Hey, guys! I was just sitting at my computer and thought, "Hey, FeatherSong, this story hasn't gotten any attention in quite a while, has it?"
MIROKI: I'll say! Why don't you leave our parents alone for a while and write about us?!
And so, since Miroki and the rest of the gang seemed to be getting a tad antsy, here is the next chapter of their adventures!
Slap! Miroki stuck yet another poster to the wall of the school. That had to have been the fiftieth one.
"Do you really think these flyers are going to do any good?" Akhiko asked. Everyone was going around putting these up during their free periods, hoping to gain some guests for their inaugurational tea party. After all, without guests, what was the purpose of their club?
"Well, they're so neon they practically glow, so that should really help." she said, smacking another to the door of the girls' lavatory. "Plus who's going to turn down a free tea party?
He chuckled. "I suppose that is rather airtight logic."
She shoved him playfully. "I don't need your sarcasm, mister!"
He rubbed his arm in mock pain. "Ouch, Mimi, ouch."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh shut up, Kiki."
He smiled to himself, looking down. "So what did you think of that career seminar today?"
She frowned, a sudden shift in her mood quite evident. "I think what I thought before, they're being pushy. Why are they putting deadlines in front of us at age fifteen that are going to seal the fate on the rest of our lives? I mean, for god's sake, we're kids. That's a lot of pressure to put on someone who's only lived only a little over an eighth of her expected life. What if I don't know what I want to do with myself, huh?"
Akhiko looked at her sympathetically. "Well, yeah, I see where you're coming from. But Mimi, remember that we're not like most people…we're blue bloods. We're expected to have our path set early, to know exactly what we're doing so we can get ready to do it. The world we were born into is a competitive one. If we don't get a head start, chances are we'll never catch up.
Her eyes narrowed. She stopped and looked at him. "Well, I'm only half blue blood, and I don't appreciate being herded like a sheep into some future I don't even know if I want!"
He realized he may have made a mistake, and attempted to fix it. "Well, I mean, yeah, so am I, but I guess most of us aren't technically being herded. Most of the kids are just going to take over their parents' companies or follow in their footsteps."
Failure. Definite failure. She looked royally pissed. "That's great, Akhiko. What about the rest of us, huh?! I don't want to be forced into something I'm not ready for! Why can't you understand that?!" she stormed off, leaving a very dazed and confused Akhiko behind as she angrily slapped the rest of her papers onto the walls.
"What did just I do?" he wondered in anguish.
Well, whatever it had been, she had called him by his full name, and that was NEVER a good sign.
Meanwhile…
Matsuko was quietly wandering down the corridors during his free period, taping up the flyers as Kotoko had asked. Idly, he wondered how many of the kids in his grade were actually going to bother going: After all, a meet-and-greet kind of seemed like a first year thing. Why would kids who had already found their niches in the school even bother to show up? It didn't bother him, really, he was just curious.
"Ooomf!" he hadn't been looking down, and didn't notice the girl who was reading while she walked until they ran right into each other. He bent down to pick up the flyers he dropped.
"Oh, I'm sorry sir, I wasn't looking-" he heard her laugh. He knew that laugh. "Oh, hello Matsuko. Sorry about that."
He chuckled without looking up. "What are you reading this time, Ariana?"
She laughed as she bent down to help. "A book containing rather interesting theories on the space-time continuum, as well as a good plotline. I seem to be unable to put it down."
"Skipping class to read in the bathroom is bad." he chastised sarcastically.
She laughed and rolled her eyes, at the same time wondering how he'd known. "Maybe so, but how much of a class can you actually count Probability and Statistics as anyway? It's all number crunching, I'm done my work about five minutes in."
He laughed again, then took her hand. She looked up at him with wide and confused eyes. Then he turned it over and lightly smacked her wrist with two fingers. "Bad." he repeated, with a somewhat mischievous smile.
She laughed as her sudden bout of nervousness diffused. "Right." As the flyers were all back in Matsuko's hands, they both stood up. "Well, now that I've been justly punished, I think I'll go back to class for the remaining five minutes."
"Have fun number-crunching." he said over his shoulder, making her smile and roll her eyes.
"Sure." she said.
Later…
"…and I think after we gain enough members, and once it gets warm enough, we really COULD take a trip to the beach. And I remember my dad going on and on about something the Host Club did when he was a third year, it was actually your mom's idea, Ariana, it was called a Prom, it's like and American thing or something, and…"
Kotoko had been going on and on about all of the stuff they were going to do for the past ten minutes as she walked with Ariana and the twins to Music Room 3 after school to set up for the Tea Party.
"Kotoko, I really hate to interrupt whatever fantasy is playing in the theatre of your mind right now, but PLEASE remember that I have to come up with some way for us to fund all of these things."
"Heeere we go." the twins said.
"Huh?" Ariana was curious.
"She came up with these huge fundraiser plans in Marketing class today." Taylor explained.
"She's been going on and on about them ever since." Zura added.
"Yes!" Kotoko said. "We can have bake sales, and car washes, and raffles and stuff!" she enthused. "Normal kids do that all the time to raise money!"
