Of the Forthcomings of Adjustment
The large dining hall was abuzz with the excited chattering of groups of squealing girls. It was a spacious white-walled hall fortified with thin columns suggesting inspiration from Greek architect and adorned by rows of large paned glass windows. A massive glass chandelier hung above six extensive chains of long tables. Crowning these tables were small ornamental candles, vases of fresh white lilies, and rows of shimmering white plates; some covered with generous portions of rice, vegetables, and small slabs of cooked fish while others were garnished with a seasoned salad substitute.
Kaname prodded at a chunk of fish immodestly with a fork. Her whole being swayed in effort in feeble attempts to keep herself from falling asleep and possibly colliding with her plate before her. Dark eyelashes feathered sleepily over groggy lavender orbs. She had not slept very well the previous night. A nightmare had poisoned her sleep, and in the midst of the turmoil, a blight of home sickness. Not only that, however, but she had been late to dinner on the premises of getting lost once and had to be administered a brief lecture by a temperamental Shizuno.
The council librarian...
She could feel those glaring honey orbs blazing through her from across the room. It was only felt in brief periodic windows, however, for the girl would often break it to gaze down at her food or at a fellow council member on either side of her. Nonetheless, it was unnerving. Though Kaname was a bit too sleepy to fully care.
She started to arch towards her food in an almost unnatural way, and a neighboring girl leaned over to prod her awake. Purple eyes flickered through the dreamy haze of sleep. How was she to get through her first day? Hold on and hope not to fall asleep? She hoped Lele's boundless energy, whenever she would see her today, would be enough to wake her. Even if only just a little.
Lele had not been able to sit with her because the tables were organized by year. It was a large discontent to some, but it was necessary to maintain proper order and harmony among the students. The first years sat at the first table farthest to the wall, then came the second years, then the third years, and so on. The student council members occupied a single lone table set horizontally facing the swelling crowd behind a podium on a slightly elevated part of the room. It was not to define hierarchy nor pedestal them above the masses, but to give them a high vantage point so they could sweep their gazes over the crowd and ensure everything was running smoothly. Sometimes they would step down to mingle with a select table, but they had to always return to their designated one when the prayer was given before and after eating. Student council vice president Sachiko delivered the morning's one; Shizuno had occupied last night's. Tonight's dinner would be blessed by another. No girl could deliver one both at breakfast and dinner in a single day. Kaname wasn't quite sure why, but understood it had something to do with taboo.
The drone of the mass of girls soon dissolved into hush whispers as Sachiko rose from her seat to approach the podium. Her chestnut locks swayed behind her in bountiful curls. They framed her face, making it appear narrow but no less beautiful. She looked small behind the podium's ornamental girth. Kaname managed to shift her sleepy gaze to the council president.
"Thank you all for attending this morning. This concludes the end of another breakfast. Let us bless this day to be as gracious as the last and express gratitude for the meals we were so generously provided. Mary, please lend your watchful eye over everyone today as you have done for this academy for many a generous year."
Her voice rang powerfully through the spacious room. It held a comforting tone that was in stark contrast to its sacred ring. With a lovely smile, the pale brunette turned away from the podium to finish her plate. In a matter of minutes, breakfast officially concluded, and the massive swell of girls commenced flowing out through the large double doors. Kaname shuffled out along with them.
A small hand grasped hers at one point form somewhere among the throng and she gasped in surprise. It was soft and warm and held a sense of childish familiarity that provided her with the identity of its bearer. She gave it a light squeeze and guided it with a series of gentle tugs to the outskirts of the crowd. Lele followed obediently behind her.
Now not in the blazing white flow, she allowed herself to take slower steps. The smaller girl appreciated it and toddled a few quick steps forward as to walk beside her.
"Good morning, Lele-chan." Kaname smiled.
"Good morning, Kaname-oneesama!" The small girl chirped.
She was grinning so wide that fragments of leftover food were visible in between her ivory white teeth. When Kaname laughed at this, she tilted her head to one side in a stroke of endearing confusion.
"If you grin wide like that, you'll get wrinkles." Lifting a free hand, the older girl poked her own cheek playfully, pulling on the soft skin as if to imitate the forewarned creases.
Lele let out a childish snort and thumbed her chest in a comedic display of infantile pride.
