*RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
The alarm sounds, and I wake up even more tired than when I went to sleep.
I move aside the sheets, turn off that damned noise and look at the time.
6:00 am.
Oh, yes, this was my life before we got suspended: get up too early to go to a school that's too boring and too full with too stupid people…
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No, thanks.
I wrap myself again with the sheets and close my eyes. The bed is so confortable that I could stay here for five more minutes.
Or maybe an hour.
Or forever; I mean, Izumi's parents are never here, and Izumi's too stupid to not use it, so I don't see why I shouldn't.
Besides, there's nothing out there worth anything.
"Ino-san, wake up; we're going to be late," Khanna-san shakes my shoulder lightly.
"No, thanks. I don't want to," I shake off her hand, yawn and curl up in bed.
"It's irrelevant if you want to or not; it's gonna be late," Khanna-san shakes my shoulder again, but harder this time.
"Just leave me here. If I go to school or not doesn't affect you at all."
Khanna-san thinks about what I just said.
And says:
"I don't find any flaws in your logic, but there probably are, so," that bitch takes away the sheets, grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me without any consideration. "Get up already."
And she keeps shaking me violently and unfriendly until:
"Fine, fine, but let me go."
Khanna-san obeys, and I:
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Sigh.
And get up. In a corner there's the backpack and the travel bag I brought here yesterday. I grab the travel bag and lock myself in the bathroom. Open the travel bag and take out my perfectly cleaned and ironed uniform. I take off my pajamas, fold it and put it in the travel bag. I put my uniform on. It's extra-small, but it still fits me a little loose.
I look myself in the mirror.
I look like a fucking child pretending to be a teenager.
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"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, KAMI-SAMA-CHAN, TASUKETE" Izumi yells.
"Don't move, Izumi!" Sotoka-san yells.
And I'm missing all of it, so I go out Izumi's parent's room, go down the stairs, and they are in the bathroom.
Sotoka-san has a comb, and it's full of hideous and brown hair.
And Izumi's in a corner all teared up.
"Hidoi yo, Sotoka-chan, hidoi yo!"
"I'm sorry, Izumi, but your hair's so tangled."
"You told me it wasn't gonna hurt!"
"That must have been a lie," Wait. Since when Khanna-san's here?. "Your hair is extremely messy, thus the chance you can brush it harmlessly es practically zero. But, yeah, maybe it happens, or maybe Hamano-san knows a method to untangle your hair painlessly, or maybe you can't feel that pain at all, or—
"Yeah, thanks, Khanna-san," Sotoka-san says pretending to be kind—as she always does—and then she stares at Khanna-san and gapes. "You're dressed already?"
Khanna-san's hair is perfectly combed, and her uniform, perfectly worn.
Why didn't I notice it earlier?
Oh, yeah, because I was too comfortable at Izumi's parent's bed to even open my eyes.
"Yes; I gotta be prepared," she says with her usual inexpressiveness.
"Prepared for what?" I ask.
"I don't know," she replies equally inexpressive. "During the last few weeks, the most unlike has always happened to us," she's right, though. "But, technically speaking, there's an infinite amount of possible scenarios at any situation, so the chance of each one of them to occur tends to 0% and—
"Yeah, we get it," we really don't, but we never do, so what gives. "And why you're trying to brush Izumi's hair, Sotoka-san? She's always hideous."
"Hey, don't say that," Sotoka-san chides me for being too honest. As usual, "and with her hair done she'll look pretty."
"So I'm not?!" Izumi starts crying.
"What? Of course you do, Izumi-chan, and don't say that; you're really pretty," Sotoka-san uses kind words and pats on Izumi's back to calm her down.
But it's useless:
"You said 'she'll look pretty", meaning I don't look pretty right now, right, Hanna-senpai?"
"Well, judging it her phrasing, that seems to be the case, but—
"See, Sotoka-chan, see! Hidoi yo!"
"No, that's not true, Izumi-chan, sorry, it's just that, I don't know, it's a misunderstanding. And why did you say that, Khanna-san?"
"'Cause she doesn't lie… like you. Hidoi yo, Sotoka-chan, hidoi yo!"
And the scene's so fun and all, but I go back to the upstairs bathroom and lock myself there to handle the worst problem of all:
My hair.
