I'll hold another banquet, banquet after banquet an eternal series of gatherings, forever unchanging, I might be lonely now but I will not despair, because everyone s waiting for me, on the other side of that promise, words spoken in a long distant past, lost in the years that followed, the original story, forgotten by everyone, the original promise.
I yawned and got our of my tent, "Wow, usually the days start to cool off mid September," I hold my hand up to the sky as the sun beat down on me, "I guess it's another hot season," I stretched my arms up, "Bye mum, I'm off, see ya when I get back." I look at the picture in my tent, I smiled softly and zipped it back up before I started walking to school, I quickly unwound the orange ribbon from my forearm and tied it into my ponytail, "Perfect." I look into the reflection of a small river, I jumped over it and did a front walkover, "It's been forever since I've been to a gymnastics class huh." I say softly as I pat the grass and dirt stains of my hands, I walked to the edge of a cliff, it overlooked the entire city, "The breeze feels so good," I shut my eyes, I had some extra time so I decided to explore the area a little, I heard a wind chime and I turned to that direction, I saw a house, I leaped down, "Huh, I didn't know where was a house here." I cock my head as I went to the front porch, "How cute." I giggled as I saw the zodiac animals lined up in a display, "Oh hello," I whipped up, "This is a surprise, we don't get a lot of young girls around here." He was holding today's paper, "Oh, I'm so sorry sir, I shouldn't have come in here without permission!" I started freaking out and rapidly bowing up and down, "It's fine, I just didn't think that a teenager like yourself would fine here interesting." He crouches down, "No, no. I love your zodiac animal figurines, they're so adorable." I look back at them, "Oh yes, they're a personal favourite of mine as well," He smiles, I sighed, "But again, it's another set without the cat." I look at them sadly, "The cat?" He seemed shocked for a second, "Oh I see, you're thinking of that old zodiac folktale aren't you." He looks at me, "Well I guess, yeah. I've always loved the cat, I just feel bad that he was left out." I look up at the wind chime as it jingles, "Ah, well I guess how he'd react if he heard someone loves the cat." The man says quietly, "Pardon?" I look at him, "Oh nothing, out of curiosity, what's your zodiac?" He asks, "Oh me, I'm the year of the dog." I count with my fingers for a second, "The dog?! Oh wow, I already feel more connected to you, after all, I'm the dog-!" A bag was slammed on top of his head, "Oh my goodness! Sir! Are you alrigh... Sohma?" I look up and saw Sohma, "Oh hello Nariko, I hope my cousin here hasn't done anything," He bows to me, "Oh, good morning." I bow back, "Good morning." He smiles and rises back up, "You two know each other?" The man rubs his head, "Nariko and I are classmates," He says, "Oh I realised I haven't introduced myself, I'm Yuki Nariko, nice to meet you." I bow at the man, "Yuki? You two have matching names! How cute!" He claps, "I'm Shigure Sohma, nice to meet you." He waves, "What brings you to our house this morning?" Sohma asks, "Oh I live around here is all." I sweatdrop, "Around here?" Shigure looks at me, "Really?" Sohma asks, "Um, well, I've got to get going." I start to slowly step away and I whip back around trying to cover my red face, "Um, Nariko." I heard Sohma, "Yes?" I turn back around and I fan my face to try ad cool it down, "You're headed to school, why don't we go together." He smiles, I blink.
"Feel free to call me Yuki, after all, we are neighbours if you live close by." Sohma looks at me, "Oh, thank you. Then feel free to call me Yuki too, it might be a little difficult having the same name but I think we'll manage." I giggle, he chuckles, "May we talk to Nariko for a moment," Four girls walk up to me, "Oh, um sure." I nod, "Well see you in class Yuki," Yuki waves at me, "Yeah, sure I'll see you there Yuki." I snickered at our names, he smiles and walks off. "So Nariko, what is the meaning of this?! Explain yourself!" One of the girls with two ribbons asks me, "I'm sorry?" I was confused, "Don't act dumb, don't pretend you don't know me, I'm Prince Yuki's representative, Motoko Minagawa!" She puts a hand to her chest, "Uhh, Prince Yuki?" I was even more confused, "Club core principals! Never misappropriate Prince Yuki's personal effects!" One of the girls slides forward, "Never enter Prince Yuki's home without permission!" Another comes up, "And never speak to Prince Yuki without someone else present!" The third slides up, "And finally. Never call Prince Yuki by just his first name! Do you understand, the Prince Yuki club is dedicated to protecting the Prince as he graces our halls with his presence." Minagawa says, "Nariko! You have publicly disregarded the rules and regulations we painstakingly crafted for his protection, now we expect a thorough explanation to why you accompanied Prince Yuki into school today! Speak!" She jabs her finger into my face, I grinned, "Well first of all, I was walking around and I walked to his house," I grinned, they all gasped, "Then I met his older cousin, lovely man," I smirk, they gasped again, "Then we walked to school together and because we're neighbours, we said that we should call each other by our first names." I finished off, they all fell to the ground defeated, "Well, see ya later." I hopped over them, "Damn, Nariko strikes again," "She's so cute." "No wonder they call her the Cold Princess." "Come on dude, try your shot." "Are you kidding! She's just going to shoot me down like every other guy that's tried!" I heard murmurs across the halls, I grumbled, "Heya girlie, how ya doing this morning!" I felt Uo pounce onto my back, "Good morning," I saw Tohru, "Yes, good morning." Hana nods, "Hey guys," I grinned, "News is spreading like wildfire, heard you walked into school with the prince. No wonder, only someone like the Cold Princess has a chance with the Prince of the school." Uo rubs her cheek against mine, "Oh stop it, you know I don't like Yuki." I nudge her, the girls giggled.
