Swimming
At last, the start of a new week of school has begun. Most people at Cherry Blossom High School would groan in disappointment due to the fact that they want to stay home and sleep all day. While some people are excited for the second week of school, those type of people are the ones who will get a bright future.
Today was just like any other ordinary day like everyday. The radiant sun is shining over the city, the birds are singing in the morning, the Cherry Blossom trees are still blooming, at the moment the air is clean and crisp when you inhale it and the wind is breezing softly through the atmosphere in the city of Tokyo. The day before for Rono was a great one until the visit of the fast food restaurant. Without knowing that it would arrive, he felt the most paranoid in his life. It was far worse than the time in middle school, before he did the finals, he began to develop stress, until soon after to be comforted and encouraged by his parents.
Rono thinks about the recent event that happened to him this morning. Things went on a whole different turn this day. When he woke up, he received an unexpected call from someone.
Flashback to this morning...
His alarm clock buzzes causing Rono to wake up. He stretches his right arm to turn off the alarm clock with his eyes closed shut. While groaning of getting woken up by a loud noise, he receives a call from his phone. He looks at the screen to see who exactly is calling him. To his surprise, it was his father.
"Dad"?
Immediately, he answers the call from him, it's been a while since he has talked to one of his parents.
"Hello?"
"Rono, it's been a while!" His dad said over the phone.
"Sorry about that, it sure has."
"How's everything going for you?"
"Actually better than in America."
"Really?"
"Yep, what about you?"
"It's been alright and all, but your mother and I missed you a lot eve since you left."
"Oh Really?" He chuckles.
His dad stopped talking for a bit and then revealed the reason why he called in the first place.
"Look Rono, the reason why I'm calling is because I have to tell you something very important. What time is it over there?"
"It's 6am, why?"
"We might take a while of talking, what time do you go to school?"
"At 8:30."
"Good, go eat some breakfast while we're talking."
Rono leaves his phone on his desk of his bedroom and goes to his bathroom to wash his face then goes to his closet to change into his school uniform. He does what his dad tells him. He goes downstairs with the phone in hand and eats cereal.
"Alright I'm eating, what did you want to tell me?"
Rono hears his dad inhaling then exhaling some air through the phone.
"I'm going to Japan again."
"Wow really, how come?"
"But it's not going to be a visit for you, I'll somehow visit you sometime during my stay over there."
His dad inhales and exhales once again before his answer.
"You heard of the recent murder from Yokohoma right?"
"Yes I have, what about it?"
"Apparently, this murder has been done by a serial killer."
Rono's eyes widened as he gasped in surprise.
"The police station back from Japan wanted me to help during the investigation. So I accepted, I'm one of the top ranked police officers in Japan and in America. This killer is a crazy one, he might even kill anyone in his sight if he wanted to. He is identified to be an thirty year-old American man with brown hair. He is 5'7, has brown eyes and has a scar on his hand."
Rono is now feeling uneasy of what's happening.
"When are you coming?"
"Tomorrow."
"Okay...make sure to be careful."
"That's my line! I want you to be careful when you go outside alone with anyone, try to spend less time outside until we capture this guy."
"Why wasn't this announced on the news?" Rono said in a low toned voice.
"The station just barely got the info from a witness. There will be an announcement on television sometime today or tomorrow."
Rono is now worried a whole lot more now, his hands are shaking, he is now shivering too.
"I'll be sure to visit you as soon as I get there."
Later, Rono's mom is heard in the background with his dad.
"Who are you talking to?" His mother asked.
"Rono."
She gasped and then runs over to him.
"Let me talk to him!"
"No, we are having a man talk."
"You always say that, give me the phone!"
Rono is now chuckling and relieved. His parents are the same as ever just like before.
Flashback ends...
Yomi comes back to the classroom from the bathroom, something looks strange to her. One of her friends doesn't look normal, she was talking about Rono. He is found looking at the ground with his hand on the right side of his cheek looking into space. The girl with glasses walk over to his desk and says his name loud enough to snap him out of his own world.
"Rono."
His eyes dilate as he heard her.
