Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Lion Heart ❯ Schooldays ( Chapter 4 )

Lion Heart: Chapter Four: Schooldays

Bearit's Notes: Like I promised, this chapter is less angst-ridden. I can't promise humor, and I can't tell you that there isn't any angst... that would just be a crime for a teenager such as myself. ^^;; But... this is what I deem a "plot-less" chapter, or in other words, I chose a random day in the life of the Shidou family and wrote about it.
I'm never doing a plot-less... anything ever again. ~_~

***

"You know, Hikaru-chan," Kakeru said in between bites of his rice, "you really ought to get involved in something after school besides always going to the park with your friends. You really have no hobbies if you get right down to it."

"Kakeru-kun, please don't talk while you're chewing. I can hear the food in your mouth."

"Ah, sorry, Mother!"

Kinoko Shidou smiled to herself as she finished placing two deep-fried shrimps into the lunchbox. It was another daybreak, another beginning. Everything was starting out normally save for the bright sun shining on a December morning, and needless to say, Kinoko enjoyed those types of the run-of-the-mill beginnings. It would be cold, yes, but the weather would be nice.

It was going to be another wonderful, routine day.

Of course, for one of her children, the routine day was starting off as terrible as always.

"I'm late!" Masaru screamed. "I'm late. I'm late. I'm late. I'm late..."

Kinoko had no need to turn away from the lunch she was preparing for her daughter, for she could picture what Masaru was doing while listening to his footsteps stomping throughout the house. As a mother having to deal with this everyday, she sighed.

"Why did Satoru-niisan leave without me? Again?! Why? Why? Why? Why...?"

"You're a moron, Masaru!" Kakeru yelled to the bathroom where apparently, judging from the echo of his shouts, Masaru was currently located.

Once Kinoko placed the cookies into the last compartment of the lunchbox, she snapped the lid closed and put the rosy-colored box into a maroon-shaded bag. Color coding the lunchboxes were easy when all four of her children had different favorite colors, after all.

Masaru came thumping into the living room. In response, Kinoko grabbed the orange pouch and left the kitchen, seeing that her second son had immediately regretted procrastinating on finishing his homework.

"Masaru-kun, whoever invented the snooze alarm was a complete idiot, don't you agree?" Kinoko asked coolly, holding out her son's lunch.

"No time for jokes, Mother!" Masaru said, panicking. He looked at his two younger siblings and narrowed his eyes. "And why aren't you two in a hurry?!"

Hikaru only giggled while Kakeru said, "Our school doesn't start until eight thirty. It's only seven fifty. We don't leave for another fifteen minutes."

"And my school doesn't start for another ten minutes!" Masaru buckled his bag and grabbed a piece of toast Kinoko made for such an emergency. "Satoru-niisan's mean! Satoru-niisan is mean and cruel and--"

"Why should he risk being late because you didn't wake up on time?" Kinoko handed Masaru the carrot-colored lunch bag. "Here. Now, ride your bike to school or else you won't have a chance. If I hear that you were late..."

"I won't! I won't! I won't!" Masaru yelped as he grabbed his lunch and ran out the door. "By the way, since it's Wednesday, I won't be home until after seven!"

Kinoko shook her head while Kakeru muttered, "Again, there is a reason why most people don't stay up until midnight doing their homework."

"We can't blame Masaru-oniisama, though," Hikaru pointed out. "After all, he has so many after school classes and clubs to go to."

"That's only on Wednesdays when he's truly busy." Kinoko smiled as she took a seat at the table. "I can only excuse him on days like today since he has his club and both of his after school classes. For the rest of the week, with the exception of Tuesday and Thursday, his has his art class and his drama club. Yesterday and tomorrow he only has his drama club."

That was not all. Masaru was the only child in the family Kinoko would excuse for having bad grades. She knew that it was his nature to be creative and artistic, not practical and scientific. She would only care about Masaru's grades if it were any lower than a forty-five. It was far from a passing grade, and she refused for anybody to dub him an illiterate child, for he was actually more intelligent than most children his age.

Satoru, although he was busier than Masaru, had the ambition to support the family in the place of his father Mitsuru, and he was true to that wish. For Satoru's sake, Kinoko wanted him to come home with high scores all the time so that he may find a good, lucrative job once he graduates. This was his last year to prove himself, although he had been successful in the past.

Although Kakeru was an athlete, it was no excuse for below average grades. Where could Kakeru really go in life with his different interests in sports? If he was dedicated to one sport, perhaps he could become a professional, but he was involved with four different sports throughout the year. He started junior high in only a couple more months; once high school rolled around in three years, he would need to find a real career to work for.

