Before Nagashima could reply, Megumi bounced over and introduced herself to her, chatting about the party for a few moments before bouncing off again. I was happy to see she was back in her usual high spirits. A depressed Megumi just didn't seem right somehow.

Several loud cracks and bangs suddenly broke through the relatively quiet chatter around us. Nearly everyone jumped, including me. Firecrackers. Wait. Was that Icchan's surprise? There was a quiet moment of shock, which was soon broken as Fushida fell into raucous giggles which soon developed into absolute howling. Was it seriously that funny? Hikari excitedly asked if anyone had known about this. I told her I didn't. "I think Sadoru mentioned earlier that Icchan had a surprise for us though."

It seemed Icchan was the culprit, as he came strolling over a few moments later with a few bundles of the small, handheld fireworks, more or less announcing that he'd done it.

Just then, a quick movement to my left caught my eye, and I turned just in time to see Fushida smacking a whole plate of cake into Seisaku's already icing-covered face. What... the hell? "Way to waste cake Fushida-san." I said to no-one in particular, but I laughed all the same at the sheer lunacy of what she'd done. "Looks like someone OD-ed on party spirit." I barely finished the sentence when, catching another glimpse of Seisaku's face, or rather what was covering it, I too collapsed into giggles.

THWACK!

I had a smile on my face underneath the plate that had just been struck into me. It slid in what seemed like slow motion down my face. Oooooh! This means war.

But...

It had to be done right. She was doubled over laughing and leaned on the table. I waited for her head to dip as she laughed, and i took one of the plates of cakes off the table and shoveled it upward into her face.

I hope you like chocolate Maho-chan

hehe

I then took what was left of my cheery toped cheesecake and smeared them gelly side downward on the back of her shirt.

I could only imagine what kind of seething expression she had on under her cake mask, but it was too funny. I fell over and laughed on my back.

I guess I asked for it, and I guess there comes a time to stop because you just outstay your welcome and annoy other people or get thrown out or something equally boring and un-funny.

I was expecting something but not two lots splurged onto me. I was still leaning on the table and laughing as the cake dripped off my face I blindly reached for a napkin and wiped the worst off allowing me to see. Sadoru’s father was around so maybe it was time to raise the white flag and call a truce.

I could hear Seisaku-san’s laughter close by and saw him rolling on the floor, I stood up turned my back to him and shook off whatever the cold sticky mess was that was stuck to my shirt. It fell off plopping on his chest. A cheesecake. I hoped it wasn’t one of Sadoru’s mom’s ones. I waved a hand over him.

“Okay! Enough… enough… I need to rest before my sides split! And go wash!” I gave him a wave, wiped my hands a bit and made my way to the tent.

A while later I came out with my bag and made my way indoors to the shower room Sadoru had pointed out earlier.

After Icchan’s surprise opening I left dad to run things at his own pace and he didn’t disappoint. Without any warning at all suddenly a rocket shot up into the sky and burst with a spray of red stars, then another and another, bangs and screechers went off and starshells fluttered down. He must have set off all the rockets in Icchan’s three packs one after the other. Then he set to work on the ground fireworks, the Roman candles, volcanoes and golden rain things which are always nice.

I walked around the groups of people handing out sparklers and hand held ‘glow’ and ‘rain shower’ fireworks to various people, making sure that everyone had at least something. I gave some to Yuichi and Tanaka-san by the shed.

I grinned at them both, “Here. Light them in the fire or a garden lamp.” I repeated the suggestion to each group as I passed. At the buffet table some extreme craziness was breaking out. The loud and quite possibly hormonally unbalanced Fushida-san seemed to be at the centre of it but instead of yelling at people or arguing this time she was doubled over in fits of laughter and covered in food. It was nice to see. Rakuin-kun was lying on the floor rolling about. I saw his face.

Ah. Right. That might explain Maho’s condition. There wasn’t much to say, and I wasn’t going to be boring and tell them to stop, it was a party after all. But wasn’t that Tanaka-san’s chocolate cake? Oops, two lots of cake and two lots of abuse of it. I wondered how she’d react… But I went over to him and as I passed dropped off a deadpan line, “Shower room’s just inside the back door…”

I left the other “food fun people” to it, merely pressing sparklers into their hands. I made sure no-one was left out and then made my way back to the group by the fire giving Jun, Ren, Kano and Momo some.