"Everything fine there?" She asked.
He yawns before he answers.
"Yeah I'm fine, just a little tired that's all."
"What kept you up last night?"
"Nothing, maybe I ate too much?"
She giggles along with him at his response.
"I know it's none of my business but...did you and Tomo worked things out?"
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"You two were arguing back at our visit to the library. I was worried that something might of happened between the two of you."
"Don't worry, everything's fine. We already made up, Tomo and I sometimes have arguments, pointless arguments to be exact. In the end, we always make up and then apologize. But she never learns." She sighs.
"Oh, I'm glad." He sounds relieved once again.
"But when the time comes to the both of you not working things out, talk to me, I can help."
"Thanks, I'll be sure to ask you Rono."
Suddenly, the homeroom teacher slides open the door and walk to the front desk. Every student in the class sits on their assigned seats and focus on the teacher. In seconds, Ms. Yukari lies her head on her desk without the thought of her mind that she has a class to teach.
"Why can't I have a day off!?" She whines while her head in her arms.
"But it's the second week of school." Tod exclaimed.
"I'll might as well pass back the grades test from Friday."
Out of nowhere, the front door slides wide open very quickly just as there a appeared an energetic girl known as Tomo Takino.
"Holy crap, I'm so totally late! Looks like I'll have to carry the buckets out in the hall way as punishment!" She yelled out to the class.
She grabs the two buckets in the homeroom and fills it with water from the sink of the bathroom. She stands out in front of the door carrying the two heavy water filled buckets.
"Honestly, I didn't care in the first place." Yukari whispered to herself.
"Okay, first up..." She starts calling up the students to retrieve their own grades test.
Meanwhile, Takino is a having a difficult time keeping up the buckets.
"I've always wanted to give this a shot, cuz hey, they just don't send you out in the hallways that often. Alright Tomo, let's set a new record starting...now!"
In the first five seconds, she was on a roll! As ten seconds had passed, her arms started to ache and weaken due to all the weight.
"No, no, not yet."
In the last five seconds, her arms are about to let go of the buckets. It was about time that the buckets filled with water have fallen.
"Ah! There's water everywhere! Someone, give me a towel, napkin, anything!"
Everyone hears her shouting from outside the hallway.
"Ugh, what a noisy brat. Can someone help her clean up her mess?"
"I will!" Exclaimed a boy.
Everyone looked at the student who raised up his hand. He has yellow eyes, dark hair, and his height was average like everyone else's. The eyes of every person in the classroom looked at his direction as he went out the classroom with a few rags in his arms.
He seems like a nice person. Yomi thought.
"Rono!" Yukari called him to get his grades test.
When grabbing the test from her hand, she comments.
"Don't get too cocky just because you already read the book in America."
"Hehe, I'll try not to."
He walks over to his desk just as Sakaki is called after him. She comes back to her desk and looks at her grade.
"Sakaki, what did you get?"
"94 out of 100, what about you?" She asked him.
"100."
"Wow, you're good at English aren't you?" Sakaki asked.
"Yeah, I already read the book back in America. It is one of my favorite books." Rono said.
"I can see why."
"Rono, what was your score for the test?" Yomi came up and asked him
"100."
"My gosh you have a perfect score like Chiyo!"
"What about you?"
"89."
"Not too bad." He said.
"Easy for you to say." She sighs.
"If you want, we can all study together sometime." He suggested.
"Sure."
Something was in Yomi's mind, she was wondering why that boy decided to help Tomo out of all the class. As she thought of that, Tomo came inside the room with the boy behind her. Each went to their own seats and pretended nothing had happened. Yomi could tell that something was off about Tomo. The girl would always come in yelling out to Yomi, but for now, she was quiet and looking at her desk with a blush.
Wonder what's wrong with her? Nah, It's probably nothing. Yomi thought.
"Class! For today we are going to read the next two chapters for The Tales of Two Cities. You know the drill, pair up with a partner and read a paragraph to one another."
While I take looong, relaxing nap. Yukari thought to herself.
"Wait I forgot, Tomo, come get your test!" She commanded.