It's almost as messy and hideous as always.
And that's why I comb it.
And I comb it. And I comb it, and I comb it and I comb itandIcombhititandIcombhit itandIcombhititandIcombhititandIcombhititandIcombhititandIcombhititandIcombhit itandIcombhititandIcombhititandIcombhititandIco—
"Ino-san, breakfast's ready!" Sotoka-san announces, and since when she was supposed to make us breakfast?
I'm not complaining, though.
And my hair is still as hideous and messy as always, so…
I get out of the room, get down the stairs and go to the dining room. Everyone's already there: Khanna-san's sitting on the table, and she seems she's only wating Izumi and Sotoka-san, who're eating pizza.
While holding hands.
That's weird.
And Izumi's hair is perfectly combed.
That's even weirder.
Even though Izumi's uniform and Izumi herself are still as hideous as always.
But, anyway, no one really expected more from her.
"Sit down, Ino-san," Sotoka-san says while holding Izumi's.
"Yeah, what's going on in here?" I ask while pointing alternatively at those two.
"I just microwaved some pizza slices from the fridge," Sotoka-san replies as if I was asking for that. "It was the only thing that was there. You have to buy some groceries, Izumi-chan."
"No," Izumi replies without stopping eating and without letting go Sotoka-san's hand, "with that money I can buy even more manga."
And that was all they said.
I mean, did I really expect something else from them?
I sit down besides Khanna-san and start eating my microwaved pizza.
"Can someone give me a napkin?" I ask because the pizza's too greasy and because the napkin holder's right in front of them.
Izumi and Sotoka-san try to grab the napkin holder, but obviously they can't because they're still holding hands.
So Sotoka-san puts down her barely eaten slice of pizza and takes a napkin with her free and greasy hand.
"Here," she gives me the now dirty and greasy napkin.
"I would've been easier if you two just stopped holding hands, you know," I say.
"Yes," Sotoka-san sighs, "but we agreed that if Izumi let me do comb and do her hair, I'd hold her hand until we leave the house."
"That's a bad deal," I say eating my still greasy pizza. "I hope none of you needs to go to the bathroom."
Soon after, we finish our breakfasts, leave the dishes on the sink—and who's going to wash them, because Izumi doesn't seem like the washing type?
Well, it's not that I care, to be honest.
Anyway, we brush our teeth—and yes, Sotoka-san and Izumi brush theirs while still holding hands—we get put of Izumi's house—and yes, Sotoka-san and Izumi stop holding hands, even though Izumi doesn't seem to happy about it—and we head to school.
Streets are as populated and boring as always.
---------------------------------------------
And we finally arrive to school.
But first we have to go around it to get to the main entrance, and:
*PUM*
Something hits the floor.
And that something is an Izumi who just jumped the fence. She takes her stuff and heast to school.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I ask.
Izumi stops, turns towards us, and tilts her head as a confused dog.
"Come back, Izumi-san," Sotoka-san says. "Let's go to the main entrance."
"Why? Oh, yeah. My bad," Izumi jumps back the fence.
We go to the main entrance, as normal people do.
We arrive to the locker room, and each one of us open their respective locker and
"What's this?" Izumi takes out what it seems to be a letter from her locker. The envelope is pink and filled with hearts and—wait. WHAT?! SOMEONE'S GIVING A LOVE LETTER TO IZUMI?!
I run towards her, because it can't be, right? I mean, who in their right mind would give her a love letter? A lot of people give theirs to Sotoka-san, and I get it, but to Izumi? I think it would be easier for someone to leave it to me, but that has never happened, and I get why, and it is not that I care or anything, but it would not be as weird as this
"Wait, wait, wait. This was in YOUR locker? Didn't you open the wrong one? Or maybe whoever wrote the letter put it in the wrong locker?"
"Considering the amount of lockers here, that's very likely," Khanna-san approaches too."
"Oh, come on. Don't be like that," Sotoka-san can barely hide her excitement. "Open it Izumi-chan. Open it, open it, open it."
Izumi opens it:
"Dear Natsumura-chan," the letter says. "Could we meet after class behind the school? I have something to ask you. Yours truly: your secret admirer."
