Ch. 9: A Night Out
"Hey guys!" I shouted as I burst into the room, barely able to contain my excitement.
"You seem excited," Deki said in a way that told me he was bored.
"You were messing with their BS game again, weren't you!" I accused.
"Oh yes, shoot me, I'm messing with them."
"You and your fucking mind reading. So fucking gay!" Washi muttered under his breath.
"Oh my fucking god! IT ONLY WORKS FROM LESS THAN A FOOT AWAY!" Deki shouted. "If I could read your mind, I would be able to see your cards by then! Anyway, you have Yumi on your team, and she can actually read facial expressions and body language without being closer than 12 inches to a person!"
"Sheesh, don't have a fucking cow!" Washi shot back.
I listened to their bickering for, oh, about, five seconds before pushing them apart and bellowing, "GUESS WHAT!"
"What!" they snapped back at me, impatient to start arguing again. Kazu 'escorted' Deki to one corner of the room while Yumi dragged Washi to the opposite one.
"First of all, I ban swearing from this room! And second of all, I made plans for tonight!" I announced proudly (1). "And it's a secret where we're going! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to use the bathroom."
I walked across the hallway to the bathroom in the girls' room, did my business, then flopped on a random bed, thinking. An inspiration hit me, so I picked up a pen and grabbed a slim notebook from the pouch hooked to my forehead protector, which was tied around my waist. I scribbled down whatever came to mind, and an hour and a half later, I was finished.
I strode to the other room and pushed open the door. "Hey guys, get ready, we're going OUT tonight!"
"Where?" was the immediate response.
"I already told you. It's a surprise! We're leaving in a few minutes."
"Got it!"
Four minutes later, we met outside of our rooms in the hallway.
I adjusted my hip pouch, now much lighter, containing only a small scroll and the small notebook, then said, "Follow me!"
We raced across the rooftops until I heard the music, singing, and the thumping beat, then dropped to the ground. "SURPRISE!"
"Wow," Yumi said.
"Nice," Kaida commented.
"Cool!" Kazu exclaimed.
"Shit," Deki swore.
"NOOOO!" Washi screamed.
"Oh yes," I smiled darkly. "Come on, let's go in!"
Yumi ended up dragging Washi in through the gates by the collar of his shirt, and we all sat down on either of a pair of facing benches. The park was a large expanse of green grass, insulated from the cool breezes by trees growing thickly around its edges.
I spotted that same cow-like gum-gnawing girl from before, as well as her black-haired companion, and she was still chewing obnoxiously on a piece of gum. The girl standing next to her, the one with the black hair, had on way too much makeup, as well as a flashy low-cut shirt.
"Hey," Deki said, "does that haircut look familiar to you?"
I looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, it was the pineapple ponytail, the bright yellow spikes, the bright pinkette, and… and the irritated expression. They were surrounded by a bunch of other short people, and Iruka was in the middle of the crowd. Looked like it was another field trip. Naruto looked over and spotted us, then waved hi at a furious speed. I caught him glancing at the entrance gate, and saw a team or two of other genin our age entering in. I noticed a sign, then read aloud to the others. "'Rally for all Genin and Genin Teams'. Looks like we chose a good day to come!"
"You mean you chose it?" Washi muttered under his breath.
I ignored him, then started snickering when some girls who looked only a few years older than us passed by our table and started patting Washi on the head like he was an eight year old, younger than Naruto and his friends. He did look like one. I smirked evilly, then said, "Hey Washi, why don't you go upstage and sing something? They can't touch you when you're up there!"
To my surprise, he actually made his way up to the stage, then told the DJ what song to play. As he started, I noticed a baby grand piano at the left of the stage. Perfect.
As Washi started 'singing'… well, let's just say that most people weren't too appreciative of… umm… how do I explain this… loud, tuneless yelling set to a blasting, heavy metal background… yeah… and you could tell that it spectacularly sucked because we were in a park and people on the streets were sending him dirty looks. Sheesh…
While we soothed our bleeding and throbbing ears, Yumi aided us by singing a soft, melodious Japanese lullaby. Washi actually started snoring in the middle of it, so of course I had to smack him, but other than that, Yumi's performance went well. We noticed that a lot of Naruto's friends had come by, and we listened to a duet sung by Sakura and a clear blue-eyed, white-blond-haired girl named Ino. It started very pretty and was going well until Ino accidentally bumped into Sakura, then the performers exploded with cries of 'INO-PIG!' and 'FOREHEAD!'
