Story: Lotus and Cranes (chapter 4)

Authors: Jdwheels

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Chapter 4

[Author's notes:

When you think of someone reaching out for you.. its a good thing, right?  Sometimes it is... and sometimes it is the start of things.

]

Chapter Four - Touched

 

 

The alarm went off at the time it was suppose to, and I groaned as the sound literally felt like it was scrapping the inside of my mind. Six o’clock comes way too early...even here in Japan. I reached out and turned the alarm off, and snuck my hand back into the warmth of the covers that I cocooned myself with. I was not wanting to get up.

Just drifting back off, I then started to hear some very weird music coming from across the hall. Apparently Teru was awake and playing what seemed to be Anime music early, a thing that I wanted to kill him for at this moment. It was a good thing for him that I did not want to get up at this time... I just might have hurt him. I curled up more and pulled my entire head into the covers like a turtle, trying and convince myself that I did not have to get up and go to school. The bed was just feeling so damned good right now, and I did not want to move.

Unfortunately, the good side of my brain was beginning to override my want-to-sleep-for-the -day brain... and it did not help the other fact was I had to really pee. After a few minutes of trying to stop the urges to go and failing, I needed to make the choice. I relented and got up, and hurried to dress and get to the bathroom and then avoiding any ‘accidents’ before any could happen.

I had finished washing up and dressing, I entered the dining area a while later. My Uncle was sitting there reading the paper as seemed to be his usual morning thing while Auntie was writing something in a book. They both looked at me, and gave me a smile.

" Good morning, Akimi..." Said Uncle in his low voice, giving me a smile that was good to see.

" Good morning." Also said Auntie Kiko, smiling.

" And a good morning to the both of you, Auntie and Uncle." I said happily, as the two greeted me warmly.

I nodded and took a seat while Yui hurried in with my coffee and breakfast. The scene felt warm and inviting... and this felt so good. I then noticed that Teru was not there at the table.... I froze, wondering if I was going to be able to get myself to school on my own.

" Did Teru go to school already, Auntie?" I asked, a little nervous about that possibility.

" He had an early Baseball practice to attend today..." She said.

" Teru went for a early Baseball practice?" I echoed, now a little nervous with tis situation.

" He is the first string catcher for Nagato’s Team One... and he needed to ready a new pitcher for an upcoming game they have with a rival school team." She explained. " He said that he would text you about it after he left and got on the train."

I made a noise, and remembered that I still had the phone stuck in my blazer pocket. I was glad that I did , because running back upstairs would be a pain in the ass. I pulled the device out of my pocket, and turned it on The light told me that it was now on, and right there on the screen the little thing told that there was one message waiting for me. It was Teru’s message, as Auntie had said he would do

" Hey, sorry can’t help today, have baseball practice ... but I will see you at school... perhaps one of your new friends might help." It said plainly, ending with a smiley face making a weird face.

I sighed and flipped the cell closed and set it beside me on the table so as not to forget it, the reality of getting myself to school was my task of the day. I just may need to use the phone in case I got lost, I thought to myself. I sighed and started in on my breakfast. I was sure that I would make it without any troubles, even though this was my second day only.. I had a wee bit of a fear that I might not know the way there.

I just told myself that I would be just fine... yet if felt like a lie. Whether or not it was or was not... it did not change the situation. I was going to ask Uncle for a ride, and made it easier for me... but I stopped myself. I was not going to learn, without trying... that was my mother’s words to me many times. It was official, I was going to brave getting myself there... the cellphone was a insurance policy. That thought helped.... at least a little.

I was coming out of the front door, heading off to make my way to the train and then school... that was when I heard very excited voices. I looked up, I saw outside of the gate was the pretty Isono, her sister Yumi and surprisingly there also were the three others girls that I had met the day before. They all were waving and being silly, one even jumping up and down like mad while waving at me. I could not help but burst out laughing so loudly when I saw the group of girls. In seeing them, I knew that my little plight of getting to school was no problem anymore.

