Test day

A new day has finally started and also a new event has started for everyone in school, it is finally their first test day. Those who studied are the ones with pure confidence. Those who didn't are going to have a tough time figuring out the answers for the test. Sakaki woke up slowly, she wanted to sleep for five more minutes but soon remembered what day was it today. It is the first day for her test in Highschool, it is also the day when she and her friends are going to hang out after school. The tall girl of the group quickly grabbed her phone to text her first friend she had ever had. Rono never said anything where they were going to meet when he announced the event to all. She starts to text him a message while in the bed still covered from her bed sheets.

(Bolded text with the name is said in messenger app.)

When are we going to meet? -Sakaki

She starts to wait for his reply but she highly doubts that he'll answer back this early. In a few, he answers back with a reply.

Hey Sakaki. -Rono

How's your morning? -Rono

Good so far, where are we meeting? We have to go home to change out of our school uniforms after school first. -Sakaki

Rono lies down in his bed still covered in his sheets texting her friend. He thinks about the place they are going to meet, he wants them all to meet by his house. The thing is that he thinks about is that his house is a bit farther away from where Yomi, Tomo and Osaka live. He is a bit unsure at this point.

Idk -Rono

Let's decide when we get back to school Rono. -Sakaki

Okay. See you by Chiyo's house! -Rono

They both close their phones, get out of their beds and go to their closets to change into their uniforms. Sakaki goes downstairs to the kitchen where her mom is making breakfast for her with Sakaki's bento for lunch at the table. As for Rono, he cooks his breakfast on two pans on the left side with two stoves. For the other two on his right, he cooks up his bento for lunch. They both leave for school and they walk to Chiyo's house to meet each other.

At Chiyo's house...

The two walk to the planned destination where they planned to meet. Sakaki was first to make it there, she lives just a block away from Chiyo. Rono took a while since he was cooking two things at the same time. Walking in a hurry hoping to not arrive after Chiyo comes out of the house, he finds Sakaki outside of her house looking at her phone appearing to be texting, most likely him. Before she sends the message, Rono walks over behind her quietly to scare her a bit. Until he gets the message and looks in his inbox.

Are you coming? -Sakaki

Rono decides to text her back by saying this.

Look behind you... -Rono

Shocked at this reply, she decides to look behind her but something happens. Someone touches both of her shoulders.

*Sakaki gasps*

"Hey Sakaki." Rono said.

"Rono!" Sakaki said in surprise.

"Did I make it in time, Sakaki?"

"Yeah but more importantly, why did you scare me like that!?"

"Well I couldn't help myself I guess." He chuckles as he rubs the back of his head.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped. Anyways, have you decided where we will meet at after school?" Sakaki said.

"I was thinking outside of my house but it seems to be far from where the others live. So I am still thinking about it."

"You should really think through your plans before even announcing them." She said with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Well, don't worry about it, we'll discuss it with the others at school." She said in a happy expression.

"Right!"

The gates finally open from Chiyo's house, the little girl was already by the other side of the gate from the inside. She then gets surprised when she finds Rono and Sakaki right outside of the gate waiting for her.

"Oh good morning Mr. Rono and Miss Sakaki!"

"Morning." Said both Rono and Sakaki.

"Ready for the test today Chiyo?" Rono asked the little girl.

"Yeah! I studied hard last night!"

"Right on!" He said as Chiyo giggled.

Just a giggle from a little girl caused Sakaki to blush because of the cuteness.

While Rono, Sakaki and Chiyo walk to school, Yomi, Tomo and Osaka already made it to class before them. They live closer to Cherry Blossom High School, it is just 2 blocks closer. The location where both Tomo and Yomi live are actually close! Tomo just lives across the street from Yomi's house. Sometimes at night, Tomo goes to Yomi's backyard and knocks on her window to get inside so she can hang out with her if she were still awake. If Yomi accepts, she opens the window even though she doesn't want to. Besides, it can't be helped can it? However for Osaka, she lives farther away from the two. If she's lucky during the morning, she can somehow find them walking to school.

