.hack//Legend Of Twilight Bracelet Fan Fiction ❯ ManEating Orchid ❯ Chapter Three: Rump Roast Galore ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Rating: Pg-13 -- for mild swearing.

 

Word Count of Story Text: 3183

 

Note: Sorry that it's short, but I've been on writer's block and this is the best I could come out with. Plus, I stopped at what I thought was a good spot.

 

Note 2: This chapter is merely to move along the plot. Next chapter, things will most certainly get more interesting.

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Shuyin, or Tengaki - they are the property of my sister, and most likely my most faithful reader (she started it all, my friends), Anissa. Praise her for creating the two who probably pushed out this chapter. I also don't own .Hack//Legend or make any profit either. Jackie and Jami are mine.

 

Enjoy. kseeyabye

 

Chapter Three -- Rump Roast Galore

 

August 30, 2003 - continued

 

Running down the halls after Shugo, who'd taken her black and red horizontally striped beanie, Anissa laughed whole-heartedly, finding her day going better than she'd ever thought possible. Though she hated to admit it, she probably wouldn't have had such a good day if her sister had been there.

 

While her sister was amazingly fun, allowing her to do more things independently, her sister didn't normally attract fun moments right away. She probably wouldn't have even met up with Shugo, had her sister not been sent to boarding school, and she probably wouldn't have met Jami, or Jackie, or Rena, unless she introduced herself, or they introduced themselves, in Home Economics.

 

In other words, things wouldn't have go the way they did with Alyssa's presence and looks warding off most good things. Needless to day, her sister looked beautiful but deadly, much like a rose.

 

Skidding as she turned the corner, hitting shoulders rather roughly with a girl in a pink mini-skirt and white polo, Anissa shouted her apology then went back to running as fast as she could after Shugo. She'd been less than three feet behind him until he maneuvered around the corner and the girl almost gracefully while she had run into her, and now she was nearly twenty feet behind. After stretching her legs as far as they could reach while running, Anissa caught up with him and pushed him into the wall at an angle.

 

“Got ya!”

 

“Yeah, but you don't got the hat!” Throwing it to some helping hand Anissa didn't see before, Shugo bent down and picked Anissa up from behind after she spun around to chase after her hat.

 

“Aw, come on, gimme my ha-a-a-a-t!” she whined, reaching her arms out at the one she recognized as Shuyin from earlier in the day while Shugo held her up in the air by the stomach. While she wasn't short compared to other women her age in the school, she was short compared to men her age, but such was normal. Being short was fine with her, seeing as she could somehow get a longer and faster stride than even people taller her, but it was sure as annoying as Hell when playing keep-away.

 

“Say please in two different languages, please!” Shuyin taunted at the same time as Shugo. No new kid knew how to answer.

 

“Damn you! Please! Bitte!” Anissa snarled, kicking her legs.

 

Shuyin laughed then threw the hat to Anissa, walking forward and resting his elbow on the top of her head when she was set on the ground. “First time in how many years?” he asked Shugo.

 

“Last one was Cameron in fifth grade,” he smiled. “She knows probably five languages now.”

 

“Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.”

 

“Cameron? A she?” Anissa crossed her arms and glared up at Shuyin, ignoring the one-sided smirk he wore and focusing on the clean cut of his chin as he looked straight ahead while walking.

 

Shuyin looked down at her, a small smile appearing on his face. “Yeah, but it really doesn't sound wrong after you get to know her in about a month. We call her Camero, like the car, or Cammy. She's a wild child, but really does stick to her priorities and limits that she's set for herself.”

 

He lowered his arm and Anissa shook her head hard, straightening out the locks of her hair then pulling the hat back on her head roughly. The Cafeteria doors came into sight and she ran all the way to the end of the line, which was short due to the time that had passed. Grabbing a tray already filled, she moved down the line and payed the lady in the hairnet five dollars then searched the room and found her newfound friends.

 

Dropping the tray onto the round table in front of her, Anissa frowned at the food she couldn't determine the names of. There was white crusty stuff in a clump, green mush she assumed was formerly known as green beans or something, and a black, disc like flat thing she figured must have been a hamburger patty of some sort. Wrinkling her nose even more at the smell, she waved her hand back and forth.

