Chapter 12
Just a little note before chapter 12: I kind of hurt my wrist in Pilates class (don't ask me how - I don't even know), so I'm typing this chapter with a brace on. If there are any MAJOR mistakes that I don't find in editing . . . blame the brace.
Disclaimer: Still don't own it.
"Okay Risa . . . exactly what happened last night?"
"N-Nuh?" Risa turned over and looked at her sister. "Ugh . . . it's too early Riku. Go back to sleep. We'll talk about it later."
"No, we're going to talk about it now!" She yanked the blankets off of the bed, causing Risa to curl up into a tiny ball.
"Nooo! Turn the air conditioner down!"
"Risa, you have to get up. Breakfast is in an hour, and you still need to take a shower."
"Nnn . . . go without me. I'm not hungry."
"You can't skip breakfast. You can't hike up a volcano on an empty stomach! Now get up, because you have a lot of explaining to do."
"Ugh, Riku!" She moaned. "I just wanna sleep."
"Too bad. If you hadn't been out so late with Hiwatari you wouldn't be so tired."
"You know it's nothing like that." She muttered, turning back on her side and closing her eyes.
"Oh no you don't!" Riku said. "You need to get ready!"
"Riku!" Risa groaned. "Let me sleep! I don't want to got to Perry's Smorgy!"
" . . . Hiwatari will be there."
"Uh . . . s-so?"
"So, I'll make sure to arrange it so that you two sit next to each other. So you'd better hurry up and take a shower - you don't want to gross him out."
"Oh, Riku! You're so evil!" But she was already getting out of bed.
"Don't take too long - we only have an hour before breakfast starts. And don't worry - we're coming back to the hotel after breakfast for about an hour, so you'll have time to change into your hiking clothes then."
"What?"
"Well, I know you want to wear something to impress your dear Hiwatari-kun." She said with a grin. Risa groaned.
"Remember, our teacher wants us at Perry's Smorgy by eight. One hour . . . don't take too long.
"Okay!" She called, shutting the door.
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An hour and ten minutes later, Risa stepped from the bathroom, bringing with her the scent of spring. She was wearing a white sundress and a pink flower in her hair . . . again. She kind of liked the way her hair looked with a flower tucked behind her ear. Her white, wedge sandals gave her the feeling of being two inches taller.
"Wow! That was the shortest shower I think I've ever -" She stopped when she realized she and Riku weren't alone. While Riku stood, tapping her foot in impatience, Daisuke was sitting quietly on her bed. Satoshi was there too, looking out the window, though he turned in her direction the moment she stepped from the bathroom. She blushed bright red. "Oh . . . I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make everyone wait."
"It's alright, Risa. Let's just go before we're even more late." Riku grumbled, walking out into the hall. Risa sighed, but caught Satoshi's eye. He gave her a brief smile, and paused at the door. He wasn't corny enough to say "Ladies first.", but she got the message. Why had she never noticed how polite he was?
Once again, Riku and Daisuke were being all cute and coupley as they walked down the hallway together, but this time it wasn't quite so awkward since she and Satoshi were friends. Now they could exchange exasperated glances at one another, both slightly embarrassed by the cuteness radiating from the couple walking in front of them.
"So, Satoshi-kun . . ." She said, enjoying the fact that she could call him by his first name. "Are you looking forward to the hike today?"
"Yes. It will be quite an experience, and it should provide a great opportunity for photos. You'll probably want to bring your camera."
"Of course!" She said with a smile, secretly planning on taking as many pictures of Satoshi as she possibly could. She would get a picture of him smiling! Then . . . she could sell it to his fan girls and make millions. The thought struck her as hilarious, and she started to giggle.
"What's so funny?"
"N-nothing. Just a thought I had." She giggled again. Of course she wouldn't do it - it was just a humorous thought that came to mind. There really was no telling how much his fan girls would pay for a picture of him smiling. Poor Satoshi . . . being stalked must suck sometimes.
Because they were already very late, the elevators were clear. Risa said a grateful prayer - she was already hiking up a volcano later. The last thing she wanted was to have to start the day off with a trek down the stairs!
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Riku was true to her word. As soon as they reached Perry's Smorgy and found a table next to the pond, she hastily sat next to Daisuke so that Risa and Satoshi were forced to sit together. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but Risa had a feeling that even if her sister hadn't gone through that trouble, Satoshi would've chosen to sit next to her anyway. But again, it could've just been wishful thinking.
"I could never get tired of this food." Riku said with a sigh. "Hawaii is amazing."
"I know! Are you sure you don't want anything, Satoshi-kun?"
"I'm sure." He took a sip of his coffee. She could tell by his expression that he didn't like it.
"I can't stand coffee unless it has lots of cream and sugar in it." She said. "I don't see how you can drink it when it's black."
He shrugged. 'It's not that good, but it wakes me up. I don't like it any better with cream or sugar, so I really see no point in putting it in."
"So why do you drink it if it's that bad?"
"It wakes me up."
"Oh!" She said, then peered at him. "Hey, how come you're not sleepy this morning?"
"Excuse me?"
"Aren't you usually tired in the mornings because of your low blood pressure?"
"Yeah, but I got up earlier than usual today." When she looked confused, he explained. "The longer I'm awake, the sooner I'll actually wake up. A shower helps, so I got up at five, and at five-thirty I took a shower. By six I was awake."
"You were up at five?!" She gasped. "But we didn't get back until midnight!"
"I know."
"So you only got five hours of sleep?!"
