Charlotte "Cirno" Irnovestri was waiting. What for she wasn't completely certain about at the moment, but sitting in her ice blue Mitsubishi Eclipse was starting to get boring. She'd been sitting here, in the suburbs of Gensokyo City, just sitting for almost an hour now. She was tempted to call up Mystia or Rumia and ask them to pop down for a quick quarter-mile drag just so she'd have something to do. Instead, she opted for one of the other Team 9 members: Flandre Scarlet. Fishing her phone out of her pocket, she searched for Flandre's name and pressed the "call" button on her touchscreen.

"FlanFlan706, at your service. How may I take your order?" came the response when the call was answered.

Cirno almost laughed at Flandre's random greeting, but managed to keep a level head long enough to get the conversation going. "Flandre, you've never worked a day in the fast food business. Where are you, anyways?"

"Oh, hi Charlotte! I'm working on my high score in Starhawk." That answer meant Flandre was playing a game, and by extension, would be "unable" to race. Actually, it was more along the lines of "she simply wouldn't stop playing her game until she'd done what she'd set out to do". In this case, beat her previous high score.

"Well, where's Remi? And I told you not to call me Charlotte unless we're with our families! On the streets, I'm 'Cirno'!"

"Yeah, sure, okay. Remi's at ballet practice with that one girl from the Heaven Lounge. I think her name's Tenshi."

"Remi hasn't taken ballet in years. Why's she taking it now?"

"She lost a bet with Mysti a about whether or not Rumia and Okuu would blow themselves up trying to make a steam-powered generator."

"I take it they didn't blow themselves up?" Rumia Teszla and Utsuho "Okuu" Reiuji were the brains of the crew, sort of. Rumia was just the daughter of one of Gensokyo City's finest minds, while Okuu was a self-proclaimed nuclear specialist. Very rarely did things go well when those two put their heads together.

"No, they blew themselves up. Again. Remi thought they wouldn't be able to botch something as simple as a steam-powered generator. She thought wrong and had to take ballet again 'cause she lost the bet."

Cirno was somewhat taken aback, but she still had other options. "Well, what about Sakuya? Is she available to race?" Sakuya Izayoi was the most trusted maid of the Scarlet sisters. The three had grown up together, literally. As such, she wasn't just a maid to Flandre and Remilia Scarlet, she was their best friend, too.

"I think Sakuya's busy with laundry, but I'll ask anyways, just as soon as I finish up with my high score." That answer wasn't very promising.

"And how long is that going to take?"

"Couple minutes. Five, at the most."

Cirno nodded to herself. She'd been waiting for an hour already, so she could wait a few extra minutes. It wasn't like Flandre wouldn't keep her word. In fact, despite all of her shortcomings (up to and including a general tendency to poke everything new to her), Cirno considered Flandre to be the one member of Team 9 who never lied.

And, of course, true to Flandre's word, five minutes later, Cirno heard the clatter of a game controller being dropped on the floor, followed by a resounding call from the younger Scarlet. "Hey, Sakuya!"

"What is it, young mistress?" Surprisingly, Sakuya's words came through clear as day. Flandre's phone must have been on speaker when Cirno had called. In fact, if she focused hard enough, she could hear the faint sound of Flandre's footsteps as she went to Sakuya.

Creepy.

"Cirno wants to race you."

"Cirno?" She could imagine Sakuya putting on a blank face as Flandre tried to explain the phone.

"Charlotte. You know her as Charlotte Irnovestri? Short girl with blue-dyed hair. Drives the 'silly little Mitsubishi'." Cirno recalled the first time she'd met with Sakuya. She'd been driving a stock silver Mercedes, but her skill in precision driving made Sakuya a force to be reckoned with during a race. Cirno had won, but she wondered briefly whether or not Sakuya had anything new to drive before she realized she'd been called "short" by Flandre.

"Flandre Rosalinde Scarlet, I am not short!" Cirno angrily shouted into her phone, imagining both Flandre and Sakuya flinching at the sudden noise.

"Not as short as Remi, anyway!" Flandre confirmed, giggling while Sakuya and Cirno simply sighed in exasperation.

"Anyway, I'm down by the Whiterock Ice Arena. Letty had to close early because of an emergency." Cirno explained. "I told Papa Nikolai that I wouldn't be home until late, 'cause I was skating, but since Letty closed early, I figured a race would fill the time." She neglected to mention that she'd been sitting there waiting for an hour. No need to seem desperate, after all.

"Oh, cool." Flandre commented. "But, uh, where is it, again?" The Whiterock Ice Arena was a personal favorite hangout of Team 9. Cirno, herself, had been going there since she was a little girl, and had actually convinced her father into funding the Arena when the larger Gensokyo City Ice Rink had opened up in the city center. As thanks, the owner, manager, and general proprietor of the Whiterock Ice Arena, Leticia "Letty" Whiterock herself, gave Cirno and her crew permanent free skating time whenever they liked.

"Flandre, the Whiterock Ice Arena is in the suburbs, across from the Eientei Clinic." Cirno explained. "You should remember where that is; you have to go there every week to refill the librarian's medication." The Eientei Clinic was a small-town clinic in a big city. The clinic carried all sorts of organic medication, but didn't really have the stock or equipment for more advanced prescriptions and cases.

"Not usually, but yeah. I remember now. And hey! I beat my score! I'll be there in a few minutes, just let me get dressed." Flandre spoke quickly enough that Cirno couldn't get a word in edgewise, but once she was finished, Cirno got her chance.

"So when you get down here, what kind of race should we do?" She heard scuffling from the other end and the tell-tale sound of clothes being recklessly pulled over a phone. "Circuit, sprint, Quarter-mile?"

"I dunno. We'll figure it out when I get there." Cirno heard a clattering noise—one that sounded a lot like a pair of ice skates being picked up by the shoelaces—and began to wonder just what Flandre was planning.

"Flandre, why are you picking up your skates?"

"Huh? How did—? Oh! You heard that, huh? Well, there's always the chance Letty will finish up with whatever her emergency is and return to the rink, so I just wanna be prepared just in case." She sounded so certain, but Cirno still had her doubts. "Besides, you promised you'd teach me how to ice skate. You haven't fulfilled that yet, so two birds with one stone, right?"

"Uh, I, well, I suppose, I guess." Cirno stammered. "I guess if you're so sure, we can see if she's back after we race."

"Okay!" Flandre replied. "See ya in a few!"

Cirno got her composure back in time to give a quick "Bye." to Flandre before she hung up. "Okay, then." she muttered to herself softly. Regarding her phone, she thought about whether or not to call someone else, just to make things interesting. "You know what, let's." she smirked softly and searched out a name. The phone rang twice, then the person Cirno was calling answered.

"Rumia Teszla speaking, may I ask who's calling?" That . .was not the voice Cirno had been expecting to hear.