"I'm afraid that if you're going to be sitting with her, you can't sit with me." The look on Maka's face was pure determination.
"Come on, Maka, there's no need to be like this," Soul said in a half-placating, half-chiding tone.
"You of all people should understand my feelings!" Maka snapped at Soul over her shoulder.
"What happened?" Sora asked, feeling almost dumb.
"Oh, nothing important," Maka said with an upturn of her nose. "All she ever did was try to steal Soul from me."
"She couldn't have stolen me," Soul said. "I have free will, you know."
Sora turned to Pearl in askance.
"I never tried to 'steal' him," Pearl replied flatly. "You're twisting things, like you always do. Twisting things and overreacting- it's your speciality, Maka."
"You're one to talk," Maka replied. "Witch."
Sora felt a chill go through him. 'Witch' was a harsh accusation.
"Now, don't you think that's a little -?" Sora began.
"No," Pearl interrupted. She put a hand on Sora's shoulder. "You don't have to defend me."
"Yeah, you don't have to defend her, Sora," Maka said contemptuously. "All you have to do is watch your back, to make sure that she doesn't stab you in it."
With that, Maka crossed her arms and turned away, reminding Sora for all the world of his mother on the day she kicked him out.
"Women," Sora thought he heard Soul mutter bitterly. Sora couldn't have summarized things any better himself. It didn't seem like Pearl was very popular with any of the other girls.
Pearl turned to walk away, without looking back, and Sora was left wondering who he should sit with now. He figured both girls needed space, so he picked a seat a row down next to a pink-haired girl, who glanced at him but didn't say anything when he sat down.
"Don't get caught up in all of that," a balding boy with lightning shaped hair sticking out from the sides of his head admonished him. "You'll regret it."
Sora nodded without saying anything in response.
Ms. Marie came into the classroom right about that moment. She smiled up at them, her gaze lingering a minute on Sora.
"I'm sorry that I'm late everybody," she said pleasantly. "I think most of you already know, but we have a new student in class today, Sora Fujioka, so be sure to be really nice to him."
Gazes turned his direction and Sora shrank himself a little at all the atttention.
"Well, if you'll please get out your textbooks, we'll be having a review lesson on 'soul resonance' techniques and how to match wavelengths with your weapons," Marie continued. "Most of you in this class are quite rehearshed in this already but I thought I'd be nice and help prepare you for next week's quiz, anyway. So turn to page forty-three, if you will, and we'll get started..."
Marie's class had been intriguing and challenging. So much of the rhetoric was new to Sora, even though he understood a little. You pretty much couldn't be in Death City and not understand at least a little bit.
In the cafeteria, Sora loaded a bunch of California rolls on his plate and was reaching for the packets of soy sauce when he heard a voice behind him.
"Sora!"
Sora turned around and noticed that Sherbert and Mae were standing behind him. It was Sherbert that had spoken. She was holding a box filled with what appeared to be a bunch of different-colored wrist bands.
"Do you want to buy a pair of friendship bracelets?" Sherbert asked eagerly. "Mae and I made them all ourselves. I assemble them and then she does the decorations and the stenciling. It doesn't take us too long."
"Well, uh..."
"We totally get that friendship bracelets are normally for girls but we have some cool ones for guys in here too," Mae said cheerfully. "We want to someday have them organized on little racks and all of that but for now you get to have the fun of digging around in the pile manually."
Sora was going to say that he didn't exactly have a friend yet to give one of the bracelets to, but instead found himself asking how much they were.
"Two dollars," Sherbert said.
"Three for the deluxe kinds," Mae added quickly.
"Okay," Sora said. "Let me just put my food down at an empty table and then I'll decide."
Sora had to say that he was pretty impressed by the collection. There were rainbow-colored ones, some with buttons, others with bits of fuzz or fur, ones with unicorns, ones of nylon and others of leather or wool.
Finally he settled on two that he thought were appropriate: a navy blue one with dragons embroidered into it that fastened with velcro, and one in a gender-neutral shade of green with an acorn print and buttons.
"Thanks so much for purchasing," Sherbert said, handing the box over to Mae so that she could take Sora's money. "I think you made an excellent choice. If you aren't satisfied, return to us for a full refund!"
"Don't worry, I don't think that'll be necessary," Sora said with a laugh as he sat down to eat his sushi rolls.
"Do you mind if we sit with you?" Mae asked.
He briefly scanned the cafeteria for any signs of Pearl before answering. He didn't see her, so he gave Mae his permission. Mae and Sherbert went to the line to get their food, and he waited patiently for them to come back.
