#UH YEAH ive been waiting to drop this one! a jealousy classic

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Mikan (pt. 23)

Happy Saturday! Today we'll wrap up the Sports Festival Arc. Luna has been tormenting people for far too long now and today we'll see that Mikan has had enough.

Previously Mikan has been confessed to! And she has a sneaking suspicion she knows exactly who it was, too! Sadly, she's dealt a series of blows leading to heartache.

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Chapter Eighty-Five

Mikan is pretty sure the guy who dragged her into the race and confessed his feelings was Natsume and she has evidence to back it up. 

“The way he looked from behind.” Mikan has had to stare after his back enough times to know, after all. She could recognize the way he looks from behind any day. Which also means that she had the feeling it was Natsume from the start, from when he first grabbed her wrist. 

“That earring.” Goes without saying that one of Natsume’s most recognizable features would be one of the things that gets Mikan’s attention.

“I can still feel the heat from where he grabbed my wrist.” Yes, this is evidence. Mikan isn’t just flustered or flattered that someone (namely Natsume) loves her. She’s having a physical reaction to the encounter and we can assume since she’s using this as evidence, that Natsume’s touches often get this reaction out of Mikan, that she feels warm where he holds her. 

Sad scans situation, but it gets the point across.

“That was Natsume,” she deduces with a degree of certainty. That’s pretty impressive because she’s never certain when it comes to him. Why does Natsume act the way he does? Why would he kiss her? Why would he act like that kiss was no big deal? Was it him who gave her that pretty red alice stone? Why is he so wishy-washy? But he was the masked imposter, the one who confessed to her. What she’s not sure of is “Why?” and that’s an interesting question. Obviously he does have those feelings or he wouldn’t have initially won full points. Is she confused why he’d love her? Or is she confused that he would hide his identity while confessing? Why would he confess in the first place, after everything that’s happened between them at this festival? They’re all valid questions. After all, it’s a confusing and overwhelming situation. But that Natsume was the one to confess--that’s not really something she’s second-guessing.

The kids are preparing for the cheer contest. She’s dressed in a gakuran that covers her real costume when she runs into Ruka and Natsume. She narrows her eyes in Natsume’s direction, realizing that she has to ask him about the Borrowing Race. But she’s only able to get his name out when Luna comes around, commenting on the dramatic Borrowing Race. Apparently she watched with Natsume the whole time and is very confused now as to who that masked boy could have been.

Mikan had been so sure just a moment ago, but now she’s not as certain. As if things couldn’t get worse, there’s now rumors that Natsume is dating Luna, which further challenges her previous convictions. 

If Mikan didn’t have feelings for Natsume, then it would merely be a question of going back to the drawing board and figuring out who else could have confessed to her.

Natsume didn't confess to you! Why would he!

But Mikan is devastated. Not only did Natsume not confess to her (and it’s not just that she’d thought it had been him, but that she’d wanted it to be him), but he might be dating another girl instead, a girl she really doesn’t like. 

While the White Team’s cheer performance has the rest of the school awestruck, Mikan isn’t paying attention. For once, our easily excitable Alice in Wonderland who is impressed by every magical thing the academy has to offer is not the one chattering about how cool and amazing everything is. Instead, she’s only thinking about Natsume, staring at him as he performs for the contest.

She’s disappointed, because she’d been so convinced that it was Natsume. She’d really wanted it to be him. She’d wanted him to love her and be willing to say so, and maybe that’s what the hydrangeas’ symbolic meaning of “maiden’s dream” was referring to: the dream of being confessed to by the boy she loves. But it turns out it was just a dream, the hopeful and desperate wishing for something impossible.  

Mikan’s issue is her inability to confront her own feelings. She can ask herself why she’s so bothered, but she can’t be honest about answering. So she lies to herself instead, asserting that it does not bother her that it wasn’t Natsume. And it does not bother her to see Natsume and Luna together. It does not bother her even if they were to date. It wouldn’t bother her at all. None of it. 

Gets the point across, like I said.

But it does bother her. All of it. Which is why she flips a table, just to give us evidence that she's lying--to us and to herself. But the expulsion of a little bit of bad energy has her hyped. She can just put all her bad feelings into the competition. After all, it doesn’t really bother her, so she should just focus on cheering instead.

Red Team’s cheer is impressive and wonderful to see (and would probably look very nice animated… just saying) until disaster strikes and Mikan comes crashing to the ground, saved at the last moment by Sakurano’s intervention. Mikan could have died and was only a second away from colliding with the ground. 