 

“What's this supposed to be, anyways? Some kind of leftover prison food or what?” she heard Jami mutter in front of her, dropping the tray nonchalantly on the table, food splattering on the table top. “They expect us to eat this crap?”

 

“We do pay for it,” Cordelia voiced reasonably, the one who'd mentioned to Anissa to call her by Ouka in notes and looked strangely like she was related to a were-wolf or something along those lines. “So either we don't buy food, we have twenty dollars in our lunch accounts for the rest of the year, and the damned lunch-ladies call up our parents and tell us we haven't been eating and are turning into stick figures, or we buy food, throw it away, and both are satisfied.”

 

Jami just stared at her, milk half-way from the table to her lips, right eyebrow raised just barely. “I have no clue what you just said. Can I have it Jami language, please?”

 

Ouka rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Not buying food equals teachers calling home; Buying food then trashing it equals no pumping our stomachs at the end of the day and happy teachers and parents that gives us money for being such… angels.”

 

Jami's face brightened, a grin spreading widely. “Thanks for the translation,” she laughed, bringing the milk up to her mouth finally and taking a drink. “And yeah, I agree with you, but I don't want to waste money on shit I'm never going to eat.”

 

“And its a lose-lose situation either way, as it is every year even though we go through the same routine just to find the same answer.”

 

Laughing, Anissa watched as Sukie, 'the smartest girl in school yet supposed to be in ninth grade only but is in eleventh grade', flipped her hair over her shoulder after entering herself into the conversation then sitting down with a wrapped up hamburger in her hands.

 

A not burnt hamburger.

 

Seeing the same thing as Anissa did, Jami, Cordelia, Shugo, Rena and Ouka stared at the hamburger, eyebrows raised and hands extending to their pockets or purses.

 

“I've got five bucks right here,” Rena declared, holding the five dollar bill between her index and middle finger, waving it attractively. “Bargain or no?”

 

Smiling wickedly, Sukie looked down at her food that seemed to be normal enough then up at Rena's offer. “Anybody else got a bid better or is Rena going to get it?”

 

“I've got five-fifty.”

 

“I've got two dollars, seventy five cents…”

 

“I've got a pack of cinnamon flavored gum.”

 

“I've got a couple gloves you can have… if you want them…”

 

Turning her back to the group, she tore a fourth of the hamburger off then tossed the piece to Ouka, who offered the two dollars, seventy five cents, and the pack of cinnamon flavored gum. The gum would get her through the last few classes of the day. The money wouldn't buy anything except a marker at any store. Gloves… gloves would prove to be useless unless she needed to grip something or punch anybody, which wasn't anything she'd ever want to do voluntarily.

 

“Gotta love gum, right?” Ouka smiled evilly, taking a bite of what hamburger she had.

 

“Whatever, you cheat. You could have given us some gum and everything would have been kosher,” Shugo grumbled, laying his forehead on the table and wrapping his arms around his stomach dramatically. “Now all of us are going to die in the middle of class today and you will be blamed because you didn't have the heart to sacrifice some gum for your friends.”

 

“At least I didn't offer the gloves off of my hands like some dumb ass in exchange for the food.”

 

“Rub it in, why don't you, Ouka…”

 

“All right, I will.” Getting up from her seat on the bench, Ouka walked over to Shugo, who's chair was titled back on the back two legs away from the table, and sat herself on his lap, arm around his neck. Dipping her face low, close to his, she ruffled his hair continuously and slowly. “I'm smarter than you are --” she sang snidely, Jami laughing as she watched them, “I'm smarter than you are -- I'm smarter than yo -- ”

 

“Since you're taking things literally, Ouka, why don't you just hold up a flashing sign that says 'slut' in big… bold… red… capital letters.”

 

Looking up, Ouka stopped immediately, and stared at the tall, red-haired student above her. “Why don't you go fuck your bitch and leave? I'm not even bad compared to you.”

 

Rolling his eyes, the red-haired boy walked away, hands in the pockets of his regular, boot-cut jeans. “Stick to lap-dancing. Apparently, its one of things you probably do know how to do, unlike using your mind.”

 

He seemed to highly resemble the boy that had nearly attacked Anissa earlier in the day.

 

Growling in a way that seemed to resemble that of a wolf, she jumped up off of Shugo's lap, kicking his shin in the process, and advanced on the overly cocky boy who seemed to be oblivious to Ouka's more than aggressive reaction.

