Tokyo Mew Mew Fan Fiction ❯ Held Loosely ❯ The Quiet One and Unlocked Doors ( Chapter 6 )

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

Chapter Six: The Quiet One and Unlocked Doors å¹³é™ä¸€æ ;‰‡å’Œæœªä¸Š< /b>é”çš„é—¨

It was Monday morning at seven o'clock. I was supposed to be getting ready for my first day of school, but after seeing the uniform I had to wear, I inched back under the covers. A knock came at my door.

“Komori, are you getting ready?” Ryou yelled through the door.

“I refuse to go to a school that forces me to wear a skirt every day and takes away my right to openly express myself! It's a violation of the U.S. Constitution!” came my agitated reply. Ryou barged in and tossed my uniform to me.

“Well, we're in Japan, and the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply here.” He scolded, pulling off the warm covers.

“Uhhnn.” I groaned, squinting against the light that flooded the room.

“You're going. Who knows, you might meet some friends to hang out with.” Ryou affirmed and strided out. I groaned and slipped into the stupid uniform. You know, the cafÃ© uniform started to look pretty nice right about now… I ran downstairs (with no wrong turns!) and grabbed my books and a breakfast bar, having woke up late and no time to eat a whole breakfast.

“Hey, Ryou I'm leaving!” I yelled.

“'Bye!” he yelled back from the lobby. I sprinted outside and plunged into the limo at full speed. It was pretty cool that I got to ride in it to school, though, I had to admit. I munched on my breakfast bar the whole way there, trying to think of what kind of people I would meet. It probably won't be any different from New York. Same little cliques and groups as always. That's one thing you can count on always being in High School. The limo pulled up to the front of a tall, almost cathedral-like building that ominously towered over everything, casting a dark shadow. This was the kind of place you would expect to find gargoyles at the top. What a friendly-looking place. Students were spread out all over the front of the school, chatting with their friends and comparing schedules. Quite a few noticed that a limo dropped me off and stared at me for a while, whispered to their friends next to them, then casually glanced away. I walked up the countless steps to the school's overhanging porch, then sat on a vacated bench that sat was up on the porch near the doors. Well, here goes another meaningless school year.

I surveyed the schoolyard: The preppies sat near a tall oak tree that was a few meters away from the porch; the Goths leaned against the sides of the ancient brick walls of the school, being…well, gothy; the jocks were shadowing the preppies by the oak tree….hm, and near the flagpole a small coterie of girls were picking on a smaller girl who appeared to be a freshman. Laughing, they grabbed her bookcase and shook all the papers out of it and then scrunching them into the ground, springing a cry from the girl; that made them laugh even harder. Seeing them pick on a defenseless girl made my blood boil. It brought back all those terrible and unwanted memories of the playground at elementary school, and how I had always spent it curled up in the corner of the jungle gym trying to shield myself from everyone's hurtful jeers. I leapt from my perch on the bench, jumped in front of the girl and yelled, “Hey! What are you picking on her for? She didn't do anything to you!” The bullies stood thunderstruck as I helped the girl gather her papers and get back to her feet.

“C'mon, you don't need to be taking this from these jerks.” I said and led her away.

“Um, really, you didn't have to do that.” the girl said looking down at the ground.

“I don't take crap from bullies,” I said, “C'mon, you can come hang with me.”

“Um, thanks.” she said quietly. We sat down on the bench and waited for the bell to ring.

“Um, by the way,” she said, “I'm Takara. Thank you for standing up for me.”

“I'm Komori. It wasn't any trouble.” I replied. She nervously glanced in the direction of the bullies.

“Oh, I wouldn't say that. They're called the Leiko Gang. They can make your social life a disaster.” she shuddered.

“Well, my social life can't get any worse than it was at my other school. So, hey, how about we be buds?” I said smiling. She looked up hopefully.

