Okay, prepare yourselves for a shock: I don't own Sailor Moon.

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Easy

by Jessyca Thornbrook

Chapter 2

School was finally over. Usagi trudged back toward the orphanage—she never thought of it as "home." The day had only gone downhill from that morning. She'd dropped her lunch tray in the cafeteria, and everyone applauded. Then they'd had to play volleyball in gym class. She hated volleyball; she was terrible at it, and the other girls were so mean when she made mistakes!

I hate it! I hate it! I HATE it! she thought, scuffing her foot viciously on the sidewalk to punctuate each 'hate.' Unfortunately, she scuffed too hard the last time, and her shoe, which had been barely holding together for weeks now, suddenly gave way. She stumbled, and landed on her hands and knees on the sidewalk.

She jumped up as quickly as she could, and darted into an alley, ignoring the painful scrapes and bruises until she was safely out of sight. Then she surveyed the damage. The heels of her hands were red and raw, and one knee was bleeding a little, but it was her shoe that brought tears to her eyes. The sole and upper had separated all along the front, so her toes went completely through and stuck out, showing that she had a hole in her sock, too.

Nonononono! Okayama-san is going to be so angry! She told me to be more careful with my things just last week when I ripped my skirt! What am I going to tell her? She sank to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Well, well. If it isn't the rodent!" The hated voice made Usagi's head snap up. "What's the matter, Rodent? Are you crying, Rodent?" Kyoko sneered, looming over Usagi while several of her friends snickered in the background.

Usagi scrambled to her feet, back to the wall, eyes scanning for an escape route. The alley was a dead end, and the three girls with Kyoko stood in a loose half-circle, almost completely blocking the entrance. She might be able to get by Teruka, but only if she moved quickly. Unfortunately, her glance caught Teruka's eye.

"Geez, Rodent, what's wrong with you? It's like, you barely even talk. Are you too stupid to talk, or something?"

"Yeah," chimed in Kimiyo, a sixteen-year-old with small eyes and bleached-orange hair, "she's too stupid to talk!" Kimiyo was the oldest of the bunch, nearly seventeen. This would ordinarily have made her the queen of the clique, but as she hadn't been blessed with much in the way of brains, she was usually content to follow Kyoko's lead.

"I don't mean to be rude," said Kyoko's best friend Risa with mock politeness, "but has anyone ever told you that you really don't look fourteen? I mean, you look more like you're six years old, with your little pigtails and dirty uniform and scabby knees, and ohmigod, Kyoko-chan, look at her shoes!" Risa pointed, and she and Kyoko broke into giggles. Teruka's high, nervous laughter and Kimiyo's blaring haw-haw (which had always reminded Usagi of a donkey with asthma) joined in.

Usagi felt her cheeks flaming as she held her head very still to keep the tears from spilling over. Just stay quiet, don't move, they'll get bored and go away. . . she chanted over and over in her head, like a spell to ward off demons.

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"Makoto-chan, could you slow down a little?" panted Ami, trying rather unsuccessfully to keep up with the much taller girl.

"I thought you were in a hurry to get there on time!"

"Well, yes, but—ouch!" Ami's nose suddenly made violent contact with her friend's shoulderblade. She stepped back, rubbing the injured feature, and looked to see what had made Makoto stop in the middle of the sidewalk like that.

A little way ahead on the other side of the street, she could see a group of girls clustered around the entrance to a small alleyway, but before Ami could figure out what they were doing, Makoto was moving again, quickly. She dashed across the road, barely wasting a glance on the oncoming traffic, ignoring the horns and angry expressions of the startled drivers. Ami sighed and followed more carefully.

Four girls—high school students, by their uniforms—crowded around a smaller girl in a Juuban Middle School uniform. One of the high school girls was trying to take the younger girl's bookbag. The small girl had both arms wrapped around it, hugging it desperately to her chest, but another girl grabbed her wrist, pulling her arm away, and the bag went flying.

