Efflorescence

A Plan...?

It was the coldest morning of the year.

Heck, the year just had started and so did school; the winter vacation was finally over- on the coldest day. Yeah, that made sense. She tugged on the warm scarf she was wearing and huffed.

Pedestrians walked about as if it wasn’t freezing cold. Lucky people were packed in their cars with heaters blasting. Oh, how Sumiko wished to sit in front of a heater warming her frozen limbs. Walking to school in such a weather was hardly her choice of commute. Familiar faces started to appear as she entered the large nightmare of a building, aka her “school”. Ukito was hurrying up the stairs with an open book as he struggled to read while running. Behind him, Kenji walked with a scowl on his face. After a meet and greet with her friends, Yasami and Hoshiyo- to make sure that they were alive, Sumiko quickly picked her seat near the window. It was pretty cold outside but who wouldn’t love to enjoy the view?

The sky was covered completely covered with snow white clouds and the wind making the leaves rustle violently. The weather was lovely (ignoring the freezing temperature), as long as she didn’t had to go out. Hoshiyo sat with Yasami and Sumiko sat with her bag. Trios sucked. Of course, it was easy to hang out but someone was always left out when it came to seating arrangements.

The first class was physics, the usual hell. Numericals, equations and graphs whizzed past her head, it was as if she had accidently ventured in a different class, in a different country. What was going on? No idea. Something to do with the motion of something and its speed or maybe its velocity. Of course her teacher didn’t bother to warm up the concepts before launching into the lesson. The first three classes passed in a blur and pretty soon it was the 4th period. Fortunately, the teacher was absent. Unfortunately it was her favorite class, Biology.

Her dark black hair were a rat’s nest, thanks to her sitting next to the open window. Yasami hobbled behind Sumiko making a weird pony with her already short hair. Everything was going on smooth, except the comb through her hair. Sumiko tried to copy off notes from Hoshiyo who was now hanging out with Ukito and some guy- he had baby pinkish hair falling onto their eyes and hair long enough to tie in a proper pony tail unlike her.

“It’s Umi” said Yasami who seemed to be reading her mind, “Did you forget your own classmates just because you didn’t come to school for 2 weeks? Jeez, do you remember me?” Sumiko rolled her eyes, “Oh come on. How was I supposed to know? He has hair on his face-” Sumiko yelled in pain. “Stop! Leave my hair alone! Ughhh” She quickly yanked her head and shot up, waving her fist. “I’m going to break your teeth” Both girls ran outside the classroom- into the corridor while squealing like little kids.

Rumi sighed. She pushed her spectacles with her index finger. She had been observing both of them for a while.

She was about to approach Ukito and his friends for a chat, when she noticed Umi getting up and silently leaving the classroom. Umi, an old classmate of hers was a weird fellow.

Since entering high school, he had drastically changed but his middle school version was scary. He was rude, insolent and a troublemaker. He was the main reason Rumi’s self-esteem took a nosedive few years back.

But as for now he was much calmer, quieter and aloof. He hardly talked to anyone or replied in class. His grades had skyrocketed though, so it didn’t really matter to any of the teachers. Mischievousness danced in her ruby eyes as her brain formulated a plan.

She invited herself to Ukito’s table and gathered a few friends. Everyone huddled closely mainly, to hear the plan and partially because it was cold.

Ukito was too conscious about the crowd. He never hanged out with a lot of people and a crowd definitely scared him. Thank goodness Hoshiyo was there. He looked around and counted the people. Around 14.

Rumi had a charismatic aura. Very easily she was able to get the attention of the group. They looked at her expectantly. Her voice dropped an octave as she began. From the corner of her eye she saw Yasami entering the class and ushered her to join them. Sumiko was still missing and so was Umi.