Plans

It is a dark and gloomy night outside. The wind is blowing, the temperature is cold and the sky is still pure black but only 5 percent of the sky had natural light. It was no doubt that it is way early in the morning. Rarely anybody stays up at this hour, only people who still had to accomplish their priorities or people with night shifts would stay up this late. Mrs. Sakaki is one of those people.

She woke up out of no reason, something was in her mind. She had to do something, but she couldn't put finger on it. She got out of her bed, puts on her sleeping robe and exits her bedroom. Now that she was awake, she should might as well check on the kids. While slowly tip toeing on the floor, she makes her way to Sakaki's door and slowly turns the doorknob, she opens the door as slow as possible that way it doesn't creak when she opens it wide open. The first she checks is where Rono was suppose to sleep in the spare futon. To her surprise, he wasn't there.

She checks on Sakaki next, the thing that surprised her the most was the fact Rono was sleeping next to Sakaki in the same bed! This gave her a memory far before from the current time they were in right now.

"That reminds me." She said.

Flashback...

After Sakaki got back from Rono's sleepover, she explained the whole "forgotten futon" situation to her mother. Things didn't seem to go as planned before she even went to the sleepover in the first place, she bowed to always get prepared for any upcoming events. Especially in special occasions like these.

"You what!"

"I forgot my futon." Sakaki said

"Then how did you sleep over there?"

"I slept in one of the beds." Sakaki added

"Oh, well that's good. Who's which bed did you sleep in anyways?"

"In Rono's."

"What! Where did Rono sleep on?"

"In his bed, I just slept beside him."

"Really, did anything happen during your sleep."

"Yeah, he hugged me while he was asleep." She smiled.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah."

A few seconds of silence occurred between the two. Mrs. Sakaki felt shocked and confused at the same time, she was worried that something else happened between the two during that. So she asked her daughter a question.

"Sakaki...how did you feel...when that happened."

Sakaki began to think for a minute, all she could describe was the warm and happy feeling she had. It wasn't anything bad at all, nothing about that hug made her uncomfortable.

"I felt...happy...it was the first time someone has ever hugged me besides the people in my family."

"Did anything else happened during that, did he touch you anywhere which made you feel uncomfortable?"

"No mommy."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes mommy."

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise!" She said cheerfully as she wrapped her pinky around her mother's.

It's very unlikely for Sakaki to be this happy, thank you Rono for making my daughter the happiest girl in this house. He's such a good kid! Mrs. Sakaki thought.

Flashback ends...

"Still the same Rono as back then, just with a hint of amnesia I guess." She said quietly.

She looks over at Sakaki's face as she finds her with a smile without showing teeth on her face.

She really is happy isn't she? She thought.

She covers both of the teens up with the blankets on their bodies and then she leaves the two to continue their long and relieving slumber.

Next morning...

The sun finally rose up to the sky where it is now morning, the birds are singing, the fresh morning air finally invades the air, the breeze lightly blows through the streets enough to give people a little bit of a chill. One of the only people that woke up from sleeping at the time were Mr. Sakaki and Mrs. Sakaki. Both of them had something they had to do. The mom had to make bentos for both Sakaki and Rono, the dad of course had to go to work; he has to go to the hospital since he is a forensic pathologist.

Now we go take a look at the sleeping teens in the same bed. The first who starts to wake up is Rono. He slowly opens his eyes and waits until his eyes adjust a bit. He feels his arms wrapping around something, it wasn't a pillow or anything. It wasn't just something in his arms, but it's a person his arms. It was Sakaki of course, he moves his arms away but he had trouble doing so. Just from a little movement from his arms caused Sakaki to wake up.

She slowly opens her eyes and starts to feel her arms wrapped around something. Again, it wasn't a "something" but a someone. She looks to find out who it was and it is the only one who's in the room with was Rono. Sakaki blushes bright pink on her face when she realizes what she was doing right now. She starts to remember what happened last night. Rono was the one who hugged her in the first place so it wasn't her fault. Although, she is the one who gave him a hug in return.

"Good morning." He said in a whispered tone.

"G-good morning." She said as she blushed hard.

"It seems I have been toss and turning around in my sleep and somehow ended up hugging you in the process."

"Y-yeah, you were."

"I'm very sorry Sakaki! I don't know why I always do that every time I sleep, I hope I didn't prevent you from sleeping!" He said as he got out of the bed to stand up and bow in apology.

