Price of admission

Price of admission Part 3

The rest of the day seemed to drag on as Nishikata thought about nothing but how to get to the convenience store as fast as he could. 'Most likely Takagi will want us to walk home together, I'm going to have to turn her down if she asks.' At the thought of that, Nishikata felt a cold sensation in his chest that caused him to grab his shirt. 'I'm doing this to get the best chance to get one over on her, it's well worth losing a smaller opportunity.' The coldness in his chest waned a little, and he breathed a sigh of relief. 'Good, now I need to get ready, the bell can ring any second now.' He looked over to the clock to see that the bell was, in fact, about to ring at any moment. 'If I walk to fast, I could get in trouble for running in the hall, thankfully I'll be able to run when I get out of the school, and then it's-'

"Nishikata?" Takagi asked interrupting his thought process. "You wanna walk home together today?"

Nishikata slowly turned to look at her as the strange feeling began to overtake him once again. "I ... I can't, I promised a friend I'd meet them later after school."

"Hm?" She asked with a curious look on her face. "You must have big plans if you're that anxious to hang out with them."

"Huh?"

Takagi pointed to his leg, which he just noticed was bouncing up and down.

"Oh, yeah." He scratched the back of his head and tried to smile to hide the fact that he was lying. "There's ... a new video game that he wants me to try and it sounds like a lot of fun." 'I can't tell her I'm going to get concert tickets; I need to make it look like I just happen to get them, otherwise she'll suspect I'm planning something.'

She looked at him with a disappointed expression. "That's a lie."

"Ack!" The bell rang signaling the end of the school day, and Nishikata grabbed his bag and bolted to his feet. "I'msorrywecanwalkhometogethertomorrowby!" He blurted out before bolting for the door, then rounding a corner into the hall.

He was lucky there weren't many teachers there, and he was able to quickly get to his locker and change his shoes with ease. 'I'm amazed at how well this is going.' He began running again with his eyes focused on the door. 'But I can't let my guard down if I'm to get these tickets!' As soon as he was out of the school, he bolted towards the convenience. 'All that exercise is paying off again, at this rate I'll be sure to get there before they sell out!'

He ran as fast as he could, and as soon as he reached his destination, he jumped inside and looked around until he found the counter with a sign advertising the concert. 'There'

He rushed over and slammed his hand on the counter. "I'd like to buy two tickets for the concert this Friday please!" Time seemed to slow down for a moment, at first he felt victorious, but he quickly realized that his voice wasn't the only one that uttered those words. 'Don't tell me-' He looked to his right to see Hamaguchi, also with his hand on the counter looking just as surprised as he was, and on his left was Takao with the same expression. 'This feels like it's going to quickly become an issue.' "Uh, so I think that's ... six total?"

The woman behind the counter gave a nervous smile. "That's ... going to be a problem ... there's only three left."

"Only three?!" Takao asked incredulously.

"That's not going to be enough for all of us." Hamaguchi said as he looked down.

"That's not even going to be enough for two of us." Takao added.

"But how's that possible!?" Nishikata exclaimed. "School ended less than five minutes ago!"

Hamaguchi began scratching his chin. "Some kids must have come in while sick or snuck out during free period after lunch.".