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Shortly after Raura followed her boss back into the kitchen, Megu walked through the main entrance, followed by a taller girl with thick dirty blonde hair and a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses that was similar to Robu’s. “Sorry, I’m late,” apologized Megu hastily as she motioned the other girl to sit down in the empty stool next to her. “Mama held me up and asked me to do a quick chore before I left.”
“What was it this time?” asked Jeison.
“My stupid bird decided to become a pig and spilled seed and water all over the carpet! I had to vacuum my room twice to get it all out of the threads!”
“That sounds like a personal problem to me,” retorted Deibiddo. “So, who’s your friend?”
“Oh, her? This is my cousin and best friend Ami Umino,” replied Megu. “She just transferred here from Tokyo University.”
“She’s from Tokyo?” asked Rizu in amazement.
“Hardly,” snorted Jeison. “Ami’s a pure Oukan native just like me and Megu. She only moved to Tokyo last year because she wanted to become a lawyer.”
“So, why the change?”
Ami lowered her menu and took a quick sip of her water. “Well, I finally realized that law wasn’t my thing and that I wasn’t never meant to be a lawyer in the first place,” she began softly, “I took a debate course in my first semester because it was required for all freshmen law majors to take as part of their program. The class was designed to weed out those who wouldn’t make a good lawyer in the courtroom.
“I was one of the several students who were knocked out during the second drop-add period after midterms. My professor told me that I was too kind and sympathetic in my arguments, and if my opponent had a point that I couldn’t argue against, I gave up. It was one thing for it to happen in my first debate, but my problem continued into the second and the third one. That’s when I was asked to drop out of law and do something that I really liked instead. So, I chose radiology.”
“Why? That’s a totally different career!” said Beronika.
“Ask Megu or Jeison. They know how much I like to take care of people. I could have chosen to be a doctor or a nurse, but I just want something in between where I can enjoy my job. Radiology isn’t as stressful as being a doctor or a surgeon, but it’s more fascinating than being a nurse. Think of all the things I can learn through x-rays and computers that a chart couldn’t do!”
“But why Oukan? Tokyo has the elite nursing school in the country!” cried Deibiddo.
“Yes, but Oukan has a nursing program that is just as good as Tokyo’s,” countered Ami. “I could have stayed in Tokyo, but I was getting homesick. I’m just not used to being so far away from my family.”
“I see.”
“So, what are you big plans this year?” asked Rizu.
Ami had just opened her mouth when Megu spoke up for her. “She’s gonna be bidding for my sorority next month when Jeison bids for his fraternity.”
Jeison arched his right eyebrow at his cousins and asked, “Is that so? The last time I checked Ami wasn’t into the party scene.”
“That’s not what she told me!” argued Megu. “She said that she would love to be in my sorority!”
“Because you have so much free time!” elaborated Ami. “I didn’t expect you to take me literally, but you should know that I don’t care for large parties, especially parties that involve alcohol!”
Megu took a deep breath to hold back the rage that was building up inside her body. Turning to her friends with a feigned smile, she said to them, “We’ll be back.”
She grabbed Ami by the arm and led her toward the restrooms toward the back of the pub. Once they were inside the ladies’ room, she turned on her heels and looked up at her cousin with her jaws clenched in frustration. “Please, Ami! Help me out here!” she begged through her teeth. “I know you like your schoolwork and all, but I’m trying to help you to be more social! You’re at a new school, and you really don’t have any friends around here except for me! I’m trying to do you a favor!”
“And you think a sorority is gonna solve my problems?” shot back Ami. “Megu, I thought you knew that a sorority is more than just parties! I don’t have time to go out, enjoy myself, and make connections with the community and your ‘sisters’! I came here to be close to home and get a better education, not to party and get myself drunk!”
“Ami, you are gonna get a better education!” promised Megu. “Look, I’m just worried about you! We’re family and we’re best friends! I want you to feel right at home at Oukan and not become some social outcast!”
Ami was taken aback by Megu’s last statement, and she frowned at the thought of being isolated from the rest of the student body. “Is that you really think of me?” she choked.
