At the End of Summer
"Hey Hamtaro!" Laura gushed to her hamster, "Guess what tomorrow is. The
first day of sixth grade! And guess what I'm wearing."
*What? What?* a puzzled Hamtaro thought.
Laura reached into her closet and pulled out a cute blue midriff and an
even cuter pair of blue jean shorts. She held them up to her body for
Hamtaro. "Look at this, lil' guy. Isn't it just the cutest thing?" She
twirled around a couple of times. "It took me forever to convince Mom
and Dad that I'm old enough for it. They pulled out the old" she did her
best imitation of her dad's voice, "'A twelve year old kid is way too
young to think about her midriff. You'll have plenty of time when you're
older.'" She crouched down to Hamtaro's cage and whispered, "I think
Dad's scared if I wear this I'll do the you-know-what."
*No, I don't know. What?*
Laura stood back up. "Whatever, like I'd be doing *that* anytime
soon...I wonder if Kana'll like this outfit." She looked nervous for a
second before she smiled. "Of course she'll love it; who wouldn't?"
*Maybe Boss?*
She put down her outfit and said, "Since grade six is divided into two
teams and Kana and I might not see each other all day, I thought I'd end
this summer with a bang. I have it all planned out." Laura got a little-
-just a little--starry-eyed. "First Kana and I will see this really
sappy movie we've been dying to see, then we'll splurge at some
expensive restaurant or something," she patted the piggy bank on her
desk, implying that she'd saved up all her allowance money for such an
occasion, "*without* the parents," she added, blushing a little, "then
we'll have a sleepover at my house to finish it off. And Kana'll bring
Oxnard!" she squealed, referring to Kana's large, grey-spotted hamster.
Hamtaro ran in his wheel with joy. *Oxnard's coming, Oxnard's coming!
Yay! He'll love this place1*
Laura crouched down to Hamtaro's cage again. "Hey Hamtaro, you're gonna
love Oxnard. He's the sweetest, most adorable hamster on this
planet.....except you of course." Laura felt herself begin to get silly
again and giggled like a schoolgirl. "Look at me, you'd think I was
going on a date or something..." Laura stopped giggling as her words
dawned on her. "Wait a minute, I *am* going on a date! With Kana! And
I'm looking forward to it! This can't be happening! I need a good dose
of boy-crazy!" Laura sat down and flipped through her diary, hoping to
read something about her gushing over Travis for the fifteen zillionth
time.
She scoured the pages from back to front, but the only mention of
Travis' name was when she was all broken up about him. Near the end of
the school year, Laura finally got up the nerve to ask Travis out. He
had said while he was very flattered, he already had a girlfriend in
another city, but hoped that he and Laura could remain friends. Of
course that was little consolation to Laura, who spent the next class
period in a dark cloud. As she and Kana walked home from school, Kana
noticed Laura was unusually quiet and asked her what was the matter.
Laura led her to the nearest bench and cried on Kana's shoulder after
telling her about the whole Travis debacle. Kana vowed on that day to
fill Laura's summer with so much happiness she'd forget about silly old
Travis.
Laura skipped a few pages ahead and read another entry. Sure enough, she
had certainly forgotten about Travis within the month; she had too much
fun with Kana to think about much else. Everyone except Laura and Kana
had gone out of town for summer vacation, so it had been really easy for
them to spend literally all day together, going to that quiet little
amusement park Kana discovered, walking around town, window shopping for
the latest hamster gear, or just spending the day at the other's house
watching Hamtaro or Oxnard play.
Laura skimmed through the rest of her diary and noticed that while
Travis was never again mentioned after the first month or so, she had
written about Kana nearly every day. *Or course she would be in here*
Laura thought, *I always write down what I did that day...it's just I
happened to do a lot of things with Kana, that's all.* She forced
herself to read the entries more closely and realized how excited she
was to write about Kana. In fact, just reading about her now lifted her
spirits. It also didn't escape her notice that whenever she was having a
bad day, Kana could always bring her back up just by talking to her.
When Laura reached the end of her diary, she closed it and leaned back
in her chair. *And all this time, I thought we were just really good
friends, but it seems like we've been doing boyfriend/girlfriend stuff
without even knowing it. You'd think I had the crazies for Kana with the
way I write about her.*
*Okay, final test, final test...what would you do if you or Kana moved
away?* She didn't have to think long before she answered, *That's easy,
we'd write or call every day. Or e-mail each other. But what if we
couldn't? What then?* Laura closed her eyes and relaxed her mind, not
forcing herself to think any one thing. *...I'd miss her. Very much. I
wouldn't want to move away.*
The sound of her mother's voice jolted her out of her thoughts. "Laura,
Kana's on the phone!" Laura's mom called up the stairs.
