Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Elemental Angel ❯ The Calm Before the Storm ( Chapter 1 )

Elemental Angel

First Draft

 

Yumi chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen, peering at the forms she was filling out.

 

“Eyes- blue, hair-brown…” she muttered, filling in two of the blanks. She shuffled through the papers on the coffee table, fishing out a photograph of herself, accompanied by her band.

 

The weight of the couch suddenly shifted as someone sat next to her. She glanced up in surprised. The boy who had just joined her was smiling at the picture. He reached over to grab one of its corners.

 

“That's a good picture of us four,” he noted with a grin. Yumi laughed and linked arms with him.

 

“Was there ever a more photogenic group than us, Ren?” She teased. Ren put the photo on the table and shook his head at her, still smiling.

 

“You're such a weirdo.”

 

“Which makes you the best friend of a weirdo.” Yumi sang in response. “Anyways, you have some forms to fill out too.”

 

Ren wrinkled his nose at the stack of papers she prodded into his chest. With an exasperated sigh, he shuffled through them. Yumi watched his mildly annoyed expression.

 

“Why are we even doing this contest?” He asked, suddenly tired. Yumi frowned at him, taking the papers. She rifled through them.

 

“Well, I guess I can fill these out too,” she said softly. Ren shook his head again and grabbed her wrist. He stared into her face. Eye contact was important if you really wanted to talk to Yumi.

 

“No. Not the forms. I mean this contest.”

 

Yumi seemed to be choosing her words carefully, and a little hesitantly. “Well, it's a great opportunity for this band. And I know we'll never fill our empty spots if we don't give ourselves this extra push.”

 

Ren let go of her arm. “I guess that's a good enough reason,” he sighed. Yumi watched him lean back on the couch and run a hand through his messy black spikes. His eyes, she noted, were almost black. They were closed at the moment.

 

Yumi hated seeing Ren depressed. With a frown, she put the papers back on the coffee table and inched closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and poked him on the cheek.

 

“You still alive?” She whispered in his hear. Ren opened his eyes, which were now crinkled in a smile. He hugged her for a minute and then sat back up.

 

“I'll handle the auditions,” he said, grabbing a pen and notepad. Yumi chuckled and went back to her forms. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, she turned to Ren with a quizzical look on her face.

 

“We still have seven months left until we have to mail this stuff in. That should be more than enough time… right?”

 

Ren laughed. “Who knows?”

 

 

 

Yumi was fresh from school when she joined Ren at Hibari no Hiken, a club that her band usually had their `gigs' at. Sometimes. Ren had booked it for the first of six audition nights.

 

The brunette set down her white messenger bag for school and took a seat next to Ren. She tied her hair into a ponytail and surveyed their surroundings.

 

“I can't believe you got this done in a week,” she exclaimed. Then, as a thought occurred to her, her face darkened. “Could Sakura make it?”

 

Ren shook his head no. “She says she's putting in extra hours or something at the café.”

 

Yumi pouted. “Why do I have a work-a-holic sister? Does she even know how to show up to these things when she doesn't have to? And Yuna can't even make one of these things until Saturday, either. On account of studying. Studying! She's a certified genius; she doesn't need to study for anything!”

 

Ren sensed her growing frustration and bit his lip. Then he patted her on the head. “Calm down,” he said. “Do you wanna see the audition roster for today?”

 

The girl perked up and her eyes brightened. “Sure!”

Ren handed her the clipboard and watched as she scanned the list. The black-haired boy counted off the people for her.

 

“We've got ten people today. There'll be a bigger showing tomorrow. You'd better get used to taking a lot of notes.”

 

“Cool with me,” Yumi shrugged. “So, this Kyoya person is first?”

 

Ren glanced at the clipboard. “Apparently. Okinawa Kyoya, bass guitarist. He's taken two years of lessons, and he's been in plenty of open mic nights here.”

 

“Was he ever voted best in show?” Yumi asked eagerly.

 

“Nope.”

 

“Oh man,” Yumi groaned.

 

 

 

“What would you have given all those people?” The brunette asked, rubbing her eyes. She stood up and finished her soda, straightening her papers as well. Ren raised an eyebrow at some of her doodles, but answered nonetheless.

 

“2, 6, 5, 3, 7, 2, 4, 3, 3, 5.”

 

“How did we end up with so many duds?” Yumi sighed. Ren shrugged.

 

“Apparently, people lie about their credentials a lot.”

 

“How many do we have scheduled for tomorrow?”

 

“Seventeen.”

 

Yumi chucked her can in the recycling bin and straightened the pleats of her skirt. She checked her watch. It wasn't too late; only about half past six.

 

“I don't get it.” She said. “We write great songs. We have an amazing sound. Everyone even says we have great chemistry, but we haven't caught a break since this place hired us.”

 

“What can I say? That's life.”

 

Yumi was putting on her messenger bag with an exasperated expression. “I dunno. Say `it's all gonna get better soon'. Say `we're gonna make it big'!”

 

Ren laughed as he tried to clean the place up. It didn't take long, and he was standing in front of Yumi in just a moment. He hugged her.

 

“It's all gonna get better soon,” he reiterated. Yumi sighed as Ren put his arm around her.

 

“Are you up for a movie night?” She suggested. “All I want to do is stuff myself with popcorn.”

 

“Don't complain about your so-called `growing waistline', then.” Ren said with a roll of his eyes. Yumi looked sheepish, but took his forearm and pulled him out of the club, into the street.

 

 

 

Yumi was having a bad morning. She had woken up dazed, with popcorn strewn down her front. The television was stuck on the input screen. Ren was standing over her, brushing his teeth casually.

 

“What the- Ren, what time is it?” She asked frantically.

