Chapter Three

Curious Complication

The demonic ticking of the demon clock echoed almost silently throughout the dimly lit room. Gentle movements of soft, unheard breathing could hardly be seen underneath the massive fluffy covers, which concealed the small person beneath it. Light orange brown hair smothered itself along the edge of the pillow line while the wind from the open window welcomed a cool breeze inside of the hot room. The gentle puff of air rolled along the walls of the room and unexpectedly knocked a pencil off of the soft colored desk. The clacking of the wooden tool on the hard floor forced a twitch from a white colored furry beast. The huge animal lifted his head as his eyes blinked an unwelcoming sight of sunlight. He yawned proudly, revealing his white, sharp teeth, and then, as if almost obliged, he stood up and hobbled over to the noise maker. The animal sat down cautiously as he stared down at the item that was obviously being scornful towards him.

"Bark!"

The creature, that may have been a tamed wolf, growled lowly. This sound appeared to have awoken his owner since a movement caught the wolf like animal's attention. Happily, the fuzziness walked over to the bed once more to awaken the child.

"Bark!"

The noise sounded again as the covers rolled off the small person.

"Tadakichi-san, why are you barking at…? SIX! In the morning?!"

The child whined as she stared down at the big white dog, not wolf, who stared blankly towards her. Even if her mood was not happy she still managed a meager smile as she scratched behind her pet's ear. Chiyo soon realized that today was the first day of her long weekend, seven days off from school and she was going to enjoy them to her full potential. She had decided to use the first few days to rest and then maybe hang out with her friends once their driving lessons were over. This was a good idea, from her point of view, or so she thought. A sudden continuous noise of blasting ringing went off in her room, this made her fall off the bed from the shock. She scrambled towards the phone to try and pick it up but she found herself fiddling with the object in her rush.

"I don't remember putting it to this setting!"

She muttered as she finally held the phone in hand ready to dismiss the noise.

"From the sound of that I guess that's Tomo calling."

The young girl laughed at her small joke as she pressed the button that would soon lead her into an even greater shock.

"Hello?"

She meekly called as she waited for the response on the other line, which came a little sooner than she wanted it to come.

"CHIYO-CHAN! Wakey-wakey! One hour, in the back parking lot that we normally meet, emergency, GO!"

The sound of a click and then constant beeping echoed in her ear as her face grew paler by the second. It was Tomo, and she was calling at such an early time in the morning, and if Chiyo was correct in her thinking process then Tomo shouldn't have known that there was a time as early in the morning as this. That meant that there was a possibility that the older girl was actually in trouble, but of course since Chiyo wasn't used to waking up at such a time as well then maybe her thinking wasn't quite the right one, but this was no time to be thinking! Well except about the first few things but that all had to stop! Chiyo quickly dashed out of the room, well, first she took her sweet time as she changed the damned settings of her phone, and then she was out, Tadakichi close behind her.

"AHHH! I only have an hour!"

She cried out as her eyes seemed to fall into the position of swirls as she cooked her breakfast with ease and speed. It was actually harder for her to eat it since she may have choked a few dozen times when ever she would realize that breathing was not something she could skip out on. After that was done she combed her hair and got dressed into her weekend clothes in a flash, she was in and out of her room and then she was gone. She ran down the street at full speed, which wasn't quite that fast but at least she was trying.

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"Tomo? Why did we have to get up so early?"

Yomi mumbled through a loud yawn as she stumbled down the road at a steady pace. She had been abruptly awoken by her dear friend around five thirty that morning and she wasn't in the greatest of moods. With her there was Osaka, Sakaki and Kagura who were mostly spaced out themselves.

"Oh! I didn't tell you? Today's our first lesson! For the drive-driveness."

She stated as a huge smile played across her lips. Of course this stunned the other four who froze almost immediately where they stood.

"NO! You didn't tell us you dingbat!"

A new insult, Yomi was proud of herself as she unleashed her wrath in form of a fist. Of course her attention was soon jerked from her victim when she noticed that her smarter friend had stopped.

"Sakaki? What's wrong?"

Kagura questioned but she soon realized what the reason was or what she thought it was.

"Is this a challenge?!"

She yelled as her fists were thrown into the air as she was ready to accept anything.

"What kind of challenge…?"

Osaka asked as her blank stare seemed to consume the fiery spirit of the one in front of her.

"Well… It's obviously one of standing still!"

She stated as her body became straight and rigid. How she was able to do that confused Sakaki who cocked her head to the side and then pointed down the road.

"Chiyo-chan…"

She murmured quietly, slightly embarrassed to show Kagura that she was obviously wrong.

"Hmmm? Why is Chiyo running down the street… like… that?"

Yomi soon turned to Tomo who was smiling with dignity as she was lying on the floor, brutally being beat up by the angered Yomi.

"YEAH! She came! She came!"

Tomo managed to cry out as she stood in a heroic pose as if she had done something magnificent.

"Toooommmooooooo-saaannnn!"

Chiyo yelled as she finally caught up to her older friends. She was gasping for air as she stood there silently, collecting all the thoughts that she had received from her big imagination on her run.

"You're okay?! You haven't been eating by dragons or kidnapped by pirates or attacked by ninjas or, or, or—"

The child was still gasping for air as the words rang through the air, stunning her friends into a complete shock. There heads soon turned to Tomo who was staring down at Chiyo, curious to why she thought such things.

"Ha, ha! Kids have such big imaginations!"

