Pre-PK Academy Festival - Eternal Diamond Veronica?

"Alright class the big PK academy festival is in a month! Let's hear some ideas!" Hairo exclaimed

He slapped his hand on the poster hanging on the class's chalkboard, it was well-drawn but looked more like an advertisement for an upcoming manga than a school festival.

Lotus was all smiles but as she looked at Saiki, her smile only got bigger. No, the psychic was not at all excited for the festival, but the face he was making was something similar to his annoyed look and it just made Lotus laugh. Saiki wasn't one known for being expressive so it was amusing whenever he did express something, especially when he had a face like this.

The class started talking amongst themselves before they started throwing out ideas.

"Should we sell yakisoba?"

A light-haired brunette girl raised her hand. "Wait! I can't help out because I'm doing an event with my Dance Club."

A guy in the back stood up raising his hand too. "Uh, yeah, it's the same thing with my music club."

"I see. Yeah, we can work something out," Hairo said

"What about a display?" A girl suggested. "That way we're free during the festival to have fun."

Hairo hummed in agreement. "Yeah, not bad. We can work hard on it every day after school."

"Uh...I'm in a club after school so that one won't work either."

Mera popped up raising her hand. "Yeah, and I can't do anything then because I have work."

Towards the left side of the classroom, a guy wasn't paying attention staring at something in his hand. His seatmate noticed and questioned him about the odd object he was holding.

"Hey, dude what are you holding?"

"What? Oh, this? It's a rock I found outside. It had an interesting shape, so I took it."

The rock was shaped up like a curled up piece of poop. Just like that emoji people tend to enjoy using.

"Hey! We can put that funny poop rock on display!"

One would think that idea would be shot down but in this class, the opposite happened.

"That's a great idea!"

"Yeah!"

Lotus's excited smile started to dwindle. "Rocks..."

"In fact, we can display every weird looking rock we find!"

"Yeah, we can knock this whole thing out in one afternoon!"

"Yeah!"

"Great!"

"What do you say Hairo? Are you in?"

"Yeah, class 3 will display weird rocks found lying around the schoolyard!" Hairo said

"Agreed!"

Lotus was now frowning, "I once helped my mother dig a hole for three hours in the hot sun and that sounds more exciting than right now. Are my classmates really this lazy?"

"Yes, yes they are."

"No way!" Hairo shouted

"Oh, thank goodness for Hairo."

"We only get to take part in this festival three times during high school, and we are not wasting one on rocks!" Hairo slammed a fist on the teacher's desk, manly tears flowing down his cheeks. "I wanna see some real passion out of you!"

The room was silent before Hairo's words sunk in.

"He's right guys we gotta do better than that."

"Better cancel my after school plans."

"Do it for Hairo."

"Of course."

"That was easy."

"Okay brainstorm take 2!" Hairo said

"The rock thing was dumb but fine."

"What?! Are you serious Saiki?!"

"Just wait…"

"And just like that, I got the perfect idea for us!" Hairo said

"Oh, what is it?"

"Each one of us will make 1,000 paper cranes, cool? That would come out to 36,000 for the entire class. Actually, let's round up to 50 so about 1,389 cranes per person in a month shouldn't be hard," Hairo said

The more he talked the darker the classes' mood got.

"Even Hairo can't sell them on this."

"Yeah...that's an idea...we can think about?"

"How about we just do a food stall!" A girl quickly said

"Good idea! It would get more people talking than a display would."

"Oh, okay. I thought the cranes were a good idea though," Hairo said

The class let out a collective sigh.

"We dodged a bullet on that one."

"I'm still gonna write it down just cause," Hairo said

"~Of course.~" The class thought

"Anyone else have an idea?" Hairo asked

"Yeah me!" Takahashi raised his hand.

"~A thousand cranes no way!~"

"I'm embarrassed to say this but what about a maid café?" Takahashi suggested

"We covered that last chapter idiot."

"Well that's an idea," Hairo said

"How about this idea. A cross-dressing maid café where the guys wear the maid costumes!" Chiyo proposed

"What are you gonna make me shave my legs?"

The tone of Takahashi's words were the opposite of the elated look on his face.

"Your reaction is fooling no one. If you worked in a café it'd have to be in the back."

"Got any other suggestions?" Hairo asked

"~Your not writing it down?!~"

"What do you think Teruhashi?" Hairo asked

"~What ideas? Don't ask me!~"

"Well, maybe we could set up our own planetarium by setting up one of those at home starry night projectors," Teruhashi said

"What a great idea, Teruhashi!"

"Well, that settles that!"

"Have to admit it's pretty creative for something she thought of on the spot."

"That's uh a good idea but the machine is doing all the work," Hairo said

His words got drowned out as all the males agreed with Teruhashi's idea, acting as if that were the only option they could go with.

"We need an actual idea that demands effort from us!" Hairo said

"Shut up dude we're doing the planetarium."

"Yeah, that can't beat anything else."

"Well, that settles who's more charismatic out of Teruhashi and Hairo."

"That's enough!" Mera exclaimed standing up.