Our first class was home economics, "You know, there's something about his waves that just aren't right," Hana holds a knife, "Oh my goodness! Put the knife down Hana!" Tohru freaks out, "And another instalment from Hanajima's wave reports," Uo chops from green onions, "What do you mean strange?" I ask, "That's the thing, I don't know." She says and she looks at him, "I do get what you mean, he does give off strange vibes. I remember a few weeks ago a second year confessed her love for him and went in for a hug, went her flying, scared the heck out of her." Uo says, "Really? I didn't know about that, wow." Tohru was shocked, "You four, your hands should be moving, not your mouths-" Our teacher comes up to us and was shocked, "You're done?" She looks at the meal in front of us, "Yeah it isn't rocket science." Uo says, "Don't talk to me like that young lady when I know Nariko did all the work!" She waves her finger at Uo, I snickered, "The rice is done!" Tohru grabs the rice paddle, "Ugh, fine." Our teacher walks off, "Anyway, Yuki. Hana, Tohru and I are going shopping after school today, wanna come?" We sit down to eat our food we made, "Sorry I would but I have to work," I scratch the back of my head, "Man you got a raw deal, making a promise that you'll pay all your tuition fees, you'll work yourself to death." Uo grabs her chopsticks, "Still, you work everyday, don't you think that's a lot even if it's just for tuition? Here, extra large." Tohru scoops some rice and gives the bowl to Uo, "Well I mean I want to live by myself after I graduate and houses can be expensive," I sigh and flop onto the table, "Plus I want to get tons of nice things, things for myself, things for mum, things for my friends, I wish I could just once in my life, buy you guys presents and gifts that truly show how much you guys mean to me but I just can't, they're too expensive." I turn my head to the other side, the girls were silent, "Don't push yourself, that's all we're saying," I heard Tohru's voice, "Yeah, it doesn't matter what you give us, we still love you for being you Yuki." I felt Uo pet my head, "Yes," Hana agrees, I sighed and quickly wiped a tear that ran down my cheek, I saw a table of guys opposite us stare at me, I flinched and quickly sat up, drying my eyes and glared at them, they quickly got back to their cooking. "So you're still living with your grandpa right? He better be feeding you, and not squeezing your wages outta you." She says, I sweatdrop and nod up and down quickly, I can't let them know I'm living in a tent, they'd storm into grandpa's house demanding answers.
I slid down the banisters after school, almost everyone had left already, it was already sunset, I had a few things left to do after school before I left, "And she finishes with a combination! The crowd goes wild!" I commentate for myself, I giggled, "Yuki?" I flinched and saw Yuki at the shoe lockers, my face erupts in red, "Lovely performance, I'd give it a ten out of ten." He smiles, I quickly run to my shoe locker, "You didn't see anything." I look the other way, he chuckles, "Come on, let's walk home together," He waits for me. After a while, I hoped that Yuki forgot what he saw, I was still embarrassed out of my mind, "I should be apologising for Shigure this morning, I remember you talking about the cat zodiac." He says, "Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing." I rub the back of my neck, "The cat is an idiot, stubborn too, did you know the zodiac animals actually became as a system to tell the time, they were first used as clock divisions, later, ying and yang and the elemental relationships were folded in and they became fortunetelling tools. Truth is, the math never let any room for the cat to begin with, but honestly, I think that's for the best anyway. I mean, being able to join the zodiac, what's so good about that? Better to be alone, stupid cat." He mutters, "I'm sorry, are you trying to say you hate cats?" I cock my head, we both stopped walking and looked at each other, we were interrupted by the alarm on my phone, "Oh crap, I'm sorry Yuki, I gotta go, I've got work," I start jogging, he nods, "Well, see you tomorrow Yuki, maybe we should walk together again." He smiles, I smile back, "Yeah!" I wave and run off.
