Marmalade Mercury: Ep 12b

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	*_* MARMALADE MERCURY *_* EP 12b: DECISION TIME? HOPING FOR THE PERFECT MATCH.

<commercial break; Ami, Greg and Kaijin skating, they trip over Ami's computer>

As Ami arrived at school the next day, things seemed to be looking up. She hadn't made a definite decision yet with respect to romance, but somehow she now felt more assured of being able to do so when the time came.

Chatting with Usagi had helped; and although she hadn't mentioned Minako's involvement directly, knowing a friend was now up to date on her situation seemed to help. There was no need to feel alone. And of course, she'd even managed to get Usagi to school a little early today!

"I don't understand how you can come to school before class even starts, just to read... I swear, I'm not awake yet!" Usagi yawned.

Ami smiled. "Usagi, it's only five minutes before class - if I wanted to do some serious reading I'd get here a good twenty minutes in advance. This is just a good opportunity to make sure my notes are in order."

Usagi could only shake her head as Ami removed her shoes from her locker.

"Ami?"

The blue-haired girl turned at the sound of her name, already knowing who she would see. Urawa nodded briefly at Usagi before continuing on.

"Ami... I'm probably putting some extra strain on you right now that you don't need, so... so I've managed to come to a decision by myself!"

Ami gasped.

Usagi cleared her throat. "Well, you probably shouldn't rush into..."

"I’m going to help you get a perfect score with regards to this school contest!" Urawa continued. "I have lots of trivia books," he added hastily. "And we used to quiz each other from time to time back... well, a few months back. Not that I'm saying you need my help but I'd like to assist if I can. To give you one less thing to worry about. What do you say?"

Ami felt her heart rate slow. He had unnerved her for a second there. But it certainly couldn't hurt to get all the assistance she could for this competition. And spending more time with Urawa might help overall with her other decision. "Thank you, I- I would appreciate that," she replied with a small smile.

"Great!" Urawa concluded with a grin. "We could start looking over some stuff at lunchtime if you like?" Ami nodded and glanced at Usagi, who smiled. Maybe everything was going to work out at last.

*****

Logic. A tautology is some statement that is always true; satisfiability follows from a set of propositional formulas if a truth evaluation forms a tautology.

Music. The leading tone in a dominant seventh chord at a cadence will resolve up, although it may drop in an inner voice as done by Bach.

Computing. Virtual memory can involve a series of page faults to an operating system's kernel.

Sports. Habs stands for les Habitants and is a reference to the hockey team the Montreal Canadians.

Astronomy. Halley's comet returns about every 76 years and last appeared in 1986.

Finance. The currency of Yemen is the riyal.

English. Use hyphens after the following prefixes: co, extra, non, pro, anti, semi.

Business. The term for a prepaid postcard offering free information that is inserted into a magazine is a 'bingo card'.

Cuisine. The usual dressing for a Caesar salad is barbecue sauce.

"Wait, what?" Ami wondered aloud to herself.

"I said your mother is thinking of having a little barbecue this weekend. Seeing as her conference was successful and also to celebrate your being selected to participate in this academic competition."

Ami turned from her desk to see Greg standing in her doorway. "Oh!" Her mother had mentioned something about that before, hadn't she? "Yes, that sounds great," she answered, mind still somewhat preoccupied.

Greg glanced around, observing all the open books and magazines on her desk, on her bed, and scattered around the room. "I'm not so sure we should be celebrating your performance though," he determined. "Since you seem to be heading towards failure."

Ami did a momentary doubletake. "What?" she questioned.

"Competition is tomorrow afternoon, right? Well, I think your opponent's got an edge then," Greg shrugged.

Ami frowned. "It's not my fault that I have to do some cramming. And it's not like I'm unorganized here, I know exactly what's in each of these publications and I'll be watching the news late tonight to stay up to date on current events. Not to mention Urawa's been helping me all he can," Ami stated.

Which, come to think, seemed to be more than Greg had been doing, even though it had been a couple days since word of the competition had gotten out. Did he not feel like being supportive of her?

"That's not what I mean," Greg countered. "I just think that despite all the information you're cramming into that pretty little head of yours, you've been studying the wrong stuff."

"Oh? How do you figure?" Ami wondered, starting to feel cross. Whatever he was talking about, why couldn't he have brought this up sometime other than the night before the challenge??

"There's practical knowledge in this match, isn't there?"

"Some," Ami assented. "But I've been looking over research materials relating to important real-life experiences of individuals."

"Mmm hmmm. Then tell me, how much does it cost to get a double ice cream cone with sprinkles at Bobsons'?"

Ami stared. "You're joking."

"How do you know that question won't come up?"

"Well, it's just... it's not..." Ami frowned. "It's very unlikely!"

"See? You're not prepared for everything."

