A/N: Well, my first multi-chapter story of this fandom. It's about time. Fave, follow, review, comments and criticism welcome. Let's see what happens, shall we?
I have no knowledge of the Japanese school system so this could be totally wrong. Deal with it.
It was a bright day in Mitakihara, the mid day shining high in the blue sky, with nary a cloud in sight. The temperature was pleasantly moderate, warm enough to make one want to spend time outside and yet not hot enough to be stifling. It was truly torture for those consigned to be stuck in the classroom that day. Birds chirped and fluttered about as a gentle wind blew, and all was good with the world.
"Aaagh." Sayaka groaned in pain, her current opinion of the world nowhere near as rosy and bright. She was on the roof of Mitakihara Middle School with Madoka beside her, both having come up to the large open area for lunch in that warm day that had been tempting them from beyond the glass windows for so long. At the moment, the current reason for all her displeasure rested in her lap, a small pile of papers heavily marked with bright red pen and prominently displayed grades, the highest of those being a 'D'.
"Of all the times for Hitomi to get sick," she continued, bemoaning her friends illness and her own misfortune as she stared with slumped shoulders at the schoolwork on her lap.
Madoka pecked away at her lunch as she tried to cheer up, or at least comfort her friend. "I don't think she can control when she gets sick..." she pointed out, glad that the school uniform she wore wasn't making the atmosphere any worse for her.
Sayaka looked over and scowled at the comment. "I know. But still." This was a disaster, to put it lightly. Her grades weren't what one would call the best, and with the recent turn of events it was like a depth charge to her current standing. Curse her disinclination for academics and the inability of her teachers to hold her interest!
With a renewed groan, she buried her head in her hands. "God, just kill me now."She could see apocalyptic visions of her future in her minds eye. Angry talks with her parents, slammed doors, her being sequestered from everything she actually enjoyed, and being driven like a slave the rest of her school career. The end of her life, essentially. "I am so dead."
Madoka stopped eating for a few seconds to pat her on the shoulder, still trying to lift her spirits up. "Don't worry. It can't be that bad. "
Sayaka had that 'deer in headlights;' wide eyed look as she shifted to face Madoka."Yes, it can." She practically lunged forward, hands grabbing her friends shoulders like she was a life raft, unintentionally shaking her a bit in the process. "You gotta help me Madoka. I don't want to be grounded for eternity. You're my only hope!" Much as it might hurt her pride to say so, everything she held dear was being threatened, and she needed to preserve that from the tyrannical rule of her parents, lest she lose her cherished freedom.
"Ehh?" Madoka swayed in Sayaka's hold, attempting to shy away on the concrete barrier for her own personal safety, some confusion evident. Now she was sure it really was that bad, given how uncharacteristic this was of her friend. She thought of possible ideas, chopsticks held idle in her hand before she fixed on an idea. "Maybe you should do something to show them you're trying to get better at your schoolwork. Then they won't punish you!"
Sayaka's face lit up at the idea. Admittedly, fully escaping punishment was probably unavoidable, but lessening the severity of that punishment was something worth striving for. "Oh yeah, that could work," she agreed. Then just as rapidly, her face fell again with the next question. "How am I supposed to do that? School's hard enough as it is!"
Madoka contemplated that question in turn, a light bulb going off in her brain as she straightened up and smiled. "I know. Why don't you get a tutor to help teach you? Then you wouldn't need to get answers from me or Hitomi all the time." She certainly seemed to think it was a good idea, if appearance was any indication.
That seemed to appeal to Sayaka as well, her mood rising again. "Sure." She looked her friend over critically before continuing. "Hey, why don't you teach me? You got A's on all that stuff."
Now it was Madoka's turn to be uncomfortable, squirming a bit in her seat as her cheeks brightened a bit in embarrassment, shoving her own collection of papers further out of sight near her feet. "Sorry, I'm not that good a teacher," she replied sheepishly. "Why don't you ask Mami instead?"
