"Miyuki-chan." I looked up to see that Nadeshiko was still here. I had just been putting away some stuff in my book bag after the day's Guardian meeting – Azami had thought it would be fun for her and the rest of the charas to raid my bag while I wasn't looking. And so I had a bit of a mess to clean up.
"I thought you'd already left, Nadeshiko." I said. I was slightly confused that to see that Amu was also waiting around. All the rest of the Guardians had already left. "What's going on?" I asked curiously.
Nadeshiko handed me a couple of pens that had been lying on the ground, and said, "Since it's Friday night tomorrow and we've never really done anything together, I was wondering if you'd like to come over for a sleepover at my house after school. Amu-chan is coming, too."
"I'd love to!" I said immediately. Nadeshiko smiled, and Amu just tried to keep her cool and spicy attitude. Underneath though, I could tell she was happy, too. But then I looked back from one to another, and I thought about it a bit. "But…"
"But what, Miyuki-chan?" asked Nadeshiko. "Are you doing something this weekend?"
"No, it's just that…" this would be awkward, but I couldn't help it. "To be honest, you two just seem so close. I wouldn't want to be in the way."
Amu seemed a bit surprised by me directly addressing this fact. She dropped her cool attitude and looked to Nadeshiko, who looked to her. Nadeshiko smiled at Amu, as if what I had said was just something obviously true. Amu seemed disoriented, like she couldn't believe that this wasn't some sort of joke. But then she smiled back at Nadeshiko, seemingly agreeing with my statement in a way that made me feel even more left out by how tight they were. I was good friends with Amu, since we were in the same class and all. But something just really clicked between Nadeshiko and Amu, and they were just so right as friends for each other in a way that I had never experienced with anyone. And as far as Nadeshiko went, I liked her and all, but we'd never really hung out or anything.
Amu turned back to me. "Don't be stupid." She said, using her 'cool and spicy' attitude. But I knew that beneath it, she didn't really mean it the way she made it sound.
"Miyuki-chan, no matter what you may think, we want you to come. That is, unless you're scared of being away from home." Nadeshiko said teasingly. It amazed me how she could talk in a way where she was both quietly graceful and overly perky at the same time.
I blushed angrily a little at Nadeshiko's last comment, but I knew it was intended as a joke. Or, at least, I thought I knew – I sometimes couldn't tell with Nadeshiko. "Well… all right." I finally agreed. "But I'll warn you – I've never been to a sleepover before. I have no idea what might happen. And I'd suggest we hide anything suitable for drawing mustaches on us when we sleep, with Azami around."
"You know, that's a really great idea." Azami said. "I'll keep it in mind."
"I'll make sure to hide the markers." Said Nadeshiko happily. "And don't worry – I've never been to a sleepover, and I've certainly never hosted one. So it will be a new experience for both of us, Miyuki-chan!"
"I haven't been to one before, either." Amu said.
"Don't worry, Amu-chan!" Ran cheered, peppy as always. "It'll be great!"
"I think you might be counting your chickens before they hatch, Ran." Miki said.
"I wonder if Amu will want to talk about boys, desu~." Su said.
"You girls!" Amu shouted at them, exasperated. "Can't you ever just be quiet?"
As they were bickering, Nadeshiko said, "Just get your bag ready tonight. My housekeeper said she would pick all three of us up from school and we could drop by your house afterwards to grab your things. Is that okay with you, Miyuki-chan?"
"Sure." I said. But I couldn't get my mind off of something she had said. Nadeshiko has a housekeeper? Just how big is her house?
* * *
I didn't spend too long getting my things together that night. I got together all the stuff I thought I needed (as in, pajamas, clothing for after school, clothing for the next morning, a sleeping bag, a pillow, and one of my favorite DVDs) and put it all in one corner of my room, ready to go. I had heard that there was a chance of snow, so I also brought along a warm outfit in case it did get that cold and we wanted to go outside.
