Blue Haired Girls

[Oddball]

“I'M AWAKE! I SWEAR!”

I cry out as I leap up in my seat.

Wait. Nobody else in in the classroom.

In fact, this isn't even my class.

A second crash of thunder demonstrates exactly what it was that woke me up seconds ago. Looking out the window, I can see the rain pounding against the glass. Now that I'm awake and actually rested up, I remember exactly what's going on.

It's Saturday, which means school was only a half day long. For some reason I decided that once class got out, I'd take a quick nap in one of the empty classrooms before going back to my room and … probably take another nap.

It made sense at the time, okay? I was tired.

I probably wouldn't have taken the nap back in my room anyway. I've got other stuff to do. That's probably why I'm here. Subconsciously I must have known that I wouldn't get my rest in if I went back to my room . Subconscious me is obviously smarter than regular me. Now if I could only figure out how to get it to take tests for me.

Looking at the clock, it seems my body decided that “a quick nap” meant five hours. I really doubt there's anyone even left in the building now. Stepping out into the hallway, I can see through the glass doors and the weather is even worse than I thought. The last time it was raining this hard, some guy put two of each kind of animal on a boat. Also standing there is my class representative, Shizune. I remember Miki used to joke that the two of us could pass ourselves off as sisters.

Miki can go fuck herself, her and her one armed ... hand ... self.

I'm really glad I'm not talking out loud right now.

She's alone. Oddly enough, that's all she's doing, standing there looking out into the rain. I've never really had anything against Shizune, unlike some of our other classmates. For the most part, we don't interact with each other, except when she wakes me up or gives me lectures about sleeping in class. I've never exactly thought that was fair. I don't give her grief for not talking in class do I? Where does she get off? On second thought, maybe she is a bitch.

I write something down quickly in my notepad and walk up to her tapping her on the shoulder.

She takes it from me and reads it.

Yo, hommie, what's the haps, my dog?

She glares at me with a look that could melt glass.

It was worth it.

Just to make sure I get the message the jots down her own little note.

That was horrible. Don't ever do that again.

I shrug. I thought it was funny.

I point outside and give her the universe “what?” gesture.

She looks back outside and glares at the rain as though she could make it stop by pure force of will. She can't though. It would be pretty neat if she could, but while we're making wishes, I'd like the ability to fly and stay awake for twelve hours without needing sleep.

I put my hands over my head trying my hardest to imitate an umbrella. She just looks at me funny. I try a different pose and she just sighs. By my third attempt at imitating an umbrella, she takes the notebook and writes down a message for me.

What are you doing?

I take the notebook back and write umbrella.

You have one?

no I was asking if you did.

She writes something thing down, then scribbles over it and writes something else. There's a look of irritation on her face now.

Yes. That's why I'm standing inside looking at the rain instead of using it the scribbled over portion says. The unscribbled over part says I do not have one.

Well, here we are. Two girls standing there looking at the rain. I supposed we could wait until it stops, which, judging by the rate it's coming down and how dark the sky is should probably happen sometime around the 12th of Never. That's not going to work for me. I really need to get back to the dorms. We're having our Marvel vs Capcom 2 tournament tonight in the common room and I've got to be there to defend my title. If I'm not, I'm going to have to put up with Kuchisake bragging about it for the next two weeks before I can have my rematch.

Somebody is probably going to go through my room for the Championship belt too.

…

Oh God, if they do that they're going to find my magazines. I've got to get out of here. I've got an hour before we agreed to start the games up. They're probably ordering the pizzas right now. Despite the weather, Dr. Rigatoni’s America Style Pasta is still going to deliver. I don't think anything short of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse swapping their mounts for different kinds of Godzillas would stop them from delivering.

There's a tap on my shoulders.

You look like you're thinking something. Do you have any ideas? Shizune's note says.

I shake my head no and looks looks at me for a moment like she doesn't believe me. I suppose explaining the value of a Marvel vs Capcom championship belt and the Four Godzillas of the Apocalypse wouldn't exactly help our situation anyway.

A huge crash of thunder and lightning seems to shakes the ground around us. I really want to be … not here... now.

we could search for some left over rain coat. Maybe somebody left one behind I write on the notepad.

We're not stealing anybody's rain gear Shizune writes back.

borrow? I write. I'm getting really tired of having to write things down to communicate with her. She smiles at me devilishly for a split second before shaking her head.

I looked already she writes. There's an expression on her face of exaggerated innocence. She was totally going to steal somebody raincoat if she found one.

phone? I write. She draws an X over it. Yeah, I didn't have a phone on me either.

Nurse's Office?

The door between the school and the medical wing is locked. We'd have to go outside before we could get back inside. We'd still get drenched.

I draw a square in the air with my finger and then raise one finger. She looks at me with a puzzled expression. So much for my “back to square one” sign. I just shake my head in what I hope comes across as a “just forget it” expression. Then I reread the message. She's got really nice handwriting, I'm sorry. I should probably be focusing on something else right now, but she does.

