I'm With the Band (Chapter 11)
“So where exactly did you two run off to last night?!” Kame snapped at Ryo and Pi. Both boys had been cornered by Jin and Kame before they entered the school for the morning. They were hunched up in the corner of the East building giving innocent stares to their two angry friends.
“We had business.” Pi explained, nodding his head furiously, “If Ryo didn’t get home then his mother would have butchered him! Then butcher me for being a bad influence!”
“You’re not a bad influence are you? Ryo’s been a bitch his whole life!” Jin cried, which resulted in him being slapped by the smaller boy. A loud smack echoed through the courtyard. Jin quickly rubbed his cheek and pouted at his small friend, “That was a proper bitch slap!”
“Can we go now?” Pi moaned, pulling a face and bending his knees, “I have sports and if I’m late Nishimura-sensei will eat me… no wait I think he’ll eat Jin first. Jin has the most meat on him.”
“Eat? Me? That doesn’t sound tasty!” Jin wailed. He panicked and started looking backwards and forwards from his friends’ scared faces to the pathway to the sports block. Nishimura-sensei was terrifying. It wasn’t right to say that the man didn’t have something against Jin, because he seemed to hate everyone and everything. He was the scariest 5-foot tall man Jin had ever met.
Kame rolled his eyes and stepped backwards, letting the other boys go to their lesson and take his angry wrath some other time.
“Go on then, but you’re not going to get away with this so easily. You should have been in that police station with us!”
“We didn’t do anything wrong!” Ryo cried, running off with Pi, who was dragging Jin along with him. They jogged around the corner of a few flowerbeds, disappearing behind fences with wall climbing plants curling around their tops. Kame sighed, closing his eyes and wondering what his drama lesson was going to be like now that Jin wasn’t with him anymore.
***
“Well, it was kind of exciting…” Jin laughed, jumping into the chair in Kame’s room, immediately making himself at home. Kame flopped onto his bed and sighed. He’d never been so tired and stressed before in his life!
“I don’t like being interrogated by the police for hours!” Kame cried, “I didn’t find that exciting I found it annoying!”
“B-but it was hardly an interrogation!” Jin whined, shuffling around in the chair to get comfortable. Sometimes he would be on his side, sometimes he would be crouching on the chair with his knees to his chest, but for now he decided to sit upside down and pretend his friend was sat on the roof. “It was fun. I’ve never done it before…”
“Yeah hopefully never again too.” Kame mumbled, “It was horrible in that little room. I felt like a criminal.”
“It was fun!” Jin cried, squirming on his chair so he was upright. Blood had started to rush to his head so he decided that staying on his feet was a much better idea. “Come on Kame chan, look on the bright side. It was exciting.” Jin stopped for a moment, biting on his thumb to think, “It wouldn’t have been as fun if I was with anyone else probably.”
Kame sat bolt upright from where he was laid down. He stared at Jin sceptically, wondering if the boy was out of his mind or if his head was damaged after sitting upside down. Maybe a bit of both, but still he was shocked that Jin was being so nice to him, and of course he was honoured to have helped Jin through that night. But at the same time he was guilty of starting the whole trauma off, and even if Jin had found the police station fun, that wouldn’t be enough to make it up to him.
“Jin, I’m sorry again.” Kame apologised, “Is there any way I can repay you?”
Jin stared at him blankly. For a moment he didn’t know what Kame was talking about, probably because he was having so much fun that he’d forgotten about the events earlier that evening.
“Repay?” He asked quietly, “You don’t have to repay me Kame.”
Kame’s stare reminded Jin of a guilty looking puppy that’d just been told off. His big brown eyes were fixated on his friend, as if he wouldn’t turn away until Jin had admitted he had done something wrong and deserved to be punished. They started to gleam over as the dim light reflected off those coffee coloured orbs, and for some odd reason, Jin found himself transfixed by them.
“Please Jin.” Kame sighed, “I feel really bad about it. Let me do something for you!”
Jin kept staring as hundreds of thoughts ran through his mind. He had to shake his head roughly to get those ideas out of his brain, and hurriedly, he came up with a quick answer to disguise how much he was blushing.
“N-no I don’t want you to do anything for me.” Jin replied, “I don’t care as long as we keep having fun.”
