My Childhood Friend And The Sleepover Party

According to my childhood friend, “A sleepover with everybody is so much fun, right?”

…or so she says.

Well, that was back in fourth grade. Ever since then, though, maybe because she carries a man’s memories from a past life, she quit saying things like that and quit organizing them too. When I asked her about it recently, she apparently said something like, “No, I mean, I’m a girl now, and back then Hina wanted to do them too, but, like… you know?” She takes pride in being a girl in both heart and body, and that, apparently, is a separate matter entirely. What a troublesome childhood friend.

Anyway, as for the childhood friend in question, Sakura Ayuri…

“Ayu, you’ve got it wrong there. This part goes, see~…”
“Y-yeah, thanks… isn’t this kind of close?”
“It’s not close~”

We’d been invited over to Hina’s place, tackling our summer break homework in the living room. Her parents had left that morning on a three-day, two-night trip, so Hina, who’d chosen to stay behind, had us over for the stretch and planned a sleepover with the usual four of us.

“Hina hasn’t changed a bit, has she.”
“It’s been a good while since the fireworks festival, though.”

Ever since Ayu switched off her phone that night and cut off all contact, she can’t seem to push back very hard against Hina; she’s been at her mercy this whole time. If anything, Hina looks like she means to keep milking the fireworks festival as an excuse and carry on this way for a good while yet. Even with the AC going, doesn’t all that clinging get stuffy?

“Okay, you two. Ayu, focus — you’re the slowest one here. And Hina, if you’re going to teach her, wait until Ayu reaches a good stopping point.”
“Ehh~”
“If you spoon-feed her every little thing from one to ten, Ayu won’t be able to do anything herself and won’t get to move up a grade with the rest of us.”
“That’d be no good~ Sorry, Ayu.”
“I’m not THAT dumb, you know?!”

Ignoring a puffed-up, fuming Ayu, Hina lumbered off at her own lazy pace.

And so, even after that night, there was no lingering resentment or awkwardness or anything of the sort; we’d just gone on living the same unchanging days as always.

◆◆◆

“Phew! Counting tomorrow’s share, I’m done for today! With everyone keeping an eye on me, I got way further than usual!”
“Nice work~”

Ayu announced it triumphantly, and Hina held a cup of nicely fragrant black tea out to her.

“Meanwhile, the rest of us wrapped that up ages ago and have been sprawled out here like this, but.”
“Ahaha…”
“Gin, quit it! It’s not that I’m dumb, it’s just that you three are smart!”

Well, it’s true, though. Ayu ranks a little above the middle, while Hina and Sumire sit near the top, and I’m a notch below the two of them, or so it feels.

“Ayu, are you doing your self-study properly~? What about review~?”
“…Not really, no.”
“Ayu, you used to go around telling everyone to study, saying stuff like, ‘Even if you think it won’t be useful someday, it’ll still nourish you!’~”
“Yes… I did say that…”
“Then let’s do more homework~ Even after the summer homework’s done, I’ll give you private lessons for the rest of the break~”
“N-no way…! If I finish early, I want to spend the rest of break playing…!”

Yikes. Affection, running rampant.

Sumire and I were both watching the two of them with fond little smiles when Ayu shot us a look begging to be rescued.

…Leaving her to it would be more fun, but she’d only nag about it later, this one.

“Okay, that’s enough. She’s done her homework through tomorrow’s share, and we’re going to play now, right?”
“Gin…!”
“If you start making her do homework right in front of us again, we can’t play and we’ll be bored — so save the private lessons for after we’ve gone home.”
“Gin!!”

Ugh, so loud. You’ve dodged the immediate pinch now, haven’t you? Well, the pinch of us getting bored, at least.

“So, what’re we doing first? Games? That movie you told us to pick out in advance?”
“First up~ I’m thinking we do a snack party~”
“A snack party…”

Right off the bat she’d led with something that sounded awfully high on the girl-power scale. Well, I’d gotten a heads-up beforehand, so at least I had something prepared.

“…Okay then, me first — Sakura Ayuri!”
“Go for it.”
“First up, this! Kukiwakame!”
“Don’t open with something that hasn’t got a shred of girl-power to it.”
“Huh, cheese fishcake’s no good either?!”
“You’re doing this on purpose now, aren’t you.”

This isn’t some old man’s drinking party.

One after another, Ayu pulled snacks… snacks? …out of her bag, beef jerky among them, all of it leaning more toward bar-snack territory.

