"Hhaaaa..." Ina yawned loud and long, muffling the sound with her gloved hand. As she did, the group paid attention. Trying to brush it off however, she fiddled with her pencil and tapped it on her notebook. Her eyes zeroed in on the lackluster doodles she made in the corners.
Gura was the first one to speak, "Are you okay, Ina?" She spoke, worriedly. Concern evident on her face. She leaned towards her, hoping to gain some insight.
As the rest also stared at her, Ina shared their looks, especially Calli. Her eyes stayed on Calli a little longer than the rest. Her voice, barely above a whisper, came out, "I'm good. Just a little tired. Thought it was a good idea to stay up all night to draw."
"You got a big project?" Kiara shuffled a little closer.
Waving them off, she returned her gaze to the paper, "I guess." Her hand flipped the pen around her thumb, pondering on her drawing back home. She starts mumbling to herself about various things like shading, colour, anatomy and flow. Saying various things like: "Maybe I could adopt a darker colour scheme. The arm on the left is too long. I want to achieve an S curve that looks natural." etc.
As the rest of the group let Ina get to work, Amelia hesitantly looked away from her, wanting to check if she's okay but returned to the conversation.
Repetitively, Gura tapped the table to a rhythm, "Calli? Do you sing? Maybe we can go karaoke-"
Suddenly, Kiara chirped up, "Actually, me and Calli plan on going to the arcade after school!"
Calli glanced at Kiara wildly, in surprise of Kiara's comment, "We are?" Kiara returned her stare with a friendly grin. No words needed. She looked down, "I guess so." her lips curled into a small smile as she thought about it.
With a knowing smile, Gura looked over at Kiara with a smile. She pulled out a thumbs up and mouthed, 'Have fun, lover bird.'
Groaning, Amelia placed her weight on her hand, resting her chin onto her palm. She speculatively stared at Calli, whilst stealing some glances towards Ina who would also lift her head once in a while. "Well, that's a bummer. Wish I could've gone."
Calli springs her head up, seeing Amelia's look in her eye. "You can join, Amelia," she leans forward, trying to be as earnest as she could be with her.
...
Reluctant and not really wanting to intrude on the two, Amelia waved off Calli's offer with a nonchalant once over, "No thanks. You two can have your own time." Her eyes stayed on the feathers behind Kiara's ears, relaxing when Kiara met her eyes. The reaper couldn't harm her even if she tried. She could trust Kiara's safety.
"Though, ya gotta join us next time," Gura spoke haphazardly as she glanced at Amelia, "Like with the whole group: Me, Watson, Ina and Kiara altogether. With you of course." She animatedly gestured among her words, riling herself up with excitement until remembering Calli's role. "... If you'd like?" she spoke quietly with her head down.
The reaper, unused to the amount of offers to hang out, was conflicted until her eyes landed on Ina, "I'd love to, Gura."
Again, the shark felt herself get excited but held it back a bit more than before. Her tail, however, wagged like a dog to its owner. "Alrighty then!"
The bell rang loud and clear. An uproar of students rushed to get to their classes, leaving behind the mess they made on their tables. The girls dispersed with the crowd separately. Amelia walked with Gura to their gym class, Kiara off to German class and Calli, solitary and quiet, as she slipped off to her Japanese class.
Ina, however, did not move at the sound of the bell. Her hands and eyes fixed on every line and stroke of her sketch: A reaper in black which had gold highlights on the edges of her sleeves, long flowing hair which seemed to fit nicely with her clean fedora. Stripes lined her clothing, accentuating her abnormally tall height. Her hair seemed to contrast strangely from her dark clothing: brown hair around the roots stretching and fading into a luscious blonde. A mask framed her face, leaving holes in the eyes to show her dark blue pupils. The mask was a key point of her character, skeletal, darkened and aged at the edges, especially around the mouse which was surprisingly darker than the rest.
As she made the last touches, Ina broke out of her artistic fever.
"Fuck." she silently cursed, so gentle you wouldn't even have expected it to be a curse word.
Raising her arm, she pulled back her jumper sleeve to look at her watch. The class had to be thirty minutes passed already. If she went there, the teacher would have a row with her. Of course, Ina had to face the music but didn't feel as if she could handle it today. "Maybe I'll just go to the arcade."
...
"Kiara." Calli fiddled with the PACMAN machine's joystick absentmindedly as she spoke. No coin was entered in. "Why'd you invite me out here?"
