Chapter 12

Kasumi's POV

Rain noisily pattered against my window.

I looked out and stared straight ahead of me. Not seeing anything, yet seeing everything.

Understanding.

The rain went on and pounded harder against the glass rather out of beat. I switched my focus from outside, to my reflection. My red hair stood out against the dark room in which I sat in.

I took in a deep breath through my mouth and let it all out through my nose. Gently lowering my head to my crossed hands. Still staring at my reflection, I started thinking. I noticed I was wallowing in my own self- pity and loneliness and immediately scolded myself for thinking such negative things.

But, I knew it was all true.

I could see that Hikari's mind was somewhere other than complaints these days. She now gazed determinedly at her work and concentrated (yet she still made bad grades), it didn't really take a genius to find out why. She looked even more innocent gazing blankly at anything in front of her and blinking rapidly when you bothered to call her name. When you did bother, she would show her old, fiery personality, then slowly duck back in to the outer shell that I never noticed she had.

Haruka seemed to have changed so much.

She rarely seemed to be at the last few classes these days. She'd fidget her finger every now and then in some weird patterns, and glance at the clock every now and again. Everything that Hikari would do. The brunette didn't take notes anymore, and I think she peeks into the music room when we pass it when she thinks we aren't looking. I wasn't very surprised she'd let off on all the competition with Shuun, what really surprised me was that she seemed not to care about school anymore. She still got good grades though. That was on thing that never changed.

I'd never seen such two air- headed people in my entire life!

But… Where was I left?

I felt so alone…

I blew at my bangs in an irritated fashion, but it hardly budged.

Well, things happen for a reason right? I thought to myself, Might as well go with it and see where this leads to. So I tucked myself into bed and slept, waiting for another school day to arrive.

XxXxXx

I woke to the much giggling downstairs.

I rolled my eyes and got out of my bed, already used to the sudden burst of chilling that caused my spine to tingle. Who needed an alarm clock when you had three noisy sisters?

"I'm up! I'm up!" I called as I walked downstairs after going through my morning routine.

"Breakfast is ready!" Sakura sang in her happy, sing-song way. She put a plate of pancakes, strawberries, eggs, and bacon on the table.

I scooted myself closer to the table, trying to tune out my other sisters' completely irrelevant prattling.

"Isn't this outfit the cutest?!" Ayame cooed, clasping her hands in admiration. "Eh, I've seen cuter." Botan said, observing it a bit while trying to pick up her bacon with her fork. "Botan!" Sakura scolded, "It's lovely Ayame."

I stayed quiet. I honestly didn't know what to think of the outfit. It was too frilly for my taste, and pink. It seemed to fit her though.

"I'm off to school now." I said as I excused myself. "What!?" Sakura exclaimed, "That was quick! The school wouldn't even be open at this time!"

"I'll take the long way around," I reasoned, "besides, I might be able to catch Hikari."

I knew Hikari wouldn't be going to school this early. She's not much of a morning person.

I sighed and looked up to the sky as I was walking down a particularly steep hill. My eyebrows scrunched in confusion at what I saw.

Had the sky always been such a dull blue? And since when did the sun start feeling cold? A passing breeze flew by and a shivered. There must be an oncoming storm.

I started walking faster when I caught sight of Shinji from behind.

What a coincidence!

For a moment, I actually thought I had enough courage to walk up to him and greet him how I'd usually greet everyone else. Then, I thought better of it. I wasn't particularly fond of him at the moment. As cliché as it sounded, I wished Hikari had never fallen for him. It was better when it was just the four of us.

I was only a few feet away from him when I thought better of it. I slowed down, making sure we had some distance between each other before starting to walk again.

How do you act towards someone you resent?

I just kind of stared at him from behind until he startled me by turning around and glaring at me for a moment.

"It's you." He said. I regained myself and said in rude tone, "Yeah, it's me!"

He turned around and kept on walking.

Annoyance.

I hated it when people did that.

"Hey, hey!" I shouted as I ran to catch up with him, "You shouldn't do that to people you brat!" I had half a mind to pull out something from the secret compartment in my backpack and smack him on the head as I did with Satoshi.

"You seriously get on my nerves." I panted when I was side by side with him. "That's funny," He said sarcastically, "I barely said two words to you." "That makes 9 now." I pointed out.

He rolled his eyes.

"Look buster," I said in a lecturing tone as anger started to boil up, "I'm sick and tired of your attitude." "We barely deal with each other," He replied, "Why would you care if my attitude made you sick and tired?"

