My Per-… Not So Prefect Brother?

Day 14 of the year school will kill me.

Journal!

My life sucks…

Rikkidai is a pain. One of the most elite junior high schools in the area and, of course, I have to attend the said school. Just like my esteemed Aniki. Figures. Ugh. Anyways, his most elite 'perfectness', my personal moniker for him, is there finishing up his third year, once again leaving me in his shadow. As if six years of elementary school wasn't enough. If it weren't for the fact that I love soccer and refuse to give it up, I would have attempted to enter a different school. 'Course it wouldn't have made that much a difference as Aniki is apparently known throughout all the schools in the region.

Everyone knows Rikkidai has the strictest, most elite sports regime in the Kanagawa prefecture if not the entire country. Not to mention, Tou-san and Kaa-san would have disowned me or had me brainwashed if I hadn't attended. Note that I would have accepted the former, but I was to suspicious of the latter occurring. Of course, no one told me Rikkidai's pet sports club is the tennis team. How does that even make sense? Soccer, hai. Baseball, hai. Kendo, hai…but tennis? Apparently, the tennis team has won the nationals two years in a row and they are going for their third win. Not sure how exactly they expect to do that when their prodigious bucho is diseased.

The team takes it very seriously though. Aniki is at practice for at least five hours after school each day, and forget about being home on the weekends. A few times he has even bunked at a teammate's place. Don't even get me started on how after fourteen years he now decides to try and gain 'companions'. It would have been hilarious if it hadn't been so shocking the first time he called Kaa-san at ten o'clock at night, and informed her that he would be staying over at another person's house. Tou-san and she were so shocked they didn't even protest, except to ask him if he had his homework done and his uniform for the next day ironed. He told them that he had both with him and that he'd be home after nine the next night.

Kaa-san hasn't complained too much since his grades are still impeccable. Last conference with the sensei and none of them could stop praising his maturity or his manners, going so far as to say he was the model student for even their most disreputable student. They assured Tou-san that between Aniki's excellent marks and performance as a regular in the tennis club, Hiroshi is a shoe in for any high school in the nation. After that, if it wasn't for the hours he spends practicing, Kaa-san and Tou-san would have stopped bugging him altogether on the subject of tennis. Now the two of them expect me to up my grade point average, as school is even more important since I have to follow in Aniki's footsteps and earn myself entrance into a top high school too. There isn't any doubt Aniki will enter an elite high school, while Tou-san and Kaa-san grudgingly admit I could only make it into a top, not elite, high school. See how condescending they are? Can't even be completely insulted by it because I don't want to be like him. Who wants to be a creepy android?

Surviving Rikkidai is all about how much you can achieve and continue to achieve at a higher rate as you rise in seniority. You're branded as a loser if you fail. A school based on that simple principle is hell. One would think the rule would apply only to sports, but no, even academic wise they employ a harsh hierarchal system based off of grades and performance. Therefore the school officials decided they should create a rigorous, ~migraine~, course for individual subjects, plus a mandatory cram class after club practices. As if Kaa-san and Tou-san didn't push me into tutoring when they discovered I was going to receive B. Now I'll have to deal with them and my sensei's if my class average fluctuates down by .03 percent. School policy dictates weekend cram classes be assigned if your percentage goes down.

Proof enough that Aniki is robotic. Pfft. Straight A's, daily cram classes, seven to eight hours of tennis practice a day and an extra cram class three days a week that's mandatory for all third years. All that and he still manages to be the perfect mild mannered gentleman who helps anyone that asks with their homework. Ugh! I didn't even tell you that he's earned himself the title of the 'Gentleman' at Rikkidai because of his behavior. It's so embarrassing. What kind of kid wants to be dubbed a gentleman? The word is so old. Not cool at all.

For everybody's sake I hope Aniki is an android. 'Cause if he's not, he'll most likely turn into one of those creepy serial killers hiding under the guise of a middle management employee like in those American films. If he hasn't already become a killer….

Okay seriously journal, the hairs on my arms are standing up straight. Scratch what I just said. Aniki isn't allowed to be a psychopathic murder until I'm in college and can escape the family. Anyways, there's no way he has the time to plan a killing let alone murder anyone, unless he plans it in his sleep….

