My Crazy Next Day

Tobias 0753 October 22, 2046

“He says the coast is clear,” Sara-chan says, leading me by the hand through the hall. The trip with my father had done a lot to help me calm down about the whole situation, but I still dreaded seeing Niǎo-san in class. Luckily Sora and Sara-chan had agreed to help me avoid her in the hall. “Don’t worry, bro, I’ll scout ahead, and Sara, you stay here and comfort him; girls are better at comforting people.” Sora had said when we arrived at school. I was a bit hesitant to walk, but Sara-chan had taken my hand and led me.

“No sign of her, I’ll tell you when she comes down the hall,” Sora said as we meet him at the door to our classroom. Sara-chan and I sit at our desks, and I began rapidly tapping my finger. What am I gonna do? How am I supposed to look at her? Will she say anything? What if we bump into each other? It’s not like we were best friends, but we were close enough to say a greeting in passing. What abo-. My restless mind is put at ease when Sara-chan places her hand on mine. I look over, and she gives me a look of concern and sympathy.

“Are you going to be ok?” she asks softly. I feel a wave of calm sweep over me as she asks. My rapid, uneven breathing becomes slower and more regular as I respond.

“Yeah,” I say confidently. “I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to do it but knowing that I have you and Sora here with me to support me all the way… I don’t know. You make me feel like everything will be fine. Because we always have each other’s backs.” My words must hit her deep because she almost seems to cry.

“Oh, Tobias-kun… About the advice I gave you to confess to Kano-cha-” she begins, but I cut her off.

“Don’t worry about it. If the confession after the game didn’t work, then nothing else would’ve. You don’t have to apologize for being wrong.”

“No, it’s not that it-” she’s cut off by Sora next

“No sign of her, but the bell is about to ring, and sensei is right there. She must be late,” he whispers to the two of us. Late? Then when will she show up? Is it because of what I did? My mind is abuzz again as Fumiya sensei enters the room. He walks up to the podium and eyes the class just like every other day. He clears his throat before speaking.

“Now, as some of you may have noticed, Kano Niǎo is absent today. The school received a call saying that she will not be attending school for some time for personal reasons. That is all for announcements now open your textbo-” his voice fades from my mind as a massive rush of thought floods in. Does she want to avoid me that much? I’m distraught and unengaged all throughout class. I’m so disassociated that I don’t even notice the hours go by.

“Tobias, Tobias, hey,” Sora says as he shakes my shoulder.

“Huh, what?” I ask, looking up at him.

“Did you hear what I said?” he asks.

“Uhh yeah, definitely,” I say on instinct.

“Okay, I’ll see you later then,” he says before leaving with Suki-san. At least we got you the girl; I think as they leave. I sit at my desk for a while longer and am just about to fall back into another stress trance when I hear my name. I perk up and look for who said it but only see a trio of classmates in the far corner of the room.

“You mean you haven’t heard what happened?” they whisper.

“He confessed Niǎo-san after making the game-winning play, and she turned him down.”

“What? No way, How could she turn him down after that?”

“Well, I heard that she knew som-” The screeching of my chair as I abruptly stand and speed walk from the room. I don’t care to hear the rest as I race down the halls, but it’s no good. There appears to be a pair or small group gossiping At every corner. I hear one version after the other saying I tried to kiss her, that she’d already turned me down beforehand, that she caught me sneaking a peek in the girl’s locker room, and so many other horrible things. A few try to talk to me, but I ignore and push past them as I go along; they don’t take kindly to that as they grab at me.

“Hey, we’re just trying to ask you a few questions,” they say, grabbing my arm.

“And I said no,” I respond.

“It must be true. There’s no way he’d act like that if it wasn’t,” one of them jeers.

“What a loser,” a girl mocks. They laugh and continue to ridicule me. I clench my teeth as well as my fists. I’m just about to raise them when I feel a hand on my shoulder. Oh good, now that Sora’s here, we can take them, I think, but when I look back, I’m surprised to see not Sora but Grant-kun and Demont-kun standing there.

“No need for that,” Grant-kun whispers in my ear as the two-step beside me.

“And what are you two doing? Everyone knows about the competition you three had over Niǎo-san, so what are you doing now?”

