Hitlist

5- Drama Club

A few, usual days passed. It was getting closer and closer to the drama club's performance.

"Michiyo, Taro.. are you guys free to watch my play tomorrow?" Sakurai asked, smiling.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Michiyo threw an arm around Sakurai's shoulder.

"Neither would I." Taro said, with a small grin planted on his face.

After school, the drama club were spending lots of time practising and getting the props correct. Kizana was becoming even more bossy than usual, because of all the stress.

"What are you doing?! Kokona, I told you to stand in this EXACT spot!" Kizana yelled, pushing Kokona to her stage area.

"Sorry!" Kokona said, shuffling forward to correct herself. Sakurai noticed a girl watching them in the distance, standing in the doorway. She had short, silky, black hair which was tied in a neat ponytail. Her eyes were grey and empty, just like her expression. However, when she saw Sakurai looking at her, she slowly smiled. Sakurai recognised her; she remembered when Michiyo said that this girl wanted to be friends with her. Since it wasn't her turn on stage, she walked over to the mysterious girl in the doorway.

"Hey!" Sakurai said, in a polite tone. The girl stared at her for a few seconds, which made Sakurai feel a bit awkward and uneasy.

"I'm Ayano Aishi." She suddenly began.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Ichika Sa-"

"Oh I know. Ichika Sakurai, correct?"

Sakurai stared at her, dumbfounded. Ayano smiled slightly again.

"How do you know me, then? I don't think I've seen you around much..." Sakurai said, fiddling with her hair.

"We should talk more," Ayano murmered in a quiet tone, "Also, when is your first performance going to be held?"

"Friday at 5pm. Will you be watching?"

"Certainly." Ayano cracked a small grin and turned in the other direction, heading out the door. Sakurai stood there, watching her walk away.

"HEY! SAKURAI! WE NEED YOU OVER HERE!" Kizana yelled, from the other side of the huge hall. Sakurai jumped a little and began jogging back to the stage.

"Sorry!"

In no time, it was friday afternoon. Sakurai and Michiyo were eating lunch on the roof, while Taro read a book in his usual spot, by the fountain.

"Are you nervous?" Michiyo asked, "I'm so excuted to see the performance after school!"

"I am actually pretty nervous, but it's not my first time in front of an audience so I'll be fine." Sakurai replied, taking a big bite from her bento. "Actually, since Taro isn't here, I think that Kizana has a crush on him."

"Kizana? How come?" Michiyo looked really surprised at the sound of Kizana's name. Probably because Kizana wouldn't be the type of person to have a crush on someone else, it would be the other way around.

"I don't know but everytime Taro watches us rehearse, she always tries way harder and shows off a lot. She also acts weirdly nice towards me, but only when Taro is watching. It doesn't bother me I guess, but it's just what I think."

"Wow, I guess your right. Well, you can't let her take him, can you? Looks like I need to try even harder to set you two up!" Michiyo exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

"Oh god, should I be scared?" Sakurai said quietly. Michiyo beamed mischievously and rushed to class. Everything went very quick from there. Sakurai stared out the window the whole time, hardly getting any work completed. She couldn't really focus because her head was filled with her lines for the play. She kept repeating them over in her head, until the end of class.

Sakurai saw Ayano again, at cleaning time. She was wiping the windows, in a classroom all by herself.

"Hey, Ayano." Sakurai said, scrubbing at the window. Ayano glanced around her shoulder and smiled slightly. Ayano turned back to cleaning the window, without saying a word.

"So.. I guess I will see you later then, at 5!" Sakurai figured that Ayano would rather work alone, so she started heading back out the door again.

"Wait-" Ayano grabbed her wrist, quite aggressively. Suddenly, Michiyo skipped into the room.

"Sakurai! I've been looking for you forever! Oh, hey Ayano!" Michiyo exclaimed in a cheerful tone. Ayano let Sakurai's wrist free. Ayano walked out the door, with no expression whatsoever. Although it wasn't clear by looking at her face, Ayano was furious. As she left, she watched Michiyo in the corner of her eye, wordlessly. It gave Michiyo a chill down her spine, from the way Ayano never took her eyes off her, even as she was leaving the classroom. Michiyo shrugged it off.

"Anyways, are you done here?" Michiyo asked.

"Yep! It's almost time for the play!" Sakurai responded, joyfully. Michiyo pulled her out the room and they started heading to the auditorium. Before the proper performance, the drama club wanted to get some quick practise time into their schedule. Michiyo and Taro talked for a bit outside, while the drama club did a thorough dress-rehearsal.

"So, do you have a crush on anyone?" Michiyo asked, elbowing him in a jokey way. He looked quite confused at first, as if he was wondering if he liked anyone himself.

"I don't know. I don't really think so." He responded, a bit embarrassed about the topic.

"Well, if you ever had the opportunity, would you date Sakurai?"

"She's a nice person, but I don't know what it would be like, being more than friends. I've never had a girlfriend."

Michiyo was about to say something, when they got called in. Everyone began taking their seats and buzzing about all the spotlights, which were shining on random parts of the audience. The curtains drew open and Kizana was stood in the centre of the stage.

Kizana didn't even have enough time to speak, before a heavy weight came toppling down.

THUD.

The whole audience shrieked, and many began running back out the auditorium. Sakurai and Kokona heard all the screaming, from backstage. Kokona peered round to see what was happening on stage. Pure shock put her in a state of paraleysis. She stood there with her hand cupped over her mouth. Silent tears began streaming down her cheeks, as she saw the remains of Kizana, laying in a pile of blood. Sakurai could almost sense Kokona's fear and began to fear the worst. She started walking to Kokona, to see for herself. With a shaking hand, Kokona grabbed her wrist.

"D-don't look. It wasn't worth it..." Kokona whispered, her eyes wide from shock.

"I need to see what happened." Sakurai said, pushing her off. Her heart racing, she looked round the corner. She felt her breathing grow unsteady.

"Not another one..."