Sayaka briefly considered the notion of being schooled by the blond in the class above theirs, another of her friends who was not present at the moment, before dismissing the idea. Not that she thought Mami was incapable of doing the job, much less doing it well, but it just didn't seem like it would work from her perspective. "Nah. She's always busy with parties and club activities and being popular. I wouldn't want to impose."
"I'm sure she'd be okay with it," Madoka replied a bit sullenly, Sayaka's answer sounding a lot like an attempt to find an excuse to not get a tutor after all, at least to her ears. But she didn't push it, instead going back to the task of finding a suitable tutor for her. Hitomi wasn't an option for fairly obvious reasons, those being her currently sick nature and her genuinely busy schedule, so it would have to be someone else not in their immediate group of friends. It definitely couldn't be Kyosuke, since he was still in the hospital and all, and finding another was proving a difficult task. Pink eyes drifted in thought before they settled on the perfect person. "What about Homura?"
Sayaka's brow furrowed and the corners of her mouth tilted downwards as she turned to follow madoka's gaze, spying the named girl across the courtyard below in an inside corner of the building, visible to the two perched on the roof by the glass wall that allowed sunlight to fall across the pages of the book pressed close to her face, red rimmed glasses placed off to the side next to her barely touched lunch as she ate alone. It was a sight that brought a twinge of pain to Madoka, the nurses assistant wincing at the thought of what having the book that close, and neglecting to eat her full meal would do to Homura. She couldn't help her worrying, especially given the nature of the majority of their interactions.
"The transfer student?" Sayaka said it with some disbelief, shifting her gaze between Madoka and the far off Homura. "You've gotta be joking. I barely know her! I'm not gonna ask any old random person to tutor me. For all I know she could be some pervy stalker who'll become obsessed with me." She folded her arms, nose tilted upwards in an attempt at her best 'snobby' impression.
The out of hand rejection was received with a pout as full attention was returned from Homura to the blunette. "Sayaka, don't be mean. She's a nice person when you get to know her. And she's one of the smartest people in the class."
That succeeded in smoothing indignation and drawing back Sayaka's attention. "Really? How do you know that? Is my wife being unfaithful," she asked with mock seriousness, her teasing very effective, as she well knew it would be.
Madoka shook her head and waved her arms in fervent denial, flustered by Sayaka'a shenanigans. "N-no! Ms. Saotome told me," she replied. Admittedly, she hadn't been directly told, but it was hard to avoid overhearing their homeroom teacher, and Sayaka didn't need to know that. If it was to help those she cared about, then she could afford to leave out a little unnecessary detail like that.
This was news to Sayaka, and she became a bit more subdued as she considered the idea, visions of A+'s popping up in her head. "Oh."
Seeing an opening, Madoka took it, leaning over to take Sayaka's hands in hers. "Please," she said, putting on a smile and bringing the full force of her personality to bear. "I know you two can be friends if you tried. Do it for me?"
She tried, she really did, but the logic was decently compelling, her mentality more than a tad desperate, and the look she was subjected to unfair and hard to resist. Under that barrage Sayaka had no choice but to cave. "Fine," she conceded. "You win. I'll talk to her after school."
Madoka beamed and practically leapt at her as she wrapped her arms around Sayaka in a crushing hug. "Oh thank you. I'm sure you'll do awesome."
Sayaka chuckled nervously in Madoka's grip. "Yeah." She still wasn't all that convinced of success, but now that she had committed there was no escaping this. Not without something major happening, lest she find herself the subject of Madoka's anger. She pushed Madoka away after a few seconds, gesturing to her food. "We better finish lunch. We're almost out of time and I'm starving." She put her scattered papers to the side after straightening them up and dug into her meal as Madoka released her to do the same.
