Disclaimer: The author of this fanfiction (babbler) does not profit, or seek to profit, from this fanfiction. All creative rights to the story and characters belong to the original creator.

Graduation Mashimaro

Chika was hidden in the shadows behind the stage and from there she had a perfect view of the entire reception hall their class had booked for the graduation festivities.

Multiple tables had been laid out with poker, black jack, and a multitude of other gambling games. Each student received 200 in play money that they could use for the auction later that night.

She didn't particularly feel like joining their gambling games though, and in fact, would rather have spent the night watching movies with Matsuri and Ana. Why did she have to waste her time, on her own graduation night no less, to spend time with this pack of useless people she would never see again. About a quarter of their class had shown how much they appreciated spending time with the others by skipping off.

She glowered at her father has he walked across the front of the stage. If it wasn't for him, she'd be as far from there as was humanly possible. He was always gone because of work so he wasn't even around that much, and Chika couldn't fathom why he suddenly got this insatiable urge to make her suffer. He had made a big deal out of her graduation party, and to top it off, he had to volunteer himself to chaperone. The kicker was…she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, he volunteered her as the MC. Why didn't they just call it forced labour to begin with?

She eyed the empty pop can sitting on the speaker errr…amplifer…whatever, beside her. She bet she could beam the old fart and he wouldn't even know what hit him. She gingerly picked up the can and planned the trajectory. Leaning back, she let the can fly…

"Muhahaha…" The can went sailing into the curtains as Miu's laugh echoed throughout the gym.

Chika balled her fists. Miu was sitting close to the stage and the sudden noise had startled her. Miu always ruined everything.

The brunette was slumped in her chair with one arm hanging over the back of it and a toothpick in her mouth. Chika rolled her eyes, the girl thought she was some kind of gangster…but then, with a mind like hers, who could really tell what she was thinking. No one who knew her ever needed an explanation for her actions, one had to simply say it was Miu, and anyone who ever met her would understand.

Miu had a huge stack of chips on her side of the table-more than the dealer actually- and the other four faces at the table were in various stages of anger…she knew that feeling well enough.

The guy beside her was bright red and kinda looked a little depressed on top of being angry.

Miu was saying something but Chika couldn't hear it over the music, "…Your kidneys are mine and if you want to get them back you'll have to put that…can of drink on the line." The guy sighed and put his drink in the middle of the table. She was willing to bet it was how the conversation was going and Miu was anything if not too lazy to get off her ass and walk six feet to get herself a drink.

Miu was obviously winning far more hands than she was losing and that just didn't sit right with Chika. She crept to the edge of the stage and looked more closely but Miu didn't appear to be overtly cheating. Then again, the dealer (Mr. Kimura) would have definitely booted her from the table if she were sloppy with her cheating.

"Maybe she's hiding cards in her bra?" Chika said aloud, trusting the music to drown her words out. Miu was wearing a suit but her shirt was undone partway down her chest. She certainly have enough room and all she had to do was take out a bit of the stuffing…not that she ever looked at the brunette's chest…or cared really. Chika shook her head, trying to get the images out.

Yuki, who was seated opposite Miu was blushing heavily. There had been some stirrings earlier in the year that he was rendezvousing with a certain retar...I mean Miu during classes. She didn't know why she remembered that. The thing with stories involving Miu was that half the people telling stories seemed to be playing a game of one-upmanship and the other half a game of bull****.

Earlier in the year there had been a large party at someone's house when their parents were out of town. The story goes that during the night, when everyone was wasted or looking for somewhere to pass out, some guy came across a room with Miu in it. The stories vary: 1. She was giving some guy a lap dance. 2. She was snorting crack off of a prostitute's butt. 3. She was in a psychotic rage tearing apart the room. 4. She jumped out the window with a briefcase full of money into a waiting helicopter and flew away. Frankly, Chika thought the stories told more about the teller than they did about Miu, since you couldn't believe any of it, even the mundane stuff, but you could see her doing those things. Chika wouldn't have been surprised if she had convinced a naïve group of girls to slaughter a goat and pray to the god of alcohol.

Just thinking of the stories made her agitated for some reason and she couldn't quite put her finger on. She kicked a small block of wood and it went sailing across the stage. There was a curious whimper when it hit the curtain on the other side but she didn't really care. If people were fooling around over there it was their fault for being in the way.

Her cell phone vibrated and she hesitantly pulled it out hoping it wasn't her clueless dad calling her from the other side of the room. She walked to the back of the stage where the music was less intense.

"Hello," she said tersely.

"Chika? You sound mad." It was Ana thankfully and her mood improved.

