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Give it!
8th April '08, Tuesday
"Izumi?"
Izumi looked back to see who had called her. The reason she is so early to school is not because she was excited for her first day in class. She and the others along with Shinya had decided to have breakfast together at Tomoki's house before leaving. Tommy lives in Aoyama, which is a neighbour of the Shibuya district and where their school is located. (You're going to ask, isn't it ironic that the school is located in the Shibuya district? I made it that way, as to where they all first met! And I'm definitely not the first; I've seen many fanfic writers do this!) It was a twenty to thirty minute walk from Tomoki's home to the school depending on how fast or slow you walked, and they left together, and had to practically drag Shinya away from trying to deal with Tomoki's brother Yutaka. And then after that on the way he had proceeded to get Lili to agree to go out with him.
She focused on the girl who had called her, trying to attach a name with the face. The girl had blonde hair like her, but it was a strawberry blonde, more on red. She also had green eyes like her, but they were more of sea-green. She was almost sure she knew this girl. She had a sudden flash back of a girl ten years of age pulling her hair and complaining why it wasn't a more proper colour like Izumi's.
"Ranamon of Water!" Izumi exclaims. "Myakka!"
Myakka smiles and walks towards her, hugging her books to her chest. Instinctively, Izumi started comparing every feature of Myakka's with herself. As she approached closer, Izumi saw Myakka's hair was more of red than blonde (light ginger, Izumi thought evilly) and more turquoise than green. Her height was an inch or two shorter, and her stature was just a little round. They were both wearing casual clothes and loose hair as it was the first day of the semester and they were yet to receive instructions about uniforms and such.
Izumi smiles secretively in satisfaction. She may have tried to compete with her, but Izumi believed she was hotter. For one thing, Myakka was bespectacled, and she was not. And her hair was that type of wavy-curly which becomes when your wet tangled hair dries without combing after you come out of the shower, with some ringlets sticking out, while hers was silky straight with every hair in place, making her look more sophisticated, looking like she had mastered the wind and prevented it from messing her hair.
Myakka also smiles, apparently in return. She had also just finished evaluating Izumi from head to toe and had concluded that she was just a dumb blonde, while she was smarter with a higher IQ because Izumi was carrying just a handbag with no extra books in hand. Her hair was just boring old straight and looked like she had run an iron through it while hers was interesting with a mermaid-ish look, looking like she had just come from a swim and somehow that hadn't messed up her hair but served to make it look cool.
"What are you doing here?" Izumi exclaims, hugging her, Myakka's books poking into her spine.
"I always studied here," she says cheerfully, pulling away. "But I studied privately last year, coz I needed to look after the house as my mother got ill. But I never saw you here before."
"I came in last year, my friend Kōji's dad knows some people in the admin."
"Really? You mean the bandanna guy? Or was it the Duskmon guy? Anyway, whatever. Aqumi's parents practically own the board. She's starting high school this year. She lives in a mansion," she confided.
A sudden shiver ran through Izumi. "By Aqumi, you mean…"
"Yep, the very same. The Wild Witch, Warrior of Hate."
She smiles nervously. Just like Kōichi as Duskmon, Aqumi used to give her the creeps.
"So does that mean the others are here too?"
"Yep! Our whole group is here, even the Lovey-Dovey Russell, the Brit Jason and the Fear Factor Joanne. Well, almost all. The Know-It-All Iron Ore Mutant isn't here, but she was more into your group right?"
"Know-it-all iron ore mutant?" Izumi repeats confused.
"Oh, you know," Myakka rolls her eyes. "Our former leader?"
"She means me," Lili says coming up from behind Myakka. Myakka whirled around, to find a girl with long black hair shining brown in the sun in an extreme ponytail - Myakka could tell it was long because even though perched so high in her head like a date palm or coconut tree, the hair was still brushing her shoulders - pass her by and stand beside Izumi and look at her wearily.
"I was wondering where you got lost," Lili says to Izumi.
"Oh, just catching up with Myakka," Izumi says. Lili looks at her and raised her eyebrows. Myakka, however, was still a little confused about who Lili was. Lili clears it to her.
