Chapter 6 : The Painful Light Of The Morning After (Gag)

 

Author’s Note: After suffering through having to make a serious chapter without turning into mush, I therefore jump into this, Gag comedy, which is more my style anyhew. Note that these thoughts of the teachers and Students happen simultaneously, meaning they all wake up at the same time okay? Don’t get confused.

 

                    Elvira Licuanan

 

Excess : Looking at it now, I have found the Lyrics to Selena’s “Dreaming of You” and I have a feeling that it might not be so funny anymore…

 

*****

 

The first thing that Syl registered in her sleep-addled brain was that it was pretty late in the morning. Somewhere in her mind, something was sending alarm bells all over, warning her that something was definitely wrong.

 

: What *did * I do last night?: she sleepily wondered as she tried to coax her eyes open. She was conscious of warmth that lay on her feet.

 

Then it hit her, :Oh yeah, the bar: she remembered with a grimace. : Does that mean I’m drunk?: she pondered this for a moment and decided that she wasn’t. :I can think straight at least: she added.

 

With that conclusion, her memories came easier. She remembered talking about the students with the other teachers. Laughing and talking, they seemed to have a time of their life. Jericho was rather stressed though, but Syl understood why. :The only guy in the midst of all of us women: she mused quietly.

 

Then she remembered seeing one of the students…Jericah? Oh yes, Jericah. The girl was dancing with what she thought was a girl, when it dawned on her that it was just a rather beautiful boy. Jericho seemed rather dumbstruck at seeing Jericah. The others were just plain surprised. Oh, except Yvonne, she thought Yvonne looked like she had swallowed a huge frog at that point.

 

After that, Jericho seemed to be so intent into disappearing into one of the nearby trees. It was either that or drink himself into a coma. :Poor boy: thought Syl.

 

After that, her memories seemed to blur a little, as if shadowed by sleep. She remembered stumbling back into the hotel room floor, someone fumbling with the keys and hearing someone dump someone unto a nearby bed; All that and her own body crashing into another bed.

 

Beyond that, she couldn’t recall anything else. She decided that if she was to do anything, or know anything at least she would have to open her eyes and face the new morning with a smile…

 

Blinking slightly, she shifted position to take a look at her bed…

 

And stopped. It wasn’t her bed. She looked around. Wasn’t her hotel room either. A look down on the warmth on her feet confirmed her suspicions.

 

A rather pale Andrea slept at her feet.

 

As she looked on, she saw Andrea’s eyes flicker open.

 

*****

 

Andrea had never been fond of drinking.

 

With one whiff of anything alcoholic, she was out for the count. So one would automatically assume that she wouldn’t be able to stand after four bottles of good ‘ol sake. Much less the fact that Jericah insisted that she tried something she called a ‘Screwdriver’. Andrea, who was totally buzzed by then, nodded and took one, and another, and another…

 

If Andrea had the strength and brain cells to do anything right now, she would be marching towards Jericah with every intention of drowning the older girl in beer…literally.

 

Her head ached and she grimaced. She was partially awake, refusing to open her eyes to the morning. Not until she could stop the raging rhino that was once her brain from trying to break out of her skull.

 

But besides that, she would so drown Jericah in the nearest deep liquid she could find. Maybe she could flush the girl into the toilet…! She wasn’t so sure how or why, but she was so sure that it was all Jericah’s fault why she was so stoned.

 

She remembered worrying after the girl disappeared towards the direction of the bar. She looked so sad and hopeless that Andrea thought Jeri would do something foolish…well, more foolish than she usually was.

 

But all of that was put to rest when they heard her name called out by the bandleader. They soon saw her in the arms of one of the cutest guys they had ever seen that night. She looked definitely drunk, but for the first time since that afternoon, she looked remotely happy. She was even teary eyed.

 

After the song, they requested for another song. It was vaguely familiar to Andrea….’dreaming’? or something like that. They danced to that for a while too. After that, Jeri introduced the guy to them, whose name was…Shuuni? Shuity? Shuu---something. He stayed at their table and drank with them and talked. Boy could he talk! It looked like that he was even more buzzed than Jeri was at that point.

