The New Boy
Chapter 3
"Ah," Moka sighed contently, lowering herself into the perfectly-tempered bath water. Her specialty herbs coated the top of the water, adding an interesting floral smell to the bathhouse. Besides herself and Yukari, the bathhouse was completely empty, adding a delicate image of peace to an otherwise stressful day.
"I second that 'Ah,'" Yukari whispered happily, leaning against the padded wall of the oversized swimming pool that made up the girls bathtub, "We need to do this more often Moka… We really, really do!" Moka giggled softly, "We have a bath together every other night Yukari, what more can we do?"
Yukari looked at her with mock seriousness on her young face, "Um, how about every single night! I think it is well worth it…" She swirled some of the floating herbs in a circle on top of the water, "These smell really weird Moka, what are they exactly?"
Moka blushed, "Do they really? I always thought they smelled really sweet, and added kind of a 'bath scent' to the experience… The herbs themselves are my own personal blend; they're a mixture of- Eep! Oh my goodness it's really cold!" Moka instantly began to shiver, teeth clattering, and a split second later, Yukari was joining her, when a familiar purple-hair girl poked her head out of the water.
"Mizore!" Yukari and Moka screamed in unison, covering their bodies with their arms and rubbing their chests, "When did you get here!" Mizore swam towards the two and sat herself in between them, "I need a bath too…"
Yukari couldn't handle it any more. She hopped out of the water and grabbed four large fluffy towels from the rack, "You couldn't wait a little longer, sheesh Mizore!" She bundled herself up in the towels and sat down next to the tub, and began to rock back and forth. "So cold, so cold, so cold…" she kept muttering to herself.
Mizore beamed with pleasure, "I don't know why you two are panicking, the water feels much more relaxing now correct?" Moka narrowed her eyes at Mizore, before climbing out and retrieving her robe, "I don't know how you handle it so cold; even for a snow-woman this seems ridiculously drafty!"
Mizore shrugged, and circled her lollipop in her mouth, "I don't know how you don't melt in these hot springs you call a bathtub, but you don't hear me complaining- oh great…" There was a group of giggling girls entering the room, towels wrapped around their chests, and they were all chatting nonchalantly amongst themselves.
"Well," Moka said, letting her hair down from its bun-position, "We can't expect to hog the whole bathtub to ourselves; Yukari? Are you ready to go get dressed?" Yukari opened her mouth to respond, when one of the new-arrivals turned their way.
"Hey Yukari!" she called out, while a couple of her friends stifled their laughter. Moka frowned, "This can't be good…" Yukari looked up, after pulling on a couple of socks for some extra warmth, "Yes?" she replied, smiling pleasantly.
The girl, barely able to contain her laughter, took a few steps towards Yukari, "We just wanted to know if you were breathing okay! A bunch of us girls were growing very concerned about your respiration!" Yukari and Moka shared a look of confusion, and looked at Mizore, who just shrugged at them. Yukari looked back at the girl, "Uh, yeah, I feel fine. I mean, I'm breathing just fine… Why? Who asks a question like that?"
"Oh," the girl began, looking as if holding in her laughter would rupture her insides, and "We just know falling from your pedestal so rapidly can cause some oxygen problems! How does it feel to be on the same level as the rest of us pipsqueak?" The rest of the girls burst into laughter, unable to contain their composure any longer.
Moka and Mizore glowered at the girls in anger, with the water around Mizore actually beginning to freeze up from the snow-woman's rage. "You girls are just awful!" Moka shouted, stepping closer to the still Yukari, "Leave Yukari alone! She doesn't deserve to be treated so poorly by you!"
The leader of the girls let out a guffaw, "Oh please! Look at her! She's fine; it's just some light teasing… Get your panties out of a knot Moka, geez! We just want to welcome Yukari to the world of the dumb-asses is all?" She crossed over and pinched Yukari's cheek, "After all, that's what she always thinks we are, right?" She sneered at the teary-eyed Yukari, and joined the rest of the girls in their laughter.
Fwoooosh! The temperature of the air in the room suddenly dropped tremendously, and the laughter ceased immediately. Instead, where all the girls were standing, were several individual ice blocks, with each girl frozen inside in their mocking poses. Mizore took a few deep breaths and climbed out of the water, snatching her robe from the rack, "Bunch of rejects…"
Moka glared at the frozen girls, and went to embrace Yukari, "Don't listen to a word they say Yukari; they're just rude and horrible girls! Yukari?" The young girl hadn't moved at all since the teasing began. Plop, plop, plop. The sound of each individual tear hitting the tile floor of the bathhouse might as well have been a cannon going off. Moka gasped, and before she could bring Yukari in, the pre-teen darted away.