The next day, I could hardly think about anything else. I was a bit disgusted at myself for getting so worked up about it, but I couldn't help it. Sometimes I would be really excited, and other times worried that I'd end up doing something stupid. I noticed that Amu seemed a bit distracted throughout the day as well, but then again, she always seemed distracted at school. And with three shugo charas hanging around her all the time, I couldn't blame her.
"Well, I think we're ready to go!" Nadeshiko said when we all met in front of the school. We weren't having a Guardians meeting today after school today, and I was wondering if perhaps Nadeshiko had somehow had a hand in that.
I was expecting it to be slightly more awkward in the car than it was. I mean, neither Amu nor I had ever met this housekeeper that was driving. However, she turned out to be nice enough that we soon forgot that we'd only met her a couple minutes ago. We went to my house first, and I asked Nadeshiko before I went in to grab my stuff if the things I was planning on bringing were all needed; I would have felt really stupid if I walked out to the car with a sleeping bag in my arms, only to learn that it wasn't needed.
We went by Amu's place next. She had forgotten about bringing a sleeping bag (which was something that we did need), and so she had to search around the house a little bit before she found one. She laughed it off when she got back in the car, and then we were off to Nadeshiko's house.
I think it was Amu's first time at Nadeshiko's house as well, since she looked just about as amazed as I did. It was a traditionally styled Japanese house, and it was huge. At least, it was massive in comparison to either of our homes. I half hoped that they had signs that pointed to the bathroom, though I kind of doubted that. Chances were, I'd get lost.
"Wow, Nadeshiko!" Amu said. "Your house is so… so…"
"Big." I ended her sentence, though I didn't think that was what she was about to say.
Nadeshiko laughed. "It may be big, but it's just a house. Let's go ahead and bring your things to my room." I noticed that Nadeshiko didn't offer to help us with all the stuff we were carrying. Instead, she just led the way. I didn't think she was trying to be mean or anything – she was just never one to do any work. I'd noticed this with Temari, too. Both were always afraid they'd get their kimonos dirty, or something like that.
"You two can go ahead and change out of your uniforms and get settled in." Nadeshiko said cheerily once we made it to her room. "I'll be right back."
Amu and I both looked at each other, confused as to where Nadeshiko might be going. But then we went ahead and got changed. Neither of us were that comfortable changing in front of each other (despite the fact we had to do it all the time for P.E. at school), so Amu went into Nadeshiko's bathroom while I changed in the room. The skirt and shirt I had brought were markedly brighter than my usual, mainly black attire. When Amu came out, we laughed – both of us were wearing similar outfits, from our short-sleeved shirts and short skirts to the pink and blue color schemes. Though Amu had a bit more of a flare for fashion than I did, meaning that her outfit was a lot cooler.
"Did you two plan your outfits without me?" asked Nadeshiko jokingly as she walked back into the room. She had changed into a knee-length brown skirt and a matching top. In a way, it sort of reminded me of Mai's usual choice of clothes outside of school – simple, yet still fashionable.
"We had no idea until just now." I said as I stopped laughing.
"So what are we going to do first?" asked Azami from my shoulder, voicing the question I'd been thinking.
"I thought we could bake something together – cookies, a cake, something like that. How does that sound to you two?" Nadeshiko said.
Amu lit up. "That sounds great! Maybe I could learn the secret to making your great cookies, Nadeshiko."
"Sounds good to me." I said. "But I've never been that great of a cook."
"Don't worry, Su will help you and Amu, desu~!" Su said encouragingly.
We decided to make the classic chocolate chip cookie. Nadeshiko got all the ingredients out when we made it to the kitchen. I was still fairly impressed by the enormity of the house, and I wasn't entirely sure if I could even make it back to Nadeshiko's bedroom without a guide.
We all helped measure out ingredients to mix together in the bowl. I cracked the eggs – something I could actually do – and would have sworn that at least a couple of the charas flinched as I broke them open. Then again, I might have just been imagining it. We all took turns mixing the ingredients together with a beater, and we also took turns doling out spoonfuls onto the cookie tray. While I'd been a bit unsure about this at first, it turned out to be really fun. Each of us ended with our hands covered in cookie dough, and Ran was almost entirely white after she had fallen into the bag of flour. We all laughed when we tried to find some chocolate chips we had set aside and found only Azami and Miki with chocolate around their mouths. Su and Nadeshiko piped in whenever they saw something Amu or I could do better, and I think I actually learned a thing or two.
