Inadvertant Cruise Control
Rei bounced her foot side to side unconsciously, her lower extremities betraying the impatience she managed to mask otherwise. She calmly looked about, examining the tidy foyer and its row of shoes, trying to guess which were Minako’s. It wasn’t hard – pink sneakers and sparkly flip-flops were hardly the footwear of choice for adults. But then again . . .
Mrs. Aino came bustling back into the room, her grin both wide and polite. Her bright blue eyes, looking out from her perma-smile, held a hint of the devilish immaturity that Minako sometimes brought out in spades. It even evoked a hint of a familiar sense of dread in Rei. “She’ll be just a moment. You know how she is with early mornings.”
“Actually, I don’t recall ever seeing her in the early morning before,” Rei corrected honestly. Math had never been the very first class in the day, and even that morning a few months ago it had nearly been afternoon by the time they got out of bed.
“Oh.” Call-me-Akemi Aino blinked. “Well, she’s about as useful as a soggy sack of crap and twice as unpleasant.”
Rei choked on air, shocked and tempted to laugh but trying desperately to contain it.
From one room over, a voice shrieked, “MOM!”
“Ah, here comes Sunshine.”
Minako stomped into the room in her socked feet, glaring at her mother and shooting suspicious glances at the coughing miko. “Do you ever listen to wait you say?!”
The elder Aino smiled pleasantly. “Why, of course I do. Sometimes I even think about it first.”
Rendered speechless with incredulous rage, Minako could only point at her mother and sputter, “You . . . you . . . you!”
Now Rei wasn’t sure which frightened her worse – the outright devious, scheming grin Minako could whip out, or Akemi Aino’s polite, polished smile. Said smile stayed firmly in place as the older of the two blonde’s waved her hand in a pleasantly dismissive fashion. “Yes, I love you too, Poo Bear, now don’t be impolite. Rei’s been waiting here for a while and I’m sure she would hate to be late because of you.”
Minako crammed her feet into a pair of shoes, muttering darkly to herself. She swung the door open viciously, nearly clubbing Rei mid-swing, and stormed outside.
“Bye!” Mrs Aino said cheerily.
Rei nodded, trailing after Minako. “Goodbye, Mrs Aino.”
“Don’t encourage her!” Minako snapped, just before slinging her stuff into the back and plopping herself down in the passenger seat.
Rei got into her car and looked up through the windshield, half-expecting to see Minako’s mother blowing them kisses from the doorway. Thankfully, the woman had retreated, apparently satisfied with her victory. Suppressing a chuckle, Rei turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the driveway.
“Pure. Evil.”
Grin firmly sealed away, Rei glanced over to see Minako scowling mightily straight ahead, arms folded, bottom lip threatening to protrude. “Um . . . she seems fairly nice,” Rei offered.
“Don’t be taken in!” Minako warned vehemently “She’s evil! Distilled evil in the form of a crone, sent to be the bane of my life!”
“Ah.” Rei kept driving. It would later occur to her that a hole must have worn through somewhere on her brain-mouth filter, because the comment formed, she told it to stop, and yet out it came anyway. “Honestly, she kind of reminds me of you.” She froze in the dead silence that ensued, turned ever so slowly, and saw Minako gaping at her in disbelief.
“You. Did. Not. Just. Say that!”
The way Minako’s voice got all shrill at the end just did for Rei. All the laughter she had been containing came bursting out. She laughed so hard her stomach hurt, so hard she was finding it difficult to drive at the same time. Every time the chuckles seemed to be abating, she would glance over at Minako’s indignantly horrified expression, and lose it again.
The rest of the drive to school was spent with Minako sitting in stony silence, while Rei either laughed, wiped tears away, tried to apologise, or clutched her aching stomach. The volleyball captain was clearly trying not to laugh herself, and somehow managed not to for the whole ride. She stepped out of the car once it was parked at the school, turned, and pointed at Rei dramatically.
“You . . . you have cut me very deeply, and I hope you regret it for the rest of your life.” She then spun on her heel, and haughtily marched away.
Rei finally got her laughing under control, and sighed happily. Yes, things were looking up.
“So I guess we should let her out, right? Turns out she was bang on the whole time.”
There was general agreement, so the team captain turned the knob and a dishevelled looking Minako came tumbling out.
“You bastards!” she cried, springing to her feet, looking combative.
