Motivated to be lazy

Chapter 28

A/N: Twelve hour shifts at work lately because we're really busy so I haven't been able to write much atm. Probably shows in the quality, I have not received any peanuts for some time now.

Thank you to Inferno3054 for helping out once again with everything :)

Once work dies down I'll be able to write more :) Short one to start things off.

"Would you relax already?"

"When you said that you were going to help and that you were going to contribute, this was not what I had in mind," Eiichiro grumbled in annoyance.

"Well, expect the unexpected. Relaxation time is very important," I waved my hand dismissively as I closed my eyes, putting my intertwined hands behind my head and getting more comfortable. A bit redundant since I was wearing sunglasses while lying on a sunbed but still.

"You're always relaxing! We should be going over things, I thought you were going to teach me," Eiichiro whined.

"Then take my lesson and shut up. We're on a cruise ship on summer vacation. Go use the gym or something if you're not going to accept my tutelage."

I will admit I did bring him here under false pretenses, I did say that I was going to help him and as far as I was concerned I had so far. I spoke more strategy last week with him than I ever have before, it was progress. Come on, you can't expect me to change from hopelessly lazy to brimming with ambition in just a few days. These things take time, just like meat that needs to marinate in the refrigerator to build the flavors. Besides, there was plenty of time.

I also didn't get to spend a lot of time with Eiichiro, especially lately. He spent most of his time with Hirata now, the two of them fully dedicated to leading and helping the class. He even spent more time with Horikita than he did with me. It didn't help that I was almost exclusively hanging out with Honami lately, I wanted time with my best friend for a change.

"Look, it took them three months to give us our first special test. It just ended not long ago, everyone's fatigued. Right now tensions are high with everyone else and you're still beating yourself up over the fact that things didn't go the way you planned. If we stress ourselves and pour over all the details right now, is that going to change the results?" I reasoned with him.

"Well, no... it won't," Eiichiro conceded reluctantly.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed happily, sitting up on my sunbed. "We have three months to prepare for the next exam, we can go over all that boring stuff when we get back to the school. Have you ever been on a cruise ship before?"

"You know that I haven't," Eiichiro glared at me.

"So enjoy it, I know I am. Try to be a little more carefree, it's better for your leadership skills. No one wants to follow a leader who's always uptight and panicky. Everything is fine, just enjoy this while we can," I tried to reassure him, wagging my finger as though I were admonishing him.

"I hate when you do that," Eiichiro muttered angrily. "Everytime you say everything's fine, shit hits the fan. It's like you have some sort of bad juju."

"See, it's that negative attitude of yours that will ruin your summer vacation. Just think about it, the last three months have been hell. Class D has no points, you stressed out over the fact that we lost and then there's the Sudo thing. You're frustrated, you can't learn anything if you're stressed."

"Well... we are on a ship where we don't have to spend any points," Eiichiro admitted reluctantly with the smallest beginnings of a smile. "I suppose it's nice that we can eat good food without having to budget for once."