Generation 11

Chapter 4

Four 

Akane sat on the outside of the protection wall that surrounded the roof of their school. She was swinging her legs, which almost touched the fence that rose high up from the back of the school. The fence’s purpose was to protect people from falling over. Now chewing her lip, Akane looked down through a gap in the fence. It was definitely big enough for a person to fall through, so why did they even bother to put the fence up anyway? That aside, why wouldn’t they even bother to fix the fence? But Akane shook her head. Nobody would want to climb over the waist high wall that surrounded the roof of the school and sit on the little strip of concrete with nothing to help their balance.

Kari-chan?” Akane, her voice shaking a bit, turned to her friend sitting beside her who was leaning against the wall behind their backs.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re scared.” Karina said sarcastically, taking a bite of her sandwich. She seemed to be angrier than usual, but that was probably just Akane.

“Of course not. I… just… It’s just that nobody else wanted to join you - us, so far.” Akane said, avoiding her gaze.

“You didn’t have to remind me.” Karina admitted, though with even more venom in her voice. Akane thought that maybe they should just give up trying to find people to go to a mafia competition with them. She felt weird when she asked people and they gave her weird looks.

“You? A mafia? Competition? On your team?” A certain someone had said. “No, thank you.” After that, the girl had left and Akane felt as if some rumors about her was going on… Ones that she didn’t know about. Of course, she didn’t want to know about them anyways, she already had enough to deal with.

Ever since she got into high school, Akane had made herself an enemy of a few individuals. It all happened very quickly. It was the beginning of the term, and there were some great games that the school had organized. The higher grades prepared rewards and all were exciting and people were buzzing. It was then that Akane had won a game of 'whack the mole' and beat four other girls who were playing against her team. After that, the girls held a grudge on her and unfortunately, they were the 'queen girls' of the school. They then warned her not to do anything stupid anymore and started spreading rumours about her. Of course, since they were the popular kids, their rumours spread quite quickly. If it wasn't for the Sawada twins, Yoritomo, and sometimes Umira, Akane would be a loner. She had wondered how people could be so childish even in 8th grade.

“Akane! Kari!”

Akane jerked up when Yoritomo called their names. She whipped her head around and wavered on the step out of dizziness, gripping the edge of it to regain balance.

“What is it?” Karina asked, clearly annoyed about how he had disturbed the peace.

“What are you two doing here? There’s only two minutes of lunch break left!” He said casually, tipping his head towards the door that lead back into the school.

“E-eh? Two minutes left? But it’s only been… like… ten minutes!” Akane said.

Yori took in the whole sight: two girls sitting on a narrow strip of concrete, with the wind blowing hard and them seeming ready to jump off at any second. Well, maybe not Kari. She was casually leaning back against the fence and eating her sandwich.

“...Goodness, chibi, were you trying to commit suicide?” There was a pause before Yoritomo said anything to Akane.

“Of course not!” Akane said, feeling exasperated. She started crawling back over the waist high wall and cautiously stepping onto the school’s actual roof. “And that is off topic, and don’t call me chibi!” She frowned.