Iris
Salty- Boop. Touch your screen to activate the next chapter of Iris. You don't have to, really. I'm just a bit bored, ya know?
Chapter 14. An Unexpected End
Katsumi pov-
Together me and Eiji-kun ran towards the hills, which were rather far from the nurse's office but we had no time to spare. Apparently, while I was missing Eiji-kun, Fuji-kun, Raki-chan and some girl went looking for me and the campers, but they hadn't come back. It had been hours since Eiji-kun found me.
It didn't look good, obviously. We reached the hills and began running up the one that Eiji-kun said that the group had gone. My mind dreaded what we might or might not have found.
But all of my thoughts died when I caught sight of Raki-chan and Fuji-kun.
"Thank the Angels that you're all alright," I wheezed, quite tired from the long trek up the steep hill. "But..." Both of them were stuck rather deep in one of the many large, wiry hedges on top of the hill. "Where's the other girl? Kondou Izumi-san, right?"
"I think..." Raki-chan looked unsure. "She ran off. I didn't see when she did. Kind of preoccupied with..." she nodded towards the large hedge. "Oh, and we're happy that you were found." She seemed to have forgotten about me.
"Hm..." Fuji-kun hummed. "I may have solved a part of the mystery." In that moment, he managed to pull himself free of the bush.
"Then tell us!" we all said, almost at once. He shook his head in response.
"I want to solve the whole thing before telling everyone. It feels more suspenseful that way."
Ji-kun groaned and Raki-chan stuck her tongue out at him.
"Any chance you saw Nana the strangler? Or found the lost campers?" I was anxious. Three people were in our hands and the others were acting like children.
"Ah, yes. We've found them. There stuck in that small hole over there," he nodded to hole not to far away. It was maybe eight or so feet deep but about ten feet wide. "We managed to get them out but somehow got stuck ourselves." He nodded at the large bush where Raki-chan had just managed to get unstuck.
"They said that they were following a creepy ghost girl like the legend. Apparently, the creeps were heading off to the camp on the other side of the hill to follow it," said Raki-chan, disgusted. "I mean, it's really not right. Ghost stalking."
Fuji-kun laughed. Ji-kun agreed with zest. I couldn't believe that I'd just been having a panic attack.
"This is so weird," I groaned. A nap seemed very good at the moment. "I'm going back to my cabin. I'm tired."
"Nope," Fuji-kun grabbed my arm. Not hard, though, but the touch made me blush. "We've still got a mystery to solve." He spun me around, so that I had to face him. He was smiling down at me, and it was creepy. Something in my mind screamed at me to turn away.
"Whatever," I shrugged off his arm. Discretely. I hoped that he didn't notice that I did it purposely. "I'm still tired. Wrap this up quickly, please." Yeah, I know. I sounded like Raki-chan. But, hey, I wasn't a morning person. Well...the sun was setting in a purplish pink at the moment, but I had just woken up and had the burden of missing campers on my shoulders, sort of.
Fuji-kun raised an eyebrow at my comment but said nothing else. It was a bit scary.
"Well..." started Raki-chan. "Off we go?" I sighed and we all started down the hill and played follow the leader with Fuji-kun(you can guess who was the leader.) He left us outside of one of the councilor's cabins for a couple of minutes before coming out with an agitated looking male that I hadn't seen before.
"This better be good," the male, not much older than us, mumbled. Together, we walked through the enclosed O-shaped array log cabins that were the girl's cabins. We walked through them-which weirded me out, since we were with boys and that usually allowed.
"Saitou-chan," Fuji-kun turned to me, his smile a little wider than usual. "Which way to your cabin?"
We walked to the other end of the small, grassy field and I pointed to the most used-looking cabin.
"That one," I said. "Why?" Fuji-kun smiled.
"Come in and see." It was dinner time, so no one was in there. At least no one was supposed to be there, but packing on the floor was Kondou-san-a girl with blue eyes and impossibly pink hair. All of her stuff was nearly inside of a pink suit case that matched her hot pink hair.
"Ah-ah," she spotted us. "I was...My mom called and-"
"I don't mean to be rude, but save it," said Fuji-kun, and I thought I heard something cold within his voice.
"It still sounds rude," whispered Eiji-kun.
"I know," Fuji-kun smiled. "But a thief doesn't deserve much kindness, right?"
"Thief?" exclaimed the councilor. "So that's the person whose been stealing our supplies!"
"Yeah," Fuji-kun nodded. "Kondou-san's been stealing and giving our supplies to the camp over the hill. In fact, her name isn't even Kondou Izumi, is it?" he spun around from us and to the pink-ette.
She had a face mixed with horror and bitterness. Then acceptance.
"Fine, whatever. I'm Kawaguchi Sawako. You've caught me," she took out a couple of tennis rackets from her bag. "Just take your stupid stuff."
The councilor scooped up the tennis rackets in one arm and took Kawaguchi-san's wrist in the other.
"Thanks kids," he winked at us and then left.
"Was that it?" asked Raki-chan after some time. "That was the whole plot line after Saitou disappeared? That was the worst mystery ever!" We all agreed.
"I thought it was okay," Fuji-kun admitted.
"That's 'cause you were the head detective, Fuji-kun," I said. We all started laughing.
You probably think that this was the last of this part. You'd be wrong.
~I~R~I~S~
The next day, we were all walking around as normal. All of the campers, including me, were back. Nobody found out that me, Fuji-kun, Raki-chan and Eiji-kun were the ones that found the campers, so we were just some random, unnamed heroes. Yeah, that kind of sucked.
