The Dream Shifter

Chapter 25

Saki doubted that it was a car accident that was the cause for Takako's absence from practice. She did not have many morning practices so she did not know much about the girls that only went in the morning. However, it was strange for Takako to be gone. There were still a few minutes before the final bell would be ringing for homeroom. "Let's go check her homeroom, Hitomi," Saki said, "She might have skipped for some reason."

Hitomi rushed up to Saki unable to shake the panicked expression on her face. "The first big meet is coming up. What reason would she have?"

It was pretty clear that Saki did not have an answer. If Hitomi had been thinking straight it would have been obvious, but Saki felt like she was being requested to answer. "I don't know. We'll ask her reasons when we find her." Saki stepped forward around the girl and grabbed her wrist taking her away from her class.

Her class, 3-A, was left behind at the end of the hall of the third floor. Along the floor were all of the first year classes with many of the students still hanging around outside of their classrooms. The classes went down to 3-D, before coming to the widened part of the school coming to the end at 3-J. Takako was in class 3-H near the opposite end of the building and through the crowded hall.

Saki arrived at the front door for 3-H and Hitomi continued on to the back door. Hitomi went into the class not fearing the students. Saki had remained outside looking in staying cautious about the number of students that she did not know. There were only half of the seats filled and several standing up talking. It made it difficult to look around and in addition Saki barely knew Takako, the girl was not going to stand out to her immediately. Unfortunately, she could not see her in the room and Hitomi returned shortly afterwards. "Any luck?"

"No…I couldn't find her and no one has seen her. I'm worried."

"Well class is starting soon. Everyone misses classes once and a while. After school we can check on her at her house. There's probably a reasonable explanation for it." Saki began to walk back for her own class, but was stopped by a shaking hand on her arm. She looked around seeing Hitomi's face wrinkled in worry still not satisfied by the brief look that they had made for Takako. "Hitomi, we…"

"We can't give up!"

Saki face turned a little to frustration and pensive still confused by the whole situation. She had been helping Hitomi out, because she was worried. However, this seemed to be going beyond just normal concern even for simple friends. 'There is something strange about the whole thing, but why is Hitomi so caught up by Takako missing one day?' There was not going to be any reasoning with Hitomi as Saki realized as time passed slowly. If she did nothing she was going to be late for class and if she did something she was probably going to be late for class. "Let's talk to the teachers. Maybe they know something."

The new idea seemed to calm down Hitomi some from the uncontrollable fear that was gripping her. "Alright." Saki helped Hitomi through the hall and downstairs to the teacher's office. Here all of the teachers stayed before classes would begin in the morning or if they did not have a class for a period of the day. It was normally a place that students would avoid and stay out of without permission, but Saki needed something that would settle Hitomi down. This was the last chance that they had. "Will it be alright to go in?" Hitomi said staring at the door of the teacher's office as though it were an ominous creature that would attack if she so much as touched the door handle.

"It'll be fine. We're just asking about a student." Saki was not going to able to get Hitomi to make the effort. This was quickly realized and rather than debate the issue Saki pushed her aside. She grabbed a hold of the door's indented handle pausing for a second while she felt the wave of dread wash over her from knowing that this was not a place that she belonged. The moment passed quickly for her and she tightened her hand against the handle and pulled it open. The sliding of the door alerted a couple of the teachers towards them bringing them over to Saki.

"Is there something you need?" said one of the male teachers approaching Saki with a couple notebooks in hand. It was a teacher that she had not seen before, no doubt for one of the upperclassmen.

Saki swallowed roughly suddenly feeling more out of place than she would have thought. She tried to bow politely in apology even in failing. "U-Uh…I'm sorry! We're looking for class 3-H's homeroom teacher."

The teacher pulled back giving Saki a comforting smile to try to not make her feel nervous. "Oh, you're looking for Mr. Akutagawa. He's still here, but class is starting soon, you know." Saki and Hitomi nodded quietly to the teacher, but remained at the doorway not wanting to enter any further. "Well I'll go get him for you. What is it about?"

"Oh! It's about Takako Yamazaki. She hasn't showed up today and we were concern she might be sick or something." Saki tried to keep things sounding fairly normal, since she knew that Hitomi was on the edge of reason. If she had said that Hitomi was afraid that Takako was in a car accident it would only start up panic and questions that would lead to misunderstandings.

"Alright." The teacher walked back through the aisles of desks towards one of the teachers whispering to him. Saki remained watchful while still trying to hold back the uneasy feeling that she was getting from being in a place that she did not belong. A minute later Mr. Akutagawa approached them.

The class 3-H homeroom teacher was a young man in his late twenties wearing the usual suit that most male teacher's did. He seemed kind from his warm expression. "Hello. Mr. Shimomura was telling me that you were worried about Miss Yamazaki."

"Yes, we haven't seen her today and didn't know what happened. Have you heard anything?"

"I actually had just gotten off the phone with her mother. She is staying home today having come down with something. I'm told it shouldn't be too bad. Just keeping her out of school for a couple of days."

"Oh, thank you very much. That's very relieving. Are you okay, Hitomi?" said Saki looking behind her to see what reaction that she was having from the news. It was nothing to be worried about, just a normal flu or something. There did seem to be some calm brought to Hitomi, but her face was still heavily covered in concern.

Mr. Akutagawa picked up on this quickly and stepped forward looking towards Hitomi. "If you want, she'll need her homework taken to her. I would normally have someone from her class do it, but…"

"T-Thank you," Hitomi said slowly beginning to finally come to ease.

"Well then, you can stop by here at the end of school and I'll give you her assignments. You should be getting back to your class though. The last bell is about to ring."

"Right! Come on, Hitomi!" Saki said glad to leave the teacher's office. She pulled Hitomi along until she was able to walk on her own. Saki left Hitomi when they reached the third floor letting her go to her classroom. She ran back to her own room hearing the bell ringing for her. The halls were empty for her, but that only signaled a deeper panic for her knowing how late she was going to be.

She softly attempted to slide the back door to her class open to not pull attention to herself, but that turned out to be a futile effort. Saki narrowly dodged a pencil across her nose that embedded itself into the wall next to her. She cautiously drew her eyes forward seeing the cross expression of Ms. Kuniyoshi staring her down. The attempt at a sheepish innocent look had failed her just as quickly leaving her cornered. "You're late, Miss Furukawa…"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Kuniyoshi!" Saki fled to her seat trying not to pull in any more attention to her than she had already drawn. The teacher glared a little longer at her and then continued on with roll call for the class, the reason that Saki had failed so miserably. She dropped her head down on the table exhausted from the morning already.

Yuki leaned forward from his seat having watched the whole thing unfold and tapped Saki on her shoulder. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you at lunch."