[You guys are over here. It's after class. Everyone else is leaving. Even the teacher.] [Start!] * Katie puts her books away. Every so often, she glances over to Kaede. She's been... nervous. Not that this necessarily unusual, but she has. * Kaede isn't leaving just yet. He's still in his seat and shows no signs of getting up just yet. He's staring at a blank page of his notepad, tapping a pencil on the desk. * Katie glances at the door out, then stands and picks up her satchel. She walks over to Kaede, looking down at him, his blank notepad, and his pencil. * Kaede 's not looking at Katie. He occassionally shifts his gaze towards the window and straight ahead, past Katie but never straight at her. * Katie tilts her head. "Kaede?" * Kaede answers distantly, eyes now looking out the window. "Hmm?" The bell rang. We should probably leave the classroom now. We...huh? * Kaede glances over at her for a second, surprised. The bell rang. School's over. It's...oh. [All the tension is broken when Chikako bursts into the room!] * Katie whirls to look at Chikako, eyes wide, then relaxes with a hesitant smile. "Hi." * Kaede glances over at Chikako....then looks back out towards the window, tapping his pencil and leaning his cheek on his palm. * Chikako bounds into the room and up to Katie's desk. "Katie! Class is over! Here, have a paper. It's so cool!" She more or less shoves a copy of the paper at Katie. * Katie laughs and catches the paper. "Okay. Is it the coolest yet?" No, but it's pretty cool! * Katie skims. "You've got to let me know which one's the coolest yet. * Kaede gets up suddenly and walks over to the window. [The highlights of the paper are: the kyudo team will be in a national competition in a few weeks. There's also an article on a new transfer student: one Yuki Ijima, of which little is known about so far, but apparently she has special permission to wear long skirts and long-sleeved shirts, for some unknown reason.] [Also, the police caught another drug dealer last night. And another student vanished.] (And long-sleeved shirts are part of the uniform, I think, but. ^^) ( That's it! ) ( I thought they were short during the summer ) * Katie flicks her eyes up to Kaede, then checks the names of the drug dealer and student. (I dunno. You never specified. ^^;) ( They are both Kaede Takeuchi! Ieee! ) (AAAAH!) (Except one's male and one's female) [Katie recognizes neither name.] * Katie nods. "Cool paper, Chikako." She smiles. "Thanks for bringing us one." (Sum Yung Gai and Ani Baudi) * Chikako nodnods. "Uh huh! So, is everything cool with you?" * Katie 's smile falters and goes away. "As cool as expected, I guess." Oh. Yeah. But you're here, so that's cool. Did that guy do any good that day? You didn't look so cool after it. I've been meaning to ask you about it for a while, kind of. * Katie scratches at the back of her head. "Well, um..." Masaru's one of us, so I could talk to him about things I couldn't if I went to the actual doctor. And I think he gave some good advice, but it's so *hard*, talking about it and- and trusting a stranger, I guess. Oh. * Katie sighs. "That and I don't know how it works in Japan, but you really are supposed to have your bachelor's before you can even think about interning." * Chikako spreads her arms. "It's cool. You can talk to me!" * Katie smiles. "You sure? I get kind of scared, sometimes." Yeah, it's cool! * Katie darts in and hugs Chikako. "Thanks. I don't like thinking that I'm sick." * Chikako smiles. "Everything's gonna be cool, you'll see." * Chikako waits for a minute, then says, "Well, I gotta get back to the office." * Katie sniffs. She might be crying. "I don't know. And... okay." She lets go, wiping at one eye. * Kaede glances back over at the crying. He lets out a sigh and turns back towards the window, putting his palm against the glass as he looks out. Umm... Do you want me to stay? I'm sure it'd be cool if Arisu did everything. Or you could come with! That'd be so cool! You could see all the cool articles I get to edit! No, it's- I mean, if you have things to do... * Katie smiles a little. "You can go do them. I'll... maybe I'll go, but I should tell the others first." Are you sure? Well... okay. But if you're not feeling cool, call me and I'll come running, ok? * Katie nods. "All right. Your phone's on today?" * Chikako nods and smiles. "Yeah, it's cool!" * Katie keeps her previous smile. "Sure. Maybe I'll stop by the office." Cool! * Chikako waves. "See ya later." * Katie waves. "Okay." * Chikako darts off like a bat out of hell. Skrreeee! ... er, no skreee (*clings to Kaede's face* SKREEEE!) (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) (*screams and destroys Katie's eardrums!*) * Katie lets out a faint sigh and turns. Thankfully, stuff in parens doesn't actually destroy her ears. "You still there, Kaede?" [Katie's phone rings!] * Katie blinks. * Katie picks up her phone and checks to see who it is. * Katie clicks it on and puts it to her ear. "Hello?" (Rather, that's in English. ;P) * Kaede keeps his hand on the window for a second and the pulls it away, turning sharply at Katie's voice. "Hmm?" He sees that she's on the phone and then folds his arms at the windowpane, looking out that way. Hi. You're not in trouble, are you? (I love that that's Katie's first reaction to a call ^_^) (^_^) * Katie smiles a little. "No. We're still in our last class, even though it's over. Kaede's with me, and Chikako stopped by with the paper." And tell Haruko that I hope it is. We'll head over to you guys. She's going straight to her office. Tell Haruko Arisu's at the office, or will be. Bye. * Katie removes the phone and hangs up. * Katie sighs, putting the phone in her pocket. She looks back to Kaede, waiting to see if he notices. * Kaede keeps looking out for a bit, then glances back generally towards Katie. "You ready to go..?" I was going to ask you that. * Kaede turns against the sill and pushes himself off, walking slowly towards his kaban without a word. I... might... go to Chikako's office after this. If it's all right with you. Huh? After what? * Kaede blinks from his stooped position, picking up his kaban. After we meet up with the others and prove we're alive. Kaede? (*sniff* Dance With The Angels came on.) Oh....right... * Katie walks over, checking his eyes. "What's wrong?" * Kaede watches Katie for a moment. His eyes are perfectly fine and he meets her gaze for a second before drawing away, speaking lowly. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong..." Liar. * Katie sighs, backing away. "You're lying. Let's go." * Kaede doesn't react to that. "Are we go---okay..." * Kaede follows slowly behind her, looking a bit down at the floor to the right of her feet as he walks. * Katie looks pained for a moment, then recasts that to neutral as she heads out, too.