Portrait of A Slacker (Uncertainty) "Hey, look! There she is!" "Wow! Does she really go to our school?" "She looks like a supermodel..." "Man, Yourichi-sama's sooo cool! You know that she's a black-belt in Karate?" Jeez, don't they have anything better to do besides fawn over an upperclassman? Soi Fong sighed to herself as she glanced over at the huddle of freshman peeking out the classroom window to get a glimpse of the dark-skinned Yoruichi. Soi had noticed that her friend would sometimes take to wandering the halls during lunch hour, and as such the people who didn't have the everyday opportunity of admiring 'The Goddess' (another nickname she had unknowingly aquired) took the opportunity to watch her walk by. Soi could understand why so many people would look up to Yoruichi (after all, she had taken a few of those glances out the window herself), but the clamorous hounding still got on her nerves. For this reason more than any other, Yoruichi had decided to keep their friendship quiet-- she knew that Soi was uncomfortable around others, and the attention associated with being a friend of the great Yoruichi-sama might be a bit too much for her to deal with (Yoruichi had admitted to Soi that she found it annoying herself, but had gotten so used to it that she paid it little mind nowadays). So it came as a surprise to her when a few days after this visit to the freshman halls Yoruichi came into Class 1-B during lunch, which fortunately happened to be empty save for a certain bookworm who was so occupied with her Geometry homework that she didn't notice the upperclassman sneak up around her desk. "...Okay... so the base of the triangle multiplied by..." "WHAT'CHA DOIN', SOI FONG!" At the sudden awareness of a hand on her shoulder and a loud voice in her ear, Soi nearly jumped out of her desk in shock. "AAH!...Oh, it's you...Damnit, don't scare me like that!" Soi said a little more calmly once she realized who was behind her. Yoruichi only gave her trademark cat-like grin. "Hey, what are you doing in here alone? Come eat on the roof with me!" Soi blinked at Yoruichi's casual request. Did she actually want Soi to spend time with her during school? "...Uh...Okay," the younger girl answered as she grabbed her neglected bento, "...But I'll need to work on my homework, too." "Hey, you do what you need to," Yoruichi smiled as they left the room. "Oh, no," the upperclassman groaned at the top step as she held the door open. "Why? What is--" "...Hey, Yoru-chan! Fancy seeing you up here!" Soi managed to peek around her friend to see Urahara sitting on the ledge of the rooftop, smiling from beneath the brim of his hat as he waved in their direction. "...What the hell are you doing up here, Kisuke?" "Um...I'm eating lunch, of course," the teen said with plenty of sarcasm while he swallowed a bite of his omelette. "Last time I checked, this wasn't a private vantage point..." Yoruichi sighed in defeat as she walked up to her friend and sat a few feet away from him. "...Fine...Soi, come sit down," Yoruichi groaned as she opened up the fried noodle sandwich she'd purchased from the cafeteria. "What's wrong with Urahara-san? I thought you two were friends..." "Oh, we are," Urahara answered as he threw an arm around Yoruichi in a mock display of affection, which was recieved with a glare. "It's just that Yoru-chan likes the roof much better when I'm not here." Kisuke promply recieved a double-chop on the head for calling Yoruichi by 'chan' again while Soi set down her math book, paper and lunch down on the concrete beneath her feet, arranging herself so that she would be at least moderately comfortable. "Hey, you don't have to do it there," Yoruichi said once she noticed the freshman's choice of working environment, then patted an open space beside herself. "Come sit over here." "Uhh... No thanks, I'm more comfortable on the ground anyway," Soi managed as she fought off the blush that had spontaneously appeared at Yoruichi's request. The upperclassman huffed slightly and rolled her eyes, then returned her attention to the meal at hand. Damnit, what the hell's wrong with me? It seemed like ever since she'd gotten that gi from Yoruichi, Soi had begun to feel different around her friend. Not a bad sort of different, just...awkward, and it only seemed to happen whenever Yoruichi smiled in her direction or when they were spending time together. Soi almost wished that this strange feeling would go away, but at the same time was beginning to like it-- she'd never really had a friend before, so maybe it was just part of the way that her subconscious showed that she really cared about Yoruichi's companionship. She shrugged off her sentimental train of thought as she took a bite of her potato croquette and glared at the insoluble equation before her. "AAGH!" she finally groaned as she flipped back and forth between the math textbook's answer section and the problems, catching Yoruichi and Kisuke's attention. "...How the hell am I supposed to get this