Chapter Four
I carry my lunch out into the indoor garden. The room is amazing. It looks like an indoor jungle, with trees that touch the sparkling glass ceiling above. Humidity lingers in the air creating condensation droplets on my water glass. It feels awkward, yet peaceful, since nobody else is really out here. There is one other person, though. It's Kasane Teto again, from Songwriting. I feel strange wanting to talk to her, because it seems like the team competition has driven us apart already.
I purse my lips, pick up my lunch, and carry it over to where she's sitting. Next to her lap is a small notebook. "Hi, Teto," I say. She gives me a small wave. "Why is nobody else out here?" I ask. She looks down and blinks. Suddenly I wonder if she can talk. "Um, I guess it's just that I'm the only one left," she murmurs, staring through the glass into the sudden climate change between the wintery weather outside and the indoor garden.
"What do you mean, the only one left?" I ask. She turns her head to look at me. Her deep scarlet eyes look so… empty and lifeless.
"The only UTAU, you know. All the UTAUs used to sit out here and eat lunch, away from the Vocaloids, and we would talk, and it would be so nice, and…" she trails off.
"What happened to all the other UTAUs?" I ask, thinking back to Rin's slicing motion during Songwriting.
"They all transferred. It's too hard putting up with Neru bossing us around like a little kid, even though she's the one telling us to grow up," whispers Teto. She flips a page in the notebook.
"Transferred, huh?" I ask, "That's too bad."
"You don't care, do you?"
Her words take me by total surprise. I stop staring at the glass and shift my wide eyes to her sorrowful face. "What do you mean?" I ask, "I never said that!"
"You don't have to say it, Madoka. Nobody does, anyway."
"But why do you think I don't-?"
"Because nobody else does!" Teto half-yells, interrupting me. "I'm sorry, it's just, I can't really trust anyone anymore," she whispers again, putting her head against her knees and wrapping her arms around them. I sit there with her in silence for a couple seconds. Suddenly, the door opens, and Akita Neru stands there with her cell phone in her hand.
"Teto! What you are doing with the competition? You'd better not be helping her write the song!" she yells, walking over to Teto. My eyes widen in total shock as Neru walks up and steps on Teto's notebook. I almost jump up and tackle her, but I'm too frozen to act. Neru's heel scrapes back and forth against the page, tearing it and ruining the notebook. That's it. I stand up and grab the notebook from under Neru's boot.
"Neru! Stop! You can't just do that!" I yell. Teto shakes her head in disbelief.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I can't?" Neru whines, sarcastically, grabbing the notebook from me, "maybe you should go get help from someone in your band!" Neru tilts her head, raises her eyebrows, and tears the entire notebook in half. I drop my jaw in disbelief, and I can feel my fists clenching up. Teto bites her lip, holding back tears.
"Neru, why did you do that?" I ask quietly. Teto doesn't back me up at all, but just lets it happen.
Neru just laughs and flips her hair, ignoring my question. "Neru, why did you do that?" she whines in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. I narrow my eyes. "Wow, Madoka-chan," she says, pouting her bottom lip. My eyes narrow further. "You're even worse than those trash UTAUs that I drove away from this school. Face it. They didn't belong here. And neither do you. You're going to end up with the same fate as them. Watch," she smirks, sliding open her phone.
"Nobody even has Blackberrys anymore!" I call out. I guess it's too late now. The sound of the garden door slamming is already echoing through the room and bouncing off the glass walls. A deafening silence follows. I swear, I could just crush that little-
"It's no use," says Teto, lifting her head up. Her perfect ringlet curls bounce as she does so. "Like she said, you'll just end up with the same fate as them."
"Not if I can do anything about it."