“Since this is the first sleepover in ages for us three childhood friends, too — trusting that everyone would bring the standard stuff, I splurged and got things I don’t usually buy but love!”
“There were better places to splurge, y’know.”
“The beef jerky’s amazing, this one — it’s the Tengu stuff, Tengu! These snacks alone blew my whole budget!”
“Yeah, you really are an idiot.”

Even if you’re fired up because it’s been a while, there was surely a better… way to spend your budget.

“Well, actually I had a little left over from the fireworks festival, so…”
“Even so — save it. Save your money.”
“Yeah… you got me there, no argument.”
“Honestly… okay, next — Sumire, did you bring anything?”

Let’s set this idiot aside and pin our hopes on someone else.

“Um… first, this — kukiwakame.”
“Of all things, that’s what overlaps…”
“High five! Yeahh!”
“Yeahh!”
“This is a high school girls’ sleepover, right? This?”

So far, we still haven’t escaped the old man’s drinking party.

Bar snacks lined up on the table, plus kukiwakame ×2, and since the room itself was the stylish sort you’d expect of Hina’s place, the whole spread felt so frumpily domestic it made for one heck of a mismatch.

“Now, settle down, Ginko — the next one’s normal.”
“…Is it?”
“Here — canned peaches.”
“Canned.”
“Next, this — canned pineapple.”
“Canned.”
“And last, this — canned yellow peaches.”
“Hey, am I being messed with by you two right now?”

I mean, who brings both peaches AND yellow peaches? They’re different things, sure, but if you’re buying three, wouldn’t you grab something a bit further apart?

“Now now, Ginko, settle down.”
“You said that a second ago too, Sumire.”
“And lo, when you crack open this can of pineapple… ta-daah — the label was just swapped, and inside was mandarin oranges.”
“Elaborate, but at least pull that with the peaches or the yellow peaches, yeah?”

What is with these two? Did they come here to do a comedy routine? And this girl, why is she bringing fruit to a snack-party theme in the first place? That’s not a snack, that’s dessert.

“Well, at the last fireworks festival I got totally into the plan too, so… and I heard Ayuri likes fruit in general, so partly as an apology…”
“Sumire… you really didn’t have to worry about it…!”
“That’s right, Sumire — Ayu’s plenty to blame too, cutting off all contact afterward.”
“Gin, you stay out of it!”

What’s with this brat? You just said you were spending the fireworks-festival leftovers, but the money for those last fireworks was mostly mine, so what’s this ‘leftover’ business?

…Well, thinking it over calmly, I did sort of force the money on her a little back then, so I keep that to myself.

“Okay, next… which of you wants to go?”
“Hmm~ flow-wise, maybe I’ll go? Hang on a sec~ mine’s in the fridge~”
“…Something about that ‘flow-wise’ line makes me feel something not-normal is coming.”

After a little while Hina came back, a decent-sized box in her hands… yeah, I could already guess.

“From me — ta-daah! It’s caaake~!”
“I mean, it counts as a snack, sure, but.”
“Ehh~? Is it no good~?”
“It’s not no good, but… wait, is a snack party supposed to be like this?”

Set the first two’s contributions aside, and thanks to Hina serving black tea, we’d sailed clean past a snack party into a fancy, celebrity-vibe tea party.

The party I’d pictured was… something more casual, lined with potato chips and the other packaged stuff you’d grab at a supermarket or convenience store… well, technically everything so far is sold at the supermarket, I suppose.

“I made suuure to prepare things matched to everyone’s tastes~ Ayu, I ended up overlapping on fruit with a fruit tart, but is that okay?”
“It’s fine!”
“Oh good~”

Everyone’s just going along with it already. Is that okay? I mean, cake and canned fruit are fine, but should we really be accepting the bar snacks? Are we really accepting the Tengu jerky?

“Oh — whoa, hold on, I hadn’t put mine out yet.”
“After all the heckling you’ve been giving everyone’s stuff, yours had better be normal, right?”
“Says the one who brought bar snacks… hang on, mine’s in the freezer.”
“That’s just ice cream.”
“Shut it — consider the possibility it’s frozen mandarins… …it’s a big tub of vanilla ice cream, though.”
“It IS ice cream! I mean, frozen mandarins would’ve been even more ‘that,’ anyway!”

In the end, we ate the canned mandarins paired with the ice cream. It was pretty good.