II. Free Dress Friday
Amanda leaned back against a row of lockers as Constanze was still rummaging through her own on the bottom row catty
corner from Amanda's. It was late in the day and classes were over. Amanda looked over into her teammate.
"Damn, you sure have a clean locker, Constanze. Ha, mine just has a paper, textbooks
and snacks." Amanda remarked as Jasminka giggled.
"You also have 22 gummy wrappers, 10 chip bags and 3 fast food wrappers." Jasminka finished, downing a pretzel from another of her endless bags.
Amanda sighed, she forgot that Jasminka was very attentive when it came to all things food related. She must have seen into her locker too.
"Look, I don't have time for cleaning, I'm too busy livin' life. You know being gay and doing crime." Amanda grinned, folding her arms behind her head. A couple of students passed by and giggled a little as Amanda winked at them.
Constanze closed her locker and showed Amanda a piece of paper. It was a to-do list that the green team had created for the week. Constanze pointed to the second to last thing on the list, "Wednesday: Meet up with the red team for study hall, after 4 in the courtyard."
"Aw shit that's today! Man." Amanda groaned. Just when she thought she had enough time to go back to her room and figure out her outfit for Friday. Amanda sighed and started down the hallway with her team in tow. She was a rebel but she still needed to be a leader and that being meant being responsible at times.
After a few minutes of walking the team reached the courtyard and heard Akko and Lotte practicing with their brooms.
"Okay, now that you know how to hover, lets try flying forward." Lotte suggested. Akko was on the ground ready for take off, with her tongue sticking out and eyes narrowed. Lotte was beside her ready to take off on her broom as well. Sucy was sitting away from them, sorting her mushrooms out on the grass.
"Okay! I got this Lotte! I'm ready." Akko said crouching down, ready to spring up from the ground on her broom.
"Okay, hover in the air." Both Akko and Lotte did so slowly in unison.
Akko was beaming. The green team plopped down by Sucy.
Jasminka eyed some of Sucy's mushrooms deviously. When Sucy turned away her hand slowly crept over to a plump butter-yellow mushroom.
"You eat ANY of my mushrooms and heads WILL roll." Sucy turned back to Jasminka with a terrifying glint in her eye. Jasminka sweated and shrunk back. Amanda looked over annoyed at her teammate.
"Jasminka. We talked about this. Seriously, they're probably all poisonous. So any way, are we actually doing study hall or just "study halling"." Amanda asked using air quotes.
"I'm about to do some potions homework and those two are… well, my entertainment." Sucy ended with a shit-eating grin at her teammates.
Lotte was demonstrating how to fly in a straight line as Akko watched her glide a few yards away.
"Okay now you try."
"Alright!" Akko said, and instead of flying slowly forward she flew quickly to the right into a bench and off her broom. Amanda sighed, deciding that looking at the sky and talking was more interesting than homework.
"So what's the word about Friday? Have the teachers decided yet?" Amanda asked Sucy. Sucy looked behind Amanda to a large set of windows to one of the conference rooms. There were several witch hats that could be seen in the window nodding and moving as people talked.
"They're still deciding, last I heard Diana was in there, arguing against the idea. Rumor has it, she even made a powerpoint." Sucy scoffed.
Constanze held up a whiteboard that said, "She's so extra."
Amanda snickered and smiled at Sucy.
"Rellllaaaxxx. She's probably losing the battle as we're talking. Seriously, in that student poll last week, 90% of the students are in favor of it. Besides we all need to figure out what to wear on Friday. We gotta be the 2 sickest looking teams at school!" Amanda said with a fighting spirit in her eyes.
Constanze smiled sweetly and clapped her hands together excitedly.
"I was gonna wear my mushroom hunting poncho, it smells like happiness." Sucy said with a huge lovestruck grin on her face.
"My cookie shirt is the best choice for sure." Jasminka said.
