A/N: This short story was little more than an experiment in a more traditional fanfic setting with liberal amounts of enter key pressing and a new title at every scene change. I didn't intend to go ahead and post this, but my friend insisted that I should and so here it is. I do hope you enjoy.
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As promised, the gang was planning another summer trip to Chiyo's summer house. The girls were excited to see everyone together again. This time they were planning on going without the usual chaperones. So this time, or so Tomo claims, they'll be able to have some real fun.
"Hurry it up Tomo," Yomi berated from the driver's seat of her parents' car. Tomo was taking an excruciatingly long time hauling her luggage into the back.
"It's done," Tomo boisterously announced as she slammed the rear door closed. The energetic girl then made her way around to the car and climbed into the passenger seat. "Hurry up Yomi!" Tomo shouted, despite being right next to Yomi, "Kagura's gonna get ahead of us!"
"You're the one that took forever to pack your things!" Yomi angrily informed Tomo as she put the vehicle into gear and set off. The girls had planned on Yomi and Kagura taxiing the rest of the gang in their parents' cars. Yomi was charged with transporting only herself, Tomo, and Chiyo while Kagura was picking up everyone else. In Tomo's mind there was some sort of race as to who would reach the beach house first.
-----Tomo's Plan-----
It was a short and irritating ride to Chiyo's home. Even without saying a word Tomo managed to get on every last one of Yomi's nerves by playing with the radio and the air conditioning and the windows and everything else within the wildcat's reach. Yomi couldn't be happier as she pulled up in front of the gate at Chiyo's. And just as quickly as Yomi felt relief Tomo once again opened her mouth.
"Why are we stopping?!" the wildcat shouted. "Kagura is going to beat us!"
"We have to pick up Chiyo," Yomi reminded her as the gate opened. "Without Chiyo we'd all be locked out of the house." Yomi quickly noticed a familiar look on Tomo's face. "Don't even think about throwing the key again!" Despite Yomi's scolding Tomo's smile only continued to grow.
Poor Chiyo looked on in bewilderment as Yomi's car had stalled halfway down the driveway. Yomi and Tomo were once again animatedly arguing over…something. The young teen grabbed her bags and clumsily dashed toward the vehicle in hopes of stemming the fight.
Yomi, engrossed in her fight with Tomo, barely noticed the light rapping on her window. She turned to see a concerned Chiyo staring back at her. Quickly brushing aside her frivolous argument with Tomo, Yomi rolled down her window. "We're ready to go whenever you are," Yomi assured the small girl.
"The doors are locked," Chiyo pointed out, emphasizing the point by uselessly pulling on the door's handle.
"Right," Yomi mumbled as she unlocked the car, but just as Chiyo pulled on the handle the car's locks sounded again keeping the door from opening. A vein began to throb once more in Yomi's head as she pressed the unlock button just to have the doors relock a split second later. "Cut it out Tomo!" Yomi yelled at the girl who had her most innocent face on.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tomo said innocently even as her finger still hovered over the door lock button. The two continued their stalemate game as Yomi unlocked the doors, Tomo relocked the doors, and Chiyo hopelessly tried to tug on the door handle at just the right time.
Finally fed up Yomi ripped off her seatbelt and went into the passenger seat after Tomo. "Now, Chiyo!" Yomi yelled as she pressed the unlock button on Tomo's door and fought off the wildcat's attempts to relock the doors.
"I'm in!" Chiyo announced with a sigh of relief as she opened the door. The small girl then dragged her bags into the seat next to her and closed the door.
"Chiyo's in! Hurry up and let's go so Kagura doesn't beat us there!" Tomo boisterously announced as Yomi replaced her seatbelt.
"Don't…Say…Anything," Yomi choked out through grit teeth as she turned the car around and they started on their way.
Tomo turned around and whispered to Chiyo while giving a thumbs up. "Don't worry Chiyo. Kagura won't beat us! Yomi drives really fast when she's mad!" she 'reassured' a now pale and shaking Chiyo.