"IZUMI-CHAN, I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Sotoka-san hugs Izumi as excited as Izumi is when she's the one hugging.
But Izumi doesn't seem to notice: she's still staring at the letter.
"Izumi-chan, you ok?" Sotoka-san asks, even though Izumi clearly isn't ok.
"What? Oh, sure. Why are you… SOTOKA-CHAN!" and Izumi finally comes back to her senses and hugs her back, and Sotoka-san yells, and everyone else glare at them and whisper to each other and yell anonymously stuff like 'I luv u, Nuki-chan ♥".
I definitely didn't miss this.
Anyway, I go back to my locker at put on my slipper thingies.
Sotoka-san tries to push away Izumi, but she doesn't let her, and they both yell and make a lot of noise, and everyone here glare at them and whisper to each other and laugh and yell bs, and I'm glad I'm not with them.
But, whatever, Khanna-san's waiting for us in her locker.
I go with her.
"Weird, huh?"
"Which part?" Khanna-san asks, and she's right, though. Everything we, I mean, they do is weird.
"The letter stuff and all."
"Yeah, I guess so. That just happened to me once, and I was weird as well."
WHAT?! IT HAPPENED TO YOU TOO?! SO I'M THE ONLY ONE OF THE FOUR OF US WHO HAS NEVER RECEIVED A LOVE LETTER?!
"Ah, sure, sure, me too, haha, and it was soooooooo weird. Hahaha HAHAHAHAHA."
"Yeah, mine happened last year. The letter said more than less the same tan Izumi's, so I started thinking 1) who could be my secret admirer, 2) all the possible reasons to write me that letter," really? "3) all possible questions he/she could ask me," really?! "4) all possible answers I could give him/her, and when I finally decided to go meet him/her it was already the middle of the night, and I was at home. I never knew who my secret admirer was nor what did he/she want," REALLY?! "but, anyway. It doesn't matter now."
Yes, yes, yes, It doesn't matter; I mean, it's not like I'm already falling behind everyone else, and I don't have a crush on anyone, and it would be such a nuisance to go who-knows-where after class to reject who-knows-who, and I mean, this is just my first year, and it's only been a couple months, and I bet someone will give me a love letter sometime because boys are a bunch of hormonal idiots, and I don't really want to go hear someone I don't care about declaring his love and asking me out, but I'll still go, because I may hate them all, but at least I'm not as cruel as Khanna-sa—
"You coming, Ino-san?" Sotoka-san asks. It seems she and Izumi aren't hugging anymore, so we'll go to class now.
Oh, yeah, classes.
Six hours of absolutely nothing.
Great.
We walk through the hallway and arrive to Khanna-san's classroom. She says good-bye and goes there, and we go to our own classroom, get in, and everyone there stares at us and smirk and whisper to each other, even though we're literally here, and god dammit. We can hear you right now.
Wait. Why are our desks painted black?
I approach mine, and looking at it up close, I realice that's not painting but very, very small writing:
die,die leave Yuri-chan alone why are you still here? die die die no one wants you here fucking dwarf no one knows what your name is if you died today no one would care you look like elementary school girl damn you so flat go die die go back to kindergarten asshole no one cares ugly flat you are emo and otaku die you're disgusting never speak to Yuri-tan again never approach her nobody knows you nobody knows who you are and die go fucking die you flat bitch nobody cares about you and your stupid friends go to hell nobody wants them here go die you hideous Fukuda-kun is never going to like you because you flat and ugly and a virgin it's super obvious that you like him die even though nobody cares and how do you want him to notice you die you look like a little girl flat flat flat flat flat flat flat flat flat nobody likes you nobody even knows what's your name die do us a favor and kill yourself never ever talk again to Yuri-chan bitch you are nothing you are nothing die flat die you and Nuki-chan you suck as much as her go fucking die virgin cunt your fucking club is so shitty it can't get five fucking members cuz nobody wants you here fucking bitch you ugly no one will ever fuck you virgin virgin virgin but if I was as flat as you I'll also be mad all the time, as you are you are as flat as a surf board if you cut your hair you'd look like a child better go die I wish your mom had aborted you Fukuda-kun is mine fucking bitch get away from him bitch bitch die…
And this is only what the top part says.
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Oh, god.
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I should have stayed in bed.