"Bye, everyone, have a nice weekend," Horinomi-sensei takes her stuff and gets up from her desk. "Natusmura-san, Yamamoto-san, remember you have to stay here," she tells us and leaves.
Ino gets up from her desk, carries it and puts it next to the walls.
And she does the same with the other desks.
"You're not gonna help me or what?" She asks me, and:
"Fine..." I get up from my desk, carry it and leave it next to the other desks.
"Not there, Izumi," tells me Ino, "there's the classroom lockers. Or where do you think we'll get the brooms and the mops and everything else? Leave your desk there," and she points were she put some other desks.
"Ok," and I put mine there.
"Holy shit! How much were you eating?!" Ino's looking at the floor, where my desk was. There's a bunch of chip crumbs everywhere. "Gross!"
"Whatever. We're gonna clean it, right?"
"You are going to clean it."
Ino keeps carrying desks and putting 'em next to the walls until she get to a corner where there's a bunch of guys talking. They don't even look at her.
"You still here? Leave; we're going to clean the classroom."
They turn towards her and stare at her with contempt and leave.
Now there's only me, Sotoka-chan and Ino.
"You too, Sotoka-san, go get some more members," Ino says to Sotoka-chan.
"NO, YOU'D BETTER STAY WITH ME, SOTOKA-CHAN!" I approach her to hug her, but Sotoka-chan stares at me and shakes her head, and fine, I'm not hugging her now.
"Ok, but first…" Sotoka-chan takes my flyers, "I'm going to look for Nagai-san to get her to write her number on these."
"NO, STAY HERE WITH ME, SOTOKA-CHAN!"
"Just leave them like that," says Ino to Sotoka-chan. "If you're inviting them, they'll surely join."
"STOP IGNORING ME!"
"Sure, but I'll better go find Nagai-san," Sotoka-chan gets out of the classroom.
"And it doesn't matter if you find her or not," says Ino while Sotoka-chan goes away. "You just go get some more members."
"SOTOKA-CHAN, JUST RUN AND YELL IN THE HALLWAYS," I yell at her, "AND NAGAI-SAN'LL IMMEDIATELY FIND YOU!"
And Sotoka-chan's gone.
Ino opens the classroom's lockers and takes out a broom, a dustpan, a cloth and a glass cleaner.
"I'll sweep the floor, and you'll clean the windows," Ino gives me the cloth and the glass cleaner.
"Ok," I say it nicely 'cause I'd totally rather clean the windows than sweep the floor, and the faster we finish the faster I'll be able to go with Sotoka-chan.
So, I approach the windows and spray one of 'em a lot and clean it up real good and real hard and real fast with the cloth. And I do the same with the next one and the one after that and so on until I'm done.
Easy peasy. XD
Now I can sit and rela—wait, all the desks are piled next to the walls, except Horinomi-sensei's. I approach it and—
"Here," Ino gives me her broom and her dustpan, "now sweep what's left."
"But that's your job," I tell her.
"I already swept my part," she takes out a bucket from the classroom's locker. "I'm going to fill them up. Be right back," and she leaves.
The floor's perfectly swept except at my place.
:(
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"How's it going, Izumi?"
"Bad," I say, and I say it 'cause it's always the same: I gather all the trash and pick it up with the dustpan, but there's a bit of dust still on the floor, so I gather it and pick it up with the dustpan, but there's a bit of dust still on the floor, so I gather it and pick it up with the dustpan, but there's a bit of dust still on the floor, so I gather it and pick it up with the dustpan, but there's a bit of dust still on the floor, so I gather it and pick it up with the dustpan, but there's a bit of dust still on the floor, and I give up.
"What are you doing?" Ino takes back her broom and dustpan, sweeps a little, and then she takes the dust with a cloth until there's no more on sight. "Ok. Now you clean the chalkboard and I'll mop the floor."
I go to the lockers and take another cloth. I dip it in the bucket and squeeze it. I go to the chalkboard and start cleaning it from the top. This is so easy; I just pass the cloth, and the chalkboard looks darker and cleaner. I should've done this from the very beginning.
"What the hell did you do, Izumi?! Look at these windows: I can see a lot of marks from here!"
"But I cleaned 'em up."
"No, you didn't. They're even dirtier now," Izumi glass cleaner and the cloth I used and starts cleaning all the windows. "I'm sick of you, Izumi. You're really, really worthless."