-----Race?-----
In the end Yomi did arrive before Kagura, but the trip had been a painful one for everyone involved. Yomi time and time again was annoyed by Tomo and they descended into arguments most every time. The arguments tended to end in their usual way, with Yomi hitting Tomo. The one most affected was poor Chiyo. Between Yomi's anger and her near constant fights with Tomo her driving was downright crazed. It was a miracle that they didn't end up in a ditch or slamming into another car.
"We're here first!" Tomo exclaimed as she exited the car with exuberance, "We won!"
Chiyo, for her part, exited the car and flopped down onto the ground. "I-I'm alive," she breathed as she clutched to the ground for dear life. "I-I actually think it's safer to ride with Yukari!"
Yomi bent over and offered Chiyo a hand to help her up. "Sorry," she apologized as she pulled Chiyo to her feet. "I let that idiot get to me," Yomi admitted. Yomi then bent down to Chiyo's level and whispered to her, "Give me the key, Tomo has her eye on it." The duo then slyly swapped Chiyo's key with Yomi's spare apartment key.
"Look!" Tomo exclaimed while pointing, "The losers are here!" Sure enough Kagura's car had just arrived.
"Damn, looks like we lost!" Kagura announced as she got out of her parents' car followed by the rest of the crew.
"Kagura said that you probably cheated," Osaka informed Tomo as she got out of the passenger's seat.
"It doesn't matter!" Tomo informed them in her usual annoying tone, "We still won!"
"It's not a race!" Yomi screamed at the top of her lungs.
Chiyo then meekly went up to Kagura, "May I ride with you on the way back?" The poor girl seemed to be on the verge of tears.
"Was Yomi's driving really that bad?" Kagura asked.
Chiyo nodded, "I think I'd rather go back with Yukari!"
"Wow," Kagura marveled as she looked from Yomi to Chiyo. "That's…amazing. You can ride with me, but you'll have to get someone to swap places since my car's full," she reassured the distraught youth.
"I'll go," Sakaki offered upon seeing how troubled Chiyo appeared.
"Then I'll go too!" Kaorin spoke up from her place at Sakaki's side.
"Can you take Tomo too?" Yomi stoically asked Kagura. "I'd rather drive back with Osaka."
Kagura turned to ask Tomo what she wanted but discovered the energetic girl was at the door the summer house with her bags already. "We're all here," Kagura announced as she went back to her vehicle to grab her bags. "Let's get inside."
The others followed suit in grabbing their things and Yomi made sure to tell Chiyo to play it up with the fake key. Following Yomi's instruction, when they got to the door Chiyo made sure to flaunt the key in front of Tomo. Just as Yomi predicted, Tomo eagerly snatched the key from Chiyo. This time, however, instead of throwing it Tomo jumped over the railing, turned to everyone showing off her ill-gotten treasure with a huge grin, and then took off running at top speed away from the group. Kagura immediately took off after the wildcat while Yomi pulled out the real key and unlocked the door.
"We were prepared," Yomi informed the girls as she opened the door.
"Give it back!" Kagura demanded as she finally caught up to and tackled Tomo. The wildcat just flashed Kagura another grin as she threw the key as hard as she could from her position on the ground. "Not again!" Kagura cried out as she went to find the lost key. After searching for some time Kagura realized that Tomo wasn't there helping her. "Come help me find it!" Kagura yelled at the energetic girl as she just dumbly sat there watching Kagura look for the key.
"Why should I?" Tomo asked in a huff.
"Because you're the one that threw it!" Kagura retorted, "Do you wanna get inside or not?!"
Tomo scratched the back of her head before pointing to the wide-open door. "I guess Chiyo had a spare key this time," Tomo lamented.
This revelation only served to irritate Kagura further, "Why the hell didn't you tell me?!"
"It was fun watching you look," Tomo admitted. Kagura didn't say anything, only took off in a huff towards the house. "That was fun," Tomo said to no one in particular as she followed after Kagura.