Tomo came up to her desk quietly.
"Please try your best next time."
"Sorry." Tomo replied.
She went to her spot without saying a word, now she gets her book and pairs up with Yomi as a partner.
What's up with her? Yukari thought.
From that point forward, all of the students who were studying are done for the day. Next period is Physical Education, a new activity awaits for them. On Friday they were told that this time they will be swimming for two or three weeks. All students in Yukari's room move on to the locker rooms. Many conversations occur in each locker room. Some girls are nervous about how revealing the swim suits will be. Most guys are excited to see what the girls could look like with a one piece swim suit. Both genders are able to swim in the same pool, so there will be worries there.
Tod and Rono are changing into their school swimming trunks. All that they could hear during that, were conversations about how fast they can swim, their muscles and girls.
"You looking forward how the girls will look like?" Tod asked Rono.
"Now why would I be excited about that?"
"You really don't know what I mean do you?"
"Nope."
"Ugh, never mind."
At the girl's locker room...
The girl just barely got inside the girl's locker room. Tomo already had her swim suit under her clothes, all she had to do was put away her clothes. The others were minding their own business until Osaka brought something up just by saying those words.
"Oh my!"
"Huh?" Sakaki wondered.
Osaka was looking at the size of Sakaki's chest.
"An American, there's and American among us!" Osaka said out loud causing Tomo to come over to her.
"She's right, I still can't believe you were in middle school a year before!" Tomo commented.
Sakaki blushes and then runs off in embarrassment to a different bench covering her chest with the towel.
Osaka looks at Tomo's chest.
"What?" Tomo asked.
"You're Japanese."
"What did you say!?"
She thinks it through about her comment.
"Well, yeah, I am Japanese but it's kind of hard for me to accept that."
"There's nothing wrong with being Japanese." Osaka said.
"Okay but what about Yomi?"
Osaka looks over at Yomi on the other side of the room and then her eyes go down to Yomi's chest.
"Hawaiian."
"Hawaiian!?" Tomo yelled out.
"Yeah, it's part of America. Let us do this, we'll split it up into groups." Yomi said.
"First we have Sakaki's group." She faces her.
"Then we have Kaorin and Chihiro's group."
"Is that where we are?" Osaka asked.
"If you asked me, then you would be in Chiyo's group."
"What!?" Tomo shouted again.
"May I help you?" Chiyo asked as she was getting her things off of the table in the middle of the room.
"Just to make things clear, Chiyo would probably get out of your group in a few years." Yomi informed.
"She's right, you might just be able to turn out like miss Sakaki!" Kaorin said to Chiyo.
"Traitor!" Tomo pointed at Chiyo.
"W-what are you guys talking about?" Chiyo asked as she had now idea since she was still ten and she doesn't know about that stuff yet.
After that little talk, both genders are now suited up and go to the pool area where Ms. Kurosawa is waiting. When everybody arrived, the first thing they all did was place their towel on any of the benches or fence. Without surprise, most of the boys glanced at the girls for a bit, then turned around with blushing faces. None of the boys got close to any of the females, except for one named Rono.
"Hey guys!" He came up running to his friends.
Immediately one of the boys noticed.
"Hey Tod, why is he over there?" Asked the boy who helped Tomo in the morning.
"They're friends, it's no big deal."
"He's lucky to be hanging out with Tomo." He said in a low voice.
"What's that you say?"
"N-nothing!"
Back to the group...
"You all excited for swimming?" Rono asked.
"We sure are." Yomi replied.
"Everyone line up so I'll take attendance!" Ms. Kurosawa said.
She calls everyone in alphabetical order from the attendance sheet on her clipboard.
"Alright, everyone's here. Let's stretch first then we jump in the pool. Anyone want to lead the stretches for everyone?"
"I do!" Chihiro exclaimed.
"Nice, I'll leave the stretching to all of you."
With notice, a tall and old person popped up behind Ms. Kurosawa. It was the one and only, Kimura.
"Why don't we go straight to the gym and play basketball?" He exclaimed causing Kurosawa to jump and gasp in surprise. She finds who is the person behind her.