The next day, at breakfast, I realized something unusual. Eiji-kun was sitting with a bunch of other boys that looked really sporty, and so was Fuji-kun. Raki-chan was sitting and frowning with some girls that I didn't know. I wasn't sure who to sit with. Usual, they'd be sitting together. This hadn't happened before. A part of me wanted to go with the majority, Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun, but then I'd be abandoning Raki-chan. Maybe I should have gone with neither to be neutral. I was so confused.
"Oi, Saitou-san!" I looked around, and found a girl with short medium brown hair under an orange cap waving me over to a table with a bunch of other girls. "Come join us!" I was so confused at the time that I scampered-yes, scampered-over to them. I sat in between two very tall girls.
It was about then that I realized that all of the girls were wearing very nice, trendy clothes and had very popular hairstyles. Likewise, they all looked very popular. The girl who called me over was short, especially compared to the freaking giants around her, but looked completely confident and comfortable. It seemed as though she owned the lunch hall.
"Hello, Saitou-chan!" She giggled, as did the other girls. To others it may have been cute but it creeped me out for some reason. "Welcome to our little table."
"It's not that little," I blurted. "It's got like, what, twenty girls?" They started giggling again, but it seemed sort of forced.
"Oh, you know what I meant," the girl that called me over swatted around her hand, as though to rid herself of laughter.
"You're funny!" said one girl.
"Any who," said the main girl. "I am Suzuyama Kei. You may call me Kei, if you wish." Wait, had I heard that name before? "We, as friends of Kikumaru-"
"Wait," I interrupted. "You're fan girls?" Some laughed and some gave me appalled looks.
"No no no, you have us completely wrong, Saitou-chan!" exclaimed Kei-chan. She was one of the ones who looked shocked and disturbed. "We are not like fan girls in the least! We really are friends of his."
I wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. Her face seemed honest enough. Then I looked at her. Kei-chan's emerald green eyes were looking at me with unwavering sincerity, so I figured that she was telling the truth.
"Okay," I shrugged.
"Good," she smiled. "Now then, where were we?"
"Introductions," said the tall girl next to her.
"Ah," she clapped her hands. "Yes, of course. As friends of Kikumaru, we have matters to discuss with you." Her face, as well as the faces of the other girls, turned completely and hilariously serious. For a half of a second, I thought that I was about to be assassinated. "Are you, or are you not..." I tried to look as serious as possible. "trying to go out with Kikumaru Eiji?"
I couldn't help it. It just burst. I spit a little bit and started busting out in some of the most hardiest laughter that I'd ever felt.
"No way!" Kei-chan looked relieved.
"I'm glad to hear it! We were worried for the sake of another broken heart." A part of me was offended, but I tried to ignore it.
"So, why'd you think I liked Eiji-kun?" Kei-chan's eyes hardened.
"'Eiji-kun'?" She spat the words like acid. "Why are you calling him that? You've only known him for, what, three months?"
I shrugged.
"I dunno. He started calling me Tsumi-chan after he met Ren-chan-"
"Who's Ren-chan?" asked a curious girl. I thought I sensed some sort of under tone to her voice but I wasn't sure.
"My neighbor."
"Why'd he meet your neighbor?" asked another girl.
"Oh, he was at my apartment for a school project. He accidentally walked into her room," Now that I'd thought about it, he'd never told anyone about my retainer. I probably should have thanked him.
"Was it just you two," asked a girl, almost angrily.
"No, no. There was Fuji-kun too-"
"Fuji Syusuke?" One girl shrieked. "Fuji Syusuke was at your house?"
"Not house, apartment," I corrected. "And Murasaki Tenjo was there too." For some reason, I thought that Raki-chan would get mad if I'd ever called her Raki-chan.
Kei-chan stared at me, as though I was some odd bug.
"How on Earth did you get the most popular people in class 3-5 to your house?" I was a bit taken a back by the question.
"They're the most popular?" I knew they were popular, but I didn't know that they were that popular.
"Yes," she sighed, head in her arms on the table. "Oh God, you're getting frustrating..." Something had shown out of her that confirmed my earlier thoughts. They were some sort of Eiji-kun fan club!
"Maybe I am," I smirked. Or tried to. What exactly was smirking? "And I'm still not sure that you're not a fan club."
Another girl smashed her fists on the table, narrowly avoiding her lunch.
"Don't compare us to those clingy brats!" A lot of the time, people would get scared at this point. But I wasn't. I wasn't sure why, but I wanted to argue more. It was strange but extremely gratifying. "We don't stalk and we don't cheer for him or anything like that!"
All of the girls were staring at me, glowering down at the girl who lived. (Why was I comparing myself to Harry Potter.)
"I do, though. I don't know about stalking but as a friend, cheering is something that you've gotta do, right? Encouraging and all that."
Kei-chan looked up and her nostrils flared in a not so cute way.
"I see your point, Saitou-chan," The way she said my name was not as friendly. "But, whatever. As long as your not dating Kikumaru, we're good."
"Who said I wasn't?" It came out before I could stop myself.
They glowered down at me with more ferocity, though some looked at me in curiosity.
"I thought that we confirmed that you were not dating him," said Kei-chan.
"We agreed that I had no intentions of dating him. Not that I wasn't already."
Kei-chan snarled.
"It's seems that we've made a new enemy, girls," said Kei-chan to everyone without taking her eyes off of me. The eyes that I had thought were honest and beautiful at first.
And the weird thing was, all I could think about was Eiji-kun and how I didn't really feel anything towards him. And one more thing. I'd made my first enemy!
~I~R~I~S~
Salty- Omg. I'm so sorry! I started procrastinating because I didn't want to finish this chapter but then I realized that it'd been over a month! So so so so so so so so so so so so sorry!