Monday morning Kyo's last alarm went off, but he slept through it. His final warning alarm rang, which was rare, but there just in case of situations like this. As it rang Kyo felt groggy. "Mmm, what time is it?" Kyo reached to grab his phone from the desk. The time was 7:48am, twelve minutes before school started.
His eyes fully opened as reality set in. "Crap! I gotta hurry!" Rushing to get his uniform on he didn't bother to comb his hair or eat breakfast before running out. The time was now 7:52am.
Kyo ran to school as fast as he could while tired, usually a seven minute walk, became a 3 minute sprint, however, he didn't look at the time, he just assumed he was late. Running from the sidewalk taking a fast turn onto the school's main walkway and into the entrance and into the building. Quickly taking off his shoes, placing them in his locker, and putting on the required indoor shoes. After he changed shoes, he started to sprint again, going right past Yuuki.
"Morni - hey don't run in the halls!" Yuuki said in her president voice. Kyo turned to look at Yuuki and realized people were still walking to class, he paused and looked down at the time, 7:56am. Kyo paused, took a deep breath, then said "Sorry Yuuki, it won't happen again." He slowly walked to his home room class while catching his breath from the sprint.
Pulling out his chair and getting ready to sit down, Kyo heard Kimori say "you look winded." With a slight smile while poking fun at him.
"I woke up late," Kyo said with a slight panting and heavy breathing coming from his voice.
"I can tell" pointing to the bed head. "How late were you up?"
"We are in week three of school now, teachers can give us a pop quiz any day now, so I stayed up late studying."
"Seriously, that over-preparation of yours when it comes to anything test related will be the death of you." Kimori was used to Kyo's test anxiety at this point, but was still concerned for his friends' well-being over anything. Mr. Shindo walked into class a few seconds later. "Alright everyone, we have a pop quiz today."
"I told you!" Kyo said to Kimori in a very quiet, yet loud whisper.
…
During lunch, Yuuki met up with Kyo, "is everything ok? You were running quickly this morning, and you seem tired now." Yuuki said with worry in her eyes.
"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine, I just woke up late this morning plus we had a quiz in the homeroom that I didn't feel prepared for."
"I see. How do you think you did on the quiz?"
"I got all the questions right." Kro said, more relieved than excited.
"Nice!" Yuuki exclaimed feeling sorry that he did not sleep well, but with an expression of confusion as to why he was more relieved than happy. Kyo, catching this, quickly explained, "Exams, tests, quizzes, and the like have always taken it out of me." Kyo said this seeing no problem in it, and started to eat his school lunch as though this fact about himself was as normal as breathing. For him it was.
"You have test anxiety!" Yuuki yelled out in utter surprise.
"Yeah, why is that so surprising?" Kyo didn't understand why that blew everyone's minds when he first tells them. Hiro, Kimori, Himori, Tsu, teachers, even his own aunt were all surprised by this fact. Yukki was just the next person to find out.
"Well, you're a top student right?" Yuuki said still puzzled by this revelation.
"I guess so" Despite Kyo being the second ranked person in academics at his old middle school for all three years, and him getting into Hanabira with great marks, he never once viewed himself as a 'top student' just as someone who works hard.
"You guess?? You really are something else Kyo." Yuuki said almost in disbelief
"Aren't you a top student as well, Yukki?" Kyo said while chewing on his sandwich.
"Nope."
"You're not?!" This surprised Kyo just as much as he surprised Yuuki.
"I maintain just high enough scores in my classes to keep my position, and that's all I aim for." One of the many required things in order to be in the student council was having and maintaining above average grades. If you start to fall below average or start failing you are put on temporary leave until your scores go back up. The president was no exception to this school rule. "In fact, I have the lowest grades out of anyone in the council, and I am about average in every subject."
Kyo took in this information, pondered for a second, then proposed."If you would like, I can help you study sometime, it would help me as well." Kyo said this with confidence. He was so scared of tests that he would study ahead of his year in preparation for when he takes those classes. He was a fifteen year old first year in high school, but in terms of academics he was capable of taking second year courses with relative ease. His test anxiety was the only thing that kept him from testing out of his grade."That sounds nice, we can study for midterms after the welcoming festival is over."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Also Kyo, remember that we still have the student council meeting today after school." She said as a reminder, not because she assumed he would forget to go, but that he might think the surprise wasn't for him. Although she couldn't spoil anything, she wanted to ensure Kyo knew that there was a meeting today.
"Right, I remember." Kyo said as though it was obvious.
…
After school, Kyo walked up to the student council room. As he opened the door Ryuji was laying down on the right couch, Miura was sitting on the far left seat of the left couch, Yuuki was at her desk, and Nyuga was at his. All four of them yelled:
"Congratulations!" "Congratulations!" "Congratulations!!!" "Congrats."
This caught Kyo off guard, "wait, what did I do?"
"You're now officially the student council's treasurer! Since you joined I have had you meeting with all the clubs. Don't get me wrong, that is part of your job, yes, but there is a lot more to it than that. I needed to see how you worked with others, and if everyone else would approve of you like I did. Last week was more like a trial run. Today you are an official member of the council." Yuuki explained with a big smile on her face.
"I see, can I ask why you didn't tell me that it was just a trial run so far?"
