Countess Amelia: Bitter Friend

Unending BE - episode 824672

The next morning began with apparant mundanity, as once again Usagi was running late for school having slept in once again. On this occasion she had particularly good reason for sleeping in, not that she could ever tell anyone what it was. She was worried. Last night, two entirely seperate attacks had occured. Both attempting to kidnap friends of hers. Ami succesfully, and Naru... Only barely saving her. What made things worse was that Rei had tried and failed to predict anything about the enemy. Whoever this enemy was, they were almost certainly prepared. It couldn't have been a coincidence that their first target was the one of them most likely to figure out a vulnerability.

"Please don't ring, please don't ring!" she pleaded as she ran. Usagi stifled a yawn. All that business last night had kept her up with worry, hence her late awakening earlier. She wasn't quite late yet, but if she didn't pick up the pace...

"Pick up the pace Usagi!" Naru called from behind her. "We're gonna be late!"

Glancing behind her, Naru was indeed running up - fast too - and it made Usagi realise that she must have had a huge amount of trouble sleeping as well. Well, obviously .Being almost captured by a freaky monster like that couldn't possibly be a mentally healthy experience. Anyone that could sleep after an experience like that had to be impossibly jaded. Even so, she wasn't half sprinting down that street.

"Yipe!" Usagi squeeked as she tripped over something in the middle of the street, clattering to the ground. Guess she should've been watching where she was going, but no time for that! She pushed herself back to her feet as Naru dashed past, kicking up a cloud of dust as she went. Seconds later Usagi was chasing after her full pelt, resuming her prayer that the bell wouldn't ring until after she'd arrived. Right now, she would take any victory she could get.

"Made it!" Usagi declared, triumphant over the late bell! Though she did have to stop and catch her breath, and it did seem like a rather good idea to lean against her desk to try and conserve her strength. She looked over at Naru, feeling a little guilty that they hadn't had the chance to talk yet. Huh. That's pretty impressive. She wasn't even a little bit winded! No sweat, no sign of fatigue. Sitting up straight looking fresh as a daisy! Naru soon noticed Usagi staring at her, and gave a polite smile and wave back, but there was no time for them to talk because Miss Haruna chose that moment to enter the classroom, looking rather serious.

"Some of you may have noticed that Ami is absent today," she said. "I have received word already that she is... unwell and will be unable to attend for an indetermined period of time. That aside, I shall now call the register."

A few murmurs rose about that, as many of them saw Ami as the kind of girl that would surely drag herself out of bed and attend school no matter how sick she was. No doubt the police had noticed both she and her mother were missing, and were trying to maintain a low profile on what they would think of as a kidnapping. Keep people out of the investigation, keep them from panicking... Or something like that. Maybe they had other reasons too. If they did, then Usagi could only speculate on what it could be.

Class went by even slower than normal today, and it wasn't helped by the fact that every so often Usagi would find herself staring at the empty seat and hoping that her genius friend was alright.

An eternity later, lunch rolled around. Good thing too, because that pencil and her eraser were beginning to look rather tasty... First thing's first though, talk to Naru. Make sure she's okay after last night, do a bit of catching up. The other two would understand. Just need to break the ice, probably best not to start with "so you were attacked by a monster last night. Again." Need a different opening...

"Naru!" Usagi called out. "That was amazing, this morning! Since when could you run that fast?"

"Eh?" Naru blinked back at her, nervously twiddling her fingers. "Oh. Well, it was nothing really." Suddenly, she began to concentrate for just a few moments, staring at nothing in particular. Then she leaned conspiratorially closer to Usagi and whispered "Can you keep a secret?"

"Oh ho? Why, of course I can! Do you even need to ask?"

"I feel bad for not telling you this, but... I won this contest for a special dance excercise video that's being released next month. It's a super tough routine, but it's also a lot of fun and very effective too. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about it, because I'm appearing in the background as one of the dancers."

"Naru! You should have said something! That's awesome!"

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry Usagi. Friends don't keep secrets from friends, right?"

"That's right! They don't!" Usagi nodded along, not quite catching the irony dripping from Naru's voice.

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Lumitiel

Sat Oct 22 13:53:36 2011

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