As we washed ourselves off and waited for the cookies to bake, we talked. Mainly, we stuck to the subject of school: how classes were going, what our respective teachers were like (I was uncharacteristically quiet during this topic - one guess why), and who had the best classmates. Then the timer rang, and we crowded around the oven to see our handiwork. As the door to the oven opened, the heavenly aroma of freshly baked cookies filled the air. Nadeshiko carefully used a spatula to put all the cookies on a cooling rack, but we weren't about to wait for them to cool down; cookies fresh out of the oven are the best kind.
We ate about half the cookies right then, practically stuffing ourselves. The charas enjoyed themselves as well, and I kind of wished right then that I could have a cookie that was as big as I was. It seemed the stomachs of Ran, Su, and Miki had doubled in size by the time we were done. Azami had managed to restrain herself (though she looked like she had eaten slightly too much), and even Temari had a bit more than was really comfortable.
When I looked at the clock, I was shocked to see that between the mixing, baking, and eating, almost three hours had already passed. I guess that saying that 'time flies when you're having fun' really was true, after all.
"So what do you two want to do now?" asked Nadeshiko as we finished putting what was left of our batch of cookies onto a plate for later.
"Uh, well…" Amu said.
"What could we do?" I asked. Yet again, this was my first sleepover, and the only thing I could think of from movies was pillow fighting.
"Anything you want to do." Nadeshiko said happily. "We could watch a movie if you wanted to, or maybe play a game – hide and seek might be fun."
You've got to be kidding – I'd get so lost trying to hide in this house. I wouldn't be able to find myself, let alone anyone else. And I would bet Nadeshiko knew that. I just could never tell when she was joking or not.
"Or we could do each other's hair. What sounds fun?" Nadeshiko finished.
"Have you ever braided your hair, Nadeshiko?" I asked curiously. Then I could've kicked myself; I didn't exactly want us to mess with each other's hair, due to my lack of much to mess with. When you have hair as short as guy's, it just doesn't work out that well.
"I've never really wanted to braid my hair, Miyuki-chan." Nadeshiko said. "I like having it as it is."
"Oh, come on, Nadeshiko!" Amu said. "Let's do it! I bet it will look great."
"No, let's do something-" But Amu interrupted Nadeshiko, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the hallway. I followed close behind.
"But Amu-chan-" Nadeshiko started as she was pulled along by her determined friend.
"No excuses!" Amu said, smiling. I normally didn't see her in this kind of mood. I wasn't even sure how to describe it. "We're going to braid your hair, and if you don't like it, then we can take it out later."
"All right, but where are you leading us, Amu-chan?" Nadeshiko asked.
"To your bedroom. Where else would we…" Then Amu looked around, and I realized she had no idea where we were in the house.
Nadeshiko smiled. "Would you like me to lead the way?"
Amu smiled too, a bit embarrassed. "That would probably be a good idea."
When we got to Nadeshiko's room, our charas were nowhere to be seen. I figured the must have gotten lost during Amu's charge through the halls. Either that, or they were just exploring. Nadeshiko went into her bathroom, and came out with a hairbrush and many hair ties. I looked at the hair ties questioningly.
"You didn't think my hair is the only one that will be messed with tonight, did you, Miyuki-chan?" Nadeshiko said, smiling this time with just a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. "I think we should do Amu-chan's hair next."
Amu protested that idea as we sat down on the floor to do Nadeshiko's hair, but Nadeshiko and I just smiled as if to say 'of course she'll get her hair done, no matter how much she doesn't want to.' Amu dropped the subject as she started brushing through Nadeshiko's hair, getting out any tangles. It hardly needed it – Nadeshiko's hair was always perfect.
But once she was done brushing, Amu hesitated. "What is it, Amu-chan?" asked Nadeshiko, turning around to face us.
"Uh… well… actually, I don't really know how to braid hair." Amu said. "Do you, Miyuki?"
