~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sorry about the delay.
X.X ------ giggle with all honor's classes
Kuja: *prods giggle with stick*
Anywho, besides writer's block, a fried brain, and an overly-packed schedule, I'm starting a new fic . . .
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOO!
. . . But it's a joint fic, with Yami Krissy, and it's actually turning out okay, for the most part ^^ It's one of those freakish-AU types, if you know what I mean.
Weeeeeeell, I hope someone is still reading this . . . *sighs* I've been working on it, really! And I intended this chappie to span even longer, but it was just how it all turned out.
Huggles for Ice Blue X!!! She's one of the latest charies, who makes a brief cameo at the end of this chapter. However, this is not the last you'll be seeing of "Crystal" ~_^
I hope this chapter isn't as horrible as I am lead to believe.
~*~*~*~
*R Amethyst - WAIIIIIII! *huggles* I read part of your YYH fic, but I have had NO time to really finish it . . . *bristles* I shall, however! I SHALL! As for the OC thing, I'd just like to create a character off of a basis of another person, or another person's character. My OCs are very ordinary, and predictable. *sighs* Well, Bakura always seems to find the pointy objects anyway, so I suppose we shouldn't inspire any rebelliousness ^^;;;
*Ri Ame Toraookami - Meep! Thank you for the compliment! ^^;;; I can see how you can lose such a screwy story as this one; I do it all the time, on better stories. Hmm . . . I still like your OC, so don't give up all hope, darling!
*Cloak*and*Dagger/Aisha Outlaw - HA! I read both of your "new" chappies . . . although that was a while ago ^^;;; We seem to have common issues, ne? And as I said before; it takes me so long to get up chapters, that I don't mind if you review late! ^^;;; Ara--I'm glad you're not bored with this, yet!
*Ice Blue X - *huggles* You're so coooool *goes starry-eyed* Yami-K's still in the midst of checking it out, but the new story is moving along, methinks *nodnod* I took a shot at you getting seriously pissed, because you remind me of a friend who has serious road-rage, even if she's a normally sweet person ^^ Sorry, you won't be this OOC for most of the story. I'll go for a more sarcastic sense of humor, and go from there ^^ Thank you!!! For everything!
*Celes_C - *drools* Kaiba in a band is indeed, a very good mental-image. Lol! I don't know about Kimo, though!
*Psychopathic Sixth Grader - Aw, thank you for the support, as far as the characters go. I was kinda wondering . . . heh, thanks for the bomb *cackles*
Oli: O_O
*Rowan and Sakura - lol! You guys are so amusing! ^^ Yesyes, but I'm not certain if Ryou was really ~ready~ to come into meaningful conversations, he seemed to have been doing alright, for the most part . . . but all of that is about to change, now . . . ^^
*Rosz of the Angel - Heh, I was pretty proud of getting chapter 18 out, myself. I feel sorta weird about thanking god; but Catholic school inspires wariness, I suppose ^^ Rei means spirit?! That kicks ass! I'll have to mull on that a bit. Hmm *ponders*
*Yami Krissy - Teehee, THANKIES! Oh yeah, and we're the best author ever! Even if we don't have a story yet!!! ^^ *clunks too*
*Psychotic Seraph - Teehee! ^^ Thankyouthankyou!!! *huggles*
*onlyHAUNTED - Heh, my mind wanders constantly, as well. Anywho, I hope you still remember me after all of that time . . . *crosses fingers*
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It sat on polished mahogany, sneering at her quietly and looking lazy. But she wasn't fooled, it would pounce soon enough.
She tried not to show any weakness, and didn't dare break eye-contact with it; not daring to move or have her eyes move from it for even a split second. No, that would be ~dangerous~.
Gulping, she reached her leg out carefully, and brought herself closer to it, looking as inconspicuous as possible.
Another step.
She was worried that she might be taking this a little too fast. Feeling a little sticky with nervous sweat, she--
"REI! I've got some macaroni and cheese down here, are you hungry?!"
--flopped to the ground in surprise.
Rei righted herself without much hassle, glaring furiously at the innocent- looking packet on the table, her hands flexing as if she was dying to get them around it in a relatively destructive manner. With one last slight start in it's direction, she tore her gaze away and stalked out of the door.
