Free! & Hope

HOPE-Special

Free! & Hope- Special Chapter

You're probably wondering Akane's middle school life, from the unexpected moment when she was taking ballet classes. By that time, her mother was in the hospital, and she thought of taking away some stress of knowing what could happen in the future, but not only her family situation...

12 year old Akane wakes up one morning and stretches herself a bit, she scratches her back and notices she's early, same expressionless face in the morning. She heard a knock on the door.

Edmi: "Onee-chan, let's get ready for school"

Aka: "I'll be right there, Hoshi-chan" she stood up from her bed and wore her uniform and combed her hair forming pigtails, pushed her glasses up and wore a black bow with a plastic skull in the middle. She walked out her room to find her sister happily fixing her hair and wore a pink lace over her hair.

Edmi: "Ohayo, onee-chan!" Akane smiles a little and bows, they walk out the door and left to school by train as always. Edmichiro played music on her iPod while Akane read a book. Edmichiro found some friends and talked for a while, Akane just looked around and found the boy she's been looking at since the first week of school. The dark haired quiet boy notice she was looking and she jumped a little when he looked back and she moved back  to reading her book.

School was the same to her, people silently whispering things about her, pushing her when she wasn't looking, insulting her look. She usually was on her own, looking at her book, or reading a comic, she usually read Nightcrawler comics, she felt she could relate, how people looked at him and thought he was a demon, when he was a man of the lord and a catholic priest, how he grew up and others thought he was a freak. Akane sat on the library to read her comic books and pushed her glasses up from the side. She heard a loud tap on the table, she was startled and looked up but only to see her friend, Kurumi, pretty much her only friend.

Kuru: "Akane-senpai~"
Aka: "Please don't call me that" she answered coldly reading her comic book.

Kuru: "Well hello to you too"

Aka: "Sorry" Kurumi sits next to her and curiously looks at the images of the comic.

Kuru: "What cha reading there?"

Aka: "Nightcrawler..."

Kuru: "Who?"

Aka: "Marvel"

Kuru: "... You lost me" Akane facepalms, she closed the book and shows her the cover.

Kuru: "OH! The blue guy that can teleport"

Aka: "No, he's a fuzzy blue elf that can teleport" she said expressionless blushing a little.

Kuru: "Y-yeah... you got weird taste in that type of stuff, Akane"

Aka: "How is it weird!?" she yelled angry.

Kuru: "I-I didn't mean it that way!" Akane started shaking her friend.

Aka: "URUSAI!"

"Shhh!" the librarian shouted out. They looked at her and mouthed 'sorry'.

After school, Akane walked herself to the ballet classes, her ballet teacher had her all the way in the back. But not today, she called her up front.

"Miss Higuri" she jumped a little and straightened herself up.

Aka: "Hai!"

"Stand here, please" she was surprised that she called her up, she wasn't expecting it.