I was being completely honest, and yet his beam remained on the minus side. Until I let go of Zuka, that is. Then it returned to the plus side. Aww, he was just worried about his friend.
“Okay, well, I’ll be in the library. Come get me when you’re done.”
“You’re gonna study?”
“Nah, I’m just gonna chat with the librarian. Oh yeah, Mickey!”
Right as I rose to my feet, he beckoned me over. And like a normal, well-adjusted person, I leaned in. But then he whispered something that was punishable only with the most merciless superhero punch:
“I dunno what’s gotten into Looney, but she was rubbing her boobs all over me today!”
“Gross! TMI!”
Was Looney’s new bralessness a tactic to seduce Zuka? She had never seemed that interested in him before now, so it struck me as totally out of left field. But then again, when it came to a lunatic like her, sudden baffling behavior was par for the course.
Come to think of it, just this morning at the shoe lockers, I was chatting with Kyou-kun when Zuka showed up. Right as I waved at him and said good morning, however, Looney dashed over, threw herself into his arms, and dragged him away somewhere. Now that I thought about it, I seemed to remember her trying to do a “playful wink” in my direction. What was that about? “He’s mine” or something?
There are more important matters at hand, people!
In a blink, the Culture Festival was now just two days away, and I hadn’t made any progress figuring out my plans for life after high school. Sure, we were still in the second half of our second year, so it wasn’t that urgent, but still. In my case, I was the kind of girl who set her sights on something and charged straight at it like a bull. This had worked out for me pretty well thus far. So while I could tolerate a reasonable amount of aimless studying, eventually I was gonna hit a brick wall, and knowing me, it would probably happen at the worst possible time. Everyone had their own way of doing things. And while I was still just a teenager, I had managed to find a lifestyle that worked for me—one that naturally produced the best possible outcome—and as such, I had no plans of changing it.
“Remember: even when you’re backstage, you’re still performing. Yes, it’s dark and the audience can’t see you, but you still have to stay focused the entire time. Think of your fellow cast members as part of the audience. And don’t worry; you have nothing to be nervous about. Everyone here is a star.”
It was such a cheesy line, anyone who dared to say it aloud would surely writhe at the mere memory for years to come. Anyone but Looney, that is. She had worked her butt off to get us ready for the Festival, and now we were fully prepared—the polar opposite of my post-graduation situation.
“Tomorrow we’ll be using the auditorium after school, so we’ll position the set and do a whole run-through. Then the day after that, we’ll check sound and lighting in the gym during fifth period. Don’t worry, we’ve got this! S-T-A-R! What’s that spell?!”
“STAR!” we answered in unison, which was a miracle considering none of us saw it coming—we’d all been taken in by her inexplicable charisma. Then we burst out laughing at ourselves. Pretty much everyone was wearing their stage costumes, too, which added a whole new layer of fun. Yet at the same time, part of me was still hung up on the post-graduation stuff. I knew it wasn’t like me to be so indecisive…but I just felt so…overwhelmed…
Ugh, if only I could see my own beam! Then I’d be able to see what made it lean positive or negative! This “life after high school” problem stressed me out more than friends or romance ever did. Pretty hardcore, man.
“Miki-chan, why do you look like you’re about ready to kill someone? Need help hiding the body?” asked Looney.
“No! A superhero would never do such a thing!”
I knew if I nodded, she would probably have a murder plot outlined by tomorrow. Instead, I ignored her and headed to the shoe lockers, where I changed into my loafers. Then, without waiting for her to catch up, I walked out through the front doors and encountered a group of female classmates standing around outside. Evidently, they were waiting for me and Looney to get back from returning the auditorium key.
“Oh, sorry, guys. Didn’t realize you were waiting on us.”
“No problem! Listen, we were just talking, and…don’t you think something’s going on with those two?”
I looked in the direction she pointed—at Zuka and Kyou-kun headed to the front gates. They walked side by side, with no real palpable excitement, and while their voices were too quiet to overhear, they kinda looked like an old married couple. The costume team had finished their work early today, so clearly Zuka must have stayed behind to wait for Kyou-kun again.
“They say they’re just friends, but what if they’re both secretly in love with each other?!”
I laughed. I’d forgotten she was a fan of that sort of thing. Then I remembered what I’d said point-blank to Zuka’s face just yesterday. Evidently, I wasn’t all that different.
“No way! Kyou likes girls, I’m sure of it. He gives off straight vibes,” Looney announced out of nowhere as she caught up to the group. Perhaps she, too, had sensed the chemistry between him and Elle. “My dear disciple just needs a little more courage, that’s all.”
“Ha ha! Settle down there, Sensei.”
Ever since she took Kyou-kun as her guitar pupil over summer break, Looney had adopted the attitude of a seasoned educator. But when we all started to tease her about it, this apparently delighted her so much that she started dancing in the street like the lunatic she was.
So yeah, that was how my day ended.
And, just like that, it was the day before the Culture Festival. We’d had more than a month to prepare, and yet it all seemed to fly by in a blink. Looney was still running around campus without a bra on, still claiming it was “a woman’s prerogative,” so I let her off the hook with a light punch to the shoulder. It felt like everything was going to plan.
But that was when a big problem occurred: the boy assigned to the supervillain role broke his arm in a bike accident.
I could hear him apologizing on the other end of the phone, but Looney didn’t fault him for his carelessness. Instead, she laughed and said, “I swear, only you would get injured at a time like this. But hey, since you can’t eat ice cream with a broken arm, I’ll eat it for you. I want three pints, you hear me?” And with that, she ended the call.
Then I asked the question that was on everyone’s minds: “What are we gonna do?”
Smiling vaguely, she answered, “I’ll just handle it myself, of course.”
Ignoring everyone else’s concerns, Looney’s beam continued to spin wildly, like it was having the time of its life. Rehearsal that day hit a few minor snags but was otherwise almost flawless. And those minor snags weren’t because of Looney; no, she performed her new role perfectly. Granted, maybe this wasn’t a surprise considering she was the one who wrote the script and the plot to begin with. Plus, she was directing everyone else’s acting, too. That being said, I’d been under the impression she’d never done any acting before.
“I like to keep my bases covered, so I practiced all the parts at home every night, just in case.”
She wasn’t scared to wear a lapel mic, either, something the whole crew found impressive. Then she looked at me with that unreadable expression of hers.
“I’m glad you’re still around, Miki-chan.”
“Yeah, I bet you are!”
Instantly I understood what she meant. Although she could probably play most of the parts with relative ease, mine was the only exception. Sure, at first glance Looney may have seemed “absurdly hyper-competent at everything” (her words, not mine), but this was not actually the case. You see, while she was a hard worker who generally tried to keep all her bases covered, this only bore fruit when it came to her studies or her hobbies. When it came to anything athletic, Looney was completely and utterly hopeless. She wouldn’t be able to do the high kicks and jumps that came with the superhero mantle.