/This isn't working./ Rei thought spitefully /I can't ~believe~ Mai talked me into this!/
It was already Wednesday of the next week, and she still hadn't brought herself to look at her vocal sheet music. Mai mentioned it sparingly in her everyday conversation, but it made the quiet girl feel beyond guilty each time.
"Hey Rei," Mai said, balancing a large bowl of orange mush precariously in one hand, while placing the other one on her hip, oven mitt and all. "have you started on that song for Saturday yet?"
"Yes." Rei responded quietly.
"Oh, that's good then." The blonde didn't notice Rei looking down at her shoes, with her lips pursed, or her slightly narrowed eyes as she set down the steaming macaroni on the kitchen table. "I was just at the mall, and I bought the CD if you're interested." She offered "I had one of their CDs before, but this one is one of the earlier ones, I think."
"Whatever . . . "
"Hey," Mai put in, sounding concerned over her cheesy noodles "are you alright?"
Rei's lip trembled in rage. This was all her fault. ~her fault~!
"Never mind!" she hissed with venom, deliberately dropping her spoon so it made a vibrant staccato onto the bowl, causing Mai to flinch slightly. Gathering up herself morosely, she simply left the scene of the kitchen with a rushed pace.
Mai's eyebrows rose considerably.
"What's up with her?"
~*~*~*~
The plastic case stuck a bit from little use, but clamping on it with two hands proved to be enough to convince it to compromise. The cover was white, with a little play of watercolors in the back, and two men drawn in black ink, looking as though they were playing ~hop-scotch~ of all things; Rei bristled at the absurd image and raised an eyebrow.
And she thought of Kaiba as a practical fellow; ~honestly~.
The inside of the CD packaging was a considerable contrast to the light exterior, cutting sharply to a night-sky design, that stretched to the back of the packet on the left, and the surface of the circular disc she was certain would span to her doom. Slipping out the companionable packet, and managing to take out the CD by awkwardly balancing the packaging between her wrists, she finally dropped it all on her bed, before seating herself next to it.
From this view, she craned her thin torso to the player, opening it with a longer-than-necessary press down on the 'open' button, feeling oddly because she had never really played with the sort of thing seriously before. It wasn't that she preferred silence, it was just the only applicable thing for her more recent times . . .
Hastily, she pushed the thought away quickly, forcing herself into a slightly disoriented haze before returning back to reality.
Without further hassle, she placed the CD to it's docile perch, before pressing play while pushing herself back to her bed, staring at the ceiling as her shorn hair branched about her head on the comforter. It was still odd to have shorter hair.
Rei pondered the feel of her head, hearing the soft intro to the song. Repetitive.
While turning out to be quite loud, she felt--as though she were floating, caught up within the predominant bass part. Slowly, her constant anger ebbed, she felt her stomach relax, and the rhythmic patterns envelop her consciousness.
But after three minutes without any vocals, she rightly decided to skip to the next song. Rei lurched forward, albeit a little dizzily, tousling her hair in the process before lashing out to use the 'skip' button, and the CD whirred inside, before settling back down to a more dark melody, starting with industrial-style themes.
Rei lay back again, as she felt the soft mattress sway a bit before settling down slowly and seemingly dancing with the artistically muffled vocals. The voice was female, but she couldn't tell at all what she was saying in the quaint, calm little parts. Or in the entire song for that matter. The melody reminded her of gently stepping up stairs in a music-box interpretation that she found quite curious-sounding compared to the deep, dark resonance pounding through a majority of the time.
/Wait, is that French?/ Furrowing her brows quizzically, she picked up the guide packet quickly, scanning the notes. According to the big, white, rounded letters, this was most diffidently NOT 'All I Need', as the label on the lyrics reminded her . . . but as the song faded and paused, she realized with a fidget that this next one ~was~.
This song would be the end of her--she couldn't sing! Her eyes closed, her face pained, and yet she began to sway involuntarily as the song literally ~*swooped*~ in to a calm melody.
There was simply an electric bass, and a whimsical acoustic guitar before another ~*swoop*~ seemed to conjure the sound of a fragile-sounding woman beginning to sing.
