Project: Kudamono 11

"This is fun! Teach me another one!"

He smiled at her, his silvery blond hair gently swaying as he laughed, hazy blue eyes fixated on the girl sitting on the grass across from him. The couple I stared at looked surreally happy. She was quite attractive, just as he was, her dark chestnut colored hair pulled into two waist-long pig tails. Her lips were pursed as she searched her mind for another phrase to teach him, tugging on her lavender sundress in thought. They were that handsome kind of couple that you read about in sappy romance novels. They thought each other's thoughts, breathed each other's air; the kind who would surely go crazy without the other there.

"Okay, I got one. Now repeat after me: Boku wa futotte desu-ne?"

"Uh… boku wa…futotte desu…desu-ne?"

She burst into a fit of laughter.

"Wha-- what's so hilarious?" She couldn't answer, as she was gasping for air. " What did I say?"

" You.. You called yourself fat!" A tear streamed from her eye as she continued to laugh.

He gave her an annoyed look.

"It isn't all that funny."

She still laughed.

"Cut it out!"

Giggles still ensued.

"Alright then," he stood up, his face with a serious-playfulness, "I'll make you stop!" He then proceeded to chase her around the meadow , the two laughing and joking the whole way. He finally succeeded in catching her, and they both fell to the grass below, contented smiles gracing their faces. He plucked a violet from the earth beside them and gently placed it in her hair.

"I love you a lot." he smiled at her, sitting up slightly.

"I know…" she replied.

" If something were to happen to you, I…I don't know what I'd do…" his voice trailed off. She delicately placed her hand on his shoulder.

"That's not up for discussion," she responded quietly. " I don't even want to think about life without you. But don't worry; we'll be fine."



I woke up with cold beads of sweat accumulating on my face, gliding slowly off onto the pillow. I raised my hand up to my forehead.

Crap, why am I thinking about this now? I wondered. The memory of that day always haunted me. That final day with him. The day before my life was truly destroyed. That was the most wonderful day of my life; the only thing that ruined it was what I had said to him about us being fine. Neither of us were going to be fine. And even now, 2 years later, I still wasn't fine. I wasn't as bad as I had been initially, granted, but I was still far from okay.

Swinging my legs to the side of my bed, I attempted to stand, but was quickly reminded of the ankle sprain I had received during the scavenger hunt two days ago. I began to stand again, this time taking extra care to put the majority of my weight over my left leg, then groggily hobbled down the stairs using the banister as a sort of makeshift crutch. Mom was already in the kitchen with a mop in hand and a ridiculous amount of assorted towels sprawled across the linoleum floor.

"Mom…" I hesitated to ask, "what happened in here?"

She laughed the embarrassed stupid laugh that always signaled she had screwed up something that wasn't that hard to do.

" I put some extra water in the dishwasher to help clean the dishes better and it leaked. No big deal though; everything is under control."

"Clearly," I muttered, limping over to a chair at the table.

" Why are you limping?" She glanced down at my swollen ankle and gasped. "When did this happen?"

" Two days ago during the class trip; I fell out of a tree."

"How'd you fall out of a tree?"

I grimaced as I remembered the reason.

"Stupid thing; doesn't even matter…"

She elevated my leg on a chair, propping my foot up on a small throw pillow, and draped an icepack over the bruise.

"How come you didn't show me last night?"

I rolled my eyes. "You were asleep, so I figured I shouldn't bother you. Besides, I thought you'd be awake, after all, you haven't seen me in a week."

" I had a really bad headache last night; besides, how I feel comes second. You should always come to me when something bad happens."

This time, I scoffed.

" You don't have to overcompensate."

She placed a heaping bowl of rice in front of me and shot me a perplexed look.

" What do you mean 'overcompensate'?"

" I mean you're being extra motherly because you aren't my real mother," I replied matter-of-factly, shoveling a boatload of rice into my mouth.

She took a seat at the table next to me and grabbed my free hand.

"The way I treat you has nothing to do with whether you're adopted or not. You may not be my blood, but you're mine legally."

I hated when she used the "a-word" to me. When she called me adopted, I always felt further away from her and my "father". Not that I felt particularly close to them now. I hadn't felt like that since I found out the truth.

"I treat you like my child because you are my child. I'm not anymore overbearing on you than I was on Hana. And honestly, you wouldn't feel this way if Hana hadn't gone running her mouth. I think that was the root of all this trouble."

"So, you mean, if Hana," I shuddered at this point, because I hate thinking about my quote on quote "sister", "hadn't told me, I'd still think you two were my biological parents?" I looked at her and her eyes shifted away, as though my stare pierced her like a knife.

She sighed, wishing she'd never uttered her last sentence. I could see that the subject matter was bothering her, especially because we'd never formally spoken on it before, but that didn't stop me from pressing on with the conversation.

"I felt like it was only going to complicate things. I mean, you were having a happy childhood; I don't see why it should be ruined with--"

"Wait, you think telling me would've ruined my childhood?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Don't you think that maybe if you'd told me, I would've understood how to deal with Hana?" She shrugged her shoulders again.

