Yo! Was gonna upload yesterday but...
updated 5/01/2015 due to request and proof reading needs.
"Only one more week at school...!" sqeauled Seiko, pulling Naomi down the corridor with a huge grin. "Then we're FREE!"
"Only for some time, Seiko. Are you really sure you know what you want to do?" asked Ayumi doubtfully, glancing wearily at the excited girl's face.
"Of course!" Seiko replied with glee. "I'll do whatever Naomi-san is doing, we'll stick together until the end!"
"But Seiko, I applied ages ago for the nursing school. I don't think you can just turn up!" Naomi explained, though she felt a little bad for Seiko. Seiko wasn't particularly amazing at anything, apart from the fact that she was very positive around anyone, and always understood anyones feelings. She was optimistic, kind hearted, and great around all types of people, even if they were mean to her or rough.
"Oh well, I'll find something else," murmured Seiko, though not very disheartened. She had an unbreakable bond with her best friend, and would do anything to keep it for the rest of her life.
The three girls were about to leave the school, final exams all done and marked, their grades given and confirmed. The next week would be fun, not much work to do at all. In fact, Mayu and Morishige had already left Kisiragi, preparing to go to a specialised Drama College together in another town. Ayumi and the others would miss them, but they still had a strong connection with them, with texts and social networking. Now; Ayumi felt a little left out, as Yoshiki and Satoshi were turning out to be really good mates, and Seiko was inseparable from Naomi. They'd let her tag a long with group work, but it was pair work, she'd often have to go with someone else. Yoshiki and Naomi would often shoot her apologetic and sympathetic looks, but she'd just smile and get on with her work. None of them were over intelligent - excluding Naomi, and they'd just talk with her and drag her down anyway.
"Satoshi!" called Naomi, whose sharp eyes had spotted Satoshi's brown mop of hair. "Over here!"
Satoshi looked up and grinned, ushering Yoshiki to follow him towards the girls, who didn't hesitate. Over the few weeks he had been at Kisaragi, his grades had gone up significantly (due to long revision sessions with his forever demanding girlfriend) and was getting on well with everyone, and was relived that they had accepted him as part of the group, even if he had made it an odd number.
"Hey," he replied, hugging her quickly, making her blush. "Half a week...I can't wait to leave!"
"Urrrr, you're lucky Mochida-kun," complained Seiko, pulling a jelous face at him. "Why do you get to leave early?"
"I'm going to work part time at a publishers. I'm actually planning on maybe writing a novel or two!" he revealed with a nervous smile.
"Uuuuughhh," Seiko moaned over Satoshi's sweet voice. "Not fair!"
"Why don't you be a phycologist?" suggested Yoshiki, with a shrug. "You're a people person, right?"
"OH MY GOSH KISHINUMA-KUN!" Seiko squeaked, hugging him roughly. "You're the best? Uh...What does that do?"
"You help people with their feelings and stuff," explained Ayumi, frustratedly pulling Seiko off of Yoshiki, gripping his hand protectively. Yoshiki didn't look dazed, but he was secretly pleased that she had reacted like that. Cute. "It's perfect for you!"
"Let's go, okay?" bleated Naomi, feeling quite exasperated. "Come one guys..."
After hanging out at Naomi's again for a while, Ayumi headed back to her house, Yoshiki in town feeling pretty great. Hinoe and her parents had chipped in to give her a brand new phone and case after the news of the somewhat unexplained scholarship news, which she thanked them gratefully for, even though she was still a bit wary with using it so often now. She had created new accounts for everything, just to minimise the chance for the hacking and mean messages send to her earlier. She was also more careful with who she have her number to; only giving it to family and close friends like Yoshiki, Satoshi and the rest of the gang as well as Sakura and a few other students she had made friends with from the college. Yoshiki had been really supportive over the whole thing, and didn't once criticise her which made her feel wanted and good.
They were sat in her room now, listening to music through joint earphones and chatting about random, stupid stuff that seemed so meaningless, yet she knew these were the things she seemed to remember the most, their silly goofy conversations that led to flirty, funny looks that made Ayumi want to either snigger out loud or blush the deepest possible shade of red.
