Word Count : 2026
"Yuki, is something wrong?" I asked. Tohru and I were leaving the classroom, when we saw Yuki standing outside the door. He seemed rather down.
"My mom changed the date of the conference last minute. Sheesh. But... it's a miracle she's coming at all, I guess." Yuki explained.
"Th- The conference is meant for you... For you to think of your own path... your own future. So.. So Yuki-kun, please do your best." Tohru says. She pauses. "I w-won't mind my own business!" She shouts after a moment.
"Huh?" Yuki questioned. What Tohru said made me think back to what Akito had said over the break.
Is she thinking about what Akito said over the break?
---
Finally it was the parent teacher conference. Everyone was being called in when it was their turn for the appointment. Uotani and Hanajima had already gone with one of their parents, at the moment it was Tohru with Shigure who were talking. I was currently sitting in a chair waiting for Miss Kobayashi who had yet to arrive. I saw Tohru leave the classroom soon followed by Shigure and not long after Miss Kobayashi arrived. Finally it was our turn and we entered the classroom.
"Please sit down." Mayu-sensei says. "Umm.. Miss..."
"Miss Kobayashi."
"Right I don't know if you know about this but Ami never answered her career path paper. " She explained.
"Oh, is that so?"
"Ami, do you have any plans for the future? Do you want to go to college or get a job? You must have some idea of what your plans for the future are."
"I don't know. I never thought about it." I lied. I have thought about the future a lot. Especially during these past couple of weeks. But it's not like I could say that I am being told to stay at home, never leaving it for the rest of my life.
"It's a big step in anyone's life. You need to find something you want to do. We want to prepare you for what is to come and it helps if we have a baseline to work with."
"Why don't we give her more time. She still has over a year to figure it out. As you said it's a big step in her life. She just needs a little longer." Miss Kobayashi says, helping me out.
"Is that alright with you?" Mayu-sensei asked.
"I think so. If you don't mind, I'm going to step out." I say.
"Go ahead, I just want to talk with your teacher a bit longer. I might head out soon, but please stop by sometime soon."
"Okay." I responded and with that I headed out of the classroom.
"Why do all these kids have no solid ideas about the future?" I heard the teacher mumbles as I walked out the classroom. I made my way outside the school. I saw Tohru sitting alone on the edging of the short walls. I sit down next to her and we both sit in silence.
"Tohru, Ami!"
"Huh?" We both look up to see Uotani and Hanajima looking down at us. Neither of us had seen them come over.
"Why were you both spacing out?"
"Er, it's nothing."
"Tohru-kun, something is on your mind."
"What?!"
"I feel turbulent waves from you." Hanajima states.
"It's nothing serious! We're just anxious, from thinking about the future again..." I trail off, covering for Tohru and I.
"Yeah that's right!" Tohru smiles and agrees.
If only that was the whole truth but that is buried down into the deep parts of my heart in a small box.
"Isn't that true for everybody? I get stressed about it too. Pops and I need to start thinking about my future more seriously." Uotani says.
"Me too. My parents expect me to graduate." Hanajima sighs.
"Way to set the bar low." Uotani comments.
"It can't be that hard." I say. She passed the exams because she wanted to, but the only issue was she needed the motivation.
"But in your case, don't think too hard about that." She smiles and pats Tohru's head.
"Don't bottle it all up inside. It's a waste of the now. I worry about you."
"Yes, yes you're right. Like somen right?" I say thinking back to when we all had Sohma back at the house.
"Somen? That a joke?"
"No, it's not! It's just something Shigure once said. He said to take a break once and while and eat somen with your friends!" I explained.
"Oh, I remember that!" Tohru smiles at the memory.
"Really? The writer said that?"
"Uo-chan, Hana-chan, thank you very much." Tohru says.
"Tohru's right. I feel much better now." I agreed.
"No need for thanks." Hanajima says sitting down next to Tohru.
"Hanjima, don't hog all the credit. Ah whatever. Just don't be too trusting of that writer." Uotani says.
"Why not?" Tohru asked, looking confused.
"There's something dark inside of him."
"He's twisted." Hanajima mumbled.
If only they knew.
"Don't worry! Shigure-san is such a kind man." Tohru smiles. I knew Shigure well enough to know that was not the full truth. I have heard much from Akito. I know that Shigure can manipulate someone like it's second nature and it's always for his personal gain. He doesn't care if someone gets affected negatively by what he does. And apparently he was always like that.
"Oh my. It's Kyo Sohma... and who is that?" Hanajima says, looking behind us. Following her gaze I spot Kyo walking to the building with Master.
"It's Master! That's Kyo's dad." I explained.