“Oh, just making sure Nagasaki 2.0 doesn’t happen now. I mean, this man stood up to Hanz Wilhelm with a messed-up ankle. Imagine what he’d do to you.” The group seems to lose faith in his words, and they take a step back. Demon-kun jumps in, waving his saber case around and speaking french words I dare not repeat around my parents. This seems to scare them off as they retreat. I breathe a sigh of relief as I lean against the window. I wipe the sweat from my brow as I look at the two before me.

“Why’d you guys do that?” I ask, just as confused as the earlier group.

“Don’t get the wrong idea and think we’re all buddy-buddy now, but... Well, we heard what they were saying to you and… After what you did with Hanz, we knew that you’d do the same if you saw one of us.” Grant-kun says.

“I hate to admit it, but you are indeed more ballsy than any African I’ve had the misfortune of meeting, and if that isn’t the most American feature, then I don’t know what is,” Demont-kun says in his usual condescending tone.

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think that was a compliment,” I say.

“Good thing you know better then,” Louise says. “Come, Arthur, let us plan how we shall enact my grand confession to my lovely silk flower,” he says with a flamboyant turn and strides off. Arthur stands a looks at me for a moment before nodding and following after Louise. I’m left alone in the hallway, not quite sure what to think of the encounter. Maybe those guys aren’t so bad after all, I think. Who knew they could actually be kind? I wonder if I’ll be seeing another side of anybody else before the ordeal with Niǎo-san blows over. I think as I walk through the halls.

Sara 1534 October 22, 2046

Where do I go from here? I wonder as I sit in the library. I’d set out all my study material and reference books, but all I could think of was Tobias-kun. I knew my plan would hurt him, but I never imagined that he’d be so crushed or that it’d affect Kano-chan like that, either. I lean back and replay the events in my mind. My heart aches as Tobias-kun’s words echo in my mind. “I love Kano-chan.” Hearing that made something snap. I don’t know why but I’d already barged in and told them they should do something grand, knowing full well that Kano-chan had always wanted something much more personal. I know he’d never imagine saying it if he knew how it’d hurt me. I know I should’ve just passed by like I hadn’t heard anything; I know it was a terrible thing to do. But all I could think was agony and wounding the one who’d wounded me. I didn’t feel any guilt in the following week. In fact, I’d come up with an astonishing number of ways to justify my actions. It’s not like he’d be happy with Kano-chan; they don’t have the deep emotional connection we do; I know him far better. He’d just be an accessory for her; she’d break up with him once his Americaness became novel, etc., etc. I thought of them all to justify my actions. It was so bad that I even convinced uncle Sam to help me sneak Kano-chan into the bench to have a front-row seat to the rejection. I knew she’d reject him. I was counting on her doing it, and I wanted to see it happen. I craved the thought of him feeling the same pain I did. As he approached the bench, I pushed Kano-chan to him. The words were like honey as they flew from her mouth to my ears, and the bench that had smelt of sweat and stale air was as sweet as a field of flowers when she said them. It took all the self-control I had to keep from smiling with glee as she turned and ran from the bench. I’ve done it, I thought. Now there’s nobody in our way we can be hap-. My thoughts disintegrated as I looked at Tobias-kun’s face.

The eyes that had always carried his emotions suddenly seemed more grey, his face wore a blank expression, he stood frozen, not moving a muscle. It was as if Kano-chan had taken the real Tobias-kun away with her and left a statute in his place. “Hey, are you okay?” I asked, placing a hand on his arm that felt cold and stiff.

“Yeah,” he says in a voice more flat and expressionless than I’ve ever heard. “I just… Need to be alone for a while,” he says as he collects his bag and leaves without a word. As he leaves, the sweet scent of flowers vanishes and is replaced with a reeking stench, far worse than the B.O. expected of a gym locker room it’s more applicable to that of rotting fish at a market. I gag at it and run to the bathroom just before I puke. I eventually stop the flow, but a feeling of uneasiness lingers around me like a personal cloud. It continues to grow when he doesn’t respond to my texts the following day. I go check on him, and auntie-Serana tells me he left with his father. He looked better than I expected this morning, but the news about Kano-chan not being in school seemed to really upset him. I ruffle my hair a bit, thinking about if I got her in trouble with her parents. Since then, I haven’t seen or heard from her, and she seemed almost as distraught as Tobias-kun. I throw my head on the table as the thought of losing both of them leaves me crippled. Oh, Tobias-kun… I have to make you happy now. I have to… Otherwise, I did all this for nothing… But how do I know the right time? I wonder with my face still on the table.

