Thinking Out Loud

HiroHaku - Homecoming . . . 3

"That was actually kinda fun," Maemi said, referring to their earlier dance.

"Yeah, I like it," Hiro agreed.

"Kinda makes you tired, though." Her hand was pressed to her chest as she took in deep breaths.

"It's supposed to. It's an exercise as well as a dance."

"No kidding."

"Two bottles of water," Hiro said to the lady in the concession stand. She fished two out of the ice-filled cooler and set it on the counter.

"One dollar," she said.

Hiro dug a dollar bill out of her pocket and gave it to her, then picked up the bottles. The ice-cold water cooled his throat. He handed the second one to Maemi.

"Thanks." She twisted the lid off and drank deeply. They walked back to where Haku was sitting. "You sure Haku won't get jealous?" she asked, slightly smiling with one brow up.

"Oh, no. It's a dance. He won't care. Haku's not the jealous type," Hiro replied. "If anything, I'm the jealous one. I never like anyone near him. Like this one time, we were at a convenience store getting some soda..." He sat down next to Haku and Maemi sat on his other side. "Hey Haku, I'm telling Maemi the story of when we were at that convenience store."

"Oh God." Haku face-palmed.

Hiro went on, "So we were at the counter paying for the sodas. The cashier was a female. I think she assumed we were just friends and decided to start flirting with my Haku."

"What'd you do?" Maemi asked.

"I hit her with my bottle of soda and then shoved her head through the lottery ticket rack," Hiro replied.

"Then he grabbed me and screamed about how I was his property for several minutes," Haku added. "Then Hiro destroyed the security camera, hacked into the system to get the footage of us off, and we left before the police got there."

"Sounds like a lot of fun." Maemi took another long drink of water.

"Yeah, it was," Hiro agreed.

The current song ended and a familiar voice said, "All right, now this is something new."

"IT'S THE CHA-CHA SLIDE!" Haku shouted, jumping up. He grabbed Hiro's arm. "I love this song!"

"Oh, yeah, me too— let's go." Hiro ran with him to the front of the crowd of students that were now on the dance floor. Only a few people remained sitting down. Even Maemi decided to go out there.

"This time, we're gonna get FUNKY!" the song rapped. Everyone sang along, clapping lightly to the beat and swaying from side to side. "FUNKY! Everybody clap your hands! Clap, clap, clap your hands!"

This song was an all-time favorite at dances. Everyone's heard it since middle school. It told you exactly how to dance to it in the lyrics. And it was a lot of fun.

"You really like this song, don't you?" Hiro asked as Haku sang along to several of the lyrics.

"Cha-cha now, y'all!" Haku replied.

Soon, the song reached the part everybody always sings along with.

"FREEZE!" all the students roared. "EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!" Fast, rhythmic clapping filled the gym.

When the song finally ended, everyone laughed and shouted, "Peace" along with the singer, many of them doing the peace sign with their hands. Then most of them sat down while some stayed on the floor to dance to the next song.