Chapter 9: Silvana & Rafisol: Unrelated by kirbymanx/huskynator
Primp City's Shopping District
"We're there, Raf. You can let go now." Silvana kindly asked her friend to get off. "Back seating a bike is not that scary."
That quip embarrassed Rafisol enough to keep her from responding, as she let go of Silvana's waist and stepped off.
At school earlier today, a careless happening outside of Rafisol's hands broke her phone charging cable. Silv had offered to bring her to the city on her bike to get a new one ASAP.
And perhaps have some fun. These two are good friends, but they are a class removed from each other and don't hang out much outside of school. Outside of video calls and texts.
"So. Bike's chained up. So Raf, cable first?"
"Yes. I always buy them at that supermarket." The sophomore blankly pointed at the building conveniently in view.
"Ah yes. The grocery essentials: bread, eggs, and charging cable." She smirked at her own on-the-fly joke.
"…" Rafisol didn't react. Silv didn't expect much else from her.
The two entered the store and Silvana immediately had her eyes set on the pretzels in the distance. "Follow me!" Rafisol lagged a bit behind her track running friend, but it's not like this is a competition. She caught up.
"You're hungry, Silv?"
The dark redhead grabbed a bag to put the pretzels in. "I haven't cycled with someone like that since I was a kid. You bet I'm hungry, Raf." She said while filling the bag. "And pretzels are usually not sold where I usually do groceries. So I'm treating myself."
"I see."
"There. Just a bottle of water and I'm good."
Rafisol felt a bit inadequate. Like her twin, Arle, Silvana was always so health-conscious. If she wasn't here Rafisol would've picked a bag of chips. Instead, she picked two croissants to avoid any chance of Silv being judgy.
Also, it's better and cheaper in the long run.
Soon after paying for their snacks and the new cable Silvana immediately dug in when they got outside. "Hmmm~" She swallowed. "Fresh~ So, Raf." She turned. "What now?"
"Hm?"
"Where should we go now?" Silvana repeated. "Window shopping?" She said before taking another bite.
"Sure. I got nothing better to do."
"Cool." Silv said while chewing and pointing her thumb in a direction. "That way?"
"Please lead the way."
"So we're walking around aimlessly."
"Yes."
Rafisol's deadpan delivery cracked Silvana up.
Going around aimlessly, the Junior class student thought to strike up a conversation. "So how's school been so far you?"
Rafisol let out a restrained grunt. "Frustrating." She said in her usual flat voice.
"Really?" Silvana asked with a little concern.
"You know how I feel, Silv, school is so meaningless."
'It is if you don't have friends.' Silvana semi-agreed in her head.
"If not for you I'd still rather be homeschooled." If Rafisol ever sounded like she had convictions, it was now. She's not a people person.
"Do you trust the teachers more now?" Sil wanted to know.
"Hm… Depends." Rafisol said while doing a more-or-less gesture with her hands.
"It's a step, Raf." Silvana smiled weakly. From what she heard, Rafisol wanting to be homeschooled has evidence it would be better for her (specifically if taught by someone she knows). She gets higher grades for doing homework than actually doing it in class. Yet she's stuck at Primp High, where her only friends are her sister and Silvana.
Having known Rafisol for almost a year now it surprised the Nadja twin that they even managed to become friends in the first place.
The stoic cyanette stopped. "Look!" She pointed at a pet store's windows. "Gugubbits." She walked up to the small nest of them on the other side of the glass. Silv joined her looking at them.
"Gugu." One green gugubbit gugu'd.
"Hi." The older girl greeted the animals back. "They're cute, aren't they?" Silvana said while looking at a huddling bunch sleeping together in their toy house.
"They are." Her friend agreed. "How come Carby has a red gem on his face?"
"Ask Satan." Silvana replied without blinking.
"Come again?"
"Long story short, Carbuncle's Satan's pet. We're only borrowing him. Indefinitely seemingly." She snarked. "He hasn't asked to take him back for a year now."
"But he has stopped loving him hasn't he?" Rafisol recalled that time Carbuncle tagged along with Silvana instead of Arle that day and they were all at Coach Satan's office for whatever reason.
"Mmmm... " Silv munched on another pretzel. "He still loves him." She was thinking about asking Rafisol her opinion on the school's coach. But that would be a rhetorical question. "I have no idea what to make of that guy. He gives a pair of teenage twins his precious gugubbit."
"The man is a known womanizer." Rafisol said barely relating to what Silvana was talking about.
"I know. But he doesn't really do that to teenagers if you pay any attention. Even me despite clearly being one of his favorites, somehow. Honestly, I'm just happy someone sees me as Arle's equal." She munched on her salt sprinkled snack some more.
"Can I come over to play with Carby again sometime?" Rafisol innocently asked.
"Of course, he likes you."
Those words made Rafisol's face blush a little despite the lack of movement.
The two kept on trekking together. Seeing if there's any store they wanna visit. But instead, they stumbled upon a racy soap advertisement on a banner.
They just stared at it in bewilderment. The woman had long, wavy cyan colored hair (though not quite like Rafisol's hair), naked, strategically covered up with bubbles while in a seductive pose.
"How's this allowed?" Rafisol wondered out loud. Confused, but not angry.
"Ever heard of 'Sex Sells'?" Silv spoke bluntly. "It's showbiz for-"
"I know what it means." Rafisol, for once in her life, interrupted something. "I get the gist…" Rafisol kept staring. "I recognize this woman."
"Same." Silvana tilted her head. "Don't ask me where though. Some random useless celeb I guess." She tried to recall.
"I remember. She voiced Rudy in the movie from 20XX."
"I see."
"She sucked."
Minutes later the teens found themselves inside a toy store. Rafisol thought there might be some merch in there. There wasn't really.
"They still sell marbles?" Silvana said holding a bag. "Thought those went out of style the generation before mom's." She put the bag down.
"I never played marbles."
"Me neither, Raf. Though I'm sure there are plenty of people who need them." The 16-year-old snickered while the 15-year-old didn't. "Oh! Is that? Wow!" Whatever Silv saw she grabbed three of them.
"What are those?"
"C'mon, Raf. Surely you know what juggling balls are right?" Silv smiled while holding them.
"I do."
"This is nifty." She started juggling them. "As am I." Rafisol was taking aback how well her friend juggled them while still looking at her. As if she could do it without really paying attention to the balls.
"Wow."
Silvana smiled at the amazement Rafisol showed. "I can do it with four if you like."
"Yes, please."
"Okay~" She let the balls drop in her hands, added a fourth, and started juggling again.
Rafisol still gawked at it.
"Eheh." Silvana chuckled. She stopped, letting all the balls fall into her hands, all as if it was second nature to her.
"Aw."
"Sorry. Don't wanna risk breaking those board game shelves."
The two decided they had enough and went back to Silvana's bike to go home.
"Silv?" Rafisol asked while Silvana fished out her chain's key.
"Yeah?"
"I've been meaning to ask: why are you so different outside home and school?"
"I'm not that much different." Silvana begged to differ. Shrugging it off casually.
"But why?" Reiterated Rafisol.
"Because I like you, Rafisol. I can't say that of my sister…" She mumbled that last part. "And don't act like you don't experience this too, Raf. You're different when surrounded with people you like."
The way her friend pointed it out made Rafisol blush, she found it embarrassing Silv brought attention to it.
Authors' Notes:
HUSK: A proper introduction to Silvana (not to be conflated with Silvana from my fic 'Silvana, From Clone to Clown' that goes for anyone that appears in that and here).