"Yes Myakka, I'm the rusty metal you were just talking about."
"You're Lili, who used to be Mercuremon?" Myakka exclaims, shocked. Back when they were kids, she had believed Lili was a transsexual and just hadn't ever asked her outright about it for fear it might have offended her.
"The one and only," she says, turning to Izumi again. "I wanted to remind you to grab a table at the caf at break if you get earlier than us. No flirting with boys and no sneaking off in empty corridors or empty classrooms with JP."
Izumi shrugs. "Whatever. You know I'll study the market first before investing."
Myakka didn't understand the comment but Lili apparently did, for she groaned.
"Whatever! See you at break," she says, scampering off.
"She's still weird," Myakka says dismissively, watching her leave.
Izumi gave a nonchalant shrug. "Of course. Come on, let's get to assembly."
Reaching the crowd of assembled eleventh graders, Izumi spots Kōji, Kōichi and Takuya after being ambushed by many admirers, male and female alike. She makes their way to them. Myakka had gone to catch up with her own friends.
"This is so boring," Kōji was groaning.
"The bell hasn't even rung yet," Kōichi reminds him.
Takuya waves as he spots Izumi coming. "Zoë!" he says exaggeratedly, grabbing her. "We thought you were abducted! Or the mob got you!"
Izumi clicks her tongue, shrugging off Takuya. "Whatever. I just ran into Ranamon," she says for better understanding.
"Well, I hope you two weren't having a beauty face-off or something. Who knows how much the boys could've taken?"
"Well, I sure do hope they're not competing with your hard head," Zoë retorts.
"How would you know what you're missing?" Takuya says cheerfully. Kōji punches the back of Takuya's head.
"Ow! What did I say to you?"
"What did he say?" Izumi asks Kōichi curiously.
"Oh nothing. Just that he agrees he has a hard head," Kōichi lies as Kōji said something like I can just as easily crack your nuts with my pinky in the background.
"Well, if he agrees, it might not be as hard as I think."
Kōichi wasn't sure how much more he could take. "Zoë please stop," he mutters to himself. Izumi didn't hear as his words were lost in the buzz of the crowd.
The bell rang and the teachers quickly made them form proper lines. Takuya went out of his way to stand behind Izumi (we all know why). He had the perfect opportunity to stare at the back of Izumi's head without anyone looking at him weird. He was no doubt wishing he would be in the same section as her.
They were then led to stand beside their seniors, i.e. the twelfth graders, in the auditorium. JP spotted them and waved. They all waved back. Similar process was repeated with Lili when their juniors, i.e. the tenth graders, came to stand on their other side.
The headmistress cleared her throat which could be heard from the speakers. She began giving the customary beginning-of-the-year announcements.
There were to be two sections of every class, named after the two major branches of the Kojiki manuscripts, Ise and Urabe, each section containing around 20 students. Of course, many people wanted in Ise as it was known to contain the elderly and more experienced staff. Takuya, however, hoped he would be in Urabe, as the breathtakingly hot teacher wearing a mini being introduced right now for the Urabe section looked only around Tomoki's brother Yutaka's age.
The Kamitsumaki, or the freshmen, were sorted first. Lili, Jason who used to be Arbormon of Wood, Aqumi and Joanne were all sorted in the Ise section, meaning all four of them will be together. They were led in two separate files out of the auditorium.
Then it was their turn, the juniors, or in this school, the Nakatsumaki. Takuya crossed his fingers as the names started being called out.
"Fujimoto Myakka, Urabe."
"Fischer Joseph, Urabe."
"Hamada Gorou, Urabe."
"Hiroshima Chinatsu, Ise."
"Ishikawa Osamu, Ise."
"Iwate, Aiko, Ise."
"Kanbara Takuya, Ise." Damn, Takuya thought. Ah well. Now Takuya's fingers were crossed for his friends to be in the same section.
"Kimura Kōichi, Ise."
"Yes!" Takuya says, slapping Kōichi a hi-five. They had to wait only a few seconds more for Kōji and Izumi to join them.
"Lynch Maya, Urabe."
