It was the day of their class presentation and Sayaka Miki was terrified. She hated giving speeches in front of people, she always managed to mess it up somehow. She was shaking and on the verge of tears, when Mrs Macrea, their teacher, walked up to her desk and gave her a concerned look "I know you hate this Sayaka, but it is part of our curriculum" Sayaka didn't trust herself to speak so she simply nods. "Why don't you go to the bathroom and calm down a bit?" Sayaka nods again and makes her way to the door with her hands covering her face.
Kyoko Sakura had been watch Sayaka the whole time with concern and when she left the room so suddenly covering her face, she decided to follow her. Ignoring the teacher's protests and the startled looks of her classmates, she ran out the door. She found Sayaka in the girl's bathroom leaning over a sink, very obviously trying not to cry.
Sayaka did not notice Kyoko come in, so was startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see crimson eyes filled with concern, an emotion rarely shown by the red-haired girl.
"Why did you follow me?"
"You were crying" Kyoko states simply. Sayaka had been momentarily distracted by Kyoko's sudden appearance, but those words brought her back to reality, and her body began shaking again. Kyoko wrapped her arm around Sayaka's shoulder and started rubbing her hand up and down in a comforting gesture. After a while Sayaka stopped shaking and her breathing was much more even.
"You okay now?"
"I think so. But I don't want to go back there, I can't give a speech!"
After a moment of thought Kyoko came up with a possible solution "What if I ask the teacher if we can do ours together? Then you don't have to be alone!"
"Do you think she'd let us?"
"It's worth a try!"
"Okay"
As they walked through the doors of their classroom Sayaka noticed that Kyoko was walking so close to her that their shoulders were practically touching. That's odd, they don't usually get along that well so don't really get closer than they have to. Before she can contemplate this further, Kyoko turned in the direction of the teacher's desk. After hearing Kyoko's suggestion Mrs Macrea shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry girls, but you are marked on your individual performance and I can't do that if both of you are there"
"Why the hell not?! We're not going to be speaking at the same time! All I'm going to do is stand there with her, then she can sit down and I do mine!"
"Well if that is all you're going to do, she can manage by herself! Sayaka will be up after Homura and then you will do yours, Kyoko" Mrs Macrea snapped.
Sayaka felt any and all confidence that she had gained at the prospect of Kyoko being there with her, abandon her at once and she had to grip the red head's arm for support. Kyoko was furious and was about to punch the stupid teacher in the face, when she felt Sayaka grab her arm. All her anger melted away at the sight before her, Sayaka's eyes were filled with fear and she was shaking again. Kyoko led Sayaka back to her seat and gave her a concerned look before prying her fingers off of her arm.
"It's ok you'll be fine, if you get scared just look at me, Ok?"
"Ok"
The minutes felt like hours, yet could not last long enough. Sayaka shuffled her palm cards again and tried to calm her breathing. Why do we have to do this? It's stupid! Even witches didn't scare her this much! They were simple, hit them and don't get hit. But this was terrifying, standing there reading out your paper with everyone staring at you.
Kyoko wasn't really worried about her own speech, but she was worried about Sayaka. She had never seen her this scared even in battle, but she guessed everybody is afraid of something, huh?
Sayaka walked slowly to the front of the classroom on shaky legs, and began to read out her paper quickly without looking up. As Kyoko watched Sayaka, she got the sudden urge to just hug her and tell her everything will be ok.
When Sayaka finished and began to walk back, Kyoko stood up as well. But instead of walking past the blue-haired girl, she walked straight up to her, wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled her closer. Though caught off guard, Sayaka quickly caught up and hugged Kyoko back, burying her red face in Kyoko's shoulder.
The hug lasted a few seconds longer until Kyoko pulled away, smiled, and walked to the front of the classroom, leaving Sayaka to wonder why her heart was beating so fast.