"Yeah, I do." I said, blushing a bit. I really didn't want to be known as someone who could do hair, even among just us three. It seemed way too girly for someone like me.
"That's great! You can do it, then." Amu said.
"Okay, but it may not be that great – I haven't braided anyone's hair in a while." I warned. I reluctantly moved over to do Nadeshiko's hair. I separated her hair into three long strands, and then I started weaving them together. I was surprised with myself. It felt like almost second nature; not only was I weaving fast, but it was an almost perfect braid.
"Wow, Miyuki, what are you talking about? You're really great at braiding!" Amu said. "How did you learn to braid that nicely?"
"Well…" I had to think back a bit – I'd actually been braiding for longer than I could remember clearly. "I think my mom must've taught me when I was little, and let me practice on her hair. And actually…"
"What?" asked Nadeshiko without turning around.
"Well, I had really long hair until about a year and a half ago. I used to braid it myself, and trust me; it's a lot easier to braid someone else's hair than your own." I finished.
"I don't think I could imagine you with long hair." Amu said. "Why did you cut it?"
"I suppose it was just an over-reaction to having such long hair." I said. "It always seemed to get in my way, and it was a bit of a hassle. So I insisted that I get it cut short. Really short. But I don't regret it – I really like it better this way." I explained as I used a hair tie to secure the braid at the bottom. Nadeshiko, feeling I was done, got up and went to look in the mirror.
"Amu-chan was right; this braid is really good, Miyuki-chan." Nadeshiko said. "Still, I think I like it better down."
"I think you're probably right, though you look great whatever style your hair is in." I said.
Nadeshiko smiled her thanks for my complement. "And now, it's Amu-chan's turn." Nadeshiko said.
"No, no, that's okay." Amu said, backing up a little bit.
"Aww, come on, Amu." I said, moving so that I was in the way of any escape.
"Do you think I could watch you braid Amu's hair some, Miyuki-chan?" Nadeshiko said. "I'd like to see if I can figure out how you get such a perfect braid."
"Amu's hair is a bit on the short side for braiding, but I guess we could do a bunch of little ones." I suggested. And whether Amu wanted it or not, we started going through and making a bunch of short, tiny braids in her hair. The charas made it back to the room (Ran, Miki, and Su had been separated from Azami and Temari, which was why they hadn't been back sooner), and insisted that they help out. Su, Miki, and Ran would each grab a strand of hair and then weaved around each other, creating somewhat messy braids. Temari and Azami also cooperated, to make braids that were only slightly less messed up.
Everyone except Amu was laughing throughout this. In the end, Amu's hair was a mess of loose braids, with her X-clip pinned to the top of one near the side of her face. Temari and Nadeshiko were the only ones who didn't crack up when Amu looked in the mirror, but I could tell they were enjoying it just as much as the rest of us.
"Isn't there someone with snakes for hair in mythology?" I asked.
"Miyuki!" Amu said indignantly.
"I think her name was 'Medusa'." Miki added helpfully.
"Miki!" Amu said even more angrily, trying to grab her. When she missed, she turned back to me. "Well, what are we going to do with your hair?"
I could tell she wanted to do something extreme with my hair in mock retaliation. "I don't think you could do much with my hair." I said. "It's just too short."
"I could think of some things." Azami said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "How about a mohawk?"
"You little traitor!" I said. "Don't give them suggestions!"
"That's an idea…" Amu said, grinning evilly. "But I think we can do better than that."
"I think spikes would look quite nice." Miki said.
"And here I was, thinking you were on my side." I said in mock exasperation. I actually was kinda curious what my hair would look like if spiked.
"I think we could do that." Said Nadeshiko, looking just as mischievous as the rest of them. "I'll be right back." She went into her bathroom and came out with a bottle of high-strength hair gel.
"Since when do you use hair gel, Nadeshiko?" I asked.
"You never know when it might come in handy." Nadeshiko said. "Take now, for example – aren't you glad I had some?"