Now in the homeroom class, Yomi, Tomo and Osaka are found with three desks facing in a single group. As usual, Osaka is found spacing around and the other two start talking.

"I can't wait for the free ice cream Rono is gonna give us!" Tomo exclaimed.

"Can you please stop jumping around you're causing a scene." Yomi scolded Tomo.

"Sorry, can't help it."

"Is there ever going to be a time where you act normal, that's the reason why boys don't ever catch their eye on you."

"Hey now that we're talking about boys, haven't things between Sakaki and Rono becoming strange all of a sudden?"

"Now that you mention it, they have! Besides with the sleeping in the bed incident, they've gotten a lot closer recently. Do they have feelings for each other?"

"I highly doubt it if we're talking about Rono, but for Sakaki, we barely even know anything about her. Looks like the whole hanging out thing really is something good."

"Yeah but..."

Yomi is then stopped by Osaka commenting on something.

"Maybe they have known eachother way long ago."

Surprised expressions had shown on Yomi and Tomo's faces. It is the first time that Osaka said something that makes sense and reasonable.

"What made you think that Osaka?" Yomi asked.

"Oh no, I was just saying what was in my head." Osaka smiled.

"Well, even Osaka has a point. It also believe able too, just like the way Sakaki acts differently around Rono and also how much time they hang out with each other! We should ask them just to make sure."

"Yeah good idea but..."

"But what?"

"Rono doesn't know what occurred in his childhood life in Japan. So, it's better if we ask Sakaki first."

"Then it's set." Tomo ended the conversation at last.

Just shortly, Sakaki and the others finally made it to the class. The first thing they did was greet their friends that were sitting in a group of three. For today, each one of them sat by themselves so they can study a bit before the test. That way they can refresh their minds a little, even though they already know the answers by memory. After a while, Rono did not feel like studying anymore. He then look over to his left find Sakaki studying exactly the way he had studied on the vocabulary part.

She studies exactly how I do...what a coincidence. Rono thought.

After seconds, Sakaki immediately noticed Rono looking over at her.

"Um, what is it Rono?" She asked.

"Oh nothing, you seem to study the same way I do on the vocabulary part." He responded back.

"Isn't that right?" She said in a lowered voice.

Flashback...

It took place sometime in the evening, the sun had just a few hours to set. This memory took place after school from elementary school. Of course, Sakaki and Rono had the same school and class they attended to. The young boy came over to her house so they could study for the upcoming test the next day. At this age, he knew exactly how to study the right way. All by taking notes, sometimes flash cards and even reviewing some of the books he had to read from school. The kid was a huge bibliophilic before he met Sakaki. In other people's eyes, he looked like a highly intelligent kid, even though he is.

Sakaki had a bit of trouble with her academics on some subjects. Sometimes she would get B's and A's which isn't bad at all, but she knows that she can do even better by getting straight A's. At the time, Rono was the smartest of the two. So she asked him for help and advice on how can she improve her academic skills, especially when it comes to memorizing words along with its definition.

"Hey Rono."

"What is it?" He asked.

"You're smart at every subject right?"

"I guess so, why?"

"Could you help me how to study the right way and also how to memorize the words easier?"

"Okay, there really isn't a right way to study. It all depends on how the person wants to study."

"Really, oh well." She looked half depressed to the response."

"Actually I do know another easier way to study with every subject and vocabulary, it will take some time but it'll be worth it." He smiled which causes her to smile in relief.

Rono gave her the biggest and most useful tips in her life. For vocabulary importantly, he recommended he to first know all the words from part by part. Then after she is done with that, he says remember the words by order without looking at the paper and find the definition. This gave her an easier time with her academics in school, and thus, the result has given her her natural academic school even on present day!

Flashback ends...

Thanks to you, I got to achieve some of my goals. She thought.

Before they knew the school bell rang, everyone sat back down to their assigned seats and waited patiently for their homeroom teacher to arrive. Shortly, Ms. Yukari got inside with the tests in hand. She puts the stack of paper on her desk and greeted everyone.

