Faerie's Charm Chapter 2

Faerie's Charm


Chapter 2

It's morning. I wake up with a groan, because I didn't get back home the night before until about 3 a.m. The first thing I feel instead of tiredness though, is a strange longing; a longing for something that I can't place.  I just shake the feeling off as I'm getting dressed and pouring my cereal.

"Don't fill up the cereal to the top of the bowl like that," my mom says "you won't have room for the milk and you're wasting cereal," I turn around to reply but she's already walking away.

"What are you, the cereal police?" I mutter to myself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Ma"

My mother is less than five feet tall but still has an intimidating presence. Her shortness is probably partly because she's Japanese. Well that, and her long, straight, black hair and dark almond eyes. Being three quarters-Japanese, I have some of her features, like the black hair and almond eyes, but definitely not the shortness.

When she's in the other room, I grab a handful of cereal and shove it in my mouth. What you gonna do about it now, Coco Pops po-po? I think.

After a minute or two of walking to school, I see Tamaki Imamura, one of the few humans at school that are actually worth something to me. We've known each other since we were little, so I guess you could call us best friends. I fight a smile, remembering when we were really little and Tamaki, who   was raised learning Japanese before he started learning English had trouble pronouncing my name and called me Ey-ri-as instead of E-li-as and just decided to nickname me Rii-chan after a while. Now, he only calls me that when something terrible has happened.

"Hey man, you'll never believe what came in the mail yesterday after school" he says, walking up to me, with a huge wolfy grin plastered on his face.

"Was it the new Mucc CD?" I ask him, unsure.

"No, dude. It's even better. It was a note from them saying that they are glad to have me and it was signed by Yukke!" at this point Tamaki is shouting spastically.

Mukku, also known as Mucc, is our favorite band in the world. Literally. It's a Japanese band that both me and Tamaki had the pleasure of meeting. Not only that, but Tamaki played with Yukke a few times when they were very young children shortly before Tamaki moved here. And now Yukke, Mucc's bassist has sent a letter to Tamaki, although I doubt Yukke remembers him.

"A note from Mucc?" my eyes widen "and Yukke signed it? That is so cool man! But what does he mean 'glad to have you'?"

"That's something else I have to tell you, man. When I get out of high school, I'm going to be part of the Mukkeru!" Tamaki's eyes are pure joy and his voice squeaks at the end of his sentence.
"Oh my God! You were hired into the Mucc crew?"

"Yes! I got to apply when I visited my old city in Japan over the summer. I let them know that I'm moving back for good when this school year is over and Yukke pulled some strings to keep the position open for me, so I'm basically going to be hired. My friend Yu-chan remembers me"

"Wow" I say with a grin and don't speak the rest of the way to school while Tamaki chatters about Yukke and old times when he was a kid in Japan.

School is pointless as usual. We only have a few weeks left and testing is practically finished, so there's not much work to do. Only a few weeks left, I repeat to myself, Only a few weeks left to see your best friend.

By the time lunch comes around and I'm walking with Tamaki to the cafeteria, I feel a shadow of dread creep over me. It's just a friend moving away. It's not the end of the world. You knew this would happen when you grew up. Stop being so emotional about it, I chastise myself, but I can't seem to shake the feeling.

"I'm gonna miss you, man" Tamaki says suddenly as we're walking down the steps in the cafeteria. "I would hug you right now, but that might be kinda gay and you might get freaked out. Anyway, I'll still write to you and text and stuff, because you're like, my best friend. So don't worry, okay?".

He pats my back and the shadow leaves. See? You were stupid to think your best friend would forget you, I tell myself.

When lunch is over and we're walking to class, I get the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. Of course, many people get these feelings and then nothing bad happens. But this feeling persists like cool waves going up my spine. I notice Tamaki's lips are moving but nothing is coming out. Oh, he must be muttering to himself. He does that when he's thinking, I remember, trying to convince myself that nothing is wrong. However, there is something wrong, or else he wouldn't look so panicked.  He moves his lips again, but still no sound comes out. "What the hell?" I say, but I can't hear it, and obviously neither can Tamaki.

Apparently, the same thing is happening to everyone around us. A girl with platinum blonde hair literally breaks down in the middle of the hallway and opens her mouth wide for a scream that is never heard. Two guys start senselessly fighting, people start running around, and there are many mouths open but no sound. The silence is deafening.