Ami made a face. Though perhaps with her luck it would be some bonus tie-breaking question at the end of the match. "All right," she sighed. "So what is the answer?"

Greg shrugged. "I don't know myself." He glanced at his watch, seemingly ignoring Ami as she mumbled under her breath. "It's still relatively early though," he added. "They should be open for a little longer."

"I can't take a break!" Ami refuted. "I'm still have three texts to go through before bed."

"It's not a break, it's studying, right? Take us an hour at most. Can you really afford not to?"

Ami closed her eyes and counted to three. Fine. She was a bit wound up, she reluctantly admitted. A walk couldn't hurt. "All right," she said at last. "But I'm taking this book with me to flip through," she asserted, picking it up.

"Whatever," Greg agreed. Yet, as soon as they were out of the house, "What do you think that cloud is?" he inquired of her.

Ami glanced up from her text as they walked. "Cumulous," she responded without hesitation.

"I mean what does it look like to you?" Greg rephrased.

"They won't ask that," Ami answered, turning back to him. "It's an oral test, not a psychological examination."

"Then you don't find it inspiring?" Greg mused. He shook his head. "If that's the case I'd say it's your chances that look cloudy."

Ami sighed. Couldn't he stop with the disparaging comments? Didn't he realize doing well was important to her? "It's a cloud," she reiterated. "My performance won't be affected by it."

"Oh...?" Greg paused before returning his eyes heavenward. "Well, to me it looks a little like an hourglass or an egg timer tipped on it's side. So the sand is unable to flow from one of the ends to the other. It is as if this has caused time itself to stop for a while."

Ami raised a dubious eyebrow at him.

"Unless you have a better explanation," Greg finished idly.

Ami frowned, but despite her better judgement she glanced back up into the sky. "The hourglass cones would be of irregular size," Ami objected. "The section to the right is smaller - it actually seems more like a tail. Perhaps of a fish swimming, in constant motion through sky blue water."

"Ahhhh, perhaps," Greg concurred. "But if so then that one over there would be a cat looking at it."

Ami stifled a giggle. "A cat underwater?" Still, she shifted her gaze once more. "Maybe," Ami agreed slowly. "But I think that cat would be more inclined to pounce than just look."

"That's an option," Greg admitted. "So how about that?" he continued, pointing elsewhere.

And somehow they had arrived at the ice cream store before Ami realized any time had passed. She blinked in surprise before turning to look at Greg crossly. "You've been distracting me," she observed. "I didn't get any reading done... why are you purposefully keeping me from my studying??"

Greg looked at her for a moment. "You're tensing again," he observed.

Ami looked back, aghast. "Greg, I asked you a question - is that all you have to say to me?"

It seemed so, for he simply continued to look at her to the point where Ami felt her cheeks starting to burn a bit from being under such apparent scrutiny. She almost turned away.

But then he surprised her.

"The only way you will lose your match is if you defeat yourself," Greg stated. "You have studied and know the material. But if you tense up to the point where you believe that everyone expects you to always have the right answer, you add unnecessary pressure. You're no longer able to enjoy yourself. No one should expect perfection; remember to have fun too. Relax, do your best, and don't defeat yourself. Did you want the sprinkles on your cone?"

"I..." Ami's voice trailed off as she tried to work through all that Greg had said.

She couldn't figure out if she was moved at the words or frustrated over how he always seemed to spring this stuff on her when she was least expecting it. But no, she couldn't be upset... his words had a ring of truth to them. She'd been acting a little snappish, and hadn't thought of anything aside from studying today. She supposed she was starting to obsess over a perfect score. And was that really the most important thing?

"Sure," she managed to reply, finally processing his last question.

Greg's only response to that was a nod as he proceeded into the store. Again, a flash of kindness shrouded in impassiveness.

Ami sighed as once again she remembered the decision she would have to make tomorrow... decide between two boys, two personalities... with the influence of a few wild cards. It occurred to her that maybe she was looking too hard for perfection there too. It wasn't always possible to make everyone happy... and her feelings were just as valid as anyone else's. So who to pick?

She paused, looking inside herself. And Ami suddenly got the feeling that, although she was still uncertain, her decision would be right when she made it. She smiled. At last, she felt confident about everything.

*****

"You think your school has an edge? Well, since I found out you were helping Ami, I started personally training Enmae on every kind of trivia available!"

"Oh yeah? Well, even without me, Ami's marks are good enough to be recognized by the entire country. So face it, your school has less than a chance!"

"Oh? Are you willing to make a wager to that effect? Because you know this isn't just testing their abilities in school. And I am still wondering how you'd look with short hair...!"

"You're not even the ones who are going to be participating," Greg commented idly.

Urawa and Sewaya spun to face him. "That's not the point!" they chorused.