There was only one group left. I walked over. Na-chan was hugging the other two. Takako and Hibiki in a group hug. Wow, that looks great. I was really pleased, it was about time someone showed Hibiki some caring. Hugging guys wasn’t my scene so I was pleased the two girls had. I stopped a little way away and didn’t interrupt for a few moments but then their little intense group parted. I cleared my throat.

“Ah, er, hi. Fireworks,” I stated the totally obvious as bangs and stars began to go off overhead, “Here, please have some. Light them in the fire and come round to the lawn where you can see better.” I handed things out leaving a certain person till last.

“Hi again,” I said to her, smiling, “I’m sorry if I interrupted something there. Um, please come round to the lawn with me, there’s something I’d like to tell you.”

I held out my hand.

quote:

---

“Okay! Enough… enough… I need to rest before my sides split! And go wash!

---

Whose bright idea was it to have cakes? I had stood there for some time, watched bemused as people came to and from the buffet table seemingly oblivious to Maho-san and this other poor fool who had challenged her. They had become living cake statues, each one trying to apply more cake to each other than the other. I had just enough time to steal a "What?" glance off Hikari-san, who seemed to be timidly trying to engage in conversation with some more people who had arrived at the table, but was completely distracted by the enormous bang that resounded from under the table.

I jumped clear from the table, dropping the marshmallow thing Maho-san had suggested that I'd been holding for the show, then preceded to look strangely at Maho-san, who was rolling on the floor covered in cake and in complete stitches. Actually, I guess it is pretty funny. I grinned.

The fireworks were off now, screaming through the sky and going off spectacularly. They always seemed to put me in a somber mood, something about staring into space never really suited me. I was handed some small fireworks by Saduro-san, determined not to be anywhere near gloomy, I sauntered over to Hikari-san. "Heya, want to set these off?"

Cake. Everywhere. This is ubsurd. But seeing Maho-san break down, and then Seisaku-san. Even Satomi-san was laughing, probably at the absurdity of all that cake, all over everywhere. I was watching in fascination as more fire crackers started going off around me and I caught sight of Okayu-san handing them out to all the groups. He came to ours and I was dreading his reaction to the mess but he just told Maho-san and Seisaku-san where the shower was and they left to clean themselves. He then pressed firecrackers in the remaining people's hands and headed to the next group. I couldn't tell if he was mad or not...Strange.

quote:

---

Kagami-san came over and said, "Heya, want to set these off?"

---

Ah, yeah! I mean YEAH! Fireworks! Awesomeness! I jumped up, my dessert forgotten and grabbed whatever Sadoru was offering around, a couple of sparkler things.

"Kazuo-san! Come on! Hi Nagashima-san, and uh - hello? It's Shiokawa-san isn't it? Yeah!"

Running round the table I saw Seisaku-san still lying on the ground. I stood over him and picked a paper napkin off the table.

"Hello tissue-boy, my turn today! Here! Wipe that mess off and come have some fun!"

I went to the fire and stuck the sparkler in half roasting my hand before it started up, then I stood there drawing pictures in the air and writing my name and being five years old again. Great!

It finished and I lit another and went round the fire to where Hibiki was. I held it out for him to take.

"Come on lazy-bum! Up you get! Here, write your name!"

I bounced around, thoroughly enjoying myself, "Oh, yeah, oooh, yea, ooh, ooh, ooh! Ha ha! Wey-hey!"

Post last edited by ..Ayami.. on 01.12.2008, 03:36 PM.

"hmm? Oh hi, thanks for the napkin, I think I might need a bit more than one, but now at least, i can get the cake out of my eyes.

Made the fireworks a bit clearer when there wasn't cheery sauce in my eyes.

Sadoru came round and handed us all some sparklers. Hm... how long's it been since I played with these? Megumi got ahold of some and went completely nuts. Watch it you. You're going to take someone's eye out. I sat down by the fire and lit my sparkler. First I drew 'S.K.' - my initials. And then... 'M.T.' - someone else's. Then stars and spirals and smiley faces, until the sparkler fizzled out, leaving brightly-coloured blobs swimming in front of my eyes. They're like stars on sticks these things. I glanced around, and saw Megumi approaching Hibiki with a lit sparkler, and handing it to him. ... that's it. Keep trying. I lit my second one, and drew some kanji; trying to draw the symbols for all twelve zodiac animals before the sparkler burnt out. Might have worked if I hadn't forgotten half of them.