"YOU'RE REALLY, REALLY WORTHLESS!" I yell at her and finish up with the chalkboard's upper half.
"Shut up and keep cleaning!" she yells.
"I am cleaning!" I yell and start cleaning the chalkboard's lower half.
"So shut up already!" she yells.
"You shut up!" I yell, and she shuts up.
Huh, I didn't expect that.
But, anyway, I keep cleaning the chalkboard's lower half and:
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Done! Now I need to clean the erasers. I grab 'em both, I open a window and:
"Just look at you, Izumi, you're such a mess," Ino scorns me, and she only does it because... my uniform it's all stained with chalk.
Oh.
"That's why you clean the lower part first," she says.
"And why didn't you tell me?" I ask her.
"Why should I? My god, you're such a kid."
"What's wrong with you, Ino?!" I ask her.
"What do you think? You can't even clean some windows, but what else I could expect from you? You're a mess, your house's probably a mess. Don't you have parents or what?"
"THEY'RE JUST BUSY!" And I push her and leave two rectangular-shaped chalk marks on her shoulders. Oh, right, I still have the erasers on my hands.
"What the hell?!" Ino hits me in the face with the mop. It's all wet and smells like dirty water.
I throw her the erasers. One hits her on the skirt, and the other one misses.
"That's it!" Ino hits me several times with her mop. I cover my face and ram her with my body. Ino falls to the floor.
Nowwhat?Nowwhat?Nowwhat?
The bucket! I grab it, carry it over my head and approach Ino. She's just getting up.
"Izumi, what are you doing?" now Ino's veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery scared, and I couldn't be happier. "Izumi, just leave me alone," Ino gets up and starts to back up, but I get closer and closer to her, no hurries, one step after another. "Izumi, Izumi, Izumi-chan, please, leave me alone, or Sotoka-san, Sotoka-san will get mad at you, and won't let you hug he ever, ever, ever again," she keeps backing up until she get cornered by desks; I get closer and closer to her, no hurries, one step after the other. And nice try, by the way, but Sotoka-chan'll never hate me. "nononono, just leave me alone, and I'll tell Sotoka-san to hug you as many times as you want, and I'll even hug you, if you want, but leave me alone," I put the bucket over Ino's face, and she crouches and covers her head, "nonononopleasepleasepleasepleaseplease just leave me alone, I'll stop yelling at you, I'll never yell at you ever, ever again, just leave me alone leave me alone LEAVE ME ALONE LEAVE ME ALONE LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ino pushes me as hard as she can and I fall and the bucket falls over me, and I end up all wet.
"What's wrong with you?!" I get up and yell at her.
But she's looking at her uniform: she got a bit wet and she still has the chalk marks on her shoulders. She tries to shake 'em off with her hands, but the marks are still there. They're not that noticeable anymore, but they're still there. Ino tries harder and harder to shake 'em off, but the marks are still there, and Ino tries harder and harder to shake 'em off, but the marks are still there, and Ino's hitting herself where the marks are, but they're still and still and still there, and Ino raises her head and glares at me, and her face is all read and filled with tears, and she's more livid than ever.
Uh-oh.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ino yells way louder than anyone in this goddamned universe has ever yelled and she pushes me so hard I fall down, she sits down over my belly and starts punching me, but I grab her hands, and she tries to get loose, but I don't let her, and she bites my hand, and I yell:
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" but I don't yell as hard as she does, and I release her arms, and she starts punching me again, but I grab 'er hands again, and she tries to get loose and to bite me again, but I don't let 'er, and she spits at me, and I couldn't be angrier and release 'er and punch 'er right in her belly, and she falls on me, but she immediately grabs me by the hair and pulls it as hard as she can, and I do the very same to 'er, and we both pull each other's hair harder and harder, and—
*SPLASH*
Someone throws us with a bucket full of water.
Ino immediately gets up and yells:
"WHO THE FUCK—
"WHAT?!" someone yells even harder than Ino.
And that someone's Nagai-san.
"WHAT DID'JA SAY, NATSUMURA-SAN'S FRIEND?!" she asks Ino, and I'm about to shout at her that Ino's not my friend, and I daikirai her as much as I daisuki Sotoka-chan♥, but Nagai-san seem's even angrier than ever, so I'll rather shut up.
And Ino seems to be thinking the way I do, 'cause she stays quiet.
