Chapter 4 – Girl Next Door “Why don’t I see her?”
Whining and pulling at the ends of her sweater, Eri leaned against the lockers as she waited for Risa to finish up at the water fountain. For the past few days, she had gone around the school, forcing Risa along, in the hopes of “accidentally” bumping into the dark-haired beauty. But no matter how many rounds she made in the cafeteria or hung around the concourse, she never did see her.
“Considering the student population of this school, I’m not surprised. You could though, visit the tennis room and seek her out.”
After suggesting her invaluable advice, Risa returned to quenching her thirst. She didn’t understand why Eri had to choose the long and winding method over the fast one. Since she was definitely related to the tennis club, it was a no brainer that she would turn up at the room within the week.
“I can’t! Don’t you understand Gaki-san? I can’t appear
desperate.”
Jumping around and pounding her fists on an invisible table, Eri rested her forehead on Risa’s right shoulder, still mumbling under her breath about why god made it so difficult for her to meet the girl of her dreams again.
“You can get to see her sooner. Isn’t that what you want? I know it’s what
I want to get you off my back. I can’t stand having to go around with you anymore.”
Pushing Eri’s head off with a light flick of her wrist, Risa started walking towards the classroom where she had her next class.
“Besides, the janitor has been giving me strange looks. He probably thinks I’m gonna vandalize something and am checking out the area before my evil deed.”
Following Risa, Eri sighed loud enough for her friend to hear. Then pouting cutely, she tugged at Risa’s sleeve and peered into her eyes. This was the sure-fire way to make Risa obey her every whim and fancy.
“Argh! Stop it, STOP it! Don’t look at me like that.”
“Then you’ll come with me after school today?”
“Whatever, but it’s the last time. I’m gonna be busy getting her settled in.”
“Who’s her? Oh,
her.”
Stopping outside Risa’s classroom, Eri knelt down to access her locker situated at the bottom level of two rows. As she turned the knob of the lock to input her code, she continued talking to her friend.
“I still don’t understand why your mom took her in. She’s really mean.”
“She wasn’t like this before. She was a good kid.”
Recalling the happenings of the previous afternoon, Eri couldn’t see how the new arrival could have ever been nice. She not only left all her luggage outside to be carried into the house by Risa, she even yelled at the older girl for being late.
“You can introduce us after she becomes a better person. Otherwise there’s no way I’m having anything to do with her Gaki-san.”
Fingering the beaded bracelet she wore around her wrist, Risa promised herself that she would do whatever it takes to change the young girl back to how she once was. The chirpy and enthusiastic kid who greeted everyone with a bright smile. She had to.
-----
After Eri managed to locate what she needed from the dark and musty locker that stored a rotten apple, a mess of papers, a pair of rain-soaked socks and two training shorts, she uttered a rushed ‘bye!’ and ran off towards her own class with notebook and assignment in hand. Entering the room, Risa walked along the aisle leading to the back where an empty seat was positioned near the windows. From the corner of her eye, she noticed a pencil fall and roll across the floor. Bending down with the intention of picking it up, she banged heads with another girl who was doing the same. Shooting up one hand to rub at the small bump that was growing, Risa’s line of sight connected with the owner of the pencil sitting in the seat right in front. The girl grinned widely, crinkling her nose in a cute manner and revealing a row of straight teeth underneath her pinkish lips.
“Thanks.”
-----
The streets were deserted at this time of the day when most people were in school or at work. A lone figure skipped home happily swinging her bag and whistling a tune. It was great not having to engage in a shoving match with people to get on the bus. The added luxury of getting to spend less time on the bus with it making fewer stops along the journey home further enticed the young rebel to skip last period.
You are too smart girl.Grinning to herself, she didn’t notice the spray of water that was coming her way until she was suddenly drenched from head to toe, water droplets dripping from the ends of her lightly colored hair.
“What the hell?!”
Wearing an irritated expression, she stomped fuming into the garden all ready to give the person responsible for her plight a piece of her very angry mind. There, she came face to face with a girl who was holding onto a green rubber hose and directing the water left and right in short quick motions.
“What the hell are you doing!”
Looking up at the uninvited individual, the girl continued spraying water and replied nonchalantly.
“Watering the flowers, what else?”
“Who the hell waters plants while aiming the jet at innocent passersby?”
“Innocent? I don’t think so.”
Sneering at the shorter girl who wore her uniform with sleeves rolled up, skirt way too high above her knees, tube socks and generously accessorized with gold jewelry, she went back to playing with the water.
