Chapter 5

Rika’s efforts were not useless. Maki eventually lightened up whenever she’s around. She’s not the same loner she met months ago. She learned how to socialize now… Well… Rika was the only one she often talked to, that’s why Rika has another goal in her mind… To introduce Maki to her friends.

“Hey! Let’s eat in the cafeteria once.”
They were sitting under a sakura tree in the back side of the school. Only few students went there. It was such a peaceful place which matched Maki’s behavior.

“If you want to go, then go. I like this peaceful place rather than that noisy cafeteria.”

“If you think that it’s too noisy, then put some ear muffs or something so you will not hear any noise.”

“And be the laughing stock of the campus…. Yeah right… If you do it, then I may consider following you.”

“Ok then, I’ll bring two earmuffs tomorrow morning.”

“You’re joking right? You can’t be that serious?!” Maki eyes widened at disbelief of what Rika’s saying.

“I’m dead serious!!!” Rika looked straight at Maki’s eyes. After a short second, she laughed real hard. Maki eventually followed her.

“I guess I’m not good at lying.”

“But you sure are good in making me laugh.” Maki’s eyes started to tear up a little due to hard laughing.

“Hey, stop it now. I’ll blame you if we smell something stinky later.”

“You’re the one who must stop making funny comments!” Maki touched her stomach. It was already aching from all that hard giggling of hers. She was really enjoying Rika’s company. Now she doesn’t want to be alone anymore.

“It’s good that you are laughing now. It’s really a great improvement on your part.”

“Is that so?” Maki blushed at Rika’s comment.

“Yep! So, what now?”

“What ‘what now’?”

“Are we going to eat in the cafeteria? I know it’s nice to eat here but, sometimes we have to explore a little… to socialize, you know what I mean.”

“I get your point... Maybe next week.”

“YEY!!!! Hey, I heard that their Onigiri are really tasty and also, their Udon bread is one of the best in the community.”

“And you’re like what, implying that you want to taste it?”

“Hai… Let’s buy it together… Onegai!!!”

“Fine, I’ll buy you your Udon bread till you grow really fat.” Maki pinched Rika’s cheeks.

“That’s mean!” Rika and Maki laughed for the rest of their lunch break. They were enjoying each others company that they didn’t notice the time. They came inside the room just before their teacher comes in.

“You two were almost late.” Yasuda stared intently at the two of them.

“Gomenasai!”

“Hahaha, I was just joking. You still entered before me, so that was not considered as late. Sit down. I have some important matter to discuss with the class.”

The whole class became active with the buzzing and whispering.

“Quiet! I’m going to tell you that on the next month, our school will celebrate our Sports Festival as part of the Physical Education curriculum. It will be a week-long celebration with many games and activities that will need the participation of the whole class. The main event will be the Futsal and Cheering games. Since Ms. Ishikawa is in our class, I hope that we will have some place in the futsal. I’ll get the names of those who want to join in the specific activities.”

Yasuda wrote all the activities involved in the sports festival and the number of students involved in each activities.

Rika’s seat was two rows away from Maki. She passed a letter to a girl named Reina and asked her to pass it to Maki.

“Hey, please join the futsal team. If you don’t know the rules or how to play it, we still have a month to practice. Onegai… I want to play with you. XD ”

Maki smiled at the letter, she got her ball pen and wrote her answer on the same paper. She then tapped Reina’s shoulder signaling her to return the letter to Rika. Reina could see the smile on Rika’s face while reading what Maki have written.