"Mr. Kimura, what are you doing here!?" Ms. Kurosawa said.
"Wait, how about we take a dip in the pool first and then we'll go to the gym to play basketball."
"Not a chance!" She yelled in anger
Our spacey girl raised her hand to ask a question.
"Can we play water polo?" Osaka asked.
Both teachers paused a minute to the question.
"Eh, what does that leave me?" Kimura wondered.
Silence filled the air.
"Anyways, I don't mind you observing. Just don't distract the others." Kurosawa said.
Kimura sits on the nearby bench under the shade with Kurosawa. At this point the students are now stretching along with Chihiro leading them. She teaches them all kinds of stretches to warm up all the muscles in the body. When that's done, they all get into the pool from the shallow side with Kurosawa as for the other people, they jumped into the pool.
"Ah, it's been a while that I've actually been to a pool." Rono said.
"Really?" Sakaki's asked.
"Yep, I was 12 when I went inside a pool. If only there were pools in my middle school."
He notices Chiyo sinking down a tad too much.
"Chiyo."
"What is it?"
"You know how to swim?"
"Not exactly, I know how to doggy paddle!"
"But that's just the beginning of swimming, why don't you ask Ms. Kurosawa how to swim?"
"I'll try."
She tries to swim forward to the ladder of the pool but she struggles too much cause of the inability to swim properly.
"Need help there?" Rono asked.
"Yes please."
Rono chuckles on how cute she looked when she struggled, in a way. He swims towards Chiyo and faces away from her and tilts his head down.
"Get on my back."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah come on.
As she gets on his back, he comments on something for amusement.
"Ugh...I thought you were light...your so heavy that I might sink."
The more he moves towards the ladder, the more he sinks down into the pool.
"No! Don't sink, don't sink, Ah!"
He falls down on the floor of the pool causing Chiyo to get worried and call Sakaki. Holding his breath for twenty seconds and Sakaki is already on top of the surface where Rono is. He decides to scare Sakaki by creeping up behind her and holding both of her arms. He tries really hard to not let out a single sound as he went up. Out of the surface he holds up his arms and slowly grabs her arms in the most surprising way as possible.
"Eek!"
"Got you!"
"Great you're okay. Don't scare me like that." She pushed him lightly.
"Alright I'll stop, where's Chiyo?"
"She's over there."
Chiyo is seen on the ledge of the pool thinking.
"Chiyo."
"Rono you're okay."
"You know, I wasn't really drowning."
"You weren't?"
"No, I was lying about your weight too. I didn't know you would actually fall for that."
"That's very mean Rono." Chiyo said.
"Well, at least I'm not as mean as Tomo. Anyways, did you ask Ms. Kurosawa for help?"
"Not yet."
"Go on before we do the laps in the pool!"
"I will!"
Rono watches her climb up the pool's ladder and walks towards Kurosawa.
I really do wish I had a sister. He thought.
Before the P.e teacher even told anyone to start doing their laps, Chiyo asked for help just in time. She gladly accepted, Chiyo followed her into the shallow side of the pool to practice there. While that happened, every student in the pool would swim back and forth on the lane they were in. One of the first people to finish were Sakaki and Rono, both swam swiftly than the others. Even the ones that were fit and well built on the body. Rono didn't have big biceps like the other boys, it's impossible to believe that he would be so athletic, considering that he was never into sports.
I'm surprised that Rono is able to keep up with me now. Just how were you able to do this, was it because of self defense, or was it because someone you hold dear of you wanted to protect. She thought.
"What am I saying." She shook her head.
"What was that?" Rono heard her mumbling.
"Oh nothing!"
"You want to get some water?"
"S-sure."
They get out of the pool by pulling themselves up from the edge. Both were soaked and dripping water as they walk towards their towels. Both of them dry themselves individually and make their way to the water fountain near the entrance with the towel hanging around the necks. Rono was first to get first sip of water, Sakaki came last to get her's. As she takes a sip, Rono asked her something that he was meaning to ask.
"What do you think of Mr. Kimura?"
Surprised at the sudden question, she lifts her head up and responds.
