Chapter 4

Rei

Miku waved back at her friend, and mouthed "one second" at her.

To Miku's left, Fuji was chatting with Oishi, Taka, and Eiji.

"So did you guys have to do tounge twisters in English too?" Fuji asked.

"Yeah, we did," Taka and Oishi replied, and Oishi continued: "They were pretty hard."

Fuji started to laugh, and said, "Eiji had a bit of an episode with those." He laughed harder, and Eiji yelled, "Fujikooo!" and shook him.

"Did the one about seashells get you, Eiji?" asked Taka, laughing a bit.

Eiji looked at his feet, and quietly replied, "Hoi…"

Miku, laughing to herself, turned and started walking towards the gate of the court, as Fuji said, still laughing a little bit, "Aha… you're fun to tease, Eiji. But I have to say, the one where you said purple over and over and somehow turned it into something completely different was probably my favorite. I don't know what language you started speaking there."

Exiting the courts, Miku ran up to Rei and gave her a big hug.

"I haven't seen you in forever!" said Miku, and looked her friend in her grey-blue eyes. "What's up?"

Rei leaned closer to Miku and whispered, "I'm in the same class as Momo!" She did a fist pump and giggled. "Are you in the same class as Eiji?"

"Yep!" said Miku. "I sit between him and Fuji!"

"Lucky!" Rei said. "I sit between Momo and Kaoru. It gets a bit rough sometimes, but it's usually fine.

"Hey, can you come over this weekend?" asked Miku. "We can catch up and play with Mochi."

"Hmmm…. Maybe next weekend," said Rei. "I have a swim meet this weekend. But it has to be Saturday, because on Sunday, I have a diving competition."

"Works with me," agreed Miku. "Bye, you little 8th grader!"

Miku was walking to the bike rack to retrieve her bicycle. Today had been a good day; Fuji was in her class again and Eiji was finally in her class. She also got to meet the tennis team, which she had always wanted to do but had been too shy. Miku unlocked her bike and started wheeling it away.

She walked out the gate of Seigaku and turned the corner. Eiji was about 10 feet in front of her, walking home by himself. Miku ran to catch up with him.

"Hey," she said, returning to a normal pace as she finally caught up.

"Hoi," he replied, looking over at her.

"So do you think you're going to make it to the regulars again?" she asked.

"I hope so," said Eiji. "I mean, there are 9 of us and 8 spots for the regulars, so one of us isn't going to make it."

"Yeah," Miku agreed. "That's the downside of it."

"What about you, though?" asked Eiji. "The volleyball team can be fairly large, right?"

"Mmhmm." Miku nodded. "Not too big, though. About 12 people."

"Two squads?"

"Ish, yeah."

They both walked in silence for a bit, and then Miku asked:

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Both. Two older brothers and two older sisters."

"Dang. Hope you have a lot of bathrooms."

Eiji laughed. "Yeah, well, at least I get a room to myself. The other people have to share. What about you?"

"Only child. It's usually just me and my mom, because my dad travels around a lot for work."

Eiji stopped walking.

"Hm? What's wrong?" asked Miku.

"This is my house," said Eiji, pointing to a two story white house.

"Oh. Well, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye!" Eiji said, waving, and he went in his house.

Shutting the front door behind himself and turning around, Eiji found his brother's manically smiling face right in front of his.

"Who was that?" he asked, with a tell-me-tell-me attitude.

"Why do you care, Daisuke?" asked Eiji, squeezing by his oldest brother and starting to climb the stairs. Unfortunately, his second oldest sibling, Tatsuya, was blocking his way.

"I bet it's a girlfriend!" said Hikari, sticking her head in from the kitchen doorway.

"Do you like her?" questioned Eiji's youngest older sibling, Aya, stepping in the hallway from the kitchen.

"Ugh, stop you guys!" Eiji yelled. It was time for the last resort tactic. Eiji backed up a few steps, then ran and jumped, somersaulting over his brother Tatsuya in the stairway, and finally, ran upstairs and into his room. Eiji locked the door and leaned on it, panting.

"Mom, I'm home!" Miku yelled in the general direction of the rest of the house that she wasn't currently present in. There wasn't an answer, so Miku walked into the living room, sat on a couch, and set her backpack down. She sighed.

"Hey, when did you get home?" said her mom, popping in from the next room.

"Just…a second ago…" Miku said. "Didn't you hear me shouting at you?"

Miku's mom shook her head. "Do you have homework?"

"No…okay, so today in class..." Miku started, but her mom started walking away and went into another room.

"Keep talking, I can hear you!" she called from, basically, the other side of the house.

'Uh huh,' Miku thought. 'Exactly like you can hear me when you're using the lawn mower.'

Miku was lying in her bed and thinking about life in general-school, friends, family, and….Eiji. He seemed like a really fun and amazing person from the first time they met, and getting to know him more was the first priority on Miku's list. She'd always admired him, but hadn't really got the chance to meet or talk to him.

Until now.