“Nico-chan, are you sure about this?” Hanayo asked her smaller friend, flat as she could go against the lockers as students passed.
The buzz of conversation spread as each student or groups of walked by, and the school walls didn't help the volume control as the echo increased to the point that Hanayo was wincing.
Nico, the Pink Lady in question, was fixing her hair and seemed completely invested in her mirror that was attached to the door of her locker.
“Positive, I skipped a period. Lucky Honk and Hoshi are cool,” Nico spoke brokenly as she fluffed each twin tail three times and twirled her hair around her bangs.
Hanayo bit her cheek and fumbled with the books that were in her arms. She was still shaken from the drive-in, and had not seen or spoken to Nozomi since. The girl had run home and refused to go out with Kotori the following day, saying she felt sick.
“And yes, they know.”
Hanayo was becoming more confused by the second, so she just decided to drop the questions and fish around in her jacket for a snack.
“I’d help you out with a sugar rush, but I’ve got two mouths to feed,” Nico didn’t sound to remorseful.
Hanayo just sighed and pulled out a candy bar from her jacket. She was still fairly traumatised, and instantly felt worse upon realising that the block of chocolate she had just shoved down her throat was bought for her by Nozomi.
Ignoring the loud noises of banging metal and screeching steel as best she could, Nozomi leaned against the outside of the school garage.
It was a surprisingly hot day, to the point that the majority of the T-Birds had taken off their jackets (Honoka and Rin were only wearing half of their jump suits, with the top halves wrapped around their waists to expose sweaty armpits.)
Nozomi, however, was too stubborn to remove her jacket, so the leather was sticking to her skin as her hair became plastered to her face. She exhaled the smoke from her cigarette with a sigh, and looked down at her sketchbook.
Nozomi, despite her shenanigans, was actually a decent student - in regards to her grades. However, her favourite subject was art. She would sit in a tree with her sketchbook, drawing all the designs she could think of. They ranged from drawings of cars, to neon signs, to action figures and little comics that would make the three idiots laugh and Umi angry.
But in order to distract herself from her mistake with Hanayo, Nozomi had drawn up a rather interesting design: Thunderbolts, with two different shades of blue, along with orange and yellow accents and purple block colours.
She was so lost in her work that she didn’t hear a pair of heels clicking up to her.
“What’s with the dumb grin, Tits Mcgee?”
Snapping her head up, Nozomi saw Maki with her arms folded and a packet of cigarettes in her left hand.
“Has the heat finally made you mad? Not that you aren’t already.”
Instantly, Nozomi scowled and flared her nostrils.
“Whadda ya want, Red,” she growled, fists clenching over her notebook.
“Got a light? Nico-chan took mine,” Maki raised an eyebrow.
Nozomi roughly took her silver zippo out of her pocket and clicked it to life.
“Ya ain’t concerned about Niccochi puffin’ with a bun in the oven?”
“She isn’t pregnant,” Maki deadpanned, flicking a cigarette into the flame then bringing it to her lips.
“Ya seem so sure,” Nozomi grumbled, puffing out more smoke herself.
“My family are doctors,” Maki shrugged, inhaling the toxins slowly.
“She had no obvious signs of pregnancy, and it’s more than just skipping a period. I’ll bet you by the time we graduate she will blow it off and make some shit up. Besides,”
Maki exhaled and tossed her hair out of her face, “she’s dumb.”
Nozomi smirked, but didn’t say anything.
“You’re still a dog for what you did to Hanayo.”
The T-Bird scowled again with gritted teeth.
“None of ya business.”
“It ain’t, but Kotori had to comfort her in the bathroom today. The poor girl couldn’t even go to class.”
Nozomi’s heart plummeted into her stomach, and her blood ran cold.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought t-”
“Oh shut the fuck up!” Nozomi kicked herself off the wall and glared at the Pinky Lady, who didn’t flinch once.
“Ya think ya know shit?!”
The shouting clearly caught Honoka’s attention, because she bounded off the car and out the garage door to see what was going on.
Upon inspection, Honoka stood between Maki and Nozomi, her orange shirt stained with sweat. She instantly reacted and grabbed Nozomi’s arms to pull her back from Maki.
“Cool it, Nozomi-chan,” Honoka was strong enough to not be phased by Nozomi’s lurches and kicks towards Maki.
“Maki-chan,” Honoka smiled, then turned around and manoeuvred Nozomi into a headlock, using the position to half-drag half-force the older T-Bird back into the garage.
-
“Honk! Get da fuck off me!” Nozomi snapped and tried to free herself from Honoka’s vice grip. Her voice echoed throughout the garage, as did the scuffing of her worn sneakers against the concrete floor.
Rin, who was sitting on the bonnet of the Mercury, just laughed.