"Good morning class, we will take the test right away after I take attendance."

She did so by calling out everyone's names on the attendance sheet. After that, she goes around to give people the test. Before anybody answered a question from the test, Yukari commented to the whole class.

"I really hope you all studied this past few days here, otherwise you won't be happy with your grade."

Right after, everyone started the test quietly. The test wasn't all that hard in the first place. All it had were a few questions of 'Who said this quote?' and 'What do these words mean?' Most of the students in the class felt confident with their answers, while some didn't study at all. Later everyone got finished with the test, it was easy due to the amount of chapter they had read.

Yukari then collected the tests from her students. She walks up to her desk with the tests in hand and quietly corrects them that way she wouldn't have to grade them during the weekend. Due to this, she lets everyone with free time until class ends. Right before class ended, Sakaki quickly asked Rono if he knew where to meet after school for the mall. He then replied that he was still thinking about. The answer would have to come during P.e. At last, the school bell rang, every person in the classroom went downstairs to the locker rooms for P.e.

The temperature outside was fairly hot today, which meant it is still summer. Well for this month, next month will be autumn. We have a very long month until Fall hits Tokyo. For P.e, the students will now officially play volley with an actual court. Which meant people would have to form teams, it will result in team versus team. The downfall of this is that the number of members per team is two.

This time for teams are paired up as Sakaki with Rono, Yomi with Tomo, Kaorin with Chiyo, Tod with Osaka. All was going fine until people found out that Rono got paired up with Sakaki. For people who wanted to play competitive should might as well give up now because with a team with Sakaki, it's practically impossible to beat her team. She is highly known for her natural athletic ability, even with out giving it her all, she still beats them all! What people don't know, is that Rono was highly know for his athletic ability in middle school back in America. It may not look like it but they'll have to see it with their own eyes to believe it. Now that we have that out of the way, let's continue with the first game with Sakaki and Rono.

First game is Sakaki and Rono versus Yomi and Tomo. Right when Yomi when got on the court with the opponents on the other side of the net, she glanced over on who the team was and then without hesitation she walks away.

"Hey where do you think your going!" Tomo shouted.

"There's no point on playing if there's a team like that." Yomi responded.

"So your giving up?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Tomo grunted as Yomi walked away, then it hit her.

"Well at least I'm not fat as a sumo wrestler."

As Yomi heard this from afar, she runs down to her with eyes full of fury.

"What-did-you-say-To-mo." She said angrily.

"Oh nothing, just saying how BIG your chubby stomach is!"

"That's it, I've had it you!"

Rono and Sakaki couldn't believe what they were witnessing, two friends talking trash to each other. Otherwise, it's still normal anyways. Now that things had calmed down a bit, the game finally started as Tomo was the first to serve the ball. Tomo thought this would a "piece of cake", turns out, she was wrong. Sakaki would always hit the ball to the other side, same with Rono. The thing that surprised people who were watching them the most is how Rono smashes the ball to the other side very hard and swiftly. This gave other people a good impression of his athletic skills. In reality, he never worked out to get his skills but he only worked out so he could get fit. Although just to loose most of the fat but not to get much muscle.

"I can't believe this, how can Rono be that quick. It like he some kind of super human." Tomo said.

"Or maybe he could actually be a cyborg." Osaka said with her finger pointed up.

After the whole game, the group went back to their homeroom to complete a few other tests from other subjects. It gave them a little bit of stress, but it soon melted all away as the school bell rang. Now what was left to do that day is to go to the mall. The only problem with this is, where are they going to meet. Since waking up, Rono still hasn't decided where to meet before the mall.

As most of the girls in the group got inside to the girls locker room building, Rono was stopped by someone. It was the tall dark-haired girl Sakaki, she stopped him by grabbing his hand looking at the ground. The reason why he was stopped by her was because she had to ask something really important to him.

"Huh? Oh it's you Sakaki, what's up?"

"Have you decided what place to meet at before we go to the mall?"

