Hell Hath No Fury Ami sat in a small, uncomfortable chair. One, no doubt, usually saved for students who had earned a rightful place in this very seat. The room was rather plain. Aside from the chair Ami sat in, the only other furniture in the room were a large wooden desk, an old steel filing cabinet, a dusty bookshelf with books possibly older than the school, and an antiquated desk chair for the desk's occupant. Even the walls were dull. Cool cinder block painted white, the only thing gracing them being a picture of the current emperor of Japan and a faded college doctorate belonging to the man sitting on the other side of the desk. Principal Takahashi shuffled some papers as he finished reading another report. So far, the man hadn't even acknowledged she was there, other than to tell her to enter the room and have a seat when she knocked. She had been here for five minutes already, and the waiting was starting to get to her. He was an older gentleman, in his late sixties with neatly trimmed gray hair and a clean shaven face. He was generally neat in appearance, with dark, thick-rimmed glasses that gave him a rather eccentric look. He was usually held in high regard amongst the teachers and staff for being fair. And while he and his room didn't look it, he was rumored to have a wicked sense of humor. He had hired Ami straight out of college because he remembered when she was a student at his school. He had a lot of respect for her. She didn't dare speak, though. She had no idea why she was here, but somehow, she knew it had to do with her double's behavior from the day before. Hotaru had warned her about just a few of the things she had seen and heard already, and any one of them was enough to get her into trouble. At least, he had told her to speak to him after her last class. That way, if she got sacked, she wouldn't have to deal with as many students staring at her as she left. And, like all good principals, Principal Takahashi had a strong dislike for trouble. He put the stack of papers off to the side, folded his hands in front of him and looked at Ami. "Do you know why you are here, Mizuno Sensei?" Ami didn't know what to say, so she just looked down and shook her head. How could she? She hadn't even been teaching yesterday. He looked at the stack of papers again, and said, "I got fifteen phone calls from rather angry parents yesterday. All upset because of how you treated their wonderful little babies. Would you care to explain yourself, Mizuno Sensei?" Again, Ami answered honestly, this time working up enough courage to look him in the eyes. If she was going to be fired, she was at least going to do it with dignity. "I'm sorry, sir. I guess you could say I just wasn't myself yesterday." Takahashi looked down at his desk in disappointment, and said, "Damn it, Mizuno, PMS isn't a good excuse for putting twenty-five students in detention and making students run more laps than their gym teachers would." He looked back up again, this time with a deadly serious expression on his face, and gently thumped his hand on his desk to emphasize each word as he spoke. "Now, I want an answer." Ami turned beet red at the man's rather insensitive comment. That hadn't exactly been what she meant. She stuttered, "Well . . . you see, sir . . . I . . . well . . ." What in the world was she supposed to say?! He raised a hand, a small smile appearing on his lips. Sounding rather amused, he said, "It's okay, Mizuno. I know why you did it." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on the desk, and said, "It's my own fault, I suppose." Ami, her face still pink, looked back up in confusion and spoke, unable to keep herself from sounding dumbstruck, "Sir?" Then, feeling that was the wrong thing to say, she stammered, "I mean . . . I'm sorry, sir! It won't happen again!" The principal laughed and waved a hand in her direction, then said, "It's quite all right, Ami. I never expected during your last review you would take me so seriously when I told you you were too lenient with your students and to put the smackdown on them from time to time. Personally, I'm rather proud of you. It's nice to see one of my teachers finally standing up to those damn kids!" Ami looked at him with a blank expression, not sure whether to be worried or relieved. Allowing his smile to grow, he said, "Just . . . next time, try not to scare poor Kitsune to death. Now, I know that girl needed some sense knocked into her, but there are better ways to go about doing it than trying to beat her over the head with a rather large book. And the whole thing with Satsuki could have been left out. I don't think she appreciated being made into an example like that." Barely able to keep himself from laughing, he said, "But personally, I would have loved to have been there to see the whole thing!" He summed up his assessment as he stood up to open the door, saying, "Don't worry about the parents, I'll handle them. Keep up the good work, Miss Mizuno." Ami bowed politely, and her boss did the same. As Ami walked out, he said, "One more thing, Mizuno Sensei." Ami