Though it did shut them up for the moment, allowing Greg the opportunity to glance around. The assembly hall being used for the meet here at Shibakouen was nice and spacious. Some Juuban Jr. students, including him, Urawa and some of Ami's friends were here; it was both for support and (in the minds of the teachers) to provide a chance for learning something through listening to all of the questions.

Greg saw some girls from Shibakouen look his way and gave him a little wave, giggling slightly. Greg waved back amiably from across the room. One of the girls whispered something to her friend and ran out. Shaking his head slightly, Greg continued to look around.

It occurred to him that Minako didn't seem to be here, though that wasn't too surprising considering the presence of Sewaya. At least that was one less complication. Suddenly, there was a swell in the muttering and Ami, her opponent, and an official looking person entered the room and proceeded up onto a raised platform.

Urawa glanced at his cousin. "So, who's the guy leading this quiz show?"

Sewaya waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, you don't know Jack."

******

The match progressed smoothly. It was explained at the outset that there would actually be three parts: a set of questions individually to Ami and Enmae, a set of rapid fire questions up for grabs, and then a set of questions posed back and forth between the two participants.

It was noted that this would not make everything too dependant on how fast a competitor could ring in with their buzzer, and the different statistics could help determine if this sort of contest was worthwhile to pursue in the future.

The individual question portion was fielded equally well by both Ami and Enmae, each only faltering on a few. The audience murmured supportively at a few of the harder questions, though for the most part silence was required to avoid the chance that anyone could be hinting at answers.

In the second part Ami began to pull ahead, her reflexes as sharp as ever. Yet when the time came for the final portion of the competition, Enmae still had a chance if she could stump Ami enough while avoiding being stumped herself.

Enmae had the first question, and indeed Ami faltered on the response. But the Juuban genius forced herself to remain confident; it was one question, not the whole match. With Enmae staring at her, all business, she tried to think of a good return question that might unsettle her opponent.

Greg's eyebrow went up when the question came and Enmae was unable to state the price of a local ice cream cone.

Then Urawa chuckled when Enmae's attempt at mystifying Ami failed, on the question "Which Sailor Senshi used to have water based attacks?".

And Sewaya winced when Ami's return question was about cooking cakes, knowing Enmae's strengths were in the physical sciences.

Soon the outcome was virtually assured; Enmae had done well, but Ami had performed better. When it was all over, she had come out only about 23 points shy of the maximum possible score. There was good natured applause and cheers as the two girls on the platform shook hands.

Ami met up with her friends outside shortly afterwards. Sewaya had disappeared somewhere, while Urawa and Greg had met up with Usagi and Makoto, who had been observing from elsewhere in the auditorium.

"Great job!" Makoto praised as Ami approached.

"I just did my best," Ami responded with a slight smile.

She glanced around the circle of friends, noting some uncertainty and anticipation in Urawa's gaze. It was time. It suddenly occurred to her that she'd never actually told Greg that her decision was going to be made now... but surely he'd been waiting for a response for as long as Urawa.

"I'll catch up with the both of you shortly, ok?" Ami requested of her two female friends.

Makoto and Usagi exchanged a glance and nodded, moving on ahead. Ami turned to face Urawa and Greg. She paused. Time to choose... who would it be? They both had their good points.

Indeed, both of them had helped her with the current competition in some way. And they each made her feel good, be it by sticking by her, by alleviating the pressures in her life, or simply by offering her reassurance. So either of them would be a good choice... and was there really any point to worrying about perfection in a relationship? Even Usagi and Mamoru had their problems.

The main thing, as Usagi had said, was that there would be no regrets. Ami took a deep breath, reached deep inside herself, into her heart, and opened to mouth to say...

"Urawa!"

Ami turned.

"Urawa!" Minako repeated, hurrying up.

Ami just stood, mouth still half open, words unable to finish forming on her lips.

"Oh, Ami!" Minako continued as she arrived at the small clustered group. "Sorry, I didn't notice you there... great job at the knowledge competition! Caught most of it - and don't tell anyone here, but I was rooting for you instead." The blonde winked.

"T-T-Thanks..." Ami said, suddenly feeling lost.

Minako smiled again. "But anyway, if you all don't mind I need to borrow Urawa here for a while. There are some issues we have to discuss."

"Eruh, actually... now isn't the best time..." Urawa said, anxiously glancing back and forth between Minako and Ami.

But Minako shook her head and, taking hold of Urawa's arm she started to gently pull Urawa after her. "Don't worry, it really won't take that long," Minako noted, and she muttered something at Urawa, who was still looking bewildered. With her free hand Minako gave a quick wave to Greg and Ami. "Talk to you later!" she concluded.

Thus Greg and Ami were left standing together. And, staring at the retreating forms of Minako and Urawa, Ami suddenly realized that whatever it was that she had been going to say no longer mattered.

In the end, the decision had been made for her.

<closing theme>