One Piece: School Days Ch. 6

Ch. 6- The Call

  4:26 pm.

  Luffy and Blizzard arrived home an hour after they left from school.

  After Luffy got his homework done, he put some leftover pizza from last night in the microwave, sat on the couch, and flicked on the T.V. Blizzard soon joined him, jumping on the couch and lying down next to him.

  Luffy skimmed through the channels until he found the music channel: the samba network.

  Luffy loved listening to samba when he came home from school. It always helped him unwind. He didn't quite know how or why, it just did.

  As Luffy drummed on his lap to the rhythm of the music, the phone suddenly rang. The teen reached over, picked it up, pressed "talk", and put it up against his ear.

  "Hello?"

  "Hey, Luffy. It's Nami."

  Luffy's eyes widened in surprise. He knew he told Nami to call him if she wasn't feeling any better, but he didn't really expect to her actually call.

  "Luffy? Are you there?"

  "Y-yeah! I'm here!"

  "I'm still feeling pretty bad. Nojiko's not home, yet, and Vivi's busy with her studies, so…I took your advice and decided to give you a ring."

  "I see."

  "So, what are you doing?"

  "Uh, nothing much. Just sitting here on the couch with Blizzard, listening to my samba music. Helps me relax, you know?"

  "I see."

  "So what are you doing?"

  "Oh, you know me. Study, study, study."

  "Yikes."

  "I know. Hey! I heard you gave it good to Bellamy after school! About time, huh?"

  "Oh, hell yeah! You should've seen it, too! He practically had waterfalls of blood coming from his mouth and nose! Even a few teeth fell out!"

  "Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

  "After that, they ran like a bunch of sissies! I could've sworn I saw Sarquiss pee his pants!"

  "Oh, I bet! So, how's everything else going?"

  "Good. Good, so far. You?"

  "Well, now that I started talking to you…yeah. Things have been going good for me, too."

  Luffy smiled.

  "You know…I'm not doing anything tomorrow."</b>

  "Me, neither."

  "So…you, uh…you wanna hang out, later after school? Just you and me?"

  "…sure."

  "Okay! Pick you up at six?"

  "Yeah. See you tomorrow, Luffy. It's been nice talking to you."

  "You, too. Bye."

  "Bye."

  Luffy hung up the phone.

  There was a momentary pause…but then…

  "YES!!" Luffy stood up from the couch and cheered so loud that it could probably wake the dead. "Oh, yeah! Finally! WHOO-HOO~!!" He then flopped back down on the couch, heaving a sigh. "Life…is…good…"

  Just then, the door opened, revealing Ace.

  "Ace?" Luffy said. "What are you doing back so early? It's, like, 4:32."

  "I forgot to take my pep pills," said Ace.

  To further explain things, Ace had been diagnosed with narcolepsy when he was 10. The doctor prescribed him with pep pills so he could be able to stay awake whenever he was driving or at work.

  Back to the real matter at hand.

  Ace had noticed something rather odd, and yet familiar at the same time. He felt a positive, rather tranquil energy emanating from his little brother.

  "Judging by your face," said Ace, "I'd say you had a pretty good day, today."

  "I sure did," Luffy said. "First, I redid my geometry test, and I got a B+!"

  "Really?" Ace asked, surprised.

  "Yeah! And after that, I did good in gym, and I didn't fall asleep in history class! After school, I actually managed to scare Bellamy off, and just now, Nami called me and I landed a date with her, tomorrow!"

  Ace laughed at that.

  "It's weird," said Luffy. "All these things didn't start happening until Blizzard came."

  "Sounds to me like he's your good luck charm," Ace commented.

  Luffy looked over to Blizzard, who lazily laid in his lap. The teen smiled and pet his dog on the head, earning a pleasured whine.

  "Yeah," said Luffy. "He is, isn't he?"