🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨
🌸Chapter 60: The Conclusion of Spring Term, Part Two🎨
Written by EmtenDew
Edited by P. serrulata
Author's note:
ED: I forgot to thank Joaquin last time for the lovely art of Hana-chan in her "secondhand Sunday best"! Sakura as Tetra the pirate from the Zelda series is the handiwork of this same artist.
Isn't pirate Sakura just darling?!
In case you can't see her on your platform: joaquinthatboi/art/Sakura-in-a-Tetra-cosplay-928886381
Thanks, Joaquin!
This chapter and the previous one were going to be one super long chapter, but 9K+ word chapters are a lot to deal with. Even this chapter could've been two.
This time around, Naoto meets a few friends in the art room.
In canon, big surprise, nothing happened again. And nothing will happen next time. Someone's going to chicken out, someone's going to put a stop to everything, or we're in for a fake out. Just another nothing after another two or three weeks of waiting.
Ask us anything, and I'll add a Q&A section to the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.
Please enjoy what I wrote.
Friday, July 19, 2018
Naoto Hachioji entered the art room, familiar voices having been heard from down the hall.
"Yo, 'sup, Paisen~?!" Maki Gamou patted the empty spot at the Art Club's big table between Yoshi Yamazaki and herself, Naoto having walked in. "Have a seat, fella!"
"Take a load off, Sensei!" Yoshi squawked.
Gamo-chan and Yoshi were there alright! Just as Sakura Inori had alluded!
The girls' senpai surveyed the room. "H-hey, girls."
Hana Sunomiya was by herself on one side of the table, but he had been asked to be the meat in a senpai sandwich… and he'd be facing away from the brightened window if he answered the bidding.
Even so, he was a little timid of the prodigious Gamo-chan…
The way he'd treated her on Monday, he one-third-expected her to pull out his larynx or something, though it hadn't happened yet.
He sat down at the more populated side of the table.
"What's good, Sensei?" Yoshi inquired.
Yoshi? She'd been pretty "normal" around him… not that Gamo-chan hadn't… but he worried less with Yoshi.
He just came out and said, "I'm… pretty pleased with my grades this semester."
Gamo-chan chimed in, "You oughtta be! You're fifteenth in your class!"
"It's always a boon to beat your age!" Yoshi said oddly. "We'd be lucky to beat our ancestors!"
But it was true!
He was 18 years of age, and he'd placed below that.
"Sorry for dropping by unannounced," Gamo-chan offered. "Things have been a little noisy all day, and we wanted some quiet."
"Homeroom's a zoo today," Yoshi contributed.
Naoto, unwinding, assured, "No need for 'sorry'. It's good to see you both."
It's not like the girls always let the world know when they'd show up in the art room anyway…
For the first time since he'd shown up, Hana opened her mouth, "Yes, you're both always welcome."
The two second-year girls took this favorably. "…~" "…~"
Naoto said it for some reason, "I met Sakura-san on the way here; she said she was gonna hang out in your homeroom."
"We saw her grades, Paisen," Gamo-chan brought up. "It seems you really helped her out~."
He didn't care if she was insinuating something. "I was really, really happy that she'd done that well."
Her "attack" deflected, Gamo-chan acknowledged, "Yeah, she did well…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
Naoto picked up on something, the silence telling. "What is it?"
Gamo-chan squirmed in her seat.
She confessed, "To tell you the truth, Paisen, half the reason we're here is because of Hayacchi…"
Nagatoro? He mentally stumbled. "Is she okay?"
He knew that she wasn't "okay", but was it worse…?
"No, no, nothing like that," Gamo-chan quelled his concern. "I didn't wanna say it so bluntly, but… our homeroom stinks."
Yoshi drummed her fingers on the table, an off-color quality to her face. "Hayacchi got really sick about halfway through homeroom… She threw up all over the place… The smell won't go away, even after the custodian visited… We can still smell it, at least…"
Oof! TMI, Yoshi-san! Naoto's own stomach dropped, thinking about that.
"She messaged me before she left school, I think, but she didn't say a thing about that…" he vexed (though why would she?!). "It's that bad? She's that sick?"
"I dunno, Paisen," Gamo-chan sighed. "She's sick alright. She prolly has the stomach flu or something, and here we thought it was just a bad cold going around…"
Yoshi attached, "It's been catching. People that thought they had colds yesterday are worse today. Hayacchi wasn't the only one to get sick this morning… happened to at least five people… even a sensei…."
Stomach flu?! Naoto cringed. Oh, that must've been embarrassing, vomiting in class…!
"Sakura-san didn't say anything…" he said. "I just saw her five minutes ago."
Gamo-chan explained, "She'd already left to go to another classroom when Hayacchi got sick; she didn't see the 'fireworks'. But it is a little weird that she wouldn't mention it to you…"
Maybe Sakura just didn't feel like telling him the graphic particulars, crossing paths with him at mealtime…
It did, however, strike him as odd that Sakura wouldn't mention Hayase Nagatoro at all, surely aware the petite girl had left school.
