Let's see… I haven't updated this story since…

May 2nd

Hehe… I wrote this chapter on May 3rd. I just forgot I had.

(Brenna ducks as everyone throws tomatoes at her)

I'm sorry!

This chapter was really hard to write. I'm getting really aggravated with this story, sometimes I wish to throw it out the window. But I won't. I'm currently on chapter eight, and may even finish tonight if I feel like it.

Blah blah disclaimer yeah.

Secret Six

Secret Number Six: I get self conscious really easily.

Who doesn't?

Right?

Saturday morning, I rushed around my room, trying to make everything look neat, which was a major improvement, because normally I'm a total slob. I was almost done shoving all of my dirty clothes into the clothes hamper when somebody knocked on the back door.

"Eri! What are you doing?"

I was my mom.

"Uh… I… I'm cleaning my room."

DUH.

"Why aren't you studying?"

Why should I be?

"I was just about to," I lied.

"Well anyway, I'm taking your idiot brother to the city to buy some new clothes."

Yes! He had done it! With his picky choosing of clothes, Chang and Mom would be gone all day!

"Oh. Okay," I choked up, trying not to sound excited. She knew I didn't have any friends anyway, so she wasn't really suspecting anything.

"Get your studying done," she commanded, and slammed the door.

I jumped onto my bed and practically turned cartwheels, screaming mental thank-yous to my brother.

-

Mom and Chang had been gone for no more than twenty minutes when the doorbell rang. I bolted to the front door while checking my watch.

"Hey… am I too early?"

"No," I told him. Yuki had come alone, twenty minutes before expected.

Hell, what was twenty minutes?

"You wore your hair down again," he smiled once we got in the house and I had closed the door. Yeah, I had. Although it sounds pretty stupid and girly, when he had told me the night before that I looked cute with my hair down, I swore I would never tie it up again. I managed to smile back.

"And… um… Miss Eri?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think…? I mean… I'm really sorry about last night."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be sorry?"

"Well, because… because it was a pretty crappy date," his voice was shaking, but he managed to laugh.

"Oh, no," I smiled. "I didn't think it was crappy at all!"

He laughed again. "I'm glad. So… do you think… now… I mean… would you…"

The doorbell rang again. God damn, why did these people decided to be so early? I really wanted to hear what he had to say!

"I-I-I'll just tell you later," he sighed, and I opened the door. It was Fuku, who feels that "to be early is to be on time, and to be on time is to be late."

Gag.

We stood there awkwardly before Fuku asked if he could have a glass of water. We three went and sat in the kitchen for twenty more minutes until Tomo finally came, five minutes late actually.

I led them to my room, because that was where there was the most room to practice, sadly. Immediately, Fuku sat his ass down on my couch and started going through my CDs and playing my game boy like he owned the place, and Tomo started going through my dresser drawers like a perv.

"Um… what are you doing?" I asked after about a minute of me and Yuki standing there watching.

Fuku shrugged and continued playing Mario, and Tomo received a smack on the head from Yuki after saying some perverted things about my underwear.

Bleh.

"Well… what are we going to do?" Tomo rubbed his sore head with a glare in Yuki's direction.

"Aren't we supposed to practice?" Fuku's Mario game made the 'Game Over noise' and he finally shut it off. I sat down on my bed pillows and leaned against the bed post. Tomo sat next to Fuku and Yuki sat on the far end of my bed.

"How are we supposed to practice if we don't have anything to practice?" Yuki pointed out. He stared at me and I stared back innocently. I assumed he thought I had already planned a dance in my head.

"Well… does anyone know what Makato and Sari are doing?" I asked.

I hadn't meant to sound sarcastic, but the three of them all started laughing at the memory of Makato and Sari's horrible routine.

I managed to crack a smile.

"Well, I remember they already decided on all of the clothes and music," I said after they had stopped laughing.

"Yeah, some girly slutty clothes and that Madonna song," Tomo gagged.

"So," Yuki stood up and faced us, "we should do the exact opposite."

I smiled. That was exactly what I had been thinking.

"So what's the exact opposite of girly clothes and Madonna?" Fuku shrugged.

"Skater clothes and punk rock."

The three of them smiled at my suggestion.

"But… what we wear isn't as important. We're getting graded on our dance. We don't even need music," Yuki said.

Dang.

There was no way I was admitting to two more people that I was good at dancing!

But he was staring at me with those eyes again…!

Quickly, I pulled him by the wrist back into the house. "If you're thinking…"

"Eri, if you don't do this, we're sabotaging our grade," he whispered. Why was he whispering?

"I don't even care anymore," I blinked a few times to fight the crying feeling back down. "Crap. All it is is crap. This is my thing, and I don't want to do this, and nobody can make me! Not even you!"

"Do you realize how selfish you're being?"

"Yes, and I don't care. Shut the hell up already! It'll be better for both of us if you just stay out of my life from now on!"

LIE!

He stared at me blankly and I couldn't even believe I had said that.

"Are you afraid?" he whispered after a minute. "Are you afraid of what they'll think of you?"

"No," I lied, sounding like a little kid.

"Trust me, Eri. You're great. If anyone ever says anything bad about you, just tell me."

What was he, my father?

Gross thought.

After rolling my eyes overdramatically, I stormed back to my room and Yuki followed.

"Turn on the stupid CD. Number 2," I grunted at Fuku, pointing to the Yellowcard Lights and Sounds CD I had just bought last week that had been sitting on my dresser.

The title track came on and after thinking about it for less than two seconds, I began this really lame and easy dance I had just thought up.

After two minutes, I just couldn't take it anymore. I collapsed onto the floor.

"Eri?" everyone asked, and they all rushed over to see if I was hurt.

I wasn't.

I was laughing my head off.

Not really sure what was going on, they started laughing too, uneasily. I was laughing so hard I was crying too. I looked up at Yuki and he smiled that perfect smile, just for me.

No, I didn't have to feel self conscious around these guys.

-

The day went on.

It was around 2 o'clock and we actually had the dance down pretty well. After what seemed like the fifty millionth time through, we all fell onto the floor, out of breath but still laughing.

"Eri! Eri!" I heard somebody above me and I looked up.

"Chang? Oh crap…" I muttered, sitting up. "Is she coming?"

"Get out," Chang said to the three guys, and only Yuki bothered to listen.

"Fuku-san, Tomo-san, let's go," he said, standing up because he sensed something wrong.

"Why?" Tomo asked. "What happened?"

"Just get out!" I tried to push him out the back door.

"Eri… what are you doing?"

Shiznit.

"Mom… I…"

It was no use explaining. The world was numb as she screamed at me about lies and responsibility, while Chang held her back so she wouldn't hit me, I yelled at Yuki, Fuku, and Tomo to leave, and my whole day turned into crap.

Yuki grabbed my hand and we bolted out of the back door, not stopping until we were on the front porch of a house I had never seen before, breathing heavily through my tears.

"I'm sorry, Yuki," I choked. "I should've told you—"

"Don't apologize," he said quietly. "Miss Eri… I have a secret too."

Ah! The drama! We all know what Yuki's secret is… but what will he tell ERI? INTENSE!

The meeting between Eri and the three guys where they were talking about the opposite of Madonna and stuff was based on actual events! Justina, Pei-Chee and I actually completely changed "Makato and Sari's" dance when we went to Justina's house to practice, just like the characters did: P And we also picked the song Lights and Sounds by Yellowcard, which I didn't write by the way!

Hope you stick around! The next chapter is much shorter, but it will be coming out sooner than this one did! This one is really long... and the next chapter is like HALF of this!

Thank you!