Chapter 17 A Summer for everyone to enjoy

POV Sengoku

When I said you could use the student council room, I didn't mean you could bring everyone here. It looked like a damn party. Sakura and Miyamura were sitting in the corner chatting, Kyo chan, Remi, Yuki, Ishikawa were talking about something while Zura was standing beside me.

"Thanks for the invite prez, its too hot outside" Zura says.

"Yeah….. right" I mutter. How the hell was I supposed to get any work done in this ruckus?!

"Man! I am so thirsty, shall we do a rock paper scissor contest, and the ones who lose have to go outside to buy us some drinks?" Miyamura says

"That's so childish" Sakura chides him

"Actually…. that's a great idea, I feel thirsty now too" Ishikawa chimes in.

"Yeah, lets do it" Yoshikawa says.

"Three two one lets go" We all chime in throwing in our choices. I put in a rock, Surprisingly almost everyone puts forward a rock, except... Kyo chan and Zura

"My luck is the worst in games like these" Zura groans

"Ehhhh….. so we have to go buy you drinks now?" Kyo chan groans. Classic Kyo chan behaviour.

"That was the deal, before…" I say with a smirk at Kyo chan, who returns it with staring daggers at me.

"Come on now, Hori san, we lost, so its only fair if we buy them" Zura says.

That guy is always so nice and polite. Sometimes I wonder how they both fell for each other. I mean going personality wise, they were nothing alike, Kyo chan has always been… uh…. Kyo chan like while Zura seems so reserved and shy.

Sakura walks up to me "Are those two dating?" she asks me, whispering in my ear

"Yeah" I reply back.

"That guy Zura, he seems to have something weird about him wouldn't you say?" She asks.

"Yeah I noticed it too. But would you call it a bad sort of weird?" I ask

"No….. I don't think so. Miyamura likes him, Its very difficult for Miyamura to like someone, if he does so, that probably means he is okay" she says after thinking about it.

"Hey, wouldn't you say its taking a rather long time for those two to come back?" Remi asks suddenly. Her voice had something. Almost as if she was speaking in a teasing tone.

They were actually taking longer than it should take

What was Remi getting at. I did not understand at first

"Yeah what are they doing, it's taking a suspiciously long time" Ishikawa says

Then it strikes me. The joke.

"If it's taking this long, then they probably are doing something suspicious" I chime in.

"Hey... Sengoku what are you implying?" Ishikawa asks in a shaky voice

"What do you feel like I am implying?" I say, trying to be purposefully vague

"Hori probably dropped the change of something and it's probably taking them some time to pick it back up" Yoshikawa chimes in dreamily.

She stared at the ceiling, probably thinking about something else.

"Prez, please note it in the class record book that Yoshikawa was extremely thoughtful today" Ishikawa says. Relief in his voice

He goes on to pat Yoshikawa's head who is taken unaware.

"Hey!! You are gonna mess up my hair again" Yoshikawa complains, trying to move away from him.

Suddenly the door opens, and the stars of the show come inside. Why were their faces so weird.

"Took you guys long enough" I say.

"Yeah, we did something we are regretting now. I should have had better control" Kyo chan says.

What were they getting at?! I was just joking earlier

"Yeah, I should have stopped it. Before things got out of hand" Zura says with clear disappointment in his voice

"Wh....what happened? " Ishikawa asks shakily

"Hori san screwed me. It's not my fault" Zura whispers.

"No way. I can't hear anymore of this. I need my drink. I feel so thirsty. Why is it so hot in here?!" Ishikawa says in a flustered tone. He seemed to be getting more delusional every second. Heck by the way these two spoke, even I am not sure what they did.

"Wait, Ishikawa kun.... The can...." Zura tries to stop him from opening his drink but too late. The cold drink spews out of the can like a fountain, right in Ishikawa's face

"I meant to apologise. Hori san dropped the change first, then while picking it up, I dropped your can, then again she dropped your change and again I dropped your can, I don't know what was up with us today, it was almost like divine intervention" Zura says in an apologetic tone.

So that was what happened. Seriously... The way they put it, I was almost scared.

"So you guys didn't do it then?" Ishikawa asks. His voice already becoming relieved.

"Do what?" Zura asked confused

"Nothing. Oh man! You guys almost gave me a heart attack!" Ishikawa says with a sigh of relief

"So you are not mad about the drink then?" Zura asks

Ishikawa seemed to remember that he was dripping wet with sticky cold drink which was about to get very uncomfortable for him.

"Ahh.. man! Why does it always have to be me?" He groans

"Here, use this towel, and you should probably change to your PE clothes, you can't just hang about like this." I say.

"Yeah you are right" he says. Getting up to leave.

After he leaves. We all start laughing out loud. All at once apart from Zura and Kyo chan who have no idea about what happened.

"What happened what did we miss?" Kyo chan asks me.

"Oh, it was nothing" I say stifling my laughter.