"Lele is way too young for those!" She proclaimed childishly. "In fact, she will never get them! Lele will stay young forever and never get old like those ancient nuns!"
From somewhere among the crowd, a watchful nun stiffened. She glanced back at the youthful girls and grumbled irritably under her wheezing breath. Kaname caught her dark gaze and quickly averted her eyes, letting out a rather loud, uneasy laugh.
"You should really watch what you say, Lele-chan. I think a nun heard you." She whispered.
Lele blinked and flailed a free arm. "What do you mean she heard me?"
Three additional pairs of grim, chastising eyes locked onto them. Lele must have sensed it this time, for she dropped her head all of a sudden and tightened her grip on Kaname's arm. Kaname smiled apologetically at the nuns, only to receive a chorus of irritated "hmphs". When their stern gazes sloughed off of them, Kaname exhaled a relieved puff of air and turned back to her small friend.
"Lele is sorry." A veil of shimmering white hair quivered at the presence of the abashed voice.
The older girl giggled nervously and coaxed her hair away from her face. "It's okay, Lele-chan. You just have to watch what you say, okay?"
"Okay."
"You know, Lele-chan, when you grin that wide also, I can see food in your teeth." Kaname continued.
The albino girl produced a squeak upon hearing this and flung both hands across her mouth, scarlet orbs stretched wide in surprise.
"N-No way!" She mewled in muffled disbelief behind the shield of her hands.
Kaname tried to stifle a fit of giggling behind her own hands. Lele flared up again in a bout of childish passion.
"H-Hey! Why is Kaname-oneesama laughing! Kaname-oneesama, that's mean!"
The mingling contrast from the two friends swirled high above the crowd into the broad spring sky. Unbefitting for budding ladies, but it was hard to keep composed in such delightful company.
The start of my first actual day at St. Bastille. Together with Lele-chan. Mary-sama, if you are up there, please watch over Lele-chan and I and bless us with a wonderful day that's even more wonderful than yesterday. Thank you.
Her thoughts were whisked into the flowery wind as the shining academy came into view.
☩
A hymn was to be sung at the height of her first class. Kaname struggled to keep up with the floating words, sounding more like a dying canary than a beautiful dove when she finally joined in. A few elegant girls giggled around her, only to be glared into silence by the resilient nun at the front. After this morning struggle came a mathematics course in the Victorian styled classrooms followed by a rather uneventful session in the academy's huge science lab. Literature and a course on the academy's lethargic history ensued. Between these extensive classes nestled a short lunch period in which the students were dismissed from the build in order to flock to a nearby campus café to eat. An intensive athletic period was scheduled next, all enflamed by a timely English language class and a short introduction to a French language course. The large ornamental bell atop the church in the park knelled at exactly three-thirty, signaling the generic end of the school day. A routinely fifteen-minute clean-up of the classroom was issued next before the tell-tale flow of departing students departed out into the hall, some towards the dormitory or library to complete homework or study and others to locations pertaining to their club's activities.
Kaname breathed a sigh of exhaustion when it was over. What a tiring day. She flopped down into an expensive chair in a cozy alcove at the east end of the main first floor hallway. A collection of dusty French books silhouetted her in the large built in bookcase behind the two fancy chairs there. She sneezed in their ancient presence. I wonder if Lele-chan survived the day...
As if on cue, the chair beside her creaked as the small girl fell upon it. There was an obvious weariness dominating her face. Kaname reached out to pat her head.
"Lele is so tired!" She proclaimed in pure exhaustion.
"I am too. My hands hurt from writing so much." Kaname flexed the sore fingers on her free hand as if to emphasize her point. A jolt of aching pain tingled up the strained ligaments. "Ow!"
"Ugh, how does Onee-sama do this every day?"
Lele arched her head back over the top of the chair. Straight white tresses pilled in strange white rivers over the leathery red material. A soft rumbling soon shivered from the small girl's stomach. She produced a childish laughed and looked at Kaname who had her head tilted to one side at a curious angle.
"Hehe, guess Lele is still hungry." She admitted. Her head dropped in embarrassment. Her mood suddenly electrified in a second, however, and she jolted upright, eyes sparkling wide with childish joy. "Would Kaname-oneesama like to go to a café with Lele?"
Kaname giggled nervously in the wake of Lele's sudden exaggerated joy. It was kind of scary how fast her mood could spike like that...
