Secrets Of Spring | Shigatsu Wa Kimi No Uso ;; Watari Ryota |

Chapter One

Maika
Present Day

3:29 p.m.

I stare at the clock, counting down the seconds until class is over. "Five, four, three, two... one..." I mentally say in my head. The bell rings as I hit zero and I jump out of my seat. "Yes!! Freedom!"

"Okay class, your homework tonight is to read pages 13 through 35." Our teacher announces as we put our stuff away in our bags.

"Maika!" I hear someone call out. I turn around and see Watari coming towards me.

"Hey, Watari!" I respond back as I close my bag, slinging it over my shoulder.

"Do you think you can come over tonight? I need help with math and if I don't get my grades up, I have to quit soccer," He asks. "and besides, if I don't become a superstar, then what's the point of living?"

"Sure, but don't get too cocky. I'll meet you at the front of the school after practice," I laugh and playfully push him.

"Okay, I'll see you later then!" He waves and then walks out of the classroom to go to practice.

I smile happily and twirl around. Watari and I have had an interesting relationship. I've liked him since we were young and we're super close (quite literally), but I've never had the guts to tell him like all the other girls at my school. It would just make our friendship awkward if he rejected me since he has all these other girls at his feet. Besides, I value our friendship more, I don't want to lose him. I skip out the door and head towards the locker room when I hear running footsteps.

"Maika, wait up!" Someone calls out. I turn around and see Tsubaki running towards me. She notices my smile and asks, "I see you're happy about something!! Are you thinking about a guy?"

"Is it so bad for me to smile?" I question her jokingly, trying to calm myself down.

"Well I mean it is a school day so," She says.

"I just figured out what song I'm doing for my competition dance so that's what I'm happy about," I partially lie. Although I'm not at a dance studio anymore, I do competition dance independently and I finally figured out what song I'm doing for my upcoming show, but that's not the reason why I'm smiling.

"That's great! But why didn't you just ask Kousei to play a song or somethin'?" She asks.

"I would've but you have to use a disc for the song, and the majority of competitors choose professional ballets, so that's what I'm doing." I respond.

"Oh yeah, but I mean you could've recorded him and then fire it on to a disk." She says.

"You're really being persistent about this huh?" I comment.

"Well, I just don't think he should give it up since it was a big deal to his mom," Tsubaki replies.

We change the subject after that as we walk towards the locker room. I put on a black leotard with lace details and pink ballet tights. I tie my hair up into a bun and then head out of the locker room.

I open the door to the dance studio. There's no one in here as usual but the window is open making the curtains sway in the wind and the cherry blossom petals float inside, landing gracefully on the ground. I brush them aside and throw them away so I don't slip on them and then go to the bar. I do my normal stretches and barre routines.

Outside the boys on the soccer team and the girls on softball practice loudly but my music usually drowns them out so I leave the window open. I search the song from "Red Shoes" on the laptop and start recording on my phone.