"Yukari! Yukari, come back!" Yukari ignored Moka's shouts, as she sprinted towards the stairs, wrapped in nothing but towels. Other girls in the dorm stared at her as she passed by, but she ignored them and continued up the stairs to her room. Slam! Click! She made sure the door was well-locked, before hurling herself onto her bed and sobbing into her pillow.
Moka and Mizore sprinted after her, but they weren't swift enough to keep up with the quicker girl before she locked herself into her room. They knocked and pleaded, but the door never opened. Almost ready to freeze the door off its hinges, Moka shook her head, and lead the snow-woman away, the both of them feeling helpless to their younger friend.
Meanwhile, across the campus…
"Hi! It's Jaden right?" Kurumu beamed brightly at the new kid, seating underneath the large oak tree. The younger boy looked up at her, looking a little surprised, "Uh yeah… C-can I help you?"
Kurumu smiled happily at him, "I'm Kurumu! I just wanted to personally congratulate you on scoring the highest out of all the students at Yokai Academy! You must be really thrilled with yourself!" Jaden didn't respond, but just kind of gaped at the girl. Kurumu offered him a handshake, which he took with a trembling response.
The succubus blushed inwardly, "He must be kind of shy…" she reasoned, "Anyway! I just wanted to offer you the chance to be interviewed! It's not often a new student completely outshines everyone else at their high school!" She beamed again, waiting for him to say yes.
Jaden looked absolutely and utterly bewildered, "Y-you, want to interview me? N-no thanks, I think that would only cause t-t-trouble for me, which I'm kind of looking to avoid?" He smiled apologetically and averted his attention back to his textbook. Kurumu was floored; she was honestly not expecting anything but a yes from this geek! Well, she wasn't going to be taking no for an answer! Kurumu cleared her throat, and plopped down next to him.
"Look," she reasoned, wrapping her arms around her knees, "You're new here! And that means you probably don't know many people… I guarantee you though, a lot of people know who YOU are, and how you came out of nowhere and usurped the number one smartest girl at this school!" Jaden stopped reading and closed his book, while Kurumu continued her speech, "So if you think about that, you've already caused trouble! However, if you take this interview, you may be able to avoid any more trouble, sound good?" She grinned, waiting for his response.
Jaden stared at her long and hard, suddenly not looking very shy anymore, "If I do this, will you just leave me alone?" His voice was short, and frustration was laced inside of it. Kurumu smiled happily, "Absolutely! Let's go!" She took Jaden's hand and yanked the young boy up, and darted towards the newspaper classroom, dragging the struggling boy behind her.
Back at the girl's dormitory…
Yukari sat up in her bed, wiping her tears away with her arm. Her chest was aching with hurt. She felt as if her very heart was stabbed with an ice-pick made of ice! She always figured Mizore would go crazy one day and off her and the other girls in the harem in a similar style, but surprisingly, this feeling had nothing to do with her icy friend.
She looked at herself in the mirror, and Yukari knew that she looked like a massive mess. Yukari tossed all of the towels into a pile next to her closet, and pulled on a slip-on robe, and sat down next to her bed, and held her knees to her chest, before simply staring at the floor for a long time. She was startled when a sudden knock hit her door.
Checking herself in the mirror again, she sighed and went to the door, "Moka, I- Oh… Hi Ruby!" She smiled weakly and held her door open for the elder witch to enter the room. Shutting the door behind her, Yukari turned and offered another weak smile, "Sorry, I thought you were Moka…"
Ruby smiled knowingly, "She wanted to come with me, but I figured you didn't want a crowd… Bad day huh?" She sat on the bed and patted next to her. Yukari obediently sat quietly next to her and rolled her head so it was resting on her friends shoulder, "You could say that… Actually, it's probably been the worse day ever."
The elder witch nodded, "Well, why don't you tell me about it sweetie?" She planted a kiss on the top of Yukari's head, "We will work through it together." She took Yukari's hand and rubbed her arm encouragingly.
So, I know these last two chapters were posted in rapid unison, but I wanted to get things moving a bit! I hope you all are enjoying! Please leave some reviews for me! Have a great rest of the week!