"It's nothing really. It's…It's just been a long night." Chika said wondering why Ana sounded like she had been running.

"You still want to watch movies a…ah…ah..fterwards?" There was a deep voice close to the phone and then some hurried whispering from Ana that she couldn't make out.

"Okay…I'll call you later."

"Kay." There was more shrill whispering and the phone finally went dead.

Chika rubbed her temples for what must have been the fiftieth time that night. She eyed a drill laying on top of a tool box and then the can of drink in her hand, she needed to wash away those ugly mental images. She didn't much like Ana's boyfriend, though Nobue hated him more.

"Hehehe." Nobue really intensely hated Ana's boyfriend Mike and it was always satisfying to see her beat on him like she did Miu all those years ago. Ana's wardrobe had changed from frilly brightly coloured dresses to short skirts, fishnets, and metallica t-shirts; to Nobue, this was grounds for justifiable homicide.

Chika hated him because his hand always found it's way to Ana's squishy bits and it was distracting when they were trying to watch a movie or do anything really. They had had a hotpot last Christmas and it was difficult to ignore Mike rooting around in his girlfriends panties while they were trying to eat. For that matter, you'd couldn't walk behind them either. Chika swore. Or leave them alone in your room for even a second. She had seriously considered burning those sheets.

"Honey, what are you doing?"

"Go away dad."

"Don't you take that tone with me young lady!" He looked like he was going to say more but his expression lightened. "Matsuoka-chan is cleaning up at the poker table, why don't you go give her a run for her money." He grabbed her by the shoulders and walked her down to the reception room floor.

"If I see you up there again…"

Chika didn't even listen to the threat. It wasn't like he could ground her when he was never home.

Chika sighed, and finally took a seat next to Miu and her tiny mountain of poker chips. She should at least get rid of her 200 tokens.

"RED FACE!" Miu jabbed her finger in Chika's cheek. "….I can't think of anything to add to that. You looked pissed."

"I'm not having a good night?"

"So so Chika are you finally nostalgic and sad that it's the last time you'll see these people?" She made a big dramatic sweeping motion around the room.

"There's at least one person I'll be happy to never…"

"Awww! I bet you're going to miss Harada stealing your stuff and that cute little giggle Misa makes when she's talking about you behind your back." Miu pointed out the people in question. Misa was staring at her with a slight wicked smile.

Harada was just annoying but Misa was a real b-word.

"Oh and I bet you'll especially miss that rumour about you and your pink Popsicle love. I shouldn't leave out Kimura sensei! He's going to be so sad when you're gone and he can't look up your skirt when we walk up the stairs when we switch classes."

"We'll you shut-up!"

"If you continue to make remarks like that. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Mr. Kimura gave her a glare that could peel paint.

"I need a smoke. Come on Chicka." Miu grabbed her by the wrist.

"I'm not going."

"I won't burn you this time I promise! Come on go out there with me. Dammit." Miu tugged on her with both hands.

"I refuse to go out …with…you…" Chika held onto the chair has Miu pulled her across the floor.

"WHAT! Even after I let you pick my most sacred flower? I thought you loved me!"

"Alright! I'll go just shut the f^$% up." Chika raced out the door at the side of the building.

"Do you think th..OW!" Chika kicked Miu in the shin.

"You don't even smoke so why did you have to come out here?"

"I have to keep up my image." Miu bounced on one leg rubbing her throbbing shin.

"You don't have an image! Chika rubbed her shoulders. The night air was colder than she expected and the thin fabric of her dress wasn't helping. Her tiny arms were already covered in goose bumps.

Miu sat on the fire escape steps and, grudgingly, Chika went to sit beside her. Miu leaned back and looked up at the sky.

She suddenly jumped up. "My blazer smells so bad…makes me wish I didn't steal it from Daiske's dad that night." She brought the fabric up to her nose and than pulled the whole thing off of herself. "YOU! Wear it." She dropped it on Chika's shoulders.

"No way am I wearing your stinky blazer…"

"I'll pinch your neck and make it look like a hickey…and I'm faster than you."

"Grrr." Chika glared at Miu. "If I'd had sneakers on…"

"Hehehe…does your dad know how well you climb chain link fences in heels?"

Now there was a conversation. She love to tell her father she needed a new pair of shoes because she ruined her old ones scrambling over a fence while being chased by a middle aged slightly overweight cop. He nearly grabbed her leg…

"I wish I was twelve again," Miu said vacantly staring into the distance.

"Really?" That was a little hard to believe for Chika with Miu being a bit of a hedonist and all. "But we can do so much more now. I love driving."

