Life Made Anew

1: Swimwear

Over the past month, Kazama went from being the one everyone hated and was made fun of to being one of the most well-known people, for good reasons, and the boyfriend of one of the most popular girls in school, me.

I, Hatora Maki, strived to change his world, to make his world better, and I somehow succeeded. I never thought it would be as easy as it was, but it was made easy with his class on my—on our—side.

With a bit of convincing from me, I got his class' representative, Tomoru, on my side. Then, he stood in front of the class and got them for us. The class decided to show off his skills at the talent show. It worked.

His performance with the drum solo in the song written by Hotaru, Tomoru's girlfriend, accompanied by the lead guitarist, Kaname, with his solo made him popular. The band, consisting of Tomoru on piano; Kazama on drum set; Kaname on guitar; Sakura, Kaname's girlfriend; Hotaru and I singing; and Sakura on bass guitar, helped him become more popular.

The thing that really set it in motion was his piano solo. Everyone was awe stricken by his performance. We won the talent show and became the most well known person at school for all the right reasons this time. The next school day was an amazing day for him. He loved his new life but it was a bit uncomfortable with the all of the attention.

He could get used to it though.
—
After taking him to his classroom, I went to my class before the bell rang. I was so happy that my plan worked out for him. A lot of people were talking about him.

The bell rang and our teacher walked in. "All right, sit down. I have an announcement to make. With the festival ending, the pool will now be open during the athletics period."

Everyone got up and shouted for joy. Our teacher officially lost control of the class. I, for one, was happy that we just happened to share gym period with Kazama's class. What a coincidence.

"Quiet down!" Everyone froze for a second before sitting back down. "Because we announced it today, it won't be open to day."

"Aw..." Everyone said at once.

This does give me a chance to go shopping for a new swimsuit with him, I thought to myself. Wait... Going swimsuit shopping with Kazama! I blushed at the thought. It would be so embarrassing, asking his opinion on swimsuits.

"It will be tomorrow so go get yourselves some swimwear that'll be appropriate for school, okay?" There was an audible sigh from the guys. I guess they wanted to see girls in two-piece swimsuits. Pervs.

That made me think: would Kazama be like that? Would he want to see me in one? Then, I thought that I could get some casual swimwear as well to see if he likes that.
—
After school, I went to Kazama's class and dragged him out. "Come on, let's go get some swimsuits for tomorrow!" I said.

"Hold on, Maki! I didn't get my bag!" He said, yanking his arm from my grip. "Let me get my bag first."

I put on a pouty face. "Fine, don't take too long." By the time I said that, he already returned.

"It took longer for you to say that than it did for me to get my bag," he said, laughing. He patted my head and ruffled my hair. "Your pouty face was adorable."

"Huh? D-don't say s-something like that w-where everyone can h-hear you!" I said, embarrassed. I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the class. "L-let's go now."

I could tell that he was satisfied. He just wanted to embarrass me. He's a lot more playful now that we've gotten to know each other more. He was so shy back when I first met him.
—
We arrived at the swimsuit store near our house, just us two. We were looking around. Kazama found one easily, but I was looking awhile because I wanted to look good for him. Although, I could only pick from black and dark blue for school.

I went to change and showed it to him. "I-Is this good..?" I said nervously.

He blushed and turned away with his head tilted up. "You look very nice."

"I'll get this then. Wait one moment." I changed out of the the one-piece and into the more casual two-piece. I grabbed one without him looking earlier.

Kazama was turned away, and I opened the curtains. "That was—" He turned around and saw my swimsuit. "Wha?!"

"Does it not look good?" I asked, very embarrassed.

"N-no! Not at all!" He was frantically waving his hands, and his face was bright red. "You look very... Hot.." He seemed reluctant to say it, like it was embarrassing for him to say.

I chuckled a bit at that. "Then, I guess I'll get this too."

"Huh?!"

"Yeah, I thought that I'd get some casual swimwear while we were here. It's summer after all," I said. I already had plans for a vacation to the beach in Shinjuku. My grandparents live in that area. I was going to invite Rin to spend the vacation with us there in Shinjuku.

I went to pay for the swimsuits, and we left. Tomorrow: pool time!
—
A/N
I didn't feel like writing anymore than this, and if I did, it'd drag on awhile. I decided to break in the beginning of the sequel to "To Change a Life."