“Look, we’re sorry, but you were being really annoying,” one Minako tried to explain. “You were just blathering on and on about still liking Rei and we really didn’t need to hear it.”
“Right, well now that you’ve all stopped ignoring me, I was right! We do still like her.” She brushed off her clothes, and with the help of a well-groomed looking Minako, managed to straighten her hair out.
“No we don’t,” one of them retorted, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Oh shut up,” the newly released one spat. “You deny everything.”
“No I don’t.”
“Look, the weight of evidence now supports the fact that we do still have feelings for Rei. We were wrong, and stupid Kagura was right again,” the volleyball captain huffed.
The Minako dressed like a diva pouted attractively. “Do we have to do this again? I mean, she’s hot but she’s so complicated.” She flipped her boa over her shoulder with a sigh.
“Oh yeah, let’s go get some simpleton instead. It’ll be easier,” sneered the one dressed in plain clothes next to the diva.
“Well that’s the thing,” said a voice from the back. They all turned to see her adjust her glasses on her nose. “We get bored when things are too easy – they don’t interest us, they only amuse us for a while. But Rei has the potential to hold our attention. Perhaps permanently.”
There were uneasy stirrings over this and wary glances traded between embodiments.
“This is bad. Like, how did we get into this?” the flirty one asked.
The grumpy one provided her answer to this by growling at the flirt. “Well you wouldn’t stop gushing over her, and she,” a finger was pointed at a very mellow looking Minako, “started going on about how ‘calming’ Rei is.”
The mellow one defended, “Hey, don’t knock it, man. You know you like the feeling.”
Grumpy scoffed and continued, “And then she got involved!” The Minako sighing and blushing to herself in the corner was singled out, and looked up coyly. “Next thing you know, bam! We’re doing chores at the shrine and chasing after her like some puberty-stricken teenage boy. It’s embarrassing! Aino Minako should never have to stoop this low!”
“Well . . . we may not have to.” They all turned to the smart Minako who had spoken once more and was looking quite hesitant. “She . . . Rei said that we were friends and that she missed us. She uh, she never said anything about actually getting back together.”
The blushing Minako stopped looking so dreamy and asked indignantly, “She might not even like us? We’re back where we started?!?”
There was an echoing silence at that, broken by a piercing wail. “Whaaaaaat!?! Nooooo!!” And then all hell broke loose. Minako began yelling over Minako, bawling, raging and throwing fits. Several were attempting to stuff the brainy Minako into the closet while others tried to stop them and brawls broke out. Cries of “I can’t take the uncertainty!!!” and “Why is she so damn complicated?!” were muffled in the chaos of nearly every Minako on her feet, gesturing, howling and arguing.
The volleyball captain ran a hand through her hair and sighed, looking quite overwhelmed from the corner of the room she was avoiding the fight in. She turned to the Minako next to her who was wearing sweatpants and watching the riot lazily. “This is gonna go on for a few hours at best.”
“Mmm,” the lazy one agreed.
“All I can assume is we’re going to have to wait and follow Rei’s lead.”
“Mmhmm.”
A lampshade went flying towards them and the captain ducked agilely while the laid-back Minako took it in the face for not moving in time.
“Ow.”
“Thanks. Jeeze, we’re here early – bell hasn’t even rung yet.”
“Spoken like a true slacker.”
“Oi!”
“So . . . if you like, I could give you a ride home today since I’m going to be around anyway.”
“Um, well, I don’t want to make you wait around. Practices are running almost an hour longer these days. It’s nationals next Tuesday.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll start on my homework while I wait.”
“Alright . . . thanks. Is it archery you’re staying for today?”
“Who told you I’m in archery?”
“Well, when the infamous Hino Rei comes out of her seclusion, word gets around.”
“You calling me the infamous one seems rather backwards. I guess you know about my other after school . . . occupation, then?”
“Eh? There’s another one? What sort of change came over you?”
“Keh. I didn’t change – I was forced to join these stupid after school things.”
“So what else did you join!?”
“Nuh-uh. If you don’t know, I’m not telling.”
“Whyyy noooot?”
“It would be detrimental to my image.”
“Your image? Since when do you give a rat’s ass about your image?”
“Since right now.”
“What? What kind of argument is that?! Tell meeee!”
“No.”
“Fine. Tell me who made you join the clubs then.”
“The vice-principal.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because I spent so much time at the hospital with Grandpa.”
“Eh!? So . . . so . . . that’s why you missed the end of last term?”
“Obviously. I’ll see you after class!”
“What? Oi! Get back here! Cursed, sneaky little miko . . . creeping off like that. I’ll show her – you can’t just dangle tantalising information in front of Minako Aino’s nose and expect to keep it hidden. Grr . . .”
“What are–”
“Nothing!”
Tense silence followed in which two minds raced in conflicting directions, one set on questioning out the truth, the other determined to disguise the situation as fully as possible. And then the unthinkable happened – Rei felt the doorknob slipping from her limp grasp, turned to discover the cause, and found herself face to face with the volleyball manager she had just finished speaking to.
“Ah! Rei – good thing I don’t have to chase you back. Here. Thanks for being such a help this season. Without you, I would have been swamped, so thanks. I’ll put in a good word with vice-principal Yuumura.” Ms Ishida handed Rei a soft, wrapped package and, with a smile, turned back to the office and closed the door behind her.
Pieces were clicking quickly into place for Minako. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you coming out of this office . . .”
Rei looked up from inspecting the gift in her hands. “It isn’t?”
Minako ignored her. “Yuumura . . . didn’t you say it was the vice-principal who made you join . . .” Bing!
Rei cringed.
“You’re volunteering!” she accused at the top of her lungs, as if the act were condemnable.
The miko looked down at her gift and began opening it, purposefully distracting herself so that Minako wouldn’t see the profound embarrassment in her expression.
“Ha-ha-ha! Youuu little stalker,” Minako jibed gleefully.
Past the wrapping paper there was a bag, which Rei located the opening to and reached into, determinedly ignoring the blonde.
“I mean, there are fans, and then there are fans. I guess you fall into the second category now, don’t you?” Minako merrily continued to babble, knowing it was annoying the other girl and would likely get her to crack sooner or later. “I’ve heard about people like you on the news, but I don’t wanna turn out like John Lennon or something, so I’m thinking I’ll probably have to get a restraining order or something. It’s not that I don’t appreciated, really, you’re great, but . . . Oh my god.” She stopped when she started to see what Rei was pulling out of the bag. “Please let it be . . .”
Rei was confused for a moment – she’d been given a t-shirt? – but then she turned it around and the picture on the front of a volleyball, complete with logo, gave away what it was.
“A team shirt! BAAhahaha!”
She sighed moodily, fiercely resisting the urge to growl at the cackling volleyball player. It would give her far too much satisfaction. Instead, she put the bag and wrapping paper into a nearby trash can as calmly as possible and made to fold up her new shirt.
“What’s that?” Kagura asked, arriving upon the scene a little bewildered. “And what’s so funny?”
Minako controlled her laughter for a moment and tried to explain, but managed little more than, “She – she-ahaha-volunteering! Hahahaha!” before giggles overwhelmed her speech.
The blonde’s long-time friend glanced at Hino Rei’s seething expression and was certain that backing off was the only wise move. “Uh, nevermind.”
Rei made to put the shirt away into her bag, but was stopped by Minako, who began to cheer, “Put it on! Put it on!”
“No,” the dark-haired girl resisted plainly.
Kagura sighed to the blonde. “You really have no concept of self-preservation, do you?”
“Put it on!” Minako crowed, wrestled the team shirt away from its recipient, and set about trying to get it over Rei’s head.
Rei flailed, trying to fight off the blonde demon assailing her, growling, “Ack! Cut it out! Waaaa!” In the end, with the shirt covering her head and Minako pressing to get it all the way on, Rei overbalanced backwards. She flung her hands out to catch herself against the wall, and in an extraordinary feat of bad luck, her grasping fingers caught the switch to the fire alarm mounted on the wall.
The crash that followed of two bodies and a schoolbag connecting with the floor was drowned out by bells and sirens going off all around the school.
She had turned the damn thing on five minutes ago and it was still struggling with the login sequence, slowly, pixel by pixel, bringing up her desktop at a snail’s pace. Furious whirring and clicking could be heard coming from the computer tower, which Rei eyed with loathing. Such a dinosaur.
She sighed. She would have to get a new one – especially since she would be in university next year. Maybe a laptop? She could at least use the wireless on campus that way, and possibly save herself from having to install a faster connection at the shrine. Slow computer and slow connection – Rei shook her head to herself, rubbing her hip as she rose from her chair – worst combination possible.
She went from the office room to her own to grab a binder and a pen, limping a little and rubbing her elbow. Predictably, she had taken the brunt of the impact when she and Minako had collapsed in a shrieking, alarm-pulling heap in the hallway. She had landed on her side, banging her hip and elbow into the floor, and then the breath had been knocked out of her by the blonde’s elbow crushing her in the gut.
That had been more than a little strange and awkward – looking up to see lights flashing and Minako’s face hovering above her own, haloed by blonde hair and stunningly close. A beat passed in this position – the longest second Rei had ever lived where a dozen loud, persistent thoughts had all clamoured at once to be heard and awareness had spread like a powerful wave through her body. Memories of shaking and straining in a very similar position blew open the dam on her thoughts. She’d been breathless then too, and so, so open she’d felt half raw, half falling apart.
And then the fact that all hell was breaking loose around them sunk in and they scrambled to get back up.
“Shit,” Minako had giggled, and then she took off. Rei and Kagura had shared a brief glance before quickly following suit.
Rei was wryly amused now, but she’d been ready to throw a fit at the time. She pulled her binder out of her backpack and her eyes wandered over to the scuffed line of tape still on the floor in the corner of the room. Minako had and still thought it was the best joke of the year.
A block away from the school, all three of them had slowed to a stop from their flat-out sprint and Minako had begun to laugh. Rei’s reaction had been just the opposite.
“We’re gonna get fined! Stop laughing – I’m gonna be expelled!”
Minako’s chuckled assurance: “Psh! There’s no proof it was us.”
“What if there were security cameras?”
Kagura’s attempt at reassurance: “It’s not likely.”
Minako’s annoying grin and unhelpful comment: “I guess we’ll find out when the po call your house and press charges.”
“This is all your fault. You and this stupid volleyball shirt.”
“Oh yeah! Put it on!” Minako had cheered, and Rei had forced herself not to throttle her.
In retrospect, maybe she’d panicked a bit too much and Minako – a weathered troublemaker – had found her anxiety amusing. Still, the entire situation was brought about by Minako’s ridiculous attempts to force that shirt over her head. Rei eyed said shirt sitting on her dresser. It was a team shirt. She shook her head ruefully to herself – she could hardly think of a more embarrassing way for Minako to find out she’d volunteered with the team.
Next the shirt, her eyes landed on a sheet of paper. If there had ever been a need for revenge, she had just the method perfectly in hand . . . but no, Minako had been her usual, charmingly insufferable self, but she didn’t quite deserve to have the big guns pulled out on her.
Rei sighed amusedly to herself. She’d been standing in her room for a solid five minutes thinking about Minako when she’d come into the room just to grab a binder in the first place. At this rate, she would make her computer look positively prompt.
In a lull of sound between songs, she heard the front door shut and solid footsteps meet the hardwood floor. She checked her toes over the top of her magazine – dry – and then swung her legs down. Blood rushed from her head when she stood and dizzily put down her reading material and pulled out her earphones.
“Papa?” she asked as she emerged from her room and started down the stairs.
“Minako.” Her father poked his head out of the kitchen. “Come keep your old man company.”
She skipped down the rest of the stairs and hopped onto a seat at the kitchen’s island table. Her father pushed buttons on the microwave, nuking himself some leftover dinner. His schedule was sporadic at best, but most nights he missed dinner while he was at the hospital. Turning, he ran a hand through his short, tousled, blonde hair and his eyes crinkled happily at the sight of his only child.
“Tell about your day,” he invited, taking a seat across from her.
Minako grinned merrily. “Today I pulled the fire alarm and ran away.”
Her father chuckled and shook his head as if in despair. “Minako, don’t tell me things like that. I can never be sure if you’re joking or not.”
Obligingly, Minako changed the subject. “Well, we did a whole ton of conditioning for volleyball. My arms are killing me, but hopefully it’ll give me killer pipes. What do you think – my guns getting bigger?” She flexed and put on a macho expression.
Her father laughed and rolled his eyes at her antics. “Yes, massive. The ladies will be falling all over themselves trying to get a piece.”
The microwave beeped and the elder Aino rose to retrieve his meal. He stuck a finger into the center to test the temperature, pulled a knife and fork from a drawer, and settled back into his seat.
“How did you know you wanted to spend the rest of your life with mum?”
Her father froze, fork midway between the plate and his open mouth. He set his utensils down and seemed to consider this question for a moment. “I’m assuming you’re asking because you’ve found someone worth considering this with?” At Minako tentative nod, he continued, “I’m also assuming it’s Rei.”
Minako blinked, denials running through her head as she wondered how best to react to this. She might have hinted to her parents that she was more than just open-minded when it came to love, but the issue was never explicitly brought up and seemed like the sort of subject that would remain quite unspoken. If her father’s uncritical, quietly expectant gaze was any indication, he knew perfectly what was going on.
Again, Minako nodded with slight apprehension. Her father gave a small, reassuring smile. “Your mother and I know, Minako, if that’s what you’re worried about. We’ve resolved to be as supportive as two parents can be while still looking out for your interests. That said, your life would be much easier if you’d choose a man to live with, but ease should not be the greatest factor when it comes to making these sorts of decisions.”
“Oh.” She kind of felt like crying, and a little like laughing at the removal of the weight she hadn’t even known was pressing on her chest. “I guess . . . I should have just told you.”
Her father took her hand from its place across the table and gave it a squeeze. “You did, in your own way. Now we’re telling you this doesn’t change anything. We’ll be equally hard on whoever you decide to bring home.” He grinned, and with a slightly choked chuckle, Minako grinned back.
“Rei and I aren’t even together right now,” she admitted. “I was just wondering how you can tell if . . . if you should be serious about someone or just . . . the usual.”
Knife and fork back in hand, Minako’s father shook his head. “If I could sum it up for you I wouldn’t be working at the hospital – I’d be writing books, and they’d sell.” He waved his utensils in a helpless gesture. “Everyone wants to know how to find ‘the one’ and how to tell when you’ve found them. Truth is – there’s no simple answer.”
“I’ll just have to decide for myself?” Minako supposed.
“Pretty much. Now, when can we expect Rei over for dinner?”
She made a face. “I told you – we’re not together anymore. I . . . made a mistake. Things got complicated. We’re . . . very vague right now.”
Her father made a sympathetic face, but said, “Invite her over anyway. We can have a friendly dinner – I’ll take an evening off. Your mother says she’s very interesting. I’d like to see her.” He grinned teasingly. “Meet just who it is our daughter will actually go so far as to do shrine work in order to see.”
Her bottom lip between her teeth, Minako let a beaming smile overtake her face and happily scrunched her shoulders up like she was trying to contain her joy. “Okay.”
At the archery range she selected a bow and a string from out of the storage cabinet and set about carefully looping the two together. Bow in her left hand, she plucked a single arrow from a cluster of them and picked a lane to fire from. She placed her feet with ease into the proper stance and then spent the entirety of several minutes verifying her balance, posture and center. It took her longer than usual to feel ready to prepare her bow and Rei chalked this up to the stress of the last few days finally presenting itself.
Finally, she gripped her bow purposefully and turned her head to the left, staring down the target at the end of the field. Smoothly, her arm began to rise in a controlled, practiced motion, fluidity in every muscle and bone in her body, all of it devoted to the raising of the bow above her hip, now past her shoulders, now–
She could feel somebody’s eyes practically boring a hole in the back of her head.
Rei turned around irately and noticed a girl not ten feet from her give a start and go very, very red.
“Ah, s-sorry, I, uh . . . I was just going to a-ask you for some advice . . . and then you looked really focused . . . I’m sorry I disturbed you . . .”
In the background of this girl’s stammering explanation, movement caught Rei’s eye sharply and she looked over and grinned. “Minako. What are you doing here?”
Standing just at the entrance to the archery range, Minako’s gaze was on the girl between them. Something dark in the blonde’s eyes cleared the moment she looked up at Rei, a smile growing on her face as well.
Minako sauntered over, slinging an arm easily around the unknown girl’s shoulders. “I’ve come to share secrets with you, but it seems you’re busy with Erika just now.” She winked to the shorter brunette beside her.
Rei’s brow twitched, tempted to pull into a frown. She bluntly turned the weight of her gaze back to the other archer, who smiled timidly. “Hi, I’m Erika.”
“Eh?” Minako looked between the two. “You haven’t even met?” She took Rei by the shoulders. “What have I told you about being antisocial?”
“Um . . . nothing?”
“Er, yes, that is correct, now hear my wisdom: pulling fire alarms doesn’t win you friends; talking to people does.”
Too late, Rei clapped a hand over Minako’s mouth, hissing, “Shut up, shut up!”
Minako giggled, and then wrinkled her nose at the archery glove in her face and batted Rei’s hand away. Erika looked bemusedly between the two.
“A fire alarm? Didn’t one go off last Friday after school?” she probed.
Rei looked away shiftily, effectively answering Erika’s question.
“I told her not to,” Minako proclaimed, shaking her head reprovingly. “But she just wouldn’t listen. She’s always pulling stunts like this.”
“What?!”
“And then she ran away – she was going to let me take the blame for it. Shameless, really. And yet I was quite impressed.” Minako beamed at Rei. “For someone who doesn’t play sports much, you sure can book it in a pinch.”
“You were the one that took off!”
Erika looked in astonishment at them. “So you were the ones that pulled it?”
In a lane nearby, Ichiro turned, catching their conversation. “You guys pulled the fire alarm? No way! Hino, I didn’t take you for a practical jokester!”
“I’m not!” she spat at the boy, who recoiled slightly in terror. “You quit telling stories!” She jabbed a finger at Minako, who looked exceedingly pleased.
“Stories? Was I telling stories? I wonder . . . Now, I came here for a reason, I’m quite sure I did . . .” She tapped her chin.
“To torment me?” Rei growled as she glanced about, noticing that most of the archers were openly listening to their conversation. Aw shit, had the whole team heard?!
“Ah yes, we’re just doing fitness training today for volleyball so I’ll be done at the same time as you. See you at the car!” She skipped away, blowing a kiss gleefully over her shoulder.
“You really did pull it, didn’t you?” Erika surmised from behind the miko.
Rei didn’t seem to hear, too busy curling her fingers into claws, eyes narrowed as she watched Minako disappear around a corner. “Oooo you’ve asked for it . . .”
“Good morning,” she greeted politely.
“And good morning to you too, Rei. It’s so good to see you in such high spirits so early in the day.”
Rei let her smile turn sheepish. “Will Minako be long? I’ve actually got something of a favour to ask you.”
At this, Akemi Aino’s expression lit with excitement. “Oh, of course, anything! I believe Minako’s not even dressed yet, lazy girl. Come in here, come in.” She beckoned Rei into the living room.
The miko slipped her shoes off and stepped into the house. The large, warmly decorated living room had been a teenage moshpit when Rei last saw it. She perched on a couch and the other woman took a seat next to her, body angled attentively.
“Well,” she began, “you didn’t know, but I’ve been helping the volleyball team coordinate arrangements for the national’s tournament.”
“Oh, no, Minako never even told me.”
Rei pulled a waiver form out of her bag. “Ah, well, so far, it hasn’t been too difficult, but last week I was asked to find one more chaperone for the trip and now time is running out, so I hate to impose, but –”
“I would love to!” Minako’s mother interrupted ecstatically, snatching the form from Rei’s hand. “Minako never asks me to help with these things anymore – she thinks it’s too uncool to have her mother around – but I’ve just been dying to help. Thank you!” The blonde wrapped Rei in a tight, impulsive hug.
“No, really, thank you,” Rei wheezed.
“Thank you for what?”
Mrs Aino released Rei with a couple of pats to the back and turned to face her highly suspicious daughter standing in the archway dividing the living room from the hallway. She subtly kept the sheet of paper out of view. “Oh, nothing. Have you packed your lunch yet?”
“Thank you for what?” Minako repeated, now looking past her mother to Rei.
“Go pack your lunch,” the elder Aino ordered, ignoring Mianko’s frustrated attempts at interrogation.
Minako sulked at her mother and then glared at Rei, gesturing with two fingers from her eyes toward the pokerfaced miko. Rei cackled evilly to herself on the inside. Once her revenge was complete Minako would never embarrass her again.
Akemi turned to Rei once her daughter had skulked away to the kitchen. “Let’s keep this our little secret, shall we? I would just love to surprise her the day we leave.”
Perfect. “Of course.” Rei closed her school bag and returned to the foyer. By the time she began putting on her shoes, Minako was there as well, glancing warily between her mother and friend as if expecting a karate chop to the back of the neck at any moment.
“Thank you for what!?” Minako persisted the instant they were out the door.
Rei grinned in what she felt was an excellent imitation of Minako’s own cheeky grin. “Why, I was merely thanking her for giving birth to you, of course. What a truly wonderful woman.”
Minako paused only for a beat while opening the car door. “You’re full of crap.”
“Yep.” Rei started the car and hummed to herself joyfully. “What a lovely day this is.”
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