AN : Do I still have any readers after a four-month hiatus? ...If you come back to me, I'll give you scallop-flavored skittles. What do you mean you don't like those? You aren't a reader! You poser! You fake! Fraud! Brittney Spears! Yeah, yeah, I went there. ...I'm sorry. Let's never fight again. I... -sniffles- I love you, man. I still remember Paris. Actually, I need to tell you. I only want your reviews. Go on, I don't expect you to stay. Leave, like all the other gopher-filled marshmallow puffs before you. -wails-
Ari yawned sleepily, and checked her watch. Alynxia, Matron, and Auron were supposed to meet her already. They were probably dragging the morning-hating cat girl out of bed.
As if on cue, a black and grey bundle dropped into a limp heap by her feet. Ari looked up to where the bundle had fallen from. Auron and Matron stared apathetically back from the rooftop. "Is she dead?" Auron asked, a tinge of hope in his voice. Matron smacked him, making him fall forward. He landed on the concrete with a dull 'thunk', and somehow made an Auron-shaped crater. He must be heavy, because that was only a second floor drop.
Ari turned her back on the twitching red mass and poked the black and grey mass with the toe of her sneaker. It moved slightly with the rocking motion of Ari's touch. Ari kicked it harder, causing it to emit a small, sleepy yelp. The identity of the blob was now certain.
"It's too early to play with the kangaroos," Lynx informed Ari with a small yawn.
"I know. Just ignore them, they're going to pass on to Iceland." They watched Auron struggle to his feet, weaving back and forth slightly.
Matron leapt lightly from the rooftop and landed with perfection. "If you're done playing, we have school." She shot a look towards Auron that clearly read 'Mess this up, and I will beat you with Prism and Rainbow, then devour your heart with a spoon'. It's amazing what one look can convey.
The walk to the school was relatively silent, with the exception of the sound of Lynx being dragged over every single pebble, glass shard, and insect on the sidewalk, and a few on the other side of the street. Of course, the silence never lasts around these people.
"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" came the deafening yell that caused a deaf man five blocks away to have bleeding eardrums. "I thought you'd never come! You're late!" A girl of average height bounced up to them. Her green hair fell down to her shoulders in tangled waves, and green eyes stared at the group with a slight maniac look.
" . . . You were supposed to meet up with us two blocks back," Matron said slowly, her hearing slowly returning. Just maybe she'd be able to hear something as loud as lawn mower before second period.
Surprisingly, Alynxia was not jolted awake by this loud greeting, and was just starting to wake up. "Hey Kai-chan," Lynx mumbled, suppressing another yawn. "How are you?"
"The need to drown little children has arisen most painfully."
"That's nice. Be nice to them now." Before she could fall asleep again, Ari slapped her awake. Used to watching her friends go through this routine, Kai stared at the man in the red trench coat. There was something familiar about him.
"So, recognize our guest?" Matron asked, seeing a spark in Kai's eyes. Auron glanced at her a second before deciding she wouldn't be a threat unless she was a rabid fangirl. There were more of those than he'd expected, and they could be more dangerous than a Marlboro.
"I got it! Gaku Namikiri!" The group stared at the girl blankly. Crickets chirped, tumbleweeds rolled by, and an old lady shuffled past while threatening them with mace.
"If you got Namikiri, where's Night?" Kai spaced in and out of reality, imagining her obsession. "Ooh, he's so sexy! I love him so."
"Kai-chan, Gaku's not this old. I think." Auron growled at Lynx for implicating he was old. "If this was Gaku, he'd be in my room, chained to my wall. And lastly, Gaku wears a leather collar. While Auron would look very good in leather, he doesn't wear it."
"Auron. . . . Hmm, very familiar."
"It should be, dorktard." Matron set her bookbag down and worked the cramps out of her muscles. She didn't think they'd be standing out here that long. "I got you addicted to the game he plays in."
"You hired a guy to cosplay as Auron from Final Fantasy X and follow you around? New level of weird. I'd rather have the real thing."
"He is the real thing! Auron in the flesh, with muscles that will snap you in half like a twig! A twig, I tell you!"
"Now you're making me sound like a bad action movie hero," Auron grumbled.
"Stop whining and be a good boy." Matron picked her bag up. "This is Kai-Daemion Aloura Valentine." Kai, still facing Auron, waved more or less in his general direction. "Kai, this is Auron. He's going to talk to the principal for us instead of our parents since we don't want to get in trouble."
Kai observed the sword Auron had strapped to his back. Oh yeah, that would make a good first impression.
-----
"I-I'm sorry, sir, but you can't come into the school with that," the nervous door monitor stuttered. "Weapons aren't allowed on school grounds."
"Then how do you protect yourselves?" Auron questioned harshly. "It is foolish to believe you always will be safe while the moment lasts."
"It's quite safe here, sir. We don't allow weapons to keep the students safe."
"That's a load of bull!" Kai declared. "The knives in Home Ec. cut off a student's thumb a couple times one day!" No one seemed to notice the idiocy of that statement.
"They weren't paying attention to what they were doing." Now that the monitor was back to talking to someone on his level, his arrogant smirk and puffed up chest were back.
"I stabbed myself on Siggy!" Lynx said, giving him a look.
"Who is Siggy?"
"My locker!" Everyone stared at her. "How can you tell me that's not dangerous?" Lynx pouted. "I was watching what I was doing, too! I watched the door close right on my finger and try to devour my flesh!" She was ignored.
"The point, sir, is that you may not enter this door as long as you have that sword strapped to your back." Auron slowly reached for his sword, but Matron and Ari hurriedly dragged him to the parking lot.
"Not to worry!" Kai and Lynx declared. "We shall smuggle you in!" They chuckled to themselves darkly. Lights flashed in the background. Somewhere, a baby cried. Skipping happily past the monitor, Kai hissed at him, and Lynx kicked him in the shins.
"Those two morons," Matron muttered. "How do they plan to do that?"
"Well, they'll probably--"
"That was a retorical question, Ari. I don't want to know." A laugh track played as soon as this statement was uttered. Auron smirked, his hand inside his coat.
"It follows me," Ari whispered, crouching. "It is the evilness that never quits. It shall be stabbed!"
At that moment, one of the windows burst into a thousand shards, and two girls burst from the frame. They rolled over to Auron, lifted him above their heads, and jammed him through the window frame. "Waha!" In unison, they crouched, looked around, and rolled backwards, flipping through the frame.
"Come, Ari," Matron sighed in exasperation, walking into the school. "We must track them down."