When I got off at my stop, Yuma was still on. He was waved to me as I stepped off, and I nodded slowly in response. We hadn't talked much during the ride; he was just listening to music and casually reading the ads lining the train car.
I headed aboveground and grabbed the bus, riding it home and then heading in.
"I'm home!" I hollered, kicking my shoes off.
"Early today, aren't you?" I couldn't tell if my mom's holler back was sarcastic. I hoped she wasn't genuinely upset. It wasn't like her, but you never know.
I walked into the kitchen. She had her elbows propped on the counter, her face in her hands. A cookbook lay open in front of her.
"I was with Len and Miku," I said. "Time kinda got out of hand, I guess?"
She shrugged. I started walking towards her. "As long as you're not lying dead in the woods, cut into a bunch of pieces or in a bag, or both."
I stopped. "What?"
"I'm kidding!" She smacked me upside the head, gently, but hard enough to make me squeak. "Text me next time, kiddo."
"Right, right," I huffed. "That was disturbing."
"What was?"
"The thing you said," I didn't even want to repeat it. "The thing about me in the woods."
"Yeah, I guess it was kind of harsh, huh?" She stroked my hair. "Anyways, come here. Look. Help me decide."
She ushered my gaze towards the open cookbook.
"I can't decide what to bake," she said. "Choose one."
"Well, brownies are always good," I looked at the recipes. "Unless you really want to make a fancy cake...and there's only the two of us, so..."
"So..." She flipped the page suddenly, "I was thinking we could make cake pops and have a party!"
"It'd be just us," I said.
"Yeah, just the two of us," she smiled.
And so we spent the evening making cake pops, and brownies, too.
"School's just started, so the workload isn't so bad," my mom had said. "It'll be a lot more in a few weeks, and then you and I won't be able to spend as much time together anymore."
There was some loneliness in her eyes as she said that, I felt. Dad was never really around anyways, so I guess I was all she had, most of the time.
Len: thanks for helping today.
I got that text later in the evening, as I was getting ready for bed.
Gumi: it's nothing. We're friends, right?
Len: yeah...see you tomorrow, then?
Gumi: yeah. :) night.
"Here comes the cold, and with it comes fall! Fall's followed by winter! Cold and pretty, and I love bread!" Teto sang her improv, makeshift song as she marched towards the schoolyard. We had run into each other a few steps from my stop, and our conversation had led into the topic of colder winds and falling leaves. And bread, I guess, but that's always on her mind.
"It's still only September," I said.
It had been a little over a week since school had started, and things weren't so bad. Pretty dull, in fact, though I was not exactly looking forward to my first tutoring session later today.
"Yeah, sure, it's still Septmeber, but while winter's still far away, fall's right here!" She spun around in a circle. I watched her, my eyes widening as her arm swung and hit a bypassing by, Oliver, I recognized, in the face. He stumbled back and I grabbed Teto, stopping her as his bag fell to the floor.
"Careful," I said to her. We looked at Oliver. He had one hand over his nose and was crouching, picking up something that had fallen out of his bag. Something colourful. With petals.
"Oliver, are those flowers?" Teto grinned widely. There was excitement in her voice. Oliver froze and turned to look at us. He glared at her but his gaze softened as he met my eyes. It was almost as though he was asking for pity or something, though I couldn't understand why.
"It's not of your business," he said to Teto as he zipped up his bag.
"It is too!" She said. "Really Ollie, why do you have flowers? Is it a whole bouquet? I thought I heard crinkling plastic!"
"I..." Oliver opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked at me. "Sorry about this. I should've been looking where I was going."
"It's fine," I gently punched Teto's arm. "She needs to chill."
"Yeah, well...I dunno," Oliver's face was slightly red. I wanted to ask him about the flowers, about the rosy tint of his cheeks, but I figured that now was not the time. He looked troubled enough.
"It's cool," I smiled at him and then yanked on Teto's hair. "I'll keep her mouth shut."
"You don't need to," he said softly, looking down at his shoes. "There's really no point. Anyways, I better get inside, I need some stuff from my locker...see you."
