Life Or Death

Chapter 1

"So...a squared plus b squared equals c squared and blahdi blahdi da?"
I laugh.
It's a Saturday morning and the sun is shining in through the window, casting an almost unbearable heart, making it next to impossible to concentrate. Yet we still try. We being me, and two of my best friends, Kokomi and Seiko.
Seiko is trying to teach herself the Pythagorean Theorem for the test on Monday, whereas Kokomi isn't even trying. She doesn't really need to; Kokomi's super smart.
We're all on edge especially because it's another of our friends birthday and we're heading over to her house after we've eaten lunch-she's called Hiyori.
I peek over at Kokomi's phone screen to see what she's texting, and notice she's texting her classes group chat. She's in a different class to me and Seiko, because of her learning ability.
There are a total of seven people in our friendship group. Crazy, right?
In class 3-2, there's me, Rouh and Seiko. In class 3-1, there's Kokomi, Hiyori, Yuta and Jin.
I see the others in their class all wish Hiyori a happy birthday. She's super popular for some reason, even though usually if you hung out with even one boy, you'd get bullied for being a so-called "pick me". And we all hang out with two! Yuta and Jin, if you couldn't tell.
"Ughhh, stop introducing decimals!" I hear Seiko groan, before slumping back in her chair.
"Hey Seiko?" Kokomi looks up from her phone at her.
"Mmm?" Comes the reply.
"Did you even tell your parents about today? And what about last night? The sleepover wasn't planned. I'm just wondering."
"Oh that. Don't worry, it's fine. I came over to study yesterday, and we decided to pull an all night study session running over into the next day."
"Will they really believe that...?" I ask sceptically.
"Have some faith in me Aiko! My lying skills are awesome!"
"I don't think that's a skill deserving praise," Kokomi laughs.
"It is with my parents." Seiko sighs. "Nevermind that! What's the chat saying?" Her tone changes completely.
"It's basically just wishing Hiyori a happy birthday. Nothing too exciting."
"The boys are gonna be there on time right? They said they had something to do today." I remember.
"They better. Or I'll kick their asses. Not joking." Seiko chips in.
"Are you seriously still studying though Seiko?" Kokomi glances over at the notebook with scrawls and scribbles covering it.
"I have to! I'm not naturally gifted like you, y'know," she huffs. "My parents are gonna kill me if I fail another test!"
Kokomi just rolls her eyes with a simple "Suit yourself." but I know better. Seiko is genuinely worried about this.
There was a period of time two years ago, where Seiko wasn't at school for almost the whole year. As in she was gone February to October. Of course we were all super worried. When she came back, she entrusted her secret to me, and only me. To this day no one else knows.
I still remember it vividly, she came in part way through the day. I was called out of class and I immediately knew something was very wrong.
When I walked into the office, Seiko was sat in a chair, sobbing into her hands. Apparently she was too upset to go to class and when she was asked who she wanted to keep her company, she said me.
She allowed me to hear her story. She told me that her mother's drinking problem had gotten far worse, and she'd been put into rehab, not only that but her dad had been taken to court for possession of illegal drugs, supposedly to give to his wife. Both of her parents were taken away, and she was put into a care home for that time.
Then just the other month, her mother got released from rehab, and it took about a month and a half to get everything sorted, but Seiko was allowed to live her mother again, as she could defend her case and was strong enough to argue with the courts.
Her dad is looking at a much longer time in prison, not that it really matters as he got broken up with, shortly after he went to the prison. Yeah probably should've said, but they weren't actually married.
Seiko's mother married after, quite quickly, (so quickly that Seiko accused her of cheating on her dad while they were still together) and that husband became Seiko's almost new dad.
It's been so hard on her, and she's missed a lot of schooling, so she's very far behind. It doesn't help that her parents want the best for her but don't understand how it works. They don't seem to get why Seiko scores lower in tests or performs less well in physical educational and drama, for example.
So story time over I suppose, but there's a bit of background information about Seiko. And remember, I'm the only one who knows this.
Back to the present.
I grab my notebook and start designing little outfits in them as I want to become someone in the fashion industry when I'm older, Kokomi goes back to messaging her group chat, and Seiko leans over her revision books once more.