"Yeah, ecstatic." I said sarcastically, laughing as I did so. Amu lead the effort, drenching my hair with gel and doing her best to pull it up into spikes. Miki gave her some tips since, according to her, hairstyling was an art in itself. In the end, I ended up with a head full of slim spikes, each with one of my purple streaks curling around it (that was Miki's suggestion). It felt really strange, but it actually looked cool. I laughed along with the rest of them, showing off my new punk hairdo.
It was already pretty late by the time we finished – at least, late for fifth graders. We all got changed into our night clothes (like the first time, Nadeshiko went and changed elsewhere while Amu got changed in her bathroom and I in her bedroom), undid our respective hairdos, and got ready to go to sleep. But none of us wanted to go to bed quite yet. We debated about watching a movie, but we all wanted to do something a bit more involving than that.
"How about truth or dare?" Azami suggested, the look on her face more evil than I could ever remember seeing.
"Azami!" I said. She knew what could happen if I played truth or dare – I had too many secrets to hide. Then again, I guess I could just pick dare each time. I looked around to see that Amu was blushing slightly, and even Nadeshiko seemed a bit put off for a moment.
"Yeah, come on, Amu-chan! It sounds like fun!" Ran said.
Su agreed. "It could be interesting, desu~."
"That is, unless your afraid." Said Miki.
"I'm not scared!" Amu said.
"I guess I'd be okay with it." Nadeshiko said.
"I'm okay with it, too." I finally agreed. "But no asking on truth 'what's your biggest secret', since that sorta takes the fun out of it – going straight to the biggest thing. Plus, that could mean anything, and it can be hard to figure out what the 'biggest' is."
"Are you sure you just don't have some big secret, Miyuki-chan?" Azami taunted.
"Azami!" I shouted again. Was she trying to give me away? "If you don't quit teasing, then I just won't play."
"I'll tease you if I want to." Azami said, though she didn't follow it up with any teasing, so I guessed she was taking my threat seriously.
"All right, let's play." Nadeshiko said. "Amu, do you want to ask someone first?"
"Oh, sure." Amu said. She looked back and forth between Nadeshiko and I, then made her decision. "Nadeshiko: truth or dare?"
"I'll take truth, Amu-chan." She said. And though she was smiling, she seemed a bit antsy. Which was extremely strange for the always-calm Nadeshiko.
"Do you like anybody at school?" she asked.
Nadeshiko smiled. "Well, let's see… I like you and Miyuki-chan, and all the rest of the Guardians, and I've got quite a few friends in my class as well."
"Come on, Nadeshiko – you know what I meant." Amu said.
Nadeshiko shook her head. "I answered your question, and now it's my turn." Amu looked kind of annoyed with herself for not being more specific, but didn't seem too angry. "Okay, Miyuki-chan – truth or dare?"
I felt daring and so, ironically, I answered truth.
"Why is Azami a dragon?" Nadeshiko asked.
I wasn't expecting this kind of question, but I answered somewhat honestly. "I suppose it's just because I love dragons. How free they are, their strength – stuff like that. I want to be able to be free and strong like a dragon, I guess." It was completely true, what I said – I just sort of left out some of the subtleties of being a dragon. For example, I didn't tell her the whole 'do anything they want' thing, or 'not any standards' part.
Azami flew around our heads, as if to show how amazing she was. "Who wouldn't want to be a dragon?" she asked rhetorically.
I ignored her, and decided to bring the game full circle. "Amu, truth or dare?"
She was looking a bit sleepy by now, which I guessed had something to do with her choice. "I'll do truth, too."
I thought about asking her if she liked anyone other than Tadase, but I sort of knew the answer already. So instead, I asked, "What did you think about me when you first saw me?" It was something I wondered a lot, actually – with my extreme haircut and dragon necklace, I always thought I looked a bit intimidating.
"Let me try to remember – I've known you so much longer than that first meeting, so it's kind of hard to recall exactly." Amu said. "I know I definitely thought you were different. But then again, I doubted that you could be that much different than how other people saw me. In truth, I think I saw you as a bit of a threat to my 'cool and spicy' position, with your hair and all. But then the girls - Ran, Miki, and Su - told me they felt you had a shugo chara, and then my mind started going through all sorts of possibilities."
"So now it's my turn to ask. Again." Amu continued. "Miyuki – truth or dare?"
"I'll go with dare this time." I said, for the sake of variety. Amu took a couple moments to think (which was hard, because her charas plus Azami were all yelling out suggestions), then her face lit up. "Can I save up your dare and see if I can get a dare from Nadeshiko in a minute? I want to see you two do a dare together."
"It's fine with me." I said. "What about you, Nadeshiko?"
"I'm okay with that too, Amu-chan. In fact, do you want to just ask us both now? I'd choose dare for the next time you would have picked me, anyway."
"Okay, here it is – I dare you two to have a pillow fight."
"Is that all?" I asked. "It doesn't seem like-"
"With both of you chara-changed." Amu finished.
"Amu-chan, are you sure that's such a good idea?" Nadeshiko asked. "You know I can get a bit carried away when I change with Temari."
"Are you saying Miyuki can't handle it?" Azami asked, slightly angry.
Then I grinned. "Or are you afraid?"
A flower appeared in Nadeshiko's hair, and she lost any shred of calm she had. She jumped up, grabbing her pillow. "What did you just say!?!"
The gem in my necklace turned red, as did my eyes. "I asked if you were chicken to fight me in a pillow fight. You are, aren't you?"
Amu was starting to see how dangerous this could actually get. "Uh, you guys, let's forget I said anything…"
"Shut up! This dragon is going down!" Nadeshiko raised her pillow above her head, preparing to strike. Since I was still sitting on the floor, I readied myself to roll out of the way.
Then there was a knock on the door. "Girls, is everything all right in there?" the housekeeper said from the hallway. Both of our chara-changes immediately dissipated.
"We're fine." Nadeshiko said as she put down her pillow.
The housekeeper peeked in the door. "You three should probably go ahead and go to bed. You can talk some more in the morning."
"Okay. I'm sorry if we were a bit loud a moment ago." Nadeshiko said.
"Not a problem." The housekeeper said, before leaving.
Nadeshiko gave me one of her overly perky smiles. "Don't worry – we'll finish our pillow fight tomorrow. Preferably outside, where we won't break something."
"Sounds good to me." I said. Amu was looking like she really wished she hadn't issued that dare. Nadeshiko turned off the light, and we all climbed into our sleeping bags. Nadeshiko had decided to sleep on the floor with Amu and I, instead of in her bed. All the charas took advantage of this, and took the bed for themselves.
Right as I was beginning to doze off, Amu spoke up in the semi-darkness. "Nadeshiko? Miyuki?" she said, her voice troubled.
"I'm still awake." I said.
"Me too." Said Nadeshiko. "What is it, Amu-chan?"
"There's something that's been bothering me lately… actually, Miyuki is the one who told me about it first. Do you mind if I tell Nadeshiko?" Amu asked.
I was a bit confused. I couldn't think what she was talking about. "What did I tell you?"
"Your guess about Nikaido." Amu replied.
Oh yeah, now I remembered. "Isn't Nikaido your teacher?" Nadeshiko asked.
"Yeah." I answered. "And I don't mind if you tell her, Amu. It's just a guess, after all."
"But I think you might be on to something, no matter how unlikely it might seem." Amu said. "Anyway, what reminded me of it tonight was when we were talking about school and such earlier. Miyuki told me a couple weeks back that she thought that maybe Nikaido was the cause of so many X-eggs around the school lately."
"Well, there have been a lot of X-eggs." Nadeshiko said. "But why do you think it's your teacher?"
"Once Miyuki mentioned it, I started trying to look around whenever there was an X-egg. And I did notice that Nikaido was nearby a lot of the time. Knowing how our teacher acts, it seems impossible, but…"
"If you think he might have something to do with it, we should bring it up at the Guardians meeting on Monday." Nadeshiko suggested.
"Do you think so?" Amu said. "But what if we're wrong?"
"They say that it's better to be safe than sorry, Amu-chan." Nadeshiko replied.