-----Royalty-----
After unloading their bags into the house the girls all eagerly made their way down to the sparkling shoreline. It wasn't long before the girls were enjoying themselves. Yomi, Kagura, and Tomo were splashing around in the salty water while the rest were building a sand castle. Sakaki and Chiyo were fully immersed in the novelty of the matter while Osaka was doing her best to make sure the castle could hold up to any invasion by sea critters. And of course Kaorin was there simply to be with Sakaki.
"How do ya make a drawbridge outta sand?" Osaka inquired as she studied the castle's 'defenses.'
"I don't think it's possible to make one out of sand," Chiyo responded as she delicately sculpted the sand with a small stick.
Osaka let out a frustrated sigh. "Without a drawbridge tha castle can't hold up ta a hermit crab, let alone a king crab!" she reasoned.
"Wouldn't a king crab be the one who lives in the castle?" Sakaki inquired.
"Ah! You're right!" Osaka exclaimed. The spacey girl then got up, grabbed her inner tube, and made her way into the surf. "I'm gonna go find tha king crab!" she announced.
Chiyo moved to stop her, but it was too late as the girl had already made it out into the surf. The group quickly forgot their fourth comrade and continued work on the castle. Not much later the trio stood triumphantly over their finished work.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Chiyo marveled at their accomplishment.
Sakaki nodded in agreement with a small blush on her cheeks as she stared at the finished castle.
"We should take a picture!" Kaorin exclaimed, "Before the tide washes it away."
"That's a great idea!" Chiyo praised, "Did either of you bring a camera?"
Sakaki shook her head while Kaorin's head drooped. "I brought one, but I left it at the house," Kaorin lamented.
"You can use mine," Yomi offered as she and Kagura exited the water. "I'll go get it." And with that Yomi went to the beach blanket the group had set out to get the camera.
"Did any of you guys see Tomo?" Kagura asked the trio. They all shook their heads 'no.' "She's disappeared somewhere," the athletic girl informed them, "Yomi said she 'sensed a disturbance' and we noticed she was gone." Kagura then noticed something else amiss. "Where's Osaka?" Kagura asked, "Did she disappear too?!"
The trio shook their heads again. Chiyo then pointed to the figure floating in the distance. "We were building a sand castle and Osaka decided to go find a king for the castle," the small girl informed Kagura.
"Wow, you guys did a great job," she praised upon noticing the finished sand castle. While Kagura was admiring the sand sculpture Yomi returned sporting her camera.
"I'm back!" Yomi announced, "Everyone get behind the castle." Following her instructions the group got behind the castle and posed, even Kagura whom had no part in the building of the castle. Sakaki knelt down directly behind the castle with Chiyo on her left and Kaorin hunched over on her right while Kagura stood behind her flashing a huge smile and a victory sign. "Cheese," Yomi said before taking the picture.
With the picture taken the group relaxed from their poses. "That's a really nice camera," Kaorin marveled over Yomi's fancy looking digital camera.
Yomi adopted a smug smile. "Yeah, my parents got it for me as a going away present," she explained, "This will actually be the first time I've really gotten to use it." Yomi's face then quickly contorted into one of annoyance. "Damn it Tomo, don't you ever get tired of that same old thing?" she quietly cursed. At that the rest of the group turned to see the wildcat running down the hill with a watermelon in one hand and a bat in the other. Yomi led the group and met Tomo halfway. "Tomo," Yomi said dangerously, "I thought I told you not bring a watermelon."
Tomo dismissed Yomi's scolding with a wave of her hand. "You told me not to bring beer either," she pointed out, which only served to further infuriate Yomi. Kagura then moved for the bat, but Tomo jerked it out of the tomboy's reach. "No way Kagura!" Tomo yelled at her, "You got to smash the last one, and the one before that!" Tomo then set the melon down and donned a blindfold. "Now it's my turn!" she emphasized her words with an eager swing of the bat, only to miss her target entirely. Undeterred, Tomo continued wildly swinging the bat giving a battle cry with each swing. The rest of the group had to jump, duck, and dodge the wildcat's impossibly irrational swings. While the group yelled at the wild girl and called for her to stop, Tomo continued to swing wildly either not hearing them over her own noise or simply ignoring their protests.
