Trickle
Ultra Maniac
A/N – Yo! Yo! Okaaaaaay. Long update… and late! Sorry! And what's even more troubling is that I'm not sure if this would really bring home the bomb…
But yes, things would pretty much flare at the ending of this chapter. I'm sure you'll hate me after you finish reading my last word:P Much joy in writing :P yes, the love of making people want to choke you. Hehehehe Again, sorry for a very long, long, long update. Hope you will ever forgive me
Chapter VII
A Sign in a Signing
The rest of the week passed uneventfully. Classes were boring and dreary as over, having occasional talks with Nina, getting scolded by the teacher in the end because we ended up being too noisy. The whole Aira Modeling shit became the flavor of the week then. And how stupid of me to think it wouldn't spread in class, with Nina's big mouth and the fact that news literally had wings they fly so easily within the class… school proper and whatever…
It was sort of stressing, I had a lot of rumors to handle, and thanks to S.K. another plus one in my rumor list, but I'm not blaming anyone. Actually, if there's someone worthy to blame, it should be Nina… Just this afternoon, I even had trouble getting away from a couple of girls who actually attempted showing off in front of S.K. in some photo shoot done somewhere…
Why were you even chosen by S.K. anyway? It's not as if you're way more beautiful than me,
One of the girls bragged with overflowing arrogance it made me want to slap her, carry the school desk I was resting my hands on and slam it into her face, and call her a bitch and everything. The only problem was that the whole group and me were in a populated classroom, and I didn't want to make another story I badmouthed some people again… get myself into detention and deep problems. It was already nearing dismissal. It would be a pity if the school hours were close to an end, and I still managed to do something bad,
I decided to ignore the group taunting me, who were laughing out loud thinking their words affected me badly. Who were they to say I wasn't good enough for S.K. Heck, those bitches weren't good enough for shit.
Oh my God. Did I just say that?
But yes, they weren't good enough for shit. They don't really know what's truly beautiful. All they know about beauty is that materialistic kind of beauty. It's been a few days since I've decided I got to see one of the real faces of beauty then. I think beauty's the sensation when you've gotten yourself into a tragic problem and getting over it triumphant.
Well, anyway, not to ramble about it a lot. I really didn't want to make my mind reach thoughts I really didn't want to put myself into. Leaving them to taunt me without posting even the slightest effect on my face, I got myself into shrugging. What do I care anyway? I was kind of annoyed at Nina though for not making the whole S.K. thing private. Nevertheless, I had to admit sometimes I really enjoyed hearing a few people whisper and glance at me in a certain way. Like how the tennis-princess managed to get a job in Aira… or how a used-to-be tomboy ended up being a potential model… or the possibility of an issue growing about Kaji's say to this…
They sound ridiculous enough to make me die out of laughter
Having an earshot of my chuckle, I hugged my pillow and let myself fall down on my bed, letting my body a bounce or two. I stared at my ceiling that was something of a crème-ish, mocha hue, that specific shade which reminded me of foamy and creamy coffee a lot. I looked next to my Spongebob calendar, looking particularly to August 17 – tomorrow – with a red circle and a scribble obviously done in haste,
August 17… go to mall with Nina…It just got to me late that august 17 would be tomorrow. I hauled a sigh, hugging my pillow tighter. Nice. I still have to get an outfit for tomorrow. It was more of a ritual for me to dress up for everything with 'going out' in it. I smirked, "Just like a model, huh?" I asked myself. I tried getting up, going to my wardrobe, getting some clothes, removing them from hangers— whatever I always do whenever dressing up— but then, my body refused to get up. "Arghhh,"
In addition to that, my stomach was grumbling incessantly, since I didn't have a proper dinner a while ago. Pancakes. It was the easiest to cook so I got myself two non-filling pancakes… and now Tommy the tummy was grumbling… I sighed. I tried getting up on my bed, but I really couldn't… For once, my bed felt like a magnet, and I were metal.
The window was half-open; it was colder when it is than using the air-con, which was kind of expensive too. Maybe I'll just sleep now… resolving on dismissing the day, already giving myself my deserved shut-eye, and turning off the lights.