 

Later on, the guy took note of the fact that Andrea was not drinking. Andrea gave in to his and Jeri’s taunts and allowed them to order her Sake, which was Japanese wine. She had planned to dump it into the nearby potted plant once they weren’t looking.

 

But when it arrived, they got to talking about…something. Andrea enjoyed herself and when she ran out of breath she grabbed down and drank…taking a rather big gulp before remembering belatedly that she had sake in that glass, not water.

 

It was too late by then because she was too buzzed to care what she was drinking anymore.

 

All that she knew was that after that escapade, Jeri was three times more buzzed than she was and the two of them were hauled rather unceremoniously to the hotel room. She remembered lying down on her bed, not caring what position she fell asleep in. The last thing she remembered before succumbing to sleep was that she heard the door open again.

 

Deciding that she wasn’t going to get anywhere soon if she was to try wishing her head ache away, she decided to wake up fully. The first thing on her agenda would be to find some headache pills, and then after that she would kill Jericah.

 

Her eyes flickered open…

 

…and met with Syl’s open mouthed stare.

 

*****

 

Yuuki decided to hold off the drinks, for this week at least. She had packed enough alcohol last night for a week anyway. If she had enough body control to do it, she would have shaken her head at Jericah.

 

She had wondered why she had disappeared last night when she asked if she was thinking of Jericho. She was sort of afraid that the girl was mad at her. But all of that disappeared when she appeared to be dancing with a very, very, cute guy.

 

The guy, who she later found out was Shuuichi, was a nice companion, with one catch. He was even more buzzed than Jeri. But that didn’t take away the fact that he was very, very, VERY…well, beautiful was the only word for it.

 

And also very shrewd, by the way.

 

He had started to pick on Andrea because she was the only one in the table that didn’t drink anything alcoholic. He had even ventured that Andrea was being “too good a Muslim ne?” When Andrea insisted that she was Catholic, Shuuichi started to tease her about drinking.

 

Later on, after Jeri had started helping Shuuichi torture Andrea, the younger girl finally gave up, allowing the partners in crime to order her some sake. Nothing bad, just plain old sake, they insisted, just one won’t hurt yah. Yuuki fought to keep a dangerously drunk snicker down.

 

They didn’t even force her to drink it, but Yuuki saw the twin glimmers of mischief in Shuuichi’s and Jeri’s eyes. They started to talk about cartoons, Anime more precisely and Andrea started to forget about the drink entirely. When Andrea picked up the glass containing the sake, Yuuki thought she saw a definitely lupine grin on Shuuichi’s and Jeri’s face. She would have bet that if those two little mischief-makers had tails, they would be wagging.

 

Somehow, she knew that it wasn’t long before her roguish friend got the younger girl thoroughly drunk. But she didn’t expect that Jericah would end up even more drunk than Andrea.

 

Hauling Andrea on her shoulders while Erika dragged Jeri though the place, they finally made their sleepy and decidedly drunk way to their hotel room.

 

After letting the now navigationally handicapped Andrea find her own way to bed, she collapsed on the floor nearby, tripping on some stupid wire. Deciding that it wasn’t worth the energy to get up and crawl into her big nice, comfy bed, she fell asleep on the floor.

 

And now, with a sore ass and neck, she regretted her decision.

 

Deciding to find her head ache pills before her hangover catches up with her, she stood up and rubbed her eyes softly…

 

…Only to see Yvonne sleeping on one of her feet.

 

*****

 

Yvonne hated bars.

 

They were dark, smoky and reeked of alcohol, something she didn’t particularly like.

 

But when she learned that Jericho liked going to bars, she immediately invited him to join her.

 

He had looked suspicious then, but told her that he didn’t like going alone; he would like to go in a group. He nodded towards the direction of Syl and said that if Syl was going, so would he.

 

And that’s how she started cajoling first Anne, and then De and then finally Syl into joining them.