Rapidly eating her lunch, Sayaka couldn't help but steal a few glances at Madoka's quickly vanishing meal, only because she knew her friend's dad made the best best food. He was some kind of master chef, and tended to make her own lunches pale in comparison. True, she could always count of Madoka to share if need be, or for a visit to Mami's to yield some tasty treat to spice things up the day after, but for the most part her home meals were just kinda...plain. Mediocre. Like her. Not amazing but good enough to skirt by, once in a while doing something to impress. It was something she'd been content with, but she'd always wanted to do more, to be more. She wanted to be like the heroes she read about, with derring do, saving the princess and winning the day, generally being amazing. She couldn't do that in real life, she knew, but now that she had this opportunity to stand out a bit more, would she take it? Was she willing to accept help to move on? She didn't know.
Her sobering thoughts were interrupted by the tolling of the school bell, it acting as a sign for them both to pack up what they had left head back inside, down the flights of stairs and through the hallways that would take them to their next class.
A bit hurried but otherwise on time, they entered the glass walled classroom and went to their seats, the one right next to the other. Looking, Sayaka found that Homura was already there, school supplies and notebook already arranged on her desk and ready to record what they were going to learn. Homura's gaze, enhanced by her glasses, met Madoka before shifting away, feigning disinterest as the two took out their notebooks to follow her example, though it was a fair guess that the quality of the notes taken would vary wildly.
The school day resumed and passed by, and Sayaka felt herself falling further and further into boredom, doodling pictures of knights, that happened to look like her, rescuing fair maidens from terrible monsters, that happened to look like her teachers, rather than taking notes. She would blame the teachers for her lack of attention, but she was just unable to focus on the lesson at hand, or understand the majority of what they were saying. Besides, it wasn't like she'd use half the stuff they were being forced to lean anyway.
Her gaze meandered as eyelids drooped, some force of will required to keep from dozing off. Madoka sat to her left, biting her lip in concentration as she looked from the white board in front of them to her notes. At least one of them was doing good work here, allowing the possibility of sleep, separated from the great day she knew was being wasted away outside.
It took more effort still to keep from staring at Homura. For being so apparently smart, she didn't do herself any favors by sitting in the back, hidden by all the other students. Still, she seemed to be doing a good job of her note taking, even if it only looked like gibberish from Sayaka's perspective.
She didn't look back for long though as she found herself suddenly confronted by the science teacher, a tall, balding man who didn't look too thrilled to be here, or too thrilled at her lack of attention. "Now then, what's the answer to this equation Ms. Miki," he said pointedly, gesturing to some half done formula on the board.
Her head rose to meet his eyes, then turned to the board, only a flash of panic betraying her confusion as she looked at the problem, it making all the sense of a foreign language to her. Her mouth tightened as she thought, before producing an answer, grinning and hoping her answer wasn't horribly wrong. "Two protons and one electron?"
The teacher sighed, shaking his head and resisting the urge to rub his eyes. "Incorrect. Please pay more attention in the future," he said, knowing that the suggestion would be ineffectual at best as he stepped back form her desk, motioning to the class. "Would anyone else care to try? What about you, Ms. Akemi?"
"Um...Sure," came the quiet, hesitant reply from the back. Hands on her desk Homura closed her eyes as she took a few measured breathes before responding in a seemingly rehearsed manner. "First shell, two electrons, second shell, eight electrons, third shell, six electrons."
"Yes, that's correct." the teacher went on with the lesson as Homura breathed a sigh of relief, unaware of the appraising look she received from the blunette a few rows ahead of her. All settled back down to attend to notes or daydream through the end of the class and school.
After a span of time that seemed to be hours, at least from Sayaka's perspective, the class was over, and with it the school day. There was a rapid outflow of students eager to leave and enjoy the day, as well as return home, but this did not include Sayaka, Madoka, or Homura. The black hair girl moved slower, more deliberately, giving everyone time to leave as she placed her stuff away while Madoka looked back at her.