“I didn’t mean to say it like that!” apologized Megu. “I was talking about how other people would view you if all you do around here is studying! You need to get out from behind your books and enjoy your life!”
“Still, according to studies from the not-so-distant-past, Oukan is labeled as a party school by Japanese standards,” reminded Ami.
“Forget data for once and enjoy life!”
“I am enjoying my life, Megu, but I still got my boyfriend back at Tokyo—”
“You’ll get to see him again, I promise! I just hope that he doesn’t become another asshole in your life while you’re away.”
“Studies also say that long-distant university relationships don’t last long,” added Ami quietly.
Megu wrapped her arms around Ami and gave her a comforting hug. “If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” she said. “Guys can be real jerks sometimes, and you certainly don’t deserve one.”
Ami gave her cousin a weak smile. The thought of her boyfriend of nearly eight months giving up distraught her greatly, but she refused to let her worry in Megu’s presence. The last thing she needed was to have the redheaded spitfire make a special trip to Tokyo and return to Oukan with a restraining order for harassment. “Thank you,” she said.
“And it’s all right if you don’t want to be in a sorority. I have no problem with it. Rizu and Beronika aren’t in one, and I won’t hold it against you if you don’t join.”
“Sororities aren’t for everybody,” said Ami.
“No, they’re not,” agreed Megu. “I know there’s one that would fit Beronika perfectly, but she’s too involved with dance. And Rizu’s just too socially awkward. There’s no way she could survive in one.
“Then, there’s you, or what I thought was you. What happened to you, Ami? You used to be so popular when we were in high school! You did swimming and debate, and nobody cared if you were a bookworm or not! But now you’ve become a nervous wreck! You’re not the same person I used to know!”
Ami lowered her eyes as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I guess something inside me snapped when I was on top of my game. I used to be so great at debating, and now I can’t win an argument.”
“For a former captain of the debate team, that’s unheard of!”
“It happens.”
“I can’t believe this! You’re back because you got homesick all of a sudden, you’re taking classes for a different major than what you went to Tokyo for, and now you’ve become a complete stranger to me!” said Megu in disbelief.
“Everybody changes,” murmured Ami.
“Yeah, but not for the worse!”
“What makes you think this is for the worse?” snapped Ami. “What if this is for the best? What would you know about changing? You never did!”
“That’s because this is who I am,” explained Megu.
“And what you’re seeing is who I really am.”
“No,” said Megu softly. “It’s who you’ve become.”
Ami pursed her lips and had begun to walk out of the restroom when Megu’s voice stopped her from opening the door. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with your accident at the nationals, would it?” asked Megu.
Ami shut her eyes and gripped the silver handle tightly. “That,” she spat under her breath, “was just the start of it all!”
“But you know it wasn’t your fault! Why can’t you let it go?”
“You don’t know what it’s like going for the gold and then making a complete fool out of yourself in front of hundreds of people across the country! You don’t know because you’ve never let a greedy little bitch get the best of you when your guard was down!”
“Just because you got robbed from the chance of a lifetime doesn’t mean you have to shut yourself out from the rest of the world!”
“I was robbed of my first love, Megu!” said Ami, whirling on her heels to face Megu. “I was robbed of the very thing that meant the most to me besides learning! That contest was the last time I ever stepped or jumped into a pool! I haven’t swam since then, and nor will I ever again! I came back home to start a new life, a life that isn’t tied to my past! The last thing I need is a reminder of that past and dwell on it! Now if you were really my best friend, you’d respect my decision and not question it! Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
Megu said nothing as her mind absorbed every detail of Ami’s story. She was aware that her cousin had developed a sudden fear of water, an element that she refused to part with, but she had no idea just how much the memory scarred Ami. Not only did it affect her mentally, but it had also affected her emotionally. Swallowing her pride, she nodded her head and broke the silence that lingered over them. “I understand,” she said.DISCLAIMER: All characters and plots from the Angelic Guardians and Demonic Guardians series belong to L.D. Smith ©2011.
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