a ginger and a brunette
Shinonome Akito and Shinonome Ena are their names.
Akito has orange hair. Ena has brown hair. I refuse to speak to them because I am worried they will judge me. Mizuki did not have the same problem, as they immediately became friends with Shinonome-san. (Ena—Shinonome-kun is Akito, being I only refer to my friends by their first names). But that's fine with me, because if Mizuki is happy, then I'm happy. At least, that should be the case…
I'm overthinking this. After all, Mizuki and I still hang out during lunch and after school on the rooftop, and neither of the Shinonomes bother us. Mizuki just has a new friend is all, and I'm happy for them. Though, I have noticed that both of the Shinonomes have a tendency to be a bit snappy toward almost everyone, including each other.
Thankfully, I didn't learn this the hard way, but I have learned this after seeing someone with blue hair walk up to Shinonome-san to ask her a question, but was immediately shot down with a "Go away. I don't associate with my brother's weird friends." Both me and the blue-haired someone had winced at the exchange. He didn't even get the opportunity to speak before he got shot down.
I don't understand how Mizuki could easily hang around someone like that. But I won't intervene, as long as Mizuki is happy. If I had the guts, I would go up to one of the Shinonomes and try to spark up a conversation, but both of them seem like the type to give me a nasty look if I even breathe too loud around them.
Maybe I'll just stick with who I have. After all, Mizuki and Nene are more than enough for me to be happy. As long as one of them just doesn't suddenly leave me for being 'too weird', which I highly doubt, since Nene wouldn't ever even think of saying anyone is 'too weird', and Mizuki themself have said that they're weird, too.
I have nothing to worry about. I think.
———
I lie awake yet again on my couch, Kiseki sitting on the armrest. Tomorrow's a Friday. I really don't want to go to school, but I have to. The night light is even dimmer now. But I refuse to change the light bulb. It still works, after all. I find myself zoning out, staring at the night light, thinking over so many things. Everything that comes to mind.
Would Nene scold me if I didn't go to school tomorrow? What about my parents? Nobody would really notice if I didn't go to school. Maybe I should stay home. I could fake being sick. Or I could actually get sick so that way my parents won't suspect I'm faking it. How could I actually get sick, though?
I could stay up all night again so that I'm too tired to even stand… or I could forcefully puke my guts out… or I could just refuse to eat anything… This is too easy. I think I'll just stay up all night and refuse breakfast. That should be enough to spark my parents' concern. Hopefully.
So to keep myself awake, I sit up and stretch my arms up over my head. My parents should be asleep by now…maybe I could chug enough coffee without causing any real damage to my body to keep me awake for the night. Though, I'm not sure how much caffeine I, a 12-year-old, can drink before it's considered too much.
I would go to my computer setup, but I still need to dust that off. I really don't want to have to do that right now. I'll just drink coffee and hope for the best. I stand up and stretch once more, then grab Kiseki up off the armrest. He's my emotional support. He matches my pajamas too. Platypuses-...platypi? Platypodes? Just platypus? Platypuses, I think, all over my pajama pants and a smaller one near my shirt's chest pocket.
I pad my way over to the kitchen with Kiseki held tightly. I easen up my grip on him a little bit. I might be choking him. I don't want that. I walk, my feet stepping on the cold floor. Why is the floor so cold? Maybe I should wear socks when I'm walking around. Or I could try and implement heated flooring? That'd be pretty cool.
Anyways…I sit Kiseki on the kitchen counter and give him a pat on the head as praise for not alerting my presence to the rest of the house—even if he can't speak or make noise. I turn on the coffee machine and it beeps to life. Why does everything make noise?! I search the entire machine for a button that may turn sound off or lower the volume or something. I find nothing.
Great, okay, fine, perfect, amazing, lovely, wonderful. I take a mug from one of our cabinets—my favorite mug with, you'll never guess, a platypus on it. I sit the mug in its place and put in a new coffee pod. And realize…I've…never worked a coffee machine before. I can't go to Nene because she would force me back to bed and tell my parents and scold me. Uh…uh…I'll figure it out. I look at all the buttons before deciding on the button I assume would dispense coffee. Oh, right…the size of the cup, too…uh…I press a random button on the lower size range. I don't know the size of this mug, okay? Leave me alone. I'll figure out units of measurement eventually.
The coffee fills the mug as Kiseki and I watch with bated breath and the coffee slowly inches to the lip of the mug. The coffee continues filling and—it stops before it reaches the edge of the mug. I let out a relieved sigh and let the drink sit for a second, just so it cools enough for me to take the mug from the platform. I reach out and grab for the mug. It burns my hands, but I don't let go. I instead hastily—but still carefully—carry the mug to the counter so I have more room to add stuff in.
I've tried black coffee before. I don't get how people like it. It tastes like hot, dirty water. I grab the bag of sugar out of the pantry and pour a generous amount of it into the drink. It almost spills over the lip of the mug. Well, at least it didn't actually spill. I put the sugar back. The sugar in the actual drink won't mix into the drink on its own, and I don't have enough room in the mug to take even a small straw and stir it that way without the coffee spilling over. I would use a rag to soak up some of the drink, but I've tried that before, and it always absorbs too much of the drink. I look to Kiseki to get some encouragement from him, then lean down and sip some of the bitter drink off the top. The first thing my tongue registers is how hot the drink is. The second feeling I register is the actual bitterness of the drink. Ew.