So Kaede's being a giggly know-it-all girly girl. I always knew the day would come when she'd shed her overly polite observant quiet self and let those fangirl friends of hers corrupt her, but I didn't think it would be this soon. This new side of her has been coming out for the last few weeks without any evidence to the reason, until earlier this week. Being the bookworm she is, Kaede has been going around reading classic romanticized novels and such. Ehck. For some reason, she kept giggling as she was reading them, so I got curious. I'm pretty sure romantic novels aren't supposed to be funny. Adding fuel to my suspicions was Aniki.

One day, he was peering over at her, scrutinizing the book. When she looked up at his eyeless glasses, he raised an eyebrow. Kaede frowned a bit then proceeded to blush a little. Aniki asked her if she was supposed to be reading the book. Her response was to snap the book shut and run upstairs to her room. Aniki continued to gaze at the spot where she'd just been, before he got up and put his tea in the sink. Crisply he walked back a few steps and picked up the phone and dialed a number. His back perfectly straight to my sight he waited for the person on the other line to pick up the phone. A clack, clack, clack brought my eyes down to Aniki's tapping foot. It had to have been a glitch; Aniki rarely shows those kinds of ticks. I could tell when someone on the other line picked up because his shoulders stiffened in a straight line. Oddly, Aniki didn't utter a polite hello as usual. As if he were irritated and well acquainted with the person on the other end.

"Niou-kun, exactly what kind of book did you loan to Kaede-chan?"

Kun? Aniki addressed someone besides me with Kun! I've never heard Aniki use those kinds of familiarities with anyone before! Especially classmates. I might have spit the tea I was drinking out…

"No Niou-kun, I am not insinuating that you were intentionally corrupting my imouto. I am directly accusing you of doing such a thing."

I couldn't seem to figure out how to shut my gapping mouth.

"I am sure that you are heartbroken at my accusations. Do not bring such material to our practice match tomorrow. Kaede-chan is only in elementary school. No, I am positive that he would not appreciate the material either. Please keep your indecent hobbies to yourself Niou-kun."

Why would Aniki know someone who has lewd hobbies? I doubt he even really knows what the term means.

"HAI, Niou-kun. I especially have no interest in that."

A clack filled the air as Aniki hung the phone up. He hung the phone up. A rude gesture. From Aniki. Then he turned and briskly walked out the room with what looked like a light flush. Three thoughts were running through my head: Aniki was rude, Aniki blushed and who the heck was this Niou-kun?

Niou. I recognize the name, but I can't seem to place it. It gives me a bad feeling as if I should know it. Seems I'm going to have to look into it. He has to be a member of the tennis team if Aniki was planning on practicing with him. Eh. That doesn't bode well since all the tennis team members are bonkers. I am not kidding journal, everyone at Rikkidai admits they have the strangest idiosyncrasies. Can you guess what Aniki's is? But that doesn't explain how Kaede seems to know this Niou. Then again, I have no idea what she's been up to lately. I'm usually gone all day Sunday for practice and to hang with my friends, and I stay late after school for cram classes and soccer practice the rest of the week.

I figured she did what she usually did and hung out with her friends or stayed at home. Then I learned that Kaa-san was irritated with some of Kaede's friends and had forbid her from going to their houses. Tou-san's coworkers are in the midst of their seasonal parties, so he and Kaa-san have been out on Sundays to parties leaving Kaede at home. Meaning Aniki has to have been watching her if I haven't. Which would explain why she lately seems to have been warmer to Aniki than usual. Not why this Niou-kun seems to have been corrupting her with lewd reading material. It had better not be shonen-ai or yaoi; I told her there was no way she was allowed to read that trash.

Niou-kun is a guy though. No guy would read yaoi. Not if they are right in the head. Or gay. Gentlemanly as Aniki might be to even befriend a gay guy, I doubt he would agree to be partners with one. Maybe he would, but not a rude suggestive guy. Aniki just doesn't get that kind of perverted stuff. Though if he doesn't, why did he run out of the room blushing? And why did he chastise Kaede for reading things she shouldn't be? You don't think Aniki reads detailed romance novels, do you?

Until Next Time Journal. I plan to solve this puzzle.

Suspicious Acts Are Going On,

Ikeda

Revised:5-20-12

Sorry for the wait!

Hope this chapter wasn't too confusing. Thanks for Reading.

Please Review,

False Sourires.