Kyoko

Kyoko pulled out her new phone as she began her walk to work and pouted in disappointment as she noticed there were no new messages. When her mother came to her to tell her that she was moving to America and Kyoko was coming with she had given the girl a phone. Her mother's explanation was that it was standard in the States for teenagers to have phones. Kyoko knew her mother was all about appearance, so she didn't put too much stock in the gift. She made sure to give the number to Sho-chan, but it was going on a month and a half in the states and he had only called her once to ask if she knew where one of his favorite shirts might be. She called him once a week, to see how he is doing and find out how his life is going in Tokyo, but he never picked up.

"He's busy Kyoko, becoming a music idol isn't easy work." she mumbled as she shoved her phone back in her pocket. Making a mental note she decided she would see if she could find anything about him online on the computer her school lent her. That was one interesting about her school. They gave every student a laptop and expected them to use it for their textbooks and all their work. Part of her wondered what was the point of even going into school. She knew she shouldn't use the computer for personal use, it made her feel guilty, but she really didn't have any other idea of how to find out what was going on with her beloved prince and all the other kids at school made it sound like it was OK to use it for searching the internet.

The little over a mile and a half walk to her after school job was uneventful. The weather was nice, bordering on hot while she was in the direct sunshine. She smiled up at the building as she pushed the door to enter. Kyoko was extremely grateful to have found this job. The inside of the restaurant was elegant and calming, the natural wood paneling and soft light reminded her of her time living with the Fuwa's at the Ryokan. She bowed politely at the owner and made her way into the lady's changing room and pulled on her navy blue work yukata. Pushing all her worries from her mind she plastered a smile on her face and went out to greet the customer.

"Kyoko-chan," Amy, another server, and floor manager, at the restaurant called her over as she bowed out the last customer of the evening. "Here are your tips for the night," she smiled and handed Kyoko a roll of cash. Kyoko smiled and thanked the girl gratefully even though she was dying inside to just push the money back in the older woman's hands. She had learned on her first night to just accept the money, even though it made her uncomfortable. Apparently for servers in America tips where how they made the bulk of their pay, yet as a child she was always taught not to accept them. It was something she struggled with, but since she had a goal with the money, she decided to happily accept it. Well, she had two goals. Her first was to get a bike so she could move around a bit easier, her second was to get a plane ticket back home to Japan.

When her mother decided to accept the job in America, she informed Kyoko that she didn't care what the girl did once she turned 18 and graduated high school, because an 18-year-old setting out on their own in America was expected. She even said she would sign documentation that she could legally be emancipated from her. As she changed back to her school clothes she pictured her return to Japan. She would be wearing a long flowing dress, and as she stepped off the plane Sho's arms would wrap around her and twirl her around like they do in all the romantic scenes in movies. She sighed and twisted from side to side. It would be perfect. Because Sho, was a perfect prince.

Life for Kyoko settled into a steady routine. She got up, went to school, went to work, did her homework and then repeated the process. The one major difference from her life in Japan, other than everything American, was that now she had a good group of friends. Kindle and a girl named Tanner from her Theater Arts class were the two she spent the most time with. They even called her up just to talk about their day. Kyoko had never had friends like that and the girls laughed a bit when she told them.

"I don't get it Kyoko," Tanner twirled her long brown hair around her finger as she spoke to her friend. "Why didn't you have any girl friends back in Kyoto. You are, like, literally the nicest person on the planet."

Kyoko beamed and blushed a little at the compliment. "Well, I was really close to one of the boys at the school. I actually lived with his family for a time. I think the other girls might have been a bit envious of my situation," she admitted shyly. Kindle snorted, "What was so great about this guy?"

"Well, he's very handsome, a perfect prince," Kyoko said with a faraway glimmer in her eye, "He is also a singer in a local band, well he used to be. He ran off to Tokyo to become a music idol a few months ago." Kindle and Tanner just nodded, understanding why the girls might be interested.

"But," Tanner piped in again, "Why would that keep the girls from being your friend? See, if I found out you liked JJ," she referenced a handsome senior who also was also her long-term crush, "I would still want to be your friend, may the best girl win and all that." Kyoko just smiled, "The girls there were kind of mean, Sho was one of those boys where no one could have him, and because we happened to be close, they took their frustration out on me."

Kindle frowned, "What do you mean?"