"I mean I didn't expect you to even come here really." Kiara admitted, chuckling awkwardly as she set down their two fizzy drinks: tangy orange and dr pepper. She put her tangy orange drink to her lips, covering any words she was to say before.
Calli groaned, leaning her weight against the machine in annoyance, "so I didn't have to come here?"
The bird pouted, pulling her drink away, "I mean, it's nice to hang out with friends. I was really happy when you came around and started hanging out with us. You were always alone." She folded her arms, rubbing up her arms as if she were cold though the idea that Kiara would be cold was almost impossible (seeing as she is a literal firebird.)
Sympathetically, the reaper patted Kiara's back as if she were a comrade. She shared a smile, a small one that definitely wasn't genuine but a smile nonetheless, "I'd be lying if I said that you wanting to hang out with me didn't make me happy." Calli then leaned back, dropping her smile and looking at the ground, "But being alone just ultimately makes it easier. People don't feel... safe around me. The other reapers don't even like me." She bit her lip: a story for another time, Kiara guessed.
"Well, I do."
"Huh?", Calli pulled a skeptical face.
At this, Kiara laughed, pointing to herself, "I'm a phoenix! I can't die. I'm immortal and you are too... I guess?" Calli was a bit of a mystery: she definitely can't die but does her state even count as living? She was, in the end, a concept.
"Mm, I guess but there'll be more like me. More reapers as the population grows so, you could always go to another-"
"But I want to be friends with you, Calli!" Kiara beamed, jumping up to Calli's height, "It's not that you're a reaper, or that you're immortal but it's because you're Calliope Mori!" She smiled wide, as if the sun lived in her teeth.
Calli cringed at the sound of her full name, never really getting used to the sound of 'Calliope.' However, she shared Kiara's smile. A little less reserved this time. "Thanks Kiara-"
Suddenly, Kiara pulled Calli roughly away from the PACMAN machine, seeing a game she wanted to play. "Let's go on the racing games!" Without any reply, Calli let herself get pulled along by Kiara to the car racing game that featured a multiplayer option.
Unbeknownst to them, a third person was hiding away behind the air hockey table near them: Ina.
"I forgot they were going here!", she whispered yelled to herself, feeling awkward as she had intruded on their 'date' per se. Ina had planned on playing some arcade games to motivate herself later in the day to draw. This was a tradition for the artist as so often, she'd burn herself out until she couldn't even think about drawing so playing games was a stress reliever. But today wasn't a good day for that.
Peeking over the top, she noticed the two slipping their coins in and speaking to each other. With how loud the game was, it prompted the two to speak loud enough for Ina to hear them, almost even yelling. As the game started, the two hollered and laughed at their bad driving skill, proclaiming it loud and clear:
"I'm horrible at this!"
"Calli, I'm gonna crash into you!"
They laughed together, finding a kindred spirit in each other with their gaming skill: very, very bad. Ina grinded her teeth together, feeling somehow frustrated at the sight. Granted, Ina and Calli had not talked as much as Kiara, Gura and even Amelia had but she was the first person to successfully approach Calli so... Why wasn't she in that seat?
Once they got into a place where they were just cruising however, the real conversation began between the two.
Kiara started, "What convinced you to talk to me?" Calli, surprised by the question, pulled a puzzled look without responding. She retried, repeating herself, "Why did you talk to me? Even when you were so afraid of me?" She kept her eyes on the machine, staring at Calli's picture above her car which was just beside her own.
Holding her breath, Ina clutched her chest and stared expectantly at Calli's seat.
After a moment of deliberation, Calli spoke again, "Ina talked to me." Kiara's stunned face turned to Calli, leaning over in surprise. "She was really gentle when she talked to me and convinced me to take a chance on you."
"Ah, that girl," Kiara huffed with a wistful gaze to the screen as she crossed the finish line just ahead of Calli, "She always did connect with people well, even if she tried to admit she's awkward. I mean, she brought Ame and you."
"Mmm, yeah." As they made their motions to get off, Ina was alarmed by their sudden movements and crawled off to the exit. Her face, burning red.
'Them speaking so highly of me... that's so embarrassing.' she looked behind, looking through the glass to see them excitedly speaking to each other. Calli, more emotive than she ever was before and hints of banter between them. 'But I don't think Calli would see me like she sees Kiara.'