We watched as he hurried off. Teto leaned against me. "Really, though, why do you think he had flowers?"
"I don't know," I said. "You smacked him pretty hard, though. And he seemed like he was trying to hide the flowers..."
"You think he wanted to give them to somebody?"
I didn't reply immediately. We started to walk again. "Maybe he just wants to make necklaces out of the flowers."
Later that day, I was fiddling with the lock on my locker at lunchtime when someone slammed back against the locker next to mine, scaring the life out of me. He was wearing a flower necklace. And a flower crown. It was creepy.
"Hey, you!" He grinned at me and then rapped a fist against my locker. "Having trouble?"
"Hi...Naoki," I smirked. He pinched my nose, taking me by surprise. I stumbled back and Yuma laughed.
"You have such a small nose," he teased. I rubbed my nose and glared at him before returning to my locker and swinging it open. It really wasn't that small. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Don't you have a comeback, pumpkin?"
I pulled my lunch out. "You have a small...something." My cheeks became a horrible shade of red as I processed what I said. I could feel him staring at me, a smile on his face.
"Didn't know you were like that, Gumi," he laughed. "Though I guess I should have expected it..." I closed my locker and turned to look at him, grinning with his back to the lockers, flowers around his neck and in his hair.
"You look ridiculous," I said. He shrugged.
"Way to change the subject," he said.
"Why are you even here? And where did you get those from?"
"One of the guys had a shit ton of flowers," he said, looking around. I cringed at his word choice. "And I was just passing by when I saw you. I'm kind of looking for...hey!"
He suddenly stood straight and pulled the flower crown off his head, putting it on mine. I yelped as his hand pressed down on my head so suddenly.
"Take care of this, eh?" He said before walking away, towards the stairwell, where I saw Kaito coming through. I watched as he put an arm around Kaito's shoulders and showed off his flower necklace to his friend, saying something that I couldn't catch entirely.
"You should totally make one, dude!" He nudged the blue haired boy. "She'll love it. I'm telling you. Here, take mine."
"Hey," Kaito looked at me as they passed by. I smiled and nodded. Yuma pointed at my head.
"See?" He said to his friend. "I made that one."
"Here, you can have it back," I said, walking after them and taking the crown off my head. I handed it to Yuma and he put it on Kaito's head.
"Now watch the girls come running," Yuma said.
"They already do come running," Kaito said.
"Well, they'll be sprinting now! Like Olympic runners! Beautiful Olympic runners! And I'll be there so that I can take their attention away from you!"
I rolled my eyes. Yuma winked at me, which made me want to yell at him, because I didn't appreciate him doing these sorts of things, but I held back. There was going to have to be a lot of holding back around him.
"Gumi, why are you standing in the middle of the hallway?" Gakupo's voice came from behind me.
"I was...well, I was getting my lunch, actually," I said, turning to look at him. We started to walk down the hall, in the other direction.
Away from Kaito. The way it should be.
"Heading over to meet the girls?" Gakupo asked.
"Yeah, I guess," I said."You?"
"Well, I might as well come along," he ran a hand through his hair and smiled to himself. "It'll give me a chance to see you know who."
"Haha, you should talk to her more."
"No way, that'd be way too suspicious. She already knows that I like her."
"But now she also knows that Kaito has a girlfriend."
"Fair point. She's still crazy about him, though."
"Well, I mean, of course it'll take some time for her to accept it and move on, but..." I shrugged, "I don't know. I personally think you should try and stay on friendly terms with her."
"Carrot cruncher, you know I can't do that with most people."
"...That's a new nickname..."
"Do you like it?" Gakupo grinned. We were almost at the room where the girls hung out at lunch. "It's actually something Oliver came up with the other day, while we were out with the other guys."
"Wait, you guys talk about me?" I wasn't sure exactly why I was so surprised.
"We talk about you a lot," Gakupo winked and I bit my lip. He laughed. "I'm kidding. We don't. Some of us do. Like Len, and Kaito."
"That's...strange," I turned away so that he couldn't see my cheeks, and he responded with a gentle smack to my shoulder.