"Well, knowing how you and Hikari are so friendly that you two live together. That'd be dealing with you more than when you guys weren't living together." I stated. "Wow really?" He snorted, "And that loud mouth hates me."

And I thought he was worthy enough to be called the King of Sarcasm.

"Well," He started, "We only have a few more months until we all graduate and you don't ever have to see me again." "Wish it'd come sooner." I muttered.

When school came into view, I couldn't help it. It was as though I was getting ahead of myself. It was a feeling I had. A feeling that I kind of agreed with. He was right. We only had a few months left until we graduated. Only a few months left until we all went our separate ways.

"Take care of her okay?" I whispered so softly that I could barely hear myself. But I knew he caught it. He just didn't act like it. I looked up at him before running toward school.

I ran straight toward our tree.

The tree we always sit under for lunch. Always had sat under ever since we entered this school.

I slumped down, leaning my head against the trunk and groaned as what I'd just said registered into my head. Why'd I say that!?

There was barely anyone so silence hung in the air.

I was deep in my thoughts when I heard the most ludicrous noise. It sounded like a hungry bear! Not that I've ever heard a hungry bear…

I froze when I heard it coming directly above me.

The tree's branches were pretty low, so I slowly stood up and peeked over a sturdy branch that was a bit hard to look over.

I smiled and swallowed back a laugh as I realized it was just a sleeping Satoshi with his cap over his head. His mouth was wide open, but I knew he wasn't asleep because if he was, there would've been a trail of drool coming directly from his mouth.

I shoved him off the branch, knowing it wouldn't hurt him and told him to stop faking.

He rubbed the back of his head and muttered, "Didn't have to be so hostile."

"Are you usually here this early in the morning?" I asked him as each of us sat on the other side of the tree. "Nah." He said, "I decided I needed a change in my routine. You know, besides sleeping, eating, going to school, coming home, and sleeping again. So here I am! Now, I'm going to school before eating!"

"Ha, ha. Very funny." I said robotically, but with a smile.

Another silence.

There were awkward silences with everyone else when no one knew what to say. Then, there were silences with Satoshi. These were the moments I liked best.

"The weather's nice, huh?" He asked me. I looked up once more. But there still seemed to be signs of a storm. "I guess." I answered.

"It's days like these I like best." He said, "Rare to see them during Autumn, though. "Mm…" I said, not helping myself and thinking, "Not me."

I could practically see him straighten his back as he spotted Hikari and Haruka and called them over.

"Good Morning!" Haruka greeted. "What's up with Kasumi?" Hikari asked.

It was surprising how easy it was for her to figure that out. She'd barely been paying attention to herself let alone my own problems these days.

"I'm just being sluggish this morning." I said, trying to cover a fake yawn, "I went to sleep really late last night."

"Of course you did." She said with a unconvinced tone. Did this mean she'd sorted out her own feelings?

"I hate my fingers." Haruka said, out of the blue, "They're so short and stubby." "Probably from writing too much." I joked. Not that she wrote much now.

Hikari took Haruka's hand in her own and looked at them closely. "Nothing you can't fix." She said in informative tone with her pointer finger high in the air, "I've heard that playing the piano will make them nice and slender." "Really?" Haruka said, instantly interested. Then, she started thinking.

About what, I don't know. I just knew that we were starting all over on the acting weird thing.

During first, second, third, and fourth period, I couldn't get a word out them. Even at the end of class when we had a few minutes to chat a bit.

During lunch, one of us would occasionally throw in a random topic, but even with the few conversations going around, it seemed so empty.

Even in P.E. and Home Economics, they couldn't concentrate on a single thing they were doing. Is that what you usually act like when you liked someone for the first time? Were they so deep in this feeling that they didn't even stop and think about how long it was going to last?

Okay, now I was just being plain mean.

Aw, great!

I'd just poured too much water into the cake batter. It was good enough that Haruka had burnt one of our two cakes already.

I scooped up as much water hanging around at the top of the batter as I could and dumped them in the sink. Usually, Hikari would at least have scolded me for not concentrating on what I was doing, but she didn't seem to notice.

Okay, if no one was going to talk about stuff I like or at all, I'd just have to relate to them.

"It's funny how hormones work." I said, subtly bringing up a conversation.

"It's even funnier if your hormones are attracted to the worst person possible." Hikari said while making the second batter to make up for the first cake. "You just shouldn't like some people." Haruka agreed.

"Does attraction make you act as though you have no brain?" I asked.

"Not really." Haruka said, "Just wants to make you change." "So you like someone?" I asked carelessly.

She straightened her spine at what she had just said what I had just comprehended because of it. "Well…" She started.

I guess she thought she could hide it.

