Chapter 28: Silvana: Consolation Salad by kirbymanx/huskynator

It was a day at the races on the track nearest to Primp High School. Coach Satan is testing every student on how well they can endure running 4 kilometers with the pressure of being in a race. Frequent ground contact required, meaning no flying allowed.

The freshmen have already raced, most of them didn't even finish and Coach Satan voiced his disappointment in them. He needed work on their stamina.

The sophomores fared better. Everyone made the finish line besides the bandaged up wrapped living corpse, a disqualified Mermaid on wheels, and the winged Yoko. The former two get a pass. The latter needs to walk more. Which she was doing more of late. The coach was proud of them.

It was now the Juniors' turn. And boy, the Juniors.

Seeing the Nadja twins, Arle and Silvana, in a competition was always a treat. These siblings are always butting heads when it comes to a competition. They're the number 1 runners in the school after all, practically evenly matched.

They're making everyone behind them eat their dust in their last lap. It got so tense.

The cheerleaders would be cheering them on them if they weren't still catching their breath. Regardless people were rooting for them.

And with them, I mean Arle. Arle is the favorite of the two. Silv never gets as much love as her twin did.

Despite that, though, the red-clad Silvana was a good few meters ahead of her blue-clad sibling and they have about the same energy left in them.

The two are on the final stretch, they're sprinting towards the finish line. Silvana is still in the lead. She was super nervous. It was too good to be true, she knew it.

Silvana hasn't won a competition against her sister in years. Having this much of a lead on Arle was surreal to her. And it wasn't because Arle was playing nice, Silv knows Arle, Arle is just as competitive as Silv is. They're both in it to win it.

'15… more… meters…, Silv...' She tried to encourage herself.

And that's when… "UWAH!" …Silv tripped. She landed on her stomach, grinning in pain, as Arle finished. Everyone cheered, Arle didn't come back to her fallen sister, she was surrounded by admirers.

Silvana clenched her fists and slammed them onto the ground to stand up faster. That caught everyone's attention. Silv was still a fair bit ahead of the rest of the competition, and she didn't appear too hurt. She still can make it.

She gave a polite, non-verbal go-ahead to those behind her to take her usual spot and casually walked away from the track and finish line. Making pretty much everyone angry. Silv had a nice warm word for them though, a middle finger.

"Silvana!" Coach Satan was flummoxed by this action to one of his star pupils. "Where do you think you're going, young lady?"

"Going to the shower and going home. What are you gonna do about it?" She prodded the adult devil, and he said nothing back. The crowd was a little awed by that move by Silvana. And she seemed to get away with it too? "Yeah, that's what I thought." Silvana was joined by Rafisol, Amitie, and Ally who tried to kindly talk her out of it.

"Hey, Coach." A random student said. "I'm going home, what are you gonna do about it?"

"By putting you in detention!" The coach snapped back, flapping his wing to make himself more imposing.

"Teacher's pet." A different random student said about the leaving Silvana.

"Detention!"

"What!?"

Meanwhile, with Arle:
"You did again, Arle! You beat whats-her-face again!"
"Yeah!"
"How are you so fast?"
Many students had many things to say and ask.

"Heh," Arle nervously said. "One question at a time. Actually later. Where's Silv? She's been done dirty." Arle was distracted by praise and surrounded by too many chattering people to have seen what Silvana did.

"She's going to the changing room. It seems."

"Thank you. Sorry guys, I owe her something. She gave me a run for my money there." Arle started following her sister, her cousin Amitie, Ally, and Rafisol until a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Let… her…" It was her tuckered-out boyfriend, Lagnus. "Rafisol's… on it. Wouldn't you want..." Lagnus panted a lot. "If you were… Silv, wouldn't you… want your girlfriend to… cheer you up… after such a… a humilia… humiliating loss?"

Arle thought about it. "I guess so?" She stayed with the crowd. "Maybe I should trip and you'll come support me~"

"Don't trip."

"What? You don't wanna comfort me?!" Arle accused.

"Not now…"

Meanwhile, in the changing room:
"Don't be so sad, Silvie." Silvana's cousin, Amitie along with her cheerleading buddy Ally, did their best to cheer the last place runner by default.

"Look, Ammy, Ally." Silvana rebutted as she put on her hoodie. "Thanks for worrying about me. But can you please show care like Raf does?" Rafisol raised an eyebrow.

"By not talking about it?" Amitie was confused.

"Oh, I get it!" Ally's face beamed and giggled. "Rafie shows and doesn't tell. And her mere companionship you value more than our words ever could~" You could tell love's #1 fan had hearts in her eyes.

Silvana squinted her eyes at the overly romantic worldview at display.

"Do you?" Rafisol quietly asked Silvana from behind.

The sole junior amongst these sophomores was taken aback. That sounded unusually soft from the already quiet Rafisol.

"Um… Yeah." She admitted. Unaware that as she turned her head back to the cheerleaders Rafisol blushed.

"I always cheer for both you and Arle." Amitie said. "You're both number 1 to me~"

"I know you care, Ammy." Silv sighed. "You too, Al. You always do, never change. But please don't make this a bigger deal than it actually is. I just didn't wanna be ranked right behind Arle for once. That's! It!"

