"Shigatsu baka!" A loud voice yanked Kagami from her slumber. Of course, this rude awakening did not improve her early-morning mood. In fact, it only made her feel more annoyed than she usually did when she woke up. She turned over, pulling her blanket up and pressing her face into her pillow. Her initial reaction was to ignore the voice and let herself drift off again, but that plan was voided when the voice reminded her that it was still there. "Good morning, Kagamin! Rise and shine!"
"K-Konata..." She growled, her face muffled by the cushion it was pressed into. A second later, the pillow flew across the room and she jumped up and swung her legs off the bed, squinting her eyes and looking for the familiar blue color she knew the intruder would bear. After a moment of glaring at the wall, she realized—nobody was there.
Confused, she stared at the empty space. Had she been hallucinating when she heard the voice of her friend? If that were the case, she would have to figure out the reasons why the girl appeared in her dreams, and avoid those causes in the future.. Chances were, she had just been dreaming. It was time for her to wake up anyway; today was a Saturday, but one of her personal rules was to regulate her sleeping schedule, even on the weekends.
Grumbling to herself, Kagami picked her pillow up off the ground and tossed it back onto her bed. Since she was already up—one of her pet peeves was her inability to return to sleep after waking—she might as well wash up and prepare for the day. She went to the door, her first destination being the bathroom.
While she was rinsing her face under the running water, Kagami's mind had nowhere else to drift but the first event of the day; unfortunately, it was an unpleasant one. "Shigatsu baka, huh?" She sighed as the words clicked in her head like the pieces of a puzzle. What a way to start the day; before she had even woken up, she had already been a victim of an April Fool's Day prank, and indirectly at that.
She shut off the faucet and shook off the water on her hands. She had known Konata for three years now, and this was the second year in a row that she woke up on the first day of the fourth month with Konata as a friend. Last year, the blue-haired girl had celebrated the anniversary of their friendship with a practical joke. While Kagami didn't resent her for it, it didn't make Konata any less annoying.
A sigh escaped her lips and she violently wrung the handtowel to dry her hands. Nobody passed her as she left the bathroom. This meant that she was either first or last of her siblings to use the washroom, since her two elder sisters would always commandeer the morning utilities for consecutive use. As it turns out, the latter was true; she knew this from the sound of chatter from downstairs.
While descending the stairs, it became apparent that she wasn't just the last of her sisters to use the restroom, but of all the members in her household. Several voices, her parents included, reached her ears as she set foot on the ground floor and rounded the corner.
"Good morning, Kagami," her mother greeted her as she entered the kitchen. "Breakfast is ready, so go ahead and eat before someone takes your portion," she said. Like she always did, Kagami thanked her and took her seat. The one difference in the room did not escape her eye for detail, even though it was tiny—shorter than average.
"Hey, Kagamin! You're finally up?" The voice from her literal waking dream, dare she say nightmare, was the first thing she heard as she sat down. Kagami resisted the urge to groan, sigh, or express her frustration in any way.
"Why are you here, Konata?" She smiled at Tsukasa before turning a baleful gaze back on the only one present who wasn't of the Hiiragi name. Her intimidation had the desired effect, as Konata immediately shrunk back and put a hand up in defense.
Eager to finish her meal and escape the dining room, Kagami ate quickly while Konata Izumi explained herself. The explanation was more than she cared for on a Saturday morning. "I'm just visiting my friends! I don't have anything to do today, so I figured I would stop by and play video games with you or something," Konata summarized with a grin. "You don't mind, do you?"
"Like I'll actually believe that," muttered Kagami. Her dissent was met with what had to be false innocence. "I know what day it is. You sort of yelled it into my ear while I was sleeping."
Konata let out a nervous laugh and averted her eyes, saying, "It's fine, it's fine. That was all I had planned for today, I swear! I didn't come here with the intention of ruining your whole day or anything." Even though the girl held up both hands, crossed her heart, and went as far as to offer a pinky promise, Kagami couldn't help but feel suspicious as her little finger wrapped around Konata's.
April Fool
The day seemed to pass slower than usual, something that Kagami could point a finger at her companion for. It seemed like Konata was not planning on leaving anytime soon; against her will, the girl was staying in her room. While she wasn't normally against having a friend over, she was still miffed by what had happened earlier. The date may have been partially to blame. April Fools' Day was some sort of western tradition, an occidental "holiday" that managed to find its way to Japan to wreak havoc upon unsuspecting girls like herself. Remembering what had happened last year, Kagami shot a piercing glance in the direction of the blue-haired girl laying on her bed, flipping through the pages of one of the light novels that had been found on the bookshelf.
