He started spluttering, then collapsed in the sand, face first.
Then I did laugh. But he didn't get up.
"OMG! Eiji-kun!" I reached him through the agonizingly slow sand and tried to lift him-no luck. The next best thing was to turn him over, which was much easier. When he was turned over, he appeared to be asleep, which didn't make sense. The back of my mind was trying to remember what someone would do if someone near them had fainted.
Okay, one...check for breathing. I placed my hand over his nose...nothing. His face was turning a bit purple. Okay...not good...pulse! Yes, pulse. I put my head over his heart and checked. Definitely a strong pulse. That was good very good.
And...he was turning a bit red in the cheeks and his eyes were open...and he was laughing...Not good for him!
"Shut up!" I shouted, punching him in the arm and refusing to help him stand once I did so myself. "I was really worried." I pouted, though I didn't exactly know what a pout was.
"Sorry sorry!" he said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile. Oh, he would so not be forgiven that easily.
"Oh yeah, take..." Backing away, I took up a fighting a stance and...three...two...one..."this!" I charged as best as I could in the sand and ended up elbowing him down in the ribs as he finally stood up. Somehow, I ended up lying, not sitting nor standing, lying on him like in some sort of cheesy, romantic manga. As quick as the human body allowed-which was surprisingly fast-I managed to roll of and lay in the sand next to him. "Hope you enjoyed that!" I smiled to myself as he groaned while rubbing his stomach.
"Honestly, no...But I'm used to it..." I pondered on the statement for a moment, but just a moment. "You're violent, Tsumi-chan."
I stared at the sky, which was then all dark blue with stars dotting here and there, and thought about how to answer the statement.
"Well, you really scared me. You weren't breathing."
"Mm...But then you wouldn't have made that funny face, Tsumi-chan!" Fuming, I decided that it was best for Kikumaru-kun's life that I didn't respond. "Hey, did you call me 'Eiji-kun'...when I fell?"
I thought back to it and shrugged. A bit of the sand enveloped the bottom portion of my ear.
"Maybe." Had I? "I dunno. It seems fair though." What did that even mean?
"Fair?"
"Yeah, like...You call me Tsumi-chan. That's my first name, sort of, so I should be able to call you by a nickname." Whoa...flashback to the three tall girls that were trying to seduce Fuji-kun...I was saying stuff that I didn't mean to!
A few more moments of silence came before he agreed, quite happily. The silence lasted longer.
"Did you know that these three high school girls from the camp were trying to seduce Fuji-kun?"
"What? If there's three, how are they gonna be in a relationship?"
I thought about it and blanched.
"Ew...I think I might know...Poor, poor Fuji-kun..."
"What? What were they trying to do?" I just couldn't ruin his innocence. Gah, what was another topic that I could talk about...?
"Did you know that I have a twin?" No! Why did I have to talk about Akira again? "His name was Saitou Akira. He died...when I was seven."
Eiji-kun was silent. Anyone who heard that probably would be.
"For a long time, I had an imaginary friend. I called him Akira, sometimes Kira-chan. Mom thought that I saw his spirit." I laughed a little. "A bit after he died, Mom and Dad adopted Kazuma. I didn't like him at first but...I adjusted. Then my little sister, Rika, was born. But the gap wasn't really filled. I...still remember Akira. He's-He was really cool. A bit shy. Really quiet. He was a lot like me, actually. I used to be really bubbly but he sort of took over my personality. So, he was never really gone." I paused to breath and realized how much I just said to Eiji-kun, who I'd only known for a couple of months. "Whoa. I must've said a mouthful, huh?"
The sand next to me shifted-it sounded like he was shaking his head.
"Nah, it's good that you trust me enough to tell me this stuff, right? It means that we're friends!"
I smiled.
"Yeah-"
"Ooh! LOOK! LOOK! IN THE SKY! IT'S A MOVING-A SHOOTING STAR!"
"OMG!" In the sky, among the bright stars and dark blue sky was a solitary moving star-a shooting star! Whoa!
After the stars came down and vanished, I was struck with a thought. Had me and Eiji-kun have possibly gotten closer? OMG!