What with all the commotion that had gone on, I still hadn't tried any of the desserts, so I got up and picked up my plate which was still where I'd left it, and heaped on some slightly gooey-looking chocolate thing. Not many people knew I was a closet chocoholic.

Post last edited by Kazegami on 01.15.2008, 12:45 PM.

I hand washed the blouse and got the worst out, putting it still damp in the plastic bag I’d brought for my dirty linen, it would go in the machine tomorrow.

Baka Seisaku, trust you to go that far.

I wiped my back as best I could and washed my face, luckily nothing much had got in my hair that a careful bit of wiping out with wet fingers and brushing through wouldn’t fix. No need for a shower at all, luckily.

I put my spare pale blue wool top on. It was quite thin but I had my jacket in the tent if it got cold later.

There. A squirt of perfume and done. And don’t you dare mess this up, I’ve nothing else to wear.

I went back outside, dropped my bag back in the tent and went back to the buffet table. The others were nearby letting off fireworks, thoroughly enjoying themselves. I noticed Hikari’s different hairstyle as she stood playing with a sparkler. I frowned. It reminded me of something, or someone…

“Shower room’s free,” I said to Seisaku-san.

I looked at the scene of devastation. It’s funny, I’d cleared up the thrown cake last week in class and here I was again. I picked up a plastic rubbish bag and began to clean up.

What are you, a housewife or something?

No, but this time I’d made the mess so it was only fair I cleared it up. Fortunately there was some of Tanaka-san’s cake left, I just made the dropped bits of it vanish, it merely looked like it had proved popular, which was true, in more than one way.

I finished, dumped the rubbish and went and sat by the fire, pulling up one of Sadoru’s log seats. I noticed there were quite a few of these scattered about, his father must have cut down quite a big pine tree recently.

Kazuo-san was there amusing himself by drawing in the air. The funny feeling that unbalanced me when I was near him persisted so I avoided eye contact but I did notice the letters he was drawing in the air… hmm…? who might that be?

He got up, seeming to have not even noticed my arrival and went over to the buffet table where Mori-kun was.

I sat and stared into the fire and thought about things.

I was playing with my third sparkler when I noticed Maho-san had returned and was sitting by the fire. Motioning to Kagami-san that I'd be right back, I walked over to Maho-san. When I was a few feet away from her I held up the dying sparkler and said, "What's this? Not gonna play?"

Post last edited by hikari on 01.13.2008, 04:05 PM.

Maho finished and walked by, a scent of perfume breezed by me as she walked and she motioned unimpressively to me that the shower was free.

Went into my bag and grabbed a spare shirt, I had gotten it for volunteering, I loved shirts like this, I had a whole collection of them. This one had Sakura Fire Dept on the back. I was going to wear it to sleep and save a better shirt for tomorrow, plus it was a decent looking shirt, can't look to bohemian.

i had to shower has Maho managed to get cake just about everywhere. The water felt nice, it would make up for the missed routine that was itching at me.

I finished up and sat by the fire to dry off.

One of the things I was thinking about came over and held out a sparkler in front of me.

quote:

---

"What's this? Not gonna play?"

---

she asked in a rather sweet chirpy way. I looked up at her then down at the sparkler as it fizzled away and died.

“Are, Hikari-chan, um… I dunno, I just fell into a blue mood then. Yeah, sure, if you’ve a spare firework left.”

I stood up and just then a bigger firework began to go off the other side of the hedge that divided the top half of the garden, it popped up red and green and purple coloured balls. It was pretty.

“Or we could just stay here and watch the display…”

I sat back down.

Where did this mood come from then, silly?

Then a thought came to me which pushed out everything else, quite suddenly, enough to make me do a mental emergency stop.

Oh.

I’d recalled Hikari’s words about Sho from Wednesday: “I thought that if I was with someone completely different from the people I knew before, it'd be alright.”

Wow, and where did this come from? Maho, you… baka. Hikari’s had a bad experience with a boy, or boys and there you were earlier talking about that very subject without a care in the world. You just forgot. Like you did with Rakuin-kun and his parents. Really important things and your stupid self-centredness just pushes it out.

That’s why her grin earlier was so noticeable. She hardly ever smiles.

Me neither.

I looked at her, she was patiently waiting for me to get up and join in. From now on I should avoid the Boy Subject, keep her mind off those things. She’d made a huge effort on Wednesday to open up, and there I was earlier throwing it back in her face.

