Where The Blame Falls. (OC. Upd. 07-10-15)

[LorSquirrel]

Chapter 3
This chapter most definitely didn’t take three month, your perception of time has just been screwed with by the awesomeness of it! (It took five months anyway…)

-----

I’m woken up by my alarm, which is just a generic beeping noise which I always feel is just a really uncreative way to go when designing an alarm. BEEP BEEP BEEP WAKE UP MORON! My alarm clock at home plays a catchy little jingle, but I didn’t think to bring it.

I slowly sit up in my bed and sleepily fumble my hand over to the clock firstly to stop it from beep beep beeping at me and secondly to check the time, because I don’t know what time Ai set it to go off.

“It is 6:00 am.” The electronic voice drones.

Six? Class doesn’t start for another two hours. Thanks Ai…

I retract my arm and fall down onto the bed before stretching my arms and yawning.

I take a second to listen to my surroundings. I think I hear people talking out in the hall and the room that had the soft music playing last night is now playing some kind of low electronic tune. I think I also hear someone snoring very loudly from the room where all the loud thumping noises were coming from.

I take a brief moment to feel the covers. I didn’t really take anytime to notice how they feel with everything that was happening yesterday. They’re just kind of standard feeling cotton I guess.

I sit back up and reach my arm out to my nightstand again. After a couple seconds my hand brushes against my cell phone, I pick it up and flip it open. I press a few buttons and computerized voice says, “You have no voicemail messages.”

I guess I should have expected that. Everyone is probably sleeping right now. Well, all except Haruhi maybe. She tends to get up earlier than anyone so she can get everything set up in the shop.

I take my covers off and move my legs off of the bed onto the carpet. It’s a pretty soft carpet actually and I think Ai said it was a cream color or something like that.

I stand up and stretch a little more before turning around and making my bed. That done I cautiously make my way over to my closet, I’m still not all that good at remembering where the closet is, and I pull the door open before feeling around for one of my uniforms.

My searching hand finds one of them. The school’s girl uniform is made up a simple long sleeved blouse and a long skirt. Ai said that the blouse with white and that the skirt was green. It sounds like it looks very nice.

I grab the uniform out, then I make my way to my dresser and grab what I need out of there before heading into the hallway.

As I step out of my room one of the girls who I heard talking apparently notices me because I hear a voice say, “Hey there.” Before going back to talking with the other girl who sounds incredibly tired.

I don’t say anything back to her and I begin walking along the hallway before I realize that I have no idea where the showers are. I forgot to ask Ai which direction they were while we were looking around yesterday. I think Haichi may have said something about them, but I wasn’t really listening.

I try to see if I can remember what he said. Did he say that I need to go left out of my room, or right? I think he said left…

I must have been standing there thinking about this for awhile because the girl who spoke to me before says “The showers are the other way.” in a condescending tone.

“Uh, right.” I reply before turning on my heel and begin making my way down the hallway. The girl gives a small scoff for some reason. I guess she didn’t notice that I’m blind.

I briefly consider telling her I’m blind, or at the very least staring in her direction until she notices, but I honestly just want to take my shower and go back to my room.

I make my way into the bathrooms, which is connected to the showers, and take a fairly lengthy shower. I always prefer taking bubble baths, shut up, but if I can’t I usually just settle for a long shower. I just like having time to relax where I don’t really have to think about anything.

Once I’m done with my shower I get dressed and make my way back out into the hallway as I my clothes under my arm.
I don’t hear the girls from before talking anymore. I guess they went back to their rooms.

After accidentally overshooting it by three rooms I finally make it back to my room. I walk over to my closet, open it, and put my clothes into the hamper inside, that done I start walking over to my bed, but before I get there I step on something hard and small.

Needless to say stepping on something like that with the sole of your foot really, really hurts, and I’m not exactly expecting it so I end up tripping on it and falling down with a quick, “Ah!” before I land face first on the carpet. I wonder if this is some kind of omen.

Luckily the carpet is soft enough that falling doesn’t really hurt. I pull myself up into a sitting position and, after I fail to fix my now messy hair, I feel around the floor for whatever it was that I stepped on.

I spend a few minutes feeling around the room looking for it before I find it under the dresser. I guess it must have gone flying under there after I tripped on it.