Kame pulled a suspicious expression. He still wanted to do more for Jin, but he supposed he’d have to do it without Jin’s go ahead.
“Hey Jin, what do you think about ‘battle of the bands’?”
“Hey! That’s what Junno was talking about!” Jin blurted, suddenly coming to life, “He said it really randomly down the phone.”
“Well I wanted to enter a battle of the bands.” Kame explained, “There will be people watching from record companies, it’s a good opportunity.”
Jin’s accomplished grin, the one he’d pulled after remembering what Junno had said to him on the phone, suddenly dropped. Record companies? But he was the one who did the managing of their band. If they got signed then he wouldn’t be their manager anymore, he’d be nothing!
Kame noticed the sudden change in expression, and quickly shuffled forward to the other boy, “B-but you’re our manager, nothing’s going to change that. I mean, we might not even get signed anyway, there’s probably some really good acts out there…”
“You’re a good act.” Jin mumbled, “There’s nothing stopping you from being signed there. I’ve always known that if any big shot business man heard your stuff you’d get signed in a second.”
“That’s not true Jin,” Kame laughed, shaking his head “we’re not that good, and besides, it’s just an idea. It’s just another gig for us, so as usual, it’s up to you if we go or not, manager!” Kame smiled at him and Jin looked up from where he’d plonked himself back down on the chair and hung his head.
“Well err…” Jin stammered. He wasn’t sure what to say. He really did believe that KNUTT would get signed, that was if they changed their name before they got into anything serious. After that Jin would just get swept away like dirt, but surely a signing was the next step for the band? How could he say no? He couldn’t tie them all down because of himself, and surely their success would bring joy to him too.
He looked at Kame’s face, and unfortunately there wasn’t anything there that would give Jin a clue as to what to do. He thought Kame would either look hopeful or not too impressed by the idea, and when he’d told Jin to decide, it sounded like he didn’t really mind if they played there or not. Maybe Kame thought that giving Jin the choice was an act of kindness, showing Jin how much he contributed to the bands success.
But in that case, what other option did he have? “Ok Kame.” Jin nodded his head slowly, “Do it. After all, you’d regret it if you didn’t.”
“You won’t regret it either.” Kame reassured, “You’re our manager; we won’t leave you out in the dark.”
Jin smiled, but he wasn’t sure. He squirmed in his chair and started to play with his hair, coiling the strands around his little finger. “It will be a good way of showing that we’re not beaten too…” Kame mused to himself.
“You mean to whoever’s been attacking you all?” Jin asked. Kame nodded and quickly, Jin stood up, finding a rather good reason to be supportive of this gig. “You’re right! Now that you mention it, you need to do more gigs to show them that they haven’t beaten you! I’m going to help as much as I can to find whoever’s doing this.” Jin clenched his fist and stared at it crazily.
“Stop trying to look threatening!” Kame laughed, slapping the taller boy on the arm, “Now let’s get some sleep. I’m so tired!”
***
“AKANISHIIIII!” Screamed Nishimura sensei. The tiny ginger haired teacher almost fell forwards due to the power he put into that wail. “RUN PROPERLY!”
“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod…” Jin repeated to himself between quick and sharp breaths. They’d been told to run around the field outside of the school as practice for a cross country the school would be doing that week. Jin knew he wouldn’t be participating in that lousy event, but he couldn’t get away from sports class, which was probably why Nishimura sensei chose to do practice this lesson.
Everyone was running in single file, wearing their sports kits, a simple white shirt and black shorts. Nishimura was stood in the middle, crossing his arms and pouting at every student that just so happened to catch his glare.
“WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?!” He bawled at Ryo, who had unfortunately decided to take a quick glance at his surroundings, “WHY AREN’T YOU LOOKING WHERE YOU’RE RUNNING?!”
“I just glanced over to the side for a second!” Ryo cried, suddenly stopping, wiping his forehead and catching his breath. But before he could relax, Nishimura sensei was already charging towards him with what looked like a javelin. “Shit!” Ryo screamed. Without realising, he was now the fastest runner in the class, and Nishimura happily took his place back in the centre of the circle that had formed, putting the javelin down and patting it gently in the way that you’d praise a well-behaved dog.