It was nothing, but still, I had the laughter of my life, thinking about what was going through Ishikawas head. Giving them access to the student council room was probably not a bad idea. This place could use a bit of laughter.

POV Katsura

"So, the summer classes test would be held on Thursday. This is the final reminder that if you score below the set marks, you need to attend classes for the summer, and next year you would be studying for college entrances so this is pretty much your last chance at a fun summer, so study like your life depended on it, attending classes when your friends are having fun is a very bad feeling. Trust me" Yasuda says before ending his class

"Uhh.. come on man! I can't even get a decent score in the class tests, no way am I scoring that high for this test. I have to attend classes while you guys will be having fun" Yoshikawa san groans

"This wouldn't have happened if you completed the chapters before hand" Hori san chides her.

"Come on Hori, we all know you are a genius, I am nothing like you" she says

I stare at both of them, Ishikawa kun is silent too. Among the four of us, Yoshikawa san was currently in the worst position. I trusted Ishikawa kun to scrape by if he worked hard, but she really needed to up her game if she wanted to enjoy her summer. I don't know why, but I really felt bad for her. It was my first summer. Or rather my first summer vacation. I looked forward to it, spending time with everyone. That included her too.

"You guys worried about the test too?" Miyamura joins us. He was sitting right behind me so it's not difficult for him to have overhead.

"Man, its really bad that I would have to attend school while you guys hang together. I can even spend time with Sakura san as he would be with you guys" he says sadly.

"Hey man. Don't give up before the exams. You know what, just try your best." Ishikawa kun says trying to reassure him, but his voice betrayed his words, he didn't even believe himself.

Honestly speaking, Miyamura is in the same boat with Yoshikawa san. I don't want them to be left behind, the time is too short to revise the entire syllabus with them. What can I do?.....

"Can you guys memorize?" I ask. Breaking the silence. It was so sudden that all of them jump a bit.

"It's impossible Zura. Even if we could, there is not enough time to go through everything again for all subjects" Miyamura says.

"No I am not saying that. What I mean is that, can you guys do it if I narrow it down. To the important stuff." I explain

"I mean I can... But how much can you narrow it down?" Yoshikawa san asks, unsure.

" This is not a big test, so for a 20 mark one, I can narrow it down significantly. I just want you guys to promise me that you will work on it if I help you?" I say.

I am overstepping my boundaries over here. It was not business of mine to meddle in their academics, but I really wanted them to enjoy this summer. I don't know why, but I just do.

" You will do that for us?" Miyamura says. His voice was clear greatful, almost as if he was touched.

"How will you do it?" Yoshikawa san says.

" Let me worry about that. I will have prepared something for you guys by the end of the day" I say.

I plan out what to do. We didn't have many classes left so, I plan to skip the rest of them to go to the library, to prepare something for them.

"What are you going to do?" Hori san asks

"Will you help me?" I ask her

"Sure. What do you need?" she asks nicely.

"Well come with me then." I take her outside the class. I didn't want to tell the others about the next part. I know they would probably be confused but it was too soon for me to reveal it all.

"Why are you so secretive all of a sudden" Hori san asks me confused

"Well, I have something to confess to you, another of my so called skills with memory enhancement. I didn't want to use it now, it feels like cheating, but I feel like I have no other choice" I say

"Geez Zura, how many of those do you have, any more and you probably would be something out of an action manga" Hori san says.

I smile. "Its nothing that special, its more of a complimentary skill to my memory. Pattern recognition"

"Basically, its easier for me to predict something based on observed patterns, as you clearly know, most of the questions asked in these tests come from some book or the other, I just need to look at some of the previous year ones and narrow it down to the most important parts and condense it into something usable for Miyamura and the others" I explain

"You are willing to go to all that trouble just for a small thing like this?" she asks amazed

"Its no big deal, nothing a few hours in the library cannot solve" I say

"Why?..." she mutters

"Huh?.." I ask as I didn't quite get what she said.

"Why does it matter so much to you that Yuki and the others get through this?" she asks

POV Katsura

He looks at me for a moment. Confused. His eyes drift into something beyond me, contemplating the answers.

"I…. its probably because, I don't want anyone to have a bad Summer. I never had spent anything like a vacation before in my life, now, after coming along with you guys, I want to spend it together with everyone. I want to go to the Summer festival with you all, I want everyone to enjoy it. Together. I….I…" his voice trails off.

"Its alright, I was just kidding. I know you care a lot about them. You are a nice person you know Zura" I say. Cutting him off. I mean every word of it. He was always thinking about the welfare of others, whether it be mine or theirs, Zura has always put us above him. I understand where his feelings come from, and I know how much we mean to him, but he needed to know that we felt the same way too.

"So. What do I need to do?" I ask. He pretty much had every base covered, and I had no skills on pattern recognition, so I didn't know what I could do for him

"You could help me go through Maths Hori san. I tend to overanalyse stuff there and I am bound to end up with more than necessary questions, you could help me narrow it down" he blushes

"Seriously Zura, its not that difficult, if only you were less scared of it, you could do it more easily" I sigh.