 

“Yo, Jason, mind telling me why it is that you talk about sex every time you talk to me?” she snapped, setting her hand on Jason's shoulder and turning him around to face him. “Is it implying something or am I going delusional?”

 

Jason just smirked. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

 

Ouka sneered then turned and walked away, raising her hand and giving him a manicured middle finger as she flipped her hair. “Go to hell, you bastard.”

 

“Anything to be where you are,” he shouted back at her.

 

Anissa watched as Ouka growled at Jason then leaned over the table with her palms on the table. Ouka grinned as Jami pushed our her tray and opened her mouth.

 

“Jaguar,” she called out, raising her hand dismissively.

 

Before Anissa had time to question the word 'Jaguar', choruses of 'Jaguar's rang out and everyone walked away to another table. “Hey! What the hell!”

 

Shugo leaned backwards from where he had sat down at another table, looking at her upside down, grinning. “Whenever we put some food in the middle of table and say Jaguar, you have to say Jaguar, too, or otherwise, last one to say it has to throw it away.”

 

“So on the first day I'm here, I have trash duty?”

 

“New kid honors. You have to love them,” Jackie exclaimed, grinning widely. “I had clean-up duty for a month. So you'd better get used to it quick if you don't want to waste five minutes everyday of your life picking up other people's trash. Its advised, trust me, and it's not fun in anyway.”

 

“I can assume as much… but… why make me, Anissa, the one you all adore and love, whom you just met today and found to be amazingly cool, clean up your trash?” she smiled sweetly, folding her hands and twirling her foot innocently. “You do love me, don't you guys? I'm your friend, right?”

 

Slamming her hands down on the table she sat at, Jami stood up and regarded her with an affirmative look. “Yep, you're our friend, and this--” she pushed the tray closer to Anissa deliberately with one finger “-- is how we treat our amazingly cool friends.”

 

“Damn you,” Anissa snapped after her face dropped to an expressionless one, and she glared at Jami for the great over-dramatizing she performed. “Lazy ass freaks,” she muttered quietly, picking the tray up delicately then spinning on her heel to throw it away.

 

“The new girl is getting pushed around by her friends already. How tragic.”

 

Turning her head at the new speaker she'd hadn't seen anywhere earlier, Anissa took in the blonde woman calculatingly, noting absently that she was blonde, wearing a pink polo shirt, a green mini-skirt, tan, fur insulated boots, and had a new, silver watch on her right wrist.

 

In other words… she was a prep.

 

“Uh… who are you?” Anissa asked bluntly, keeping her face blank. Anissa didn't really want to be the one to start a feud on the first day she attended school.

 

“You tell me who you are first. Then I'll decide if you need to know my name or not.”

 

But if she wanted to start a fight, Anissa had no objections.

 

“I'm the new girl. All you need to to know for now.”

 

“Oh, she thinks she's a smart one. How droll.” Laughter erupted within the group of four.

 

“Oh, she thinks speaking in a British accent is intelligent and… what's the word… attractive. Here is a hint, girl, I'm interested in guys, so you can stop flipping your hair and crossing your arms to show off cleavage. I'm not interested in the slightest bit, so go fuck one of your shadows.”

 

“Oh, that's lovely, she's supposed to be a girl. She looks like a dog.”

 

Anissa sneered. “You know, that doesn't really help your side.”

 

“Does it matter? You're already ruined reputation wise. Look at your clothes.”

 

Anissa didn't have to. She knew what the blonde meant. “And you're blaming me for still getting guys when I don't even have to wear too tight shirts and too short skirts?”

 

Anissa dropped the Styrofoam tray into the trash then pushed her way through the small group and sat at the table with her new friends, who were all wearing challenging expressions on their face while in careless but angry positions.

 

“I guess we'll see you all later, right Allman?” Rena smiled, crossing her arms and resting her elbows on the tabletop. Jami, Shugo and Ouka did the same and the four girls laughed and walked away.

 

“That was Katie Allman? I figured her to be smart, not… that.”

 

“We all do. But she's got friends in high places so thank whatever High Being there is that it's only connections that make her so popular,” Jami yawned. “Well, I'll see you all later. I've got an orthy appointment. Tschau.”