Because it’s the way you are, you can’t be considerate and caring can you? You never have been. Think of others before yourself? Don’t make me laugh!

. . .

Wednesday... My mind kept going back to Wednesday and the taste of salt tears...

I shook my head, shook the thoughts away.



I noticed the others behind her having fun, yet in the space of two minutes my fun mood had completely evaporated. Forcing myself into a caring mode that was completely alien to me I managed to get this out,

“You seemed a bit down in the dumps before the party games. Are you feeling better now? Or do you want to unload on me again?” Hiding my nerves I chuckled, trying to make that last remark seem an exaggeration. “I don’t mind. I’m not so good at giving advice but I can always listen, if it helps. I quite liked it before. But if you want to, you know…” I glanced at the happy party people, Perhaps not now. “…there’s no need to make an appointment.”

Before I liked it a lot in fact, I only wish I was the sort of person who could give useful advice, but I’m not.

Then after she’d responded I went off on a light-hearted tangent with,

“I like your hair that way, it makes you look younger, and happier. You should wear it like that to school. The other bun-style was a little old-fashioned. Cute, yes but a little formal.”

“But this way…” I didn’t finish, but nodded enthusiastically.

But this way it reminds me of someone…

quote:

---

“Are, Hikari-chan, um… I dunno, I just fell into a blue mood then. Yeah, sure, if you’ve a spare firework left.”

---

Post last edited by hikari on 01.13.2008, 06:01 PM.

My stand-up, sit-down routine seemed to confuse her. Hardly surprising, the star of my one-girl show was confused too. She sat next to me. I looked into the fire.

quote:

---

"So, where did this mood come from? Or did it just appear...happens sometimes, you know? After being around too much fun..."

---

Bang!

I glanced upward at the sound. Kirei... I pulled my sweater around tightly.

I didn't even notice him walking up until he was practically right in front of me.

quote:

---

Sadoru cleared his throat.
“Ah, er, hi. Fireworks."

---

I took her hand and squeezing it in return and with a smile, led her to the far side of the lawn near the wall. As the fireworks went off and people stood watching them we did too. We looked up and I listened to the fakely theatrical but still funny ‘Oooh’s’ and ‘Aaah’s’ people always make at times like this. I glanced at her profile, her wide eyes. I stood for a moment watching her enjoying herself, waving her sparkler about. Like a child.

If only we could all be children again, without care…

Then I moved closer. I spoke in her ear.

“So. You were cold? Pity. I have a fleece indoors I could have lent you that or... or there’s me…” I looked down, and put on my best little-boy-hurt expression, “But you probably don’t need me to warm you now…” I put my hands behind my back and shuffled my toes about. I looked back up at her through my hair, smiling, “…or do you?”

Our accidental and intense meeting of minds faded and Hibiki looked at me like he wanted to carry on. I grinned at him wide-eyed, nodding.

Hi-Ro-…? I want to too.

Aoi let go of me and for a second we were rather awkward.

Uhm…

CRACK-CRACK-CRACKYCRACK-CRACKY!!!

“Eeee…!” I jumped up, bumped my leg against the seat and fell off it backwards knocking my shoulder on the pile of firewood behind us and fell flat on my back, partly in the hedge, legs sticking up everywhere.

“Waieee…! Owww…! Aay, ow, that hurts!” said the hedge.

It didn’t really hurt; I was just surprised, though a bit scratched.

quote:

---

“Ah, er, hi. Fireworks,”

---

I stopped in front of the house and checked the scrunched note in my hand. Yep, this was definitely the right address, just like on the invitation. All i had to do now was knock on the door...Or perhaps i could leave? I mean no-one had seen me yet? I could say i was ill, or a family emergency! Yes, that would work fine....but think how dissapointed mother will be when i get home, she'd been so excited when i told her about the party.

Making friends- sure easier said than done. Recently i'd managed to hide myself under heaps of studying, and i'd sure needed it after falling so far behind in maths. But i was caught up now, more than caught up even I couldnt hide behind excuses anymore, i have to make an effort.

Taking a deep breath i strode towards the door, almost tripping over a plant pot on the way. Last chance to walk away... adjusting my hat and plastering on a smile i reached up and rang the doorbell. That wasn't so hard now was it?

Post last edited by Nausicaa_Cat on 01.14.2008, 05:16 PM.