"I would love to."
Lele's sheepish smile broadened into the same monstrous grin from earlier that morning. She reached for Kaname's hand with an ecstatic small one.
"Let's go then, Kaname-oneesama!"
The two girls disappeared down the hallway in a swirling flash of blue and white.
☩
Such monotony.... My hands are sore, and I can no longer distinguish the names of which I am reading. Maybe – no, I can't rest just yet.
A weary sigh penetrated the stillness of the stuffy student council room. The silence would be considered eerie to some, yet the council librarian had grown almost too accustomed to its presence. It was nothing far of an old friend now.
Shizuno batted a thread of violet hair from in front of her face and retrieved another form from the imposing stack beside her. Even after working a little well over an hour reviewing each individually, the stack never seemed to deplete. It only seemed to grow with the augmentation of her signature weariness. More so now with the unusual muggy heat of the afternoon.
The academy lacked ventilation entirely. The student council room was no exception. Unlike most of the other buildings on the campus, however, the windows in the elegant room were just for decoration and could not be opened. It had been a strangely hot beginning of spring, though a promising chill was forecasted to ventilate the warmth soon. Shizuno still was doubtful of the forecast, however.
As she reached out to grasp another form, a sharp pain sliced through her finger and she drew it back to examine it. A crimson sliver was silhouetted against the pale ivory. She ignored it and pushed to continue her work.
All these names and faces... They are soon to be lost among the academy's countless records. Just as everyone experiences once they graduate. Not one stands out... Yet in retrospect...
An edge of purple protruding from the center of the stack snagged her eye. She tugged it out between her thumb and wounded forefinger. Ayamine Kaname it read.
Age: 14 Year: Third (Transfer)
Hair: Purple Eye color: Blue
Blood type: O Weight: 45 kg
She didn't read the entirety of the form. She just let her eyes wander across a brief background on the girl. So her mother was once a student here? And she only has her grandmother now? Not an uncommon occurrence for girls here. She almost looks familiar – something with her face and eyes – but I cannot make a direct connection. Maybe my eyes are just mistaken...
Creak...
Shizuno thought she heard the door creak open and quietly shut, but she administered little attention to it. Whether it had or not was none of her direction attention. She had a task at hand and could afford little distraction.
The words on the form before her suddenly blurred into a mess of inked lines. She could no longer distinguished Kaname's childish face. Instead, it had been replaced by a colorful blur of purple and white hues.
This accursed weariness...
She titled her head down to achieve a better angle of the blurred words. A thick veil of violet hair fell around her face as a result of the action. Before she could collect it in a messy bunch and throw it behind her head, a pair of soft hands slipped around to hold it out of the way for her. Shizuno felt her body tense, yet it was betrayed by a relaxed sigh. She knew those hands well. Almost too well.
"Ah, I thought you were supposed to be at a club right now, Miki." She murmured.
The tomboyish brunette chuckled from somewhere behind her. She sounded close.
"Yamano-san is sick. Besides, clubs don't usually begin the first week of school. Also, I didn't think it was fair that you have to do all this work by yourself. You work much too hard, Shizuno."
Shizuno closed her eyes and produced a stifled laugh. "My work habits should not be of your concern."
"I know, I know."
Miki withdrew her hands and leaned against her back, arching her neck over the tall girl's shoulder so she could peer at the form before her. Shizuno snatched the paper noisily from her view.
"M-Miki!" She snorted in exasperation.
Miki's soft chuckle resonated by her ear. It kind of tickled.
"Ayamine Kaname, eh? I remember seeing her yesterday at orientation. Cute, but awfully clumsy. She and that Chibara-san too."
"Yes. She seems familiar to me, but I'm not sure why."
The unevenly distributed weight of the other girl's arched body lightened a little of Shizuno's shoulders. Miki had reeled back to meditate on the premise.
"She seemed so to me as well." She admitted finally. Shizuno expected her to return to her original position, but she instead remained upright. "Tsukino-san might be thinking the same too."
An almost tense silence predominated next. Shizuno found it uncomfortable and shifted as to create some form of sound.
"Anyways, I have to get back to work. These all need to be sorted by tonight." She sighed.
