THE GREAT SHIZUMA
Chapter Nine
Sailing Takes Me Away
No one was more surprised than Tamao in this situation. Understandingly so. How might have you felt if your girlfriend had impetuously burst into the room, grabbed your hands, asked, "Want to go sailing?" Then she brings you to the docks where you find her ex - that stupid bitch you're getting really tired of not strangling - at the prow, manning the tiller, welcoming all your friends aboard.
Shizuma unfurled the sails, exclaiming jubilantly, "I rented this puppy out for four hours!"
"Yay-ness!" Kizuna cheered. "I love sailing! It's so much fun!" She climbed on board and helped Remon on.
"I've never done it," Tsubomi admitted as she and Yaya boarded the boat.
Tamao bit her lip as her uneasy gaze shifted from the expectant Nagisa to Shizuma's boat tethered to the dock and back again. The girl who could have ruptured her spleen was in charge of this craft. Should I call Mom now and ask her to change my will? "I can't believe you're asking me to do this." She was laughing despite the situation.
The redhead looked a little crestfallen. "So you're not coming?"
"Of course I'm coming." The poet brought Nagisa's hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. "Wherever my Nagisa-chan goes, I go."
"Sailing makes me nervous," Shion said as Chikaru helped her aboard. "What if this boat capsizes?"
"It won't," the Lulim President assured, pulling Shion close. "It's a keel boat. It can't go over."
"Well, if you're sure about this, then I can be, too."
Kaname and Momomi stepped on board, bearing what each of them had packed for lunch.
"Aw, hell no," Tamao mumbled.
Shion rose. "Welp, toodle-oo!"
"C'mon, Shion!" Chikaru laughed, pulling her girl back down beside her.
The Spican President frowned. She had always trusted Chikaru's judgment, but this was a bit much.
"Hola, Kaname-kun!" Shizuma greeted with a smile. "It sure has been a while, huh?"
"Hai. Welcome back, Shizuma-sama."
"Everybody ready to go?"
"No," responded Remon. "Where's Kagome-chan? She said she'd join us."
Kizuna shrugged. "Beats me. She's been acting funny lately."
"She has!" The normally quiet Remon was leaning forward and talking animatedly. "She's so distant, even for Kagome. She hasn't attended Star Gazing lately and she refused to room with us over the summer. She said she was rooming with 'somebody else.'"
"Do you think she hates us?"
Chikaru shook her head. "She doesn't hate you. I'm sure she has her reasons." She smiled.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear - Kagome came running up to the dock with Chiyo, Pashibaru being carried between the two of them. They scurried on board and sat with Kizuna and Remon, smiling sheepishly.
"That everyone?" Shizuma asked. "Yes? Okay! Anchors aweigh, mates! We're sailin'!"
Momomi untied the thick rope tethering the boat to the dock, the former Étoile lashed the tiller on a continuous eastward course, and they were on their way. The boat, named Grayprow by Kizuna, cut through the turquoise water, the sun ticking out the minutes.
Chikaru immediately took a bottle of sunscreen out of her bag, applied some to herself (with some help from Shion), and shared it around. Chiyo slathered herself in it; by the time she was done, she smelled like a coconut factory. When the bottle came around to Yaya and Tsubomi, they both politely refused.
"I don't burn," said Yaya.
"Me, neither," Tsubomi chimed.
The Lulim President shrugged and put the bottle back in her bag. "Suit yourselves."
When the sun reached its zenith, Shizuma proposed they have lunch. Everyone agreed to this heartily.
"Am I hungry!" Tsubomi exclaimed as she gulped up several spoonfuls of soup from her thermos.
"Me, too!" said Nagisa as she wolfed a vegetarian sandwich and started on another.
"It's the salty air," said Chikaru. "It tends to make people hungrier."
A drop of sweat appeared on Tamao and Yaya's heads as they observed their girlfriends' atrocious table, er, boat manners. Tsubomi tipped the thermos way back, smacking the base to get every last drop of soup. Nagisa was gobbling down sandwiches so fast, she was getting hiccups.
"You both are going to make yourselves sick!" Yaya exclaimed.
"You ought to eat more slowly," Tamao added.
Nagisa complied and sat a moment until her hiccups stopped coming. Tsubomi, however, continued to snarf her lunch, insisting, "I don't get seasick."