Ami took all this in from a distance, as she hurried to catch up with Makoto, who reached the alley just as the bag hit the ground. The four antagonists were laughing so hard that they didn't even notice her at first.

"You know," a sarcastic voice cut through their giggles, "I think it's really pathetic for a bunch of high school girls to gang up on one little middle schooler. But if that's your idea of fun," the voice took on a dangerous edge, "why don't you try picking on me?"

Kyoko and her friends looked up in surprise at the very angry, very tall girl standing behind them with her fists on her hips and a threatening gleam in her eye. Although they outnumbered her, none of them were in the habit of getting into physical confrontations with anyone who wasn't considerably smaller than they were. Besides, something about the expression on Makoto's face was sending shivers down their spines.

"Why don't you mind your own business?" Kyoko's false bravado was almost believable.

"She's a friend of ours, so this is our business!" Ami suddenly spoke up, still a bit breathless from running.

Makoto glanced around at the four, her eyes stopping on Teruka. "You," she ordered, "give her back her bag." When Teruka hesitated, Makoto began cracking her knuckles ominously. Teruka gulped, bent down and picked up the bag. She dusted it off briefly and handed it back to Usagi, who accepted it in a kind of daze.

"Now why don't you go make fun of some preschool kids or something? Or better yet, go shopping and see if you can get yourselves a life!"

Kyoko hesitated for a moment, then stuck her nose in the air. "Come on, girls. We've got better things to do than hang around with these children!"

"You wish!" Makoto growled after them as they sauntered away. At least, they were trying to saunter, but it looked a bit more like poorly disguised running.

Ami turned to Usagi. "Are you okay?" she asked in a kind voice.

Usagi was looking at them both with wide eyes. "I—I. . . you said that—" she blushed and muttered something in the direction of her toes. Ami could only catch the word "friend."

"I said—oh, that! Well, we aren't exactly friends, but we are classmates." The tiny, hesitant glimmer of hope in Usagi's eyes seemed to die out, so Ami quickly added "We could be friends, though, if you'd like to be." She shot Makoto a significant glance.

"Yeah," the green eyed girl chimed in, "neither of us has many friends at school. We three can stick together and try to survive Hurricane Haruna-after-a-bad-date!" Usagi actually giggled at that, and both of the other girls were surprised at the difference a smile made on her small face, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. It reminded them both of something, but neither could quite put a finger on it.

"So," said Ami, "we're friends now?"

Usagi nodded. "A-a-arigato, Mizuno-san, Kino-san!" she blurted out, and bowed awkwardly, because she didn't know what else to do.

Kino Makoto laughed. "You don't need to be so formal! We're the same age, after all. I'm Makoto, and this is Ami-chan."

"I'm Usagi."

"Usagi? That's an unusual name. I guess your folks must like rabbits!" Makoto laughed. Usagi looked at the ground, feeling her face grow warm. Ami noticed she wasn't laughing, and quickly changed the subject.

"So, Usagi-chan, what do you think of the novel we're reading in literature class? I find the basic plot fairly simplistic, but the complex characters make it quite interesting."

Usagi stared at her blankly for a moment, before stammering "I, uh, well, I, um, I guess I don't understand it, really. . . ." She trailed off, knowing her face was beet red again.

"Me either!" Makoto chimed in, rescuing her from her embarrassment. "I mean, the people in it all talk so much that they never do anything! It's like—" she was cut off by an exclamation from Ami, who was looking at her watch.

"Mako-chan! We're late! Sorry," she turned quickly to Usagi, "but we have this study group today, and the other members of the groupget really upset if we're late."

"Some of them do, anyway," muttered Makoto with a grin that Usagi didn't understand. "Hey, do you want to meet up with us later? Say, at the arcade, in a couple hours?" Usagi nodded dumbly, too surprised by the offer to answer in words. "Great!" Makoto declared energetically. "You know the Crown Center?" Another nod. "Then we'll see you there! Ja ne!"

And the two were gone. Usagi still stood in the alley, her mind trying to grasp what had just happened.

"Friends. . . ."