I waved and hurried over to the gate where the maid, Yui, was already opening up the portal to let the others into the courtyard to meet me. It made me feel good that they were including me like this... and I was still that ‘new’ kid.

I was greeting the girls, when the youngest of the group let out this really odd noise like a cat getting stuck or something. I was startled by this sound, even though I could see who had uttered it..

" A cellphone?? You got a cellphone, Akimi-chan, You got a cellphone!!" Yumi shrieked, jumping excitedly in place. "That is so cool , Akimi-chan... you have a cellphone of your own..."

I looked at the phone in my hand, realizing that for a moment I had forgot I had kept it in my hand since I picked it up from the table. I felt a little bashful having the phone in my hand like I was trying to flaunt it, but I was not...and I hoped the others knew that I was not trying to flaunt that I had one.

" You have a cellphone now?" Isono asked, who also was very excited when she saw my cell. " You just moved here... an’ you got a cell."

" My Uncle got it for me because of my marks on that test...." I said, actually a little proud but still shy.

" You got it for your perfect scoring?? My sister is so right...That is so cool..." Isono nodded, seeming generally happy for me

Little Yumi made a face and kicked the ground, causing a plume of dust and dirt to fly up. This action by the girl made the others look over and silently question what the middle school girl was reacting this way.

" Awh.. It is just no fair.." She pouted.

" No fair... you mean that it is not fair for Akimi-chan getting a phone?" Asked Isono, not getting her sister’s tantrum.

" Yeah.." She pouted in answer. " She got a cellphone...and I don’t.."

" Why are you upset that Akimi-chan got a phone for doing so good on the entrance test?" Prodded the older sister, obviously not getting it.

Yumi crossed her arms, frowned and kicked up a bigger cloud of dust into the morning sunlight.

" When I get good marks at school... I only get a scoop of ice cream.... and not a cool phone like that..." She whimpered, causing everyone around her to laugh. "And I have not had ice cream in a long time. How fair is that?"

" Yeah, but might I remind you that you have had such bad grades lately that is the only reason why you have not gotten any ice cream in a while." Isono said, making everyone laugh harder.

" I know my marks are bad... but its still is not fair..." The little girl gasped and then stuck out her tongue, causing deeper laughter to erupt around the group, and causing Yui to shake her head and head back into the house.

I was going to just tuck the phone away, but Isono snatched right out of my hand. I looked at the girl, not quite sure why she had grabbed it from me. The girl gave me the prettiest smirk I had ever seen, and made me quiver a little... making me forget to try and wrestle my cell away from her.

" What...?" I stammered.

" Relax, Akimi-chan. I am going to enter my number, so you have it... you just got to have it, you know." She smiled, and gave me that look all over again. " Both my home and cell number and text too... you got to have everything."

" Me next after Onee-sama finishes..." Shouted the tall Maki very boisterously, reaching over everyone like a toddler at a candy shop.

" Who made you a queen so you could go next, Maki-chan... it’s my turn after Onee-sama is done..." Cut in Wami with a pout while pushing away the long arm that jutted out over her head.

" Want a bet it is your turn?" Said the taller girl, playfully shoving the athletic girl a little.

" Yeah, I do." Wami came back., giving the mush large girl a poke in the rib cage.

As I waited for everyone to finish filling my phone with numbers, I saw the very quiet and demure Saya put her hand up nervously while tilting her face a little downward. I took that as the very overly shy girl’s version of telling them she wanted to put in her phone numbers. I did not think there would be not too many phone calls from her, because of her extreme shyness but I had this odd little hunch that texting would be more of her mode of communication. Don’t know why, but that was the sense I got.

I turned and watched Isono, as she finished with my phone and handed it off to Maki, much to the displeasure of Wami who had lost the reaching battle with the much taller and longer limbed girl. I secretly watched her as she stood there and watched others punch in their numbers into my cell, acting still excited.

I saw her smile while she stood there, that amazing sparkle her eyes had was drawing me to watch her intently as she stood there... her beauty was nearly bordering on hypnotic for me. I felt so guilty in watching the girl as if I was some sort of stalker or being a pervert, but I was drawn to watch this so pretty of a girl. She was amazing, and I could not for the life of me, pry my gaze away.