"Oh, what is it, Mera?" Hairo asked

"I propose a Korean barbecue stall! Because it's my favorite food!" Mera said

"Mera, you know you can't eat it right?"

"It could be pretty pricey too," Hairo said

"Then how about we combine it with the planetarium. A barbecue under the starry sky!" Mera said

"Not bad! Got any more ideas guys?" Hairo asked

"~Write it down! If it's good write it down!~"

"Kuboyasu, what about you?" Hairo asked

"What you wanna know what I think?" Kuboyasu said

"~Hmm...I think helping out with this could help me blend in more.~"

"How about a haunted house? We can even dress up like zombies," Kuboyasu said

"That's a dumb idea." The boy sitting in front of Kuboyasu slowly started to turn in his seat. "You-ahhhhh!"

He screamed seeing the twisted angered look on Kuboyasu's face.

"He doesn't even need makeup."

"You don't know the true nature of zombies," Kaidou said

"Kaidou is here too?"

"I don't know man zombies are too slow to be scary."

"That's true. But if there's enough of them to form a horde then it's pointless. Surely they'll corner you then, they stop slacking and start attacking!" Kaidou said

"Slacking what?"

"Attacking?"

"Oh, it's just a lazy rhyme!"

"Well my favorite show is about to start, so I'm leaving. This sounds like it's gonna take a while."

Saiki was about to stand up and leave when he noticed the frowning Lotus. He had no clue as to what she was thinking, but he did know he wanted that frown gone. He sighed as he adjusted his glasses.

As the class started arguing none of them saw the bright light in the middle of the sky. A second passed before something crashed through the classroom window.

"What the heck was that!?" Kaidou shouted

"Is that a-!"

"A meteorite!"

"What no way!"

"From outer space!"

"Saiki…" Lotus slowly turned to look at Saiki.

"I used psychokinesis to pull one down to earth. This should settle things."

"Let's make this our attraction!"

"Whoa! Awesome!"

"Now that's an idea!"

"Good job."

"But even if it is from space isn't just having one rock boring?" Hairo glanced at his classmates and spotted the guy holding the poop shaped rock. "That's it! Class three will display the meteorite and interesting rocks found around the schoolyard!"

"Yes!"

Lotus sighed putting her chin in her hand. "Well...It's better than the class arguing and a meteorite is pretty neat. I'd want to do something that took more effort but not everything can as we want. Besides I don't have that much room to complain considering I had no ideas to add in."

Class three got to work and in no time they had several rocks all ready for display. Lotus had to admit she had her reservations on the idea but seeing how excited and into the rock collecting the rest of the class was made her change her tune. She was antsy to find out what the rest of the school was doing.

"Yo Saiki! Lotus!"

The two pink-haired teens turned to find Reita standing at the classroom doors.

"What is with that getup?"

Reita was wearing a pair of orange sunglasses, a flame themed headband, and he had some orange headphones hanging around his neck.

"What's class three got planned for the PK festival? We're doing a crossdressing maid café. Not my thing."

"We almost did that too."

"So guys," Reita pointed at Lotus and Saiki. "I want you two to be in my band for festival day!"

"Hell no."

Despite Saiki's blunt refusal, Reita dragged the two psychics to the music room.

"Here are the members! On lead guitar Takeru! Takayuki is the bassist! Shinya is the drummer and me Reita the vocalist! But when assembled you can call us Eternal Diamond Veronica!"

Lotus and Saiki stared at the group for only a moment before they were exiting the room.

"That's nice."

"Wait!" Reita slammed the door shut. "We need you two to perform with us!"

"Not a chance!"

"Why not? Do you prefer a different kind of music?" Reita said

"I prefer a different kind of person. Besides fives too crowded."

"Band size may actually be least of our problems," Reita said

"None of them know how to play?"

"When we started Takeru was the singer but since he dislocated his jaw on the high notes we moved him to guitar. Takayuki doesn't know what a bass is he tried to blow in it. And Shinya's only played drums in a video game," Reita explained

"You're just a group of idiots."

"For the record, I can't play anything either but that's no problem when you're the frontman," Reita said

"Your attitude is the problem."

Lotus put a hand on her hip. "Why would you even form a band if none of you could play?"

"To be popular with girls! What other reason is there!" Reita said

"And you're giving me a reason to smack you."

"Anyways we seem to get worse the more we practice. I was hoping you could use your powers to make us sound awesome!" Reita said

"You're pathetic and naive. Why would I use my powers to help you?"

Once again Lotus and Saiki tried to leave, Saiki holding the door open for Lotus. This time they made it into the hallway before Reita spoke up.

"Man that school trip to Okinawa sure was nuts. It would suck for the school to learn that they almost all died thanks to a sleeping psychic."

Saiki paused then turned around, he had a dark expression on his face sporting a malicious smirk.

"Hey, are you trying to threaten me."

"Eh!" Reita choked out clearly scared.

"You are certainly courageous."

"Wow, now that's a new look for Saiki." Lotus put a hand on her chin. "And despite how scary it is I think it looks good on him."

It took a moment for Lotus's own words to sink in, and when they did her cheeks turn pink.