But I swallow it down anyway. I repeat this process until I have enough space to take a straw and stir the drink. I stir and stir and stir to make sure all the sugar is mixed in, until my arm hurts, until I don't feel any of that grainy sweetener at the bottom of the mug. It hits me now that I could've just poured some of the coffee down the sink drain, but it's too late. I already had to endure drinking pure bitterness.
I take the mug and Kiseki after cleaning up any mess I've made, and hurry to my room, careful not to spill the coffee. Thankfully I make it back without spilling anything. I sit on my couch and take a glance at the still-dim night light. I wait for the coffee to cool down as I whisper to Kiseki about my problems with the new arrivals at school, Mizuki not talking to me as often, everything. At least Kiseki listens and supports me without scolding me.
Finally, after a long while of waiting for my coffee to cool down—and learning the hard way that it's still hot—it's cooled off enough for me to drink comfortably. I slowly sip away at the drink until it's empty. I know one cup of coffee won't exactly do much, so I go back to the kitchen. My parents are still asleep, I think, so I hurry with another cup of coffee and bring that back to my room. Now to wait for that to cool down as well. I don't want to overdo it, so I'll just have two cups.
I drink that as well and manage to stay awake for the rest of the night. The caffeine, however, makes me feel shaky and a tiny bit hazy in thinking. Is this normal? Whatever. I lie down on my couch-bed and pretend to be asleep when I hear my mom's footsteps come to my room to wake me up for breakfast. Don't worry, I already put the empty mug back in the kitchen so she won't see it. The door opens and my mom walks over to me.
"Rui, honey, wake up. You need to eat breakfast." She gently shakes my shoulder, and I pretend to wake up as if I were uncomfortable the whole night, groggy and out-of-it. "Are you okay, honey?" Mom asks me with a concerned look on her face. I nod slowly, though still trying to make it look like I'm half-asleep. She flashes me another concerned look, but doesn't say anything else. This'll be too easy.
She leaves the room, and I take my sweet, sweet time to get up. I bring Kiseki with me as emotional support in case they catch on. I sit at the kitchen table in my usual spot, where breakfast is already in front of me. Tamagoyaki and onigiri—without the nori since I've turned it down multiple times. Bummer. I would've loved to eat this. Instead, I stare at the food, pick at it a little bit, look at Kiseki as though he could tell my mother I feel 'sick', then back to my food, where I pick at it some more.
Thankfully my mom catches onto this. "What's wrong, dear?" She reaches out and pushes my hair back to feel at my forehead. I should've thought about that. Eh, that won't change much either way. "Not hungry?" I nod wordlessly. "...you woke up really tired and you have no appetite, are you sure you're okay?" I don't respond. Mom sighs. "Maybe it's best if you stay home." Yes!
She takes my plate of food and puts it in the fridge for either my dad to eat or if I become hungry enough to eat it even while my stomach is feeling bad. To her, at least. I feel fine. I slide out of my chair and Mom escorts me to my room. Kiseki and I are both cheering in our heads. I get to stay home from school! No seeing the Shinonomes or any bullies.
I settle in my couch-bed and Mom asks if I want a blanket or not. I nod and she pulls it over me all the way up to my chin. Kiseki's beak pokes out from under the fabric and I pull the corner of the blanket back so he can breathe. Mom kisses my forehead and kisses Kiseki's beak. At least Mom understands Kiseki has feelings.
I never really realized how much Kiseki is like me. He gets judged when I bring him out in public, and only two people are actually considerate of his feelings, me and Mom. Poor Kiseki. Maybe Mizuki would like to be friends with Kiseki. I'd like that. "Make sure you get some rest, okay? I'll let the Kusanagis know you're not feeling well. Maybe Nene will take care of you while your father and I are at work." I nod and Mama walks to my bedroom door. She throws me an 'I love you' and I reply one back, albeit weaker.
Finally, she leaves for work. I feel super tired now that the lack of sleep is catching up to me. I don't want to sleep all day though, so I carefully get up, set an alarm on my clock on my desk for 12:00, walk back to my couch-bed, and lie down to sleep.
…
Who the hell is knocking— oh. It's Nene. I sit up and rub my eyes and stretch out. A glance at the clock tells me it's 11:46. I get up and turn my alarm off before it decides to wake alternate-universe-where-Nene-never-showed-up me up in 14 minutes. I open the outside door to see Nene standing there with a thermos, a reusable water bottle, an ice pack, a heating pad, and a few snacks, all balanced in her arms. I step back to let her in and go back to my couch-bed, where Kiseki is waiting patiently for me.
I scoop him up in my arms and pull the blanket back over me and I bring my legs up onto the couch. Nene doesn't say a word as she tends to me for the next two hours. She feeds me soup from the thermos and forces me to drink the water and asks me if I'm cold or hot and hands me the heating pad (which I keep on low because I'm actually burning up but would rather pretend to be cold than to be hot) and forces me to eat the snacks she'd brung and gets me to lie down and go back to sleep, all without saying a word. I do not sleep. I pretend to sleep until I'm sure Nene has left, then sit back up. The soup was nice, but I feel rather guilty for making Nene care for me when I feel fine.
Maybe this is the consequence for faking sick.