“That would be….awesome!” she laughed. The bell rang shrilly, signaling school to start: we all flooded into the cathedral-like school. I felt pretty good, knowing that I wasn't completely alone at school anymore. The day went by pretty smoothly: At lunch time I sat with Takara. She seemed like an overall friendly person…although she did laugh too much.. We sat at a table by ourselves and chatted away about what classes and teachers we got stuck with for the year. At the end of the day as I was rounding a corner to the front of the building, I accidentally ran into a guy in the hallway and a tall stack of books fell out of his hands.

“Oh… crap.” He said rather calmly.

“Geez! I'm sorry! Here, let me help you.” I said bending down to help him.

“Hm? Ah, thanks… Hey, are you new here? I haven't seen you around before.” he said airily. I was a little distracted by his beautiful green eyes and spiky raven hair, but managed to snap back to reality. He probably thinks I'm weird now…

“Huh? Oh! I moved here from New York in the summer.” I replied shakily.

“Well then, welcome to Tokyo, um…” (DÃ©jÃ vu)

“Komori.”

“Nice to meet you. I'm Kiyoshi.” he said with a quiet smile.

“Nice to meet you, too. Look, I'd better get going before my ride leaves.” I said.

“Right. See you around then.” he said and walked off with the giant stack of books. What does one person need with all those books? …He's so cute, though: I could barely speak… As I walked out of the school, I felt a whole lot better. I made a friend and met a pretty cute guy, which was more than what I could say about New York. Maybe this wouldn't be complete anguish after all. When I got in the limo, Ryou and Keiichiro were both inside staring at me expectantly.

“Well, was it as much torture as you said it would be?” Ryou asked smiling.

“No one strapped me to a spiked wheel.” I said with a small smile.

“Then I hope you're ready to work in the cafÃ©.” Keiichiro said. Oh, yeah, the cafÃ©.

“Whatever...” I muttered. The cafÃ© was more packed than it had been in the summer. I guessed it was because CafÃ© Mew Mew was an ideal hangout spot for teenage girls (and the few boys who were confident enough in their masculinity to enter a place so pink and sugary) after school. As I was serving tables, I spotted Takara sitting alone at a table, sipping on a smoothie. I ducked under the nearest table.

Keiichiro noticed my hiding place and said, “Oh, how I wonder where Komori is.” He lifted up the tablecloth and peered in at me.

“Why are you hiding under the table?” he asked, puzzled.

“I'm, uh…Inspecting the table for termites.” I declared innocently.

“Well, that's nice, but could you please keep serving tables? We're really packed today.” he said impatiently and walked off. Maybe I was wrong. I guess my social life could get a lot worse. I'm dressed like a stupid Barbie doll…

As I started to serve tables again while trying to hide my face with my serving tray, I heard Takara call my name. She came up behind me and turned me around.

“Komori! I thought it was you! Why didn't you say you worked here?” she said gleefully.

“Oh, I didn't think it was really important.” I lied.

“Are you kidding? This is one of the best hangouts around! Everybody comes here!” Great. Now all the people who saw me at school are going to get a glimpse of me in this sickening cafÃ©. Just peachy.

“Well, I'm sorry I can't chat, I've gotta get back to work.” I lied.

“Yeah, I have stuff to do, too. See you at school!” she said and walked out the cafÃ©'s doors. That day I saw tons of people I recognized from school. Luckily, none of them recognized me. At the end of the day, after all the customers had left, Keiichiro mysteriously left again to `run some errands', leaving me alone to clean up.

“I'm sorry to leave you alone like this, but this time it shouldn't take too long.” He tossed me the key. “Just lock up after you're done.” he said and scurried out the cafÃ©. I swept and mopped for about an hour and then I decided to wipe the tables off. I went to the broom closet and found that we were out of anti-bacterial spray to clean the tables with. Aw, great. Wait, maybe there's some back in the storage area. I walked back to the storage area and tried to unearth some spray from the massive mounds of junk in the storage closet. I spotted the door that had been locked the last time I had been back there. I don't know why, but I had a sudden urge to see if it would open.

“I don't know why I'm going to bother,” I muttered, turning the handle, “It's probably still--.”

CLICK!

I stared disbelievingly at the open door.