"Matsumoto Nori, Urabe."
"Minamoto Kōji, Urabe." Oh shit, Kōji thought, throwing his customary sour look and stamping his foot as everyone looked behind sympathetically. As if it wasn't already so boring.
Even though Takuya felt sympathetic for Kōji being alone, he was still selfish enough to wish for Izumi to be in his section. Please let Zoë be in Ise, he prayed.
"Musa Rehman, Ise."
Please let Zoë also be in Ise.
"Narita Momo, Urabe."
Please let Zoë be in Ise and not Urabe.
"Nishimura Ayumu, Ise."
Please let Zoë be with me and Kōichi.
"Ojima Kiku, Urabe."
Please let Zoë be with ME.
"Okayama Momo, Urabe."
Please let Orimoto Izumi be in Ise.
"Orimoto Izumi, Urabe."
"FUCK!" Takuya yells out loud accidently. People around him who heard looked at him and snickered. Kōji however clenched his fist and mouth like you do when you say, Yes!
Izumi looked at Takuya and Kōichi sympathetically and slapped a hi-five with Kōji. Myakka also waves at her from where she was standing. Takuya drops down on his knees with his head down and back towards the others anime-depressed-style with purplish black fumes surrounding him.
None of them bothered listening to the rest of the names. They began chatting animatedly (except Takuya who was still depressed) and when the sorting was finally done, they were led in two separate lines to their own sections.
Takuya looked back at the Shimotsumaki, the seniors, for Junpei. They were the only ones left in the also spotted two other boys he knew. The tall, lanky figure of Zack with his dishwasher blonde hair very contrary to the short ruffian digimon he used to be (and also whom Takuya had seen dealing with Shinya) and Russell with his dark hair covered with white blond highlights. Half his hair was standing up like he had used a full can of hair cement. The other half lay firmly in place making room for him to barely see. (And no he's not gay, in case you're wondering coz of the "Love" thing).
Takuya tries to see if Junpei was as usual flirting with the girls but Kōichi dragged Takuya away with him to class as he had started to block the rest of the line.
Kōji, Izumi and Myakka sat together by the window, so that it would be easy to stare out when things got too boring. Their class teacher came in, an angry looking middle-aged man with pre mature wrinkles. He set down his books and started to look at them all angrily in turn, memorising their faces, as if he had come to a police station to recognise a criminal who had done him wrong from the long line of criminals gathered there. The wooden ruler he had brought with him was clutched in his hand threateningly and he introduced himself his as Meiji-sensei. He started to lay out the rules like they were enrolling in the army. In the middle of his speech, he stopped as his eyes rested on Kōji. He walked towards him and snapped his ruler at his desk, causing Kōji to jump.
"So you think you look so smart punk?" he growls.
"Ummm…" Kōji says, not understanding what to say.
"What are those scraps of metal in your ears?"
"Earrings?"
"And the fangs in your hands?" he says tapping them with his ruler.
"Uhhh… Spiked bracelets and brass knuckles?"
"NOT ALLOWED!" he yells. "NO SOURCE OF WEAPONS ALLOWED IN THIS SCHOOL! Or this country by the way! Take them off. NOW!"
Grumbling, Kōji takes them all off.
"This as well!" he says, yanking Kōji's bandanna off and throwing it at his desk. Unfortunately, with the removal of the bandanna, the teacher was able to see the length of Kōji's hair.
"Long hair is not allowed on boys! If I don't see them cut tomorrow, I'll shave them off! That goes for all of the girls as well." He whirls around to face the rest of the class. "If your hair is not properly tied by tomorrow, same goes for all of you!"
Izumi hurriedly tied her hair in a bun using her pencil in two seconds flat and Myakka took the idea and did the same. Our Kōji, of course, isn't that much of a fan of listening to others and he honestly does try his best to listen to elders, but let's face it, there's the limit. Especially when it comes to his hair.
"I'm not cutting my hair," Kōji says softly, his voice just a little menacing.
"Did you just talk back to me?" Meiji-sensei demanded.
"I said, I'm not cutting my hair," Kōji says loudly.
