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Glass Slipper by liahime
4 Slippers of Iron:
Disclaimer: Liahime probably doesn't own Digimon. Guess why? (Hint. It has to do with the word Disclaimer.)
Ayashi was steaming. "WHY did they, those idiotic teachers, invent something like PE!"
Asuka, timidly fading into the corner of the gym lockers, whispered something. "Maybe... maybe it's for our physical wellness and health?"
"Are you CRAZY!" She threw a hairbrush at her.
"Just a suggestion! Stupid suggestion! Sorry A- Miss Fujiwara."
"You should be, Asuka." An evil light lit up in Ayashi's eyes. "You're so sorry, that you'll go and steal Miss Nonaka's clothes and come back to me with them."
One of the more intellectually-challenged girls laughed. "Ayashi, you perv-" She was quickly silenced by another hairbrush. Ayashi continued.
"And then, Asuka, and everyone else, we shall," she paused dramaticallly, "Flush them down the TOILET!" She cackled.
"Er...Miss Fujiwara? Are you sure?"Ayashi glared at her and kept cackling.
"Yes, I am, Midori." She cackled. "Go, Asuka. Go!" Her voice raised in pitch as she cackled evilly in the girls' locker room.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the locker room, Asuka was creeping away. Should she do this? It was one thing to stuff notes down someone's locker, but stealing someone's clothes so that your evil leader can get her revenge by flooding a toilet? Was this right?
Of course.
The girl crept slowly behind Rika, picking up a pair of jeans. These? The New York transfer student- Elicia or something- stepped on her head as Ayashi's minion slowly crawled on the floor.
"Er... Asuka?"
Asuka pretended that she wasn't there, and that she was invisible.
"Give me me pants back!" Asuka thought about random things, trying extremely hard to ignore her. For a transfer student, her Japanese isn't that bad. The cement is a lovely color of gray. Elicia looked down at Asuka, who was squeezing her eyes shut. "Asuka? Are you OK? In the head?" When Asuka didn't respond, she grabbed her pants, and walked away, complaining about crazy pants-stealers in Japan. Asuka crept on.
Eventually, several pairs of pants later, she found Rika's pants. Rika was mumbling and glaring at something while Jeri Katou was giggling hysterically at whatever. She took them, and laughed triumphantly, making up her own version of the Ayashi cackle. Rika turned around.
"Asuka! What do you think you're doing with my pants?" She glared at her and started to chase after her.
Eep. Eep. Eep. Asuka started to run, still waving Rika's pants like a flag. She rushed through people, knocking them down. Rika chased her, gaining on her second by second. From years of running after Ryo, Asuka was fast. Rika was faster. They burst out of the locker room, and onto the "pleasant porch", installed by the architects twelve feet off the ground, where students could "peacefully chat and admire the grounds from above." This was, of course, not what happened.
Rika and Asuka chased each other up and down the stairs and around the pleasant porch, until Asuka, blessed with incredible dumb luck and track skills, was cornered, balanced on the porch rail. Rika lunged for her pants, and just grabbed them, when Asuka jumped.
Asuka landed on her feet, a perfect landing. The bystanders applauded. Rika, who lunged for the once waving pants, had the pants- but was falling, almost headfirst in a dive to the hard cement. Ayashi smiled at Ryo, and stood completely in front of him, blocking his view from the falling Rika. She smiled wide, brushed off that stupid Kazu, and bubbled on about Ryo's "amazing 'athletic-ness'". He looked worried, and rushed. She planted herself in front of him, completely blocking him. Why don't you hurry up and hit the ground, Nonaka?
Don't let me die now for these stupid pants, Rika thought to herself. The cement was coming nearer and nearer, people were screaming. She was actually quite at peace with herself. I wonder if I'll survive this? I wonder if my pants have a hole in them? Someone was shouting her name. Who? She was falling now, and she panicked just before she was close to the cement, when suddenly, the cement stopped coming closer-
"Wildcat, you're not really a cat. So don't try it again. You won't land on your feet."
She glared up at him. "Drop me now, Akiyama."
He looked down at her. "I told you, call me Ryo!"
She glared. He sighed. "Don't waste the rest of your seven lives, wildcat." Then he winked at her. "I'm not always there to save you."
"Quit winking! I'm not Wildcat, it's RIKA."
"Pumpkin, do you have to be so stubborn all the time?"
"Why are you so arrogantly sure everyone likes you?"
"Why do you think everyone doesn't?"
They stared at each other, one smiling, one glaring.
The tension was very, very thick. The people watching weren't exactly sure what to do. Either Rika or Ryo, (probably, they thought, Rika,) was going to explode. They weren't exactly sure who was mad at who. Of course, Rika looked mad, but she had just been saved by Ryo. And Ryo was smiling, so was he mad?
"OK, listen up everone!" The tiny teacher shouted into the microphone. The confused, silent crowd of kids ignored her, whispering between themselves. She adjusted the microphone's volume and screamed into it.
"LISTEN!" They did.