"YOU KNOW WHAT, NATSUMURA-SAN'S FRIEND?! YOU REALLY DISSAPOINT ME; WHEN I SAW YOUR IMPECABLE SELF I NEVER THOUGHT YOU COULD SAY ALL THOSE BAD WORDS AND FIGHT LIKE A BITCH IN HEAT! And you know how you calm a bitch in heat?!" Nagai-san grabs a second bucket full of water and throws it at Ino. She ends up way wetter than before. "Like this. Now go change; you're all wet."
"How couldn't I be? You threw me a bucket of water!" Ino yells.
"AND WHOSE FAULT IS IT?!" Nagai-san yells even louder.
"YOURS!" Ino yells even louder too, and even Nagai-san's surprised by that.
"Well, yeah, you're right: it's also my fault... You know what, Natsumura-san's friend? Not everyone has the balls to talk to me like that, but you do, yo always say what you think—even though you shouldn't. And I like you because of that. What's your name?"
"Ino... Ino Yamamoto."
"So Ino-chan, huh?" Nagai-san gets really close to Ino and puts her arm around Ino's shoulders. "Let's get outta here; it smells like dirty water, and you need to change your clothes."
And Nagai-san starts to move forward.
"Wait, what? ¿Where are we going? I can go change my clothes by myself. Let me go!" Ino starts yelling and trying to get away from Nagai-san.
But Nagai-san's too strong—I know that by experience—so she easily takes Ino out of the classroom.
And there's a lot of people there.
Why, though?
And everyone's staring at 'em and staring at me like they always do when I sat or do anything.
And they leave.
But they leave the classroom way dirtier than ever, and if I don't clean it up Horinomi-sensei'll be real mad and she's gonna make me clean the classroom forever, and if I'm here forever, I'll never be with Sotoka-chan, and if I'm not with Sotoka-chan notting matters anymore and nothing makes any sense and kiraidesu!
So I grab the mop and start cleaning it all.
God damn you, Ino, in the end you left me with all the work.
God damn you, Nagai-san, I ended up wet and dirty too, and you only cared about Ino.
And god damn you, everyone else who are always staring only staring always staring.
Everyone's such a nuisance.
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And just because of some dirty windows...
-------------------------------------------------
I get out the classroom, walk through the hallway, get to the locker room and leave school. There's Sotoka-chan, and she's surrounded by some whatevers.
I approach 'em.
"No, Hamano-san, come back to theater; we need our protagonist."
"Don't listen to him, Hamano-san, and come back to art club. We all miss you there."
"But we miss you more at baking club, Hamano-san; your cakes were the best."
"If you left those clubs, you had a reason to, so why don't you join a new club instead, like the dance club? I bet you're a great dancer, and if you don't, well, there's no better place to learn?"
"So what? The best club is Shogi's, and you can join whenever, Hamano-chan."
Chan? CHAN?!
I push my way through everyone and:
"HEY, NOBODY SAYS CHAN TO SOTOKA-CHAN BUT ME 'CAUSE SHE'S MY SOTOKA-CHAN! ¡GET SOMEONE ELSE!"
"Izumi-chan, I'm glad you're here," Sotoka-chan runs towards me and hugs me. ¡SOTOKA-CHAN RUNS TOWARDS ME AND HUGS ME! And I hug her back as hard as I can, and: "Izumi-san, why are you wet and smell like dirty water?"
Is this how heaven feels? I never thought Sotoka-chan would be so happy to see me.
"Izumi-san, let me go, please."
I've lived every second of my life to get to this very momento, and it has been worth it. Now I can die in peace.
"Izumi-san, let me go."
"Let her go, Natsumura-san."
Kami-sama-chan, arigatō, arigatō gozaimasu, hontōni arigatō. Now I see that all my prayers paid off; now I see that you are truly as compassionate as you are merciful, and now I understand your divine plan.
"¡Izumi-san!"
"Didn't you hear? Let her go, Natsumura-san."
"You'd better get out of that club, Hamano-san."
"Hey, you grab her right arm, and I'll grab her left."
From now on I will dedicate my life not only to being with Sotoka-chan and giving her all my love and hugs, but to being with her and earning all her affection and her hugs.
"Ewwwww, she's soaked wet."
"Yeah, and she smells like shit."
"Already grabbed her? Now pull… pull… pull…
And happiness gets out of my grasp.
"SOTOKA-CHAN!!!!!!!!"