"It's alright to still feel that way," he said softly, sort of playfully, but he was always playful like that. "What you did was brave, and every moment that passes when you're around him, just being you, you're doing something amazing. So keep at it and don't put yourself down, pumpkin."
"Thanks, I guess..." I said. "But don't call me pumpkin. Why does Yuma call me pumpkin?"
"Yeah, I heard him call you that first, didn't I?" He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It sort of stuck. I don't know why he calls you that, but I liked how it sounded! You like carrots, and they're orange...and pumpkins are orange? You should totally ask him, though."
I shook my head and walked into the room, where I was instantly attacked by a crazy girl squeezing the life out of me. Miku, naturally.
"You took so long to get here!" She said. I pulled her off.
"I was talking," I said, nodding in Gakupo's direction. "But hey, I still showed up, huh?"
"I guess. But it's not the same! I thought you were dead or something!"
"What? W-Well, I'm not, right?"
"Maybe you're a ghost," she said. "Or wait. No...I don't think we can touch ghosts."
"Maybe you can. Have you ever tried?"
"Well..." She shrugged and we walked in. I watched as Gakupo slowly followed, then suddenly stopped.
"Well?" I asked him.
"Well what?" He glanced at me and then looked past me. I turned. Luka was sitting next to Neru, rummaging through her backpack.
"Aren't you coming in?"
"Nah, I think I'll stay out here..."
I shrugged, grinning at him. It was funny how much he changed around Luka. Like he wasn't himself anymore, but he kind of was. He was just not the confident, fabulous Gakupo of everyday.
"Hey Gumi!" Teto said from behind me, as I waved bye to Gakupo. He nodded, lingering by the edges of the room. I turned around and said hey to Teto.
"We're discussing methods of transportation," Neru said. "Right now it's all about skidoos."
Before I could ask her why they were talking about something that felt so odd and simply downright strange, she threw a question at me.
"Say, did you talk to Kaito today?"
"Uh...well, he said 'hey.'"
Neru made this really weird motion where she almost squealed but then puffed her face and balled her fists, then put her head down on the table in front of her. Teto was grinning like mad.
"And then he waved to me and I waved back."
Both girls exploded with squeals. Then they stormed out of their chairs and scampered up to me, grabbing onto my arms. I looked at Luka, expecting her to do something similar or perhaps crazier, but she just sat in her spot and kind of shivered. Like she was trying to suppress her feels or something.
"Text me when you're at your locker tomorrow!" Neru said, though it sounded more like an obsessive, painful groan.
"Me too, me too!" Teto's nails were digging into my arm, despite the fact that I was wearing a fairly thick sweater.
"Actually, you should just text us both whenever you see Kaito," Neru said.
"Yes, yes!"
"All this talk about Kaito and no love for me?" Len walked in all of a sudden, with Oliver following.
"For shame! You have a significant other, Len," Teto said. Gakupo still hung near the edge of the door. Luka was oddly quiet throughout all this, madly scribbling something into a notebook.
Well, so does Kaito. That's probably what Len's thinking, too, but he's not going to say something like that right now. The girls would just start badmouthing his sister...that would be awful...
"Do I, now?" Len laughed and winked at Miku. She blushed and got to her feet. "She's like air to me. Vital, and yet I find myself taking her for granted."
"...That doesn't make you a poet," Miku said as he took her hand. "Or a writer, for that matter."
"Well, sorry," Len said. "Can you live with that?"
"I guess I can," Miku was clearly holding back a grin but she was adorable.
"They're actually really cute..." Teto whispered to pretty much everybody and nobody. Then she looked at Oliver. "Speaking of cute, where did those flowers go?"
"Flowers?" Neru and Luka looked at Oliver. They were like little drama magnets, in my head, at least.
"Yeah, Ollie had a bouquet and he was hiding it!" Teto sang. "But then I smashed into him accidentally and it fell and stuff."
"A bouquet...maybe he meant to bribe one of his teachers," Neru said.
"This early in the school year?" This was Teto. Oliver was slumped in a corner. I wanted to ask him about this whole thing and I had a feeling that he'd be more okay with telling me than the other girls, but at the same time, I felt like I shouldn't be prodding. Besides, there was no way I could ask him right then and there.