"I didn't know if knowing would be to hard on you. To know that your real parents were out there somewhere. I thought that maybe if I told you, maybe you wouldn't want to stay with us anymore."

"You didn't tell me…because you were being selfish." My voice began to rise; anger bubbling deep within my chest.

She buried her forehead into her hand, her eyes squinting in anguish.

Don't you think I would've rather heard it from you than from her?"

" But you put the distrust there by not telling me." I threw the porcelain bow of rice on the floor in anger, shattering it into small shards. "You didn't trust me right? Or is there some other excuse you're looking to dump on me now?"

"I didn't want this to happen," she replied, trying to keep herself calm. I could see tears shimmering in her eyes, though. " I didn't want you to be an angry kid who resented both her biological parents and her adoptive ones."

I was done listening to her; I stormed up the stair case as well as I could with a hurt ankle toward my bedroom.

"I didn't want you to hate me!"

"How's that working for you now?" I slammed the door and trudged to my bed, glancing at my plum colored hair in the mirror for a second.

"Damn it!" I hit the wall next to my bed, causing it to crack. I was so pissed off…I needed to cool off somewhere…

I hopped on my good foot over to my closet and opened it, selecting a black and purple plaid button down shirt, acid wash Bermuda shorts and lime green converse. I walked back over to the mirror, saw my hair had achieved its regular bluish hue, opened up my window, and shimmied down the tree just outside.

"You're pretty active for someone who's supposed to be hurt, Pura-chan~"

"Who's 'Pura' supposed to be?" I toddled briskly past the door to my house. Tsubasa and Aaron took long strides to catch up with me. " What is 'Pura' anyways?"

"it's the first two syllables of plum, silly. I just felt like bestowing a new nickname on you today. You can thank me later," Tsubasa smiled playfully.

"I'm not in the mood for your stupidity today," I muttered. Aaron grabbed me by the arm, halting me in my tracks.

"You look like something's bugging you." His face carried the same frank expression as his tone of voice. His talent of guessing the obvious was really annoying.

"I don't feel like discussing this right now."

"Not like you'd discuss it later, right?" I didn't answer and this seemed to please him. "Well, there's no point in spending a day pissed off, so you should come with us, Sumomo."

"Where?" I didn't object to going; maybe spending the day with them would cool me down, and as an added bonus, I felt my heart do a back flip when he asked me.

"Patience, patience," he smiled again. I rolled my eyes and he ruffled my hair. "Don't be like that; you're going to be happy we left it as a surprise." He slapped his hand over my eyes.

"No peeking~" He said in a weird, sing-songy voice.

"You sound like a creeper…" Aaron said, his voice filled with embarrassment. I couldn't have agreed more.

I walked for what seemed like an endless amount of time, having no idea of where I was going or how fast I'd get there. I could only tell that I was being guided by Tsubasa's firm hand on my shoulder and the other still plastered over my eyes.

"Are we there yet?" I asked, trying to ignore the pain radiating from my ankle. I really shouldn't have been on it this much.

"Almost, almost…"

"Almost" seemed like another eon of time. I was beginning to grow impatient, and the pain was making me all the more irritated. Finally, he stopped abruptly behind me, peeling his hand off my face. I still felt the warm imprint over my eyes, though. We were in an upper class suburbia.

"Why are we here?" I asked. It seemed like such a random place.

"You've never played ding-dong ditch on rich people?"

"D-Ding dong ditch?"

Aaron looked over at me in shock.

"Please tell me you know what it is, Nihara." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Of course I know what it is. What makes you think it's going to make things better?"

Tsubasa started toward one of the large houses, his head still turned to me and Aaron. "It's a mix of adrenaline and hilarity. Of course you're going to feel better." He then motioned for us to hide in the underbrush next to the house and ran up the stairs, rang the doorbell, knocked obnoxiously several times, then nimbly ran back down and hid with us.

After about three minutes, an elderly man opened the door. He looked to be in his late seventies, if not older, with a wide rectangular silvery mustache below his nose that was almost identical to his eyebrows. Most of his hair was on his face rather than his head, which was mostly comprised of desolate bald spots. On his nose were gigantic glasses that framed his hazy brown eyes.

"Wha- who's there?" He scratched his head in confusion and returned inside, muttering, "I must be imagining things…" Four minutes later, Tsubasa did it again. Once more, the man came outside, stood on his porch looking around frantically for the person ringing his doorbell.

"Maybe Emi was right; maybe I should take those pills she had prescribed for me." At this, I almost lost it, but I managed to hold my laughter in until the old man had gone back indoors.

"Aww, I was hoping for a butler to answer. They always crack me up," Tsubasa chuckled, helping me up from my bushy perch.

"You wanna have a go?"

"Nah; I'll just watch a couple more times," I responded, internally wincing from my ankle pain.

He and Aaron went a couple more time before forcing me to go. They pushed me up the steps toward a large white, three floor house, and jumped into the bushes next to me. Reluctantly, I rang the doorbell.

"Coming!" A voice rang out from the opened window. I turned to run down the stairs. And then, the worst scenario played out in front of me. I tripped down the three stairs. And landed on  my ankle. I screamed in pain. Without missing a beat, Tsubasa jumped out of the underbrush and hoisted me up onto his back.

