Editing Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter10 1 (section)

===<noinclude>Saturday. </noinclude>Part 1===

I went to the Rose Mansion the following day, and when everyone first saw me they were initially relieved, but then switched to a reproving expression.

"Did you have breakfast?"

Sachiko-sama asked, as she put the roses back into a bucket after cutting off their stems. 

"I ate it all up."

"Tell me if things get tough."

"Okay."

I actually wanted to reply with, "I'm fine," but that would probably be taken as false bravado, so I responded meekly.

The roughly 200 roses that I was supposed to receive, and a small amount of water, were all arranged in a bucket. They'd be put in vases to decorate the stage, then at the conclusion of the ceremony one would be given to each of the third-years.

The color of the roses was salmon pink. A blend of red, white and yellow. It was the color that everyone had decided upon.

"Alright, we should get going soon."

At 8:00am, we stood up.

The whole-school "Third-years' Farewell Party" was going to take place during the morning.

Yoshino-san took the roses from the bucket, wrapped a piece of newspaper around them, said, "Here," and handed them to me.

"You know, because of my heart condition, I've always been a weakling. So I know how you're feeling better than anyone, Yumi-san."

"Right, right. Don't worry about it. I'm used to Yoshino."

Rei-sama said, then she and Yoshino-san lifted one of the hibachi oven sized vases borrowed from the flower arranging club.

Similarly, the art club's bold signboard was carried by Sachiko-sama and Shimako-san. Two beautiful women lined up together performing manual labor. It was the sort of idyllic scene one would pray for.

"Are you okay?"

"Just a little bit further."

They'd call out from time to time, as we headed towards the auditorium.

I wanted to cry. But they weren't the self-loathing tears of yesterday afternoon, they were tears of happiness brought about by my gratitude to my friends.

But Shimako-san's cry caused those tears to quickly evaporate.

"Oh no, Yumi-san."

"What? Gyaa!"

I wailed like a monstrous child. Since the roses had only been simply wrapped in newspaper, the water that they had until recently been sitting in had tricked down the stems.

"I'm so sorry."

Yoshino-san earnestly apologized, but that didn't achieve anything. We were out of the school building, so there was nowhere convenient to set them down temporarily, and everyone else was busy carrying other things,  so there was no-one I could get to help.

I had no choice but to run to the assembly hall, but by the time I got there the front of my skirt was soaked.