Friday 
    The quietness of the morning in the school ground always astounded her, it was, nearly, the only time you could hear yourself think, the other time being near dawn, but at that time, the whole city was quiet.
    A soft click echoed through the hallway as her locker lock opened, revealing a small locker crammed with books, in an eye-pleasing fashion. She had broken yet another stereotype, the myth that geniuses were always messy, Ami Mizuno was definitely not like that.
    But today, something was different, something was there that ought not be, yet she couldn't quite place it or figure out how anything could have gotten in. A sweat-drop appeared on her forehead as she noticed a ‘breathing’ hole on her locker-door, anything could have been dropped in from there. She glanced around the locker, and finally noticed a white paper package lying in the corner. She cocked her head to one side and smiled, only one person could have wrapped anything like that.

Flashback
    ‘Houdini’ sat at her desk, thankful that no one, as yet, had tried to tease her, gang up on her. She had managed to escape safely from all of it this morning, into her private sanctuary, the world of imagination, the world of dreams, the world that her favorite story took place in.
    It didn’t necessarily mean that it took place in the rosy world that most stories children of her own age read. No, she was a realist, she enjoyed stories that were actually possible, something that she could really see herself in. Her favorite story, the story that she was reading now, was I am David, not something like Snow White, Cinderella, they were too fake, too… unrealistic. She could never imagine herself as a Princess, but as a prisoner escaping from a concentration camp? Yes. In a way, that was what she was doing right now, though not quite the same physically, she was escaping from the same mental torture that David was facing.
    "Hey, Houdini! Reading again? Bookworm, nerd…"
    "Heidi, shh…! ‘Tsunami’ is coming, come over here! I can’t believe that he is really coming into our class! My God! I am so lucky, I just have this really great feeling that he will like me!"
    The little girl sighed, she was saved from the torture. She was more than glad to be left by herself again, where she could concentrate on her books. Her name wasn’t really Houdini, it was just… just that she was too isolated. She always locked herself in her own little world, in a death defying trap, like Houdini, supposedly, that was what all the other students said. In the end, he had died because he couldn’t escape from what he had got himself into. But one couldn’t possibly die from too much study right?
    She sighed again, girls could be so cruel! "If only I had some magic like the real Houdini, I’d show them all that there was more to me, Ami Mizuno!"
    "Umm… Ami?" The little girl dropped her jaw as she looked up. She was shocked, it wasn’t exactly usual that she was addressed by her real name, not her sickening nickname.
    But the other reason that she was so surprised was that the person addressing her was no other than the guy known by ‘Tsunami’ by most people. It was the new school-year, the girls had probably missed seeing him around in real life, although his face was frequently on television…
    His nickname was ‘Tsunami’ because of the way that his amazing ice-skating form had swept through the skating world, sweeping up all the medals in the Junior Division. He was, in many ways, the school and the students’ idol. They weren’t going to be pleased when they saw that he was talking to her! She liked talking to him, because he had something in his head, unlike most of the other students. He was polite, despite his popularity, the two things seemed to have an inverse relationship, but in his case, it wasn’t. She smiled in fondness as she thought of the relationship, y=x^-1/2. 
    "Umm…"
    "Don't you remember me? I'm what's known as Tsunami around here, you helped me pass the grade one exams."
    "I remember. Can I help you?"
    He blushed, which again surprised Ami. He was usually poised, very sure of himself. "I’ve got something for you, to thank you for helping me, and for your birthday."
    Ami looked at the package suspiciously. She had never got presents from her classmates, this was an absolute first. Tsunami was nice, but she doubted that he would remember her birthday. And as part of the Neiri Gang (the gang that all the populars belonged to) he was not exempt to being part of stupid pranks.
    She heard girls behind him giggling, and the boys grinning, she wasn’t sure whether it was because of the fact that he was paying attention to her, or because something in that package was going to cause her extreme embarrassment. She looked at him again, and she decided that the reason had to be the latter. She cleared her voice, and said harshly, "you open it."
    It was not often that this young girl of seven years got things wrong, even when it came to doing questions in new maths topics. But this time, judging from Tsunami’s expression, she did get it wrong. He dropped the package on her desk, his face burning with shame and embarrassment. Before Ami could say another word he had turned away and left.
    She was immediately surrounded by her classmates, scolding her for being cruel, she was sorry, but couldn’t say so. She slowly unwrapped the present, when she saw the teddy bear key-ring wearing skates, tears fell from her eyes, the voices became echoes in her mind, and for the first time she lost control. "Who are you to know what being cruel is?" and ran out as well.
    Ami looked at her pale blue plastic watch on her wrist, still twenty minutes before class, she had plenty of time to find Tsunami and apologize. She found him in the playground, sitting by the corner on a bench facing the street. She walked towards him quietly, sitting next to him, facing the opposite direction, to the school. "I’m sorry, I thought it was a prank."
    "Well I hope you get some real ones!"
    Ami looked confused for a second then burst into tears. "You don’t know what it’s like being the odd one out!’
    His ears pricked as he heard her sobbing. Silently he handed her a scrunched up tissue from his pocket. "It would almost be the same as being the most popular in class wouldn’t it?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "It’s lonely, no one cares. If I fall in my badge test, and can’t get into the competition, then I’d be like you, no friends, you see, none of these friends are really friends."
    "You think so?"
    "I hate being the center of attention. I wish… I wish they’d treat me like a normal person."
    "But you’re not!"
    "So even you think that way." Tsunami got up from the bench and started walking back to school. "I thought you were different."
    Ami looked up and reached out for him arm shyly as he began to walk off. She tugged at his sleeve lightly, looking down to her feet. "You are different, because everyone knows you are the skating champion, the famous ice-skater!"
    "Well, you are the one who got first place in the Speaking Competition."
    "I guess so."
    Tsunami smiled at her. "Well, since we’re the same, friends?"
    Ami nodded and beamed back. "Friends. Hey, how did you know it was my birthday?"
    "Simple, my mum reminds me to thank you every single day, and I saw it on your mum's diary when I was at your place studying… not to mention it’s the day after my badge test."
    Ami smiled at him again, and murmured softly, "friends…"

    Snapping back into reality, she focused to opening the package. Another teddy bear key-ring wearing skates, she was getting quite a collection of them. But he was always like that, it was his signature, he didn't like signing his name to anything. A note was attached to the package. 'I hope that this is your locker Ami, might drop in for a surprise visit at your practice. There might even be the possibility that I'll see you later on in school.'
    Ami smiled happily. Just as she was adding the key-ring to the zipper of her school uniform, her hand twitched. She sighed as she looked downwards, this wasn't a love letter, why the rash?

Next