"Actually, four. I didn't get to sleep until about 1:00." He shrugged, but she groaned.
"You need to take better care of yourself, Satoshi-kun!" She said, crossing her arms. "It's no wonder you're so pale and thin! You stay up all night, get up early, and you never eat!"
" . . . I eat." He muttered.
"Aaaieeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Oh dear God. A fan girl squeal. "Hiwatari-kun!" Yes, definitely a fan girl.
"Yes?" He turned to face her. Yes, it was one of them . . . the one with the carrot orange hair in braids.
"Hiwatari-kun! Why don't you come sit with us? We saved you a seat!" She indicated a round booth with a small space squeezed in the center of the girls. Apparently they expected him to sit amid all of them.
"I'm quite content sitting where I am, thank you." He muttered. She looked hurt for a minute, then glared.
"Okay, I see. Harada-san . . . did you tell us that dear Hiwatari-kun was gay just so you could have him all to yourself?" She put her hands on her hips. "Because we'll remain loyal to him no matter what. "
"Is that all?" Satoshi asked before Risa could retaliate. "Because if you don't mind, we would like to continue our breakfast withoutinterruptions."
"Wha-well . . ." She glared past him, the hatred in her eyes directed at Risa. "You don't deserve him, you know. We liked him long before Dark left." With that, she turned on her heel and marched back to her table, obviously to retell the story to her other fan girl friends.
Satoshi sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He looked at Risa, his expression going from irritated to concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." She said, but her face had turned bright red and she was glaring down at her food. Riku glanced and Daisuke and stood up.
"I need to get some more pineapple juice." She said. After a swift kick under the table from Riku, Daisuke followed the suit.
"Uh . . . yeah. Me too."
Risa looked at her sister, not amused, but Riku merely smiled and dragged Daisuke away.
"Well . . . that wasn't the least bit obvious." Satoshi muttered, then looked at Risa. "What's wrong?"
"I . . . what do you mean? I'm okay."
He sighed. "I don't like secrets."
"Really . . . it's nothing." She couldn't look into his startlingly blue eyes.
"Don't listen to her." He said. She looked up at him, and he continued. "She doesn't know anything. None of them do."
"That was just . . . that was just a really low blow. That's all. Bringing up Dark like that . . . That really hurt."
". . . I'm sorry." He said, then wondered why he apologized. It wasn't his fault he had a group of jealous middle-school girls watching his every move. Still, he couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible. "Don' pay attention to any of them . . . it's not you. They just don't like how much time we're spending together."
"Well . . . that's observant of you. I thought you didn't pay any attention to those girls."
"I don't really, but I can tell they don't like it. It must look strange to them - us spending so much time together." He paused. "They're really quite . . . frightening, aren't they?"
She laughed. "This coming from the guy who had a homicidal angel living within him?"
His eyes widened. "Not so loud." He muttered.
"Sorry, it just seems funny that someone like you would be frightened by girls."
"It's not all girls. You don't scare me at all."
"Oh really?" She grinned. "And what makes me so different? Is it because I'm not a stalker?"
"No, that's not it . . . and you are a stalker."
"Am not!" She gasped. He smirked at her and she clenched her fists. "I'm not! If I remember correctly, it was you that found me last night!"
"Oh, you've never stalked me." he said, then paused. " . . . right?"
"Of course not! Now what are you . . ." She stopped and stared at him. "You're talking about Dark . . . aren't you?"
"Well . . ."
She blushed and looked away from him. "Yes, I followed him around, but if memory serves you went far enough to dress up like a girl to capture him. Now who's the stalker?"
To her surprise, he smiled slightly. "I'm surprised you still remember that."
"Well, it's kind of hard to forget . . ." It was too difficult to stay angry with him for long, so she smiled up at him.
"Your sister and Daisuke are taking a long time." He muttered, seeming slightly amused. "I wonder what they expect to happen between us."
"I don't know. Riku's probably waiting for you to confess your undying love to me or something." She chuckled.
"That's very strange." He murmured, then glanced up. "And she's spying on us, too."
"What?" Risa turned in the direction he was looking and, sure enough, she could see the top of Daisuke's pointy hair sticking up from behind one of the booths. She groaned.
"Sorry. I guess she thinks that if we . . . well . . . you know . . . " It was still too awkward to say, but he nodded to show he understood. " . . .that it would mean I was over . . ." She had to swallow before she said his name. "Dark."
"Are you over him?" He asked bluntly. "Oh . . . I-I apologize." He cleared his throat and looked away. "That was rude of me."
She didn't answer him. She couldn't. She couldn't lie to Satoshi, but she couldn't tell him that she still wasn't quite over Dark yet. So she didn't answer his question. Fortunately, she didn't have to. Riku and Daisuke finally came back to the table.
"Took you long enough." Risa muttered.
"Where's the pineapple juice you went after?" Satoshi asked with a smirk. Riku blushed.
"Ahh . . . uh . . . I decided I wasn't that thirsty after all." She sat down. "So, what did you two talk about while we were gone?"
" . . . Dark." Satoshi said. His eyes met Risa's briefly, and she felt her heart speed up. Okay . . . maybe she was getting over Dark . . . slowly.
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Alrighty, not my best chapter, but I promise cuteness is soon to come. Please review. The more reviews I get, the faster I update. Okay . . . that's a lie . . . I update whenever I finish the chapter . . . but still . . . reviews would be pleasant, as they are the only thing that keep me alive. : )