She'd have needed to at least revisit homeroom for roll call at the beginning of each period, EVEN IF a teacher let the class off the leash… and with what had happened, there was no missing the Nagatorial situation!
"I'm a little surprised you hadn't heard the details, but Sakura mentioned your class wasn't allowed to leave your room until lunch," Gamo-chan meditated.
I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't allowed to leave class because of ME… Naoto didn't doubt it.
Nonplussed, he expressed, "I'm glad we're not sick… knock on wood…"
"It's the last day of the semester, Paisen, so at least there's that…" Gamo-chan was grateful for this.
"…" He was quite disheartened.
He hated to see Nagatoro in such rotten shape, not that he'd SEEN her that morning…
Gamo-chan noticed. "You okay, Paisen?"
He exhaled, "Yeah… I'm just sorry for Nagatoro…"
The girls knew that his patching things up with the farm-tanned cutie was no small thing; they knew he cared about her.
"It's gonna be alright, Paisen…" Gamo-chan comforted. "She's just sick with the same crappy virus the rest of them have. Though… yeah, really, I do hope we don't get sick too."
"Sorry that you and Hayacchi can't work together after school, Sensei," Yoshi extended.
"Yeah, that's too bad…" Gamo-chan mumbled with a sad sincerity.
Ouch! Naoto had been trying to not think about it, and he was sure the subject was difficult for each of them. "Thanks, Yoshi-san… Gamo-chan…"
He even felt that he was selfish, converging even slightly around his "lost opportunity", with Nagatoro booting her guts out and doomed to a weekend of misery. His problem was nothing compared to hers.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Hachioji-senpai, how did you do on your exams?" Hana shot in like a bolt from the blue.
"Huh?" He blinked.
"Your exams," she repeated. "How did you do?"
It was quite the departure and quite abrupt, but it wasn't like talking about puke and the stomach flu and the cancellation of a (decidedly intimate) modeling session was going to help anyone…
Gamo-chan joined, "Yeah, show us!"
"Reveal to us your secrets, wise one!" Yoshi exclaimed.
He showed them his sheet:
…
Hachioji Naoto
Japanese 84 (73)
English 79 (74)
Science 89 (71)
Math 82 (60)
Social Studies 91 (80)
Total 425 (358)
…
"Hey, that's swell~!" Gamo-chan said.
Yoshi piped, "Way to go, Sensei!"
"Congratulations, Hachioji-senpai." Hana gave a thumbs-up.
Naoto blushed. "…Thanks…"
Gamo-chan charged right back in, "So, did you hear how Hanacchi did~?"
Naoto got excited, meeting eyes with Hana. "I didn't, but Sakura-san hinted at it."
Yoshi trumpeted, "Show him, Hanacchi~!"
Hana wiggled shyly. "…Okay…"
Naoto read the sheet that she coyly slid his way:
…
Sunomiya Hana
Japanese 88 (62)
English 86 (65)
Science 90 (56)
Math 96 (48)
Social Studies 98 (60)
Total 458 (291)
…
291? That was TERRIBLE! For an average?!
The first-years normally got well over 300 for their first averaging of exams, but this sucked.
The spring exams were often wakeup-calls of what high school was about, but this SUCKED!
But that wasn't what mattered.
Gamo-chan said of Hana, "She got fourth among the first-years!"
Wow!
"That's great, Sunomiya!" Naoto tried to not shout, but he was pleased as pie. "You got twice what the math average was!"
She'd obliterated ALL the averages!
Hana had gone crimson, twiddling her thumbs and her feet. "…~!"
"Way to go, Hanacchi~!" Yoshi breezed over and patted her shoulder.
"Thanks, Yoshi-senpai…" she shrank.
"I wanna treat this girl to a crepe~!" Gamo-chan bounded in and patted Hana's other shoulder.
"Oh, you don't have to…" Hana couldn't take much more, having already been commended by the two girls.
Naoto couldn't stop beaming, watching Hana wriggle under the praise of her two senpai, not that he enjoyed seeing her uncomfortable.
His girls had done it!
He wasn't sure how much he'd helped Hana. He knew she was smart, and she hadn't disappointed anyone.
And Sakura had gone great by her standards; he needed to remember that the girls were all in different places.
For Sakura to show that much improvement in only a couple of weeks, even with how hard the exams had seemed?!
"…~!" He wasn't disappointed in the least!
His internal rejoicing was interrupted.
"Hachioji-senpai…?"
Sunomiya?! He woke up. "Yeah?"
The girl was standing up, her rosiness fading fast.
"Huh?" Naoto cocked his head.
Hana bowed. "Thank you, Hachioji-senpai… Thank you so much!"
He felt his heart flutter.
What was she…?
"I'm glad you did so well, Sunomiya, but…" Naoto, "adjusting his glasses", couldn't help but think he hadn't done much, as badly as he wished he had.