Despite this and despite the fact that nobody in their right mind would ever pull such a stunt for attention, Persona comes by her hospital room to accuse her of just that: nullifying the telekinetic in charge of lifting her up so that people would worry about her. After all, Mikan’s alice sticker shows that she’s used her alice just now, which must be proof that this whole incident is her doing.

Chapter Eighty-Six

Persona nearly killed her before, so Mikan is understandably frightened to see him again. He continues to accuse her and she loses control, overcome with indignation, shouting that she only used her alice in a knee-jerk attempt to save herself, that she would never risk the Red Team’s chance at victory, all in an apparently disrespectful tone that Persona is quick to point out. This is a conspiracy, of course, so he doesn’t actually care about what happened. He will gladly use Mikan’s disrespectful outburst against her to further his own case, ignoring all of her points in the process.

But to what end?

He announces that this incident will be investigated but that if Mikan does anything else disruptive, she will be immediately transferred to the DA class. 

Her friends stick up for her--she was the victim in this situation so why should it be held against her? But Persona makes it clear: the real trial will be whether or not the students outside her inner circle believe her, and with the way things with Luna are going now, that’s a tough sell. The fact that no incorrupt justice system works that way is irrelevant.

Mikan is reminded once again of her horrible nightmare, of being pursued by Persona with ESP’s creepy voice echoing around. It seems her nightmare is coming true, and she’s scared. She doesn’t want to be in the DA class. She doesn’t want to lose anything important.

As if any of this is her fault.

When Mikan and the rest rejoin the festival, they’re let down to see that a lot of people believe the rumors about Mikan. Especially within the Red Team, since they were sure to win the cheer contest, people who don’t know Mikan well are quick to have someone to blame for their loss. The festival is drawing to a close and Red Team’s morale is pretty low. It’s not just those directly within Luna’s sphere of influence--everyone is susceptible. 

So Mikan apologizes, because she feels like this was all her fault. But it’s not her fault and her friends want her to know that, especially Hotaru, who knows who’s really at fault for all of this.

She voices doubts in Mikan’s participation in the Kibasen, worried that all of this will somehow come to a head at that event. She then turns and asks Mikan once and for all what happened with Luna in the utility closet. 

Though Mikan is relieved that somebody can see so clearly what’s going on between her and Luna, she still has Luna’s warning in her head. She can’t drag all of her friends into this and risk their safety. Whatever almost happened to her at the cheer contest could occur to Hotaru or someone else--and maybe even something worse--and she won’t risk that. 

So instead, she smiles and announces that she won’t cause any more trouble. She doesn’t want to get “mopey and negative” because it will only cause more problems for her friends. Though she should give herself at least a moment to process all of the frightening and upsetting events from the past few days, she represses it all instead and smiles. 

Why ask for any kind of help when you can hide your suffering with a SMILE?

Before, we’ve seen Mikan express a desire to smile for others, to hide her sadness in an effort to make others feel better. This is the most potent example so far, with her pushing aside all the understandably negative feelings she’s experiencing so that she doesn’t burden anybody. What she should be doing now is asking for help instead of taking everything on by herself, but Mikan’s character development is not necessarily positive. She gets to be what she wanted from the beginning, someone who can smile for Hotaru no matter what, but at a pretty steep cost.

She runs off to explain things to her classmates, only to run into a scene unraveling: Sumire is arguing with Luna’s groupies in Mikan’s defense, maintaining that Mikan would never do something so risky and stupid for attention. But when Sumire turns to prompt Natsume into speaking up too, he doesn’t say what they’d expected him to. Instead, he tells the crowd of kids that Mikan isn’t worth their time or protection, and that he doesn’t want to be involved with anyone who would be seen with her. He’s disgusted by the mere thought of her, apparently, and seeing that she’s been there all along, listening, doesn’t deter him from saying he can’t stand to look at her. 

So she runs off.

Cry cry cry cry cry Mikan! It'll do you good!! I'm a big fan of crying!

She lies to herself again, that this is nonsense not worth crying over, that she will not cry over it, but she does cry. I think her refusal to be honest with herself is a self-soothing mechanism. Before, she didn’t want to think she could love Natsume romantically because she was so frightened of rejection. Natsume can be sweet and kind in his own way, but if she ever confessed to him, he’d probably laugh or think her affections nothing more than the blind love of his fanclub. But now it’s worse. She loves someone who is apparently disgusted by her, who wants nothing to do with her. She can’t be honest with herself now because that means accepting how doomed her situation is and admitting how deep he cut her with his words just now. 