Momomi was sipping water from her canteen when a hot, rancid stench slapped her nostrils. Blanching, she turned toward Kaname. The short-haired Spican was eating a sandwich.
"What are you eating?" Momomi asked.
"Sardine and onion sandwich," Kaname grinned around a mouthful of her lunch. "Want some?"
"Ugh, no. I'd rather eat a two-headed frog."
"Are you sure? It's delicious with ketchup and mayonnaise."
Momomi's face turned green now. She leaned over the edge of the Grayprow and surrendered her own lunch to the marine life. "I'm not kissing you anymore," she choked.
Kaname rubbed her back. "Oh, of course you will. And you'll love it." She winked.
After lunch everybody settled down a little bit. Kizuna dozed off on Remon's shoulder. Chikaru and Shion played Slaps with Kaname and Momomi. Chiyo and Kagome horsed around near the prow of the boat. Tamao, Nagisa, Shizuma, and Yaya played Hearts. And poor Tsubomi was laying in the bottom of the boat, looking green about the gills.
"Are you okay?" Yaya asked when she saw her girl bring one hand to her tummy and another to her mouth.
Tsubomi promptly withdrew her hands. "Oh, I'm totally fine." She sat up swiftly and smiled to show how spritely she was. She winced as her stomach heaved painfully; she had sat up too quickly.
Yaya would normally jest at Tsubomi's tough-guy front, but this time she was genuinely concerned. Pinky seriously wasn't looking so good. Her topaz eyes were unfocused, her face pasty and a bit listless. Her ebony eyebrows knitting together, Yaya said, "If you're sick, watch the horizon and breathe through your nose."
"I'm not sick." Tsubomi scowled, but it was a bit more mild and flaccid than her usual trademark black stare. Though she insisted that she wasn't sick, Tsubomi inhaled deeply and let her breath pass slowly through her nostrils.
"Your move, Yaya-chan." Tamao's soft voice pulled Yaya back into their game. The lead suit was diamonds. Tamao had boldly led with an ace, Nagisa followed with a ten, Shizuma with a King. The Spican's brain farted and she suddenly forgot where the game was.
"Can I see the score sheet?"
Tamao passed her the sheet. They were in their second round. In their first round, Shizuma had shot the moon. Therefore the former Etoile was in the lead with zero points, and everybody else had twenty-six points.
Yaya scanned her hand. She had no diamonds left. This was the perfect opportunity to throw out that ace of hearts that was soiling her hand. Nothing daunted, she laid it down.
Tamao growled. "Son of a bitch," she whispered as she collected her trick.
"Gomen ne," Yaya apologized.
"Oh, it's okay. It's just a game. But since you broke hearts..." The poet laid down the two of hearts. "Eat that!"
Nagisa played a four of hearts.
Shizuma frowned. "It's awfully rude to lead with a heart. That means somebody has to take four points." She laid down a three of hearts.
There was no avoiding it: Yaya was going to take this trick. Grumbling, she laid down a ten of hearts and claimed her "prize."
The former Etoile raised a silver eyebrow at Tamao. "See?"
The poet scowled, but held her silence. She didn't know why it mattered to Shizuma when she didn't even take this trick.
They were distracted momentarily by a sharp yelp from Kaname, whose hand had been slammed by Shion's. The Spican President, suppressing a smile, apologized sheepishly. Meanwhile, Kaname was a truly comical sight, whinging and shaking out her reddening hand. The four Hearts players giggled, then returned to their game.
Yaya decided it was time to flush out that devious Queen of Spades. She led with a five of spades. Tamao played a nine of spades, Nagisa a Jack, Shizuma an ace. The silver-haired girl led with a three of clubs. Yaya played a four, Tamao a Queen.
Nagisa grimaced. "I've no more clubs left. Gomen nasai, Tamao-chan." She laid down a King of hearts.
Sighing, Tamao claimed the trick. "'Sokay. What's one little point?"
"Hai," Shizuma agreed, grinning. "But I guess we know who Nagisa's more willing to knock to the bottom, eh, Tamao?" The way she accented the first syllable of the poet's name made it sound like "Tom-ao." Like Tome Buchanan, she thought with a frown. Cute. Her blood boiled.
Nagisa looked horrified. "I don't want to knock down Tamao-chan! I really had no clubs!"
"I don't doubt that you had no clubs," Shizuma responded coolly. "But you could've played a diamond or a spade."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter," Tamao said curtly, throwing down a six of diamonds.