"Please, Hachioji-senpai, thank you!" She wouldn't let that pass. "You helped me a lot! Sakura-senpai helped too! I got higher marks in everything than I did on any of my homework, quizzes, or tests all semester! I was getting five to 10 percent less in English, science, and math, and you both really helped me! And thanks to you, Sakura-senpai did better than she'd imagined!"
Sunomiya…! Naoto's eyes heated up, and a tightness in his throat he hadn't felt since Monday returned.
Her voice became squeaky, "My teachers… all of them said I'd done well… They were all pleased with my improvement… They said it wasn't monumental… but it was obvious…"
Maybe he HAD made a difference…
Prompted by something to do something that was rarely in him, Naoto stood up and rounded the table.
He'd known her for years, and he'd never done it.
Hana looked at him, straightening up. "Hachioji-senpai…?"
He'd already had one from Sakura, so…
He held out his arms. "Sunomiya…"
He wasn't sure how she'd react, but he was happy with what happened.
Once she saw what was offered, she directly moved in and wrapped her arms around his neck; it was a bit of a reach. "Mm~…"
He hugged her right back, trying hard to not reflect upon the déjà vu of two orbs smooshing into his ribs. "Good job, Sunomiya…"
"Thank you~…" she breathed.
Gamo-chan chuckled, not nastily, whipping out her phone, "How about a pic for posterity~?"
"Ker-snap! Ker-snap!" Yoshi imitated the sound of a shutterfly, now rarely existing outside of the realm of digital.
Naoto knew they weren't serious, but he said, glancing to the side, "Don't you dare…"
"If you do, I'll never bring either of you meaty leftovers again," Hana growled, eyeballing the girls.
So, the hug broke off, and they went about the business of lunch.
As Gamo-chan had put forth, "We can talk some more, but let's get eating first. I'm hungry."
They all were, and they acted on this.
…
Naoto wasn't keen on it, but Hana went about describing the tiny faults of her otherwise great performance.
"I made mistakes in a few places in Japanese, and English is probably my weakest subject." She nibbled on a dumpling. "I was still happy to get those subjects done first."
Gamo-chan laughed, "Yeah, you said that on Monday… Do you really still feel that way?"
"I do, actually," Hana retorted. "I don't think I would've done any better with more time studying those subjects, so it was nice to be done with them."
"I like that answer, Hanacchi~!" Gamo-chan said around a mouthful of vegetable fried rice. "That's how I felt too… but about math…"
"Sakura-senpai told me how unexpectedly difficult the social studies exam was…" Hana went back to her bento. "She said the grades in the subject had a very wide spread. She used the term 'selective' to describe the exam's material."
That's the word she used with me too… Naoto recalled.
"It definitely had a big spread," Gamo-chan said of that specific test. "And it was polarizing. The English test was the same way."
"…" Hana fidgeted.
Gamo-chan noticed. "…?"
Hana poked at her lunch. "Uh, Gamou-senpai…?"
"Yeah?"
"How…?" she couldn't finish.
Gamo-chan smirked. "You wanna know how I did on the exams, don't ya?"
Naoto figured the girls had already exchanged results, but…
Hana nodded eagerly. "…~!"
Bringing out the sheet with her grades, the big girl pinkened, knowing she was about to show it to her senpai too. "I didn't do as well as you, no surprise, but I think I did pretty well for me."
…
Gamou Maki
Japanese 54 (64)
English 50 (70)
Science 70 (52)
Math 52 (57)
Social Studies 52 (68)
Total 278 (311)
…
Naoto was… glad for her. It those grades were his, he'd want to curl up and die, but compared to her usual performance…
The cutoff for failure was 30.
The cutoff to avoid summer school was 40, barring other circumstances.
It seemed generous to Naoto, but either way, Gamo-chan wouldn't have to go to summer school that year!
"You sure did pretty well on the science exam," he observed; that stood out the most to him.
"Aww~!" She sneered. "I can't get a simple 'good job' outta ya~?"
He hadn't hinted at anything negative. "Hey, you did do a good job. I'm just a little surprised by the science score…"
"I was too and pleasantly so~!" Gamo-chan bubbled. "I told you that science guide you gave me was a big help! The math and English ones were helpful too! It might not show, but believe you me, they helped."
"I'm happy for you, Gamo-chan," he said gratifyingly.
Yoshi had already seen these results. "…~!"
"Good job, Gamou-senpai," Hana harumphed.
She shimmered, "Thanks, Hanacchi~."
Hana gave another amitious harumph, "Hmm!"
"But man, oh, man," Gamo-chan whistled, turning to Naoto. "Look at that average."
"Yeah…" He happened to think all of the years' averages blew goat scrote.
"A score of 311 is pretty low for an average at this school," she felt. "Not that I'm one to talk."
"Sakura-san said all the tests were much harder than usual," Naoto said. "It does seem like it was like that for everyone. You feel the same way?"
He hadn't discussed it as much with her as he had with some others.
"Definitely," Gamo-chan agreed. "On these exams, if you hadn't concentrated on the exact stuff that showed up, you'd have been lost for a lot of it."