---------------------
Shopping's a gift, but shopping with a credit card with no worries of budget is simply a grace. I left home an hour before noon, not anymore planning to get into perspective about my wardrobe. I didn't even think of getting prepared slowly since Nina might wander off around the mall again, if she gets impatient with me; and since she was kind of having trouble using a mobile phone, it was often very hard to track her whereabouts.
I got to the train station twenty minutes later, and after getting down, a brief walk followed. I looked at my leather-strap watch; it said it was 11:30am. I sighed a bit. The road here was never jam-packed with traffic, nor the sidewalks mobbed by a horde of passers-by.
Nina and I were supposed to meet in this cool hangout place just a few blocks from the mall we're supposed to visit. A restaurant known as 'The Hammocks' derived from the restaurant's seats, hammocks swaying for you to seat, or even to lie on. It was kind of popular here in town since the restaurant crew actually allows you to sleep there provided you order a decent set of meals. Otherwise if you did sleep without ordering anything, the moment you wake up you're going to realize you're already inside a trashcan.
I took notice of the restaurant then, a building designed like the deck of a pirate ship, it looked conspicuous since it was the oddly structured building that stood out from all the dully-shaped skyscrapers and buildings.
As I glanced through one of the windows, and then entering, I saw Nina without really looking around. The bistro was full of life, a clutter of forks and spoons clashing with ceramic plates like sword-fights. The suspended mix of different voices added to the life of The Hammocks. Spotting my blonde best friend immediately with her hair swept by an orange headband, I passed by a member of the women's tennis club with some guy I assumed wasn't in Eyobashi. Anyhow, I just gave them a cheerful nod when they noticed I was partly glancing at them and walked to Nina, they just looked at me weird.
I grinned when I saw her she was wearing an orange bubble dress I dared her to wear. She really didn't like puffy clothes, but I swear to God bubble dresses suit her. I gave her a wave, and peck on the cheeks, "Hey, sorry if I'm kind of late."
"Nah, it's okay. I met some friends here too, like Nene from your club? She talked to me a while too, while her date wasn't here yet. This restaurant's really popular with a lot," she said,
I laughed, "—with a lot of fresh, young people." I finished her sentence, reminding me of Mimi's Locket. That pitiful place only a few know about, half of which was of the old people. But yeah— I have to admit sometimes those lonely cafés were the best, with charming tenders, and interesting women going in and out of that creaky wooden door. Heck… sometimes I thought how I even got a pretty much cool offer just by going inside a run-down café. "Nice dress," I commented, kind of sarcastically, even though it really looked good on her,
Expecting to hear a groan or an annoyed reply, she actually laughed, "At least I looked more normal than you."
I fumbled my mind what did she mean by that, only to realize I wore my shirt of the inside, outside. I blushed a bit. I think that's the explanation why Nene gave me a twisted look. And it was ironic Nina looked more of a real human than I did. I sweat-dropped, "Hey, I was hurrying not for you to wait that much, I didn't even get some grub before going here."
"Not really my fault, I guess." She replied, sticking her tongue, "It's not me to blame your alarm clock didn't wake you up or something."
"Sheesh!" I was losing, and I wanted to cut the petty argument already, "Can't I just go to comfort room and fix myself, then call a waiter, eat and go to the mall already?" My stomach grumbled after,
The witch had a hearty giggle, "Amazing timing," I sighed and shrugged. And that concluded the battle. Nina won. "You better go to the C.R. and fix yourself. I'll order something for both of us," Reflecting upon what she said, it hit me humorously she sounded more of a real human than I did.
When I came back to our table a couple of minutes after, having to let me wait until the women's C.R. was completely vacant since I was embarrassed to dress up all over again while allowing the other girls look at me in that sort of peculiar, freaked-out way; Nina had ordered Pirates' Calamares, and Parrot pasta which turned out to be Penne with seafood toppings, two glasses of orange soda and chocolate cake for dessert. It looked like heaven on a white-sheet-covered table. Nina sat on her hammock, smiling when I joined her, "C'mon, shall we?" she invited me over,
A minute after we added to the clutter of sounds that seemed like a thousand sword duels.
--------------------------
"Oh God…" Nina said to no one in particular, but it sounded like she regretted what she just ate… and I don't wonder why.