I grab it and bring it out from under there. As I do this I feel it begin to rumble and suddenly it spouts out a phrase along the lines of, “To the rescue!” which causes me to jump a little bit before I realize what it is and press the button that I know is on it. “To the rescue!” is says again.

I give a small exasperated sigh. This it’s one of the weird little robot toys that Kotaru plays with. Yeah, you heard me. She likes playing with robot toys. Not drawing, or dolls, not even cute little animal toys, just robots that wield big guns and constantly spout the same exact phrase over, and over, and over again.

I personally always get annoyed with these things, but she carries them around everywhere she goes. She must have left this one here by accident last night.

I pull myself up from the floor and straighten my uniform, which actually feels really comfortable to wear now that I think about it, and feel around the little plastic toy. I’m not really sure how to describe it. From what Ai says it’s supposed to be some kind of mix between humans and cars, but I honestly can’t make out what it looks like. It has so many ridges and extra spiky parts that it’s impossible to get a clear image other than that of a spiky tin can.

As I wonder what I should do with the thing I suddenly hear a brief buzzing before a voice starts yelling, “Pickup, pick up, pick up!” which is the ringer that Ai put on my phone and set up to go off when she calls. I swear she has way too much time on her hands.

I quickly walk over to my nightstand, pick up the phone, flip it open and put it up to my ear, “Yo.” Ai’s hoarse voice croaks from the phone.

“Up early I hear.” I reply cheerily as I begin running my fingers through my hair to try and fix it.

“Yup, mom’s a slave driver.” She replies tiredly.

“Only with you, Ai. Only with you.” I reply as I catch a knot which I pull a little too hard and give a small yelp in pain.

“Is something wrong over there, Kairi?” Ai replies dreamily as she gives a yawn.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just caught a snag while trying to fix my hair. Why does long hair have to be so difficult to work with?” I reply in an aggravated tone as I get the knot loose.

“At least you don’t have to deal with it after wearing a hair net all day.” She replies with a sarcastic laugh. Oh, yeah. Ai has long hair to, probably even longer than mine. I swear she never gets the stuff cut.

“Yeah, I guess. So what did you call for?” I reply absent mindedly as I brush my hair out of my eyes.

“Mostly so I could put off having to get dressed. Also, you left your sun earrings in your room.” She says as I hear her begin to move around.

“I left them, or you forgot to pack them when I asked you to?” I ask as I sit down on my bed.

“I’m sticking my tongue out at you.” Ai replies with a sarcastic voice.

“Mature.” I say in a deadpan tone.

“Not even if my life depended on it. Anyway. I should get going before mom throws a bread roll at me, or something.” She replies after I hear what sounds like Haruhi calling out her name in the background.

“Okay then. Oh. I found one of Kotaru’s little robot toys, I guess she left it here, uh, should I just hold onto until Sunday, or something?” I ask as I pick the toy back up and feel what it looks like again.

“I think she would have a heart attack if you threw it out, so yeah keep it until Sunday. I’ll bring your earring too.” She replies as I hear her groan and what sounds like a mattress squeaking in the background. I’m guessing she got out of bed and is stretching now.

“Okay. See you on Sunday.” I say plainly.

“Okay. Laters.” She says pausing for a moments before finishing with, “And don’t be a stick in the mud, okay? You better have at least one friend by the time I pick you up on Sunday!”

I simply reply with a exasperated sigh before hanging up.

I get that they want me to be more social, but expecting me to have a friend in less than a week is kind of ridiculous. Or maybe they’re just joking around. They have to be.

I close my phone and put the toy down next to me on the bed before I reach over to the foot of my bed and feel around the floor for my backpack which I find and bring up onto the bed. I zip open a side pocket and put the phone inside before opening the main zipper and checking to make sure I have everything I need for class today. Everything is where I need it and I close both pockets before I set the backpack down on the floor next to my feet.

I press the button on the clock again and the voice drones out, “It is 6:23 am.” Huh. I must have taken a longer shower then I thought.

I pick up the toy again and feel it one more time. I honestly have no idea why she likes playing with this thing, the only part of it that moves is the arms and the only thing it ever says is, “To the rescue!” I really don’t get it. Although I tend not to like most toys, so maybe I’m just being needlessly picky.

I set the toy on my night stand and then grab my backpack and stand up. Ai always says that the backpack is really heavy, but I honestly never got why it just feel kind of average weight for a backpack. Anyway. I swing the straps onto my shoulders and make my way back out into the hall. School doesn’t start for another two hours, but I decide I can probably find something to do before that. Actually, the main building is open around this time so that students can go to the cafeteria and eat breakfast and I’m getting hungry, so I guess I’ll just go there.