"Oh, uh...ill tell you all before we leave. Make sure to tell the others to wait for me at the school gates, I'll tell you where we'll meet!" He said as he ran down to the boy's locker room building.

In the girl's locker room...

In the room, the air surprisingly smells fresh than the boy's locker room. Although the girls were covered in sweat, due to the heat of the weather. However, for some of the girls who tried their all during P.e are tired out. Almost every girl in the room said the exact words anyone would say after a tiring day.

"When I get home, I'm going to take a long and soothing bath right away!" Says almost every girl.

Some of those girls that didn't said those exact words decide to take a shower instead. Those girls are Yomi, Tomo, Osaka, Chiyo and Sakaki.

"Hey Yomi, you do you know where we'll meet after school before we go to the mall?" Asked Tomo.

"How will I know, wait..now that I think about it, Rono hasn't told any of us where to meet."

"Should we ask him before he leaves?" Chiyo asked.

"Rono is told me to tell you all to wait for him at the gates." Sakaki said.

"Yeah, we should hurry though." Tomo said.

"Why?" Chiyo asked.

"Boys change into their clothes faster than girls, plus they also pee faster." Tomo said in a straight face.

"TOMO, DON'T TALK ABOUT THAT STUFF IN FRONT OF CHIYO!" Yomi yelled out.

In the boy's locker room...

Rono is just about finished changing into his clothes, all he has left is to put on his socks and uwabakis. Tod is beside him still changing into his uniform, he sees something odd about Rono. He looks a bit confused about something. It could be about something about where to meet but there's something else that's been bothering him the whole day. The fact that the image of the park in his previous dream is indeed real. The swings are exactly the same, it had the same landscape, the same location of trees and even the same pair of swings. On those swings had the mysterious girl who didn't show her face because it was too dark.

"Hey Rono."

Rono quickly turns around to find Tod right beside him. He now had his uniform on with his suitcase and everything else.

"Something bothering you?" Tod asked in a confused state.

"I-it's nothing."

"Alright, see you on Monday!" He walks away and thinks to himself.

Finally, the weekend has finally come. He thought.

Rono stands up from the bench, walks over to the exit of the building and makes his way to the school gates. First thing he does is to go to the lockers for his outside shoes. He opens it up, takes out his shoes, puts his uwabakis back in the locker then until Monday it will be used again. Last, he put his outside shoes on and finally gets out of the school. In front of him, his friends are found talking to each other by the school gates. Walking towards them, they immediately look at his direction to find him waving at them. As he walks closer, one of the girls blurted out something.

"Hey how come you took so long, are you actually a girl all along." Tomo exclaimed.

"Keep that up and you'll be the one without ice cream." Rono replied back which now caused Tomo to gasp.

"I'm sorry! Please forgive me almighty Rono!" She begs as she is worshipping him.

"Don't worry, I'm only kidding hehe."

"Really, grr." Says the angry Tomo.

"Anyways...we forgot to ask you. Where are we meeting?" Yomi asked.

A moment of silence has once again occurred after the question. The girls were curious what made him silent for a minute there. The quiet moment finally broke as he replied back with the location.

"I...was thinking about meeting...at the park." As he said this, he looks at the ground.

"Which one?" Sakaki asked.

"You know...the park we pass by every day."

"Oh that one, I remember it very well." Osaka said.

"Probably because we pass by it every day Osaka." Yomi told Osaka.

"Alright, we meet at what time?"

"4 o' clock." He said.

"Okay, then it's set!"

They all began walking to their houses with each other just like every day. The last thing that was different during the walk was the fact Rono looked at the park oddly. Nobody noticed but Yomi herself, she really began to suspect that Rono and Sakaki might of potentially known each other back then.

Just like any person would do before an event, they all went home to take a shower immediately. Everyone but Chiyo have told their parents a day before the event starts. Reason why is because Chiyo didn't have a phone, her parents already told her that she would get one as she turns at least twelve or thirteen. In her eyes, being the child prodigy in high school can blow.