I knew exactly what she felt. It was the first time after a long while since I got to eat a heavy lunch with another girl. Believe me, it was more or less rare. I could say it would be near to be considered a ritual or a cult actually, scolding your lunch mate when she had enough – three spoonfuls of rice, two strips of beef, and a chocolate muffin – saying she might get fat and diabetes hand in hand, almost in a fashion that was aggressive enough, it would like a threat. I sweat dropped. I'm pretty sure that lunchmate of ours had ulcer a couple of times already… we used to hang out often.
Well, anyway, I stared at the huge building before us, known to be the third house of the teens. The mall.
As expected, it was crowded. It always was during weekends,
Nina would always point and shout loudly outside of the shops; publicly telling she wants to try out an item, or something. People would look at her, either in an annoyed face or a smiling one. At first, I always end up in an embarrassing situation with her. There was a time she even had to go to the security since she couldn't find me… They had to page my name on the loudspeakers, telling me to come over the security office. The whole fact that at that certain day she looked older than me in a way made it so much quirkier.
We got to buy to two jackets. One for me, and one for Nina… we even fought which is for whom since both of us liked the same color of the same jacket. Unfortunately, there was only one; so the saleswoman got frightened both of us might get heated up and cause commotion inside the boutique. On the spur of the moment, she had to go to the other store at the opposite side of the big mall just to get us another stack of that jacket, having the hunch we could be blowing up the store if the petty fight continued. Well, with me smiling like a little runt, the saleslady was right.
Nina laughed, drinking her mango shake she bought after the jacket incident and on the other hand her shopping bag, "That's one way to freak out a saleslady."
"I know right, haha." Thinking for a while how much we spent on the jackets, we passed by the game center, an irritating yet tempting cacophony filling the hall. "Say, wanna go to the arcade?"
In our language, that meant challenging either to play Dance Dance Revolution… Both of us hungrily looked at the vacant dancing simulation game stage. The next thing afterwards I was already stomping on the stage for practice while Nina was speedily buying a game card.
In no more than a jiffy, we already swiped the card loading with just enough for us to play one game. I glanced at Nina, who looked a bit of exaggerated with eyes of deviance that made her all heated up… I just smirked why was she even making an overly big deal out of this. Well, anyway, she loved Dance Dance even since I introduced her to arcade… or rather ever since the first time Tsujiai and Nina had fun in Dance Dance Revolution.
I remember Tsujiai was her first dancing opponent… and I also remember her funny antique when she tripped on one foot, and bumped on Tsujiai… sending both of them to the floor. I sniggered at the idea, noticing the crowd setting behind us to watch. The beats started pumping, and some of the people in the crowd growled and cheered. Both of us commenced the little arcade duel, doing a blitz of footwork… starting to realize how Nina had improved doing her steps… in grace that is. The last time I saw her dancing she rather looked like a galactic monkey going berserk. Whoops. I thought that was a little bit of mean…
The beat was getting faster, and the breakdown of the dance steps got messier… making a series of jumps inevitable and complicated. Nina selected the difficult level, and it wasn't hard to focus and do… not unless you hear an arrogant guy shouting most probably to you "Go Tigress!" or something.
What an idiot.
My eyes went a little bit beside to see who was the bold kid… laughing in the end and insulting myself it was Tsujiai… and I suppose he referred tigress to my best friend witch… who was smiling candidly… a proud facing because she had a 208 all-perfect combo. The song had ended, and her score's way higher than the one I got.
"Surprised?" she asked with a grin, going down the stage, some of the dudes she passed by looking at her with admiration as if any second now they may not contain themselves anymore and kneel down to pay their worship.
"You just get better just because your boyfriend is here." She impressed me with her ignoring skills as she picked up her shopping bags.
And she gave me her yeah-right-whatever look. I decided to cut her some slack since Tsujiai was approaching, opted that I should not argue with her no more. He wore his favorite orange shirt and fatigue green cargo shorts, and stylishly disarrayed hair… "Oy." He greeted both of us casually,
"Hey!" Nina and I greeted back in unison. We went outside since it was too noisy in the game center, watching another couple going up the Dance Dance stage, and another crowd at that.