When I don't reply, she yanks the notepad back out of my hands and writes another message.

What were you doing in the school at this hour? She writes.

What about you? I write in reply. Reading my reply, she looks at me sternly and circles her original question. I'm assuming this is her way of saying “I asked you first”.

Fell asleep.

She actually makes a few signs in the air before realizing there's nobody there to translate the lecture she was going to give me. That just blows my mind. Her instinct to give people lecture is such a part of her that she just automatically goes into it even thought we've been “talking” in written notes for the past several minutes.

...

I'm assuming.

Maybe that was just the sign language version of talking to yourself. I really don't know how that stuff works.

I was busy doing student council activities. Reports. Shizune adds to the notepad before ripping the page off and handing it to me. I was getting full of our scribbles anyway.

I make a twirly motion by my hair indicated the particular style of her normal partner in crime. She in turn replies with an apologetic smile and a shake of her head.

So we sit there, watching the rain.

It's really boring.

Do you want to play a game? she writes down after a minute.

Well, that came out of nowhere. I do want to play a game, but not here and not with her. I don't know what kind of game she'd want to play or how we'd play it anyway.

I need to get back to the dorms I write.

She takes a deep breath and sighs, looking wistfully into the darkness. Other than the sound of her breath, she's still silent, which feels weird giving how over the top her sigh was.

We should check the building again. I didn't see anything but maybe you'll find something I missed. Shizune writes.

It beats doing nothing, I suppose. I've got pizza and Spider-mens to get to. Spider-mans? Spider-men? I've got no clue what the plural to that is. What ever it is, we split-up and start looking.

And I fail.

No raincoats or umbrellas anywhere to be seen, nor did I see any phones that I could reach. The few that were there were behind locked doors. I was tempted, really really tempted, to push one of the emergency medical alert buttons to get help here, but decided not to. Considering our alert is best explained as “two girls stuck somewhere it's safe but they're both bored” means that we'd never hear the end of it. We'd probably also get so much detention that I'd have to keep coming back here on weekends to serve it until I'm retirement age.

With nothing else to do, I decide to head back to the hall where Shizune and I had meant earlier. We never agreed on any meet-up time or place, but that seems the best place to go. A few minutes later, dangerously close to my “kicking Akuma in the face with the Incredible Hulk” time Shizune comes walking back out.

There's a smile on her face. It's not a good smile. It's a “we are about to do something extremely dangerous and or stupid” smile.

“I don't like that look,” I say outloud before I remember that she can't hear me. She signs for a moment then comes up and pats me on the back.

Oh no. This is worse than I thought.

She flexes her arm and then tilts her head like she's asking a question. I don't know what that question is, so I gesture as much. She apparently didn't get my gesture, so she shrugs her shoulders and puts her hands to her side with her palms facing up. I immigrate the flexing thing she just did.

This whole things is starting to feel like a game of charades gone horribly wrong. I pull out the notebook again and write down what was the flexing thing about?. I have a feeling if I didn't, she'd continue to make signs and gestures forever. It almost looked like she was starting to have fun doing it.

How strong are you? she writes.

Oh yeah; This is going to be bad.

…

“I just want you to know that I never liked you and I never liked this plan,” I say outloud. Shizune isn't able to understand me or respond, as we both have our hands above our heads. This was her idea. Between the two of us, we could hold a folding table up above our heads and use it to keep the rain off as we made our way back to the dorms. Yes, it had to be a table. We needed something that wouldn't collapse in the rain and that was big enough to keep us both dry.

Even without speaking, she seemed so sure and confident of her idea that I went along with it. She's either more charismatic than I gave her credit for and more of a good leader, or I'm much more of a push-over than I thought. Maybe it's a bit of both.

Thankfully, I did talk her out of the other part of her plan. She wanted use to strip down to our underwear and put our clothes in plastic bags so they'd stay dry. Now it is dark and it is raining hard, so probably nobody would have seen us, and she did plan it so we'd duck by the side of the building and dress again before anyone could actually see us, but I just know something would have went wrong with that plan.

That, and I think she just wanted to see me in my undies. I'm pretty sure she's gay. I've heard rumors.

So, we're about half way to the dorms when I start wondering why we didn't just go into the medical wing for help. For the most part, the table, while heavy, seems to be working okay. Our legs are getting splashed, but for the most part we're fine.

That's when the wind shifts on us. While It was pouring straight down, now it's almost horizontal. It only takes us a few seconds before we're getting soaked. Then I slip. The mud under my feet slides away as I step on it. With no way of being able to warn my umbrella partner, I swing the table to the side so It hopefully doesn't shit either of us as I stumble down.

Thankfully, I'm not really hurt. I slide onto my butt and I glance back behind me at Shizune. She's … kind of glaring at me. Sort of. That's when she removes her glasses and puts them in her pocket. I realize with the rain hitting them, she probably can't see what happened.

For a moment, I wonder how bad her vision actually is. Is she, like, totally blind without her glasses, or a slight stigmatism, or what?