“That tired of studying already?” Tobias-kun says, appearing like a ghost behind me. I nearly jump out of my chair as he casually sits across from me and pulls out a workbook. “Mind if I join you?” He asks. I’d actually prefer if you didn’t because I’m trying to distract myself from the horrible thing I did to you, Is all I can think but know I can’t say it. “Uhh...Sure,” I finally manage to say.

“Thanks,” he says as he begins his workbook. “I just can’t trust myself to stay concentrated by myself right now.” It’s because you can’t stop thinking about Niǎo-san, isn’t it? I want to ask but don’t. We study in silence for a while, but I can’t help but sneak glances at him. Every time I do, I keep confirming it. What is this? What happened to him? He’s like a completely different person from this morning. I study him more closely and see that he’s making significant progress on his booklet. He was steamrolling math that had given him a hard time just a week ago. If he’s like this in every subject, he might just blow me out of the water on the next exam… That’s it! If I can beat him in the next exam, then I’ll know it’s alright to tell him. I think, and I write it down to hold myself to it.

“What decision did you just come to?” he asks again, nearly making me jump from my seat.

“Uhh, What do you mean?” Did he see it? Does he know? I panic as I wait for his response.

“You have your decision face,” he says casually

“My what?”

“Whenever you make a decision, you always make a face like you can take on hell with a squirt gun. So what decision did you come to?” he asks. I breathe a sigh of relief at his response. He doesn’t know. I’m safe, but what do I tell him now?

“Umm… well, I made a promise to myself that if I got a high enough score that I’d finally do something I’ve been trying to do for a long time now.” I decide to tell him.

“Oh, and what’s that?”He asks.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t,” I say a bit more harshly than I intended.

“Oh, ok, then keep your secrets,” he says jokingly.

“At least not yet,” I say on impulse.

“Hmm?” he asks, confused.

“I can’t tell you now, but after the exams, I can.”

“Ohh, ok then. I’ll wait till then,” he says with a smile.

“But you have to try your best.”

“Huh”

“I know you always try your best to study, and you're always near the top of the class because of it. I usually judge myself against you most of the time. But I never seem to be able to beat you,” I say pessimistically.

“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself,” he says reassuringly. “You always trounce me in Japanese. If it weren’t for my father forcing me to speak English to him, you’d probably be ahead of me there too. ”

“I’m not so sure. I’ve never been too good at English.”

“Well, why not have my father tutor you a bit? I can ask him for you.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Of course. I’ll ask him tonight. It might be better if I do because it’ll keep his mind off my grades for a minute. I’ve been slipping since Kano transferred, and after what happened the other day, I’m in no mood to study.” He lets out a nervous chuckle. “At this rate, I doubt I’ll rank within the top 50 for our year,” he says pessimistically.

“Don’t say that you could place in the 30s without even trying,” I try to reassure him.

“Yeah, tell that to these people,” he says with a slight smile. “Rumor has it Kano turned me down because she thinks my work ethic sucks. Not that I care.” He closes his workbook and packs his stuff to leave. “Anyway, I’d better get going. I’ll ask my father about tutoring you when I get home. I’m sure he’ll text you are asking when you want to do it later tonight. See you,” he says.

How can he be so nice to me? I think as he packs his things. I just put him through the most horrible experience of his life, and he’s offering to help me beat him in exams. But… That’s what I love about him. “Wait,” I call to him as I jump out of my seat. “You’d better do your best. I’ll only tell you if you beat me,” I call.

"Hmm? Tell me what?" he asks curiously.

"My secret... I'll only tell you if you place higher than me." I stare down at the table as he looks at me. I can’t look at him, or else he’d see the tears welling up in my eyes.

“OK then, be ready to tell me when I wipe the floor with you,” he calls. I don’t know why but I imagine him saying it with a smile on his face. I sit back down, and a few tears fall onto my papers. Why did I do that? Now I have to tell him either way. Before, I could just throw the exam and not have to but now…. I wipe my eyes and refocus on my papers. No. I did that because now, either way, I have to confess… And then I can make him happy… because that’s what it’s always been about.