"You okay?"

My answer came out in the form of deep sobs of pain. He started to sprint back down the street, Aaron following closely behind him. I turned back to catch a glimpse of the person who had opened the door. He looked to be about my same age, with black shiny hair that had a purplish undertone. He smiled at me and waved at me, as though he knew me. There was something very nostalgic about him, but I was sure I'd never seen him before, so I turned back and buried my head into Tsubasa's back and let out another long sob.


"Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"I'm sorry, Nihara-chan," Mrs. Sasaki apologized as she squeezed my ankle firmly once more. I grimaced.

"Well, the good thing is it isn't broken; just a sprain. You're lucky you didn't damage it worse than this." She took some sports tape and an Ace Bandage and wrapped up my ankle. "Just ice it and you should be a lot better in a couple days."

"Thank you," I said, bowing as well as I could in a sitting position."

She waved her hand in modesty. "Don't thank me; its just handy that I'm a physician's assistant. Besides, if my idiot son here hadn't dragged you off to do this, none of this would've happened," she smiled before stabbing Tsubasa in the ribs with her index finger. Then she turned to Aaron.

"And you! You're usually so responsible; how could you go along with that?"

He shrugged his shoulders with the same usual indifference his face carried. Mrs. Sasaki shook her head.

"Well you better not do something so rude and stupid ever again, do you understand?"

We all nodded our heads. Satisfied, she strolled into the kitchen to make dinner for her family.

"Tsu-chaaan! Sleep-chaaaan! Is that you?"

"Yeah, its us, Kandi!"

I glanced at Aaron and snickered. "Sleep-chan?"

Aaron shook his head in disapproval. "She calls us things regardless of whether we like them or not." I understood that.

Kandace zoomed down the stairs, caught sight of me, and grinned from ear to ear.

"Lei-chiiiii!!!!!!"

I didn't bother reminding her not to call me that; she had the same selective hearing that the rest of my "friends" had. She ran over to hug me and stopped short.

"Woah! You're ankle looks even worse than it did Thursday!" She knelt down and poked it incessantly. " Oh! Its so puffy! So swollen!" Her eyes were wide and childlike. Despite every pained wince I made she continued to press her finger onto it.

"Its not a big deal," I scratched my head.

"Well…since it looks so bad, I guess you won't be able to walk home tonight."

"Yeah, I guess." Tsubasa would have to carry me home. I

"So you should spend the night here! We can have a sleepover and invite Mizu-zu!"

I looked at her like she was crazy.

"What, you've never had a sleepover?"

I shook my head. "Of course I have! I mean, but not recently. Its just…"

"You can sleep in my room! And don't worry about Tsu-chan and the other guys; it'll just be girls night! C'mon, pleeassseeeee!!!!"

I sighed and reached into my pocket, pulling out my cell phone.

"Should I be the one to call Mizuki, or what?"

Kandace clasped her hands together, ecstatic. "This is going to be so fun, Lei-chan! Just you wait and see!"
**** Tsubasa's POV


"I guess everyone else is out, huh?"

"That's kind of obvious, Mizu."

"That would make it a lot safer to talk then, don't you think?"

Mizuki and I sat on the two recliners in the room, with Leiko, Kandace, Aaron and Kyle all passed out on the floor.

"I guess that movie was so bad, it put them to sleep, huh, Tsu-chan?" Mizuki giggled. I put my finger to my mouth.

"Shhhh." I grabbed her hand and we crept out of the room. I led her to the side door and slid it open. The summer air was warm and humid, yet there was a comforting breeze that invited us to sit outside, our legs dangling off the edge of the porch.

"How exactly do you feel about Lei-chi?"

I tapped my fingers on the wooden porch. "Can't answer that yet."

Mizuki looked up at me perplexed, her amber eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

"What do you mean by that?"

I looked up at the sparkling night sky.

"I'll answer when I really know who she is. That girl in there isn't Leiko. That's a façade, right?"

She nodded.

"Leiko's been hurt. Some by her own fault, yes, but a lot were circumstances she couldn't control. Even still, she's taken it all upon herself and shut down so she'd never be hurt again."

"She still shows glimpses of what she used to be, doesn't she?"

"Yeah…"

I thought back to that very first day I met her. The day this all started. Her scared face when I took the apple. The pain in her eyes. I never saw pain in them before. I never wanted to see her face like that again.

"What'll you do now?" Mizuki swung her feet aimlessly back and forth.

"I dunno; you're the one who knows her best. You know what she's been through. You tell me."
"Tsu-chan, I couldn't betray my friend; that wouldn't be right." She smiled.

"The same goes for me, right?" Her laugh reminded me of wind chimes.

"Of course. After all, I wouldn't want to ruin an eight year friendship, would I?"

"Guess not." I couldn't believe I'd known Mizuki for that long. It's hard to believe that after meeting someone one time at a party would lead to a friendship that's lasted half your life.

"I hope I haven't dragged you into this for nothing, Tsubasa."

I nodded. "I hope I can help you out, Mizu."