 

She hadn’t exactly expected the conversation to turn to the students that haunted Jericho.  She didn’t know a single thing about them, except that they did stalk the poor guy. She didn’t even teach on the same level as they did, she was a Third Year teacher, whilst Jericho and the rest handled the sophomores.

 

After the revelation of Anne, Jericho had looked definitely ill at ease and Yvonne wanted to strangle the person who started the train of thought…except that it was Jericho who started it…!

 

If she didn’t know Jericho better she would think that the man was just as obsessed with his students as they were with him!

 

After him getting totally stoned, they stalked towards their room. Jericho turned out to be the only one with the keys, so sleepy as he was, they let him get the door.

 

Yvonne was pretty sleepy and had a huge headache, mostly from gritting her teeth every time they would mention Jericah’s name. She was starting to hate the girl. It seemed that after they saw Jericah dancing with a guy, Jericho drank even more and spoke even less. And what was worse was that he totally ignored her from then on! Now Yvonne really knew that she hated the girl.

 

Somehow, she had the feeling that Jericho led them to the wrong door. When Jericho seemed to have a hard time unlocking the door she tried to move to help him, but later on the door sprang open anyway.

 

She stumbled in and mostly fell asleep along the way to her bed. She recalled tripping on some wire and the bruise that she felt was growing on the side of her head confirmed it.

 

She opened her eyes and started to groan, to notice that…

 

…a bemused looking teenager was looking back down on her with a confused expression.

 

*****

 

De couldn’t believe how stoned Jericho became. The young man rarely drank and if he did, she knew it would be in small amounts. But last night, she wasn’t so sure after that.

 

She supposed that it had something to do with Jeri’s appearance in the bar, but she was more sure something else. It wasn’t because she was *there*. It was because she wasn’t *with* him.

 

During the two years that De had taken Jericho under her wing, she had learned to read his otherwise unreadable expressions. The boy was jealous.

 

Well, it wasn’t as if the boy was in love with Jeri, it was as if he too wanted to get to know the young poet, but getting driven away by the fact that she was always there.

 

And now that they weren’t…

 

He wasn’t so used to that anymore. And more often than not, De could see him look towards Jeri’s direction and grimace.

 

She pitied him of course. But more or less she wanted to smack him. All she wanted to say was that when one made friends with ones students, even if that student had a crush on you, it doesn’t mean that you’re already courting the girl. Besides, she knew Jeri and her friends were the types who would use their friendship with Jericho to their own selfish ends.

 

As they traced Jericah back to their table, she smiled a little ruefully as Jericho paled, seeing all of them here.

 

De didn’t know how they found out about the vacation and frankly she didn’t care.

 

Rolling over, she felt her arm brush someone and she opened her eyes to look at what she just hit, considering she just lay down on her bed when she came in drunk last night.

 

She saw a pale arm. Thinking it was Yvonne, she picked it up to look and shout at the younger girl, to wake her and to have some outlet for the horrendous hangover that  pounded at her head.

 

What she saw instead was Meg’s blinking countenance.

 

She could only raise her eyebrow in response.

 

*****

 

Meg couldn’t believe herself. How could she be so silly? Her friends took her to a bar with good ambiance, good drinks and good prices and *still* she didn’t get drunk!

 

She did manage to get one hell of a headache. It seemed that the crowd and her dancing wasn’t too good an idea.

 

When Jeri reappeared during the night, dancing with a cute babe, she decided to follow suit and soon was dancing with several guys on the dance floor.

 

She couldn’t totally recall how many guys she danced with, all she knew was that she danced a *lot* and *hard*. She remembered stumbling to the table where she heard Jeri and her guy friend convincing Andrea to drink some sake.

 

She remembered deciding to order something similar too but that was dashed by that fact that one of her favorite songs were played by the band and several cute guys came up to ask her to dance.

 

When it came to hauling the two thoroughly smashed drunkards back up to the hotel room, she begged to be left alone, seeing that she could barely keep herself up.

