Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Two Friends

" I keep telling you Jasmine, I don't want to go swimming," Sora Ryugazaki told the girl that was jumping as her blond pigtails bounced. The two were outside for recess. As the other kids played on the equipment, they stood off the the side, arguing.

" Come on Sora," she whined. " It will be fun, plus I could ask the others if they could join us."

Sora scoffed. " Yeah, like middle school kids would want to play with us,elementary kids."

" Come on, it will be fun."

Sora narrowed his eyes at the girl, who was inches shorter. " Airi Hazuki, you're gonna be the death of me someday."

Airi grinned, something she had inherited from her Dad, Nagisa. " Don't call me Airi. I hate that name. I prefer Jasmine more than anything else."

Sora sighed. " I think Uncle Nagisa and Aunt Gou are spoiling you too much."

Jasmine shook her head. " No, my cousins are spoiling me too much," she said, matter of fact. Sora shook his head. He looked over to the crowd, where they were surrounding a girl about Jasmine's age. The girl was quite flexible for a young age as she managed to do tricks on the monkey bars.

" Your cousin is skilled," Sora commented. Jasmine scoffed.

" Yeah, right. She's been only taking gymnastics for a month now and she thinks that she could do anything."

Jasmine watched as her cousin landed perfectly on the ground with everyone cheering her on.

" Why don't you like your cousin?" Sora asked.
" Because...I just don't, okay!" Sora stepped back at her sudden outburst.

" S-sorry," she muttered. " I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

" No problem. By the way, I should be spending the night at your place. My parents have a couple of things to finish for work."

Jasmine smirked. " Yeah, something tells me there's doing more than just 'work'."

Sora sighed as Jasmine tried to make it dirtier than how it sounded. " Yeah, sure. Good like on your fantasies."

" I'm not fantasying, they could be doing that, right at this moment." Sora glared at the girl.
" I really hate you," he muttered, but all Jasmine did was grin cheekily. The grin then faded once her cousin came over to her with a smile.

" Jasmine, were you watching me?" she asked.

Jasmine slowly nodded. " Yeah, you're a natural." She tried to make it sound convincing, though as her cousin smiled at her, Sora already knew how fake that sounded. Jasmine was quite the opposite of her cousin. Her cousin was much prettier-in her opinion-than Jasmine. Both of them had around the same height, but her cousin had longer hair, that was light brown and violet eyes.

" Isn't Kaori spending the night as well?" Sora asked.

Kaori happily nodded. " Yep, I asked Mom earlier and she was fine with it."

Jasmine smiled. I guess you could say that she was a little bit happy. She had gotten better with her older cousins-the ones who don't show off every time she was at school with her friends. Though, since they were older, they didn't really want someone younger like Jasmine at their sleepovers.

" Alright, I'm excited," Jasmine said.

Kaori grinned. " Alright, we could do lots of things today."

" Hey! Come on Kaori!" one of her friends called. " We have other things to do before break is over!"

" Oh, okay!" she called back. She turned back to Jasmine. " I'll see you later tonight Jasmine."

Jasmine nodded as Kaori ran off to her friends.

" She's fine," Sora told her. Jasmine nodded with a sad look on her face.

" You don't understand," she muttered before walking away.

Yuki looked back between Amaya and Jun, who both were quiet during their lunch break so far. She wanted to knock both their heads together and ask them what was wrong, but she kept that under control. She looked down at her food as the both of them picked at theirs.

Finally, she snapped.

" Alright, what the hell is wrong with the both of you?" she asked. " Neither of you have talked or eaten. Is something wrong?"

"No," they both answered. Yuki sighed and looked out the window. Some of the snow had melted last night, but that didn't stop more snow coming later that day. There had been some kids that were able to handle it and had gone outside, that's why the classroom was almost empty.

Finally, Amaya sighed and stood up.

" Where are you going?" Yuki asked.

" To the bathroom," she replied. " Is that a problem?"

Yuki gave her a small smile and shook her head. " Uh, no I have no problem with such a thing. I was just wondering, because you haven't been yourself lately."

Amaya rolled her eyes. " Thanks for worrying, but don't be concerned about me."

Amaya splashed her face with cold water and looked at herself in the mirror.
" Damn, I look tired," she muttered, she said as lightly touched the bags under her eyes. She stayed up all night worrying about her Dad, when she should have been worrying about getting enough sleep for school.

She chuckled. " I shouldn't be worrying about him. He can come back home when he's done swimming for his team."

Before break was over she went back to her classroom to find Yuki and Jun packing away their lunches.

" Have I really been that long?" she asked them both. Yuki looked up and smiled.

" No, but you and Jun spent the whole lunch staring down at your food," she said. " So, I'm surprised you thought that time flew by so fast."

Amaya sighed and packed away the remaining of her lunch.

Once again, she was alone as Yuki and Jun left her to play basketball for the time being. She never really admitted it, but she left lonely. It wasn't that she disliked their friend, but she found her annoying and too peppy-which was something that she never understood in people.

She entered the warm house, not greeted by Hikaru. Though, she could hear some voices coming from the next room. After she took off her shoes, she went into her Mother's room, where Hikaru was sitting on her lap, talking to someone on the computer.

Aimi turned around when she heard her door open. " Oh, Amaya, come say hi to your Dad."
Amaya felt her heart skip a beat and rushed over to the computer. Sure, Haru looked older than he did when Hikaru was born.

" Dad," she muttered. Haru smiled.

" Amaya, you've grown so much in only a couple of months," he said. She smiled.

" I miss you Dad. Please, come home soon."

Haru nodded. " Yeah, I will be coming back, for good."

Amaya remembered those words. For good, he had said.