 

Anissa laughed as Jami stood up and started jumping around in circles, singing lyrics to a Blink 182 song loudly in a voice that Anissa thought was pretty and full enough to belong to a singer's.

 

“Breathing deeply, walking backwards, finding strength to call and ask her -- roller coaster, favorite ride, let me kiss you one last time!”

 

A few boys, ones that Anissa assumed were her friends, said affirmative responses and Jami laughed , swore at them for breaking the promise of only being friends, then ran out of the room in hysterics.

 

“Geez, who is she again?”

 

(-)

 

Anissa cried out in what was joy when the final bell ring and shot up out of her seat towards the door. “I am free at last, Thank God, Almighty, I am free at last!”

 

She grabbed her binder off of the table by the door, where she had been told to place it while they watched a movie, and hurried down the hall, laughing at the rude comments she received from older students.

 

Shoving her papers and folders into her black backpack and slamming the locker door, Anissa sprinted out of the school, her roller blades in hand as she ignored the incessant scolding from teachers whom she'd most assuredly forget the names of in less than two hours.

 

Rounding the corner of the building, towards the side entrance to the lot which was closest to her own home, she grinned at the sight of Shugo, Rena, Shuyin, and a couple of other students, walking towards the same exit she was in a bee line for. Their backs were to her, casually and calmly in steady strides, and she ran by them and turned at the exit.

 

“Hey, guys, why you leaving me?” she smiled, tilting her head to the side innocently.

 

Shugo blinked momentarily in surprise then grinned while Rena shook her head incredulously. “Well, actually, you left us by running out of the classroom, shouting out the last lines of Martin Luther King Junior's 'I Have A Dream' speech.” He leaned against the gate border of the six foot, metal fence and watched as she sat on the small steps and pulled on her blades.

 

“Yeah, well, school is not my thing. If you haven't noticed it yet, I only attend for the socializing and the guys. Well, that and the freebies we sometimes get for doing all our work.” Anissa looked up suddenly, eyes wide. “They do that kind of stuff, right?” she asked, looking more than a little hopeful for a positive answer.

 

Shugo waited until Anissa stood and pulled her back pack higher up on her shoulder as her mouth dropped and her eyebrows raised before answering her. “Yeah, they do, otherwise no one would ever come for anything.” He threw his board to the ground and grinned. “Now, lets race to the Web Alley. Last one there has to buy everybody a soda of their choice.” Without waiting for any reaction, he went straight down the steep concrete hill instead of the winding walkways and left Shuyin, who also carried a board, the two other students on blades, and Anissa staring at his back.

 

Shuyin was the first to grin and follow. “Oh, no he didn't!” he cried out in a mocking, higher voice than should be permitted for high school boys, and went the same path that Shugo did.

 

“The little freak is trying to best me!” Anissa growled, pushing off angrily. “I'll show the little bastard who he's dealing with.”

 

“And thus begins the night of being chased by cops,” Rena sighed, shaking her head at the overly excited whoops that she could hear of her brother and Shuyin, despite the distance that was already between them.

 

“Ah, don't worry, Rains. I'll make sure they don't get into a shit load,” someone beside her smiled.

 

She sent him a look from the corner of her eye through her brown bangs. “Yeah, that's real reassuring, Tengaki. Just go and have fun.” She pulled him forward and gave him a hard pat on the back. “See ya, and don't call me 'Rains'. It makes me feel like I'm some sort of horse.”

 

“Fine, but don't worry, Shugo isn't an idiot. He won't do anything too illegal.”

 

“Oh, that's even better.”

 

Tengaki took off, laughing. “Fine! How about I just leave?”

 

Rena grinned. “There we go! The hint has finally reached your brain!” Crossing her arms, she watched as Tengaki's form shrank as distance between them increased. “The new kid actually isn't half bad,” she murmured, cocking her head to the side in thought. “Maybe this year will be better than the last.”

 

 

Chapter Three. Short -- more of a 'move it along' bit to show a bit of fun for the moment.

Things will begin to heat up. Don't worry. And it won't go day by day, it'll probably skip 5 -- 20 days, then go to a more exciting bit for a couple of days, then go on another skip however many days... etc., etc.

Balmung, and characters will be introduced soon.

 

Reviews, please.

Danke,

-AS