Nobody talks to me like that!Annoyed that some girl younger than herself would be speaking to her in such a tone after causing her to look a drippy mess, the raging fire in the petite sized girl flared up. Stalking over to the teenager still squirting water at the rows of flowers in their little flower beds, she grabbed and pulled hard at the collar area of the other’s round-neck t-shirt.
“Apologize.
Now.”
Peering down at the shorter girl, the lanky teen took no heed of her menacing tone and instead made fun of her attacker’s height by talking over the top of her head.
“Why should I?”
“I said apologize.”
Trying to keep her voice even to conceal how she really felt, the tinted hair girl decided to give the poor clueless child another chance before lashing out and tearing her apart. After all, she did promise someone never to pick a fight again. But every ounce of her willpower shattered when the almost gleeful voice of the youth chimed out like a clear bell.
“Make me.”
“Argh! You’re really pushing my buttons!”
With a Red Indian like shriek, her fist shot out and she struck the smirking girl on the side of her face that sent her falling to the ground. Not one to take any crap thrown her way either, the young teenager threw down the hose in her hand and seized a handful of her assailant’s hair. This was war.
-----
Risa was in a fairly good mood today. The last period she had with Eri ended early and allowed them the rare opportunity of heading for home before the evening crowd set in. She had just dropped off Eri at her place and was on her own way home, enjoying the cooling breeze and the breathtaking scenery of the setting sun when she heard shouting voices emerge from the direction of her house. Pedaling furiously, she picked up speed on her trusty bicycle and made the final bend where her double-story split level house stood.
From outside the relatively low white picket fences, she could see two figures rolling on the grass, clawing at faces and tearing away at each other’s hair. The scene was much like two stray female cats caught in a fight for sole possession of a single male cat.
Running into the compound of the house, Risa groaned when she realized who the two were. She should have known better than to hope the new occupant of her home would not stir up trouble in the few hours that she wasn’t around to keep an eye on her. And when you’re living next door to the notorious toughie of the street, something was bound to happen.
“Tanakacchi! Koharu! Break it up!”
-----
Holding up the large over-sized sunglasses barely successful at staying balanced on her nose, the slim and petite girl struggled to reach her cell phone in her right skirt pocket. She couldn’t spot her date anywhere in the cozy café filled with loving couples. Not an empty seat in sight, she growled and grumbled at making it out the door later than she had planned. Arriving at this time meant having to contend with the lunchtime crowd. However, spending the greater part of her morning trying to conceal the huge purplish bruise on her face took precedence over being crushed in the human waves of people.
“Over here! Reinaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Turning her head around a couple of times, Reina failed to see where the voice was coming from. Everyone passing by her to get to the counter were annoyingly taller and obstructed her view of the tables. Tiptoeing, she finally saw the familiar face of her friend.
“And so I ended up fighting with this stupid kid, I don’t know what her problem was, it’s like she was picking a fight or something.”
Telling every bit of the story leading up to why she had to slap on nearly 2/3 of her brand new concealer and throw on a pair of out-of-fashion sunglasses for extra measure on a gloomy day made Reina increasingly agitated as she recalled the events of the previous day.
“I still can’t believe I actually fought with a child. A CHILD!”
Rambling on, Reina only realized her friend wasn’t paying her any attention when her head of dark hair bobbed along, nodding at all the wrong times.
“Hey, are you listening to me? I’m speaking here!”
“Reina, have you ever felt your heart beating so fast it could explode?”
“Huh?”
Now Reina was really lost. When did any part of her monologue mention anything about hearts beating at high-speed? Unconsciously fingering at the mark on her cheek that was slowly swelling, her eyes narrowed considerably when it hit her that what her companion was talking about had absolutely nothing to do with her.
“What the hell Sayumi, we’re supposed to be talking about
me.”
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Estrea: I still think telling this story out is better than me typing it
wordsworth: I finally saw those pics. Gosh the girls are so cute in the all pink ski outfits. I wanna see Momo and Airi in those too
modesta107: To tell you the truth, I’ve not really decided on who’s going to be paired with Kanna
lollipopgirl: KameMame is so cuuuuuuuuute. I think they may be my fave couple after TakaGaki
glcorps2002: You’ll have to read on to find out
stefy: Thanks for the compliment, I'm floating right now
Topic: Please Take Care of My Club [Chapter 7 – Secrets Revealed] (Read 14169 times)