She indirectly motioned for the third year to leave, but as almost every time before, the girl refused to move. Shizuno gave up after a few exhausted seconds to refocus her attention on the current student form before her. A lily-white hand suddenly reached out to seize her wounded finger. She winced in a shock of pain.
"Oh? You're hurt. And you didn't tell me? That's so like you, Shizuno." Miki chided.
"I-It's not like it's a big wound. I get these all the time." Shizuno flared defensively. She was blushing and promptly turned her head to try and hide it from the other girl. A swirl of violet hair followed.
"Here-"
Miki brought the girl's bleeding finger to her lips...and enveloped it in the soothing warmth of her mouth.
Shizuno's face flushed with a strong rose colored heat. Miki's mouth...is warm.
In a matter of seconds, coral pink lips parted to release her finger. The tingling damp warmth was quickly replaced by a glistening chill. Shizuno gazed in an almost dazed state at the wetness crowning her wounded digit. Miki offered a warm smile.
"There you are." She grinned.
Shizuno drew her hand back quickly, once more erecting her cold front in place of her brief vulnerability. The rosy heat was a bit suffocating now. She hoped it would dissolve soon.
"Jeez." She grumbled, earning an amused giggle from her tomboy inferior.
Miki couldn't help but open her mouth to project it into a whole hearted laugh. Shizuno's way too cute sometimes with that false guard. I just can't help myself.
"Hey, Shizuno, would you like to go to the cafe near the greenhouse with me? We could split a parfait like last time." The invitation ended with a sort of teasing chuckle.
"I can't part from my duties here, Miki. I'm busy." She countered skillfully. In truth, she actually really wished to join the girl. Though she was, as many liked to regard, married to her work, and that always came first with little to no exceptions. Miki never really respected the rules of that thin marriage however.
"Come on, Shizuno you need a break. You'll collapse from exhaustion soon if you don't stop, and it's only the first day of school."
The third year's voice had adopted a tone of soft concern. Shizuno wasn't the type to take breaks in the middle of things. Once she started something, she was determined to finish it no matter the time input required. Maybe it was one of her many flaws, but she rarely ever allowed herself to set it aside on a whim. Even under terms like this.
Something about the small frown that soured the haughty third year's lips twisted her heart and the tall girl exhaled a heavy sigh.
"Alright, but only for a little while, okay?" She was really getting too fond of the tomboy.
Miki flashed a boyish grin. "Great!"
She reached for Shizuno's pale hand and gently pulled her up from her seat. It felt much tighter than it did at orientation. She figured it must be from working so much. She'd try and see if Shizuno would let her massage them later.
Shizuno rose in an elegant cascade of violet tresses. Her skirt was crumpled and she hastily worked to fix it. Once she did, she allowed the tomboy to whisk her away, all the while contemplating her abandoned work.
Is this really alright? Sigh. I really have to stop giving into this girl.
☩
Mild afternoon sunlight filtered in dusty sheets through the glass skylight of the glass café in the park. It possessed on overall octagonal shape and was almost entirely constructed of glass. This architectural style allowed dazzling white flares of light to shimmer in enchanting distorted shapes throughout the length of the building; across the white tables and alabaster floor and over the garden of indoor plants and flowers coloring every corner. It was warmly reminiscent of a small greenhouse.
Kaname exhaled a childish mewl into the heated sugary air. The café was beautiful! She wondered if the rest of them had a similar lovely charm. From across the table, silhouetted by a glass vase occupied by a fresh white lily, Lele giggled. There was a small glass bowl in front of her filled with an almost fully consumed scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with a chocolate syrup. Kaname had been so absorbed by the sleepy atmosphere she had barely touched hers. It sat in a melting pile of a variant strawberry at the bottom of her bowl. Lele stared at it through greedy scarlet orbs.
"Kaname-oneesama, your ice cream is melting!" She chirped around a mouthful of the sugary sweet.
Kaname blinked absentmindedly and let out a surprised cry. "Huh? Oh! It is!"
She hurriedly scooped a soupy spoonful into her mouth, having to pause to cleanse the resulting mess with a napkin. Lele laughed at her. Kaname-oneesama is so fun and silly!
"So, who's your dorm sister?" The small girl started casually, leaning across the table in an unladylike way.
Kaname giggled and swallowed another spoonful before answering. "Fukui-san, though I'm not really sure she likes me too much."