As for Hikaru, she had no involvement with anything at school. Kinoko was sure that if Hikaru had not given up on kendo she would be in the kendo club at school and even helping Satoru out, but because of the incident four years ago, Hikaru felt that in order to keep the family together she needed to quit pursuing her dream. Kinoko wasn't at all pleased with that decision, but the fact that Hikaru wanted to become a veterinarian when she grew up eased Kinoko's heart about it.

Since Hikaru wanted to become a sort of a doctor, Kinoko knew it was imperative that she always did well in academics.

However, all of these were things she would never tell anybody, not even to her own husband when he returned.

If he returned, that is.

"Hey, Mother," Kakeru said, setting his empty rice bowl down and picking up his soup, "are you going to come to the basketball game today?"

Kinoko smiled. "I will try to make it. I won't make any promises that I fear I will not be able to keep."

"I understand," Kakeru said. "You're definitely coming, aren't you, Hikaru-chan?"

"Of course!"

"You're my good luck charm, after all! Just make sure that Fumiko doesn't come. She may hinder our chances of winning." Kakeru laughed while Hikaru blinked with confusion. He set the bowl down. "I'm done! Come on, hurry up, Hikaru-chan; we have to leave in ten minutes."

"Ah, you eat too fast, Kakeru-oniisama! It's still only ten minutes!"

Yes, Kakeru-kun, I know how fragile your heart is to broken promises, Kinoko closed her eyes. Mitsuru-san... really scarred you the day you found out... everything. I hope all of your friends and teachers know that when it comes to you, promises should always be kept, for your father made the mistake of missing that detail of your soul.

***

The bell rang as soon as Masaru fell into his seat.

"I made it," he panted. Thank whatever deity exists that I listened to Mother and rode the damned bike. But I still cannot forgive--

"Good morning, class," the teacher announced as he walked in. "Stand." Masaru gulped so that the teacher would not suspect that he was almost late or would not even believe that he was late. Masaru followed the rest of the teacher's commands with as much confidence as he could muster. "Bow. Sit."

Masaru sighed. A routine I'm really not quite used to. Mother's right again. Whoever invented the snooze alarm--

"Please take out your homework from last night."

Masaru's heart skipped a beat. Now comes the time when the routine was unbearably familiar. He grabbed his bag and silently took out all of his books and placed them inside of his desk. What followed next was something that only a few of the students were doing; everybody else was so well-organized that they managed to shoot out their assignments in a split second.

Masaru began shuffling through the papers that were jammed in-between the books and other pieces of paper.

"Stupid Satoru-niisan," Masaru found himself mumbling, "he doesn't have to not wait for me or even wait for me to wake up, but he could at least give me a hand to wake me up so I can at least put my math stuff separate from my science crap... stupid, stupid, stupid, mean older brothers."

A shadow hovered over Masaru, and he sheepishly glanced up to see his teacher glaring at him suspiciously. "Good morning," Masaru chirped and stole a quick glance back at his desk. "Ah, you want my homework, don't you, teacher? Um..." There it is! "Here you go!"

The teacher narrowed his eyes as Masaru handed him a paper that appeared to have been crumpled into a ball and straightened out again. Masaru smiled as innocently as he could; maybe he would get lucky and the teacher will accept it today?

Either the teacher was in a good mood or a bad mood, Masaru had a difficult time to tell, but to his surprise, the teacher did accept the paper by snatching it out of his hands and continuing down the aisle.

I'm probably going to get another "incomplete", Masaru sighed. I'm going to be bogged down with even more homework during Christmas break, it seems like. But first things first... Masaru took notice of his orange translucent binder and robbed the desk of it. I really need to get working on memorizing this last scene; the play is next week!

The play Masaru held in his hands was a translated version of the English story, "A Christmas Carol". Masaru played the roles of Bob Cratchit and the ghost of Jacob Marley. He had Marley's part down perfectly, for as Kakeru had once teased him, evil was a specialty for Masaru. Cratchit was a bit more difficult since he had a bigger role, and with Masaru helping with the backgrounds for the play, he had no time to even study the last scene for the past couple of days.

He hoped he could get these lines memorized by the Friday following the end of the week.

And saying "Scrooge" by the correct English way rather than the often-used Japanese version was still very difficult for Masaru.

When I auditioned, I should have picked a part in which nobody said "Scrooge"! Masaru whined.

"Alright, class, clear off your desks and take out a piece of paper and a pencil," the teacher said. Masaru quickly shoved his binder back into his desk. "We will have a pop quiz on everything that we have learned so far this year."