I finally decided to go up. I took a deep breath and was about to mount the stage when the two girls from before shoved past me and announced they were going to sing a song for Hitoshi. I saw a boy with dark brown hair and dark skin wink back at the two beasts at the mike, and assumed he was Hitoshi when they waved back.
"Yeah, so my name is Kagami," the brown haired gum chewer stated.
"And I'm, like, Kohaku," the other girl with black hair and too much makeup said.
The two started singing at ear splittingly high pitches, which were spaced out with the sound of obnoxious chewing and breathing. During this 'song', the pages of sticker nametags that were being passed around stopped at our benches, and we all filled one out and stuck it on. When the Fearsome Twosome finished, the people outside the park were giving them even dirtier looks than they did to Washi. That was an accomplishment.
I quickly went upstage, shook my head at the expectant DJ, and took a deep breath.
"Hello everybody, I'm Tomoko, and I would like to sing you all a song I wrote myself," I said into the mike at center stage. Pulling out the notebook from where it was secured in my hip pouch, I walked over to the baby grand and adjusted the floor mike. I set the notebook on the music stand and opened it to the right page, then I ran my fingers over the sleek black and ivory keys. My fingers began pushing the keys, then I became lost in the music.
A scraggly tree
Barely survives
A solitary cloud
Floats through the sky
A single person
Surrounded by others.
But he's still alone…
A lonely flower
Grows in a field
A lonesome star
Dully twinkles and shines
And the moon stands alone.
She stands alone…
Just give her a smile
A simple greeting won't take a while
It could make all the difference to him
Or mean the world to her
And if you find yourself standing alone
Or if you see another with a heart like stone
A simple hello can be the spark
That sets the world on fire
A warmth that never tires
Pulls them out of the darkness
And gloom of their souls…
You can be the one…
I continued to sing, going through all the verses, then I softly ended with one more lasting note. I opened my eyes. And I found everyone staring at me with opened mouths. I took it as shock, for Deki had put down his book, Yumi was wide eyed, and Washi had even gone so far as to smack the person next to him out of boredom(2)! I grabbed the notebook then ran to the mike at center stage, said a quick thank you, then dashed back to my seat, willing for someone to start talking. I sat down, then slouched, shrinking down on the bench, then I asked Yumi out of the corner of my mouth, "Can I borrow Washi? I want to burn my notebook."
"What!" Yumi cried. "Why! That was frickin' awesome!"
"But, then, why does everyone look horrified?" I insisted.
"There's a thing called awe," Deki said after finally recovering.
"Oh." I blushed, from both my embarrassment, and also from all the stares giving their attention to me. I sat uncomfortably as the stares only intensified.
"What's your problem, bitch?" Kagami shouted suddenly, flipping me up. "What are you trying to do, get our boyfriends, you slut? Fucking crawl back under that rock you can from, you ugly bitch!" (3)
Her words reverberated in the stillness of the park, echoing back and forth. When it finally died out, I whispered to my companions, "I'm gonna go walk around for a bit." The five of my friends nodded, then I slipped through of the deathly silence still reigning over the area, into the cool, crisp evening breeze blowing around the trees.
I ran blindly, around to the back of the building, jumped onto the roof, then leapt across a few other roofs before slowing down and stopping, leaning against a third story attic wall. I shut my eyes, then opened them after a minute or so of trying to calm my thoughts. I looked up to see a short, blond, wavy-haired boy of my age standing in front of me.
You have been chosen…
The figure looked straight at me with deep blue, piercing eyes, before dissolving into a cloud of mist.
(1) Here strikes Tomoko's policy of no cursing for her or people around her.
(2) From Tomoko's perspective, of course. In actuality, the guy next to Washi was snoring, so he hit him to wake him up. Ironic, no?
(3) And of course, Kagami cannot be civil and knows that Tomoko is better and easier to like than she is, so she makes up any excuse to embarrass Tomoko. Including the groundless accusation of trying to steal their boyfriends, which, in actuality, Tomoko could care less about.