"Ooooh, Shizuno-sama? She doesn't seem to really like anyone, so don't get too caught up over it. She's really just tired, is all."
"Who is yours?"
Lele leaned back at the question and snorted, scarlet eyes taking on a sour glaze. The unladylike sound drew a few disgruntled gazes from nearby café occupants.
"Ueno-san. She lectured me for about an hour about how many stuffed animals I brought!"
"I can believe that happening, Lele-chan." Kaname laughed. It was a bit loud, and she hesitated for a second to recompose herself before continuing. "How man did you bring?"
"A lot." The small girl lifted her arms in the air in childish emphasis. With her arms up like that, she was almost as tall as the stiff potted fern behind her.
"How much is a lot?" Kaname probed further.
"Um...Thirty two."
The purple haired girl choked on her ice cream, earning a few concerned stares.
"Th-Thirty two?! Why did you bring that many?"
Lele cowered in her seat, squealing at the sudden purple demon before her.
"Eek! I just couldn't choose! I loved all of them way too much!" She scrambled to say.
Kaname recomposed herself with a soft exhale. She had brought few a few stuffed animals too, although not nearly as many as the small girl, so she really couldn't chastise her that much. Just a few ones of sentimental value. Of her mother and grandmother and her days as a young child. They were all selected with a loving hand, yet not excessively, of course. She decided to change the subject.
"Oh, Lele-chan. You have referred to Fukui-san by her first name twice now. Do you know her well?" She inquired.
The question seemed like a relieving shift for Lele. She straightened in her seat and brightened up, a childish light bounding across her wide orbs. "Of course! Onee-sama and she used to play all the time when they were younger! Then I came along, and we all played together! She was so nice and motherly! Like another sister!"
The other girl's eyes widened in surprise. So Shizuno does have a soul... And she used to play with Lele-chan all the time... That's really adorable! Then why...
"Hey, Lele-chan, why did she pretend like she didn't really know you then at orientation?"
Her curiosity was piqued.
"Huh? Oh! She told me she would pretend not to know me and I her! I think it had to do with her position or that guard of hers... Or my sister requested it." Lele cleared her throat and assumed a stiff sitting position, folding her hands on her lap to mimic the stuffy Shizuno. "When you arrive at this academy, we will not acknowledge each other, okay? I will turn my head and I expect you to do the same. You must only refer to me by my family name. Understand?"
Her imitation was so poorly done it was almost comedic. Kaname laughed, only encouraging the false Shizuno on further.
"No familiarities, only generic respect of an underclassmen to an upperclassmen, got it? Now it you excuse me, I must disappear to slave over my work alone." She was laughing so hard herself at this point had had to stop and bury her face in her sleeve to muffle it. "Haha, she used to be such a huge crybaby and cried at almost everything! A-And she'd always say—"
"--I'm not crying, it's just a trick of the light."
The new voice jolted both girls out of their giggling fits. Looming over the table was the violet haired girl. Her dark eyes were narrowed yet there was a small smile on her lips that betrayed their chastising glare. Lele flailed her arms in panic.
"Ah! Shizuno-onee--- Fukui-san! L-L-Lele is soo sorry!" She was practically shouting.
Kaname frowned at the situation and looked up at the council librarian apologetically. Molten golden eyes pierced into hers. They only remained cold for a second before the corners twitched into a softer arch.
"Jeez, is this the type of gossip about me that goes around when I'm not here?" She sighed.
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" Lele continued to squeal.
Her shoulders quivered along with her lower lip. Shizuno held a long, slender finger to her lips while Kaname reached across the table to pat her head.
"We're really sorry, Fukui-san." She started.
The lone finger pressed to the tall girl's lips morphed into an open palm and slithered up to rest on her forehead. Her brow furrowed a little in irritation. "It's okay. Please refrain from speaking so loudly indoors amongst yourselves. It's not very proper nor courteous of those around you."
Kaname lowered her head at the prospect of being lectured again. We better not get a lecture every time Fukui-san shows up... That would be exhausting.
Light footsteps tapped across the floor towards the table in the hushed tension. With them came a youthful voice, "Are you harassing new students again, Shizuno?"