Izumi tries to nudge him quiet as Meiji-sensei's face started blowing, but she couldn't do that with the teacher looking at him.
"Fine, don't. The barber will do it, or I will."
"I'm not going to let any of you touch my hair." Kōji says.
"Oh we'll see! Are you trying to challenge me punk?"
"Maybe I am," Kōji retorts.
"Detention!" he yells. "How dare you try to challenge or question me? I don't want to see your face. Now get out of my class!"
Kōji gets up grabbing his bag and leaves. He was already calling his father half-way out. Hmmm… Trying to use your sources up to full potential huh Kōji?
"So let me get this straight," Tomoki says to Kōji after Izumi had in multiple fits of laughter recalled the incident to the others, opening Takuya's chopsticks to taste Takuya's ramen. "You got detention on first period of the first day of school?"
"Must be a new record. The last record was in break time of the first day last year right?" Lili says.
"You should totally aim for detention at assembly next year," Takuya advises him.
Kōichi shakes his head at his idiot brother. "My teacher requested me to take off my chains as well, but I didn't have him by the throat."
"Really? Are your chains and bracelets sources of weapons as well?" Kōji asks.
"Ummm… No. They were just making too much noise clanking on the desk and disturbing the class," Kōichi says, trying to hide a smile.
"Why did I have to get such a tight assed class teacher?" Kōji groans.
"Ummm… He's actually quite good in teaching Kōji," Izumi tells him. "You just weren't there. Do you want to copy my notes?"
"Who cares? I'm living with Kōichi," Kōji says relaxing. Everyone knew he took unfair advantage of his brother and his good grades were all a farce coz he just copied everything off of Kōichi and just changed a few words and cut some sentences.
"True that," Junpei says.
"You're a lazy ass," Izumi scolds him.
"As long as my homework gets done," Kōji replies.
"Don't you say anything?" Izumi asks Kōichi.
Kōichi grimaces. "Not if I want to find my bed filled with dirt and creepy crawlies."
"You're an asshole," Izumi scolds Kōji.
"I can neither agree nor disagree to this," Kōji says smiling.
"So are you really going to cut your hair?" Tomoki asks.
Kōji scoffs. "Hell no!"
"But then how do you expect to get away with long hair every day?" JP asked.
"I talked to my father," he shrugs. "He'll talk to the admin."
"Ummm… Kōji? You should really try not to alienate every teacher in the school," Kōichi says.
"So you're saying I should have my hair cut?" Kōji demands.
"Well… Just to avoid trouble."
"God Kōichi, how dare you mutter such an offense?" Lili asks.
"Looks like Kōichi's looking forward to another night spent sleeping with icky bugs." Junpei grins.
Kōichi shivered violently. Takuya pats him on the back.
"Have you not learned to watch your mouth yet?" Takuya whispered to him.
"I'm carrying Shinya's extra bottle of anti-septic in my bag in case his own gets caught. Do you want to use it, for your mouth?" Tommy says.
"Why does Shinya even carry an antiseptic?" Izumi asks Takuya.
"Ummm… No doubt to sterilize his needles."
"Oh mother of Jesus! Don't you say anything?"
Now it was Takuya's turn to grimace. "Not if I want to find my energy drinks spiked with numerous potions."
"Thank God I'm an only child," Izumi mutters.
"And thank god my brother is past all this sibling rivalry shit," Tomoki says.
"Konnichiwa, mina-san (Hello everyone!)," Myakka called, approaching them.
Everyone looked up to see her standing there with a sulking girl with polished dark hair longer than Lili's.
"Konnichiwa (hello)," everyone chorused.
"Careful, don't let Meiji-sensei catch you talking in Japanese," Izumi laughs.
"Like Kōji-kun would say, shiromun ka (who cares)," Myakka says, shrugging. Kōji nods in agreement.
"So you are the beauty of the deep right?" Junpei says using his talking-to-a-cute-girl voice.
Myakka raised her eyebrows. "Yes. And you're the cockroach right?"
"A beetle!" Junpei says irritated, losing his talking-to-a-cute-girl voice.
