Tokyo Mew Mew Fan Fiction ❯ Held Loosely ❯ Talents Unfolded ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter five: Talents Unfolded æ‰èƒ½ä¼¸å ±•

Working at the cafÃ© yesterday had been some real tough stuff. Thankfully, Keiichiro decided to give me today off. Yeeesss! No lame cafÃ© uniform! As soon as I woke up I went straight to the closet to get my guitar. It was the most beautiful thing I ever laid eyes on; it had all sorts of different purples, reds, and yellows splashed over it like paint. But it also had a lot of sentimental value to me too. It used to be my Dad's guitar, until he left my mom and me eleven years ago, when I was just five. I wanted to hook up my amplifier, but I wasn't sure if Ryou was still asleep. So, just to be safe, I closed my door. I dug through my stuff and found the notebook that I keep all my music in and thumbed through the papers to find a song to play.

“Hm, I think I'll play….”

“This one.” I concluded, pulling out a piece of paper with the words, `That's Just Me', scribbled across the top. `That's Just Me' is a song that I wrote that, to this day, remains as my favorite. I caressed my guitar in my lap and began to strum the beginning notes.

Meanwhile, down in the lab… åŒæ—¶ï¼Œä¸‹ ;é¢åœ¨å®žéªŒå&# 174;¤

Ryou had his face in his hands trying to desperately find the key to finishing his formula.

“So… if the amount of Chloride on the reactant side is still just one more than that of the product side, and everything else is even…” Ryou thought aloud.

“God, I hate balancing equations!” he yelled. And then he started to hear music. A cacophonous rock-and-roll melody played on the surveillance monitors. That's it, I've finally snapped. I'm hearing music.

“Wait a minute…” he said, and walked out of the lab to the monitors that were stationed outside Komori's room.

Back upstairs…å›žæ¥¼ä¸‹ ;

“Maybe I don't talk or walk the way you want me to,

I'm my own person, why would I bother to listen?

In the morning I look into the mirror and I see my face,

Longing only for my own space.

So back off, shut up, whatever it takes, to make you see,

That's just me.

We all express ourselves in different ways,

That's what gets everyone through tough days,

Even though I seem crazy and paranormal,

I'm just like you,

You'll see,

That's just me.

Sometimes I don't make any sense,

You laugh every time I make my presence,

Absolutely, Completely, Individual,

Seeing everything you can't see,

That's just me.

So crazy and outrageous,

Super-sweet, and contagious,

Only understanding will make you see,

This song's all about me.” I sang.

I strummed the ending notes on my guitar, and stood up on my bed. “Woo!” I laughed.

“That was pretty good, Komori.” a voice at the door praised.

“AHH!” I said as I lost balance and fell over.

“Oh, I didn't mean to scare you.” Ryou laughed.

“Don't ever do that again!” I yelled.

“Sorry, I just heard it from my lab and I came up to see what it was.”

“Dang, was I playing it that loud? Geez, I'm sorry.” I said, looking down.

“Hm? Oh, no I actually have microphones in all the hallways, so I guess one of them picked it up. Did you write it?”

“Yeah.” Ryou nodded his head.

“Pretty good. Hey, how old are you anyway?” Ryou asked.

“I'm sixteen.” I replied.

“You're sixteen and already have grey in your hair.” Ryou joked, tugging at the purple streaks that bedecked my thick sheet of blonde hair. I yanked it out of his hand.

“They're purple.” I corrected angrily.

“Right... Well, do you have any other songs?” he asked politely, probably to make up for the hair comment.

“Are you kidding me? I have tons.”

“Let's hear some, then.” Ryou said as he sat down on my bed. That day I think I played almost every song I'd ever written. It felt great to know someone in the family shared my enthusiasm for music. After I was done playing the jillions of songs that I had, Ryou started to inspect my guitar.

“Hm, it's in really good condition. Did you just buy it?” he asked.

“No, I've had it for eleven years.” I replied.

“Eleven years? You've been playing this since you were five?” he said in shock.

“Not exactly. I got it when I was five; it used to belong to my dad.” I said looking down. I knew he was about to ask what happened to Dad, but I think he saw the I-don't-really- want-to-talk-about-it look on my face.

“Righto, well… I really liked your songs Komori.” he said and left.

The summer started to fly by at breakneck speed; all the days became a fusion of boredom, assuaged only by playing my guitar…okay, and working at the cafÃ© wasn't as lame as it sounds (there, I admitted it, okay?). The school year was just around the bend and things were going to start getting really weird.