"What brings you here?" Nina asked,
"Is it a sin? Komai and the others were also here a while ago actually excluding Kaji since he had to go to Mimi's this afternoon." He smiled, "I decided to stay since I remembered I had to check my amplifier for Sheila since the feedback's bad…"
Sheila is Tsujiai's bass guitar. I know. How weird. I really don't know what's with Connect the Dots and the 101 reasons why they name their instruments… "Where's the amplifier then?" Nina asked,
I brooded mischievously (and surely it was hard to avoid not to) if it was just a lame excuse of Tsujiai for being here. Maybe he'd been taking seriously what I've been telling him last night? By some chance while Nina and him were having a loud conversation our eyes met, and I nearly laughed about how I was so right.
"Hey," Tsujiai started with a smile, but I swear to god I could hear a blunt sigh, "You guys wanna go with me to the amp shop? It hurts to be alone."
It sure does… I thought blandly, thinking of my own household. "Wow. Nice strategy." I teased the olive-haired dude,
"Don't make me feel worse. Kaji forced me to do this." He sighed, observing Nina walk in a dainty, perky way it was definitely hard not to look at her. "Ayu! Tsujiai! Hurry up!" she shouted behind us without shame
"And anyhow, you should be ashamed of yourself… Nina won? Haha! Loser!" He grinned as he flashed the despicable L (the L-hand symbol for loser… we call it the despicable L).
The mass crowd looked even more massive when you're looking away at the plaza from the second floor… It was the centermost of the mall, and apparently streamers and buntings hung from the windowed ceiling. A solid buzz floated within the atmosphere, and a million heads were lined up waiting and standing up at the center. "Wow. It's as if it's a big holiday today…" Nina said, looking at the awfully tight horde squirming,
"Hey, Ayu," Tsujiai said,
"Yeah?"
He pointed at one of the banners, AIRA MODELLING. "Isn't that the agency trying to hire you?"
I nodded, "Wow…" Nina said behind my shoulder, looking at the banner, "And look at the crowd… must be something big, I guess." She continued, "C'mon, let's go… Tsujiai's amp is waiting."
I browsed the little mayhem at the plaza… If Aira was here, I wonder if S.K. was here too… "Ayu? C'mon, let's get going." Nina called out to me again,
"I'll catch up with you guys later." I asked mindlessly, and ran to the escalator and descended to the plaza. The heat was domineering as I plunged to the mob… and if I could have observed no less, most that involved of the crowd were young women. And to think I was a plus one to the sea of countless heads. I began to wonder what was Aira's reason why there's a big sum of people in the plaza. And of course S.K. would know. She is the president, right?
Anyway, they were playing a bar song again, and most of the girls got into the rush hype and the upbeat jumping. It made you feel like you were in a party hole full of wild people. "What's happening anyway?" I told myself with a sigh.
If Aira thought it would be an infectious idea of transforming the plaza to a bar-like place and attract as much people as they can, well, that's really creative. And maybe at the back of my mind there was the dangling conclusion it would be the quirky president behind all of this.
Speak of the devil, there she was. Just a few meters away from me, surrounded by media people, and there she was… eating apple-cinnamon licorice and sweet pastries on one hand, and the on the other was a bottle of grape soda… As if not taking consideration of her weight… She did look perfect in her velvet georgette, her hair glamorously standing out from all others,
Fat people must hate her. S.K. could eat a much as they can and she could still had the grace of slimness. She was again the first one to say hello, and she didn't even look as if it was by chance I was here standing stupidly looking at her. She grinned at first, that peculiar face twist of hers that gave off her spunk, "I'm pleased meeting you here, Ms. Tateishi."
She really didn't seem to be surprised, as if she expected me to be here. I stared at her suspiciously, although not that kind of accusing suspicion. "Hello, S.K." I greeted back,
"It's been a week now," she reminded me,
"Oh, you remembered," I told her unsurely, if what I said was right,
She raised her brow, again with a skeptic smile, "Who wouldn't?" she replied.
I suppose she has the knack of knocking one's heart with her compliments. Although I really tried hard to put a hard shell around me, I had to blush.
"Well?" She asked me with that exact sugary voice she used on me last week,
"Well what?" I replied quickly, hoping she wouldn't beat around the bush.