Pop quiz?!

"Why are teachers expecting us to remember all of these little things?" Masaru growled under his breath. "Us teenagers can only take so much information in at once!"

Masaru knew what he had to do and decided that when the time came to apply for a high school, he was going to one that taught exclusively anything artistic. Academic life really did not suit the middle brother of the Shidou family.

***

"That's Satoru Shidou? He's even more better looking than you said he was!"

"I told you it would be impossible to describe him with words."

"Oh, but he seems so serious..."

"Well, he is under a lot of stress. Have you heard about his family, yet?"

"About their school and his father? Yes, I have."

"Poor guy. It's a wonder how he manages to never act on his stress--I have never seen him upset before. Of course, I have never seen him anything but serious ever since junior high."

"I suppose that no girl will ever have a chance with him, right?"

Kyousuke Togawajun made a face at the conversation the two girls were having behind him. It wasn't that he was jealous at all of the attention his friend was getting, it was just that he hated to be reminded of the troubles Satoru had with his life. He also had never been fond of gossip, much less eavesdropping onto them, for he always found out things about his fellow classmates that he frankly wished he never knew.

He sighed and took out his lunch from his desk. He looked around the room and saw that his usual group of friends were planning to go outside to eat. However, as always, Satoru was indeed eating alone.

"Kyou-kun!" his friend called from the door. "If we don't hurry, we'll end up eating on the cold ground again!"

"Go on without me," Kyousuke said, waving his hand. "I'll be there as quick as I can."

"Okay!"

As the group left, Kyousuke glanced over his shoulder. If I can't convince him to eat with us, then I'm just going to eat with him, whether he likes it or not.

"Hey Satoru," he said, turning the desk in front of Satoru's around, "I have a question." He sat. "How do you do it?"

Satoru frowned. "What do you mean?"

"How do you manage to be perfect?" Kyousuke plopped his lunch on the desk. "You teach kendo to your father's former students and to new students that hadn't signed up before your father left. You manage to get very good grades on, well, everything single little thing that we do in school. You're obviously athletic, though not as much as your youngest brother, and you are in favor of all of the teachers in the school. What's worse, the girls can't seem to get their minds off you! How do you do it?"

"For the first few," Satoru replied, placing his chopsticks on his desk, "it's a matter of patience and support from my family. I regret that because I'm so busy, I can't see them as much anymore."

"And the girls?" Kyousuke pressed. He knew that Satoru was popular with the girls because he was good looking, had a reserved personality, and always received good grades; those were the things he learned from the gossip he eavesdropped on. However, he wanted Satoru to open up a bit more.

Satoru smiled. "That I don't know."

"Oh, you're really no help." Kyousuke sighed. "But, truth be told, Satoru, you really do need to get a girlfriend. You're the only boy I know who's been through his entire life without going on a single date with anybody, and this is our last year of high school! It might even be a little healthy for your cold attitude."

"I don't have--"

"Time, yes, I know," Kyousuke said. "But it's still not good for your soul to have no real close friends, even. We're friends, Satoru, but not quite at the level of best friends. We don't share secrets or anything like that. We don't even confide in each enough; we just like each other. Satoru, you need somebody you can spill your heart out to. It doesn't have to be a girlfriend or anything, just somebody from outside of your family."

Satoru said nothing and frowned, but Kyousuke could feel himself getting studied by the Shidou. The way Satoru narrowed his eyes when he did so was absolutely spooky, but Kyousuke only put his chin onto the palm of his hand and sighed.

"Satoru, if you have somebody you can trust to keep your true feelings covered, you really won't have anything to worry about," he continued. "You won't have any fear or regret in your life. It shouldn't be very difficult to find a candidate since nobody hates you; all of the guys are really envious, though."

"It's the trusting part that's difficult, isn't it?"

"You might say that, which is why I think you should have found a best friend even before your father left."

A smile reappearing on his face, Satoru nodded his head. "You are a good friend, Kyousuke-san."

Kyousuke shook his head. He lost the battle; he knew that. Satoru was the type of person who hated to bring his troubles on other people's shoulders, but Kyousuke knew that he had to if he wanted to save himself from not only stress but loneliness. Such a thing had always bothered Kyousuke about Satoru, and it was only until now, after two years of knowing that his friend was missing something in his life and a year of realizing of what it was, that Kyousuke suggested it to him.

He was not going to give up, even if Kyousuke had to make himself be the one Satoru spilled his heart and soul to.

"I still don't know how you do it," he said as a verbal way of admitting his defeat. "You're perfect. Say, do you want to come outside and eat with me and the guys? I'm afraid that if I leave you alone, those girls over there are going to introduce that new girl to you, and you won't have much peace."