"Do you plan on staying here all day?" She finally asked, pausing her game to turn and watch her visitor with hostile eyes. Konata only looked at her, almost like she was amused.
"Is that okay?" Answering the question with another only served to irritate the room owner even further.
"Not really, but I guess I can't do anything to make you leave." She sighed and resumed the game she was playing, jumping back into the frenetic gameplay without missing a beat.
There was no homework to do, no places to go. School was not in session yet, and Kagami wanted to enjoy the few days she had left. The stack of books she planned to read grew throughout the school week and, when she was working efficiently, halved every weekend. Over the summer, she had managed to keep it down to one or two books at a time, sometimes even clearing it completely. With Konata here, she was unable to read for the fact that a novel she was in the middle of reading was in the hands of the aforementioned person. As an avid reader, she avoided starting a new book until she was finished with the one she was currently reading. It just so happened that Konata had also taken an interest in that particular series, and she had no qualms about taking the book from Kagami. That left the lavender-headed girl without anything to do.
She absently looked over at the girl on the bed, whose face was turned away and buried in the light novel she had stolen. For someone with an attention span as short as hers, it was impressive to see her already halfway done. To be honest, Konata could be rather impressive in general. The primary factor was probably her reputation as a lazy personality, but Kagami never failed to take notice of her friend's huge reserves of dedication—at least, when she was doing something that she enjoyed. Konata was the type of person who put twice as much effort into their hobbies and half-assed their studies. This didn't take away from the fact that the otaku could get things done when she set her mind to it.
Kagami thought back to some of the more surprising things Konata had done. Although she was a regular pain in the neck, the enthusiast had shown that she cared about her friends on many occasions. It was almost endearing, to remember the sweeter things the girl had done for her and for other people—given, most of them had been followed up by something to break the mood or ruin the moment, but that was just the way Konata functioned.
Today, the balance seemed precarious. On one hand, Konata had not yet done anything to deserve the suspicion and brusque attitude she was being shown; on the other, she was also a born troublemaker, and the date was Saturday, four one. Any number of traps could be waiting for her as soon as she left the room, and Kagami was not looking forwards to springing any of them.
Hours passed. She stayed in her room the majority of the day, only leaving for lunch and to get snacks for Konata and herself. Everybody else seemed content to do the same; it was Saturday, and apparently a good week for relaxation. The more time passed, the tenser Kagami felt.
"Hey Kagami!" Out of nowhere, Konata called out to her. She sounded excited about something, a detail that immediately set Kagami on her guard.
"Yes?" She watched Konata as the girl rolled off the bed and rose to her feet. Blue hair flew everywhere as Konata bounded up to her.
"Let's go to the kitchen." She extended a hand, holding it in front of Kagami. "I brought something to share with you and your family."
Kagami accepted the hand and let Konata help her to her feet with uncanny strength. Apprehension flooded her features as she followed after Konata, who had already left the room. She had survived for nearly three quarters of the day without a repeat of last year's event, which she remembered now with frightening clarity.
Her foots landed heavily on the stairs, and she rounded the corner to see Konata reaching into the fridge and taking out a white paper box. Then, the girl set the table with one, two, four sets of eating ware—for herself, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Mother Hiiragi, probably. Kagami knew that her sisters were out of the house, doing something or other related to "making up for lost time," to quote their words exactly.
"I ran out and bought this earlier," Konata gave her an endearing smile. The white box went on the table, and the lid was lifted and taken away. Inside the box was a bowl of classic, fragrant—
"Pudding?" Her eyes went wide, surprised by the contents of the container. She had seen the box earlier, when she had opened the fridge to grab a drink, but she hadn't made the connection between its appearance and Konata's appearance.
"I made it at home yesterday night," the blue-haired girl told her. Her lips curved upwards into that oh-so-familiar smug grin. "I was testing out a new recipe I found on the Internet, and I decided I would make some extra. There's some at home for Yutaka and Dad, and me, but I also made this batch because we had a lot of ingredients. So I figured, Tsukasa likes pudding, you like sweet stuff, and everybody likes home-made dessert, so I would bring this over and—"
Kagami didn't wait any longer to walk around the table and physically shush the girl. "You don't need to tell me the whole story. I understand everything. Thanks."
As Kagami released Konata from her hug, the girl stared at her with wide eyes. She found her voice after a couple seconds, but by the time she could ask why she had been given a hug out of nowhere, Kagami Hiiragi had already turned away and walked off to find her sister and her mother.
Happy April Fools' Day!
Yeah, I know I haven't been uploading. Give me some time, I have three bullets in the chamber. By that, I mean I'm almost done editing like, three chapters of content.