A sleepy gaze rested on a bag, properly packed and leaning at the wall. The person these azure eyes belonged to let out a long yawn and stretched her arms; following that, she rubbed her eyes and shuffled to the bathroom with a sigh. At least the sparse furnishing had the advantage of there being very few things to stub her toe on.

A look into the mirror revealed tangled, blond hair and the first signs of shadows under her eyes.

Ugh... what actually happened yesterday?

The last thing Syaro recalled was that her childhood friend persuaded her to a cup of coffee... everything after that was gone and now it was morning.

Whatever...

She shook her head and splashed a handful of water into her face. The water was turned off with practiced movements before the first drops even rolled down her throat. She would not waste anything, not with her constant lack of money.

Then however, the sixteen-year-old noticed something that had her freeze up and scream in terror: she was still wearing her school uniform! The grey shirt was full of wrinkles and there was a cofee stain on her skirt!

"Oh no!"

She could not go to school like that! She could not go anywhere like that! And especially...

I can't let Senpai see me like that!

But what to do? She just had about an hour... okay, fifty-five minutes and too much to do!

Still, being hysteric would not help her. Yes, she had to stay calm and think. Slowly, the blonde put a hand over her mouth and pondered the situation she was in. What exactly should she do now?

Let's see... if I pass on breakfast, I will be hungry later on... but I don't have much food left anyway. That saves about ten minutes I can use to iron my shirt But how... how do I wash and dry the skirt in time?

Her growling stomach was ignored and the girl quickly stripped out of her clothes. It took little more than five seconds, which was a good time; at least in Syaro's opinion, that was.

I can do it!

While encouraging herself like that, the teenager took a leap over her skirt and took it up with her foot; holding it like that, a quick movement sent it flying into the sink. At the same time, the blonde already darted around the corner to prepare the ironing board and plug in the iron. This way, it could already heat up.

Now all the preparations had been made, which meant that Syaro vanished into the bathroom again... wanted to vanish into the bathroom. In her hurry, Syaro missed the doorframe by about two centimeters... those two centimeters it needed to put her pinky toe against the wood.

A muffled and pained sound escaped the high-schooler and she bent around the hurting foot.

"Ow..."

Nonetheless, she got to her feet, ignored the pain with her teeth clenched and walked a bit more careful now; the ground was rather cool, which felt quite nice over the throbbing of her toe... now that she thought about it, it really was a bit too cold for her liking, considering that the blonde was running around in her breezy house in the morning. While only in her underwear, no less.

Yet it was necessary; She had no time to put on something else.

The skirt was quickly rinsed right in the sink -which had a large part of the stain vanish already. This was a stroke of luck! The Lord or whoever else was watching over her after all!

In this very moment, Syaro felt a bit bad over sometimes attending church just for the bread they handed out at times. Christians were rather strange people at times.

The girl hurried up and scrubbed the remainder of the stain away with a piece of cloth. It was not that deep inside, which was at least something.

Okay... Drying the skirt. The sun is...

A few quick leaps carried her over to the one window she had to the east. There, the skirt was placed on the ground; right amidst the light... and Syaro had to quickly dodge aside, although this was accompanied by a surprised noise. Had she not done so, Chiya might have seen her. The other girl had just wandered past this window for whatever reason and she did not want -or have time- to bother with her.

. . .

Outside of the building, said brunette wondered what her friend and neighbour was doing there. Actually, it did look like fun.

Mhm... military-like dodging in underwear... are you creating a new type of sports, Syaro?

The sixteen-year-old put a hand to her cheek with a smile. It really looked like a lot of fun. Now she wanted to try it as well.

I know! I will ask Cocoa-chan if she wants to play with me. This will be great!

Thinking about her classmate and friend had her cheerfully smiling face appear to Chiya's mind's eye. Yes, this would be perfect.

.

. . .

.

Twenty minutes of ironing just to make sure. After turning off the iron, Syaro held it against the skirt to use the remaining heat as well. She was making a good time! This went better than she initially thought!

The blonde slid a finger over the slightly warm cloth and found that the skirt was still the slightest bit wet. That would dry up on her way, so... she was ready!

And there were even fifteen minutes left.

Phew... that's done. Just get dressed and... huh? What's Wild Geese doing there?

The delinquent-rabbit was pulling something into the living room... however he managed to keep the usual blade of grass in his mouth over doing that.

I don't know... somehow, this even looks a bit cute...

Not that she suddenly started to like him... but ever since he moved in... they got at least a bit... a little, little bit along. Syaro's fear of rabbits had subsided a bit as wel.

"What do you have there?"

Now that she had some time left, rational thoughts slowly returned to the teenager. This was also accompanied by hunger, although she tried her best to ignore that.

Wild Geese had been dragging a sheet of paper around, which he let go right in front of the schoolgirl before hopping a few steps backwards.

"Um... you... wanted to give that to me?"

The blade of grass was raised a bit; she understood that the animal meant 'yes' with that. So following that, Syaro got a hold of the sheet and turned it around.

And froze in place.

"I-I-It... it's..."

That was one of the sheets from her calendar in the kitchen. And now that she saw that, the blonde finally remembered it herself.

"It's a Saturday?!"

.

.

.

Uhhh... and I made all this effort for nothing... well, at least I'm not in a hurry anymore. Just stay positive, Syaro. Rize-senpai did not see you in such a tattered state.

With a few glasses of water and some bubblegum, she even managed to get her hunger unter control for a while. She had a day off, so the blonde decided to pay Rabbit House a visit... of course not just to see her crush. Definitely just because of that!

But by now, the girl was really wondering; just what exactly happened the evening before?

Now that I think about it... what kind of coffee was that? Why did Chiya give it to me... and why did I take it?

This might remain a mystery forever.

The young Japanese opened the door with a sigh, entering the café she visited so often those last few months. Actually, it was interesting: she worked in Fleur de Lapin, Chiya in Ama Usa An and the other girls here; nonetheless, they were all friends now.

"Oh! Hey, Syaro-chan!"

Cocoa's cheerful voice shooed the thoughts away and the girl smiled a bit. "Hello, Cocoa-ch-whate the...?!"

The orange-haired girl, only clad in a beige swimsuit, stood a bit next to the door... apparently, the café was not opened...

And then the other sixteen-year-old threw herself to the side with a happy "Here I go!", passed through below one of the tables rolled over to its other side.

"Ah, Syaro. Why don't you join us, this is fun!"

This voice... Chiya. And there she stood in a green Bikini, right next to the counter with the same posture Cocoa had just before. Then she threw herself to the side and vanished out of sight. On one of the tables further away, she saw Chino and Rize sitting; both of them wore confused expressions and -of course- swimsuits, although neither of them appeared to join in on the madness.

Wait... moving like this...

She... recognised that.

No... nonono... Chiya... saw me?!

The blonde slumped to the ground with her face as pale as snow. What had she done...