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Caught on Camera
Photograph: Problem Solving
Two young children sat side by side on the floor in Shinichi's bedroom. They had their backs against the bed. One was juggling. The other had his arms wrapped around his knees and a rather glum expression. Actually, despite the juggling, the whole atmosphere of the scene was glum—but in a companionable way…
. . . . . . . . .
Shinichi paused for a moment in the doorway to his bedroom. It seemed he had a guest. A certain friend of his was currently sitting on the floor with his back against the side of Shinichi's bed, juggling an assortment of colored balls. His mother hadn't mentioned that Kaito had come over when she'd welcomed him home. But then he noticed that his window was now open even though he'd left it shut that morning before school. He sighed. Sometimes he wondered if he should be worried that his best friend was already so experienced at breaking into people's houses at the tender age of ten. Then again, Toichi-san was just the same, and the man had yet to be arrested for anything. That was probably a good sign.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Er, well, anyway! It was a much more pressing matter that Kaito was frowning.
Okay, not frowning exactly. The expression on the aspiring magician's face was neutral but for a slight narrowing of his eyes and a tiny, irritated quirk at the corner of his mouth. Kaito's Poker Face wasn't quite as good as his father's yet, but it was still well polished. And so even those little signs of annoyance were, for him, tantamount to an outright snarl
"Um, Kai?" Shinichi asked a bit hesitantly. He shut the door but remained next to it, not entirely sure yet if it was safe. When Kaito was in a bad mood, he tended to vent by pulling pranks—preferably on the source, but he wasn't above using anyone who made the mistake of getting too close.
Indigo eyes flickered to Shinichi, and a brief smile flashed across Kaito's face. "Hey Shin-chan." He didn't say any more. He only nodded to the spot next to him.
So Shinichi padded across the room and sat down beside his friend. He wrapped his arms around his knees and sighed. The silence settled back around them like a cloak.
It was Kaito who broke the silence first. "Something's bothering you."
Shinichi let his head fall back against the bed as he closed his eyes. "My school's having a Music Appreciation day. Every class has to put on a different type of musical performance. My class got singing."
"Ah." Kaito snickered.
Shinichi glared and scooted away from him. "It's not funny."
"Sorry, sorry. But hey, you're singing as a class, right? You can just mouth the words. I'm sure no one will notice."
Shinichi looked away, face turning pink. "I tried that in practice," he mumbled. "It didn't work." The students next to him and asked—very loudly—why he wasn't actually singing. And then the teacher had demanded that he sing the same part over all by himself. Horrified by the results of his demonstration, she'd made him repeat the section over and over as she attempted to force him to get it right through repetition.
Lowering his chin, Shinichi curled in more tightly on himself in an unconscious attempt to hide his burning face. It had been absolutely humiliating!
"Think about it this way," Kaito said after a moment's pause. "It'll be over in just an hour or so. I, on the other hand, have to suffer through a whole school day."
Shinichi's brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"They're taking us to the aquarium," Kaito said, pronouncing the word like it was the name of a horrible disease. "That's way worse than a concert. At least you get applause at a concert."
"If anyone applauds, it's going to be out of pity," Shinichi grumbled. "You just have to keep your eyes on the floor. It's not like they're making you guys go swimming at the aquarium."
"If they did, I'd make them all regret it," Kaito said darkly.
Shinichi considered saying something about how that would be wrong, but he knew it was no good. He heaved another sigh, this one even deeper than all the others he'd produced today—and that was saying something.
"I'd trade with you if I could," he said instead, meaning it as a kind of consolation for them both. "But I guess we just have to bear with it—" He yelped as he found himself abruptly seized by the shoulders. Half a dozen juggling balls landed in a neat row on the bed behind them.
"When's your concert?!"
Shinichi stared wide-eyed up into Kaito's face. "It—it's the Friday the week after next."
Kaito grinned. "That's perfect."
Shinichi had a bad feeling about this. "Why?"
"That's the same day my school's going to the aquarium. We'll trade." Kaito sat back, triumph gleaming madly in indigo eyes. "What songs are you singing? They must have given you guys the scores, right? Give them to me."
"Our parents are going to notice," Shinichi pointed out, though he complied and pulled the musical scores from his backpack. "And there's no way we can get to each other's schools on time in the morning without leaving home suspiciously early."
Kaito hopped to his feet and began to pace. "Weren't your parents going to a writers' conference that week?"
"But they're not leaving until Saturday."
"Then we'll just have to convince them to go early."
"How are we going to do that?"
"You just leave that to me. We just have to find something that would interest your mom in the conference area and get the information to her. We could send her a brochure or something. You know what your mom's like."
"Well, yeah… But what about your parents?" In Shinichi's opinion, Toichi-san was probably the most worthy of their wariness. Although he supposed the man was just as likely to help them as hinder them.
Kaito waved his concerns away with a careless hand. "Mom has to take Dad to the airport that morning, so they won't find out until after school."
Shinichi supposed that was Kaito's way of saying that a scolding was worth solving both their problems. And, well, Shinichi found that he agreed.
. . . . . . . . .
…Of course Shinichi made sure to keep his eyes off the fish, and Kaito made sure not to sing exactly right. If there was just one thing Shinichi regretted about the whole venture, it was the horrifying set of 'cute outfits' his mother had brought back from the special sale that had lured her to the conference grounds early. But he'd rather not think about that.
He looked instead at the two pictures on the page opposite. One showed 'Kaito' walking quietly with his class into the aquarium. The other showed 'Shinichi' on stage with his classmates, mouth open in song, completely unperturbed by the way the students to either side of him were wincing.
He leaned over to whisper to Kaito. "I thought they were all out of town. How did they take these?"
"Well, Mom was here," Kaito whispered back.
"But she couldn't have been in two places at once."
"…"
"…"
TBC
A.N: Happy Chinese New Year!