“Jin!” Pi gasped, managing to catch up to the other boy. Jin only listened to Pi and didn’t dare turn around to look at him. He really didn’t want to get stabbed with that javelin. “What happened to Nishimura sensei’s box?”
He was right. Nishimura normally stood on a box that made him taller than all the pupils. Today it wasn’t there.
“Maybe he grew?” Jin replied. Without looking, he knew that Pi was pulling a rather unamused expression.
“Of course he didn’t!” Pi growled with twice the energy he had a few moments ago.
“Grew in confidence Pi. Confidence…”
“Don’t try and act like you actually meant to say something smart.” Pi hissed.
“AKANISHI!” Nishimura screeched. Jin screwed up his face. Damn Yamapi. He got him in trouble! That ‘AKANISHI’ scream always gave him the shivers.
“Yes?” Jin asked, halting where he was to look at Nishimura. Pi almost ran into the taller boy, but managed to dodge him and run around his body.
“DON’T STOP! IDIOT!” Nishimura shrieked, “AND RUN PROPERLY! YOU KEEP RUNNING LIKE YOU’RE TRYING TO FLY!”
It was true. Jin was cursed with a weird run that involved his arms flapping about and his steps being shorter than everyone else’s. This only happened when he was exceedingly tired, but lately he hadn’t been very good at running activities, and everyone had found out his secret running style. Even Pi had started re-enacting it as they walked down the stairs.
“Oh, sorry! I’ll start running then!” Jin apologised, starting off yet again, taking a huge gulp of air before he did. But after a few more moments he decided to stop again and look suspiciously at Nishimura sensei, much to his classmate’s horror. “Excuse me Nishimura sensei?”
“WHAT?!” He snapped, staring at Jin crazily. God this was scarier than when Nishimura sensei went crazy at Kame’s class and seemed to have some kind of fit. The positive from that incident was that Nishimura was absent with an illness for a while, and all they did was play baseball for a few lessons. But at the moment, there didn’t seem to be any positives coming from this.
“Well err, I was just wondering where your box has gone…” Jin asked.
Everyone stopped running. Suddenly every pair of eyes on the small field were staring straight at him, and Jin felt the urge to curl up and hide from them all. But the scariest of all was Nishimura’s glare. His face was slowly turning red, and from red, it started to go a little purple. Even though the variety of colour on his teachers face intrigued him, Jin decided to get a head start from Nishimura and ran towards the gates of the school. Boy he wished he hadn’t been running for half an hour earlier.
“I’LL KILL HIM!” Nishimura wailed, picking up his javelin and throwing it as far as he possibly could. The class stared in horror at the flying javelin, but thankfully, it didn’t reach Jin, missing him by a metre or two.
“Holy shit!” Pi squealed. There was silence as the whole class stared aghast at their sports teacher. No one dared to move. They all waited until Nishimura’s face returned to a normal colour, and the sound of Jin’s quick footsteps had disappeared.
“Ok…” Nishimura grunted, moving his head from side to side to click his neck, “No one tell the head about this.”
***
“Hmmm.” Takarai sensei mumbled to himself. Kame and Junno had been sat together in the hall, along with the rest of their drama class, waiting for their teacher to make some kind of movement. It had been about ten minutes now and he’d just sat there with a cigarette in his mouth, musing to himself as he’d mentioned last classes attempts at performing a script he’d given all his pupils. Sometimes Kame wondered if Takarai Hideto could breathe air for longer than a second without needing another drag from his fag.
“Excuse me?” Massu rose his hand sheepishly, “Takarai sensei? I’ve got to go to a doctors appointment soon, I was wondering… if… well…”
“If we could start the lesson already?” He interrupted. Takarai let his arm drop over the back of his chair, but decided to not look at Massu and instead stared in the same direction that he’d been staring in all lesson: towards the windows.
“Well you know…I’m ok to sit here… while you think… I wouldn’t want to start the lesson unprepared… I mean you need to think… of what to do…” Massu was having trouble trying to sound like he wasn’t forcing his teacher to do something he obviously didn’t want to, but Takarai knew he was eager to get going.