"Hell yeah! Show that cleavage. We can wear whatever the fuck we want! Hahaha, Diana's gonna be so pissed, I can see the look on her face now. It's gonna be great! Well, speak of the devil." Amanda said as she looked over at one of the double doors opening and the blue team exiting with different looks on their faces.
Hannah and Barbara looked bummed out, keeping pace with Diana, who looked very angry and upset.
"Hey it's not that bad. It's only one day a week." Barbara said with a forced smile.
"Yeah it's not like they did away with the uniforms all together." Hannah remarked. Diana didn't say anything and walked swiftly toward the dorms. Akko and Lotte walked over to the group, who stopped begrudgingly to talk.
"H-how did it go?" Lotte stuttered out nervously. Hannah and Barbara looked at each other scared to speak.
"It was a good powerpoint." Barbara mumbled. Diana gritted her teeth passionately.
"I think Professor Finnelan liked it." Hannah squeaked. Diana balled her fisted up and shook with rage but calmed herself.
"They decided to go through with it. It would be bad for student morale if this was not allowed, so they say. After countless years of maintaining proud tradition, they caved in. Even after I spoke with them." Diana spat angrily. Amanda stifled her laughter as she walked over to gloat.
"Yeah, that's a shock, actually. Finally, all your brownie points for sucking up to the teachers ran out. I guess kissing up will only get you so far. Hahahah. You actually didn't get your way this time, Princess. How does it feel?" Amanda said letting out a huge laugh at the end. Diana shook with anger as her teammates looked back and forth between their leader and Amanda nervously.
Akko spoke up, finally understanding what everyone was talking about.
"Oh! It makes sense know! I get what you were saying a few weeks ago Amanda. Remember when you stood up in front of everyone and said that Diana's big, fat -" Akko's mouth was covered by Lotte who was sweating profusely.
"OKAY! How about we let you guys get on y-your way. We've taken up enough of your time and we're all supposed to be studying, ha ha, right Amanda?" Lotte said desperately.
Diana glared daggers at Amanda and slowly stepped toward her, never breaking her glare. Amanda slowly stopped laughing, when she saw that Diana was serious. What the hell? It was literally just one day of the week without uniforms? Why was Diana so wrapped up in something so minor and trivial? Or did she have something at stake here? Amanda pondered as Diana closed the distance between them.
The red head could feel the seething rage underneath that pale complexion.
"WHAT, did you say about me?" Diana asked in a threatening tone. Amanda looked Diana up and down and decided she had gone far enough with this.
"Look, it was weeks ago-"Amanda started.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT ME?" Diana demanded in a fiery tone. Amanda shrugged it off and decided that she wasn't going to lose her cool over the facts. She was going to say what she had said. Some other students who were passing through the courtyard, stopped to watch, until there was a sizable crowd.
"I told everyone that you'd try to argue against the whole thing because you're an insecure bitch. I also said you're a hypocrite with a lot of internalized homophobia and you're afraid to wear anything other than a school uniform because if you did people would realize how much of a flaming gay you are." Amanda finished. Diana's whole frame rattled with pure rage. Finally she let it loose.
"THAT'S NOT THE LEAST BIT TRUE!" Diana yelled, silencing the whole courtyard.
Amanda looked at her with a surprised look on her face. She had just struck a nerve, but the real question was what was pissing Diana off so much?
"What is?" Amanda asked plainly, secretly loving this.
"I'M NOT GAY. THAT'S UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE!" Diana spat turning around to look at the crowd of students around her.
"And if ANYONE around here thinks they can get away with spouting that kind of slander about me, then you'd better be ready for more than just my wrath."
With that Diana walked briskly away, leaving Amanda stunned. So that's what this was really about. Damn. Amanda thought as the crowd dispersed. That must suck to be in so much denial. She sat back down with her group again, still looking back at where Diana had gone. Amanda had always prided herself in encouraging others to let loose and be themselves. So maybe it was time to work her magic on Diana? Yeah, that wasn't going to be easy.