She smiled calmly out at them. "Today," she chirped, "We are all going to do the Iron Shoe Run, our famous and beloved mile-long run, wearing our specially crafted iron shoes!" She held up a pair. "See?"
Everyone groaned. Every other year, a random class was selected to run the Iron Shoe, and this year it was them. The chirpy teacher smiled at them, and pointed at the shoe boxes. "Go and line up for your shoes everyone! Hustle! Hustle! Hustle!" People trudged towards the boxes, complaining.
Jeri looked worried. "Are the shoes really hard? I hope they don't hurt my feet..."
Ayashi, passing by looked at her. "Your feet, Katou, are too big- much too big for this kind of thing. You may be lucky- they don't make shoes in size Elephant." She snickered. Her minions giggled.
"That's hilarious-huhuh- Ayashi-you're a- huhuh-comic genius-huhuh,"
"Shut up, Asuka. You're not to call me Ayashi, just refer to me as Miss Fujiwara. And get rid of that stupid thing you call a giggle." She walked away, Asuka following her.
"Are my feet really that big?
Takato, wearing his iron shoes already, frowned. "Who told you that?" Takato had just joined Jeri and Rika. "They're small! And cute! Who told you they were big?"
Jeri blushed. "Ayashi..."
"She's stupid, just like her fanclub, and their "object of adoration." Ignore her." Rika laced on her iron shoes. They were surprisingly heavy. Jeri tried one of hers on and winced.
"These must be about 10 pounds!" She tried jogging in place and stopped. "Ow... I'm gonna kill my feet like this!"
"Let's go people! Go! Go! G! O! Let's go!" The chirpy PE teacher cheered. Groaning, the unlucky class started running down the track.
Who would get the fastest time this year? Every year, the Iron Shoe Run's fastest runner was honored as the fastest student of the year, complete with yearbook pictures. No doubt Ayashi's going to try and get it, Rika thought to herself. Ayashi, though one of the worst runners in the school, adored having her photo taken. Rika kept running, forgetting the weight on her feet.
"Hey pumpkin!" Someone was talking in her ear, and getting really close to her. She jogged faster. That same person caught up with her. "C'mon, talk to me. You still mad? Or are you saving your breath for the run?"
Rika let herself look at Ryo. For some reason, her concentration was never the same after she looked at someone- even this blue-eyed rival of hers. "What."
"Tired yet?" He looks so cheerful. And untired. How does he do it? The iron shoes' weight were slowing her down. He looked like he was floating on air. He turned around and ran backwards, facing her, smiling.
"No."
"You know, you're making everyone look bad, Rika. Do you like doing that or is it just your adorable self?" He looked behind them. Yards away, people were running in their iron shoes, far from catching up. Did I really run that fast?
As if reading her thoughts, Ryo grinned. "You left everyone in the dust, wildcat. Trying to run away from someone?"
"You." Her feet hurt so much right now, and her hair was starting to come out of the hair tie.
"If you're blushing, it's OK to share your feelings, you know. I don't mind." He was hopping on one foot now. How did he do it? Rika just glared. They were nearing the end now.
"Wanna race?" He grinned wider, if that was possible. "I always win."
"Why don't you-" Before Rika finished the sentence, he was off running.
"Cheater!" She called after him, and took off running, trying to ignore the heavy iron shoes as she and Ryo took off, running through the track.
Cameras flashed. Ryo grinned. He had to have won- obviously. Then he looked at the other person, breathing heavily, beside him. Rika. That was great! She had made it too! He grinned at her, too exhausted to do anything else. That last part completely tired him out.
Cameras flashed. Rika, breathing hard, had won. At least that's what must have happened, because everyone was taking pictures of her looking like an idiot. She heard someone laugh right next to her. The photographer? It couldn't be. She turned her head, and there was Ryo Akiyama. Who won? He grinned at her? That meant he won? She won? Was he mad? Was she mad? Gone crazy?
The yearbook photographer smiled at them both. "Smile for the camera! You two were the fastest I've seen yet!" Her finger hovered over the camera button and clicked down hard.
And in the yearbook, the moment of tired, hyper Ryo Akiyama kissing an exhausted, glaring, Rika Nonaka on the cheek on that sunny day on the track was immortalized forever more.
Reviewers of Chapter Four:
GTKari-123-thanx so much! you're the first reviewer of chapter 4!
Black- The drama teacher, Yumi Sarawatari, twists the noses of her fellow teachers. She'd make people sign a contract.. I'll try not to use capitals and not be tacky.. Even though it's fun... Thank you! Glad you liked it!
notyouraverageblond- Thank you! I'll try hard to make Glass Slipper the best I can make it!
aNiMe-AzN-aNgEl-I liked the ending too.. glad you liked it!
DigiChick( )- you're the latest reviewer. You reviewed about 10 minutes before I posted this!
Originally, this was going to end as a shorter piece, but then I looked at it, and it was much much too short. So you get what was going to be next chapter. And THEN, I wrote up another chapter, but my computer ate it... it was hungry and mad at me... If you think it's too much of whatever, too little whatever, tell me... I really need it! Comments, suggestions, and (of course) compliments always loved! liahime