“Nozomi-chan's nyat gonna get outta Honk’s grip,”
Nozomi glared at the youngest T-Bird as she continued to struggle.
“I ain’t lettin’ you go until you calm down,” Honoka remained calm and refused to loosen her grip.
“Maki-chan always riles people up, that’s just Maki-chan,” she explained, ignoring Rin jumping down from the Mercury to skip up to the two.
“Nyeah, and if ya wanna make up with Kayo-chin, its gotta be done by nyaself,” Rin added.
Nozomi stopped struggling for a bit, her purple hair falling into her eyes. She remained quiet, only breathing heavily as she swirled around in her thoughts.
Honoka and Rin looked at each other, confused by the sudden drop of resistance from the usually-stubborn older T-Bird.
“Nozomi-chan?” Rin asked quietly, bending down to try and see through the mess of hair and into her eyes.
Suddenly, Nozomi snapped up, finally getting out of Honoka’s grip.
“C’mon tabbies,” she then pulled her sketchbook out of her pocket and stormed over to the table in the corner that had cans of spray paint.
Honoka and Rin looked at eachother, confused.
“Come to where?” Honoka asked, watching Nozomi slap her book down on the table and flicking it open to a page. The T-Bird then picked up a can of spray paint and marched over to the car.
“We’re gonna spice up Muse Lightnin’,” Nozomi’s voice was muffled as she took her purple shirt and stuck her nose and mouth inside the neck hole.
“Look at the sketchpad, pick a colour and get over here,” the oldest T-Bird ordered over her shoulder at the two gingers.
When they still refused to move, Nozomi turned around and snarled at them.
“NOW!”
Honoka and Rin jumped in fear and scampered over to the table.
Nozomi bit her lip and continued to focus on her design, ignoring the swirling dark thoughts about Hanayo crying.
Umi was used to getting into fights. She did have an older sister, after all, and they would do karate and such together. Her sister would always win, but Umi practiced and practiced until at the age of fifteen, right before her sister moved out, she was able to beat her.
From then on, Umi was never beaten in a fight, and very rarely took any hits on herself. Once in a blue moon, her opponent would land a punch or scratch, but the worst she had ever received was a broken nose from Erena.To add to her bare list was what was happening right now: getting slammed into a gym locker back-first by Eli.
“What the FUCK Umi?!”
Umi remained calm, despite the sight of the tall angry blonde looming over her. Eli’s face was contorted in rage, with steam blowing out of her ears.
“I apologise again,” Umi’s low voice only enraged Eli more, and it earned her another slam against the lockers. Brown eyes shut tightly as the force of her own body caused the pain to shoot through her body and the ringing to start in her ears.
Eli’s fingers curled around the top of Umi’s dark blue shirt, lifting her off the ground with no effort at all.
“You fucked me over!”
“And for the third time, I apologise,” Umi was a master at remaining calm when it came to her gang members, but it was proving difficult with Eli. She knew how dangerous Eli could be, and she had to admit that owning up to this mistake was a double-edged sword.
“SHUT UP!”
Another slam, this time the back of Umi’s head collided with the three groove in the locker, and her vision turned dark for a few seconds.
“You fucked me over in front of the town!” Eli shifted Umi’s shirt into one fist and raised her other. She clenched it so hard that her knuckles turned white.
Umi braced herself for what was about to come.
“You dick!” Eli punched Umi square in the cheek.
“Asshole!” Another punch.
“You No-good! Slimy! Mother! Fucker!”
With each insult came a punch, and Umi knew she deserved every single one of them. Sure enough, her face went numb, and crumbled to the ground after one final slam against the lockers when Eli let go of her.
Wincing in pain, Umi naturally curled up into herself, ignoring the metallic taste of blood coming from inside her mouth. Eli was standing over her, her chest heaving in rage.
“You think you can just apologise to fix this?!” Eli kicked Umi hard in the stomach.
“No..” Umi coughed out blood and wretched as Eli kicked her again.
“Then why tell me?!” Eli snapped, glaring at Umi in a blind rage.
“Because...it’s the honorable thing to do…” was all Umi could manage, looking up at Eli with watery eyes as her mental defenses started to shatter.
“Honorable?” Eli hissed through her teeth and clenched her fists tighter.
“HONORABLE?!” another kick.
“YOU DIDN’T THINK ABOUT HONOUR OR SHIT WHEN YOU TRIGGERED A PHOBIA?!”
Umi knew there was no point in arguing. Because Eli, who was continuing to beat and kick her to a pulp, was right. The very reason why Umi messed with Eli in the first place, and it had come around to bite her.
Surely what Eli was doing was not right, but this was Ayase Eli.
Eli was right, she was always right, and there was nothing Umi could do about it.
