To the Top of the School
:
"Hey, I'm home…" Trish murmured as she opened the door to her room in the Red Dorm.
"Wel-Welcome back. How, um, w-was your da-a-a-ay." Lucy bawled in reply.
"Oh, that can't be good." Trish muttered.
And, for once, she wasn't talking about the stench or how she could hear cockroaches scuttle uncomfortably nearby. She dumped her bag at the door and quickly found Lucy, bundled up with thin and holey blankets as well as her teddy bear from home, in the corner of her bottom bunk.
Trish rested her hands above her head; them, in turn, resting on the wooden strip which upheld her bunk. "You okay, Luce?"
"No!" Lucy bawled.
Trish ducked under the bunk and swung into place next to Lucy. Lucy softened immediately and soon, they were both curled up under the top bunk in the corner. Lucy was very warm, Trish noticed. Her nose was dripping though, and her eyes were rather red. Tears stained her cheeks. Trish took a breath. She had, most certainly, been crying for the entire duration of the detention, and walk back from campus, that Trish had been preoccupied with.
Trish wrapped her arm around Lucy and Lucy placed her head on the crook between Trish's shoulders and neck.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Trish asked.
"Chancellor Valentine called me a Slifer Slacker again." Lucy mumbled.
"Aw, but he calls everyone that. I mean. That's awful." Trish replied. "But, like its especially awful for you. Out of everyone in the dorm, you're the least lazy person here. No one hits the books as much as you do.
"I know he calls everyone that. But it still hurts. Especially since it feels like all my studying just… goes to waste. Be it a test or a duel, I always seem to fail. And I wanna make my father proud. He got me this scholarship and everything. I wanna make it to Ra Yellow, you know… To prove to him I'm doing well and all that." Lucy mumbled.
Trish hushed her and stroked the sides of her arms; or, what she thought were arms. Lucy was basically a marshmallow with a human head right now given how thickly she had wrapped up with all the blankets from her bed sheets too. Lucy seemed soothed, her eyes fluttered closed. She relaxed.
"That's a great goal, Lucy." Trish told her. "You inspire me, to be honest."
Lucy's eyes snapped open and she wriggled out of the centre of her blanket burrito: "I do?"
"Hell's yeah, you do." Trish embarrassedly replied. "I'm like… Super lazy. I hate doing homework and all that. I don't mind showin' up to classes."
"Trish, you always come twenty minutes late?" Lucy piped up.
"Ugh, but I still get there and it's not like I fall asleep. Unlike some people; not naming names." Trish replied, and her voice grew increasingly bitter and then coughed into her hand: "Jolyne."
Lucy laughed. She was always amused by the rather fierce rivalry that had manifested between the two queens of the Slifer Red Dorm: Trish Una and Jolyne Cujoh. They were always at each other's necks, especially at Giorno's underground duels.
"Anyways, where was I going with this…?" Trish paused, and her eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, that's my point. You inspire me to actually put the hard yards in. Like, Professor Buccellati is always on my case about how if I knuckle down, I could totally promote to his tacky-ass dorm but so not my thing. Do I look like I would look good in yellow?"
"Wait… is that why you haven't accepted the offer? Because you don't want to wear the yellow uniform?" Lucy asked. "You don't want better accommodation because you don't want to wear yellow?"
"Not entirely. I also don't want to have to perform under greater expectations either." Trish replied.
"I see." Lucy murmured.
"But, like, seeing you study your pretty little head off really inspires me, Luce. Not Professor Buccellati, not wanting to one-up Jolyne, you." Trish said.
Lucy blushed. "That's quite the honour, Trish."
More blankets flopped from around Lucy and her teddy bear dropped from beneath her chin to her lap. Trish picked it up and examined. Lucy panicked.
"Please be careful with him, he's old." Lucy said.
"I can tell. He looks older than you." Trish said and then she looked irritated. "A golden eggwich from the cafeteria says that Gyro gave this to you."
"Yep." Lucy nodded.
"Hell's yeah. You owe me a golden eggwich now." Trish said.
