VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter six

act i

this shouldn't be happening.
( oh but it is. )

chapter six

❛boo-hoo, you have feelings — deal with it❜

━━━━━━

The crowd pools in front of Machida's entrance, the acclaimed students from Seido making themselves known, shuffling around with parents, holding duffle bags and suitcases.

It's an unseemly sight, Amara thinks, already imagining the way it's going to swell the student body. Even with the extension that Machida's been doing because of their desire to turn into an international school — including multiple three-story dorms, a new library, a new gym, and a bigger cafeteria and extension of the school building with new classrooms — no one, least of all her, is exactly excited for their rhythm to be jarred with these incoming students.

It's not like they have much choice, though, both for the Seido kids and Machida; a gas leak and subsequent fire ravaged part of the dorms at Seido's campus two miles away from Machida, along with a large chunk of their main building. There's not exactly a sufficient campus or dormitory for them to go back to.

To Machida, the municipal government had said and the school board was totally on, well, board.

That's why she is here behind the school, with a group of 'leaders' instead of spending the rest of the day in her dorm, savoring the remnants of summer break before school tomorrow. The 'responsible' students have been chosen to lead the groups of Seido kids on a tour around campus; Amara, unfortunately, is one of those students.

But so are Chiyo and Hiro and the teachers already know to pair them all up, so she meets them after their congregation has been dismissed, the directions seared into their heads by the careful, plucky hand of the first year English teacher.

The din of the crowd, on the other side of the school building, reaches even them and she winces.

"This will be fun," she says to Hiro while Chiyo goes off to fetch their list, not meaning her words at all. The sun is beating down on them, still so temperamental and hot, even though it's the end of August and September is coming — hopefully with some cooler temperatures, too.

Hiro nods with a distasteful grimace curling her mouth and they're silent for the next few minutes.

The exposed skin of her arms and legs stretches in a vaguely discomforting manner, a sunburn waiting to happen, and she steps under the eaves of the school building.

Chiyo returns to them, holding a clipboard with a roster for their assigned group.

"We can go now," she says, glancing around. "We're all starting at different places and different times; we might as well introduce ourselves to our group."

"Can we stop by my dorm? I left my water bottle in there," Hiro asks, fanning herself. Even with the golden tan she gained over break from playing in Nationals, her face is red and splotchy. 

"You can go."

"I'll go with you," Amara volunteers, still not eager to go and play entertainer for the Seido kids.

Chiyo shrugs. "Fine by me. I'll meet you guys in the front. Don't take long."

Amara follows Hiro back to their dorms — an older version of the new ones, the paint weathered and chipped from several years of Tokyo's intense climate; torrential rains and gusts during Monsoon season, frigid ice and flurries during winter.