Amitie and Ally looked a bit skeptical on that last bit.

"Yes, I'm sure." Silvana preempted their response with a grumpy tone. She had her bag packed. "I'm gonna for some fruit salad or something. You coming, Raf? Been a while since we hung out."

"Gladly."

"I wanna hang out too…" Amitie said with jealousy.

"We have had Saturday planned, Ammy."

"Oh, heheh, whoopsie." Amitie forgot.

"Take care, you too." Silv smiled. "C'mon, Raf. My treat." Rafisol followed. "Bye, guys."

"See you at home, Ally." Rafisol said to her sister, completely ignoring Amitie.

Ally jumped in for a sisterly hug. "Take care, Rafie~ Have fun you two~ ❤" She waved with her fingers.

"Thanks, Ally." Rafisol hugged back.

Silv looked at the Hearthwell twins with envy. Amitie started hugging her out of nowhere. "Can't wait for Saturday."

"Likewise, Ammy." Silv said to her seemingly infinitely energetic, friendly cousin. Nobody noticed, but Rafisol was a little jealous at that sight.

Silvana, with Rafisol on the back of her bike, cycled to the nearest place that was far away enough from the track field that had a salad bar. They sat across from each other at the table. They hadn't said much to each other.

Silv grumbled as she was eating. Rafisol picked up on it, she didn't have it in her to speak up about it.

…

Silvana's noises and stress went down on their own with a deep breath. "You're a less popular twin." She spoke to her friend.

"I am." Rafisol said bluntly. Knowing this was leading to an Arle rant.

"Doesn't it sting?" Asked the athletic one of the two.

"Only when they take Ally away. But I have no problem with my sister herself."

"Hmmm." Silv moaned. "I miss those days…" Said without thinking as she chewed.

"Those days aren't over."

"Huh…? Did I say something?"

"Ummm. We were talking about our twinhoods again."

"Oh. Sorry about that. I don't mean to be so narrow minded about this, I just can't help it. I just wanna forget I'm her twin like everyone else does until next we compete and BOOM WORSE ARLE RETURNS WHEN WORSE ARLE IS REALLY JUST ARLE!"

"Hey!" An employee shouted. "No yelling in this establishment!"

"S-Sorry!" Silvana said embarrassed. "I hate Arle so much." So said quietly.

"I know." Rafisol blankly nodded.

"Didn't even come to check on her sister when she lost via tripping..."

"Oh! Thanks right. How very mean of her." Rafisol frowned.

The Nadja twin opened up her orange juice bottle. "Arle's a bitch." Down in one go the juice goes.

The two continued eating until a notification notice on Silv's phone went off. The Junior noticed it was a private message from Lagnus.

Lagnus: Hi Silv, are you okay? Asking on Arle's behalf if you wanna party?

Silvana grunted, this was so insulting to her.

Silv: Not coming unless you need baby sitting.
Lagnus: Dude lowblow you know I was being retorical

"… oh…"

Silv: I'm sorry Lag… Just
Silv: The words don't come easy to me.
Lagnus: What do you want me to tell arle? The usual
Silv: Please. Also sorry I'll owe something I didn't mean to

Her phone was put in sleep mode once again.

"You look worse. Who was that? What did they say?"

"Lagnus."

"Ah."

"…He said something that upset me. And I drug him down… I don't wanna drag anyone down with my problems. I want them to be happy… Including myself…"

"Oh… Sorry, I'm not much help with that… This is Ally's-"

"Shut up, Raf." It shut Rafisol up alright. It sounded so harsh. "You make me happy just by being my friend." That sounded way better.

"But you have other friends. They like you…"

"But they're also Arle's friends. And they're Arle's friends first and foremost. Not you. Thank you for being my friend." Silvana is often sincere in a blunt or sarcastic way. So just this unfiltered sincerity coming from her. It felt special.

"I like you too." Rafisol smiled, she rarely does that.

They ate some more together when suddenly Silv's phone got another notification noise.

Amitie: Silvie! Coach Satan decided you can have the silver medal anyway! So nice of him~~~ :D

"Hrhrmmrhrmhrhmrmhmrghghrhmrgmmmm…"

"Are you okay?"

"…I will be soon…"

After they had finished their lunch together they exited the building. Silvana had a question for her friend.

"So you know I have a job, right?" She wanted to make sure.

"The only thing I know about it is that you never talk about it."

The older girl chuckled. It's funnier when people don't know. Well, I wanna be home soon so I can start as early as possible."

"Oh…" Rafisol was a little disappointed.

"Yeah… Sorry…" She scratched the back of her neck and looked aside. "Do you know the way home from here?"

"I do." The girl pulled out her headphones. "Good-bye, for now, Silv. Good luck on your job."

"Heh, thanks. See ya at school or online, Raf." She playfully saluted.

"Bye."

"Bye." They walked in opposite reactions.

…

…

…

…

She lied.

Silvana lied.

She didn't have her job today. She just wanted to go home and cuddle with Carbuncle.

When Rafisol was out of view she finally let herself cry.