Necrous wrote:
Edit #2: OH! And the biggest thing ever, which I totally forgot to say before. I love your stories with Rin. You portray her so awesomely. And yes, "awesomely" is a word now.
Thanks, especially considering I'm not sure I really "get" Rin enough to put words in her mouth with confidence.
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Crack, Jump, Stomp.
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Without her, those hallways would have been catacombs for the walking dead. Had she not floated through, the afternoon sun would have filled the school with the tinge of jaundice and urine instead of gold and honey. Whenever Hanako skipped along, the whole universe quivered along with my racing heart. I was lucky; she only let herself glow when she thought nobody was watching.
But someone was watching that day. Me.
Bounce, bounce, bounce she went. I wonder what game she was playing. I tried watching for a pattern with rules I could observe, but her game was either random, or infinitely complicated. What would happen if she stepped on a crack? What if she missed her mark? Would the game end? Would she have to perform penalty moves like jumps and double stomps on the next valid move? Why did she step on only dark tiles one moment, then avoid them altogether the next? What triggered a switch? What did the avoided tiles stand for? Hot lava? Landmines?
Maybe there were no rules. Childhood wasn't supposed to have rules.
A flood of longing filled my lungs and shoved out a sigh. Yamaku was a high school. A high school for people who were
different. Whatever the reason, whatever the means, that institution hammered and chiseled children into the respectable, efficient, serious citizens. It was a two-sided machine. Some people, like Kenji Setou from 3-2, needed to be knocked down and brought back up to a presentable standard.
Yet others... only got stifled from it. Hanako was losing her childhood, and the most painful thing about it was that I was certain she wanted it that way. Her eyes were those of someone who couldn't try hard enough to forget. But erasing a whole segment of a life discards the joy along with the pain.
I wanted dearly to join her game, to let her know it was okay to be a kid again, that certain things didn't have to be associated permanently with other things. It wouldn't have been a last goodbye to the past. It would have been an embrace that would last forever if she'd let it.
I knew how she felt. And I wanted her to know how I felt... about her. Secretly, I recited and replayed scenes in my mind where I did things to Hanako that I would jealously destroy anyone else for even thinking.
Her skipping reached a feverish climax that was both beautiful and terrifying. It was terrifying because it would soon end, just like every wonderful thing out there. She would go back to hiding behind books and I would return to my high castle where I would only be able to touch her with my eyes.
”I can't believe this. Get her for me.”
Just as I dreaded, duty called.
“Hanako Ikezawa!”
“Y-Yes?” she yelped, as if she was a puppy and our summon was a newspaper to the snout.
”Your behavior is intolerable,” Shicchan dictated with her cheeks flustered and her eyes squinting in embarrassment.
”This is a respectable academy and we must set an example for our school at all times! Besides, you present a safety hazard. If you got hurt, or even worse, you hurt someone else, the school's insurance premiums would skyrocket, and who would they blame for that?!”
“Um... um... Okay. I accept. Um... a-a-fter school then?” Hanako meekly half-mumbled before retreating towards the library.
Huh? Well, that was certainly an odd response. She wanted to talk to us after class? Well, I guess that makes sen--
“Shiina! What on Earth was that?!”
”What was what, Shicchan?”
”You misrepresented me... And asked Ikezawa to go out with you.”
I did? Well, it's been years since I've mixed up outgoing signals that badly. I couldn't say I was entirely remorseful, but I was more than a little embarrassed. I put on an innocent smile and threw up my best “play it off as a joke” shrug.
“Sorry, Shicchan. It seems that my mind wandered to other things.”
-End-
I was worried that this board was dead when my email notifications started drying up.