The dark haired girl took no interest in the conversation, preferring to look intently at the twins, as if trying to remember which one was which. Kōichi noticed this and squirmed nervously.
"And you are…?" he asks the girl.
Everyone's attention went to her, but the girl didn't look bothered in the slightest and still continued in her scrutiny. She raised an eyebrow over her rust and copper shaded eyes, as if he knew the answer and was pretending to act dumb.
"Your old friend," she told him, looking back at Kōji, who froze under her gaze.
Kōichi was like "?"
"Were you or were you not once Duskmon?" she says impatiently.
"Ummm…"
Her eyes lingered once again on Kōji.
"I'm Aqumi," she told him. "Remember me?"
"Uhhh… Yeah, of course I do," Kōji fidgets.
"We all do," Takuya says, smiling at her kindly.
In the past, Takuya had been the one who had been able to best relate to the girl because of their similar fiery traits. She hadn't listened to anyone except him and Kōji, who had been kind to her and didn't treat her like a freak. Back then.
Recap
Episode 43 -
After Aqumi as the SkullSatamon brothers was defeated, she lay in a tangled heap on the ground. Everyone had been hesitant enough to approach her and no one had made a move. But just then, LoadKnightmon (pronounced as RhodoKnightmon and is Crusadermon in the English version) made his move. He had been observing the battle and took the chance of everyone's diversion to snatch up the data of the Flame Terminal. Takuya as KaiserGreymon moved to save all the Digimon, while Kōji as MagnaGarurumon saved all the others and their partners. Aqumi knew this was the end. But just as the data had started to vanish beneath her, Kōji had leaped up and saved her.
She was clutched right beside Russell, who she had last seen back in the human world. They were distant cousins, and they had boarded the same Trailmon, but somehow had ended up in separate ways due to their decisions. She had understood Cherubimon's hatred and desire for revenge, while Russell had sympathised with Ophanimon, choosing to be her servant. After Cherubimon had been defeated, she had been too ashamed to give up, and had continued to serve a new master, Lucemon. Lucemon had sympathised with her and made her promises too good to be true, and she had been loyal to her master till the very end. Destruction and carnage had never bothered her, not because she was strong willed, but she was weak hearted.
No one knew for sure if she ever really became their ally. Takuya had tried many times to talk to her, but had been unable to completely get through to her completely. They had found out from her words filled with hidden meaning and also from Russell that Aqumi was a child who had grown up not knowing her parents. They were business tycoons and travelled all over the world and were almost never home. She had grown up surrounded by live-in house staff; servants and chaperones, maids and babysitters, housekeepers and butlers. She lived in a house as big as a castle with everything at her disposal. Her parents thought they were making up for their absence by giving her everything she wanted. She was growing up like a princess, yet she hated every second of it. She had once tried to tell her parents that she was lonely, but they had just scoffed. It wasn't like she lived alone. Her parents had always told her to keep a distance from everyone else as they were all only interested in her money but she had wanted friends. She had insisted to try school, but people had been intimidated by the wealth of her family and never approached her, or just bullied her out of her money and tricked her. So she had then been home schooled, her mind filled with the information that every outsider wanted to hurt her. Her deepest desire was love, the only gift her parents couldn't give her and what she was aching for the most.
Kōji had understood and sympathised with her. As if he hadn't been kind enough to save her life, he had then further taken the pains to get to know her better. His life had been the same, though in a different way. He had told her stories of his own life, about how his father being in the diplomatic corps, he also kept travelling and changing schools ever so often, and Aqumi found out she wasn't the only one out there who had it bad. He tried to tell her the value of friends, but she had just shaken her head, mystified. She didn't understand why Kōji and Takuya were both fools telling her she was needed and she could become their friend.
The only time her trust wavered for Lucemon was when the Royal Knights had stopped even acknowledging her presence. And then when Lucemon had taken the Royal Knights' data for himself, destroying their dreams to go to human world, she knew for certain then he only cared for his own power. That was when she had lost trust in him completely, knowing he had never given a damn for her dreams as well. She had then gone along with the gang to ensure Lucemon's defeat and wished their side to win.
