Hey, y'all! I realized that I'd meant to and hadn't posted this in a while.
You remember that poll on my profile, asking if you wanted to see more of Haruhi's crazy friends? Well, they turned up in a story of mine during my creative writing class first semester. I thought that I'd leave it here for you.
It's not the best, but it does have ducklings.
"Attack of the Ducklings"
The paper was blank, the pen was out of ink, and the clock continued to tick. Yachi tapped her useless writing utensil on the paper and blew a few stray hairs out of her face, unleashing a sigh of mighty proportions.
Her plight was not one of writer's block; no, it was far from that. It was simply that she was unsure where she ought to start. The day had been exciting in an extreme sense of the word, almost to the point of being excruciating. It was her own fault, she supposed, that it had passed in such a manner - after all, she had agreed to room with Kasumi in the new apartment despite knowing the girl's propensity for chaos. Still, the day had started out like most others… how was she to know how much writing fodder she'd get from it?
Yachi sank back into her chair and let the memories of the morning wash over her, and began searching for the right way to start her story.
"Good morning, Yachi-chi!" Kasumi sang, hanging upside-down from her bunk bed and tossing blankets at her friend. "It's eight, so wakey-wakey, artichakey!"
"I'm not an artichoke," Yachi mumbled. She burrowed into the blankets in a vain attempt to block out the other girl's voice. "G'way. I was up late trying to figure out what to do for my story."
"But it's morning, and I'm bored. I woke up at six and couldn't go back to sleep."
"Go play with Makimi and let me sleep."
"She's making breakfast for us lot. If I bug her, she'll give me the burnt eggs."
"Too bad," Yachi said, and then groaned when Kasumi bereaved her of the blankets. "Give them back…."
"Come up here and get them, why don'tcha?"
"That requires movement," she muttered, hugging her pillow to prevent its theft.
"That's kind of my point, oh-little-ray-of sunshine."
"I hate you."
"Aw, I love you, too!" She flung the blankets over the side of the bed and then landed atop them with a slight jump. She knelt next to Yachi's head. "C'mon, you'll feel more human once you've eaten something. The eggs are almost done, so get ready."
"Fine," Yachi grunted, and sat up. She remained up for all of six seconds before she fell onto her side and curled into her pillow again.
Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Get up."
"It's on the movie shelf," her sleepy friend muttered.
She laughed. "Get dressed before I pull you off of there and dress you myself."
Yachi bolted upright at once, wide-awake. "You wouldn't dare…not again..."
"Would I?" Kasumi challenged, smirking.
Her friend did not answer, but instead scrambled out of bed, horrendous memories of giant chicken costumes dancing through her mind. Kasumi giggled as a stray sock landed on her shoulder.
Yachi jammed her Pikachu hat - complete with pencils, pens, and little green notebook - on her head to finish getting dressed, and glared at the girl she'd known for far too long. "Happy?"
Kasumi grinned. "Nearly. I'm still hungry."
"To breakfast," she declared, "before I kill you for stealing my blankets."
"I didn't steal your pillows this time," commented the other, linking their arms and leading her friend down the hall. "I know better."
Yachi nodded and allowed herself to be escorted into the kitchen.
"Morning," Makimi yawned, flipping an egg. "Did you like your alarm clock?"
"I think I'll keep it," Yachi yawned. "It's a bit loud, though."
"You just need to adjust the volume."
"How?" she inquired; the answer came by way of Makimi shoving a piece of toast in Kasumi's mouth. The most insane of the three chewed her toast without complaint. The girls breakfasted without further great incident, save a few egg fights. As it transpired, Makimi had plans for the day with the still-sleeping Akimi (her cousin and roommate), so Kasumi and Yachi were left to their own devices… well, to Kasumi's devices. Poor Yachi.
Their adventures began after breakfast; Kasumi bowed a thank-you to Makimi for breakfast and then dragged Yachi out the door. Their first destination was the local park, where Kasumi insisted that they commune with the ducks. Yachi pulled out her green notebook and pen to make note of the insanity. It was a crisp day; the few hazy clouds reflected in the duck pond and the remaining flowers bobbed in a light breeze. The trees were just beginning to change into their fall attire.
"Quack! Quacky-quack!" Kasumi squawked, flapping her arms and scattering the ducks. Pouting, she turned to Yachi. "Why don't they like me?"
"Maybe it's because you're acting like such a quack?" She tucked her notebook back into the pockets inside of her hat. Sighing and ignoring the glare shot at her, she continued, "Why are we here, anyway?"
