Eito’s jumbled thoughts did little to resolve themselves before they were rudely interrupted by the school bell. As he gathered his notes together, he was nearly bowled over by Chise as she hurried to the door. Clearly, she still hadn’t adjusted yet to her added… mass. Eito winced as he realized what their class was: Gym Class.
As Eito entered the boy’s locker room, he kept his head down and did his best to ignore the extremely animated conversations and wild gestures that he knew could only have been centered on a very specific, top-heavy subject. They were free from the oversight of a teacher and the presence of any members of the opposite gender that might have provoked even a wisp of self-consciousness about the topic. Eito shook his head as the boys spent their entire time changing discussing the newly discovered merits of a girl that all of them had spent the last school year completely ignoring.
Meanwhile Eito had ten small problems at hand. His gym shorts, like all those worn at P.S. 6, had no pockets, which made the FATE computer’s 6th assignment slightly more complicated: Tomorrow morning, place ten random marbles in your pocket and carry them around all day.
‘Well, I doubt they’re going to let me hold these in my hands the whole period.’ Eito thought. ‘The computer said to put them in my pocket, so I’ll just keep them there for now. Hopefully whatever they’re meant to do won’t happen until after class.’
The ‘activity’ for the day was supposed to be dodge ball. As the carnage unfolded however, Eito thought slaughterhouse ball might have been a better term. Despite the multiple exercise balls flying through the air with malice, almost all of the players, both boys and girls alike kept finding their attention drawn to two other ‘orbs’ in particular. The ineptitude on display as the player after player were promptly eliminated after finding themselves distracted by the tighter than tight shirt trying to restrain Chise’s new assets was enough to bring a tear to the old P.E. teacher’s eye.
As Eito threw a ball at a defenseless kid staring slackjawed at his best friend, instruction no. 7 came to mind: Ask to go to the bathroom when first out of play. Eito would never have thought of himself as athletic. But as the game progressed, he realized he had a decent chance of actually winning a game for once. So… what if the FATE computer was wrong? Just the thought that the all-seeing, all-knowing goliath of computing that had turned him into a nervous wreck after only one day could be thwarted by his substandard sports skills filled him with a giddy energy. For the first time, Eito felt in charge.
“Chise!” Eito shouted, turning to his friend and comrade in arms. “Let’s win this time!”
Chise blinked, startled by the unexpected support. “You got it!” she smiled briefly, before hurling a ball as hard as she could towards another stupefied opponent.
Unfortunately for Eito, his plan overlooked one simple fact. He too was human. The moment his now busty friend smiled at him he felt dazed. A warm, tickling feeling he had never experienced before while with Chise pleasantly surprised him. Then the impact of a large rubber ball to his temple unpleasantly surprised him.
Trudging to the sidelines, the virtual screen that had been uploaded into his mind’s eye hovered before him, taunting him with the seventh task. “Mr. Moritsu, may I be excused to go to the bathroom?”
Okay, stay calm Yoko. All Yumi had asked her to do was stand outside the boys locker room and direct anyone that wanted to enter away. The odds of someone coming by were pretty low anyways; by the time the students were ready to return to the locker rooms to change back Yumi and Kahori would be finished breaking into Eito’s gym locker and planting incriminating evidence.
Why not look at the positive side? Standing in this hallway instead of out in the gymnasium with everyone else was a welcome break from the staring, always staring boys’ eyes that made her want to curl up in a ball, or better yet gouge them out with a jagged ice-cream scooper!
Yoko blushed ashamedly and looked around to make certain no one had heard that last thought. Inside the boy’s locker room she could overhear Kahori gushing over the forbidden chamber she found herself in. The key word was ‘forbidden’. If anyone discovered the two girls inside that room, Yumi and Kahori would find themselves in a world of trouble. Notoriety also, but trouble first and foremost.
If on the other hand, a student named Eito just happened to open his gym locker and glamour photos of four girls fell out where all the boys would see them, that might be trouble too. Especially if all four girls were currently going out with classmates in that very locker room; classmates that happened to be bigger, stronger, and quicker to anger than him… It was a fairly evil scheme, Yoko had to admit. Even if they did nix her idea of stuffing his locker to the point of bursting with rusty razor blades.
Yoko guiltily stared down at the tile floor in front of her feet as the wicked thought passed through her mind. As mortified as she was, she nearly died of embarrassment when she noticed another pair of shoes in front of her on the ground, with someone else’s feet in them.
“Are you alright? You don’t look so good,” a boy asked.
“I-I’m fine,” she stammered, raising the level of her eyesight slowly from the floor. It didn’t take long for her to realize her worst fears were being realized. Standing before her was none other than the target of the entire operation: Eito.
“Are you sure?” he persisted, looking concerned. “You really look flushed. I can take you to the nurse if you want.” The boy favored her with a weak, sympathetic smile.
‘Oh god, he’s never going to leave,’ Yoko thought in a panic. People weren’t supposed to take a personal interest in her welfare; it’s why she felt so at home among the Golden Salmon, flourishing in Saito Komon’s shadow. “I’m… I’m… I’m… waiting on someone,” Yoko said, coming up with the lie on the spot. ‘PleasegoawayPleasepleasegoaway,’ she added mentally.
Be careful what you wish for. “In the boy’s locker room?” Eito asked. “I’ll go inside and get them for you.”
“N-No, wait, you c-can’t,” Yoko tried to say, but Eito had already started to open the door. As desperation set in the girl shouted the first thing that came to her mind. “S-Stop right there or I’ll rip out your spleen!”
Eito stopped. For a moment he was so motionless Yoko wondered if she had broken time itself. But she hadn’t; the stare from his wide, confused eyes made her want to run for her life, find the nearest mouse hole, and squeeze in. “What’s going on over here?” shouted Mr. Moritsu, coming over to investigate the cause of Yoko’s outburst.
Just as the FATE computer foresaw, at the moment the teacher was approaching the pair of students, one of which was frozen in place holding the locker room door slightly open, Yumi Abe finally managed to open the lock on Eito’s locker. Kahori pushed forward to see just what secrets a boy might keep inside their metal box, and because she jostled her partner in crime as she opened the door, the contents of the locker shifted ever so slightly. Juuuust enough to cause one marble, then two, then the remaining eight to spill out and onto the floor. Both girls on instinct backed away suddenly; too suddenly for Kahori to maintain her balance.
The sound of the marbles on the tile floor followed by a crashing sound was enough to send Eito and the teacher inside, despite Yoko’s pleas. The sight of two of P.S. 6’s most upstanding students, lying one on top of the other in a rather… shameful position greeted them both, with several girls’ photos scattered around them.
“Um,” Kahori said, looking up from her position under Yumi and nervously laughing. “It’s not what you think.”
Sat Sep 29 12:06:52 2012
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