That was then and this is now. That was all a thing of the past now and hopefully forgotten. Now she wanted to repay the kindness Takuya and Kōji had shown her back then. She will never forget that she owed Kōji her life.
But she did have a tendency to weird people out.
Like right now.
She looked at Takuya, and he saw the old fire still in her. He wondered what it meant.
Suddenly, a halogen bulb lit up in Takuya's head. This is perfect!
"Hey, Aqumi, I was wondering if I could ask you something," he says getting up.
Everyone looked at him in surprise. He shrugs, and moves a little afar from the group, Aqumi following him.
"Sooo…. How are you?"
Aqumi raised an eyebrow. "Cut the crap Takuya. And tell me what you want."
"Oh ok. Actually, I was wondering if I could ask you a favour."
She nods. "Of course. And what do I get out of it?"
"Ummm… what?"
"You don't really think I will just about do anything which doesn't benefit me in some way?"
"Sure you get something out of it! You get… Moral achievement!"
"Oh wow. I've so been wanting that my whole life," she says.
"You know you do," Takuya teases.
"I'll tell you what I want," she says shortly.
Takuya mentally braces himself for something requiring breaking and entering. "Ok, go on."
"You tell me what you want first."
"What are you, a five year old? Decide something!"
She looks at him coldly. Takuya immediately retraces his steps.
"I mean, sure sure, of course. Listen the thing is…" he pretends to hesitate. Aqumi leans closer.
"Yes?"
"Well, the thing is… Zoë, the one with the blonde hair who used to be…"
"I know who Zoë is," Aqumi interrupts.
"Yeah, well, the thing is… She's very lonely and depressed. She doesn't say it at all but I know she is."
They both look back at the table. Izumi was laughing and shoving a Junpei who was making weird smooching noises while the others around them either rooted or hooted. They couldn't hear the smooching noises from where they were but they understood what he was doing.
"She looks perfectly happy and as un-lonely as possible to me," Aqumi says mildly.
"You see the problem. She acts that way so well! It's hard for me to even attempt to cheer her up, because she keeps saying she's perfectly fine!"
"So? Why are you even butting in? It's her business anyway."
"Well, you know how I can't stand seeing any of my friends unhappy. I could never see you unhappy as well remember? And you know so well how loneliness is such a curse, especially if you're not even confiding to your closest ones."
Aqumi thought of this for a moment. "So what do you want me to do?"
"Well, I want you to convince her that she doesn't need anyone to be happy. She can keep her secrets to herself, its fine, it's her life. But I saw that from you, you know that you can be perfectly happy by yourself. She doesn't have to rely on anyone."
"But didn't you just say she's not telling anyone what's bothering her?"
"You hit the nail right on the head. She seems to think that JP, you know the cocka– I mean the beetle? She thinks he's some sort of all that. She thinks she needs to make him happy so she can be happy herself. She thinks she needs him."
"That fat crazy guy?" Aqumi says in disbelief.
"Yes! So you see the problem? I tried to explain to her that he'll just end up taking advantage of her weaknesses and he's just using her for himself to show around and what not and..."
"What?" Aqumi says angrily. She looks back at the table again. Now Izumi was laughingly holding a brownie to Junpei's mouth while he took bites from it.
"So you think you can manage it? Convincing her I mean."
She looked at the table for a while quite angrily. Then she looks back at Takuya and nods.
"Sure Takuya, I'll try my best."
"That's great! I knew I could count on you! And if you run into any problems and get confused about anything, just tell me. You don't have to do the labour work like keeping tabs on her and stuff. You can just ask me to do that part, and…"
"You think I'm incapable of spying Takuya?"
"No no no! Anything but that. Please, I know how well you cover yourself. I just meant I'll be helping you as much as possible on your way if you like."
"Thanks, but I don't need your help Takuya. I can manage fine on my own."
This is going a whole lot better than I expected! Takuya mentally laughed, not believing his luck.
"Sure you can. Anyway, I'll owe you Aqumi."
"Sure you will," Aqumi says.
"Oh yeah… So what do you want in return?"
"Oh, I just want you to include me into your group stuff without causing any suspicion that I asked you to," Aqumi says, without breaking stride.