 

“'Bout half past seven.”

 

“What?” Yumi shrieked, getting to her feet. She sent the popcorn bowl flying. Yellow kernels went everywhere. “Why didn't you wake me up?”

 

“You looked tired,” he said defensively.

 

“Of course I looked tired! I was sleeping!” She sighed, running her fingers through her curls. She flipped them back so they fell down her shoulders, halfway down her back. Luckily, she'd taken a shower before the movie last night. Ren shrugged. He kept on brushing nonchalantly.

 

“Ren, is that my toothbrush?”

 

“Mmhmm,” he answered. He pulled the blue toothbrush out of his mouth and offered it to her. Yumi wrinkled her nose at it for a second, but started brushing anyways.

 

“Where's Sakura?” She asked, once Ren had spit into the kitchen sink and rinsed.

 

“She already left.”

 

“Damn it.” Yumi cursed, with a mouthful of toothpaste foam.

 

It was about six minutes into first period, and Yumi didn't want the main office marking her absent again. The tenth absence in any quarter warranted an after-school detention.

 

The brunette walked on eggshells as she tried to creep by the main office.

 

“Not so fast, Asuka.”

 

Yumi flinched and whirled around slowly. The secretary was looking at her with an amused expression painted all over her face.

 

“Yes?” Yumi asked hopefully.

 

“You're a little late, Asuka. This would be your tenth tardy mark this quarter.”

 

She bit the inside of her cheek, wishing Ren was with her. However, she went to an all-girls' school, and he went to its brother school. She inwardly cursed him for having his school start a half hour later than her.

 

“Can't you make an exception… or something?”

 

The secretary laughed. “I expected that. Yumi, we have a new student. A junior, just like you. If you show her to her classes, I can… overlook your tardy.”

 

“Sweet! Okay, where's this new girl?”

 

The secretary's smile came, slow as honey, over her features. Yumi narrowed her eyes suspiciously as the secretary pointed behind her.

 

Yumi gulped once her eyes landed on the girl.

 

She looked like some hardcore Goth, punk, skater… chick, in Yumi's mind. She had piercings on her lip and on her left eyebrow. She had waist-length waves of hair, dyed a dark shade of purple, maybe violet.

 

Yumi walked over to her apprehensively. The girl's eyes pinned her down as if she was an insect. Her eyes were smothered in black eye makeup, a fierce forest green that rivaled Sakura's.

 

The brunette's eyes lingered on the pack of cigarettes in the pocket of her jeans.

 

`Marlboros. American?'

 

She cleared her throat and tried her best to act like a pleasant peer. She started rattling off, in rapid Japanese.

 

“Hi. I'm Asuka Yumi. I'm a junior too. You look nice. Sort of. You're from America, right? What's your name?”

 

The girl raised an eyebrow that was colored in with purple eyebrow pencil. She didn't make any move to speak. Instead, she leaned back on the bench with her hands shoved in the pockets of her hoodie. Yumi glanced at the smug secretary helplessly. The woman checked her fingernails for dirt.

 

Yumi took a deep breath. The girl was looking at her rebelliously, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. There were only a few locks of purple tresses spilling out of her hood.

 

“I'm Yumi,” she said again, this time in English. The Western dialect sounded a bit odd and out of practice on her tongue. “What's your-“

 

“Amethyst. Yamashita Amethyst,” the girl answered. There was a hint of annoyance in her tone. To Yumi's surprise, she then switched from English to Japanese. There was only a small hint of an accent. “I can speak Japanese fine. Don't you know when someone's ignoring you?”

 

Yumi almost scowled at her snide comment, but bit back the urge to retort. Amethyst smirked at her, making a great impression of a story book antagonist. Still, there was something that made her look bothered. Yumi plastered on a fake smile.

 

“Well let's get your schedule and go, Amethyst.”

 

She turned to the secretary with fury in her eyes, and snatched the paper from her. Then she turned back to the purple-haired girl.

 

“Come on,” she snapped. Her tone was clipped. She stalked off and Amethyst smugly followed, a couple paces behind.

 

Yumi's voice was cold and her strides were long. “You'll need a school uniform from tomorrow on. It's just the dress shirt with school crest, and a skirt. The school has recently been allowing shorts too. Other than that, you can wear any shoes or whatever you want. You can buy the uniform at the school store.”

 

“Uh huh,” Amethyst said disinterestedly. She pulled a lighter out of her pocket and flicked on the flame. She seemed to have a lot of experience with it; her thumb rolled the wheel and pushed the button in one fluid motion, with practiced ease. She took out a cigarette and lit it.

 

“There's no smoking on school grounds.”

 

Yumi recognized the foreign voice. She turned to spot one of her best friends, Yamada Yuna. She was three-quarters English, with sandy-blonde hair and oddly-colored rust eyes.

 

“Hey, Yuna.” The brunette greeted. Yuna smiled at her shifting the bag on her shoulder. She turned to Amethyst.

 

“You should really put that out. A teacher might come by and suspend you on your first day.”

 

Amethyst puffed some smoke into the air in response before she walked away. She looked like she couldn't be bothered with them. Yumi stared after her in disbelief. Yuna looked more contemptuous than anything else.

 

“Don't worry about it,” the blond scoffed. “We have a class to be getting to.”

 

“But-“

 

“We'll definitely be seeing more of her, Yumi. She's trouble.” Yuna observed. She had wiped any disdain from her face.

 

“Uh, okay. What are you doing out of class, anyways?” Yumi inquired. She sent one last anxious glance in the hall Amethyst had gone down.

 

“The teacher sent me to do an errand,” Yuna shrugged. “Come on, she's expecting me.”

 

“Yeah…”