 

Getting into bed, she fell into it. For a time she heard nothing other than Yuuki’s startled grunt as she fell to the floor and Jeri’s contented soft snores on the nearby bed. After that she quickly drifted off to sleep. She did remember waking up when the door sounded open. She tried to get enough energy to lift her head and see but decided to leave it to hell and fell back into her heavy slumber.

 

She felt someone moving her arm and she blinked her eyes open…

 

…To see De’s bewildered face.

 

She started wondering if she did get drunk…or if this was some crazy nightmare…

 

*****

 

Erika felt the need to whack heads this morning.

 

First, Yuuki’s head had to be whacked because she did nothing to stop Jeri’s and Shuuichi’s taunting of Andrea last night.

 

Second, Her own, because she did nothing either.

 

Third, Meg’s, because the girl went away dancing with every possible song with every possible guy, leaving Jericah to torture poor Andrea into getting drunk.

 

Fourth, Andrea, for letting herself be taunted by Jericah and for getting thoroughly drunker than she thought it was possible.

 

And last but definitely not the least, Jericah for getting Andrea drunk and for getting totally smashed to Makai.

 

Thinking a little on how she could have gotten there, she berated Jericah repeatedly in her mind, wincing as her head started to pound.

 

It was all Jericah’s fault, although she couldn’t really blame the girl for getting drunk. She just wished that she didn’t have to get Andrea drunk along with her.

 

Andrea really looked ill at ease at that moment, when Shuuichi and Jeri started to pressure her into drinking something. If it was only Jeri, Andrea would have easily ignored the request and moved on to other things. But the presence of Shuuichi, a stranger whom Andrea had never seen before, complicated things.

 

She had rather hoped that she would be able to kidnap Andrea’s Sake and dump it into the nearby potted plant before anyone could notice, that is until Andrea mistakenly drank that Sake.

 

While her friend got continuously drunk, Erika had contemplated kicking Jeri under the table soundly, even if Shuuichi did notice, but that was soon gone as she saw Meg prancing about the dance floor with a new guy.

 

As they made their way back, she had originally hoisted Jeri on her back. But Jeri started to look rather green at that point and rather than risking possible danger, she resorted to dragging the half conscious and babbling inebriated dolt up the stairs and on the elevator.

 

Tossing Jeri on her bed, she grunted to herself as the girl gave a groan in response. She carefully made her way to her own bed and fell asleep as she lay down on it.

 

Wondering vaguely why her back was feeling hot, she opened her eyes and turned to look at her back…

 

…to see Anne looking back at her with a befuddled smile.

 

*****

 

Anne sleepily wondered how the hell she got drunk.

 

She wasn’t the type to go to bars, Jericho was more that type, but she wasn’t. She vaguely remembered Yvonne inveigling her to go with her and…Jericho? Yes, Jericho to the bar near the Hotel.

 

When she got there, they had gotten to talking about her students, the particular group that had continually pestered Jericho until he finally broke down and called them stalkers.

 

Then she remembered hearing Jericah’s name called out by the Bandleader and they all turned to look at the dance floor, where they found Jericah in the arms of some good looking guy. Lucky her, thought Anne.

 

She didn’t mind that they had come to the same hotel, despite what she had told Jericho before they went here.

 

She found nothing wrong with what the students were doing, they were just a little enthusiastic, and that’s all.

 

Jericho however seemed to take this not so lightly and started drinking rather heavily. In fact, he was totally in la la land when they made their slow way back to the hotel room.

 

Jericho was the one with the Key and they grudgingly allowed him to get the door. Anne felt a nagging worry that they were not going into the right room, even through Jericho easily opened the door. But that worry was washed out by the fact that she too was rather drunk then. Not as drunk as Jericho perhaps, just a little.

 

She went to sleep on the edge of her bed, like she always did, and felt someone snoring away softly nearby. Shrugging slightly, she decided that the drinks finally caught up with Jericho and fell quickly to sleep.

