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v e r s t e h e n: chapter four
“Is Ackerman here today?” Kelly asks as he and Corbin make their way to their last class—Chemistry. Honors Chemistry, to be more precise.
“No,” Corbin replies, hiking the strap of his bag up on his shoulder. “He told us yesterday that he wasn’t going to be here. Did you bring your book?”
Kelly snorts.
Corbin rolls his eyes. “You can share with me.”
“I know.”
“Bastard.”
Kelly smiles. “I know.”
“Kelly! Corbin!” The singsong call is a unison of two very familiar voices, and the boys turn around just outside the Chemistry room. One of the hailers slings his arm around Corbin’s shoulders, and the other does the same to Kelly. Identical faces are wearing identical grins.
“Hey guys.” Corbin tilts his head at their friends.
Souta kisses Corbin’s cheek, but Corbin’s used to it and doesn’t react. “Ready for some learning?”
“At this point,” Yumi slides his arm down Kelly’s back and puts his hand in the redhead’s pocket, “it shouldn’t be learning; it should just be review.” Kelly blushes and pushes Yumi away, muttering something that sounds like “fag.” No one takes offense. “Precipitate reaction, anyone?”
“Hell if I know.” Souta shrugs, letting go of Corbin’s shoulders and adjusting the rainbow-striped scarf around his slender neck.
“Aqueous plus aqueous yields a solid and an aqueous,” Corbin rattles off, pulling open the door to the Chemistry room and letting them all in. Most of the students are already seated, talking idly amongst themselves or rifling through the pages of the textbook. Their class work is written on the board in pink dry-erase marker, and their homework is underneath it in green.
Souta and Yumi take their seats at the front middle table, Kelly and Corbin behind them. Souta murmurs something to Yumi in Japanese, and they both laugh. Corbin sets his bag down and pulls out his books, opening to the respective pages. Kelly leans back and looks bored as the bell rings, and class begins.
Their substitute teacher, an attractive young black woman, begins to take attendance.
“Ashley Anderson?”
“Here.” One of the girls behind Corbin and Kelly raises her hand. Corbin listens to the roll call with one ear, waiting for his own name. The substitute continues down the list as Corbin copies the first problem of their assignment into his notebook.
“Kelly McFarland?”
Kelly makes a languid show of raising his hand. “Aquí estoy.” Corbin rolls his eyes; Kelly doesn’t even take Spanish.
“Corbin Rose?”
“Here.” Satisfied, Corbin tunes out the rest and continues his work.
“S…” The substitute hesitates. “So…uta? Takahashi?”
“So-ta,” Souta articulates, raising his hand. The substitute nods, smiling, and moves on.
“Yumi Takahashi?”
“Here.”
That done, the twins turn their chairs around and join Kelly and Corbin at their table. The table behind Kelly and Corbin’s accumulates a small contingent of girls, and they immediately begin talking as the substitute finishes taking attendance and tells the students to get to work. Corbin tries to ignore the people at his back, rather fruitlessly. He can see Souta’s eyes narrow behind his cat-eye glasses, staring over Corbin’s shoulder.
“So…” Yumi twirls his pencil in his hand, watching the eraser gyrate, “CuSO-four…plus Fe yields…Cu plus Fe-two, SO-four-three. It needs to be balanced.” He pokes his tongue between his lips and leans over his notebook, scratching the appropriate numbers onto his paper. “There. Next…”
There’s a burst of giggles behind them. Corbin cringes, his fingers tightening around his pencil. Two of the girls are deep in conversation, oblivious to the classroom around them, while the rest carry on their ditzy antics.
“I’m two weeks late,” one was saying, sounding ironic, her voice full of dry humor.
“That’s not bad,” her friend says, shrugging. “Don’t worry about it; I was three weeks late once.”
“Yeah, but you don’t have a boyfriend,” the girl returns. There’s something about her tone that sounds proud, overshadowing her previous acerbic concern. Corbin doesn’t know if it’s his imagination, but he thinks their voices might be rising with every word. Perhaps it’s because the girls sharing their table keep getting louder, and consequently the two talk louder to hear each other.
Yumi tries to ignore them, scratching things on his paper. Souta is still watching the gaggle of females behind Corbin and Kelly with a sort-of glare, his glasses glinting and his jaw clenched. Corbin attempts to tune out the voices behind him; he’s usually quite adept in the art of tuning out unwanted noises, but the girls’ voices, giggles and laughs and words, overpower his skill. Kelly sits staring at his book without seeing it, listening to the motley of conversations and smirking amusedly.
The girls continue their discourse shamelessly.
A chorus of loud laughter backs one of the girls’ voices as she asks her friend, “Did you use protection? I mean—”
Something snaps. It takes Corbin a moment to realize that it wasn’t figurative, but the sound of Souta’s palm slapping the table. “Please, shut up!” A start seems to ripple through the entire class. “Jesus, why don’t you just broadcast the latest update on your love life over the PA, since it’s apparently so goddamn important that you need the rest of us to know!”
The first girl cuts Souta a glare over Corbin’s shoulder, and Corbin can feel it singe his sweatshirt. “I wasn’t talking to you,” she snaps snootily, the ends of her words seeming to jump like they were sticking their noses in the air.
“You might as well have been talking to the whole damn class with how loud you were!” Souta stands up, his hands flat on the table. The rest of the students had quieted. The two girls are glaring at Souta, and some of the others are sharing the look. A few of them actually look amused. The rest of the students seems to be holding their breath. The substitute appears content to let the battle play out, sitting back and looking up at them from her over paperback book.