"Oh no! Don't worry I slept very soundly before you even you hugged me." She lied, she would never of slept if Rono hadn't hugged her that night.

"Okay, but still I'm sorry. We should go downstairs to eat breakfast now, there's school today!"

"We have to change first." She said in her now calm voice.

"Oh right!" He said as he rubs the back of his head.

Rono goes to the cabinet where his uniform was at and grabs it. He places it down and removes the pants of his pajamas on the spare futon he was suppose to sleep on last night. The thing he didn't know was that your not suppose to change into your clothes when someone is literally behind you, especially in front of a girl. Sakaki looked at him with surprise and blushes profusely when she finds out he's changing in front of her.

"Rono, what are you doing!"

"What do you think I'm doing, I'm changing into my uniform."

"But why in front of me!"

"I want to eat, I'm hungry. This is the quickest way to get ready after all. What's so bad about changing into your clothes in front of someone anyways?"

Sakaki stuck in shock, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Never in her life has she seen a boy change into his clothes. It all ended shortly as he finished up.

"Come on we have to change into our uniforms."

He leaves the room, goes through the hallway and walks down the stairs to the kitchen. He meets Mrs. Sakaki on the way, he greets her as she starts to prepare the breakfast for them.

"Good morning Mrs. Sakaki!" He said in a cheerful tone.

"Oh you scared me a little there Rono, good morning to you!" She got surprised for a bit, but her spirits went up as she found out it was him.

"Oh let me help you prepare the food."

"Thank you." She said in return.

As he helps her out, he checks on every plate to see what was on the menu for today at the Sakaki residence. His grumbled as he checks every plate. On the menu is white rice, rolled up scrambled egg, bacon and 3 sausages and for his drink was orange juice. This is certainly going to be a delicious breakfast. Before he could even eat, he decided to wait for Sakaki to come down. A few minutes of silence occurred, Mrs. Sakaki broke the silence.

"Rono, what do you think of Sakaki?" She questioned him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what do you think of her as?"

He thought this out in his head, she had always thought of her as a very nice person. However she was very pretty to her when she first saw her the first day. As soon they both began to know each other better, that feeling began to fade away. Now he sees her as a sister he never had.

"She's a really good friend, but sometimes I see her as the sister I never had." He blushed as he said this.

"Really? Let me ask you something, have you ever had this feeling that you have somehow...known her before...sometime in your...childhood?"

Rono surprised by this knew that this was in fact true. Ever since the first day he came to school, he kept on having these kind of feelings. The nostalgia gets even stronger every day. The only time he feels this is whenever he hangs out with Sakaki, it is strange indeed.

"Now that you mention it, I have. But that can't be true, I know that in my childhood that I was always alone."

"Well, someday you'll find out what really happened." She said.

What!? He thought.

He became baffled from this statement, he tried figuring out what she meant by this. Both of them heard footsteps coming down the stairs, it was Sakaki coming back down for breakfast. She walks through the hallway, opens the door to the kitchen and smells the aroma in it. Her stomach grumbles because of the hunger she now has.

"Good morning mom, good morning Rono."

"Good morning." They both said in return upon the same time.

She sits down on the chair by the table and looks at Rono for a bit and smiles. In return he smiles back. Both of them begin to eat their breakfast, but before they do that, they have to give their thank yous.

"Thank you for the food." They both said as they press their hands together.

They both finally eat the delicious food made from Mrs. Sakaki. When finished, they would go upstairs to brush their teeth first. After that, they go downstairs once again and make it to the front door. Rono and Sakaki say goodbye to Mrs. Sakaki and exit the building and the fences and off to school they go.

The two walk over to Chiyo's house to wait for her so they can all walk with each other to school. Sakaki presses on the intercom of the house.

"Is Chiyo there?"

Took a minute for someone to answer, but after that there was someone who answered her back.

"Yes I am, I'll be there in a minute!"

The gates opened on her command, when the gates were halfway opened, the front door opened as well. The pig-tailed girl came running up to the gate.

"Sorry guys, did you wait long?"

"No, we just got here." Rono said

"I'm glad."

"To school we go!" Rono said with his fist up in the air.

Just as they said, next destination was to go to school. The beautiful and radiant morning sun covered everything with warm temperature. Usually it would be very hot in the morning, but for today it is the perfect temperature to start out a great morning. The fresh morning air had once again filled up everyone's lungs to cause them to get relieved on how the day ahead of them will turn out. It starting to turn out to be a great morning if you asked anyone who was on the spot.

Silence just filled between the three for the past few minutes. It got all silent as they walked passed Rono's apartment building. All the noise there is were the now driven automobiles in the streets. After a while, Chiyo couldn't take the awkwardness between the three of them and decided to break the silence with a question she had.

"Hey Rono, I have a question for you." Said the curious girl.

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" He replied back.

"Did you wake up early today?"

"No I haven't, I woke up today at the same time as I always do."

"Really. Then how did you come over my house to pick me up with Miss Sakaki?"

"Oh that! Me and Sakaki slept with eachother!" As he said this, it caused Sakaki to blush. She hoped Chiyo didn't get the wrong idea, most likely not because she is still a 10 year-old girl.

"What! Really! How come?"

"Well, remember the day when I fell on my head which caused me to have a wound? Sakaki's parents wanted to thank me for letting her stay over at my house so she could take care of me. So they offered me to stay at their house for the night in return!"

"Wow that's so cool, I want to stay over at Miss Sakaki's house too! Although, there's something else that still doesn't make sense."

"Like what?" Sakaki said as she joined in the conversation.

"Like the reason why you guys didn't show up yesterday to walk home with me, Miss Yomi, Miss Osaka and Tomo."

"Oh that. It's a long story, I'll tell you when we cross this street." They all crossed street as the walk signal blinked beside the stop light.

"Alright, right after when p.e ended, Sakaki and I became tired after competing with each other on volleyball."

"But we were just doing drills." Chiyo said.

"Well, we forgot about it at the time." He said while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Anyways, we both went to the vending machines in the middle of the school to get juice. We hung out for a while there while we were drinking our juice. It took a while for us to actually look at the time. Turns out we came back in two hours. It got dark when we were halfway to my house, so I decided to walk Sakaki home. Suspicious stuff can happen when you're outside at night by yourself you know." He informed.

"Really, like what?" Chiyo asked in a troubled state.

"Let me see... there could be some strange creatures lurking behind you." This statement caused Chiyo to squeal. However for Sakaki, she knows that this isn't true whatsoever.

"That's when my mom told me at least when I was little."

Sakaki's eyes immediately widened with surprise.

"Wait, you remember what happened back then!?" She exclaimed.

"No, strangely that's the only thing I remember from back when I was little."

She got her hopes up but it soon all came back down, but this is a sign that Rono is starting to remember little by little, piece by piece, fragment by fragment of his memory each in a few days. If he's lucky, he could remember all of that very soon. The question Rono had in his mind is what was keeping him from remembering everything from back then.

"We're almost there." Rono said.

Questions began to develop inside Sakaki's head while Rono and Chiyo walked to school cheerfully. When they finally got there, the first thing to do there was to put on the school Uwabakis and leaving the their own shoes in the locker. All of them climbed upstairs to the 4th floor of the school and went to the homeroom class. The first thing they looked at is the area where Yomi, Tomo and Osaka sat. The three girls were sitting down with three desks facing eachother. All but Osaka were talking, she seemed to be spacing out the whole time.

Rono, Sakaki and Chiyo walked up to them and brought up three desks close by. Then, the new conversation commences.

"How was the homework?" Asked Tomo.

"Pretty easy I can say, The Tales of Two Cities is one of my favorite books after all.." Rono the first to reply back.

"Well of course, you lived in America. You probably already know this stuff anyways. Hey now that we're talking about homework, can I copy yours? I forgot to do mine."

"Tell her no, she never does her homework." Yomi said.

"How'd you know, we're you two friends before?" Rono asked.

"Yes we were, we knew each other since kindergarten. She may be a pain in the butt most of the time, but we're still friends somehow."

"Hey! You're making it sound like a bad thing!"

"Didn't really mean to make it as a good thing in the first place." Yomi whispered.

"What did you say!" Tomo yelled.

The idea of the homework due that day triggered Chiyo.

"Oh no! I forgot to do that homework assignment!"

"What, why?" Rono asked.

"I had to go to the veterinarian with Mr. Tadakichi."

"Who's Mr. Tadakichi?"

Everybody had the same question in their minds.

"It's my pet dog."

"Oh, was there anything wrong with him?" Rono said.