The melody was oddly unpredictable through it's numerous twists and turns, as each minor chord yielded to more minor chords. It was a sad sort of song, a gentle sort.
She cried, knowing that there was no way she could recreate something so beautiful . . .
~*~*~*~
Feeling moody and achingly disgruntled around her lower eyelids, Rei managed to get showered, dressed, and into the car in one piece, without speaking a meaningful word to Mai. If the other girl was concerned, she thought it wise not to mention anything.
Rei had rarely been actually ~angry~ before, just diminutively lonely and a bit frightened for reasons she didn't feel comfortable trying to recall. But everything around her seemed to have just been going wrong; first her ex-favorite card and her twisted ideals, then Mai forcing her to be someone she wasn't, and then Mai contracting her into her stupid plots in the eyes of a single good-looking male unit.
Consequently, feeling broody, Rei picked out a reasonable dark outfit for that morning (a lacy black form-fitting top that exposed a sliver of midriff, and black bondage pants with fake suspenders that jingled with every step), before weighting the entire ensemble down with two studded belts hooked together and wrapped twice around her still-narrow waist.
She slammed the corvette's door bitingly, and took to hugging her backpack close as Mai turned on the radio. The speakers pounded from each direction.
It was a relatively short drive to Domino High, but Rei still dislodged herself from the leather seat with as much force as she could muster. A slight miscalculation of her own strength and the weight of her backpack was the only reason she was sent sprawled onto the window of the white car they had parked beside.
Feeling ridiculously like a mindless fly who strayed to close to the freeway, her face burned even though no one seemed to be watching. The hot pounding in her cheeks only made her angrier.
Mai muttered a polite goodbye before abandoning the scene of the moody girl in black.
Rei felt hurt and misunderstood.
The fact that those feelings were completely blasphemous considering her mood did not even begin to register under that normally sharp head of hers. Go figure.
She adjusted her backpack and took a deep breath of the cooled morning air-- which ultimately made her feel dizzy and sickened rather than refreshed. Her stomach churned and growled it's displeasure for no apparent reason, so she clutched it doubtfully and feeling her mouth squinch up into a quizzically annoyed expression.
/Why would my stomach be growling?/ she wondered to herself, shielding her eyes from the slice of sun as she turned toward the school /I just ate breakfast./
Her head bowed, she was instantly reminded and reassured of her decidedly sullen mood by the glance of black lace clad on her collarbone. She suddenly felt very thin as a somber mindset reflected on her face.
Rei didn't notice the car. A gigantic SUV of some undetermined origin and sort loomed up the driveway, shedding a looming quality in comparison to the other stationary vehicles. All were dwarfed.
It was amazingly shiny and obviously impressive; or else simply extremely expensive. Glossy black and smoothly handling the rough road with a disgruntled sort of ease, the vehicle ended up rolling at a much higher speed than suggested in the fore-school rush.
It was simply a flash stung in slow motion out of the corner of her eye, a sneering wink--
--Realizing--
--she stood, paralyzed in the school's shabby student parking-lot--
Luckily, the driver had quick reflexes. Even if she was as pissed as possible behind those dark, tinted windowpanes.
Rei blinked, not yet accustomed to the earliness, she supposed. A little sweat broke out near her hairline at the realization that everything had almost ended right then and there.
/Not that it would have made much of a difference in the whole scheme of things./
Feeling empathetic to the awkwardness of the situation, she wiped her forhead, adjusted the straps to her backpack nervously and strode to the now ominously stopped close-call.
The ebony wheels seemed a great deal more intimidating up close, she gave a frightened sort of leer as she examined them closely.
Suddenly, the door flew open.
"Get your ass out!"
Rei stepped back.
Someone jumped out of the raised door with a flurry of arms, a disoriented landing, and a hidden mischievous twinkle in her eye; amused and glorified in her own opinion.
The girl straightened, spotting Rei, who took a disconcerted step backward at the sight of her large stenciled eyes and delightfully round face. She had a quirky expression, glorified by amusement, yet she still managed to look like a twisted little child who enjoyed killing ants at the playground.
"You're not even going to say you're sorry, huh?" she yelled into the dark, leather interior, shaking her fist.
"Dammit, kid, JUST GET YOUR BLOODY CRAP, AND LEAVE!!!"
This, more annoyed voice (indiffidently the target of the girl's amusement) was menacing and projected quite well through a vibrato that forcefully made Rei's ears ring. The girl shrugged, bouncing back to busy herself with the trunk.
"You're so horrible, Crystal!" the girl cried with mock distress.
"Keep it moving, Erin. I'm late for class!"
"You see how she treats me?" the girl, Erin, finally addressed the quiet interloper to their heated conversation. After Rei blinked a few times in alarm, the girl gave a humorously exaggerated sigh as she waved her arms helplessly.
"Move it!"
The other door slammed, as Rei heard the defined jabs of hard heels on the asphalt, hurriedly reaching over to her side as Rei began to regret coming over to these odd characters.
The woman was young; surely not a probable mother for the other girl, as she seemed to be in her early twenties or so, with that ideal sort of beauty every girl gained around that age. Her defined cheekbones were naturally pale, leading up to dark, stenciled lips that suggested exasperation rather than a mad sense of rage.
On the whole, she looked frail, and unlikely to have generated such angry shouts from her thin face, thin frame. The thinness was further exaggerated by a black corset strapped over a black dress, matching her black hair, matching her black boots, which also matched her black fishnets . . .
She was what one might refer to as 'goth'.
Crystal fiddled idly with her various pendants and chains adorning her pale neck, thoughtfully resting her gaze on Rei with all apologies already accepted as she faced her with genuine regret flashing through her dark eyes.
"Oh dear!" she walked up closer "Are you alright?! I can't ~believe~ I could be so careless . . . "
"It's alright."
"You're sure then?" she hummed "I'd hate to have scarred you for life in this near-death experience."
Getting the idea that Crystal wasn't being entirely serious any longer, Rei surprised herself by snorting out a chuckle.
"Well, I'm not so sure about that, yet."
"Tell me about the psychiatric bills." The dark woman laughed along with her "Honestly! I'm glad you're not a big fuss in this sort of situation."
"There are more important things to worry about." Rei intoned desolately.
Crystal missed any double-edged meaning to that particular statement. Finally tapping her foot five times, she seemed to combust internally, as her heel gave one final expressive kick.
"What the hell is she doing . . . " crossing her arms to fend off the chill, she paced to the sight of the trunk. Rei leaned to the side curiously, finding their antics very interesting and almost ridiculous.
The gothic woman widened her penciled, coal-black eyes and screamed when she saw that her charge was day-dreaming and examining a misplaced daisy branching up with the notice that it was destined to fail in that desolate environment.
Rei wondered why she appeared so thoughtful. A car door slammed.
Erin watched the flower with a most peculiar look on her face; requiem for something unseen. Something familiar to Rei. Loss.
The SUV revved up meaningfully, and began to inch a little away from the two high-school students. Erin shook suddenly out of the spontaneous daze, already moments before she realized what the motor running and the car slipping actually meant.
Muttering obscenities, she stalked in the direction of the frightening tinted windows, waving her arms.
But it didn't stop.
"Crystal! I'm going to KILL YOU!"
But it didn't stop. Rei felt, as she often did, as if it would be much more beneficial if she didn't interfere-not that she could. The prospect of finding the instantaneous home on a giant wheel of an SUV with a violent driver, was not an especially inviting prospect.
And Erin chased the automobile in a futile pursuit, even past the corner where Rei couldn't spot either of them anymore. Though, she did hear screams and various obscenities which inspired impossible images . . .
Which left her puzzled, and wondering just precisely ~what~ had happened.
The bell rang, and she hurried off.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My amusement for the week was that at school, there is this group of athlete-guys who ask me for help in physics. One of them IMed me the other day, coincidentally checking out my profile as well.
Now, he calls me "Miss giggle" lol! If only he knew!
*laughs continuously*
Anyway, I think the ending was way rushed. I do that a lot, don't I? Must be the anticipation in my normally lazy soul, huh.
Meh! *giggle goes clunk*
giggleplex
Sorry about the delay.
X.X ------ giggle with all honor's classes
Kuja: *prods giggle with stick*
Anywho, besides writer's block, a fried brain, and an overly-packed schedule, I'm starting a new fic . . .
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOO!
. . . But it's a joint fic, with Yami Krissy, and it's actually turning out okay, for the most part ^^ It's one of those freakish-AU types, if you know what I mean.
Weeeeeeell, I hope someone is still reading this . . . *sighs* I've been working on it, really! And I intended this chappie to span even longer, but it was just how it all turned out.
Huggles for Ice Blue X!!! She's one of the latest charies, who makes a brief cameo at the end of this chapter. However, this is not the last you'll be seeing of "Crystal" ~_^
I hope this chapter isn't as horrible as I am lead to believe.
~*~*~*~
*R Amethyst - WAIIIIIII! *huggles* I read part of your YYH fic, but I have had NO time to really finish it . . . *bristles* I shall, however! I SHALL! As for the OC thing, I'd just like to create a character off of a basis of another person, or another person's character. My OCs are very ordinary, and predictable. *sighs* Well, Bakura always seems to find the pointy objects anyway, so I suppose we shouldn't inspire any rebelliousness ^^;;;
*Ri Ame Toraookami - Meep! Thank you for the compliment! ^^;;; I can see how you can lose such a screwy story as this one; I do it all the time, on better stories. Hmm . . . I still like your OC, so don't give up all hope, darling!
*Cloak*and*Dagger/Aisha Outlaw - HA! I read both of your "new" chappies . . . although that was a while ago ^^;;; We seem to have common issues, ne? And as I said before; it takes me so long to get up chapters, that I don't mind if you review late! ^^;;; Ara--I'm glad you're not bored with this, yet!
*Ice Blue X - *huggles* You're so coooool *goes starry-eyed* Yami-K's still in the midst of checking it out, but the new story is moving along, methinks *nodnod* I took a shot at you getting seriously pissed, because you remind me of a friend who has serious road-rage, even if she's a normally sweet person ^^ Sorry, you won't be this OOC for most of the story. I'll go for a more sarcastic sense of humor, and go from there ^^ Thank you!!! For everything!
*Celes_C - *drools* Kaiba in a band is indeed, a very good mental-image. Lol! I don't know about Kimo, though!
*Psychopathic Sixth Grader - Aw, thank you for the support, as far as the characters go. I was kinda wondering . . . heh, thanks for the bomb *cackles*
Oli: O_O
*Rowan and Sakura - lol! You guys are so amusing! ^^ Yesyes, but I'm not certain if Ryou was really ~ready~ to come into meaningful conversations, he seemed to have been doing alright, for the most part . . . but all of that is about to change, now . . . ^^
*Rosz of the Angel - Heh, I was pretty proud of getting chapter 18 out, myself. I feel sorta weird about thanking god; but Catholic school inspires wariness, I suppose ^^ Rei means spirit?! That kicks ass! I'll have to mull on that a bit. Hmm *ponders*
*Yami Krissy - Teehee, THANKIES! Oh yeah, and we're the best author ever! Even if we don't have a story yet!!! ^^ *clunks too*
*Psychotic Seraph - Teehee! ^^ Thankyouthankyou!!! *huggles*
*onlyHAUNTED - Heh, my mind wanders constantly, as well. Anywho, I hope you still remember me after all of that time . . . *crosses fingers*
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It sat on polished mahogany, sneering at her quietly and looking lazy. But she wasn't fooled, it would pounce soon enough.
She tried not to show any weakness, and didn't dare break eye-contact with it; not daring to move or have her eyes move from it for even a split second. No, that would be ~dangerous~.
Gulping, she reached her leg out carefully, and brought herself closer to it, looking as inconspicuous as possible.
Another step.
She was worried that she might be taking this a little too fast. Feeling a little sticky with nervous sweat, she--
"REI! I've got some macaroni and cheese down here, are you hungry?!"
--flopped to the ground in surprise.
Rei righted herself without much hassle, glaring furiously at the innocent- looking packet on the table, her hands flexing as if she was dying to get them around it in a relatively destructive manner. With one last slight start in it's direction, she tore her gaze away and stalked out of the door.
/This isn't working./ Rei thought spitefully /I can't ~believe~ Mai talked me into this!/
It was already Wednesday of the next week, and she still hadn't brought herself to look at her vocal sheet music. Mai mentioned it sparingly in her everyday conversation, but it made the quiet girl feel beyond guilty each time.
"Hey Rei," Mai said, balancing a large bowl of orange mush precariously in one hand, while placing the other one on her hip, oven mitt and all. "have you started on that song for Saturday yet?"
"Yes." Rei responded quietly.
"Oh, that's good then." The blonde didn't notice Rei looking down at her shoes, with her lips pursed, or her slightly narrowed eyes as she set down the steaming macaroni on the kitchen table. "I was just at the mall, and I bought the CD if you're interested." She offered "I had one of their CDs before, but this one is one of the earlier ones, I think."
"Whatever . . . "
"Hey," Mai put in, sounding concerned over her cheesy noodles "are you alright?"
Rei's lip trembled in rage. This was all her fault. ~her fault~!
"Never mind!" she hissed with venom, deliberately dropping her spoon so it made a vibrant staccato onto the bowl, causing Mai to flinch slightly. Gathering up herself morosely, she simply left the scene of the kitchen with a rushed pace.
Mai's eyebrows rose considerably.
"What's up with her?"
~*~*~*~
The plastic case stuck a bit from little use, but clamping on it with two hands proved to be enough to convince it to compromise. The cover was white, with a little play of watercolors in the back, and two men drawn in black ink, looking as though they were playing ~hop-scotch~ of all things; Rei bristled at the absurd image and raised an eyebrow.
And she thought of Kaiba as a practical fellow; ~honestly~.
The inside of the CD packaging was a considerable contrast to the light exterior, cutting sharply to a night-sky design, that stretched to the back of the packet on the left, and the surface of the circular disc she was certain would span to her doom. Slipping out the companionable packet, and managing to take out the CD by awkwardly balancing the packaging between her wrists, she finally dropped it all on her bed, before seating herself next to it.
From this view, she craned her thin torso to the player, opening it with a longer-than-necessary press down on the 'open' button, feeling oddly because she had never really played with the sort of thing seriously before. It wasn't that she preferred silence, it was just the only applicable thing for her more recent times . . .
Hastily, she pushed the thought away quickly, forcing herself into a slightly disoriented haze before returning back to reality.
Without further hassle, she placed the CD to it's docile perch, before pressing play while pushing herself back to her bed, staring at the ceiling as her shorn hair branched about her head on the comforter. It was still odd to have shorter hair.
Rei pondered the feel of her head, hearing the soft intro to the song. Repetitive.
While turning out to be quite loud, she felt--as though she were floating, caught up within the predominant bass part. Slowly, her constant anger ebbed, she felt her stomach relax, and the rhythmic patterns envelop her consciousness.
But after three minutes without any vocals, she rightly decided to skip to the next song. Rei lurched forward, albeit a little dizzily, tousling her hair in the process before lashing out to use the 'skip' button, and the CD whirred inside, before settling back down to a more dark melody, starting with industrial-style themes.
Rei lay back again, as she felt the soft mattress sway a bit before settling down slowly and seemingly dancing with the artistically muffled vocals. The voice was female, but she couldn't tell at all what she was saying in the quaint, calm little parts. Or in the entire song for that matter. The melody reminded her of gently stepping up stairs in a music-box interpretation that she found quite curious-sounding compared to the deep, dark resonance pounding through a majority of the time.
/Wait, is that French?/ Furrowing her brows quizzically, she picked up the guide packet quickly, scanning the notes. According to the big, white, rounded letters, this was most diffidently NOT 'All I Need', as the label on the lyrics reminded her . . . but as the song faded and paused, she realized with a fidget that this next one ~was~.
This song would be the end of her--she couldn't sing! Her eyes closed, her face pained, and yet she began to sway involuntarily as the song literally ~*swooped*~ in to a calm melody.
There was simply an electric bass, and a whimsical acoustic guitar before another ~*swoop*~ seemed to conjure the sound of a fragile-sounding woman beginning to sing.
The melody was oddly unpredictable through it's numerous twists and turns, as each minor chord yielded to more minor chords. It was a sad sort of song, a gentle sort.
She cried, knowing that there was no way she could recreate something so beautiful . . .
~*~*~*~
Feeling moody and achingly disgruntled around her lower eyelids, Rei managed to get showered, dressed, and into the car in one piece, without speaking a meaningful word to Mai. If the other girl was concerned, she thought it wise not to mention anything.
Rei had rarely been actually ~angry~ before, just diminutively lonely and a bit frightened for reasons she didn't feel comfortable trying to recall. But everything around her seemed to have just been going wrong; first her ex-favorite card and her twisted ideals, then Mai forcing her to be someone she wasn't, and then Mai contracting her into her stupid plots in the eyes of a single good-looking male unit.
Consequently, feeling broody, Rei picked out a reasonable dark outfit for that morning (a lacy black form-fitting top that exposed a sliver of midriff, and black bondage pants with fake suspenders that jingled with every step), before weighting the entire ensemble down with two studded belts hooked together and wrapped twice around her still-narrow waist.
She slammed the corvette's door bitingly, and took to hugging her backpack close as Mai turned on the radio. The speakers pounded from each direction.
It was a relatively short drive to Domino High, but Rei still dislodged herself from the leather seat with as much force as she could muster. A slight miscalculation of her own strength and the weight of her backpack was the only reason she was sent sprawled onto the window of the white car they had parked beside.
Feeling ridiculously like a mindless fly who strayed to close to the freeway, her face burned even though no one seemed to be watching. The hot pounding in her cheeks only made her angrier.
Mai muttered a polite goodbye before abandoning the scene of the moody girl in black.
Rei felt hurt and misunderstood.
The fact that those feelings were completely blasphemous considering her mood did not even begin to register under that normally sharp head of hers. Go figure.
She adjusted her backpack and took a deep breath of the cooled morning air-- which ultimately made her feel dizzy and sickened rather than refreshed. Her stomach churned and growled it's displeasure for no apparent reason, so she clutched it doubtfully and feeling her mouth squinch up into a quizzically annoyed expression.
/Why would my stomach be growling?/ she wondered to herself, shielding her eyes from the slice of sun as she turned toward the school /I just ate breakfast./
Her head bowed, she was instantly reminded and reassured of her decidedly sullen mood by the glance of black lace clad on her collarbone. She suddenly felt very thin as a somber mindset reflected on her face.
Rei didn't notice the car. A gigantic SUV of some undetermined origin and sort loomed up the driveway, shedding a looming quality in comparison to the other stationary vehicles. All were dwarfed.
It was amazingly shiny and obviously impressive; or else simply extremely expensive. Glossy black and smoothly handling the rough road with a disgruntled sort of ease, the vehicle ended up rolling at a much higher speed than suggested in the fore-school rush.
It was simply a flash stung in slow motion out of the corner of her eye, a sneering wink--
--Realizing--
--she stood, paralyzed in the school's shabby student parking-lot--
Luckily, the driver had quick reflexes. Even if she was as pissed as possible behind those dark, tinted windowpanes.
Rei blinked, not yet accustomed to the earliness, she supposed. A little sweat broke out near her hairline at the realization that everything had almost ended right then and there.
/Not that it would have made much of a difference in the whole scheme of things./
Feeling empathetic to the awkwardness of the situation, she wiped her forhead, adjusted the straps to her backpack nervously and strode to the now ominously stopped close-call.
The ebony wheels seemed a great deal more intimidating up close, she gave a frightened sort of leer as she examined them closely.
Suddenly, the door flew open.
"Get your ass out!"
Rei stepped back.
Someone jumped out of the raised door with a flurry of arms, a disoriented landing, and a hidden mischievous twinkle in her eye; amused and glorified in her own opinion.
The girl straightened, spotting Rei, who took a disconcerted step backward at the sight of her large stenciled eyes and delightfully round face. She had a quirky expression, glorified by amusement, yet she still managed to look like a twisted little child who enjoyed killing ants at the playground.
"You're not even going to say you're sorry, huh?" she yelled into the dark, leather interior, shaking her fist.
"Dammit, kid, JUST GET YOUR BLOODY CRAP, AND LEAVE!!!"
This, more annoyed voice (indiffidently the target of the girl's amusement) was menacing and projected quite well through a vibrato that forcefully made Rei's ears ring. The girl shrugged, bouncing back to busy herself with the trunk.
"You're so horrible, Crystal!" the girl cried with mock distress.
"Keep it moving, Erin. I'm late for class!"
"You see how she treats me?" the girl, Erin, finally addressed the quiet interloper to their heated conversation. After Rei blinked a few times in alarm, the girl gave a humorously exaggerated sigh as she waved her arms helplessly.
"Move it!"
The other door slammed, as Rei heard the defined jabs of hard heels on the asphalt, hurriedly reaching over to her side as Rei began to regret coming over to these odd characters.
The woman was young; surely not a probable mother for the other girl, as she seemed to be in her early twenties or so, with that ideal sort of beauty every girl gained around that age. Her defined cheekbones were naturally pale, leading up to dark, stenciled lips that suggested exasperation rather than a mad sense of rage.
On the whole, she looked frail, and unlikely to have generated such angry shouts from her thin face, thin frame. The thinness was further exaggerated by a black corset strapped over a black dress, matching her black hair, matching her black boots, which also matched her black fishnets . . .
She was what one might refer to as 'goth'.
Crystal fiddled idly with her various pendants and chains adorning her pale neck, thoughtfully resting her gaze on Rei with all apologies already accepted as she faced her with genuine regret flashing through her dark eyes.
"Oh dear!" she walked up closer "Are you alright?! I can't ~believe~ I could be so careless . . . "
"It's alright."
"You're sure then?" she hummed "I'd hate to have scarred you for life in this near-death experience."
Getting the idea that Crystal wasn't being entirely serious any longer, Rei surprised herself by snorting out a chuckle.
"Well, I'm not so sure about that, yet."
"Tell me about the psychiatric bills." The dark woman laughed along with her "Honestly! I'm glad you're not a big fuss in this sort of situation."
"There are more important things to worry about." Rei intoned desolately.
Crystal missed any double-edged meaning to that particular statement. Finally tapping her foot five times, she seemed to combust internally, as her heel gave one final expressive kick.
"What the hell is she doing . . . " crossing her arms to fend off the chill, she paced to the sight of the trunk. Rei leaned to the side curiously, finding their antics very interesting and almost ridiculous.
The gothic woman widened her penciled, coal-black eyes and screamed when she saw that her charge was day-dreaming and examining a misplaced daisy branching up with the notice that it was destined to fail in that desolate environment.
Rei wondered why she appeared so thoughtful. A car door slammed.
Erin watched the flower with a most peculiar look on her face; requiem for something unseen. Something familiar to Rei. Loss.
The SUV revved up meaningfully, and began to inch a little away from the two high-school students. Erin shook suddenly out of the spontaneous daze, already moments before she realized what the motor running and the car slipping actually meant.
Muttering obscenities, she stalked in the direction of the frightening tinted windows, waving her arms.
But it didn't stop.
"Crystal! I'm going to KILL YOU!"
But it didn't stop. Rei felt, as she often did, as if it would be much more beneficial if she didn't interfere-not that she could. The prospect of finding the instantaneous home on a giant wheel of an SUV with a violent driver, was not an especially inviting prospect.
And Erin chased the automobile in a futile pursuit, even past the corner where Rei couldn't spot either of them anymore. Though, she did hear screams and various obscenities which inspired impossible images . . .
Which left her puzzled, and wondering just precisely ~what~ had happened.
The bell rang, and she hurried off.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My amusement for the week was that at school, there is this group of athlete-guys who ask me for help in physics. One of them IMed me the other day, coincidentally checking out my profile as well.
Now, he calls me "Miss giggle" lol! If only he knew!
*laughs continuously*
Anyway, I think the ending was way rushed. I do that a lot, don't I? Must be the anticipation in my normally lazy soul, huh.
Meh! *giggle goes clunk*
giggleplex