"Someone should stop her," Sakaki stated as she watched the energetic girl continue to swing aimlessly. Tomo wasn't even anywhere near the watermelon anymore.
"You want to stop her, go ahead," Yomi said sarcastically as she occasionally took a picture as Tomo continued to make a fool of herself.
"Oh no! The sand castle!" Chiyo cried out as Tomo turned, raised the bat over her head, and then slammed the bat right into the middle of their newly built sand castle.
However, before the girls had time to mourn the loss of their accomplishment Tomo once again swung the bat over her head, but she lost her grip and the bat went flying right at the girls. "Huh?" Tomo stared at her hands, despite still being blindfolded, realizing she was no longer holding a bat. She then quickly took off her blindfold and looked around. She noticed all of her friends surrounding a downed Sakaki, and they seemed to be making quite a fuss. "What's going on?" she asked as she got to where all the commotion was.
"You idiot!" Yomi scolded as she tended to Sakaki.
"Uwaa! There's blood everywhere!" Tomo exclaimed as she saw Sakaki. The poor girl had both hands over her quite possibly broken nose.
"What should we do?!" Chiyo fretted over her friend's plight.
"You bitch!" Kaorin yelled at Tomo with a nearly demonic snarl, "I'll kill you!" The distraught girl then tackled Tomo to the ground.
Kagura had to pull Kaorin off of Tomo before the enraged girl actually hurt her. "Easy there tiger," Kagura mumbled as she did her best to hold back a struggling Kaorin.
Yomi was forced to take charge, giving Sakaki a beach towel to clean up with and proposing they get her back to the house. Upon seeing Sakaki up and about Kaorin quickly forgot about Tomo and went to dote on a pained Sakaki. "You're the queen of idiots," Yomi informed the trailing Tomo.
Tomo looked thoughtful for a moment before responding. "Kagura is the queen!" she pointed out.
"Kagura never broke anyone's nose!" Yomi retorted.
Kagura dumbly felt the need to speak up, "Actually, in junior high school…"
"Shut up," Yomi interrupted her. Yomi then stopped and held up her camera. "Oi, Kaorin, do me a favor?" she asked.
Kaorin barely registered someone ask her name. "What?" she asked.
"Hit Tomo again," Yomi said simply.
Having an excuse Kaorin eagerly complied, sucker punching Tomo who was about to protest. Afterwards she went to continue assaulting the girl only to have Kagura restrain her again.
"What the hell?!" Tomo demanded as she glared at Yomi who was examining the pictures she just took.
"I was going to hit you anyway, this way I get a picture too," she calmly informed Tomo.
During all the commotion no one noticed Osaka, who had a pained look on her face, as she flailed her arms about trying to dislodge a crab that had latched onto her finger.
-----Vampire-----
The girls had gotten Sakaki's bleeding to stop and she now sat with an ice pack on her nose. They were also now, once more, dressed in their normal summer clothes. "Hey, Kagura," Tomo asked the girl next to her, "Whose nose did you break?"
"Some guys," Kagura said dismissively, "It's not important." Kagura was more interested in the woman sitting across from her. "At least I didn't hurt anyone I really knew!"
"I found it!" Chiyo exclaimed as she bounded down the stairs carrying a first aid kit. She then moved to Sakaki and placed the kit on the floor in between Sakaki and Kaorin, who had refused to leave Sakaki's side. The young genius then opened the kit and sifted through it.
"Do you really think there is anything else Sakaki needs?" Yomi asked as she returned from the kitchen with a cup of coffee. The bespectacled girl then sat down next to Sakaki and eyed her face critically. "It doesn't seem so serious now that it's not bleeding anymore."
"I still want to help," Chiyo insisted as she retrieved a bottle of painkillers from the kit. "Do you want some?" Chiyo asked Sakaki, showing her the bottle. To her surprise Sakaki simply shook her head.