"The 'polarizing' thing…" he mused. "Like you said, Sakura-san also thought the English and social studies were like that… and that people overall either did pretty well or pretty badly…"
She ho-hummed, giving him a little of the Gamo-glare, "I'm on the better side of the 'bad cluster'~…"
"You didn't do badly…" He meant it. "It sounds like there's a dip in the middle of what would normally appear a bell-curve."
"Some geek in our homeroom generated the curve," she snickered. "It looked like a pair of sorrowful tits~!"
Naoto withdrew at hearing the word 'tits', and he'd heard plenty from the Amazon. "Ahh…"
Yoshi pointed at him. "Ha-ha~!"
"Positively mournful~!" Gamo-chan bolstered.
"Tits…" Hana tried the word on for size.
The Amazon cackled a bit more, but she got back to the issue at hand.
"The stuff about English and social studies dividing the class is definitely true…" She fiddled with a pencil on the table. "I'd like to say that about the math test, but I usually just suck in that anyway; the math test was just hard, but I coulda done a whole lot worse."
"Mine wasn't easy…" Naoto grumbled.
"Some of the teachers are under fire." Gamo-chan was now spinning the pencil idly. "Students and even the administration claim they made the exams too difficult. Heh~! Last time, weren't they 'too easy'~?"
"I'll never call a test 'too easy'." He'd never reveled in a hard test.
She dropped the pencil, lounging and getting back to her chow. "Well, it's over, and we're stuck with the results… not that I mind~."
"Looks that way." No argument was to be had from Naoto.
All seemed right in her Maki-ish world. "I mean, you sometimes see a 'bad test' or 'bad quiz' show up during the regular semester. The averages are so low or the scoring range is so widespread that they actually throw out the offending assessment or adjust the grading because it just wasn't put together well."
"But it's not like they'd ever throw out that many exams…" Naoto figured. "And they won't drop anything, considering summer break starts tomorrow. I've never seen an exam thrown out other than this one time when I was little. A few quizzes, sure."
"I've only seen a test thrown out once too," Gamo-chan shared.
"Yeah?"
"The thrown exam happened in our third year of middle school." She frowned. "I still remember how bad the test was. We had this new English teacher come in after teaching at this exclusive private academy, so she was expecting more than she should've been on midterms from us public school dopes.
"Even the top students didn't break 60, and almost all of us failed. I failed. She rewrote the test, and the spread looked a little more 'normal'."
"I remember that." Yoshi couldn't forget that exam. "I passed the original with a 42, but I got lucky."
Speaking of Yoshi…
Hana asked what was possibly unthinkable to another person.
She tendered, "Yoshi-senpai, how did your exams go?"
Yoshi, her complexion none too dark to begin with, rapidly turned a whiter shade of pale.
"Eep…" she peeped.
Until this moment, she'd been very much her twin-tails self!
Oh, man! Naoto would not have asked that!
It was a sure thing that Hana meant well, but…
That stuff about "well meant" vs. "well met"…
Yoshi was as a ghost. "…!"
"Might as well get it over with, Yosh…" Gamo-chan said humorlessly.
…! Naoto didn't think that was quite fair.
He knew that Yoshi had been doing extra studying that semester! She'd said so, and Gamo-chan had said so too!
He wanted to say so, but the words wouldn't come out.
As "out-of-line" as her question was, Hana was more than supportive.
She deemed, "Yoshi-senpai, you worked hard this semester; I know you did."
Naoto was thankful for Hana's encouragement, but he still wasn't overly hopeful…
Yoshi, though, took heart in it. "Yeah, Hanacchi… I did try harder than normal… and I'm pretty happy with how I did… I, uh… passed everything…"
"…!" Naoto's attention was had.
"You did?!" Gamo-chan burst.
She hadn't seen?! Naoto thought she'd have seen for sure.
Indeed, Yoshi had kept her grades a secret.
Hana stimulated, "Well, go on."
Tenuously, Yoshi took the sheet from her bag and slid it into her friends' midst.
Naoto craned to see, but he couldn't quite make it.
But he saw how Gamo-chan reacted!
Her jaw dropped. "No way…"
"Ooh~…" Hana observed.
Gamo-chan stood up and repeated, "No way…!"
Okay, I GOTTA see this! Naoto saddled up.
And he saw:
…
Yamazaki Yoshi
Japanese 73 (64)
English 84 (70)
Science 41 (52)
Math 48 (57)
Social Studies 72 (68)
Total 318 (311)
…
No way… Naoto blinked, not unconvinced he'd misread the sheet.
But it was real…
The math and science grades were nothing to write home about, and she was avoiding summer school in the subject of science by the skin of her teeth, but…
It was real!
And Naoto was barely halted, stunned as he was.
"Great job, Yoshi-san!" He beamed. "Look at that score in English!"
Her Japanese and social studies scores were also quite respectable!
"Banzai, Yoshi-senpai!" Hana broadcasted. "Banzai!"
Yoshi reddened, melding into the table. "Eeeeeeep…"
"You gotta be kiddin' me…!" Gamo-chan's arms hung limply at her side, waving in the nonexistent breeze.
