--------
Chapter Ten: Life Gamble
It's cold. Darkness surrounds me and I'm all alone.
Well, not really. Mentally, I'm a thousand miles away from here in a cold, barren wasteland with nothing but my thoughts. Physically, I'm sitting in a dark room filled with two dozen other people.
From the perspective of a passersby, this would seem like a very strange situation. Truth be told, it is a strange situation, we aren't supposed to be sitting here in the dark. There's a terrible storm outside and Yamaku's back-up generators weren't as reliable as we had hoped. We went through most of the day just fine but in the last class of the day, the power went out.
The English teacher sighs as he rubs the back of his head. "Ok, I guess we'll just call it quits here. No point in trying to read in the dark." Before he walks out the door, he gives us a practiced warning about going outside in this weather and how we should try our best to keep dry and warm.
Once he leaves the room, everyone starts talking about their plans for the rest of the day. Despite the warning, I hear many people planning to go to the small town that's just downhill from the school.
I haven't had a chance to check that place out yet. If only it wasn't raining today.
A tap on my shoulder pulls me from my thoughts. As soon as I face the person seeking my attention, I immediately notice two things: Hakamichi wants to say something to me and she has a very devious smile on her face.
Fully expecting another recruiting attempt, I reluctantly answer her. "What is Hakamichi?"
"I was wondering if you had any plans today?"
I glance out the window to see if the storm has signs of letting up anytime soon. It does not. "No, whatever I may have had planned seems to have gotten rained out."
A light suddenly comes from her hand and quickly disappears before she replies. "So you're free then? Great! Come on lets go to the Student Council Room!" She quickly grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards the door.
A little more direct today than usual aren't we?
Hakamichi isn't particularly strong so I'm able free myself from her grasp. "Don't tell me this is just another one your recruitment attempts. I already told you I'm not interested"
She frowns and puts her hands on her hips. "Why do you always think that I'm trying to make you join the Student Council?"
"Because you always are. In fact, every time we've talked, you've tried to get me to join."
She crosses her arms and tilts her head to the side to contemplate this revelation. "Hm, ok that might be true, but this time is different."
"Right," I sarcastically reply.
"It really is! I promise!"
I grab my things and start making my way towards the door. Hakamichi quickly steps in front of me to block my path. "Come on, Yaso! I just thought you might want to play a game with me."
I raise my eyebrow questioningly.
Hakamichi steps out of the way to allow another student to get past her. Once cleared, she retakes her position to keep me from going anywhere. "The power's still out so there wouldn't be much else to do. We have some flashlights in the Student Council Room so we can play even though it's dark. So how about it?"
It does sound like a better alternate than just going back to my room. But having to go to the Student Council Room seems more like a trap.
"No thanks," I reply as I walk past her and out the door.
She lets out a deep sigh and shrugs her shoulders as I walk towards the hall. "What a shame. We could have done this the easy way."
After only taking one step into the hallway, I feel a heavy hand fall on my shoulder. Its grip is enough to keep me from going anywhere.
"Sup Atoza, looks like you're going my way." A smiling Hanamaru greets me while not taking his hand off my shoulder.
"Since you and Ryo have started getting along, I thought it'd be a good idea to spend some time together. And what better way to do that than to play a game together, right?" Hakamichi marches out the door as if she were a general who had just won a war. "All right boys, let's go!"
Hanamaru 'escorts' me as Hakamichi leads the way downstairs. I notice the looks on the faces of the students we pass. Though they all look different, they all say the same thing: "I feel sorry for him."
Once Hakamichi is a little bit away from us, I lean back and whisper to Hanamaru. "Why are you doing this to me?"
"It's my job to do as the Class President says." His expression is cold and serious. "She texted me with instructions to wait by the door to catch you if you tried to leave."
I stare at him for a few moments with disbelief. "How long were you waiting there?"
"That's not important."
He's fallen head over heels for a girl that treats him like a dog. Oh, how I pity you.
"Hanamaru, let me go and I promise that I'll help you and the President get together."
The grip on my shoulder grows tighter and he flatly answers, "I'm not letting you go."
I've come to learn something about Hanamaru these few days. When he's by himself, he can be extremely emotional and reactive to anything around him. But whenever he's near Hakamichi, he becomes so serious that it becomes next to impossible to get him to act recklessly. When he's like that, I can't blackmail him.