“Ok well let me say this.” Takarai suddenly blurted loudly, turning round to his class and looking at them all for the first time that lesson. “Yesterday you showed me two things. First thing,” he held one finger up, “there is a great range in this class, when it comes to ability. I would say that half of this class were actually trying, whilst the other half were giving it their all. Secondly.” He held two fingers up, “Among those who tried, there was a great divide between those who understand drama, and those who don’t.”
There was silence.
“Who’s good at it then?” Tegoshi asked adamantly. Takarai cocked his head to the side and gave him a bemused look.
“I told you Tegoshi, you have to let Masuda stand up on his own two feet.”
“…So what are you trying to say about Massu’s drama skills?” Tegoshi asked angrily after a long pause. He obviously didn’t know how to react.
“Whatever.” Takarai sighed, closing his eyes and sticking his cigarette in his mouth. He continued to talk from the side of his mouth. “Look, you all know who you are. Drama. Think of the word… drama…”
Takarai stood up from his chair and began meandering around the hall, staring at the ceiling. “Of course, acting means different things to different people.” He suddenly stopped and snapped his vision towards the class, grabbing the cigarette from his mouth and pointing it at them all, “You all have your own world, one you must discover for yourselves, one that will guide the way to the world of drama…”
“Kame…” Junno whispered cautiously, “I think Takarai sensei’s having one of his trippy episodes again.”
“Me too but remember last time?” Kame whispered back, “When Koki accused him of being on drugs? He was almost sacked! Hang on, where is Koki anyway?”
“Kamenashi.” Takarai called, as if he was singing his name. Kame jumped and quickly diverted his attention from Junno to his teacher, “What’s my star pupil doing talking in class?”
“Star pupil?!” Tegoshi whined.
“Well I was just wondering… do you know where Koki is?” Kame asked.
“Hmmm.” Takarai mumbled. After this, it seemed like Takarai Hideto was dead to the world, deciding to enter his own little world instead of the one the rest of the class was in.
“Well done Kame you made him think again!” Tegoshi whined, “He’ll never get out of that!”
“Excuse me.” Came a voice from the back of the hall. Everyone turned around on their chairs and looked at the doors, only to find Satoru sensei walking towards them all. The pupils stared at the music teacher cautiously. “I would like to have a word with Takarai sensei.”
Everyone knew that Satoru and Takarai were best of friends. They would hang out all the time, and on the off chance you would be able to hear them jam together in the music rooms. Even though it was something most pupils steered away from, Kame was rather interested in their style, and would occasionally follow Ueda to the music rooms and learn a good few ‘music tips’ from them both.
“Oh, sorry, I was thinking.” Takarai excused. He stood from his chair and smiled at Satoru sensei, “What is it?”
“There’s been another attack.” Satoru announced, “The pupil is in the first aid room, and doesn’t seem too badly injured…”
“Who was it?!” Kame shrieked, jumping from his chair. The whole class was in shock, shaken at the news of the recent attack, and gasping at the way Kame was talking to two very respected teachers.
“Tanaka Koki.” Satoru replied, “he looked like he’d been beaten up, no cuts, no huge blows… I also found Nishimura sensei’s box stood against the closet in the sports equipment room. Very suspicious…”
“You’re not suggesting that Nishimura…” Takarai began, taken aback by the absurdity of what Satoru was hinting at.
“Oh no.” He quickly dismissed, “If it was him… we would have heard.”
“Takarai sensei, please could I be excused to visit my friend in first aid?” Kame asked, bowing quickly and robotically at the drama teacher.
“Go ahead Kamenashi, it’s not like you’d be learning anything new here. Take Taguchi too, you’re all in the same band aren’t you?” Takarai chuckled. Kame ran towards the doors, and straight afterwards, Junno stood up, bowed also, and caught up with his friend.
“Sensei!” Massu exclaimed, “I need to go too…”
“Don’t get carried away Masuda, just because I let them two go doesn’t mean I’ll let everyone go…”
Massu sat back down and folded his arms grumpily. He turned to Tegoshi and pouted.
“But what about my doctors appointment?” He whined.
A/N: I keep making silly errors, like when i posted the last chapter, i put something like 'ill count to three, three, two, one...' silly me >.< but i'll change it I swear! If you find something I missed please tell me, but don't worry I'm still going to try and make it flawless XD one day i will!