stopped, feeling fear grip her soul as she slowly turned around. Why couldn't this be over? He simply smiled as he sat back down at his desk. Then he raised a fist in the air and said, "Give 'em hell!" Unsure of what to say, she decided to bow once again, and scurried back to the classroom to pick up some of her supplies she had left behind. When she got there, she stopped in the doorway and just stared at the sight before her. Standing in neat rows beside their desks, as still and silent as statues, was an entire room full of students quietly waiting for her. They just stood there at attention, staring blankly into space, awaiting her orders. It had been this way all day long, in every single class she had taught. She just hadn't expected to see the same thing after the end of the school day, since she hadn't realized her double had given them detention for more than one day. Ami walked to the center of the room and said, almost shyly, and feeling more than a little embarrassed, "Do all of you have detention?" Not surprisingly, none of them spoke. Though Ami noticed Hotaru standing amongst the students with a small smirk on her face, no doubt amused at Ami's reaction to seeing twenty five students in the room serving detention. Ami nervously ran a hand through her hair in thought. This was a bit of a problem. She really didn't have time to stay and torment these children today. As she looked around, she came to the conclusion that most of them probably didn't deserve to be here anyway. "Uh . . . I'm going to let you all go. Forget about showing up the rest of the week, too. I was having . . . something of a bad day yesterday, and I may have overreacted. You are all free to go." Naturally, no one moved. What were they waiting for? Ami blinked in confusion. Most of the children ran out the room without so much as a goodbye most days, and now, when given the chance to flee a week's worth of detention, they wouldn't leave? Why weren't they leaving? "Go on . . . go. You can go now." The only movement in the room was Hotaru's ever increasing grin. Feeling some sympathy for Ami, she moved her lips, clearly trying to give her a hint without making a sound. At first, Ami didn't get it. Then, Ami said just a bit too loudly, "OH! Class dismissed!" With those magic words, the usual stampede of students finally began. ---------- Toward the middle of the day, Makoto had found the time to call Rei and ask her something. At first, the brunette had made a lame attempt at small talk, and then almost sounded like she had thought better of bringing up whatever it was that had been on her mind. But when Makoto finally worked up the nerve to ask Rei, it had floored her. It was a simple question, really. Makoto had said, "What do you think of Minako?" At first, Rei hadn't realized what Makoto had meant by that. She had said something lame about her being a great and valiant leader and a terrible radio D.J. But when Makoto simply repeated the question, Rei understood perfectly what the woman was trying to ask her. At first, Rei had been angry at Makoto for prying into her personal life. But as the two talked (well . . . more like argued), Makoto told her what Amy had said, which eventually lead to the Miko's confession to having something of a slight long-time crush on their mutual blonde friend. Then, Makoto suggested that Rei "Give it a try. After all, what was the worst that could happen?" Again, Rei had started screaming at Makoto. It was crazy! Minako hadn't shown the least bit of interest in women as far as Rei could tell. The woman was so guy crazy it was almost unhealthy at her age. Somehow, the conversation had ended with Makoto pressuring Rei into asking Minako out on a date. Rei now stood in front of Minako and Ami's apartment, unsure of what to do next. The advice Makoto had given her seemed to be both a blessing from heaven if it was right, and a curse from hell if it was horribly, horribly misguided. For the fifth time, Rei brought her hand up to knock on the door, thought better of it, and started pacing again. She stopped and looked at the apartment number on the door as if it would give her an answer to her unasked questions. Finally, she said out loud to herself, "All right. Now or never." She brought up her fist to knock on the door, and wound up clocking Minako in the chin as the other opened it at that exact moment. "OW! What did you do that for!?" Minako asked as she took a step back, rubbing her chin with her fingers. Rei was unapologetic. "Well, if you had waited three seconds, I would have knocked." As Rei walked in, Minako said, "Um . . . Rei? We have a doorbell." Minako could tell by the time Rei sat down on the couch that she was nervous, just by the way she moved. There was only one thing she could think of that made Rei nervous, and Minako felt she was obviously the best person to go to for such advice. Not wanting to show that she was already onto Rei's guy problems, Minako said casually, "So, what brings you to my forest of necks?" Rei drummed her fingers on the couch, momentarily distracted from her feelings. "Don't