❥ Stronger Than Stone

Prologue

On that day...
Every human on Earth...
Turned into stone!!

...

"Good morning sunshine~"
The electronic lights buzzed quietly inside Hirosue High's nurses office.
"How are you feeling now?"
Liv placed a cup of water next to the ginger girl on the bed.
The ginger turned with a small grumble and cuddled deeper into the pillow. "I still think it's a wonder that you can sleep a wink on that hard mattress.." She trailed off.
You would think that her friend was in the wrestling club judging by how often she ended up here. Not that she minded patching her up, but she found it curious how her energetic friend could hurt herself on the easels and paint brushes in the art room.
She tapped her watch, "14 minutes until next lesson."
"No I don wannagooee..." her friend mumbled half asleep, Liv sweat dropped.
Standing up she pulled the covers off the girl.
"Aaaaaa" the girl tried to pull it back. "Pfft, come on sillybean you know we don't have all day."
The girl sat up and rubbed her eyes, then took a sip of the water from the cup on the nightstand, "I already told you I didn't sleep well.."
Liv ruffled her hair "I know, I know, construction work right outside your window the whole night."
She folded the bed linen and and made a fresh bed, then turned to put away the stray bandages. She could hear her friend shuffling behind her and a small smile played on her lips.
In one of the medicine cabinets Liv always kept a secret stock of protein milkshakes for students in case they needed some blood sugar. But she could admit that at this point it was mostly for her friend, who more often than not did need something extra to make it through the day.
"Zenny~" She shook the bottle in her hand and immediately saw her friends eyes light up. Chuckling she handed her friend the drink and led her to the hallway. "Careful now, okay. I still have about 10 minutes left of my shift. See you later."
They hugged goodbye and Liv went back to organizing supplies in the office.

...

With a hum Zenny took a gulp of the milkshake, already feeling more awake.
She had been dancing while cleaning paint off of some brushes and slipped in a puddle of water, and as usual ended up in the care of her best friend... who just so happened to be the school's nurse assistant.

The two met each other in middle school. Zenny had slipped while trying to scale a tree in the courtyard and ended up bruising herself quite badly. Liv had been the one to help clean her wounds and get patched up.
Before that incident Zenny had never really interacted with the taller girl, they were in the same grade, but had different classes and social circles. In all honesty she had found her quite intimidating... she just seemed to put together and proper compared to her, so she had never approached her.

After that incident they had started hanging out almost everyday, surprisingly they had a lot of common interests, and soon they were like two peas in a pod.

"Zenny!" A boy's voice boomed further down the hall, "Today is the day!" A boy with prominent eyebrows stormed towards her. She giggled, "What is today Taiju? You seem excited.."

Together the two entered the science lab.
Senku, another boy from their grade glanced at them, he seemed to be in the process of mixing some unspecified liquids in a bottle.

"Listen up everyone!! There's no stopping me! It's gotta be today!! After five long years of having feelings for Yuzuriha... I'm finally gonna confess my love!!"
Senku was still engrossed in his tinkering as he replied, "Hm... interesting... verrry interesting. I'll be cheering for you so hard from here in the science lab that my vocal cords will snap."
Taiju practically glowed as he started thanking Senku, only for Senku to shut him down "Silence, I won't cheer even one milimeter for you, you big oaf."
Zenny awkwardly drank her milkshake as the two started bickering.

Senku grapped the bottle he had been toying with earlier and handed it to Taiju, "Allow me to provide a method so rational it'll kill you. This will send your pheromone production into overdrive!
...Basically it's a love potion."
Taiju inspected the bottle in his hand, eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Thanks Senku. But... no thanks! I can't go and cheat my way into her heart."
A hand snatched the bottle from Taiju's grasp and poured it into the sink, "Ah Liv you came at just the right time!! I was just telling Senku and Zenny about-" The girl patted him on the back, "Right, I heard. Now go, you don't want to keep Yuzuriha waiting too long." She winked at the boy who quickly scurried out of the door.
With a clank she placed the empty glass bottle on the counter, "So that was why you asked me to get those bottle caps..." she looked pointedly at Senku.

Zenny did have a hunch that something about the supposed love potion was amiss, she moved so she was standing next to her friend, "Bottle-caps...? That wasn't really a love potion was it Senku?" She asked.
To which Senku laughed and started rambling, Liv and Zenny glanced at each other, at least all the other students in the room seemed even more lost than them.
"Heh heh... I was ten billion percent sure he wouldn't drink it. He's and honest fool." Senku proclaimed.
"Ay, be nice now." Liv jokingly huffed as she grabbed Zenny's arm and lead her to the windows.
In the courtyard Taiju was speaking to Yuzuriha, "He's actually going to do it!" Zenny almost jumped with excitement.

The other students started betting on whether he'd chicken out or get rejected.

"Listen to me Yuzuriha!" You all keenly listened in on their conversation, "These past five years, I've..."

H U M M M

A bright green flash interrupted them all, "Huh what's that light..?"

It seemed like time slowed down, Zenny felt her heart thumping in her chest. Are we going to die? Has a war broken loose? I didn't even get to say goodbye to my parents... Thousands of thoughts running through her mind.
Liv reached down and squeezed her hand, their eyes locked, it seemed like she wanted to say something, but before she could...

Paralyzed, darkness... what happened? She couldn't move, oh god, she couldn't breathe... but she was... alive?!

She internally shook her head, none the matter, no point in driving herself mad with all of these questions. Liv, I promise to reunite with you again!
..
"Zenny I promise to save you!"