Yoshi had beaten the average! She was only 13 points shy of Sakura's grade!
"…H-how…?" It seemed that had stopped working. "Is this…?"
Yoshi flinched at her oldest friend's words. "…"
She had been for the last few utterances.
And Naoto had noticed.
He didn't like it!
Was Yoshi… feeling guilty?
Did she feel bad that she'd overall outperformed Gamo-chan?
The big girl remained in awe. "…!"
Naoto decided he'd had enough.
While he could've confronted Gamo-chan and told her to stop acting like the sky was falling, his recent experience told him to "flow into something else".
But he wouldn't leave Yoshi's performance behind; he'd just take things in a better direction!
Mercifully, Hana led the way, whether she meant to or not, and she very, very likely didn't.
Her eyes lit up and everything. "Wow, Yoshi-senpai~! How'd you do it?!"
Ack! It was a little blunt for Naoto's taste, but Hana could get away with such wording better than most.
Yoshi responded positively, though with some shillyshallying, "Uh… my parents got me sort of a tutor… She's a family friend who gave me a stack of workbooks to finish. We'd meet one or two days a week to go through stuff and check over everything. They made me go home before dinner every day so I could get all the time in that I could…"
That's why she was always home before 5:00 p.m. every day! Naoto recalled the previous Wednesday.
It seemed Gamo-chan was right, at least in part…
Yoshi continued, becoming slightly more comfortable, "I still had a lot of trouble with math and science, but I passed them~…"
Naoto glanced towards Gamo-chan, gauging her.
She was listening, at least…
"I was hoping to do better in math and science than I did…" Yoshi took a downturn. "I made it through all of those workbooks, but I sorta blanked out on Tuesday when I saw all those equations…"
Oh, Yoshi-san… Naoto wished he could think of something to say.
Turns out, he didn't need to.
Yoshi perked up. "But I did my best. Studying and adjusting to the new schedule was hard, but I'm glad… I'm glad I tried."
Hana acclaimed, "Good work, Yoshi-senpai."
"Thank you, Hanacchi…" she said quietly.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Hana asked.
Crap… Naoto was as envious as he was perplexed of Hana's ability to go for the throat. Too much, Sunomiya…!
But Yoshi answered, practically ashamed of herself, "If I still failed with a tutor… I'd feel really dumb… I don't think I could've faced that… That's why I kept quiet…"
Naoto just couldn't find the words, as much as he wanted.
But the unexpected happened.
Bewildered as she was, Gamo-chan patted Yoshi on the back. "Hey… good job, Yoshi…"
Yoshi looked up to see her friend blushing, nearly unable to fathom the approval. "…?!"
The Amazon could tell, and she was mortified. "Sorry, Yosh… I'm… just surprised… Sorry… You did good."
That could've been a lot worse… Naoto supposed.
However, Yoshi took it well, her eyes misting. "Thanks…"
Naoto said the same thing to her that he'd said to Sakura, "Good job, Yoshi-san… I'm proud of you."
It was as if his praise tipped her over the edge.
"I'm proud of me too~!" Yoshi abruptly started crying. "I've never done this well on finals!"
Yikes! Naoto hadn't anticipated this.
"Bweh~…" Yoshi wept, wiping at her face.
"Oh, Yoshi-senpai, it's alright…" Hana pressed the table's tissue box towards her friend. "There, there…"
Yoshi pulled out a few tissues, sniffling, and blew her nose.
"…?" Naoto stole a look towards Gamo-chan. What's she up to…?
Her hands rubbing Yoshi's back, he saw her eyes misting up.
Oh, please, don't you start crying too! He flailed mentally.
But Gamo-chan didn't cry, and Yoshi calmed down with relative ease.
…
…
…
The four in the art room were scraping up the last bits of their lunch, and it would soon be time to pay lip-service to their afternoon class periods.
Naoto's fear was that Gamo-chan would—in response to Yoshi's admirable academic performance—say something stupid, along the lines of, "Now I feel like the idiot," but she did no such thing.
In fact, she took solace in the fact that she'd performed better than she had the whole term and the entirety of the previous semester, even with how difficult the exams had been.
She chortled, sucking on a bottle of fruit punch, "Hey, we all did pretty good! How 'bout you do the 'study buddy' thing again, Paisen~? Let me and Yoshi in too?"
Naoto was unwilling to commit without some serious ground rules, and it was far too soon to consider. "If everyone could be on board with it, I think it'd work, but…"
Hana put in, "If we worked for three weeks instead of a week-and-a-half, it might go more smoothly…"
"How about a month~?!" Yoshi, dry-eyed, boomed.
Gamo-chan adjoined, "Why don't we just go the whole term~?"
Too much, too much… Naoto wouldn't say it out loud.
The girls were just having fun…
Still, he did like the idea of adequate planning and better structuring for a similar "project".
If he could be good and ready, then they could ALL work together, even—
…
It was then—after all else—that Naoto remembered something he'd meant to ask much earlier.
