Youth Unsupervised

Chapter 7-The Price of Diction

The three of us made our way back to my house and up to my room. We set our bags down and got out our notebooks.

"What subject do you want first?" I asked Saki.

"I don't care." She flopped down onto the rug. "Surprise me."

"Hiromasa?" I asked.

"How about math?" He cracked open his notebook.

"That works for me," I said.

"Yay," Saki said sarcastically.

I chucked my notebook next to Saki. "You two start. I'll be back."

I went downstairs to get some juice and fresh strawberry daifuku. To my surprise, when I returned, Saki wasn't harassing Hiromasa. She was lying on her stomach, scribbling stuff down on a new page of her notebook while Hiromasa pointed to things in his. I sat down next to her and set all the stuff down. Saki pulled herself into a sitting position and stared at the package of daifuku.

"Want one?" I asked.

She nodded. I took one out of the plastic and handed it to her. She took a small bite and chewed slowly, staring down at the strawberry surrounded by red bean paste and sweet rice dough. I don't think I'd ever seen her eat anything at a slow pace.

"Wow," Hiromasa said. "You can actually eat stuff like a normal person."

She glared at him. "I like strawberries." She took another careful bite.

I took two more daifuku out, giving one to Hiromasa and eating the other. I reserved the last one left in the package for Saki.

We spent the next few hours teaching Saki and letting her copy down notes. She caught on pretty fast, which didn't surprise me, because I assumed her whole problem was a lack of effort from the beginning. The real challenge was going to be in keeping her on track the whole year.

Thursday came faster than I expected. As soon as lunch period started, Saki turned to me with a grin.

"Ready?" she asked.

"We aren't going to get to eat, are we?" I asked.

She smirked. "Probably not."

I sighed.

"Where are you guys going?" Hiromasa asked.

Saki smiled, took a few steps forward, and leaned down to whisper something in Hiromasa's ear.

He shook his head. "No thanks."

"I thought so." She glanced back at me. "Come on."

I followed her out of the room and we started down the hall. I wondered what she could've said to Hiromasa that would've made him reject the idea so suddenly. She hadn't said much, so it must have been straight to the point. Whatever it was, he was probably smart to refuse. I wish I could've been so clever.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"It's a secret." She put a finger to her lips and smiled.

I sighed. "Is there some reason Hiromasa gets to know and I don't?"

"Because I knew he would just get weird about it."

"And I won't?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We had a deal."

I sighed again. "Right."

We left the main building through one of the back doors and walked across the school grounds until we came to the old white shed used to store out of season sports equipment and other random clutter that hadn't found its way into a dumpster yet. Not many students wander out that far. It's near the edge of the property, and there isn't anything out there of particular interest if you're actually doing what you're supposed to be doing. Despite that, this was not the first time I'd been out to that shed. I'd been there numerous times before, and not for sports equipment. We circled around back and she stopped to lean against the wooden, paint chipped panels of the building.