Ayumi was speeding through her new, filtered feed of news, some from Naomi who was hanging out with Seiko (as expected) and there was no nasty stuff, making Ayumi feel a bit happier. Suddenly, a low note of her new ringtone jingled, making her feel slightly unnerved, but only people she knew could text her.
To: Ayumi From: Sakura
Hey Ayumi, how are you doing?
Smiling in reassurence, she quickly texted back feeling normal again.
We should meet up soon. I'm good, by the way.
Ping another text. Ayumi opened the window of the short conversation exchange she'd just had with Sakura. Something abruptly struck her as odd. There was nothing there in the window, just her short reply in text. How strange, perhaps some one else had texted her.
"You okay?" asked Yoshiki considerably with a concerned look as she looked a bit confused and worried. "No one's bothering you at all?"
"Oh, of course not, I'm just talking to Sakura," she replied a bit too quickly, blushing slightly.
"Oh okay..."
Opening the text window, she realised the text was from some one she didn't actually know. The eiree title simply said 'unknown number'. Shivering, Ayumi felt a sick feeling at the bottom of her stomach, seriously considering throwing her phone out of the window, as she dreaded to know what the message said. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and clicked on the text, swallowing hard as she squinted her eyes open to read it, even though she really didn't want to know it's awful contents.
To: Me From: Unknown number
Hey Ayumi! It's Sakura here! We haven't spoken in ages, let's hang out soon?
"So it was a message from Sakura after all..." muttered Ayumi under her breath, but unfortunately loud enough for Yoshiki to hear.
"What do you mean Ayumi?" he questioned, a bit more worried now. "Who is that from?"
"Sakura," she replied frowning. "But she just texted me a second ago on a different number!"
"That's strange. One of them must be impersonating her, that's what it looks like," he suggested seriously. "This cyber stuff just isn't leaving you is it?"
"No," she admitted, biting her lip. "What should I do?"
"Call the new number," he told, her with a trustworthy smile, which to Ayumi was worth a thousand words of simple reassurance. "You know her voice, right?"
"Yeah. I'll call the new number first," she replied, Yoshiki squeezing her hand supportively. "Alright,"
She dialled the number and held her breath. It was a few moments before the speaker buffed out a bit on the receiving end.
"Helllloooo?"
"Sakura?" she whispered down the line a little shakily. "Is that you?"
"Sure it is!" Sakura's bubbly voice echoed down the line. "I should of given you my number ages ago but I kept forgetting! I'm so scatterbrained sometimes!"
"Oh...Who have I been texting then?" she said, her heart beating fast.
"What do you mean?" Sakura replied, clearly having no idea what she was talking about. "I've only ever talked to you over my home phone Ayumi!"
Suddenly it dawned on her. Why Sakura had called her on her home phone that day and she had dismissed it as nothing. Why her text convastaion was cleared when she accidentally saw Sakura's text window. Sakura hadn't been texting her at all; then who had? Ayumi explained this quickly down the phone, her voice crackling down the phone whenever she felt sharp tears pushing at her eyes. Sakura, like her was also shocked and actually very angry that someone had been impersonating her.
"That's awful!" she shouted down he phone, making Ayumi wince slightly.
"Do you have any idea who it could be then? A while back I got creepy messages and notes from an 'unknown number', do you think they could be linked at all Sakura?"
There was hesitation. Definite pause.
"Listen Ayumi, What's your address? I'm coming over."
A/N We're nearing the ending of the story, I think It has about two chapters left. Sorry for the lack of updating, as you will know from my previous notes i'm finding it difficult to write this story, it's not that I don't enjoy it, it's just that it's a bit time consuming and I'm also writing several stories at the moment that I enjoy a bit more and also i'm having an OVERLOAD of school work. :(
But I still love corpse party, and you as well. Especially the latter. In a writer-to-reader way.
Thanks, and until next chapter! :3