"They would do things like throw away my possessions, hide my desk, put nails in my slippers, you know… standard bullying." Kyoko responded with a shrug.

Kindle and Tanner's eyes grew wide. "No Kyoko, that's not standard… well, at least not here." Kindle and Tanner's looked over Kyoko's shoulder at her current tormentor. Courtney. The leggy blond had been attempting to torment Kyoko since she interrupted her session with the boy she learned to be named Kuon. "Girls here are more catty and subtle. They will try to undermine you, call you names and things, try to get you to get physical and make the first move then they can claim they were the victim all along." Tanner informed her. Kyoko thought about her interaction with the girl. She would call her ugly, rather loudly. Often times, Kyoko noticed, when Kuon seemed to be standing close by. Kyoko didn't understand why the girl bothered, all Kuon did was glare icicles at her every time he saw her. It wasn't like they were close or anything, and Kyoko had no interest in being anywhere near the Demon Lord.

Overhead the bell trilled and the girls gathered their belongs. Kyoko and Tanner started heading down the hall toward their Theater Arts class. "You know Kyoko, I don't think this Sho guy was a very good friend to you." Shocked Kyoko stopped and looked at the girl, "Why not? We were always together, he's the one who knows me best."

Tanner smiled sadly at the girl, "If he was a good friend, he would have defended you and told those girls to stop bullying you." Kyoko just shook her head in negation with a smile, "Oh, no no he never knew about the bullying because I never told him." Tanner frowned again, "Kyoko, you just said that he knew you best," she pulled open the door for her friend, "If that were really true, he would know something was upsetting you, he would know how those girls were treating you, and how they were hurting you. That's what friends do, they protect each other." Kyoko just frowned as she entered the class through the door Tanner had opened. She really had no reply.

"Alright class," Mr. McGregor claps his hands, a giddy expression on his face. "On Monday we will have our first acting challenge." An excited chatter perked up around the room. Kyoko looked over at her friend and smiled, she really really hoped she could be a princess for this challenge. She imagined herself riding off into the sunset on a white horse behind Sho. Bringing her hands to her cheeks she attempted to bring herself back from LaLa land. Her eyes fell on Kuon as she regained herself just to find his typical dark scowl directed at her. "So, since this is supposed to be a challenge, your classmates, Kuon and I will be picking your roles for you. These roles should be something that's opposite of how you normally are. The goal is to be completely out of your comfort zone." Kyoko fidgeted in her seat as Mr. McGregor started working to figure out various roles for students, and tried to think about what was the opposite of her, but she was drawing a blank. I'm sure Tanner with think of something good, she knows how much I like fairy tales, she looked at her friend with wide sparkling eyes. When it got to her turn to get cast in a role the voice she heard wasn't that of her friend. It was actually a voice she had only ever heard once before, but she knew from the frostiness coming from the voice it could only be one person. Kuon.

"I think she should be a bully." The tall blond boy said immediately after Mr. McGregor said her name. All eyes moved to him and, if possibly, have off a more ominous aura. "Explain." Mr. McGregor turned to his student assistant. Kuon just shrugged, "She's always so fu….damn happy," the boy corrected his language. "Like she doesn't have a care in the world. I can't imagine her bullying anyone." She turned to Tanner with silent pleading eyes, Tanner knew about her past with bullying, but her hope for rescue was dashed when she saw the thoughtful look in her friend's eye.

"I agree," Tanner said suddenly and Kyoko pouted, "I think Kyoko should be the bully, and I should be the victim."

"But.." Kyoko began, but before she could explain that her beautiful, confident friend could never be the victim of bullying, Mr. McGregor clapped his hands together and declared it "Done." Kyoko was outraged at her friend needing to play such a low character and glared over at Kuon, who had a slightly less than angry smirk on his face. As his eyes met her glare, his smirk became more pronounced. Then, as if flicking a light switch, the amused smirk was gone and his icy glare was back. Kyoko shrank back in her chair and waited impatiently for the bell to ring so she could talk with her friend.

"What was that all about? I can't be a bully and you are too beautiful to be a victim of bullying." Tanner blushed at the compliment.

"Because of 1. A bully is opposite your personality, I just can't see you being mean to anyone. 2. It was better than some of the other suggestions that could have been thrown out there. 3. This lets us be partners together." Kyoko smiled at the last one, then frowned. "I don't know how to be a bully," she insisted. Tanner just snorted and nodded in the direction of Courtney who happened to look in Kyoko's direction, glance at her outfit then said something to her gaggle of friends who all turned to look dismissively in Kyoko's direction. The group laughed as they walked away, hips swaying. "It's easy for you, just pretend you're here."

