Patty continued walking down the halls, trying to hide her now tomato red face from the other students. Normally, she was able to hide any negative emotion she had with a sweet smile, but this time, she couldn't regain her composure. She didn't even notice that she was nearly two inches away from running into the breasts of her older, slightly taller sister, Liz.
"Hey, Patty!" said Liz in a loving tone. "I was just looking for ya! Kid wanted the both of us to be there for target practice today. You know how he is about his symme-" She noticed that Patty's head was dropped so low that her eyes were hidden behind her bangs. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Patty mumbled, still not raising her head.
"Then look up at me." At first Patty didn't respond, but then she sniffled slightly.
"Ju-just give me a second." The amount of time it took Patty to dry her tears took much longer than a second. But then she finally looked up with the same smile and rosy cheeks. "See? I'm fine! Now what did you say about target practice?" Liz gave her a strange look, but then exhaled heavily and rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Let's just get going. We have to be there by 12 o'clock, otherwise Kid's going to complain that the clock is not symmetrical."
"Okay!" Patty said as cheerfully as ever. But in her mind, she was crying. She made it through target practice all right, keeping her weapon transformations consistent and cheering Kid up whenever his shots weren't perfectly centered. But as she and her partners were walking home, the earlier events of the day started weighing heavily on Patty's mind. Without thinking, she turned to Liz and said, "Hey, sis, is there anyone that you like?" She realized as soon as she said it that it had been a mistake.
"Nope!" replied Liz casually, "I've had way too many boyfriends in my lifetime to even look at another boy at this moment. They're all jerks. Why did you want to know?" Patty had no escape route now. She had wanted to ask her sister for advice, but now she felt stupid.
"Um... I just- I noticed you were very distracted lately and wanted to make sure you were okay! Well, now that I know that you aren't in love, then you should be on your A-game next time we play a game of charades with Kid! I've been working on my Lord Death impression!" Great, now I'm rambling. She then showed Liz a half-assed impression of Lord Death that look more like she was having a drug-induced seizure. But she was fine with it as long as she didn't have to tell her sister about her failure with Black Star.
Kid, Liz, and Patty finally reached their house. Kid offered to pluck Liz's eyebrows, to which Liz politely declined, and they both went to bed. Patty stayed up, sitting on the couch, and reflecting on how much of an idiot she was.