Pop Quiz / Gazing At The Glare (Suzu route Act 2-1)

Pop Quiz


I blink away sleep, and whatever might have come before is gone in an instant. My dream slips away from me before I can even think about chasing it. Light is filtering through the window of my bedroom, but to me the world consists entirely of the pillow pressed into my face, the mattress beneath me, and the warm web of my blankets wrapped around me. In this moment, I am completely sure that I have never been more comfortable in my life.

The pounding on my door continues, and I'm just as sure that I might never get this feeling back again. I can only manage a groan in response as I grab my pillow and bury my head beneath it, thinking about all the things I would do if only it meant I could go back to sleep. I would push a kid in a wheelchair down a hill in a heartbeat. Ten more minutes.

The banging on my door ceases, replaced by the click of a key entering the lock. I know who it is before the door even opens, only one other person has a key to my room, a fact that I now regret immensely. It's normally not a bad thing, on some mornings it's particularly hard to get up without Miki dragging me out of bed. But a sidelong glance at the clock on my nightstand reveals that it's too early to even be getting up for school.

I let out another groan. Whatever the reason is, there's no way it's good enough.

The door finally swings open, and Miki saunters in.

“Wake up, buttercup. It's a bright new--whoa.” The surprise in her voice forces me to remove my head from my pillow-shaped sanctum. Miki is glancing around my room with mild disbelief.

“What's the matter? And why are you here so early?” I try to construct a fort out of the deepest, warmest layers of my blankets. Outside my window, birds are chirping. I'd push ten kids in wheelchairs down a hill for five more minutes. Maybe.

“I'm just not used to seeing this place so clean. It's almost like... almost like..” I hear her footsteps race over to my bed, and a hand pries the pillow away from me. Miki is looking at me, head slightly bent, her eyes wide with a mix of wonder and admonishment. I stare back with eyelids composed of pure lead, the morning sun's rays stinging painfully.

“You didn't.”

“I... what? What didn't I do?” I croak. It is far too early to be having a conversation like this. Somewhere, a rooster is crowing, I'm sure. I almost shudder at the thought.

“So you're telling me you didn't clean up this warzone so that you could bring a certain classmate back here after the festival?” Miki flashes a conspiratory grin.

“What? No. God no.” I hadn't even told her I had ended up spending the evening of the festival with Hisao, before my parents finally decided to show up. She always has her ear to the ground when it comes to her friends, it seems. And...

Reluctantly, I sit up and glance around my bedroom. Normally there are things strewn around the floor in very strategic places. To anyone else it might look like a total mess, but it me, it's a carefully choreographed ensemble. A small army of stuffed animals, among other objects, are littered around the floor at various distances and elevations. It's not for emotional comfort. The debris strewn throughout my room is a safety net in case the urge to take a nap ever gets too strong, which it does. Whenever one of my friends comes over, I'm fine with letting them believe that I'm just a messy, girly girl who loves stuffed animals and is too lazy to ever put things away. It's a nicer story than the real one, anyway.

But this morning, my floor is bare, everything sorted and stacked neatly in nice little piles in various corners. The sight of so much free carpet is obtrusive, it's alien to me.

“I don't remember doing that.” I mumble, sitting upright and glancing around. Everything looks completely different from how it did when I finally got back to my dorm room last night. Everything, that is, except a large stuffed dinosaur that sits perched on the table next to my door, across from my bed.

Oh, right. That. Hisao had won it for me while playing some of the games at the festival. He said it matched my eyes. It was the right color, but it was also enormous and bloated, more like a big round pillow with the limbs and head of a T-Rex thrown on than a stuffed animal. I can't tell if it's an extremely thoughtful gift, or the complete opposite.

“So you did a little sleep cleaning?” Miki plops down on the bed next to me. “If that's the case, you should sleep over at my place more often.”

“That's not funny. It's weird.” I lack the strength to stay upright any longer and slowly topple sideways, my head landing in Miki's knees.

“Yeah, well, I think we both know that you're a little weird, Suzu.” She smiles down at me with that motherly look that she's always wearing whenever I'm finding out I have a brand new bruise, or I scraped hard against something on the way down, or I missed an important test. I gaze back at her blankly.

I guess she's right. I've tried not to think about it. After all, everyone here at Yamaku is “weird” in a way. But this is my third year, and I've had a lot of time to come to grips with my situation. To me, I'm not really all that weird at all, except that...

I glance over to the dinosaur-shaped blob on my table. It stares back with beady eyes, taunting me from the other side of the room. The several feet of bare, unpadded floor that separates us resembles a sneered challenge. Or a warning.