Nagisa played a three.
Shizuma laid down the Queen of Spades.
"Ohh, burn!" Yaya crowed, laughing heartily as she laid down a four of diamonds. She stopped when she realized no one else was laughing.
For the next few rounds, Tamao took the tricks. Nagisa finally asked, "Is Tamao shooting the moon?"
"No," Tamao replied and Yaya held up the four hearts she had taken.
Shizuma smirked. "She's just going to take about twenty points."
The poet was really starting to get cheesed off, but not to the point where she'd confront Shizuma. Grumbling, she threw down her Jack of hearts and claimed the last trick. Everyone promptly announced their scores to be tallied.
"Four," said Yaya.
"Zero," said Nagisa.
"Zero," said Shizuma.
Tamao tallied up the scores. When Yaya asked what they were so far, the poet sighed, "Shizuma is in the lead with zero points, Nagisa in second place with twenty-six points, you're in third place with thirty points, and I'm in last place."
"...With how many points?" Shizuma asked, her green eyes flashing viciously.
Tamao shot Nagisa, who seemed to have not heard what the former Etoile had just said, a meaningful glance. Then she glared at the score sheet and replied, "Forty-eight."
"Whoo, the game's already halfway over! You must've set a record there, Tom-ao!"
The poet fumed.
"How is it that you're so good at this game?" Nagisa inquired of Shizuma.
"It's her deck, genius," Yaya replied.
"And I'm just a beast at Hearts," Shizuma shrugged. Then she chuckled. "Aww, Tom-ao, what's with the face? Don't be a sore loser!"
"I'm not," Tamao sulked.
"Really? Because ever since the Etoile selection last year, you struck me as a sore loser."
The poet merely shook her head and cut the cards. You are really asking for it.
"I didn't think she acted like a sore loser," Yaya argued. "I thought she handled the outcome very well. Why, the very next day she approached Hikari and said, 'I concede defeat. A loss is a loss. Congratulations, Etoile-sama.'"
Shizuma frowned as Tamao started dealing the cards. "Sheesh. You and your card-playing etiquette. It's rude to deal yourself first."
"Why?" asked the poet.
"You might be cheating."
"How is this cheating?"
"What if you wanted, say, the Queen of Spades in your hand. You put that card at the top of the deck and deal yourself first."
Tamao stared at her, aghast. "That's impossible! I just shuffled the cards! I never saw them!"
"You-"
"Get off my back, already! Just get off my fucking back!" She stood abruptly, causing the boat to rock a little.
Shizuma didn't even blink. "Settle down, old sport. You're causing a disturbance." She was right. Tamao's sudden outburst had woken Kizuna. The rocking boat caused Tsubomi's stomach to churn and pitch peakedly. One could literally feel the sailboat brace itself for a battle royale as Kaname, Momomi, Shion, and Chikaru paused their game of Slaps and Chiyo and Kagome turned their attention from the prow of the boat.
Shizuma stood, and stood to her full height. Though Tamao had recently hit a growth spurt, the former Etoile was still taller than she.
"Don't make a spectacle of yourself," Shizuma said calmly. "Look at you. You look like a child. How old are you?"
"I may look like a spectacle," the poet spluttered, her voice trembling with fury, "but you can't always be the center of attention."
"Why, I never wanted to be the center of attention."
"Of course you did! You did-" Tamao started jabbing her finger at Shizuma "- when you declared, in front of every student of Astraea Hill, in the middle of the Etoile selection, that you loved Nagisa. It couldn't have been a private declaration, like what I did. Oh no. Everybody had to know." She paused. "Even now you have to be the center of attention, lording it over everyone with your smug little laugh and card etiquette lectures! Who do you think you are?"
"The former Etoile. I was never just a contender."
Tsubomi had had her back turned to the event; she was laying in a fetal position with her eyes closed, her nauseous head swimming and throbbing with the heated argument. Then the young Spican heard screams, felt a violent pitch of the Grayprow, heard a tumultuous splash.
"Tamao-chan!" Nagisa shrieked. "Shizuma-sama!"
Oh, brother, thought Tsubomi as she slowly sat up. Her amber eyes widened as she saw Nagisa, Yaya, and Chikaru crowded around the starboard end of the boat. The worst case scenario was a reality: Tamao and Shizuma had gone overboard.