Ariana rubbed the bridge of her nose, pushing up her glasses. "You're going to drive me over a cliff, Kotoko."
"You know, we could probably just ask for payment at the door for these things." Zura suggested.
"What?! No, no, no, we're not a travel agency! We want to provide our classmates with fun! Not make them buy it!"
"Well, hold on, I agree with both of you to an extent." Ariana said, holding her hands up. "Kotoko's half right, we don't want to make them pay for anything, otherwise they could just do these things on their own. But there are certain things we could sell tickets for, like that Prom thing you were talking about. Nothing major, but my mom told me that at the high school she attended in America as a freshman sold Prom tickets for around eighty dollars. That doesn't sound unreasonable by any means."
Kotoko frowned pensively. "No, I guess it doesn't."
"Let's just take this one step at a time." Ariana said, pushing open the door to the room.
Later…
The guests had all arrived: There was an even better turnout than they had expected. As it turned out, there were a lot of kids looking to relax and have a good time. There were tea tables set up around the room, and eventually everybody had settled at one, and was sitting around chatting.
"Kotoko, I can't tell you how much we appreciate this." one girl said, backed up by nods from several others. "We're just buried in school work, it's nice to have somewhere to go to just be normal." she looked around and laughed. "Well, as normal as a tea party can possibly be considered, I suppose!"
Everybody else laughed too. "Well, just you wait, we have a lot of exciting stuff planned, and I think I can conclusively say that these tea parties are going to become a weekly occurrence." Kotoko said with a beaming smile. All of the girls at the table laughed and clapped.
Meanwhile, a group of third-years was seated around a table with Matsuko.
"This is really really nice, Morinozuka." one of the girls said. "I can't tell you how swamped I am, trying to figure out what to do after high school: It's great to be able to forget about it for a little while."
"Please, you can call me Matsuko." he said. "You all can."
"Oh. Okay!" she said, smiling.
The boy next to her chimed in in agreement. "Yeah, exactly. My parents want me focusing solely on my upcoming position in their company, and schoolwork. Thank god now there's a SCHOOL CLUB for enjoying myself."
"Glad to help." Matsuko said. "More tea?"
One table over, Ariana was talking to one or two students from her budgeting class.
"She has all of these crazy ideas." she said, referring to Kotoko. "She means well, but I don't know how I'm going to manage." she chuckled in spite of herself.
One of the girls laughed. "I'm so sorry." she said. "But you are really good at budgeting, I'm sure you'll manage. You've done a great job as class rep so far."
She chuckled. "Yes, but class rep has never involved any unfiltered versions of Kotoko's spaced out ideas."
"Yeah," the other girl said. "I don't mean anything rude by it at all, but I've never understood how the two of you are so close. You're so vastly different."
Ariana chuckled. "I wonder that all the time. It's really because we grew up together. I've known her since she was born, and our parents are so close that we're practically cousins."
"Ohhh, that makes sense. So is it the same thing with the Hitachiin sisters and Morinozuka-senpai?"
She smiled. "Pretty much. Sort of. Actually, Zura and Taylor really ARE my cousins: Our mothers are sisters."
"Wow, really! That's so funny, I never would have guessed."
"Hey, where are they anyway?" the other girl said, looking around.
"Oh dear." Ariana said. "Not being able to find those two is never a good thing."
And, over at Akhiko's table…
"Suoh, I'm so glad you guys started this club." one of the girls said.
"Yeah, I was getting worried that I'd never have time to make friends, all of that orientation stuff made life so intense all of a sudden." a boy said.
"Mm-hm." the table agreed. "I was worried I would never have time to make friends." another girl said with a laugh.
Akhiko winced as the career seminar was brought up again, but he covered it up with a smile as he poured the guests more tea. "Glad to be of assistance." he said.
"Yeah seriously," another boy continued. "I didn't know what to do with myself after that career seminar today." he took a sip of his tea. "I have an older brother, and it's so obvious that he's gonna get Dad's company. And it's not that that bothers, me, I mean, he's so perfect for it, and I have no interest, but it just left me thinking 'Oh crap, what am I supposed to do with myself now?' Because we only have until the end of this semester to pick our career trajectory, and I haven't thought about it at all. I have talents, sure, but I don't even know where to start with knowing what to do with them.
The other kids nodded. "It sure is a lot of pressure to put on fifteen and sixteen year olds. But I guess that's the price we pay for the life we live." the first girl said.
Akhiko suddenly felt a little sick. He looked over to Miroki, who was frowning and talking animatedly to another group of frowning students. He was beginning to see his mistake…
"Excuse me everyone, I need to talki to Mim—er, Miroki…for a moment. He pushed his seat out, but just as he did…
"TAG!" A blur of yellow flew by him, and he felt a slap on his arm. "You're it, Akhiko!" Zura yelled as she ran by, laughing.
Akhiko wasn't in the mood, but all of the guests were looking at him. "Well…" he thought "Better not to disappoint the rest of the club…" he smiled and lunged for one of the girls nearest him. He missed, and the entire table got up and ran away, squealing and laughing with glee. The rest of the room followed suit.
"I guess we really do just need to be kids sometimes."