At the library, I spot Sengoku and Sakura, with Remi, they both looked like they were tutoring her.

"Its not like that, you need to check the variable first" Sengoku says

"Also, change this part over here, it makes this longer" Sakura adds

"I cant do it anymore, I know, I am not gonna make it, you guys should give up on me" Remi cries

"Yo Prez, nice spotting you here" Zura whispers just behind Sengoku's ear. When the hell did he get there?!

"Who!What!" Sengoku jumps up, screaming.

"Shhh…" The librarian shushes him with an angry glare.

Sengoku sits back down, ashamed. He was clearly blushing.

"Why the hell are you creeping up behind me Zura" he whispers angrily

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Zura says apologetically, I couldn't tell whether he was serious or not.

"What are you guys doing here anyways" Sengoku whispers.

I explain everything to him.

"If you want, I could give Ayasaki san a copy too." Zura says

"Although, I don't feel it to be exactly ethical, but under these circumstances, I don't think Remi can make it with our help, and I don't want to be left alone all summer, so I think, it would be best for you to help" Sengoku sighs

"What can we do to help? Since you are doing so much for us" Sakura asks

"Well, you guys can pick one subject each and prepare some answers to the questions I pick up, it would save a lot of time" Zura says.

"I cant help you guys with anything like that, but can I help in any other way?" Remi chimes in

"You are gonna revise History while we are with Zura" Sengoku says with finality

Remi lets out a grunt of disgust, but she doesn't argue with that

We pick a table and sit together, Zura leaves with Sengoku to pick up some books, while Sakura san and I sit quietly. After a while they return with what seems like a mountain of books.

"We have to go through so many ?!" I exclaim.

"Don't worry, I memorised most of them from before, I just need to cross check some facts" Zura smiles.

"Memorised?" Sengoku and Sakura look at him, confused

"Don't ask anything guys. Its for the best" I say

They don't ask anything else, but they were definitely creeped out.

Zura, picks up his pen and paper and starts jotting down questions, occasionally looking at some books and sometimes looking up, thinking. It was as if he was in a different world, he didn't see us. We didn't have anything to do so we stared at him, at wonder. It was unbelievable how fast he wrote down things, before we knew it, Zura was handing us our papers.

"Hori san, go through these please, I definitely wrote somethings extra here, cut them down" he says to me

"Sengoku kun, Sakura san, take these two papers and please write the answers to these questions, and feel free to point out, if you wanted anything to be added" he says

He himself picks up a few pages and starts jotting down some answers himself.

Soon enough, we are all engrossed in our papers. I know I am focusing on my paper, but I feel Zura and the others around me, subconsciously as we work our way through them, I feel something. Is it happiness? I have studied alone most of the time, but with them, there was no distraction, no noise, but it still feels so different. It was definitely a nice feeling.

Zura's work was immaculate, the way he put the questions were definitely the way our school liked to ask them, but he had gone to way more trouble than he needed to. He even put in extremely easy questions as important. I was sure that even Yuki could solve them. I scratch out some of them, and write the answers. I know it was difficult for Zura to learn it truly without memorising.

"Uhh… finally, I am done" I groan

"Yeah. Me too" Sengoku adds after capping his pen

"Me three." Sakura says with us

"Almost there… here…. Done. Whoo" Zura says finally

"Man! Zura, you really prepared something. This is definitely the most condensed syllabus it can be" Sengoku says with appreciation.

Sakura nods in approval

"It's nothing" Zura says blushing

"Are you guys done yet. Its almost closing time" the librarian hurries us.

"Would you look at that. Its almost 5:00 PM" Sakura says, astonished at the time

"Sorry guys, I kept you this long" Zura says apologetically.

"No worries, but I really need to get going, I promised mom I would help with shopping tonight" Sakura says hurriedly getting up.

"Yeah, I need to get going too" Sengoku says.

"Wait a minute" Zura says, rushing to the photocopy machine.

"Will you give one copy to Ayasaki san then?" Zura asks, handing him a copy of the notes we prepared.

"Sure. I will make sure she gets it" Sengoku says.

"And Zura…. Thank you for helping her" he adds. Smiling

Zura's face lights up.

Sengoku leaves.

The librarian almost pushes us out

"I will give this to Yuki" I say

"You will? Thanks a ton" Zura says

"Zura, you did most of the work, this is the least I can do" I say

"Okay, then, I can hand out this one to Miyamura" Zura says.

We walk out of school. I have never stayed at school this late. The building looked different now. No one was inside, barred from a few staff members, it definitely looked more peaceful.

We don't walk back home together, Yuki's house was in a different direction from the road we usually took.

Walking down the street, I examine the answers we prepared, they were definitely good. I hope, Yuki and the others would get through the exam. They had to! After all the trouble we went through, they better do!