So I let my eyes drift outward to rest on Rei. After my school had gotten out, I'd walked to TA Girls' Academy to pick her up. We did that a lot these days, ever since the time when I'd used my crescent compact to transform myself into a TA schoolgirl and snuck into school with her. Damn, is Catholic school ever tough! We'd gotten to be closer friends since then, and besides, she offers companionship on those long afternoons when my parents aren't home yet and Artemis is off cavorting with Luna.
Right. Companionship.
She was lying on her stomach on my bed, propped up on her elbows, reading a history textbook. Her legs were bent up and crossed at the ankle, though every so often she'd uncross one and kick it absent-mindedly against my bed frame. She was still wearing her school uniform. If you ask me, I don't think it's quite right that a Catholic all-girls' school offers the cutest uniform in Juuban. Seems sort of counterintuitive. I'd changed out of my uniform the minute I got home, and was wearing denim shorts and a tank top. I'd wanted to change my bra too, but all my clean ones were covered in cat hair. Artemis must've been sleeping in my underwear drawer again, the furry bastard.
Rei had one finger pressed against her lip as she read, eyes intent on the page before her. Maybe she'd gotten lucky and was reading about some battle that had taken place in a blizzard. I wouldn't doubt it. That girl moves through her life in a haze of grace. She has it all: intelligence ...psychic talent ...beauty... My eyes rested at the place where her wrist met her hand, at the hollow on the thumb side. I had the urge to press my fingers there, to feel her pulse under her pale, smooth skin. I traced my tongue around my mouth to wet my parched lips. Feeling my eyes on her, Rei looked up from her book. "What?"
"Ah..." Caught, I flushed. I needed to think of something. "Aren't you hot with your hair down like that?"
Rei thought for a moment. "Yes. Do you have a hairband I could use to put it up?"
"Sure." I got up and rummaged through my desk drawer for one and flicked it at her like a rubber band. She caught it and twisted her hair up away from the back of neck in a high ponytail. "Thanks." I sat down again in front of my dresser and picked up Watership Down. But when Rei had shifted around to fix her hair, her skirt had ridden up over her hips, revealing the creamy white skin of her bum and her snug gray panties, edged in lace. Again I felt my face flush as I watched her cross and uncross her legs, seemingly oblivious to what she was revealing.
But then she snapped her book closed and looked at me. "What is it now, Minako-chan?" She followed my eyes back to her upturned skirt and gave a low hiss as she straightened it. "Mina-chan, you ecchi! Next time, would you please tell me when I happen to be flashing you?"
I opened and shut my mouth. Rei glared at me. Finally, I found my voice and a naughty smile spread across my face as I said, "Rei, have you ever gotten a wedgie?"
"A what?--Oh, don't you dare!" Rei shrieked as I was suddenly on the bed, straddling her back. I flipped her skirt back up again, got a good hold on her waistband, and pulled. As her panties disappeared between her buttcheeks, she let out a bird-like sqawk and began to squirm violently beneath me. I guess that meant a yes, that she had never gotten one before. But I held on tight, looping my fingers through her legholes now that I had gained enough purchase. I laughed as she thrashed. "You're only making it worse!"
Rei fell limp beneath me and I released her waistband. I climbed off her and Rei got to her knees, blushing furiously as she picked out her wedgie. "Minako-chan," she said, "You are such a barbarian."
I smiled and turned my face towards the fan. "Oh, hush. It's too hot to be raising your voice like that."