Whatever it is, she can see that I'm sitting on the ground in the mud and we're both now soaked to the bone. I'm also noticing that she's wearing a bright red and black lacy bra. It's very fancy. It's the type of underwear people don't actually wear unless they know they're going to be taking off their clothes for somebody. I don't know why she's wearing it. I'm not going to ask, but with a soaked white top on, it's really obvious. I'm just going to assume that it had nothing to do with her wanting to strip down to our underwear and run through the rain … which is starting to sound more and more suspect the more I think of it.

We glance at each other in the rain, and even though we really couldn't get any wetter than we are now, we make a decision. It doesn't require any words or signs. We're just going to fucking run the rest of the way.

I leap to my feet and take off...

and once again, the Gods above have looked down on me and said to each other “oh, that was good, but wait until you see what I can do to her.”

My skirt was never a good fit anyway and with the added weight of the water, it doesn't want to stay up anymore. I think I might have broke one of the fasteners on it. So now I'm going to die of pneumonia and embarrassment.

“Hey, hold up!” I say to Shizune as she dashes ahead. It's not until after I say that that I realize how stupid it was to try to talk to her. I'm left just running after her trying to hold my clothes on with one hand and constantly trying to brush the dripping hair out of my eyes with the other.

I actually manage to catch up with her fairly easily, despite her head start, and my disadvantageous skirt, and bad knee. She must be really out of shape. I smile at her as I catch up. She smiles back at me. It's not a friendly smile. It's more of a “So, you want to play?” type grin. Then she starts to run faster.

I can't believe it. Does she think we're racing or something?

Oh, why the hell not?

I pick up the pace myself. I don't think either of us could even really see where we were going, not completely, but we manage to make it back to the girls dorm. I actually manage to beat her in. She's still smiling as we enter although it's obvious that she's having a hard time catching her breath. We both lean against the wall, gasping for air. Puddles of water form around where we stand.

After a minute, she pulls out her notepad, of course by now it's a lump of sludge. After starring at it for too long, she throws it in the garbage can by the door and rips one of the announcements off the bulletin board to write on. This one was for a club cookout that took place two weeks ago.

That didn't work out like I wanted it to. the note says as she hands it too me.

Maybe you were right we should have put our clothes in bags I write back, leaving huge blotches on the paper where my wet hands touch.

The clothes in bag thing was a joke. I thought you knew that.

Okay. I'm an idiot. I think we all knew that. She takes the paper back from me and adds We made it.

Yeah. We did. Today was miserable, but I still have time for a quick hot shower to get my body temperature back up to non-abominable snowman levels then it's time to beat up some karate men.

“Excuse me? Did either of you girls order some pizzas?” a man in a thick raincoat and a Dr. Rigatoni’s ball cap asks holding two of those box things that keep pizza warm. I didn't even hear him come in behind us. “Sorry it took so long, I had a hard time reading the signs so I ended up going to that big building first.” With the entrance door still open, I can see the headlights from his car cutting through the dark.

He went to the big building first.
The big building we were just at, where we were safe and dry and could have waited for him to give us a lift. I sigh.

“You want the next floor up. Follow the noise,” I tell him. Shizune just looks at him and back at me.

You don't want to know. I write to her. She grabs me hand and firmly shakes it. Smiling at me like we accomplished something before turning to go up the stairs.

I'm halfway up the stairs when the power goes out.

I hate my life sometimes.

[Mirage_GSM]

Well, that was fun.

[Leaty]

I wonder if Shizune is the kind of person you could talk into playing Marvel vs. Capcom. "Shizune and video games" isn't a plot bunny that typically sees a whole lot of exploration.

Anyway, Oddball, I have to say, I still haven't read a lot of your stuff, but for me, this is like the quintessential ideal of what a KS one-shot should be like. It was short, punchy, fun, and showed me something I haven't seen before. I love it when authors try unusual character mashups (one could argue that's pretty obvious,) and Shizune/Suzu isn't one I've seen before. (Maybe it happens in Scissorlips' route, but I've never liked it enough to get very far in it.)

Good work.

[Oscar Wildecat]

They could trade notes with the poor girls from Nichijou.

(Remind me not to get caught in the rain...)

EDIT:

Anyway, Oddball, I have to say, ... , this is like the quintessential ideal of what a KS one-shot should be like.

I agree with Leaty on this.

[brythain]

I really enjoyed that. I love little windows into the 'normal' life of the Yamaku population, and you do them really well.

[Gajzla]

Well, that was fun.

Agree, fun seeing my favourite and least favourite characters interacting.

[AntonSlavik020]

Really liked this. Love slice of life stuff, and as mentioned before, it's a unique pairing. I'm always interested when you post a story. Most of the time, they end up being good. This one was no exception.

[Omicronus]

Nice.

I will not request any type of Suzune, though I like the implications of it here.

I know. I'm a perv, but I could see Shizune teasing Suzu to no end about it.