Swallowtail: Mariposa Radiante

Our New Normal

Swallowtail:

Chapter 6:

Our New Normal

"I cannot believe this! Here we are ready to go to a festival and you are making us do homework? What is wrong with you?!" Nino shouted, causing Futarou to return her angry glare with one of his own.

"If you did your homework during the week then maybe you'd be at the festival grounds already. Now shut up and do it. The festival starts soon, right? Chop chop!"

"You know if you keep being hard on them all they'll do is just push you back," Kaikane said, glancing up from his phone. "You gotta be a bit softer."

"Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. They had a week, Kaikane, a week. This is no excuse." he said, stepping away from the coffee table. "Speaking of, have you-"

"I did all my homework, double, triple, and quadruple checked, I quintuple checked just before I came here," he replied, holding back a laugh. "No need to worry about me, I did say I would solo study, you know."

"Then why don't I believe you?"

"Cut me some slack, man. I aced that English project and got an 86 on that Japanese test we had to do. What more do you want from me?" the blond boy asked, looking exasperated. "You can even ask your sister, I helped her with her homework while I did mine."

"It's true, big brother. He taught me all these weird formulas with letters and numbers! Why someone would mix the alphabet with math is beyond me though. It sucks."

"Ain't that the truth," Ichika said, earning a giggle from Miku.

"Still, it's a surprise that you actually agreed to come along, Kaikane-kun. I was expecting you to stay in tonight." Itsuki said, a pleased look on her face. "So um... thank you."

"Sure. You can thank your sister for convincing me, else I'd be at home watching YouTube or whatever else is on TV," he admitted, leaning back against the island.

"Aren't you excited, big bro?" Raiha asked, standing in front of the Hawaiian. "We get to see pretty fireworks and eat good food! What's not to like?"

"It isn't that I don't like the idea of the festival, I just find it boring." he shrugged, glancing back at his phone. "If I could get my hands on some good fireworks though, then I'd have fun."

"We discussed this in 8th grade, Kaikane. You will never, ever, touch fireworks again."

"Why not? Don't tell me he almost blew himself up." Ichika said, making Kaikane chuckle.

"Nothing quite like that. But my uncle decided to bring Futarou and Raiha with us to the beach. My cousin Hinata had gotten his hands on some Chinese fireworks. The kind that will put a hole in the ground if not fired properly. I snuck a few away from him and took them home. I showed Futarou the next night and almost got us sent to the hospital." he said, holding back a laugh. "I took 5 M80s and 3 cherry bombs, tied the fuses together, and then had the brilliant idea to tape them to a hairspray can."

"Dude why?" Yotsuba cried, her eyes widening in surprise. "That's like the dumbest thing you can do, and this is coming from me."

"What happened?" Miku asked, making Kaikane laugh.

"It exploded, left a crater in the road, and set off every car alarm in the block. My uncle found out and I had to wash every car on that street for the entire summer," he said, glancing back at Futarou who had his arms crossed. "Come on, it was funny."

"It was not! We could have died."

"Debatable."

"Tch... so you really are a delinquent! I knew it. Why do we even let you into our house?" Nino asked, making Kaikane sigh.