"I'll see if I can have Erina make one for you then." Lucy replied and in a small voice, she added: "She really seems to like me for some reason…"
"Aw yeah, I can't wait. No more chopped liver for me." Trish licked her lips.
"But anyways, that's if I live to the next choose your own sandwich day." Lucy interrupted. "I feel like Chancellor Valentine is looking for any reason to expel me. I think there's bad blood between him and my dad."
"Oof, that sucks. It's totally unfair when adults take their unresolved shit out on us instead of the people they actually have a problem with: our parents." Trish grumbled.
"Haha yeah…" Lucy mumbled.
"But, like, what makes you think he's taking it out on you, honey?" Trish asked.
"I just feel like I haven't been keeping my weight. If my win rate drops down any further, I'm definitely gonzo." Lucy lamented, and her lower lip wobbled.
Trish stiffened, and she immediately hooked her arm around Lucy again. She brought her in for a big cuddle, but Lucy soon wriggled out of her embrace.
"I feel like a failure, Trish. I'm skirting just above the minimum. I just… don't know what to do." Lucy said.
"Aw, c'mon. Let me see your cards." Trish said.
"Alright but they're not as powerful as your cards. Or as stylish as Jolyne's…" Lucy murmured as she reached out over the ravine between the bunk beds and her nightstand.
Trish shrugged. "There's more to playing than raw power and good looks, Luce." Trish assured her.
Lucy grabbed her deck. She stared at the backs of her stacked cards. Seemingly getting lost in the caramel swirls of the back art. She sighed.
"Stephen said these cards reminded me of him, so I really don't wanna trade 'em in for a new deck." Lucy said.
She handed her deck over to Trish. Trish traced along the orange edge and then turned them over. She had seen Lucy in action a couple of times; cheering her on and all that jazz. She knew what sort of cards Lucy had in her deck; the archetype, the monsters, spells, and traps. It just seemed so much more intimate to hold such precious things in her hands.
"Vehicroid Expressroid." Trish read aloud. "I think I can see what your old man means. Look at these big ol' cartoony eyes. You've got the same pair."
Lucy blushed. "That's cute."
"So, what can you remember about this card?" Trish asked, and she put it to her chest, face down, so Lucy couldn't sneak a peek at it.
"Oh! I can use that card to withdraw two cards from my graveyard." Lucy recited.
"Yep. See? That's plenty useful. Good resource recovery, right?" Trish suggested.
"Yeah, but how am I s'posed to keep it safe when it's got four hundred attack points?" Lucy asked.
"What about a flip summon? Like, if it's attacked, does the effect still activate?" Trish asked.
"I don't know…" Lucy mumbled, pouting.
Trish sighed and then had a light bulb moment. "Why don't we ask Prof. Joseph? He uses a flip deck. He could probably let you know if setting Expressroid face down to protect it then flip summoning it either on the attack or next turn will trigger its effect."
"That's a great idea, Trish." Lucy replied, brightening up.
"I'm just full of 'em." Trish smugly harrumphed.
"Yes, you are." Lucy laughed, and she hugged Trish; smooching her cheek. "I hope you've got more because I've still got lots to learn if I wanna earn my place in Ra Yellow."
"That's the spirit, Luce!" Trish replied, and she smiled; eyes crinkling at the corner. "Let's do it together. Let's make it to Ra Yellow!"
"And why stop there?" Lucy giggled. "Let's get all the way to the top of the school: Obelisk Blue!"
"Let's do it! I think if anyone can do it, it's us." Trish replied.
They then let the moment linger a while as they glowed with this pride. Trish handed Lucy her cards back. Lucy smiled as she looked over the card art of Expressroid before she swung herself around. Her legs went over the bed and she let them sway; not letting them touch the scungy carpet. Trish smiled and glanced around.
"Do you want me do your hair?" Trish asked.
"I'd like it very much thanks." Lucy replied, smiling demurely.
Trish grabbed Lucy's hairbrush which was at the end of the bed and Lucy reached over to her bedside table. She handed over a tube of hairbands. Trish ran her fingers through Lucy's hair before stroking it with the hairbrush.
"I reckon pigtails would be cute." Trish said.
"Yeah, me too." Lucy murmured.