The Student Council Room is a lot bigger than I imagined. It's about the size of any other classroom but instead of being filled with desk for the students, it's full of file cabinets and large tables used for work.
I'm 'kindly' directed to take a seat at small table. Hakamichi takes the seat in front of me while Hanamaru takes out an electric lantern to help light the room.
She takes the lantern and places it in the middle of the table. "So Yaso, what game do you want to play?"
"I thought you already had something in mind. I mean, why else would you drag me here if you didn't have a plan?"
"I do have an idea about what to play but it helps if you make a suggestion."
"Would the suggestion of not playing anything be considered?"
"No."
With some instructions from Hakamichi, Hanamaru starts digging through a cabinet pulling out boxes of many different board games.
"Hakamich-," I begin to speak but a glare from Hanamaru stops me. "I mean, Miss President, why are you so dead set in making me play a game with you?"
She takes a long look at Hanamaru before turning to me to answer. "You know how you've avoided giving me an answer about the Student Council?"
I haven't been avoiding an answer. I've been saying 'no' this whole time.
She takes my silence as a confirmation. "I just thought that maybe we could put this to rest today."
I furrow my brow, I don't like where this is going.
Hanamaru places a giant stack of board games on a nearby table. "She's been planning this for a while now. We pegged you as the kind of guy that would rather deal with things directly instead of waiting for things to eventually settle themselves."
I lean forward on the table and rest my chin on the surface of my palm. "Just what exactly do you two plan on doing?"
"Wahahaha~! It's a once-in-a-life time chance." She holds up her index finger in the air, "One game, any game, one-on-one. The loser has to do one thing that winner tells him to do, no questions asked."
I stare at her wide-eyed. "You're kidding right? What kind of childish game is that?"
"It's actually a very simple solution to our little problem," Hanamaru quickly begins explaining. "If you win the game, then you can ask the Class President to do one thing for you and vice versa. The request can be anything you want, even something..." The rest of his words are mumbled but easy to guess why he couldn't say it.
Hakamichi looks at him with a questioning look. "Hey, don't give him any ideas. He only gets one chance to ask me to do anything, I want to see what he can come up with."
Knowing her, she'll probably make me join the Student Council. Though if I win, I can make her stop trying to recruit me. It does seem promising but any game we play will be stacked in her favor. If only I can find something fair.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of this game. Even if I said no, Hanamaru would probably block my exit until I agreed to play. "Ok, I accept your challenge, but with one condition: I get to choose what game we play."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiles as she points to the stack of games, "Ryo can help explain any game that you might be unfamiliar with, so take your pick."
I take a look at the pile. The first box I see is a game called Risk. Hanamaru explains that it's a world domination type game where both players are in control of an army whose ultimate goal is to wipe out the opponent. A strategy game basically, I decide against that one. Next is a game I'm a little more familiar with Monopoly. It'll take too long and is more luck than anything else. Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Go, Blackjack, some weird thing called Heroscape, they all seem exploitable by Hakamichi. I want to play a game on an even ground but nothing here would allow it. I guess a game based on luck would be my best bet but I don't want to leave it completely out of my control.
"Have you made up your mind yet. At this rate, it'll be dinnertime before we play." Hakamichi stretches in her seat.
"Just a moment, Miss President, I've almost got it."
Hanamaru leans in and whispers in my ear. "You are taking a long time, you do know that right?"
"Shush, I don't need to hear that from you too. I just can't decide on a game that'll be fair."
He reaches into his pocket a pulls out a coin. "Why don't you just leave it to chance. One coin toss, winner take all, no regrets."
That may be my safest bet. A 50/50 chance for either of us winning.
Hanamaru flips the coin as a demonstration that it'll be a fair game. I'm almost convinced until the coin bounces off of his hand and slides under a cabinet. The way he quietly stares at where the coin went signifies that it was his only coin.
"Were you planning on doing a coin toss? How lame." Hakamichi covers her mouth as she yawns.
She's trying to bait me. She wants me to hurry up and choose something without thinking so that she can easily win. There has to be something that's quick, simple and won't give her an advantage. Wait a minute, that's it!
I quickly make my decision and head back to the small table. Once I take my seat I set down a deck of cards in front of both of us. "This is want we'll play."
"A card game?" A toothy smile starts to form on her face. "What game is it?"