 

When her internal clock was basically kicking her awake, she realized that her back was rather hot. She reached behind her to push it away when it contacted with a body…

 

She turned around to see…

 

…just in time with Erika who looked back at her rather blearily but with rising realization.

 

*****

 

Jericah hated hangovers. But boy, did she love getting drunk!

 

During the her dance with Shuuichi…it was like heaven, she kept on replaying it in her memory as she slept

 

***Flashback***

 

“This is silly Shuuichi!” she protested as she was dragged to the dance floor.

 

“Aw c’mon!” he said, putting her arms around his neck, pressing their bodies awfully close, “You’re safe, I’m safe, *this* is safe!”

 

“If I wasn’t so buzzed I’d have something to say about *that*!” she said as she giggled drunkenly.

 

“Well,” he whispered into her ear, “Pretend at this moment, that I’m not Shuuichi, pretend that I’m whoever you’re in love with.” She leaned a little as his silky voice threw her walls, “Just for this dance, and maybe another, just pretend.. you know how to pretend right?” he smiled at her.

 

: if you only knew how much I do!: she thought at him. She looked up at him, he was way taller than Jericho would ever be, but somehow it would be so…right. To pretend this time, not holding a pillow, to really have someone in her arms, dancing with her. All she had to think about was that it was him right there.

 

Tears formed in her eyes and she made no move to wipe them away. Instead, she leaned on his chest and murmured to herself, :Jericho…Aishiteru:

 

She must’ve said at least part of it because Shuuich smiled down on her with a beatific smile and said, “Mind if I pretend you’re Hiei? You’re almost his height.”

 

It was her turn to smile and said, “Arigato, I would be honored if you would.”

 

And at that, they both closed their eyes, pretending that the one they held so close to them was the one the loved.

 

Jericah felt dizzy, whether due to the fact that she was rather drunk already, or because she was dancing around the floor, she couldn’t decide. All she knew was that when the song ended, Shuuichi supported her when they stopped moving; her knees had threatened to buckle right then and there.

 

She whispered momentarily into Shuuichi’s ear and he smiled as he recognized the song she wanted. Letting her sit for the moment, he moved towards the band leader.

 

When he reemerged, the song was starting to play already. Accepting his arm, they both stood up and continued to dance.

 

“How did you know that I love this song?” he whispered.

 

“I love this song because it reminds me of Jericho” she whispered back, smiling.

 

Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too

Cause I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow, I'll be holding you tight
And there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be
Than here in my room, dreaming about you and me

*** Owari Flashback ***

 

 she had totally forgotten what she had done after that, it was as if she had totally blanked out then.

 

She did vaguely remember being dragged up painfully up some stairs. That totally shook her brain.

 

“So I wait for the day and the courage to say how much I love you…” she murmured as she woke up, ignoring the fact that her head felt like it was going to burst open and spill her brains all across her pillow.

 

She opened her eyes slowly and smiled at the face before her. “Ohayo” she said cheerfully patting his face gently…

 

…”NANDA?!?” she said doing a double take…

 

…and Jericho stared back with a raised eyebrow.

 

*****

 

Jericho loved Selena’s songs.

 

There was something tragic about them, even the happy ones. It was as if the Latina’s disaster of a death rubbed off her songs. But nevertheless, Jericho loved listening to her songs.

 

But he didn’t know that Jericah liked her too.

 

When they saw her that night, she was dancing with a red head. Jericho felt a little surprised. It wasn’t as if he was so convinced that Jeri only went for girls. It was just an excuse to get him out of trouble that Anne had brewed. But still, it was still so odd to see Jeri and a guy dancing together, and frankly, Jericho didn’t like it.

 

He tired not to show it of course, especially to De, who had learned to read him like a book. But he was really…mad? He wasn’t so sure, all he knew was that seeing his student in the arms of that…young man didn’t suit him one bit.

 

It wasn’t as if he was in love. Jericah wasn’t exactly the hometown queen so to speak and she just wasn’t his type. But she was rather fascinating and an interesting speaker and if the circumstances were different, she would have been one of his close friends. But that was just it, she did chase after him and he didn’t feel comfortable with that.

