Trickle

Ultra Maniac

Whimsical Gentleman

A/N – Wow. It's like three in the morning and I'm still awake willing to afford his time on crappy stories such as this. Well, anyway, I just got from Eastwood… some party place here in Manila… God. Okay, maybe I'm a bit sober right now but hey, I actually get nice works when I'm kind of drunk though:P We watched Eragon and it fucking sucked. Arghhh.

Ice Doll – Hey thanks for the compliment! Hehee, you also did a fair job in your stories too. I return the favor.

Urei Sachi – Hahahaha!! Consider it something I really wanted to emphasize… the irreplaceable moments of high school joy! And I'm enjoying every piece of it right now, I assure you.

Imai – Arghh… review!! Sige na, para dumagdag naman number of reviews ko!

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Chapter VI

A Long Day's End

"So? Did you have a fair talk with Kaji?" Nina asked me dismissively, giving me that childish grin again,

Most of the time I was one of the last people who'd enter the classroom after the breaks, most of the time with Nina… and everybody knew we had 'reservations' for two armchairs nearest to the wall that had always been so convenient since teachers never really notice even how disruptive you could get,

"As if you didn't have a fair talk with Tsujiai," I mumbled and sat beside Nina's chair,

"How could I? I was mobbed by the Con D. excluding Kaji…"

I smirked as I heard her say Con. D. The name was pretty something like a petty name for the group. Honestly, it made Kaji's group sound like some cheesy boy band. Well, I don't know about the others. Most of the girls, including Nina, liked the sound of it… and everybody started to call them that, and sooner or later Con D. got stuck in their system, no possible method to destroy the habbit.

Nina continued, sighing. The teacher had already started his lecture something like eight minutes ago, and Nina had kept blabbering without care. I didn't need a brain like Pythagoras to know she felt cheery "It was like Komai or Jiro would like steal my chances, and Tsujiai ended up having conversation with the darn Yama. God. What a pain in the neck those two assholes are."

I had the obvious suggestion she referred the two assholes as Komai and Jiro. I laughed. Anyway, most refer them as the assholes… and yes… surprising as it sounds, popular notion was correct this time— something 'hardly ever' here in Eyobashi. "Yeah, and I suppose you enjoy being the rope in a game of tug-of-war?"

She was quite silent, and I grinned at my embarrassed friend. No matter how childish she would get, she always had the naughty liking of being fought for… "Lecture's already started, Ayu," said Nina as an obvious excuse,

"Lecture Shmecture." It wasn't in my plan this time to slip the chance of knowing about what happened with Nina and Tsujiai…

"Sakura! Tateishi!" the teacher called out our names so suddenly we jerked and stood up, "If you don't shut those mouths of yours you might end up sunbathing in the sandbox outside in the field," Some laid pitiful eyes on us, other fuckers just laughed at our embarrassment… "As for now, you can stay out of this classroom until you girls settle that topic of yours."

"Yes sir." I replied in affirmative. Nina didn't. I cast a smirking side glance on her, and she sighed in defeat. It's just that it's merely a fortunate day for me, Nina had just to accept that. Both of us walked outside of the classroom, and stayed beside the wall of the hallway. It was dead quiet… even the teachers' voices or the students' weren't heard from outside of their rooms "Better, huh? Peace and quiet… we don't get to have this nowadays."

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I'd rather punish myself under the glaring sun that talk to her right now. And now I complain as if I have the freedom to choose options.

"Seriously, you didn't talk to him the whole time?" her voice resumed, "Sensei should expect we're going to be outside pretty long. He did say we'd go in only if these mouths of ours are sealed,

Ayu's face was flushed with a twisted grin that said Lady Luck was on her side, talk about lowly victory grandly smothered on her face. I sighed heavily, "Well— no— We did talk..."

"What about?" she asked me instantly,

"Oh," I thought hard. Even I have not answered that question yet: What did Tsujiai and I talk about? "Err— Uhm— a little bit of this and that,

Ayu sniggered, "In his language that meant if you could—"

"Give him some updates about Yuta and me? Would that finish your sentence?"

She looked a bit of surprised. I knew what she stereotyped with me was a naïve girl with nothing to do but make trouble with my irresponsibility. I guess she was wrong. And maybe she was right. I may be dense but note to self: Ayu's no denser than I am

Maybe Tsujiai was just so obvious… I wonder why he never made a step or a chance to make flirting with me. If Tsujiai had Kaji's attitude towards Ayu it would have been damn easier. However, the fact that he was just always there right beside me, waiting for me fall so he could catch me was always so convincible for me to be attracted with him. The thing is, even though how dreadfully clumsy I am, I never fall— or at least fall really hard.

Sometimes, figuratively, Tsujiai wished we were in the Grand Canyon together, and he'd push me of the cliff so I would fall big time. And then he'd idealistically grow wings and save me from my fictional plight.

And then comes the notorious Yuta, hand by hand with notoriety himself. It was hard to admit, but he was the honored the top student of his batch in the Magical School of Eltoria. He was so good in his academics and was already a master of advance magic he even got to the extent of not needing any further education. And that's exactly the reason why he decided to bum around and be a cockroach or a rat (whichever is worse) in my life here on Earth, most especially in my house because my crazy grandfather actually personally asked my parents to let him stay at our household.

The most annoying part of my demented grandfather's habit was that he had the guts to compromise with Yuta going inside my bedroom unauthorized of my word and scolding me about really nice guys (perfectly opposite of Yuta) trying to at least get some affection from me. Sadly, since their first trials, my grandfather never stopped jinxing them with pimples, unwanted fat, and karma-defying bad luck.

To mention a funny miracle, well— Tsujiai was different to grandpa's eyes. He never jinxed the frigid-eyed lad, nor made funny things out of his olive hair. And I know very well Tsujiai perfectly knew my grandpa was lenient to him… so it really puzzled me a lot not to see him doing anything…

"So, did you tell him about that?"

Ayu and I were lone figures along the corridor. There were muffled voices inside our classroom. I just shrugged, "Obviously— no."

My best friend looked outraged, like she saw a seventy-year-old woman reciting poetry naked while chocolate syrup was being poured on her, "Why?"

I just laughed in reply, "C'mon. I think we're more than ready to go in." I opened the door and waltzed to my seat. Ayu didn't dare call my name then, otherwise we might get probably more than detention.

Her eyes told me how quizzical she was, and even to me, it was personally quite boggling to think that I had the idea of hiding those little details of Yuta courting me absolutely all to myself. Somehow, I knew that would keep life a bit simpler. I shook my head to imaginatively shake off my thoughts out of my ears, as I focused my mind on the board.

Maybe that's possibly the reason why I'm not doing well with my tests— Maybe if I could just use my magic to lock up all these guys, I could have aced all these damned lectures the teacher had been throwing at us…

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School hours always came to pass before you really notice it. Maybe you'd just face the teacher or the blackboard with a blank face and you're really not listening, or you'd fiddle your ballpen in every way possible… sometimes you could even catch yourself playing with the fat in your legs— that is, if you have fat in your legs. It's already your issue.

The bell rang finally, and almost everyone automatically fixed their bags, the next thing you see everyone's flooding out of the classroom, one half of the class in long faces since they were victims of red-inked circles in the pop quiz— one of them was me— of course. I waited for Ayu outside again, who was relatively full of herself since she was one of the few who passed the test, some topic about Russians and lengthy, confusing Russian names. "You have plans?" Ayu asked me,

"Yeah, I have tutoring sessions ten minutes after now. Sorry, got to rush, I just remembered in such short notice." I already turned back and started to sprint to my tutor's room, when I suddenly said— "You're going to tennis practice?"

"Yup." Replied Ayu with a knowing smile,

"Okay, see 'ya!" I dashed away, somehow, she asked why was I asking, but I was already too far to reply. I felt possessed a second ago, almost in the verge of asking Ayu if Tsujiai will be there… but then I already left. Maybe my feet simply disagreed to the choice that I should get back there and ask go along with Ayu.

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Gosh.

I just got out of the girls' shower room, somewhat in between the climax of exhilaration and weariness. It was already eight, dinnertime just two days ago— I really wasn't in the mood to go home this time or earlier. Well— just in two days, I could honestly say to myself everything got a bit different. I actually got surprised a while ago, when I stepped in the court, everybody offered me their condolences, even Tsujiai and the boys' team. For a lack of a better word, I thanked them out of a mixture of flattery and their concern for my mom's respects. After that, the girls naturally tried to talk their way to the damn topic about my mom… Paying respects was enough—

I really didn't want to talk about it yet.

Nevertheless, today's training was great. When it was playtime everybody got serious… even me, despite all the surrounding events that currently disturbed me so much. Treadmills, some footwork exercises… I just realized how good the girls' team was. Unfortunately, we still lost to Tsujiai's group, who again, was in grins again. I dressed up, the shower room filled with hot steam and a never-ending echo of giggles and guys' names.

Before I went out, two other girls, Asahi and Ikimi, bid me goodbye, "Good night, cap, take care!" they said in unison, with a dash of sensitivity about my loss. I smiled, "Nice training, girls."

I had my black sports-sack hung on my right shoulder, and my book bag on the other. I was then surprised Tsujiai was there sitting under the tree just beside the crowd, lone, obviously waiting for me. Startled, I walked towards him, "It's getting late, ya know."