"Shuu does have some good points." I said. Haruka seemed to be even more surprised. "I guess he could if you thought about it." Hikari said as though she'd always known. Who knows? Perhaps she has.

"On the other hand," I said, "I really can't find anything about Shinji." "You know what? Neither can-" Hikari trailed off. They were both being really slow about everything.

They both seemed to think that I had just read their minds.

Ha, ha. Payback.

"Did you both really think you could hide it?" I asked in a disbelieving voice, "It's really not that hard."

"You know, now that I think about it, Satoshi can really be cute sometimes." Hikari said.

But, I was better than that.

"Yes, he can be." I agreed.

Haruka smiled and said, "I wish you would act like you liked him instead of hitting him. Although, it is one of your strange ways to show affection."

"I can't help that." I said, shrugging.

That's when I didn't feel like talking anymore.

Throughout the rest of the day, I didn't try making conversation anymore. And by the end of the day, all the silences seemed a bit comforting a sad way.

We were falling apart before we were supposed to. How sad.

When school ended, I didn't bother looking up at the sky. I just knew that the weather had gotten worse.

"Kasumi?" I heard from behind me.

I turned around, completely taken aback by Satoshi.

He ran to catch up with me before he asked, "Why are you going this way? Don't you usually head the other way for swimming?" "I feel like ditching today." I said. Haruka can ditch classes now, so why can't I ditch something?

There came another silence.

"It's not that bad you know." Satoshi said. I thought he was trying to strike a conversation about the weather so I said, "Seems like a storm's brewing."

"No," He said, turning to face me, "I mean, it's not going to end like how you think it will." "What are you talking about?" I asked him truthfully.

He smiled an all-knowing smile and said, "Life is a cool thing to experience." "Really…?" I said really slowly to tell him that he was acting a bit too weird for my liking.

"Did you know that every heart has a small bell?" Satoshi asked me. "No, not really." I said, not knowing what he was leading onto.

"Well, there is," He said, "everyone has one. Whenever someone feels bad, lonely, or thinks they need someone to save them, they ring this bell. But, the sound of it depends on how strong someone's heart is. If their heart is big, the bell rings really loudly. If their heart is weak, barely anyone can hear it."

"Really?" I said. This wasn't going anywhere.

He looked a bit distant and not at all embarrassed when he said these things. It seemed as though he had always said them.

He didn't even look embarrassed when he said the next statement to me.

The one statement that made me want to freeze in my tracks and start crying in relief that someone here is actually there for me.

He grinned at me.

"Everything's going to be okay." He said, "I just know it. And you should never doubt animal instincts like mine."

I regained myself and managed to choke out, "Yeah. Animal. You even eat, sleep, and think like one." He laughed and said that he couldn't deny that.

I returned him a smile.

Satoshi really was something. It was no wonder that I stuck with him from that time I met him when I was ten. I must've known that he would turn into someone special. And you should never doubt me when it comes down to this stuff.

He kept me company all the way to the fork in the road where we went our separate ways and I found myself anticipating tomorrow when I would get to see him again.

I kept on smiling even when I couldn't see him anymore.

And I didn't stop even when I got home and heard Boton and Ayame arguing about something I didn't catch. Nor when Sakura came up to remind me to do my homework. It would've been creepy to any other person, but I thought it kind of made sense.

I looked out my open window and was pretty surprised when I found that the sky seemed an even brighter blue than before, the sun felt warm and the passing breeze even seemed to savor everything it passed by.

And all the while I was doing anything the rest of the day and even before I went to sleep the one sentence seemed to resound in my head.

"I heard it, your heart, all the way from home."

I know I'm evil. How long has it been? 5 months? I know you guys must be so exasperated with me. But I was really busy. I shouldn't even be this busy! I'm only 13! This seems so sappy now that I read it no, but I'm such a sucker for stuff like this. And the heart thing. I don't know. I guess I must be watching way more Boys Before Flowers than I should. I think this is only chapter where I thought so long and hard about it that I almost cried. You should really thank Taylor Swift that I managed to write this chapter. I've been obsessed with her songs lately. My favorite songs are I'd Lie and Fearless… Back to the topic. I was actually waiting for the 70th review cause it just bothered me that it was 69. I'm weird like that. I know I probably should've posted an Ikarishipping chapter, but think about it. I put Contestshipping, I should put Pokeshipping, also. Ah, well. I'm really grateful to everyone that didn't give up on this story, which is no one! Listen to me! It's like this story is finished! It almost is… Like the chapter said, they only have a few months left… Well, Happy Reading! (Haven't said that in a long time.)

Kahmelion