 

But at least he got to talk to her properly at times.

 

But last night, he couldn’t help but take small glances towards her direction when the song came to an end. The red head seemed to hold her tighter as the song ended. She had smiled and whispered something to the red head, causing the young boy to smile. He had carefully left her on a chair and gave her a beatific smile before he went to the bandleader once again.

 

When the music started, he couldn’t help but watch. She had looked so happy, and he could see her mouthing the words…

 

“I love this song”.

 

So she did? And the red head seemed to like it too, because if it was even more possible, he embraced her closer to himself.

 

At that point, Jericho looked back to his drink; he had a feeling that at some point or the other, they would kiss. He never got to se if they did, but they did see that the rest of the troupe was there and the young man sat beside Jericah, talking with her friends as if he had been there all his life.

 

He decided that if he would get blissfully drunk, this horrible nightmare would end.

 

Well it didn’t and when they went back, he realized that the keys were in his pocket.

 

Stumbling towards a familiar door, he fumbled with the keys, muttering a soft curse as it didn’t seem to fit in the lock. He would have worried if perhaps he had been a lot less drunk and if the door had opened when he tried it.

 

When he did, he just stumbled a little heavily on his head and slept like a damn log.

 

“jus’ wanna hold you close but so far all I have are dreams of you…” he murmured, remembering the few lines of Selena’s song. He felt like his head had been hit by a mallet or worse, used *as* a mallet, but he tried to ignore it as he tried to remember where he had put his headache pills.

 

He felt like he had someone beside him and he opened his eyes…

 

…just in time to hear Jericah murmur the next lines to the song.

 

“So I wait for the day and the courage to say how much I love you…”

 

She smiled and blinked open her eyes, she reached out and patted his face, making Jericho realize that she still wasn’t fully awake.

 

“Ohayo…!” she intoned, speaking in Japanese.

 

She didn’t seem startled or anything…until she did a double take on his face and shouted, “NANDA?!?”

 

He raise his eyebrow and muttered, “Ditto, whatever that meant.”

 

*****

 

Everybody got up, looking around blearily. The chorused protest of the students were, “What are you doing in our room?”

 

“Your room?” chorused the teachers, “Our room!”

 

The students shook their heads, or for those who’s hangovers were too bad, they rolled their eyes, “This is our room” and they pointed out their bags that sat packed at the corner.

 

And the teachers collectively glared at Jericho. Jericho simply looked confused, “But it looks so much like our rooms…!” he gave up and rubbed his temples.

 

The teachers soon followed suit, rubbing their own temples.

 

“But what are you doing here?” asked Erika. “WE’re on vacation, why did you follow us?”

 

Yvonne looked affronted. “You followed us.” She pouted , “I can’t believe how desperate some people are,” she said, pointedly looking at Jericah.

 

Jericah wasn’t exactly in her best of moods or health, but with the visible challenge in Yvonne’s voice she stood (shakily) up from the bed and stalked towards the prone teacher.

 

She grabbed a book and hurled it in front of Yvonne who looked a little startled at Jeri. All the rest looked surprised too.

 

“We did not follow you and believe me I have to intention to.” She said. She glared further and said, “Do not throw accusations around, mind you, you *are* in our room.” And with that she glared at Yvonne and at Jericho before stalking out to the verandah.

 

“What was that about?” murmured a surprised sounding Anne after the silence that had fallen.

 

Yuuki, Meg, Andrea and Erika looked at each other and at Jericho and back towards the verandah. “You don’t want to know” they said.

 

“Oh this is perfect!” they turned to Syl who clapped her hands excitedly.

 

“we can have this vacation..” she said as she smiled, “Together!”

 

There was various groans that erupted.

 

“What?” she blinked innocently.

 

*** Owari ***

 

Authors Notes : There, it was a *little* funny. Damn, I’m losing my touch, I’m becoming too damn serious in my fics!