"Because, if we did inform you, you wouldn't act like your true self." Ryuji said. Kyo thought about it for a moment, how he would have acted had he known it was trial and not a guaranteed thing. He admitted to himself that he would have put on a more 'customer service' style approach than just him being him. He slightly nodded to himself then looked up. "I understand now, thank you for your patience with me, I accept the offer of becoming Hanabira High School's Student Council Treasurer. Thank you for having me." Kyo said with a small bow and his words sincere.
As much as he hated clubs before, and his worries about it all, these last two weeks had been the most fun for him, and now he felt that he was really a part of the team. Yuuki was relieved as well.
"We're glad to have you aboard." Miura said.
"During tomorrow's meeting we will give you a full rundown of your responsibilities and expectations, but for now you should celebrate." Yuuki said happily.
"Right, thank you! Mr. Nyuga, can I ask you something?" Nyuga looked at Kyo with approval but didn't say anything. "Were all the keys you gave me fake?" Kyo had yet to actually try any of the keys, he never needed to, none of the schools classrooms or doors were locked when he went to visit. This question was more of a hunch than anything else. Nyuga smiled, tossing Kyo a singular key, it was gold, with little ridges, with a black triangle at the end. "Thank you" Kyo said happy with himself that he guessed correctly.
As Kyo walked over, setting the giant key ring on Mr. Nyuga's desk. "Arianagi, catch." Ryuji said tossing a metal pin over to Kyo, it was a pure gold triangular pin with the letters SC engraved on the front of it. "We don't usually have them on since we only get one each, but it proves you're an official member of the council." Ryuji explained.
"Anything else that I need to get or know while I'm here?" Kyo asked, concerned that there was more going on that he didn't know about.
"Not at this moment, no." Miura said.
"Good work Kyo." Nyuga once again giving Kyo a nod of approval.
Yuuki then spoke, "this is week three of school, and starting next week we have to prepare for the cultural festival. Tomorrow we will have another meeting discussing that, but today I wanted to just announce our newest official member."
"Thank you all, see you tomorrow." Kyo said, holding the pin and key close to his chest. He turned around and closed the door behind him. The other members of the council also packed their things and left.
…
After Kyo got home he flopped onto his bed, holding up the key in one hand and the pin in the other with a smile on his face. A knock on the door then interrupted his admiration. "One second!" He yelled getting out of bed.
As he opened the door, his aunt walked in without warning, she was in a long purple dress, plenty of makeup, with various fancy accessories on, "It's been quite some time Kyomeowta, how have you been?" Kyo was not that surprised by his aunt suddenly showing up out of the blue, this was normal for her. "I am doing good, how have your trips been?" Kokoro Arianagi travels all around Japan for her work. "Exhausting, honestly I'd rather not talk about work right now. Tell me what you have been up to." She said with eagerness in her eyes.
It had been about two weeks since they last saw or spoke to one another. She left the weekend before school started, came back, and immediately left again. She was so busy it was hard for her to find the time and ask Kyo how he was doing, and it would have been equally as hard for Kyo to reach her."I am fully moved in now, school has been pretty fun, I hung out with friends last Saturday, we went to Koen park and played Soccer, it ended in a draw …" Kyo babbled on about his days, and some of the fun people at school. However, he left the biggest news for last. "Also you should know that I …" Kyo paused, feeling something lodged in his throat and an intense amount of guilt fogging his mind.
"You what?" Kokoro said due to the long pause.
Kyo gave a small cough then continued,"I joined the student council at Hanabira … as their treasurer."
Kokoro loved her nephew more than her sister loved him. Kyo hesitated to tell her that he joined the council out of fear of her disapproval. After all, her advice was to play the role of a perfect child until he graduated high school for the sake of his mother not forcing him to come back home.
Kyo joining a club meant more chances for mishaps and falling behind in his studies. Kokoro saw her nephew's fear, she knew her sister would always tell her children "no" and demand things from them, leading to an abusive amount of pressure that would impact Kyo and his sister for the rest of their lives. However, Kokoro and her sister were two entirely different people, she did not get mad at him nor did she disapprove, instead she hugged him tightly.
"I'm sorry Kyo. I am really sorry. I am glad you have friends! I am glad you joined a club! Please enjoy these years, and don't look at me for approval, you will do great things!" Kyo felt like a weight had been taken off his shoulders, he knew he would have to tell his family at some point or another, but he had been scared of what they would say or do, so for over the last week he had pushed off telling anyone who would tell his family.
Now that the time had finally arrived to confess the truth to a member of his family, he was scared, stunned, but happy at what Aunt Kokoro had said.
"Thank you. I owe you a lot and I know that, but all I can do right now is say thank you for allowing me to stay in the student council." Kyo was secretly really excited to have officially joined the club, it was like his inner child came out for a moment since this was the first extracurricular activity he had ever been a part of that his mother didn't take him away from besides music. He even showed Kokoro the pin he had received.
After their special moment, Kyo went back to being his ordinary self and so did his aunt. The two had dinner together and continued to catch up on life. Kyo informed her that a festival was coming up soon, and she promised to be there. For one night, Kyo felt like he had a normal family dinner.
"Congratulations again Kyomeowta!" She said leaving his apartment.
"Stop calling me that stupid nickname!"