Stormy Summer

A Day of Studying

Sorry, this is a day late. I'm currently sick with a killer-migraine and I could barely manage to write 100 words at a time without my eye tearing up.

The next one will hopefully not be as late as this one!

The last days of our trip went without much incident. We were now sat in Akaashi's living room books splayed out across the table as we hurried to try and finish our homework before school would start again.

Sometime during our Math homework, Kuro and Bokuro had shown up on the doorstep. They had offered to help us finish at least some of it after we declined their offer to go outside.

"That's wrong. It should be x equals b," Kuro scratched something on Anna's sheet, making her glare at him slightly. I smiled at the display. Or rather... Maybe they just wanted to make fun of us.

Or rather, Kuro was making fun of Anna, who was attempting to finish her math homework, while also trying to figure out whether Kuro is right about her 'wrong answers' or not. Bokuto was genuinely trying to help, though he seemed to be having problems with math himself.

I felt my mind go blank as I read the next task.

This is ridiculous.

Why do students get homework over the Summer, anyway? We never got them back home.

Rose groaned next to me, her head hitting the table in frustration. Charlie lightly tapped Rose's shoulder with her pen in sympathy.

I wrote down the start of the equation, the mundane task making me feel trapped, as I stared at the equation for a few moments.

Reluctantly, I started solving the equation, "I don't like math anymore..." Rose mumbled next to me, and I nodded in agreement.

"You shouldn't accept Bokuto's help," Akaashi spoke up, appearing in the doorway out of seemingly nowhere.

Bokuto sputtered in protest, "Akaashi!" he complained loudly, making Rose stir and lift her head, seeming weirdly drowsy.

Did she seriously fall asleep just now?

"Why?" Charlie asked after a few seconds of Bokuto complaining, slightly embarrassed still.

"No reason," was Bokuto's immediate response, pouting.

Akaashi sighed as he sat down at the table, too, surprising Rose and me as he looked over our tasks.

"I already finished my homework... Why did you put it off until now?" he glanced at us, "Seems unlike you," his voice was as flat as ever, but I think I heard a slight curiosity in there.

"We didn't want to," Anna spoke up, swatting away Kuro's pen that was trying to change something in her results again.

"Well, actually-" Rose stopped momentarily as she saw the glare Anna was sending her way. They held eye-contact for a few seconds as Rose seemed to contemplate whether or not to continue, "We considered taking the stuff with us, but Anna thought it'd spoil the fun."

Anna's threatening glare morphed into an offended frown, most likely not expecting Rose to throw her under the bus like that. The next thing I knew was Anna grabbing Kuro's rubber - which is actually Rose's - and throwing it at Rose, hitting her arm.

"Not true," she defended herself, though I doubt anyone believed that.

It was true, after all.

We knew it.

They knew it.

And, I'm sure, deep, deep down, she knew it, too.

Rose just smiled at her, shaking her head amusedly. Kuro reached over the table, snatching the rubber back, and erasing Anna's answer before scribbling the - in his opinion - correct answer in its stead.

"Hey!" Anna exclaimed, getting more and more frustrated with Kuro, "I told you that answer wasn't wrong!" she argued, but Kuro ignored her, already scribbling down the next task. Anna huffed at that, turning to look at how far Charlie and Rose had gotten, "How are you this far already?" she sounded offended, somehow.

Rose shrugged, glancing at which task Anna was at, "I guess we just don't have a little voice in our head telling us how we're wrong," she said, yawning lightly at the end.

Kuro looked offended this time, "It was wrong," he defended himself, "I'm just helping," the smirk on his face made me doubt him, but I decided against calling him out. Instead, turning my attention back to Bokuto and Akaashi, who seemed to be arguing about something.

Or... Well, Bokuto was arguing about something.

Akaashi didn't seem to listen much but nodded every now and then.

It's hard to tell whether he actually listened or whether he just naturally knows when nodding is required to look as if he's listening to what Bokuto is complaining about.

From what I understood, it had something to do with a guy named... 'Ushiwaka?'

Such a weird name...

I frowned.

I listened for a short while longer, gathering that this guy with the weird name was a volleyball player from the region the two kids from two weeks ago came from. Supposedly, he is very strong, and from what I gathered Bokuto wanted someone from Miyagi to beat him st that he could beat that team in the nationals.

They're going to nationals?

I couldn't help but be impressed. I turned to glance at his fierce expression as he deduced that by beating the team that won against 'Ushiwaka,' he would have bested the guy himself.

I suppressed a smile, not sure that this would be how this works, but Akaashi seemed to disagree with Bokuto's logic, as well.

"Akaashi! You're supposed to agree with me!" Bokuto scolded when Akaashi shook his head in disagreement, looking at Bokuto as though he deemed him dimwitted.

I bit my lip at the familiarity of this situation.

Half the school year was almost over. It wouldn't be long now until we'll have to go back home.

I couldn't help but frown at the thought. I had gotten so used to being in Japan, that I nearly forgot about having to go back home after the school year was over.

And, since summer break is almost over, we should probably receive our school material from the time we missed quite soon.

I sighed as I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, but all I could think about was if we'd still manage to stay friends with everyone we met here, even if we're halfway across the world again.

Next Update: September 13th 2020