"To have a fantabulous adventure, of course," Kasumi said, deadpan.
Yachi merely nodded; she would not give Kasumi the satisfaction of laughing at that statement. "I see."
"Tundra!" cheered the other girl, alluding to the long-running gag concerning the fact that she owned two (now very old) Huskies named Icy and Tundra.
"Aren't you ever going to let that die?"
"Nope." She popped the second consonant, and then urged her friend to join her in her duck impersonations. A few passing pedestrians spared a moment to wonder from which mental institution the two young women had escaped, and then sped up their steps to evacuate the area. Kasumi noticed this. "Aw, I was hoping to lasso a few of them into helping us with the next bit of the procedure."
"You mean there's more?" Yachi groaned, allowing herself to be pulled out of the pond (she had overbalanced moments before). "Misty-Eyes, you know that I have a story to write for my class, and Professor Hibachi is a real stickler for deadlines. I don't have time for - give me back my hat!"
"Let's see… I think," she stuck out her tongue, "not!" and dashed away.
Yachi, utterly fed up with the ridiculousness of her friend and the stress of her day, gave chase. "Get-" She was catching up; "-back-" she lunged; "-here!" she missed her hat, but caught Kasumi's ankle on the way down. The two tussled for a few moments in the dying grass before collapsing side by side.
"You've gotten faster, Yachi-chi," Kasumi panted, surrendering the hat.
"You haven't." She placed the hat on her stomach and covered her eyes with her forearm.
While the chase was occurring, the ducks were holding a miniature conference to decide how to deal with the two invaders. Some of the water fowl favored retreating to a more secluded location; the younger, rasher birds among them deemed that the intruders of the pond were the foul ones, and that an attack was necessary. Much squawking commenced; in the end, the latter group of ducks won. Together, they waddled towards the two young women who now lay on the grass, singing the national anthem for reasons unknown. The two were unaware of the impending events.
"Quack," proclaimed one duck into Kasumi's ear, announcing the birds' success in surrounding the humans. Kasumi jumped - an action that is no mean feat from a reclining position - and made a face that was a strange mixture of surprise, confusion, and amusement. Yachi raised herself onto her elbows and blinked around at the feathered army of doom, gloom, and sadness (or so they proclaimed themselves to be, if the duck-to-English translator was working properly - if not, they might have been the feathered army of muffins, woks, and couch parasites). One of the youngest offenders flapped onto her stomach, nearly landing flat on its beak in the process, and snuggled into her Pikachu hat. The utter oddity of the situation struck her.
She laughed. Tension eased out of her shoulders; her stomach shook with mirth, causing the duckling resting on her hat to quack its displeasure. It stood, wobbled, and fell into the grass; Yachi sank back onto the ground, unable to support herself on quaking elbows. The ducks, seeing their targets thusly incapacitated, deemed themselves victorious and returned to the pond for a celebration. The duck that had given the war cry into Kasumi's ear and the duckling who had squashed Yachi's yellow source of power were lauded as heroes and went down in duck history.
Once Yachi's laughter had abated, Kasumi stood and offered her a hand up. She took it, allowing her friend to jerk her to her feet. "Better?"
"Much," she admitted, re-donning her hat after pulling out her notebook and pen. She began making note of the many oddities of those two hours.
"Good! I hate to see you feeling so," Kasumi paused, plucked a piece of fluff off of Pikachu's cheek, and winked, "down."
Yachi stopped writing for a moment and looked up. "Sometimes I don't know whether I should strangle you or hug you."
"I'd prefer a hug. Strangling makes such a mess on the grass."
"True, very true," she nodded, grinning. Instead of a hug, she gave her friend a light punch on the arm. "Thanks, Misty-Eyes."
"No hug?"
"Puppy-dog eyes don't work on me. Besides, you stole my blankets this morning."
"True. All's fair in ducks and blankets." They linked arms and made their way back to the apartment.
Yachi grinned and pulled a new pen and her green notebook out of her Pikachu hat. Maybe people wouldn't believe that it was inspired by her life - they never did - but she would enjoy writing about her "Attack of the Ducklings," and she knew at least one person who would get a kick out of it… and out of being made the empress of ducklings. She set her pen to the paper and began to write, the ticking of the clock transformed at long last into the slapping of webbed feet against damp rocks.
Yup.
I hope that you liked it, or were at least vaguely amused by it. No guarantees for more - unless my kohai gives me ohshc inspiration. ;)
Drop me a review, even if it is to complain about this extra. :)