"I love putting fear into the hearts of pedestrians and small animals too, " Miu stuck her arms out straight and leaned back, like she was accelerating at full speed, "but I like being driven more and it was nice back then."

Chika liked sitting there looking at the stars, or at least the sky, since there was too much light pollution to see the stars. It reminded her of when she was younger and they used to lie outside her window on the roof and talk for hours. It was cooler and their parents were never around anyway to scold them about being up so late.

Chika jumped a little. She had zoned out for a bit and the last time that happened was in chemistry and a certain part of her body that she didn't want to mention still hurt from the alligator clips. She looked over at the girl beside her cautiously, as if eye contact might startle her into doing something rash, but she was still staring up at the sky.

"Yeah, it was nice back then just sitting around my kotatsu even if you were an idiot."

"It takes two people to make an idiot."

"I wish we could still do that but Mike and Ana are always freaking together and he keeps ERRRG! I almost decked him last time…he's always such a jerk to me."

"I field kicked him once." Miu stood, bounced a few times, ran forward, and made a vicious kick; her foot going above her head.

"Field kicked as in American football?"

"I was hoping for 30 to 40 yards but they only moved about a yard."

"….What did he do?"

Miu looked at her with a blank look on her face. "I just wanted to kick him."

"Wait a minute…that was the night he was being an asshole and freaking poured that beer over my head. I was soaked and miserable the rest of the night!"

Chika stared at Miu. She was pretending to smoke a cigarette and Chika bet she was secretly wishing it were cold enough to see her breath to complete the illusion. Did Miu really kick him because of what he'd done to her? Thinking about that gave her a weird feeling in her stomach that she couldn't quite explain. It was almost like the nervous fluttery feeling before you go on stage but not quite.

"Miu…did you kick him because he was a jerk to me?"

"What? No!" she giggled. "My team was down 31-0 and we needed that field goal to win the pennant!…But all was for not and we lost…I will never forget the look in their eyes as I walked off the court." She grabbed Chika and shook her. "Their eyes still haunt me!"

"Miu…a field goal is worth 3 points. There was no way you were going to win and it seems like something else was wrong with that story too…"

"That was the night you flashed all those guys!"

"Wha…what?"

"I'm starving. You think they still have cake left?" Miu ran inside not waiting for an answer.

Chika looked at her watch and grudgingly stood. They'd be looking for her soon for the auction and maybe she could get it going early so they could go home. Chika slowly walked back into the building, taking a seat beside the stage. Her classmates seemed to be ignoring her. Miu's outburst before hadn't caused her any grief.

Her phone vibrated and she reluctantly answered it hoping it wasn't Ana again.

"Chicka-san?"

"Yes Mitsuo-kun."

"I…I…was wondering if I could join your little group while you watch movies tonight."

"So you think our group is little eh? Think it's unimportant do you? Something not worth mentioning?"

"N…n…no, of course not! I just meant that there would only be five of us. I didn't mean anything."

"If you can keep your hands out of Matsuri's pants you can join us."

"…"

"Mitsuo-kun?"

"Hai! I…I…I will definitely keep my hands… respect Matsuri-chan. Thank-you Chicka-san."

Mitsuo wasn't so bad and Nobue even liked him. In contrast to Mike he was a breath of fresh air. The two of them could hardly touch without turning luminescent and Chika liked it that way. She also liked that he was utterly frightened of her. For some reason he thought she was violent but that was just stupid, she wasn't violent at all.

Chika looked down at her arm to check her watch and realized she was still wearing Miu's stolen blazer. She timidly looked around, and then, when she was sure no one was watching, brought the jacket to her nose. She hadn't really smelt anything when Miu put the jacket on her…

Miu you dumbass! This jacket doesn't smell bad. It smells new and a little bit like….you." She pinched the bridge of her. She knew what Miu smelled like and that thought didn't appeal to her in the least.

She draped the blazer over the back of the chair next to her. I bet Miu's lying to me.

"When's the auction start missy?"

"In ten minu…" It was Daiske's dad. "In about ten minutes." He had his arms crossed and didn't look very happy; he was also not wearing a blazer.

I can't believe she actually stole clothes from this guy!

"Excuse me…is this your blazer on the chair here?"

He picked it up and looked at the tag inside. "No. My wife has mine. Said this room was kinda chilly…I'd be sorry if I'd lost this, it looks expensive."

It wasn't like it was the first time Miu had lied to her.

"Chika-chan!" Chika jumped an inch of her chair as someone grabbed her shoulders from behind. "Some of the things for the auction went missing so we need you to start the slideshow while we figure something out."

"Umm…okay. Is it set up?"

"Everything is ready to go." The girl ran off to the backstage area where a couple of teachers were awaiting her.