I feel someone quickly pass by me going towards the showers. I reflexively back up a little bit into the room and apparently whoever it was realized this because I hear someone say excuse me from further down the hall.

I consider saying something back, but before I can think of anything to say I hear the door to the showers, or at least I assume it to be the door to the showers because it sounds like the noise comes from far enough down the hallway to be it, slam shut.

“Well, okay then.” I mumble to myself before I realize that I forgot to get my cane out. I quickly put my backpack on the ground and open up the main zipper. I have a special little pocket on the inside of the backpack for my cane so I easily find it and pull it out. I grip the cane in my hand with familiarity before standing up and pressing the button to extend it as I snap my arm out in front of me which causes it to instantly extend. It probably isn’t the safest thing to do with a cane, but I always say it’s nice to add some flair to your disability.

The cane itself is just a plain metal cane that’s a few feet long and it gets larger the closer you get to the handle which is just a plain grip with a wrist band attached to it.

It isn’t the first cane I’ve had, but it’s the one I’ve had the longest. I’ve had two other canes before this one. One I got just after I left the hospital, that one wasn’t much more than a long piece of metal. It didn’t retract, it was kind of heavy and the grip was really small I had it for a week or two before they gave me a better one, which was definitely better than the first, it could retract, extend, had a grip and a wrist band. The only problem with that one was that the wrist band was just kind of terrible. It broke after about a month. Although I did actually use it for a few years after that until I lost at school one day.

I got the one that I’m using right now almost immediately after I lost the previous one, it’s almost exactly the same but with one key difference; the wrist band was even worse! The stupid thing broke after four days, and two of those days I wasn’t even using it because I didn’t go anywhere. Instead of risking losing this one I just bought a rubber wrist band to put on it, which has managed to last the past four years with very little to complain about other than Ai’s complaints of it being too yellow.

Anyway. I bring my backpack straps back over my shoulders and make my way towards the direction of the building entrance, tapping my cane in little arcs like always.

As I slowly make my way to the entrance I notice just how quiet the hallway is. I’m used to waking up and hearing the news on the TV in the living, having Kotaru run around with her toys, Shin saying goodbye to everyone as he leaves for work and Haruhi and Ai chatting with each other before they head over to the bread shop. But here it feels like this entire place is dead, you could drop a pin on the carpet and the noise would probably ring through the halls.

As I make my way towards the main entrance I hear what sounds like a TV playing some kind of show, probably an anime, or something judging from what I can make out.

I notice that the noise gets louder and louder the closer I get to the entrance and I remember that Ai mentioned that the common room near the entrance has a TV in it. I decide to swing by and maybe ask if whoever is watching it if they’ll be willing to change it so I can hear what the weather is supposed to be for today.

As I enter into the room I notice that the TV sounds like whoever is watching it is rapidly switching channels with sentences being cut off, and slogans rushed pass without a second thought.

I’m about to ask if they can change it to the weather, but before I can say anything whoever is watching the TV starts singing, “I’m gonna take the town… turn it upside down I’m gonna live, live, live ‘till I die… from lack of interesting TV.” She breaks from singing and instead says that last part in an exasperated tone before sighing and switching the channel again.

Her voice sounds even high pitched then Ai’s and is also really squeaky to the point that it’s kind of grating, but somehow sounds really good when singing.

I cough slightly into my hand to try and get her attention, but she continues randomly singing small sections of songs and adding little parts at the end of them declaring how boring the TV is as she continues to switch through channels.

“Um-“ I attempt to call to the girl, but before I can I’m cut off by the sound of someone storming down the hallway. I turn my head in the direction of the noise and feel someone push my aside as they enter into the room.

“For the last time, newbie, turn that crap down!” The voice, that I’m assuming is coming from the girl who just pushed past me, screams into the room so loud that it legitimately kind of hurts my ears.

“Go piss on a stick, bitch.” The squeaky voiced girl says with a sneer as I hear the TV switch to another channel.

“What did you just say to me?” the angry girl says as her voice somehow gets even louder. How the hell does she not tear her vocal cords apart by yelling that loudly?