"What? Okay Mom!" Laura's heart quickened as she raced downstairs to the
phone, unsure of whether to tell Kana of this new-found revelation of
hers. "Hello?" she answered.
"Laura?" Kana asked, "Can you come over right now?" Her voice sounded
nervous, yet at the same time urgent.
"Uh...is something the matter?"
"Please. Just come over."
"Sure. I'll be right there."
*****************************************************************
"So what is it you wanted?" Laura asked when she came over.
"Do you want a soda or something?" Kara asked nervously.
"Um sure."
Kana got out two sodas--one for herself, one for Laura--and opened them.
She gave the second can to Laura. Both girls stood awkwardly around the
kitchen for a good few minutes, neither saying a word.
Kana spoke first, gripping her can tightly as she did so. "Um, Laura?
I...I have something important to tell you so please don't laugh or
anything. Please?"
"Uh sure. What is it?"
"Um, Laura," Kana said, trying her best to look into Laura's eyes, "I
like you."
"I like you too."
"No, I mean I *like* like you. Like you used to like Travis." Before
Laura could get a word in edgewise Kana rambled, "There I said it. I
made a complete fool of myself, please please don't hate me. Or do, I
don't care, I just needed to get that off my chest before I burst!" Kana
turned away, too embarrassed to say any more.
"But I don't hate you, Kana. I could never hate you. And I meant what I
said before."
Kana turned back around. "I know you like me as a friend, but..."
"Kana, don't you get it? When I said I like you, I meant I *like* like
you."
Kana's eyes widened. "Y-you do?"
"Yes. I just found out a few minutes ago....hey Kana? I need to ask you
something. I've heard of girls liking other girls, and boys liking other
boys, but is it possible to like both girls *and* boys? I mean I used to
be crazy about a boy, and now I've fallen for a girl. Can that really
happen?"
Kana sighed with relief and went to the computer in the living room.
"There's a website I've been going to a lot," she typed in the address
to show Laura, "You know, to figure out my feelings for you, and the
people here are so great. You'd love it. I've met so many people here
like me..."
"Wait, 'like you'? You mean l-l-le--"
"Lesbians?" Laura's eyes widened as Kana said the forbidden 'L' word.
"Yes. They've all been so supportive. Some of them have even been
through the same thing I'm going through right now. Oh, and I even met
quite a few bisexuals..." Laura's eyes widened again as Kana said the
forbidden 'S' word, "...people who like men *and* women, so you're far
from alone. You really should go there sometime. It's great."
"Wow Kana. How'd you get so bold?" Laura asked, still surprised that
Kana was able to say words she herself could not work up the nerve to
say.
"Like I said, I've been going to this site a lot. When there are that
many non-straights in one place, you can't help but open up."
The talk about Kana's sanctuary died down and the girls once again stood
in awkward silence.
"Kana? Do you think it'd be all right...if I...you know...kissed you?"
Laura asked.
"Yes. Very much." Kana leaned in toward Laura and right before their
lips touched...Kana's father pulled up the driveway. The two girls
jumped guiltily away from each other. Laura jumped onto the couch and
turned on the TV, while Kana switched the computer screen to a totally
innocent website just in time to see her father walk through the door.
"What's the matter, you two?" Conrad asked upon entering the living
room, "You look like you disposed of a hamster or something."
"Oh, nothing like that, Dad," Kana waved nervously.
"No, wait...lemme guess. Oxnard went wild on Hamtaro and you had to get
rid of poor Oxy to protect the house. Right? Right? Am I right?" he
joked.
"Uh, whatever you say, Dad."
Laura's eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey sir, is it all right if Kana spends
the night at my house tonight?"
Conrad rubbed his chin as he thought for a minute. "Well, Kana *does*
have school tomorrow..."
"Please, please, Dad? We walk to school together all the time anyways."
"Well, I don't see why not. Just let me ask your father first, Laura."
Conrad picked up the phone and tried to talk Laura's dad into letting
Kana spend the night there. A few minutes later, he hung up and said,
"He said it was fine, but Kana needs to pack up all her school stuff and
you need to make double sure you set your alarm clock. Neither of us
want you two girls missing school because you were up all night gabbing
away."