He raised, near to bursting, "Any idea how Nagatoro did? On the exams?"
The girls were thrown off, but it's not like it was all that strange of a question.
"Nope," Gamo-chan answered; she turned to Yoshi. "She tell you?"
Yoshi shook her head. "Not a thing."
"I don't think she told Sakura either…" Gamo-chan wasn't sure, but she doubted it.
"I guess she did go home early." It seemed reasonable to Naoto.
Gamo-chan said, "Even so, normally, she'd share her results with us, even by mail."
He felt a twinge. "You think something's up?"
"Nah, I wouldn't give it a second thought, Paisen." The girl waved off his concern. "She's sick, and she prolly doesn't wanna bother with it."
"Maybe…" He thought that could be the case. Poor Nagatoro, ending up like this the day before break starts…!
Gamo-chan enlightened, "Even if that's not it, if she doesn't do as well as she'd like, she clams up about it. Once, last year, she hid the fact she got a 68 on the math midterm from us because she thought she'd let herself down. If she doesn't make at least 75 across the board, she considers it a loss."
"Huh." Naoto figured that must be the case. "Yeah, I can see that."
"If I'd gotten a 68 on that same math test, I'd have kissed our teacher's wrinkly, old ass, hair and all," Gamo-chan voiced. "I would've been really happy with a 68. Shit, I was happy to pass that one."
Yoshi said, "I was happy to pass it too. He came down hard on those that didn't."
While brooding over their test scores was all kinds of fun, there were other matters deserving of attention, and they drifted elsewhere.
"One o'clock, one o'clock, one o'clock Wednesday~," Gamo-chan crooned. "Gonna sing me a whole lotta songs~…"
Naoto sputtered, "I'm sorry, Gamo-chan. I keep forgetting to bring it, but I'll pay my share of the karaoke bill in the next couple of days."
He still owed her, the Maki having originally put up the cash for renting the party room at the new karaoke bar.
She giggled, having reminded him more than once, often in song, "And make sure you get some dough from your two guy-friends; I wanna be whole again. The big room and the fountain beverages weren't cheap."
"You got it," he submitted.
Gamo-chan turned to Hana. "There'll still be a spot for you, Hanacchi. Like I said, don't worry about your part of the bill. If you make it back in time, you can pay me, and if you don't, then no sweat. I wouldn't ask you to pay if you weren't there. I'm the one that made the reservation for nine people."
"I'll let you know if I'll be going by Tuesday afternoon, Gamou-senpai," Hana promised. "Is that okay?"
"That's fine, Hanacchi," Gamo-chan expressed. "I do hope you get back in time, if that's in the cards."
"Me too." Hana nodded.
"…~!" Naoto felt encouraged.
It appeared she WOULD go if she was available.
"Whatever happens, we'll have all sorts of other fun too~," Gamo-chan luxuriated. "Just enjoy your trip, and don't rush back on our account."
"Thank you, Gamou-senpai~," Hana oozed. "I'm sure I'll have fun."
"…"
"…"
"…" Gamo-chan said something so quietly, it wasn't heard.
Hana enlivened. "Gamou-senpai…?"
"Uh, Hanacchi?" She became somber.
She blinked. "Yes, Gamou-senpai?"
"I've been meaning to tell you…"
"Yes?"
A bit of red revisited Gamo-chan's face. "I guess I don't mind that you call me 'senpai', but… I'd really like it if you'd call me 'Gamo-chan'."
"…!" Hana almost lost her balance, and she wasn't even standing.
"Hanacchi?" The older girl sat up fully, surprised.
Hana took on a pink of her own, apparently unsure what to do with her hands. "I… You're my senpai… my senior…! I… don't know if I'm comfortable with that…"
Naoto and Yoshi thought things might get weird for a minute, but they didn't.
Gamo-chan bobbed her head in understanding. "That's okay, Hanacchi. I just wanted to ask…"
"I'm sorry, Gamou-senpai…" she bothered.
"Don't be…" Gamo-chan didn't want her thinking there was anything wrong with it. "I get it."
But she seemed to fight with something in her own head, and she nervously began drumming her fingers on the table.
"Gamou-senpai?"
"Really, Hanacchi, I do understand," she reassured. "It's just…"
"…?" Hana stared. "It's what?"
One side in the cerebral battle won out, and Gamo-chan sighed, "I just really like when people call me '-chan'. It always made me feel… cuter… when I was younger… It still does…"
"…Gamou-senpai…?"
She continued, haltingly, quite red in the face, "Once I started grade school, I was always a lot taller than the boys, and I really got taller for a couple of years. They made fun sometimes, saying the suffix didn't fit. It was a dumb thing, but… I still liked being 'Gamo-chan'… I liked it, because I felt cute when people called me that."
Oh, geez… Naoto wasn't sure if he or Yoshi was more uncomfortable in this.
The Yosh had gone snow-white!
But Gamo-chan didn't want them to get bogged down. "I'm sorry, Hanacchi, I'm just being silly. You can keep calling me 'Gamou-senpai'. I am really proud to be your senpai, so it's okay…"
"You're not being silly… not at all…" Hana deemed. "I just don't think I can call you 'Gamo-chan'…"
Gamo-chan didn't have a problem with that. "…"
Then, something magical happened.
Hana wasn't through, it happened, and she finished demurely, "But… I'd feel alright with calling you 'Gamo-neechan', if that's okay…"
Someone walking in the hall might've sworn that some door was swung wildly open-and-shut on a set of rusty hinges.
Gamo-chan squealed, higher-pitched than her alto timbre should've allowed, "Yeah~! You can call me that!"
Naoto's poor ears were grated by the reverberation. "…!"
Color her delighted…!
"I'd like that… Gamo-neechan…" Hana put forth with a little more confidence.
Gamo-chan half-joked, "And I thought I was being kinda childish… for wanting to be a '-chan'~."
"We're friends, Gamo-neechan," Hana safeguarded. "Don't worry about it."
"Ooh, Sakura's gonna be jealous~!" The Amazon was positively tickled.
Yoshi hopped on the wagon. "Honorary sisters~!"
Naoto wondered this… senpai vs. big sister…
He also wondered if either Hana or Gamo-chan had any "honorary sisterly ambitions", not that he'd say a word about it.
Maybe Yoshi was just being silly…
…
…
…
"Aww, piss up a rope…" Gamo-chan complained, the clock on the wall telling the room that there were only 10 minutes left for lunch. "I don't wanna go back to class… Sensei is gonna make us do actual friggin' classwork…!"
Yoshi commented, "Boo… boo, Sensei…"
Naoto could see it coming, and he smirked.
Almost instantly, the girl with the puppy-dog face rounded to him. "Not you, Sensei; it's our sensei in English."
"I know…" Naoto didn't need an explanation, leaning back, enjoying "court".
Gamo-chan leaned towards Hana. "So, you're heading out to Tokyo right away?"
"Yes, Gamo-neechan," Hana confirmed. "I don't think we'll see one another again today. We finished packing up this morning. My parents are taking off from work early, and they're picking me up at school so we can get on the road immediately.
"They're driving Grandfather's big van, and I'll be the last one they pick up. My mother, father, my aunt and uncle—Sana-neechan's parents—and my grandparents are probably getting ready right now. I even brought a change of clothes with me to school; I don't want to be stuck in my uniform the rest of the day."
Sounds like you're all set~." Gamo-chan provided the Gamo-grin.
Hana nodded once and faced Naoto.
"Please tell Sakura-senpai I hope she enjoyed lunch with her classmates," she bade. "I left my phone at home today, and I may not get to see or talk to her before I leave."
You did? Naoto would be lost without his… and so would most people.
"Sure," he accepted; he had another thought, on the heels of his last. "Why don't you use my phone to call your folks? You don't wanna be without your phone."
"Thank you, Hachioji-senpai."
A moment later, Hana handed the phone back.
She said, "They already have it… and my charger. I left them on the kitchen counter."
"Good." Naoto really didn't want her to be without a phone, not for three or four days.
He also remembered he had to message Sakura that Hana was leaving early.
Maybe the two would like to see each other once more…
THAT, and…
…
Pulling her stuff together, Hana said to her senpai, "I think I should go."
"Sure thing, Hanacchi," Gamo-chan acknowledged. "Hope it's a good time."
Yoshi interwove, "You gotta have a good time~!"
Hana nodded. "Thank you, both of you. I'm sure I'll—"
"Sunomiya!" Naoto, becoming aware of what was happening, blurted.
The three girls startled.
Seeing how he'd caused them to jump, his breath caught. "Sorry…"
"…"
"…"
"Hachi…oji-senpai?" Hana looked at him, curious and concerned. "What is it?"
"…" He hadn't been able to find a good time to say it.
It didn't often stop him though, getting his point across.
He struggled, "It's… for Gamo-chan too… I…"
Gamo-chan, wary of this, was quick to quell it.
"Paisen, I don't wanna hear you say you're sorry again…" she insisted, trying not to sound too exasperated. "It's alright…"
Naoto HAD apologized that week… perhaps too much… for losing control…
This time, however, he had something else to say; he'd been eager to get it off his chest since about Tuesday.
It took just about all he had to force it out, not because he didn't want to, "Sunomiya… Gamo-chan… I wanna thank you…"
"Thank us…?" Gamo-chan wasn't expecting this.
Neither was Hana. "…?"
Naoto gulped, ridding himself of the big lump in his throat.
"Girls…" he exhaled. "…Thanks for sticking up for me on Monday…"
"…?!" "…?!" Both of them had the same reaction.
Barely able to express himself, he tried summing it up, "It meant a lot… It did…"
All the same, he couldn't overlook another apology, but to his credit, it was for something else.
"And I am sorry… really… for not sticking up for either of you when you did it for me…"
Gamo-chan murmured, "Oh, Paisen…"
"Hachioji-senpai…" Hana whispered.
"Thanks for looking out for me," he concluded, trying to not fall to tears. "I wish I'd appreciated it better…"
He didn't hate Nagatoro—far from it!
He just loved the girls for how far they'd been willing to go for him…
And they'd been willing to do a lot.
"…"
"…"
"…"
Hana gave her feelings, "You're welcome, Hachioji-senpai…"
Gamo-chan, breaking into a smile, shared in the ethos. "You got it, Paisen~…"
A peaceful relief he didn't experience very often washed over him.
With a deep sigh, he nodded his head in appreciation.
How blessed was he…
"…"
"…"
"…"
And how time kept on moving, no matter what…
Hana got to her feet, gathering her things. "I do need to go now. I have a few things I'd like to do before school ends today. We are leaving at once, after all."
"Tell the ol' Prez 'hi' for me," Gamo-chan requested.
Yoshi added, "We say, 'hello~!' We hope she's doing well~!"
"Gamo-neechan, Yoshi-senpai, I'll greet her for you," she said to the girls. "Thank you."
"Please tell your cousin the same for me," Naoto managed, still unsteady. "Have a safe trip, Sunomiya."
"…" Hana, standing, paused a few seconds.
Then, without a word, she rounded the table.
Some girlish instinct told Gamo-chan and Yoshi to back away, and they listened.
"Sunomiya…?" Naoto looked to his kohai, now at his side.
She leaned in and kissed his cheek, lingering a couple of seconds. "Chu~…"
"…!" Yoshi scrambled.
Gamo-chan stifled a gasp, "Shee-yit…"
Naoto, blessedly, didn't faint. "…!"
Hana, rosy, wrung her hands, coming back to erect.
The young man stared blankly in her direction. "Sunomiya…"
"Thank you, Hachioji-senpai~," she expressed with a little shiver. "I'll be sure to give Sana-neechan your love."
"…!" He hadn't said that!
And he hadn't been in the market for another Hana smooch either!
Here comes the teasing! Naoto fully expected Gamo-chan and Yoshi to give him a hard time.
But they didn't.
They didn't, Hana's fondness towards her senpai of senpai winning the day.
Or maybe the girls were just that floored...
"Well… gotta go…" The innocent peck in the rearview, Hana briskly made her way back to where she'd been sitting.
Gamo-chan, the first to get her wits back, said, "Take care, Hanacchi. Enjoy Tokyo."
"Tell us all about it when you get back~!" Yoshi wished, not far behind.
However, about all that was in Noato's mind was the lingering warmth on his cheek. "…? …?"
Slinging her schoolbag, Hana looked to her senpai, nodded, and made for the door.
Just as she was about to exit, she paused. "…"
The three older students saw only her back. "…?" "…?" "…?"
Then, Hana turned around and bowed deeply.
"Thanks for everything, my senpai, thank you so much~!" Standing straight and dignified, she gave the three of them a level—but very warm—expression. "It was a good term. See you soon."
"…?!" Gamo-chan, going autopilot, raised a hand in farewell, dully gaping.
Naoto and Yoshi were thunderstruck.
Their kohai walked away and out of sight, having perhaps had the best semester of her school life.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Hiff…" Yoshi, sniffling, cracked a bittersweet smile.
Gamo-chan, back out of her chair at once, patted her back, her own eyes misting up again. "It's okay, Yosh~…"
Naoto could see it, but he was sure that Yoshi didn't.
Had Hana noticed?
He found himself paying homage to some things that Sakura had said on Monday.
Her thoughts had been illuminating:
Gamo-chan's never had anyone come along, at least in a long time, that just wanted to be her friend. People respect and admire her, but they fear her more than anything…
—and—
I don't think Yoshi's ever had anyone that really admired her… or respected her… She loves Hana… she thinks she's a lot of fun… and she's really proud to have a kohai that looks up to her…
Naoto knew that Sakura felt similarly, to both girls, in a way.
Hana really was pretty great…
Having left Yoshi's flank, Gamo-chan sat down heavily, an almost pensive expression on display. "…"
Naoto waited to see what she did next. "…?"
She did something, alright…
"Paisen…" Gamo-chan effervesced. "Ya know what?"
"What?" he wondered.
Simpering, she patted his hand, resting on the table, causing him to jerk slightly.
"It's gonna be a good summer, 'Hachioji-senpai'~." The excitement was telling, and she gave him a feral grin. "Let's enjoy the Hell out of it~."
"…!" He knew this feeling, seeing the twinkle in her eye, hearing the affection in her voice.
You're coming this time, even if I have to drag you by your short-hairs! We'll get everyone together and blow the roof off the dump!
In this moment, he was convinced that he and Gamo-chan were good, despite everything.
It felt great, that insight.
"Yeah…" he all but gasped, nearly laughing in relief.
"Let's have fun, Sensei~!" Yoshi slapped him roughly on the back, smiling ear-to-ear through her diminishing tears.
Naoto chuckled; all he could say was, "Okay!"
He'd never looked forward to break so much, and it was mere hours away.
Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are welcome!