"Well, it works best before the teachers know how stupid you actually are," Neru laughed and Oliver slumped even more.
"Guys, guys...really," I said to the girls. "This isn't very nice of you."
"It's fine," Oliver said. He was very loud. "I don't..."
He was interrupted by another voice from the doorway. "Hey, everyone's here!"
Kaito and Yuma stood by the door, and the latter was covered with flowers. It was like he had ten flower crowns and even more flower necklaces this time. I started to winder where he got all those flowers from...and then it clicked.
"Oliver, are those yours?" I asked.
"Yeah..." Oliver nodded. "They were ruined, so I let him keep them."
"Thanks for these, eh?" Yuma walked up to Oliver and patted his shoulder before taking a crown off his head and putting it on the boy's. "You get one, and you get one..."
He then proceeded to put one on all the boys' heads. Except for Kaito. He already had one, and even if he didn't, there were three crazy girls screaming and shouting around them. It was really very exasperating. I wondered how he felt about being almost assaulted like this.
"He needs to get a restraining order," Len mumbled. I think I saw Miku nodding from the corner of my eye, but I was maybe too busy watching Yuma trying to force a flower necklace onto Gakupo.
"Come on already..." Yuma held the necklace with both hands. Gakupo was cornered but he had his arms crossed and a tight frown on his face.
"No," he said.
"Please?"
"No."
"You'll look amazing," Yuma grinned. "Okay, fine, maybe not as amazing as me. But definitely more amazing than Kaito."
"I doubt that."
"Why don't you try it? Nothing to lose!"
Gakupo rolled his eyes and took the necklace from Yuma. He put it over his head, and it actually did look nice.
"There. Happy?" He said.
"Yes, very," Yuma snickered. "Now for the girls. They look wonderful enough as it is, but who cares because flowers! Flowers for everyone!"
He put a crown on my head and then patted my shoulder. I stared at him. He just smiled and told me to do the same.
"Smile, Megpoid!" He said. Then he gave a necklace to Len and a crown to Miku. "For today is a most glorious occasion, and all the little people get flowers!"
"Yuma, when the hell did you become so weird?" Gakupo said. His friend didn't reply. Instead, he focused on putting crowns on the heads of Neru, Teto and Luka. Kaito stared at his friend.
"Can we get going now?" He asked. Yuma nodded.
"Give me a sec, I'm almost done," and then the boy put a crown on Oliver's head. "This is all thanks to you."
"Yeah, it is," Oliver looked sad, so sad.
"Don't lose hope, boy! Fate...will give you a chance again!" Yuma said. "It's all for the better. And see, we made something out of it! Everything will be a-okay!"
"That's true," Oliver said, looking slightly less sad. Yuma gave him a thumbs up and then walked up to Kaito, taking his sweet time.
"Excuse me, angels," he said to the girls. "Perhaps you should go about your business as we go about ours. This man needs to join the tennis team again this year, you see."
"And the Eggplant Awareness Club!" Gakupo said, walking up to Kaito. The guys started forming their own little group. Len said bye to Miku and kissed her forehead before joining the boys as well.
"That's right," Yuma nodded. "That club of yours..."
"Hey, eggplants are cool, alright?" Gakupo said.
"Well, sure, cooler than you, maybe," Yuma laughed. "Anyways, los geht's."
He nodded at me and I reluctantly waved as the group walked away. Things started to settle down and become quieter. Neru was texting. Teto and Luka were chatting softly. Miku took a seat and looked at me.
"Well, that was certainly...exciting," she smiled, adjusting the flower crown on her head.
This gesture made me reach up and touch mine, my fingertips against the soft petals. The flowers were still fragrant. He was strange, very strange, and obnoxious sometimes, but I didn't really know him that well yet. In our swirling pot of friends and the one, odd crush, Kaito, he was a new voice. A new voice in our crowd of people. That meant change. It could be good, but things would definitely be different. I figured I could handle different. Time would tell how things go.
Everything will be a-okay.
It's slow but I'm working on it.
Yuma has small feet.
And yes. The title.