you mean, what brings you to my neck of the woods?" "I like my way better," Minako said with a laugh. Minako's guest rolled her eyes. Usually, she found her friend's attempts at improving puns a bit amusing, but at the moment it just made her that much more self-conscious. Rei got back up and walked toward the kitchen to get something to drink while she thought about what to say. She only made it about halfway, when a soft, gentle hand landed on her shoulder to stop her. Her friend's words were meant to be reassuring, but they didn't help. If anything, they only increased her anxiety. With her beautiful, musical voice, Minako said, "Come on, Rei. You came to me for help, and now you are avoiding me. Just spit it out already. What's wrong? It can't be that bad." Not turning around to look at her friend, Rei said nervously, "Well . . . Minako, you see . . . it's like this . . ." ---------- "Reject me, will she?" the woman said quietly into the darkness. "She will never know what she has denied herself." Quietly feeling around for something, she continued her rant. "I'll show her. I'll show all of them. When I final -- OW!" She stopped talking a moment to rub her head where she had hit it on a low steel support. Stomping her foot angrily, Mina yelled, "Damn it! Why does this place have to be so dark! How am I supposed to do this when I can't even find the Da --" She stopped talking when the lights suddenly flickered on. Stepping out from behind a computer terminal in the portal generator room, Amy said, "There is one light switch next to the door when you first come in, and several located throughout the room. Personally, I never use the lights when I am by myself, since I can find my way around here in the dark by using the diagnostic lights on the equipment as a guide." Mina walked past the lower ranked Sekkou and asked, unable to hide her irritation with the woman, "What are you doing here?" Amy shrugged and said simply, "I could ask you the same thing. Though if you must know, I was just about to run a calibration test on the bi matter anti/matter reactor chamber. It's rather interesting, if you'd care to join me." Dark Venus turned away and gripped her hands on a railing tightly as she tried to control her anger. It was obvious to her that Amy was only doing her job, and nothing more. If the Sekkou didn't need project rainbow so badly, she would have killed Amy right now to try to cover up what she was about to do. How was she supposed to do this, if there was a witness she couldn't kill? Without another word, Amy went back to her work, nearly oblivious to the fact Mina was even there anymore. That was the interesting thing about Amy. So long as the little hack had a computer or chemistry set of any complexity within arm's reach, she was happy. It didn't matter anyway, now that Mina thought about it. After all, even with the technical instruction book, their wasn't any way she could figure out how to activate the generators on her own. Just as she was about to give up all hope of trying to find out if her hunch was correct, an idea came to her. "Hey, um, Amy? Does that cool little test you are running involve turning on the portal generator?" Hefting out a huge spare parts box, Dark Mercury smiled. Such deceptively innocent expression on her face. Mina couldn't help but laugh to herself as she thought, 'The little geek probably thinks I'm actually interested in her screwing around.' The bluenette answered, "Yes. It's already on, actually. Per safety protocol, it has to be in order to even open the diagnostic equipment for the chamber. All you'd have to do is grab your assigned pendent, and provided there is a subject on the other end near a reflective surface, anyone could get through. Why?" Amy turned her back to Mina as she opened up a panel to check some readings on some other nameless device. While Amy made a few adjustments to a gauge, Mina bent down and selected a steel pipe from the box. She examined it carefully, since she wanted a nice, sturdy one. It made her angrier that Amy felt she needed to go on and on about how the damn machine worked, since she already knew that. Just as Amy was about to turn around, Mina slammed the steel pipe into the back of the other woman's skull, and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as she fell to the ground without uttering a sound. "That will teach you to pretend to be so damn superior," Mina said as she walked to the cabinet the pendants were located in. ---------- Rei slammed the door to her room, flopped down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow in a pathetic attempt to hide from the world. However, it was impossible to hide from her own thoughts. And she only had one on her mind at the moment. 