"Wh- Seriously? That guy is?! I thought his dad would be a redhead like Carrots." Uotani gasped, sitting down next to me.
Kyo only has red hair because of the curse.
"They don't really look alike, but he's-" Uotani starts.
"So gorgeous." Hanajima interrupted.
"Huh!" We all shout.
---
Were walking through the halls trying to locate Kyo. It took us a few minutes but we found him. To get his attention Uotani takes off her shoe and throws it at him. In the last second Kyo manages to catch it.
"Nice catch!" I smile and Tohru claps.
"You weren't supposed to catch that, you little twerp! Know your place, Kyon!" Uotani complained.
"Uotani, you jerk." Kyo says.
"Hey let's go!" She says hopping over to him on one foot. "We are heading over to your place."
"Huh?" He looked confused at what she meant.
"We were wondering if you wanted to join us and have a somen party with everyone?" I explained and I saw him smile.
---
"What? Hanajima-san likes Master?" Yuki repeats. We had gotten home and like planned we were all having somen as a group. Tohru and I were making it while Yuki got the dishes out. Kyo was at the table sulking with Uotani and Hanajima next to him.
"Though I'm unsure of how I feel about him having an older child." Hanajima adds. We were explaining how Hanajima had found Master attractive.
"That'll work itself out!" Uotani laughs, patting Kyo on the back.
"Not so fast dammit."
"Hang on, it doesn't matter how Kazuma-dono feels?" Shigure asked.
"This might be the strangest conversation we've ever had." I laughed.
---
The next day I headed over to Miss Koboyashi's place once more. And once more I sat at the small table in her living room.
"Is the reason you don't know what to do with your future?"
"Yes, but...."
"Does it have something to do with the fact that you can turn into a bird?" She interrupts me.
"What?" I was confused. The words she had said were processing in my head. Did she know about the curse, but how.
"The curse, right?"
"How do you know about that? How long have you known?!"
"Maybe a little over eleven years."
"How did you find out? I did my best to make sure you never found out."
"When You were around four years old you got very sick. Your mother had to work and I was keeping an eye on you. You were so weak and in the blink of an eye you were gone and smoke covered you and then when it cleared there was a small little dove. You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I called your mother and she said she would explain everything when she got back and asked me not to tell anyone. I knew your mother well and figured she must have her reasons for keeping it a secret."
"What did she tell you when she got back from work?"
"She explained everything to me. She explained how you and a group of the Sohmas were cursed with spirits of the zodiac. She continued to tell me everything and how she ran away from home. Leaving her little brother behind. They way she talked seemed like she never had anyone to talk to about these things, for a long time"
"I always thought something similar. Growing up she had no one but Akito who was too young to understand. And when she met dad she was happy and she got to talk to him but after he died she had no one again."
"Do you remember that time when I took you to go see a magic show?" She asked me.
---
Mom was busy with work and was unable to watch me since I wasn't at school. Miss Koboyashi had offered to take care of me. She surprised me by taking me to a magic show. It was the first time I had ever been since I tried to avoid crowds but thankfully there were not many people there. We got good seats and were sitting in the centre of the second row of seats. We saw many tricks between cutting people in half and pulling objects out of empty boxes. Then it came to one of the final tricks. He was going to pull some doves out of a box. He had shown us it was empty but before he could close it the box shook and fell over, and off the table it was on. Out of the box tree pure white doves came out of the box and flew straight at me. One landed on my head and the other ones around me. It was extremely embarrassing because I ruined the trick because the secret door that they were hiding behind had fallen out of the box as well. We were kindly asked to leave after that. The ending wasn't the best. We enjoyed ourselves having a good laugh at what had happened.
---
"I don't turn into a dove anymore. Meaning I can't communicate with them anymore." I confess. I knew I shouldn't tell her but I had to talk to someone that wasn't a member of the Sohma family.
"Did you grow out of it?"
"No, the curse on me broke." I explained.
"That doesn't make any sense. Your mother said it said it had been going on for many generations and never showed signs of it breaking."
"I know that and I have been trying to figure out why but I keep hitting a dead end. I want to break the curse on everyone else but I can't. I don't want everyone else to be trapped in this mess, I want them to be free." I crumpled into myself crying. "Why did mine break but no one else's did?"
"Ami, everything happens for a reason. You might not think so but that's what I believe. Things don't always go the way we plan. We might not like it but I believe that things will turn out fine in the end." She says, lifting my head up and whipping away my tears.
"Thank you. I think I should get going now since it's starting to get late."
"Do continue to come see me when you have the time. Even once you graduate." She says.
"Alright." I smiled at her. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth about what Akito had planned because I did not want to bring her into this mess more than I already have.