answer!" "Umm...do you need help?" Yoruichi asked tentatively. The freshman sighed, then after a few moments shook her head. "No...I need to figure these out on my own." "Well, sometimes you just need a push in the right direction. Here, let me look at that." It took Soi a moment to realize that the one who'd just spoken was Urahara, and sure enough he had his free hand held out to her while his other was occupied with his soda can. "Uhh..." Soi felt a little hesitant about entrusting her academics to, as Yoruichi had put it, 'a two-year ronin,' but on the other hand it might be funny to watch him struggle with these difficult problems. "...Are you sure? They're really hard..." Soi asked, struggling to hold back a taunting laugh. "Of course I'm sure-- besides, like I wanna hear any more of your groaning while I'm eating," the hat-wearing teen added with a teasing grin, which earned him a roll of the eyes and the exasperated muttering of his name by Yoruichi. After a few seconds of dejected silence, Yoruichi finally relented, handing the textbook to Urahara after lightly circling the offending question with her pencil. "...It's number 19," she said as she grabbed her drinkbox and took a sip, watching as Kisuke stared quietly at the book. Heh. I bet he doesn't even know what to do... "Ahh...This stuff's not too tough," Urahara muttered as he suddenly began scribbling on the book, and before Soi could tell him off for doing so he handed it back to her. "Well, giving up alread--" she began, but as she stared at the numbers haphazardly arranged on the text she suddenly realized something. "Th-this is right! How the--" She triple-checked the answers in the back before finally admitting that Urahara was absolutely correct. "B-b-but how could YOU..." "Easy," Urahara said casually, keeping any sort of condescension from creeping into his voice but sounding all the more stuck-up for it regardless. "You just have to remember that you have to find the height of the triangle before multiplying it by the base-- your perimeter's aren't involved in this; that's what kept throwing you off." "B-but..." Soi racked her brain, desperate for some way to prove that Urahara really was an idiot and that her mind was playing tricks on her. "...But if this is so easy, then what are you still doing here! I thought you failed the Center Exam twice!" "Well, technically I couldn't have FAILED the college exam," the unshaven blonde considered with a smirk, "...If I never took it in the first place." "...Huh?" "Oh, for God's sake..." Yoruichi sighed at her best friend and turned to Soi Fong. "You see, it's like this: Remember when he told that story at your dad's about how he slept through his exam?" "...Yeah..." Soi agreed, not entirely certain of where this was going but not jumping to any conclusions. "Well, Kisuke's always been smart--hell, even I might have to admit that he's practically at genius level. To counterbalance this," Yoruichi gave Urahara an exasperated glare, "...for as long as I've known him, he's been lazy as sin. Not ONLY did he sleep through his first College Exam, but he slacked off in all his classes at the very end of the year, and he couldn't graduate. And thusly..." she gave a facetious twirl of the wrist as though she was presenting someone of great importance, "...one year and the exact same pattern later, we have the 19-year-old loser you see before you." "Jeez..." Urahara said with a pout, "...Why do you always have to say such mean things, Yoru-chan?" He cringed as he waited for Yoruichi to smack him again, but all she did was stare expectantly at him. "What? Instead of being worried about ME...why don't you see if you can give Soi Fong a hand?" "No...It's okay, really, I can do it myself," Soi interjected, not wanting to accept help from Urahara regardless of how intelligent he may be. "...Are you--" "I'M FINE, DAMNIT!" Soi yelled in frustration, which made Urahara jump and Yoruichi snicker at his reaction. "All right, all right..." the blonde said as he took off his hat and played with it in his hands, "...I'll just be here if you get stuck again." The freshman's face turned sour at the self-confident aura the young man was projecting, then stubbornly turned back to her homework. She didn't notice Yoruichi lean forward on her seat with an expectant grin on her face. This oughta be good... It only took a few silent minutes for Soi to hand the text back to Urahara, mumbling something about being stuck on problem 20 with a none-too-happy expression on her face. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "...It wasn't that funny!" Soi growled defensively at Yoruichi as the trio headed down the stairs from the roof, empty lunch containers in their hands. "I dunno, it was pretty good watching you swallow your pride like that," the athletic girl remarked as she playfully took a jab at Soi's arm, which the younger girl instinctively blocked with her wrist. "Hey, good one! And nice form, too!" Urahara said with the closest thing to an impressed voice Soi had ever heard from him. "Yeah, what'd I tell ya?" Yoruichi grinned as she ruffled her shorter friend's hair, which instantly dispelled any thoughts of annoyance Soi may have had towards Yoruichi. "She's got plenty of potential!" Feeling suddenly uncomfortable, Soi turned toward Urahara, attempting to shake off the strange feeling that had returned unannounced. "Urahara-san--" "Don't call him 'san,' Soi Fong," Yoruichi said with a deadpan stare at Kisuke. "...You'll only spoil him." "...Um...Urahara-san," Soi continued to Yoruichi's slight annoyance, "Were you ever in any clubs?" It had intrigued her that the delinquent had noticed her block; he didn't seem like the kind to pay attention to the little things after all. "Well, not Karate," Kisuke admitted as he adjusted his hat for no reason other than to occupy his hands, "...But I was Captain of the Kendo team in my Junior year." "R-Really? Captain?" This seemed even more unlikely than his secretly being intelligent. Now, while Soi still thought Yoruichi's best friend to be a little odd, she had to admit that he was at least interesting. "Oh, yeah," Yoruichi added with a thoughtful expression. "Went all the way to Championships, even. However..." "Let me guess," Soi conjectured. "...He got kicked off because he was failing?" "Nope," the tall girl answered. "They caught him and a bunch of other guys eating 'special brownies' behind the school." For a moment Soi could only stare bug-eyed in disbelief, but then she burst out laughing. "Y-you're KIDDING! And he did it BEHIND the school!" Urahara didn't seem ashamed though, he merely shrugged his shoulders at the two girls. "Hey, I was high. Not gonna say it was a GOOD idea, but damn, those WERE some good browni--" "All right, Soi," Yoruichi interrupted before Urahara had a chance to utterly corrupt the freshman with a discourse on the wonders of hallucinogenic sweets, "Here's your classroom. We'll see you later, okay?" She gave Soi a wave before grabbing Kisuke by the ear and pulling him along with her down the nearest hallway. Soi entered her homeroom to see that a gaggle of females seated near the door were staring at her with a strange look of anticipation on their faces. She didn't pay it any mind at first, since many people tended to do this right before lunch ended so that they could catch their friends and have a few quick words prior to the beginning of class. She did mind, however, once she got back to her seat and noticed that they were still looking at her, some of whom were twisted in their seats to get a better look at the Chinese girl. Soi's instincts told her to just ignore it, the way she always had whenever she felt uncomfortable in a social situation, but something (perhaps a bit of Yoruichi's influence rubbing off onto her) made her finally turn away from the window she was staring out of and speak up. "...What is it?" A few of the girls blinked; they'd never heard Soi Fong speak unless it had something to do with a lesson, after all. "Well? I don't appreciate being looked at as if I were on display." Finally, one of the girls, one who wore her light-brown hair short at the collar, stood up from her desk and walked over to the class bookworm. The 'alpha-male,' Soi thought with a wry grin as she recalled what she'd learned about how a pack of wild dogs functioned. When the girl spoke, though, she didn't seem like the dominating type at all--perhaps she just happened to be the girl who'd had enough confidence to speak on behalf of her friends. "...Are you friends with Yoruichi-sama?" The long-braided girl blinked in surprise at the question, ultimately wondering more how this stranger had found out. The girl seemed to have anticipated Soi's astonishment, because a moment later she jerked her thumb in the direction of the door. "I--that is, we--saw you and her talking, um...out in the hallway." Definitely not the dominating type, the petite girl thought as she carefully watched her classmate's body language, which seemed to scream out anxiety. "...Well--" she began, but the brunette cut her off. "So it's true, then? But...but how did you get to meet her? She never talks to freshman!" Soi's eyes shifted around nervously. She didn't want to relate how she had encountered Yoruichi, especially to people she didn't even know. When the dark-haired girl didn't answer, the brunette looked sheepishly at the ground as she continued. "...Um...we were wondering...since you know Yoruichi-sama...c-could you get us a picture of her?" Before Soi could even process the request, the girl held out a small digital camera as if urging her to take it. "...We'll pay you for it, too...j-just a portrait or something..." ...These must be some of Yoruichi's 'fans.' While Soi did feel a bit sorry for the girl and her friends for the almost cute way they were admiring Yoruichi, at the same time she couldn't do something so voyeuristic to her friend. "...Sorry." The girl blinked at Soi Fong's sudden response, uncertain that