Part II
Chapter 2
Kuki sat behind the blonde-headed boy every day in class and waited for him to turn around. He didn't. His bright blue eyes didn't look into hers. That deep accent never spoke her name. Kuki was confused. What had she done wrong? Why didn't this boy like her?
Was it because of the tree that they both seemed to know about?
She couldn't shake out of her head what he had said that first day. She honestly had no idea what he had meant by a tree house, but she wanted to. A new doodle of the tree sat in front of her, naked as always. Maybe a tree house was what it needed. But her pencil did not budge; she could not see this tree house in her mind.
Mr. Clark stood at the front of the class. He turned around and in big, sprawling letters wrote "dissection" across the board. Kuki looked at her classmates as they responded to this. The boys grinned at each other and high-fived. Most of the girls just looked pretty grossed out. However, Kuki sat patiently waiting for her teacher to assign partners, hoping, as always, that Wally was hers. "And hmm, Mr. Beatles, I have to find someone that can keep you in check. Sanban, you feel up for a challenge?"
How lucky, Kuki thought. She wanted to run over and hug Mr. Clark, but instead she nodded. "Sure."
The class nervously made its way over to the lab tables, cutting open frogs was an unexplored territory. "Poor Froggie," Kuki cooed looking at the frog, stretched belly up on the pan. She grabbed the scalpel.
"What are you doing?" Wally exclaimed, finally looking up from his shoes long enough for his blue eyes to look directly into her nearly purple ones. His were filled with shock.
"Isn't the point to cut him open and look in his belly?" She placed the sharp tool on the frog's stomach and skillfully sliced it open.
"Well, yeah," he sputtered. "But, you're a girl." His accent drew out the last word.
Kuki stared at the confused boy. "I feel super-duper sorry for the froggie, but this is what Mr. Clark told us to do. And I've always been good at this doctor-y stuff. Like I used to be a nurse or something. Silly, right?" She poked around inside the frog for a few moments quietly. "Wally," Kuki began, "what does the tree house look like?"
"What tree house?" The boy asked. His gaze reverted to his scuffed-up sneakers.
"The one you said went in the tree I always doodle."
Wally blushed furiously. "Didn't say that ever."
"You did to, meanie! Draw it for me!" The petite Asian pushed up her too long sleeves in frustration and gave the boy her best menacing stare.
"No. Just finish up with the cruddy frog already!" The way he said it was so final that Kuki found she could not press the matter further. Why did he not want to tell her about the tree house? She didn't know. But she did know he was lying to her. Well, she'd just have to catch him off guard like the first time.
After a sufficiently awkward class where Kuki did all the work and Wally memorized his shoes, Kuki skipped out the class room door. A girl with blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and a sullen looking boy next to her greeted Kuki with a smile. "Hi, Rachel! Hi, Nigel! I just dissected a frog!" Kuki said to the pair.
Nigel just stared at her. Truth be told, Kuki didn't really know what to think of the bald boy. She was nice to him simply because she was never any other way. Kuki was intimidated by Nigel. Rachel always had him in tow, though, and Kuki liked Rachel a lot. "Hey, do either of you guys happen to know a boy named Wallabee Beatles?" Kuki asked.
Rachel's eyebrows scrunched together like they always did when she thought about something. She shook her head. "No, sorry, Kuki. Why do you ask?"
"Yes," Nigel said, his British accent making the word sound the littlest bit more proper. Kuki had only heard Nigel speak maybe twice before. She glanced over at him and met his brown eyes. She had been expecting gray maybe, or black. It was a cold empty, brown, but Kuki had never looked at something brown before and not felt the littlest bit warmer.
"What do you know about him?" She spoke quieter than usual.
"He's one of us," Nigel responded. "I'll see you later, Rachel." His fingers brushed the blonde's for a short second. "Kuki." And he left with a nod.
Rachel sighed and then watched her friend walk off. Rachel was very maternal; Kuki had learned this within hours of first meeting the girl. Kuki was the type of girl that knew love when she saw it and Rachel loved Nigel. But, she was only letting her maternal side show. "Do you know what he meant?" Kuki asked her friend.
"No," Rachel whispered. "But, I wish I did."
Kuki's thoughts flipped back to her talk with Wally. "Me too. Rachel, what's the bestest way to get someone to tell you something they're embarrassed to tell you?"
The taller girl looked down at her ebony haired companion. "I guess you just have to let them know that it's OK and you understand, right?"
Kuki smiled a smile that made her face glow. "I can do that easy peasy."
A/N: The dissection part was for Shizuku Tsukishima749. That's how I imagine Kuki'd act when faced with cutting open animals :p