"So why'd you hit the guy?" Tomo asked Kagura.
"He was making fun of me, so I clocked him." Kagura explained.
"What did he say?" Tomo asked as she continued to pester Kagura. "I've never seen you even get really mad, let alone hit somebody."
"I hit him in school," Kagura admitted, "Because of that I got suspended and I got kicked off the swim team. I learned my lesson."
"You still didn't tell me what he said!" Tomo taunted.
"That's none of your business!" Kagura insisted.
"Kagura," Yomi said with her camera at the ready, "If you want to hit her go ahead."
Taking advantage of being given permission, Kagura proceeded to sock Tomo.
"What the hell?!" Tomo shouted. "I thought you learned your lesson!" she yelled as she pointed at Kagura with one hand and had her other hand on her wounded cheek.
"We're not in school," Kagura pointed out, "And besides, Yomi said I could."
"You!" Tomo shouted turning and pointing at Yomi instead, who responded by taking another photo of the irate wildcat. "Sakaki! Hit Yomi!" Tomo ordered. Much to Tomo's chagrin Sakaki only shook her head. "Kaorin! Hit her!" Tomo shouted at Kaorin. Kaorin responded by grabbing Chiyo's first aid kit and hurling at Tomo, hitting her square in the face and giving Yomi yet another wonderful photo.
"Chiyo, I think you might want to get some more ice," Yomi said dismissively. "Tomo, did you learn anything?" she teased the wildcat as Chiyo handed her an icepack.
"You're so cruel to me Koyomi!" Tomo whined.
At that point Osaka walked in dragging along the still-bloody baseball bat in one hand and was nibbling on a chunk of watermelon in the other hand. The entire group stared incredulously at Osaka as she took another bite of watermelon.
"O-O-O-Osaka," Chiyo stammered, "Where did you get that watermelon?"
"Ah, this?" Osaka asked as she motioned to the fruit in her hand. "You guys left it on tha beach! Did ya wanna save it for something?"
Yomi snapped another picture of Osaka eating the watermelon. "How did you break it open?" the bespectacled girl asked as she eyed the baseball bat.
"This," Osaka said as she showed off the bat that had struck Sakaki.
"But it's all bloody!" Chiyo pointed out.
Osaka raised the bat to eye level and closely inspected it. "Ah! It is!" she exclaimed. "I thought it was watermelon juice," Osaka reasoned. Then, to everyone's disbelief, Osaka took yet another bite of the watermelon.
"Osaka! Stop eating that!" Chiyo warned.
"But it tastes good," Osaka protested.
"Uwaa!" Tomo shouted, "Osaka's a vampire!"
"A vampire?!" Kagura asked as she looked from Tomo to Osaka, who obliviously continued eating her snack.
"Is there a cure for vampirism?" Chiyo asked, suddenly worried.
"The only cure is to kill the vampire," Yomi bemusedly answered as she went over her freshly taken photos. Yomi continued to fiddle with her camera for some time, completely oblivious to the chaos being caused by Tomo and Kagura chasing after Osaka and Chiyo trying to stop them.
The antics came to an abrupt stop when Tomo's cell phone rang. "Moshimoshi!" Tomo announced as she answered her cell phone. Since Tomo stopped Kagura did too, now more curious about who would call, considering all her friends were right here. "Yeah! We're here already!" Tomo continued to respond to her mysterious caller. "Ahahahaha! You should've seen it! Yomi almost drove off a cliff, I broke Sakaki's nose, and Osaka drank blood!" Tomo then took the phone away from her ear and stared at it. "She hung up on me!" the wildcat complained.
"Who hang up on you?" Kagura eagerly asked.
"It was Yukari." Tomo informed her before hanging up the phone and putting it away. "I guess she's mad that we didn't invite her this time."
A/N: And thus concludes part one of this two part series. I will post part two soon, provided this doesn't flop. All feedback is appreciated. Positive or negative, I don't care, I just want the attention!