Rono took the quickest shower than the others. He dried himself up then he puts on his everyday clothes for the first time this week! After all of that studying, he still had his uniform on! After finishing, he goes out his door, down the stairs of the apartment an then he makes his way to the park that's just five blocks away from his house. It takes usually at least 15-20 minutes to get their from his house.

Finally he's at the quiet and lonely park. It did not seem anybody was there at the time. It turns out that he's the only one who was at the park, not to mention that he was twenty minutes earlier than the time he had planned. So he explored the park a bit by walking around. There really wasn't anything eye catching beside the fact that there was beach only two minutes away and a long walk way around from the park to the beach. All there was is just a slide, monkey bars, a geometric dome, a merry-go-round and finally last but not least is a pair of swings.

After exploring a bit, he checks on his phone just to as 15 minutes have past since then. He decided to kill some time by sitting on one of the pair of swings. As he gets closer to it, something starts to develop in his heart. Something that makes you feel very uneasy as if somehow something is going to happen next. When sat down he soon became lost in his thoughts. Without knowing what been happening outside in the real world. He was daydreaming about the same dream he had the first day he went to Japan.

Five minutes have passed and one of the girls actually showed at the exact time that Rono said to be at. That girl is the one and only Sakaki, at first, she was shocked at the fact that this is the location Rono had insisted on meeting. This is the place that brings back so many fond memories. It is also the place where she and Rono had first met. She shrugged it off as it being too emotional for her in away. Soon as she began to look for her first male friend, she found someone sitting on one of the pair of swings. It was no doubt that it was Rono, barely anybody even plays here anymore. Considering that most of the kids in the area are now in their teenage years.

Walking closer, it should of been obvious that you can hear that someone is walking behind you if you were in the situation. Things were now getting suspicious, she walk closer to him and then sits on the empty swing next to him. His eyes seemed to be lifeless, the same lifeless eyes he had just like the time he had when he fell on his head. She shook his body and started saying his name.

"Rono..Rono..Rono!" She said loudly as she shakes him.

He gasps for air, for sure he snapped out of it. Rono looks around and finds Sakaki at his left side.

"Sakaki..." He said quietly.

"Are you alright?" She said with a concerned expression.

"Yeah, I was...daydreaming or something. Are the others here yet?"

"Not yet, I'm the only one here. They'll probably get here in five minutes."

As they waited, just like she said, they all came five minutes after. All of them had casual clothes, finally out of their uniforms. None of them didn't seem to like the idea of the uniform having to force you wear a skirt, all except Chiyo. Which is why none wore a skirt this time, instead, a pair of jeans or shorts for some.

"Hey guys we made it!" Chiyo yelled out.

"You all ready?" Rono asked.

"Yeah let's go! Free ice cream, here we come!" Tomo shouted out with her fist in the air.

The location of the mall wasn't far from where they were. It all took at least ten minutes to get there from the park. On the whole way, Sakaki was constantly thinking of just why Rono thought of meeting at the park.

On the first stop at the mall, the girls wanted to go shop for some clothes for girls. So, they did along with Rono. When they got inside for a few minutes, a few girls in the shop began to gossip about Rono.

"Why is that guy in here?"

"Don't tell he's trying to hit on those girls." She commented.

Although he did hear them, but it didn't stop him from having a good time with his friends. As a result, only some of the girls ended up buying clothes. Tomo for example, she bought two bags full of clothes. Now it was about time for Rono's turn decide what store to go next, his decision was the library. All of them agreed except for Tomo, she thought of it as a waste of time.

As they went inside, the first thing that the boy did was go to a book shelf, pick a book and read a bit. Sakaki, Chiyo and Osaka did the same as him. Yomi took a bit longer than the others. The book she was searching for is a book with diet tips. She gets embarrassed when it comes to weighing herself on the physicals. Nobody calls her fat but she considers herself somehow "chubby", the good thing is that she isn't obese in any way. The only person who does tease her of her weight is Tomo.

The energetic girl finds her looking through the diet book and snatches it out of her hands.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A diet book huh, wait until I show the others." She had an evil grin on her face.