" We'll see you in time for Christmas, right?" Aimi asked. Haru nodded.
" Yeah, I'll be there. That's when swimming is done, and I'll be home longer than usual." Amaya couldn't stop smiling like a fool.

She was excited of seeing Haru again after such a long time. She wished that she was little girl again so that she could play with him.

Yuki couldn't sleep. All she heard was the crying of her little brother-whom was just born recently. She didn't even understand how she had so much energy at school. She sat up in her bed and walked quietly walked downstairs.

In a room nearby, her Mom, Sayuri was nursing the infant. Both Jun and Yuki had inherited their olive hair from their father, but it seemed like Sayuri's black hair had made Jun's darker than his twin's. It looked like her younger brother was inheriting her mother's black hair.

" Mom," Yuki said, rubbing her eyes. " What time is it?"

" It's almost three in the morning," she answered, looking down at the infant. " He's a little hungry is all. Go back to bed, you have school in the morning."

" Where is Dad? Shouldn't he be helping you with Maki?" Sayuri smiled at her daughter.

" He's fast asleep. You already know how your Dad is, I have to wake him up in the morning sometimes, because he doesn't listen out for his alarm."

Yuki giggled. Yes, she knew that about her Dad. That's what Jun and him share, the inability to hear their alarms, unlike the girls who awake anytime.

Maki's crying continued as Sayuri walked out of the room.

" Maybe I can help you Mom," Yuki suggested.

" Do you know anything about infants?" she asked, settling into the seat and fixing a blanket over her chest.

Yuki shook her head. " But, I can still help you in any way."

Sayuri smiled. " You seem confident about this, though taking care of infants isn't simply. It takes a lot of work and time."

" I have time," Yuki said.

" Do you have the energy?" When she didn't answer, Sayuri nodded.

" That's what I thought."

" B-but, Mom you don't have the energy sometimes."

" Yet still, I wake up nursing your baby brother."

Yuki looked down the Maki, who was behind the blanket. He hasn't even been a month since he was born, and already he was causing trouble.

Yuki yawned. " I'm going to bed now."

" Alright, I'll see you in the morning Yuki," Sayuri said.

In the morning, Kaiya, Eri, Yoshi, and Akira, sat down on the train as it headed for another part of the town.

" I can't believe you're making us do this," Kaiya grumbled. Yoshi grinned.

" Sorry about that guys, but I couldn't do it without you. Just deal with it this time around."

Eri sighed as he looked at his friend. " Alright, but you own us. How about some hot chocolate after this, you're paying with it though."

Yoshi pulled out his wallet before nodding. " I have enough for the four of us. Sounds like a plan my friend."

Eri grinned. " Alright, sounds like a plan."

Kaiya watched as the two of them shook hands. " You're both weird, right Akira?" The little girl nodded with a smile on her face.

" They're both weird," she agreed along with a giggled. " Really weird."

The four of them walked to a nearby store to get some food for the upcoming holiday. Kaiya and Akira waited quietly on the bench in the store.

" Why are we here?" Kaiya wondered aloud. " Eri could have gone with Yoshi by himself." Akira looked up at Kaiya as she had her hot chocolate.

" Yoshi likes it when you guys are with him," she said innocently. " You're his close friends, from what I know of."

" What happened with Amaya Nanese and the twins?" she asked. " Your Dad was good friends with them, even Hazuki-whom I think has a daughter around your age."

Akira nodded. " Yeah, her name is Jasmine. Aunt Gou comes over often to talk with Dad. Jasmine is also kind to me, along with Uncle Nagisa."

Kaiya smiled at how innocent she was. She heard some stories about how her Dad was when it was in high school. She didn't imagine how someone so mischievous and cocky, had a younger daughter who was so innocent. She sighed at how genes worked.
Yoshi was the one who was like his Dad-which annoyed her sometimes.

Finally, Yoshi and Eri sat across from them, drinking their hot chocolate. Eri grinned as he finished.

" Damn, the hot chocolate here is the best."

Kaiya smiled. She had only gotten tea, aside from the others.

" I bet it can't beat tea," she said.
" Yes it can," Yoshi told her. " It's chocolate and it's hot."

" Tea has many different flavors, beside just chocolate," she pointed out. " Anyway, you can only put marshmallows in that."

Eri snickered. " She has a point. Kaiya wins this round."

" Wait! Since when we were doing wins?" Yoshi questioned. " That's not fair."

In the middle of the night, Jasmine turned on her flashlight and shined it on Sora, who was fast asleep.

" Sora," she whispered. He groaned.
" Sora," she whispered again along with her poking him. " Are you awake?"

Sora sighed and opened his eyes. " No."

" Come on, I can't sleep. Kaori is already fast asleep and I'm bored."

Sora groaned and covered his eyes from the light shining in his eyes. " Jasmine, close your eyes and go to sleep. Uncle Nagisa and Aunt Gou is still awake and they can come in here."

Jasmine giggled. " Yeah, but Dad is usually fine with us staying up late."

Sora scoffed. " Not when we have school tomorrow."
As he said that, the door opened. Jasmine put the sheets over her head quickly, as Sora pretended to go back to sleep.

In the door frame was Nagisa, who already knew that his daughter was awake. He stepped quietly across the room and roughly tapped Jasmine, causing her to shriek.

" Dad!" she shouted. Nagisa laughed and tickled his daughter. Sora sighed and rested on his elbows.

" I told you," he said. Jasmine laughed hysterically as Nagisa continued to tickle her.

" Dad!S-stop!" Nagisa stopped on her command.

" Alright, make sure to go to sleep now. You too Sora, I don't think your Dad would like it if you stayed up late."

" I know Uncle. Jasmine is the one who woke me up."

" Nice Sora," she muttered.

Nagisa ruffled his daughter's hair. " Go to bed now."

Jasmine giggled. " Alright, goodnight Dad."