"It's a simple game of chance. High card!" I can see Hakamichi's smile drop slightly. "This way it'll be a fair for both of us. We each draw card and the one with the highest card is the winner."
I hand the deck to Hanamaru to shuffle. "I'll let you draw the first card, Miss President. Aces are the lowest and kings are the highest, the suit doesn't matter."
Granted, it's not the most exciting games to play but at the very least it'll give us a level playing field.
Hanamaru hands her the deck. She stares at me for a moment before taking a card off the top. "I thought you'd want to do something more complex. Oh well." She takes a look at her card and smiles. "How fitting, the four of clubs. It's the lucky four-leaf clover. Your turn~!"
Perfect! A four is easy to beat. Hakamichi will be out of my hair in no time.
I'm handed the deck and take a card from the middle. Hanamaru takes the rest of the cards while I lay the card I drew face down in front of me. Everything rides on this one card. Everyone is quiet, the rain can be heard as it falls from the sky. It's the moment of truth. I take the card in my hand and flip it.
The ace of spades. The death card.
God damnit...
"Wahaha~! According to your rules, the aces are the lowest so that means I win!" She lifts her arms in the air in a celebratory manner.
I slowly slump down and a rest my head in my arms.
I know what's coming next...
"Okay! I already know what my one request will be."
I look out the window, expecting thunder to be heard.
"Hey Yaso," she pokes my head to get my attention. "Come on look at me when I make this request."
I sigh, "What is it Miss President?"
Hakamichi stares straight into my eyes and only says one word. "Kamiko"
I'm stunned into silence.
She takes her finger and points to herself. "Kamiko is my first name." She then points to Hanamaru, "His first name is Ryo. We're friends aren't we, so you don't have to call us by our last names or titles. My request is for you to stop being so distant and formal."
"W-what are you talking about?"
Hanamaru chimes in as well, "This school is full of restrictions but it doesn't stop us from getting close to one another. So there's no need for us to try to isolate ourselves with our mannerisms."
I wasn't expecting this. They're both smiling and being sincere with me. I've always called people by their last names because I didn't feel the need to get close to them. By only using their family name, it was as if I clearly define how close I wanted them to get. These two, however, saw that and challenged me about it.
"Why a-are you doing this?"
Hakami- no, Kamiko, stands up from her seat and walks to the center of the room. "I would say that it's my duty as Class President to advocate unity in the student body, but that wouldn't be completely honest." She turns to me and smiles, "We sit next to each other in class, we work together in groups, and can even spend some time playing a game in the middle of a power outage. I consider you a friend Yaso, so please don't hesitate to think of us the same way."
I was expecting her to make me join the Student Council, not this. I can't help but laugh at this situation.
Ryo raises an eyebrow, "What's so funny?"
I can't say anything, I just keep laughing until my eyes tear up. My laughter proves infectious because they both join in.
It was a honest laugh, filled with nothing but bliss.
Eventually I manage to settle down and catch my breath, "This whole time," I wipe away the tears in my eyes. "This whole time I was expecting you to force me to join the Student Council with your request and yet, you use it on something like this."
She puffs her cheeks and pouts, "I wouldn't force you to join, it has to be your choice. I've just been trying to persuade you."
I chuckle at her antics. "You're not very persuasive then."
"She does tend to get carried away sometimes." Ryo remark earns him a nasty glare.
She looks back at me, expectantly waiting for something. "Well, what do you think about my request?"
I stand up from seat and make my way towards the center of the room. Both of them stare at me as I extend my hand and smile. "I have no objections with your request, Kamiko."
She returns my smile and enthusiastically shakes my hand, "I'm glad to hear that Yaso!"
The rest of the rainy day is spent playing the many games that are in the Student Council Room. The lights finally turn on during our second game of Risk. Preferring playing by the lantern's light, we turn off the main lights and continue until it's time for dinner. We eventually go our separate ways and I return to my room to get some rest.
Maybe I'm wrong about the people I've met, maybe they aren't so bad after all.
--------
*Next Chapter*
I've never liked referring to people by their last name. Unless it's really unique, I'll call everyone by their first name or a nickname, if they prefer. I had Yaso call everyone by their last name up to this point because I wanted to use the Hakamichi name to help transition the audience into new territories by using familiar things. Now that I'm nearing the end of the first act, I'm starting to break away from the old established norms and show more of what I have to offer. There's always a method to my madness
! Criticism is welcomed.
.
)
