Episode 10: What Are You Waiting For?

It was now miraculously mid-September, and the girls were gearing up for the cultural festival. Well… they were trying to, but the club didn’t really have any ideas on what to do for it—specifically, for the talent show.

Tuesday morning. The Can Do Anything Club, a.k.a the literature club, was doing what they were usually doing… which was nothing special.

Tomo, who was in the middle of reading a book, yawned.

“Ugh, Tomo! Stop making me tired!” complained Mari, who was playing a game on her phone.

Mimori rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re the one to talk.” When she said this, she sounded both amused and dreamy at the same time.

“Guys, you know what we should be doing? Nathan’s not here, let’s talk about girly stuff.” Kasumi said, strangely determined.

“Like how you and Peter have been talking to each other a lot lately?” Mimori teased. “That’s certainly a topic!”

Kasumi’s cheeks flushed up in a second. “Ah, no! Never mind! Today was Measuring Day. How did that go? Good?”

The girls were suddenly silent.

Mari looked up at the literature club room’s ceiling. “I grew a little,” she said in a purposefully small voice.

“Same,” Erica added.

“I only grew an inch,” huffed Mimori. “At this point, my little sister is gonna be taller than me!”

The girls then glanced at Kasumi, who was relaxing in her seat.

“Huh? Me?” She then started to laugh. “I didn’t cheat! Why would I do that? Okay so maybe a little bit.” She said that last part very quickly.

Naoko paused the video she was watching and looked up to her understandably flustered friend.

“It’s okay that you cheated a little,” she responded. “Measurements are depressing. I will always and forever be short.”

Mari teared up a bit. “My poor Naoki!” she cried, running up to hug her friend. “It’s cute!”

“Everyone,” Tomo announced while Mari was doing her usual crazy routine. “I think we should all talk about the upcoming cultural festival.”

“Oh yeah, aren’t the signup forums due this week?” Mimori questioned.

“Yeah, they are,” Kasumi said. “But what would we even do? A maid café?”

Mimori groaned. “Oh my God, that is so overdone!”

“Then do you have any bright ideas, Mimori?” Kasumi sniped back.

“I do! In fact, I do.”

“Well, that was redundant,” Mari smirked. “So, what’s your great idea?”

Mimori suddenly blushed and looked frantically around, no doubt putting on an act.

“Um, well, it was to, um, maybe—” She was doing one of her shy anime girl voices again.

Tomo giggled. “You never fail to amuse me, Mimori-chan.”

Erica shrugged. “Alright, Mimori. Spit it—””

“—I WANNA DO A DANCE!!”

The room was silent for a few moments again. The girls were all taking in her words.

“That’s what you want to do?” complained Naoko. “That sucks. I can’t dance and I can’t sing. Ding!”

“Sure you can!” Mari said, encouraging her friend. “I heard you sing before! You just dismissed it as someone else.”

Naoko pouted. “Hmph. It really wasn’t me.”

“‘Dance’? As in doing choreography?” Tomo pondered. “That sounds like a wonderful idea!”

“Sounds like an awful idea,” Naoko snarked.

Erica leaned further into the desk, eyes glittering with interest. “I’m in! But what song are we gonna use?”

“That’s what I’ve been wondering.” Mimori groaned. “There are so many good songs we can use.”

“Like… ‘I Found a Way’?” Kasumi joked. “Just kidding. I wasn’t being serious.”

Mimori giggled. “But you could leap over a couch! That’s brilliant!”

Kasumi shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Moving on. Why don’t we write songs down on a piece of paper and decide that way?”

“Good idea,” Erica said. “Naoko!”

When she looked over, Naoko was already on it, magicking over a piece of paper out of one of her school binders.

“Good girl, Naoko!” Erica giggled, clapping. She then cleared her throat. “Alright, let’s do this! But remember, it has to be a song you can dance to, something upbeat and cheerful.”

“But I didn’t say that!” Mimori cried.

“Isn’t that sort of an unspoken rule, though?” Erica frowned.

Mimori shrugged. “I guess.”

And so the girls began to attack Naoko’s paper with great force—and with a bunch of pencils, pens, and sharpies.

When they were finished writing down the song suggestions, the girls scanned the list expectantly.

“Wow… we’ve got quite the variety,” said Mimori, eyes wide. “Now that’s what I call music!”

Kasumi facepalmed.

“Well, well! Look what we have here!” Erica announced. “Madonna! Some band I’ve never heard of! Backstreet Boys! System of a Down…?”

“My suggestion,” Mari said, smirking evilly.

“Hey! You forgot mine!” Kasumi pouted.

“Oh, we’re not done,” Erica chuckled. “What did you suggest? Katy Perry and My Chemical Romance? You have quite the interesting taste in music.”

“Thanks.” Kasumi looked a little shy.