"Will you accept the offer I gave to you?" She told me directly. I noticed people started looking at us… well… looking at me, more particularly,
Some of them were photographers, their cameras' flashes notorious and blinding,
"Ms. Kawakami, we don't think the media knows who're you talking right now."
Some burly man ambushed me with his microphone with an obviously forced friendly smile that made his face more or less freaky; he asked me then, "Miss, what is your name, and what is your relationship with Ms. Kawakami."
I tried to say I wasn't of any relationship to the president, but then, another seeming multitude of reporters horded me trapped me in a circle. Unfortunately, another set of people that looked like T.V. crewmen came to picture, with cameras and media shit. I so wanted to step on S.K.s foot right now, "S.K.!!" I hushed her name, "What do we do?"
She sighed, "C'mon, act like a celebrity, Ayu." She said in undertone, keeping that smile displayed for the cameras, "Yes," she told a reporter for TTS news, "Aira's holding a mall fashion show later, and autograph signing…"
She seems to be enjoying herself. For the love of God, if only I could just get out of this mayhem. "… her name's actually Ayu Tateishi."
Did I just hear my name? I looked outrageously at S.K. but her focus was in the darn cameramen. I regretted letting my curiosity take over me. The last thing I wanted was bad publicity…
Oh yeah, I really don't know though if it would really be bad publicity, since it was S.K. who's actually a giant personality in town, would be a bad publicist. "Miss Tateishi!" Some of the media people dispersed from S.K.'s crowd and became my own, "Tell us, it seems that you have quite known Ms. S.K. for a while now. Are you close friends with the president? How did you know her, and how long?"
"Errr…" I started out as a failure. I looked at S.K. and she was smiling. What the hell was her problem?! I couldn't even help myself here, and how dare she say and introduce me and my name, I don't even know how to handle all these media, and all these silly camera shots. Gosh. I know too much of myself that I don't look good in candid. "Uhmm—"
I closed my eyes in desperation, obviously telling me I'm a hopeless case… I wished I just came along with Nina and Tsujiai. I sighed, wishing I had no ears so that I couldn't hear the annoying buzzes and the harsh feeling of microphones sticking out before your might as if the little stupid mics expect me to say or blurt anything,
And then I felt a warm brush on my arm. Feeling violated, I was read to slap the doer when suddenly, it tugged me away from the crowd. "Ouch! Hey!" I smacked the hand that tugged me away from the crowd so roughly and spontaneous it hurt and shocked me,
"Sh! Don't grab too much attention again, or else the crew people's going to notice you're not there anymore," It was a male voice,
"What?! S.K was the one who grabbed attention for me. She like shoveled all the attention to me," I retorted, my voice rising,
"Can you just calm down?"
My eyes dropped down to his neck, much to my frustration, I saw a camera, hung on her neck with a black strap, "You! Are you part of the media also?" The dude had long hair, impulsive eyes that seemed alert. From his set of clothes, a white plaid shirt and baggy fatigue pants, he was a cozy asshole.
"No, and quiet down." He replied to me, "S.K.'s covering for you, and she asked me to get you away from them already." He held my arm again and we walked inconspicuously away from the plaza,
"Wait! I can't trust you! Don't touch me!" I tapped his hand away from me again, "S.K. asked you? How do you know S.K.?"
He smirked at that, "Let me return back to you the question: How do you know S.K.?"
I looked at him with eyes that spelled deadly, "It's not your business," I dismissed him
"Then it's also not your business to know how I'm related to Ms. Seki, miss." He replied with a smile, a teasing one, perhaps. I couldn't say a thing. He led me to a secluded place behind a garbage can… Jeez… of all places! "Gotta go, be sure you don't go back to the plaza, or even go near." He already started to walk away,
"Wait," I said in impulse, "What's your name?"
He faced me again, "Does it matter?"
"Errr—" I started off clumsily. I swear he chuckled,
And he walked away, like nothing happened, like nothing transpired.
----------------------
A/N – Ho! Ho! Just look at that! Another character, baby! Let's see what happens. It's summer! Wooohoo!! Just the right time for good chapters :P See ya round, hope this chapter isn't that bad:P Don't dare leave this chapter without reviewing. (How threatening, right? Hahaha!!