“You heard me, idiot.” The squeaky girl begins with an equal amount of sneering as before, “Unless you’re deaf on top of being stupid.”

“Go to hell, asshole!” the angry girl says as she storm out of the room.

“Gonna live, live, live ‘till I-“ the squeaky girl is cut off by the return of angry girl.

“Your singing suck ass, by the way!”

“Your face sucks!”

Sick burn.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means you look like a whore!”

“Go to hell!”

“You already said that, Einstein!” I doubt the angry girl hears the last comment because she pushes past me again and back down the hallway before a door slams so hard that it sounds like it slightly shakes whatever decorations are laying around the room.

I hear the squeaky girl mutter to herself, “What a stupid bitch.” The TV switches channels again.

“Um… Hello?” I ask reluctantly not really wanting to get on this the girl’s bad side.

“Oh my God! What the in the hell do you wan- Huh? Who the hell are you?” she asks with a confounded tone in her voice. I guess she was expecting the angry girl to come back for another round.

“Just someone who wants to wants to check what the weather is going to be like today… You mind?” I ask awkwardly. I really just don’t want to talk to her for longer than I have to. Not just because I generally hate talking to people I don’t know, but also because that little display didn’t exactly leave a good first impression.

“Sure. Whatever.” She says in a dejected tone. The TV changes rapidly between channels before eventually stopping as a man talks about weather going through the southern areas of Japan.

It just keeps on talking about every but the areas around Yamaku for something like ten minutes. The girl doesn’t say anything to me at all and just keeps on singing to herself. “Is there anything on the screen that mentions what the weather will be today?”

“You got two eyes, use ‘em to read.” The girl replies uncaringly.

“I would if I could.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she says as I hear her turn around in some kind of seat. I expect her continue but she just gives an uninterested “Huh.” Before saying, “I guess that explains why you have a cane.”

How tactful.

“Mmhmm.” I reply impatiently.

“Fine, fine. I’ll read them off for you… Oh.”

“’Oh’? What’s ‘Oh’ for?”

“Uh, they switched to showing some other place’s weather. But they should be going over the local weather soon…” she says with a distinct lack of confidence in her voice.

“Oh.” I reply simply. I stand there awkwardly as I try to figure out what to do. She certainly didn’t sound like she was sure that it will actually be on again shortly. I want to eat before class today, so I should probably get going, but I really don’t want to risk getting drenched. I guess I could just bring an umbrella just in case, but I would look pretty stupid carrying it around all day if it doesn’t end up raining.

“Stop swinging your arms and come sitdown, you look like a dear in the headlights standing in the middle of the room like that.” The girl’s squeaky voice takes me away from my thoughts and I realize that I’m swinging my arms back and forward. It’s just something I’ve done since I was a kid, mom used to say its how I get my brain juices pumping…

Damn it, no. Don’t think about them. It’s a new start here. New start…

I slowly make my way over to where her voice is coming from, bumping into a few thing on the way over. I eventually make my way over to her and sit down on what is apparently a couch. Although with how close she’s sitting next to me it feels like a very small loveseat.

“Scooch over, you’re hogging my spot.” The girl says grumpily as she elbows me in the side. I comply and move over, but I only get an inch or so before armrest in the side of my stomach.

I give a grunt and a sigh, but I don’t say anything more than that. I could ask her if I could move back, but I’m pretty sure she would just say no, or just grumble at me. I’ve been here a little over a day and I’ve already been knocked over, got my eardrums blown out and now I’m sitting in a loveseat with some squeaky sounding grump who will barely say anything to me and the armrest placed uncomfortably in the side of my stomach. A pretty terrible first introduction to this place all in all.

“So,” the squeaky girl suddenly asks with a distant tone in her voice, “what’s your story?”

“Huh?”

“Your story, nimrod, everyone here has one.”

“I’m sorry, what story?”

“Y’know, how you got your disability, why you’re here, that kind of crap.”

I simply sit there in stunned silence for a few seconds. Do people usually just ask, “Hey, what horrible thing happened to you to that made you blind?” I seriously have no idea how to respond to that or even if I should, but I end up just muttering, “Everyone?”

“Yeah, everyone. You don’t end up here if you’re normal unless you have some weird fascination with hanging around disabled kid, so everyone has some kind of story as to why they got dumped here.” She replies with little hint of emotion.

“What do you mean by ‘got dumped’? I wasn’t dumped here.” I reply without really even thinking.