“And what did I suggest? Ed Sheeran, Usher, and Lady Gaga…”

“Dang, those songs all span different eras in music,” Mimori said, fingers to her chin (but not in the Caesar way). “Was that intentional?”

“Nope!” Erica grinned. “Those songs just popped into my mind. I like all sorts of music!”

Tomo’s face fell. “I think I’ve only vaguely heard of Usher,” she said sadly.

“It’s okay,” Naoko comforted. “I hate most of those artists. And for the stupidest reasons, too.”

Mimori cleared her throat this time. “I say we should do a song that everyone knows!”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Mari said. “I know a lot of bands and artists! Mostly ones that aren’t pop though.”

“‘Isn’t it ironic?’” sang Mimori in Engrish.

“‘Don’t cha think?’” Tomo chimed in, also in Engrish.

Erica sighed. “‘A little too ironic.’ Anyway, there are two Backstreet Boys songs on here, ‘Larger Than Life’ and ‘Everybody’. Do you guys know those?”

All the girls raised their hands, surprisingly enough. And then there was Tomo squirming around in her seat, squeaking like a chipmunk.

“Backstreet Boys!” she shrieked. “Let’s do both!”

“We can’t do that,” Kasumi murmured. “And we can only do one song, so you’re gonna have to pick a favorite out of those two.”

Mimori groaned. “Well, that sucks.”

Mari shook her head. “Your loss, guys. We could have done a rockin’ rock or metal song, but nope. Prissy boys.”

“Don’t you dare,” Tomo suddenly growled, face dark and menacing. “Don’t you dare insult my boys!”

“Geez, I was just kidding! No need to get all defensive about it!”

“Your boys?” Kasumi questioned, curious about Tomo’s wording.

Tomo’s mouth was still in a frown, but then quickly morphed back into her usual, motherly smile. “Yep! I love BSB!”

★

At that last meeting, it was finally decided that the girls were going to dance to the song “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” since that was the one that the audience would know the most out of the two songs. In other news, the form was submitted, so everything was official.

It was now Wednesday, and the girls were determined to start making said dance for the festival.

Where to start? thought Mimori, a little worried. I can’t even dance, so I couldn’t possibly do the dance steps!

Hopefully, her friends could help her.

“Hey guys, we’re going to work on the choreography today, okay?” Erica said in a business-like voice.

Tomo nodded. “I concur!”

“So now, what do?” Mimori wanted to know. “Listen to the song again?”

Erica pulled her laptop out of her backpack. “I guess we can watch the original music video for it and get some ideas from there.”

And so, the girls ended up watching the music video and were left ultimately confused.

“So… it should be Halloween-themed?” Mari wondered.

“It’s appropriate,” Tomo decided. “Unless, of course… Do you guys have any other ideas?”

Mimori waved her hands in the air in a desperate manner for some reason. “I think that’s kind of unoriginal, really.”

Kasumi rolled her eyes. “You think everything is unoriginal, Mimori. That’s the world right now. Adapt or die.”

Said girl’s heart sank—in a metaphoric sense, of course. “Ah, gee. I love you too. But anyway, I actually have quite a few ideas now!”

Mimori started to draw on the whiteboard that was now in front of the bookshelf, making swift movements with a red marker.

“See?” she said when she was done.

“All I see are words and bullet points,” Erica said, chuckling. “I think we need Nathan. He could help us out.”

“But didn’t he say he wanted a break?” Naoko wondered.

“Well, that break is over!” Erica cried.

A few minutes later Nathan was there, and the girls decided not to turn him into a kid because he looked mildly stressed out.

“So… what do you think so far?” asked Erica.

“I think, why doesn’t Mimori make more executive decisions?”

Mimori looked bright-eyed. “Good question! If I made more decisions in this project, it’d suck!”

“Wow, your confidence level is through the roof,” Kasumi responded, hand on her chin and eyebrows raised.

“You know what?” Mari said. “You could give our club advisor a run for his money in terms of sarcasticness, Kasumi.”

Kasumi crossed her legs that were on the side of the chair, looking smug. “I’d surely beat him in that.”

After that fascinating discussion, the club ultimately had no idea what to do in terms of anything—besides Mimori, of course. And because of that, the students started to pack up their things.

“Hey, wait! Guys!” Mimori yelled shrilly while no one, in particular, was listening. “I think that maybe Nathan could do the lights and the music!”

Nathan grinned. “That’s definitely me, I’m in. That kinda cheered me up, thanks Mimori.”

“Alright girls—and guy,” Tomo announced. “I call this the end of the meeting for today. Sorry that you didn’t get to stay very long, Nathan.”

“No, that’s fine. At least you guys got one thing done.”

Tomo gave a thumbs-up. “Let’s see if we can come up with anything tomorrow, alright? Get your thinking caps on in the meantime.”