I still did not understand why I was constantly drawn to the girl that was the head of our class... but I was. From her smile to how she talked, I found myself drawn to her. It seemed from the second my eyes had taken her in that first day, all I wanted to do was stare at her like I was star-struck.

"She is so beautiful... how can I not look at her?" I asked to myself.... trying to find the right excuse. I had no excuse even for myself, if the truth needs to be known.

I snapped out of my wondrous fog and made myself watch the others instead of taking in the girl. It did feel wrong in watch the girl, to a point... but the fact still was that it still felt equally as right watching her. I needed to stop thinking about the girl like this, even though every single fibre in my body did not want to stop. I wanted to know her as deeply as possible... was that so bad?

After everyone was done and I had my phone back now filled with contacts, we realized what the time was. We did not realize that were so close to not being able to catch the usual train, to the point that there was very little time left... We had ten minutes until boarding, and many blocks to traverse.

Like a group of jackrabbits, we scurried off to school almost moving like one flowing Amoeba type of group down the street. Our little group was something to see, I think because we had unintentionally unnerved a nice elderly couple that were out for a early morning stroll when we all rushed past them. We all did call out our apologies, but from the way the little man was yelling at us as we continued to hurry down the street towards the subway train station, I guess that the apologies we were hurdling back was not accepted.

******

 

We got to school, but with very little time before classes were about to start. The reason for the lateness was that Yumi had gotten lost in the little market area that we had to go through on the way to the subway train station. We were all running, and it was Isono who noticed that her sister was not beside her as normal.

" Go on to school all of you..." She sighed. " She is my sister... no need for all of you to be late because of us."

" We are doing no such thing, Onee-sama.." Immediately said Wami, arms crossed to show she was serious. " We are not going to just up and leave... we will all help find your sister."

"It is smarter if we all stayed back and helped you out as one, you know." Maki came in, adding as she spoke. " Us as a group spread out will find her faster than if you did it all alone."

" Yeah..." Agreed the first girl, me and Saya agreed with a nod.

It was official...We all as one single group were not going to leave. Swe would all look for the small Yumi.

Isono looked at all of us and smiled. She looked so cute as she realized that we were just going to help her no matter what.

" Thank you..." She said, looking gratefully at us all.

We smiled and got down to the task at hand... trying to find the missing young girl. We all split up to look throughout the open air marketplace, the fear of being late for classes were not important for us now... we needed to locate Yumi. I for one was petrified for the well-being of the girl.

A little over fifteen minutes passed as we all checked every isle of produce and other things that were piled on every table there. I found her the girl standing in a crowd eating a chocolate puff she had bought herself. I was relived, but when they came in response to my calling out that I had located her... it was apparent the others were not happy with the girl going off on her own like this. They all were now bitching the girl out while they began to drag her to the platform.

Once out on that platform, and to all of our horror, we found out that we had missed our regular train by a scant few minutes. The girls that made up our little group seemed to get even more upset with the girl as the reality of our missing our train sunk in. The girl just stood there, head down with tears streaming down her face as she silently let the others vent their extreme upset on to her. The others were more than a little harsh on the young girl, I admit, but she seemed honestly sorry. I was upset, but I think I handled it pretty good.

Things did cooled off quite fast, then clearly vanished as the next train arrived and we all got on for the ride to school. Soon we were all talking away on different things, the anger and upset of the last little bit became nothing more than a distance memory that probably would never really be thought about.

We got off at our stop, and hurried to make sure that our youngest group member got to her school. We were glad that Yumi’s middle school was basically across the street from Nagato most southern facing end. Dropping her off if her school was even one block farther than what it was, would have been a disaster. Because of this, we still had a outside shot to get into class right on time.