A few minutes later, I'm working on drawing some ruffled sleeves when Seiko sneezes. Very loudly. I practically jump out of my skin and my pencil skids across the page. I look back down.
"Oh Seiko! You made me mess up!" I sigh.
"Sorryyyy! I didn't mean to! Hey what time is it?"
"The party's in an hour and a half," Kokomi replies. "Should we start making some food?"
"Yep, yep, yeppity yep!" Seiko leaps out of her seat and flings open the door. "What do you want? I can make it for us."
"I actually have some sushi already made downstairs for us. I thought we could just eat that," Kokomi explains.
"Alrighty! Follow me then!"
Kokomi gets up and walks after Seiko, who I can already hear halfway down the staircase. I follow.
We eat sushi and some pocky afterwards and talk and chill until the time arrives for us to go to Hiyori's party.
Seiko is dancing with excitement, literally she's twirling all over the place, while I help Kokomi put on her golden choker necklace. She's wearing a white blouse, with a navy skirt, ending just above the knee, black thigh high socks with white lines, and navy pumps. Her black hair hangs loosely down her back. Usually this would just look like school uniform on anybody else, but Kokomi seems to make it work. She's that type of person.
Seiko has her bright, blonder hair loose in lots of big curls, also wearing a white blouse, but with an orange dungaree dress, knee high black fishnets, and black boots with orange accents.
I am wearing my dark green hair (I dyed it because I lost a bet. The teachers don't seem to mind. I've only gotten six detentions for it and I dyed it a couple weeks ago) in a short, messy bob with a white Alice band. I'm wearing the same gold choker as Kokomi and I'm also wearing a white jumper that has a v shape dipping down at the top and a semi circle of fabric gone at the bottom. For the lower half, I'm wearing a jagged, ripped denim skirt, with black tights and white platforms.
We all stand in Kokomi's hallway for a good few minutes, complimenting each other.
When we finally leave, Seiko's shivering with excitement. Because of her parents, she doesn't get to go out like this very often.
When we arrive at Hiyori's house, we knock on the door and she flings it open, a huge smile plastered across her face.
She has her mouse brown hair in a high ponytail, but is wearing a shower robe.
"Hey guys! What're you doin' here so early?" She gives us a questioning glance.
"What do you mean early? It's one pm just like the invite said!" Seiko asks.
Hiyori gasps.
"The invites say one?"
She shrieks when all three of us nod.
"God I'm so stupid! Disaster!" She's clearly mad at herself, but there's no need.
"Hey Hiyori its okay! If you wanna go take a shower, I can message the group chat and we'll all stand guard out here and let anyone who comes by know!" Kokomi suggests.
"Really?! Thank you so much, y'all are life savers!" The cheery smile quickly returns to Hiyori's face. She shuts the door again and we all turn around.
"Out of curiosity what time do you think the party is meant to start at?" I ask.
"Who knows with Hiyori," Seiko giggles. "Honestly, that girl!"
"I mean it's a garden party right? So if we're eating here it was probably meant to be at the earliest three or four." Kokomi works out.
I hear Seiko's phone ping and she pulls it out her pocket.
"It's the boys! They're currently in a shop buying a pack of ten bottles of Ramune Soda for one thousand five hundred yen." She reads the message out loud.
"Tell them the timings wrong." I say.
"Nah it's okay! We can spend some alone time with Hiyori this way!"
Then the door opens again, and Hiyori is stood in the doorway, her mouse brown hair in a high ponytail, wearing a pale yellow mini summer dress and sandles in the same colour. Such a simple outfit yet she looks so....pretty. Graceful.
Over time, the rest of the guests arrive, and as it got later, soon we found that us seven were the only ones left.
Rouh is currently stood in Hiyori's living room, scolding Jin and Yuta. Yuta is wearing a simple black jumper and navy ripped jeans with black trainers, and Jin is wearing aImost the same. A beige jumper and normal denim jeans for him. Yuta's white hair is covering most of his face, while Jins black hair is kept out of the way. I go to join them and find out this is because they supposedly did something to Rouh's drink while the party was going on.
We all stay a bit longer, helping Hiyori clean up and then head home.
Seiko gives me a sad smile before crossing the street to get to her house. Hope everything goes smoothly with your parents, I think, even though I know she can't hear me.
I decide to try and do some more revision, and don't notice how late it's getting until I'm asleep and drooling over my maths book.

~

My eyes feel...heavy. Or is it my eyelids? I blink for a few moments before opening my eyes fully. I'm staring at a white ceiling, and notice I'm lying on a cold, marble floor. There's a faint smell of smoke.