★

It was now Thursday. The girls had just gotten done with moving to the beat of the song (Mimori claimed she always did it in her room), which proved to be not that easy.

Speaking of Mimori, she had just brought up a good point.

“So, what exactly are we gonna do about costumes? Are we gonna get them anywhere, or…?”

The girls (Nathan wasn’t there) all agreed to do something about that problem, so they teleported to a nearby mall.

The first place they went to was a high-end fashion store. Tomo showed the girls that she had a lot of money (she had saved a lot up ever since she was little), so they didn’t have to worry about the price of the clothes… that much.

“What do you think of this?” Mari quizzed. “I’m not a clothes person, but I think this might be fitting for the song.”

Kasumi’s eyes narrowed. “A frilly white dress with pink accents on it? That screams ‘boy band’? It’s cute, but I think we should look around some more.”

Mari frowned. “Aw, man! But they have them in a bunch of variants!”

“Why don’t we come back to these later?” Tomo smiled.

After looking around some more, as well as going to different stores, nothing could quite hold a candle to those frilly dresses… so they came back.

“Wow, it’s like this was destiny,” Erica said in amazement. “They’re even on clearance! Hey, do you think we should try these on just to make sure?”

Mimori jumped up and down. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” she screamed. “I claim the pink one!!”

“Well, obviously. We need to be color-coded for the audience's convenience,” Mari smirked, reminding the girls. “And look at that! Six different colored outfits with slightly different designs on them. And there’s green!”

In the end, each girl picked out an outfit that was the color of the magic goo that ended up on them. Even though the matches were perfect, Mimori still felt let down about something.

“Even though I wanted teal, I instead got pink.” Mimori sighed. “It’s ‘aight, though.”

Tomo beamed. She totally knew what that (or rather, who that) was from.

After trying on the dresses (which were perfect fits, yes in all sizes), Tomo went to the cashier and paid for the dresses. In total, the cost of all six was luckily under 200 dollars.

Standing outside the store, Tomo proudly showed off her haul to her friends.

“‘The price is—WHAT?!’” Mimori screamed. “You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s ridiculous!”

“Life isn’t fair,” Naoko said like she was reciting something. “It beats you up, drags you down, spins you round and round ‘till you get dizzy and…”

“Stop reciting poetry,” Kasumi groaned. “Let’s go home. I’d love to be by myself right now. Well, me and Netflix.”

“It’s deception!” shrieked Mari. “‘The toxicity of our city, of our ciiiityyy!’”

Erica wanted to scream and shout as well but decided not to. She dragged her strange friends to the not-crowded-for-some-reason-bathroom and Tomo teleported them back to their clubroom, where they were to part for the day. Or afternoon… that made more sense.

★

Mimori was glad to be put on dress duty. All she had to do was wash the clothes, and then leave the dresses in the bag in her closet and when the time came, take them out and put them in her locker at school until the time came.

That was what she was thinking as she made her way to the clubroom on Friday afternoon. She was also told that Mr. Fujiwara, their club advisor, was stopping by. The girls were planning on just doing the moves they had confirmed to use.

“Ugh! I’m so nervous!” Kasumi whined. “What is he going to think of what we have so far?!”

“Why couldn’t we have just done an a cappella arrangement of it?” wailed Mimori. “It would have been so much easier.”

“Says the girl who suggested the idea of dancing in the FIRST place!” Kasumi lashed out. “And how would you even compose it? You can’t even do that!”

By now, Mimori was close to tears, but she understood what her friend was saying. She wasn’t talented at either of those things.

“Um, everyone?” Erica said meekly. “We should probably change now. He should be coming any minute now. Mimori, you know what to do!”

Mimori hastily wiped away her tears. As she froze time, the other girls got their dresses out and began to change.

“Oh, shoot.” Mimori promptly said as she was done changing into her dress. “We forgot accessories!”

The girls all stopped in mid-dress.

“Oh, come on!” Mari cried. “Man, I knew something was missing!”

“How about Tomo goes and gets Nathan to help get some accessories while we hold down the fort?” Mimori suggested.

Tomo shrugged. “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea, although I dislike rushing to do something.”

With that, she left. In less than a minute, she was back with Nathan, who looked to be in a better mood than the last time he was there.

Kasumi was secretly glad that he appeared right after she had… well, you know. Otherwise. things would have escalated quickly.

Tomo looked at the girls, and they nodded.

They already knew what to do. Leave the room, Nathan takes the potion (which Tomo had already made in a little bottle), he changes his clothes, the girls come back in, Naoko swoons over the younger (looking) version of Nathan, etc.

Slam!

While outside, Erica was partaking in the liberties of time stopping. She peeked through the windows of the classrooms and shouted out things in English, like the ham that she was. Mari did something similar, but it involved singing some Ghost song while spinning around in circles.