Satoru nodded. "Thank you, Kyousuke-san. Are you sure your friends won't mind?"

"Oh, they won't care. Actually, I think they'll be happy to have you there," said Kyousuke. "Come on; let's go before it gets far too into lunch period that we won't have enough time to eat by the time we get there."

Of course, Kyousuke reminded himself, if Satoru found a colleague outside Kyousuke's circle of friends, Kyousuke knew that trusting that person would be the hardest thing he would ever have to do. And, in secret, Kyousuke hoped that Satoru would soon find that he was all the willing to listen if he would give him the chance.

***

Fumiko Tachiiri was almost near out of breath even before she began sprinting towards the school's gymnasium. Not only was she lectured by her teacher about sleeping in class, she was scolded by her guidance counselor about having terrible grades. She knew that her mother was going to hear of this, and when she did, Fumiko knew that her fun in life would be stolen for a month or so.

Even so, she was still running late. The basketball game started at three-thirty, so she only had five minutes to get to the gym once the elders were finished with her. By the time she finished packing her backpack up with her homework as quickly as she could, she only had three minutes left. The only way she could get to the game in time was if she ran.

Running was not Fumiko's forte.

Actually, Fumiko hated anything athletic. Whenever she hated something, she was terrible at it.

"Sheesh," she grumbled in between breaths. "You would think that teachers would think about after-school activities when they yell at students, but no..." She caught sight of an older boy in front of her and sighed in relief. She wasn't the only one who was going to be late. "Hidehiro!"

The boy turned, a little surprised. "Tachiiri-san."

"You can call me Fumiko, you dumbo," she said, ceasing her jog when she finally caught up to him. "Are you going to Kakeru's basketball game?"

"Hikaru-san wants me to, so I am," Hidehiro replied cautiously. "Do you think Kakeru-san would mind?"

Fumiko laughed. "Of course not. You know Kakeru loves the attention he gets whenever he has one of these things. The only reason I'm going is because, well, if I don't go, I'd be the only girl in school not going since Hikaru, Rei, and Sera are going to be there, too. Which reminds me," she said, grabbing Hidehiro's arm, "we have to get going or else us two be stuck sitting next to each other!"

And the rumors will fly, Fumiko thought with disgust as she flew towards the gymnasium again.

It had been two years since that day. Two years since Hidehiro Akugenta had "bullied", by the words of Hikaru's brothers, the four girls, lied to the teachers to get Kakeru in trouble, and angered Masaru to the extent that both of the boys were suspended from school for a couple of days. Yet, Hikaru never hated Hidehiro and instead befriended him.

Fumiko had been surprised at how right Hikaru was in her judgment. Slowly Hidehiro had warmed up to Hikaru's kindness since he had indeed no friends, and Hidehiro transformed from a rash, conceited boy to a shy and self-conscious one. It was odd that Hikaru had that sort of "power"--she could always find something good in even the most evil person.

Sera, like Hikaru, easily befriended Hidehiro once she saw his real personality. Rei stayed distant, and she still refused to look at Hidehiro. Masaru had already gone on to the junior high school by the time Hikaru finally changed Hidehiro, but Kakeru still was not exactly trusting of the boy; it was obvious that he felt no hatred towards him, but it was unclear whether he considered Hidehiro a friend or a mere acquaintance. Fumiko, on the other hand, went along with the plan. If Hikaru wanted to make a friend out of Hidehiro, that was fine, as long as he no longer pulled a stunt like back in the second grade.

"Fumiko-chan!" Hikaru yelled from the gymnasium's door, waving her hand. Fumiko returned the greeting while behind her, Hidehiro grumbled.

Rei, apparently ignoring the fact that Hidehiro was around, called, "Hurry up or else the game will start!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" When Fumiko finally reached the group, she pulled Hidehiro in front of her and said, "See? Even when I stopped to drag along Hidehiro-kun, I still managed to make it on time."

"Barely." Kakeru poked his head out with a frown pasted on his face. "Would you guys hurry up and come inside? The game's going to start and it's freezing out here!"

"Well, you're the one wearing a tank top and shorts," Fumiko counterattacked.

"Hey, I'm the star of the basketball team!"

"Oh, so sure of yourself, are you?"

"Everybody else seems to think so--"

"Shidou-kun! Hurry up and get in here; the game's about to start!" a boy yelled from inside the gym.

Kakeru called back, "Okay, okay!" He turned back to them. "Get inside already before you catch a cold; I saved you guys a seat at the top row. You're going to have to end up sitting next to Miyuki-san and her friends, though. I'm so sorry, Fumiko."