Instead, she lies and says this is nonsense, tells herself she will not cry, despite the tears welling up already. She wants to be positive. She was supposed to smile and stop being a burden but this is something she can’t repress so easily. “Darn you, Natsume!” For making her cry, for being a jerk, for choosing Luna over her, for not being the masked boy, for not loving her--

But despite the running and the crying, she’s suddenly caught from behind by a masked boy--the same one who confessed his love for her in front of the whole school--who hugs her. 

She knows that it’s Natsume this time. She knows it’s him before she turns around and sees the familiar mask or the earring. She even starts to say his name out loud before she thinks it. Whatever he said before, he’s now hugging her--like an apology.

Freshman year of high school was spent rereading the manga up to this specific page, staring at it for a few minutes and then deciding I didn't necessarily feel like reading any more. He hugs her. That's enough for me.

He lets go and she falls to the ground, looking behind her to where he has disappeared. She’s so overwhelmed and taken aback by this experience that she’s physically weakened, not even able to stay standing without his support. 

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Mikan takes a moment and again wonders about Natsume’s wishy-washiness. But for the first time, she’s able to come to a conclusion. She knows the masked boy--from just now and the Borrowing Race--is Natsume, despite everything Luna might say. So Natsume loves her and he doesn’t mean anything bad he’s been saying. But how does that make sense when he’s been saying such terrible things? But she realizes quickly that she’s not the only one Luna has cowed into obedience. Natsume doesn’t have a choice either. 

And Mikan recalls the physical and emotional intimidation Luna has used against her, namely the incident where she tried to choke her in the utility closet, and she is sadly aware that Natsume must have been threatened in a similar way, suffering all along with her.

She comes back to her friends with a smile, surprising everyone since they all know about what just happened with Natsume. Apparently it wasn’t just Natsume--everyone was worried and looking for her, just to see her smiling as though nothing happened. 

Yuu talks to her about, asking if it was true what Natsume said. She confirms it and despite her friends’ shock, she stands up for him. It doesn’t matter what he does anymore, no matter how cruel it is. Mikan knows he has a reason so she will be upbeat, and won’t let this depress her.

"Why couldn't I even think a little about what is hidden far inside?" is, in my opinion, one of the most important NM quotes for her side of it.

What she says out loud is pretty standard optimistic Mikan fare--that she has loyal friends that she treasures and won’t let herself get sad anymore. What she keeps unsaid is a lot more interesting to me. 

She remembers that his hands were hot when he’d hugged her, like he regretted what he had said and was angry at himself. It’s all the proof she needs that he’s not doing what he really wants. 

She berates herself, too.

She wonders why, after all this time she’d spent with him, she was only concerned with the changes on the outside, and hadn’t asked at all about what was going on inside. This is another call back to Chapter 77, when Mikan had been unable to pay attention to much outside of Natsume looking more mature and getting taller. She’d stared at him, focused on where he could possibly have been to warrant these physical changes. But I don’t think that’s all she means by “changes on the outside.” I think she’s also referring to the way he’d acted, actions she had questioned and that had deeply confused and hurt her, without putting anything together for herself.

A couple days ago she’d wondered how on earth Natsume could be so stupid as to believe a rumor that she would show someone her underwear to get out of trouble. Surely, he should know her better than to think she would do something so deeply out of character! But Mikan had done the same with him, had taken his actions and all the rumors about him at face value, believing everything she saw even if it was out of character. She’s angry at herself for not seeing the obvious, for being blinded by her hurt and jealousy to the point where she wasn’t really thinking about Natsume’s feelings.

And all along, her friends have stood by her and supported her, so she will do the same for Natsume. No matter what, she will believe in him.

"I'll believe in Natsume!" And she won't ever stop.

This is a pretty big deal, obviously, because it’s a pretty big divergence from how she’d usually treated her confusing feelings for Natsume. If he hurt her, she believed him. Now, she knows him better than ever, so she won’t be fooled again. She will stick by this and will believe in him no matter what. Natsume will still act in contradictory ways and confuse her, but she will believe in him anyway. She knows for sure now that he cares about her and wouldn’t do anything to seriously hurt her.

Patient love, like the hydrangeas had pointed out before. 

It’s time for the kibasen. Mikan has volunteered to play a central role, having come up with a plan to deal with Luna once and for all. She’s determined, but she gets a little distracted when she sees Natsume participating too. 

The rest of the familiar members of the DA class is on the Red Team, and Mikan perks up to see Nobara, who she hasn’t seen since New Year’s. She’s of course concerned and would naturally want to talk to her about what happened, especially since it seems like Nobara has something important she needs to say, but Tsubasa will do whatever he can to avoid Rui, so they end up in the opposite direction.

Koko is the Red Team general, which means he needs to be protected the most, but for some reason Luna is the general on the White Team, despite her alice remaining a mystery and the fact that she hasn’t participated at all in any of the other activities. 

All the feminism leaves my body during this kibasen. I wanna see Mikan beat the shit out of Luna. Yeah, there's more happening here than just the jealousy. But the jealousy is enough for me. I'm handing Mikan the steel chair.

Mikan refuses to be intimidated. She comforts herself by assuring herself that she hasn’t done anything wrong to deserve Luna’s cruel treatment of her. 

Chapter Eighty-Eight

The game advances intensely, but that’s just the nature of the Sport’s Fest. Things start getting strange when Mikan’s own teammate attacks her. She recognizes him as one of the kids who was picking on her under Luna’s influence before and she tries to reason with him until she sees the look on Luna’s face: a sinister grin, signaling that this was all part of her plan. Luna doesn’t care about this festival. She doesn’t care about the White Team or about the points or about what makes sense in the kibasen. What she cares about is punishing Mikan, and she’ll do whatever she can to achieve that.

But after a little tussle, the boy seems to come to his senses, wondering out loud why he’s doing this--attacking his own teammate. Mikan has used her alice, but she knows she didn’t nullify anything. She looks at her hand and sees little stones in her palm. She knows what this means, but she still doesn’t connect everything right away. Now isn’t the right time, after all. 

My favorite villains are Luna and Natsume. I love Natsume as a villain for Natsume reasons. I love Luna as a villain for Mikan reasons. <3

She comforts her teammate by suggesting his glasses had been pranked by the White Team. She makes up with all the kids who had been bullying her during this arc, especially now that she knows that they had no control over their actions. The only person at fault for any of this is Luna. 

Mikan ends the kibasen by attacking Luna, letting out all of the rage and jealousy and fear that she’s been keeping to herself this whole time. Luna’s threats are--and were--meaningless. She had been told that if she behaved and minded her own business that there’d be minimal damage, but Mikan realizes that there’s already been enough damage. She won’t hold back anymore, won’t let herself be threatened and won’t forgive Luna for all the suffering she’s caused. Mikan uses the last of her alice and explodes the three-count sticker on her uniform, causing her to be knocked out.

MIKAN TAKE THIS STEEL CHAIR!

The thing is… Luna is knocked out too.

Conclusion

So sad but we have wrapped up the Sports Fest Arc, the Jealousy Arc, the last Perfect Arc in GA. I think it is perfect in terms of theme and narrative, that a consistent, contained story is being told here, with clear morals and character growth. We won't be seeing that to this degree again. Very sad, so I'm mourning now.

From now on, the storytelling starts to waver a bit.

Anyway, I'll try to keep up a regular posting schedule. For me, that means whenever I can. I'll aim for once a day because I really wanna finish this and get all the parts out for y'all, so I can focus more on other projects.

I hope y'all enjoyed this negative emotion Mikan arc. I know I did because I love when Mikan is angry more than anything. <3

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[chaoskatya]

unfinished brooke x katya hatefuck fic

hi yall :^) so ive had this sitting in my drafts for a WHILE and ive barely dented the actual planned plot but still i felt like it was kind of a waste of what i did write to not ?? idk do something with it? this was originally written for AQ’s rarepair event but irl stuff got in the way so it never got finished, and i kinda lost the inspo to finish it (for now? idk) so here it is, posted unedited in however it was when i last touched it

brooke x katya hatefuck, (well, planned, i obv hadnt written that far) inspired by pics of trixie and brooke together that one time they were weirdly hanging out a lot irl and that one outfit brooke has that looks like that one outfit katya has the polkadot one u know it

“Ugh, I swear, Vi! She really has something against me! I think she hates me!”

Katya punctuates her sentence with a flail of her arms for emphasis before flopping back onto her bed. Violet just rolls her eyes at her roommate’s dramatics, as per usual. This is the third time they’ve had this conversation this week.

“So she’s a little icy, what of it? It’s not like you’re not used to having a mega bitch around, you live with me,” Violet responds plainly, not even bothering to look up from her laptop, “and I don’t think anybody could hate you, Kat.”

Katya huffs at that. “No, I swear, she hates me.”

Katya Zamolodchikova is absolutely sure of three things in her university life: One, Trixie Mattel is her best friend. Two, nothing gets in between her and Trixie. Three, Brooke Lynn Hytes is absolutely making her best fucking attempt.

Katya and Trixie had met last year, Katya being a sophomore in visual arts and Trixie a freshman in musical theater, when Katya had accidentally crashed Ginger’s (kind of pathetic) attempt at being a tour guide for the freshmen of her course. They’ve only known each other for a year, but ever since then the two quickly became inseparable and a year had felt like a lifetime. All of their friends knew, and Katya held it close to her heart, that nothing could possibly stand in their way. That is, until the beginning of this semester.

Trixie had been elected as class representative at the start of their sophomore year, which did not surprise Katya one bit. But that meant that when Canadian exchange student Brooke Lynn Hytes had arrived for the semester, it was Trixie’s job to show her around and make her feel welcomed. And being that Brooke’s degree in classical dance meant her and Trixie had quite a few overlapping classes, the two hit it off and had gotten closer and closer since. It’s only half way through the semester, yet Katya feels as though she’s slowly becoming more and more of a background character in Trixie’s life. They still text each other when they can, but hangout times have slowly grown increasingly thin and so has Katya’s sanity. Not that it’s Trixie’s fault, of course…

“I can’t explain it. But I promise, it’s almost like she’s purposefully occupying Trixie from me! Every time it looks like we might get a chance to even just talk, she’s there coming round the corner asking Trixie for help in one of their classes or for show recs or whatever. And she always looks me dead in the eye, with her stupid fucking smirk, like she knows what she just did! I can’t explain the feeling I get when I see her!”

Katya’s hit full ranting steam now, half hanging off her bed still flailing as animated as ever.

Violet shuts her laptop and turns to face her. “Mama, sounds like you hate her. Sure it’s not just in your head because you’re jealous the amazon’s occupying your barbie?”

There’s a beat of silence. “Jealous? I guess?” Katya scrunches up her face and sits up. “I mean, how could I not be? With her stupid long legs and her flowing blonde hair, like god, Vi, she’s practically perfect! And have you seen her dance?”

Katya turns to pose her question, but Violet is just staring, giving her a look she can’t decipher. She continues,

“So then, fine, of course I’m jealous, but that’s because Trix is my best friend. I barely see her anymore, and when I do she’s always there and I just get so riled up! And I’m sure Trix has started to notice because god I just can’t stand it when she’s near, it just sets me alight in an awful way. I’ve never felt this way about anybody before!” And it’s true, Katya really does not think of herself as someone capable of fully hating someone else. But by god, is Brooke really testing that.

Violet scoffs, turning away to open her laptop once more. “Look Mary, all I gotta say is that that’s an awful lot of emotion for some best friend jealousy. Also, you have a lecture starting in ten minutes.”

Fuck! Katya checks her watch and immediately jumps up to scramble for her belongings, deeply thankful for her roommate’s type A tendencies yet internally chastising herself for allowing her ranting to consume her time like that. She quickly kisses Violet on the cheek and bids her farewell before putting on her boots and heading out of their dorm room to make her best effort to speed walk to class.

But as luck would have it, not that Katya has a lot of it, she quite literally walks right into the subject of their prior conversation. Well, speak of the devils…

“Oh! Trixie, hi!” Katya laughs, immediately reacting to steady Trixie from where Katya had almost knocked her over with the door. From the way she was standing, she figured she had opened the door just as Trixie was about knock.

“Katya! Thank god, I was worried you wouldn’t be in,” Trixie smiles back brightly, smoothing her fluffy golden hair back into place. (Not that it’s ever really out of place, Katya thinks to herself.) 

Katya smiles at her, a sight for sore eyes she thinks, but when she realizes Brooke is standing at the end of the hall waiting for Trixie, her smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Whether Trixie noticed Katya’s tension or not, she didn’t let on. At least Brooke had the decency to wait at a reasonable distance.

“Uh, yeah, I was just heading out though,” Katya replies, trying her best to look sympathetic. She doesn’t mind that she’s running late anymore, just feels bad she even has to go. “But did you need something?”

Trixie looks equally as sympathetic. “Yeah, uh, listen, I’m really sorry. I know we haven’t been able to hang recently and I’m really sorry for that, midterms and all…”

“Hey, it’s alright, I knew you were busy. It’s no problem, really.” That’s a lie.

“But now that it’s over, let’s celebrate! Let me make it up to you? Be my date to the Edwards party tonight?”

Katya’s smile softens. As much as she was planning to trade in the party for a well-deserved movie night in with Violet and Pearl, she finds she really can’t say no to Trixie, especially not when she’s looking at her like an apologetic puppy. Whipped.

“Down for anything with you, Barbie. Meet you at the dorm hall at 8?”

Trixie squeals and picks Katya up by the middle, “AAAAAAAH yes!! See you bitch!!”

Katya squirms violently to be put down but laughs it off anyway. She really can’t be too mad at her best friend.

“Anyway, I gotta run, see you later Trix!” She rushes to hug Trixie quickly once more before escaping as briskly yet casually as she can out the door. This fails her when all semblance of casualty is lost as she passes the point where Brooke is, all tall and blonde and beautiful even just standing around. As she passes, her gaze quite obviously steels ahead to avoid looking Brooke in the eye, but she can’t fail to catch the quite obvious smug smirk the Canadian has posed on her painted lips.

----

Katya managed to make it to class with only 5 minutes late, thankfully just as her professor was entering the other door. She plops down into her usual seat with an audible groan and immediately drops her head in her hands.

Brooke. Stupid fucking Brooke Lynn Hytes. Lately, Katya’s wandering thoughts always go back to her. There hasn’t been a time where her idle time hasn’t been haunted by a certain ballerina chipping away at her precious concentration. She sees perfect long blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and tone legs that go all the way up. 

If she’s being completely honest with herself, she is just a bit jealous of Brooke but not for the reasons Violet insinuates. I mean, sure, she misses Trixie to bits. But that’s only one of the many straws on the camel that is Katya’s completely rational anger. 

It’s not that she’s perfect, either, but that sure adds another straw. Seemingly introverted, but able to capture the hearts of anyone in her path through quick and honest charm. Graceful and poised, where Katya is not, and tall and curvy, where Katya is not. Katya really doesn’t understand how someone can attend 7am dance classes with a flawless mug and still leave rehearsals with not an eyelash out of place, it’s inhuman.

No, it’s that no matter how much others testify on her behalf, Katya does not understand it. She doesn’t know what she did, but she has somehow done something to aggravate Brooke against her, and it bothers her endlessly that she doesn’t even know what she did to incur such spite. Katya doesn’t see any of the charm or kindness that others profess, only smug smirks and cocky passive-aggressive jabs and a seemingly passionate desire to find any way she can to poke Katya’s buttons and prompt some kind of response. She’s lucky Katya has a lot more self control than most, and she’s restrained herself from biting back thus far.

She thinks back to the first time she spotted Brooke, on the first day of the semester when Katya had gotten bored and decided to drop in on Trixie’s representative duties despite explicit instructions not to intrude. She had found her in one of the gardens of the student commons, and instinctively made her way to run up and tackle her before realizing Trixie wasn’t alone and stopping dead in her tracks.

Trixie was sitting next to someone Katya didn’t recognize, which was a surprise in itself because Katya knew next to everybody personally in their modestly sized arts college.  The girl was sitting next to Trixie on a bench, both hands holding one of Trixie’s own as Trixie appeared to animatedly be telling some story. Trixie then finally noticed Katya frozen standing awkwardly at some distance and paused in the middle of her speech to yell at Katya and becon her over. 

“Katya! This is Brooke Lynn, a Canadian exchange student for the semester. Brooke, this is Katya, my best friend!”

Brooke lazily shifted her gaze from Trixie to give Katya the once over, glancing her up and down. Whatever she saw, she suddenly stood up and crowded into Katya’s space, gazing down at her intensely directly from the advantage their clear height difference gave her.

“Well, it’s certainly nice to meet you… Katya.” 

And on her lips, the same painted red smirk. The same stupid smirk that would continuously haunt her until…

“Kat, you with us girl?” Hissed Pearl in her ear, jabbing her hard in the side.