Mimori was both amused and slightly intimidated by their craziness.

Knock, knock. Nathan knocked on the inside of the door. He was done.

“Yay,” Naoko whispered, clearly blushing.

When the girls walked in, there was the younger Nathan, looking at something on his phone.

Cue Naoko trying not to scream and fangirl.

Tomo sighed happily and started to sort through the bag of stuff that she had bought from the mall—probably from Claire’s.

“So, everyone! I got you guys some chokers in each of your colors and a pair of white gloves. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good,” Mimori said. Tomo could notice her trying not to cringe.

By now, the girls surrounded the bag, each of them grabbing what they needed. Tomo handed them a pair of scissors so they could cut the tags off.

“What am I going to wear?” Nathan asked, curious.

“You’re to wear a button-down shirt and a pair of jeans!” Tomo said, weirdly excited for some reason.

Nathan gave her a look. “Okay then…”

Once everyone had gotten their accessories, Mimori was more than ready to resume time.

“One, two…” she counted quietly. “Three!”

And thus, time resumed.

“Shoot, I think we need to push the table back,” muttered Erica.

“Nathan-kun, are you ready?” Naoko asked her boyfriend for no real reason other than being a decent girlfriend.

Knock, knock!

Without a moment’s notice, the door opened. and in came Mr. Fujiwara, and any real worries about his thoughts on their performance vanished.

After all, he’s super laid back and doesn’t think too hard about things, Erica reassured herself. I’m so glad we have him as our advisor.

“Hey guys,” he said casually. “You were going to perform your cultural festival dance for me, right?”

The girls nodded and the boy gave a thumbs-up.

“Oh, hey. Nathan’s here too.” The teacher/advisor smiled. “What are you going to do in all this?”

“He’s the technician,” Naoko explained simply.

Mr. Fujiwara cocked his head to one side. “Really? Huh. That’s a great idea. After all, I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna dance to no Backstreet Boys.” He chuckled.

“Yeah,” Nathan replied, coughing a little.

“Alright,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s show me what you’ve got! I’ve got faith in you guys, it can’t be all bad!”

The girls and boy knew it was time. The girls gathered in the center of the room while Nathan stood and pressed play on the video and went to Mr. Fujiwara’s side. The aura in the room was slightly tense.

★

“It wasn’t that bad, right?” Mimori asked Tomo after the meeting had ended.

“No,” Tomo said smoothly. “He was actually more confused at the name we had written down on the submission forum.”

“Oh, God! Mari wrote down the Can Do Anything Club on the sheet, didn’t she? Darn it!”

“Oh, well.” Tomo sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s just hope that whoever sees it doesn’t mind.”

Mimori nodded and said goodbye to her friends as she walked up to the entrance of the school.

I hope everything goes alright with our performance and all that, Mimori thought as she bit her lip.

★

Ever since the literature club gave him the submission forum, Mr. Fujiwara couldn’t help but think about something: Why had the club put the “The Can Do Anything Club” as their name? Did they change their name and not tell him?

He was thinking about that while hanging out in the teacher’s lounge.

“Hey there, Mr. Hadoku!” he said a little loudly. “Have you and Mrs. Dokida gone through the submission forms yet?”

Mr. Hadoku, the biology teacher, shook his head. “Nope! We haven’t gone through all of them yet.”

The language arts teacher did a facepalm. Man, he groaned in his head. I wanted someone else to talk to about this with.

“We’re going over the weekend, though,” Mrs. Dokida, the Japanese teacher, replied. “I need to look over them somewhere that’s not here!”

“Why is Akinari driving you up the wall again?” Mr. Fujiwara chuckled. “From what I’ve heard from you, that kid’s quite a handful.”

Alright, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna ask them.

“Oh, yeah! Do you guys know that the literature club changed its name to ‘the Can Do anything Club?’”

“No! What an interesting name,” Mrs. Dokia said.

“Yeah, I thought so too,” Mr. Fujiwara noted. “Quite interesting indeed. I wonder why they changed it?”

Intrigued by the apparent new title of the club, Mrs. Dokida started to sift through the forms in the folder.

“Oh! Here we go! The Can Do Anything Club… dancing… yup, you were right. These are the girls from the literature club.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing,” said Mr. Fujiwara. “Erica, who used to be in the science club, is now in it too. And some other kid named Nathan who said he’s from another school.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Hadoku was nodding along. “Alright. If the girls didn’t wanna speak to you about the matter, I’m going to have to ask them instead. Clearly, they thought that you wouldn’t notice or care—but I do.”

Mr. Fujiwara smiled. “Thanks, man. You’ve got Mimori in your fifth hour bio class, right?”

“Yep. She’s the girl I’m gonna ask.”