"Ummm… Why?"
"Don't ask questions," Aqumi snapped. "And just so it doesn't look suspicious, you can add the others as well," she adds as an afterthought.
Takuya still couldn't believe his luck. Knowing Aqumi, he had been expecting far worse, like finding the perfect way of disposing a corpse or something.
"Sure," he says nonchalantly. "I'll do it."
"Good. Now let's head back," she turns and begins to walk away.
"You're not the boss of me," Takuya mutters under his breath, though he didn't dare say it out loud.
They make their way back. Takuya carefully observed Junpei and Izumi and surprise of surprises, takes out a notebook and began scribbling on it furiously, appearing to be taking notes about something. Yup, this is our Takuya only I'm talking about. When break was about to be over in a few minutes, Tomoki finally noticed that Takuya wasn't taking part in the conversation. And that was because Tomoki had eaten all of Takuya's ramen and apple without any protest from his side. Jee, anyone miss him much? XD
"What are you writing?" Tomoki asks, leaning in and trying to peak.
Takuya hid it by his hands and turned away from him… only for Kōji to snatch it from that side.
"What's this?" Kōji says innocently, while Takuya tried to wrestle it away from him.
Everyone looked up interestingly.
Lili flinched, and kicked her bag further under the table. She didn't understand how boys could be so insensitive like that. If someone ever read her diary out loud, she'd die.
"Girls," Kōji reads out loud, keeping Takuya at bay by pushing his face away by his left hand while he held the book up from his right hand away from Takuya's grasp.
"Giveitback!" Takuya yelled.
"I don't get why girls even know I exist is because I play football. Why can't they like me for who I am? Is it because I'm short? That's certainly what Zoë thinks so."
Kōji stops here to look around if he had everyone's attention. Takuya's face was a pumpkin red while everyone else laughed.
"So now about Zoë. Where to begin? Seriously Takuya the perfect place to begin is learning how to spell correctly. The first thing will be to…"
Kōji was forced to break off as Takuya tackled him, knocking him off with his chair and wrestled him on the ground. They were sprawling like pigs on mud and weren't looking at all… appropriate. Kids gathered around like fleas on a cat and took pictures from their cell phones.
Random guy: Jeez, get a room or go to the bathroom you both.
Random girl: (confiding to another girl standing next to her) I have always thought Kanbara-san and Minamoto-san had a thing going on for each other.
"Eeeeewwww!" other girls around the girl who heard said.
"Giveit giveit giveit!" Takuya was yelling trying to reach the paper Kōji had torn off the book and who was still managing to hold it away from him.
"Stop raping me Takuya!" Kōji yelled back.
"Give it!" everyone started yelling. "Give it! Give it! Give it! Give it!"
I'm pretty sure they didn't mean the paper.
"Ummm… Aren't you guys going to be doing something?" Lili asked Kōichi, Junpei and Tomoki.
Junpei: Heck no! This is way more fun! Give it give it give it!" (he begins cheering with the others).
Takuya: (groaning) Aaargghhh!
Kōji: (yelling) holy mothafckaaaa!
Audience: Oooohhh…. Aaaaahhhh….
Kōichi: Ok guys, enough now.
Takuya and Kōji: Aaaaahhh!
Kōichi: This is much worse than I thought. JP grab Kōji please.
Junpei: Give it give it!
Tomoki: I'm not sure he heard you Kōichi.
Myakka and Izumi: Give it!
Aqumi: What are you girls think you're doing?
Lili: Phhssh. Come with me.
They went together and finally succeeded in separating the two dogs (no pun intended). Aqumi, Lili and Kōichi together held Kōji and Tomoki held Takuya. [Audience: (dispersing) Awww…] Aqumi snatches the paper out of Kōji's hand crumpling it, and while everyone looked, ate it.
Aqumi: There. Let's see you going for round II now.
Jason: Did you just eat the paper Aqumi?
Aqumi: Where did you come from?
Jason: The bell rang in case you guys didn't hear it.
Lili: Hey, it's Jackson!
Jason: (growls) my name is JASON!
