Five days passed since Mr. Shindou and Ms. Aizawa returned from their honeymoon. Shuichi was now brewing his payback against the Aizawas for their constant scrutiny. He made enough money to buy a farm of fire ants. It was finally time for the hunted to become the hunter. Sure his dad said that he would try to talk to Ayumi, but he wasn't sure if he meant that. So being the resourceful teen he was, Shuichi decided he would take matters into his own hands. One morning on his way to school, he packed up the fire ants and went to school. He then met Hiro who had some surprising news.
"Guess what!" his red-haired friend said eagerly.
"What?" Shuichi asked. Then Hiro held up a poster and showed it to his friend. On the poster was an advertisement for the school talent show. The show was scheduled one week from that day. That was when the teen began to think that maybe this would change how things are going now. This was going to be the place where he would pour all of his feelings out in the open in a healthy and civilized way. Then he began to think about the song he was working on.
"Maybe you can sing that song you've been working on since your dad met that uh… woman." He suggested.
It was perfect. Young Shuichi had already gone through so much in the past year, losing his mother, being tortured by his dad's wife and her no good son. The song he was writing would be perfect for the talent show. But there was one problem. He didn't finish it yet and the show was in a week. Plus, he only found out about it today and didn't sign up. So now he really had to hustle if he wanted to be in that talent show.
"Yeah, there's just one problem." Shuichi said. Then he thought of several problems. "Actually, there's a lot, first of all if the show is at night there's no way my wicked stepmother would let me go, she'll drown me in chores. And well, my song isn't finished."
Then the boys heard a bang on the desk. "Shindou, Nakano!" the teacher shouted. "That is enough from you thank you very much."
"Y-yes ma'am!" they said nervously. Then the teacher continued her lecture and the boys remained silent throughout the class. But one thing was for certain, Shuichi was getting into that talent show one way or another and this time he wasn't about to bow down to Ayumi. But first he decided to give Taki some payback.
When the period was over the pink haired boy found his stepbrother's locker and opened it with the key. He then released the farm of fire ants in the locker and looked both ways before closing it back. Little did he know that someone was watching? He turned around and saw a small boy with black hair watching him. He appeared to be a little younger than Shuichi was.
"What are you doing?" the boy asked. Shuichi already knew that he was caught and would probably be blabbed on by this kid. He had to think of a way to bail himself out of this jam but how?
"I was...uh...just devering my stepbrother's lunch." He lied. Judging by the look on the other boy's face, he knew that his lie was weak and very unbelievable.
"Don't act so Innocent, ." he said. then he looked at the empty container in the older boy's hand. "You were playing a practical joke on him weren't you? It was out in the open now. The only thing that young Shuichi could do now was admit the truth about his now failing life. At that point he knew that he had already hit rock bottom. It was impossible for things to get any worse.
"Okay, yeah, I was putting fire ants in his locker to get back at him for bulling me. Please, Fujisaki, you can't tell anyone about this!" he pleaded.
Although they did not know each other very well, Suguru could see that things weren't going very well with Shuichi lately. He saw it the way he would always come to school in a depressed and angry mood. He may be the type of boy who always played by the rules but he also could sympathize with pain.
"I won't tell anyone." He said. Then he went to the bulletin board and wrote his name on a piece of paper on the board. After that he went to his next class. The pink haired boy rushed and signed up for the auditons. after that he went to the auditions and managed to squeeze in as the second to last act. There were only ten acts of course only one winner.
Meanwhile Taki went to his locker and opened it only to find a very unpleasant surprise. Red hot fire ants all over his books he tried to swat them only to get bitten up by the swarm. It didn't take him long to find out who was behind it.
"SHINDOU! YOU ARE SO DEAD WHEN WE GET HOME!" He shouted.
~The talent show~
The talent show was very interesting and competetive. Some of the acts there were very prestigious while others were less than impressive. Many students so far have performed for the show and so far there were only 8 acts. There wereonly two more and Shuichi was up . He had just finsished his song ten minutes before the show began. It wasn't unusual for him to finish songs at the last minute but this time it was do or die.
The boy lightly grasped the Mic and began to Sing his song.
Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna runaway?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming
Everyone in the audience seemed to pay very close attention to the teen. Not only was his voice one of the best in the school but there was a great deal of emotion in the lyrics and his performance. As the song continued, it became more apparent that there would be a clear winner.
No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
The audience began to go wild as young Shuichi's act continued. It was often hard to hear him over the roaring crowd. The performance continued all the same. In the audience Taki was stunned at the talent his new stepbrother had. A glimmer of Jealousy filled his heart. Also In the crowd was his father. He took some time off from working to see his son perform. Not surprisingly he was blown away by the act. What seemed to catch Shuichi off guard was seeing another familiar face in the audience. It was Yuki from the coffee shop.
Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you're bleeding
No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me
Then the audience finally calmed down. Many of the students backstage were Impressed by the boy. In the audience was a talent scout siting in the back listening. He appeared to Take an Interest in Shuichi.
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
No one ever lied straight to your face
No one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I'm happy but I'm not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
Never had to work it was always there
You don't know what it's like, what it's like
It didn't take much and it didn't take long. his father started to realize that he made a mistake letting Ayumi in his life without talking to Shuichi about it. It finally sank in to him that he moved to fast.
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like (what it's like)
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
~Thirty Minutes Later~
"Alright, It's time to announce the winner of the 2002 teen talent competition!" One of the members of the committee said. He opened the envelope and he announced the winner.
"And the winner, with an outstanding 433 votes is...Shindou Shuichi!" He shouted. The audience were louder than thunder at that point. No one was really shocked that he won the talent show. Well, no one except for Shuichi himself. It was his first time ever being on stage and it looked like things went well for his first time. He was handed the first place trophy which he nearly dropped on his foot because it was very difficult to hold. It took at least 12 people to carry the trophy to the car.
When some of the kids went to congradulate the pink haired teen, he was gone. "Hey, has anyone seen Shindou?" a girl asked.
"I haven't seen him either." Another girl said.
It appeared that Shuichi had went after one of his frequent costumers at the coffee shop he worked in. The other man saw him and began walking a bit faster. But he caught up and managed to get his attention.
"I just want to know something." Shuichi said. Yuki turned around looking irritated as ever.
"What?" he asked grimly.
"Why did you...come here?" the younger man asked. His first response was a humorless chuckle from the blond boy. Then he finally got a vocal resopnse from him.
"I came to see my cousin." He answered. Then he began to taunt the other teen.
"You didn't think I actually came here for you, did you?"
Shuichi was starting to get angry at what he said but decided that now wasn't the time for him to start arguing.
"No, I was just asking, see you later." Then he quickly ran to the car. On the way home, it didn't take Mr. Shindou long to start interrogating him about the conversation he was having with Yuki.
"Son," He began. "Who was that man."
"Just someone that I met a while back." he answered. But judging from his dad's looks, he knew that that wouldn't be enough to satisfy him. He was a dad after all.
"Is there something that I should know about?" Mr. Shindou asked suspicously.
"No, dad." Shuichi said. "I have no secrets."
~two days later~
The pink haired teen and his friend were sitting at lunch outside when they heard some terrible news. This news was going to change everything in young Shuichi's life for the worst. His life was rotten enough with a new wicked stepmother and now he was about to get even more bad news.
"Mr. Shindou!" Suguru called. "Your dad was in an accident!"
Just when it looked like life had slapped him in the face hard enough, it does it again. Now he just found out that something terrible has happened to his last family member. What will happen now?
 | Review this Chapter |
No comments:
Post a Comment