"No, it's just his monthly check-up he had to get."

The school bell rang which caused the conversation to come to an end. Everyone began sit back down to their assigned seats, as for the group they had to put back the desks where they were and then go back. Everyone remembered that Ms. Yukari would not be there for today. The door opened up the next minute, someone came inside the classroom and walked up to the chalk board. There stood a big and tough looking guy. He looked like he was in his 30's, he has black hair and had a tall posture. The moment he turned around, he gave an intimating glare which gave people the chills. It gave a clue that this is the substitute Yukari was talking about the other day. He doesn't look like he would be an easy going substitute, but a strict one. Rono didn't get why everyone looked so scared at the time, he saw him as any other person. The substitute quickly turned around to face the class.

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mr. Kishimoto. I will be the subsitute for this class today. First up, take out your homework from last night. Those of you who didn't finish the homework, come up here! Your not going to get away with this today!"

The students then stood up from their desks and proceeded to walk up including Tomo, Chiyo and surprisingly Tod! He walks close to Rono commenting this.

"What do you think he'll do to us?"

"Don't know to be honest."

"Maybe he's going to put you in the incinerator of the school." Osaka commented.

"I don't think that's even a punishment, more like torture." Tod replied back.

As Chiyo and Tod stood by the chalk board with the other students, the first thing the subsitute did is to get a newspaper, roll it up, and hit the students on the head lightly.

"I expect completed assignments from you all!"

"Yes sir!" They all said.

The last one to get hit was Chiyo, Mr. Kishimoto didn't see anyone at first but as he looked down, he found the little pig-tailed girl.

"Well...well I uh..guess I was...maybe a little bit careless and I was really planning on doing it all I really was! I-I just forgot to!"

Mr. Kishimoto felt bad for the little girl, but instead he hits her softly on her forehead. The students who got hit from the substitute found this unfair and said this in their heads.

Pedophile.

Everyone walked back to their assigned seats and sat down quietly. After that the assignment for the day were some study guides that Yukari created before she went off whatever she was doing now. As always, Yukari lets her students work and study in groups. The reason for the study guides is because there will be a test the next day. Tod was the first to ask Rono to be his partner, he needs help on some of the questions. Rono turns his head to his left to ask Sakaki if it was alright for him to be Tod's partner for this time, she nods to the question. The two boys leave to a different pair of desks, as for Sakaki, she has to find a partner. If she couldn't, then she will have to work by herself. Tomo, Yomi, Chiyo, and Osaka already have paired up with each other. Luckily for her, someone asks her by surprise.

"Miss Sakaki?"

"Hm? Oh it's you Kaorin."

"Is it okay if... I can be your partner?"

"Sure." She replied back.

The tall and calm girl is finally relieved, she has a nice and caring partner. For Kaorin, she felt as if she were in heaven the whole time when ever she's with Sakaki. After a whole thirty minutes of studying, Rono looks out over where Sakaki sits at and stares at her for a minute. He also feels relieved when she is all calm and happy, same with those that he holds dear. Soon he snaps out of it as Tod snaps with his fingers.

"Hehe, caught you staring at her. Do you have a thing for her."

"Tod, have you ever had the urge of knowing more about the people you hold dear the most?"

"What do you mean by that, you mean the girls?"

"Yeah." He says as he stares at the group with his hand on the desk holding the side of his face tilting to the right.

"Just to make things clear, haven't you had any friends before?"

"Nope, not a sing one since I has just a little kid."

"Damn really? Well, let me tell you this. The point of friends is to know more about each other a little better, that way you can all have a great time whenever you hang out."

"Now is that true?"

The lunch bell rings...

"Well that should be enough studying for now, next period is History." Rono says.

"Sadly, it won't be a normal class anyways."

"Right, well, see you later Tod."

"Later."

Rono puts the desk back in place and walks over to his now empty desk. Sakaki takes out her bento, same with Rono. They both eat peacefully as they face each other. Just one look that they give to each other and they chuckle.

"Sakaki, may I ask you something."

"Yeah what is it?" She said.

"Do you want to hang out after school tomorrow at the mall? I'm also inviting the others too though."

"Sure, what made you decide that?" She said surprised at the request.

"I want to know you all a little better, and also have a bit of fun with all of you too!"

"Alright."

"I'll ask the girls right now."