"Why do you ask that?"
For some odd reason, Rono blushed a little as she faced towards him. He found her to be cute as she had a curious look on her face.
"Well...um." She took a deep breath to calm things a little.
"I feel as if he is going to harm girls."
"I can see why." She replied.
"I don't want that to happen, but somehow I feel that there's a reason for that. A reason that even he doesn't want to reveal." He said as he looked at Kimura from a distance.
Rono faces back to Sakaki still having that curious look on her face. It causes him to blush even more.
Why does she look so cute? He thought.
"But I feel that he can be a good guy, despite his weird obsessions."
"Yeah, we should get back to the pool." Sakaki suggested.
"We should."
The teens run to the pool area and find Yukari in the pool arguing with Kurosawa.
"How did you get here Yukari?" Kurosawa said.
"I used the extra key you had in your desk!"
"You..used..my..key? What about your class?"
"I turned it to a study hall!"
"You what!?"
"Now that we got that out of the way, let's have a race between you and me, teacher versus teacher!" Yukari suggested with her fist in the air.
"Why would we have a race if you have a class to teach!"
Out of now where, Kimura popped out of the water.
"How about starting today, language and history class will be held at the pool? Now that we're at it, let's start by making all the girls wear bikin-ow!" He was kicked my Kurosawa, she then kicked him out of the pool.
In the end of the argument, both teachers agreed on the challenge. Kurosawa and Yukari got on top of the starting blocks and prepared their starting positions. Every student in the class cheered on to the teachers. Comments like:
"We're rooting for you Ms. Yukari!"
"Let's go Ms. Kurosawa!"
"Show her what you got Ms. Yukari."
"Kick her ass Ms. Kurosawa!"
The crowd turned crazy at this rate.
Chiyo is in charge in starting the race. Since Kurosawa is a coach of the school's swimming team, she is confident in her self. Yukari however, never knew how to swim as fast, she has no idea what she will have to come upon on. The youthful teachers look straight to the opposite side of the pool and focused on listening when the race actually starts.
"3."
"2."
As Chiyo got closer to one, Yukari and Kurosawa tightened their own hands on the edge of the starting block.
"1...Go!"
At this moment, it wasn't long until Kurosawa dove down to the water perfectly. For Yukari, things didn't go as expected. Instead of diving, she slammed the front part of her body on the water causing a slap sound to be heard.
"Ow, that's gotta hurt." Chihiro commented.
Yukari ignored the pain of her body and began swimming. With every stroke that Kurosawa made, she got closer to the other side easily. Yukari managed to get halfway of the pool. Before she even touched the wall, she decided to sabotage her so called 'rival'. She lifts up her left foot up to her left lane where Kurosawa was at to slow her down.
"Interference!" She yelled.
She failed at it, she was too late, because of the sudden movement she made in the pool, she had a cramp on her leg. She screamed in pain as she held on to her foot with her left hand while holding on the lane rope with the other. Of course, Kurosawa won, she also had to pull Yukari out of the pool.
"It is what she gets from trying to cheat." Rono said.
The group nodded to his statement.
"Sorry class for letting all of you go through this with me. I'll make it up to all of you some day. Class is dismissed."
All the students went to the locker rooms to take a quick shower to pour off all the chlorine covered on their bodies from the pool. The bathroom stalls are all occupied and busy due to the amount of students changing. When the boys began to dry themselves up, they started to talk about which girl looks best in their swim suit. Rono wasn't interested in this topic so he hurried himself up to change so he would meet up with the girls.
He got out of the building and made his way to the school's front gate. There stood his friend Sakaki waiting for him. It was only her that was there, none of the other girls. He walks up to her calling her name.
"Where are the others?" He asked.
"They're still changing, they'll come out in a few."
"Great."
They both stood there in silence waiting patiently while the other kids passed by them through the gates.
"Sakaki."
"Yes?"
"This may sound weird but.."
He waited before asking his question.
"Have..we met before?"
Her eyes widen in surprise, could this be a sign that he remembers already? Or might those memories during his years as a child, disappeared?
