Polka-dot Straw

"Lucky!" an excited Kagami said to herself.

After inserting a few coins in the vending machine, Kagami received two plastic bottles of vanilla milkshake instead of one. With a bottle in each hand, Kagami made her way to the table where Konata, Miyuki and her twin sister were sitting. As usual, the cafeteria was crammed full of boys and girls, some were eating school meals, others had pre-packed lunches of their own.

Konata, five minutes ago, was in a grumpy mood, likely due to her angry teacher giving her after school detention. After she finished her choco cornet however, her mood perked up a bit. Tsukasa took small bites out of her sandwich, and was quiet most of the time. Unfortunately for Miyuki, she appeared to be a tad on the distressed side. For the last minute, Miyuki had gone through every nook and cranny in her school bag, but she had no luck finding her drink carton.

"Hey, Miyuki-san," Konata asked, "you lost something?"

With a slight sadness, Miyuki nodded. "Mm, I must have left my drink at home," she replied.

It was at this time where Kagami arrived to the table, with her usual trademark 'Yo!' greeting. Konata immediately clasped her eyes on the two bottles of milkshake Kagami was holding.

"Hmm?" Konata grinned, her smile turning catlike, "Just because they are low-fat doesn't mean you should buy two of them, Kagamin!"

Kagami countered by poking her tongue out at the blunette. "It just so happened that I got two for the price of one," she explained.

"Ah, I see, a vending machine glitch," Konata reasoned with herself, stroking her chin in the process.

Kagami sagged her shoulders. "Must you always relate things with computers?"

"A glitch doesn't always relate to computers," Konata stated, "it simply translates into 'a small problem', so it can be universal."

Kagami sighed. "Okay, whatever."

"Oh by the way," Konata pressed on, "Miyuki-san forgot to take her own drink with her, wink, wink."

Kagami bought the hint, though she didn't mind because one bottle alone was enough to fill her up. With a smile, she sat down and offered the other bottle to Miyuki.

"Oh no, I mustn't!" protested Miyuki whilst waving her arms, "At least... I cannot accept one without paying you first!"

"Oh come on Miyuki, put your money away!" chided Kagami, "I got one of them for free anyway, so take it! It's not big deal!"

"Well... okay!" surrendered Miyuki as the bottle was passed over to her, "Thank you, Kagami-san!"

Miyuki removed the top and gently pulled off the silver foil underneath. She also obtained a drinking straw from her pocket, and pushed the straw down in order to drink the contents. The straw looked kind of cute; a coloured white design with miniature pink polka dots scattered all over it. Konata looked at the way Miyuki sipped her drink. It certainly made the polite girl appear very moé.

"You know..." remarked Konata, "if you continue drinking like that, your break will be over before you'll finish!"

Miyuki blushed a little with embarrassment. "Oh... well... I am just following okaasan's advice..."

Question marks hovered over the rest of the girls.

"...she says if I choose to drink anything sugary, then I must use this straw, the reason for this being because it will go straight to my tummy without travelling through my teeth first!"

Tummy, thought Konata. Only moé girls use the word 'tummy'.

"I think I understand," mused Kagami, "though as Konata pointed out, it'll take a whole lot longer finishing it."

To which Miyuki replied with, "Well, as long as I don't have to go to... the... d-d-dentist again, I would go for the alternative."

The other three girls sweat dropped. Nobody enjoyed visiting the dentist, but for Miyuki, it was a nightmare coexisting with hell.

…

* * * * *

…

The rest of the school day was pretty uneventful, and at times even dragged along the borderline of boredom. However, once it was all over, Konata treated everyone to stay around her place until late evening. Fortunately for the otaku, Nanako had cooled off a bit since her little online trouble, so Konata was exempt from her ridiculous detention sentence. After a slow bus journey, the group of four all arrived at the Izumi household.

At this moment, Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki (yes, Miyuki was there too!) were all sat around the living room table. For a surprise treat, little cousin Yutaka had made raspberry jam filled donuts, to which she gave one each (on a plate of course) to Konata and her friends.

"Woah, these look really good!" Konata praised her cousin.

The others nodded in agreement, causing Yutaka to look to one side and blush. "Thanks! It's my first time making donuts so I hope you like them!"

Kagami gave her twin sister a gentle nudge. "Hey, looks like you have some competition," she whispered, making Tsukasa laugh nervously.

Yutaka bowed and walked back to the kitchen to clean up the mess she made making the cakes. Meanwhile, if there was a colour paler than white, Miyuki's face would be that colour. How was she able to eat a cake tainted with so much sugar?! She didn't want to insult Yutaka's home-made creation... and her friends were so tucked into their own cakes that they failed to remember poor Miyuki's sensitive little teeth.

The other girls were eating their donuts with varying speed. Kagami was marginally faster than Konata, as the two of them were making short work of their dessert. Tsukasa decided to take her time; the last time she ate anything with a filling, she took a deep bite out of it and inside flew metres across the room. She would never repeat that mistake again.

"Ah! That was great!" said a satisfied Kagami and Konata, showing off their empty plates within minutes. Tsukasa nodded happily when she was the third to finish.

Then... the three girls heard a rather strange slurping sound. They all turned their faces to the source of the commotion. With wide eyes, they couldn't believe the sight they saw. Miyuki... had pierced her spotty straw inside the donut... and with it, tried ever so hard in retrieving the raspberry jam. Her face was priceless; it was a deep shade of purple, and her eyes resembled a pair of 'x's.

(Please note: if this was an anime, the background music would have stopped at this stage)

Konata stood up so fast that the chair she was sitting on crashed to the floor.

"WOOOAAAHH!!!" she shouted at the top of her voice, pointing at poor Miyuki, "YOU HAVE JUST BEEN UPGRADED TO LEANING TOWER OF MOÉ!!!"