It was supposed to be a fun and relaxing evening spent baking with a friend...
Furutani Himawari squeezes her bagstrap, her nails digging into her palm as she tries to ignore the girl walking side-by-side with her on the sidewalk. Himawari had been planning to walk to the apartment where Funami Yui, her senior by one year, lived by herself. Since Himawari had needed to stay after school to help her fellow student council members, Yui had agreed to wait at her place for Himawari to arrive.
And yet...Himawari thinks to herself, her eye twitching. Naturally, the instant she had mentioned her plans to a certain someone in the desperate hope that the certain someone in question would have gotten the hint and walked home on her own...
I should've known better than to expect her to 'get the hint.'
Himawari glares at the girl next to her, who glances back and grins, cocking her head.
"Ehhhhhh? Got something to say, Himawari?" Oomuro Sakurako asks smugly, lacing her hands behind her head, her elbows wide.
"I can't believe you invited yourself over like that," Himawari sighs, turning her gaze left across the street.
"Well SOMEONE has to make sure it tastes good, right? Who better than Sakurako-sama, after all?" Sakurako zips right, jumping up onto the railing that separates the sidewalk from the wooded area opposite the street, her shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair bouncing off her thin shoulders. Her hair is adorned with two hair clips, one red and one black, securing a sheaf of hair just off her left temple.
Sakurako strides effortlessly on the flat top of the metal railing. Watching her, Himawari has to admit that it would be impossible for her to manage the same. While Sakurako couldn't finish her homework alone without...conceivably, an act of God, she had always been leagues ahead of Himawari when it came to anything even remotely athletic.
If only Sakurako wasn't also in the student council, maybe I could have slipped out alone...
No...she'd probably just wait for me anyway.
"You just want free treats. It's not like you'll help at all," Himawari grumbles, "which is for the best, considering what a disaster you are in the kitchen."
"Eh?! You sure you can even move around in senpai's kitchen?" Sakurako jumps down from the railing with a downward swipe of her hands aimed at Himawari's chest, but Himawari steps back, dodging the attack and launching her foot upwards in a powerful kick aimed at the now bent-over Sakurako's stomach.
"URGH.." Sakurako takes the full force of the blow and rolls off Himawari's foot, falling onto the ground.
"Why? Because I'm a...b..booby monster? Or was it a booby demon?" Himawari steps over Sakurako and continues on her way, though to her disappointment (but not surprise) Sakurako recovers quickly, a loud stomping heralding her return.
Himawari looks over at Sakurako, who returns Himawari's withering glare with another smug grin.
"Well, at least you've accepted your official nicknames. I suppose I can at least congratulate my lesser for that accomplishment," Sakurako raises one hand to her chin in approval.
"Lesser...of an idiot maybe," Himawari growls back.
Of course Sakurako invited herself over. Because I can't get rid of her, no matter what I do. The two had been around each for years, from kindergarten all the way until now in middle-school, and with every passing day Himawari began to suspect more and more that they would be stuck with each other forever.
"A lesser and an idiot? Sure, I suppose I could give you that much," Sakurako snickers as she bounds ahead, picking up a stick and waving it in front of her like a parade's Grand Marshall. Himawari, one hand still squeezing her bagstrap and her other forming a trembling fist glued to her thigh, tries to ignore Sakurako's antics.
"I already make you sweets all the time, and I would have brought you some of what I'll make tonight, so what's the point of you chasing after me?" Himawari mutters at Sakurako, expecting to be ignored, but surprisingly Sakurako stops dead in her tracks and whirls around to face her.
"Wh...? I'm not chasing after you!" Sakurako stomps her foot and shakes the stick at Himawari, "It's not like I'm going to help, I'm just coming for free food!"
"Oh, so you admit you're a parasite?"
"WHA-?! Parasite?! The only parasites here are those huge bags hanging off your chest!" Sakurako whips the stick in an upwards arc, slapping Himawari's right breast and sending a lightning-bolt of sharp pain through Himawari's body. Dumbstruck, Himawari freezes for a moment, her face darkening into a twisted, furious mask. Sakurako steps back, her hands up in a pleading gesture as she drops the stick, "I...uh...that, that was an accident! Yeah...if you hadn't been there, it would've been fine! If you really think about it, it's kinda your fau-"
"Sakurako..." Himawari steps forwards and Sakurako tries to back away but trips, falling in panic. Himawari bends down and picks up the stick. "I think I feel an accident coming on..."