She stated, leaving Chiyo to collapse to the ground when she finally realized that she had sprinted for no reason.

"Then, then, then… why am I here?"

Chiyo asked staring helplessly up at the rest of her friends who immediately felt like pummeling their happy friend, again, who had already gotten a head start on them.

"Tomo…?"

Tomo turned back completely clueless to why her friends were not following her anymore. She abruptly stopped and then skipped back to the sides of the others. She knelt down beside the small stumbling child and smiled clumsily.

"She's our good luck charm!"

Plainly stated and yet it left Chiyo to drop back down to the ground as she started to act somewhat like a fish out of water.

"Blup, blup, blupppppp…"

Chiyo was now murmuring incoherent words as she rolled along the ground, back and forth until she noticed someone was beside her.

"O-o-Osaka?"

The spaced out girl had floated down beside her smaller friend and began to imitate her, something she seemed to do quite a lot.

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"So your first lesson is today."

Chiyo stated as she took a sip of the apple juice that sat on the table in front of her. It was seven thirty in the morning and the gang had decided it would be better to eat breakfast before they met their new teachers. Only Chiyo had already eaten so she decided to have a drink while she waited.

"Yeah, I arranged it a few days ago. I guess I just forgot to mention it."

Tomo laughed out loudly, spitting a bit of her chewed food back onto her plate as she tried to disturb her companions who almost chocked on the food that they were munching on. Sakaki sat silently as she stared outside towards a back alley, Chiyo curiously wondered what could possibly be interesting about a small street but the tall one seemed content so she decided to leave her with her daydreams. Osaka's face was planted flatly on the smooth surface of the table as she slept peacefully in her comfortable twisted position. Kagura was rushing through her food since she had already challenged Tomo to a fast-eating contest and she was quite far in the lead since Tomo had stopped to speak.

"Well, we still have a half hour before you said we are supposed to meet so we might as well go for a short walk before we head for the parking lot."

Yomi mentioned as she finished her last bite of food, somehow she managed to finish eating before the two who were rushing through their meals. It was probably because she didn't end up chocking every time she took a bite like the others. Or maybe she practiced eating whenever she wasn't on a diet.

"That sounds good but we have a bit of a problem…"

Chiyo sighed as she stared down at her sleeping friend who was slowly falling off the edge of the table. Well actually as she was speaking Osaka rolled off her seat and landed softly on the cold floor. She rolled around for a bit and then headed towards the door, still asleep. Her friends were all leaning off the edge of the table, watching to see what she could possibly do next. That was actually quite entertaining as well since the door just happened to be closed so Osaka just kept on hitting it over and over and over again. She then, to everyone's surprise, she floated up to the standing position and opened the door by herself. She exited slowly and began to walk down the street.

"Is… is she awake?"

Tomo asked turning to look at Yomi who shrugged and then continued to finish her drink. A distant sound of a horn beeping caught their attention as they all jumped up and dashed out the door. To their astonishment the noise was caused by a car skidding, a whitish beat up one, and there near the sidewalk, Osaka was continuously walking into a poll. Sakaki walked over to her dimwitted friend and helped guide her back to the group.

"Oh!"

Osaka finally mumbled when her eyes were half opened in their dazed state.

"When did you guys come into my house?"

Complete silence sung between the group as they stared down at the second shortest member of their gang. They then all walked away ignoring the stupid comment of their friend. They left her standing there and before she realized it they were gone.

"Why?"

She asked as she floated off after them. Before they knew it Osaka had stopped in front of them, how she had found a short cut to get in front of them? No one knew, she probably got lost and was lucky.

"Stop!"

She commanded as she stuck her hand into her bag and dug through it furiously. The others had stopped and looked at one another, all of them were curious to what Osaka was doing. After a few minutes of fighting with her enormous bag that could eat her if it was alive, she pulled out something and held it up for the world to see. It was small, metal and the sunlight was reflecting off it, meaning it was a spoon. Not just any old spoon though, a tea spoon.

"Chiyo-chan! Here keep this!"

She ordered her friend as she placed it into her hand. Chiyo stared down into her hand were the small silverware now resided in her confusion.

"Osaka-san… why?"

She questioned as she waved it in the air in slow motion.

"Well, Tomo said that you were our good luck charm so I thought you should hold on to that lucky spoon! It's a teaspoon after all. I like tea so I have to say that it's a very lucky. And I also like spoons, but especially tea… and spoons… teaspoon…"

At first her explanation was strong and convincing, to a point, but it soon trailed off as she continued to walk away slowly. Chiyo cocked her head to the side as her grip became rather loose on the silverware. This was going to be a long day, it was barely eight o'clock and yet the confusion that swirled in her head was beginning to become too much for her to take. Chiyo cleared her mind quickly and then stuffed the spoon into her pocket.

"I want tea now…"

Tomo whined in the general direction of Yomi who started a quick walk towards where Osaka was heading.

They soon saw the empty parking lot come into view and the distant figures of two people standing beside their cars. The excitement began to build within the friends, well except for Chiyo who just was getting more nervous with each passing second every time she thought of Osaka and Tomo getting in front of the wheel.

"Hey, don't they look like…?"

Kagura murmured as they got closer and closer to their destination. The shock that soon consumed the six friends was endless when they noticed that the two people that stood not too far ahead of them was Tanizaki Yukari and Kurosawa Minamo.

"Tomo…?"

Yomi's voice was silent but deadly.

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I was gone all weekend so this one took a little longer for me to post up.

Hope you like it! R&R Please!