"Wow, thanks Dad!" Kana turned off the computer and raced to her room to
pack up her things.
*****************************************************************
"Hey Oxnard, wha'cha doing here?" Hamtaro asked his pal after he got
settled in Hamtaro's cage. Laura and Kana were too busy focusing on
other things, so the hamsters had free reign to talk.
"Kana said she wanted me to meet you. She said we'd get along great. Hey
Hamtaro, has Laura been acting strangely at all?"
"Why? Has Kana?"
"You said it. Kana's been acting like a Ham Ham running from a cat all
day. I wonder if something scared her."
"Well, Laura *has* been awfully giggly today. Oh! Then she said
something about Kana and read her notebook. I wonder what got into her."
"I dunno. Maybe the same thing that got into Kana."
While the hamsters were chatting away, Laura shyly asked Kana,"...So
does this mean we're going out?"
"Only if you want it to. I mean I don't wanna force you into anything--"
"Nah! That's just plain silly! I decided I like you all on my own."
Laura stayed quiet for a minute, then she asked, "...So, where did we
leave off?"
"I believe right here." Kana leaned towards Laura, and gave her a nice,
gentle peck on the lips.
Hamtaro tilted his head in confusion. "Girls kissing girls? I don't get
it."
Oxnard said, "Me either. I thought girls were supposed to kiss *boys*."
After Laura and Kana pulled away, Laura said, a little awe-struck, "Wow.
My very first kiss."
Kana blushed slightly. "Mine too."
"Can we do it again?"
"Sure."
As the two girls leaned in to kiss each other, the doorknob suddenly
turned. Laura and Kana jumped guiltily away and fiddled with the hamster
cage a second before Laura's father walked in.
"Hey girls, did I interrupt something?" Forrest asked upon seeing Kana
and Laura's red faces, "I bet you were talking about a *buy* weren't
you," he joked.
"Um...yeah, whatever Dad," Laura croaked out
"Well I came up here to tell you two dinner's ready." He walked down the
hallway, singing, "Laura's got a cru-ush, Laura's got a cru-ush!"
Kana and Laura held hands and giggled at each other, as if to say, "You
have no idea."
All dinner long, Forrest kept making jokes about Laura's crush on some
mysterious boy, and once he realized Kana was acting the same way, he
joked about the two sharing a 'bitter rivalry' over some boy they both
liked. All the while, Laura's mom, Marian, kept trying to change the
subject, and Laura and Kana held hands under the table and giggled to
themselves about their wonderful secret.
After dinner, the two girls raced back to Laura's room and talked about
anything and everything under the sun until they finally fell asleep at
some ungodly hour.
*****************************************************************
The next morning at school, Laura and Kana stood in a hallway--along
with hundreds of other students--looking at the bulletin board, trying
to figure out where their homerooms were. Kana spoke first, in a fairly
normal voice since the hallway was so loud that she didn't have to
whisper, "So Laura, do you regret it yet?"
"Regret what?" Laura asked after she found her name.
"Us going out."
"Not a bit." Laura turned and smiled at Kana. "I think I like it."
"Yeah, me too. About going out with you, that is. Hey Laura, what team
are you on?"
"Team A."
"Aw, that's too bad. I'm on Team B. Well, we'll just have to spend extra
time together after school to make up for it."
A tall, blond haired boy made his way through the crowd toward Laura and
Kana. "Laura," he asked, "I've...um...missed you all summer....will
you...um...go out with me?"
"No thanks, Roberto," Laura said. "I'm already taken."
Roberto almost flipped out at the turn down. "What?! You mean I got here
too late? Bu-but who...is it Travis?"
"Nope, guess again."
"Whoever it is, better watch out. Because if he treats you wrong, I'll
punch his face in."
Laura giggled nervously. "Uh...thanks, I guess. I'll be sure to tell him
that."
"Good. See ya later?"
"Uh, later. Bye now." Laura and Kana giggled again as Roberto walked
away, mumbling something about should've gotten Laura while he still had
the chance. "Think he'll ever figure it out?"
"I won't tell if you won't. Well, I guess I better get going. See ya
later, Laura."
"Yeah. Bye, Kana." Laura headed off to her homeroom, practically walking
on air as an exciting new school year began for her.
Back to Hamtaro Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction