Of Tanks and Petticoats

Chapter 2

I was about to panic when I finally realized that Loli had no school uniform. I was frantically searching until I noticed Loli pulling on one of my uniforms, “Yay! Perfect fit!” I high-fived Loli and got her a pair of socks and extra shoes.

She was expressing her dismay to me when MPU opened the door to a Lolita in a black one piece, fishnets under black lace adorned stockings and…the only way to describe them is ‘Mana shoes’ that gave her an extra two to three inches of height. She was a lovely girl, despite her dark and heavily used makeup and solemn expression. She had dark purple hair, curled into ringlet pigtails, with a rectangular headpiece on. It wasn’t hard to see why MPU was flustered when he saw her, “Ca-can I help you?”

“I’ve been informed that Miss Loli is currently residing at this residence, is she not?” she had a monotone and smooth voice that would have better suited a doll than a human, but that’s what she looked like: a perfect gothic Lolita doll.

Loli came to life when she saw the girl, “Mado-chan!”  She ran up and hugged the Lolita happily, “I’ve missed you so-!”

“Dear, what is that hideous thing you’re wearing?” Mado’s voice was edged with disgust and I can’t blame her for hating it. I hate plaid and everything but the jackets and button up shirts and socks were plaid. I personally only liked the socks… which is pretty sad considering my outfit consists of a lot of parts. As I said, the socks are the ONLY cute part of the ENTIRE ensemble.

Loli looked at the uniform then nodded grimly, “Yes… comparatively speaking it is horrid, no? Now, enough of that! Meet my new friend: Miss Kyoko Kanagawa!”

Mado slid her eyes over me, judging me-nay, peering into my very soul! It wasn’t hard for me to say that I felt… invaded, to say in the least, by her gaze; it was scary! Eventually she nodded, “I do hope she’s a Lolita, even an aristocrat would be suitable. Now, you both need to get moving. School begins in half an hour and it’s a ten minute walk.

Well, Mado stayed behind to pack our lunches with the help of my MPU. I led Loli to school and, by some marvelous feat of god, we got her registered and got her into my classes. The reaction from the class is one I’d anticipated. All of the boys’ eyes locked onto Loli and I and they all began whispering to one another. I took her hand and we were almost home free when our teacher, Mr. Takegawa, spoke up, “Miss Kanagawa, I think our new student needs to introduce herself first.”

Loli didn’t seem too perturbed, but I, on the other hand, was sweating bullet in fear that she’d say something we’d both regret. She walked briskly to the front and wrote out her name in flowing elegant kana before taking a bow, “I’m Loli Ichikase from Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. It’s a pleasure to make all of your acquaintances,” every boy was gawking profusely now, “I used to design clothes with a friend in Harajuku and won first place in horseback archery competitions and dressage,” that earned her style points with Mr. Takegawa, a horse lover himself, “and I have also won some awards for my designs in aristocrat and Lolita fashions as well.”

“Well, Miss Ichikase, you and I need to sit and talk horses at length sometime! Take a seat next to Miss Kanagawa, if you’d please,” Mr. Takegawa grinned.

Once she sat down, we high-fived between our desks for her awesome introduction. I bopped Yuko on the head with my language textbook to wake her up when what do my eyes see? Why, it was none other than those bikers from yesterday. That day kept getting odder and odder every second I was alive. What next? Was it going to start raining men? I saw one of them and ‘Punch Perm’ shot through my mind at 100 km/ph.  They sat next to Yuko and I saw Loli raise an eyebrow as she gazed at the perms. Their boss, who I learned was called Shun, turned around and nodded at us in greeting with a tiny smile. We returned it with the same gesture and class began.