She narrowed her eyes. "No need to be so sarcastic."

It wasn't that Fumiko didn't get along with Miyuki and her friends, it was just that Miyuki and her friends worshipped Kakeru. Fumiko was always annoyed by the fact that Kakeru had a fan club, since she really failed to see why everybody was so impressed by him. Boys wanted to be him and girls adored him; he was Satoru's shadow, except more athletic and sans the reserved personality. However, a fan club was just going a little too far.

After the door was closed and the six were inside the gymnasium, Fumiko noticed how crowded the place was. Every girl she knew in the higher half of the elementary school was there as well as some parents of the team and friends of the team members. And of course, there were also some supporters for the other team on the other side, but it was not as full as the home side was--nothing new, of course.

Fumiko sighed, "This is reminding me too much of my cousin's baseball games--and he's in junior high!"

"So, see you guys after the game!" Kakeru said as he ran over to the bench.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Fumiko yelled. "Where are we supposed to sit?!"

Sera tapped Fumiko's shoulder and pointed to a section of the top row where nobody was sitting. "There. That's where Miyuki-san is, anyway."

As the group rushed up to the top bleachers, Fumiko rolled her eyes. "What do you know? It's just like Sera to notice that kind of stuff."

She hurried up the steps to catch up with her friends. Right before she reached the top bench, a choir of girls shouted, "You can do it, Kakeru-sama!"

Fumiko clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "I just don't get it!"

***

By a very unwelcome turn of events, night and rain fell simultaneously. Masaru, who had to ride his bike through that and the wintry temperature of December, was very upset by the time he returned home. Upset, hungry, wet, and loaded with homework.

Having his little sister's dog knock him over in the mud before he reached the front door really helped none, either.

Before he went into his own room to change out of his school uniform and into warmer and dryer clothes, he trudged wearily to Hikaru's room. He held no grudge against her (how could he ever be angry with his cute little sister, after all?), but he wanted--no, he needed to know something that he considered very important to make his day better. She was the only person within the family who could answer such a question that was burning within him.

Masaru slid open the rice paper door slowly but with enough noise for Hikaru to hear. She had been sitting at her desk, apparently working on her homework, but she caught notice of Masaru and smiled.

"Welcome home, Masaru-oniisama," she chirped. Her grin faded when she noticed water dripping from his body. "Masaru-oniisama...?"

He glared at the big ball of fur resting at the foot of Hikaru's chair. There was the trouble. How did it manage to get back into the house so fast?

"Tell me, Hikaru-chan." Masaru tried to speak as calmly as he could. "Did you take your dog on a walk after school?"

"Satoru-oniisama did; I was with Kakeru-oniisama at his basketball game today."

Oh yeah. That was today, wasn't it?

"I see." He nodded. "Did you feed--" Can't call the dog "it" around Hikaru-chan, you dumbass. "--him?"

"Yep!"

Masaru narrowed his eyes, his gaze never lifting off the dog, who looked inquisitively back into Masaru's eyes. "I see. So... do you have any explanation as to why he tackled me just a few minutes ago? In the rain? Straight into the mud?"

By the tone of her voice, Masaru could tell that Hikaru was trying to keep a nice atmosphere--with failure on Masaru's part. He was still deadpan. "He probably missed you, Masaru-oniisama."

After a moment of murky silence, he grunted and closed the door. "Sorry to bug you, Hikaru-chan. I was just wondering."

Masaru slogged to his room. He carried no thoughts or emotions. After all, his day had been just fine until after his piano lessons when he discovered the rain that had soaked his bicycle to the core. He had been lucky that he had carried his schoolbag into his piano teacher's house, otherwise, tomorrow would have been hellish as he tried to explain to all of his teachers what had happened.

After Masaru slipped on some dry, casual clothes, he finally said, "I will be going to Gashitsu Art Academy when I apply for a high school."

"Good luck with Mother agreeing to that!"

Masaru slowly swiveled his head towards the door. There Kakeru stood, arms crossed with a small smirk. "What do you want, Kakeru-kun?"

"Oh, just wondering how your day went after you woke up late."

Temper control. No yelling at Kakeru-kun. No yelling at Kakeru-kun. No accusing Satoru-niisan. No accusing Satoru-niisan. No cursing out the teachers. No cursing out the teachers. No complaints about the weather. No complaints about the weather. No insulting the dog. No insulting the dog. Temper control.

It is a normal Wednesday, after all.

"Just dandy," Masaru spat and stormed towards the kitchen.

**To Be Continued**