Kaname watched the council librarian glance over her shoulder at a smaller brunette. She wore a haughty smirk that was highlighted by the rough fringes of her short, unkempt hair If it weren't for her long lashes and the slender slope of her ivory neck, she could be considered more boyish than elegant.
"I wasn't harassing them, Miki. I was lecturing them." Shizuno responded with a stately tone.
Miki giggled and placed a hand on the back of her neck to playfully push her head down. It earned a dark scowl.
"Lecturing is all you do." She chastised.
"That is true only to those who deserve to receive them often."
"Hey..."
By this time, Lele had calmed and found herself giggling along with Kaname at the comedic spectacle playing out before their table. Fukui-san seems so much more lighthearted around Ueno-san. She's not as scary as she fronts to be.
Finally Miki peered around the tall girl and noticed her unintended audience. Ayamine-san...? And Chibara-san...?
"I hope you were able to sort everything last night properly like I had asked, Chibara-san." She commanded suddenly.
"What if Lele didn't?!" Lele responded with a flare of childish irritation.
Miki's brow furrowed in irritation. She could feel the snuffed out fire from the previous night's bickering starting to ignite once more. 'This girl...'
"Can we please not fight about this right now, Chibara-san? This isn't the place."
"You're the one that brought it up!"
"Well, thirty-two is just way too many!"
"To you, it is!"
Kaname awkwardly flickered her gaze between the two bickering girls. They were beginning to attract much unwanted attention. 'Oh dear.' Before she could thrust between them in an attempt to dissolve the igniting argument, however, an irritated Shizuno on the verge of a migraine intervened.
"That's enough!" She bellowed.
The two girls squeaked in alarm and cast their narrowed gazes onto the tall girl.
"Chibara-san, when a dorm sister administers an order, you are to obey her, as are the rules. And as for you, Ueno-san, I expect you to be less childish from now on in situations like this. Do I make myself clear?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Both arguing girls saluted the violet-haired superior as if she was a general.
Having earned the duo's compliance, Shizuno crossed her arms and turned away, preparing to depart. "Ueno-san." She called over her shoulder, her tone still laced with the cooling flames of irritation. The black caplet fluttered when she moved.
"Ah, y-yes?" Miki bolted stiffly upright as if she'd been shot.
"You should reconsider your own room's state. Thirty-two might be ridiculous, but forty is a bit nonsensical, don't you think?"
Lele held down a snorting giggle of triumph while Kaname just stared wide-eyed at the council members. 'F-Forty?!' A blatant scarlet hue of embarrassment blossomed across the third year's face. She followed doggedly after the now smirking taller upperclassman.
"H-Hey, Shizuno!"
Lele and Kaname exchanged glances then burst into simultaneous giggling fits. Shizuno could be so cool!
It didn't take long for the girls to finish their ice cream – what soupy remains were left of it, anyways – and leave the café. Lele frolicked ahead while Kaname hurried to keep up behind her. They decided to take a shortcut through the park on their way to the dormitory. The rosy light of dusk was already streaming through the canopy of leaves above them, creating dappled shadows on the cobblestone path. In the distance, towering high above the swaying trees, gleamed the silver bell in the bell tower. Kaname couldn't help but smile at the natural beauty. She wished she had brought her old camera with her.
"Kaname-oneesama! Look, look!" Lele cried out suddenly like a small child.
Kaname shook herself from her daze and looked to where the small girl was gesturing to. There was a quaint pond a few feet away. A collection of bulrushes and flowering plants among a garden of roses bordered it. Among its glassy surface, a few snow-white swans and dragonflies glided. Across the length of it arched a wooden bridge decorated with the fallen blossoms of the wisteria tree that overlooked it. It shed a purple glow over one edge of the water. Neither remembered noticing it on the tour.
"It's so pretty!" The first year chirped. She was already on the bridge, bouncing up and down excitedly. Kaname giggled and joined her. She looked at her mirror-like reflection below.
St. Bastille is such a beautiful academy. Today was tiring, as will probably be the rest of the year, but I'm not going to let that hold me down. Yes, I'm going to keep trying my best!
A purple blossom from the wisterias fluttered down and distorted her reflection. She heard a giggle beside her and looked over to the other girl to see her grinning with a tiny handful of the flourishing blossoms. A giggle of her own shivered from her smiling lips.
Beyond the thick haze of the wisterias, a flash of chestnut hair flurried out of sight.