Reita looked away sweating bullets. "I was just talking to myself."

"Still he's got a point I owe him for helping me out in Okinawa. Lotus, I need a mask."

Lotus smiled giving a thumbs up. "On it!"

Takeru, Takayuki, and Shinya watched amazed as Saiki shredded it on a guitar then went full rock mode on the drums.

"Now the newest member, Psi!" Reita said

Saiki was sporting a black mask with green lenses, akin to a famous 1970s rock band.

"Wow! You're so good!"

"Are you a pro or something?"

"You're in bro," Takeru spoke holding his hand out.

"And you should be out."

"Can you help us out Sa-I mean Psi? Now that you're in the group," Reita said

"I'm just helping, not joining."

"Reita." Lotus tapped the medium's shoulder grabbing his attention. "What was my role supposed to be anyway?" She asked

"Well if Saiki turned me down-"

"He did."

"-I hope to have you as a backup. But since he said yes, I thought you would make a great groupie! Here!" Reita held up a cropped tank top with his band's logo on it. "You can wear this and help the crowd get hyped!"

Lotus was giving Reita a flat look that read "Are you serious?"

"It's official, You've lost your mind. You must have if you think I'm wearing that," Lotus said

Reita laughed, "What no of course not." He pulled out a plaid pleated mini skirt. "Not without the matching skirt."

Lotus's expression became heated as she stared at the outfit, her expression was so hard you'd think the garment would catch fire. Which is what happened.

"Aaaahhh!"

Reita and Lotus both jumped as the skirt the bottom of the skirt burst into flames. Reita screaming loudly as he dropped the burning garment, lucky that his hands were unscathed.

"Okay, I get it you didn't like the outfit! Don't try to barbecue me next time!" Reita exclaimed

"Uh...I didn't do that," Lotus said

Saiki lowered his hand as he turned away.

Saiki, or Psi as he was right now, held a guitar out to Takeru.

"What play that? You know I can't," Takeru said

"I'm giving you a lesson."

"Dude, I barely know how to hold it," Takeru said

"You need to put the guitar strap on."

Everyone turned to Lotus.

"And it needs to hang high up on your body. You wanna hold the neck of the guitar around at a 30-degree angle. If you don't want the guitar to hang that high then you need a prop like a box or something to put your foot on and use your leg as support for the guitar," Lotus explained

All eyes blinked, staring at Lotus stunned.

"What?" Lotus sad

"Lotus...you know how to play the guitar?!" Reita said

"Yeah. I know how to play all these instruments," Lotus said

"What?!" Reita grabbed Lotus's shoulders and started shaking her. "Why didn't you say so!?"

"You didn't ask. You wanted me to be a groupie, remember?"

"I wouldn't mind if the pretty girl helped me," Shinya said holding up his hand.

"Me too!" Takayuki said

"I could use some help as well," Takeru said

"Can we just get back to Psi's lessons?" Lotus said

Saiki forced the guitar in Takeru's hands, standing behind him.

"Play it."

Helping him out, Saiki moved Takeru's hands.

"He can really play now!" Takayuki said

"When he played yesterday he sounded like a cat drowning in a washing machine!" Reita said

Next was Takayuki

"Whoa, that is one smooth bass line!" Takeru said

"Awesome! The other day he sounded like a hippo drowning in a washing machine!" Reita said

Now it was Shinya's turn.

"Whoa! Sounds like he's done it for years!"

"Yesterday he sounded like a herd of zebras drowning in a washing machine!" Reita said

"What's with you and washing machines?"

Finally, it was Reita's turn.

"Incredible I can't believe those notes he's hitting!"

"Yesterday he sounded like a washing machine inside a washing machine!"

"Are washing machine analogies a new thing?!"

"Let's do a song!" Reita said

"Yeah!"

The music started up and it sounded like the guys had been playing for years.

"I don't want to be caught staring at the girls…"

After hearing the first line of Reita's lyrics Lotus and Saiki kind of just tuned them out.

"If he sings that song in public I will personally destroy all their instruments."

When the song came to an end the group was left with a euphoric sense, they felt like real pros.

"Guys were rock stars!" Reita cheered

"Dude you sounded just like Natsuki Hanae!" Takeru said

"Let's do a concert!" Shinya said

"Psi you were amazing-uh? What where'd he go?" Takayuki said

"That really cute girl he was with is gone too," Shinya said

"Well with him gone that just means more groupies for us to get," Reita said

"Your right, Hanae," Shinya jested

"Oh cut it out!" Reita said as the guys started laughing.

"~Not only did Saiki make himself good, but us too! I can't believe we're friends!~"

Lotus and Saiki made making their way down the halls.

"Were not friends and none of us are rock stars. It was all just an illusion."

Lotus laughed, "Yeah you sounded horrible. Since your powers don't work on me, I could hear what you were actually playing."

"If they tried to play now they'd find that they couldn't. I gave Reita a rock star moment. Now go practice so you can improve for the festival."

Turns out that confidence boost was too much, and none of them practiced at all, believing they sounded good enough.

"They are gonna crash and burn so hard."