After school Tanner and Kyoko made their way back to Kindle and waved in greeting. Kyoko shuffled through her locker as Tanner told the other girl about their acting assignment.

"I wish I could see it, It's gotta be good. Oh! Hey, we should all go shopping!" Tanner rolled her eyes, "Your solution to everything is shopping."

"Is that a yes?"

"Of course"

"What about you Kyoko," Kindle looked over at the girl who was rooted in shock and surprise but had the happiest expression on her face. "Can I? I've never been shopping with friends before." The other girls laughed. "Of course silly. You don't have to work tonight do you?" Kyoko just shook her head in the negative, it was rare but she had this Friday off. "Well OK then, I'm driving." Then flicking her hair over her shoulder and gesturing toward the door with her arm, Kindle said with a funny accent, "We go!"

Shopping with friends was more fun than she imagined. The girls did what they called window shopping where they would roam from store to store. Try on outfits they liked, outfits they thought were funny, and sometimes what they thought would look best on the other girls, but much to Kyoko's delight they didn't really buy anything. It wasn't that Kyoko didn't have any money, she actually had quite a bit saved up, but she really didn't want to dip into that meager savings to fit in.

They were nearing the end of their time together because Kindle and Tanner had to get home to eat dinner with their families when they found it. The bright pink dress started off as a joke between the other girls.

"What color is this?" Kindle laughed holding up the bring pink wrap dress. "Melt your eyes pink?" Tanner supplied with a laugh. Kyoko giggled, she had to agree that the color was garish but the cut of the dress was cute, which she shared with the girls. Grinning at each other, Kindle the thrust the dress in her direction.

"Go put it on, we will look to see if it's in any other color." Kyoko turned a brilliant shade of pink and started shaking her head. "No no no no… I couldn't… it shows so much skin.. I couldn't possibly." Tanner started pouting, giving her a puppy dog expression.

"Please Kyoko, we tried on embarrassing things today too… we just wanna have fun with you, you don't have to buy it or anything." Guilted she grabbed the dress and made her way to the fitting rooms. Embarrassed she put on the bright pink dress, and without glancing in the mirror she stepped out to show her friends.

The girls stopped in shock and stared at Kyoko. Without saying anything Kindle reached over and pulled Kyoko's hair out of its usual ponytail and both girls took an appraising step back. Kyoko fidgeted nervously. After several moments of silence, she finally asked, "Well?"

Kindle just made a motion for her to turn around, shrugging Kyoko obliged. When she completed her circle both girls said in unison.

"You have to get that dress."

"Wha...I thought I was just trying it on as a joke.. You all said the color…"

"The color looks amazing on you," Tanner interrupted her, "And the cut is to die for on you. It emphasizes your breast, how tiny your waist is… I hate you for that by the way… and most importantly it makes your legs look killer." As Tanner spoke Kyoko's face gradually became more and redder, "But., it's so shameless."

"That's the point!" Kindle turned her in the mirror so she could examine herself. "This is not only the perfect dress for your body, but it's also the perfect dress for you to wear for your skit on Monday." Behind her back, she thought she might have seen the girls wink at each other.

Subconsciously Kyoko started trying to mimic how she saw Courtney stand. It just made her look like she had to pee. "Gahhhh it's no gooooodddd." She despaired, "I just look like I really need to use the restroom!" The girls laughed.

Examining her for a minute Tanner started pushing and pulling at her body till she stood in a relaxed posture, her hip thrust to the side and her hand upon her waist."

"Daaaammmmnnnnn girl," Kindle nodded in approval.

"Now you try, go back to normal and try to mimic this pose," Tanner instructed. Kyoko obliged and was happy to note that Tanner only had to make a few adjustments with her new pose. After several attempts at standing, Kindle suggested, "Now let's see if she can walk like her," Kyoko obliged by moving across the floor. Once again Tanner adjusted her body and then showed her how to move and Kyoko mimicked her friend.

"You're doing really good," Tanner praised her, "Now you just need to practice, and maybe not smile as much. I don't get a bully vibe when you smile like that." Kyoko nodded.

"Sooooo," Kindle looked at her Japanese friend. "Are you getting the dress?"