Once inside of out school, it was a simple yet weirdly restrained dash through the crowded hallways of Nagato. The others all had scattered to go change footwear and then hustle up to class as fast as they could. I had to hurry myself to the best I could, because my locker was situated in a different area of the school. I was glad that Isono took a moment to point me in the right direction before she scooted upstairs. It was my second day still, and I was still a little lost in the expanse of this school.

I had found my way to my locker thanks to a hell of a lot of luck, and I was half bent over reaching into the metal cubbyhole to gather my indoor shoes for the coming school day... that was when something happened. Something that was shocking to say the least, and never was expecting.

I felt a hand touch my left butt cheek, and not the just a normal sort of grope.. The hand had snuck right under my skirt and firmly cupped one of my cheeks. The hand hung there and gave that cheek a firm but not a pain inducing squeeze, holding for a moment and then just let go. I let out a very high pitched squeak like a surprised mouse and moved my hands quickly around to my backside in reflex ... the offending hand had already let go and was gone. I let out a strongly swear quite loudly in English, my anger boiled and then flashed inside of me.

I whirled around, going to take the head off of the bastard that was responsible for copping a feel. I could feel my blood pressure spiking in my ears as I felt way more angry than violated... whoever this guy was, was going to regret ever doing this after I was done with him. I whirled around, ready to completely lash our at the bastard...what I found was nothing like my expectations were.

The tall, and stately girl known as Maki was the one who was standing there, one hand on her hip. She was standing not very far from me with this unmistakable smirk of impish per portions on her face. Seeing the girl standing there with such a defiant sort of stance, I got this strong sort of feeling that she might be the one who had grabbed my ass. I was shocked, but that was what it looked like.

" You did this?" I asked, not knowing what to think

In response to my shock induced question, Maki lifted her hand and made a squeezing motion in the air right at me as her eyes locked onto mine. She put her hand down, and seemed to really look at me with this air of certainty

" I am, Akimi-chan!" She said, as calmly a swimming pool void of people.

"Oh..." I said, feeling my jaw drop... the tall rangy girl had been the one who grabbed my backside.

There she stood, only twenty feet away from me with this large air of confidence glowing in her intense gaze. Maki never made a move to run away or anything like that... she just stood there unfazed with her actions as her sultry smoky gaze locked on to me.

" Why?" I asked the taller girl.

The girl took a step closer, but never broke her stare. She stood there for a second, not say a word, yet those eyes held a intenseness to them.

" I had to say, that was wonderful to have grabbed that ass-cheek of yours..." She said, with no hint of shame or remorse for what she had done.

" My...ass?" I stammered, amazed at the girls bluntness.

" Yes, your wonderfully rounded ass." She answered back, with boldness in each word. " I got to say that you really are quite cute and that ass of yours is really firm and shapely... I happen to like those type of assets in a girl, Akimi-chan. You have that and more, I might venture."

She then looked at me for a moment, and seemed to really enjoy the shock that my face held... I could see that in the way she stared at me She blew me a little kiss and started to turn away as more people came from a doorway to the outside.

" See you at lunch then..." She said with a little wink. " Onee-chan and all of us are suppose to meet near the old west fountain to eat together... one of us will show you how to get there."

" Uh, yeah.." I replied, my mind had nothing more to say, as it was still mired in shock.

" Bye.." She smiled.

Maki gave a little mischievous giggling smile as she hurried off , waving over her left shoulder with a flair. In an instant, the tall girl had disappeared into the crowds of students that were still heading to classes all over the large expanse that it Nagato. She was gone just as quickly as what she had done, and that left me standing there.

" Holy Crap!" I said to myself, not knowing what else really to say.

I stood there totally dumfounded as all hell, trying to make sense of it all. It had been Maki who had grabbed me... like some old perverted man in a long trenchcoat standing at a playground waiting for a moment in time. The weird thing was, it made me both freaked right out, yet excited. I was not very sure of how I was suppose to react... truth was, how was I suppose to know.

I heard the final bell chime overhead, and had to run, not having any time to process this strangeness. I only hope that I could focus on my school lessons, because my mind was sort of feeling fried at the moment. I took the first flight of stairs I came across, hoping that theses were the right ones.

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