“Hah. That’s funny. If our parents gave a damn about us then they would take care of us, not drop us off at some fancy school where they don’t have to bother with us for a few months.” I notice a bitter tone appear at the end.

“I wasn’t dumped here. My family just thought it would be… better for me… here…” I was planning to say more, but my words petered out. Did they just dump me here? Did they really just not want to deal with me? No, wait. What am I talking about? They wouldn’t do something like that.

“That didn’t sound to convincing.” She says with a small amount of playfulness. “Did you finally realize something, or are you just gonna pretend that I didn’t just make you wonder if what I just said was true.”

“They didn’t dump me here. And I’m not talking about this anymore.” I cross my arms over my chest and look away from the direction of her voice.

“Fine, fine, deny it. Be a kill joy.” She says in an exasperated tone and a sigh. “What do you use this cane for anyway?” she asks as I feel my cane get pulled out of my hands and what feel like the handle hitting my chin.

I wince slightly and immediately start groping around in her direction for the cane. “Don’t take that away from me without asking!” I shriek franticly as she places a firm hand in the middle of my chest.

“Calm the hell down. I’m just looking at it I’m not gonna snap it in half and poke you with it.” I hear the sound of the cane quickly retracting just as she continues, “Whoa! That’s pretty cool.”

I swat her hand away from my chest and manage to find the cane and yank it out of her hand, “Don’t do that! I need this to get around!”

“I wasn’t going to break it, moron. I was just looking at it.” She replies angrily before she starts grumbling to herself again.

“Ask to look at it then, don’t just yank it out of my hands!”

“Fine then.” She says impatiently, “May I look your old grandma cane?”

“Maybe if you don’t call it an old grandma can.” I say disapprovingly.

“Maybe I’ll take it anyway and toss it out the window.” She replies with an annoyed tone in her voice.

I simply sigh and hand the cane back to her and I immediately hear her start playing with it. This girl is such a jerk. Is it really that hard just to be nice to someone? God, this is turning out to be a terrible day and school hasn’t even started yet.

“’Property of Saito Kairi.’ Huh. Often engrave your name into your stuff? Must be hard to with underwear” she asks in a teasing tone.

“I did it so someone would know who to return it to me if they found it lying around somewhere.” I reply with an annoyed sigh before I feel something hit me over the head. “GAH!”

“I was joking around. Don’t be a bitch about it. I’m Natsume by the way.”

“Pleased to meet you.” I reply sarcastically.

I get hit over the head again. “Stop that!” I say as I grab the cane and take it away again.

“Fine, fine. Be a killjoy about it.” She says in an annoyed tone.

We sit there for a few minutes until the local forecast comes on again. The weather man says that it isn’t supposed to rain today, but that it will on Wednesday.

I grab my bag and cane and get up. “Bye.” Is all I say as I walk out of the room. The only reply I get is, “Whatever.”

I head out of the dorm into the schoolyard. I take a minute to remember which way I take to the cafeteria and then set out.

As I walk along the paved path while tapping my cane against it in small arcs I think back to what that girl said about being dumped here because our families don’t want to deal with us. They didn’t do that, not to me anyway. Shin and Haruhi wouldn’t do that… Would they? I don’t think would, but then again, if you were ever going to do something like that then why would let on that you would? No. Stop. Just ignore it and try to salvage today. Just forget that girl, forget what she said, and go get something to eat.

I shake my head and try to put the girl out of my head and I make my way up the stairs leading to the doors of the main building. She’s just some jerk and I’m not going to listen to her. Shin and Haruhi aren’t like him… They just aren’t…

--------

End of chapter 3.
Well. That took a long time. (It certainly wasn’t because I got distracted by Full Metal Alchemist, Lost, and Lord of the Ring. Nope. No siree.) But it feels good to finally finish this chapter. I will work at getting more chapters out soon, but I’m not gonna make any promises this time. I think I have some kind of clinical disease that prevents me from keeping my own deadlines.

Chapter word count: 4,870.

[AntonSlavik020]

Wow, Natsume is a bitch. She honestly didn't do or say a single thing that didn't annoy me. Besides her, I enjoyed the chapter.

[LorSquirrel]

Heh. Good to know I got her personality down. And I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm already working on the next chapter, though it may be delayed even longer then usual. I'm going on vacation in a few days and I don't have a travel laptop that I can write on.