blissfully ignorant, absent-minded daydreamer. [o]

[HAMASAKI NATSUKO]

I wonder if it’s going to rain today, it smells like it’s going to. The sky looks dark enough.

Natsuko hoped rather enthusiastically that it would. At least maybe that would cheer her up. There was an insistent chattering noise of too many words coming from her friends around the table; she had a strawberry cheesecake in front of her waiting to be eating; a new Mario Bros jumper in the shopping bag at her feet, and a Yoshi keychain dangling from her phone in her pocket. Yet still, today she was uneasily unhappy. Why? Well, there were plenty of reasons. Her sister was away on a business trip for two weeks. Her Grandpapa was at caught in a very serious, according to him, shoji game with the neighbours and wouldn’t be available for dinner or breakfast for a possible three days in a row; leaving her all alone. And, to make matters worse, the bakery was closed for three days for refurbishing – and sure that was great and all, but that left Natsuko with next to no life at all, and it was the weekend.

Between work, her family, and afterschool tea dates with friends that had time to, Natsuko had little to next to no life at all. Her life as she knew it was, she predicted, going to become extremely and harmfully boring over the next three days. Clarissa was going to America with her parents, Mai was spending the weekend with her boyfriend, and everyone else was of course, occupied with something else. The one time she was truly in desperate need of help in such a dire circumstance, she was going to be without it. Natsuko sighed, crestfallen. It was looking more and more like she would be spending the weekend curled up watching old samurai movies and playing old school N64 games; which wasn’t too bad, when she thought about it, but it was still lonely and most likely pathetic of her. Maybe she was just overreacting because she didn’t have any foreign country to visit or boyfriend to cuddle up to all weekend. I should work on that. Maybe that Jin boy –

“You there, Natsu-chan?”

Shaken from her downer, Natsuko perked up with a perfectly cheery smile, almost spilling her milk over in the process of scrambling herself back together. “You’ve been staring off into space for five minutes now, dopey,” Clarissa said with a flick of her hair. It was long, straight, black and silky. Extensions and a heap of hair product helped that, of course, but it was still pretty, just like the girl. She was half-American, half-Japanese, with a different kind of disposition. She wasn’t sweet like the girl, Mai, next to her, or rough like the tomboy Hitomi across from her. She was just a mix of superficial grace and prettiness, with some sort of niceness mixed in. Out of Natsuko’s closer group of friends, Clarissa was probably her closest, and probably the only one who really knew her.

“I was just thinking it’s going to rain soon,” she said, picking up her fork to slice into the cheesecake and take a bite of it. She’d had a craving for it since early this morning, and hadn’t stopped going on about wanting some all day at school. It was disappointing once she got to it, though. The café hadn’t made much of a good one today. She pouted and frowned and poked at it, then swapped it with Hitomi for what was left of her sandwich. Clarissa and the rest of the girls went back to talking about their plans for the weekend, while Hitomi and Natsuko happily busied themselves with eating. Once the skies started to spit though, the party at the table situated outside of the café quickly dispersed and, making short goodbyes, hurried off home. Clarissa left Natsuko with the advice to get laid, as always, and for Hitomi to admit to being a lesbian already.

“I don’t need to get laid,” Natsuko grumbled, wiping some stray crumbs from her mouth. Hitomi mumbled something of her own, too, but Natsuko didn’t hear it. After offering to walk her home and being declined, Hitomi left too. Probably should have invited her around for dinner, Natsuko thought, pouting as she opened her too bright, too yellow umbrella. She probably would have said no, though. She’s so secluded. The pitter patter of the rain dropped on the umbrella as she dawdled along the streets to go home. It wasn’t too busy now that the rain had decided to ruin the party, so it was safe enough to assume that she could walk along the gutter – balancing her school bag and shopping bag carefully in each hand – without looking foolish. She wasn’t in much of a rush to get home, since it was Friday and there wasn’t any homework, and dinner would be a late one. There wasn’t going to be a Grandpapa to rush home to and chide for not suiting up in warmer clothes, and she didn’t have a house to clean over all spic and spec before her sister got home. She was effectively useless for at least two hours, and she decided happily that she was going to spend those two hours childishly walking home as slow as a turtle and enjoying the rain. She wondered if it was possible to get a perfume that smelt like rain. She’d have to ask Bokuro-san next door. He always smelt like rain.