She didn't even know there was a slideshow. It be nice if they told the MC these things. Now she had to read a slideshow she's never saw before to make up for people being too stupid to keep the auction prizes somewhere they couldn't be stolen.

She walked up to the stage and took the microphone.

"Before the auction begins we'd like to do the "Student Wish" slideshow so if everyone could gather around the front of the stage we can get started." Chika jumped, a stage ninja slipped a remote for the projector into her hands.

"Okay, here we go. The Student Wish Slideshow. I haven't seen this myself so bear with me…and also direct any hostility toward the class committee…or Miu."

The slideshow consisted of pictures and in a few cases drawings making funny observations about the people in her class…or it would have been funny if it wasn't totally neutered by some teacher or parent. It was quite easy to see where changes had been made; they didn't even use the same backgrounds.

"Okay next up is Daiske…I think unless they went screwy with the alphabetical order again." She clicked the button. "'Daiske wishes the farthest he ever got with a girl wasn't inappropriately touching the pencil he stole from Chika'…." There was a picture of Daisuke writing with a huge smile photoshopped onto his face. Chika squeezed her eyes tight. Maybe this thing wasn't so neutered after all.

The crowd nervously laughed. Daiske looked liked he had his ghost sucked out and just stared off into the distance. His dad looked equally, if not more mortified, and mimicked his son staring off into the distance.

"Next is…umm…" She clicked the button. ""Kana wishes she didn't have an inverted cycle'…" There were twenty-six tiny pictures of Kana yelling at someone and two of her looking pleasant and smiling. "You guys are mean."

The room was getting more tense now and the parents were fidgeting in their chairs. Not all the parents had come but there were more than enough that there were going to be some explaining to do afterwards or at the very least extra embarrassment.

"Reina wishes a teenage pregnancy was socially acceptable, or at least she's going too….' Alright moving on…" Chika gritted her teeth. She was lucky the words came up on the laptop she was reading off of before they appeared on the large screen the audience could see.

Chika fingered the remote but hesitated. Next would most likely be her. She looked out at the very tense audience. Some of the chairs were now free and she guessed they were from parents sensibly leaving them to their fun, though Reina had also left. She couldn't bring herself to push the button.

Click. The screen changed on it's own leaving a "Chika wishes" followed by a blank line. Chika's wiped some sweat off her brow.

"Ugh…" She clicked the button. "'Chika wishes the trees weren't so interesting so she could pay attention in class.'" There was a picture of her staring out the window while everyone else was busily writing notes. The picture was blurry and angled up towards her but it was pretty obvious that she wasn't paying attention to the lecture.

Chika pushed the button again and another picture appeared on screen. This time she was dressed differently, there were no leaves on the trees, and she was staring out the window again. She clicked once more and a similar picture appeared…and again…and again. All of them were different days and none of which she was paying attention to class.

"Haha. I just like to remind my dad that I'm an honour student so please don't ground me." She gulped. He definitely did not look happy.

"So the next one should be…Miu? Uh? How the heck does Matsuoka come after Ito? There's at least a dozen names between ours!" There was just a blank screen with "Miu wished" written on it. Chika had a bad feeling. Her's was pretty tame but Miu's could be anything.

"I wash my hands of this Miu."

"Just push the damned button already!" she yelled back.

"Okay." A picture of the class taken from a slightly different angle appeared on screen. Miu sat resting her head in her hands and staring across the aisle. Chika grumbled, she was in the picture too since she sat across from Miu and she was not paying attention again. They were burning her again and it wasn't even her wish! Another picture appeared, Miu was holding her pencil to her notebook but staring out the window looking as if she'd gotten distracted during the act since everyone was busily writing around her. Chika sighed happily, she was in the picture too and doing work this time. Yet another flashed on screen, this time centred on Miu lying on her arms with her head pointed towards the window.

Chika looked out at Miu sitting in the crowd and shivered. She looked so innocent sitting there smiling at her with wide eyes that could only mean bad things to come even if she hadn't made the damned slideshow. I hope this isn't mean for my sake. A little ball of guilt grew in the pit of her stomach. She didn't want to see Miu hurt. She pressed the button and another picture appeared that could have been a duplicate of the first if Miu and her classmates weren't wearing different clothes.

Chika sighed, she was sure they were going to make some stupid joke about birds of a feather flocking together or something since neither one of them ever paid attention. As hard as it was to make Miu cry, she didn't want to see it, and some trite joke about paying attention was going to make her shed tears of anything but laughter. She pressed the button.

"'Miu wishes that..errr...I would stare longingly in her direction...instead of out the window."