"Well, go on," she said in a near whisper, leaning towards Sayaka and motioning towards Homura, who had her back turned to the two at the moment.
Sayaka nodded, nervousness restored and yet hidden away beneath a veneer of brash confidence and determination. "Yeah, I'm going, I'm going," she grumbled as she stepped forward, clutching her shoulder bag.
Quick steps took her back through the few rows that separated them as she called out to her target. "Yo, Akemi!"
Homura's back stiffened, braided hair dipping as she looked up, eyes wide as she held back an 'eep' of surprise. She turned around, hands held nervously at her sides and written across her face as Sayaka stood in front of her now. "Y-yes?" There was a tremor in her tone, indicating her emotions if they weren't obvious enough to the other girl.
"I..I need you to tutor me," Sayaka said, faltering a bit with the difficulty of saying what she needed to, yet forcing it out just the same. A hero had to have confidence once they chose their path, and she would do the same.
Given time to compose herself, the visible signs of Homura's nervousness diminished, arms relaxing somewhat and trembling lessened. She was still confused by the suddenness of the request though. "In what?"
"Everything," was the blunt, yet succinct, reply. It succeeded in intimidating the one she was conversing too in the sheer broadness of the request, but Homura kept her gaze fixed as she considered it.
She was on the cusp of saying no, of apologizing and excusing herself, introverted nature triumphing when thrown against Sayaka's bold nature, but then she caught sight of Madoka standing behind the blunette. She gestured, unseen by Sayaka, from the impatiently waiting girl to herself while silently mouthing Please, do it for me.
Lavender eyes darted away with a shift of her head, uncomfortable continuing to look where she had been. Still, the request of the one real friend she had here was one she wasn't about to ignore, not when compared against the kindness Madoka had shown to her thus far. For that, because she asked, Homura would be willing to give tutoring Sayaka Miki a shot. Not that this was a guarantee, but rather just a commitment to at least try and overcome her predilection for isolation and stand to be in the presence of the opposite minded extrovert. She just had to keep her distance and keep her calm, she repeated like a mantra in her mind.
"Okay Sayaka Miki, I'll help you. Perhaps we can begin on Friday after school," she replied, offering a time that would let her get prepared for the myriad of lessons she expected she would have to teach.
"I can do that," Sayaka agreed. Given her aversion to ask for anyone's help or admit her flaws, a delay of a few days was alright, even welcome, so she could enjoy the free time she had left. "I know a pretty good cafe a few blocks away that we can work at."
Homura nodded with a slight smile, trying to keep her displeasure at holding these meetings in a public place with all that that entailed from her expression. She had measured the opportunity cost, and given that the cafe offered more options than being in one's house, in terms of a quick escape should this not work out, she was prepared to accept it. "That's fine."
Bag slung over her shoulder in a smooth motion, Homura disengaged from the conversation now that the details seemed to have been settled. "Excuse me, I have to get going," she said as she slipped past, nearly running out of the classroom and down the hall until she was out of sight.
Sayaka watched her go as she rejoined Madoka, the two leaving the classroom as well, though at a more sedate pace. "See, that wasn't so bad," Madoka commented cheerfully, refraining from mentioning the part she had played in Homura's agreement. It wasn't that important anyway.
"I guess," Sayaka conceded, mind already working on the next problem as they left the school and began on the path home. Namely, explaining all this and what had happened to her parents. Man, this was going to suck.
Silence lapsed between them until they reached the point where they usually went their separate ways, Madoka heading one way while Sayaka went the other. "See you later," Sayaka called as she waved over her shoulder.
"Bye, see you tomorrow," Madoka called in return as her bobbing pink head moved out of sight, and Sayaka reluctantly moved towards her home and what she knew waited. And here the day had been shaping up so well. She sighed, putting a spring in her step as she walked along. At least she had something to look forward to, or dread, on Friday now. She'd just have to survive until then. She could do that, right?