Lili: I knew that.
Jason: No you didn't!
Lili: Sure I did.
Jason: Why don't you EVER bother getting my name right?
Lili: Haha you speak like you are in pain (meaning his accent)
Izumi laughs. He turns to Izumi, who was looking at him with interest.
"What are you looking at munter?" he growls at her.
Izumi turns to Aqumi and Myakka. "What's his problem?"
Aqumi shrugs. "Nothing new."
Myakka adds, "He's always been like that."
Aqumi says, "He hates girls."
"More so after his Dolly broke up with him," Myakka puts in.
"Oh really? How?" Izumi asks, interested.
"He caught her with another guy," Aqumi says. "It wasn't pretty."
"The guy so is," Myakka says. "Much better than poor Jackson- I mean Jason."
Izumi looks at Jason, with his brown hair and green eyes. So like his element of nature.
"What's wrong with Jason?" Izumi asks, eyeing him.
"Nothing at all. All except he's no Russell."
"She was cheating on him with Russell?"
"What do girls see in lifeguards?" Junpei, who was eavesdropping, said. Everyone knew that's what Russell had been during his Boy Scout training.
Aqumi eyes Junpei from head to toe exaggeratedly. "What do you see in him Izumi?" she says maliciously.
"Nothing I haven't seen in others," Izumi admits.
"Whaaaat?" Junpei cries. "Ok fine, I'm not butting in your girly talks anymore."
He walks away to his class, calling Zack and Russell who were a little afar and catching up with them. Lili and Jason had too, arguing all the way and Joanne following them a little ways behind.
"Why does he think I'm so ugly? No guy hates me on my looks no matter what," Izumi says angrily.
"Oh, is that what munter means?" Myakka says happily.
"He uses that word for girls around us all the time. We never knew before what it meant," Aqumi explains.
"You must be really unattractive Izumi," Myakka says cheerfully.
"He's called you that as well," Aqumi reminds her, bursting her bubble right there.
"No one ever calls me unattractive!" Myakka and Izumi say together, stamping their foot.
Aqumi goes, "Yeahhhh…."
"Aren't we like, totally late to class?" Kōji says from behind them, totally surprising them all.
"How long have you been there?" Izumi demanded to know.
"Since Kōichi dragged Takuya away to class. Please, I have no interest in your girly talks. I have been waiting for you to get done with your nonsense so we can go back to class together or else I know you won't let me cheat off your paper in the test."
"When do we have a test?" Myakka asks, worried.
Kōji shrugs. "That's not the point."
"So you already know you won't be studying?"
"Mia," Izumi explains patiently. "Kōji never studies."
"Oh."
"I thought Takuya was the one who never studied," Aqumi says.
"They're the same," Izumi tells them.
"Why am I not surprised?" Myakka says.
"Come on already," Kōji says impatiently. "I don't want to run into that Meiji jerk."
"Why are you so depressed Izumi?" Aqumi says suddenly.
"What?" Izumi laughs.
"You heard me."
"Are you OK Aqumi? I'm perfectly fine."
"Sure you are," Aqumi says. Then she whispers in her ear, "You can tell me."
"But I told you I'm fine."
"You know, you don't need anyone to make you happy. You don't have to pretend."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… You know how JP is?"
"Sure I do. But I'm not serious with him or anything. I go with the flow. I'm just having some fun."
"So you think you need JP to have fun?"
Aqumi was seriously weirding her out, like usual.
"I don't know. But for now I'm having I guess."
"Who else do you think you need to have fun?"
Izumi thought. The first person who comes to her mind is Takuya. He's always doing something stupid or the other which makes her laugh both with him and at him. He's always coming up with fun things for her to do, like pouring sand into Kōji's bandanna so that when he wears it, it falls all over his hair and face and then watching as he tries to wash it off from their water bottle, only they had had it filled with more mud which he can't see because he has sand in his eyes. Then hearing Kōji swearing colourfully and demanding to know who did this, but nobody answers him as they are all laughing so hard.
"I need all my friends," she says smiling sweetly. "Now come on, let's go to our classes. We're already late."