We were all quiet for a moment. Then, "Thanks, Nadeshiko. We'll do that." Amu replied, her voice seeming a little less worried. We all went to bed after that, but now my mind was filled with images of Nikaido and his fake smile. It took me a while to fall asleep.
* * *
It's important to note that, while I'm normally an early riser, I am out cold during the night. A hurricane could have blown through and it would have been nothing more than a shower to me. Which was why you might be able to imagine that when I woke up (at approximately eight thirty in the morning) and went to the bathroom the next morning, I was shocked to see a sharpie mustache, goatee, and glasses all scribbled on my face. I simply stared at it for a minute, my sleepy mind wondering where they had come from. Then my mind cleared up enough, and anger brushed away any remnants of sleepiness.
"AZAMI!" I shouted, not caring who I woke up. Laughing broke out from somewhere above me, and I looked up to see not just Azami, but all the shugo charas laughing.
"Huh? What's going on?" asked Amu sleepily as she walked into the bathroom, followed by a slightly less drowsy Nadeshiko.
"Were you all in on this!?!" I yelled up at the charas. Thankfully, Nadeshiko's bedroom was fairly removed from the rest of the house. Someone probably would have needed to walk by her door to hear anything from her bathroom.
"Azami just woke us up a little bit ago to watch." Temari said, giggling. "She was the only one who actually did it."
"I was gonna get everyone," Azami said between laughs. "But everyone except you was gone when I woke up in the night, and so I had to settle with just you."
I was still absolutely furious, but I was also curious as to where the others had been. "Where'd all of you go to?" I asked.
Amu looked to Nadeshiko as if she wasn't sure she could say, but Nadeshiko explained. "I had to practice my dancing, Miyuki-chan, since I didn't get a chance after school. Amu and her charas woke up soon after I left, and so they joined me. We decided to try and wake you up, and we did try, but you were completely asleep." I was impressed - Nadeshiko must be really dedicated. I would never be able to convince myself to get up in the middle of the night.
"We thought you were dead for a while." Amu added, as if she was being helpful. "You weren't moving no matter how much we shook you."
"Hmm… I must have slept through that, too." Azami contemplated. "I just remember waking up while everyone was gone."
I looked back at my reflection again, and everyone – Nadeshiko and Amu included – started laughing at my expression. "GET OUT!" I said, doing my best to push all of them out the door. They left me be, and I did my best to scrub off all the sharpie. My face was rubbed red by the time I was done, and there were still faint traces of black around my eyes and mouth.
When I came out, Nadeshiko and Amu were already dressed. "You didn't forget about our battle, did you?" asked Nadeshiko.
"Of course not." I said. I was ready for a fight right now, though my preference would have been going one-on-one with a certain mischievous chara.
Nadeshiko smiled sweetly. "All right, but I hope you've brought some warm clothes. I figured we might want to have a snowball fight instead of using pillows."
"Wait – snowball?" I asked. Nadeshiko opened the curtains over her window, and I looked out to see the ground outside covered in at least three inches of snow.
I got dressed rapidly into the warm outfit I had brought. Amu was borrowing one of Nadeshiko's jackets to wear. We made it outside, and Amu's charas were the ones to list the conditions of the fight.
"First of all," Miki said, "Each of you will get time to build a fort."
"Once your forts are built," Su continued, "It's a snowball-throwing free-for-all, desu~!"
"Amu is the judge to see who wins!" Ran said. "So forts first! On your marks, get set, GO!" We character-changed right as the word 'go' was said, and we both started working furiously on making the strongest, biggest fort we could, while exchanging verbal taunts throughout. For example –
"What kind of fort is that?" I would shout. "My grandma could make one better!"
"Look who's talking!" Nadeshiko would retort. "At least mine is strong! Yours couldn't stand up to a raging caterpillar!"
"Oh yeah? Well-" …and so on and so on. Our forts were more or less complete within five minutes (our chara-changes made it go by extremely fast).