About an hour later, the entire club room plus about ten more had ended up in the main courtyard, playing an extremely large scale game of tag/freeze tag/jailbreak/hide and seek/capture the flag. It had gotten very confusing, but very fun.
Miroki laughed freely as she ran through the Rose Labyrinth, looking for a good place to hide from the other team. She dashed into a gazebo, only to find it was already occupied. She stopped dead, her face dropping. "Oh." she said. "It's you. I guess I'll go hide somewhere el-"
"No, Mimi, wait." Akhiko's hand reached out and grabbed hers, but quickly let go when she turned to glare at him. "Can we talk, please?"
She was still glaring, but begrudgingly sat down next to him. "What."
He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry." he said. "I'm really and truly a hundred percent sorry, I didn't realize how upset and stressed that seminar made you. And you're right, you shouldn't be herded like a sheep at your age into a future you don't even know if you want. It's not fair and it's not right and just because that's the way we were raised doesn't mean it's the path we have to follow. I was a gaint unsympathetic jerk and you were right about everything and if you want I can help you figure out what you want to do, or we can protest the system or whatever you want, just please stop being mad at me because I hate it when you're mad at me, it makes me feel like poop, not that I don't deserve to feel like poop, because I totally do, but-."
He was cut off when she pulled him into a tight hug. "Kiki. Shh. It's okay." she said after a minute. She let him go. "I was the one who was a jerk. I shouldn't have taken my stress out on you." she chuckled darkly. "It's not your fault I'm a directionless loser."
His eyes widened. "Hey," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're not a loser. You're never a loser. There's nothing long with having no direction."
She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Says the kid who has his future laid out for him on a silver platter."
"Well hey," he said with a smile. "Since I already know what I'm doing, that just means I have that much more free time to help you figure it out!" he said, standing up and offering her a hand. "That is," he whispered sarcastically. "If you don't want to go with the protesting plan instead."
She giggled, taking his hand and standing too. "No, no, I think finding a direction will be fine, thanks."
He bowed to her goofily. "Anytime, m'lady."
She giggled again in response. Then, suddenly, she looked up and gasped. "Kiki, look!" she pointed above his head. He looked behind him and saw a black tie, hanging on a branch high above their heads. "We found the other team's flag!"
He smiled. "That's great, Mimi!" she high fived him. "But how do we get it down…"
She grinned at him mischievously. "The same way we got the good toys off of the top shelf when we were little." she said.
A few minutes later…
"Alright, team." Zura and a group of girls, including Taylor and Kotoko, were huddled in a circle, drawing a plan on the ground with sticks. "Right now we're in neutral zone. If we get a few members to venture into the enemy territory and look for the flag, the rest of us can-"
Zura was cut off by a large group of their yelling classmates, with Akhiko and Miroki in the lead, flying the captured "flag" high over their heads.
"GET THEM!" Taylor yelled after a split second, the group getting up to run after.
But it was too late: The two first years had already crossed into their territory, and their team was doing a victory dance.
"Ariana, what the hell?!" Zura exclaimed. "You were supposed to be guarding the flag!"
"I can't for the life of me understand why you would put ME of all people in the lookout position." she said, closing her book. "It was really just poor planning on your part." she turned from the annoyed twins to address the rest of the club. "Alright everyone, this has been fun, but I'm afraid the game's over, it's time to go home." (There was a chorus of disappointed 'awww!'s.) "Not to worry, all, we will be having another tea party—or whatever, I suppose—at the same time next week. Feel free to invite whomever you please, the Subete Club will be glad to welcome all new guests. Until next time!"
She stepped down from her little soap box and dusted off the skirt of her uniform. She looked up when there was a shadow cast over her, and laughed at the sight of Matsuko, in the fashion of many of the other boys, with his tie tied around his head. "An interesting fashion statement." she said.
He rolled his eyes. "Did you have any fun today?" he asked, concern hinting around the edges of his voice. "All you did was read."
"Yes, and the reading time was very fun for me." she said. "I got to finish my book."
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed.
"It's enough for me to know that everyone else is having fun." she said. "I prefer to observe."
Matsuko shrugged. "Suit yourself." he said.
"Always have, always will." she replied with a smile.
He chuckled and patted the top of her head. "See you tomorrow." he said.
Meanwhile…
Akhiko got into the limmo behind Kotoko.
"Did you kids have fun today?" Tamaki asked excitedly. "I saw that huge hullaballo in the courtyard, was that your doing?"
"Yeah." Kotoko said with a smile. "Zura and Taylor started a game of tag that quickly evolved into god knows what." she elbowed Akhiko. "This little nerd and his bestie captured our team's flag."
Tamaki clapped his hands with glee. "Oh, it sounds like you kids are having lots of fun, that's exactly what you need!"
Akhiko smiled in silent agreement. "Yes," he thought. "It definitely is."
Wow. Proud of myself there. That's the longest chapter of anything I've been able to write in a while. *throws some 'go me!' confetti* I'm sorry, I know this story will never be updated as quickly as my other one. *gets glares from the kids* (Sorry guys!) But I promise to try to update it at least once or twice a month this summer. Thanks for reading!
~FeatherSong