Chapter Two
Everyone's Help
The afternoon sun was beating down on the school as Class 3-A was finishing. Zazie's newly reacquired bird was sitting outside in a tree singing it's song below the open window that Zazie was sitting by and the song could faintly be heard by anyone that listened but, class was ending soon so very few people were. "Before class ends," Negi said as he put the textbook he was reading from down, "I would like to mention that Rainyday-san had told me before class that her club was in need of volunteers to help with their next performance so, as a class activity, I volunteered the whole class!" He said with a smile. Small amounts of chatter had started before Negi spoke up again, "Now I'm not exactly sure of what were doing but Rainyday-san has a list of positions and I thought that I'd let her decide who does what, so, could you come up here Rainyday-san?"
Zazie stood up, with a piece of paper in hand, and started walking to the back of the class. Negi looked a bit surprised, "Eh, Rainyday-san, I meant you to..." He stopped for Zazie had put one of her index fingers to her lips signaling silence. Negi nodded, "OK then, continue." Zazie silently agreed and continued to the back wall of the class where there was the second chalkboard. She found a magnet and used it to hold up the paper. She turned around to face the class and motioned for them to come over.
The class was silent as they looked back and forth amongst themselves trying to think of what Zazie had meant. As the class was looking at one another trying to find answers but only finding shaken heads or shrugs Chisame thought about something else, "Morons, it's obvious what she wants us to do but, why didn't she speak? She spoke to me, even if it was only a few words." Chisame pondered when Negi spoke up,
"I believe she wants us to go back there and read it," he said and different reactions were heard, but they were all drowned out by Asuna's,
"Negi, you baka! Why'd you tell us? Someone could have figured it out!" she yelled at him. Konoka giggled, "Asuna, I knew but you didn't ask," she whispered into Asuna's ear but before she could respond Ayaka chuckled in her smug way,
"Oh Kagurazaka-san, could a monkey like you have understood her even if she spoke?" Ayaka's mock must had pushed Asuna's buttons because she had almost instantly appeared next to Ayaka,
"Why you cradle-robbing..." Asuna yelled before Ayaka and her started to fight. A small crowd circled them and Sakurako was heard starting bets. By chance almost, between the exchange of insults, a loud "Kya!," was heard from the back. Makie was reading the paper that Zazie had posted and was now looking back at the class,
"Hey guys, there's some really fun jobs to do on this list!," she exclaimed. The fight had paused once the "kya," was heard and completely dissipated after Makie spoke. The watching crowd had now huddled around Zazie's list mumbling with each other about the jobs on it.
Zazie had once again signaled for silence and the girls slowly quieted down. Zazie quietly cleared her throat and open her mouth as if she was going to speak but pointed to the first job on the list instead. The job underneath her right index finger read, " show clowns." She then pointed to Misa, Madoka and Sakurako. The three of them eyed each other and Madoka called out,
"What is that suppose to mean?! What are we going to do?." Zazie closed her eyes and thought for a second then she turned around to face the black board, grabbed the chalk and started writing. She placed the chalk back into place and turned back around when she finished and let the class read what she had wrote, "All will be explained at a meeting on a later date," Madoka felt better now that she had asked her question but wasn't thrilled about the answer, "Fine," she said disgruntled. Since Zazie didn't have to describe anything else she picked up the pace of assigning jobs; Negi and Asuna were to do a magic act together, Negi looked surprised and whispered to Asuna,
"D..do you think she knows about me and the pactio?" He said nervously into her ear and she shrugged her answer back,
"Don't know but if she does, it doesn't matter much does it?"
Yuna. Makie, Ako and Akira were to do a group performance, Kazumi was put to work advertising and announcing the acts, Yue, Nodoka and Haruna were to be vendors selling merchandise, Misora was to be a stage hand, Chachamaru was to be on safety duty, Ku Fei, Chao and Satsuki were food vendors, Konoka and Setsuna were to do an act together as well, Konoka grabbed onto Setsuna's arm,
"Won't this be fun se-chan, doing something like this together?" She said happily and Setsuna blushed and replied
"O..of course ojou-sama," she sputtered out. Zazie continued on with her list. Mana was security, Kaede, Fuka, Fumika were to be lion tamers which made Fumika a bit scared but Kaede calmed her down while Fuka was hopping excitedly, Satomi was to be in charge of lighting and music, Evangeline was to make a small performance by herself. The idea of doing a something by herself made her cross with the whole idea until Zazie moved her hands as if she was controlling invisible marionettes which changed her frustration to confusion. How can she know of that? Evangeline thought and Zazie continued with the last few people left on the list.; Ayaka was to supervise the class and make sure that everyone had their performances ready in time and Natsumi and Chizuru were to mime.
Almost as soon as Zazie had finished pointing out people, the bell had rung and everybody started to leave. Zazie went back to her desk to get her briefcase-like bag and by the time she had picked it up everybody had left the room except for on other person, Chisame. Chisame had stood though Zazie's little 'presentation' and thought that it was a large waste of time but when Zazie's finger had never pointed at her she felt something drop in her chest, she had been left out of a class activity without any apparent thought for her. She walked up to Zazie and asked "Rainyday-san, why was I not given any job?" Zazie looked longingly out the window, "not that I wanted to or anything," Chisame hastily added trying not to sound so disappointed about it. Zazie's bird flew through the window. Zazie stuck out a finger for it to land on and she turned around to face Chisame,
"Hasegawa-san has done something special for me so I wanted to give her a special job." Zazie said in the same quiet voice that she used before, "So I want you to consider doing the job of..." Chisame cut Zazie off,
"Ringmisstress, that's what it is, isn't it?"
"Y.. yes... How did you know?" Zazie's face showed a bit of surprise when Chisame had correctly guess the job she was going to get.
"To be honest, it was from a dream. I saw a circus and me in the center of it all and..." Chisame stopped. She didn't want to say that Zazie was in it and that she already felt weird talking about a dream, none the less to her of all people.
"Hasegawa-san is lucky to have been able to see that, I hope nothing bad happened in the dream." Zazie voice had changed to a softer tone.
"No, not really," Chisame felt the blood slowly flowing to her cheeks and giving them a slight reddish colour, "but, uh, I just wanted to know why I was left out is all. Thank you for clearing it up." She said quickly and she turned away to get her own briefcase bag and leave. As Chisame opened the door and was about to step out she heard Zazie's voice,
"I hope you sleep better tonight then." Chisame didn't turn around only paused for a second before continuing to walk out of the class. Zazie stayed in the class for a little while after Chisame had left and brought her bird closer to her face, "Is that why you left last night Palor? To bring us together? " The bird moved it's head and chirped happily. A smile crossed Zazie's face, something that no one had seen, "Thank you Palor." She said quietly to the bird before she too, walked out of the class.