'How could she have said no?' With her face still buried in the pillow, she screamed as loud as she could. She could feel her pillow slowly becoming wet beneath her face, but she didn't care. Finally giving up on the pillow, she curled up into a ball, and in self pity mixed with an unhealthy dose of anger, she asked no one in particular, "How dare she say no?" She couldn't stand the thought of it. She was so sure that Minako would say yes and throw herself into Rei's arms. Instead, Minako had held Rei's hand and proceeded to tell her how she greatly appreciated Rei, but she just didn't feel that way about her. She had gone on to tell Rei how sorry she was, and that she would 'always be your friend.' Rei had felt an initial wave of shock, then embarrassment, and next, hurt. Then, she was blinded by pure, burning rage. Rather than face Minako any longer and confront the problem, the hotheaded Miko had once again done what she did best. Let her temper control her. After slamming the door in Minako's face, she had run as fast and as far away as she could, too hurt and too angry to give a damn about what Minako thought of her abrupt departure. For the thousandth time, Rei couldn't help but think how unbelievable it was to be rejected by the woman she had been secretly longing for. Didn't Minako know how that would make Rei feel? Didn't she know how much that would hurt her? Didn't she care? Rei felt her tears run down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. Then, becoming angry at the fact she was crying like a baby, she growled loudly, and threw her pillow over her shoulder as hard as she could in an attempt to work out some frustration. Then a few seconds later, something unexpected happened. The pillow she had thrown just moments ago smacked her on the back of the head. Too angry to think, Rei grabbed the pillow and sat up, fully prepared to hurl it back at her attacker, and yelled, "Who threw that?" Standing in the doorway, her short old grandfather leaned on his cane. Unable to hide his amusement, he smiled and said, "I was just about to ask you the same thing." Instead of giving her usual customary sarcastic reply, all Rei did was glare at the old man, and without a word, curled back up into a ball, being sure not to face him. And for an added bit of good measure, she shoved the pillow back over her face. While the look he had gotten at Rei's face had been brief, it had been long enough for him to see she had been crying. The bald man shook his head in disappointment. He had known Rei was angry about something the moment she had come home. Though he hadn't noticed that she was this upset. It was always bad when Rei didn't want to talk, because that meant she would bottle it up and stew over it until she snapped. Which always put him in the rather difficult position of having to be the one to open up that bottle before it got to be too much pressure for her. He had done this many times before, of course. But that never made dealing with a human fire cracker like Rei any easier. It was best to handle these things delicately. He walked cautiously toward Rei, making enough sound so she would know he was coming in. Then, when he reached the bed, he sat down beside her and said almost casually, "Want to talk about it?" From her hiding place behind the pillow, Rei's muffled voice replied, "Oh, sure! I just love to discuss getting my heart ripped into a billion pieces. It's fun!" Rei's grandfather rolled his eyes and held his head with one hand. So, it was about yet another rejection from yet another man. He usually told Rei something lame, like 'there are plenty of fish in the sea', but it was getting old even to him to hear himself say that. He truly wished Rei would quit focusing on men who didn't care for her, and work more toward joining the priesthood instead. However, years of experience had taught him that it was best to stay on topic with Rei and nag her about that later. He decided to try showing curiosity in whatever the event was that had set her off. Perhaps that would at least start her talking, which sometimes could lead to her just venting and working things out on her own. "So, what did they say?" Rei squeezed her pillow tighter to her face and said, "Just the dreaded 'let's be friends' routine." Patting Rei's shoulder he said, "Now now, Rei. I'm sure it's not as bad as all that. I'm sure whoever this gentleman was probably didn't want to hurt you is all." Rei finally sat up on the bed and looked down at him. "Who said anything about some nameless guy?" The bald man looked a bit perplexed as he said, "If it's not some decent young man who has broken your heart, then --" Rei could feel her left eye actually twitch as she said in frustration, "With as often as Minako has visited here over the years, you mean to tell me you don't know?" A blank expression passed over her grandfather's face as he processed the information. Then, he said, "You mean . . . all this time you have been trying to convince Minako to . . ." A huge smile appeared on his face as he came to the wonderful conclusion. He had no idea Rei had cared that much about that! Once he was able to put his thoughts into words, he continued, ". . . become a shrine maiden? Oh, Rei! I am so proud of you! I take it she said no, then. It's too bad. She would have made a wonderful Miko, and would have brought quite a few more people to visit our lowly shrine. I must say, I