Heroes

Chapter Nineteen

“Huh?” Tara said, crawling over to look at the bird. “You got a bird? A parakeet? How…cute!” She opened the cage and pulled the bird out as he quietly rested on her finger. 

“Hello!” the bird crowed. “My name is Yûichi Shibata! What’s your name?”

Tara grinned happily. “Ooh! You’re just adorable!” She looked at Ichigo with delight. He smiled at her, a little fakely, and moved to be behind her. 

“You’re right!” he said, smiling. “He is cute!” 

I smiled. Anyone could tell that Ichigo sensed something off about the bird. He probably didn’t want to worry Tara. 

How sweet.

“My name’s Tara Bartlett!” she said happily. “Can you say ‘Tara?’”

“Chad…” Ichigo said, turning around. “Where’d you get the parakeet?”

“Yesterday…” Chad said, seeming to be building suspense, “…a guy gave it to me.”

“Hey!” Keigo exclaimed. “Tell us the whole story! Don’t be lazy! Bad habit! Spill it, tell us everything!”

“That was the whole story!” Chad argued. 

“No way!”

I smirked; I had such dumb friends. Finishing my lunch, I walked over to Tara. 

“Look,” I whispered in her ear. “Don’t react strangely to this, but that bird is possessed. Put it back and come with me. Don’t tell anyone I told you this, okay?”

She looked at me strangely for a bit, but carefully placed Yûichi back into his cage. She kissed Kurosaki on the cheek (you should’ve seen how red his face was!) and we began to depart.

“Hey,” Babs said. “Where are you guys going?”

“Uh…Tara’s gotta get something from her locker, so I’m gonna go with her. Plus lunch’s almost over, and I wanna get to my seat before Tsuyoshi can put a tack in it or something.” I gave her a look--meaning that she needed to quit questioning--and she understood, bidding us farewell. 

We left without incident.

Once we were safely out of range of anyone that could hear us, Tara started the interrogation.

“Why did you tell me that?” she rushed. “What’s all this about? And possessed? Are you serious?”

I grabbed her shoulders roughly, forcing her to stop and silence. 

“Look,” I said. “Remember? I know this story. Trust me, it’s dangerous to be around that parakeet.”

She paused in thought. “Y’know, now that you mention it, Ichigo was really hesitant, too. Didn’t you see how tense and over-happy he was?”

I smiled. So she did notice. I nodded in agreement. 

She pouted a bit. “But still, how could something so cute be dangerous?”

I glared. “’Talking Tina?’”

She quickly understood my Twilight Zone reference and nodded. “Got it,” she said, shuddering a bit. 

I smiled faintly. “Good; now let’s get to class, I guess.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We were home and it was around seven. Everyone was settled down and relaxing, anticipating the end of another day.

Suddenly, the phone rang.