At that moment he saw Maka and Soul entering the cafeteria, accompanied by Tsubaki and Black Star. Tsubaki noticed him and waved. He waved back, and she left Black Star's side and approached him.
"Are you eating all alone?" she asked him with a friendly smile.
"No, I have two friends who are going to be coming over," he said. He suddenly felt self-conscious and shoved the friendship bracelets into the front pocket of his hoodie.
"Oh, that's nice," she said, and he couldn't tell if she was diasappointed or not.
"Hurry up Tsubaki or you're going to miss out!" Black Star called out in his loud voice.
"I'm sure there's plenty to go around!" Tsubaki called back. She turned back to Sora and smiled again. "At least he makes sure I'm well-fred."
Sora smiled, unable to keep himself from blushing. Probably to make sure you maintain those lovely curves. It was a thought he'd dare not voice.
At that moment Sherbert and Mae returned, plates brimming with food.
"Oh, so you know Tsuabaki!" Mae said, her face lighting up.
"Yeah, we've met."
Mae and Sherbert engaged Tsubaki in a friendly chat whilst Sora looked on, feeling a little like an outsider.
"Tsubaki!" Black Star called out again.
"Sorry, my partner's getting impatient," Tsubaki said with a smile. "It was nice talking to you, Mae, Sherbert." She gaved a little bow then turned and walked away.
"She's so cool," Sherbert said, starry-eyed.
"I know, right?" Mae replied with a smile as she sat down. "It's awesome that you already know her, Sora. How'd you two meet?"
"Er, I was asleep in an alleyway a few days ago and Tsubaki was on her way to school," he replied.
"Oh, and then she awoke you with a kiss?" Mae asked, a wicked gleam in her eye.
Sora managed to keep from blushing.
"Actually, Black Star was poking me with a stick, and then I woke up and saw them," Sora said. "Besides, I'm not Sleeping Beauty, okay?"
Mae and Sherbert laughed. Typical girls.
"So, what happened between Pearl and Maka?" Sora asked when they were well into their meals. "Do either of you know?"
Mae and Sherbert exchanged almost worried glances and seemed hesitant to respond. Finally, Mae spoke up.
"Well, Maka and Pearl actually used to be best friends," Mae said.
"Until Pearl tried to steal Soul," Sherbert piped in.
"That's what Maka had said," Sora mused. "That Pearl had tried to steal him. What did she mean?"
"Well, everyone knows that Pearl goes through weapons really, really quickly," Mae explained. "No one really knows exactly what happened, though everyone knows that Pearl started to want to use Soul as a weapon."
"Then it, happened," Sherbert said in hushed tones.
"It?"
"Pearl, and her weapon of the time, along with Maka and Soul were sent on a mission by Lord Death to retrieve some artifacts from some temple hidden in the mountains," Mae said. "Somehow, alongst the way, Maka, as wells as Pearl's weapon, Jeremiah, got immobolized by assailants. Pearl and Soul were forced to team together, to defend their Weapon and Meister."
"So, what happened?"
"Pearl and Soul easily defeated the combatants and the mission was completed. However," Mae said, pausing for emphasis. "things were never the same between Maka and Pearl after that. They grew more and more distant, with Maka finally accusing Pearl of being a selfish Meister who only cared about trying out various Weapons. Some people think that Maka was just being jealous, that she couldn't stand to see herself eclipsed by even a close friend, who was only trying to help her. Others say that after Pearl wielded Soul that first time, she'd become unusually attached to him and had started to act inappropriately."
Sora nodded, beginning to understand.
"So what do you think?" he asked, taking a sip of his cucumber melon soda.
"I think-" she said slowly. "-that Pearl wants to have Soul as a partner again and would do almost anything to achieve it, apart from hurting Maka. So she's locked in indecision. And that's why she can't choose a partner."
"Maybe she's just in love with him," Sherbert said.
"That too," Mae agreed, taking a bite of her cheesy enchilada.
That was an interesting developement. Pearl is in love with Soul. Sora thought. A new thought occurred to him.
"So, my chances of getting Pearl to partner with me are -?"
Mae and Sherbert smiled at him, and he could see the sympathy in their eyes. He sighed. Nothing was going to go right for him, it seemed.
"Well, maybe you could get her to partner with you for just a little while, before she goes running off to somebody else again?" Sherbert suggested. "After all, she did team up with you in that fight with Black Star. If you two can find a sword for her that would be awesome!"
"Totally," Mae said, giving him a thumbs up. "Good luck!"
Sora felt like he was going to need a lot of it.