Natsuko made a detour when her balancing beam, the gutter, ran out of length and she had to make a decision of what direction to cross the road. She opted for one towards the park – because it was only sensible to go to the park when it was raining; with nothing but an umbrella, a uniform with a too short skirt, a white shirt and a thin coat unbuttoned over the top to keep you warm and dry. As expected, the park was deserted, and she stepped up onto the low white wall to balance her way across it. She’d wanted to be a gymnast when she was younger, but she was clumsy and ungracefully and her sister didn’t want her to ruin her features with bumps and bruises (really, she just couldn’t bear to see her little sister all beaten up). Working her way around keeping the umbrella over her head, and holding onto her bags, Natsuko was startled from the cry of a bird that was a little too close and came tumbling down off of the wall, and flopped right onto the (thankfully still rather dry) ground. It reminded her why she wasn’t supposed to, well, climb to any heights and pretend to be coordinated. She laughed at herself just to save herself the self-inflicted mockery.

[TSUKIHARA SHIRAYUKI]

Please don't rain. Please don't rain. Please don't rain.

These words were chanted over and over in her head like a mantra. It's not that she didn't like the rain, she actually loved it, but she was scared to death of what the rain brought. Thunder. Just hearing the word sent small shivers up her spine. Her doctor told her that the fear of thunderstorms was called brontophobia but she didn't really care about it's scientific name. It could be called cheesephobia for all she cared, she'd still be deathly afraid of it. It's not like she wanted to be afraid of thunder, but hearing the inhumanly loud noise scared her beyond belief and her the sky was, being all dark and gloomy and promising rain and, most likely, thunder. Her friends teased her all the time about her irrational fears but she tended to ignore what they said. It's not like their opinion mattered.

"Ne, ne, Yuuki, can you buy me this please? It's so cute!"

Yuuki blinked before turning her gaze to rest on one of her friends, Kiyomi, who was holding up a black gothic lolita dress. The dress was, indeed, cute with it's short sleeves and lace everywhere you looked. The dress even came with a headband, a pair of stockings, and a pair of shoes. "How much is it, Yomi-chan?" she asked smiling slightly. At this, Kiyomi blushed slightly and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"64,312 yen," she mumbled.

"What was that?" Yuuki asked not hearing what her friend had mumbled. Kiyomi's blush deepened but she looked up and said in a cleare voice, "64,312 yen. I understand if its too expensive. You don't have to buy it for me."

"Nonsense." Yuuki smiled taking the dress and accessories from the blushing girl's hands. "Its not expensive at all and I know you really want it so I'll buy it for you. Its no problem at all." A smile broke out on Kiyomi's face as she enveloped Yuuki in a tight hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she chanted. Yuuki giggled.

"Your welcome. Now if you would let go of me? We do need to purchase this dress and then I need to be on my way home before it starts to rain."

"Oh, right." Kiyomi smiled sheepishly, letting go of Yuuki and following her to the check out counter. They quickly brought the dress and with another hug and thank you, Yuuki was on her way home. Her eyes traveled up to the sky just in time to notice the small droplets of water that fell from it. Sighing, she quickened her pace trying to escape from the water but it was a futile attempt that only cause her to get wetter than she was before. Grumbling she looked for the nearest shelter and saw it in the form of a small park. She quickly made her way over there, arriving just in time to see a girl fall and landed on a patch of dry ground. She heard giggling as well, and frowning slightly because of the rain, Yuuki rushed over to the girl.

"Are you alright?" she asked holding her hand out to help the girl up. Up close she noticed that the girl had long almost orange hair and large eyes, not to mention her large... gifts. A sudden crash of thunder caused her to jump, retract her hand, and look up at the sky fearfully. She let her eyes search it for a few seconds and deciding that there was going to be no more thunder she turned her attention back to the girl and smiled apologeticly. "Sorry about that," she apologized extending her hand again. "Just wasn't expecting it, that's all."

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