“Well excuse me! My life may not be important to you, but—”
Souta shakes his head, his mouth twisting with frustration. “Yes, you’re right! Your life doesn’t matter to me at all! But some of us are trying to get our work done, and I really don’t need to listen to you talking about your sex life while trying to figure out what the fuck copper sulfate and iron yield! You know, if you just didn’t have sex in the first place, this could all have been avoided! I mean, come on, we’re sixteen! Why the hell are you in such a rush to sign your life away? Jesus!”
Yumi takes Souta’s hand, trying to tug him back down. Kelly laughs and starts clapping, and the brunette behind him whaps him over the head with her notebook; he flips her off over his shoulder. The rest of the class starts murmuring amongst themselves, while the girl stares at Souta, seething, floundering for a retaliation.
Finally, she opens her mouth and snaps, “You’re one to talk, you fucking hypocrite! At least I don’t sleep with my twin brother!”
Silence.
Souta turns bright red, with anger or something else one can’t tell. “What the hell are you talking about?! You don’t even know me!”
“And you don’t know me! But I’ve heard the rumors.” She folds her arms across her chest, leaning back.
Souta’s fists clench over the black tabletop. “A slut and a gossip! Wonderful!”
“Class!” The substitute finally decides to rein in the situation. “Please, Souta, sit down. Everyone get back to work!”
Yumi gives Souta’s arm a forceful tug and pulls him back into his seat. “What the hell was that?!” he hisses, yanking on the end of Souta’s striped scarf. “Why do you always get so carried away?”
Souta shakes his head, his jaw set. “They piss me off so much,” he murmurs, tapping his pencil against his notebook. “I don’t understand why girls feel the need to have sex when they’re so young. Guys don’t have so much to risk, but… I mean, come on! Did you know that there’ve been fourteen pregnant girls in this school over the past few years? What is wrong with people?!”
Corbin shakes his head, saying quietly, “Don’t let it bother you. It’s not your decision; it’s not your life you’re ruining. Let them do what they want…let them make stupid choices. They’re the ones that have to deal with the consequences.”
Souta sinks down in his seat, staring at his paper. “Whatever. But that…last comment was totally uncalled for.”
“Aw, come on, man, you had it coming! You should know better than to egg on people like that.” Kelly jerks his thumb over his shoulder, lowering his voice—a feat within itself, really—as he says,“Those girls are the princesses of the school. They spit on peasants like us.”
Souta’s anger wavers in his eyes and in the hard scowl on his face before completely disappearing. He sniffs with feigned indignation, sitting up again. “Who are you calling a peasant, you plebian?” He takes his scarf and tosses one end over his shoulder with a flourish. “I don’t know about you, but I am no peasant! I use people like you to walk over puddles.”
The group shares a laugh, and Yumi punches his brother’s shoulder. “You’re so full of it.”
“But I’m cute, so you overlook it.” Souta smiles sweetly, kissing his brother’s cheek.
Yumi makes a face and wipes the offended spot with the back of his hand. “Yeah, whatever. Get to work.”
Souta looks at his paper. “So, HCl is…”
“Hydrochloric acid,” Corbin supplies, scribbling something in his notebook.
Souta smiles. “Right.”
The class continues undisturbed. The girls behind them chat quietly, and before the end of class Souta received several congratulations and murmurs of approval for his outburst.
As they leave the room when the final bell rings, a tall blonde approaches the four boys. “Souta!”
Souta turns around outside the doorway as students begin to fill the hall. He smiles. “Hey Ashley.”
Ashley smiles back, hiking the strap of her Coach bag up on her shoulder. “That was great,” she murmurs, leaning towards Souta. “Of course that bitch had it coming, and naturally you’re the one to dish it out.”
Souta examines his fingernails. “I try, I try.”
She giggles and punches his shoulder playfully. “Well, good job. Sam is really just…a bitch. Can’t stand her.” She rolls her eyes, and her pastel green make-up sparkles. Her friend comes up beside her, a slightly shorter girl with curly brown hair and a smattering of freckles across her nose, nodding her agreement.
“Hey,” the brunette gestures to Souta, and Yumi standing beside him, “the Kim twins will flip when I tell them about your little speech.” Her blue eyes twinkle flirtatiously. “You know they’ll think your so sweet and charming for speaking out against sluttiness.”
Souta groans and rolls his eyes. “Spare me.”
Yumi nods. “The last thing we need is another reason for them to love us.”
“Excuse me, what is this us you speak of?” Souta lifts an eyebrow at his brother. “I do believe I’m the one who gets the sweet and charming points this time, otouto.”
Yumi smiles and pats Souta’s shoulder. “You’re right. After all, you need them more than I do.” Souta makes a face at Yumi, sticking his tongue out in a childish display. Ashley and her brunette friend giggle in unison.
“Hey,” Corbin waves at them, “we’ll catch’ya later.”
“Tell Anna and Molly we said hi!” Kelly waves too and leaves with Corbin, heading down the hall and taking a left to their lockers. Souta and Yumi look afraid at the mention of the Kim twins.
Souta turns to Ashley earnestly. “If you so much as breath a word about what happened in there to them, I’m whipping out my katana.”
Yumi nods. “And we’ll have a princess shish kabob.”
“As if.” Ashley turns and leaves with her friend, waving at the twins over her shoulder. Yumi and Souta depart in the opposite direction, haunted by images of their steadfast identical stalkers.
Cookies for anyone who can name the song that inspired Anna and Molly's names!