she had heard properly. "W-what! But why not? Y-Yoruichi-sama lets other people take pictures with her!" "If you want one so much, you should ask her yourself," the Chinese girl stated as passively as she could, trying to be both gentle and stern at the same time but coming off as more than a bit rude in the brunette's eyes. "Carrying around a picture of someone you don't know just seems creepy to me." "B-but how am I supposed to--" "Maybe if you'd try seeing her as a regular person..." Soi said with growing irritation as she turned to look the girl square in the eye, "...Then you'd find she's not that hard to talk to." The two girls stared at each other for a moment before the brunette who'd approached Soi suddenly lowered her head, a morose expression on her face. ...Did I make her cry? Without warning, the girl looked back up; there were no tears staining her cheeks but she was glaring daggers at Soi Fong. "...Fine! I don't know why I bothered to ask a nerd like you anyway!" She stomped off to her friends while Soi let out a groan of frustration. She wondered if she'd have to deal with this for the entire year as she turned her attention back to the overcast sky outside, her mind drifting along with the clouds when she overheard the clique talking amongst themselves. "Hey, it's okay..." "Yeah. Maybe we can catch Yoruichi-sama on the way out of school..." "I-I just can't believe her! It's not like I was asking for a lock of hair or something!" the brunette's voice drifted its way to Soi Fong, who wasn't eavesdropping so much as forced to listen. She almost wondered if they were doing this on purpose, in a feeble attempt to guilt-trip her into acquiescing to their request. "Forget her," another girl interjected, obviously referring to Soi. "She's just a stupid bitch anyway." "Yeah, what's with her? She always acts like she's got something up her ass--I'll bet she doesn't have any friends." "Well, of course when you're that poor you don't even bother. You know I heard that her dad works pro bono cases? Doesn't wanna 'put money before morals' and all that bullshit..." While any other girl would have been in hysterical tears from the vicious rhetorical assault of her peers, Soi only sighed lightly onto the windowsill. She'd heard worse than this before, and all she felt was a passing annoyance that the other girls couldn't think outside the insult box. "...Jeez...Why the hell does Yoruichi-sama even waste her time on that goddamn bitch?" "Easy-- If I met someone that pathetic I'd feel sorry for them, too." "I don't know about that...If I had to spend even five minutes with her, you could just kill me right then and there!" The girls shared a spiteful laugh that echoed in the nearly empty room. By now people were starting to drift in, paying no mind to the chatting cluster of females and taking their seats. As such, they spoke in lower tones, but no matter how low they were the nearby Soi Fong picked up every word. "Seriously, she's lucky that Yoruichi-sama's putting up with her. I'll bet she thinks they're best friends or something!" "Yeah--like Yoruichi-sama would ever be friends with someone as worthless as her. She's probably just keeping her company so that she doesn't kill herself." "And then when she gets tired of dealing with her, then that'll be that." "I'd be surprised if Yoruichi-sama would even remember her after summer break!" Before the harpies could continue their discourse, the bell rang and they scattered to their respective seats as the last remainers of the class ran in and quickly got settled. Just as the teacher walked in and alerted the class to settle down, Soi snapped out of her reverie, pretending to give the lesson her full attention but in reality pondering whether or not what the other girls had said about Yoruichi could be true. Come on, Soi, she berated herself, shaking the thought violently from her head. You know her better than that. But did she really? Just what did Soi know about her savior other than that she had been around her almost constantly for the last month or so? ...Have I just been...fooling myself? Is she just humoring me? She'd been so certain ten minutes ago that Yoruichi genuinely cared about her, that they really WERE friends, but in an instant all her certainty had been swept away by a few choice words. She knew that she was just letting the girls get to her, but now the idea that Yoruichi's friendship was merely a facade hurt worse than any blow she'd recieved or any teasing she'd ever endured. A/N: Well, that's the longest update yet--I hope I'm not making this emo or anything like that, I just kind of think that they need a little bit of conflict--a bump in the road, if you will. I'm going to try to update a few more times before I leave for summer break--I don't have the internet at home, so I don't know if I'll be able to add more over the summer. When I get back to school, however, I'll try to have some more chaps done.
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