do think you are overreacting, but it does disappoint me too. Why, I myse --" In frustration, Rei put her hand over her grandfather's mouth until he stopped talking. Apparently, she would have to spell it out to him. Once she was sure the old man was paying attention she said, "No, Grandpa. Minako is the one who broke my heart. She didn't say no to being a Miko, because that's not what I was trying to ask her. She said no to me." Her old grandpa pulled Rei's hand away from his mouth and started laughing. Then, between chuckles he said, "I know! She said no to me, too! Many times have I brought up this suggestion to her. I know sometimes I can be a lecherous old fool, but still, I hoped she would have said yes. Still, Rei, I don't think you should be crying over . . ." The look Rei shot him would have caused a lesser man to burst into flames. Suddenly, what Rei was truly trying to say sunk in. Still, Rei felt it best to say it out loud, just in case her elder had missed the train of thought again. "I asked her out! You know, on a date!" When her grandfather said nothing, Rei looked away from him suddenly unable to meet his eyes, and spoke slower, worried she had upset him. "I am old enough, after all. You did say I could start dating when I turned 16, and . . . well . . . I'm 29 now, so . . . I sorta thought . . . ya know . . ." Rei shook her head in frustration with herself. Could she have possibly found a lamer way to word that? Curious about his reaction, Rei looked back at her grandfather. She saw him with a truly shocked expression and clutching his chest. In panic, Rei grabbed him and started shaking violently. "Oh, no! You're not having a heart attack, are you? Where did you put the Aspirin? Quickly! Tell me!" As Rei continued to shake him, he said, sounding panicked himself, "Oh, no! They must have found my extra secret stash! Oh spirit of my beautiful daughter, forgive me! I have been a horrible influence on your child and her friends!" Rei pushed her grandpa back as she jumped off the bed, and in shock said, "What!? This has nothing to do with your stash of naughty mags! This is raw emotion and love I am talking about here! I made up my mind on my feelings for Minako long before we found those filthy things! We only looked at that one out of curiosity when I found them under the couch! Why on earth you would keep those there is beyond me!" At that thought, Rei's voice trailed off as she started to tell her grandfather about that day, "That was back during our last year of high school. Poor Ami. She was so shocked by that one picture Minako showed her that none of us heard from her for a week or two afterward . . ." "What!?" This time it was her grandpa's turn to jump off the bed in surprise. He looked up and yelled, "I was only trying to give you a taste of the shock you just put me through! I didn't know you actually found those! Those are for your Grandpa's eyes only! I don't care if you are of age to look at them now or not!" Rei was about to scream another surprised comment, when another thought entered the back of her mind. Suddenly sounding calm for the first time since returning home, she said, "You mean . . . you aren't upset about me trying to get together with a girl?" He gave her one of his usual cheesy smiles and said, "Of course I'm not. Your mother taught me the joys of tolerance long before Rei Hino came along." Folding his small arms into his robes, he continued, sounding irritated, "Though, you have no right going through my secret stash. That's personal, and a rather rude thing to do, at that! And don't try to lie to me. I happen to know you have gone through it on far more than one harmless bout of curiosity!" Then he looked back up into Rei's eyes and started to laugh again. Another thing his late daughter had taught him was that seeing someone else laugh could some times make even the angriest person happy again. Rei gave him a small smile. Not much of one, but it was there, and that was what mattered. Rei said quietly, "Thank you, Grandpa. I --" Rei's words were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone in the hallway. With the immediate crisis over, her grandfather politely excused himself so he could answer it. Alone with her thoughts once again, Rei flopped back down on her bed. She still stung from her rejection from Minako, but some how, talking to her quirky grandfather helped her to realize in the back of her mind, that it was unfair to be angry at her friend. After all, her friend truly meant it when she said they would still be friends. Rei doubted this would change much between them in the long run. Though she didn't doubt it would make life in the near future somewhat strange, to say the least. Rei's musing was interrupted by a quiet knock on her door. Her grandfather once again opened it and said, sounding rather confused, "Rei, it's for you." He held out his short arm, holding the phone toward her from the other side of the door and said, "It's Minako."
Back to Double Jeopardy Index - Back to Sailor Moon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction