She stood on a rocky ledge, overlooking an abyss filled with hellfire. The super-baked air resounded with the screams of tortured souls, the cruel inhuman laughter of those torturing the souls, and various other horror-movie sounds. Surprisingly – or maybe not - the background music for all of this was the Barney Theme Song, with the Teletubbies as the back-up singers.
And then, impossibly, the roaring holocaust that was Hell suddenly froze. Each and every one of the huge flames suddenly turned into white-blue ice with loud crackles. From a temperature that was roughly equivalent to the surface of the sun, Hell now enjoyed the mild crisp clime of negative 1000 degrees. Celsius. The soundtrack screeched to a halt, along with the screams, groans, and pleas for oblivion. And then the noise started up again, with nearly every denizen saying, "What the (beep) (beep) (BEEEEEEEEPING) is going on?"
Hey, they're in Hell, do you think they care about keeping their language clean?
One of the
larger demons, Subsection Chief of that particular part, clambered to the top
of one of the needle-topped spires of rock that littered the ground, yanking
icicles off his horns as he did so. "Hey!" he screamed to the technical staff
as he reached his vantage point. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"
"I'm sorry sir!" yelped one
demon as he scrambled around, checking gauges. "It's like this everywhere! Hell
just froze over!"
"What the heaven for?!"
Another demon, five-eyed face bent close to his console screen, gasped. "I…I don't believe it…reports coming in sir! They're saying Ruki Makino just got kissed by a boy!"
"On the lips?!" repeated the Subsection Chief in astonishment.
"Yeah, yeah, on the lips! And…I don't believe it…the guy's still alive!"
A chorus of gasps echoed through the former inferno.
"Man, who ever thought that would happen?" asked the Subsection Chief, shaking his head. "Well, now we're gonna have to spend at least five weeks de-icing the area. Damn! This hasn't happened since that Ranma guy finally chose a fiancée."
***
"Ohhh…" Claudia, a half-American student at St Hebreke's, came slowly back to consciousness. She became aware that she was lying on the ground, and her friends were crouched around her, worried. Well, all her friends except Yana-sama, who was more her idol than a friend. Yana-sama stood a short distance off, her big brown eyes staring hard at something. Claudia wondered briefly what it was Yana-sama was looking so intently at before she spoke to her friends.
"Did I faint?" she asked, not as surprised as you might think. Claudia was what her family and friends called high-strung. (others, like that dreadful Makino girl, called her hysterical) She tended to faint a lot, at the slightest provocation. She couldn't remember quite what had triggered this one, though…
"I just had this funny dream," she told her friends. The sheer hilarity of the situation was too good not to be told. "In it, Makino got kissed, and Hell froze over because of that! Isn't that a scream?"
"Um, Claudia-chan?" said one of her friends hesitantly. "It wasn't a dream."
Claudia turned her head to see Makino talking with an actual living breathing boy. And not a horribly-deformed freak of nature, as they had once joked would be the only such thing willing to be with Makino. In fact, this one was quite cute…
Claudia
fainted again.
***
Takato made good use of Ruki's induced silence to talk. "Hey, Ruki. Miss me?" he asked, grinning. "Look, I was just in the neighborhood, and I wanted to drop by, so…"
"Goggles," Ruki said flatly, trying to ignore the way her heart was racing, "Your school is on the other side of town."
"Not that far!" Takato protested. "Only half-way across town."
"…anyway, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I couldn't reach your cellphone, and I wanted to call you so that we could make plans for today!"
"We just went out yesterday!" I do not believe I just said that. That wasn't going out!
"Yeah, but…" Takato kicked the ground. "Look, I…we…I think we need to talk."
The boy's sudden reverting to a serious manner surprised Ruki. "You're right," she found herself agreeing. "We do."
"Yeah. Um," Takato looked uncertain, a vestige of the slightly hesitant boy he had once been coming to the surface. "Do you want to meet at the Ucchan's Grill?"
We DO need to talk, I guess. "Alright, gogglehead. After school."
Takato's grin came back on his face. "Cool! See ya then, Ruki-chan!"
"What did you just call me?! Hey, no one…!" Ruki trailed off, she would later say in anger but I say it was just in shock, as Takato dropped a light kiss on Ruki's forehead. He then walked off.
Again the mass of girls who had gathered to watch this strangeness made a path for Takato as he walked back to his bike. He noticed it this time, looking at the students strangely before his watch made a little beeping noise. He glanced at the digital display.
"Oh shoot! I'm late for school!" he exclaimed, leaping for his bike and pedaling away furiously. As he rode out of sight, nearly every head, which had been watching him, swiveled back in Ruki's direction. She gulped as she suddenly found herself the center of attention for nearly the entire school.
The bell rang to signal the start of classes. Ruki jumped to her feet and raced into the school, happy, for once, for that ear-shattering alarm.
***
Submit Review Report Possible Abuse Add Story to Favorites Add Author to Favorites Add Author to Author Alert 1. Best Friends?2. This Kiss3. Worth A Thousand Words4. School Visit5. When Hell Freezes Over6. Earning Detention7. Awkward Encounters8. Going Bye Bye9. replies to reviewers10. Aftershock11. Meanwhile, Back At The Lair