That bastard.

“Earth to Suzu, come in, space cadet.” Miki ruffles my hair with her hand to get my attention. It's another little motherly thing that she does, and it bothers me a little bit. But she does so much for me, always making sure I don't hurt myself too badly when I'm out, even making sure I get up at all in the mornings, that I can't get mad at her. Miki is one of the best friends I've ever had, and has been my closest friend since last year.

Anyway. Right. She's early today. Which means she's here to grill me about the festival. Still lacking anything resembling energy, I continue to rest my head in her lap as I give her the sordid details. Or really, the not very sordid at all but still totally what happened details. I tell her about me and Hisao's hunt for the best food to make up for his sub-par noodles earlier. The stall that always has the amazing fried rice dish keeps moving around every year, it's almost like a scavenger hunt. After that, we chased down the best of the festival games. I neglect to tell Miki that we were going to play the goldfish scooping game but changed our minds after I almost passed out face first into the tub of water. I haven't made any effort to keep my condition a secret from Hisao, it's pretty hard to do when I have no control over things sometimes. But we haven't known eachother long enough for me to be completely fine with falling asleep in front of him. Trust like that doesn't spring up in the course of a week, even if he does seem to be a pretty good guy. And besides, I don't know if he's as good at catching me as Miki, and I'd rather not find out the hard way. Luckily, we were able to hunt down some canned coffee and continue on our way, and he didn't make an issue out of it. I think he feels sorry for me, but by that lost look he gets in his eyes sometimes, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who should be feeling sorry for him. It's hard to say.

Anyway, we played a couple more of the festival games. I don't usually like the lottery game, it's a shot in the dark, but their prizes were so good this year. Hisao debated on which string to pull for a few minutes straight, and in the meantime I went ahead and played a couple times. I won some candy, but the string he ended up pulling lead to the dinosaur that now roars silently on the other side of the room, daring someone to come and hug it. When the string he finally chose turned out to be connected to that massive green lump, I jokingly asked if he was going to keep it. He said something about beating his dorm-mate with it, but offered it to me, since it matched my eyes. How could any girl refuse a massive, fuzzy t-rex?

I did make him carry it, though. We did some more walking around, but after a while even the coffee wasn't helping anymore and I was beginning to slump. Hisao was starting to look pretty worn out too. He seemed pretty embarrassed about it, but I wasn't going to pry. After all, if he was in perfect condition he wouldn't be here in the first place. And if that was the case, I wouldn't have had someone to spend the festival with, so I guess it's not all bad.

About that point, my parents finally showed up and me and Hisao parted ways, it would have been kind of awkward to introduce him, and besides, he said he had to head up to the roof to make sure his friend hadn't done anything too stupid. Though, I have a feeling that the only thing Miki really cares about is--

“Did you kiss?” She asks, looking down at me conspiratorially.

“What.” I saw this one coming, but feign ignorance anyway.

“You heard me.”

“Of course not. I've only known him for about a week. And my parents were right there.”

“But you wanted to, right?” She grins, and I know there's only one way out of this conversation. I stare at her blankly for a moment, and then close my eyes, roll my head towards her knees, and go limp. I should feel bad about doing this, but I really don't at the moment. Miki lets out an annoyed gasp as she realizes what I'm trying to do.

“Don't you dare, Suzu Suzuki!” She gives me a shake. Nope. I'm not sure if she's buying it, but I'm still so tired that I feel like I might actually go to sleep any second anyway. My hopes are shattered by the loud wail of the alarm clock on my nightstand going off, though, and I'm forced to break the illusion. I open my eyes to see Miki half-glaring at me.

“I can't believe you'd do that.” She pouts.

“Do what?”



Gazing At The Glare

I manage to get ready for the day without any further prodding from Miki, and together we set off to class. For once I feel right at home, everyone in the room looks exhausted and even Mutou is late. I want to use the opportunity to talk to Hisao, but he's been ambushed by Shizune and Misha. I watch as the pair's hands fly back and forth, while Hisao looks like a cornered animal. He says something, and Shizune cocks her head to one side inquisitively at Misha's translation, who bites her lip and looks around the classroom. Then she points at me, her face suddenly lighting up.

Oh god.

I watch as all three of them turn to glance over at me. Hisao smiles weakly, like he just threw me under a bus. Misha beams from ear to ear, and Shizune peers at me as if she'd never seen me before in her life. It's not like we've ever spoken, but--wait, of course we've never spoken. But by this point in the school year I certainly know who she is. I guess I can't expect for her to be able to say the same about me, even being deaf she manages to keep a higher profile. I smile awkwardly back at them through gritted teeth, but the sudden urge to yawn overpowers me, and I'm almost glad for the distraction. When it passes, Shizune's eyes have narrowed slightly.

