What A Girl Wants

Four

Until about halfway through when Ryusei said, "If you're my flyer and I'm your third, does that make us best friends?"

Weird question, Sae thought to herself. But not for long. As she considered it, she supposed that thirds and flyers didn't necessarily have to be best friends, Rin and Shuto would surely have a field day over that, but they had to get along, and they had to trust each other.

Then, Sae started wondering who, if she said yes, would be getting replaced. Oliver was her closest friend, Sae figured. But Oliver's best friend was Shuto and vice versa, so Sae didn't think that counted. Surely it had to be a mutual relationship, right? In terms of who she spoke the most with and spent the most time with, that made Rin her undoubtable best friend, and seeing as they were blood related and at each other's throats more often than not, Sae thought that was a sad state of affairs indeed.

"I guess so," Sae decided.

"Nice," Ryusei said. "I guess we should start hanging out a bunch and braiding each other's hair."

Sae didn't know what exactly best friends did, but Shuto and Oliver did each other's nails and hair sometimes, so she figured it was a reasonable ask. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm better at braiding my own hair than others."

"I can't braid for shit," Ryusei said. "You'll have to teach me."

"Sure," Sae said. "It's not that hard."

They walked longer. In was weird. Though, not all bad. Sae led Ryusei through her neighborhood, having fully given up on the lie that she too lived here, and eventually they did get to the driveway that lead out to the sprawling Itoshi household.

"Well," Sae said, motioning up at her own house. The car she shared with Rin was in the driveway, like it was mocking her. The other side of the driveway was clear, and the house itself looked quiet. "This is me."

Ryusei let out a low whistle. "Oh, so the Itoshis are rich rich."

Sae shrugged, feeling awkward about it. Her family came from money, sure, but so did most girls from their school. The tuition of Blue Lock Prep was through the roof. You kind of had to be from money to attend at all.

"Don't you live around here too?" Sae asked, deciding now was as good a time as any to catch her in her lie.

Ryusei shrugged. "Nope. I lied."

"I figured," Sae said.

"Yet you let me walk you anyways," Ryusei said.

"You don't seem like the kind of person that takes no for an answer," Sae said.

"I'm not," Ryusei said.

"Anyways," Sae said, not feeling particularly inclined to explore what that phrase set off in her. "I guess I'll see you around."

"You sure will, bestie," Ryusei said, bumping her hip into her, shoving her a bit. Sae yelped in surprise a little. It made Ryusei laugh. "Take care of yourself, and tell that sister of yours thanks for me."

Sae frowned. What the hell did Rin have to do with this? "Why?"

"Because she ditched you," Ryusei said. "And then I got to walk you home."

Sae didn't have anything to say about that. She felt her face getting hot, so she just said a quick goodbye and started making her way up the driveway, refusing to look back, regardless of how much she wanted to. When she got onto the porch, she looked over her shoulder, just slightly. Ryusei was still standing there, waving. Sae waved back. Only once she was inside and peering through the curtains did that strange girl start walking back in the direction they'd come from.

"Look who's home," Rin commented suddenly. It surprised Sae, who had still been looking out the curtains, and made her jump. When she turned to Rin, she looked even more unimpressed than she normally did, standing with her arms crossed at the bottom of the stairs. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Sae said, closing the curtains. She then cleared her throat and remembered both where she was and who she was. "None of your business! And what the fuck did you go and ditch me for, huh?"

"Don't even go there with me," Rin said, uncrossing her arms to jab a finger across the room. "Until we talk about what the hell you're doing with that thing."

"It's my team, Rin," Sae reminded her, jabbing a finger right back. "I can recruit whoever I want."

"She didn't even try out," Rin fought back. "You don't even know if she's good."

"I know," Sae said, not bothering to offer any other explanation. She didn't have to. She'd seen Ryusei in the gym and she'd seen her body. That was more than enough to tell Sae she'd be great. "She's good."

"You're fucked in the head," Rin said back. "And when your stupid little psycho barbie drops you on your thick skull and gives you more brain damage than you already have, you'd better not come crying to me."

"I won't," Sae snapped. "But when we get the nationals and win thanks to my impeccable judgement and our front group, you are never going to hear the end of I told you so!"

"We'll see," Rin said, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

"I guess we will," Sae said.