Unlovable

Chapter Ten

As she spoke Kagami grabbed her schoolbag and stood up. She brushed past the twins and started walking out of the room. At this point, going home was a better option than staying here listening to Hikaru and Kaoru whining. So she resigned herself to a couple of hours at her house pacing the floors in nervous anticipation for dinner with her father. The twins weren't ready to let her go though and they followed her out of the classroom, keeping pace on both sides of her.

"What if we promised to leave you alone for two weeks?" Kaoru pressed.

"We'll even get a dress for you to wear." Hikaru added. "Our mom's a designer so it will be amazing."

"I don't need a dress since I won't be going to the dance." Kagami said shortly. "Besides, I don't think the two of you have enough self-control to leave me alone for two entire weeks, so I would be getting the short end of the deal."

"That's mean!" Kaoru exclaimed.

"We could do it if we tried!" Hikaru added.

"Somehow, I seriously doubt that."

Kagami had reached her limo by this point so she was able to jump in and slam the door before the twins could say anything else to her. As her driver pulled away she could see identical looks of irritation on their faces. Kagami knew that they would continue to pester her until the dance was over, but she was glad that she didn't have to deal with them for at least the rest of the afternoon. Instead, she had something far more serious to worry about.

Dinner with her father was in two hours. Kagami still had no idea what he wanted to talk to her about and it was making her extremely anxious. She tried to calm herself down by taking deep, relaxing breaths, but it didn't help. She needed to do something to relax though. When she faced her father, she had to be calm, completely emotionless, just like he was. But telling herself that she needed to be calm wasn't doing any good. In fact, it was only making things worse. There was one thing though that Kagami knew was guaranteed to calm her nerves.

Once her driver stopped outside the entrance, Kagami grabbed her bag and walked inside. Hiroto was once again waiting for her in the foyer with a malicious grin on his face. Kagami handed her bag over silently and watched as the family butler searched through her bag with more zeal than usual. He was probably hoping to find something he could use to report against her to her father. Kagami knew that Hiroto would thoroughly enjoy getting her in serious trouble with his employer because her father's methods of punishment were usually much harsher, and lasted much longer, than her mother's. But disappointment was the only thing Hiroto would find in her bag. Kagami knew Hiroto's habits well enough that she had triple checked her bag before leaving school.

When Hiroto had handed her bag back with a melancholy sigh, Kagami headed up to her room and carefully set it down next to her desk. Then she changed into a pair of faded jeans and a dark blue v-neck. After making sure that her uniform was hanging up neatly, she walked over to the chest at the foot of her bed, and carefully opened it. Then she paused, listening for any creaking, soft thuds, anything that might indicate that Hiroto was nearby. Kagami had found him spying into her a room several times already and she had quickly learned what signs to look for. When she was positive that no one was watching what she was doing she silently pulled out the false bottom and grabbed the sketch book she was currently using. She also grabbed charcoals, pencils, and pastels. Once she had everything she needed, Kagami placed it in a knapsack and went out onto her balcony.

She took a moment to breath in the fresh air and look at the beautiful landscape around her. She was also looking for any workers who might see what she was about to do. There were a couple of gardeners who seemed to be clearing out some tree branches so Kagami waited until they had finished. Then she swung herself over the railing of her balcony and grabbed onto a large branch of the maple tree that grew next to it. From years of practice she was able to climb down it swiftly and silently.

As soon as she was on the ground, Kagami headed towards the one place where she knew she could feel at peace. In the dead center of the property surrounding her house was a garden. Kagami had made this garden her haven and she was headed there to calm herself down before she had to face her father. As soon as she reached her destination, Kagami felt herself starting to relax. She almost smiled as she looked at her beautiful surroundings.

All around her were hundreds and hundreds of flowers. They weren't just any flowers though, all of the blossoms here were in varying shades of blue. Kagami loved blue flowers. They had had a special place in her heart for a very long time. So over the years, she had removed flowers of other colors from this area and replaced them with beautiful blue ones. The gardeners were different from the servants in the house, who would make reports to Hiroto about every little thing she did. As long as she stayed out of the way and didn't try to talk to them, the gardeners didn't care what Kagami did. Which was why she had been able to implement her blue garden without getting found out by either her mother or her father.

This garden had become her safe place. It felt more like a home to Kagami than her house did, and if she could manage to spend all of her time there without getting discovered by her parents, she would have. But since she had to be careful, she usually only went there when her emotions became too overwhelming for her to deal with, like today.

Sitting down on one of two white iron chairs placed next to a delicate looking table, Kagami pulled out her sketch pad. She flipped to a clean page and looked around the garden, trying to decide which flower she felt like drawing. After a couple of minutes she settled on a patch of forget-me-nots. Then she pulled out her pastels and started drawing. As she became more focused on her drawing, Kagami forgot about the twins and the stupid dance, she forgot about dinner with her father, and became completely lost in her art.

She would have stayed there all evening lost in her own world, but Kagami knew herself well enough not to let that happen. The piercing ring of an alarm snapped her from her trance and Kagami gazed resentfully down at her phone as she turned the alarm off. It was five o'clock. That meant she had to sneak back into her room and get ready for dinner. She was starting to feel anxious again, but drawing in her garden had helped her to calm down enough that she could control it. In fact, it was the only reason that Kagami was able to head back inside at all. Once she was safely back in her room, she took a deep breath. She could do this. One evening with her father wasn't the end of the world.