"All right, on three, let the snowballs fly!" Ran shouted. "One... Two… Three!" And fly they did. Nadeshiko threw hard and fast, but would often be off on her aim due to the rage of her chara-change. My aim was a lot better, but my chara-change was nowhere near as intense as hers. And throughout the continuously flying snowballs, we kept up the verbal barrage as well. However, it turned out that her comment about the raging caterpillar was somewhere close to the truth. My fort had been taller than hers, but it was thin and unable to stand up against her hard-hitting, tightly-packed snowballs. Mine slowly collapsed, leaving me with nothing to hide behind.
I kept it up for a little while, despite the loss of my fort, but I knew it was in vain. Deciding to throw in the towel with at least a little dignity, I went ahead and over dramatized it.
I let the chara-change fade, and then started my act as soon as a snowball hit me in the shoulder. "Oh no! I am hit!" I fell to my knees, then all the way to the ground. It was cold, but I was already fairly numb all over. "My life is flashing before my eyes! Goodbye, cruel world!" I went limp, feigning death.
"HA! TAKE THAT!" Nadeshiko gloated, before the chara-change faded and she went back to normal. "Oh dear – I think I did get a bit out of hand."
Everyone crowded around my fallen body, and I decided to keep up the act.
"Is she dead, desu~?" asked Su.
"I never knew you were so over-dramatic, Miyuki-chan." I heard Nadeshiko's voice say.
"I'll get the sharpie!" Azami shouted out, which broke my composure. I opened my eyes and grabbed some loose snow from the ground and hurled it at Azami, hitting her dead-on.
"No more sharpies!" I said, laughing, as she started to chase me around the yard. Everyone cracked up, and it ended up turning into a mad snowball fight between the charas.
* * *
The housekeeper took Amu and I home later. And though I was now cold, wet, and numb, I had to admit that had been a fun first sleepover. I couldn't help but wonder whether or not Nadeshiko did actually like like someone from school – it had slipped from our minds the previous night.
As I dried off a bit and attempted to wash off the last of the sharpie from my face, I tried to cement everything from last night and this morning into my memory. I never wanted to forget it. Baking with Amu and Nadeshiko, the silliness of the charas, and even the sharpie on my face – this was one of those times that I knew I would probably remember for years, if not the rest of my life.
And then something occurred to me, which made me stop dead in my tracks. I was glad Azami wasn't in the room right now, or else I would have to explain to her what was troubling me.
How would I ever be able to betray them without losing this great friendship in the process?
Sorry, that ending didn't sound all that great.... oh well. Anyway, funny story about this chapter... (Sorry, this has to be a long ending)
So, I actually wrote this chapter (as well as the one that follows it) about a week ago. I would have posted them immediately, but thanks to a new game that came out (pokemon platinum), I knew I wouldn't have time for a while. So I stored up these chapters. So I had been planning on posting this one today, since I posted the last chapter a week ago, and I hadn't really thought about a little fun fact about today: that being, it's my birthday! (actually, it might not be by the time I get this posted - my b-day is March 27th) And I definitely hadn't been thinking about the possibility of a sleepover (though I knew it was a possibility - I just didn't think about it). So, not only was it a coincidence that I'm posting a chapter sleepover while I'm at a sleepover, but there's more! Despite the fact that it's March, it's actually winter weather out right now, just like in the chapter~! I thought it was so awesome. (although right now, I've got about three inches of sleet with more sleet and snow on the way; not the nice, snowball-snow of the chapter. But don't worry - I like this kind of extreme weather better than snow, anyway.)
So, anyway, this is my birthday present to myself! My story is now OFFICIALLY over 100,000 words! And out of the three presents I got, this was probably the best!
Here's to my friends, only one of whom is at my sleepover! Thanks to VampireFreakForever and ImAfraidofJellyfish (who are not here, but who got me to come onto in the first place) as well as my non-fanfiction friend who is here, Mia~! Here's a word from her~
Mia: Hello people!!
Me again: Yeah, she just got traumatized by a pillow attack by my brother... so she can't say anything. Well, I hope you're enjoying the story! If you now ever need to find it, just look at the 100,000 words Shugo Chara stories~ Mine is the only one up there~ Happy Birthday to myself~! (sorry, that sounds really lame...)