He walks over to Yomi, Tomo, Chiyo and Osaka to ask them. All except Chiyo were eating the the food from the cafeteria by their desks.

"Hey guys, can I ask you all something?"

"Sure what's up?" Yomi replied back.

"Are you all free after school tomorrow?"

"I am, I don't know about the others."

"Yes we are Rono." Said Chiyo, Tomo and Osaka.

"Why?" They all asked.

"I want to get to know all of you better, I had the curiosity of finding out what kind of people you all are. So I'm deciding on inviting you all for ice cream and maybe we can go to the mall to walk around or something.

"Free ice cream? I'm in!" Tomo said as she has her fist in the air.

"Sounds like fun!" Chiyo said.

"Yeah, what about you Osaka?" Yomi asked Osaka.

"Yeah sounds like a lot of fun." Said the almost spaced out girl.

"Great, it'll be a lot of fun! Although, the first thing we have to do before all of that is to study hard for our first test!" Rono said.

"Right!" They all said.

"I don't know about Tomo though, how did she even get to this high school in the first place?"

"Hey!" Tomo yelled.

So after a slightly uncomfortable class with Kimura, Rono and the others walked out of the school, through the gates and off to their house they go. Questions then develop in Yomi's head as to why Sakaki and Rono weren't with them the last time they all walked home. The first thing she looked at were Rono and Sakaki themselves. She can see a pink shade around Sakaki's cheeks, it is obvious that she is blushing towards something. Yomi noticed that the two were certainly close to one another, right beside each other, and thus the questions begin to roll in.

"Hey Sakaki, I have always wondered; why weren't you with us the last time we walked home together?" Yomi asked.

"Uh." Sakaki said unsure what to say.

"Oh that, that is going to be a long story to tell to you all. However Chiyo already knows what was going on." Rono said.

"Really when did you tell her?!" Tomo exclaimed.

"This morning." Chiyo said.

"Is the information top secret?" Osaka asked.

"Not exactly, but it's something we have to clear things up between all of us." Rono replied to Osaka.

Then once again, he explained the whole situation from the day before just like with Chiyo in the morning. Surprised faces appeared during the explanation the whole time. Yomi, Tomo, Osaka and even Sakaki blushed when it came to the part when Rono slept with Sakaki in the same bed. Of course Tomo asked if he did anything weird to Sakaki when they were sleeping, of course he didn't.

"It must be a romantic moment for you two." Osaka said.

"Don't really know much about the word 'romantic' but I guess you can call it like that!" Rono said with a happy expression.

They all had more questions about the 'sleeping in the same bed' situation, but the only problem was when they saw Sakaki looking at the ground in a slight shade full of red on her face. It would be better for them to not say anything else about it.

"It's getting dark, we should head home a bit faster don't you think?" Rono informed.

"Yeah...we should." Said the stuttering Sakaki.

Just like everyday, Yomi, Tomo and Osaka split up to go to their neighborhood where their houses are located. The only ones that were now together are Rono, Sakaki and Chiyo.

"It's been a day since I've been to my house, I kind of miss it." He says as they got closer to Rono's apartment building.

"I'm tired now all of a sudden *yawns* see you all tomorrow."

"See you Tomorrow." They both said at the same time to him.

"Wait that reminds me."

He walks over to the both and asks them a question he forgot to ask when that were walking.

"Is it okay if I ask you two for your phone numbers? Just in case if any future plans change or if we want to talk with each other over the phone and stuff."

"Sure." Sakaki replied.

"I can't, I don't have a phone sadly." Chiyo said in a sad expression

"Oh well, tell me right away when you do get a phone okay?"

"Okay."

Rono gives his phone to Sakaki so she can put in her number on the contacts list. (At this period, people still use flip phones!) She gives it back to Rono with the Sakaki's phone number. He opens up the messenger application to test out if it works or not. When the message is sent, Sakaki takes out her phone to check the message.

Is Sakaki there? -Rono

She texts him back with a message.

Yes, I'm right here Rono. -Sakaki

Turns out that they have the right number after all.

"Alright all set up. Have a safe trip back home and you two." Rono said.

"Alright, good bye!"

He goes up the stairs of the building and opens the lock of his apartment. He takes a shower first, eats after and then he brings his stuff into his room and starts to study with just the lamp turned on. After an hour of studying, he turns off the lamp, goes on his bed and sleeps soundly after a tiring day of school.