Tsujiai chuckled, "I think that line's better off to women such as yourself," he stood up, the way men love to do to brag about their stupid height. "You did well today,"

"Not even close to the 'well' I can really do." I challenged, setting up effort raising my chin to see him directly,

He shrugged, "Hey, sometimes you lose, sometimes you beat me up." He smiled, "C'mon, I better get you home or Kaji might cut my throat," I blushed, as he did a funny antique of his index finger sliding on the surface of his neck. Kaji really asked his friend to get me home,

"Really?" I said, getting crimson again… or rather chalk-white as Kaji would like to say,

Tsujiai sighed, "Yeah, he said he preferred fetching you here himself, but he had part-time at Mimi's right now. He's been pestering me since Economics class about tonight, believe me." He laughed, and I followed him. "Do you want to walk or a cab or something?" he asked me courteously,

"Ahh! Walking would be fine, Tsjujiai."

"You sure? We really never commute together that much, so how about looking at this situation as my treat." I didn't expect Nina to be this lucky having this guy head over heels on her,

"You're already treating me fine, Tsujiai, I'd prefer walking now. It really pays off to talk to you."

"And why?"

I chuckled, "Well? Does Nina call you Hiroki already?" Most people turn pink o slightly red, but Tsujiai turned blue as litmus paper with a base liquid dropped on it, "You don't have to answer it, you know."

"Hence, she really does—" he nodded, looking like he was trying to find an instance of Nina calling him Hiroki, his 'other' name… People kept calling him Tsujiai they actually forgot there was a second name. Well, anyway, only a few people know about it… not even Komai and Jiro knew about that. Kaji really didn't call him that since he thought it was so gay. It was then decided only girls close to Tsujiai was permitted to call him Hiroki then.

And I myself wonder why we even had to exploit the vastness of Tsujiai Hiroki's complications in terms of names. I gave him a smug nod, "That's good enough, Tsujiai, you're not getting a moment Nina called you Hiroki." He sweat dropped, "Hey, don't get gloomy about it. It's just a name, and we tend to forget about your other name, Tsujiai."

"But—"

"And," I cut him off, "Tsujiai sounds better." (A/N – I disagree. Hiroki sounds cooler!)

"Haha." He laughed… "Heard you got some offer for modeling,"

"Kaji told you?"

Those eyes flamed with the mental torture he experienced possibly awhile ago in class, "I think Kaji didn't tell me, he rather— forced it into my ears to a scream— he was like asking if it's even a good turn of events and bullshit like that."

Kaji? Just like that? Tsujiai's pulling my leg, and he's definitely doing a great job at that. I ended up laughing too, but it was kind of short. The next few moments were silent again, and the night just got colder… darker than usual, as the moonlight dimmed because of the gray clouds… and a starless light, we could see…

Like those odd scenes written by Stephen King's pen,

"But—"

"Yeah?" I asked him,

"You know my situation, right? With Yuta and all, Ayu…" He looked a kid in the shadows, with his voice like that,

"Do you want to talk about it?" We stopped our progress, realizing if it were not for our footsteps, the night would be completely mute,

My olive-haired friend nodded, his nod in the context of being embarrassed he got far to the point of asking for help from a friend, though I wasn't saying it was wrong. "

"And to think you were the one who told me I should go home since it's getting late," I sighed,

We continued walking again, "Hey, it isn't as if I need it discussed immediately, you know…" I shrugged to his reply, hiding a smirk in the shade if I had chance,

"Can't you just ask Kaji, or Komai or Jiro, or Yama for advice…?"

"You kidding me? I wouldn't tell it to the group other than Kaji since I'm keeping it… Plus Komai and Jiro would be too much of idiots to understand the situation anyway."

I grinned at that, "Totally… And what about Kaji…?"

"Oh—" he made up this face again for hunting an excuse; "I think he had enough problems already."

"Huh? Problems?"

"Yeah, such as yourself, Ayu."

"Hey!" I said to him with a grin again, and he grinned back. I suppose what he said was true, thinking he'd get into a lot of trouble looking for me… Once again, I blushed— or turned white… We reached already my house, dark and gloomy except for the warm light in the porch. We walked to my doorstep in a faster pace then, "How'd you go home?" I asked him,

"Just going to walk again."

I smiled at him, and gave him a peck, "Thanks for the company, Tsujiai. I hope Nina does that to you— I meant goodnight pecks."

He blushed at that and nodded, parting away, "You better scold Kaji for forcing me to fetch you home!"

I smirked at his last comment and opened the door… turning the lights on in the living room. My sense of smell missed the scent of food in the kitchen, as well as my ears missed her voice calling my name, and my tongue longing to move to reply, that is, if there would be someone to hear my reply.

And then suddenly, I was no more in the mood to do anything but lie on my bed. I felt sick. I checked my answering machine on my way upstairs, and there was no red blinking light, sighing in relief. My sheets felt colder than anything else, I guess… Colder than the sensation of grasping ice cubes. Drowning myself into a cold bed, I thought why I haven't even removed my school uniform.

A long day was over, that was for certain.

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A/N — Okay… for the past few chapters they were excruciatingly slow… but don't fret! Things would fasten up a little bit from now on. :) and I meant the plot… not my updating! Hahahahaha!!!

Next update: It's something to do with a mall, and autograph signing ;) You'll eventually know…