"Tomo give that back to me now!"

"Shhh." The librarian hushed.

"Sorry." Yomi whispered.

"Seriously, give that back to me or else."

"Or else what."

Meanwhile Rono got bored of the book he was reading so he desires to go to different shelf to get a different one. One that catches his eye and meets his taste.

"I'll be back, I'm going to get a different book." Rono whispered.

"Okay." Sakaki nodded.

Just as he thought that everything is going to be fine, he finds Tomo and Yomi talking to each other from afar. It seemed to be a normal conversation but things quickly changed.

"Hey it's Tomo and Yomi."

He looks at them a bit and figures out that something is wrong. The two were actually arguing about something. The next thing they both do is unpredictable, Yomi body slams Tomo!

What the? He thought.

Rono runs over at the area to stop the two.

"Hey what going on here." He said in a quiet voice.

"She took away my diet book." She gaps when she realizes what she just said.

"Forget what I said."

"Don't worry about it, I won't tell anyone. Just stop restraining her."

She leaves Tomo alone and looks away.

"Ow thanks a lot Yomi."

"Come on, a girl like you shouldn't be left on the ground."

He offers his hand to her so she can get up. She blushes as he says the statement.

"T-thanks."

"I don't like it when you both fight, let's go get some ice cream."

"Really!? Ice cream here we go!" She yelled out.

"Shhh." The librarian once again hushes the energetic girl.

"Sorry."

After that, Rono tells the others that they are going to get ice cream. They all leave to a nearby ice cream shop. Each one of them asked for their desired flavor of ice cream. Most of them got vanilla flavored but Tomo and Rono got different ones. Rono got green tea flavored and Tomo got chocolate flavored. The group all sat down on bench outside to eat their own ice cream. Chiyo really enjoyed the ice cream so much that she was the first one to finish it all.

"Woah Chiyo, you finished the whole ice cream like it was nothing!"

Chiyo giggles.

"The ice cream is very good, thank you Rono for the ice cream!"

"You're welcome Chiyo." He smiled.

Shortly after, the group of friends finished the ice cream.

"We should get going, it's already 5pm."

"Yeah let's go home." Sakaki said.

As always, Yomi, Tomo and Osaka go to their neighborhood while Sakaki, Chiyo and Rono go to the other. It was a quiet walk the whole time, when they got closer to his house he decided on something.

"I think it's better if I walk you both home, especially Chiyo."

"Oh no, you don't have to it just a few minutes ahead." Chiyo replied back.

"Remember Chiyo, anything can happen in the dark."

She gulps when she hears this again.

"I'll go too." Sakaki said.

"Good, let's go."

A few minutes later, the three made it to her house. Chiyo presses on the intercom and says that she came back. The gate opens and the door from her house opens as well. In the door way her mom is seen beside the intercom.

"Thank you so much for walking my daughter home!" She says in the intercom which is heard by the other intercom where Rono and Sakaki are at.

"You're welcome." They both said as they pressed on the intercom by the gate.

The gates close and all it leaves is just Rono and Sakaki. They both walk back to the direction from where they walked from. When they both got to Sakaki's house, she receives a call.

"Who's that?"

"My father."

"Well, we're here. Might as well answer it."

She opens up her phone and answers.

"Hello?"

"Sakaki, where are you?" He opens the curtains to look in front of the house.

"I'm right here." She looks at his dad who was now looking out the window.

Her dad sighs in relief as he goes to open the door.

"Bye Rono."

"Bye Sakaki."

"Hi Mr. Sakaki!"

"Hello Rono."

She get inside the house as Rono heads his way to his apartment building.

"So Sakaki, how was your day?" Her dad asked.

"It was fun."

Then her mom get in the room to ask her a question.

"How are things between you and Rono?"

"It's going alright, I think he's starting to remember things a bit, but...he still doesn't remember me yet."

Her mom hugs her as well as her dad, it is now a group hug.

"Don't worry my dear, don't ever give up. Things will go back to normal, I promise you that." Her mother said.

"Thank you mother and father."