Oh, oh god. Luckily, the teacher arrives just in time, and I gladly turn around to face the front of the class. Mutou mumbles some apologies and something about hoping we all had a good time at the festival, and then it's on to the day's lecture. It is, in his typical style, quite a boring one, and before long at all I feel my eyelids begin to droop. I try to shake it off, I've been missing too much class time lately and I'm tired of spending my free hours to catch up.

I prop my head up with one hand, squinting to make out the words the teacher scrawls over the blackboard. It's all getting a bit fuzzy. I try to blink a couple times, but everything seems to get a little darker each time.

“Can you answer this next question, Suzuki?” Mutou's voice calls out. My head snaps up. He sometimes makes the effort to keep me in the fight if he sees me fading, but right now he's still turned to write on the blackboard. The classroom is incredibly dark somehow. And it feels colder, too.

I feel my back begin to tense up painfully, a souvenir from a bad fall a couple years ago.

“God damn it.”

“What did you say?” The teacher asks. He slowly turns toward me. The edges of my vision are fading to black.

“I didn't quite catch that, Suki.” The skeletal face beams at me, empty black eyes somehow full of malice. He reaches to the blackboard and drags a bony finger down the surface slowly. The shrill noise pierces my ears, but I feel anger begin to boil in my chest. I shove off from my desk.

“I'm tired of this.”

Death looks somehow comedic wearing Mutou's outfit, but the illusion is dispelled when he violently smashes away the items on the teacher's desk with a white arm.

“You think you get to make the rules, Suzu? You think the game is over?”

“It's my head. And I'm done playing your games.” I cross my arms.

“Oh?” He walks around the desk to stand directly in front of me. His breath would probably be on me if he had any. Death reaches up and takes my face in a bony hand, and fear floods through my veins.

This is new.

Now I remember why I don't like new.

“Is that what you think, Suki?” He whispers softly, empty eye sockets inches away from mine.

I try to respond, but my mouth has gone dry. All I can manage is a sort of half-cry, half-gasping sound that I regret the moment it leaves my throat. I sound powerless. I feel powerless. I hate it.

“Why would we stop playing when the stakes have just gone up?” He forcibly turns me to look towards the back of the class. Everything is shrouded in black now. Everything except Hisao, frozen in time, still sitting there with that uncomfortable smile on his face.

Again, I try to respond but only make a pitiful choking noise. This is stupid. He's just some boy in my class I went to the festival with, it's not like--

“It's not like what, Suki?” Death jerks me back to face him, his skull less than an inch away from me now. My eyes may or may not be watering at this point.

“It's not like he reminds you of anyone, right? ” His hand tightens around my chin. Anyone else would probably wake up from experiencing this much terror in a dream but I guess I'm just special like that.

I feel the hot sting of tears on my face. Wake up, I plead to myself. C'mon, any second now. Wake up.

I wish I could wake up.

Death stares straight at me, those dark sockets boring holes into me, apparently privy to my every thought. Seeming to grow tired of my tears, he releases his grip, and I fall back into my chair, feeling like I'm made of stone.

“You think about what I've said, Suki. We'll see eachother again very soon.”

Finally. I collapse forward onto my desk, barely able to fling my arms up in time to catch my head.

The lunch bell tears the darkened classroom away from me, skeletal teacher and all, and I keep my head buried behind my arms even as I hear my classmates begin to rise and make their way out. I figure I'll wait for the tears that are staining my sleeves to dry before I try to go anywhere. However, only a few moments pass before someone gently taps my wrist.

“Suzu? Hey, wake up.” I open my eyes and glance up, this time to see Hisao next to Miki, standing in front of my desk. Their expressions change to concern when they notice the waterworks. Behind them I see Misha and Shizune walk to the classroom door, the latter glancing at me curiously as they pass.

“I'm fine. I'm awake.” I wipe my eyes.

“Bad dream?” Hisao asks softly. Maybe I'm the one that deserves to be pitied after all.

“It's nothing, really. Can we please just... go to lunch? I'm starving.” I stand up and shake myself off. Inside I'm glad that I have Miki and now Hisao here with me, but I still can't tell them about things like this.

It's still better than being all alone, I decide. We walk together to the cafeteria, and they fill me in on the lecture that I slept through, Miki taking the opportunity to colorfully paraphrase the teacher's words with slang. I force them to stop at every vending machine on the way that sells canned coffee.

See eachother again soon? Not if I have anything to say about it.